Annotation of unknown yeast ORFs by correlation analysis of microarray data and extensive literature searches

Changes in the expression of genes were used to elucidate the metabolic pathways and regulatory mechanisms that respond to environmental or genetic modifications. Results from previously published chemostat datasets were merged with novel data generated in the present study. ORFs displaying significant changes in expression that correlated with those of other ORFs were analysed using GO mapping tools and supplemented by literature information. The strategy developed was used to propose annotations for ORFs of unknown function. The following ORFs were assigned functions as a result of this study: YMR090w, YGL157w, YGR243w, YLR327c, YER121w, YFR017c, YGR067c, YKL187c, YGR236c (SPG1), YMR107w (SPG4), YMR206w, YER067w, YJL103c, YNL175C (NOP13) YJL200C, YDL070C (FMP16) and YGR173W.     

The IMA-6 pulsed magnetic analyzer

The principle of construction of the IMA-6 pulsed magnetic analyzer for testing the quality of thermal treatment, the mechanical properties, and the microstructure of articles of low-carbon, medium-carbon, and low-alloyed cold- and hot-rolled steels is described. The structural scheme, the performance characteristics, and examples of application of the instrument are presented.     

Transition to a JIT production system through ERP implementation: a case from the automotive industry

ERP systems provide important benefits to institutions, such as improved processes, improved data, supplier–customer integration, better planning and control, as well as real-time insight and just-in-time (JIT) management that can put a business organisation in front of the competition. In this study, the change and transformation experienced by establishing an ERP system are explained for an automotive supplier that was not using an integrated ERP system for a real-world problem. The pre-implementation situation, the problems of the existing system, the necessary reasons for such an application, the determined deficiencies of the installed system and the post-implementation situation are explained in detail. Thanks to the real-time information and integrated data generated by the reports, along with a more sophisticated business understanding, the risk to employees was lowered. As a result of a changeover to real-time Materials Requirement Planning, the decrease in inventory levels, stabilisation in delivery time and efficiency of control over the production processes were increased in addition to real-time tracking and reporting advantages. As a result of this work, the production processes were transformed into JIT. The inventory level was reduced to zero and a formerly used warehouse was no longer required.     

The Effect of Reduction Parameters on Iron Nugget Production From Composite Pellets

Composite pellets which contain a reducing agent and are produced only by cold bonding process are improved instead of traditionally hardened pellets by sintering. The new ironmaking technologies that are able to utilize these pellets have been developed from pilot plant to commercial scale. Iron nuggets which have a similar composition to pig iron can be produced by using composite pellets at high temperatures (1350–1400°C) and in a short reduction time (15–20 min) by smelting reduction process. In this study, the effect of reduction parameters and basicity of composite pellets on the reduction properties and product quality are investigated. Composite pellets containing magnetite concentrate with a reducing agent (coke) and a flux are processed at different temperature and at times by smelting reduction process. The increasing temperature and time has a positive effect on reduction and melting of the pellets. Excessive carbon prevents the metal droplets from coalescing. The iron nugget that is produced from the sample with the basicity (CaO/SiO₂) of 0.68 has the optimal physical and chemical properties. It is also determined that a decrease or increase of basicity has a negative effect on the properties of the iron nuggets.     

Determining Frying Oil Degradation by Near Infrared Spectroscopy Using Chemometric Techniques

A rapid method for the determination of some important physicochemical properties in frying oils has been developed. Partial least square regression (PLS) calibration models were applied to the physicochemical parameters and near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) spectral data. PLS regression was used to find the NIR region and the data pre-processing method that give the best prediction of the chemical parameters. Calibration and validation were appropriated by leave one out cross validation and test set validation techniques for predicting free fatty acids (FFA), total polar materials (cTPM; measured by chromatographic method and iTPM measured by an instrumental method), viscosity and smoke point of the frying oil samples. For PLS models using the cross validation techniques, the best correlations (r) between NIR predicted data and the standard method data for iTPM in oils were 93.79 and root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) values were 5.53. For PLS models using the test set validation techniques, the best correlations (r) between NIR predicted data and standard method data for FFA, cTPM, viscosity and smoke point in oils were 92.58, 94.61, 81.95 and 84.07 and RMSEP values were 0.121, 3.96, 22.30 and 8.74, respectively. In conclusion, NIR technique with chemometric analysis was found very effective in predicting frying oil quality changes.     

Atmospheric pressure chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) for the preparation of biomorphic SiC ceramics derived from paper

Chemical Vapor Infiltration of biological structures such as paper is used here to produce biomorphic SiC ceramics with high temperature resistance. The biological substrate materials are infiltrated with tetramethylsilane (TMS) at atmospheric pressure and elevated temperatures of 790 degrees C. A simple tube furnace (hot-wall reactor) is used for the infiltration process. As result, porous SiC-ceramics are grown which are around 20% smaller and 70% lighter than the initial substrates. This can be explained by the pyrolytic reaction of the substrates while heating them up to 790 degrees C, which is necessary for the infiltration process. Nevertheless, besides the shrinking of the substrates the geometrical form remains nearly unchanged. The resulting materials were heated up to 1000 degrees C in oxygen atmosphere in order to analyze their resistance against oxidation. After this treatment, all of them were still mechanically stable and of unchanged shape while a further mass loss was observed. This confirms the high temperature stability of the prepared materials.     

Graph run-length matrices for histopathological image segmentation

The histopathological examination of tissue specimens is essential for cancer diagnosis and grading. However, this examination is subject to a considerable amount of observer variability as it mainly relies on visual interpretation of pathologists. To alleviate this problem, it is very important to develop computational quantitative tools, for which image segmentation constitutes the core step. In this paper, we introduce an effective and robust algorithm for the segmentation of histopathological tissue images. This algorithm incorporates the background knowledge of the tissue organization into segmentation. For this purpose, it quantifies spatial relations of cytological tissue components by constructing a graph and uses this graph to define new texture features for image segmentation. This new texture definition makes use of the idea of gray-level run-length matrices. However, it considers the runs of cytological components on a graph to form a matrix, instead of considering the runs of pixel intensities. Working with colon tissue images, our experiments demonstrate that the texture features extracted from "graph run-length matrices" lead to high segmentation accuracies, also providing a reasonable number of segmented regions. Compared with four other segmentation algorithms, the results show that the proposed algorithm is more effective in histopathological image segmentation.     

Evaluation of rheological and image properties of styrene‐butadiene‐styrene and ethylene‐vinyl acetate polymer modified bitumens

This article presents a laboratory evaluation of conventional, fundamental, rheological, and morphological characteristics of styrene‐butadiene‐styrene (SBS) and ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) polymer modified bitumens. Polymer modified bitumen (PMB) samples have been produced by mixing a 50/70 penetration grade unmodified (base) bitumen with SBS and EVA copolymer at different polymer contents. The fundamental viscoelastic properties of the PMBs were determined using dynamic (oscillatory) mechanical analysis and presented in the form of temperature and frequency‐dependent rheological parameters. The morphology of the samples as well as the percent area distribution of polymers throughout the base bitumen have been characterized and determined by means of fluorescent light optic microscopy and Qwin Plus image analysis software, respectively. The results indicated that polymer modification improved the conventional and rheological properties of the base bitumen. It was also concluded that the temperature and frequency had a significant effect on complex modulus of PMBs. The behavior of EVA and SBS PMBs had exhibited quite difference at 50°C. Moreover, it was found out that at low polymer contents, the samples revealed the existence of dispersed polymer particles in a continuous bitumen phase, whereas at high polymer contents a continuous polymer phase has been observed. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011     

Evaluation of antibacterial effects of contemporary orthodontic bonding materials

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the antibacterial effects of five orthodontic bonding materials commonly used in orthodontics. Materials and Methods: The antibacterial effects of five orthodontic bonding materials were evaluated against Streptococcus mutans and Streptococcus salivarius by direct contact test (DCT). Using the DCT technique, quintet specimens of Transbond XT, Blugloo, Grengloo, Light Bond, and Opal Bond were applied to the bottom and the walls of the five wells of a 96-microtiter plate with a height of 2 mm. Samples were prepared in two sets: 1-day samples and 7-day samples. Ten microliters of bacterial suspension were added to each well for direct contact with each material for 1h at 37 °C. Bacterial growth was then measured in a microplate spectrophotometer hourly at 600 nm for 24 h. Five uncoated wells with identical inoculum sizes served as positive controls. The data obtained at the end of 24 h was statistically analyzed with one-way ANOVA, and post hoc comparisons were done using Tamhane’s T2 test. Results: Blugloo generally showed better antibacterial activity than the other materials. Transbond XT did not show any antibacterial activity. There was a statistically significant difference between Transbond XT and Light Bond in the 1-day sample against S. mutans (p < 0.05). No statistically significant differences were found among the other groups (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Blugloo had the most potent antibacterial activity against S. salivarious.