A new boundary finite element method for fluid–structure interaction problems

In order to study problems on fluid–structure interaction, we have used a mixed formulation which couples the classical functional of the structure with a new variational formulation by integral equations for the fluid. This formulation has the advantage over the finite element methods of avoiding the discretization of the fluid domain. Furthermore, unlike collocation methods, the explicit calculation of the Hadamard finite part of the singular integrals is avoided. This leads after discretization by boundary finite elements to a small and symmetrical algebraic system. Typical examples are presented that demonstrate the efficiency of this variational formulation by studying the sound transmission through a baffled plane structure and through a flexible panel backed by a rigid cavity. These include the calculation of the transmission loss factor and the determination of which modes dominate the noise transmission. Good agreement is obtained between numerical results and analytical results found in the literature.     

Nodular and granulomatous form of periarteritis nodosa caused by the hepatitis B virus

Human herpesvirus type 6 DNA derived from human breath was discovered to contaminate PCR reactions during routine reaction preparation. Parallel PCR experiments were conducted in which expiratory secretions were blocked by a surgical mask, while others were performed without any attempt to circumvent respiratory contamination. The experimenter was previously determined to harbor HHV-6 DNA in the saliva. All reactions in which expiration was obstructed were negative for HHV-6 DNA via PCR. Reactions in which there was no attempt to obstruct respiratory secretions were positive for HHV-6 DNA. These data suggest that PCR assays investigating the presence of HHV-6 may be highly susceptible to contamination from the experimenter leading to false positive results.     

An economic and sensitive method for extracting chromium speciation in airborne inhalable dust,using a green sample treatment coupled with electrothermal atomic absorption

ABSTRACT

A new approach of cloud point extraction CPE procedure is optimized for hexavalent chromium determination in airborne dusts. Triton X-114 is used as a surfactant and 1-(2-pyridylazo)-2-naphthol as a specific complexing agent for the trivalent chromium’s removal from the aqueous phase to isolate hexavalent chromium compounds. The parameters influencing the extraction protocol (pH, surfactant concentration, and temperature are optimized. The obtained detection and quantification limits are 0.1 and 0.4 μg/L, respectively. The linearity is verified, with a regression coefficient close to 0.999 and the extraction recovery exceeds 99%. The method was successfully applied to analyze airborne samples collected from workplaces.     

Towards Sustainable Agricultural Systems: A Lightweight Deep Learning Model for Plant Disease Detection

A country’s economy heavily depends on agricultural development. However, due to several plant diseases, crop growth rate and quality are highly suffered. Accurate identification of these diseases via a manual procedure is very challenging and time-consuming because of the deficiency of domain experts and low-contrast information. Therefore, the agricultural management system is searching for an automatic early disease detection technique. To this end, an efficient and lightweight Deep Learning (DL)-based framework (E-GreenNet) is proposed to overcome these problems and precisely classify the various diseases. In the end-to-end architecture, a MobileNetV3Small model is utilized as a backbone that generates refined, discriminative, and prominent features. Moreover, the proposed model is trained over the PlantVillage (PV), Data Repository of Leaf Images (DRLI), and a new Plant Composite (PC) dataset individually, and later on test samples, its actual performance is evaluated. After extensive experimental analysis, the proposed model obtained 1.00%, 0.96% and 0.99% accuracies on all three included datasets. Moreover, the proposed method achieves better inference speed when compared with other State-Of-The-Art (SOTA) approaches. In addition, a comparative analysis is conducted where the proposed strategy shows tremendous discriminative scores as compared to the various pre-trained models and other Machine Learning (ML) and DL methods.     

Project scheduling under resource constraints: Application of the cumulative global constraint in a decision support framework

This paper concerns project scheduling under resource constraints. Traditionally, the objective is to find a unique solution that minimizes the project makespan, while respecting the precedence constraints and the resource constraints. This work focuses on developing a model and a decision support framework for industrial application of the cumulative global constraint. For a given project scheduling, the proposed approach allows the generation of different optimal solutions relative to the alternate availability of outsourcing and resources. The objective is to provide a decision-maker an assistance to construct, choose, and define the appropriate scheduling program taking into account the possible capacity resources. The industrial problem under consideration is modeled as a constraint satisfaction problem (CSP). It is implemented under the constraint programming language CHIP V5. The provided solutions determine values for the various variables associated to the tasks realized on each resource, as well as the curves with the profile of the total consumption of resources on time.     

Automatic speech recognition system for Tunisian dialect

Although Modern Standard Arabic is taught in schools and used in written communication and TV/radio broadcasts, all informal communication is typically carried out in dialectal Arabic. In this work, we focus on the design of speech tools and resources required for the development of an Automatic Speech Recognition system for the Tunisian dialect. The development of such a system faces the challenges of the lack of annotated resources and tools, apart from the lack of standardization at all linguistic levels (phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical) together with the mispronunciation dictionary needed for ASR development. In this paper, we present a historical overview of the Tunisian dialect and its linguistic characteristics. We also describe and evaluate our rule-based phonetic tool. Next, we go deeper into the details of Tunisian dialect corpus creation. This corpus is finally approved and used to build the first ASR system for Tunisian dialect with a Word Error Rate of 22.6%.     

Evaluation of a cocktail of three bacteriophages for the biocontrol of Salmonella of wastewater

Salmonella serovars are increasing in importance as significant pathogens of both human and animals. Although water and wastewater are treated to eliminate pathogenic microorganisms, they still play an important role in the transmission of Salmonella spp. In this study, bacteriophages infecting Salmonella spp. were isolated from wastewater and evaluated; for their potential to lyse environmental Salmonella strains in vitro at different MOIs and temperatures; and to control the wastewater bacterial community. Three distinct phages designated sww65, sww275, and sww297; as defined by plaque morphology, electron microscopy and host range; were obtained from wastewater. Challenge tests were performed at 37, and 30 °C with the infection of the Salmonella cultures with individual phage, a mixture of two phages, and cocktail of three phages at MOIs of 10⁰, 10², and 10⁴ PFU/CFU. At 30, and 37 °C, a cocktail of three phages reduced all of the Salmonella cultures tested. These results required a high multiplicity of infection. However, when infected with only one phage or a mixture of two phages at MOIs of 10⁰ or 10 ² PFU/CFU, an emergence of bacterial resistance was observed. The dynamic monitoring of wastewater enterobacterial community was conducted using Enterobacterial Repetitive Intergenic Consensus-PCR (ERIC-PCR). The number of bands decreased gradually with the use of individual phage or phage cocktails. Moreover, the dynamic monitoring of Salmonella community during wastewater treatment was performed using PCR detection of virulence gene invA. The results correlated with the ERIC-PCR fingerprints, and suggested that Salmonella community was affected by the phage treatment. Indeed, in wastewater, bacteriophages are reducing Salmonella and other members of the Enterobacteriaceae. These results indicated that dynamic changes are closely related with the process of treatment. The introduction of wide host range bacteriophages in wastewater can have a potential impact on the dynamics of the microbial communities, manifested by the reduction or the elimination of microbial species.