Understanding welding practices on shipyards: An ethnographic study for designing any interactive robot welder

The aim of this ethnographic study was to understand welding practices in shipyard environments with the purpose of designing an interactive welding robot that can help workers with their daily job. The robot is meant to be deployed for automatic welding on jack-up rig structures. The design of the robot turns out to be a challenging task due to several problematic working conditions on the shipyard, such as dust, irregular floor, high temperature, wind variations, elevated working platforms, narrow spaces, and circular welding paths requiring a robotic arm with more than 6 degrees of freedom. Additionally, the environment is very noisy and the workers – mostly foreigners – have a very basic level of English. These two issues need to be taken into account when designing the interactive user interface for the robot. Ideally, the communication flow between the two parties involved should be as frictionless as possible. The paper presents the results of our field observations and welders’ interviews, as well as our robot design recommendation for the next project stage

A provisional study of the diametrically opposing interests of corporate employees and shareholders in SIA.

The thesis explores the diametrically opposing interests of shareholders and employees in directorial decision-making, using SIA as a showcase. Existing law and contemporary measures are inadequate to protect the interests of employees as a necessary constituency in Board decisions. It concludes with recommendations for SIA and suggestions on proposed legal reforms

Structure-Property Relationship of Burn Collagen Reinforcing Musculo-Skeletal Tissues

National audienceAn investigation has been conducted on burn ligaments, addressing the specific conditions in burn arising from dehydration and heating, and how these affect the structure-property relationship of collagen for reinforcing the tissue. Collagen fibres were isolated from a sheep's anterior cruciate ligament, i.e. our model for this study, and divided into six groups. The first group was designated as control; the second (D) group was dehydrated without exposure to elevated temperature. The remaining (DH) groups were dehydrated followed by heating at 120 degrees C for 30 minutes, 2, 4 and 24 hours, respectively. Tensile test to rupture was carried out to derive the fibre modulus of elasticity (E), maximum stress (sigma), strain at maximum stress (epsilon) and strain energy density to maximum stress (u). Electron micrographs of the ruptured ends reveal a mixed mode of fibril pull-out and rupture: fibril pull-out dominates in the control group but fibril rupture dominates increasingly in the other groups, i.e. with increasing exposure time to elevated temperature. Apart from epsilon, there is significant increase in E, sigma and u in the D and DH groups with respect to the control group but there is no evidence of variation among the D and DH groups. The results of this study implicate (1) the removal of water in the hydrated proteoglycan-rich matrix, leading to shrinkages at micrometer length-scale during dehydration, and (2) the alteration of the collagen organisation arising from the underlying changes in the crystallinity and denaturation during heating, on the mechanical properties of burn collagen fibres

Untersuchungen zur Wirkung von bovinen Antikoerpern der Immunglobulinklassen und -subklassen IgM, IgG1 und IgG2 gegen Coxiella burnetii auf die Vermehrung des Erregers in der BGM-Zellkultur. Darstellung von Coxiella burnetii mit der Immunperoxidase-Technik

Available from: Zentralstelle fuer Agrardokumentation und -information (ZADI), Villichgasse 17, D-53177 Bonn / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

A System Based-Approach to Examine Host Response during Infection with Influenza A Virus Subtype H7N9 in Human and Avian Cells

Although the influenza A virus H7N9 subtype circulates within several avian species, it can also infect humans with a severe disease outcome. To better understand the biology of the H7N9 virus we examined the host response to infection in avian and human cells. In this study we used the A/Anhui/1/2013 strain, which was isolated during the first wave of the H7N9 epidemic. The H7N9 virus-infected both human (Airway Epithelial cells) and avian (Chick Embryo Fibroblast) cells, and each infected host transcriptome was examined with bioinformatic tools and compared with other representative avian and human influenza A virus subtypes. The H7N9 virus induced higher expression changes (differentially regulated genes) in both cell lines, with more prominent changes observed in avian cells. Ortholog mapping of differentially expression genes identified significant enriched common and cell-type pathways during H7N9 infections. This data confirmed our previous findings that different influenza A virus subtypes have virus-specific replication characteristics and anti-virus signaling in human and avian cells. In addition, we reported for the first time, the new HIPPO signaling pathway in avian cells, which we hypothesized to play a vital role to maintain the antiviral state of H7N9 virus-infected avian cells. This could explain the absence of disease symptoms in avian species that tested positive for the presence of H7N9 virus

Development of reconstructed intestinal micronucleus cytome (RICyt) assay in 3D human gut model for genotoxicity assessment of orally ingested substances

The micronucleus (MN) assay is widely used as part of a battery of tests applied to evaluate the genotoxic potential of chemicals, including new food additives and novel food ingredients. Micronucleus assays typically utilise homogenous in vitro cell lines which poorly recapitulate the physiology, biochemistry and genomic events in the gut, the site of first contact for ingested materials. Here we have adapted and validated the MN endpoint assay protocol for use with complex 3D reconstructed intestinal microtissues; we have named this new protocol the reconstructed intestine micronucleus cytome (RICyt) assay. Our data suggest the commercial 3D microtissues replicate the physiological, biochemical and genomic responses of native human small intestine to exogenous compounds. Tissues were shown to maintain log-phase proliferation throughout the period of exposure and expressed low background MN. Analysis using the RICyt assay protocol revealed the presence of diverse cell types and nuclear anomalies (cytome) in addition to MN, indicating evidence for comprehensive DNA damage and mode(s) of cell death reported by the assay. The assay correctly identified and discriminated direct-acting clastogen, aneugen and clastogen requiring exogenous metabolic activation, and a non-genotoxic chemical. We are confident that the genotoxic response in the 3D microtissues more closely resembles the native tissues due to the inherent tissue architecture, surface area, barrier effects and tissue matrix interactions. This proof-of-concept study highlights the RICyt MN cytome assay in 3D reconstructed intestinal microtissues is a promising tool for applications in predictive toxicology.Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)National Research Foundation (NRF)Published versionThis study is supported by Industry Alignment Fund (Pre-Positioning) (IAF-PP-H18/01/a0/G14), Biomedical Research Council (BMRC, A*STAR). BPC Smith was also supported by a National Research Foundation Singapore Whitespace Grant (W20W3D0002) administered by A*STAR