State of charge (SOC) is a crucial index used in the assessment of electric vehicle (EV) battery storage systems. Thus, SOC estimation of lithium-ion batteries has been widely investigated because of their fast charging, long-life cycle, and high energy density characteristics. However, precise SOC assessment of lithium-ion batteries remains challenging because of their varying characteristics under different working environments. Machine learning techniques have been widely used to design an advanced SOC estimation method without the information of battery chemical reactions, battery models, internal properties, and additional filters. Here, the capacity of optimized machine learning techniques are presented toward enhanced SOC estimation in terms of learning capability, accuracy, generalization performance, and convergence speed. We validate the proposed method through lithium-ion battery experiments, EV drive cycles, temperature, noise, and aging effects. We show that the proposed method outperforms several state-of-the-art approaches in terms of accuracy, adaptability, and robustness under diverse operating conditions.
In nature, streamflow pattern is characterized with high non-linearity and non-stationarity. Developing an accurate forecasting model for a streamflow is highly essential for several applications in the field of water resources engineering. One of the main contributors for the modeling reliability is the optimization of the input variables to achieve an accurate forecasting model. The main step of modeling is the selection of the proper input combinations. Hence, developing an algorithm that can determine the optimal input combinations is crucial. This study introduces the Genetic algorithm (GA) for better input combination selection. Radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) is used for monthly streamflow time series forecasting due to its simplicity and effectiveness of integration with the selection algorithm. In this paper, the RBFNN was integrated with the Genetic algorithm (GA) for streamflow forecasting. The RBFNN-GA was applied to forecast streamflow at the High Aswan Dam on the Nile River. The results showed that the proposed model provided high accuracy. The GA algorithm can successfully determine effective input parameters in streamflow time series forecasting.
This study aims to assess the diagnostic accuracy of digital breast tomosynthesis in combination with full field digital mammography (DBT + FFDM) in the charaterisation of Breast Imaging-reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) category 3, 4 and 5 lesions. Retrospective cross-sectional study of 390 patients with BI-RADS 3, 4 and 5 mammography with available histopathology examination results were recruited from in a single center of a multi-ethnic Asian population. 2 readers independently reported the FFDM and DBT images and classified lesions detected (mass, calcifications, asymmetric density and architectural distortion) based on American College of Radiology-BI-RADS lexicon. Of the 390 patients recruited, 182 malignancies were reported. Positive predictive value (PPV) of cancer was 46.7%. The PPV in BI-RADS 4a, 4b, 4c and 5 were 6.0%, 38.3%, 68.9%, and 93.1%, respectively. Among all the cancers, 76% presented as masses, 4% as calcifications and 20% as asymmetry. An additional of 4% of cancers were detected on ultrasound. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV of mass lesions detected on DBT + FFDM were 93.8%, 85.1%, 88.8% and 91.5%, respectively. The PPV for calcification is 61.6% and asymmetry is 60.7%. 81.6% of cancer detected were invasive and 13.3% were in-situ type. Our study showed that DBT is proven to be an effective tool in the diagnosis and characterization of breast lesions and supports the current body of literature that states that integrating DBT to FFDM allows good characterization of breast lesions and accurate diagnosis of cancer.
Acridone based synthetic and natural products with inherent anticancer activity advancing the research and generating a large number of structurally diversified compounds. In this sequence we have designed, synthesized a series of tetracyclic acridones with amide framework viz., 3-(alkyloyl/ aryloyl/ heteroaryloyl/ heteroaryl)-2,3-dihydropyrazino[3,2,1-de]acridin-7(1H)-ones and screened for their in vitro anti-cancer activity. The in vitro study revealed that compounds with cyclopropyl-acetyl, benzoyl, p-hydroxybenzoyl, p-(trifluoromethyl)benzoyl, p-fluorobenzoyl, m-fluorobenzoyl, picolinoyl, 6-methylpicolinoyl and 3-nicotinoyl groups are active against HT29, MDAMB231 and HEK293T cancer cell lines. The molecular docking studies performed for them against 4N5Y, HT29 and 2VWD revealed the potential ligand-protein binding interactions among the neutral aminoacid of the enzymes and carbonyl groups of the title compounds with a binding energy ranging from - 8.1394 to - 6.9915 kcal/mol. In addition, the BSA protein binding assay performed for them has confirmed their interaction with target proteins through strong binding to BSA macromolecule. The additional studies like ADMET, QSAR, bioactivity scores, drug properties and toxicity risks ascertained them as newer drug candidates. This study had added a new collection of piperazino fused acridone derivatives to the existing array of other nitrogen heterocyclic fused acridone derivatives as anticancer agents.
The importance of graft copolymerization in the field of polymer science is analogous to the importance of alloying in the field of metals. This is attribute to the ability of the grafting method to regulate the properties of polymer 'tailor-made' according to specific needs. This paper described a novel plant-based coagulant, LE-g-DMC that synthesized through grafting of 2-methacryloyloxyethyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (DMC) onto the backbone of the lentil extract. The grafting process was optimized through the response surface methodology (RSM) using three-level Box-Behnken Design (BBD). Under optimum conditions, a promising grafting percentage of 120% was achieved. Besides, characterization study including SEM, zeta potential, TGA, FTIR and EDX were used to confirm the grafting of the DMC monomer chain onto the backbone of lentil extract. The grafted coagulant, LE-g-DMC outperformed lentil extract and alum in turbidity reduction and effective across a wide range of pH from pH 4 to pH 10. Besides, the use of LE-g-DMC as coagulant produced flocs with excellent settling ability (5.09 mL/g) and produced the least amount of sludge. Therefore, from an application and economic point of views, LE-g-DMC was superior to native lentil extract coagulant and commercial chemical coagulant, alum.
A molecular sexing method by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of a portion of the sex-determining region Y (SRY) and the zinc finger (ZF) gene, as well as six equine Y-chromosome-specific microsatellite markers, were tested in the Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus). While the microsatellite markers did not yield any male-specific amplicons for sex-typing, the SRY/ZF marker system produced reliable molecular sexing results by accurately sex-typing 31 reference Malayan tapirs, using whole blood, dried blood spot (DBS), or tissue samples as materials for DNA extraction. The marker system was also tested on 16 faecal samples, and the results were in general consistent with the pre-determined sexes of the animals, despite some amplification failures. A preliminary estimation of wild Malayan tapir population sex ratio was estimated from the Wildlife Genomic Resource Bank (WGRB) database of the Malaysian Department of Wildlife and National Parks (PERHILITAN), zoos, and the Sungai Dusun Wildlife Conservation Centre (WCC), as well as from the results of molecular sexing 12 samples of unknown sex. The overall sex ratio favoured females, but the deviation from parity was statistically not significant when tested using the binomial test (p > 0.05), which may be due to reduced statistical power caused by small sample sizes.
Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), caused by enterovirus A71 (EV-A71), presents mild to severe disease, and sometimes fatal neurological and respiratory manifestations. However, reasons for the severe pathogenesis remain undefined. To investigate this, infection and viral kinetics of EV-A71 isolates from clinical disease (mild, moderate and severe) from Sarawak, Malaysia, were characterised in human rhabdomyosarcoma (RD), neuroblastoma (SH-SY5Y) and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). High resolution transcriptomics was used to decipher EV-A71-host interactions in PBMCs. Ingenuity analyses revealed similar pathways triggered by all EV-A71 isolates, although the extent of activation varied. Importantly, several pathways were found to be specific to the severe isolate, including triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 1 (TREM-1) signalling. Depletion of TREM-1 in EV-A71-infected PBMCs with peptide LP17 resulted in decreased levels of pro-inflammatory genes for the moderate and severe isolates. Mechanistically, this is the first report describing the transcriptome profiles during EV-A71 infections in primary human cells, and the potential involvement of TREM-1 in the severe disease pathogenesis, thus providing new insights for future treatment targets.
In the present study, the effect of concentration of titanium carbide (TiC) particles on the structural, mechanical, and electrochemical properties of Ni-P composite coatings was investigated. Various amounts of TiC particles (0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 g L-1) were co-electrodeposited in the Ni-P matrix under optimized conditions and then characterized by employing various techniques. The structural analysis of prepared coatings indicates uniform, compact, and nodular structured coatings without any noticeable defects. Vickers microhardness and nanoindentation results demonstrate the increase in the hardness with an increasing amount of TiC particles attaining its terminal value (593HV100) at the concentration of 1.5 g L-1. Further increase in the concentration of TiC particles results in a decrease in hardness, which can be ascribed to their accumulation in the Ni-P matrix. The electrochemical results indicate the improvement in corrosion protection efficiency of coatings with an increasing amount of TiC particles reaching to ~ 92% at 2.0 g L-1, which can be ascribed to a reduction in the active area of the Ni-P matrix by the presence of inactive ceramic particles. The favorable structural, mechanical, and corrosion protection characteristics of Ni-P-TiC composite coatings suggest their potential applications in many industrial applications.
Non-healing wounds have placed an enormous stress on both patients and healthcare systems worldwide. Severe complications induced by these wounds can lead to limb amputation or even death and urgently require more effective treatments. Electrospun scaffolds have great potential for improving wound healing treatments by providing controlled drug delivery. Previously, we developed fibrous scaffolds from complex carbohydrate polymers [i.e. chitin-lignin (CL) gels]. However, their application was limited by solubility and undesirable burst drug release. Here, a coaxial electrospinning is applied to encapsulate the CL gels with polycaprolactone (PCL). Presence of a PCL shell layer thus provides longer shelf-life for the CL gels in a wet environment and sustainable drug release. Antibiotics loaded into core-shell fibrous platform effectively inhibit both gram-positive and -negative bacteria without inducting observable cytotoxicity. Therefore, PCL coated CL fibrous gel platforms appear to be good candidates for controlled drug release based wound dressing applications.
A specific safety concern is the possibility that a dietary supplement could be contaminated with heavy metals. This research was undertaken to investigate the daily exposure levels of heavy metals in dietary supplements available in the UAE and to explore the factors associated with the contamination of dietary supplements with heavy metals. A total of 277 dietary supplement samples were collected from the UAE market and prepared for the analysis of selected heavy metal contamination. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to determine the presence of heavy metals. The average daily intake of cadmium was 0.73 μg [95% CI 0.61-0.85], compared to the acceptable daily intake (ADI) of 6 μg; the daily intake of lead was 0.85 μg [95% CI 0.62-1.07], compared to the acceptable daily intake (ADI) of 20 μg; and the daily intake of arsenic was 0.67 μg [95% CI 0.57-0.78], compared to the acceptable daily intake of 10 μg. Although the dietary supplements available in the UAE have low levels of heavy metal contamination, numerous individuals are consuming a number of different dietary supplements every day and thereby may experience a cumulative level of toxic exposure. Dietary supplements formulations (Categories), dosage forms and country of origin are strong determents of heavy metal contamination in dietary supplements products.
The burden of colorectal cancer (CRC) is increasing worldwide especially in developing countries. This phenomenon may be attributable to lifestyle, dietary and environmental risk factors. We aimed to determine the level of 25 trace elements, their interaction with environmental risk factors, and subsequently develop a risk prediction model for CRC (RPM CRC). For the discovery phase, we used a hospital-based case-control study (CRC and non-CRC patients) and in the validation phase we analysed pre-symptomatic samples of CRC patients from The Malaysian Cohort Biobank. Information on the environmental risk factors were obtained and level of 25 trace elements measured using the ICP-MS method. CRC patients had lower Zn and Se levels but higher Li, Be, Al, Co, Cu, As, Cd, Rb, Ba, Hg, Tl, and Pb levels compared to non-CRC patients. The positive interaction between red meat intake ≥ 50 g/day and Co ≥ 4.77 µg/L (AP 0.97; 95% CI 0.91, 1.03) doubled the risk of CRC. A panel of 24 trace elements can predict simultaneously and accurate of high, moderate, and low risk of CRC (accuracy 100%, AUC 1.00). This study provides a new input on possible roles for various trace elements in CRC as well as using a panel of trace elements as a screening approach to CRC.
The ornamental fish trade has been considered as one of the most important routes of invasive alien fish introduction into native freshwater ecosystems. Therefore, the species composition and invasion risks of fish species from 60 freshwater fish pet stores in Klang Valley, Malaysia were studied. A checklist of taxa belonging to 18 orders, 53 families, and 251 species of alien fishes was documented. Fish Invasiveness Screening Test (FIST) showed that seven (30.43%), eight (34.78%) and eight (34.78%) species were considered to be high, medium and low invasion risks, respectively. After the calibration of the Fish Invasiveness Screening Kit (FISK) v2 using the Receiver Operating Characteristics, a threshold value of 17 for distinguishing between invasive and non-invasive fishes was identified. As a result, nine species (39.13%) were of high invasion risk. In this study, we found that non-native fishes dominated (85.66%) the freshwater ornamental trade in Klang Valley, while FISK is a more robust tool in assessing the risk of invasion, and for the most part, its outcome was commensurate with FIST. This study, for the first time, revealed the number of high-risk ornamental fish species that give an awareness of possible future invasion if unmonitored in Klang Valley, Malaysia.
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a highly metastatic cancer that is consistently associated with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection. In this study, we identify for the first time a role for monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) in NPC. MAOA is a mitochondrial enzyme that catalyzes oxidative deamination of neurotransmitters and dietary amines. Depending on the cancer type, MAOA can either have a tumour-promoting or tumour-suppressive role. We show that MAOA is down-regulated in primary NPC tissues and its down-regulation enhances the migration of NPC cells. In addition, we found that EBV infection can down-regulate MAOA expression in both pre-malignant and malignant nasopharyngeal epithelial (NPE) cells. We further demonstrate that MAOA is down-regulated as a result of IL-6/IL-6R/STAT3 signalling and epigenetic mechanisms, effects that might be attributed to EBV infection in NPE cells. Taken together, our data point to a central role for EBV in mediating the tumour suppressive effects of MAOA and that loss of MAOA could be an important step in the pathogenesis of NPC.
Despite increasing conflict at human-wildlife interfaces, there exists little research on how the attributes and behavior of individual wild animals may influence human-wildlife interactions. Adopting a comparative approach, we examined the impact of animals' life-history and social attributes on interactions between humans and (peri)urban macaques in Asia. For 10 groups of rhesus, long-tailed, and bonnet macaques, we collected social behavior, spatial data, and human-interaction data for 11-20 months on pre-identified individuals. Mixed-model analysis revealed that, across all species, males and spatially peripheral individuals interacted with humans the most, and that high-ranking individuals initiated more interactions with humans than low-rankers. Among bonnet macaques, but not rhesus or long-tailed macaques, individuals who were more well-connected in their grooming network interacted more frequently with humans than less well-connected individuals. From an evolutionary perspective, our results suggest that individuals incurring lower costs related to their life-history (males) and resource-access (high rank; strong social connections within a socially tolerant macaque species), but also higher costs on account of compromising the advantages of being in the core of their group (spatial periphery), are the most likely to take risks by interacting with humans in anthropogenic environments. From a conservation perspective, evaluating individual behavior will better inform efforts to minimize conflict-related costs and zoonotic-risk.
Nuclear radiation shielding capabilities for a glass series 20Bi2O3 - xPbO - (80 - 2x)B2O3 - xGeO2 (where x = 5, 10, 20, and 30 mol%) have been investigated using the Phy-X/PSD software and Monte Carlo N-Particle transport code. The mass attenuation coefficients (μm) of selected samples have been estimated through XCOM dependent Phy-X/PSD program and MCNP-5 code in the photon-energy range 0.015-15 MeV. So obtained μm values are used to calculate other γ-ray shielding parameters such as half-value layer (HVL), mean-free-path (MFP), etc. The calculated μm values were found to be 71.20 cm2/g, 76.03 cm2/g, 84.24 cm2/g, and 90.94 cm2/g for four glasses S1 to S4, respectively. The effective atomic number (Zeff)values vary between 69.87 and 17.11 for S1 or 75.66 and 29.11 for S4 over 0.05-15 MeV of photon-energy. Sample S4, which has a larger PbO/GeO2 of 30 mol% in the bismuth-borate glass, possesses the lowest MFP and HVL, providing higher radiation protection efficiency compared to all other combinations. It shows outperformance while compared the calculated parameters (HVL and MFP) with the commercial shielding glasses, different alloys, polymers, standard shielding concretes, and ceramics. Geometric Progression (G-P) was applied for evaluating the energy absorption and exposure buildup factors at energies 0.015-15 MeV with penetration depths up to 40 mfp. The buildup factors showed dependence on the MFP and photon-energy as well. The studied samples' neutron shielding behavior was also evaluated by calculating the fast neutron removal cross-section (ΣR), i.e. found to be 0.139 cm-1 for S1, 0.133 cm-1 for S2, 0.128 cm-1 for S3, and 0.12 cm-1 for S4. The results reveal a great potential for using a glass composite sample S4 in radiation protection applications.
It is a theoretical exportation for mass transpiration and thermal transportation of Casson nanofluid over an extending cylindrical surface. The Stagnation point flow through porous matrix is influenced by magnetic field of uniform strength. Appropriate similarity functions are availed to yield the transmuted system of leading differential equations. Existence for the solution of momentum equation is proved for various values of Casson parameter [Formula: see text], magnetic parameter M, porosity parameter [Formula: see text] and Reynolds number Re in two situations of mass transpiration (suction/injuction). The core interest for this study aroused to address some analytical aspects. Therefore, existence of solution is proved and uniqueness of this results is discussed with evaluation of bounds for existence of solution. Results for skin friction factor are established to attain accuracy for large injection values. Thermal and concentration profiles are delineated numerically by applying Runge-Kutta method and shooting technique. The flow speed retards against M, [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] for both situations of mass injection and suction. The thermal boundary layer improves with Brownian and thermopherotic diffusions.
Ground-based LiDAR also known as Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) technology is an active remote sensing imaging method said to be one of the latest advances and innovations for plant phenotyping. Basal Stem Rot (BSR) is the most destructive disease of oil palm in Malaysia that is caused by white-rot fungus Ganoderma boninense, the symptoms of which include flattening and hanging-down of the canopy, shorter leaves, wilting green fronds and smaller crown size. Therefore, until now there is no critical investigation on the characterisation of canopy architecture related to this disease using TLS method was carried out. This study proposed a novel technique of BSR classification at the oil palm canopy analysis using the point clouds data taken from the TLS. A total of 40 samples of oil palm trees at the age of nine-years-old were selected and 10 trees for each health level were randomly taken from the same plot. The trees were categorised into four health levels - T0, T1, T2 and T3, which represents the healthy, mildly infected, moderately infected and severely infected, respectively. The TLS scanner was mounted at a height of 1 m and each palm was scanned at four scan positions around the tree to get a full 3D image. Five parameters were analysed: S200 (canopy strata at 200 cm from the top), S850 (canopy strata at 850 cm from the top), crown pixel (number of pixels inside the crown), frond angle (degree of angle between fronds) and frond number. The results taken from statistical analysis revealed that frond number was the best single parameter to detect BSR disease as early as T1. In classification models, a linear model with a combination of parameters, ABD - A (frond number), B (frond angle) and D (S200), delivered the highest average accuracy for classification of healthy-unhealthy trees with an accuracy of 86.67 per cent. It also can classify the four severity levels of infection with an accuracy of 80 per cent. This model performed better when compared to the severity classification using frond number. The novelty of this research is therefore on the development of new approach to detect and classify BSR using point clouds data of TLS.
The ST131 multilocus sequence type (MLST) of Escherichia coli is a globally successful pathogen whose dissemination is increasing rates of antibiotic resistance. Numerous global surveys have demonstrated the pervasiveness of this clone; in some regions ST131 accounts for up to 30% of all E. coli isolates. However, many regions are underrepresented in these published surveys, including Africa, South America, and Asia. We collected consecutive bloodstream E. coli isolates from three countries in Southeast Asia; ST131 was the most common MLST type. As in other studies, the C2/H30Rx clade accounted for the majority of ST131 strains. Clinical risk factors were similar to other reported studies. However, we found that nearly all of the C2 strains in this study were closely related, forming what we denote the SEA-C2 clone. The SEA-C2 clone is enriched for strains from Asia, particularly Southeast Asia and Singapore. The SEA-C2 clone accounts for all of the excess resistance and virulence of ST131 relative to non-ST131 E. coli. The SEA-C2 strains appear to be locally circulating and dominant in Southeast Asia, despite the intuition that high international connectivity and travel would enable frequent opportunities for other strains to establish themselves.
Analysis of observed Indian Summer Monsoon precipitation reveals more increase in extreme precipitation (in terms of its magnitude) over south India compared to north and central India during 1971-2017 (base period: 1930-1970). In the future, analysis of precipitation from the Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment indicates a southward shift of precipitation extremes over South Asia. For instance, the Arabian Sea, south India, Myanmar, Thailand, and Malaysia are expected to have the maximum increase (~18.5 mm/day for RCP8.5 scenario) in mean extreme precipitation (average precipitation for the days with more than 99th percentile of daily precipitation). However, north and central India and Tibetan Plateau show relatively less increase (~2.7 mm/day for RCP8.5 scenario). Analysis of air temperature at 850 mb and precipitable water (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) indicates an intensification of Indian Ocean Dipole in future, which will enhance the monsoon throughout India. Moisture flux and convergence analysis (at 850 mb) show a future change of the direction of south-west monsoon winds towards the east over the Indian Ocean. These changes will intensify the observed contrast in extreme precipitation between south and north India, and cause more extreme precipitation events in the countries like Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, etc.
Most of existing image encryption schemes are proposed in the spatial domain which easily destroys the correlation between pixels. This paper proposes an image encryption scheme by employing discrete cosine transform (DCT), quantum logistic map and substitution-permutation network (SPN). The DCT is used to transform the images in the frequency domain. Meanwhile, the SPN is used to provide the security properties of confusion and diffusion. The SPN provides fast encryption as compared to the asymmetric based image encryption since operations with low computational complexity are used (e.g., exclusive-or and permutation). Different statistical experiments and security analysis are performed against six grayscale and color images to justify the effectiveness and security of the proposed image encryption scheme.