Indoor air concentration from selective laser sintering 3d printer using Virgin Polyamide Nylon (PA12) Powder: a pilot study

Environmental emissions from additive manufacturing (AM) have attracted much attention recently. The capability in fabricating complex part make AM famous in developing prototype and product in various industries, especially in aerospace, medical, automotive, and manufacturing industries. However, the study on emission and exposure mainly focusses on the desktop type such as fused deposition modelling. This study investigates the emission and indoor concentration from powder bed fusion of selective laser sintering (SLS) technologies. Prior to the investigation, virgin PA12 has undergone characterization in terms of morphology, size and thermal analysis. Calibration block using virgin polyamide nylon (PA12) is selected to be printed in this study. Parameters such particulate matter size 2.5 μm (PM 2.5), total volatile organic compound (TVOC), carbon dioxide (CO2), formaldehyde, temperature and relative humidity (RH) are set to be monitored through real-time sampling of 8 hours based on Industry Code of Practice on Indoor Air Quality 2010 by Department Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) Malaysia. Four phases of the printing process involve are background data, preprinting, during printing and post-printing. Based on the study it was found that PM 2.5 and CO2 exceed the acceptable limit recommended by DOSH Malaysia during the preparation of powder (preprinting) at 1218 ppm and 1070 μg/m3 respectively. Meanwhile TVOC concentration was influenced by the sintered powder temperature and recorded at 0.5 ppm. Temperature, relative humidity and formaldehyde were maintained throughout the SLS process. Mitigation strategies using mechanical ventilation and personal protective equipment (PPE) are recommended to be used to reduce the potential of occupational hazard to the operators

Development of Metal Matrix Composites and Related Forming Techniques by Direct Recycling of Light Metals: A Review

In this contribution, researchers have provided a summary of the agricultural and industrial waste recoveries to be deployed as the composite reinforced materials. It covers the work of previous researchers related to this area and addressed the key challenge to overcome for further development and advancement. The major contributions of this work were a comprehensive review on a wide variety of Sever Plastic Deformation (SPD) techniques implementation in development of the waste materials based reinforced metal matrix composite. The waste materials can be derived from either industrial or natural sources. Also, it discusses the range of Metal Matrix Composites (MMCs) applications in engineering and related manufacturing techniques with further emphasized on the process parameters which directly determine the material properties. Some useful suggestions were proposed to the industrialists, academicians and scientists to further improve the performance aspect of Metal Matrix Composites (MMCs) for commercialization reason. Furthermore, industrial and natural waste enhancement materials have been strongly proposed because of their higher reinforced content particulates such as alumina (Al2O3) and silica (SiO2). Also, the mechanical and physical properties are directly influenced by the size, shape and weight-volume friction of the composites as same as the potential reactions between matrixes/reinforced materials interfac

The Study Of Susceptibility And Cytokine Production In Dengue Virus Type 2 (Denv2)-Infected Monocytes Of Individuals With Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase (G6pd) Deficiency

Dengue virus is endemic in peninsular Malaysia. The clinical manifestations vary depending on the incubation period of the virus as well as the immunity of the patients. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency is prevalent in Malaysia, where the incidence is 5.2%. It has been noted that G6PD-deficient individuals suffer from more severe clinical presentation of dengue infection. The aim of this study is to investigate the susceptibility of monocytes to DENV2 infection, the oxidative responses, and cytokine production in monocytes from G6PD-deficient individuals. Blood samples were collected from donors after being approved by the Research Ethical Committees of USM and Ministry of Health. Screening for G6PD was performed using the florescent spot method followed by the quantitative assay. Monocytes from G6PD-deficient and healthy individuals (G6PD-normal) were isolated and infected with DENV2, whereby multiplicity of infection (MOI) 0.1 and intracellular infection rate were measured by flow cytometry and extracellular by plaque assay. Levels of oxidative species, superoxide anions (O2•-), nitric oxide (NO), oxidative stress and cytokines were determined and compared with normal controls

A pseudo feedback-based annotated TF-IDF technique for dynamic crypto-ransomware pre-encryption boundary delineation and features extraction

The cryptography employed against user files makes the effect of crypto-ransomware attacks irreversible even after detection and removal. Thus, detecting such attacks early, i.e. during pre-encryption phase before the encryption takes place is necessary. Existing crypto-ransomware early detection solutions use a fixed time-based thresholding approach to determine the pre-encryption phase boundaries. However, the fixed time thresholding approach implies that all samples start the encryption at the same time. Such assumption does not necessarily hold for all samples as the time for the main sabotage to start varies among different crypto-ransomware families due to the obfuscation techniques employed by the malware to change its attack strategies and evade detection, which generates different attack behaviors. Additionally, the lack of sufficient data at the early phases of the attack adversely affects the ability of feature extraction techniques in early detection models to perceive the characteristics of the attacks, which, consequently, decreases the detection accuracy. Therefore, this paper proposes a Dynamic Pre-encryption Boundary Delineation and Feature Extraction (DPBD-FE) scheme that determines the boundary of the pre-encryption phase, from which the features are extracted and selected more accurately. Unlike the fixed thresholding employed by the extant works, DPBD-FE tracks the pre-encryption phase for each instance individually based on the first occurrence of any cryptography-related APIs. Then, an annotated Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (aTF-IDF) technique was utilized to extract the features from runtime data generated during the pre-encryption phase of crypto-ransomware attacks. The aTF-IDF overcomes the challenge of insufficient attack patterns during the early phases of the attack lifecycle. The experimental evaluation shows that DPBD-FE was able to determine the pre-encryption boundaries and extract the features related to this phase more accurately compared to related works

Enhanced flatness of 20 Ghz channel spacing multiwavelength Brillouin-Raman fiber laser with sub-millimeter air gap

We discover the technique of controlling the flatness in signal amplitude of a multiwavelength Brillouin-Raman fiber laser by employing an air-gap outside of the cavity. The structure that is adjustable within sub-millimeter length behaves as flexible optical feedback that provides modifiable portions of multiple Fresnel reflectivities. This is the main benchmark that allows the efficient management of gain competition between self-lasing modes and Brillouin Stokes waves that is vital for self-flattening initiation. When setting the Brillouin pump wavelength at 1529 nm and the air-gap distance to 0.4 mm, 296 Stokes lines are produced with a channel spacing of 0.158 nm. The lasing bandwidth is 46.60 nm that covers from 1529.16 to 1575.76 nm wavelength. In this case at Raman power of 950 mW, the intense Brillouin pump power of 2 dBm saturates the cascaded higher-orders lasing lines. As a result, the overall peak power discrepancy is maintained at just 1.8 dB where an average optical-signal-to-noise ratio of 20 dB is realized. To date, this is the widest bandwidth with the flattest spectrum attained in multiwavelength fiber lasers that incorporate a single Raman pump unit

Qat Chewing and Periodontal Pathogens in Health and Disease: Further Evidence for a Prebiotic-Like Effect

Aim. Qat chewing has been reported to induce subgingival microbial shifts suggestive of prebiotic-like properties. The objective here was to assess the effect of qat chewing on a panel of classical and new putative periopathogens in health and periodontitis. Materials and Methods. 40 qat chewers and 40 nonchewers, equally stratified by periodontal health status, were recruited. Taqman, real-time PCR was used to quantify total bacteria, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Tannerella forsythia, Treponema denticola, Parvimonas micra, Filifactor alocis, Synergistetes, and TM7s in pooled subgingival biofilm samples. Differences in microbial parameters between the study groups were analysed using ordinal regression. Results. In health, the qat chewers harboured significantly lower relative counts of P. gingivalis, T. forsythia, Synergistetes, and TM7s after adjustment for multiple comparisons ( ≤ 0.007). At nominal significance level, they also carried lower counts of TM7s and P. micra ( ≤ 0.05). In periodontitis, the chewers had lower counts of all taxa; however, only T. denticola withstood correction for multiple comparisons ( ≤ 0.0063). Conclusions. Qat chewing is associated with lower proportions of periopathogens, particularly in subjects with healthy periodontium, which supports previous reports of its prebiotic-like properties. This potentially beneficial biological effect can be exploited by attempting to isolate the active fraction

Is Khat chewing habit a risk factor for occlusal caries progression?

Backgrounds: People in Yemen and in East African countries chew khat more than five hours daily. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between khat and occlusal caries progression. Methods: A cohort study was carried out among 98 Yemeni khat chewers and 101 non-chewers aged 18-35 years old with early occlusal caries lesions. All participants answered questions on socio-demographic, khat , oral hygiene , sugar intake, and oral health knowledge at baseline. All posterior teeth with an early enamel lesion on occlusal surfaces detected by visual inspection at baseline were also subjected to DIAGNOdent assessment to confirm early lesion (DIAGNOdent reading 13-24). Participants were re-examined after 12 weeks. Caries progression was considered to occur when the DIAGNOdent reading was >25. Data were analyzed using Relative risk, Mann\u2013Whitney U test, a Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test and logistic regression analysis. Results: Occlusal caries progression incidence between khat chewers and non-chewers, with the relative risk was 1.68. There was no significant difference in occlusal caries progression on chewing side and non-chewing side among khat chewers. Khat chewing was a statistical predictor for those with low income. Conclusion: Khat is a risk factor for occlusion caries progression among low income group

Half-linear cavity multiwavelength Brillouin-erbium fiber laser

Multiwavelength half-linear cavity Brillouin erbium fiber laser (BEFL) has been demonstrated. The half-linear cavity BEFL is formed by utilizing only two circulators: one circulator acts as input and output ports and the other circulator is used to form a physical mirror. This design exhibits low peak power difference between the adjacent channels, which is about 0.8 dB. At Brillouin pump (BP) power of 5 dBm and erbium doped fiber (EDF) pump power of 90 mW, up to 19 channels over a wide range of 40 nm (1529 nm to 1569 nm) have been obtained. These channels are free from self lasing cavity modes and for the first twelve Stokes lines, the optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR) is approximately higher than 20 dB

Modeling and Speed Control for Sensorless DC Motor BLDC Based on Real Time Experiement

This paper presents a modeling of the Brushless DC motor based on the system identification method. The input and output data were collected and simulated based on the real-time experiment. Taking a continues time form for the system model, a transfer function was selected in this work. The potentiometer has been used to send  Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signals as input signal to the Brushless DC motor to determine the open-loop model of brushless DC motor (BLDC). LM2907 Tachometer attached with Brushless DC motor driver to measure the output speed. The input signal and measured output data were interfaced to plant by C code generation Matlab/Simulink through Arduino Mega controller. System identification toolbox was used for collecting data to obtain the estimates model. The best fit found for the system was 90.2%. The PID controller was developed to control the desired speed based on the given speed to demonstrate the feasibility of the given method.  &nbsp

Characterization of Raman gain for different gain medium

By using different fiber types as gain medium such as 500 m HNLF, 215 cm Bi-EDF, 7.2 km DCF, 11 km DCF, 18.2 km DCF, as well as the composition of Bi-EDF with 11 km DCF and finally the composition of Bi-EDF with the 18.2 km DCF, Raman gain was characterized and measured by the same set up as proposed in our study. The results revealed that the composition of Bi-EDF with the 18.2 km DCF provided the highest effective Raman gain among the other fibers investigated