Analysis of water absorption of bean and chickpea during soaking using Peleg model

AbstractPeleg model was used to determine the instance moisture content of three varieties of bean (Talash, Sadri and Mahali Khomein) and three varieties of chickpea (Desi, small Kabuli and large Kabuli) during soaking. The experiments were carried out at three different temperatures (5, 25 and 45°C) in triplicate using distilled water. The moisture content versus time curves were plotted at different experimental temperatures, for six varieties. The results indicated that water absorption increased as the temperature increased. The obtained Peleg model constants were investigated relative to temperature. Activation and free activation energy, as well as entropy and enthalpy changes for the three studied varieties of both chickpea and bean were calculated at three temperatures using Peleg model constants and regression analysis. In the case of bean, the results showed a linear decrease in the coefficients k1 and k2. Furthermore for chickpea, the coefficient of k1 decreased linearly and the effect of temperature on the coefficient k2 was partial and decreasing. Likewise, the results indicated that the seeds enthalpy enhanced significantly as soaking temperature increased from 5 to 45°C, the raising trend in entropy and released energy was not significant, however (P<0.05). Maximum and minimum free activation energy in soaking process were observed in chickpea variety of Chico (301.28kJmol−1) and bean variety of Mahali Khomein (86.77kJmol−1), respectively. In addition, negative values of enthalpy changes of varieties demonstrated that the changes in moisture content during soaking process were associated with exothermic and energetically favorable transformation

Anti-uterine fibroid effect of standardized labisia pumila var. Alata extracts in vitro and in human uterine fibroid cancer xenograft model

Background: Uterine fibroids are a common type of solid tumor presenting in women of reproductive age. There are very few alternative treatment available from conventional treatment involving surgeries. Labisia pumila var. alata or locally known as ‘Kacip Fatimah’ was widely used as traditional medicine in Malaysia. This plant has been used to maintain a healthy female reproductive system. The present study aimed to evaluate anti fibroid potential of L. pumila extracts through in vitro apoptosis activity against uterine leiomyoma cells (SK-UT-1) and in uterine leiomyoma xenograft model. Evaluation of bioactive markers content were also carried out. Methods: Apoptotic induction of the extracts was determined by morphological examination of AO/PI dual staining assay by flourescent microscopy and flow cytometry analysis on Annexin V-FITC/PI stained cells. In vivo study was done in immune-compromised mouse xenograft model. HPLC analysis was employed to quantify marker compounds. Results: Morphological analysis showed L. pumila induced apoptosis in a dose dependent manner against SK-UT-1 cells. In vivo study indicated that L. pumila significantly suppressed the growth of uterine fibroid tumor. All tested extracts contain bioactive marker of gallic acid and cafeic acid. Conclusion: This work provide significant data of the potential of L. pumila in management of uterine fibroids

A Picture of the Research Field of Doctoral Education from the Students’ Perspectives : Studies Using Questionnaires and Scales

Peer reviewe

NOVA: rendering virtual worlds with humans for computer vision tasks

Today, the cutting edge of computer vision research greatly depends on the availability of large datasets, which are critical for effectively training and testing new methods. Manually annotating visual data, however, is not only a labor-intensive process but also prone to errors. In this study, we present NOVA, a versatile framework to create realistic-looking 3D rendered worlds containing procedurally generated humans with rich pixel-level ground truth annotations. NOVA can simulate various environmental factors such as weather conditions or different times of day, and bring an exceptionally diverse set of humans to life, each having a distinct body shape, gender and age. To demonstrate NOVA's capabilities, we generate two synthetic datasets for person tracking. The first one includes 108 sequences, each with different levels of difficulty like tracking in crowded scenes or at nighttime and aims for testing the limits of current state-of-the-art trackers. A second dataset of 97 sequences with normal weather conditions is used to show how our synthetic sequences can be utilized to train and boost the performance of deep-learning based trackers. Our results indicate that the synthetic data generated by NOVA represents a good proxy of the real-world and can be exploited for computer vision tasks

An operational scrutinization of autonomous tractor-trailer robot considering motion resistance force of rubber tracked undercarriage

In realm of researches involved in autonomous tractor-trailer robot, novel purpose of this research has been dedicated to motion resistance force of rubber tracked undercarriage of the robot. Hence, the motion resistance force was ascertained as affected by operational variables of robot forward speed (0.17, 0.33 and 0.5 m/s) and payload weight (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 kN). Analytical results clarified that meaningful contribution of payload weight to the motion resistance force (15.26–28.05 N) was marginal (< 8 times) in comparison with that of robot forward speed. Hence, adjustment of the forward speed than payload weight is suggested as priority. Modeling results described that combinatorial effect of robot forward speed and payload weight on the motion resistance force was synergetic. This disclosed linear increasing dependency of the motion resistance force on concurrent proliferation of robot forward speed and payload weight. Overall, these results are profitable for redesign and performance optimization of tractor-trailer robot with rubber tracked undercarriage in order to proliferate autonomous transportation capacity of payloads, especially for indoor and outdoor shipping and warehouse of factories and industrial environments

Attitudes and Knowledge of Iranian Nurses about Hospice Care

CONTEXT: Due to expansion of chronic diseases and increase of health care costs, there is a need for planning and delivering hospice care for patients in their final stages of life in Iran. The aim of the present study is to investigate the knowledge and attitudes of nurses about delivering hospice care for End of Life (EOL) patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2012 with a sample size of 200 nurses that were selected by convenient (available) sampling. The data collection instrument was a self-administered questionnaire whose validity was approved by experts' opinions and its reliability was approved by test-retest method. RESULTS: Among all participants of this study, 87% were female. The mean age of nurses was 32.00 ± 6.72. From all respondents 62% stated that they have no knowledge about hospice care and 80% declared that need for hospice care is increasing. Most of the participants felt that, appropriate services are not presented to patients in the final stages of their lives. About 80% believed that hospice care leads to reduction of health care costs, improvement of physical, mental and social health of patients and finally improvement of the quality of health care services. There was a significant relationship between age, employment history and level of education of nurses and their attitude and knowledge about how this service is provided. CONCLUSION: In view of the increase in chronic illnesses and the costs of caring, the need for provision of hospice care is felt more and more every day. However the awareness level of nurses about these services is low. Therefore the need for including these issues in nursing curriculum and holding scientific courses and seminars in this field is needed

Kinetic studies of Ni organic complexes using diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) with double binding layers and a dynamic numerical model

In situ deployments of diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) can provide direct information on complex dissociation rates in natural waters. Recent advances in understanding the dynamics of the interactions of metal complexes within DGT devices have highlighted the characteristics of the binding layer, but there are few data to complement these theoretical developments. In this work the penetration into the Chelex binding layer of complexes of Ni with nitrilotriacetic (NTA) and Suwannee River fulvic and humic acids (FA and HA) in solution at pH 7 was investigated by deployment of DGT devices with two sequential binding layers, a “front” and a “back” layer. In Ni–NTA experiments, the masses of Ni bound by the front and back binding layers were similar, as predicted for slowly dissociating complexes. For Ni–FA/HA solutions, a higher mass of Ni was taken up by the front binding layer, consistent with fast dissociation from a high proportion of the binding sites. The ratio of Ni in the front to back binding layers was significantly lower (p < 0.05) for solutions of Ni–HA compared to those of Ni–FA, indicating that Ni–HA complexes are less labile than Ni–FA complexes in similar solutions (FA = 10 mg L⁻¹ and HA = 8 mg L⁻¹). A dynamic numerical model of the complexes in a DGT system was used to estimate the dissociation rate constants that provided the best agreement with the experimental data. Values obtained of 2 ± 0.5 × 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹ for Ni–NTA and 2.5 × 10⁻³ s⁻¹ for Ni–FA when FA = 20 mg L⁻¹ and 3.42 × 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹ for Ni–HA when HA = 8 mg L⁻¹, could be rationalized with current knowledge of the dynamics of these systems. This approach can improve kinetic information obtainable using DGT and widen the range of considered complex labilities