DC-DC power converter research for Orbiter/Station power exchange

This project was to produce innovative DC-DC power converter concepts which are appropriate for the power exchange between the Orbiter and the Space Station Freedom (SSF). The new converters must interface three regulated power buses on SSF, which are at different voltages, with three fuel cell power buses on the Orbiter which can be at different voltages and should be tracked independently. Power exchange is to be bi-directional between the SSF and the Orbiter. The new converters must satisfy the above operational requirements with better weight, volume, efficiency, and reliability than is available from the present conventional technology. Two families of zero current DC-DC converters were developed and successfully adapted to this application. Most of the converters developed are new and are presented

The pre-Nutrition effect of Tamarindus indica aqueous extracts on blood brain-b arrier permeability and brain edema in the rat stroke model

زمینه و هدف: مطالعات اخیر پیشنهاد می کنند که عصاره تمبر هندی باعث سرکوب التهاب و کاهش آسیب ناشی از استرس اکسیداتیو می شود. در این مطالعه ما تلاش کردیم، ارتباط بین اثر پیش تغذیه عصاره تمبرهندی بر میزان نفوذپذیری سد خونی- مغزی و میزان بروز ادم مغزی را در مدل سکته مغزی رت مشخص کنیم. روش بررسی: در این مطالعه تجربی 70 سر موش نر از نژاد ویستار به 10 گروه تقسیم شدند. گروه کنترل آب مقطر دریافت می کردند، در حالی که در گروه شم تیمار و القای ایسکمی صورت نمی گرفت. 3 گروه تیمار عصاره تمبر هندی را به صورت خوراکی از طریق گاواژ به مدت 30 روز دریافت کردند (50، 75 و100میلی لیتر بر کیلوگرم وزن بدن). 2 ساعت بعد از آخرین دوز هر گروه اصلی به زیر گروه های MCAO(انسداد شریان میانی مغز) برای اندازه گیری سد خونی- مغزی و زیر گروه برای سنجش ادم مغزی تقسیم می شوند. نتایج با استفاده از آزمون تحلیل واریانس یک طرفه (ANOVA) و آزمون تعقیبی LSD مورد قضاوت آماری قرار گرفت. یافته ها: نتایج بررسی ها نشان داد عصاره آبی تمبر هندی در دوزهای 75 و 100 میلی گرم بر کیلوگرم سبب کاهش میزان ادم (به ترتیب 16/0±49/79، 19/0±61/76) نسبت به گروه کنترل (80/0±60/80) گردید؛ همچنین این عصاره سبب کاهش نفوذپذیری سد خونی- مغزی در دوزهای 75 و 100 میلی لیتر بر کیلوگرم به ترتیب (73/0±61/9، 79/0±05/9) نسبت به گروه کنترل (81/0±75/12) گردید. نتیجه گیری: طبق یافته های این تحقیق پیش تیمار با عصاره آبی تمبر هندی باعث کاهش نفوذ پذیری سد خونی- مغزی در مدل ایسکمی- خون رسانی مجدد می شود، اما کارهای بیشتری نیاز است تا این مشاهدات را گسترش دهد

A note on the effect of calcium alginate coating on quality of refrigerated strawberries.

peer-reviewedAn alginate-based edible coating was investigated for the preservation of the quality of strawberries during cold storage (5 °C). Strawberries were immersed, successively, in sodium alginate and calcium chloride solutions to generate a surface coating of calcium alginate. The quality of coated and non-coated strawberries was evaluated by weight loss, visible decay, titratable acidity, total soluble solids and reducing sugar concentration over a 14-day storage period. Results showed that coating with calcium alginate had no significant effects on weight loss or physicochemical parameters when compared to control fruit, but it did result in the postponement of visible decay during refrigerated storage

Comparison of three with six regions of interest analyses in patients with idiopathic constipation undertaking colon transit scintigraphy using 67Ga-citrate

OBJECTIVE AND INTRODUCTION: Preparation of data from 6 geometric regions of interest in the colon is time consuming, and can become impractical in the environment of busy Nuclear Medicine Departments. Therefore, we have investigated and demonstrated an alternative method for obtaining the same diagnostic information from an analysis of patients with idiopathic constipation who underwent colon transit scintigraphy using 67Ga-citrate. Data analysis methods using three regions of interest are compared to the results obtained using the more time consuming 6 regions of interest method to analyze the data. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, we report our results of the comparative reanalysis of data obtained by more traditional methods. We compare 3 regions of interest (ROI) which were taken from areas including the right colon, left colon and the rectosigmoid colon, with original work using our alternative 6 (ROI) diagnostic methodology. In addition, the proximal colonic emptying (PCE) was determined at 24 hr post ingestion among members of 3 identified subject groups. RESULTS: The distribution of activity as the ingested 67Ga-citrate passes through the colon constitutes an activity profile. The mean activity position in the colon can be determined from subsequent radiographic images and from this the mean clearance time can be calculated. In quantitative assessment, this represents the time at which half of activity was eliminated from colon (mean half clearance time - MCT) which did not appear different in the reanalysis. There is no significant difference in the current study in GMC 24h, GMC 48h and GMC 72h between two groups using the Man Whitney u test (p > 0.05), while in the previous work the results were statistically significant for the two later time periods GMC (GMC 48h and GMC 72h) (p = 0.016 and p = 0.027 respectively). The PCE in the group 1 was = 2.50 (0.37); group 2, 1.57 (0.47) and group 3, 2.97. The PCE was not different between the two groups (p = 0.21). CONCLUSIONS: This investigation demonstrated that the radionuclide colon transit study using 67Ga-citrate is a safe, physiologic, and quantitative method for evaluating the transit of fecal material from cecum to rectum. Although, the visual assessment of diagnosis of the subjects in the two analyses is the same, it was not completely supported by quantitative measurements. Therefore, further studies need to be done

Productive performance of laying hens fed wheat-based diets included olive pulp with or without a commercial enzyme product

Olive pulp (OP) is the remainder of olive cake (the raw material resulting from extraction of olive oil) after the removal of the seed fractions. It can be achieved by sieving the dry olive cake to separate most of the seeds. To assess effects of dietary inclusion of OP supplementing with a cocktail commercial enzyme on performance of laying hens and egg quality characteristics, one hundred and twenty 80- week-old Lohmann LSL-Lite hens, with an average laying rate of 80.3 ± 3.8% (late production phase) and 1450 ± 14 g live body weight, were divided in 20 cages (n = 6). Hens in 5 cages (replicates) were randomly assigned to feed on one of the 4 experimental diets. Based on a 2×2 factorial arrangement, 4 iso-caloric and iso-nitrogenous diets (ME =2720 kcal/kg and CP=150 g/kg) including OP (0.0 and 90.0 g/kg) and a commercial cocktail enzyme with mostly xylanase activity (Nutrase®, 0.0 or 0.9 g/kg) were formulated. To determine blood biochemical parameters and differentiable count of white blood cells, one hen per replicate was bled via wing vein on day 35 of trial. To determine egg quality parameters, all eggs during three frequent days were collected on week 4 of trial. Collected data of feed intake (FI), egg production (EP), egg mass (EM) and calculated feed conversion ratio (FCR), blood biochemical parameters and egg quality traits during 6 week trial period was analyzed based on completely randomized design. Hens fed the OP-included diet shown decreased EP compared with hens fed the control diet during week 3 of experimental period (p ≤ 0.05). There was no significant difference between hens fed the OP-included diet and the control diet in terms of FI and EM. In addition, the same trend was observed in terms of enzyme effect on FI and EM. Dietary enzyme supplementation improved FCR compared with hens fed the control diet during week 6 of the experimental period (p ≤ 0.05). Including OP in the diets of hens decreased the blood level of triglycerides (p ≤ 0.05). Including OP in the diets of hens increased the yolk index (p ≤ 0.05). From the results of this investigation, it can be concluded that including OP in diets of laying hens up to 9% would not have deleterious effects on bird's productive performance. In addition, dietary supplementation with a cocktail enzyme with mainly xylanase activity improved FCR in hens.Key words: Olive pulp, enzyme, laying hens, performance, egg quality characteristics, blood parameters

Advanced Motor Drives Studies

This report presents an evaluation of advanced motor drive systems as a replacement for the hydrazine fueled APU units. The replacement technology must meet several requirements which are particular to the space applications and the Orbiter in general. Some of these requirements are high efficiency, small size, high power density. In the first part of the study several motors are compared, based on their characteristics and in light of the Orbiter requirements. The best candidate, the brushless DC is chosen because of its particularly good performance with regards to efficiency. Several power electronics drive technologies including the conventional three-phase hard switched and several soft-switched inverters are then presented. In the last part of the study, a soft-switched inverter is analyzed and compared to its conventional hard-switched counterpart. Optimal efficiency is a basic requirement for space applications and the soft-switched technology represents an unavoidable trend for the future

A case of antiphospholipid syndrome following gastric signet ring cell adenocarcinoma

Objective: Rare disease Background: Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is a rare autoimmune disease characterized by arterial, venous, and small-vessel thrombosis, pregnancy-related morbidity and the presence of antiphospholipid antibodies such as an-ticardiolipin antibody, and/or anti-beta2-glycoprotein I. In the recent years, APS was observed in patients with solid tumors and the renal cancer, lung carcinoma and breast tumors were the most common tumors linked with APS. Case Report: A 53-year-old female presented with pain and pitting edema of left lower extremity that had begun 6 months prior to hospitalization. Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in the popliteal vein diagnosed by Doppler ultrasonogra-phy and the patient was treated with heparin followed by warfarin. Following subdural hematoma, anticoagu-lant therapy was stopped, and the patient underwent craniotomy. One month later, the patient returned with pain and DVT diagnosed in its right leg. Laboratory tests showed high levels of lupus anticoagulant, IgM and IgG anticardiolipin antibodies. Following a high alkaline phosphatase, diffuse bone marrow involvement was found by whole body bone scan. Looking to find primary tumor, a large infilterable lesion in gastric was seen by endoscopic images, and biopsy histopathology showed a signet ring cell adenocarcinoma. The patient re-fused chemotherapy and died 6 months after diagnosis. Conclusions: APS is associated with gastric signet ring cell adenocarcinoma. © Am J Case Rep, 2020

Application of Efficient Express Sequence Tags Information for Classification and Functional Study of Simple Sequence Repeats in Cattle Testis Tissue

Genomic markers play an important role in tracing the flow of genetic causality of observable signals in animals and plants. In farm animals, the participation of male animals in the gene pool of subsequent generations are much higher than female animals and testes are the most important organs of the male reproductive system. This study was conducted to investigate simple sequence repeats (SSR) within the expressed sequence tags (ESTs) in order to classify the Bos taurus testis tissue’s genes for their relationship and specificity with related reproductive domains. A total of 48,549 publicly available EST sequences from cattle testis tissue downloaded from GenBank database, out of which, 10,237 sequences that their library made from testis tissue were extracted and specialized as the studied sequences using several searching tools and software. Across these selective sequences, 2,039 contigs, 5,097 singletons, and 153 SSRs were detected. EST-SSRs were subsequently evaluated using GenBank and categorized based on their functions in biological systems of dairy cattle. Investigation of these motifs showed that the identified EST-SSRs can be classified into 48 types that GT in dinucleotides and GCC in trinucleotides had the highest frequency. Annotation and gene ontology analysis revealed a relationship among 54 domains with the observed SSRs. Localization and characterization of such markers can help tracing the production of amino acids coded by identified repeats as shown in this study