A review of energy efficient systems integrated into building envelopes

There is an essential need to reduce energy consumption in building sector as it consumes about 40 percent of the world energy and causes environmental problems. About fifty percent of energy in the building sector is used for heating, cooling and air conditioning purposes. Considering building envelopes as particular building elements with many functions which its energetic function is the most important one influencing building energy consumption, enhancing the thermal and energy efficiency of envelopes would decrease energy consumption of the buildings. Building envelopes contain roofs, external walls which are in touch with the outside environment and the floors on the ground. This paper would review a brief history of envelopes evolution and introduce a categorization for the envelopes based on different strategies for enhancing energetic function. A huge literature review on building envelopes has been done to identify different techniques. The result is summarized in five strategies as energy generation, cooling and heating, sun radiation control, and Thermal moderation and adaptive

Cryptosporidium infection in patients with gastroenteritis in Sari, Iran

Background: Cryptosporidiosis is a common coccidian parasite infection in patients with diarrhea that has worldwide distribution especially in developed countries. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the occurrence of Cryptosporidium infection in patients with gastroenteritis admitted to hospitals of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences by parasitological and molecular methods in Sari, Iran. Methods: Stool samples were collected from 348 patients with gastroenteritis admitted to the hospitals of Medical University in the Sari and Ghaemshahr cities in Mazandaran Province, Northern Iran in 2010-2011. Oocysts of Cryptosporidium identified using Formalin-Ether concentration method and stained by Aacidfast staining (AFS) and Auramine phenol fluorescence (APF). Genomic DAN extracted from microscopically positive samples and nested PCR -RFLP by using SSU rRNA that identifies of the species of cryptosporidium. Results: In 348 patients with gastroenteritis, the most clinical symptoms were diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, dehydration, fever and weight loss. 2.3% (8 cases) of diarrheal samples tested by both microscopy and molecular methods were positive for the presence of cryptosporidium. Nested PCR products yielded unique bands of 846 bp, correspond to cryptosporidium. Species diagnosis carried out by digesting the secondary PCR product with SspI restriction enzyme, which noted 3 clearly bands of 449, 254, and 108 bp correspond to Cryptosporidium spp. Conclusion: The results of present study on Cryptosporidium spp. in this area can make a background data for control programs and further molecular analyses. Thus, further work needs to determine the origin of Cryptosporidium species in this area

A conceptual framework for ranking the multiple intelligences of people with epilepsy

Intelligence of a person can be enhanced if the person focuses and practices regularly. ATIE©, a psychometric test, was developed based on the Multiple Intelligence (MI) theory of Howard Gardner to measure eight types of intelligence skills namely musical, kinesthetic, math-logic, spatial, verbal, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalist. The inverse model of ATIE , Fuzzy Inverse ATIE (FIA) was developed to get the best intelligence parameters that would be garnered to maximize the employment probability of people with epilepsy (PWE). In this paper, we present a conceptual framework of a model to rank the suggested intelligences obtained from FIA which are to be improved. This information is essential in order to improve the chances of PWE to be employed

Serological survey and comparison of two polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the diagnosis of canine visceral leishmaniasis in dogs

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is systemic zoonotic parasitic infection that is a health problem in some tropical and subtropical countries. The purpose of our study is to determine the seroprevalence of canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL) in owned dogs of the Sarab area and to identify the species of Leishmania isolated from these dogs. We also compared the sensitivities and specificities of two polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays (kDNA and ITS1) used for Leishmania infantum identification with culture, microscopic detection and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methods as well as validate the PCR techniques for the molecular diagnosis of CVL. Sera from 384 dogs of 30 villages around Sarab, were tested by ELISA and buffy coat blood fractions after sampling tested with PCR by specific primers (kDNA, ITS-18sRNA). Thirty-five dogs were seropositive by ELISA. The seroprevalence rate (SPR) of CVL was 9.1% (CI, 95% 6.6 -12.4). The most important serological result was a high proportion of seropositivity for leishmaniasis. Out of 361 (94%) asymptomatic dogs, 31 (8.6%) were seropositive, and out of 23 (6%) symptomatic dogs, 4 (17.4%) were seropositive. Agreement betweenthe ELISA test and clinical signs was 86.7%. Each assay was performed on 60 blood samples. PCR of kDNA (7/60 positives, 11.8%) was the most sensitive of the assays examined, followed by ELISA (3/60, 5%) and ITS1-PCR (2/60, 3.4 %). All diagnostic assays were highly specific (100 %) and had positive predictive values (PPV) >90% and negative predictive values (NPV) >88% for CVL. As expected, kDNAPCR proved to be the most sensitive (87.5 %) assay for leishmanial DNA in peripheral blood. This study shows that kDNA-PCR is significantly more sensitive than the other parasitological and serological methods, allowing the identification of infected dogs even before the appearance of serum L. infantum antibodies. Because kDNA-PCR is the most reliable, sensitive, and also a rapid diagnostic assay for CVL, it should be employed as the new standard for routine diagnosis.Key words: Leishmania infantum, polymerase chain reaction, kinetoplast DNA, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, Visceral leishmaniasis, dogs, prevalence

The Influence of Biomedical Research on Future Business Funding: Analyzing Scientific Impact and Content in Industrial Investments

This paper investigates the relationship between scientific innovation in biomedical sciences and its impact on industrial activities, focusing on how the historical impact and content of scientific papers influenced future funding and innovation grant application content for small businesses. The research incorporates bibliometric analyses along with SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) data to yield a holistic view of the science-industry interface. By evaluating the influence of scientific innovation on industry across 10,873 biomedical topics and taking into account their taxonomic relationships, we present an in-depth exploration of science-industry interactions where we quantify the temporal effects and impact latency of scientific advancements on industrial activities, spanning from 2010 to 2021. Our findings indicate that scientific progress substantially influenced industrial innovation funding and the direction of industrial innovation activities. Approximately 76% and 73% of topics showed a correlation and Granger-causality between scientific interest in papers and future funding allocations to relevant small businesses. Moreover, around 74% of topics demonstrated an association between the semantic content of scientific abstracts and future grant applications. Overall, the work contributes to a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the science-industry interface, opening avenues for more strategic resource allocation and policy developments aimed at fostering innovation

Comparison of partial least squares and artificial neural network chemometric techniques in determination of sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim in pharmaceutical suspension by ATR-FTIR spectrometry

Abstract. Partial Least Square (PLS) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) techniques were compared during development of an analytical method for quantitative determination of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and trimethoprim (TMP) in Co-Trimoxazole ® suspension. The procedure was based on Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectrometry. The 800-2500 cm −1 spectral region was selected for quantitative analysis. R 2 and relative error of prediction (REP) in PLS technique were (0.989, 2.128) and (0.986, 1.381) for SMX and TMP, respectively. These statistical parameters were improved using the ANN models considering the complexity of the sample and the speediness and simplicity of the method. R 2 and RMSEC in modified method were (0.997, 1.064) and (0.997, 0.634) for SMX and TMP, respectively

Molecular Detection and Phylogenetic Analysis of Endosymbiont Wolbachia pipientis (Rickettsiales: Anaplasmataceae) Isolated from Dirofilaria immitis in Northwest of Iran

Background: The purpose of this study was molecular detection and phylogenetic analysis of Wolbachia species of Dirofilaria immitis. Methods: Adult filarial nematodes were collected from the cardiovascular and pulmonary arterial systems of naturally infected dogs, which caught in different geographical areas of Meshkin Shahr in Ardabil Province, Iran, during 2017. Dirofilaria immitis genomic DNA were extracted. Phylogenetic analysis for proofing of D. immitis was carried out using cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene. Afterward, the purified DNA was used to determine the molecular pattern of the Wolbachia surface protein (WSP) gene sequence by PCR. Results: Phylogeny and homology studies showed high consistency of the COI gene with the previously-registered sequences for D. immitis. Comparison of DNA sequences revealed no nucleotide variation between them. PCR showed that all of the collected parasites were infected with W. pipientis. The sequence of the WSP gene in Wolbachia species from D. immitis was significantly different from other species of Dirofilaria as well as other filarial species. The maximum homology was observed with the Wolbachia isolated from D. immitis. The greatest distance between WSP nucleotides of Wolbachia species found between D. immitis and those isolated from Onchocerca lupi. Conclusion: PCR could be a simple but suitable method for detection of Wolbachia species. There is a pattern of host specificity between Wolbachia and Dirofilaria that can be related to ancestral evolutions. The results of this phylogenetic analysis and molecular characterization may help us for better identification of Wolbachia species and understanding of their coevolution. © 2019 Tehran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

CoII and CuII Fluorescent Complexes with Acridine-Based Ligands

The condensation reaction of salicylaldehyde or 2‐hydroxynaphthaldehyde with a diamino organic group (Acridine Yellow or diaminoacridine) resulted in the Schiff‐base ligands ACRI‐1, ACRI‐2 and ACRI‐3, with the last two hitherto unknown. Fluorescent ACRI‐1, ACRI‐2 and ACRI‐3 were designed to provide iminophenolic binding pockets for two transition metals and ferromagnetic exchange between the metals. Following our report on the complex [Co2(ACRI‐1)2] (1Co), we report herein the reactions of ACRI‐1, ACRI‐2 and ACRI‐3 with CoII and CuII salts, which afforded the new fluorescent complexes [Cu2(ACRI‐1)2] (1Cu), [Co2(ACRI‐2)2] (2Co), [Cu2(ACRI‐2)2] (2Cu), [Co2(ACRI‐3)2(H2O)4] (3Co) and [Cu2(ACRI‐3)2] (3Cu)