Imaging of the optic disc and retinal nerve fiber layer: the effects of age, optic disc area, refractive error, and gender.

We cross-sectionally examined the relationship between age, optic disc area, refraction, and gender and optic disc topography and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) measurements, using optical imaging techniques. One eye from each of 155 Caucasian subjects (age range 23.0-80.8 y) without ocular pathology was included. Measurements were obtained by using the Heidelberg Retina Tomography (HRT), the GDx Nerve Fiber Analyzer, and the Optical Coherence Tomograph (OCT). The effects of age were small (R2 < 17%) and were limited to specific HRT, GDx, and OCT parameters. Disc area was significantly associated with most HRT parameters and isolated GDx and OCT parameters. Refraction and gender were not significantly associated with any optic disc or RNFL parameters. Although effects of age on the optic disc and RNFL are small, they should be considered in monitoring ocular disease. Optic disc area should be considered when cross-sectionally evaluating disc topography and, to a lesser extent, RNFL thickness.     

Seismic safety of lifelines—an optimum design method

Lifeline systems are vulnerable to two types of hazards arising from potential earthquake sources. These are the hazard of a fault-rupture strike on elements of a lifeline system and the hazard of overstress induced in different elements of the system because of the ground vibration. An optimum design method is presented in this paper for the design of a lifeline system for a maximum accepted probability of failure because of any of the two modes of failure. The method may be used to determine an optimum path between a number of fixed points which represent supply or demand stations in the system.     

The path probability method: An atomistic technique of diffusion

The path probability method (PPM) of irreversible statistical mechanics has been successfully applied to various diffusion problems. The major advantage of this atomistic treatment over the phenomenological approach of irreversible thermodynamics is that all Onsager matrix coefficients can be derived analytically so that relations among measurable quantities can be clearly understood in terms of microscopic parameters. This review article attempts to present the PPM in the simplest possible form. The importance of the PPM as an atomistic technique is illustrated using a simple example. The applicability and limitations of the technique are also emphasized.     

Photocatalytic degradation of methyl tert‐butyl ether (MTBE) in contaminated water by ZnO nanoparticles

BACKGROUND: Over the past several decades methyl tert‐butyl ether (MTBE) as additive to gasoline, intended to either boost ratings of fuel or to reduce air pollution, has been accepted worldwide. Since MTBE has high water solubility, the occurrence of fuel spills or leaks from underground storage tanks or transferring pipeline has led to the contamination of natural waters. In this study the degradation of aqueous MTBE at relatively high concentrations was investigated by a UV‐visible/ZnO/H₂O₂ photocatalytic process. The effects of important operational parameters such as pH, amount of H₂O₂, catalyst loading and irradiation time were also investigated. Concentration of MTBE and intermediates such as tert‐butyl formate and tert‐butyl alcohol were measured. RESULTS: Time required for complete degradation increased from 20 to 150 min when the initial concentration was increased from 10 to 500 mg L^?1. The first‐order rate constants for degradation of MTBE were estimated to be 0.183–0.022 min^?1 as the concentration increased from 10 to 500 mg L^?1. Study of the overall mineralization monitored by total organic carbon analysis showed that at an initial concentration of 100 mg L^?1 MTBE complete mineralization was obtained after 100 min under UV‐visible/ZnO/H₂O₂ photocatalysis. CONCLUSION: The data presented in this paper clearly indicated that UV‐visible/ZnO/O₂ as an advanced oxidation process provides an efficient treatment alternative for the remediation of MTBE‐contaminated waters. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

Enhancement of endogenous cyclic AMP signal: a new approach to allow for cold preservation of rat livers from non-heart-beating donors?

BACKGROUND: The organ donor shortage has led to a reconsideration of the use of non-heart-beating donors (NHBDs). However, graft injury due to warm ischemia in NHBD livers strongly affects posttransplant outcome. The present study was aimed at investigating the role of the cellular cyclic (c)AMP second messenger signal with regard to hepatic viability after cold preservation of NHBD livers. METHODS: Cardiac arrest was induced in Wistar rats by frenotomy of the anesthetized nonheparinized animal. After 30 min, the livers were excised and flushed with 20 ml of heparinized saline solution, rinsed with 10 ml of University of Wisconsin (UW) solution, and stored submerged in UW solution at 4 degrees C for 24 hr. In half of the experiments, UW solution was supplemented with glucagon (0.5 microg/ml) to increase the cAMP signal in the liver. Reperfusion was carried out in vitro after all livers were incubated at 25 degrees C in saline solution to replicate the period of slow rewarming during surgical implantation in vivo. RESULTS: Hepatic levels of cAMP (nmol/g dry weight) declined from 1.21+/-0.05 to 0.53+/-0.03 (P<0.01) at 30 min after cardiac arrest. Subsequent storage in UW solution resulted in a further decline to 0.35+/-0.04 after 24 hr in group A, whereas glucagon treatment enhanced cellular cAMP signal to 0.64+/-0.06 (P<0.01). Upon reperfusion, liver integrity was significantly improved after glucagon administration, with 66% reduction in alanine aminotransferase release and a threefold increase in hepatic bile production as compared with untreated livers. Moreover, liver ATP tissue levels were restored to only 2.19+/-0.51 micromol/g in the untreated group but reached 4.97+/-0.41 micromol/g (P<0.05) after treatment with glucagon. CONCLUSIONS: Posthoc conditioning of predamaged livers by glucagon enhances cAMP tissue levels during ischemic preservation and improves hepatic integrity upon reperfusion. This may represent a promising approach for the use of livers from non-heart-beating donors in clinical transplantation.     

An improved volleyball premier league algorithm based on sine cosine algorithm for global optimization problem

Volleyball premier league (VPL) simulating some phenomena of volleyball game has been presented recently. This powerful algorithm uses such racing and interplays between teams within a season. Furthermore, the algorithm imitates the coaching procedure within a game. Therefore, some volleyball metaphors, including substitution, coaching, and learning, are used to find a better solution prepared by the VPL algorithm. However, the learning phase has the largest effect on the performance of the VPL algorithm, in which this phase can lead to making the VPL stuck in optimal local solution. Therefore, this paper proposed a modified VPL using sine cosine algorithm (SCA). In which the SCA operators have been applied in the learning phase to obtain a more accurate solution. So, we have used SCA operators in VPL to grasp their advantages resulting in a more efficient approach for finding the optimal solution of the optimization problem and avoid the limitations of the traditional VPL algorithm. The propounded VPLSCA algorithm is tested on the 25 functions. The results captured by the VPLSCA have been compared with other metaheuristic algorithms such as cuckoo search, social-spider optimization algorithm, ant lion optimizer, grey wolf optimizer, salp swarm algorithm, whale optimization algorithm, moth flame optimization, artificial bee colony, SCA, and VPL. Furthermore, the three typical optimization problems in the field of designing engineering have been solved using the VPLSCA. According to the obtained results, the proposed algorithm shows very reasonable and promising results compared to others.

     

An FEC scheme combined with weighted scheduling to reduce multicast packet loss in IPTV over PON

Congestion is one of the most important challenges in optical networks. In a Passive Optical Network (PON), the Optical Line Terminal (OLT) is a bottleneck and congestion prone. In this paper, a framework is proposed with Forward Error Correction (FEC) at the IP layer combined with Weighted Round Robin (WRR) at the scheduling level to overcome packet-loss due to congestion in the OLT in order to achieve efficient video multicasting over PON. In the FEC scheme, Reed-Solomon (RS(n,k)) with erasure coding is used, where (n−k) erroneous symbols per n symbol blocks can be corrected. In our framework, an Internet Protocol TeleVision (IPTV) service provider uses the mentioned RS coding and generates redundant packets from regular IPTV packets in such a way that an Optical Network Unit (ONU) can recover lost packets from received packets, thus resulting in a better video quality. Simulation results show that using the proposed framework, an ONU can recover many lost packets and achieve better video quality under different traffic loads for its users. For instance, the proposed method can reduce packet loss rate by almost 55% and 10% under traffic load 0.9, respectively, compared with the Round Robin (RR) and WRR methods under symmetric traffic load. When High Receivers Queue (HRQ) traffic (i.e., traffic received by many users) is twice Low Receivers Queue (LRQ) traffic (i.e., traffic received by a small number of users), this reduction is almost 86% and 30% under traffic load 0.9. Finally, when LRQ traffic is twice HRQ traffic, the reduction in packet loss rate is almost 70% and 91% at traffic load 0.5.     

Pd/Cu-Free Cobalt-Catalyzed Suzuki and Heck Using Green Bio-Magnetic Hybrid and DFT-Based Theoretical Study

Catalysis Letters - Several highly efficient and magnetically recyclable cobalt catalytic systems were prepared using magnetic chitosan and some safe and available organic compounds...     

Mesoporous SBA-15@n-Pr-THAM-ZrO organic–inorganic hybrid: as a highly efficient reusable nanocatalyst for the synthesis of polyhydroquinolines and 2,3-dihydroquinazolin-4 (1h)-ones

Journal of Porous Materials - In this work, tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane-Zirconium complex supported on modified SBA-15 (SBA-15@n-Pr-THMAM-ZrO) prepared as a novel mesoporous catalyst. The...