Development of systemic lupus erythematosus in a male patient after 14 years on hemodialysis

Graves' disease (GD), myasthenia gravis (MG), and polymyositis (PM) are organ-specific autoimmune diseases. The association between GD and MG is well known, and an association between MG and PM has been reported. However, only one patient with all three diseases has been reported. We describe a patient with GD and PM developing 6 and 29 years, respectively after the onset of MG. This case suggests that the expression of autoimmunity occurred over a prolonged period of time and these organ-specific autoimmune diseases may be induced by a similar mechanism.     

Epitaxial growth and structure of CdS films evaporated onto Ge

CdS evaporated in vacuum grew epitaxially at all substrate temperatures from 300 to 500° C on (100), (110) and (111) surfaces of germanium. On (100) substrates the CdS grew with the sphalerite structure in parallel orientation to the substrate. Films grown throughout the epitaxial range of temperature gave diffraction patterns that contained no satellite spots. They all contained 111 streaking, however. The films were therefore free of threedimensional defects but contained a high density of {111} planar defects. On the (110) substrates the CdS grew with the sphalerite structure in parallel orientation for substrate temperatures below about 370° C and the diffraction patterns of these films were free of satellite spots but contained 111 streaks of low intensity. In the diffraction patterns of the films grown above about 370° C doubling of the spots appeared and a domain structure was observed in the micrographs. This was due to the occurrence of a domain-form phase transformation of the sphalerite structure. On the (111) substrates the CdS grew with the wurtzite structure in (0001) orientation. No satellite spots or streaks appeared in the diffraction patterns of these films. Moiré fringes were seen in the micrographs of both (100) and (111) substrate specimens.     

An incremental complete solution of the stretch-forming and deep-drawing of a circular blank using a hemispherical punch

An incremental variational method is employed to analyse axisymmetric elastic plastic solids at large strains. The method is then applied to the problems of stretch-forming and complete deep-drawing of a circular blank using a hemispherical punch. The contact problem at different zones is formulated and hence it was possible to utilize and use the finite element method which has been proved capable of tackling complicated metal forming problems.     

Synthesis and electrochemical characterization of La0.75Sr0.25Mn0.5Cr0.5−xAlxO3, for IT- and HT-SOFCs

The main emphasis of this work is to create a new perovskite material with three different compositions (La_0.75Sr_0.25Mn_0.5Cr_0.5−xAlxO₃, x = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3) applied in both Intermediate- and High-temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (IT- and HT-SOFCs). Perovskite-type polycrystalline La_0.75Sr_0.25Mn_0.5Cr_0.5−xAl_xO_3−δ (x = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3) powders were synthesized and formed in a single phase structure by a dry chemistry route (standard solid-state reaction method). The effect of Al doping on physicochemical and surface properties has been discovered. The compounds were crystallized in single phase rhombohedral symmetry (R-3C Space. Group). Total conductivity of Al doping in wet 5% H₂ was higher than both dry 5% H₂ and air. The obtained results enhance the electro-catalytic performance and the material conductivity as well, which will be good for anode materials in IT- and HT-SOFCs and the optimum doping is 10%.     

Polar compounds: a quantitative indicator for life cycle assessment during protracted semi-continuous deep fat frying simulation

Total Polar Compound (TPC) analysis was used to evaluate fry life cycle of oils and shortenings with differing fatty acids compositions, and to understand if longer trisaturated material (Tribehenin), could influence total fry life, during protracted, semi-continuous deep frying simulations. Results showed, when TPC reached 25% max, the TOTOX and FFA revealed correlated values. However, both FFA and Totox were deemed unreliable indicators of oil quality. TPCs were more acutely accurate, especially during oil filtration and top-up procedures, where peak TPC onset showed stronger correlation for assessing oil degradation. Unsaturated frying oil, SBO (PUFA based), resulted with the shortest fry life of 132 fry-cycles; POL (MUFA based) 138 fry-cycles and MPS (MUFA based + Tribehenin) achieving up to 146 fry-cycles, suggesting Tribehenin may apparently extend fry life longevity.     

Using group anonymity to hide the identity of VoIP mobile users communicating over hybrid networks while preserving quality of service

Security and privacy have become critical in computer networks, especially with the emergence of E‐commerce. Other than securing the transfer of data, users are interested in protecting their profile privacy against exposure attacks. Multimedia communications are at the core of new information and communication technologies. We seek to achieve end users' profile privacy without violating the Quality of Service constraints on the throughput, end‐to‐end delay, and jitter, as these parameters represent the critical factors in multimedia applications. We propose an end‐to‐end anonymity design that takes into consideration the constraints of Voice‐over‐IP applications in a hybrid network environment, which involves ad hoc and infrastructure networks. Using clusterheads for communication anonymity to preserve user profile privacy, as well as encryption of the real‐time protocol payload, we prove using analysis and simulations that our model can be easily integrated into currently deployed network infrastructures. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spectrofluorometric and Molecular Docking Studies on the Binding of Curcumenol and Curcumenone to Human Serum Albumin

Curcumenol and curcumenone are two major constituents of the plants of medicinally important genus of Curcuma, and often govern the pharmacological effect of these plant extracts. These two compounds, isolated from C. zedoaria rhizomes were studied for their binding to human serum albumin (HSA) using the fluorescence quench titration method. Molecular docking was also performed to get a more detailed insight into their interaction with HSA at the binding site. Additions of these sesquiterpenes to HSA produced significant fluorescence quenching and blue shifts in the emission spectra of HSA. Analysis of the fluorescence data pointed toward moderate binding affinity between the ligands and HSA, with curcumenone showing a relatively higher binding constant (2.46 × 10⁵ M⁻¹) in comparison to curcumenol (1.97 × 10⁴ M⁻¹). Cluster analyses revealed that site I is the preferred binding site for both molecules with a minimum binding energy of −6.77 kcal·mol⁻¹. However, binding of these two molecules to site II cannot be ruled out as the binding energies were found to be −5.72 and −5.74 kcal·mol⁻¹ for curcumenol and curcumenone, respectively. The interactions of both ligands with HSA involved hydrophobic interactions as well as hydrogen bonding.     

Fenton digestion of milk for iodinalysis

Iodine is an essential micronutrient especially important in the neurodevelopment of infants. Spot samples of urinary iodine (UI) are used as an epidemiologic index of adult iodine nutrition. Individual infant iodine nutrition is of vital importance, but infant urine is difficult to collect, much less a 24 h sample. Monitoring the intake provides a pragmatic solution for determining infant iodine nutrition. Because of the high solids content of milk and the possible existence of iodine in an organically bound form, sample digestion is obligatory. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, for example, uses wet ashing by HClO(4); special precautions and fume hoods are required. We present a method of Fenton digestion of human and bovine milk samples and infant formula. No specialized equipment or hazardous reagents are used; measurement is made by isotope dilution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. In Fenton digestion, Fe(II) and H(2)O(2) oxidizes the sample. In an interlaboratory study, excellent agreement (r(2) = 0.9934) was observed with results obtained by HClO(4) digestion and Sandel-Kolthoff kinetic colorimetry. Average recoveries of iodide, triiodothyronine, and thyroxine ranged between 100% and 101%. Following digestion, iodine was found to exist entirely as iodide. Control of pH is imperative if loss cannot be corrected for by isotope dilution. Loss was below 20% for all samples when the pH was between 2.25 and 2.5.     

A simplified technique for shakedown limit load determination of a large square plate with a small central hole under cyclic biaxial loading

A simplified technique for determining the shakedown limit load of a structure was previously developed and successfully applied to benchmark shakedown problems involving uniaxial states of stress ( [Abdalla et al., 2007a], [Abdalla et al., 2007b] and [Abdalla et al., 2007c]). In this paper, the simplified technique is further developed to handle cyclic biaxial loading resulting in multi-axial states of stress within the large square plate with a small central hole problem. Two material models are adopted namely: an elastic-linear strain hardening material model obeying Ziegler's linear kinematic hardening (KH) rule and an elastic-perfectly-plastic (EPP) material model. The simplified technique utilizes the finite element (FE) method and employs small displacement formulation to determine the shakedown limit load without performing lengthy time consuming full elastic-plastic cyclic loading FE simulations or conventional iterative elastic techniques. The simplified technique is utilized to generate the shakedown domain for the plate problem subjected to cyclic biaxial tension along its edges. The outcomes of the simplified technique showed very good correlation with the results of analytical solutions as well as full elastic-plastic cyclic loading FE simulations. Material hardening showed no effect on the shakedown domain of the plate in comparison to employing EPP-material.