A combination of differential equations and convolution in understanding the spread of an epidemic

Nonlinear dynamical method of projecting the transmission of an epidemic is accurate if the input parameters and initial value variables are reliable. Here, such a model is proposed for predicting an epidemic. A method to supplement two variables and two parameters for this proposed model is demonstrated through a robust statistical approach. The method described here worked well in case of three continuous distributions. Model predictions could be lower estimates due to under-reporting of disease cases. Anad hoc procedure with a technical note is provided in the appendix An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual conference of the Indian Society for Mathematical Modelling & Computer Simulation, Bangalore, November 14–15, 2002     

Health and education: alternative courses for the development of nursing personnel

The disposition behavior of trientine, a selective copper-chelating drug for Wilson's disease, and its metabolites in normal patients with Wilson's disease and rats were studied. A high concentration of metabolites appeared in blood samples of patients and rats in the early stage after administration of trientine. Furthermore, large amount of trientine metabolites were excreted into the urine of patients. These results suggest that trientine is remarkably subjected to a first-pass effect. The drug concentration area under the curve (AUC) of the unchanged form and the metabolites of trientine in patients was not dependent on the administered dosage. It seems that the absorption process is an important factor for the disposition behavior of trientine, we have also investigated the uptake characteristics of trientine by rat intestinal brush-border membrane vesicles. The uptake characteristics of trientine were similar to the physiological polyamines, spermine and spermidine. The uptake rate of trientine was dose-dependently inhibited by spermine and spermidine. Moreover, spermine competitively inhibited the uptake of trientine with a Ki value of 18.6 muM. This value is very close to the Km value for spermine (30.4 muM). These data suggested that the uptake mechanism of trientine in rat small intestinal brush-border membrane vesicles was almost identical to that of spermine and spermidine, and that the physiological polyamines seem to have the ability to inhibit the absorption of trientine from the gastrointestinal tract.     

Evaluating the impact of smart technologies on harbor’s logistics via BPMN modeling and simulation

A smart Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enables a synchronized interplay of different key factors, aligning infrastructures, consumers, and governmental policy-making needs. In the harbor’s logistics context, smart ICT has been driving a multi-year wave of growth. Although there is a standalone value in the technological innovation of a task, the impact of a new smart technology is unknown without quantitative analysis methods on the end-to-end process. In this paper, we first present a review of the smart ICT for marine container terminals, and then we propose to evaluate the impact of such smart ICT via business process model and notation (BPMN) modeling and simulation. The proposed approach is discussed in a real-world modeling and simulation analysis, made on a pilot terminal of the Port of Leghorn (Italy).     

A Traffic Generator for Testing Communication Systems: Presentation,Implementation and Performance

This paper presents a multi-application traffic generator (MTG), aimed at the generation of packets over a LAN. The generated traffic simulates the one produced by a number of both isochronous and anisochronous applications, thus allowing the measurement of a number of parameters relevant to the communication network. From a test point of view, data generated by the MTG system is equivalent to data generated by real applications spread over a LAN. The MTG system is presented, its implementation is described, some figures relevant to the MTG performance are shown, and the statistical analysis which can be performed on the recorded data is briefly introduced. The user manual of the MTG system is referenced in (Celandroni, Ferro, and Potorti 1995).     

Core loss in amorphous cut cores with air gaps

The effects of air gaps on the high-frequency core loss in cut cores made of amorphous ribbons are discussed and methods to reduce the core loss in them are proposed. It has been found that the high-frequency core loss in amorphous cut cores with air gaps increases strikingly with increasing air-gap length. The increase in the core loss due to air gaps is remarkable in high-frequency and low-induction range. Measurement of leakage magnetic flux as well as analysis of the flux distribution and the eddy current in an amorphous core with the finite-element method suggests that the increase in the core loss due to air gaps observed in the amorphous cores can be attributed to the in-plane eddy current loss generated by the leakage flux perpendicular to ribbon surfaces. Suppression of the leakage flux normal to ribbon surfaces by using semicircular cores and reduction in width of ribbons of which cores are made decreases the high-frequency core loss in amorphous cut cores with air gaps