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This article explores the use of raytracing software and heat load models to optimise the growing of crops vertically and by doing so, serves to increase the plausibility of urban Vertical Farms (VFs). Crop trays are modelled using a computer aided design (CAD) software and is then imported into a raytracing software TracePro-2019. Parameters obtained from the heat load and angle calculations would be used to start the simulation. Thereafter, solar irradiance obtained would be compared to different simulations with different design parameters. For this paper, the main design variable would be the tray width and tray inclination angle. After multiple simulations, it was found that trays at the bottom are less affected by varying angles of sunlight while trays at the top receive extreme variations. It was also noted that while the shaded area increases as tray inclination increases, the solar irradiance flux on each tray increases as opposed to decreasing. This new finding led to the conclusion that an increase in the angle of attack of the solar irradiance increased the occurrence of reflected and diffused irradiance. By just tilting the trays by 20°, it allows more light to reach inwards, which would allow for a longer width of the trays. This in turn also increases the total yield of a tray in a limited space. This discovery can be utilised for the layout and arrangement for indoor VFs that relies on external solar irradiance for a light source and is proof that crop yield can be increased without adding extra energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current clinically accepted technologies for cancer treatment still have limitations which lead to the exploration of new therapeutic methods. Since the past few decades, the hyperthermia treatment has attracted the attention of investigators owing to its strong biological rationales in applying hyperthermia as a cancer treatment modality. Advancement of nanotechnology offers a potential new heating method for hyperthermia by using nanoparticles which is termed as magnetic fluid hyperthermia (MFH). In MFH, superparamagnetic nanoparticles dissipate heat through Néelian and Brownian relaxation in the presence of an alternating magnetic field. The heating power of these particles is dependent on particle properties and treatment settings. A number of pre-clinical and clinical trials were performed to test the feasibility of this novel treatment modality. There are still issues yet to be solved for the successful transition of this technology from bench to bedside. These issues include the planning, execution, monitoring and optimization of treatment. The modeling and simulation play crucial roles in solving some of these issues. Thus, this review paper provides a basic understanding of the fundamental and rationales of hyperthermia and recent development in the modeling and simulation applied to depict the heat generation and transfer phenomena in the MFH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Diabetic maculopathy is the main cause of visual loss in diabetic subjects. It affects the central vision from the early stage of diabetic retinopathy (DR). Regular eye screening of diabetes patients helps to detect the maculopathy at early stage and hence prevent the loss of vision. Manual screening of retinal images by ophthalmologists is time consuming, tedious and may cause inter/intra observer variability. Objective of our study is to develop an automated system to classify retinal fundus images into normal, non-clinically significant macular edema (NCSME) and clinically significant macular edema (CSME) classes. Methods: The normal and DR images has various granular structures at different scale termed as ''texture''. In this work, texture features are extracted from the image. The statistically significant features are then fed to Fuzzy-Sugeno (FS) classifier for automated diagnosis. Results: The proposed technique is validated using 300 images, 100 images of each normal, NCSME and CSME. We have obtained the best results using FS classifier with accuracy of 86.67%, sensitivity and specificity of 100%, and specificity of 100%. Conclusion: This proposed automated system can aid clinicians in cross checking their diagnosis of diabetic maculopathy during the mass screening of DR subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an urban planning context, an assessment indicator for evaluating a city's dispersion potential is beneficial, especially if the city has a complex natural terrain and significant wind variations. A study was conducted to implement an urban canopy drag indicator, taking site wind variation into account by involving both wind speed and direction in the calculations. Hong Kong (HK) was taken as an example due to its complicated natural topography and wind characteristics. A spatial distribution of an urban canopy drag over HK was determined based on wind data from 2004. The urban canopy drag values in three highly urbanized areas in HK, including Kowloon West, Kowloon East and Hong Kong Island North, were obtained and are discussed in detail. A fluid particle tracking program was developed and applied to identify the major wind paths in Kowloon West, with an area of approximately 5.5 x 6 km as an example. We analyzed the diurnal variation in the dispersion times and the major wind paths in the region during both summer and winter. Our results estimated that the horizontal dispersion times of Kowloon West during both winter and summer were approximately 20 min. By combining the wind paths from both seasons, we identified several major wind paths and critical ventilation areas in Kowloon West. This paper demonstrates the potential use of an urban canopy drag indicator for assessing air ventilation and pollutant dispersion in a city planning context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]