Reasonable Period Of Time Research Articles

Efficient two-scale FE-FFT-based mechanical process simulation of elasto-viscoplastic polycrystals at finite strains

The purpose of this work is the development of an efficient two-scale numerical scheme for the prediction of the local and overall mechanical behavior of polycrystalline materials with elasto-viscoplastic constitutive behavior at finite strains. Assuming scale separation, the microstructural deformations are prescribed by the kinematics of the macroscopic continuum body. The macroscopic constitutive behavior is in turn determined by the mean response of the point-wise linked microstructure which is represented by a periodic unit cell. The algorithmic formulation and numerical solution of the two locally coupled boundary value problems is based on the FE-FFT method. In particular, the presented work is concerned with the development of a CPU- and memory-efficient solution strategy for two-scale finite strain crystal plasticity simulations of polycrystalline aggregates which is based on a microstructural convergence analysis. This efficient solution strategy allows a two-scale simulation of complex macroscopic boundary value problems in a reasonable time period. In order to demonstrate the versatile use of the proposed method, three polycrystalline materials namely copper, aluminum and iron are studied with different textures for three distinct macroscopic loading conditions. On this basis, the micromechanical fields and the overall material response of an iron-based polycrystal are predicted for a deep rolling process, which serves as a testing example for a representative and application oriented simulation.

Formation of an Individual Modeling Environment in a Hybrid High-Performance Computing System

In this paper, we consider the problem of solving scientific problems in the field of materials science in the environment of high-performance computing systems. Mathematical modeling methods implemented by specialized modeling systems is used to solve a certain kind of problems in materials science. The modeling systems show the greatest efficiency when deployed in hybrid high-performance computing systems (HHPC) that allow solving problems in a reasonable time period with sufficient accuracy. However, there are a number of restrictions that affect the work of research teams with modeling systems in the HHPC computing environment: the need to access graphics accelerators at the stage of developing and debugging algorithms in the modeling system, the need to use several modeling systems in order to obtain the optimal solution, and the need to dynamically change the settings of modeling systems for solving problems. The solution to the problem of these restrictions is assigned to the individual modeling environment operating in the HHPC computing environment. The best solution for creating an individual modeling environment is virtual containerization technology. We propose an algorithm for the formation of an individual modeling environment in a hybrid high-performance computing complex based on the Docker virtual containerization system. An individual simulation environment is created by installing the required software in the base container, setting environment variables, and installing custom software and licenses. A feature of the algorithm is the ability to form a library image from a base container with a customized individual modeling environment. The direction for further research work is indicated in the conclusion. The algorithm presented here is independent of the implementation of the problems’ control system and may be used for any high-performance computing system.

PDG62 Outcomes of Benefit Reassessments of Medicinal Products in Germany after Expiry of the Limitation of G-BA Resolution

Benefit assessments of orphan and non-orphan drugs in Germany can be limited for a reasonable time period if the study results are considered insufficient for a conclusive decision about the drug’s added benefit, leading to a benefit reassessment after expiry of the limitation. The objective of the current study is to evaluate the development of the added benefit and the negotiated price rebate after reassessment. Outcomes of all limited benefit assessments of orphan and non-orphan drugs that were completed by May 2020 were analyzed. The share of the total population with a granted added benefit as well as the resulting negotiated rebate were determined across all limited assessments for which reassessment due to limitation expiry and price negotiations were completed, respectively. 27% of all orphan-drug and 16% of all non-orphan drug assessments were limited for a mean time span of 29,7 and 26,6 months, respectively. Among non-orphan drugs, the mean share of the total population with a granted added benefit decreased by 13% after reassessment. However, the rebate after reassessment increased by an average of only 1,5% among orphan and 4% among non-orphan drugs. Interestingly, the mean annual therapy costs of non-orphan drugs with a limited assessment were 23% higher than the costs of unlimited non-orphan drugs. Among all orphan-drug assessments, mean annual therapy costs of drugs with a limited assessment were even 45% higher than the costs for orphan drugs with no limitation. Although the mean share of the patient population with a granted added benefit decreased after reassessment, the overall increase in price rebate is low. However, especially for costly drugs, the careful evaluation of the limitation probability as well as the potential risks and benefits of the expected clinical results in each individual case is crucial to prevent harmful outcomes of the reassessment.

Full-thickness Skin Microcolumns Implanted into a Dermal Regeneration Template: A Novel Method for “Donor-free” Skin Replacement Therapy

BACKGROUND: Split-thickness skin graft is the current standard in the treatment of large full-thickness skin defects. The donor site resulting from tangential skin harvest is well recognized as painful and unsightly, even after it has healed. Several efforts have been made in the past to address this problem by limiting the amount of skin harvested while significantly expanding the skin elements (ReCell, Meek). These efforts suffer from short comings such as graft fragility and failure to achieve adequate closure in a reasonable period of time. Full-thickness skin columns are a novel concept in skin harvest with little to no donor site when the diameter of the columns falls below a certain threshold. There is also a theoretical advantage that the columns harvested contain elements of full-thickness skin including sweat glands and hair follicles. Here, we present 2 cases where full-thickness skin columns were harvested and implanted into a bilayer dermal regenerative template (Integra) to achieve durable single-stage skin replacement. METHODS: Wounds in 2 elderly patients were treated using standard excisional preparation techniques. Both patients refused a standard split-thickness skin graft with concerns of difficulty healing the donor site. Informed consent using full-thickness skin columns and Integra combination were obtained. Full-thickness skin columns were harvested from a small area of the upper thigh using skin biopsy punches (1.5–2 mm). The columns were implanted orthotopically into a sheet of Integra dermal matrix with the epidermis placed immediately deep to the silicone layer. The Integra-skin column composites were applied onto the wounds similar to a traditional skin graft. The punch biopsy donor sites were allowed to heal secondarily. RESULTS: Patient 1 was 90 years old and had a small lower extremity wound treated with 2 mm skin columns (n = 9) and a 3 × 1.5 cm2 Integra. Patient 2 was 88 years old had a larger volar forearm wound treated with 1.5 mm skin columns (n = 51) and an 8 × 5 cm2 Integra. Visual evaluation showed centripetal healing with epithelial cells radiating from the columns as well as from the periphery. Complete healing was achieved in 3–4 weeks; donor sites healed in less than a week with minimal evidence of skin harvest at 1 month. CONCLUSIONS: Full-thickness skin columns implanted into a dermal regeneration template represent a novel technique for skin replacement that allows single-stage healing of full-thickness skin wounds with little to no donor site, and without any biochemical processing of the tissue.

Exploring the Application of the Linear Poisson Autoregressive Model for Analyzing the Dynamic Impact of Traffic Laws on Fatal Traffic Accident Frequency

Annual fatal traffic accident data often demonstrate time series characteristics. The existing traffic safety analysis approaches (e.g., negative binomial (NB) model) often cannot accommodate the dynamic impact of factors in fatal traffic accident data and may result in biased parameter estimation results. Thus, a linear Poisson autoregressive (PAR) model is proposed in this study. The objective of this study is to apply the PAR model to analyze the dynamic impact of traffic laws and climate on the frequency of fatal traffic accidents occurred in a large time span (from 1975 to 2016) in Illinois. Besides, the NB model, NB with a time trend, and autoregressive integrated moving average model with exogenous input variables (ARIMAX) are also developed to compare their performances. The important conclusions from the modelling results can be summarized as follows. (1) The PAR model is more appropriate for analyzing the dynamic impacts of traffic laws on annual fatal traffic accidents, especially the instantaneous impacts. (2) The law that allows motorcycles and bicycles to proceed on a red light following the rules applicable after a “reasonable period of time” leads to an increase in the frequency of annual fatal traffic accidents by 14.98% in the short term and 30.69% in the long term. The climate factors such as average temperature and precipitation concentration period have insignificant impacts on annual fatal traffic accidents in Illinois. Thus, the modelling results suggest that the PAR model is more appropriate for annual fatal traffic accident data and has an advantage in estimating the dynamic impact of traffic laws.

From Schooling to Learning: A Modest but Practical Reform Agenda for India

School education reforms presents perhaps the most important public policy imperative for the government. But it is also perhaps the most imposing implementation challenge. It completely defies the conventional top-down, one-size-fits-all and uniform programmatic implementation paradigm associated with most development interventions. Instead, it demands a very heterodox and multi-track system-focused implementation approach. This means that education sub-systems should have sufficient flexibility to choose from a menu of intervention options drawn from evidence of what has been found to work in improving learning outcomes, adapt them to their context, and implement them with an intensity and pace that the system can take. However, the space for innovation and flexibility should be confined to the broad contours of a nation-wide implementation plan, and the sub-systems be made accountable for strict realization of learning outcomes within some reasonable period of time. It is critical for this endeavor to be a top-priority political agenda, rather than be a mere bureaucratic exercise. It is only to be expected that the hardest and most important development challenge should have the highest political priority.

LVAD, heart failure journey continues

Introduction Heart failure (HF) is a global pandemic affecting at least 26 million people worldwide and is increasing in prevalence (1). Heart transplantation or implantation of durable mechanical circulatory support (MCS) are the sole therapies available for end-stage heart failure. Such patients have severely impaired systolic ventricular function due to end-stage cardiomyopathies but remain symptomatic despite optimal guideline-recommended treatment (2). Acute MCS can be effectively employed as a bridge to long-term MCS devices and heart transplantation. Heart transplantation has been limited by diminishing donor heart availability leading to a greater role of left ventricular assist device (LVAD) support. Methods Retrospective review of adult patients supported with HeartWare™ HVAD™ Pump as a first long term LVAD between January 2017 and February 2020. Results 73 patients received LVADs at our institution in that period. 59 (80%) males, 14 (20%) females, mean age 50. The most common indications were dilated (40%) and ischaemic (34%) cardiomyopathies. 27% of devices were implanted via sternotomy vs 76% via anterolateral thoracotomy. The most frequent complications were driveline infection 26 (36%), pump thrombosis 18 (25%) and ischaemic stroke 16 (22%). Overall, 30 days survival on LVAD was 85% and 1 year survival 65%. 1-year survival in the thoracotomy group was significantly greater compared to the sternotomy group 72% vs 49%, and less red cell transfusion rate (5.2 vs 9.8 units) in thoracotomy approach group was observed. 4 (5.5%) patients received heart transplant. Discussion Despite the excellent long-term survival data for heart transplantation, patients who are denied a transplant or who will not survive the long high-urgency waiting time, benefit more from a permanent LVAD and achieve outpatient status with acceptable quality of life for a reasonable period of time. The minimally invasive surgical approach implemented at our centre is associated with fewer mediastinal adhesions at time of transplant, which greatly facilitates heart implantation and reduces donor organ ischemic time resulting in improved graft performance (3). With new technology focused on limitations of the most common LVAD complications, implanted via thoracotomy, MCS remains valuable treatment tool and it might potentially play more important role in the future of the HF patients.

An Innovative Miniscrew-Based Jig for Unilateral Total Arch Mesialization

To describe the management of a case with skewed dental arches and midlines deviation using a novel approach based on temporary anchorage devices (TADs) to derogate the deviated arches by unilateral total arch mesialization. This study presents the treatment course of a 25-year-old man undergone a previous improper orthodontic treatment with unnecessary extraction of the upper and lower right first premolar teeth leading to asymmetric dental arches. The patient complained of dental crowding, an unaesthetic smile arch, and the maxillary and mandibular dental midline deviation. The proposed treatment plan goals were decrowding and correction of both arches asymmetry and achievement of coincident upper and lower dental midlines. The corrective treatment plan consisted of total arch mesialzation in both dental arches using an innovative TAD assisted jig. The overall treatment was accomplished in 28 months with significant improvement in facial aesthetic and reasonable periodontal status. This innovative clinical biomechanical setup of miniscrew-anchored sliding jig helped us achieve all the treatment goals (total dental arches mesialization, dental midline deviation correction, and ideal final aesthetic and occlusion) in a reasonable period of time. With proper planning, innovative designs based on TADs are effective alternatives in challenging cases such as uni or bilateral dental arches mesialization, and dental asymmetry correction.

Deep Learning Based Abstractive Text Summarization: Approaches, Datasets, Evaluation Measures, and Challenges

In recent years, the volume of textual data has rapidly increased, which has generated a valuable resource for extracting and analysing information. To retrieve useful knowledge within a reasonable time period, this information must be summarised. This paper reviews recent approaches for abstractive text summarisation using deep learning models. In addition, existing datasets for training and validating these approaches are reviewed, and their features and limitations are presented. The Gigaword dataset is commonly employed for single-sentence summary approaches, while the Cable News Network (CNN)/Daily Mail dataset is commonly employed for multisentence summary approaches. Furthermore, the measures that are utilised to evaluate the quality of summarisation are investigated, and Recall-Oriented Understudy for Gisting Evaluation 1 (ROUGE1), ROUGE2, and ROUGE-L are determined to be the most commonly applied metrics. The challenges that are encountered during the summarisation process and the solutions proposed in each approach are analysed. The analysis of the several approaches shows that recurrent neural networks with an attention mechanism and long short-term memory (LSTM) are the most prevalent techniques for abstractive text summarisation. The experimental results show that text summarisation with a pretrained encoder model achieved the highest values for ROUGE1, ROUGE2, and ROUGE-L (43.85, 20.34, and 39.9, respectively). Furthermore, it was determined that most abstractive text summarisation models faced challenges such as the unavailability of a golden token at testing time, out-of-vocabulary (OOV) words, summary sentence repetition, inaccurate sentences, and fake facts.

Network design of a household waste collection system: A case study of the commune of Renca in Santiago, Chile

This study proposes a design of a household waste collection system based on a two-stage procedure. First, the bin location-allocation problem is solved by selecting collection sites from a set of potential sites, and determining the type and number of bins at each selected collection site. Second, bin-to-bin waste collection routes are obtained for a fleet of homogeneous vehicles that are restricted by either work shift duration or vehicle capacity. Mixed integer linear programming (MILP) models are proposed for both stages, considering the particular characteristics of the problem. The models are applied to a real-world instance in the commune of Renca in Santiago, Chile. The results of first stage indicate an important preference for small bins since they have a lower unitary cost. Due to the large size of the real instance, a Large Neighborhood Search (LNS) heuristic is used in the second stage to find good feasible vehicle routing solutions in a reasonable period of time. The results for the routing phase suggest a larger number of routes in the morning work shift since these routes have shorter distances. The LNS heuristic presents a satisfactory behavior when compared to the MILP model with small instances. The proposed bin-to-bin household waste collection vehicle routing presents a more efficient solution than the existing door-to-door waste collection in the commune of Renca with respect to the total daily traveled distance and the average work shift duration. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is presented and discussed for both models.

Legal Regulation of Robots and Artificial Intelligence in Latin America, the Problem of Human Rights and AI

We are currently experiencing a new revolution, which is related to the Internet, nanotechnology, biotechnology and robotics. Artificial intelligence is based on intelligent algorithms or learning algorithms similar to human intelligence, technologies make it possible for computer systems to acquire independence, self-adaptive reconfiguration. The greater the autonomy of AI, robots, and androids, the less they depend on manufacturers, owners, and users.The fact that the new generation of robots will coexist with humans should be taken into account in legislation, it should adapt and regulate issues of great legal significance, namely: who takes responsibility for the actions or inaction of intelligent robots? What is their legal status? Should they have a special regime of rights and obligations? How to resolve ethical conflicts related to their behavior?The analysis of legislation and doctrine in Latin America has revealed some trends in the use of AI.1. The use of AI in various spheres of public life causes legal problems in terms of guaranteeing human rights, as evidenced by the analysis of the constitutions of Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. For example, article 8 of the American Convention on Human Rights states: "Everyone has the right to have his case heard, with appropriate guarantees and within a reasonable period of time, before a competent, independent and impartial court convened in advance by law in support of any criminal charge brought against him or to determine his rights or obligations of a civil, labour, financial or any other nature."2. The similarity of AI and human intelligence raises the question of legal personality of AI, granting AI rights. The civil and commercial code of Argentina departs from the category of "human person" and establishes the term "legal persons": "all persons to whom the legal system grants the ability to acquire rights are legal persons for the purpose of fulfilling their purpose and obligations".The line between things and people is becoming more blurred, technology and a more sensitive view of other living beings lead to doubt whether man is the sole subject of law.

Bioefficacy of Ethanolic Leaves Extract of Azadirachta indica Against Stored Product Insect Pest, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst.)

Tribolium castaneum is a species of beetle in the family tenebrionidae, the darkling beetle. Conventional insecticides used for controling stored product pests are expensive and arguably associated with various severe adverse side effects hence the need to develop botanical pesticides that are effective as alternative. Though Azadrachta indica has been used for the control of so many insects, review of the literature show no scientifically investigated report of its effectiveness against T. castaneum. This study was therefore designed to evaluate bioinsecticidal activity of ethanolic leaves extract of Azadirachta indica against stored Tribolium castaneum. Different concentrations (60, 70, 80, 90, and 100%) of ethanolic leaves extract of A. indica was applied on the filter paper and were allowed to dry for a reasonable time period. Control was maintained by treating the filter paper with water only. For examining the percent mortality, 15 adults was taken in the Petri dishes embedded with Whitman’s filter paper, covered with lid and tightened with scotch tape on both sides. The A. indica extracts at different concentrations tested showed insecticidal activity against T. castaneum. Further, phytochemical screening results showed that the A. indica extract have phytochemicals associated with insecticidal activity. The study has established that the ethanoloc extract A. indica is effective in managing stored product pest.

Biodegradable Inorganic Upconversion Nanocrystals for In Vivo Applications.

Lanthanide-doped inorganic upconversion nanocrystals (UCNCs) are promising as fluorescent diagnostic and therapeutic agents for in vivo applications ranging from biological imaging to disease theranostics. However, all currently available lanthanide-doped inorganic UCNCs are not biodegradable and thus cannot be harmlessly eliminated from the body of living organism during a reasonable period of time, making their clinical translations nearly impossible. Here, we report a class of red-emitting biodegradable UCNCs based on Yb3+/Er3+-doped inorganic potassium heptafluozirconate (K3ZrF7:Yb/Er) that features a dynamically "soft" crystal lattice containing water-soluble [ZrF7]3- cluster and a K+ cation. The red-emitting K3ZrF7:Yb/Er UCNCs exhibit a pH-dependent biodegradation capability upon exposure to water both in vitro and in vivo, and the rapid biodegradation rate, monitored using the intrinsic red upconversion luminescence, can be tuned particularly in a mild acidic tumor microenvironment (pH ∼5-6). More importantly, the final biodegradation products of K3ZrF7:Yb/Er UCNCs can be excreted from the body of mice in a short period of time with no evidence of toxicity, in stark contrast to the nondegradable β-NaYF4:Yb/Er UCNCs that primarily accumulate in the main organs of mice. These findings described here unambiguously would benefit the future biomedical applications and clinical translations of lanthanide-doped inorganic UCNCs.

The geometric structure on a degradation model with application to optimal design under a cost constraint

Information geometry has been attracting considerable attention in different scientific fields including information theory, neural networks, machine learning, and statistical physics. In reliability and survival analysis, methods of information geometry are employed to discuss the geometry on a reliability model. Most of the existing work of information geometry in reliability analysis focused on time-to-failure data. For highly reliable devices, it is difficult to obtain failure data in a reasonable period of time, and hence degradation measurements are used to extrapolate the failure time. In this paper, we investigate the geometry on a statistical manifold induced by the Wiener degradation process with nonlinear drift and diffusion coefficients, where the drift parameter is assumed to be a random variable to incorporate the unit-to-unit characteristics. The Fisher information metric, Amari–Chentsov tensor and α-connection on the manifold for the degradation model are discussed. As an application in the design of engineering experiments, the information metric is employed to develop the optimal design of degradation experiments under a cost constraint. Monte Carlo simulation and a numerical study are used to illustrate the methodologies developed in this paper.

In Search of an Effective Teacher: Ghana’s Move towards Achieving Sustainable Education through Teacher Education Reforms

Ghana has experienced a number of education reforms in the post-independence era and the study aimed at examining Ghana’s attempt at finding an effective teacher, in relation to sustainable education, through teacher education reforms. Qualitative approaches, such as documents analysis and interviews with 10 experienced college educators, were the methodology for the research. After constant comparison, students’ quality and entry requirements, changes in curriculum, and role of development partners in education reforms affected quality of teacher education. However, cultural context, support systems, and educator professional development are means of achieving sustainable basic education. Ghana should, therefore, have teacher education policy for a reasonable period of time, uninfluenced by change in political power and ideologies, but tailored to socio-cultural and economic needs of the people; preparing motivated-teachers to accept the profession as a chosen-career.

Deep infiltration of surface water during deformation? Evidence from a low- δ18O shear zone at Koegel Fontein, Namaqualand, South Africa

The 144–133Ma Koegel Fontein Igneous Complex is notable for the high proportion of magmatic rocks with very low δ18O values (<6‰), including some that crystallized from low-δ18O magmas (< 6‰). Previous work has suggested that this is a consequence of partial melting of country rock with very low δ18O values. Here we demonstrate that low-δ18O country rocks (as low as —2‰) are present and are associated with a N-S trending ~545 Ma Pan-African high-temperature ductile shear zone. Wall rocks adjacent to the shear zone have normal δ18O values. We interpret this to mean that the fluid-rock interaction that lowered the δ18O values of the country rock was enabled by deformation associated with the shear zone (or an earlier brittle precursor) at some point in the history of this structure. Recrystallization and annealing after deformation and variable (>10‰) δ18O values on a cm scale in the shear zone are consistent with peak temperature and accompanying deformation post-dating, at least in part, fluid infiltration. The low permeability and lack of brittle overprinting of the shear zone are inconsistent with fluid flow post-dating deformation.Modelling of the inferred oxygen isotope exchange demonstrates that fluid-rock interaction must have occurred at either high temperatures (for infiltrating water with a δ18O value of −10‰, W/R is ~1 at 700 °C) or with very low δ18O values for the infiltrating fluids. If the infiltrating fluid had δ18O values < −20‰, the temperature of interaction makes little difference to the required water/rock ratio (W/R) calculated from mass-balance models. Meteoric water might have had δ18O values as low as —30‰ during the proposed ~547 Ma global glaciation, during the period when the shear zone is thought to have been active. Kinetic considerations require temperatures of >250 °C for exchange to occur in a reasonable time-period, even if the δ18O values were abnormally low. Previous studies have suggested fluid infiltration into mid-crustal fault systems and shear zones may play an important role in the rheological evolution of these structures. This study provides direct evidence for such infiltration and suggests that the identification of similar settings may help to establish the frequency and significance of these processes.

The Emerging Right of West Bank Palestinians to Israeli Citizenship

This article explores a path in international law for recognizing the right of the Palestinian population of the West Bank to Israeli citizenship, based on the annexationist policies of Israel in the West Bank. The scope of the obligation of states to confer citizenship on individuals is determined by international human rights law (“IHRL”). The article shows that a plausible reading of the IHRL treaty obligations of Israel suggests that it has a duty to grant citizenship to individuals born in its territory, who would otherwise be stateless, and that most West Bank Palestinians are currently considered stateless. Therefore, if a given area of the West Bank is considered to have become part of Israel, most Palestinians subsequently born in such territory are plausibly entitled to receive Israeli citizenship as a matter of treaty law. There also seems to be a broad, emerging right under customary international law of the residents of a territory acquired by a state to receive the citizenship of that state, regardless of whether or not they would otherwise be considered stateless. The West Bank is a territory under Israeli occupation, and annexation by an occupier of any part of the occupied territory violates international law. The article argues, however, that the illegal annexation by Israel of an occupied territory would make that territory a part of Israel for the limited purpose of the right to citizenship, as an exception to the principle that illegal annexation is null and void. Hence, the existing and emerging IHRL obligations of Israel to grant citizenship to residents of territory acquired by Israel extend to Palestinians residing in areas of the West Bank illegally annexed by Israel. The article argues further that, for the purpose of applying the norms of IHRL that concern the right to citizenship, the definition of annexation extends beyond formal annexation and encompasses de facto annexation as well. Annexation of occupied territory results from the occupier’s display of sovereignty in that territory, among others, by settling its own population in the occupied territory. In view of the current spread of Israeli settlements across the West Bank, unless Israel removes, within a reasonable time period, many of these settlements, the entire territory of the West Bank may be considered to have been annexed, and the entire Palestinian population of the West Bank would have a strong claim to Israeli citizenship under an emerging norm of international law.

Clinical study of sterile collagen (Biofil) particles in the management of chronic non healing ulcers and their comparison with saline dressings

Background: Chronic non healing ulcers are a challenge to the patient and health care professional. They require special care and intensive treatment often for prolonged periods. These ulcers do not generally heal with conventional types of treatment within a reasonable time period and need special types of treatment like collagen particles, vacuum dressing, chemical debridement etc. The aim of the study was to compare the effect of sterile collagen particles with saline dressings in treatment of chronic non healing ulcers.Methods: 30 test subjects were dressed using sterile collagen particles and 30 controls using saline gauze on day 2 and every 3rd day. The condition of the ulcer was followed up using the Bates-Jensen wound assessment score (BJWA score).Results: BJWA score was significantly lesser at 4th week in test group. The p value was 0.00021. Test group mean score was 17.23 and for control group it was 21.467. BJWA score was significantly lesser even at 8th week in Test group. The p value was 0.00026. Test group mean score was 12.47 and control group it was 17.43. This signifies that healing rate is better in test group compared to control group.Conclusions: Comparing the components in BJWA score we can conclude from our study that; collagen dressings are superior to saline dressing in all type of ulcers and irrespective of gender and age of a person. The best response was seen in non diabetic ulcer without Saphenofemoral incompetence who are non smokers.

Acquisition and Utilization of Mental Imagery Capability in Robotic Action Sequencing Tasks

This work presents a series of neurorobotic models underlying learning in robots. It demonstrates the way in which, during sensorimotor exploration, robots do not just gain knowledge about how to form movement primitives but also obtain a mental imagery capability. Mental imagery plays a key role in these computational models by accelerating learning processes of action sequencing tasks. The first experiment involves permitting a humanoid robot to learn how to retrieve an out-of-reach object using a provided tool. This experiment explores a phenomenon on tool use development found in human infants. In addition, it tests two hypotheses on tool use development. The second experiment extends the domain of robot learning by targeting a useful robotic application. It drives a service robot to learn to acquire knowledge of how to manipulate perceived objects based on the objects’ information and a goal from users. By means of planning, learning the sequence of actions in mind, the robots are able to learn by examining actions’ outcome without really performing actions. This allows the second model to completely exclude parts of overt movements from the training loop. The results confirm that two types of robots can complete their given tasks in a reasonable period of time. The proposed models would benefit robotic applications in terms of online learning.

Student Loan Purpose and the Brunner Test

This Article offers a new rationale for making student loans more readily dischargeable in bankruptcy: Doing so advances Congress’s purpose in creating federal student loan programs in the first place. Empirical research indicates that if it is too hard to discharge loans in bankruptcy, students are less likely to pursue higher education, more likely to drop out, less likely to consider lower-income but valuable career paths, and more likely to be harmed rather than aided by their student loans. All these effects undermine Congress’s express aims for the student loan programs. Courts have ignored Congress’s larger purpose in setting the standard for student-loan dischargeability. Specifically, in construing the Bankruptcy Code’s requirement that a debtor show “undue hardship” to get a discharge of student loans, the court that announced the prevailing Brunner test and many courts following it have focused narrowly on furthering the purposes of the specific provision that makes student loans harder to discharge than most other debts. They have not, in interpreting the open-ended “undue hardship” requirement, been guided by the overarching purposes of the student loan programs. As a result, “undue hardship” is often interpreted too harshly, hindering federal student loan programs from accomplishing their purposes. The Article proposes a replacement for the Brunner test that would align the interpretation of “undue hardship” more closely with Congress’s goals. The Article suggests that undue hardship should be presumed to exist when the debtor cannot repay student loans in a reasonable (10-20 year) period of time while maintaining a middle-class standard of living. The presumption could be rebutted by a showing that the debtor is engaged in the opportunistic abuse that Congress tried to combat by restricting discharge. The proposal would further Congress’s student-loan program goals of expanding the middle class and moderating the length of time borrowers are in repayment. The Article concludes by observing that considering the overarching purposes of the student-loan programs as it proposes does not just support its specific suggestion, but also offers a new basis for adopting other recent proposals for liberalizing student-loan dischargeability.