Moisture diffusion through vinyl ester/clay nanocomposites

Moisture diffusion was studied through vinyl ester samples containing up to 5 wt% montmorillonite clay; two different kinds of clay surface treatments were employed to make the clay compatible with the vinyl ester resin. These nanocomposites were characterized using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), mechanical property measurements, x-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). TEM pictures showed that the clay platelets were either exfoliated or intercalated, and the two different surface treatments resulted in different dispersion characteristics. All the samples were post cured, and the diffusivity of moisture was measured by soaking the samples in water at 25°C and noting the increase in weight with increasing time of immersion. It was found that water diffusivity and resin permeability decreased with increasing clay content. Diffusivity was reduced to half its value in the neat resin when the clay content was only 1 wt%, regardless of the nature of clay surface treatment. However, the equilibrium moisture content, the glass transition temperature, and the elastic modulus all increased with increasing amounts of clay

Voltage Sag Compensation by DVR for DFIG Wind Turbine System

This paper describes the dynamic voltage restorer for maintaining the grid codes to be followed by the doubly fed induction wind turbine system. Because of extended power handling properties of power electronics devices, it is been used widely in the Electrical Devices. The extensive usage of power electronic devices has raised the problem of power quality issues, resulting into the problem of voltage sag/swell etc. The system to be designed will face the problems of voltage sag/swell & will keep the system healthy throughout the symmetrical & unsymmetrical fault conditions. This will also avoid the nuisance tripping of highly sensitive relays & will also maintain synchronism of power system. The use of doubly fed induction generation system is done to maintain the constant voltage to frequency output irrespective of wind velocity

Molecular characterization of attenuated Japanese encephalitis live vaccine strain ML-17

長崎大学学位論文 学位記番号:博(医)乙第1,752号 学位授与年月日:平成18年2月28

EFFECT OF CAFFEINE IN EXPERIMENTAL MODEL OF RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS IN RATS

Objective: Primary objective of this study was to evaluate anti-inflammatory effect of caffeine in complete Freund's adjuvant model of rheumatoid arthritis. Secondary objective was to compare the topical anti-inflammatory action with systemic action of caffeine and to minimize many psychotropic effect of caffeine in normal individual or arthritic patient due to systemic administration and more emphasis on topical use of caffeine as an anti-inflammatory (TNF-α blockers).Methods: Arthritis was induced by a single sub-plantar injection (0.1 ml) of CFA into the left hind paw. Rats were treated with dexamethasone (0.05 mg/kg, p. o.), caffeine (20 and 50 mg/kg, p. o.) and caffeine gel (3% and 7% topical) from day 0 to day 12. Efficacy was evaluated by change in paw volume, serum C-reactive protein (CRP), estimation of serum rheumatoid factor (RF), arthritis index, and body weight and by histopathology of synovial joint. Results: CFA showed significantly (p < 0.001) higher paw volume, CRP, RF and arthritic index as compared to caffeine 20 mg/kg, caffeine 50 mg/kg, caffeine gel 3% and caffeine gel 7% treated animals. It was observed that topical caffeine gel (3% and 7%) suppressed paw volume, CRP, RF and arthritic index in a more statistically significant manner compared to oral caffeine solutions (20 mg/kg and 50 mg/kg).Conclusion: Topical caffeine gel (3% and7%) shows more significant anti-inflammatory effect as compared to oral caffeine solution (20 mg/kg and 50 mg/kg). Â

Evaluation of Hygiene in Patients with Implant Supported Overdentures - An In-Vivo Study

Maintaining optimal oral hygiene is essential for the long-term success of implant-supported overdentures. The Denture Cleanliness Index (DCI) is a reliable tool to assess denture hygiene and bacterial plaque accumulation. In this study, we evaluated the hygiene status of implant-supported overdentures in 30 patients using the DCI. The findings showed that majority of patients had plaque accumulation on the impression surface of dentures within one year of using the dentures. Patients were given the denture cleaning instructions according to the DCI scores

Soil Structure Interaction Effect on High Rise and Low Rise Buildings

Effect of supporting soil on the response of structure has been analyzed in the present study. A low rise (G+ 5 storey) and a high rise (G+12 storey) building has been taken for the analysis. For both type of buildings, the response of building with and without consideration of soil structure interaction effect has been compared.Without interaction case is the case in which ends of the structure are assumed to be fixed while in interaction case, structure is assumed to be resting on soil strata (ends are not fix). Type of supporting soil has been also changed based on modulus of elasticity of soil (soft, medium and hard soil). STAAD Pro. 2006 software has been used for analysis. It has been observed that response of G+12 storey building is affected more by soil structure interaction effect as compared to G+5 storey building. In case of soft soil the response of both type of buildings are changed very drastically compared to without interaction case. While in case of hard soil there is not much difference in response of buildings compared to without interaction case. Medium soil is showing intermediate effects

Blood Management System Using Blockchain

Blood is a crucial constituent within the human body that is irreplaceable for human life, it supplies supplements and oxygen to all the cells, due to this fundamental part, the requirement for a decentralized blood bank has been introduced in this paper. Manual frameworks as compared to computerized frameworks are time-consuming, exorbitant, and may regularly contain human errors. Moreover, they are helpless to the single point of disappointment issue due to centralization and may lack privacy and security features. This research paper explores the usage of a blood management system based on blockchain technology. The current blood management systems confront challenges such as donor-recipient anonymity, traceability, and straightforwardness. These issues can be tended to by utilizing blockchain, which gives a decentralized and secure database for data administration. The suggested system makes use of blockchain to handle and preserve data from blood banks, such as donor details, blood type, and availability.

Diagnostic Performance of the PalmScan VF2000 Virtual Reality Visual Field Analyzer for Identification and Classification of Glaucoma

Purpose: To evaluate the diagnostic test properties of the Palm Scan VF2000® Virtual Reality Visual Field Analyzer for diagnosis and classification of the severity of glaucoma. Methods: This study was a prospective cross-sectional analysis of 166 eyes from 97 participants. All of them were examined by the Humphrey® Field Analyzer (used as the gold standard) and the Palm Scan VF 2000® Virtual Reality Visual Field Analyzer on the same day by the same examiner. We estimated the kappa statistic (including 95% confidence interval [CI]) as a measure of agreement between these two methods. The diagnostic test properties were assessed using sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV). Results: The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV for the Virtual Reality Visual Field Analyzer for the classification of individuals as glaucoma/non-glaucoma was 100%. The general agreement for the classification of glaucoma between these two instruments was 0.63 (95% CI: 0.56–0.78). The agreement for mild glaucoma was 0.76 (95% CI: 0.61–0.92), for moderate glaucoma was 0.37 (0.14–0.60), and for severe glaucoma was 0.70 (95% CI: 0.55–0.85). About 28% of moderate glaucoma cases were misclassified as mild and 17% were misclassified as severe by the virtual reality visual field analyzer. Furthermore, 20% of severe cases were misclassified as moderate by this instrument. Conclusion: The instrument is 100% sensitive and specific in detection of glaucoma. However, among patients with glaucoma, there is a relatively high proportion of misclassification of severity of glaucoma. Thus, although useful for screening of glaucoma, it cannot replace the Humphrey® Field Analyzer for the clinical management in its current form

Individual and Combined Effects of Diabetes and Glaucoma on Total Macular Thickness and Ganglion Cell Complex Thickness: A Cross-sectional Analysis

Purpose: Presence of diabetes in glaucoma patients may influence findings while documenting the progression of glaucoma. We conducted the study to compare individual and combined effects of diabetes and glaucoma on macular thickness and ganglion cell complex thickness. Methods: The present study is a cross-sectional analysis of 172 eyes of 114 individuals. The groups were categorized according to the following conditions: glaucoma, diabetes mellitus, both glaucoma and diabetes (‘both’ group), and none of these conditions (‘none’ group). Patients with diabetes did not have diabetic retinopathy (DR). We compared retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness, ganglion cell complex (GCC) thickness, foveal loss of volume (FLV), and global loss of volume (GLV) among the groups. We used random effects multivariate analysis to adjust for potential confounders. Results: The mean (SD) age of these individuals was 60.7 (10.1) years. The total average RNFL and GCC were significantly lower in the glaucoma group (RNFL: –36.27, 95% confidence intervals [CI]: –42.79 to –29.74; P < 0.05, and GCC: –26.24, 95% CI: –31.49 to –20.98; P < 0.05) and the ‘both’ group (RNFL: –24.74, 95% CI: –32.84 to –16.63; P < 0.05, and GCC: –17.92, 95% CI: –24.58 to –11.26; P < 0.05) as compared with the ‘none’ group. There were no significant differences in the average RNFL values and total average GCC between the diabetes group and the ‘none’ group. The values of FLV and GLV were significantly higher in the ‘glaucoma’ group and the ‘both’ group as compared with the ‘none’ group. The foveal values were not significantly different across these four groups. Among the glaucoma cases, 25% were mild, 30% were moderate, and 45% were severe; there was no significant difference in the proportion of severity of glaucoma between the ‘glaucoma only’ and ‘both’ groups (P = 0.32). After adjusting for severity and type of glaucoma, there were no statistically significant differences in the values of average RNFL (6.6, 95% CI: –1.9 to 15.2; P = 0.13), total average GCC (3.6, -95% CI: –2.4 to 9.6; P = 0.24), and GLV (–3.9, 95% CI: –9.5 to 1.6; P = 0.16) in the ‘both group’ as compared with the glaucoma only group. Conclusion: We found that diabetes with no DR did not significantly affect the retinal parameters in patients with glaucoma. Thus, it is less likely that thickness of these parameters will be overestimated in patients with glaucoma who have concurrent diabetes without retinopathy