Q-Switched UV Laser Interactions with the Human Blood in Vitro

A Q-switched UV laser beam emitting wavelength at 355 nm with different energy densities (fluence, J/cm2) was used for shining sixty human blood samples in vitro. Absorption spectra of hemoglobin were measured for the first time for the samples that exposed to 500 laser pulses in comparison to control samples. It was found that the peak absorbance decreases as the laser fluence increases. This decrease in the peak absorption has been found to be due to the red blood cells deformation and aggregation resulting from the effect of the laser pulses. This phenomenon has been confirmed by examination of the blood cells slides after exposing to the laser radiation. Furthermore, the red blood cells (RBCs) counts were found to be decreased with increasing the laser fluence. The decrease in the RBCs after the irradiation explains the decrease in the hemoglobin absorbance and that represents additional evidence to the structural change according to the optical microscope images. The changes in hemoglobin absorbance are used in a clinically available optical oxymeters. The immediate hematology measurements of the blood samples after the exposure to the laser pulses indicate an increase in the white blood cells (WBCs) of the type basophiles. The measurements were obtained with a significant difference with the level of probability (p≤ 0.05) between the laser exposed samples and the control samples. This laser effect is also due to structural changes in the WBCs. The changes in mitochondria resulting in cells division are in a good agreement with many results in the literature for other types of laser irradiation and other types of the WBCs. The proliferation of the basophiles upon laser photolysis plays a vital role in the activation of the immune system and a consequent destruction of pathogens by these cells

CO2 Laser Photothermal Effects on Rats Skin Tissues

Spectroscopic and histological study of CO2 laser interaction with rats tissues were carried out. We detected for the first time the changes in optical absorption spectra of rat's tissues with selective CO2 laser optical densities ranging from 20.64 to 34.40W/cm2. The laser exposed tissues show higher absorbance in hemoglobin than that for the unexposed tissue. Using the same laser and same optical densities, the absorption spectra of fresh blood were measured. Much intense peaks of hemoglobin than that for the corresponding peaks for the tissue were detected. A scheme based on recent experimental findings is proposed for explanation of this novel phenomenon. The histological study shows thermal damage of blood vessels localized at the dermis layer. At high laser optical densities a vessel rupture with hemorrhage were occurred. The results indicate a pronounced modification of skin absorption properties by laser irradiation. Such an effect is due to thermally induced biophysical and biochemical processes inside the highly heterogeneous tissue structure. Keywords: CO2 laser, Photothermal effects, Hemoglobin absorption, Histolog

Application of a hybrid of least square support vector machine and artificial bee colony for building load forecasting

Accurate load forecasting is an important element for proper planning and management of electricity production. Although load forecasting has been an important area of research, methods for accurate load forecasting is still scarce in the literature. This paper presents a study on a hybrid load forecasting method that combines the Least Square Support Vector Machine (LSSVM) and Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) methods for building load forecasting. The performance of the LSSVM-ABC hybrid method was compared to the LSSVM method in building load forecasting problems and the results has shown that the hybrid method is able to substantially improve the load forecasting ability of the LSSVM method

An improved load shedding scheduling strategy for solving power supply defisit

When high electricity demand growth not matched by the growth in generating capacity, energy deficit problem cannot be avoided. Power outages of up to 6 hours per day are part of the power crisis experienced by electricity consumers in Sumatra. The utility has applied load shedding approach to tackle the problem, however, there are weaknesses on the current load shedding program. It is discovered that most of the power outage occurs randomly without any prior notice and sometime lasted for many hours. Load shedding program is not properly scheduled and not fairly distributed among all consumers. A proper scheduling program must have a clear periodic schedule, fixed outage hours, fairly distributed and alternated among consumers and most importantly solve energy deficit problem. This paper presented an improved load shedding scheduling strategy based on Round Robin method. The method is then illustrated and applied on actual daily load profile of Sumatra electrical system

Micropropagation and production of eurycomanone, 9- methoxycanthin-6-one and canthin-6-one in roots of Eurycoma longifolia plantlets

Eurycoma longifolia or Tongkat Ali is a well known medicinal plant in Malaysia. The plants are used as main portion in herbal preparation, and have been extensively harvested. Generally, most of the raw materials required by the industries are heavily collected from the natural forests, thereby resulting in the uncontrolled exploitation of the plant in the wild. Hence, there is a need to ensure adequate supply of quality E. longifolia for the use of the related industries and for conservation purposes. Micropropagation has proved to be an alternative for the multiplication of medicinal and aromatic plants and it can allow the future commercial use of E. longifolia in the herbal industries. In this study, E. longifolia plantlets were successfully mass-produced using axillary shoot multiplication techniques, and the production of eurycomanone, 9-methoxycanthin-6-one and canthin-6-one compounds of E. longifolia were detected in roots of tissue culture plantlets.Key words: E. longifolia, Tongkat Ali, micropropagation, eurycomanone, 9-methoxycanthin-6-one, canthin-6- one

Developing a Land Suitability Index for Agricultural Uses in Dry Lands From Geologic Point of View Using GIS - a Case Study From Jordan

DOI:10.17014/ijog.2.2.63-76In the context of the study, a Multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) in GIS was used in developing suitability index to optimize suitable lands for agricultural uses and seasonal farming in dry lands from geologic point of view. This study was performed in the areas between Mafraq and Zarqa Cities in Jordan which are classified as arid lands. The study aims at protecting groundwater from pollution, reducing soil salting, reducing irrigation water loss caused by evaporation, and increasing crop productivity. The geo-environmental parameters of the named area including geology, groundwater depths, soil depths and textures, climatic conditions, topographic settings, and groundwater vulnerability conditions were mapped and converted into layers with special rates, given weights, and then modeled using the multi criteria evaluation (MCE) option, using Decision Making Modeling in IDRISI (GIS software) to reach at the best choice of lands for agricultural activities, and also to determine which of these lands are suitable for summer farming and which are suitable for winter farming

The application of support vector machine in classifying potential archers using bio-mechanical indicators

This study classifies potential archers from a set of bio-mechanical indicators trained via different Support Vector Machine (SVM) models. 50 youth archers drawn from a number of archery programmes completed a one end archery shooting score test. Bio-mechanical evaluation of postural sway, bow movement, muscles activation of flexor and extensor as well as static balance were recorded. k-means clustering technique was used to cluster the archers based on the indicators tested. Fine, medium and coarse radial basis function kernel-based SVM models were trained based on the measured indicators. The five-fold cross-validation technique was utilised in the present investigation. It was shown from the present study, that the employment of SVM is able to assist coaches in identifying potential athletes in the sport of archery

Antibiotic resistance and molecular typing among cockle (Anadara granosa) strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based analysis

Genomic DNA of Vibrio parahaemolyticus were characterized by antibiotic resistance, enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus-polymerase chain reaction (ERIC-PCR) and random amplified polymorphic DNA-polymerase chain reaction (RAPD-PCR) analysis. These isolates originated from 3 distantly locations of Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Melaka (East coastal areas), Malaysia. A total of 44 (n = 44) of tentatively V. parahaemolyticus were also examined for the presence of toxR, tdh and trh gene. Of 44 isolates, 37 were positive towards toxR gene; while, none were positive to tdh and trh gene. Antibiotic resistance analysis showed the V. parahaemolyticus isolates were highly resistant to bacitracin (92 %, 34/37) and penicillin (89 %, 33/37) followed by resistance towards ampicillin (68 %, 25/37), cefuroxime (38 %, 14/37), amikacin (6 %, 2/37) and ceftazidime (14 %, 5/37). None of the V. parahaemolyticus isolates were resistant towards chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, ceftriaxone, enrofloxacin, norfloxacin, streptomycin and vancomycin. Antibiogram patterns exhibited, 9 patterns and phenotypically less heterogenous when compared to PCR-based techniques using ERIC- and RAPD-PCR. The results of the ERIC- and RAPD-PCR were analyzed using GelCompare software. ERIC-PCR with primers ERIC1R and ERIC2 discriminated the V. parahaemolyticus isolates into 6 clusters and 21 single isolates at a similarity level of 80 %. While, RAPD-PCR with primer Gen8 discriminated the V. parahaemolyticus isolates into 11 clusters and 10 single isolates and Gen9 into 8 clusters and 16 single isolates at the same similarity level examined. Results in the presence study demonstrated combination of phenotypically and genotypically methods show a wide heterogeneity among cockle isolates of V. parahaemolyticus

Compact Dielectric Resonator Antenna with Band-Notched Characteristics for Ultra-Wideband Applications.

yesIn this paper, a compact dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) with band-notched characteristics for ultra-wideband applications is presented. A comprehensive parametric study was carried out using CST Microwave Studio Suite TM 2011 to analyze and optimize the characteristics of the proposed antenna. Three shapes for the coupling slot were investigated. Simulation results show that the proposed DRA had a −10 dB impedance bandwidth of 23% from 9.97 GHz to 12.558 GHz, and a maximum gain of 7.23 dBi. The antenna had a notched band centered at 10.57 GHz, which increased the reflection coefficient by 23.5 dB, and reduced the gain by 6.12 dB. The optimized designs were verified by experimental tests on fabricated samples

Design and Shape Optimization of Strain Gauge Load Cell for Axial Force Measurement for Test Benches

The load cell is an indispensable component of many engineering machinery and industrial automation for measuring and sensing force and torque. This paper describes the design and analysis of the strain gauge load cell, from the conceptional design stage to shape optimization (based on the finite element method (FEM) technique) and calibration, providing ample load capacity with low-cost material (aluminum 6061) and highly accurate force measurement. The amplifier circuit of the half Wheatstone bridge configuration with two strain gauges was implemented experimentally with an actual load cell prototype. The calibration test was conducted to evaluate the load cell characteristics and derive the governing equation for sensing the unknown load depending on the measured output voltage. The measured sensitivity of the load cell is approximately 15 mV/N and 446.8 µV/V at a maximum applied load of 30 kg. The findings are supported by FEM results and experiments with an acceptable percentage of errors, which revealed an overall error of 6% in the worst situation. Therefore, the proposed load cell meets the design considerations for axial force measurement for the laboratory test bench, which has a light weight of 20 g and a maximum axial force capacity of 300 N with good sensor characteristic