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Deep learning techniques have recently brought many improvements in the field of neural network training, especially for prognosis and health management. The success of such an intelligent health assessment model depends not only on the availability of labeled historical data but also on the careful samples selection. However, in real operating systems such as induction machines, which generally have a long reliable life, storing the entire operation history, including deterioration (i.e. bearings), will be very expensive and difficult to feed accurately into the training model. Other alternatives sequentially store samples that hold degradation patterns similar to real ones in damage behavior by imposing an accelerated deterioration. Labels lack and differences in distributions caused by the imposed deterioration will ultimately discriminate the training model and limit its knowledge capacity. In an attempt to overcome these drawbacks, a novel sequence-by-sequence deep learning algorithm able to expand the generalization capacity by transferring obtained knowledge from life cycles of similar systems is proposed. The new algorithm aims to determine health status by involving long short-term memory neural network as a primary component of adaptive learning to extract both health stage and health index inferences. Experimental validations are performed using the PRONOSTIA bearing degradation datasets.

In this article, we studied the instability phenomenon of plate buckling made of steel (E36-S355), and magnetorheological elastomer subject to compression loading. The study of the magnetic field intensity influence on the buckling instability of compressed hybrid plates is done by a mathematical development using the Ritz approach and by a numerical simulation under the Abaqus software. The obtained results show clearly that we can control the instabilities of the adaptive smart plate’s behavior by the magnetic field, and the orientation angle of pseudo-fibers formed by the iron particles; depending on the variation of the angle direction of the magnetic field.

A recurrent question is whether transient reactions to vaccines translate into better immune responses. Using clinical data from 2 large phase 3 studies of the recombinant zoster vaccine, we observed a small but statistically significant association between the intensity of a frequent side effect (pain) after vaccination and immune responses to vaccination. However, despite the statistical correlation, the impact on the immune response is so small, and the immune response in individuals without pain already sufficient, that pain cannot be a surrogate marker for an appropriate immune response. Reactogenicity cannot be used to predict immunity after vaccination.

Introduction Chronic postsurgical pain (CPP) remains the main complication after Lichtenstein hernioplasty. The open new simplified totally extraperitoneal (ONSTEP) technique is a more recent transinguinal procedure that seems to be associated with less CPP. The aim of this study was to compare outcomes of the ONSTEP versus the Lichtenstein procedure for primary inguinal hernia. Methods In this prospective, double-blinded and single-centre clinical trial, CPP at the six-month follow up assessed by a visual analogue scale was the primary endpoint. Secondary endpoints were operative time, perioperative complications, length of hospital stay, early pain, time to return to daily activities and to work, pain-related sexual dysfunction, aesthetic satisfaction and recurrence. Results A total of 100 men were allocated to undergo either the Lichtenstein (n=50) or the ONSTEP (n=50) hernioplasty. The incidence of CPP was nonsignificantly lower in the ONSTEP group compared with the Lichtenstein group (28% vs 42%; p=0.142). However, the ONSTEP procedure required less operative time (42 vs 62min; pConclusion CPP was similar, but the ONSTEP technique was associated with shorter operating time, earlier return to normal daily activities, fewer postsurgical complications and better cosmetic results.

The assurance of a future clinical trial is a key quantitative tool for decision-making in drug development. It is derived from prior knowledge (Bayesian approach) about the clinical endpoint of interest, typically from previous clinical trials. In this paper, we examine assurance in the specific context of vaccine development, where early development (Phase 2) is often based on immunological endpoints (e.g., antibody levels), while the confirmatory trial (Phase 3) is based on the clinical endpoint (very large sample sizes and long follow-up). Our proposal is to use the Phase 2 vaccine efficacy predicted by the immunological endpoint (using a model estimated from epidemiological studies) as prior information for the calculation of the assurance.

A magnetorheological is a new generation of smart materials in active mechanical vibration and shock control applications. This article is based on a comparative experimental study of the dynamic properties of magnetorheological elastomers (MRE) and magnetorheological fluids (MRF), whose damping and stiffness are controlled simultaneously by applying magnetic field intensity. The dynamic visco-analyser and rheometer were used to test the behaviour of MRE and MRF. The response of both materials depends on the amplitude due to shear strain. The experimental results clearly show the difference between the dynamic properties of MRE and MRF. More specifically, MFRs have high damping with low stiffness; on the other hand, the MRE has average damping with outstanding rigidity. These results help designers achieve more efficient and reliable structures in various engineering fields, such as buildings and mechanical applications.

Most people now have their meals outside their homes and are vulnerable to illness caused by food. Unsafe food preparation and supply by vendors have made food safety a concern for public health. Jashore is a densely populated city, this study was designed to evaluate food safety knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of food vendors in Jashore region, Bangladesh. A randomized descriptive cross-sectional study on food safety KAP was conducted among 200 food vendors. Where 96% were male food vendors, 72.5% were smokers, and 63% were found to be overweight or obese. While 72.5% vendors had good knowledge of food safety, only 33% and 0.5% had good food safety attitude and practice, respectively. Among the socio-demographic factors investigated, only the level of education showed significant influence (p = 0.005 and 0.015) on the food safety knowledge and practice of the vendors. While handling food, over 90% vendors did not use any personal protective equipment, 4.5% had diarrhoea, 8.5% did not wash their hands after going to the toilet and 28.5% reused previous leftover oils. The data suggest that the overall food safety knowledge of suppliers in the Jashore region is good but their attitudes and practices need to be improved.

La sécurité alimentaire est au cœur des débats actuels concernant les politiques de développement agricole. Il s’agit notamment d’arbitrer entre le soutien à la production locale et l’ouverture au commerce international pour répondre à l’essor rapide de la demande. Cette question se pose de manière originale dans le secteur laitier algérien, où l’intervention de l’État concerne l’ensemble des maillons de la filière de la production à la consommation. Or, en dépit de ces mesures particulièrement coûteuses, la progression de la collecte de lait local reste limitée. L’État intervient aussi par des mécanismes de prix administrés et de quotas, qui favorisent l’importation de la poudre de lait afin d’assurer l’offre de produits laitiers à bas prix. Ce compromis aboutit au maintien de la dépendance du pays vis-à-vis des marchés internationaux, et questionne sa capacité à élaborer une véritable stratégie de souveraineté alimentaire.

Medical images include confidential and sensitive information about patients. Hence, ensuring the security of these images is a crucial requirement. This paper proposes an efficient and secure medical image encryption‐decryption scheme based on deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), one‐dimensional chaotic maps (tent and logistic maps), and hash functions (SHA‐256 and MD5). The first part of the proposed scheme is the key generation based on the hash functions of the image and its metadata. The key then is highly related and intensely sensitive to the original image. The second part is the rotation and permutation of the first two MSB bit‐plans of the medical image to reduce its black background that produces redundant DNA encoded sequences. The third part is the DNA encoding‐decoding using dynamically chosen DNA rules for every 2‐bit pixel value through the logistic map. Meanwhile, the confusion‐diffusion is performed using the tent map and XOR operation. Simulation results and security analysis prove the good encryption effects of the proposed scheme compared to the state‐of‐art methods with a correlation of 6.66617e‐7 and a very large key space of 2624. Furthermore, the proposed system has a strong ability to resist various common attacks such as chosen/known‐plaintext attacks and cropping/noise attacks.

Enhancement in properties of thermal storage materials improves their performance and contributes to reducing the greenhouse gas emissions. The enhancement can be made in a passive way, which is cost-effective and hardly requires management. For decades, phase change materials (PCMs) have been used in many applications for thermal storage, thermal control and thermal insulation purposes. PCM can store a huge amount of energy with low or no temperature swing. However, the major drawback of PCM is the low thermal conductivity. Techniques of different scales (macroscopic, microscopic and nanoscopic) have been adopted in thermal engineering to enhance the thermal conductivity of PCM. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the literature dealing with micro/nano enhancement techniques of PCMs. Enhancement effects as well as limitations of each technique are discussed in detail. Moreover, direction for future research and possible challenges are pointed out along with conclusions drawn from the studies.

This study presents for the first time the feasibility of a coplanar isolator using YIG material for applications in the Ku, K and Ka bands. The proposed structure is an asymmetric coplanar waveguide with a transverse array of unopened slots etched on a ground plane. Such structures are characterized by several cut‐off frequencies on the transmission parameters. With a low dc magnetic field of 72 kAm−1 applied along with the slots, significant nonreciprocal effects greater than 20, 19 and 29 dB are obtained at 13.95, 23.39 and 39.61 GHz, respectively. The proposed structure can be used as a multiband isolator for microwave applications. The low biasing field of this multiband isolator and its compactness (88 mm2) are its main advantages, which makes this structure particularly suitable for integration.

Left atrial appendage closure (LAAC) has evolved as a safe alternative to oral anticoagulation therapy for stroke prophylaxis. However, the presence of a patent foramen ovale (PFO) occluder device is considered a relative contraindication. Here we report a successful case of LAAC in the presence of a PFO occluder device. (Level of Difficulty: Beginner.), Graphical abstract

Cardiac troponin (cTn) is mainly used to diagnose acute coronary syndrome (ACS). However, cTn can also be elevated in critically ill patients secondary to demand ischemia or myocardial injury. The impact of cardiology consultation on the clinical outcomes of patients admitted to medical intensive care unit (ICU) with elevated cTn is unclear.A retrospective analysis of medical ICU patients with elevated cTn without evidence of ACS between January 2013 through December 2018. Patients were stratified based on documentation of cardiology consultation. The primary outcome was 1-year mortality. Secondary outcomes were in-hospital and 30-day mortality, the length of stay (LOS), further cardiac testing, 30-day readmission rate, new prescription of cardiac medications, and the predictors of a cardiology consultation.Of 846 patients screened, 766 patients were included, of whom 63.2% had cardiology consultation. Cardiology consultation group had longer median LOS (7 vs. 5 days, P = 0.007), additional cardiac testing (90.3% vs. 67.7%, P 0.001), and more new cardiac medications (52.1% vs. 16.3%, P 0.001). No difference was noted in-hospital mortality (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.6, 95% CI, 0.4-1.1, P = .117), 30-day mortality (aOR = 0.8, 95% CI, 0.5-1.4, P = .425), 1- year mortality (aOR, 1.4, 95% CI, 0.9-2.2, P = .193), or cardiac-specific 30-day readmission rate (aOR, 7.0, 95% CI, 0.7-14.9, P = .137). History of coronary artery disease (CAD) was the most independent predictor for a cardiology consult (aOR, 2.2, 95% CI, 1.3-3.8, P .001).Cardiology consultation for elevated cTn in medical ICU patients was associated with increased cardiac testing and LOS, without significant impact on mortality.

In two large clinical trials (ZOE-50 [NCT01165177] and ZOE-70 [NCT01165229]), two doses of the adjuvanted recombinant zoster vaccine (RZV) demonstrated >90% efficacy (VE) against herpes zoster (HZ) in adults ≥50 years of age (YOA). This post-hoc analysis assessed the VE against HZ and postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), in participants from Asian study sites enrolled in ZOE-50/70. Reactogenicity and safety were also assessed. Participants ≥50 YOA were randomized 1:1 to receive 2 doses of either RZV or placebo, 2 months apart. VE was evaluated for a median follow-up of 4 years post-vaccination overall and by age in the ZOE-50 Asian population ≥50 YOA and in the pooled ZOE-50/70 Asian population ≥70 YOA. Of the 2,729 participants included in the ZOE-50 Asian population ≥50 YOA, 3 RZV and 66 placebo recipients reported a confirmed HZ episode. Overall VE was 95.6% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 86.4–99.1) against HZ and 100% (95% CI: 35.44–100) against PHN. In the pooled ZOE-50/70 Asian population ≥70 YOA, 4 RZV and 75 placebo recipients out of the 2,723 participants reported a confirmed HZ episode. Overall VE was 94.7% (95% CI: 85.9–98.6) against HZ and 89.8% (95% CI: 28.39–99.77) against PHN. Pain and myalgia were the most frequent solicited local and general adverse events, respectively, in both populations. No safety concern was identified during the study periods. RZV is highly efficacious against HZ and PHN and has an acceptable safety profile in Asian populations ≥50 YOA, similar to what was observed in the general ZOE-50/70 populations. Trademark statement: Shingrix is a trademark owned by or licensed to the GSK group of companies.

Background The effect of cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation on the length of mechanical ventilation and mortality in immunocompetent ICU patients requiring invasive mechanical ventilation remains controversial. The main objective of this study was to determine whether preemptive intravenous ganciclovir increases the number of ventilator-free days in patients with CMV blood reactivation. Methods This double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial involved 19 ICUs in France. Seventy-six adults ≥ 18 years old who had been mechanically ventilated for at least 96 h, expected to remain on mechanical ventilation for ≥ 48 h, and exhibited reactivation of CMV in blood were enrolled between February 5th, 2014, and January 23rd, 2019. Participants were randomized to receive ganciclovir 5 mg/kg bid for 14 days (n = 39) or a matching placebo (n = 37). Results The primary endpoint was ventilator-free days from randomization to day 60. Prespecified secondary outcomes included day 60 mortality. The trial was stopped for futility based on the results of an interim analysis by the DSMB. The subdistribution hazard ratio for being alive and weaned from mechanical ventilation at day 60 for patients receiving ganciclovir (N = 39) compared with control patients (N = 37) was 1.14 (95% CI from 0.63 to 2.06; P = 0.66). The median [IQR] numbers of ventilator-free days for ganciclovir-treated patients and controls were 10 [0–51] and 0 [0–43] days, respectively (P = 0.46). Mortality at day 60 was 41% in patients in the ganciclovir group and 43% in the placebo group (P = .845). Creatinine levels and blood cells counts did not differ significantly between the two groups. Conclusions In patients mechanically ventilated for ≥ 96 h with CMV reactivation in blood, preemptive ganciclovir did not improve the outcome.

Communication networks, play a major role in keeping us connected and sharing the details of our lives with each other. The main driver of multimedia data transmission is to enhance security protection of this multimedia data (speech, image and video). In this paper we addresses the synchronization problem of the masterslave type via a static error feedback. Sufficient conditions expressed by means of linear matrix inequalities (LMI) for the synchronization of fractional-order hyperchaotic systems with a known time delay between them is presented. The delay-dependent criterion is given based upon a Lyapunov function. We take the fractional-order hyperchaotic Liu system as an illustrative example to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed synchronization scheme. Moreover, as an application an images cryptosystem is presented. We considered two scenarios corresponding to the transmission channel, under occlusion attack and under noisse addition respectively. Results for the studied scenarios are presented and compared. The extensive simulation results prove that proposed cryptosystem has clear advantage over other proposed in the litterature.

Several studies have reported changes in body composition in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Our study showed that body composition measurements obtained by absorptiometry were highly reproducible in patients suffering from these diseases. This study justifies the use of absorptiometry measurements in longitudinal studies in this population. Our study aimed to assess the reproducibility of total and regional body composition in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and to compare them to healthy subjects. The study enrolled 80 subjects including 32 healthy subjects, 31 RA patients, and 17 AS patients. Each subject had two scans in one day under the same standard conditions and none ate nor drunk before being repositioned on the table. The reproducibility was assessed through the coefficient of variation (CV), the least significant change (LSC), the intraclass correlation (ICC), and the smallest significant difference (SDD). Total body composition measurements obtained by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) were highly reproducible, and there was no statistically significant difference between reproducibility in healthy subjects, patients with RA, and patients with AS. For total body fat mass (FM), lean mass (LM), and bone mineral content (BMC) in the total population, CV values were 1.71%, 1.25%, and 1.74%, respectively; ICC values were 0.998, 0.996, and 0.993, respectively; LSC values were 4.88%, 3.7%, and 5.2%, respectively; and SDD values were ± 1.23 Kg, ± 1.47 Kg, and ± 126.0 g, respectively. For regional body FM, LM, and BMC in the total population, CV values in the arms were 8.46%, 4.17%, and 3.79%, respectively; in the legs 6.24%, 3.59%, and 2.04%, respectively, and in the trunk 5.02%, 2.92%, and 5.24%, respectively. Total body tissue mass, FM percentage, FM, LM, and BMC measurements obtained by DXA are highly reproducible in RA and AS.

An existing robust three dimensional finite element based on the strain approach is presented. This element is implemented, for the first time in the commercial computer code ABAQUS, by using the subroutine (UEL), for the static and dynamic analysis of isotropic plates, whatever thin or thick. It is Baptised SBH8 (Strain Based Hexahedral with 8 nodes) and has the advantage to overcome the problems involved in numerical locking, when the thickness of the plate tends towards the smallest values. The implementation is justified by the capacities broader than offers this code, especially, in the free frequencies computation. The results obtained by the present element are better than those given by elements used by ABAQUS code and the other elements found in the literature, having the same number of nodes.

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) architectures are widely used in a variety of practical applications. In most cases of application, the event information transmitted by a sensor node via the network has no significance without the knowledge of its accurate geographical localization. In this paper, a method based on Machine Learning Technique (MLT) is proposed to improve node accuracy localization in WSN. We propose a Single Hidden Layer Extreme Learning Machine (SHL-ELM) and a Two Hidden Layer Extreme Learning Machine (THL-ELM) based methods for nodes localization in WSN. The suggested methods are applied in different Multi-hop WSN deployment cases. We focused on range-free localization algorithm in isotropic case and irregular environments. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed THL-ELM algorithm greatly minimizes the average localization errors when compared to the Single Hidden Layer Extreme Learning Machine and the Distance Vector Hop (DV- Hop) algorithm.

Background: To assess the severity of acute pancreatitis (AP) using computed tomography (CT)severity index (CTSI) and modified CT severity index (MCTSI), to correlate with clinical outcomemeasures, and to assess concordance with severity grading, as per the revised Atlanta classification(RAC). Material and Methods: This is a prospective study, conducted from August 2019 to July2020, in the Department of Radiology, Al Ameen Medical College. A total of 70 patients referred fromthe Department of Medicine and Department of Surgery, presented with the chief complaint ofepigastric pain, nausea and vomiting and CECT abdomen were suggestive of acute pancreatitis wereincluded in this study. Assessment of severity of acute pancreatitis was done in all cases byBalthazar CTSI scoring and Mortele Modified CTSI scoring. Results: In the present study total 70cases of acute pancreatitis cases were included in the study. These patients underwent CT abdomenand pelvis, later images were reviewed by the radiologist. The maximum patients were in the agegroup of 21 to 40 years [n=33 (47.1%)]. Majority of the cases were categorized as mild pancreatitisaccording to Balthazar CTSI score. Majority of the cases were categorized as severe pancreatitisusing the Modified Mortele CTS score. Whereas, organ failure, moderate and severe category inmodified Mortele CTSI, mild, moderate, severe category in Balthazar CTSI. Conclusion: Inconclusion CECT was found to be an excellent imaging modality for diagnosis, establishing theextent of the disease process and in grading its severity.

Recognition systems using multimodal biometrics attracts attention because they improve recognition efficiency and high-security level compared to the unimodal biometrics system. In this study, the authors present a secure multimodal biometrics recognition system based on the deep learning method that uses convolutional neural networks (CNNs). The authors propose two multimodal architectures using the finger knuckle print (FKP) and the finger vein (FV) biometrics with different levels of fusion: the features level fusion and scores level fusion. The features extraction for FKP and FV are performed using transfer learning CNN architectures: AlexNet, VGG16, and ResNet50. The key step aims to select separate features descriptors from each unimodal biometrics modality. After that, the authors combine them using the proposed fusion approaches were support vector machine or Softmax applies as classifiers to increase the proposed system security. The efficiency of the proposed algorithms is tested using publicly available biometrics databases. The experimental results show that the proposed fusion architectures achieve an accuracy of 99.89% and an equal error rate of 0.05%. The obtained results indicate that the biometrics recognition system using deep learning is secure, robust, and reliable.

Background Conversion disorder or functional neurological disorder is a psychiatric condition in which the body’s emotional and psychological stressors are converted to physical symptoms that cannot be explained by a neurological or medical condition. Psychogenic pseudoptosis is a rare manifestation of conversion disorder that present a major challenge in terms of diagnosis and treatment. Case description A 36-year-old woman presented with acquired left ptosis and longstanding generalized weakness. She denied any toxic substance exposure, insect bites, recent travel or family history of neurological disease. The neurological examination was normal except for an atypical left ptosis with eyebrow droop and inability to walk. However, electrophysiological investigations were normal. The presence of dissociative symptoms and the improvement after starting pharmacotherapy in combination with psychotherapy led to the diagnosis of conversion disorder. Conclusion After the exclusion of organic causes, the conversion disorder must be considered in the differential diagnosis of acquired ptosis, especially when accompanied by eyebrows droop sign and a suggestive psychological context.

Abstract Objective In the ZOE-50 (NCT01165177) and ZOE-70 (NCT01165229) phase 3 clinical trials, the adjuvanted recombinant zoster vaccine (RZV) demonstrated ≥90% efficacy in preventing herpes zoster (HZ) in all age groups ≥50 years. Given the increased HZ risk associated with certain underlying autoimmune diseases or their treatment regimes, we conducted a post hoc analysis of RZV’s efficacy against HZ and safety profile [specifically, the occurrence of serious adverse events (SAEs)] in ZOE-50/70 participants who reported pre-existing potential immune-mediated diseases (pIMDs) at enrolment and were not on immunosuppressive therapies. Methods Adults aged ≥50 (ZOE-50) and ≥70 (ZOE-70) years were randomized to receive two doses of RZV or placebo 2 months apart. In this subgroup analysis of participants with at least one pIMD at enrolment, the efficacy was calculated for two-dose recipients who did not develop confirmed HZ before 30 days post-dose 2. SAE occurrence was evaluated for all participants who received at least one dose. Results Of the 14 645 RZV and 14 660 placebo recipients from the ZOE-50/70 studies, 983 and 960, respectively, reported at least one pre-existing pIMD at enrolment and were included in these analyses. The most frequent pre-existing conditions were psoriasis, spondyloarthropathy and RA. Efficacy against HZ was 90.5% (95% CI: 73.5, 97.5%) overall with the lowest being 84.4% (95% CI: 30.8, 98.3%) in the 70–79-year-old age group. SAEs and fatal SAEs were similar between RZV and placebo recipients. Conclusion In ZOE-50/70 participants with pre-existing pIMDs, RZV was highly efficacious against HZ and SAE incidence was similar between RZV and placebo recipients. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, https://clinicaltrials.gov, NCT01165177 (ZOE-50), NCT01165229 (ZOE-70)., Graphical Abstract

The application of fluid injection into the divergent portion of a supersonic nozzle to release the pushed vector is an attractive alternate to conventional thrust vectoring systems. Indeed, it can replace mechanical complexes. In recent years, this new thrust vectoring technology is the subject of numerous experimental and numerical researches, and has allowed countless applications due to its many advantages. A thrust vectoring concept is currently being applied to new-generation fighter aircraft equipped with jet engine. Fluidic thrust vectoring also finds application in satellite altitude control systems; this principle reduces the number of nozzles used. This study is based on ANSYS-FLUENT and analyzes the different phenomena involved. The results of thrust vectoring performances (angle of deviation, efficiency, lateral forces, etc.) are compared to those in the bibliography.

Background: There is a lack of consensus about whether the initial imaging method for patients with suspected nephrolithiasis should be computed tomography (CT) or ultrasonography. Material and Methods: A total of 130 patients’ USG and CTU were compared for the presence of calculi. Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of USG were calculated with CTU as the gold standard. Results: From the 150 sets of data collected, 45 calculi were detected on both USG and CTU. The sensitivity and specificity of renal calculi detection on USG were 53% and 85% respectively. The mean size of the renal calculus detected on USG was 6.8 mm ± 3.8 mm and the mean size of the renal calculus not visualized on USG but detected on CTU was 3.5 mm ± 2.7 mm. The sensitivity and specificity of ureteric calculi detection on USG were 12% and 97% respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of urinary bladder calculi detection on USG were 20% and 100% respectively. Conclusion: This study showed that the accuracy of US in detecting renal, ureteric and urinary bladder calculi were 68%, 80% And 99% Respectively.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a chronic pathology, inducing long-term deficits that remain understudied in pre-clinical studies. In this context, exploration, anxiety-like behavior, cognitive flexibility, and motor coordination were assessed until 5 and 10 months after an experimental TBI in the adult mouse, using two cohorts. In order to differentiate age, surgery, and remote gray and white matter lesions, three groups (unoperated, sham-operated, and TBI) were studied. TBI induced delayed motor coordination deficits at the pole test, 4.5 months after injury, that could be explained by gray and white matter damages in ipsilateral nigrostriatal structures (striatum, internal capsule) that were spreading to new structures between cohorts, at 5 versus 10 months after the injury. Further, TBI induced an enhanced exploratory behavior during stressful situations (active phase during actimetry test, object exploration in an open field), risk-taking behaviors in the elevated plus maze 5 months after injury, and a cognitive inflexibility in the Barnes maze that persisted until 9 months after the injury. These behavioral modifications could be related to the white and gray matter lesions observed in ipsi- and contralateral limbic structures (amygdala, hilus/cornu ammonis 4, hypothalamus, external capsule, corpus callosum, and cingular cortex) that were spreading to new structures between cohorts, at 5 months versus 10 months after the injury. The present study corroborates clinical findings on TBI and provides a relevant rodent chronic model which could help in validating pharmacological strategies against the chronic consequences of TBI.

Aim Psychiatric disorders represent a huge burden of disease worldwide. Significant gaps in their diagnosis and treatment remain. In Morocco, an observed shortage of psychiatrists would logically call for their collaboration with family physicians. Our objectives were to analyse perceptions of general practitioners’ capacity to manage psychiatric disorders, to study the difficulties encountered in their management of these pathologies, and to assess their degree of collaboration with existing mental health structures. Methods A cross-sectional nationwide survey of family physicians practicing in urban and rural areas in the private and public sectors in the Kingdom of Morocco was organised. Carried out over a period of 10 months (April 2016 to January 2017), the study was based on an anonymised self-administered questionnaire comprising 23 items. Were excluded from the sample: physicians who had tested the questionnaire prior to its distribution, medical students, family physicians employed in administrative services, resident doctors in university hospitals, and questionnaires with incomplete answers. Results All in all, five hundred and four questionnaires were distributed, with a participation rate of 79.8%, while 57.9% of the respondents were men. Their seniority as doctors ranged from 1 year to 60 years with average duration of 19.5 ± 11 years. An overwhelming majority of the doctors had obtained their doctorates in Morocco, while 8.4% had been trained abroad. The majority of the doctors surveyed worked in private practice in urban areas (53.1%), and most of them (81.9%) agreed that the management of psychiatric disorders is a public health priority. The participating physicians stated that they received an average of five patients per day suffering from mental disorders, representing 17.3% of their medical consultations. According to their perceptions, the most frequent psychiatric pathologies were depression, somatoform disorders and sleep disturbances, which were cited by 92.9%, 78.8% and 78.5% of them respectively. Regarding the diagnosis of psychiatric pathologies, 60.2% of the doctors considered bipolar disorder as a difficult pathology to diagnose, followed by schizophrenia, autism and dementia, while the pathologies reported as the most difficult to treat were addictive behaviours, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism and dementia. Physicians felt a need for training, primarily pertaining to anxiety disorders, schizophrenia and bipolar disorders (49.5%, 35% and 33.7%, respectively). Nearly a quarter of the respondents (22.4%) mentioned a need for training in management of all psychiatric illnesses. Regarding the reasons for their referral of patients to mental health care structures, 65.4% of the physicians justified their doing so by a need for hospitalisation, while in 43.7% of cases, the transfer was carried out at the request of the patient or his family. The difficulties mentioned by the respondents were firstly a lack of adapted means of care (77.5%), followed by their insufficient training in mental healthcare (52.4%) and absence of collaboration with mental health professionals (52.4%). Conclusion For the majority of the physicians surveyed, psychiatry represented a public health priority, and their prioritising provides a probable explanation for their positive perception of their role in the management of mental disorders. However, we went on to observe that a number of difficulties constituted obstacles to their role in management of mental disorders and induced them to refer their patients to psychiatrists. Our analysis highlighted the impact of continuing education on physicians’ attitudes and the interest of collaboration between practitioners. Efforts in university teaching and continuous education should be encouraged in view of enabling family physicians to more effectively cope with the demands of daily practice and meet the expectations of the overall population.

In software modeling, UML (Unified modeling language) receives increasing attention from designers of real-time systems in software development. The emergence of temporal database calls for new visual and efficient modeling techniques to facilitate the design of temporal objects. Even though UML is not currently equipped to manage this task, UML and extended extension offered limited means to express time-varying data and temporal constraints over the dynamic behavior of temporal objects. Therefore, the object constraint language (OCL) plays an important role in the elaboration of the correct conceptual schema that allows the definition of the restrictions and the constraints which contain the duplicate and complex expression. In this paper, we present a UML extension enriched by OCL features and Bitemporal dimension to improve the understandability of a UML/OCL model, and its ability to support the temporal attributes and their evolution. The proposed temporal UML/OCL based on Bitemporal data will be translating into their corresponding in a temporal object-Relational database for the purpose of tracking historical information with an efficient manner. An algorithm has been proposed to automate the transformation from the conceptual schema enriched by bitemporal features to temporal object relational database model by following different steps such as classifying and extracting information about classes, relationships and attributes.

In this paper, a novel method for binary image comparison is presented. We suppose that the image is a set of transactions and items. The proposed method applies along rows and columns of an image; this image is represented by all frequent itemset. Firstly, the rows of the image are considered as transactions and the columns of the image are considered as items. Secondly, we considered rows as items and columns as transactions. Besides, we also apply our technique to color image; firstly we segment the image and each segmented region is considered as a binary image. The proposed method is tested on the MPEG7 database and compared with the moment’s method to show its efficiency.

To demonstrate the correlation between excessive eye rubbing and corneal degeneration for Keratoconus patients. Keratoconus (KC) patients who regularly rub their eyes had shown a rapid degeneration rate of their affected corneas. This observation is experimentally and numerical discussed and developed based on clinical data of 8 of KC Patients with a mean age of 26.5 ± 9.4 years old, and four healthy individuals with a mean age of 24.33 ± 5 years old at the baseline. Corneal topography was used to measure both central corneal thickness (CCT) and its total refractive power. The registered data had been exploited to assess the progression of the disease, and the final results were embedded in a finite element model of human corneas to simulate their response to eye rubbing at different stages of the pathology. Corneal lifetime prognosis using multi-layer perceptron was then established to estimate the number of eye rubbing cycles for each stage of KC. The survey of KC patients who declared stopping eye rubbing had shown a decrease in CCT loss rate, followed by a durable stability. Mechanical stresses numerical simulations had shown different corneal behaviours in term of shape deformity, apical raise and corneal applanation between healthy and KC stages models. Apical rise ranged from 0.122 to 0.389 mm for an applied intraocular pressure that equals to 15 mmHg. A normal stress of 5 kPa provoked a corneal applanation that ranged from 0.27 mm in healthy cases to 1.173 mm in severe stages of the disease. The application of 2.5 kPa biaxial stress had resulted normal and tangential applanations that successively ranged from 0.152 and 0.173 mm in healthy corneas to 0.446 mm and 0.458 mm in severe KC stages. An adopted prognosis algorithm was able to predict the current stage of the disease and to estimate the remaining number of eye rubbing cycles before failure. Eye rubbing was proven to be a considerable contributing factor in KC patient’s corneal degeneration. The progression of this pathology could be decreased or halted by stopping eye rubbing at early stages.

In recent years, silicon-organic hybrid solar cells have attracted tremendous research attention owing to their low production cost and high performance. In the present work, tapered silicon nanowires (TSiNWs) were synthesized on random micro-pyramids (RM pyramids). On this binary structure, a poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) polymer was spin-coated. The tapering of SiNWs was performed by immersing the samples in NaOH solution. It was found that the tapering time affects significantly the reflectivity, the minority carriers lifetime and the coverage rate of Si surface by the PEDOT:PSS film. Indeed, an optimal tapering time of 6 s was determined. This time was sufficient to good incident light trapping and to reduce the surface defects. This simple and low-cost surface structuring technique holds high potential for improving the performance of hybrid solar cells with large junction area.

Background This ongoing follow-up study evaluated the persistence of efficacy and immune responses for 6 additional years in adults vaccinated with the glycoprotein E (gE)-based adjuvanted recombinant zoster vaccine (RZV) at age ≥50 years in 2 pivotal efficacy trials (ZOE-50 and ZOE-70). The present interim analysis was performed after ≥2 additional years of follow-up (between 5.1 and 7.1 years [mean] post-vaccination) and includes partial data for year (Y) 8 post-vaccination. Methods Annual assessments were performed for efficacy against herpes zoster (HZ) from Y6 post-vaccination and for anti-gE antibody concentrations and gE-specific CD4[2+] T-cell (expressing ≥2 of 4 assessed activation markers) frequencies from Y5 post-vaccination. Results Of 7413 participants enrolled for the long-term efficacy assessment, 7277 (mean age at vaccination, 67.2 years), 813, and 108 were included in the cohorts evaluating efficacy, humoral immune responses, and cell-mediated immune responses, respectively. Efficacy of RZV against HZ through this interim analysis was 84.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 75.9–89.8) from the start of this follow-up study and 90.9% (95% CI, 88.2–93.2) from vaccination in ZOE-50/70. Annual vaccine efficacy estimates were >84% for each year since vaccination and remained stable through this interim analysis. Anti-gE antibody geometric mean concentrations and median frequencies of gE-specific CD4[2+] T cells reached a plateau at approximately 6-fold above pre-vaccination levels. Conclusions Efficacy against HZ and immune responses to RZV remained high, suggesting that the clinical benefit of RZV in older adults is sustained for at least 7 years post-vaccination. Clinical Trials Registration. NCT02723773.

Current artificial neural network image recognition techniques use all pixels of the image as input. The aim objective of this work is to reduce the number of pixels by using input characteristics calculated from the initial image. The method presented in this research consists to extract the characteristics of digit image by coding each row of the image by a decimal value, i.e. passage of the binary representation into a decimal value, this method called decimal coding of rows. The set of the decimal values calculated from the initial image is arranged in the vector and these values represent the inputs of the artificial neural network. The proposed approach used in this work is based on a multilayer perceptron neural network for recognizing and predicting the handwritten digit from 0 to 9. In this study, a dataset of 1797 samples was obtained from the digit database imported from the Scikit-learn library. The backpropagation algorithm was used for the training dataset and feed-forward for the testing dataset. Results obtained in this work show that the proposed approach achieves better performance in terms of recognition and execution time.

International audience; In this paper, we fabricated silicon nanowire-TiO2 core-shell arrays in a two-step process. First, silicon nanowire arrays (SiNW) were prepared in HF/AgNO3 aqueous solution using metal-assisted chemical etching of bulk silicon. Then, atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique was applied to coat a 20 nm thin shell TiO2 film. The TiO2/SiNW substrates were afterward annealed at 400°C in hydrogen atmosphere for 4 h and tested as electrode materials for electrochemical micro-capacitors. The electrochemical features of the constructed H−TiO2/SiNW electrode were assessed in an aqueous 1 M Na2SO4 electrolyte solution and revealed that the specific capacitance increased six times compared to non-annealed TiO2/SiNW and 20-fold compared to a reference SiNW electrode under the same operating conditions. Importantly, H−TiO2/SiNW also displayed a high stability over 30,000 cycles at 0.1 mA cm−2 with an overall decrease of 19% of the initial capacitance. The hydrogen treatment increased the density of hydroxyl group and enhanced the carrier density on TiO2 surface improving the capacitive properties of H−TiO2/SiNW.

In this work, a numerical investigation was analyzed to exhibit the mixing behaviors of non-Newtonian shear-thinning fluids in Kenics micromixers. The numerical analysis was performed using the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) tool to solve 3D Navier-Stokes equations with the species transport equations. The efficiency of mixing is estimated by the calculation of the mixing index for different cases of Reynolds number. The geometry of micro Kenics collected with a series of six helical elements twisted 180° and arranged alternately to achieve the higher level of chaotic mixing, inside a pipe with a Y-inlet. Under a wide range of Reynolds numbers between 0.1 to 500 and the carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) solutions with power-law indices among 1 to 0.49, the micro-Kenics proves high mixing Performances at low and high Reynolds number. Moreover the pressure losses of the shear-thinning fluids for different Reynolds numbers was validated and represented.

In this paper, a novel noncontact and nonintrusive framework experimental method is used for the monitoring and the diagnosis of a three phase’s induction motor faults based on an infrared thermography technique (IRT). The basic structure of this work begins with this applying IRT to obtain a thermograph of the considered machine. Then, bag-of-visual-word (BoVW) is used to extract the fault features with Speeded-Up Robust Features (SURF) detector and descriptor from the IRT images. Finally, various faults patterns in the induction motor are automatically identified using an ensemble learning called Extremely Randomized Tree (ERT). The proposed method effectiveness is evaluated based on the experimental IRT images, and the diagnosis results show its capacity and that it can be considered as a powerful diagnostic tool with a high classification accuracy and stability compared to other previously used methods.

The stability of structures is an important aspect that the designer must pay particular attention to in order to ensure safety against collapse. This investigation is concerned with analytical and numerical analyses of the dynamic buckling of plane structures. A rigorous mechanical model is proposed, consisting of a beam-column element with nodal ends possessing two rotational springs of rigidities acting in parallel with the bending stiffness of the beam-column. The model is first analyzed with respect to the dynamic behavior by investigating the influence of the variation in the stiffness of the nodal springs on the fundamental frequency of the proposed mechanical model. Compression axial loading is applied to the beam-column in order to study the nonlinear dynamic behavior by introducing buckling. This novel approach is used to highlight the interaction between the fundamental frequency and the critical buckling load. Simple examples are treated using the approach and the results are compared with those obtained from a global analysis. The results revealed that it is possible to reproduce the stability analysis of a global structure by simply analyzing a target element, taking into account all elements adjacent to it with less than 1% error on the results.

To ensure the continuity of electric power generation for photovoltaic systems, condition monitoring frameworks are subject to major enhancements. The continuous uniform delivery of electric power depends entirely on a well-designed condition maintenance program. A just-in-time task to deal with several naturally occurring faults can be correctly undertaken via the cooperation of effective detection, diagnosis, and prognostic analyses. Therefore, the present review first outlines different failure modes to which all photovoltaic systems are subjected, in addition to the essential integrated detection methods and technologies. Then, data-driven paradigms, and their contribution to solving this prediction problem, are also explored. Accordingly, this review primarily investigates the different learning architectures used (i.e., ordinary, hybrid, and ensemble) in relation to their learning frameworks (i.e., traditional and deep learning). It also discusses the extension of machine learning to knowledge-driven approaches, including generative models such as adversarial networks and transfer learning. Finally, this review provides insights into different works to highlight various operating conditions and different numbers and types of failures, and provides links to some publicly available datasets in the field. The clear organization of the abundant information on this subject may result in rigorous guidelines for the trends adopted in the future.

In smart-grids (SGs), advanced digital communication (ADC) and information technology (IT) represent important aspects to develop a real relationship between power and communication. Simulation is considered as an important tool to simulate and design smart-grids. The simulator software used for smart-grids must be able to emulate the main characteristics of design. Up to now, the majority of simulators are unable to simulate the smart-grids in terms of power and communication simultaneously. The goal of this paper is to realize a new co-simulator that combines between different simulators. The co-simulator realized is hybridization between OMNeT++ and Matlab-Simulink software. In this research work a renewable smart-grid taking into account an isolated load profile has been developed.

IntroductionThe use of peripheral indwelling arterial catheter for haemodynamic monitoring is widespread in the intensive care unit and is recommended in patients with shock. However, there is no evidence that the arterial catheter could improve patient’s outcome, whereas the burden of morbidity generated is significant (pain, thrombosis, infections). We hypothesise that patients with shock may be managed without an arterial catheter.Methods and analysisThe EVERDAC study is an investigator-initiated, pragmatic, multicentre, randomised, controlled, open-label, non-inferiority clinical trial, comparing a less invasive intervention (ie, no arterial catheter insertion until felt absolutely needed, according to predefined safety criteria) or usual care (ie, systematic arterial catheter insertion in the early hours of shock). 1010 patients will be randomised with a 1:1 ratio in two groups according to the strategy. The primary outcome is all-cause mortality by 28 days after inclusion. A health economic analysis will be carried out.Ethics and disseminationThe study has been approved by the Ethics Committee (Comité de Protection des Personnes Île de France V, registration number 61606 CAT 2, 19 july 2018) and patients will be included after informed consent. The results will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals.Trial registration numberNCT03680963.

Introduction Tertiary centers recruit a large proportion of locally advanced or recurrent soft tissue sarcomas (STSs) that may have been preoperatively irradiated. The objective of this study was to evaluate the results of oncoplastic surgery (OPS) for patients affected by extremities or parietal trunk STS. Materials and methods This retrospective study includes patients who underwent a flap reconstruction after sarcoma resection between January 2018 and December 2020 at Institut Curie. The primary endpoint was the evaluation of the impact of OPS on the quality of surgical margins. The secondary endpoint was to quantify the morbidity of OPS and identify predictive factors for wound complications. Results Of 211 patients, 89 (42.2%) had a flap reconstruction. Surgery was realized on an irradiated field in 56 (62.9%) patients. Without OPS, all patients were candidates either for amputation (n = 9,10.1%) due to vessels/nerve infiltration, or R1/R2 resection (n = 80,89.9%). Seventy-two (80.0%) pedicle flaps and 18 (20.0%) free flaps were used. No R2 resections were performed. R0 and R1 margins were achieved in 82 (92.1%) and 7 (7.9%), respectively. The median closest margin was 3 mm (IQR 1–6 mm). Among R1 patients, 5 had positive margins along a preserved critical structure, 2 patients had well-differentiated liposarcomas. The surgical morbidity rate was 33.3% (30/90 flaps). The reoperation rate was 15.7% (14/89 patients). Conclusions In a referral sarcoma center, the collaboration between the surgical oncologist and the plastic surgery team should be considered upfront in the surgical plan, allowing the most adequate wide oncological resection with acceptable postoperative morbidity.

Gearboxes are massively utilized in nowadays industries due to their huge importance in power transmission; hence, their defects can heavily affect the machines performance. Therefore, many researchers are working on gearboxes fault detection and classification. However, most of the works are carried out under constant speed conditions, while gears usually operate under varying speed and torque conditions, making the task more challenging. In this paper, we propose a new method for gearboxes condition monitoring that is efficiently able to reveal the fault from the vibration signatures under varying operating condition. First, the vibration signal is processed with the Maximal Overlap Discrete Wavelet Packet Transform (MODWPT) to extract the AM-FM modes. Next, time domain features are calculated from each mode. Then the features set are reduced using the Ant colony optimization algorithm (ACO) by removing the redundant and unimportant parameters that may mislead the classification. Finally, an ensemble learning algorithm Random Forest (RF) is used to train a model able to classify the fault based on the selected features. The innovative aspect about this method is that, unlike other existing methods, ACO is able to optimize not only the features but also the parameters of the classifier in order to obtain the highest classification accuracy. The proposed method was tested on varying operating condition real dataset consisting of six different gearboxes. In the aim to prove the performance of our method, it had been compared to other conventional methods. The obtained results indicate its robustness, and its accuracy stability to handle the varying operating condition issue in gearboxes fault detection and classification with high efficiency.