Numerical Investigation of Multiphase Transport Model for Hot-Air Drying of Food

Drying is widely used to prevent microbial spoilage by evaporating the determined amount of liquid in the food sample. In order to reduce energy consumption and increase food flavor quality, modeling the drying process is crucial. In the literature, different approaches are used for investigation of drying characteristic. Among these approaches, the porous media approach have complex phenomena. Molecular diffusion for gases (water vapor and air), capillary diffusion for liquid (water), and convection mechanisms (Darcy flow) were used in drying model in porous media. In this study, firstly, the effect of shrinkage on drying of porous media was investigated. Non-linear partial differential equations for air and food material in the drying problem were solved numerically for non-steady state condition. The shrinkage effect in the drying process was studied by using the ALE (Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian) method. In this study, air velocities of 0.5, 0.8 and 1 m s-1, air temperatures of 40, 50 and 60 °C and the geometric forms of rectangular, cylindrical and square were selected for hot air drying process. The fastest drying was obtained at square shape food at the air temperature of 60 °C and the air velocity of 0.5 m s-1. The analysis result showed that the air velocity and temperature have effect on the drying

Atomoxetine treatment may decrease striatal dopaminergic transporter availability after 8 weeks: pilot SPECT report of three cases

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders. The pathophysiology is thought to involve noradrenaline and dopamine. The role of dopamine transporter (DAT) was evaluated in imaging studies using mostly dopamine reuptake inhibitors. Atomoxetine is a selective noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor. Here we report the results of a pilot study conducted to evaluate changes in striatal DAT after 8 weeks of atomoxetine treatment. Our results suggest that 8 weeks of atomoxetine treatment may change striatal DAT bioavailability as measured via SPECT but that change was not correlated with genotype or clinical improvement

International multicenter propensity score matched study on laparoscopic versus open left lateral sectionectomy

Background: Despite a lack of high-level evidence, current guidelines recommend laparoscopic left lateral sectionectomy (LLLS) as the routine approach over open LLS (OLLS). Randomized studies and propensity score matched studies on LLLS vs OLLS for all indications, including malignancy, are lacking.Methods: This international multicenter propensity score matched retrospective cohort study included consecutive patients undergoing LLLS or OLLS in six centers from three European countries (January 2000-December 2016). Propensity scores were calculated based on nine preoperative variables and LLLS and OLLS were matched in a 1:1 ratio. Short-term operative outcomes were compared using paired tests.Results: A total of 560 patients were included. Out of 200 LLLS, 139 could be matched to 139 OLLS. After matching, baseline characteristics were well balanced. LLLS was associated with shorter operative time (144 (110-200) vs 199 (138-283) minutes, P &lt; 0.001), less blood loss (100 (50-300) vs 350 (100-750) mL, P = 0.005) and a 3-day shorter postoperative hospital stay (4 (3-7) vs 7 (5-9) days, P &lt; 0.001).Conclusion: This international multicenter propensity score matched study confirms the superiority of LLLS over OLLS based on shorter postoperative hospital stay, operative time, and less blood loss thus validating current guideline advice.</p

DNABINDPROT: fluctuation-based predictor of DNA-binding residues within a network of interacting residues

DNABINDPROT is designed to predict DNA-binding residues, based on the fluctuations of residues in high-frequency modes by the Gaussian network model. The residue pairs that display high mean-square distance fluctuations are analyzed with respect to DNA binding, which are then filtered with their evolutionary conservation profiles and ranked according to their DNA-binding propensities. If the analyses are based on the exact outcome of fluctuations in the highest mode, using a conservation threshold of 5, the results have a sensitivity, specificity, precision and accuracy of 9.3%, 90.5%, 18.1% and 78.6%, respectively, on a dataset of 36 unbound–bound protein structure pairs. These values increase up to 24.3%, 93.4%, 45.3% and 83.3% for the respective cases, when the neighboring two residues are considered. The relatively low sensitivity appears with the identified residues being selective and susceptible more for the binding core residues rather than all DNA-binding residues. The predicted residues that are not tagged as DNA-binding residues are those whose fluctuations are coupled with DNA-binding sites. They are in close proximity as well as plausible for other functional residues, such as ligand and protein–protein interaction sites. DNABINDPROT is free and open to all users without login requirement available at: http://www.prc.boun.edu.tr/appserv/prc/dnabindprot/

Predicting Important Residues and Interaction Pathways in Proteins Using Gaussian Network Model: Binding and Stability of HLA Proteins

A statistical thermodynamics approach is proposed to determine structurally and functionally important residues in native proteins that are involved in energy exchange with a ligand and other residues along an interaction pathway. The structure-function relationships, ligand binding and allosteric activities of ten structures of HLA Class I proteins of the immune system are studied by the Gaussian Network Model. Five of these models are associated with inflammatory rheumatic disease and the remaining five are properly functioning. In the Gaussian Network Model, the protein structures are modeled as an elastic network where the inter-residue interactions are harmonic. Important residues and the interaction pathways in the proteins are identified by focusing on the largest eigenvalue of the residue interaction matrix. Predicted important residues match those known from previous experimental and clinical work. Graph perturbation is used to determine the response of the important residues along the interaction pathway. Differences in response patterns of the two sets of proteins are identified and their relations to disease are discussed

Multi-criteria decision-making approach for selecting a structural system of an industrial facility

Selection of an appropriate structural system for an industrial facility is a difficult task for decision makers since it is the essential component, and it is hard to satisfy the owner's demands as well as the legal requirements. There are many conflicting preferences that have to be considered to assess the performance of the structural system alternatives. Decision support systems (DSSs) such as multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods are useful in making an objective and rational choice. It is important to use MCDM methods in order to analytically evaluate different factors affecting the structural system selection. To address these challenges, the selection of the structural system of an industrial facility project in Turkey was carried out by applying Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) MCDM methods. Eight evaluation criteria were determined for the selection process within the scope of the study, which are project cost, project duration, project lifetime, labour and equipment requirement, recycling opportunities, resistance to environmental effects, suitability for installation and natural lighting needs. Prefabricated reinforced concrete (PRC), on-site reinforced concrete (RC) and steel structural system alternatives were evaluated according to each criterion by a survey study conducted by 193 civil engineer participants. Using the AHP and TOPSIS methods, it is determined that the most suitable alternative for industrial facilities is the steel structural framing system. The results were argued with the design team, and they confirmed that MCDM methods could be easily integrated in selecting the most appropriate structural system

A short note on the paper of Liu et al. (2012). A relative Lempel-Ziv complexity: Application to comparing biological sequences. Chemical Physics Letters, volume 530, 19 March 2012, pages 107-112

The report entitled "L. Liu, D. Li, F. Bai, A relative Lempel-Ziv complexity: Application to comparing biological sequences, Chem. Phys. Lett. 530 (2012) 107-112" mentions on the powerful construction of phylogenetic trees based on Lempel-Ziv algorithm. On the other hand, the method explained in the paper does not give promising result on the data set on invasive Caulerpa taxifolia in the Mediterranean Sea. The phylogenetic trees are obtained by the proposed method of the aforementioned paper in this short note. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Mental health problems of second generation children and adolescents with migration background

Objective: Despite the growing number of young second-generation immigrant (SGI) children and adolescents, studies about their mental health are rare. The objective of this study was to investigate the mental health problems of SGI children and adolescents in Istanbul, Turkey