Mechanical properties of carrot fiber - epoxy composite

Interest has largely centered on the use of plant fibers to reinforce plastics, because these fibers are abundant and cheap. Carrot fibers (Curran) have been extracted from carrot, left over from carrot juice manufacture. The fibers of two sizes fine (5

Crowd Modeling using Temporal Association Rules

Understanding crowd behavior has attracted tremendous attention from researchers over the years. In this work, we propose an unsupervised approach for crowd scene modeling and anomaly detection using association rules mining. Using object tracklets, we identify events occurring in the scene, demonstrated by the paths or routes objects take while traversing the scene. Allen\u27s interval-based temporal logic is used to extract frequent temporal patterns from the scene. Temporal association rules are generated from these frequent temporal patterns. Our goal is to understand the scene grammar, which is encoded in both the spatial and spatio-temporal patterns. We perform anomaly detection and test the method on a well-known public data

Impact of a case-management intervention for reducing emergency attendance on primary care: randomised control trial

BACKGROUND: The impact on primary care workload of case-management interventions to reduce emergency department (ED) attendances is unknown. AIM: To examine the impact of a telephone-based case-management intervention targeting people with high ED attendance on primary care use. DESIGN AND SETTING: A single-site data extract from a larger randomised control trial, using the patient-level data from primary care electronic health records (2015–2020), was undertaken. METHOD: A total of 363 patients at high risk of ED usage were randomised to receive a 6-month case-management intervention (253 patients) or standard care (110 patients). Poisson regression models were used to calculate monthly rates of primary care use over time for the 2 years post-randomisation, comparing both arms. Usage was subclassified into face-to-face, telephone, letter, and community and secondary care referrals, stratified by patient demographics. RESULTS: No significant difference was found in the mean annual rate of primary care events between the intervention and control arms (P = 0.70). Secondary care referrals saw a 26% reduction in the mean annual referral rate (incident rate ratio [IRR] 0.74, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.64 to 0.86, P<0.001) and letters sent increased by 6% in the intervention arm compared with the control arm (IRR 1.06, 95% CI = 1.01 to 1.11, P = 0.01). In the case-managed arm, in patients aged ≥80 years there was a 33% increase in primary care usage (IRR 1.33, 95% CI = 1.28 to 1.40, P<0.001); with a corresponding 10% decrease in patients aged <80 years when compared with controls (IRR 0.90, 95% CI = 0.87 to 0.92, P<0.001). CONCLUSION: A targeted case-management intervention to reduce ED attendances did not increase overall primary care use. Redistribution of usage is seen among some patient groups, particularly older people, which may have important implications for primary healthcare planning

Crohn's Disease Associated with Sweet's Syndrome and Sjögren's Syndrome Treated with Infliximab

The association of Crohn's disease (CD) and Sweet's syndrome is rare and the presence of Sjögren's syndrome in Crohn's disease is even rarer, with only three reports found in the literature. We describe two cases of Crohn's disease associated with Sweet's syndrome, one of which is the first case of CD and Sweet's concomitantly associated with Sjögren's syndrome. Both cases responded rapidly to Infliximab therapy with complete resolution of the skin lesions

RSPO Certification Impacts on Oil Palm Smallholders' Welfare in Jambi Province

World demand for Crude Palm Oil (CPO) consistently increases. On the other hand, CPO market moves slowly probably due to Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification. International trade system requires large CPO producers to have a RSPO Certificate as one of requirements for exporting their product. It is expected that this requirement will also be applied immediately to smallholding oil palm plantations. This paper aims to analyze the benefits of RSPO certification on improving oil-palm smallholders' welfare in Jambi Province. Data collected in this study were analyzed using both descriptive and quantitative methods. Results of the study showed that RSPO certification, in several aspects, significantly improved farmers'' wealth, timely availability of input factors, oil palm yield, processing and marketing, and CSR financial support. It also indicates that oil palm plantation companies tend to give preferential treatment in transaction process with farmers having RSPO certificates

Agitation conditions for the culture and detachment of hMSCs from microcarriers in multiple bioreactor platforms

In our recent work in different bioreactors up to 2.5L in scale, we have successfully cultured hMSCs using the minimum agitator speed required for complete microcarrier suspension, N JS. In addition, we also reported a scaleable protocol for the detachment from microcarriers in spinner flasks of hMSCs from two donors. The essence of the protocol is the use of a short period of intense agitation in the presence of enzymes such that the cells are detached; but once detachment is achieved, the cells are smaller than the Kolmogorov scale of turbulence and hence not damaged. Here, the same approach has been effective for culture at N JS and detachment in-situ in 15mL ambr™ bioreactors, 100mL spinner flasks and 250mL Dasgip bioreactors. In these experiments, cells from four different donors were used along with two types of microcarrier with and without surface coatings (two types), four different enzymes and three different growth media (with and without serum), a total of 22 different combinations. In all cases after detachment, the cells were shown to retain their desired quality attributes and were able to proliferate. This agitation strategy with respect to culture and harvest therefore offers a sound basis for a wide range of scales of operation

The effect of tool surface roughness in cold work extrusion

In this study, the influence of tool surface roughness on the metal flow in deformation areas was investigated by using a cold work plane strain extrusion apparatus. Two types of polished tools (taper die) were used in this experiment. The tool (taper die) had a 45-degree die half angle. The material of specimen (billet) was pure Aluminum Al 100. The lubricant used in this investigation was Refined, Bleached and Deodorized (RBD) palm olein. The extrusion process was done by using a hydraulic press machine. The extrusion load and piston stroke movement were recorded by using the load cell and displacement sensor, respectively. After the experiment, the billet was taken out and the surface roughness was measured. The u- and v- component velocities were calculated using the visioplasticity method. As a result, the extrusion load and surface roughness of extruded material differed between the two types of taper die and influenced the metal flow in the deformation area of billets

Opportunities to reduce antibiotic prescribing for patients with COPD in primary care: a cohort study using electronic health records from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD)

Background In primary care there is uncertainty about which patients with acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD) benefit from antibiotics. Objectives To identify which types of COPD patients get the most antibiotics in primary care to support targeted antibiotic stewardship. Methods Observational study of COPD patients using a large English primary care database with 12 month follow-up. We estimated the incidence of and risk factors for antibiotic prescribing relative to the number of AECOPD during follow-up, considering COPD severity, smoking, obesity and comorbidity. Results From 157 practices, 19594 patients were diagnosed with COPD, representing 2.6% of patients and 11.5% of all prescribed antibiotics. Eight hundred and thirty-three (4.5%) patients with severe COPD and frequent AECOPD were prescribed six to nine prescriptions per year and accounted for 13.0% of antibiotics. Individuals with mild to moderate COPD and zero or one AECOPD received one to three prescriptions per year but accounted for 42.5% of all prescriptions. In addition to COPD severity, asthma, chronic heart disease, diabetes, heart failure and influenza vaccination were independently associated with increased antibiotic use. Conclusions Patients with severe COPD have the highest rates of antibiotic prescribing but most antibiotics are prescribed for patients with mild to moderate COPD. Antibiotic stewardship should focus on the dual goals of safely reducing the volume of prescribing in patients with mild to moderate COPD, and optimizing prescribing in patients with severe disease who are at significant risk of drug resistance

Design and development of a new ambr250® bioreactor vessel for improved cell and gene therapy applications

The emergence of cell and gene therapies has generated significant interest in their clinical and commercial potential. However, these therapies are prohibitively expensive to manufacture and can require extensive time for development due to our limited process knowledge and understanding. The automated ambr250® stirred-tank bioreactor platform provides an effective platform for high-throughput process development. However, the original dual pitched-blade 20 mm impeller and baffles proved sub-optimal for cell therapy candidates that require suspension of microcarriers (e.g. for the culture of adherent human mesenchymal stem cells) or other particles such as activating Dynabeads® (e.g. for the culture of human T-cells). We demonstrate the development of a new ambr250® stirred-tank bioreactor vessel which has been designed specifically to improve the suspension of microcarriers/beads and thereby improve the culture of such cellular systems. The new design is unbaffled and has a single, larger elephant ear impeller. We undertook a range of engineering and physical characterizations to determine which vessel and impeller configuration would be most suitable for suspension based on the minimum agitation speed (NJS) and associated specific power input (P/V)JS. A vessel (diameter, T, = 60 mm) without baffles and incorporating a single elephant ear impeller (diameter 30 mm and 45° pitch-blade angle) was selected as it had the lowest (P/V)JS and therefore potentially, based on Kolmogorov concepts, was the most flexible system. These experimentally-based conclusions were further validated firstly with computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations and secondly experimental studies involving the culture of both T-cells with Dynabeads® and hMSCs on microcarriers. The new ambr250® stirred-tank bioreactor successfully supported the culture of both cell types, with the T-cell culture demonstrating significant improvements compared to the original ambr250® and the hMSC-microcarrier culture gave significantly higher yields compared with spinner flask cultures. The new ambr250® bioreactor vessel design is an effective process development tool for cell and gene therapy candidates and potentially for autologous manufacture too