Echinostoma ilocanum Infection in Oddar Meanchey Province, Cambodia

Fecal examinations using the Kato Katz technique were performed on a total of 1,287 villagers (945 students and 342 general inhabitants) of Oddar Meanchey Province, Cambodia in May 2007 and November 2009. The overall intestinal helminth egg positive rate was 23.9%, and the most prevalent helminth species was hookworms (21.6%). Other helminth eggs detected included echinostomes (1.0%), Enterobius vermicularis (0.8%), small trematode eggs (0.7%), which may include Opisthorchis viverrini and Haplorchis spp., and Hymenolepis nana (0.4%). In order to recover adult echinostomes, we treated 2 patients with 10-15 mg/kg praziquantel and purged. Total 14 adult echinostomes, 1 and 13 worms from each patient, were collected. The echinostomes characteristically had 49-51 collar spines and 2 round or slightly lobated testes. They were identified as Echinostoma ilocanum (Garrison, 1908) Odhner, 1911. So far as literature are concerned, this is the first record on the discovery of human E. ilocanum infection in Cambodia

Design of informatics-based services in manufacturing industries: case studies using large vehicle-related databases

Numerous companies in manufacturing industries have ???servitized??? their value propositions to address issues on product commoditization and sustainability. A key component of servitization is informatics, which transforms product and customer data into information for customers. In this study, informatics-based service is defined as a type of service wherein informatics is crucial to customer value creation. Despite the importance of this concept, studies on the design of informatics-based services in manufacturing industries are rare. This paper reports on two case studies on such designs. Informatics-based services have been designed for a major Korean automobile manufacturer and the Korea Transportation Safety Authority (TS) based on their large vehicle-related databases. The first case study with the automobile manufacturer aims to design vehicle operations and health management services for passenger vehicle drivers while the second study with TS focuses on the design of driving safety enhancement services for commercial vehicle (i.e., bus, taxi, and truck) drivers. Based on the case studies, this paper discusses various aspects of informatics-based service design in manufacturing industries. This study would assist researchers and practitioners in designing new informatics-based services and contribute to promoting and inspiring research on intelligent services in manufacturing industries under the current information economy.ope

Preparation and characterization of highly ordered graphitic mesoporous carbon as a Pt catalyst support for direct methanol fuel cells

Mesoporous carbon with graphitic pore walls is highly desired in many electrochemical applications such as fuel cells and lithium ion batteries. In this study, ordered graphitic mesoporous carbon was prepared by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of benzene in the pores of mesoporous SB A-15 pure-silica template without loading any catalytic species. Nitrogen adsorption, small-angle X-ray scattering, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectrometry, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis techniques were used to characterize the samples. It was observed that the CVD method affords highly ordered mesoporous carbon with graphitic pore walls and low carbon shrinkage because of the high degree of infiltration of pyrolytic carbon. The catalytic performance of the mesoporous carbon as a support for Pt catalyst in room-temperature methanol oxidation was examined. Results show that the specific activity of the Pt catalyst supported on the mesoporous carbon is higher than that of a commercial Pt catalyst form E-TEK