Forced boiling of nanofluids, effects of contact angle and surface wettability

This paper was presented at the 3rd Micro and Nano Flows Conference (MNF2011), which was held at the Makedonia Palace Hotel, Thessaloniki in Greece. The conference was organised by Brunel University and supported by the Italian Union of Thermofluiddynamics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, University of Thessaly, IPEM, the Process Intensification Network, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Heat Transfer Society, HEXAG - the Heat Exchange Action Group, and the Energy Institute.Nanofluids are the suspension of ultra fine particles in a conventional base fluid which tremendously changes the heat transfer characteristics of the original fluid. In this paper the boiling characteristics of different nanofluids was studied numerically using a CFD approach. Dispersions of Al2O3, SiO2, and ZrO2 nanoparticles in water at different concentrations (0.1, 0.01 and 0.001% by volume) have been used. Effects of some noticeable parameters such as nanoparticle concentration and temperature profile on the critical heat flux (CHF) have been investigated. The results of CFD simulation based on two-phase models were compared with experimental data. Boiling curves and critical heat flux were measured for the base fluid and the nanofluids. Based on the simulation results, it was concluded that the using of the Zirconium oxide (0.001%) led to modest (up to 31%) increase in the CHF. The minimum enhancement belongs to the aluminum oxide (0.1%) which increases the critical heat flux up to 11%. According to the experimental results, despite of expectation, addition of the nanoparticles causes decreasing the boiling heat transfer coefficient. This reduction is related to the changing of the surface characteristic causing by depositing the nanoparticles. In the Al2O3/water and SiO2/water nanofluids, the surface contact angle increases with increase in the nanoparticle volume fraction, so the CHF decreases

Determination of genetic relatedness among selected rice (Oryza sativa, L.) cultivars using microsatellite markers

For plant improvement programs, genetic variation information among different cultivars is very important. Genetic variation among 26 rice (Oryza sativa, L.) accessions, consisting of 13 Iranian and 13 Malaysian cultivars was investigated using microsatellite markers distributed across the rice genome. All the 21 selected microsatellite primers were successfully amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of which 20 (95.2%) were found to be polymorphic. A total of 75 alleles were detected at 21 microsatellite loci. The allele frequencies per locus ranged from 1 in RM338 to 5 alleles in RM307, RM161, RM334 and RM271. The mean number of alleles per locus was 3.57. Amongst these microsatellite loci, the largest polymorphism information content (PIC) value was 0.74 in RM 161, while the lowest PIC value was 0.0 in RM 338. Dendrogram was constructed based on dissimilarity values, unweighted pair group with arithmetic average (UPGMA) and it separated all the cultivars into six clusters. All these polymorphisms could be further evaluated for rice marker assisted selection and developed PCR methodology would expedite screening for large numbers of rice required for association studies.Key words: Genetic variation, genetic dissimilarity, polymorphism information content (PIC), polymerase chain reaction (PCR)

Determinant criteria for designing Health benefit package in selected countries

Health benefit package described as primary health interventions that provided with government using general funds for all regardless their financial ability. This study was aimed at determine appropriate pattern for Iran using comparative survey of Health benefit package in various countries. A review exploration was done, scholars was selected population of both developed and developing countries, required information was also extracted by articles, searches and reports of reliable sources and date were analyzed by SPSS, in brief. The vast majority frequencies was respectively allocated to accessibility (40.7%), cost- effectiveness (29.6%), prioritize, efficacy and cost (22.2%). most countries located in WHO African region were selected cost-effectiveness and accessibility, WHO southeast Asia region were selected, coverage, prioritize, efficacy and quality and finally most WHO Europeans region were elected effectiveness and services costs for including services in Health benefit package. According to most Health benefit package designer emphasis on criteria including accessibility and costeffectiveness, to design Health benefit package for Iran, these criteria must be noticed

Efficacy of Two Caries Detector Dyes in the Diagnosis of Dental Caries

Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of two caries detector dyes in the diagnosis of dental caries.Materials and Methods: Twenty extracted human posterior teeth without pulpal exposure were sectioned mesiodistally through the center of the lesions using a water-cooled disk.The tooth halves were randomly divided into two groups and treated with Caries Detector (CD) and Caries Check (CC) detector dyes. Access cavities were prepared followed by caries removal and dye application. All cavities were arbitrarily divided into two right and left sections and excavation of the stained areas was performed on the left parts, while the right sections remained untouched. Bacterial penetration into dentinal tubules was evaluated using Gram-stained decalcified sections under light microscopy. Sensitivity and specificity of both dyes were calculated.Results: The sensitivity of CD and CC were 74% and 71%,respectively. The specificity obtained for both dyes was 100%.Conclusion: Considering the low sensitivity of the dyes evaluated in the present study, it seems that they may not be reliable when used as the sole diagnostic technique for detection of carious lesions in posterior teeth

Coherent Umklapp Scattering of Light from Disordered Photonic Crystals

A theoretical study of the coherent light scattering from disordered photonic crystal is presented. In addition to the conventional enhancement of the reflected light intensity into the backscattering direction, the so called coherent backscattering (CBS), the periodic modulation of the dielectric function in photonic crystals gives rise to a qualitatively new effect: enhancement of the reflected light intensity in directions different from the backscattering direction. These additional coherent scattering processes, dubbed here {\em umklapp scattering} (CUS), result in peaks, which are most pronounced when the incident light beam enters the sample at an angle close to the the Bragg angle. Assuming that the dielectric function modulation is weak, we study the shape of the CUS peaks for different relative lengths of the modulation-induced Bragg attenuation compared to disorder-induced mean free path. We show that when the Bragg length increases, then the CBS peak assumes its conventional shape, whereas the CUS peak rapidly diminishes in amplitude. We also study the suppression of the CUS peak upon the departure of the incident beam from Bragg resonance: we found that the diminishing of the CUS intensity is accompanied by substantial broadening. In addition, the peak becomes asymmetric.Comment: LaTeX, 8 two-column pages, 6 figures include

Epidemiological characteristics and determinants of mortality in acute coronary syndrome in Iran

Abstract Background and purpose: Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) includes ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), non–ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI), and unstable angina. This study was conducted to determine the characteristics of patients with ACS and determinants of their mortality in Iran. Materials and methods: This study was a hospital-based prospective cohort study in which we used the data of 20,750 patients registered in National Registry of myocardial infarction in hospitals with cardiology ward in 31 provinces in Iran. To determine the factors associated with patients’ mortality, Cox regression (relative hazards model) was used. Results: Mortality rate in followed up patients with STEMI and NSTEMI was 3698.4 and 4573.3 per 1000 person-year, respectively. The mean age of patients with STEMI was 60.5± 13.1 years and in those with NSTEMI was 62.9± 13.4 years. The prevalence of STEMI and NSTEMI was 75.8% and 24.2%, respectively. The most important determinants of mortality in patients were age over 84 years of old, female sex, illiteracy, lack of receiving thrombolytic therapy, right bundle branch block, STEMI, heart failure, and receiving angioplasty. Conclusion: The characteristics of patients with ACS, could help the health system personnel in strategy adoption and decision making as well as assessment, monitoring, and treatment of patients. Training people to refer early for emergency care in case of manifesting ACS symptoms, and providing them with treatment at golden time could be of great benefit in reducing the rate of mortality

MyoD-expressing progenitors are essential for skeletal myogenesis and satellite cell development

AbstractSkeletal myogenesis in the embryo is regulated by the coordinated expression of the MyoD family of muscle regulatory factors (MRFs). MyoD and Myf-5, which are the primary muscle lineage-determining factors, function in a partially redundant manner to establish muscle progenitor cell identity. Previous diphtheria toxin (DTA)-mediated ablation studies showed that MyoD+ progenitors rescue myogenesis in embryos in which Myf-5-expressing cells were targeted for ablation, raising the possibility that the regulative behavior of distinct, MRF-expressing populations explains the functional compensatory activities of these MRFs. Using MyoDiCre mice, we show that DTA-mediated ablation of MyoD-expressing cells results in the cessation of myogenesis by embryonic day 12.5 (E12.5), as assayed by myosin heavy chain (MyHC) and Myogenin staining. Importantly, MyoDiCre/+;R26DTA/+ embryos exhibited a concomitant loss of Myf-5+ progenitors, indicating that the vast majority of Myf-5+ progenitors express MyoD, a conclusion consistent with immunofluorescence analysis of Myf-5 protein expression in MyoDiCre lineage-labeled embryos. Surprisingly, staining for the paired box transcription factor, Pax7, which functions genetically upstream of MyoD in the trunk and is a marker for fetal myoblasts and satellite cell progenitors, was also lost by E12.5. Specific ablation of differentiating skeletal muscle in ACTA1Cre;R26DTA/+ embryos resulted in comparatively minor effects on MyoD+, Myf-5+ and Pax7+ progenitors, indicating that cell non-autonomous effects are unlikely to explain the rapid loss of myogenic progenitors in MyoDiCre/+;R26DTA/+ embryos. We conclude that the vast majority of myogenic cells transit through a MyoD+ state, and that MyoD+ progenitors are essential for myogenesis and stem cell development

An Ensemble Semi-Supervised Adaptive Resonance Theory Model with Explanation Capability for Pattern Classification

Most semi-supervised learning (SSL) models entail complex structures and iterative training processes as well as face difficulties in interpreting their predictions to users. To address these issues, this paper proposes a new interpretable SSL model using the supervised and unsupervised Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) family of networks, which is denoted as SSL-ART. Firstly, SSL-ART adopts an unsupervised fuzzy ART network to create a number of prototype nodes using unlabeled samples. Then, it leverages a supervised fuzzy ARTMAP structure to map the established prototype nodes to the target classes using labeled samples. Specifically, a one-to-many (OtM) mapping scheme is devised to associate a prototype node with more than one class label. The main advantages of SSL-ART include the capability of: (i) performing online learning, (ii) reducing the number of redundant prototype nodes through the OtM mapping scheme and minimizing the effects of noisy samples, and (iii) providing an explanation facility for users to interpret the predicted outcomes. In addition, a weighted voting strategy is introduced to form an ensemble SSL-ART model, which is denoted as WESSL-ART. Every ensemble member, i.e., SSL-ART, assigns {\color{black}a different weight} to each class based on its performance pertaining to the corresponding class. The aim is to mitigate the effects of training data sequences on all SSL-ART members and improve the overall performance of WESSL-ART. The experimental results on eighteen benchmark data sets, three artificially generated data sets, and a real-world case study indicate the benefits of the proposed SSL-ART and WESSL-ART models for tackling pattern classification problems.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure

A suggested prototype for assessing bone health

Background- Osteoporosis is becoming a health concern worldwide. Considering the fact that prevention plays an important role in reducing the burden of this silent disease and in view of the limited resources available, many countries have adopted certain programs to fight osteoporosis through shifting their attention towards at-risk individuals. The Iranian Multicenter Osteoporosis Study (IMOS) is one of these programs. The program aims to assess bone health and the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in different parts of Iran with various altitudes, latitudes and lifestyle habits in a way that the results could be generalized to the country. Method- The present article presents the protocol used in the third phase of the study. It was designed based on the experiences gathered in the previous phases to overcome the shortcomings particularly subject loss. The questionnaire applied in this study was developed based on a thorough literature review of the risk factors and secondary causes of osteoporosis and was approved by an expert panel. It should be added that while the majority of the existing studies aim to study a certain aspect of osteoporosis, the present protocol provides the information needed for policy makers and researchers to study different osteoporosis-related issues. Conclusion- The authors believe the protocol, to be implemented with small modifications, can help policymakers in different parts of the world, particularly developing countries, gather accurate information on different aspects of bone health at the national level. © 2015, Academy of Medical Sciences of I.R. Iran. All rights reserved

Point Mutations on Mitochondrial DNA in Iranian Patients with Friedreich’s Ataxia

ObjectiveMitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is considered a candidate modifier factor for neuro-degenerative disorders. The most common type of ataxia is Friedreich's ataxia (FA). The aim of this study was to investigate different parts of mtDNA in 20 Iranian FA patients and 80 age-matched controls by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and automated DNA sequencing methods to find any probable point mutations involved in the pathogenesis of FA.Materials and MethodsWe identified 13 nucleotide substitutions including A3505G, T3335C, G3421A, G8251A, A8563G, A8563G, G8584A, T8614C, T8598C, C8684T, A8701G, G8994A and A9024G.ResultsTwelve of 13 nucleotide substitutions had already been reported as polymorphism. One of the nucleotide substitutions (A9024G) had not been reported before. The A9024G nucleotide substitution does not change its amino acid. The controls were also investigated for this polymorphism which was found in two of them (2.5%).ConclusionNone of the mutations found in this study can affect the clinical manifestations of FA. This survey also provides evidence that the mtDNA A9024G allele is a new nonpathogenic polymorphism. We suggest follow-up studies for this polymorphism in different populations.