Membrane Distillation: Basics, Advances, and Applications

Membrane technology as an emerging separation process has become competitive with other separation techniques in recent decades. Among pressure-driven and isothermal membrane processes, membrane distillation (MD) as a thermally driven process has come out to put an end to hardships of such processes like distillation. MD process can be used in a wide variety of applications such as desalination and wastewater treatment. Generally, MD is a process which water is a main component of the feed solution and only water vapor can pass through a hydrophobic membrane pores. With four main configurations different from each other by their condensation procedure, the performance of MD process is limited due to the lack of appropriate module, membrane, and energy consumption rate. In recent years, many experiments have been carried out to find well-suited membrane type and module. Also, applying solar or waste heat as heat source and the capability of coupling with other processes like forward osmosis and osmotic distillation distinguish MD process from other membrane processes. This chapter addresses membrane characteristics, MD applications, transport mechanisms, and process challenges

Prevalence of Seizure In PKU: An Analytic Historical Study

ObjectivePhenylketonuria (PKU) is an autosomal recessive metabolic genetic disorder characterized by a deficiency in the hepatic enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) which can cause problems with brain development, leading to progressive mental retardation, brain damage, and seizures. In this study we evaluated the frequency of seizure, EEG abnormality and behavioral disorders.Materials & Methods In this case study, 94 PKU children aged between 1 month and 23 years who were referred to Mofid children Hospital between 2009 and 2010 were enrolled.Patients were age and sex matched. Statistical tests were used for comparing patients' data.Results The mean age of patients was 8.4 years. Parents were relatives in 80.9% of the cases (76 patients). Of all, 43% (45 patients) had seizure but EEG was abnormal only in 81% of them (35 patients out of 43 patients). Totally, EEG was abnormal in 67% of the cases (63 patients) of whom 44.4% (28 patients of 63 patients) did not have seizure. Therefore, there was a significant relationship between seizure and EEG abnormality. The phenylalanine level ranged from 8mg/dL to 50mg/dL (mean: 18.88 mg/dL) at the time of diagnosis and from 0.4mg/dL to 18mg/dL (mean: 7.37mg/dL) at the time of evaluation. On the other hand,we observed abnormal behaviors in all EEG abnormalities and there was a significant relationship between EEG abnormality and behavioral disorders.ConclusionIn our study, the prevalence of seizure was less than EEG abnormality and there was a significant relationship between EEG abnormalities and behavioral disorders in patients with Phenylketonuria regardless of seizure.The authors believe that treatment of EEG abnormalities may lead to the correction of behavioral disorders in these patients.

Periodic Fever, Aphthous Stomatitis, Pharyngitis, and Cervical Adenitis (PFAPA) Misdiagnosed as Recurrent Urinary Tract Infection

Recurrent fever is common in children and specific infections account for the fever in most cases. PFAPA is not an uncommon cause of periodic fever during childhood. On the other hand, in patients with vesicoureteral reflux (VUR), urinary tract infection usually presents with fever.Here, we report two PFAPA cases in patients with VUR in whom recurrent episodes of fever were misdiagnosed as UTI. Keywords: PFAPA Syndrome; Periodic Fever Syndrome; Vesico-Ureteral Reflux; Urinary Tract Infections; Child

A model of the factors predicting English language teacher immunity: A path analysis

Language teacher immunity, recently put forth by Hiver and Dornyei (2015), refers to “a robust armoring system that emerges in response to high-intensity threats and allows teachers to maintain professional equilibrium and instructional effectiveness” (Hiver, 2017, p. 669). Due to the pure novelty of this construct, its significance to the practice of teaching and rarity of research on it, the present study aimed to develop a model on the predictors of this newly-developed concept. Based on the theories in the related literature, a model was proposed in which four traits of six HEXACO personality traits, job insecurity, and reflective teaching were considered as predicting factors. Through running Path Analysis using AMOS with Maximum Likelihood Estimate on the quantitative data obtained from 483 English language teachers from Iran, a revised model was obtained in which agreeableness, extroversion and emotionality were proved to have effects on language teacher immunity indirectly through job insecurity and reflective teaching which had direct effects on it. The strongest paths were from Job Insecurity (JI) to Reflective Teaching (RT) and Language Teacher Immunity (LTI) with considerable negative regression weights meaning that JI can have negative effects on both of them. The findings of the current research provide implications for both teachers and teacher trainers, highlighting the predictors of teacher immunity

Effect of Duration and Frequency of Acoustic Doppler Velocimetry Measurement on Calculation of Turbulent Flow Characteristics

Acoustic Doppler velocimetry (ADV) is one of the most suitable devices for measuring flow characteristics. Determination of measurement frequency and duration, in a way that the results are calculated with the lowest error, is very important. The goal of this study was to determine the optimum measurement frequency and duration to save money and time. 3D instantaneous subcritical flocharacteristicsts are measured at 200, 100, 25, and 5Hz frequencies for a duration of 3 minutes, in a laboratory flume with an aspect ratio of less than 5. Then, 3D averaged velocities, shear velocity, turbulence intensity, and Reynolds shear stress are calculated. Results show that the reduction of error is independent of the number of measured data and its dependence is on the data collection duration and frequency. For measurements of 3D averaged velocity components, the appropriate measurement frequency and duration are 1Hz and 50 seconds, respectively. To determine the shear velocity, using logarithmic law, reducing the frequency and duration, results in a maximum error of 13%. For calculation of turbulence flow characteristics, like turbulence intensity and Reynolds shear stress, the measurement frequency, and duration of up to 25Hz and 50-70sec, respectively, results in an error of less than 10%

Improvement in detection of presence in forbidden locations in video anomaly using optical flow map

Anomaly detection has been in researchers’ scope of study for a long time. The wide variety of anomaly detection use cases ranges from quality control in production lines to providing security in public places. One of the most attractive topics in anomaly detection is in video surveillance systems. In this paper, we propose a method that works based on frame prediction and optical flow to improve anomaly detection in videos. The use of optical flows in normal frames helps the system to better detect the entrance of people or objects to forbidden areas by its information about the amount of movement in different regions of the frames. Based on the optical flow of normal videos and that of current video, the threshold for anomaly decision is adaptively adjusted. This could ultimately lead to a better overall performance of the anomaly detection system compared to the recent similar works. The presented method is general and can be simply incorporated to other video anomaly detection systems to improve the detection accuracy

Progress in Reactors for High-Temperature Fischer-Tropsch Process: Determination Place of Intensifier Reactor Perspective

High-temperature Fischer-Tropsch (HTFT) process aims to produce lighter cuts such as gasoline and diesel. For many years there have been studies and improvements on HTFT process to make the existing reactors more efficient. Recent studies proposed new configurations such as dual-type membrane reactor and coupling configurations reactor, which improved the performances of this process. This achievement persuades us to update the existing knowledge about the available reactors for HTFT process. In this article, features and performances overview of two classes of reactors are reviewed. The first class consists of the reactors which are based on older studies, and the second one includes recent studies which are called product intensifier reactors. Finally, it is shown that the product intensifier reactors have higher CO conversions and lower selectivity of undesired by-products which results in higher production yield of gasoline. Furthermore, the place of product intensifier reactor among common reactors with regard to the influence of the process parameters on the product distribution has been estimate

Blockade of the Naloxone-induced Aversion in Morphine-conditioned Wistar Rats by L-Arginine Intra-central Amygdala

AbstractObjective(s)Single injection of naloxone, a selective antagonist of morphine, prior to the drug conditioning testing was used to investigate on morphine dependence.Materials and MethodsConditioning to morphine (2.5-10 mg/kg, s.c.) was established in adult male Wistar rats (weighing 200-250 g) using an unbiased procedure. Nitric oxide agents were microinjected into the central amygdala prior to naloxone-paired place conditioning testing.ResultsThe results showed that morphine produced a significant dose-dependent place preference in animals. Naloxone (0.1-0.4 mg/kg, i.p.) injections pre-testing of the response to morphine (7.5 mg/kg, s.c.) caused a significant aversion at the higher doses (0.4 mg/kg, i.p.). This response was reversed by microinjection of L-arginine (0.3-3 µg/rat, intra-central amygdala) prior to naloxone on the day of the testing. The response to L-arginine was blocked by pre-injection of NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) (intra-central amygdala).ConclusionA single injection of naloxone on the test day of morphine place conditioning may simply reveal the occurrence of morphine dependence in rats, and that the nitric oxide in the central amygdala most likely plays a key role in this phenomenon