Endotoxins and inflammation in hemodialysis patients

Long‐term endotoxin challenge may promote frequent complications in dialysis patients, namely malnutrition, chronic inflammation, and atherosclerosis, which are recognized as the so‐called MIA syndrome. Circulating soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule‐1 (sVCAM‐1) levels may be used to determine the stage of atherosclerosis. This study aimed to assess endotoxin level in hemodialysis (HD) patients and its role in inducing inflammation. The study was conducted on 50 HD patients, chosen from four dialysis centers in Alexandria. Serum blood samples were collected for the determination of albumin and C‐reactive protein (CRP), and whole blood samples were used for the measurement of hemoglobin level. A heparinized whole blood sample was taken postdialysis for endotoxin assay by limulus amebocyte lysate test, and in addition to sVCAM‐1 was estimated using enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. The mean endotoxin level was 76.30 pg/mL;80% exhibited values higher than 60 pg/mL. Half the studied patients had CRP values that exceeded the upper limit of the laboratory reference range (<6.0 mg/L). A statistically significant correlation was found between endotoxin and CRP levels (r = 0.47, P = 0.001). The mean pre‐HD level of VCAM was 1851.00 ng/mL, while the mean post‐HD level was 2829.00 ng/mL with statistically significant correlation (r = 0.354, P = 0.012) and it also correlated significantly with endotoxin as well as CRP levels. Endotoxemia may play an important role in the aggravation of endothelial dysfunction in HD patients as indicated by the post‐HD rise in sVCAM‐1.     

Performance of a MANET directional MAC protocol with angle‐of‐arrival estimation

The use of directional antennas in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) has shown to offer large throughput gains relative to omnidirectional antennas. When used in ad hoc networks, directional medium‐access‐control (DMAC) protocols usually require all nodes, or part of nodes, to be aware of their exact locations. This location information is typically provided using a global positioning system (GPS). Although GPS systems are designed to be as nearly accurate as possible, there are still estimation errors that can cause a relatively large deviation from the actual GPS receiver position. In this paper, we investigate the effect of inaccurate node position estimation on the throughput of these protocols. Our results clearly indicate that the advantages of DMAC protocols diminish if the available position information is not accurate enough. As an alternative, we propose an efficient DMAC protocol that utilizes signal parameter estimation via the rotational invariance technique (ESPRIT) for direction‐of‐arrival (DOA) estimation; alleviating the need for GPS and, hence, avoiding the degrading associated with typical GPS position estimation errors. Moreover, unlike GPS‐based protocols, our protocol is suitable for both outdoor and indoor applications. Under different operating conditions and channel models, our simulation results show the throughput improvement achieved using the proposed protocol relative to the IEEE 802.11. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mechanical and thermal stresses in a functionally graded rotating disk with variable thickness due to radially symmetry loads

Rotating disks have many applications in the aerospace industry such as gas turbines and gears. These disks normally work under thermo mechanical loads. Minimizing the weight of such components can help reduce the overall payload in aerospace industry. For this purpose, a rotating functionally graded (FG) disk with variable thickness under a steady temperature field is considered in this paper. Thermo elastic solutions and the weight of the disk are related to the material grading index and the geometry of the disk. It is found that a disk with parabolic or hyperbolic convergent thickness profile has smaller stresses and displacements compared to a uniform thickness disk. Maximum radial stress due to centrifugal load in the solid disk with parabolic thickness profile may not be at the center unlike uniform thickness disk. Functionally graded disk with variable thickness has smaller stresses due to thermal load compared to those with uniform thickness. It is seen that for a given value of grading index, the FG disk having concave thickness profile is the lightest in weight whereas the FG disk with uniform thickness profile is the heaviest. Also for any given thickness profile, the weight of the FG disk lies in between the weights of the all-metal and the all-ceramic disks.     

Thermo elastic analysis of functionally graded rotating disks with temperature-dependent material properties: uniform and variable thickness

A thermo elastic analysis is presented for axisymmetric rotating disks made of functionally graded material (FGM) with variable thickness. Material properties are assumed to be temperature-dependent and graded in the radial direction according to a grading index power law distribution. The temperature field considered is assumed to be uniformly distributed over the disk surface and varied in the radial direction. Semi-analytical solutions for the displacement field are given for solid disk and annular disk under free-free and fixed-free boundary conditions. The effects of the thermal field, the material grading index and the geometry of the disk on the displacement and stress fields are investigated. Results of this study emphasize on the crucial role of the temperature-dependent properties in a high temperature environment. A comparison of these results with the reported ones in the literature that is temperature-dependent versus temperature-independent suggests that a functionally graded rotating disk with concave thickness profile can work more efficiently than the one with uniform thickness irrespective of whether the material properties are assumed to be temperature-dependent or temperature-independent.     

Relative permeability as a function of temperature, initial water saturation and flooding fluid compositions for modified oil-wet chalk

This paper addresses the effect of brines, containing sulphate and magnesium (found in sea water) and distilled water as initial saturating and flooding fluids, on relative permeability of modified chalk cores by fatty acids to more oil-wet.A model oil system (n-decane) containing different fatty acids (present in oil) such as 18-phenyloctadecanoic acid (PODA—long chain fatty acid with unsaturated ring), Stearic acid (SA—saturated straight long chain), and brines containing sulphate and magnesium ions (0.03 M SO₄²⁻ and 0.06 M Mg²⁺) dissolved in distilled water are used.Fatty acids alter the wettability of chalk to more oil-wet. PODA shows higher tendency compared to SA, at the same concentration, to alter the chalk to more oil-wet. Relative permeability curves are used as indication of the modified chalk behaviour.It also addressed the effect of the temperature on the relative permeability. A shift in the relative permeability to the right side indicates more water-wet with temperature up to ≤ 80 °C. At a higher temperature of 130 °C, the relative permeability curves indicate more oil-wet tendency.Wettability indicated by the relative permeability curves shows the influence of initially saturated fluid composition and the flooding fluid composition, where the modified cores initially saturated with ion free water (distilled water) and flooded by fluids containing Mg²⁺ or SO₄²⁻ shows a shift indicating more water-wet compared to reference core (initially saturated and flooded by ion free water). However, if the initial saturating and flooding fluids contain 0.06 M Mg²⁺ ions, the wettability tends to be more oil-wet compared to that if the modified cores are saturated and flooded with 0.03 M SO₄²⁻ and distilled water.The calculated pore size distribution index (λ) using Huang and Honarpour correlation, is used to determine the corrected (actual) relative permeability for capillary end effect. A good agreement between experimental and simulated relative permeability data was also obtained by using the calculated λ.     

Torsional oscillations of series capacitor compensated AC/DCsystems

Torsional oscillations in an AC/DC power system that result from series-capacitor compensation and HVDC converter controllers are investigated. A feasible approach for damping the torsional modes by coordinating the controllers of a static VAr compensator (SVC) unit with the supplemental subsynchronous damping control (SSDC) of the HVDC rectifier is presented. An eigenvalue method is used for the studies, and the analytical results are verified by detailed digital computer simulation, using the BPA's Electromagnetic Transients Program (EMTP). The studies show that in a series-capacitor-compensated AC/DC system, the SSDC can be used to damp the subsynchronous resonance (SSR) modes only over a limited range of operating conditions. The coordinated SVC-SSDC approach provides adequate damping for all the SSR modes under all operating conditions, particularly at high series-compensation levels     

Effect of torsional dynamics on salient pole synchronousmotor-driven compressors

This paper presents a rigorous treatment of the starting problem of a salient pole synchronous motor driving a complex multicompressor load. This is aimed at analysing the resulting torsional oscillations and calculating the different transmitted torques and twist angles of the multi-shaft assembly. For this purpose, the necessary mathematical models and corresponding digital simulation are developed. The results obtained show that there is a pressing need for taking care of the torsional effects on the different shafts during the design stage, otherwise serious problems could arise     

COMPARING ANNs AND GENETIC PROGRAMMING FOR VOICE QUALITY ASSESSMENT POST-TREATMENT

In the U.K., the rehabilitation of a patient's voice following treatment for cancer of the larynx is managed by Speech and Language Therapists (SALT), who listen to a patient's stylized speech and then use their experience and domain knowledge to make an assessment of the current quality of the patient's voice. This process is very subjective and time consuming, and could benefit from using AI techniques to provide objective, reproducible assessments of voice quality. A comparative study of voice quality assessment post-treatment using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), the preferred AI technique in this application area, and Genetic Programming (GP) is described, using the same dataset, training, and verification procedures. The GP approach was found to give more accurate classifications of bad quality (immediately post-treatment) and good quality (recovered) voicings than the ANN, and in addition, gave indication of the most significant parameters in the input dataset.     

Variable Selection‐based Multivariate Cumulative Sum Control Chart

High‐dimensional applications pose a significant challenge to the capability of conventional statistical process control techniques in detecting abnormal changes in process parameters. These techniques fail to recognize out‐of‐control signals and locate the root causes of faults especially when small shifts occur in high‐dimensional variables under the sparsity assumption of process mean changes. In this paper, we propose a variable selection‐based multivariate cumulative sum (VS‐MCUSUM) chart for enhancing sensitivity to out‐of‐control conditions in high‐dimensional processes. While other existing charts with variable selection techniques tend to show weak performances in detecting small shifts in process parameters due to the misidentification of the ‘faulty’ parameters, the proposed chart performs well for small process shifts in identifying the parameters. The performance of the VS‐MCUSUM chart under different combinations of design parameters is compared with the conventional MCUSUM and the VS‐multivariate exponentially weighted moving average control charts. Finally, a case study is presented as a real‐life example to illustrate the operational procedures of the proposed chart. Both the simulation and numerical studies show the superior performance of the proposed chart in detecting mean shift in multivariate processes. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.