INTELLIGENT SECURITY SYSTEMS ENGINEERING FOR MODELING FIRE CRITICAL INCIDENTS： TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE SECURITY

An intelligent security systems engineering approach is used to analyze fire and explosive critical incidents, a growing concern in urban communities. A feed-forward back-propagation neural network models the damages arising from these critical incidents. The overall goal is to promote fire safety and sustainable security. The intelligent security systems engineering prediction model uses a fully connected multilayer neural network and considers a number of factors related to the fire or explosive incident including the type of property affected, the time of day, and the ignition source. The network was trained on a large number of critical incident records reported in Toronto, Canada between 2000 and 2006. Our intelligent security systems engineering approach can help emergency responders by improving critical incident analysis, sustainable security, and fire risk management.     

A TEM study on the microstructure of spark plasma sintered ZrB_2-based composite with nano-sized SiC dopant

Sintering behavior of ZrB₂ ceramic with nano-sized SiC dopant was studied. ZrB₂-25 vol% nano-sized SiC was selected as the starting mixture to fabricate the composite. The manufacturing process was accomplished at 1800℃ for 5 min under 25 MPa via spark plasma sintering(SPS). The as-sintered sample reached a relative density of 99%. Besides the initial phases, namely ZrB₂ and SiC, the high-resolution X-ray diffraction(HRXRD) was used to study the formation of an i...     

Short-run wavelet-based covariance regimes for applied portfolio management

Decisions on ass et allocations are often determined by covariance estimates from historical market data. In this paper, we introduce a wavelet-based portfolio algorithm, distinguishing between newly embedded news and long-run information that has already been fully absorbed by the market. Exploiting the wavelet decomposition into short- and long-run covariance regimes, we introduce an approach to focus on particular covariance components. Using generated data, we demonstrate that short-run covariance regimes comprise the relevant information for periodical portfolio management. In an empirical application to US stocks and other international markets for weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly holding periods (and rebalancing), we present evidence that the application of wavelet-based covariance estimates from short-run information outperforms portfolio allocations that are based on covariance estimates from historical data.     

The FHIT gene product: tumor suppressor and genome “caretaker”

The FHIT gene at FRA3B is one of the earliest and most frequently altered genes in the majority of human cancers. It was recently discovered that the FHIT gene is not the most fragile locus in epithelial cells, the cell of origin for most Fhit-negative cancers, eroding support for past claims that deletions at this locus are simply passenger events that are carried along in expanding cancer clones, due to extreme vulnerability to DNA damage rather than to loss of FHIT function. Indeed, recent reports have reconfirmed FHIT as a tumor suppressor gene with roles in apoptosis and prevention of the epithelial–mesenchymal transition. Other recent works have identified a novel role for the FHIT gene product, Fhit, as a genome “caretaker.” Loss of this caretaker function leads to nucleotide imbalance, spontaneous replication stress, and DNA breaks. Because Fhit loss-induced DNA damage is “checkpoint blind,” cells accumulate further DNA damage during subsequent cell cycles, accruing global genome instability that could facilitate oncogenic mutation acquisition and expedite clonal expansion. Loss of Fhit activity therefore induces a mutator phenotype. Evidence for FHIT as a mutator gene is discussed in light of these recent investigations of Fhit loss and subsequent genome instability.     

Surfactant-decorated graphite nanoplatelets(GNPs) reinforced aluminum nanocomposites: sintering effects on hardness and wear

The exceptional properties of graphene make it ideal as a reinforcement to enhance the properties of aluminum matrices and this critically depends on uniform dispersion. In this study, the dispersion issue was addressed by sonication and non-covalent surface functionalization of graphite nanoplatelets(GNPs) using two types of surfactant: anionic(sodium dodecyl benzene sulfate(SDBS)) and non-ionic polymeric(ethyl cellulose(EC)). After colloidal mixing with Al powder, consolidation was performed at two sintering temperatures(550 and 620°C). The structure, density, mechanical and wear properties of the nanocomposite samples were investigated and compared with a pure Al and a pure GNPs/Al nanocomposite sample. Noticeably, EC-based 0.5 wt% GNPs/Al samples showed the highest increment of 31% increase in hardness with reduced wear rate of 98.25% at 620°C, while a 22% increase in hardness with reduced wear rate of 96.98% at 550°C was observed, as compared to pure Al. Microstructural analysis and the overall results validate the use of EC-based GNPs/Al nanocomposites as they performed better than pure Al and pure GNPs/Al nanocomposite at both sintering temperatures.     

Effect of consumption of green and black tea on the level of various enzymes in rats

Drinking of both green and black tea as the only liquid ingested resulted in significant decreases in the activity of transketolase in whole blood of rats both before and after the in vitro addition of thiamin diphosphate. Liver transketolase activity was decreased only by green tea. Mucosal transketolase activity was not affected by either type of tea. The activity of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) was not affected by either type of tea, while whole blood LDH was decreased by both green and black tea. Neither tea had any affect on mucosal alkaline phosphatase, but thiamin diphosphatase activity was decreased by both teas. An increase in liver total thiamin resulted from the drinking of both types of tea.     

Structural, electrical, dielectric and magnetic properties of Mn-Nd substituted CoFeO3 nano sized multiferroics

A series of Mn x Co_(1-x) Fe_(1-y) Nd_yO_3(where x=0.0–1.0 y=0.0–0.1) multiferroic nanocrystals was synthesized via sol-gel auto-combustion technique. The structure was confirmed by X-ray diffraction(XRD)while morphology was investigated by scanning electron microscopy(SEM). The electrical resistivity was observed to increase from 2.14 * 10~7 to 8.77 * 10~9 Ω-cm and activation energy was found to increase from 0.64 to 0.75 e V, while the drift mobility decreased from 4.75 * 10~(-13) to 1.27 * 10~(-15)cm~2V~(-1)S~(-1) by the substitution of Mn and Nd contents. The dielectric constant, dielectric loss and dielectric loss factor decrease with frequency and Mn-Nd contents. The saturation magnetization was increased from 34 to 70 emu g~(-1) while the coercivity decreased from 705 to 262 Oe with the increase of substituents.The increase in electrical resistivity and saturation magnetization while decrease in dielectric parameters and coercivity make these nanomaterials suitable for applications in microwave devices and longitudinal magnetic recording media.     

Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and Nurses in Turkish Hospitals

Electronic medical records (EMR) are generally used by nurses in hospitals. However, studies investigating views on and evaluations of EMR by nurses are limited in Turkey and in other countries around the world. In this study, nurses’ views on EMR systems were investigated in terms of “Nursing care management”, “Order entry”, “Information Management”, “Information quality”, “Service quality”, “Impact of EMR system on clinical care”. The purpose of this study was to investigate the views/perceptions on EMR used by nurses working at hospital clinics in Turkey. The research questions were: (a) What are nurses’ perceptions on EMR? (b) Were there relationships among nurses’ perceptions on EMR? (c) Were there differences among nurses’ perceptions on EMR according to hospitals in Turkey. This study is composed of field research conducted using questionnaires. To prepare the data-measuring instrument, the literature on EMR was reviewed. A Likert scale type was used in this questionnaire. The study was planned and conducted on nurses working at inpatient care units at four Turkish hospitals. At the end of this study, the questionnaire had been conducted on 517 nurses. Total response rate is 66.70 %. We found that the Information quality of EMR, impact of EMR system on clinical care and service quality were high level. Information quality has the highest mean score. EMR system is an important system for nurses’ hospital has the highest mean score in this study. Nurses feel about impact of EMR system on clinical care that generally ‘EMR system’s usefulness’, ‘improving quality of information due to EMR system’, ‘improving quality of nurses’ work’, ‘improving quality of information due to EMR system’. All of the six subscales of EMR were positively correlated with each other. This study revealed that there are significant differences among the mean scores for six subscales according to the ownership of hospitals. EMR systems were not well integrated into their workflow. In addition, half of all respondents had not been trained in using EMR systems. This study will added to evaluation views and assessments of nurses about EMR literature. The results will assist in determining “Information quality”, “Service quality”, of EMR, and “Impact of EMR system on clinical for nurses in Turkish health system”. This survey suggests that nurses favor the use of an EMR and suggests opportunities for EMR enhancement.