Hydrophobicity properties of graphite and reduced graphene oxide of the polysulfone (PSf) mixed matrix membrane

Hydrophobicity properties of graphite and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) (from exfoliated graphite/rGO) towards PSf polymer membrane characteristic and properties at different additives weight concentrations (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 wt. %) were investigated. Both PSF/graphite and PSf/rGO membranes were characterized in term of hydrophobicity, surface bonding, surface roughness and porosity. FTIR peaks revealed that membrane with graphite and reduced graphene oxide nearly diminished their O-H bonding which was opposite to the graphene oxide peak that shows a strong O-H bonding as increased exfoliated times. These results were in line with the contact angle results that showed strong hydrophobicity of graphite and reduced graphene oxide membranes as increased these additives concentration. The effect of strong hydrophobicity in these membranes also has resulted in smoother surface roughness compared to pristine PSf membrane. Further investigation of the performance of water flux also proved that both above membranes have strong hydrophobic effect, with the lowest pure water flux rate (L/m2h) was given by PSf/rGO 3% membrane at 19.2437 L/m2h

Retrospective Study on Milk Production and Reproductive Performance of Dairy Cattle in a Farm in Selangor, Malaysia

Dairy industry is small in Malaysia and unable to fulfill its dairy self-sufficiency. Therefore, Malaysia has to import most of the dairy products to satisfy its domestic demands. This study was performed to evaluate the performance of a selected dairy farm in Malaysia. A dairy farm in Selangor was selected and the farm records between 2011 and 2015 were analysed for the annual milk yield, calving rate and disease occurrence. It was found that the milk yield was low with average annual yield of 44,967 kg and the average milk production per cow per day was 6.83 kg. Clinical mastitis (67%) and traumatic injury (6.9%) were the most common disease occurrence. The calving rate of 75% was within the farm target. Calving percentage and diseases showed significant (P0.05) positive and negative influences on milk production, respectively

Tribological effect of palm sterin and engine oil (CMEO) on pure aluminium pin steel disc with varies speed and constant load

Palm stearin has high biodegradability and produces low pollution to the environment. This oil can be improved based on its natural behaviour and can be used as an alternative to replace widely used commercial mineral oils. Thus, the negative impact towards the environment can be reduced. The purpose of this research is to study the performance of two type of lubricants which are vegetable oil (Palm Stearin) and commercial mineral engine oil (CMEO). The sample will be tested using pin on disc tribotester machine that follows ASTM G99 standard. The materials used for this experiment are pure aluminium pin (A110) with spherical head and stainless steel disc (SKD11) with four grooves. The experiment will take approximately one hour to complete one test. The conditions that were considered before the beginning of the experiment are constant loads of 1 kg, varying sliding speeds of 1.5 m/s to 3.5 m/s with incremental 1 m/s and 2.5 ml volume of oil. The wear rate and coefficient of friction can be determined in this experiment. From the result obtained, the coefficient of friction (COF) of palm stearin is 45% higher than CMEO and also the trend for both oils are inversely proportional with sliding speed. Besides that, the wear rate of palm stearin is also higher than CMEO, which shows that CMEO has better lubrication performance when compared to palm stearin. The additives are needed for palm stearin so that the lubrication performance can compete with the CMEO. Furthermore, the results also reveal that vegetable oil shows a potential to be a commercial lubricant when the deficiencies can be overcome

Dominansi Dan Diversitas Lamun Dan Makrozoobenthos Pada Musim Pancaroba Di Pantai Bama, Taman Nasional Baluran, Situbondo [Dominance and Diversity of Seagrass and Macrozoobenthos on Transition Season in Bama Beach, Baluran National Park, Situbondo]

Lamun merupakan tanaman berbiji terbuka yang mampu tumbuh dan beradaptasi dengan lingkungan bersalinitas tinggi serta dapat berasosiasi dengan benthos. Keberadaan lamun di perairan merupakan salah satu indikator tingkat kesuburan dan produktivitas perairan. Terdapat perbedaan dominansi antara musim hujan dan musim kemarau, sehingga enelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengidentifikasi dan menghitung dominansi dan keanekaragaman lamun dan makrozoobenthos pada musim pancaroba di Pantai Bama, TN Baluran, Situbondo. Metode penelitian yang digunakan yaitu line transect quadran dengan 5 line transek quadran yang masing-masingnya dipasang 5 plot transek. Ditemukan jenis lamun yang memiliki nilai kelimpahan tertinggi di Pantai Bama, TN Baluran pada musim pancaroba yaitu C. serrulata dengan nilai 48,90% , dan makrozoobenthos dari genus Holothuria dengan nilai 52,06%. Nilai Indeks dominansi (D) mengkategorikan Pantai Bama, TN Baluran dalam perairan dengan dominansi sedang. Sedangkan berdasarkan Indeks keanekaragaman (H\u27) mengkategorikan Pantai Bama, TN Baluran dalam perairan dengan keanekaragaman rendah. Musim peralihan berpengaruh terhadap jenis, kelimpahan relatif, indeks dominansi dan indeks keanekaragaman lamun dan makrozoobenthos di Pantai Bama, TN Baluran dibandingkan musim kemarau dan hujan. Perlu dilakukan survei secara berkala untuk mengetahui keanekaragaman organisme yang berkaitan dengan produktivitas perairan

The evaluation of shear deformation for contact analysis with large displacement

A common problem encountered in the study of contact problem is the failure to obtain stable and accurate convergence result when the contact node is close to the element edge, which is referred as "critical area". In previous studies, the modification of the element force equation to apply it to a node-element contact problem using the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory [1]. A simple single-element consists two edges and a contact point was used to simulate contact phenomenon of a plane frame. The modification was proven to be effective by the convergeability of the unbalanced force at the tip of element edge, which enabled the contact node to "pass-through", resulting in precise results. However, in another recent study, we discover that, if shear deformation based on Timoshenko beam theory is taken into consideration, a basic simply supported beam coordinate afforded a much simpler and more efficient technique for avoiding the divergence of the unbalanced force in the "critical area". Using our unique and robust Tangent Stiffness Method, the improved equation can be used to overcome any geometrically nonlinear analyses, including those involving extremely large displacements

Receptor-Mediated Gonadotropin Action in Ovary

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66088/1/j.1432-1033.1981.tb05481.x.pd

Growth factor stimulation of cardiomyocytes induces changes in the transcriptional contents of secreted exosomes

Exosomes are nano-sized extracellular vesicles, released from various cells, which can stimulate or repress responses in targets cells. We recently reported that cultured cardiomyocytes are able to release exosomes and that they, in turn, are involved in facilitating events in target cells by alteration of gene expression. We investigated whether external stimuli of the cardiomyocyte might influence the transcriptional content of the released exosomes.Exosomes were isolated from media collected from cultured cardiomyocytes (HL-1) with or without growth factor treatment (TGF-β2 and PDGF-BB), with a series of differential centrifugations, including preparative ultracentrifugation and separation with a sucrose gradient. The exosomes were characterized with dynamic light scattering (DLS), electron microscopy (EM) and Western blot and analyzed with Illumina whole genome microarray gene expression.The exosomes were rounded in shape and had an average size of 50–90 nm in diameter with no difference between treatment groups. Analysis of the mRNA content in repeated experiments conclusively revealed 505 transcripts in the control group, 562 in the TGF-β2-treated group and 300 in the PDGF-BB-treated group. Common transcripts (217) were found in all 3 groups.We show that the mode of stimulation of parental cells affects the characteristics of exosomes released. Hence, there is a difference in mRNA content between exosomes derived from cultured cardiomyocytes stimulated, or not stimulated, with growth factors. We also conclude that all exosomes contain a basic package consisting of ribosomal transcripts and mRNAs coding for proteins with functions within the energy supply system. To access the supplementary material to this article, please see Supplementary files under Article Tools online

Receptor-Mediated Gonadotropin Action in Ovary

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65826/1/j.1432-1033.1979.tb12873.x.pd

Intelligent evacuation management systems: A review

Crowd and evacuation management have been active areas of research and study in the recent past. Various developments continue to take place in the process of efficient evacuation of crowds in mass gatherings. This article is intended to provide a review of intelligent evacuation management systems covering the aspects of crowd monitoring, crowd disaster prediction, evacuation modelling, and evacuation path guidelines. Soft computing approaches play a vital role in the design and deployment of intelligent evacuation applications pertaining to crowd control management. While the review deals with video and nonvideo based aspects of crowd monitoring and crowd disaster prediction, evacuation techniques are reviewed via the theme of soft computing, along with a brief review on the evacuation navigation path. We believe that this review will assist researchers in developing reliable automated evacuation systems that will help in ensuring the safety of the evacuees especially during emergency evacuation scenarios