Liquid Mixture Monitoring Using A Capacitive Sensor System

Abstract: In this paper design and operation of a capacitive cell sensor for liquid mixture monitoring is reported. The capacitive effect of small drop of different liquids in tap water was studied using this capacitive sensor. A small percentage of a contaminating agents such as oil in tap water is determined with a good sensitivity. Important factors concerning operation of the sensor such as the precision, reproducibility, and stability are reported. Output variation of the measured values with the temperature (27-73.5 ˚C) are also investigated for tap water and different water mixtures. An averaged variation of 0.8348 µF/˚C in output measurement for tap water is obtained. Our results indicate an averaged variation of 0.4324 µF/˚C for the fresh oil and a variation of 0.5121 µF/˚C for the used water oil mixture. An averaged variation of 0.4840 µF/˚C for methanol, 0.5048 µF/˚C for the ethanol, and 0.8250 µF/˚C for water antifreeze mixtures are obtained. For water + salt mixture our data shows that the sensitivity change exhibits a factor of 12.69 increase in sensitivity when temperature increases from 24.7 ˚C to 40.0˚C. Hence to determine a trace impurity, this methodology provides more accurate results at low temperatures (room temperature) and requires less temperature compensation for calibration

Lack of association between two ACE gene polymorphisms (rs4291 and Alu I/D) and late onset Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a prevalent disorder and the most common cause of dementia in elderly populations. Genetic and environmental factors together play a role in developing late onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD). According to the recent published papers, ACE is one of the candidate susceptibility genes for LOAD. In this study, allele and genotype frequencies for rs4291 and rs1799752 polymorphisms of ACE gene, for 100 Iranian patients, affected with AD and 100 healthy controls were compared using Chi-square test. No statistically significant differences were found in genotype and allele frequencies of rs4291 and rs1799752 polymorphisms between our LOAD patients and controls. The pair-wise haplotype analysis of rs4291 -240 A/T and rs1799752 Alu I/D polymorphisms were also performed, but no significant associations were identified.Key words: ACE, Alzheimer’s disease, Iranian, association, polymorphism

Phenotypic and molecular characterization of plasmid mediated AmpC among clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae isolated from different hospitals in Tehran

Introduction: Klebsiella pneumoniae is one of the main opportunistic pathogens which can cause different types of infections. Production of beta-lactamases like AmpC and ESBL mostly lead to beta-lactam resistance in these Gram-Negative bacteria. The aim of this study was the detection of AmpC-producing K. pneumoniae in clinical isolates. Materials and Methods: Three hundred and three isolates of K. pneumoniae were identified. Double disc method including cefoxitin with cefepime and using boronic acid with cloxacillin were performed as two phenotypic methods for detection of AmpC. Amplification of AmpC gene was performed by PCR. Results: Eight and three isolates showed positive results in double disc method and by using boronic acid with cloxacillin, respectively. Five isolates had specific band for AmpC gene after electrophoresis. Conclusion: Our results were indicated the low prevalence of AmpC-producer-K. pnemoniae in Iran. On the other hand these two tested phenotypic methods showed low sensitivity for detection of AmpC. © 2015 Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research. All Rights Reserved

Logarithmic two-point correlators in the Abelian sandpile model

We present the detailed calculations of the asymptotics of two-site correlation functions for height variables in the two-dimensional Abelian sandpile model. By using combinatorial methods for the enumeration of spanning trees, we extend the well-known result for the correlation $\sigma_{1,1} \simeq 1/r^4$ of minimal heights $h_1=h_2=1$ to $\sigma_{1,h} = P_{1,h}-P_1P_h$ for height values $h=2,3,4$. These results confirm the dominant logarithmic behaviour $\sigma_{1,h} \simeq (c_h\log r + d_h)/r^4 + {\cal O}(r^{-5})$ for large $r$, predicted by logarithmic conformal field theory based on field identifications obtained previously. We obtain, from our lattice calculations, the explicit values for the coefficients $c_h$ and $d_h$ (the latter are new).Comment: 28 page

Magnetic bead-based DNA extraction and purification microfluidic chip

A magnetic bead-based DNA extraction and purification device has been designed to be used for extraction of the target DNA molecules from whole blood sample. Mixing and separation steps are performed using functionalised superparamagnetic beads suspended in the cell lysis buffer in a circular chamber that is sandwiched between two electromagnets. Non-uniform nature of the magnetic field causes temporal and spatial distribution of the beads within the chamber. This process efficiently mixes the lysis buffer and whole blood in order to extract DNA from target cells. Functionalized surface of the magnetic beads then attract the exposed DNA molecules. Finally, DNA-attached magnetic beads are attracted to the bottom of the chamber by activating the bottom electrode. DNA molecules are extracted from the magnetic beads by washing and re-suspension processes. The numerical simulation approach has been adopted in order to design the magnetic field source. The performance of the magnetic field source has been investigated against different physical and geometrical parameters and optimised dimensions are obtained with two different magnetic field sources; integrated internal source and external source. A new magnetic field pattern has been introduced in order to efficiently control the bulk of magnetic beads inside the mixing chamber by dynamic shifting of magnetic field regions from the centre of the coils to the outer edge of the coils and vice versa. A Matlab code has been developed to simulate beads trajectories inside the designed extraction chip in order to investigate the efficiency of the magnetic mixing. A preliminary target molecule capturing simulation has also been performed using the simulated bead trajectories to evaluate the DNA-capturing efficiency of the designed extraction chip. The performance of the designed extraction chip has been tested by conducting a series of biological experiments. Different magnetic bead-based extraction kits have been used in a series of preliminary experiments in order to extract a more automation friendly extraction protocol. The efficiency of the designed device has been evaluated using the spiked bacterial DNA and non-pathogenic bacterial cell cultures (B. subtilis, Gram positive bacteria and E. coli, Gram negative bacteria) into the blood sample. Excellent DNA yields and recovery rates are obtained with the designed extraction chip through a simple and fast extraction protocol.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Effect of different levels of sunflower meal and multi-enzyme complex on performance, biochemical parameters and antioxidant status of laying hens

This study was designed to evaluate the effects of different sunflower meal (Helianthus annus; SFM) levels and a multi-enzyme complex (Natuzyme P50) on performance, biochemical parameters and antioxidant status of laying hens. A total of 288 Hy-Line W-36 laying hens (39-wk-old) were divided into six groups with six replicates per group (eight birds per replicate) and fed one of the six experimental diets. A corn-soybean meal-based diet was formulated and used as control diet. The experimental treatments consisted of three levels of SFM (0, 10, and 20%) and two levels of multi-enzyme complex (0 and 250g/ton). The feeding trial lasted 10 weeks. The results showed that the egg production, egg weight and mass, egg specific gravity, shell strength and thickness, Haugh unit, shape index, triglyceride content, plasma glutathione peroxidase (GSH) activity, and malondialdehyde (MDA) were not influenced by dietary treatments; however, the feed consumption, yolk cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol were significantly affected by feeding SFM compared to the control. In conclusion, the supplementation of SFM up to 20% in diet with multi-enzyme complex in laying hens did not appear to cause any adverse effects on egg production and quality as well on antioxidant status in laying hens.Keywords: Enzymes, laying hen, performance, sunflower meal, yolk cholestero

A Self-Consistent Solution to the Nuclear Many-Body Problem at Finite Temperature

The properties of symmetric nuclear matter are investigated within the Green's functions approach. We have implemented an iterative procedure allowing for a self-consistent evaluation of the single-particle and two-particle propagators. The in-medium scattering equation is solved for a realistic (non-separable) nucleon-nucleon interaction including both particle-particle and hole-hole propagation. The corresponding two-particle propagator is constructed explicitely from the single-particle spectral functions. Results are obtained for finite temperatures and an extrapolation to T=0 is presented.Comment: 11 pages 5 figure

Enhanced dissociation of charge-transfer states in narrow band gap polymer:fullerene solar cells processed with 1,8-octanedithiol

The improved photovoltaic performance of narrow band gap polymer:fullerene solar cells processed from solutions containing small amounts of 1,8-octanedithiol is analyzed by modeling of the experimental photocurrent. In contrast to devices that are spin coated from pristine chlorobenzene, these cells do not produce a recombination-limited photocurrent. Modeling of the experimental data reveals that a sixfold reduction in the decay rate of photogenerated bound electron–hole pairs can account for the marked increase in short-circuit current density and fill factor. At short-circuit conditions, the dissociation probability of bound pairs is found to increase from 48% to 70%.