183 research outputs found

    Prediksi Performa Linear Engine Bersilinder Tunggal Sistem Pegas Hasil Modifikasi Dari Mesin Konvensional Yamaha RS 100CC

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    Linear engine adalah salah satu inovasi dari engine yang dikembangkan karena memiliki performa yang lebih baik bila dibandingkan dengan mesin konvensional. Peningkatan performa yang dialami karena berkurangnya gaya gesek yang terjadi. Sehingga perlu dilakukan pembuktian untuk mengetahui performa linear engine hasil modifikasi dari mesin konvensional Yamaha RS 100 CC dengan cara memprediksi melalui simulasi. Dalam analisa ini akan dibandingkan performa mesin konvensional dengan linear engine dalam bentuk perbandingan tekanan dengan volume, daya, torque, BSFC, Brake efficiency dalam variasi kecepatan antara 3.2 m/s – 19.2 m/s. Hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa performa yang dihasilkan linear engine hasil modifikasi tersebut meningkat. Daya maksimal dari linear engine meningkat sekitar 7.2% dari daya sebelumnya 6.9 kW menjadi 7.4 kW. Begitu juga torque yang dihasilkan meningkat menjadi 12.4 N/m , selain itu BSFC dari linear engine mengalami perbaikan sekitar 2 – 10% dari BSFC sebelumnya

    Two novel frame shift, recurrent and de novo mutations in the ITGB2 (CD18) gene causing leukocyte adhesion deficiency in a highly inbred North African population

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    We have identified four different mutations causing leukocyte adhesion deficiency (LAD) in the ITGB2 gene of patients from a highly inbred population. Two were novel single-bp deletions (1497delG and 1920delG) causing frame shift and the two others were the missense mutations G284S and R593C. In our study, the G284S was a recurrent mutation while the R593C occurred de novo. We have also characterized a novel Xba1 polymorphic site located at the 5′ end of the ITGB2 locus. Family studies showed that the 1497delG mutation segregated with this marker and the intragenic AvaII polymorphic marker, suggesting the presence of a founder effect. The observation of a heterogeneous spectrum including de novo and recurrent mutations causing LAD in a highly inbred population is rather unexpected. In view of the literature published on the molecular genetics of LAD and considering the ethnic origin of the patients studied, our findings confirm the heterogeneity of the mutations causing LAD and point out potential mutational hot spots in the ITGB2 gene

    Dynamics of the Drosophila Circadian Clock: Theoretical Anti-Jitter Network and Controlled Chaos

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    Background: Electronic clocks exhibit undesirable jitter or time variations in periodic signals. The circadian clocks of humans, some animals, and plants consist of oscillating molecular networks with peak-to-peak time of approximately 24 hours. Clockwork orange (CWO) is a transcriptional repressor of Drosophila direct target genes. Methodology/Principal Findings: Theory and data from a model of the Drosophila circadian clock support the idea that CWO controls anti-jitter negative circuits that stabilize peak-to-peak time in light-dark cycles (LD). The orbit is confined to chaotic attractors in both LD and dark cycles and is almost periodic in LD; furthermore, CWO diminishes the Euclidean dimension of the chaotic attractor in LD. Light resets the clock each day by restricting each molecular peak to the proximity of a prescribed time. Conclusions/Significance: The theoretical results suggest that chaos plays a central role in the dynamics of the Drosophila circadian clock and that a single molecule, CWO, may sense jitter and repress it by its negative loops

    Manufacturing and Installation of the Compound Cryogenic Distribution Line for the Large Hadron Collider

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    The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) [1] currently under construction at CERN will make use of superconducting magnets operating in superfluid helium below 2 K. A compound cryogenic distribution line (QRL) will feed with helium at different temperatures and pressures the local elementary cooling loops in the cryomagnet strings. Low heat inleak to all temperature levels is essential for the overall LHC cryogenic performance. Following a competitive tendering, CERN adjudicated in 2001 the contract for the series line to Air Liquide (France). This paper recalls the main features of the technical specification and shows the project status. The basic choices and achievements for the industrialization phase of the series production are also presented, as well as the installation issues and status

    Diagnosing growth in low-grade gliomas with and without longitudinal volume measurements: A retrospective observational study.

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    BACKGROUND: Low-grade gliomas cause significant neurological morbidity by brain invasion. There is no universally accepted objective technique available for detection of enlargement of low-grade gliomas in the clinical setting; subjective evaluation by clinicians using visual comparison of longitudinal radiological studies is the gold standard. The aim of this study is to determine whether a computer-assisted diagnosis (CAD) method helps physicians detect earlier growth of low-grade gliomas. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We reviewed 165 patients diagnosed with grade 2 gliomas, seen at the University of Alabama at Birmingham clinics from 1 July 2017 to 14 May 2018. MRI scans were collected during the spring and summer of 2018. Fifty-six gliomas met the inclusion criteria, including 19 oligodendrogliomas, 26 astrocytomas, and 11 mixed gliomas in 30 males and 26 females with a mean age of 48 years and a range of follow-up of 150.2 months (difference between highest and lowest values). None received radiation therapy. We also studied 7 patients with an imaging abnormality without pathological diagnosis, who were clinically stable at the time of retrospective review (14 May 2018). This study compared growth detection by 7 physicians aided by the CAD method with retrospective clinical reports. The tumors of 63 patients (56 + 7) in 627 MRI scans were digitized, including 34 grade 2 gliomas with radiological progression and 22 radiologically stable grade 2 gliomas. The CAD method consisted of tumor segmentation, computing volumes, and pointing to growth by the online abrupt change-of-point method, which considers only past measurements. Independent scientists have evaluated the segmentation method. In 29 of the 34 patients with progression, the median time to growth detection was only 14 months for CAD compared to 44 months for current standard of care radiological evaluation (p \u3c 0.001). Using CAD, accurate detection of tumor enlargement was possible with a median of only 57% change in the tumor volume as compared to a median of 174% change of volume necessary to diagnose tumor growth using standard of care clinical methods (p \u3c 0.001). In the radiologically stable group, CAD facilitated growth detection in 13 out of 22 patients. CAD did not detect growth in the imaging abnormality group. The main limitation of this study was its retrospective design; nevertheless, the results depict the current state of a gold standard in clinical practice that allowed a significant increase in tumor volumes from baseline before detection. Such large increases in tumor volume would not be permitted in a prospective design. The number of glioma patients (n = 56) is a limitation; however, it is equivalent to the number of patients in phase II clinical trials. CONCLUSIONS: The current practice of visual comparison of longitudinal MRI scans is associated with significant delays in detecting growth of low-grade gliomas. Our findings support the idea that physicians aided by CAD detect growth at significantly smaller volumes than physicians using visual comparison alone. This study does not answer the questions whether to treat or not and which treatment modality is optimal. Nonetheless, early growth detection sets the stage for future clinical studies that address these questions and whether early therapeutic interventions prolong survival and improve quality of life

    Ergonomics observation: harvesting tasks at oil palm plantation

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    Objectives: Production agriculture is commonly associated with high prevalence of ergonomic injuries, particularly during intensive manual labor and during harvesting. This paper intends to briefly describe an overview of oil palm plantation management highlighting the ergonomics problem each of the breakdown task analysis. Methods: Although cross-sectional field visits were conducted in the current study, insight into past and present occupational safety and health concerns particularly regarding the ergonomics of oil palm plantations was further exploited. Besides discussion, video recordings were extensively used for ergonomics analysis. Results: The unique commodity of oil palm plantations presents significantly different ergonomics risk factors for fresh fruit bunch (FFB) cutters during different stages of harvesting. Although the ergonomics risk factors remain the same for FFB collectors, the intensity of manual lifting increases significantly with the age of the oil palm trees-weight of FFB. Conclusions: There is urgent need to establish surveillance in order to determine the current prevalence of ergonomic injuries. Thereafter, ergonomics interventions that are holistic and comprehensive should be conducted and evaluated for their efficacy using approaches that are integrated, participatory and cost-effective

    Gene expression profiling of meningiomas: current status after a decade of microarray-based transcriptomic studies

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    Purpose This article provides a review of the transcriptomic expression profiling studies that have been performed on meningiomas so far. We discuss some future prospects and challenges ahead in the field of gene expression profiling. Methods We performed a systematic search in the PubMed and EMBASE databases in May 2010 using the following search terms alone or in combination: “meningioma”, “microarray analysis”, “oligonucleotide array sequence analysis”, or “gene expression profiling”. Only original research articles in English that had used RNA hybridized to high-resolution microarray chips to generate gene expression profiles were included. Results We identified 13 articles matching the inclusion criteria. All studies had been performed during the last decade. Conclusions The main results of the studies can be grouped in three categories: (1) several groups have identified meningioma-specific genes and genes associated with the three WHO grades, and the main histological subtypes of grade I meningiomas; (2) one publication has shown that the general transcription profile of samples of all WHO grades differs in vivo and in vitro; (3) one report provides evidence that microarray technology can be used in an automated fashion to classify tumors. Due to lack of consensus on how microarray data are presented, possible general trends found across the studies are difficult to extract. This could obstruct the discovery of important genes and pathways universally involved in meningioma biology

    Angiogenesis in a human neuroblastoma xenograft model: mechanisms and inhibition by tumour-derived interferon-γ

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    Tumour progression in neuroblastoma (NB) patients correlates with high vascular index. We have previously shown that the ACN NB cell line is tumorigenic and angiogenic in immunodeficient mice, and that interferon-γ (IFN-γ) gene transfer dampens ACN tumorigenicity. As IFN-γ represses lymphocyte-induced tumour angiogenesis in various murine models and inhibits proliferation and migration of human endothelial cells, we have investigated the antiangiogenic activity of tumour-derived IFN-γ and the underlying mechanism(s). In addition, we characterised the tumour vasculature of the ACN xenografts, using the chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane assay. We show that the ACN/IFN-γ xenografts had a lower microvessel density and less in vivo angiogenic potential than the vector-transfected ACN/neo. The vascular channels of both xenografts were formed by a mixed endothelial cell population of murine and human origin, as assessed by the FICTION (fluorescence immunophenotyping and interphase cytogenetics) technique. With respect to ACN/neo, the ACN/IFN-γ xenografts showed more terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labelling-positive human and murine endothelial cells, suggesting that inhibition of angiogenesis by IFN-γ was dependent on the induction of apoptosis, likely mediated by nitric oxide. Once the dual origin of tumour vasculature is confirmed in NB patients, the xenograft model described here will prove useful in testing the efficacy of different antiangiogenic compounds

    Utility of certain nucleophilic aromatic substitution reactions for the assay of pregabalin in capsules

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    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Pregabalin (PG) is an anticonvulsant, analgesic and anxiolytic drug. A survey of the literature reveals that all the reported spectrophotometric methods are either don't offer high sensitivity, need tedious extraction procedures, recommend the measurement of absorbance in the near UV region where interference most probably occurs and/or use non specific reagent that don't offer suitable linearity range.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Two new sensitive and simple spectrophotometric methods were developed for determination of pregabalin (PG) in capsules. Method (I) is based on the reaction of PG with 1,2-naphthoquinone-4-sulphonate sodium (NQS), yielding an orange colored product that was measured at 473 nm. Method (II) is based on the reaction of the drug with 2,4-dinitrofluorobenzene (DNFB) producing a yellow product measured at 373 nm. The different experimental parameters affecting the development and stability of the reaction product in methods (I) and (II) were carefully studied and optimized. The absorbance-concentration plots were rectilinear over the concentration ranges of 2-25 and 0.5-8 μg mL<sup>-1 </sup>for methods (I) and (II) respectively. The lower detection limits (LOD) were 0.15 and 0.13 μg mL<sup>-1 </sup>and the lower quantitation limits (LOQ) were 0.46 and 0.4 μg mL<sup>-1 </sup>for methods (I) and (II) respectively.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The developed methods were successfully applied to the analysis of the drug in its commercial capsules. The mean percentage recoveries of PG in its capsule were 99.11 ± 0.98 and 100.11 ± 1.2 (n = 3). Statistical analysis of the results revealed good agreement with those given by the comparison method. Proposals of the reaction pathways were postulated.</p
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