This study focused on total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant and antibacterial activities of the leaves and stems of Passiflora quadrangularis, P. maliformis, and P. edulis extracted using three solvents: petroleum ether, acetone, and methanol. The maximum extraction yields of antioxidant components from the leaves and stems were isolated using methanol extracts of P. edulis (24.28%) and P. quadrangularis (9.76%), respectively. Among the leaf extracts, the methanol extract of P. maliformis had the significantly highest TPC and the strongest antioxidant activity, whereas among the stem extracts, the methanol extract of P. quadrangularis showed the highest phenolic amount and possessed the strongest antioxidant activity. The antibacterial properties of the Passiflora species were tested using the disc diffusion method against 10 human pathogenic bacteria. The largest inhibition zone was observed for the methanol extract of P. maliformis against B. subtilis. Generally, extracts from the Passiflora species exhibit distinct inhibition against Gram-positive but not Gram-negative bacteria. Based on the generated biplot, three clusters of bacteria were designated according to their performance towards the tested extracts. The present study revealed that methanol extracts of the Passiflora contain constituents with significant phenolic, antioxidant, and antibacterial properties for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical uses.
We construct some generalized difference Hahn sequence spaces by mean of sequence of modulus functions. The topological properties and some inclusion relations of spaces h p ((F, u, Δ(r)) are investigated. Also we compute the dual of these spaces, and some matrix transformations are characterized.
Over the last few years, particle swarm optimization (PSO) has been extensively applied in various geotechnical engineering including slope stability analysis. However, this contribution was limited to two-dimensional (2D) slope stability analysis. This paper applied PSO in three-dimensional (3D) slope stability problem to determine the critical slip surface (CSS) of soil slopes. A detailed description of adopted PSO was presented to provide a good basis for more contribution of this technique to the field of 3D slope stability problems. A general rotating ellipsoid shape was introduced as the specific particle for 3D slope stability analysis. A detailed sensitivity analysis was designed and performed to find the optimum values of parameters of PSO. Example problems were used to evaluate the applicability of PSO in determining the CSS of 3D slopes. The first example presented a comparison between the results of PSO and PLAXI-3D finite element software and the second example compared the ability of PSO to determine the CSS of 3D slopes with other optimization methods from the literature. The results demonstrated the efficiency and effectiveness of PSO in determining the CSS of 3D soil slopes.
Traditionally, picture-based password systems employ password objects (pictures/icons/symbols) as input during an authentication session, thus making them vulnerable to "shoulder-surfing" attack because the visual interface by function is easily observed by others. Recent software-based approaches attempt to minimize this threat by requiring users to enter their passwords indirectly by performing certain mental tasks to derive the indirect password, thus concealing the user's actual password. However, weaknesses in the positioning of distracter and password objects introduce usability and security issues. In this paper, a new method, which conceals information about the password objects as much as possible, is proposed. Besides concealing the password objects and the number of password objects, the proposed method allows both password and distracter objects to be used as the challenge set's input. The correctly entered password appears to be random and can only be derived with the knowledge of the full set of password objects. Therefore, it would be difficult for a shoulder-surfing adversary to identify the user's actual password. Simulation results indicate that the correct input object and its location are random for each challenge set, thus preventing frequency of occurrence analysis attack. User study results show that the proposed method is able to prevent shoulder-surfing attack.
The aim of the present numerical study is to analyze the conjugate natural convection heat transfer in a differentially heated square enclosure containing a conductive polygon object. The left wall is heated and the right wall is cooled, while the horizontal walls are kept adiabatic. The COMSOL Multiphysics software is applied to solve the dimensionless governing equations. The governing parameters considered are the polygon type, 3 ≤ N ≤ ∞, the horizontal position, 0.25 ≤ X 0 ≤ 0.75, the polygon size, 0 ≤ A ≤ π/16, the thermal conductivity ratio, 0.1 ≤ K r ≤ 10.0, and the Rayleigh number, 10(3) ≤ Ra ≤ 10(6). The critical size of the solid polygon was found exists at low conductivities. The heat transfer rate increases with the increase of the size of the solid polygon, until it reaches its maximum value. Here, the size of the solid polygon is reaches its critical value. Further, beyond this critical size of the solid polygon, will decrease the heat transfer rate.
This paper focuses on the study of the change of various types of riding behaviour, such as speed, brake force, and throttle force applied, when they ride across the speed table. An instrumented motorcycle equipped with various types of sensor, on-board camera, and data logger was used in acquiring the traffic data in the research. Riders were instructed to ride across two speed tables and the riding data were then analyzed to study the behaviour change from different riders. The results from statistical analysis showed that the riding characteristics such as speed, brake force, and throttle force applied are influenced by distance from hump, riding experience, and travel mileage of riders. Riders tend to apply higher brake intensity at distance point 50 m before the speed table and release the braking at point -10 m after the hump. In short, speed table has different rates of influence towards riding behaviour on different factors, such as distance from hump and different riders' attributes.
Bush bean, long bean, mung bean, and winged bean plants were grown with N fertilizer at rates of 0, 2, 4, and 6 g N m(-2) preceding rice planting. Concurrently, rice was grown with N fertilizer at rates of 0, 4, 8, and 12 g N m(-2). No chemical fertilizer was used in the 2nd year of crop to estimate the nitrogen agronomic efficiency (NAE), nitrogen recovery efficiency (NRE), N uptake, and rice yield when legume crops were grown in rotation with rice. Rice after winged bean grown with N at the rate of 4 g N m(-2) achieved significantly higher NRE, NAE, and N uptake in both years. Rice after winged bean grown without N fertilizer produced 13-23% higher grain yield than rice after fallow rotation with 8 g N m(-2). The results revealed that rice after winged bean without fertilizer and rice after long bean with N fertilizer at the rate of 4 g N m(-2) can produce rice yield equivalent to that of rice after fallow with N fertilizer at rates of 8 g N m(-2). The NAE, NRE, and harvest index values for rice after winged bean or other legume crop rotation indicated a positive response for rice production without deteriorating soil fertility.
BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to determine the risk factors of MTX-associated nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) with transaminitis in a cohort of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients from Singapore.
METHODS: Patients who developed ultrasound proven NAFLD with transaminitis while on MTX therapy were identified. The demographic and clinical characteristics of the above patients (cases) were compiled and compared with age- and gender-matched controls who were RA patients on long standing MTX therapy without any episode of transaminitis.
RESULTS: Among the 978 patients who had received MTX, the prevalence of MTX-associated NAFLD was 4.7% (46 patients). Compared to the controls, the cases had significantly higher mean cumulative dose of MTX (4.03 ± 2.25 g versus 10.04 ± 9.94 g, P ≤ 0.05), weekly dose of MTX (11.3 ± 4.8 mg versus 13.1 ± 4.4 mg weekly, P = 0.033), and fasting blood glucose (P = 0.029). Following multivariate regression analysis, only cumulative dose of MTX remained significant (P = 0.015). Among the cases, the cumulative dose of MTX was found to have a significant positive correlation with the alanine transaminase (ALT) level (P < 0.05, standardised beta coefficient 0.512).
CONCLUSION: The cumulative dose of MTX was the only independent predictor of MTX-associated NAFLD with transaminitis.
Conjugate natural convection-conduction heat transfer in a square enclosure with a finite wall thickness is studied numerically in the present paper. The governing parameters considered are the Rayleigh number (5 × 10(3) ≤ Ra ≤ 10(6)), the wall-to-fluid thermal conductivity ratio (0.5 ≤ Kr ≤ 10), and the ratio of wall thickness to its height (0.2 ≤ D ≤ 0.4). The staggered grid arrangement together with MAC method was employed to solve the governing equations. It is found that the fluid flow and the heat transfer can be controlled by the thickness of the bottom wall, the thermal conductivity ratio, and the Rayleigh number.
Soil-water characteristic curves (SWCCs) are important in terms of groundwater recharge, agriculture, and soil chemistry. These relationships are also of considerable value in geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering. Their measurement, however, is difficult, expensive, and time-consuming. Many empirical models have been developed to describe the SWCC. Statistical assessment of soil-water characteristic curve models found that exponential-based model equations were the most difficult to fit and generally provided the poorest fit to the soil-water characteristic data. In this paper, an exponential-based model is devised to describe the SWCC. The modified equation is similar to those previously reported by Gardner (1956) but includes exponential variable. Verification was performed with 24 independent data sets for a wide range of soil textures. Prediction results were compared with the most widely used models to assess the model's performance. It was proven that the exponential-based equation of the modified model provided greater flexibility and a better fit to data on various types of soil.
A band-removal property employing microwave frequencies using complementary split ring resonators (CSRRs) is applied to design a compact UWB antenna wishing for the rejection of some frequency band, which is meanwhile exercised by the existing wireless applications. The reported antenna comprises optimization of a circular radiating patch, in which slotted complementary SRRs are implanted. It is printed on low dielectric FR4 substrate material fed by a partial ground plane and a microstrip line. Validated results exhibit that the reported antenna shows a wide bandwidth covering from 3.45 to more than 12 GHz, with a compact dimension of 22 × 26 mm(2), and VSWR < 2, observing band elimination of 5.5 GHz WLAN band.
The seismic performance of RC columns could be significantly improved by continuous spiral reinforcement as a result of its adequate ductility and energy dissipation capacity. Due to post-earthquake brittle failure observations in beam-column connections, the seismic behaviour of such connections could greatly be improved by simultaneous application of this method in both beams and columns. In this study, a new proposed detail for beam to column connection introduced as "twisted opposing rectangular spiral" was experimentally and numerically investigated and its seismic performance was compared against normal rectangular spiral and conventional shear reinforcement systems. In this study, three full scale beam to column connections were first designed in conformance with Eurocode (EC2-04) for low ductility class connections and then tested by quasistatic cyclic loading recommended by ACI Building Code (ACI 318-02). Next, the experimental results were validated by numerical methods. Finally, the results revealed that the new proposed connection could improve the ultimate lateral resistance, ductility, and energy dissipation capacity.
This paper presents a novel features mining approach from documents that could not be mined via optical character recognition (OCR). By identifying the intimate relationship between the text and graphical components, the proposed technique pulls out the Start, End, and Exact values for each bar. Furthermore, the word 2-gram and Euclidean distance methods are used to accurately detect and determine plagiarism in bar charts.
Enhanced resonance search (ERS) is a nondestructive testing method that has been created to evaluate the quality of a pavement by means of a special instrument called the pavement integrity scanner (PiScanner). This technique can be used to assess the thickness of the road pavement structure and the profile of shear wave velocity by using the principle of surface wave and body wave propagation. In this study, the ERS technique was used to determine the actual thickness of the asphaltic pavement surface layer, while the shear wave velocities obtained were used to determine its dynamic elastic modulus. A total of fifteen locations were identified and the results were then compared with the specifications of the Malaysian PWD, MDD UKM, and IKRAM. It was found that the value of the elastic modulus of materials is between 3929 MPa and 17726 MPa. A comparison of the average thickness of the samples with the design thickness of MDD UKM showed a difference of 20 to 60%. Thickness of the asphalt surface layer followed the specifications of Malaysian PWD and MDD UKM, while some of the values of stiffness obtained are higher than the standard.
Precise navigation is a vital need for many modern vehicular applications. The global positioning system (GPS) cannot provide continuous navigation information in urban areas. The widely used inertial navigation system (INS) can provide full vehicle state at high rates. However, the accuracy diverges quickly in low cost microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based INS due to bias, drift, noise, and other errors. These errors can be corrected in a stationary state. But detecting stationary state is a challenging task. A novel stationary state detection technique from the variation of acceleration, heading, and pitch and roll of an attitude heading reference system (AHRS) built from the inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors is proposed. Besides, the map matching (MM) algorithm detects the intersections where the vehicle is likely to stop. Combining these two results, the stationary state is detected with a smaller timing window of 3 s. A longer timing window of 5 s is used when the stationary state is detected only from the AHRS. The experimental results show that the stationary state is correctly identified and the position error is reduced to 90% and outperforms previously reported work. The proposed algorithm would help to reduce INS errors and enhance the performance of the navigation system.
Lignocellulosic biomass is a complex biopolymer that is primary composed of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. The presence of cellulose in biomass is able to depolymerise into nanodimension biomaterial, with exceptional mechanical properties for biocomposites, pharmaceutical carriers, and electronic substrate's application. However, the entangled biomass ultrastructure consists of inherent properties, such as strong lignin layers, low cellulose accessibility to chemicals, and high cellulose crystallinity, which inhibit the digestibility of the biomass for cellulose extraction. This situation offers both challenges and promises for the biomass biorefinery development to utilize the cellulose from lignocellulosic biomass. Thus, multistep biorefinery processes are necessary to ensure the deconstruction of noncellulosic content in lignocellulosic biomass, while maintaining cellulose product for further hydrolysis into nanocellulose material. In this review, we discuss the molecular structure basis for biomass recalcitrance, reengineering process of lignocellulosic biomass into nanocellulose via chemical, and novel catalytic approaches. Furthermore, review on catalyst design to overcome key barriers regarding the natural resistance of biomass will be presented herein.
The present study examines the use of collars and geobags for reducing local scour around bridge piles. The efficiency of collars and geobags was studied experimentally. The data from the experiments were compared with data from earlier studies on the use of single piles with a collar and with a geobag. The results showed that using a combination of a steel collar and a geobag yields the most significant scour reduction for the front and rear piles, respectively. Moreover, the independent steel collar showed better efficiency than the independent geobag below the sediment level around the bridge piles.
Different blur invariant descriptors have been proposed so far, which are either in the spatial domain or based on the properties available in the moment domain. In this paper, a frequency framework is proposed to develop blur invariant features that are used to deconvolve a degraded image caused by a Gaussian blur. These descriptors are obtained by establishing an equivalent relationship between the normalized Fourier transforms of the blurred and original images, both normalized by their respective fixed frequencies set to one. Advantage of using the proposed invariant descriptors is that it is possible to estimate both the point spread function (PSF) and the original image. The performance of frequency invariants will be demonstrated through experiments. An image deconvolution is done as an additional application to verify the proposed blur invariant features.
Rapid development and wide applications of nanotechnology brought about a significant increment on the number of engineered nanomaterials (ENs) inevitably entering our living system. Plants comprise of a very important living component of the terrestrial ecosystem. Studies on the influence of engineered nanomaterials (carbon and metal/metal oxides based) on plant growth indicated that in the excess content, engineered nanomaterials influences seed germination. It assessed the shoot-to-root ratio and the growth of the seedlings. From the toxicological studies to date, certain types of engineered nanomaterials can be toxic once they are not bound to a substrate or if they are freely circulating in living systems. It is assumed that the different types of engineered nanomaterials affect the different routes, behavior, and the capability of the plants. Furthermore, different, or even opposing conclusions, have been drawn from most studies on the interactions between engineered nanomaterials with plants. Therefore, this paper comprehensively reviews the studies on the different types of engineered nanomaterials and their interactions with different plant species, including the phytotoxicity, uptakes, and translocation of engineered nanomaterials by the plant at the whole plant and cellular level.
Although ray tracing based propagation prediction models are popular for indoor radio wave propagation characterization, most of them do not provide an integrated approach for achieving the goal of optimum coverage, which is a key part in designing wireless network. In this paper, an accelerated technique of three-dimensional ray tracing is presented, where rough surface scattering is included for making a more accurate ray tracing technique. Here, the rough surface scattering is represented by microfacets, for which it becomes possible to compute the scattering field in all possible directions. New optimization techniques, like dual quadrant skipping (DQS) and closest object finder (COF), are implemented for fast characterization of wireless communications and making the ray tracing technique more efficient. In conjunction with the ray tracing technique, probability based coverage optimization algorithm is accumulated with the ray tracing technique to make a compact solution for indoor propagation prediction. The proposed technique decreases the ray tracing time by omitting the unnecessary objects for ray tracing using the DQS technique and by decreasing the ray-object intersection time using the COF technique. On the other hand, the coverage optimization algorithm is based on probability theory, which finds out the minimum number of transmitters and their corresponding positions in order to achieve optimal indoor wireless coverage. Both of the space and time complexities of the proposed algorithm surpass the existing algorithms. For the verification of the proposed ray tracing technique and coverage algorithm, detailed simulation results for different scattering factors, different antenna types, and different operating frequencies are presented. Furthermore, the proposed technique is verified by the experimental results.