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Showing papers on "Literature survey published in 2014"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a detailed review of the state-of-the-art for electrochromics and its applications in smart windows and provide ample references to current literature of particular relevance.

801 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper presents a comprehensive survey of existing local surface feature based 3D object recognition methods and enlists a number of popular and contemporary databases together with their relevant attributes.
Abstract: 3D object recognition in cluttered scenes is a rapidly growing research area. Based on the used types of features, 3D object recognition methods can broadly be divided into two categories-global or local feature based methods. Intensive research has been done on local surface feature based methods as they are more robust to occlusion and clutter which are frequently present in a real-world scene. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of existing local surface feature based 3D object recognition methods. These methods generally comprise three phases: 3D keypoint detection, local surface feature description, and surface matching. This paper covers an extensive literature survey of each phase of the process. It also enlists a number of popular and contemporary databases together with their relevant attributes.

563 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review shows that fluoroquinolone antibiotics have a wide spread use and that their behavior during wastewater treatment is complex with an incomplete removal, and that these biorecalcitrant compounds are present in different environmental matrices at potentially hazardous concentrations for the aquatic environment.

522 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a review of some local approaches applicable near stress raisers both sharp and blunt V-notches, which has been recently applied to assess the brittle failure of a large number of materials.
Abstract: Brittle failure of components weakened by cracks or sharp and blunt V-notches is a topic of active and continuous research. It is attractive for all researchers who face the problem of fracture of materials under different loading conditions and deals with a large number of applications in different engineering fields, not only with the mechanical one. This topic is significant in all the cases where intrinsic defects of the material or geometrical discontinuities give rise to localized stress concentration which, in brittle materials, may generate a crack leading to catastrophic failure or to a shortening of the assessed structural life. Whereas cracks are viewed as unpleasant entities in most engineering materials, U- and V-notches of different acuities are sometimes deliberately introduced in design and manufacturing of structural components. Dealing with brittle failure of notched components and summarizing some recent experimental results reported in the literature, the main aim of the present contribution is to present a review of some local approaches applicable near stress raisers both sharp and blunt. The reviewed criteria allowed the present authors to develop a new approach based on the volume strain energy density (SED), which has been recently applied to assess the brittle failure of a large number of materials. The main features of the SED approach are outlined in the paper and its peculiarities and advantages accurately underlined. Some examples of applications are reported, as well. The present review is based on the authors’ experience over more than 15 years and the contents of their personal library. It is not a dispassionate literature survey.

435 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a state of the art on the review of adsorption isotherm models in an exhaustive manner on the basis of two, three, four and five parameters respectively.
Abstract: Industries generating wastewater with elevated concentrations of pollutants (e.g. metals, dyes, phenolic compounds, anions, etc.) need specialized atreatment systems. Adsorption is one of the most extensively applied techniques for the removal of pollutants from the industrial effluents. The prominent and emerging trend of subjecting biosorbent in the adsorption technology is mainly because of their natural existence, abundance, renewable, biodegradable and economic features. The adsorption isotherm equations used to describe the experimental data and the thermodynamic assumptions of the models often provide some insight into the sorption mechanism, the surface properties and affinity of the biosorbent. This paper presents a state of the art on the review of adsorption isotherm models in an exhaustive manner on the basis of two, three, four and five parameters respectively. Focuses on the various sources of agricultural byproducts as biosorbents and describes on the potential applications of different adsorption isotherm models for the evaluation of the wastewater pollutants biosorption. It is evident from the literature survey that various adsorption isotherm models have been considered under study by the researchers but mostly two and three parameter isotherm model were best fitted the equilibrium data. This paper reviews the adsorption isotherm models on the basis of parameters that can be applied for exploring a novel biosorbents.

366 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors have briefly described important vegetable oils (VO) derived materials such as alkyds, polyesteramides, polyetheramides and polyurethanes, epoxies, polyols, along with their preparation and applications as protective coatings.

344 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Although no prospective trial has yet been completed to evaluate the clinical significance of these serum markers, this literature survey suggests that combinations of CEA, CA19-9, and CA72-4 are the most effective ways for staging before surgery or chemotherapy.
Abstract: The aim of this review was to evaluate the clinical significance of serum tumor markers, particularly CEA, CA19-9, and CA72-4, in patients with gastric cancer. A systematic literature search was performed using PubMed/MEDLINE with the keywords “gastric cancer” and “tumor marker,” to select 4,925 relevant reports published before the end of November 2012. A total of 187 publications contained data for CEA and CA19-9, and 19 publications contained data related to all three tumor markers. The positive rates were 21.1 % for CEA, 27.8 % for CA19-9, and 30.0 % for CA72-4. These three markers were significantly associated with tumor stage and patient survival. Serum markers are not useful for early cancer, but they are useful for detecting recurrence and distant metastasis, predicting patient survival, and monitoring after surgery. Tumor marker monitoring may be useful for patients after surgery because the positive conversion of tumor markers usually occurs 2–3 months before imaging abnormalities. Among other tumor markers, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is useful for detecting and predicting liver metastases. Moreover, CA125 and sialyl Tn antigens (STN) are useful for detecting peritoneal metastases. Although no prospective trial has yet been completed to evaluate the clinical significance of these serum markers, this literature survey suggests that combinations of CEA, CA19-9, and CA72-4 are the most effective ways for staging before surgery or chemotherapy. In particular, monitoring tumor markers that were elevated before surgery or chemotherapy could be useful for detection of recurrence or evaluation of the response.

343 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A categorisation of the ME literature based on the implicit problem space partitioning using a tacit competitive process between the experts is presented, and the first group is called the mixture of implicitly localised experts (MILE), and the second is called mixture of explicitly localised Experts (MELE), as it uses pre-specified clusters.
Abstract: Mixture of experts (ME) is one of the most popular and interesting combining methods, which has great potential to improve performance in machine learning. ME is established based on the divide-and-conquer principle in which the problem space is divided between a few neural network experts, supervised by a gating network. In earlier works on ME, different strategies were developed to divide the problem space between the experts. To survey and analyse these methods more clearly, we present a categorisation of the ME literature based on this difference. Various ME implementations were classified into two groups, according to the partitioning strategies used and both how and when the gating network is involved in the partitioning and combining procedures. In the first group, The conventional ME and the extensions of this method stochastically partition the problem space into a number of subspaces using a special employed error function, and experts become specialised in each subspace. In the second group, the problem space is explicitly partitioned by the clustering method before the experts' training process starts, and each expert is then assigned to one of these sub-spaces. Based on the implicit problem space partitioning using a tacit competitive process between the experts, we call the first group the mixture of implicitly localised experts (MILE), and the second group is called mixture of explicitly localised experts (MELE), as it uses pre-specified clusters. The properties of both groups are investigated in comparison with each other. Investigation of MILE versus MELE, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each group, showed that the two approaches have complementary features. Moreover, the features of the ME method are compared with other popular combining methods, including boosting and negative correlation learning methods. As the investigated methods have complementary strengths and limitations, previous researches that attempted to combine their features in integrated approaches are reviewed and, moreover, some suggestions are proposed for future research directions.

325 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The dissolution effects were confirmed by cell culture experiments (human mesenchymal stem cells and neutrophil granulocytes) where silver nanoparticles that were stored under argon had a clearly lower cytotoxicity than those stored under air.
Abstract: Silver ions and silver nanoparticles have a well-known biological effect that typically occurs in biological or environmental media of complex composition. Silver nanoparticles release silver ions if oxidizing species like molecular oxygen or hydrogen peroxide are present. The presence of glucose as a model for reducing sugars has only a small effect on the dissolution rate. In the presence of chloride ions, precipitation of silver chloride nanoparticles occurs. At physiological salt concentrations, no precipitation of silver phosphate occurs as the precipitation of silver chloride always occurs first. If the surface of a silver nanoparticle is passivated by cysteine, the dissolution is quantitatively inhibited. Upon immersion of silver nanoparticles in pure water for 8 months, leading to about 50% dissolution, no change in the surface was observed by transmission electron microscopy. A model for the dissolution was derived from immersion and dissolution experiments in different media and from high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. A literature survey on the available data on the dissolution of silver nanoparticles showed that only qualitative trends can be identified as the nature of the nanoparticles and of the immersion medium are practically never comparable. The dissolution effects were confirmed by cell culture experiments (human mesenchymal stem cells and neutrophil granulocytes) where silver nanoparticles that were stored under argon had a clearly lower cytotoxicity than those stored under air. They also led to a less formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). This underscores that silver ions are the toxic species.

324 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
04 Mar 2014-Sensors
TL;DR: It is found that more inter-organizational collaboration, user-centered studies, increased standardization efforts, and a focus on open systems is needed to achieve more interoperable and synergetic AAL solutions.
Abstract: Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is an emerging multi-disciplinary field aiming at exploiting information and communication technologies in personal healthcare and telehealth systems for countering the effects of growing elderly population. AAL systems are developed for personalized, adaptive, and anticipatory requirements, necessitating high quality-of-service to achieve interoperability, usability, security, and accuracy. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the AAL field with a focus on healthcare frameworks, platforms, standards, and quality attributes. To achieve this, we conducted a literature survey of state-of-the-art AAL frameworks, systems and platforms to identify the essential aspects of AAL systems and investigate the critical issues from the design, technology, quality-of-service, and user experience perspectives. In addition, we conducted an email-based survey for collecting usage data and current status of contemporary AAL systems. We found that most AAL systems are confined to a limited set of features ignoring many of the essential AAL system aspects. Standards and technologies are used in a limited and isolated manner, while quality attributes are often addressed insufficiently. In conclusion, we found that more inter-organizational collaboration, user-centered studies, increased standardization efforts, and a focus on open systems is needed to achieve more interoperable and synergetic AAL solutions.

305 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A comprehensive review on the history and current state-of-the art of piezoelectric energy harvesting is presented and the issues that need to be addressed for realization of practical piezOElectricEnergy harvesting devices are discussed.
Abstract: Piezoelectric energy harvesting has attracted wide attention from researchers especially in the last decade due to its advantages such as high power density, architectural simplicity, and scalability. As a result, the number of studies on piezoelectric energy harvesting published in the last 5 years is more than twice the sum of publications on its electromagnetic and electrostatic counterparts. This paper presents a comprehensive review on the history and current state-of-the art of piezoelectric energy harvesting. A brief theory section presents the basic principles of piezoelectric energy conversion and introduces the most commonly used mechanical architectures. The theory section is followed by a literature survey on piezoelectric energy harvesters, which are classified into three groups: (i) macro- and mesoscale, (ii) MEMS scale, and (iii) nanoscale. The size of a piezoelectric energy harvester affects a variety of parameters such as its weight, fabrication method, achievable power output level, and potential application areas. Consequently, size-based classification provides a reliable and effective basis to study various piezoelectric energy harvesters. The literature survey on each scale group is concluded with a summary, potential application areas, and future directions. In a separate section, the most prominent challenges in piezoelectric energy harvesting and the studies focusing on these challenges are discussed. The conclusion part summarizes the current standing of piezoelectric energy harvesters as possible candidates for various applications and discusses the issues that need to be addressed for realization of practical piezoelectric energy harvesting devices.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the specific drivers and barriers for rural electrification in Mozambique and Tanzania are explored across a spectrum of involved actors by qualitative methodology, and data was collected both in semi-structured interviews carried out with power sector actors from national to local level and in visits to off-grid electricity users in Tanzania and Mozambica during eight weeks in 2010.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The presented data is valuable for mathematical models that predict tissue temperature during thermal therapies (e.g. hyperthermia or thermal ablation), as well as for applications related to prediction and monitoring of temperature induced tissue changes.
Abstract: The application of supraphysiological temperatures (>40°C) to biological tissues causes changes at the molecular, cellular, and structural level, with corresponding changes in tissue function and in thermal, mechanical and dielectric tissue properties. This is particularly relevant for image-guided thermal treatments (e.g. hyperthermia and thermal ablation) delivering heat via focused ultrasound (FUS), radiofrequency (RF), microwave (MW), or laser energy; temperature induced changes in tissue properties are of relevance in relation to predicting tissue temperature profile, monitoring during treatment, and evaluation of treatment results. This paper presents a literature survey of temperature dependence of electrical (electrical conductivity, resistivity, permittivity) and thermal tissue properties (thermal conductivity, specific heat, diffusivity). Data of soft tissues (liver, prostate, muscle, kidney, uterus, collagen, myocardium and spleen) for temperatures between 5 to 90°C, and dielectric properties in the frequency range between 460 kHz and 3 GHz are reported. Furthermore, perfusion changes in tumors including carcinomas, sarcomas, rhabdomyosarcoma, adenocarcinoma and ependymoblastoma in response to hyperthmic temperatures up to 46°C are presented. Where appropriate, mathematical models to describe temperature dependence of properties are presented. The presented data is valuable for mathematical models that predict tissue temperature during thermal therapies (e.g. hyperthermia or thermal ablation), as well as for applications related to prediction and monitoring of temperature induced tissue changes.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a literature survey of peer-reviewed journal articles, survey reports, master theses, doctoral theses and paradigmatic books with managerial impact is used as the research methodology.
Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of research on lean focusing on barriers in its implementation through a systematic literature survey. Design/methodology/approach – A literature survey of peer-reviewed journal articles, survey reports, master theses, doctoral theses and paradigmatic books with managerial impact is used as the research methodology. Findings – The findings derived from the evaluation of the publications analyzed have led to the identification of 24 lean barriers. The success of lean implementation will not be entirely based on application of appropriate tools and techniques alone but also on the top managements' involvement and leadership, workers' attitude, resources and the organizational culture. Research limitations/implications – This literature survey is primarily focused on lean implementation in the manufacturing sector. Practical implications – This paper explores barriers for successful lean implementation and provides a concise description of the bar...

Journal ArticleDOI
11 Mar 2014-PLOS ONE
TL;DR: Simulation of realistic assay conditions revealed that interference could not be predicted solely by interactions between nanoparticles and assay components, and guidance on avoiding and/or controlling for such interference is provided to improve the accuracy of nanotoxicity assessments.
Abstract: The evaluation of engineered nanomaterial safety has been hindered by conflicting reports demonstrating differential degrees of toxicity with the same nanoparticles. The unique properties of these materials increase the likelihood that they will interfere with analytical techniques, which may contribute to this phenomenon. We tested the potential for: 1) nanoparticle intrinsic fluorescence/absorbance, 2) interactions between nanoparticles and assay components, and 3) the effects of adding both nanoparticles and analytes to an assay, to interfere with the accurate assessment of toxicity. Silicon, cadmium selenide, titanium dioxide, and helical rosette nanotubes each affected at least one of the six assays tested, resulting in either substantial over- or under-estimations of toxicity. Simulation of realistic assay conditions revealed that interference could not be predicted solely by interactions between nanoparticles and assay components. Moreover, the nature and degree of interference cannot be predicted solely based on our current understanding of nanomaterial behaviour. A literature survey indicated that ca. 95% of papers from 2010 using biochemical techniques to assess nanotoxicity did not account for potential interference of nanoparticles, and this number had not substantially improved in 2012. We provide guidance on avoiding and/or controlling for such interference to improve the accuracy of nanotoxicity assessments.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, an overview of new and current developments in wind forecasting is given where the focus lies upon principles and practical implementations, and the authors give a literature survey on the categories and major methods of wind forecasting.
Abstract: In this paper, an overview of new and current developments in wind forecasting is given where the focus lies upon principles and practical implementations High penetration of wind power in the electricity system provides many challenges to the power system operators, mainly due to the unpredictability and variability of wind power generation Although wind energy may not be dispatched, an accurate forecasting method of wind speed and power generation can help the power system operators reduce the risk of unreliability of electricity supply This paper gives a literature survey on the categories and major methods of wind forecasting Based on the assessment of wind speed and power forecasting methods, the future development direction of wind forecasting is proposed

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a comprehensive literature survey on the impact of the hukou system on the Chinese labor market and economy and show that the current hukhou system has a negative impact on rural-to-urban migration in China as well as on economic efficiency and equality.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a comprehensive review on planning of grid integrated distributed generators is presented, where different issues associated with DG integration have been discussed and different techniques used for optimal placement of DGs have also been investigated and compared.
Abstract: The world is witnessing a transition from its present centralized generation paradigm to a future with increased share of distributed generation (DG). Integration of renewable energy sources (RES) based distributed generators is seen as a solution to decrease reliance on depleting fossil fuel reserves, increase energy security and provide an environment friendly solution to growing power demand. The planning of power system incorporating DGs has to take into account various factors such as nature of DG technology, impact of DG on operating characteristics of power system and economic considerations. This paper put forwards a comprehensive review on planning of grid integrated distributed generators. An overview of different DG technologies has been presented. Different issues associated with DG integration have been discussed. The planning objectives of DG integration have been surveyed in detail and have been critically reviewed with respect to conventional and RES based DG technologies. Different techniques used for optimal placement of DGs have also been investigated and compared. The extensive literature survey revealed that researchers have mostly focussed on DG integration planning using conventional DGs. RES based DGs have not been given due consideration. While integrating RES, their stochastic behaviour has not been appropriately accounted. Finally, visualizing the wide scope of research in the planning of grid integrated DGs; an attempt has been made to identify future research avenues.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Eggshell membrane is a unique biomaterial, which is generally considered as waste, but has extraordinary properties which can be utilized in various fields and its potential applications are therefore now being widely studied.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the application of TiO2-SiO2 binary mixed oxide materials for wastewater treatment is explained, and it is evident from the literature survey that these mixed-oxide materials have enhanced abilities to remove a wide variety of pollutants.
Abstract: The direct release of untreated wastewaters from various industries and households results in the release of toxic pollutants to the aquatic environment. Advanced oxidation processes (AOP) have gained wide attention owing to the prospect of complete mineralization of nonbiodegradable organic substances to environmentally innocuous products by chemical oxidation. In particular, heterogeneous photocatalysis has been demonstrated to have tremendous promise in water purification and treatment of several pollutant materials that include naturally occurring toxins, pesticides, and other deleterious contaminants. In this work, we have reviewed the different removal techniques that have been employed for water purification. In particular, the application of TiO2-SiO2 binary mixed oxide materials for wastewater treatment is explained herein, and it is evident from the literature survey that these mixed oxide materials have enhanced abilities to remove a wide variety of pollutants.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Categorize and evaluate algorithms for visual search reranking, which reorders visual documents based on multimodal cues to improve initial text-only searches, and discuss relevant issues such as data collection, evaluation metrics, and benchmarking.
Abstract: The explosive growth and widespread accessibility of community-contributed media content on the Internet have led to a surge of research activity in multimedia search. Approaches that apply text search techniques for multimedia search have achieved limited success as they entirely ignore visual content as a ranking signal. Multimedia search reranking, which reorders visual documents based on multimodal cues to improve initial text-only searches, has received increasing attention in recent years. Such a problem is challenging because the initial search results often have a great deal of noise. Discovering knowledge or visual patterns from such a noisy ranked list to guide the reranking process is difficult. Numerous techniques have been developed for visual search re-ranking. The purpose of this paper is to categorize and evaluate these algorithms. We also discuss relevant issues such as data collection, evaluation metrics, and benchmarking. We conclude with several promising directions for future research.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is suggested that predictions regarding the construction of barrier zones around breeding sites can be made based on mosquito and host density and human nuisance perception, and that barrier zone usefulness strongly depends on the mosquito species involved.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The present results suggest that the usage of products containing PFRs in the Philippines is higher than those of Japan and Vietnam, and that these differences might be due to their variation in the Usage of flame-retarded products utilized in each country.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify the important role of summertime stationary Rossby waves in the development of the leading patterns of monthly Eurasian surface temperature and precipitation variability and quantification the predictability of the most extreme simulated heat wave/drought events.
Abstract: This article reviews our understanding of the characteristics and causes of northern Eurasian summertime heat waves and droughts. Additional insights into the nature of temperature and precipitation variability in Eurasia on monthly to decadal time scales and into the causes and predictability of the most extreme events are gained from the latest generation of reanalyses and from supplemental simulations with the NASA GEOS-5 AGCM. Key new results are: 1) the identification of the important role of summertime stationary Rossby waves in the development of the leading patterns of monthly Eurasian surface temperature and precipitation variability (including the development of extreme events such as the 2010 Russian heat wave), 2) an assessment of the mean temperature and precipitation changes that have occurred over northern Eurasia in the last three decades and their connections to decadal variability and global trends in SST, and 3) the quantification (via a case study) of the predictability of the most extreme simulated heat wave/drought events, with some focus on the role of soil moisture in the development and maintenance of such events. A literature survey indicates a general consensus that the future holds an enhanced probability of heat waves across northern Eurasia, while there is less agreement regarding future drought, reflecting a greater uncertainty in soil moisture and precipitation projections. Substantial uncertainties remain in our understanding of heat waves and drought, including the nature of the interactions between the short-term atmospheric variability associated with such extremes and the longer-term variability and trends associated with soil moisture feedbacks, SST anomalies, and an overall warming world.

Journal ArticleDOI
31 Mar 2014-Energies
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the key features of micro-grids and provide a comprehensive literature survey on the stochastic modeling and optimization tools for a microgrid, and identify future research directions.
Abstract: The future smart grid is expected to be an interconnected network of small-scale and self-contained microgrids, in addition to a large-scale electric power backbone. By utilizing microsources, such as renewable energy sources and combined heat and power plants, microgrids can supply electrical and heat loads in local areas in an economic and environment friendly way. To better adopt the intermittent and weather-dependent renewable power generation, energy storage devices, such as batteries, heat buffers and plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) with vehicle-to-grid systems can be integrated in microgrids. However, significant technical challenges arise in the planning, operation and control of microgrids, due to the randomness in renewable power generation, the buffering effect of energy storage devices and the high mobility of PEVs. The two-way communication functionalities of the future smart grid provide an opportunity to address these challenges, by offering the communication links for microgrid status information collection. However, how to utilize stochastic modeling and optimization tools for efficient, reliable and economic planning, operation and control of microgrids remains an open issue. In this paper, we investigate the key features of microgrids and provide a comprehensive literature survey on the stochastic modeling and optimization tools for a microgrid. Future research directions are also identified.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The main goals are the historical reconstruction of scientific development of the OWA field, the identification of the dominant direction of knowledge accumulation that emerged since the publication of the first OWA paper, and to discover the most active lines of research.
Abstract: This study surveys the ordered weighted averaging OWA operator literature using a citation network analysis. The main goals are the historical reconstruction of scientific development of the OWA field, the identification of the dominant direction of knowledge accumulation that emerged since the publication of the first OWA paper, and to discover the most active lines of research. The results suggest, as expected, that Yager's paperIEEE Trans. Systems Man Cybernet, 181, 183-190, 1988 is the most influential paper and the starting point of all other research using OWA. Starting from his contribution, other lines of research developed and we describe them.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Results from two ERP studies report results that indicate a dissociation between brain processes relating to written words sentential predictability versus plausibility, clearly an important distinction for any viable neural or psycholinguistic model of written sentence processing.

Book
16 Jun 2014
TL;DR: This key resource will prove useful to students and engineers wanting to learn type-2 fuzzy control theory and its applications.
Abstract: Written by world-class leaders in type-2 fuzzy logic control, this book offers a self-contained reference for both researchers and students. The coverage provides both background and an extensive literature survey on fuzzy logic and related type-2 fuzzy control. It also includes research questions, experiment and simulation results, and downloadable computer programs on an associated website. This key resource will prove useful to students and engineers wanting to learn type-2 fuzzy control theory and its applications.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Gaps identified in epidemiological knowledge regarding dengue disease in Thailand provide several avenues for future research, in particular studies of seroprevalence.
Abstract: A literature survey and analysis was conducted to describe the epidemiology of dengue disease in Thailand reported between 2000 and 2011. The literature search identified 610 relevant sources, 40 of which fulfilled the inclusion criteria defined in the review protocol. Peaks in the number of cases occurred during the review period in 2001, 2002, 2008 and 2010. A shift in age group predominance towards older ages continued through the review period. Disease incidence and deaths remained highest in children aged ≤15 years and case fatality rates were highest in young children. Heterogeneous geographical patterns were observed with higher incidence rates reported in the Southern region and serotype distribution varied in time and place. Gaps identified in epidemiological knowledge regarding dengue disease in Thailand provide several avenues for future research, in particular studies of seroprevalence.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is evident from the literature that Citrullus colocynthis possesses a wide range of medicinal uses and has been well studied for its antidiabetic, anticancer, antioxidant, antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activities, while its therapeutic potential for gut, airways and cardiovascular disorders remains to be explored.