Development and Initial Validation of Sustainable Construction Safety and Health Rating System

This paper presents a study to develop and validate a sustainable construction safety and health (SCSH) rating system. The rating system provides an opportunity to rate projects based on the importance given to construction worker safety and health and the degree of implementation of safety and health elements. A Delphi survey using an expert panel of 12 experienced safety and health professionals representing different sectors of the construction industry was employed to develop the SCSH rating system. The study resulted in a rating system consisting of a total of 50 safety and health elements organized into 13 categories. Each category contains safety and health elements which carry credits based on their effectiveness in preventing construction worker injuries and illnesses. The rating system was initially validated based on data from 25 construction projects and found to accurately represent the safety performance of large projects. The SCSH rating system can be used as an effective tool to develop and plan construction safety and health programs and evaluate the potential safety performance of construction projects.     

Computational Modeling of Impact Response with the RG Damage Model and the Meshless Local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) Approaches

The Rajendran-Grove (RG) ceramic damage model is a three-dimensional internal variable based constitutive model for ceramic materials, with the considerations of micro-crack extension and void collapse. In the present paper, the RG ceramic model is implemented into the newly developed computational framework based on the Meshless Local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) method, for solving high-speed impact and penetration problems. The ability of the RG model to describe the internal damage evolution and the effective material response is investigated. Several numerical examples are presented, including the rod-on-rod impact, plate-on-plate impact, and ballistic penetration. The computational results are compared with available experiments, as well as those obtained by the popular finite element code (Dyna3D).     

Performance of phosphine in fumigation of bagged paddy rice in indoor and outdoor stores

Phosphine fumigation trials were carried out on bag-stacks of paddy rice to study the differences in gas loss rates and concentration–time (Ct) products achieved during the treatment of indoor and outdoor stacks. Stacks (89–132 t) were fumigated singly under 250 μm thick polyethylene sheeting, which was sealed with a double layer of sand-snakes to the concrete floor. Phosphine was applied as an aluminium phosphide formulation and the fumigations continued for 7 days. In the first experiment, stacks of paddy rice with moisture contents ranging from 12.2 to 13.7% were held in either indoor or in outdoor storage and subjected to fumigation at the rate of 2, 3 or 4 g of phosphine/tonne. The outdoor stacks held relatively low levels of phosphine with Ct products for the indoor stacks of 135, 171 and 294 g h/m³, respectively, whilst the corresponding values for the outdoor stacks were 70, 85 and 166 g h/m³ only. The average gas loss rate was 14.5% per day for the indoor stacks and 29.5% for the outdoor stacks. In the second experiment, old stacks of paddy rice inside a godown, one each with grains at 8.8 and 9.8% moisture content, were fumigated at 3 g phosphine/tonne. Release of phosphine was delayed and fumigant sorption was less and therefore higher Ct products of 204 and 216 g h/m³ were achieved. In the stacks built outdoors, the resident infestations of Rhyzopertha dominica, Cryptolestes sp. and Oryzaephilus surinamensis were completely controlled despite lower Ct products. On the other hand, in the stacks of old paddy, R. dominica survived the treatment. Subsequent testing showed that the population had a degree of resistance to phosphine.     

Superparamagnetic Nanostructures for Off‐Resonance Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging

This study proposes a new method to generate positive contrast in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using superparamagnetic contrast agents. Superparamagnetic nanostructures consisting of octahedron manganese ferrite nanoparticles embedded in spherical nanogels are fabricated using a bottom‐up approach. The composite nanoparticles are strongly magnetized in an external magnetic field and produce a unique NMR frequency shift in water protons, which can be demonstrated in MR spectroscopy and imaging to be different from the bulk pool. Moreover, the particles exhibit excellent colloidal stability in aqueous media and good cell biocompatibility. Hence, these particles are potentially useful as biomarkers by taking advantage of the positive contrast effects produced in MRI.     

The microRNA-202 as a Diagnostic Biomarker and a Potential Tumor Suppressor

MicroRNA-202 (miR-202) is a member of the highly conserved let-7 family that was discovered in Caenorhabditis elegans and recently reported to be involved in cell differentiation and tumor biology. In humans, miR-202 was initially identified in the testis where it was suggested to play a role in spermatogenesis. Subsequent research showed that miR-202 is one of the micro-RNAs that are dysregulated in different types of cancer. During the last decade, a large number of investigations has fortified a role for miR-202 in cancer. However, its functions can be double-edged, depending on context they may be tumor suppressive or oncogenic. In this review, we highlight miR-202 as a potential diagnostic biomarker and as a suppressor of tumorigenesis and metastasis in several types of tumors. We link miR-202 expression levels in tumor types to its involved upstream and downstream signaling molecules and highlight its potential roles in carcinogenesis. Three well-known upstream long non-coding-RNAs (lncRNAs); MALAT1, NORAD, and NEAT1 target miR-202 and inhibit its tumor suppressive function thus fueling cancer progression. Studies on the downstream targets of miR-202 revealed PTEN, AKT, and various oncogenes such as metadherin (MTDH), MYCN, Forkhead box protein R2 (FOXR2) and Kirsten rat sarcoma virus (KRAS). Interestingly, an upregulated level of miR-202 was shown by most of the studies that estimated its expression level in blood or serum of cancer patients, especially in breast cancer. Reduced expression levels of miR-202 in tumor tissues were found to be associated with progression of different types of cancer. It seems likely that miR-202 is embedded in a complex regulatory network related to the nature and the sensitivity of the tumor type and therapeutic (pre)treatments. Its variable roles in tumorigenesis are mediated in part thought its oncogene effectors. However, the currently available data suggest that the involved signaling pathways determine the anti- or pro-tumorigenic outcomes of miR-202’s dysregulation and its value as a diagnostic biomarker.     

Poly(m‐phenylenediamine)‐coated 316L SS: A promising material for bipolar plates in PEMFC environment

The applicability of conducting polymer coatings to enhance corrosion resistance of bipolar plates in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) is gaining greater significance as electrical conductivity is as important as corrosion resistance. Metaphenylenediamine (mPD) monomer was electropolymerized to poly(m‐phenylenediamine) (PmPD) conducting polymer over 316L SS and characterized by attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy to confirm the formation of P mPD polymer. Scanning electron microscopy was used to study the surface morphology of the polymer. Open‐circuit potential, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and potentiodynamic polarization studies were conducted to assess the corrosion protection performance of the PmPD polymer coating in PEMFC environment. The charge‐transfer resistance measured from EIS for the coated substrates was higher than the uncoated substrate. Potentiodynamic polarization studies showed lower corrosion current density for the PmPD‐coated substrates. All the results proved that the PmPD‐coated substrates could exhibit enhanced corrosion resistance in PEMFC environment.     

Stealth assessment strategy in distributed systems using optimal deep learning with game based learning

The Journal of Supercomputing - Game-based learning (GBL) is familiar in several respects, as it can embed problem-solving challenges in an interactive virtual environment to improve...     

Cross Layer QoS Aware Scheduling based on Loss-Based Proportional Fairness with Multihop CRN

As huge users are involved, there is a difficulty in spectrum allocation and scheduling in Cognitive Radio Networks (CRNs). Collision increases when there is no allocation of spectrum and these results in huge drop rate and network performance degradation. To solve these problems and allocate appropriate spectrum, a novel method is introduced termed as Quality of Service (QoS) Improvement Proper Scheduling (QIPS). The major contribution of the work is to design a new cross layer QoS Aware Scheduling based on Loss-based Proportional Fairness with Multihop (QoSAS-LBPFM). In Medium Access Control (MAC) multi-channel network environment mobile nodes practice concurrent broadcast between several channels. Acquiring the advantage of introduced cross layer design, the real-time channel conditions offered by Cognitive Radio (CR) function allows adaptive sub channel choice for every broadcast. To optimize the resources of network, the LBPFM adaptively plans the radio resources for allocating to diverse services without lessening the quality of service. Results obtained from simulation proved that QoSAS-LBPFM provides enhanced QoS guaranteed performance against other existing QIPS algorithm.     

Computer simulation of electron diffraction studies of GdCo crystalline compounds

The interference function, the diffraction intensity and the radial distribution function for Gd₁₀Co₉₀, Gd₂Co₁₇ and GdCo₅ compounds are studied by computer simulation. It is found that the position of the maxima of the radial distribution function in all the cases are same and the curves nearly coincide with the experimental curves. The first peak in all the cases are nearly equal at r ≈ 3.8 Å. The effect of strain on the interference function is studied.