Heat transfer in a bank of tubes with integral wake splitters

Paper presented at the 5th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, South Africa, 1-4 July, 2007.The paper deals with the investigations on heat transfer characteristics of a circular tube as well as tube banks with integral downstream splitter plates in cross flow of air in a rectangular duct. The experiments were carried out in the Reynolds number range 5 x 103 to 105 on single plain cylinder and single cylinder of various splitter length-to-tube diameter ratios, L/D = 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0. Further, tube banks consisting of 12 rows and 3 tubes per row in equilateral triangle arrangement with transverse pitch to diameter ratio, a = 2, were also investigated, the banks being made up of plain tubes or tubes with splitters. Heat transfer characteristics were studied for tubes with L/D = 0, 0.5 and 1.0 under constant heat flux conditions. Tube banks with L/D = 1.0 yielded the highest heat transfer rates. They were also superior to single tubes with L/D = 1.0.cs201

Diagnostic efficacy of monoclonal antibody based sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detection of Fasciola gigantica excretory/secretory antigens in both serum and stool

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This research was carried out to develop a reliable monoclonal antibody (MoAb)-based sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the diagnosis of active <it>Fasciola gigantica </it>infection in both serum and stool for comparative purposes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>From a panel of MoAbs raised against <it>F. gigantica </it>excretory/secretory antigens (ES Ags), a pair (12B/11D/3F and 10A/9D/10G) was chosen due to its high reactivity and strict specificity to <it>F. gigantica </it>antigen by indirect ELISA.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The two MoAbs were of the IgG₁and IgG_2asubclasses, respectively. Using SDS-PAGE and EITB, the selected MoAbs recognized 83, 64, 45 and 26 kDa bands of ES Ags. The lower detection limit of ELISA assay was 3 ng/ml. In stool, the sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic efficacy of ELISA was 96%, 98.2 and 97.1%; while in serum they were 94%, 94.6% and 94.3%, respectively. Moreover, a positive correlation was found between ova count in stool of <it>F. gigantica </it>infected patients and the OD readings of ELISA in both stool and serum samples (<it>r </it>= 0.730, p < 0.01 and r = 0.608; p < 0.01, respectively).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These data showed that the use of MoAb-based sandwich ELISA for the detection of <it>F. gigantica </it>coproantigens in stool specimens was superior to serum samples; it provides a highly efficient, non-invasive technique for the diagnosis of active <it>F. gigantica </it>infection.</p

Impact of Protracted War Crisis on Dental Students: A Comparative Multicountry Cross-sectional Study

BACKGROUND: The impact of conflict and war crisis on dental students is poorly understood. Given the prolonged conflicts and political instability in the Arabic-speaking countries, it is crucial to investigate the effect of these conditions on dental students. This study aimed to assess the impact of protracted war on dental students by comparing the personal, university, and wider context challenges they face across war-affected and unaffected countries. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted including a convenience sample of dental students from 13 universities in 12 Arabic-speaking countries. Respondents were those at entry and exit points of their undergraduate dental training. A self-administered paper questionnaire collected anonymized data on sociodemographics, and personal, university, and wider context challenges that students were facing. Multivariable Poisson regression analyses were carried out. RESULTS: The overall response rate was 64.8%. The mean age was 21.2 (standard deviation = 2.1) years, with 68% of participants being female. After adjusting for age and sex, dental students in Arabic-speaking countries affected by protracted war crisis were significantly more likely to report wider context challenges compared to their counterparts in unaffected countries (n = 2448; beta = 1.12; 95% confidence interval: 1.10-1.13; P < 0.001). DISCUSSION: Dental students in Arabic-speaking countries affected by protracted war crisis were more likely to suffer from wider context challenges such as difficulties in attendance due to the deterioration of security and lack of flexibility of teaching time to accommodate the different circumstances induced by the war crisis. Supporting dental students in areas affected by protracted war crises is needed and may include developing online dental education programs

Egyptian consensus on treat-to-target approach for osteoporosis: a clinical practice guideline from the Egyptian Academy of bone health and metabolic bone diseases

Background: This study was carried out to achieve an Egyptian expert consensus on a treat-to-target managementstrategy for osteoporosis using Delphi technique. A scientific committee identified researchers and clinicians with expertise in osteoporosis in Egypt. Delphi process was implemented (2 rounds) to establish a consensus on 15 clinical standards: (1) concept, (2) diagnosis, (3) case identification, (4) whom to treat, (5) who should treat?, (6) case stratification and intervention thresholds, (7) falls risk, (8) investigations, (9) treatment target, (10) management, (11) optimum treatment duration, (12) monitoring, (13) drug holiday, (14) osteoporosis in men, and (15) post-fracture care and fracture liaison service. Results: The surveys were sent to an expert panel (n = 25), of whom 24 participated in the two rounds. Respondents were drawn from different governorates and health centres across Egypt including the Ministry of Health. Most of the participants were rheumatologists (76%), followed by internists (8%), orthopaedic doctors (4%), rehabilitation doctors (4%), primary care (4%), and ortho-geriatrics (4%) physicians. Seventy-two recommendations, categorised into 15 sections, were obtained. Agreement with the recommendations (rank 7–9) ranged from 83.4 to 100%. Consensus was reached (i.e. ≥ 75% of respondents strongly agreed or agreed) on the wording of all 15 clinical standards identified by the scientific committee. An algorithm for the management of postmenopausal osteoporosis has been suggested. Conclusion: A wide and representative panel of experts established a consensus regarding the management of osteoporosis in Egypt. The developed guidelines provide a comprehensive approach to the assessment and management of osteoporosis for all Egyptian healthcare professionals who are involved in its management

Web-based monitoring tools for Resistive Plate Chambers in the CMS experiment at CERN

The Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) are used in the CMS experiment at the trigger level and also in the standard offline muon reconstruction. In order to guarantee the quality of the data collected and to monitor online the detector performance, a set of tools has been developed in CMS which is heavily used in the RPC system. The Web-based monitoring (WBM) is a set of java servlets that allows users to check the performance of the hardware during data taking, providing distributions and history plots of all the parameters. The functionalities of the RPC WBM monitoring tools are presented along with studies of the detector performance as a function of growing luminosity and environmental conditions that are tracked over time

Radiation background with the CMS RPCs at the LHC

The Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) are employed in the CMS Experiment at the LHC as dedicated trigger system both in the barrel and in the endcap. This article presents results of the radiation background measurements performed with the 2011 and 2012 proton-proton collision data collected by CMS. Emphasis is given to the measurements of the background distribution inside the RPCs. The expected background rates during the future running of the LHC are estimated both from extrapolated measurements and from simulation