Real-Time Fire Monitoring and Visualization for the Post-Ignition Fire State in a Building

During a fire event, environmental threats to building occupants and first responders include extreme temperatures, toxic gases, disorientation due to poor visibility coupled with unfamiliar surroundings, and a changing indoor environment. In addition to these hazards, firefighters often lack critical information for making decisions once on the scene. The lack of information coupled with the dynamics of natural fire events leads to several near-misses, injuries, and deaths each year. Additionally, these challenges slow the rescue time of building occupants and prolong the suppression of the fire. Integrating real-time measurements from sensors into the fire intervention strategy may provide an opportunity for a new technological advancement to improve the practice of firefighting. In this study, a computational framework using Lightweight Communications and Marshalling was developed for connecting real-time fire data to an event detection sub-model to demonstrate how computing can be used for fire monitoring and sensor-assisted firefighting. A post-processed example using these monitoring computations in conjunction with a building information model is provided as a demonstration for presenting real-time data in the field. This work serves as a step towards an intelligent firefighting system based on real-time computing tools.     

Influence of chemical modification of wood on the crystallisation of polypropylene

The mechanical properties of wood/polypropylene composites depend strongly on interfacial adhesion between components. However, the application of chemical modification to improve compatibility can influence the supermolecular structure of polypropylene matrix. The experimental material comprised two most common Polish timber species pine wood (Pinus silvestris L.) as a softwood species and beech wood (Fagus silvatica L.) as a hardwood species. The size of wood sawdust ranged from 0.5 to 1.0 mm. Three different types of wood/PP mixture were prepared: (1) PP – untreated wood, (2) PP – NaOH treated wood and (3) PP – esterified wood with maleic anhydride. In this work, the kinetic parameters of crystallization of PP by differential scanning calorimetry were investigated. It is interesting that crystallisation of PP depends on the kind of wood. The chemical treatment of wood caused changes of crystal conversion and half crystallisation time of polypropylene matrix.     

A comparison of positive matrix factorization and the weighted multivariate curve resolution method. Application to environmental data

In recent years, positive matrix factorization, PMF, has gained popularity in environmental sciences and it has been recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a general modeling tool in air quality control. Among the attractive features contributing to its popularity is that measurement uncertainty information can be incorporated into the PMF model, which allows the handling of missing measurements and data below the reporting limits. In addition, the solutions obtained from PMF obey constraints such as the non-negativity of the source compositions and source contributions of samples that make their interpretation physically meaningful. A less popular multivariate curve resolution method based on a weighted alternating least-squares algorithm, MCR-WALS, also incorporates the measurement error information and non-negativity constraints, which makes this method a potential tool when obtaining composition and contribution profiles of environmental data. Both methods use the same loss function, but they differ in the way the profiles are obtained. The goal of this study was to compare the performance of PMF with the performance of MCR-WALS for data sets simulated with different correlation and error structures. The results showed that the profiles extracted by both methods are virtually the same for data with different error structures.     

Pharmacogenetics of Drug-Resistant Epilepsy (Review of Literature)

Pharmacogenomic studies in epilepsy are justified by the high prevalence rate of this disease and the high cost of its treatment, frequent drug resistance, different response to the drug, the possibility of using reliable methods to assess the control of seizures and side effects of antiepileptic drugs. Candidate genes encode proteins involved in pharmacokinetic processes (drug transporters, metabolizing enzymes), pharmacodynamic processes (receptors, ion channels, enzymes, regulatory proteins, secondary messengers) and drug hypersensitivity (immune factors). This article provides an overview of the literature on the influence of genetic factors on treatment in epilepsy.     

Development of an Autochthonous Microbial Consortium for Enhanced Bioremediation of PAH-Contaminated Soil

The main objectives of this study were to isolate bacteria from soil chronically contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), develop an autochthonous microbial consortium, and evaluate its ability to degrade PAHs in their native contaminated soil. Strains with the best bioremediation potential were selected during the multi-stage isolation process. Moreover, to choose bacteria with the highest bioremediation potential, the presence of PAH-degrading genes (pahE) was confirmed and the following tests were performed: tolerance to heavy metals, antagonistic behavior, phytotoxicity, and antimicrobial susceptibility. In vitro degradation of hydrocarbons led to the reduction of the total PAH content by 93.5% after the first day of incubation and by 99.22% after the eighth day. Bioremediation experiment conducted in situ in the contaminated area resulted in the average reduction of the total PAH concentration by 33.3% after 5 months and by over 72% after 13 months, compared to the concentration recorded before the intervention. Therefore, this study implicates that the development of an autochthonous microbial consortium isolated from long-term PAH-contaminated soil has the potential to enhance the bioremediation process.     

The effects of feeding conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) on rat growth performance,serum lipoproteins and subsequent lipid composition of selected rat tissues

Four groups of 12 albino rats (six males and six females), at 4 weeks of age, were fed for 60 days a semi‐synthetic diet containing graded amounts of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA; 0.0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5%) to determine its effect on growth performance and serum lipoprotein profiles and its incorporation into abdominal and muscle lipids. Rats fed CLA responded by significantly improved body mass gains; however, this effect was observed only with the 1.0% CLA‐supplemented diet. It was also true for feed conversion efficiency. The changes in serum total cholesterol (TC) and HDL cholesterol concentrations were insignificant and showed an opposite pattern. However, the resulting HDL cholesterol/TC ratio was significantly (P ≤ 0.01) increased. At the same time, serum triacylglycerol (TAG) concentrations were significantly (P ≤ 0.01) elevated, thus counteracting the potential antiatherogenicity of the improved HDL cholesterol/TC ratio. Feeding CLA to rats resulted in its substantial incorporation into both abdominal and muscle lipids. Generally, tissue lipids were enriched with CLA at the expense of long‐chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, eg linoleate and arachidonate. This effect is likely to correspond with reduction of arachidonate‐derived eicosanoid synthesis. These data together suggest that CLA has a potent effect on lipid transport and metabolism in rats. Also, they confirm the potential of nutritional methods to provide CLA‐enriched functional animal products, especially meat, for human consumption. © 2000 Society of Chemical Industry     

Measurement of nuclear DNA content in fission yeast by flow cytometry

Cell division cycle (cdc) mutants of Schizosaccharomyces pombe are arrested at specific points in the cell cycle when grown at restrictive temperature. Flow cytometry of such cells reveals an anomalous increase in the DNA fluorescence signal, which represents a problem in experiments designed to determine the cell cycle arrest point. The increased fluorescence signal is due to cytoplasmic constituents and has been attributed to mitochondrial DNA synthesis (S. Sazer and S. W. Sherwood, J. Cell Sci.97: 509–516, 1990). Here we have studied the cdc10 mutant by flow cytometry using different DNA-binding fluorochromes and found no evidence that the increased fluorescence signal was caused by mitochondrial DNA synthesis. To determine more accurately the nuclear DNA content we have developed a novel method to remove most of the cytoplasmic material by exposing the cells to Triton X-100 and hypotonic conditions after cell wall digestion. The DNA fluorescence from cells treated in this way was more constant with time of incubation at restrictive temperature in spite of a considerable increase in cell size. With this method we could determine that the recently isolated temperature sensitive orp1 mutant is arrested with a 1C DNA content. Premature and abnormal mitosis (‘cut’) could be observed for the orp1 mutant after only 4 h at restrictive temperature. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Recent Advances in Metallic Nanoparticle Assemblies for Surface-Enhanced Spectroscopy

Robust and versatile strategies for the development of functional nanostructured materials often focus on assemblies of metallic nanoparticles. Research interest in such assemblies arises due to their potential applications in the fields of photonics and sensing. Metallic nanoparticles have received considerable recent attention due to their connection to the widely studied phenomenon of localized surface plasmon resonance. For instance, plasmonic hot spots can be observed within their assemblies. A useful form of spectroscopy is based on surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). This phenomenon is a commonly used in sensing techniques, and it works using the principle that scattered inelastic light can be greatly enhanced at a surface. However, further research is required to enable improvements to the SERS techniques. For example, one question that remains open is how to design uniform, highly reproducible, and efficiently enhancing substrates of metallic nanoparticles with high structural precision. In this review, a general overview on nanoparticle functionalization and the impact on nanoparticle assembly is provided, alongside an examination of their applications in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.     

Novel Findings regarding the Bioactivity of the Natural Blue Pigment Genipin in Human Diseases

Genipin is an important monoterpene iridoid compound isolated from Gardenia jasminoides J.Ellis fruits and from Genipa americana fruits, or genipap. It is a precursor of a blue pigment which may be attractive alternative to existing food dyes and it possesses various potential therapeutic properties such as anti-cancer, anti-diabetic and hepatoprotective activity. Biomedical studies also show that genipin may act as a neuroprotective drug. This review describes new aspects of the bioactivity of genipin against various diseases, as well as its toxicity and industrial applications, and presents its potential mechanism of action.