Search

This paper presents an experimental study investigating the effect of particle shape of granular soils on the shear strength characteristics via direct shear tests. Thirty direct shear tests were conducted on spherical and crushed sand mixtures with different proportions (i.e. 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%). The overall regularity (OR) parameter of sand particles varies between 0.788 and 0.909, fairly reflecting the particle shape of sand mixture. A particular relation between OR and maximum shear strength was found, namely that maximum shear strength increases with a decrease in OR. Furthermore, a gradual increase was observed in the improvement factor (If) due to geotextile reinforcement with an increase in OR except for S25C75, representing 25% spherical and 75% crushed sand, at high and low normal stress levels (i.e. 29 kPa and 116 kPa). The interfacial friction angle (ϕ) of sand mixtures is improved by geotextile reinforcement. Additionally, geotextile reinforcement caused an apparent increase in ϕ with decreasing OR values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate determination of scour depth (ds) around bridge piers is a major concern and an essential criterion in the safe and economical design of bridge pier foundation. The estimation of ds by the conventional empirical methods is difficult due to the very complex mechanism of the 3D flow around the bridge piers. This paper proposes the Sequential Minimal Optimization Regression (SMOREG) approach for local pier scour depth estimation. Additionally, Gradient Boosted (GBM), K-Nearest Neighbors (K-NN), and Random Forest (RF) methods were developed to compare the statistical performance of SMOREG. The numerous reliable databases from the literature includes six input parameters such as pier width (b), pier length (l), skew of the pier to approach flow (θ), mean velocity (v), flow depth (y), the particle size for which 50 percent of the bed material (D50), and an output parameter ds. It revealed that the SMOREG can build a relationship between ds and flow characteristics and provides an estimation with an R-value of 0.85 and a mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.35. The comparison between models developed in this study showed that SMOREG and RF gave higher prediction performance than GBM and K-NN with respect to synchronic evaluation between RMSE, R, and Standard Deviation. The sensitivity analysis were also performed to determine the efficiency of each input parameter in the estimation of ds. It is found that pier width and mean velocity of the flow are the most effective parameters than the other parameters to estimate ds. The SMOREG models for sensitivity yielded MAE values in the range of 0.34–0.39. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance of genome-wide gene regulatory network inference algorithms depends on the sample size. It is generally considered that the larger the sample size, the better the gene network inference performance. Nevertheless, there is not adequate information on determining the sample size for optimal performance. In this study, the author systematically demonstrates the effect of sample size on information-theory-based gene network inference algorithms with an ensemble approach. The empirical results showed that the inference performances of the considered algorithms tend to converge after a particular sample size region. As a specific example, the sample size region around ≃64 is sufficient to obtain the most of the inference performance with respect to precision using the representative algorithm C3NET on the synthetic steady-state data sets of Escherichia coli and also time-series data set of a homo sapiens subnetworks. The author verified the convergence result on a large, real data set of E. coli as well. The results give evidence to biologists to better design experiments to infer gene networks. Further, the effect of cutoff on inference performances over various sample sizes is considered. [Includes supplementary material] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The single-source multicast network coding (NC) capacity of random wireless networks was derived recently without incorporating broadcast property of the wireless medium. Here, capacity implications of the broadcast property are studied. It is shown that source cut (the cut that separates the source from all other nodes) still dominates the multicast NC capacity of random wireless networks incorporating broadcast property. It is also shown that, by capturing broadcast, the single-source multicast NC capacity result is increased inversely proportional to the connection probability among the nodes. Simulation results that verify the analysis are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to compare the inferability of various synthetic as well as real biological regulatory networks. In order to assess differences we apply local network-based measures. That means, instead of applying global measures, we investigate and assess an inference algorithm locally, on the level of individual edges and subnetworks. We demonstrate the behaviour of our local network-based measures with respect to different regulatory networks by conducting large-scale simulations. As inference algorithm we use exemplarily ARACNE. The results from our exploratory analysis allow us not only to gain new insights into the strength and weakness of an inference algorithm with respect to characteristics of different regulatory networks, but also to obtain information that could be used to design novel problem-specific statistical estimators. [Includes supplementary material] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a new simple decomposable code construction technique that generates codes with the full information rate for all of the minimum Hamming distance-4 binary linear block codes of even length greater than or equal to eight. Additionally, some optimal Hamming distance-8 and higher distance codes are obtained with our proposed scheme. A generic trellis structure for the proposed codes was also designed. It is shown that our trellis structures provide lower decoding complexity in comparison to the trellises of some other well-known block codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study describes the seismic performance of a five‐story reinforced concrete building that represents the typical properties of a low‐rise non‐ductile building in Turkey. The effectiveness of shear walls and steel bracings and other retrofitting strategies was examined through nonlinear static and dynamic analyses. It was found that the seismic performance of retrofitted buildings resulted in lower displacements and higher energy dissipation depending on the properties of the ground motions and the retrofitting strategy used. Other results are provided.

Purpose: We aimed to compare the serum autotaxin levels in early- and late- preeclamptic and healthy pregnant patients at a university hospital. Methods: A total of 55 singleton preeclamptic women who delivered at Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty were included in the study. The patients were subdivided into two groups: early-onset preeclampsia (n = 31) and late-onset preeclampsia (n = 24). Demographic and clinical data were compared between early-onset and late-onset preeclamptic patients. The control group was composed of 32 healthy pregnant patients. Results: The mean autotaxin levels were 1.16 ± 0.97 and 0.7 ± 0.35 ng/ml in the early- and late-onset preeclampsia groups, respectively. Autotaxin levels were significantly higher in early-onset preeclampsia group compared with late-onset preeclampsia group. Autotaxin levels were found to be significantly higher in preeclamptic patients compared with control group. Serum autotaxin levels showed a significant positive correlation with maternal systolic, diastolic blood pressures and uric acid levels. Conclusion: Autotaxin might be a promising marker for detecting early-onset preeclampsia. However, further studies are necessary to confirm this hypothesis.

In a mathematical modeling of the physical behavior of a hygrothermoelastic medium, a moisture field vector and a thermal field vector are introduced, Hamilton's principle is stated, and a three-field variational principle is derived. The differential variational principle is shown, as Euler - Lagrange equations, to generate the divergence equations and the associated natural boundary conditions of a hygrothermoelastic medium. This variational principle is augmented through an involutory transformation in order to incorporate the gradient equations and the constitutive relations of an anisotropic hygrothermoelastic medium; hence, a ten-field variational principle is formulated and some of its special versions recorded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uterovaginal duplication with imperforated hemivagina is a rare type of Mullerian anomaly. If ipsilateral renal agenesis is associated with this complex genital malformation, it is called Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome. Clinical presentations of this syndrome include pelvic pain and mass effect due to obstructed hemivagina in pubertal adolescents and adults. Hematocolpos, even after menstruation period, leads to misdiagnosis. Laparotomy is the gold standard for the diagnosis, however, magnetic resonance imaging has an accuracy upto 100% in evaluating uterovajinal anatomy. In this article, we aimed to present ultrasonographic and magnetic resonance imaging findings in a patient with Herlyn-Werner-Wun derlich syndrome who presented with cyclic pelvic pain. (The Me­di­cal Bul­le­tin of Ha­se­ki 2014; 52: 60-3)

Placenta percreta is a rare and serious complication of pregnancy. A 35 years old pregnant woman with severe preeclampsia at 36 gestational weeks delivered a live small for gestational age (SGA) fetus by cesarean section. During the operation, as the fetus had been delivered, the placenta was observed to be perforating the uterus at fundal region attaching to the omentum. This is a rare case of an intrauterine pregnancy with an extrauterine blood supply reaching almost term. Neither bleeding from placenta nor uterine rupture developed; and the infant was SGA and otherwise healthy.

OBJECTIVE: Evaluation of the assumption that elective cesarean section (CS) improved neonatal outcomes of ‘preterm fetuses in vertex presentation’. STUDY DESIGN: Birth records of a university hospital between 1999 and 2004 were reviewed. CS performed without a trial of labor before completion of 37 gestational weeks were included in the study group. Early neonatal and maternal outcomes were compared for the elective CS and vaginal birth groups. RESULTS: 61 elective CS and 117 preterm vaginal deliveries were eligible for the analysis. Neither the rate of NICU admission (38% v ersus 33%) nor the neonatal mortality rate (3.3% versus 4.3%) differed significantly. There were 2 cases of maternal morbidity in the CS group but none in the vaginal birth group. CONCLUSIONS: Data in this study did not demonstrate any beneficial effect of elective CS for the early neonatal outcome of preterm fetuses in vertex resentation despite the possible increase in maternal morbidity.

Abstract Background Genes might have different gene interactions in different cell conditions, which might be mapped into different networks. Differential analysis of gene networks allows spotting condition-specific interactions that, for instance, form disease networks if the conditions are a disease, such as cancer, and normal. This could potentially allow developing better and subtly targeted drugs to cure cancer. Differential network analysis with direct physical gene interactions needs to be explored in this endeavour. Results C3NET is a recently introduced information theory based gene network inference algorithm that infers direct physical gene interactions from expression data, which was shown to give consistently higher inference performances over various networks than its competitors. In this paper, we present, DC3net, an approach to employ C3NET in inferring disease networks. We apply DC3net on a synthetic and real prostate cancer datasets, which show promising results. With loose cutoffs, we predicted 18583 interactions from tumor and normal samples in total. Although there are no reference interactions databases for the specific conditions of our samples in the literature, we found verifications for 54 of our predicted direct physical interactions from only four of the biological interaction databases. As an example, we predicted that RAD50 with TRF2 have prostate cancer specific interaction that turned out to be having validation from the literature. It is known that RAD50 complex associates with TRF2 in the S phase of cell cycle, which suggests that this predicted interaction may promote telomere maintenance in tumor cells in order to allow tumor cells to divide indefinitely. Our enrichment analysis suggests that the identified tumor specific gene interactions may be potentially important in driving the growth in prostate cancer. Additionally, we found that the highest connected subnetwork of our predicted tumor specific network is enriched for all proliferation genes, which further suggests that the genes in this network may serve in the process of oncogenesis. Conclusions Our approach reveals disease specific interactions. It may help to make experimental follow-up studies more cost and time efficient by prioritizing disease relevant parts of the global gene network.

Abstract Background The availability of large-scale high-throughput data possesses considerable challenges toward their functional analysis. For this reason gene network inference methods gained considerable interest. However, our current knowledge, especially about the influence of the structure of a gene network on its inference, is limited. Results In this paper we present a comprehensive investigation of the structural influence of gene networks on the inferential characteristics of C3NET - a recently introduced gene network inference algorithm. We employ local as well as global performance metrics in combination with an ensemble approach. The results from our numerical study for various biological and synthetic network structures and simulation conditions, also comparing C3NET with other inference algorithms, lead a multitude of theoretical and practical insights into the working behavior of C3NET. In addition, in order to facilitate the practical usage of C3NET we provide an user-friendly R package, called c3net, and describe its functionality. It is available from https://r-forge.r-project.org/projects/c3net and from the CRAN package repository. Conclusions The availability of gene network inference algorithms with known inferential properties opens a new era of large-scale screening experiments that could be equally beneficial for basic biological and biomedical research with auspicious prospects. The availability of our easy to use software package c3net may contribute to the popularization of such methods. Reviewers This article was reviewed by Lev Klebanov, Joel Bader and Yuriy Gusev.

A unified procedure based on a general principle of physics (e.g., Hamilton's principle) together with Legendre's (or Friedrichs's) transformation is proposed to systematically derive certain variational principles for discontinuous electromagnetic fields which are useful to treat electromagnetic waves and vibrations in dielectrics. The integral and differential types of variational principles generate Maxwell's equations and the associated natural boundary and jump conditions as well as the initial conditions, as their Euler-Lagrange equations, for a regular finite and bounded dielectric region with or without a fixed, internal surface of discontinuity. Special cases of the variational principles, including a reciprocal one, are recorded which have those for time-harmonic motions and a dielectric region within a vacuum or a perfect conductor, and they are shown to agree with and to recover some of earlier variational principles [e.g., M. C. Dökmeci, IEEE Trans. UFFC UFFC-35, 775-787 (1988); UFFC-37, 369-385 (1990) and G. A. Aşkar, 3007 (1994) and references therein]. [Work supported in part by The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have detected a bilateral accessory muscle in the flexor compartment of a 40 years old 80 kg male cadaver during routine educational dissections in Marmara University School of Medicine Anatomy Department Laboratories. The muscle originates from the medial epicondyle of humerus, extends towards the flexor retinaculum and demonstrates a ''Y'' shaped bifurcation distal to the 1/3 of its tendinous part. Belly of the muscle is observed to be located on the medial side of palmaris longus muscle. The muscle has a course deep to palmaris longus in the medial region of the forearm and inserts to flexor retinaculum. Belly of the muscle has a fusiform shape and 10 cm length having a tendinous continuation of 6 cm. After this tendinous part, the muscle bifurcates into two parts 3 cm in length. The muscle is supplied arterially by the ulnar artery and it is innervated by the median nerve. To the best of our knowledge, there has been no such variation reported in the literature. We think that defining the anatomy of this muscle may contribute to the clinically important region in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In relation to electroceramic media subject to large driving voltages, this paper presents the one-dimensional nonlinear equations of a cylindrical ceramic bar. The field variables of the ceramic bar are all expanded in the power series expansions of its cross-sectional coordinates. By means of a unified variational principle, which is formulated through Hamilton's principle and Legendre's transformation [e.g., M. C. Dökmeci, IEEE Trans. UFFC 35, 775-787 (1988)] together with the series expansions of field variables, the one-dimensional electroelastic equations are systematically derived in both differential and variational forms. They are capable of predicting the extensional, flexural, and torsional as well as coupled motions of a ceramic bar at low and high frequencies. By a proper truncation of the series expansions, the electroelastic equations incorporate as many higher-order effects as deemed desirable in any case. Special cases are investigated [cf. M. C. Dökmeci, Int. J. Solids Struct. 10, 401-409 (1974) and Proceedings of the 40th Annual Symposium on Frequency Control (IEEE, New York, 1986), pp. 168-178]. The uniqueness is examined in solutions of the linearized electroelastic equations. [Work supported in part by The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]