74 research outputs found
Neagoe Basarab – modelul „omului desăvârșit și întreg”
No full textThis article is about the teachings of Neagoe Basarab in regards to the behavior of the future ruler. They are presented as a manual for practical morals where the orthodox faith intertwines with the bravery, merging the attributes of the Saint with those of the Hero. The religious significances of this moral code can be found under double appearance, for both division of the virtues (“Indwelling of God”, fasting, patience, love, gentleness, humility) and meeting of sins (lack of moderation in regards to gastronomy, drinking, gossiping, laughter and women, believed to be behind the many sins). Besides the theological instruction, the teachings of Neagoe Basarab puts into the foreground a moralist who knows the pitfalls and subtleties of the language, the finesse of meditation and the skill to push ideas to metaphysics. After Acad. Eugen Simion had commented the discursive levels of the chapters devoted to medieval diplomacy and art of the adorned speech (the parables and biblical parables), in the third part of this study the author focuses on the general meanings of the Teachings … Along with other specialists (Dan Zamfirescu, G. Mihăilă), the author believes that the paternity of the work belongs to Neagoe Basarab – even if specialists’ talks remain open – and this work, written in a liturgical language and translated into Romanian after a century, it has to be added to Romanian literary heritage. This real treatise – with teachings addressed to those who aspire to become fulfilled and upright people – does not avoid any of the great virtues of the ruler (in which Neagoe Basarab embodies the heroism and sanctity vocations) and it is our first masterpiece
A Novel Neural Approach for Unsupervised Change Detection Using SOM Clustering for Pseudo-Training Set Selection Followed by CSOM Classifier
No full textSpectroscopy
No full textThroughout the day, we apply experimental methods to estimate time, mass, volume, distance, velocity, and temperature—how much to eat (mass), what clothes to wear (temperature), how long will it take to get somewhere (distance, velocity, and time). Preparing a meal requires some precision with respect to these factors, and the kitchen was the first laboratory for chemists and engineers. We continue to share many concepts related to instrumentation and experimental design. This book presents the basic principles of measurement particular to chemical engineering. Redacting this manuscript has been a collaborative effort; its original inspiration was J.P. Holman’s textbook entitled “Experimental Methods for Engineers.” In this 2nd edition, we revise the text entirely, correct typos (and other errors), and add a chapter on mass and distance and spectroscopy. Each chapter begins with a historical perspective to recognize the work of early pioneers but also to stimulate the imagination of the students. For example, 10 000 years ago, man created plaster from limestone. Plaster requires temperatures nearing 900°C, which is 150°C higher than an open pit fire. It requires 1000 kg of wood (chopped by stone axes), 500 kg of limestone, a pit 2 m in diameter and 0.7 m deep, rocks to insulate, and two days to burn. Modern manufacturing errors are costly and a nuisance; in prehistoric times, errors would have been considerably more than just an inconvenience.
In Chapter 1, we list the seven steps of the scientific method and review the rules of nomenclature—units of physical quantities, abbreviations, conversion between SI and British Units, writing convention. Chapter 2 introduces significant figures and what we mean by accuracy, precision, and error analysis. In this second edition, we report an explicit equation to calculate how many experiments are necessary to achieve a specified confidence interval. Chapter 3 reviews data analysis including hypothesis testing, data smoothing, and statistical tests. We summarize design of experiments, and we include more detail in this edition to describe factorial designs, outlining them and other complementary designs with detailed examples. Chapter 4 is new and introduces stress, strain, and electrical properties that relate to manufacturing sensors for mass and force. We apply these concepts in Chapters 5 and 6 that deal with pressure and temperature measurements. In each of these chapters, we first review basic concepts, including thermodynamics. Then we describe the sensors that rely on mechanical and electrical properties.
Chapters 7 and 8 continue with chemical engineering fundamentals of fluid flow and physicochemical properties. The former begins with Bernoulli’s equation and Reynolds number, then lists common flow meters. The three physicochemical properties that Chapter 8 presents include viscosity, thermal conductivity, and diffusion. It demonstrates how these properties are related and introduces non-dimensional numbers. Examples throughout the book help the students grasp the mechanics of solving problems but also to underline pitfalls in solving them. Measuring gas and liquid concentration by chromatography and mass spectrometry is the subject of Chapter 9. In this edition, we dedicate more scope to troubleshooting the chromatographic instruments. Spectroscopic instruments we detail in Chapter 11. This summary includes sections written by eminent chemists. We have selected the most powerful techniques used to characterize the physicochemical properties of solids and include infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, UV/Vis, X-ray absorption, and refractometry Whereas Chapter 11 probes the nature of the solids phases, composition and morphology, Chapter 10 concentrates on powder properties—particle shape, size distribution, density, and surface area. The first edition of this book was a collaborative effort in which Melina Hamdine early on drafted several chapters in French, including Physicochemical Properties, Analysis of Powders and Solids, and Design of Experiments. Prof. Bala Srinivasan contributed to Chapter 3 on experimental design. Katia Senécal was “instrumental” in gathering the essential elements for the chapters, including Measurement Analysis, Pressure, Temperature, and Flow Rate. Prof. Bruno Detuncq collaborated in the revision of these chapters. Danielle Béland led the redaction of the chapter on chromatography to determine concentration, with some assistance from Cristian Neagoe. He also wrote the section concerning spectroscopy. Amina Benamer contributed extensively to this project, including preparing solutions to the problems after each chapter, writing sections related to refractometry and X-ray, and translating. Second-year students from the Department also participated by proposing original problems that were added at the end of each chapter (together with the name of the author of the problem). I would particularly like to recognize Paul Patience for his tremendous contribution throughout the creative process of preparing this manuscript. The depth of his reflection has been appreciated tremendously (LATEX). He also co-authored the section on pyrometry. Christian Patience prepared many of the drawings and Nicolas Patience helped with translating from French to English, as did Nadine Aboussouan.
This second edition is no less a collaborative effort. Ariane Bérard expanded Chapter 3 with examples of experimental designs. Prof. J. Gostick contributed the chapter on Mass and Force instrumentation. Stefano Lucini wrote the section on troubleshooting GC and HPLC instruments, while F. Galli contributed to the section on mass spectrometry with Patrice Perreault, who was devout at identifying errors and proposing additional problems. Marco Rigamonti and He Li wrote sections of Chapter 10. Collaborators on Chapter 11 included Daria C. Boffito, Cristian Neagoe, Giuseppina Cerrato, Claudio Boffito, Gian Luca Chiarello, Claudia L. Bianchi, Marco G. Rigamonti, and Amina Benamer. This chapter is a tremendous contribution to the book because it details simply which instruments measure which physicochemical property and then describes how they work
Legendre nonuniform discrete fourier transform and its application for spectral estimation
No full textCet article introduit une nouvelle transformation de Fourier discrète de précision élevée dénommée la transformation de Fourier discrète non-uniforme de type Legendre (en anglais: Legendre nonuniform discrete Fourier transform, LNDFT). En supposant que les signaux sont réels, ayant une durée finie et aussi une bande de fréquences limitée, le modèle présent est base sur l'estimation de l'ensemble des échantillons non-uniforment prélevés de la transformée de Fourier discrète conformément aux racines du polynôme de Legendre (en définissant la LNDFT), dans le but d'être consistant avec une séquence donnée des échantillons uniformément prélevés dans le temps. Nous avons déduit une formule analytique pour l'inversion de la matrice complexe correspondante de type Van der Monde. A partir de la LNDFT, nous pouvons appliquer un interpolation utilisant les polynômes de Legendre dans le domaine de frequence, basé sur la transformation de Legendre discrète (en anglais: discrete Legendre transform, DLT), pour obtenir une estimation spectrale precise et efficiente
Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Technology,
No full textAbstract- This paper presents an optimum color conversion from the 3D RGB space into a 2D selected space to the purpose of pattern recognition. The method is based on the Karhunen-Loève transform (KLT), also known as Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The resulted 2D space is defined by the two color components (called C1 and C2), corresponding to the two largest eigenvalues of the RGB pixel covariance matrix. Using the above color projection technique, we propose a color face recognition system based on feature fusion of the C1 and C2 components and a concurrent neural network classifier. The proposed system is experimented for a color face database containing 3520 color images of 151 subjects. We also present a color image segmentation using pixel clustering in the 2D color space by means of a self-organizing neural network. The new 2D color projection model may have wide applications in the areas of color-based pattern recognition
CAN THE DETERMINATION OF PROCALCITONIN IN PREHOSPITAL (EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT) BE A USEFUL AND PRECOCIOUS MARKER IN SEPSIS?
No full textOBJECTIVES AND BACKGROUND
The management of sepsis requires a hasty
identification of infection, through the application of
different dynamic strategies in prehospital and hospital
conditions, through the implementation of a number of
changes and by measuring the outcome of these changes
thus ensuring a decrease in the mortality rate and allowing
a rapid identification of the infection
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Procalcitonin (PCT) was used as a marker of sepsis
in emergency departments. Due to its sensitivity and
molecular peculiarities, procalcitonin allows a rapid
diagnosis of severe bacterial infections, and is able to
differentiate viral infections from bacterial ones. It is also
able to differentiate an infectious process from an
inflammation, thus sketching a clinically applicable
protocol that can be implemented and continuously
improved.
RESULTS
The identification of the infectious process in the
emergency department within 24 hours leads to a
decreased in the mortality rate. Speedy diagnostic
methods of infection based on the determination of
specific, rapidly measurable, markers – procalcitonin in
our case - can confirm the presence of sepsis and its’
outcome.
CONCLUSIONS
Prehospital determination of procalcitonin (PCT)
is recommended in the early diagnosis of sepsis and is
also an indicator of its severity, starting from a solid
theoretical database that is justified by the efficiency and
effectiveness of its usage.
Graphical abstract: Laboratory changes of
inflammatory response
REFERENCES
1. Uchil S, Ravi KV, Thimmaiah AK, Medha
YR, Punith K. Significance of serum
procalcitonin in sepsis. Indian J Crit Care
Med. 2011;15:1–5.
2. Todi S, Chatterjee S, Bhattacharyya M.
Epidemiology of severe sepsis in India. Crit
Care Med. 2007;11:65.
3. Chan YL, Tseng CP, Tsay PK, Chang SS,
Chiu TF, Chen JC. Procalcitonin as a marker
of bacterial infection in the emergency
department: an observational study. Crit Care
Med. 2004;8:12-20.
4. Schuetz P, Albrich W, Christ-Crain M,
Chastre J, Mueller B. Procalcitonin for
guidance of antibiotic therapy. Expert Rev
Anti Infect Ther. 2010;8:575-87.
5. Jawad I, Luksic I, Rafnsson SB. Assessing
available information on the burden of sepsis:
Global estimates of incidence, prevalence and
mortality. J Glob Health. 2012;2:010404
Improving pola technioue-for image data compression
No full textDans cet article on présente une méthode nouvelle pour le codage d'images dénommée Ordonation Prédictive et Approximation Linéaire Amélioré (en anglais: Prédictive Ordering and Linear Approximation, I-POLA). En considérant la ligne antérieure reconstruite de l'image, les pixels de la ligne actuelle sont placés dans un ordre décroissant d'amplitudes. La ligne ordonnée est segmentée et la ligne de régression est estimée pour chaque segment. Puis on utilise les raffinements suivants: quantification vectorielle des différences verticales, détection et suppression des suracroissements ainsi que codage de type bloc pour l'image des positions des erreurs de suracroissement. Les résultats de simulation montrent une bonne qualité d'images reconstruites avec un taux d'environ 0,5 bits/pixel. En évaluant une borne supérieure de la fidélité du codage pour la méthode proposée, on a obtenu des résultats très prometteurs
- …
