A framework of genetic algorithm-based CNN on multi-access edge computing for automated detection of COVID-19

The Journal of Supercomputing - This paper designs and develops a computational intelligence-based framework using convolutional neural network (CNN) and genetic algorithm (GA) to detect COVID-19...     

Financial assessment of health and safety programmes in the workplace

In evaluating health and safety improvements for performance improvement, it is necessary to account for both the contributions of a healthy workforce and the resources required supporting it.

The Economic Assessment of the Work Environment (EAWE) is a financial framework that helps management forecast the financial benefits of health and safety implementations. The five-step process comprises (1) a health assessment to identify critical elements in the work environment, (2) an action plan to address gaps, (3) performance targets based on internal goals and external benchmarks, (4) transformation of the expected improvements in health and safety into expected performance outcomes, and (5) implementation in stages, starting from individual jobs to entire organisation.

EAWE offers a dynamic framework for corporate decision-makers when evaluating health and safety programmes. Further research should explore the bounds of EAWE across different types of organisations and the evolution of performance over time.     

Wave propagation in functionally graded nanocomposites reinforced with carbon nanotubes based on second-order shear deformation theory

In the present article, as a first endeavor, the wave propagation in functionally graded nanocomposites reinforced with carbon nanotubes is investigated on the basis of second-order shear deformation theory. Four different types of functionally graded nanocomposites are presented. An analytical method is used to find the circular frequencies and phase velocities. To show the accuracy of the present methodology, our results for the free vibration are compared with the results of functionally graded plates available in the literature. The influences of different parameters are also investigated on the circular frequencies and phase velocities.     

Hybrid Probabilistic Risk Assessment Using Fuzzy FTA and Fuzzy AHP in a Process Industry

Journal of Failure Analysis and Prevention - There are many available techniques which are widely used for failure probability analysis. Fault tree analysis (FTA) is a well-known method to identify...     

Fabrication of biopolymer based nanocomposite wound dressing: evaluation of wound healing properties and wound microbial load

The aim of this study is to introduce natural‐based polymers, chitosan and starch, to design a remedial nanocomposite, comprising of cerium oxide nanoparticles and silver nanoparticles, to investigate their effects in accelerating wound healing and in wound microbial load. Cerium oxide nanoparticles synthesized in starch solution added to the colloidal dispersion of synthesized silver nanoparticles in chitosan to make a three‐component nanomaterial. Mice were anaesthetized and two parallel full‐thickness round wounds were excised under aseptic conditions with the help of sterile dermal biopsy punch. Furthermore, effects of silver‐chitosan and silver‐cerium‐chitosan nanocomposite had evaluated on rate of wound closure and collagen density and on microbial load of wound in full‐thickness model. Results showed that both silver chitosan and silver‐cerium‐chitosan had significant impact on acceleration of wound closure and collagen content and on reduction of wound microbial load in comparison with control group, which was, received no treatments. However, the silver‐cerium‐chitosan nanocomposite is more potent than silver‐chitosan group and control group in wound closure. The wound healing effects of silver‐cerium‐chitosan nanocomposite are due to unique features of its three components and this nanocomposite promises impressive remedies for clinical application.Inspec keywords: wounds, nanocomposites, nanomedicine, nanoparticles, proteins, cerium, silver, polymers, colloids, patient treatmentOther keywords: biopolymer‐based nanocomposite wound dressing, wound healing properties, wound microbial load, natural‐based polymers, chitosan, remedial nanocomposite, cerium oxide nanoparticles, nanoceria, silver nanoparticles, starch solution, three‐component nanomaterial, synthesised silver nanoparticles, ketamine intraperitoneal injection, silver‐cerium‐chitosan nanocomposite, wound closure, collagen density, wound healing effects, wound care, aseptic conditions, sterile dermal biopsy punch, Ag‐Ce     

Effect of bioactive dental adhesive on periodontal and endodontic pathogens

The objectives of this study were to: (1) develop a new bioactive dental bonding agent with nanoparticles of amorphous calcium phosphate and dimethylaminohexadecyl methacrylate for tooth root caries restorations and endodontic applications, and (2) investigate biofilm inhibition by the bioactive bonding agent against eight species of periodontal and endodontic pathogens for the first time. Bonding agent was formulated with 5?% of dimethylaminohexadecyl methacrylate. Nanoparticles of amorphous calcium phosphate at 30?wt% was mixed into adhesive. Eight species of biofilms were grown on resins: Porphyromonas gingivalis, Prevotella intermedia, Prevotella nigrescens, Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, Fusobacterium nucleatum, Parvimonas micra, Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus faecium. Colony-forming units, live/dead assay, biomass, metabolic activity and polysaccharide of biofilms were determined. The results showed that adding dimethylaminohexadecyl methacrylate and nanoparticles of amorphous calcium phosphate into bonding agent did not decrease dentin bond strength (P?>?0.1). Adding dimethylaminohexadecyl methacrylate reduced the colony-forming units of all eight species of biofilms by nearly three orders of magnitude. The killing efficacy of dimethylaminohexadecyl methacrylate resin was: P. gingivalis?>?A. actinomycetemcomitans?>?P. intermedia?>?P. nigrescens?>?F. nucleatum?>?P. micra?>?E. faecalis?>?E. faecium. Dimethylaminohexadecyl methacrylate resin had much less biomass, metabolic activity and polysaccharide of biofilms than those without dimethylaminohexadecyl methacrylate (P?<?0.05). In conclusion, a novel dental adhesive was developed for root caries and endodontic applications, showing potent inhibition of biofilms of eight species of periodontal and endodontic pathogens, and reducing colony-forming units by three orders of magnitude. The bioactive adhesive is promising for tooth root restorations to provide subgingival margins with anti-periodontal pathogen capabilities, and for endodontic sealer applications to combat endodontic biofilms.     

Biosynthesis of SeNPs by Mycobacterium bovis and their enhancing effect on the immune response against HBs antigens: an in vivo study

Conventional hepatitis B vaccine contains alum but is less effective to induce Th1 response. Selenium nanoparticles and Bacillus Calmette–Guerin were reported as immune modulators. In this study, SeNPs were extracted from Mycobacterium bovis and characterised. SeNPs were mixed with HBs‐Ag and administered to the mice to investigate he immune response pattern. With an addition of Se ions at a sub‐inhibitory concentration to the Sauton medium broth after 24 h, SeNPs were extracted from M. bovis and characterised by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, atomic forcemicroscopy, energy dispersive X‐ray spectrum, transmission electron microscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. Furthermore, female inbred BALB/c mice were injected subcutaneously on the first, 14th, 28th day with 100 and 200 µg doses of that SeNPs supplemented with HBs‐Ag vaccine. Later, the total antibody, isotypes of Immunoglobulin G1, Interlukin 4, and interferon‐γ were measured by enzye‐linked immunosorbent assay. The size of the SeNPs was <150 nm. Level of total antibody and immunoglobulin G2a increased significantly in the group that received 200 µg/ml nano selenium extracted from M. bovis. SeNPs in dose of 200 µg coated with organic materials of M. bovis could induce an influential immune response in relation to the conventional HBs‐Ag vaccine.Inspec keywords: selenium, nanoparticles, nanofabrication, microorganisms, Fourier transform spectra, infrared spectra, light scattering, atomic force microscopy, X‐ray chemical analysis, transmission electron microscopy, thermal analysis, nanomedicineOther keywords: biosynthesis, selenium nanoparticles, Mycobacterium bovis, enhnced immune response, HBs antigens, Bacillus Calmette‐Guerin, immune modulators, biogenic SeNPs, immune response pattern, Sauton medium broth, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, atomic force microscopy, energy dispersive X‐ray spectrum, transmission electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, female inbred BALB/c mice, antibody, IgG1 isotype, IgG2a isotype, IL₄ isotype, interferon‐γ, enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay, bacterium, time 24 h, time 14 day, time 28 day, Se     

Tracking and Analysis of Pedestrian’s Behavior in Public Places

Crowd management becomes a global concern due to increased population in urban areas. Better management of pedestrians leads to improved use of public places. Behavior of pedestrian’s is a major factor of crowd management in public places. There are multiple applications available in this area but the challenge is open due to complexity of crowd and depends on the environment. In this paper, we have proposed a new method for pedestrian’s behavior detection. Kalman filter has been used to detect pedestrian’s using movement based approach. Next, we have performed occlusion detection and removal using region shrinking method to isolate occluded humans. Human verification is performed on each human silhouette and wavelet analysis and particle gradient motion are extracted for each silhouettes. Gray Wolf Optimizer (GWO) has been utilized to optimize feature set and then behavior classification has been performed using the Extreme Gradient (XG) Boost classifier. Performance has been evaluated using pedestrian’s data from avenue and UBI-Fight datasets, where both have different environment. The mean achieved accuracies are 91.3% and 85.14% over the Avenue and UBI-Fight datasets, respectively. These results are more accurate as compared to other existing methods.     

Central Aggregator Intrusion Detection System for Denial of Service Attacks

Vehicle-to-grid technology is an emerging field that allows unused power from Electric Vehicles (EVs) to be used by the smart grid through the central aggregator. Since the central aggregator is connected to the smart grid through a wireless network, it is prone to cyber-attacks that can be detected and mitigated using an intrusion detection system. However, existing intrusion detection systems cannot be used in the vehicle-to-grid network because of the special requirements and characteristics of the vehicle-to-grid network. In this paper, the effect of denial-of-service attacks of malicious electric vehicles on the central aggregator of the vehicle-to-grid network is investigated and an intrusion detection system for the vehicle-to-grid network is proposed. The proposed system, central aggregator–intrusion detection system (CA-IDS), works as a security gateway for EVs to analyze and monitor incoming traffic for possible DoS attacks. EVs are registered with a Central Aggregator (CAG) to exchange authenticated messages, and malicious EVs are added to a blacklist for violating a set of predefined policies to limit their interaction with the CAG. A denial of service (DoS) attack is simulated at CAG in a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) network manipulating various network parameters such as transmission overhead, receiving capacity of destination, average packet size, and channel availability. The proposed system is compared with existing intrusion detection systems using different parameters such as throughput, jitter, and accuracy. The analysis shows that the proposed system has a higher throughput, lower jitter, and higher accuracy as compared to the existing schemes.