Abstract: The purpose of our study was to compare spontaneous
re-epithelisation characteristics versus assisted re-epithelisation. In
order to assess re-epithelisation of the injured skin, we have imagined
and designed a burn wound model on Wistar rat skin. Our aim was to
create standardised, easy reproducible and quantifiable skin lesions
involving entire epidermis and superficial dermis. We then have
applied the above mentioned therapeutic strategies to compare
regeneration of epidermis and dermis, local and systemic parameter
changes in different conditions. We have enhanced the reepithelisation
process under a moist atmosphere of a polyurethane
wound dress modified with helium non-thermal plasma, and with the
aid of direct cold-plasma treatment respectively. We have followed
systemic parameters change: hematologic and biochemical
parameters, and local features: oxidative stress markers and histology
of skin in the above mentioned conditions. Re-epithelisation is just a
part of the skin regeneration process, which recruits cellular
components, with the aid of epidermal and dermal interaction via
signal molecules.
Abstract: In this study, we report the synthesis and
characterization of nanohydroxyapatite (nHAp) in gelatin-starch
matrix via biomimetic method. Characterization of the samples was
performed using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform
infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The Size and morphology of the
nHAp samples were determined using scanning and transmission
electron microscopy (SEM and TEM). The results reveal that the
shape and morphology of nHAp is influenced by presence of
biopolymers as template. Carbonyl and amino groups from gelatin
and hydroxyl from starch play crucial roles in HAp formation on the
surface of gelatin-starch.
Abstract: In the competitive environment of aircraft industries it becomes absolutely necessary to improve the efficiency, performance of the aircrafts to reduce the development and operating costs considerably, in order to capitalize the market. An important contribution to improve the efficiency and performance can be
achieved by decreasing the aircraft weight through considerable
usage of composite materials in primary aircraft structures. In this study, a type of composite material called Carbon Fiber Reinforced
Plastic (CFRP) is explored for the usage is aircraft skin panels. Even
though there were plenty of studies and research has been already
carried out, here a practical example of an aircraft skin panel is taken
and substantiated the benefits of composites material usage over the
metallic skin panel. A crown skin panel of a commercial aircraft is
designed using both metal and composite materials. Stress analysis
has been carried out for both and margin of safety is estimated for the
critical load cases. The skin panels are compared for manufacturing,
tooling, assembly and cost parameters. Detail step by step comparison between metal and composite constructions are studied
and results are tabulated for better understanding.
Abstract: Arms detection is one of the fundamental problems in
human motion analysis application. The arms are considered as the
most challenging body part to be detected since its pose and speed
varies in image sequences. Moreover, the arms are usually occluded
with other body parts such as the head and torso. In this paper,
histogram-based skin colour segmentation is proposed to detect the
arms in image sequences. Six different colour spaces namely RGB,
rgb, HSI, TSL, SCT and CIELAB are evaluated to determine the best
colour space for this segmentation procedure. The evaluation is
divided into three categories, which are single colour component,
colour without luminance and colour with luminance. The
performance is measured using True Positive (TP) and True Negative
(TN) on 250 images with manual ground truth. The best colour is
selected based on the highest TN value followed by the highest TP
value.
Abstract: Fly ash is a significant waste that is released of
thermal power plants and defined as very fine particles that are drifted upward with up taken by the flue gases due to the burning of
used coal [1]. The fly-ash is capable of removing organic
contaminants in consequence of high carbon content, a large surface area per unit volume and contained heavy metals. Therefore, fly ash
is used as an effective coagulant and adsorbent by pelletization [2, 3].
In this study, the possibility of use of fly ash taken from Turkey like low-cost adsorbent for adsorption of zinc ions found in waste
water was investigated. The fly ash taken from Turkey was pelletized with bentonite and molass to evaluate the adsorption capaticity. For
this purpose; analyses such as sieve analysis, XRD, XRF, FTIR and SEM were performed. As a result, it was seen that pellets prepared
from fly ash, bentonite and molass would be used for zinc adsorption.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose a Perceptually Optimized Foveation based Embedded ZeroTree Image Coder (POEFIC) that introduces a perceptual weighting to wavelet coefficients prior to control SPIHT encoding algorithm in order to reach a targeted bit rate with a perceptual quality improvement with respect to a given bit rate a fixation point which determines the region of interest ROI. The paper also, introduces a new objective quality metric based on a Psychovisual model that integrates the properties of the HVS that plays an important role in our POEFIC quality assessment. Our POEFIC coder is based on a vision model that incorporates various masking effects of human visual system HVS perception. Thus, our coder weights the wavelet coefficients based on that model and attempts to increase the perceptual quality for a given bit rate and observation distance. The perceptual weights for all wavelet subbands are computed based on 1) foveation masking to remove or reduce considerable high frequencies from peripheral regions 2) luminance and Contrast masking, 3) the contrast sensitivity function CSF to achieve the perceptual decomposition weighting. The new perceptually optimized codec has the same complexity as the original SPIHT techniques. However, the experiments results show that our coder demonstrates very good performance in terms of quality measurement.
Abstract: The objective of the present study was to evaluate the
potential of hollow microneedles for enhancing the transdermal
delivery of Bovine Serum Albumin (MW~66,000 Da)-Fluorescein
Isothiocyanate (BSA-FITC) conjugate, a hydrophilic large molecular
compound. Moreover, the effect of different formulations was
evaluated. The series of binary mixtures composed of propylene
glycol (PG) and pH 7.4 phosphate buffer solution (PBS) was
prepared and used as a medium for BSA-FITC. The results showed
that there was no permeation of BSA-FITC solution across the
neonatal porcine skin without using hollow microneedles, whereas
the cumulative amount of BSA-FITC released at 8 h through the
neonatal porcine skin was about 60-70% when using hollow
microneedles. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that the higher
volume of PG in binary mixtures injected, the lower cumulative
amount of BSA-FITC released and release rate of BSA-FITC from
skin. These release profiles of BSA-FITC in binary mixtures were
expressed by Fick-s law of diffusion. These results suggest the
utilization of hollow microneedle to enhance transdermal delivery of
protein and provide useful information for designing an effective
hollow microneedle system.
Abstract: In an assessment of the extractability of metals in
green liquor dregs from the chemical recovery circuit of semichemical
pulp mill, extractable concentrations of heavy metals in
artificial gastric fluid were between 10 (Ni) and 717 (Zn) times
higher than those in artificial sweat fluid. Only Al (6.7 mg/kg; d.w.),
Ni (1.2 mg/kg; d.w.) and Zn (1.8 mg/kg; d.w.) showed extractability
in the artificial sweat fluid, whereas Al (730 mg/kg; d.w.), Ba (770
mg/kg; d.w.) and Zn (1290 mg/kg; d.w.) showed clear extractability
in the artificial gastric fluid. As certain heavy metals were clearly
soluble in the artificial gastric fluid, the careful handling of this
residue is recommended in order to prevent the penetration of green
liquor dregs across the human gastrointestinal tract.
Abstract: Understanding the cell's large-scale organization is an
interesting task in computational biology. Thus, protein-protein
interactions can reveal important organization and function of the
cell. Here, we investigated the correspondence between protein
interactions and function for the yeast. We obtained the correlations
among the set of proteins. Then these correlations are clustered using
both the hierarchical and biclustering methods. The detailed analyses
of proteins in each cluster were carried out by making use of their
functional annotations. As a result, we found that some functional
classes appear together in almost all biclusters. On the other hand, in
hierarchical clustering, the dominancy of one functional class is
observed. In brief, from interaction data to function, some correlated
results are noticed about the relationship between interaction and
function which might give clues about the organization of the
proteins.
Abstract: The hydromagnetic flow of a Maxwell fluid past a vertical stretching sheet with thermophoresis is considered. The impact of chemical reaction species to the flow is analyzed for the first time by using the homotopy analysis method (HAM). The h-curves for the flow boundary layer equations are presented graphically. Several values of wall skin friction, heat and mass transfer are obtained and discussed.
Abstract: The present paper considers the steady free
convection boundary layer flow of a viscoelastics fluid with constant
temperature in the presence of heat generation. The boundary layer
equations are an order higher than those for the Newtonian (viscous)
fluid and the adherence boundary conditions are insufficient to
determine the solution of these equations completely. The governing
boundary layer equations are first transformed into non-dimensional
form by using special dimensionless group. Computations are
performed numerically by using Keller-box method by augmenting
an extra boundary condition at infinity and the results are displayed
graphically to illustrate the influence of viscoelastic K, heat
generation γ , and Prandtl Number, Pr parameters on the velocity
and temperature profiles. The results of the surface shear stress in
terms of the local skin friction and the surface rate of heat transfer in
terms of the local Nusselt number for a selection of the heat
generation parameterγ (=0.0, 0.2, 0.5, 0.8, 1.0) are obtained and
presented in both tabular and graphical formats. Without effect of the
internal heat generation inside the fluid domain for which we take
γ = 0.0, the present numerical results show an excellent agreement
with previous publication.
Abstract: Discharges in hydrogen, ignited by wire explosion, with current amplitude up to 1.5 MA were investigated. Channel diameter oscillations were observed on the photostreaks. Voltage and current curves correlated with the photostreaks. At initial gas pressure of 5-35 MPa the oscillation period was proportional to square root of atomic number of the initiating wire material. These oscillations were associated with aligned magnetic and gas-kinetic pressures. At initial pressure of 80-160 MPa acoustic pressure fluctuations on the discharge chamber wall were increased up to 150 MPa and there were the growth of voltage fluctuations on the discharge gap up to 3 kV simultaneously with it. In some experiments it was observed abrupt increase in the oscillation amplitude, which can be caused by the resonance of the acoustic oscillations in discharge chamber volume and the oscillations connected with alignment of the gaskinetic pressure and the magnetic pressure, as far as frequencies of these oscillations are close to each other in accordance with the estimates and the experimental data. Resonance of different type oscillations can produce energy density increasing in the discharge channel. Thus, the appropriate initial conditions in the experiment allow to increase the energy density in the discharge channel
Abstract: Nanotechnology is the science of creating, using and
manipulating objects which have at least one dimension in range of
0.1 to 100 nanometers. In other words, nanotechnology is
reconstructing a substance using its individual atoms and arranging
them in a way that is desirable for our purpose.
The main reason that nanotechnology has been attracting
attentions is the unique properties that objects show when they are
formed at nano-scale. These differing characteristics that nano-scale
materials show compared to their nature-existing form is both useful
in creating high quality products and dangerous when being in
contact with body or spread in environment.
In order to control and lower the risk of such nano-scale particles,
the main following three topics should be considered:
1) First of all, these materials would cause long term diseases that
may show their effects on body years after being penetrated in human
organs and since this science has become recently developed in
industrial scale not enough information is available about their
hazards on body.
2) The second is that these particles can easily spread out in
environment and remain in air, soil or water for very long time,
besides their high ability to penetrate body skin and causing new
kinds of diseases.
3) The third one is that to protect body and environment against
the danger of these particles, the protective barriers must be finer than
these small objects and such defenses are hard to accomplish.
This paper will review, discuss and assess the risks that human and
environment face as this new science develops at a high rate.
Abstract: There is a great deal of interest in constructing Double Skin Facade (DSF) structures which are considered as modern movement in field of Energy Conservation, renewable energies, and Architecture design. This trend provides many conclusive alternatives which are frequently associated with sustainable building. In this paper a building with Double Skin Facade is considered in the semiarid climate of Tehran, Iran, in order to consider the DSF-s performance during hot seasons. Mathematical formulations calculate solar heat gain by the external skin. Moreover, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations were performed on the case study building to enhance effectiveness of the facade. The conclusion divulged difference of gained energy by the cavity and room with and without blind and louvers. Some solutions were introduced to surge the performance of natural ventilation by plunging the cooling loads in summer.
Abstract: The anomalous generation of plasma blocks by
interaction of petawatt-picosecond laser pulses permits side-on
ignition of uncompressed solid fusion fuel following an improved
application of the hydrodynamic Chu-model for deuterium-tritium.
The new possibility of side-on laser ignition depends on accelerated
ions and produced ions beams of high energy particles by the
nonlinear ponderomotive force of the laser pulse in the plasma block,
a re-evaluation of the early hydrodynamic analysis for ignition of
inertial fusion by including inhibition factor, collective effect of
stopping power of alpha particles and the energy loss rate
reabsorption to plasma by the protons of plasma blocks being
reduced by about a factor 40.
Abstract: Skin color based tracking techniques often assume a
static skin color model obtained either from an offline set of library
images or the first few frames of a video stream. These models
can show a weak performance in presence of changing lighting or
imaging conditions. We propose an adaptive skin color model based
on the Gaussian mixture model to handle the changing conditions.
Initial estimation of the number and weights of skin color clusters
are obtained using a modified form of the general Expectation
maximization algorithm, The model adapts to changes in imaging
conditions and refines the model parameters dynamically using spatial
and temporal constraints. Experimental results show that the method
can be used in effectively tracking of hand and face regions.
Abstract: Physical and mechanical properties of Russian olive
fruits were measured at moisture content of 14.43% w.b. The results
revealed that the mean length, width and thickness of Russian olive
fruits were 20.72, 15.73 and 14.69mm, respectively. Mean mass and
volume of Russian olive fruits were measured as 1.45 g and 2.55 cm3,
respectively. The sphericity, aspect ratio and surface area were
calculated as 0.81, 0.72 and 8.96 cm2, respectively, while arithmetic
mean diameter, geometric mean diameter and equivalent diameter of
Russian olive fruits were 17.05, 16.83 and 16.84 mm, respectively.
Whole fruit density, bulk density and porosity of jujube fruits were
measured and found to be 1.01 g/cm3, 0.29 g/cm3 and 69.5%,
respectively. The values of static coefficient of friction on three
surfaces of glass, galvanized iron and plywood were 0.35, 0.36 and
0.43, respectively. The skin color (L*, a*, b*) varied from 9.92 to
16.08; 2.04 to 3.91 and 1.12 to 3.83, respectively. The values of
rupture force, deformation, energy absorbed and hardness were found
to be between 12.14-16.85 N, 2.16-4.25 mm, 3.42-6.99 N mm and
17.1-23.85 N/mm.
Abstract: A steady two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics
flow and heat transfer over a stretching vertical sheet influenced by
radiation and porosity is studied. The governing boundary layer
equations of partial differential equations are reduced to a system of
ordinary differential equations using similarity transformation. The
system is solved numerically by using a finite difference scheme
known as the Keller-box method for some values of parameters,
namely the radiation parameter N, magnetic parameter M, buoyancy
parameter l , Prandtl number Pr and permeability parameter K. The
effects of the parameters on the heat transfer characteristics are
analyzed and discussed. It is found that both the skin friction
coefficient and the local Nusselt number decrease as the magnetic
parameter M and permeability parameter K increase. Heat transfer
rate at the surface decreases as the radiation parameter increases.
Abstract: Most of the image watermarking methods, using the properties of the human visual system (HVS), have been proposed in literature. The component of the visual threshold is usually related to either the spatial contrast sensitivity function (CSF) or the visual masking. Especially on the contrast masking, most methods have not mention to the effect near to the edge region. Since the HVS is sensitive what happens on the edge area. This paper proposes ultrasound image watermarking using the visual threshold corresponding to the HVS in which the coefficients in a DCT-block have been classified based on the texture, edge, and plain area. This classification method enables not only useful for imperceptibility when the watermark is insert into an image but also achievable a robustness of watermark detection. A comparison of the proposed method with other methods has been carried out which shown that the proposed method robusts to blockwise memoryless manipulations, and also robust against noise addition.
Abstract: This study focuses on examining why the range of
experience with respect to HIV infection is so diverse, especially in
regard to the latency period. An agent-based approach in modelling
the infection is used to extract high-level behaviour which cannot be
obtained analytically from the set of interaction rules at the cellular
level. A prototype model encompasses local variation in baseline
properties, contributing to the individual disease experience, and is
included in a network which mimics the chain of lymph nodes. The
model also accounts for stochastic events such as viral mutations.
The size and complexity of the model require major computational
effort and parallelisation methods are used.