Pembersih bilah kipas siling

Kebanyakan rumah pada kebiasaannya mempunyai kipas siling tidak kira samada rumah moden atau tradisional. Kipas siling merupakan sejenis kipas yang digantung pada bahagian atas rumah untuk mengitar udara melalui bilah-bilah kipas berputar (Norfarahanim Mohd@Ramli, 2007). Ia berfungsi untuk menyerakkan udara di sekeliling kawasan secara lebih menyeluruh namun ia tidak mengubah suhu bilik secara langsung. Lazimnya, bilah akan berputar pada arah lawan jam untuk menolak udara sejuk turun ke bawah. Apabila menghampiri lantai, angin yang terhasil akan terserak ke semua arah dan udara panas akan naik ke atas secara semulajadi untuk menggantikan udara sejuk yang telah ditolak kebawah

An in silico cardiomyocyte reveals the impact of changes in CaMKII signalling on cardiomyocyte contraction kinetics in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is characterised by asymmetric left ventricular hypertrophy, ventricular arrhythmias, and cardiomyocyte dysfunction that may cause sudden death. HCM is associated with mutations in sarcomeric proteins and is usually transmitted as an autosomal-dominant trait. The aim of this in silico study was to assess the mechanisms that underlie the altered electrophysiological activity, contractility, regulation of energy metabolism, and crossbridge cycling in HCM at the single-cell level. To investigate this, we developed a human ventricular cardiomyocyte model that incorporates electrophysiology, metabolism, and force generation. The model was validated by its ability to reproduce the experimentally observed kinetic properties of human HCM induced by (a) remodelling of several ion channels and Ca2+-handling proteins arising from altered Ca2+/calmodulin kinase II signalling pathways and (b) increased Ca2+ sensitivity of the myofilament proteins. Our simulation showed a decreased phosphocreatine-to-ATP ratio (-9%) suggesting a negative mismatch between energy expenditure and supply. Using a spatial myofilament half-sarcomere model, we also compared the fraction of detached, weakly bound, and strongly bound crossbridges in the control and HCM conditions. Our simulations showed that HCM has more crossbridges in force-producing states than in the control condition. In conclusion, our model reveals that impaired crossbridge kinetics is accompanied by a negative mismatch between the ATP supply and demand ratio. This suggests that improving this ratio may reduce the incidence of sudden death in HCM

Typical presentation of pulmonary lepidic adenocarcinoma: a rare case report

Bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (BAC) is a rare subtype of adenocarcinoma of lung with distinct features and distinctive characteristics. It accounts approximately for 4% of lung cancers. In the following study we report a rare observation of a 50 years old female with a clinical, radiological and histological presentation, which is typical of an invasive mucinous lepidic adenocarcinoma formerly named BAC

Respiratory influence on left atrial volume calculation with 3D-echocardiography

BACKGROUND: Left atrial volume (LAV) estimation with 3D echocardiography has been shown to be more accurate than 2D volume calculation. However, little is known about the possible effect of respiratory movements on the accuracy of the measurement. METHODS: 100 consecutive patients admitted with chest pain were examined with 3D echocardiography and LAV was quantified during inspiratory breath hold, expiratory breath hold and during free breathing. RESULTS: Of the 100 patients, only 65 had an echocardiographic window that allowed for 3D echocardiography in the entire respiratory cycle. Mean atrial end diastolic volume was 45.4 ± 14.5 during inspiratory breath hold, 46.4 ± 14.8 during expiratory breath hold and 45.6 ± 14.3 during free respiration. Mean end systolic volume was 17.6 ± 7.8 during inspiratory breath hold, 18.8 ± 8.0 during expiratory breath hold and 18.3 ± 8.0 during free respiration. No significant differences were seen in any of the measured parameters. CONCLUSIONS: The present study adds to the feasibility of 3D LAV quantitation. LAV estimation by 3D echocardiography may be performed during either end-expiratory or end-inspiratory breath-hold without any significant difference in the calculated volume. Also, the LAV estimation may be performed during free breathing

Host immune responses to salivary components : a critical facet of tick-host interactions

Tick sialome is comprised of a rich cocktail of bioactive molecules that function as a tool to disarm host immunity, assist blood-feeding, and play a vibrant role in pathogen transmission. The adaptation of the tick’s blood-feeding behavior has lead to the evolution of bioactive molecules in its saliva to assist them to overwhelm hosts’ defense mechanisms. During a blood meal, a tick secretes different salivary molecules including vasodilators, platelet aggregation inhibitors, anticoagulants, anti-inflammatory proteins, and inhibitors of complement activation; the salivary repertoire changes to meet various needs such as tick attachment, feeding, and modulation or impairment of the local dynamic and vigorous host responses. For instance, the tick’s salivary immunomodulatory and cement proteins facilitate the tick’s attachment to the host to enhance prolonged bloodfeeding and to modulate the host’s innate and adaptive immune responses. Recent advances implemented in the field of “omics” have substantially assisted our understanding of host immune modulation and immune inhibition against the molecular dynamics of tick salivary molecules in a crosstalk between the tick–host interface. A deep understanding of the tick salivary molecules, their substantial roles in multifactorial immunological cascades, variations in secretion, and host immune responses against these molecules is necessary to control these parasites. In this article, we reviewed updated knowledge about the molecular mechanisms underlying host responses to diverse elements in tick saliva throughout tick invasion, as well as host defense strategies. In conclusion, understanding the mechanisms involved in the complex interactions between the tick salivary components and host responses is essential to decipher the host defense mechanisms against the tick evasion strategies at tick-host interface which is promising in the development of effective anti-tick vaccines and drug therapeutics

Antimicrobial, antioxidant and cytotoxic properties of water-soluble polysaccharides extracted from microalgae Isochrysis galbana and Nannochloropsis oculata

The present work is carried out to evaluate potential applications of aqueous extracts of two microalgae Isochrysis galbana (PEA) and Nannochloropsis oculata (PEB) containing mainly polysaccharides. The monosaccharide composition of microalgal extracts was determined. GC–MS analyses after derivatization show that glucose is the major compound in both microalgae PEA (56.88 %) and PEB (68.23 %). Mannitol (38.8 %) and inositol (20.32 %) are respectively the second major compounds in PEA and PEB. Silylation of monosaccharides allows the determination of sorbitol that attained 3.38 % in PEB. The determination of antioxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxic properties were also analyzed. Antioxidant activity was evaluated from the DPPH scavenging activity. PEA and PEB show a concentration dépendent DPPH·radical scavenging activity. At concentration of 10 mg/mL, both PEA and PEB exhibit an antioxidant activity of 41.45 and 59.07 %, respectively. PEB and PEA are able to inhibit the growth of Gram-negative bacteria, Grampositive bacteria and three Candida species. Cytotoxic activity was evaluated on human HeLa cervical cancer cells. HeLa cell proliferation was totally inhibited after treatment with PEA and PEB (1 mg/mL) and the inhibition was dose dependent (from 0.031 to 1 mg/mL). Their anticholinesterase activity was also investigated against butyrylcholinesterase enzymes. These polysaccharides possess interesting antimicrobial, anticancer and anticholinesterase activities that could represent an additional value for these microalgal products. -- Keywords : algae ; DPPH ; cytotoxic activity ; antimicrobial activity ; polysaccharides ; GC-MS

Estimation of Missing Human Body Parts via Bidirectional LSTM

In this paper, a bi-directional long-short term memory (LSTM) based approach is proposed for the estimation of missing body parts in a human pose estimation context. Accurate human pose estimation is often a key component for accurate human action and activity recognition. The key idea of our algorithm is to learn the temporal consistencies of the human body poses between previous and subsequent frames. This helps in estimating missing body parts and improves the general smoothness of the pose detection results. The approach acts as a post-processing step after the application of any off-the-shelf body part detector and has been evaluated on the PoseTrack dataset for both validation and testing sequences. The results show consistent improvement in the detection across all body parts.</p

A neural network framework for combining different task types and motivations in motivated reinforcement learning

Combining different motivation models for different task types within artificial agents has the potential to produce agents capable of a greater range of behaviours in different situations. This thesis will explore the ability to produce agents that can identify different types of tasks online then learn solutions for these tasks while driven by one or more motivations in isolation or combination to produce different agent behaviour that will focus on different task types. The main contributions of this research are: Definitions for four task types for use in motivated reinforcement learning agents; a multi-layer neural network model for combining different motivations for different task types; a study of agent ability to identify different types of tasks in a simulated game scenario. A review of existing computational models of motivation and the layered approaches to the design of goal generation and intrinsically motivated learning agents inspire the multi-layer neural network framework presented and examined experimentally in this thesis. The first set of experiments examines topological and non-topological adaptive resonance theory networks that are used to classify sensed states and identify different types of tasks. Different distance metrics and weight update rules are used to determine the impact of the network structure on identified task types. The most promising network structure, distance metric and update rule is then chosen to implement the task identification process in conjunction with motivated reinforcement learning. In the second set of experiments, three motivation models, novelty, interest and competence, are examined separately in conjunction with our task identification algorithm. Established metrics and statistical methods are used to quantify learning behaviour and the complexity and variety of repetitive behavioural structures. Finally, we examine agent behaviour when the agent can identify more than one type of task with a single motive model that drives the learning process. Parallel and series task types combination modes are explored. Results show that a series approach to changing the type of task the agent can identify is most effective for producing motivated reinforcement learning agents that can both learn effectively and exhibit quantifiable changes in their characteristic learning behaviour over time