Effect of nano- and micro- reinforced agents on dry sliding wear of polyester composites

Dry sliding wear of polyester hybrid composites containing carboxylic functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNT) and microparticles, silica (SiO2) was studied at different sliding distances. An attempt has been made to produce uniform dispersion of nano- and micro- particles in the test samples by ultrasonication. The tribological properties of the hybrid composites were performed by using pin-on-disc (POD) tester against grey cast iron countersurface. The dry sliding wear tests were carried out under pressure-velocity (pv) condition of 0.4 MPa and 4 m/s for total sliding distance of 28800 m and at an interval of every sliding distance of 3600 m, wear properties and behavior were studied. The samples containing 10 wt.% silica (microparticles) with and without CNT always show increase in coefficient of friction at the expense of wear rate. However, samples containing only CNT have the lowest wear rate with the increase in coefficient of friction. Sliding distance studies also provide the information on wear rates which were ever changing at different sliding distances whereas average coefficient of friction did not vary throughout the tests. SEM observations of wear surfaces showed different wear morphologies when reinforcement (CNT or SiO2) incorporated into the composites either alone or in combination

Managing emergency situations with lean and advanced manufacturing technologies: an empirical study on the Rumbia typhoon disaster

Purpose – This study aims to examine the impact of lean manufacturing (LM) on the financial performance of companies affected by emergency situations. It additionally explores the role of advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs) in complementing LM to enhance financial performance in emergency and nonemergency situations.Design/methodology/approach – Both survey and archival data were collected from 219 manufacturing companies in China. With longitudinal data collected before and after an emergency situation (i.e. Typhoon Rumbia), regression analysis was conducted to investigate the effects of LM and AMTs on financial performance in different contexts.Findings – Our results reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between LM and financial performance in the context of emergency. We also found that AMTs exerted a positive moderation effect on the inverted U-shaped relationship, indicating high levels of AMTs that mitigated the inefficiency of LM in coping with supply chain emergencies.Research limitations/implications – Through simultaneous investigation of LM and AMTs as bundles of practices and their fit with different contexts, this study takes a systems approach to fit that advances the application of contingency theory in the Operations Management literature to more complex patterns of fit. Originality/value – This study illuminates how AMTs support LM practices in facilitating organizational performance in different contexts. Specifically, this study unravels the interaction mechanisms between AMTs and LM in influencing financial performance in emergency and non-emergency situations

Upregulated mRNA expression of desaturase and elongase, two enzymes involved in highly unsaturated fatty acids biosynthesis pathways during follicle maturation in zebrafish

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although unsaturated fatty acids such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, C20:5n-3), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, C22:6n-3) and arachidonic acid (ARA, C20:4n-6), collectively known as the highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA), play pivotal roles in vertebrate reproduction, very little is known about their synthesis in the ovary. The zebrafish (Danio rerio) display capability to synthesize all three HUFA via pathways involving desaturation and elongation of two precursors, the linoleic acid (LA, C18:2n-6) and linolenic acid (LNA, C18:3n-3). As a prerequisite to gain full understanding on the importance and regulation of ovarian HUFA synthesis, we described here the mRNA expression pattern of two enzymes; desaturase (fadsd6) and elongase (elovl5), involved in HUFA biosynthesis pathway, in different zebrafish ovarian follicle stages. Concurrently, the fatty acid profile of each follicle stage was also analyzed.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>mRNA levels of fadsd6 and elovl5 in different ovarian follicle stages were determined by semi-quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays. For analysis of the ovarian follicular fatty acid composition, gas chromatography was used.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our results have shown that desaturase displayed significant upregulation in expression during the oocyte maturation stage. Expression of elongase was significantly highest in pre-vitellogenic follicles, followed by maturation stage. Fatty acid composition analysis of different ovarian follicle stages also showed that ARA level was significantly highest in pre-vitellogenic and matured follicles. DHA level was highest in both late vitellogenic and maturation stage.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Collectively, our findings seem to suggest the existence of a HUFA synthesis system, which could be responsible for the synthesis of HUFA to promote oocyte maturation and possibly ovulation processes. The many advantages of zebrafish as model system to understand folliculogenesis will be useful platform to further elucidate the regulatory and mechanism aspects of ovarian HUFA synthesis.</p

Data analytics capability and servitization: the moderated mediation role of bricolage and innovation orientation

Purpose – Despite the potential influence of data analytics capability on servitization, our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of this influence remains unclear. This study explores how data analytics capability affects servitization by examining the mediation effect of bricolage and the conditional role of innovation orientation.Design/methodology/approach – This study employs the moderated mediation method to examine the proposed research model with archival data and multiplerespondent surveys from 1,206 top managers of 402 manufacturing firms in the Yangtze River Delta area in China.Findings – Bricolage partially mediates the positive relationship between data analytics capability and servitization, and innovation orientation positively moderates this effect.Practical implications – Manufacturers can leverage bricolage to materialize data analytics capability for servitization. Manufacturers should also pursue an innovation orientation to fully glean the benefits of bricolage in transforming data analytics capability into servitization.Originality/value – This study opens the black box of how data analytics capability affects servitization by revealing the underlying mechanism of bricolage and the boundary condition role of innovation orientation for this mechanism. It offers valuable insights for practitioners to leverage data analytics to improve servitization through developing bricolage and cultivating a culture of innovation orientation

Teacher led school-based surveillance can allow accurate tracking of emerging infectious diseases - evidence from serial cross-sectional surveys of febrile respiratory illness during the H1N1 2009 influenza pandemic in Singapore

10.1186/1471-2334-12-336BMC Infectious Diseases12-BIDM

Psychosocial impact of undergoing prostate cancer screening for men with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations.

OBJECTIVES: To report the baseline results of a longitudinal psychosocial study that forms part of the IMPACT study, a multi-national investigation of targeted prostate cancer (PCa) screening among men with a known pathogenic germline mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. PARTICPANTS AND METHODS: Men enrolled in the IMPACT study were invited to complete a questionnaire at collaborating sites prior to each annual screening visit. The questionnaire included sociodemographic characteristics and the following measures: the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Impact of Event Scale (IES), 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36), Memorial Anxiety Scale for Prostate Cancer, Cancer Worry Scale-Revised, risk perception and knowledge. The results of the baseline questionnaire are presented. RESULTS: A total of 432 men completed questionnaires: 98 and 160 had mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, respectively, and 174 were controls (familial mutation negative). Participants' perception of PCa risk was influenced by genetic status. Knowledge levels were high and unrelated to genetic status. Mean scores for the HADS and SF-36 were within reported general population norms and mean IES scores were within normal range. IES mean intrusion and avoidance scores were significantly higher in BRCA1/BRCA2 carriers than in controls and were higher in men with increased PCa risk perception. At the multivariate level, risk perception contributed more significantly to variance in IES scores than genetic status. CONCLUSION: This is the first study to report the psychosocial profile of men with BRCA1/BRCA2 mutations undergoing PCa screening. No clinically concerning levels of general or cancer-specific distress or poor quality of life were detected in the cohort as a whole. A small subset of participants reported higher levels of distress, suggesting the need for healthcare professionals offering PCa screening to identify these risk factors and offer additional information and support to men seeking PCa screening

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals &lt;1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Genomic Dissection of Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia, Including 28 Subphenotypes

publisher: Elsevier articletitle: Genomic Dissection of Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia, Including 28 Subphenotypes journaltitle: Cell articlelink: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2018.05.046 content_type: article copyright: © 2018 Elsevier Inc

The Effects of Chinese Herbal Medicines on the Quorum Sensing-Regulated Virulence in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1

The quorum sensing (QS) system has been used by many opportunistic pathogenic bacteria to coordinate their virulence determinants in relation to cell-population density. As antibiotic-resistant bacteria are on the rise, interference with QS has been regarded as a novel way to control bacterial infections. As such, many plant-based natural products have been widely explored for their therapeutic roles. These natural products may contain anti-QS compounds that could block QS signals generation or transmission to combat QS pathogens. In this study, we report the anti-QS activities of four different Chinese herbal plant extracts: Poria cum Radix pini, Angelica dahurica, Rhizoma cibotii and Schizonepeta tenuifolia, on Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1. All the plants extracted using hexane, chloroform and methanol were tested and found to impair swarming motility and pyocyanin production in P. aeruginosa PAO1, particularly by Poria cum Radix pini. In addition, all the plant extracts also inhibited violacein production in C. violaceum CV026 up to 50% while bioluminescence activities were reduced in lux-based E. coli biosensors, pSB401 and pSB1075, up to about 57%. These anti-QS properties of the four medicinal plants are the first documentation that demonstrates a potential approach to attenuate pathogens&rsquo; virulence determinants