Reduction of Cracks in Marble Appeared at Hydro-Abrasive Jet Cutting Using Taguchi Method.

The appearance of cracks in brittle materials in general and in marble, in particular, is a problem in the hydro-abrasive jet cutting process. In this paper is presented a method to reduce the appearance of cracks when cutting with a hydro-abrasive jet of marble by using statistical analysis. The Taguchi method was used, establishing the main parameters that influence the process.

EEG-Brain Activity Monitoring and Predictive Analysis of Signals Using Artificial Neural Networks.

Predictive observation and real-time analysis of the values of biomedical signals and automatic detection of epileptic seizures before onset are beneficial for the development of warning systems for patients because the patient, once informed that an epilepsy seizure is about to start, can take safety measures in useful time. In this article, Daubechies discrete wavelet transform (DWT) was used, coupled with analysis of the correlations between biomedical signals that measure the electrical activity in the brain by electroencephalogram (EEG), electrical currents generated in muscles by electromyogram (EMG), and heart rate monitoring by photoplethysmography (PPG). In addition, we used artificial neural networks (ANN) for automatic detection of epileptic seizures before onset.

Linking minimum inhibitory concentrations to whole genome sequence-predicted drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains from Romania.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis drug resistance poses a major threat to tuberculosis control. Current phenotypic tests for drug susceptibility are time-consuming, technically complex, and expensive. Whole genome sequencing is a promising alternative, though the impact of different drug resistance mutations on the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) remains to be investigated.