Search

Introduction: A comparative evaluation of the surgical treatment and outcome of patients with pertrochanteric fractures treated with short versus long proximal femoral nail antirotation. Materials and methods: A retrospective review was conducted of patients with pertrochanteric fractures treated between January 2011 and June 2012. In all 80 patients were enrolled in the study, of which 40 were treated with short PFNA and the remaining with long PFNA. Comparative analyses of demographic data, peri-operative outcome and complications were carried out. Results: There was no significant difference noted in the two groups with regards to Arbeitsgemeinschaft fur Osteosynthesefragen (AO) fracture classification, time from injury to surgery, blood transfusion post surgery and hospital stay. The surgical duration for a short PFNA procedure was significantly less (58 minutes) when compared to that of a long PFNA (87 minutes). Similarly intra-operative blood loss was significantly higher in the long PFNA group as compared to the short PFNA. Conclusions: A relatively quicker surgical time of just under an hour , lesser blood loss and better learning curve with trainee surgeons make short PFNA a better implant choice in the treatment of pertrochanteric fractures.

Hydrogen is a promising candidate for green energy sources for future endeavors because of its abundance on Earth. Although its storage is a major challenge for the researchers of this era because of its unsafe and highly explosive nature. The structural, optoelectronic, thermoelectric, vibrational, thermodynamic properties and hydrogen storage capacity of XMgH3 (X = Sr , Ba) are carried out by using the full potential linearized augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method in the DFT framework. The theoretical study about these magnesium-based metal hydride perovskites, i.e., SrMgH3 and BaMgH3, declares them structurally stable compounds in space group Pm-3m. The optimization graph for SrMgH3 and BaMgH3 reflects the lowest ground state energy, i.e., −6759 Ry and −16683 Ry, respectively. Comparatively, BaMgH3 seems to be more stable. The electronic band structures and density of states declare them pure metallic due to zero band gap and overlapping of electronic states of the valence and the conduction bands. The electrical conductivity of BaMgH3 increases up to 4. 5 × 1 0 2 0 (Ω ⋅ m ⋅ s) − 1 and thermal conductivity 1. 2 5 × 1 0 1 6 (Ω ⋅ m ⋅ s) − 1 in the temperature range 100 K to 1000 K revealing the good metallic character of BaMgH3. The optical analysis portrays the absorption of compounds in the visible range along with valance shell electrons to the weak bond of hydrogen and dissociates hydrogen molecules at a certain intensity of light. BaMgH3 compound shows minimum scattering and maximum absorption of light in the visible region up to 3 eV. The reflectivity peaks in the visible region 3.0 eV show that 40% of light energy is absorbed due to the opaque nature of BaMgH3. Both these compounds are declared thermodynamically stable due to negative free energy such as −1.20 eV for SrMgH3 and −1.50 eV energy for BaMgH3 at 1000 K, respectively. Moreover, the three acoustic modes showing zero imaginary phonon frequencies at Γ symmetry points predict these compounds' structural and thermodynamical stability. The gravimetric hydrogen storage concentration of SrMgH3 and BaMgH3 is determined as 2.637% and 1.836%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic vehicle following is an important feature of a fully or partially automated highway system (AHS). The on-board vehicle control system should be able to accept and process inputs from the driver, the infrastructure and other vehicles, perform diagnostics and provide the appropriate commands to actuators so that the resulting motion of the vehicle is safe and compatible with the AHS objectives. The purpose of this paper is to design and test a vehicle control system in order to achieve full vehicle automation in the longitudinal direction for several modes of operation, where the infrastructure manages the vehicle following. These modes include autonomous vehicles, cooperative vehicle following and platooning. The vehicle control system consists of a supervisory controller that processes the inputs from the driver, the infrastructure, other vehicles and the on-board sensors and sends the appropriate commands to the brake and throttle controllers. In addition, the controller makes decisions about normal, emergency and transition operations. Simulation results of some of the basic vehicle following maneuvers are used to verify the claimed performance of the designed controllers. Experiments on 1-15 that demonstrate the performance of the throttle controller with and without vehicle-to-vehicle communications in an actual highway environment are also included.

The purpose of this paper is to design and test a vehicle control system in order to achieve full vehicle automation in the longitudinal direction for several modes of operation, where the infrastructure manages the vehicle following. A supervisory controller is designed to provide the required intelligence for the modes. The controller process input and sends the appropriate commands to the brake and throttle controllers. It makes decisions about normal, emergency and transition operations so that the resulting motion of vehicle is safe and follows Automated Highway System (AHS) objectives. Simulation results are used to test the performance of the designated controllers. Finally, the experimental results of a vehicle following test conducted on I-15 demonstrate the effectiveness of the controller in an actual highway environment.

In this paper, the problem of modeling and control design of a computer controlled brake system is addressed. A nonlinear model for the brake system is developed by analyzing the input-output data obtained from the test bench. A controller for the brake system is designed by applying feedback linearization techniques along with intuitive modifications to meet the closed loop specifications.

This research explores the optimization of firewall systems within private cloud environments, specifically focusing on a 30-day evaluation of the Omni-Secure Firewall. Employing a multi-metric approach, the study introduces an innovative effectiveness metric (E) that amalgamates precision, recall, and redundancy considerations. The evaluation spans various machine learning models, including random forest, support vector machines, neural networks, k-nearest neighbors, decision tree, stochastic gradient descent, naive Bayes, logistic regression, gradient boosting, and AdaBoost. Benchmarking against service level agreement (SLA) metrics showcases the Omni-Secure Firewall’s commendable performance in meeting predefined targets. Noteworthy metrics include acceptable availability, target response time, efficient incident resolution, robust event detection, a low false-positive rate, and zero data-loss incidents, enhancing the system’s reliability and security, as well as user satisfaction. Performance metrics such as prediction latency, CPU usage, and memory consumption further highlight the system’s functionality, efficiency, and scalability within private cloud environments. The introduction of the effectiveness metric (E) provides a holistic assessment based on organizational priorities, considering precision, recall, F1 score, throughput, mitigation time, rule latency, and redundancy. Evaluation across machine learning models reveals variations, with random forest and support vector machines exhibiting notably high accuracy and balanced precision and recall. In conclusion, while the Omni-Secure Firewall System demonstrates potential, inconsistencies across machine learning models underscore the need for optimization. The dynamic nature of private cloud environments necessitates continuous monitoring and adjustment of security systems to fully realize benefits while safeguarding sensitive data and applications. The significance of this study lies in providing insights into optimizing firewall systems for private cloud environments, offering a framework for holistic security assessment and emphasizing the need for robust, reliable firewall systems in the dynamic landscape of private clouds. Study limitations, including the need for real-world validation and exploration of advanced machine learning models, set the stage for future research directions.

Introduction: The oncological safety of a submental flap is thought to be controversial. The objective of our study was to validate our previous study regarding the oncological safety of submental flaps in oral cavity reconstruction. Materials and Methods: An electronic database was searched from 2015 to 2021 for all head and neck tumour patients, where reconstruction was performed using a submental flap. Results: Eighty-eight oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma patients, amongst whom 71 were males (81.8%), with a mean age of 55.3 years (range: 25-79 years), were retrieved from the database. The sites of involvement were 37 buccal mucosa, 27 lower alveolus and 24 tongue. The mean follow-up was 33.5 months. The submental flap reconstruction was done for 88 patients; 3 had complete loss of flap, 17 had incomplete loss/partial necrosis, and 68 patients had uneventful recovery of the flap. We had 16 patients with local recurrence. Of these, 4 (4.5%) patients had clear margins and no lymphadenopathy at the level I at the final histopathology report. Conclusion: This study provides validation of the oncological safety of the submental flap and establishes that nodal positivity at level 1 alone does not contribute to recurrence at the primary site.

Recently, experts have become particularly interested in the treatment of disorders caused by magnesium shortage. Hypomagnesemia is produced by a magnesium deficit in the blood, which is an additional stimulation for different diseases such as vomiting, drowsiness, nausea, loss of appetite, and so on. To compensate for this shortage, magnesium is injected as a nanoparticle in the blood (base fluid). The properties of these magnesium nanoparticles specifically their size, dispersion, and surface characteristics are crucial for optimizing their bioavailability and therapeutic efficacy. Advanced material characterization techniques ensure the stability and enhanced performance of these nanoparticles in the physiological environment. Based on these applications, the current research aims to address magnesium deficiency via Powell–Eyring nanofluid flow distorted by the linearly stretchable sheet in the region of the stagnation point. Linear thermal stratification, viscous dissipation, and Joule heating are used to reveal the heat transport features. The magnetic field is applied to the nanofluid at an angle α to further control the fluid dynamics and nanoparticle behavior. Transformations are used to create a set of dimensionless governing equations. Comparative graphs are used to explain the physical behaviors of temperature and velocity fields, demonstrating how material properties impact fluid dynamics. The well-known convergence method (homotopy analysis method) is used to solve the model by comparing graphs.

Extended Abstract Introduction and Objective: Supplementation of elements such as selenium into a diet is one of the ways to improve fertility. The effects of selenium supplementation vary and are strongly influenced by the source and amount of dietary selenium. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the influence of different sources of oral selenium supplementation on the total antioxidant capacity (TAC), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity, and lipid peroxidation of semen in aged broiler breeder roosters. Material and Methods: This research was carried out using 120 broilers aged 45 weeks in a completely randomized design with 10 treatments and 4 replicates and 3 birds in each replicate. The experimental treatments included: the control diet based on standard nutrition requirements of roosters, and adding the following sources of selenium to the basic diet at levels of 0.0, 0.15, 0.30, and 0.45 mg/kg, including sodium selenite, organic selenium, and selenium nano-bio-chelate. After two weeks of feeding with the basal diet, the roosters received the experimental treatments for 40 days from the beginning of the age of 47 weeks. Semen was collected by abdominal massage from roosters every 10 days once and then the total antioxidant capacity, glutathione peroxidase activity, semen lipid peroxidation, and plasma testosterone concentration were measured at the beginning and end of the experiment. Data analysis was done using the GLM procedure of SAS 9.4 software (2012). Results: It was observed that higher levels of selenium (0.30 and 0.45 mg/kg) improved TAC, GPx activity, and decreased lipid peroxidation compared to the control group. Also, the level of 0.30 mg/kg selenium from Celemax and BondaSel sources led to the highest level of glutathione peroxidase activity compared to other treatments (P≤0.05). The highest amount of lipid peroxidation was observed in the control and 0.15 mg/kg of sodium selenite groups. The highest level of total antioxidant capacity and the highest glutathione peroxidase enzyme activity was observed on day 20 of the experiment in the group receiving 0.30 mg/kg Celemax and on day 10 of the experiment in the 0.30 mg/kg sodium selenite groups respectively. The lowest amount of lipid peroxidation on day 20 of the experiment was related to the 0.30 mg/kg BendaSel group. Testosterone concentration in the 0.30 mg/kg Celemax group was significantly higher than the control and 0.15 mg/kg Celemax groups, but no differences were observed among other treatments. Conclusion: The results showed diet supplementation of 0.30 mg/kg of selenium from organic sources (Celemax and BondaSel) to the diet improves the reproductive performance of aged roosters.