Mechanisms of dyslipidemia of chronic renal failure

Chronic renal failure is associated with profound dysregulation of lipid metabolism and marked abnormalities of plasma lipid profile. This review is intended to provide an overview of the molecular basis of lipid disorders in chronic renal failure and explore their potential impact on cardiovascular disease and energy metabolism.     

Analytical solution of the parabolic and hyperbolic heat transfer equations with constant and transient heat flux conditions on skin tissue

In this article, the parabolic (Pennes bioheat equation) and hyperbolic (thermal wave) bioheat transfer models for constant, periodic and pulse train heat flux boundary conditions are solved analytically by applying the Laplace transform method for skin as a semi-infinite and finite domain. The bioheat transfer analysis with transient heat flux on skin tissue has only been studied by Pennes equation for a semi-infinite domain. For modeling heat transfer in short duration of an initial transient, or when the propagation speed of the thermal wave is finite, there are major differences between the results of parabolic and hyperbolic heat transfer equations. The non-Fourier bioheat transfer equation describes the thermal behavior in the biological tissues better than Fourier equation. The outcome of transient heat flux condition shows that by penetrating into the depths beneath the skin subjected to heat, the amplitude of temperature response decreases significantly. The blood perfusion rate can be predicted using the phase shift between the surface temperature and transient surface heat flux. The thermal damage of the skin is studied by applying both the parabolic and hyperbolic bioheat transfer equations.     

Production and properties of electrosprayed sericin nanopowder

Sericin is a proteinous substrate that envelops fibroin (silk) fiber, and its recovery provides significant economical and social benefits. Sericin is an antibacterial agent that resists oxidation and absorbs moisture and UV light. In powder form, sericin has a wide range of applications in food, cosmetics and drug delivery. Asides from other techniques of producing powder, such as precipitation and spray drying, electrospraying can yield solid nanoparticles, particularly in the submicron range. Here, we report the production of sericin nanopowder by electrospraying. Sericin sponge was recovered from Bombyx mori cocoons through a high-temperature, high-pressure process, followed by centrifugation and freeze drying of the sericin solution. The electrospraying solution was prepared by dissolving the sericin sponge in dimethyl sulfoxide. We demonstrate that electrospraying is capable of producing sericin nanopowder with an average particle size of 25 nm, which is by far smaller than the particles produced by other techniques. The electrosprayed sericin nanopowder consists of small crystallites and exhibits a high moisture absorbance.     

Exact solutions for the in-plane vibrations of rectangular Mindlin plates using Helmholtz decomposition

Deriving frequency equations for in-plane vibration of a rectangular plate with different boundary conditions and uniform thickness in the elastic range is the goal of this research. To derive frequency equations, the kinetic and potential energy for in-plane behavior initially are obtained by using the stress–strain–displacement expressions according to the theory of Mindlin plates in Cartesian coordinates by applying the Hamilton’s principle, which leads to five sets of highly coupled differential equations for the equations of motion. Replacement of Helmholtz decomposition for the coupled differential equations creates uncoupled equations of motion. The hypothesis of a harmonic solution for the uncoupled equations lead to wave equations. The general solutions for the wave equations are obtained by using the separation of variables. Finally, the application of boundary conditions yields the frequency equations for the rectangular plate. The natural frequencies are compared and validated by finite element analysis and previously reported results.     

Experimental investigation of effect of palmitic acid as inhibitor on particle size of asphaltenes flocs using imaging techniques

In this article, the effect of one well-known inhibitor namely palmitic acid is investigated on particle size distribution of asphaltenes by imaging techniques. Pure asphaltene is extracted from crude oil to prepare Heptol (n-heptane+toluene) solutions of suspended asphaltenes. Different concentrations of inhibitors are then added to the solution. Afterward, image analysis of microscopic photos is used to determine the particle size distribution of asphaltene flocs in the presence of inhibitors. Average particle size of asphaltene and fractal structure of aggregates are also investigated; results show that the compaction of asphaltenes flocs is correlated with concentration of inhibitor. However, no significant relationship was observed between surface roughness of flocs and inhibitor concentration.     

Improving of Corrosion Behavior of Al 7075 by Applied Titania–<Emphasis Type="Italic">Benzotriazole</Emphasis> Nanostructured Coating with Sol Gel Method

Nowadays, self-healing coatings display high abrasion resistance and bond strength. Application of these coatings are reckoned the most common and the most economic method for restoration and protection against corrosion by which metal structures durability is enhanced. The major role of a self-healing hybrid coating in corrosion inhibition is to supply materials for controlling types of corrosion. In this paper, titania–Benzotriazole nanostructured coating has been applied to substrate Al 7075 by using the sol–gel process and immersion method. The bonds existing in the hybrid coating, structure and morphology and coating corrosion behavior have been studied using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), GIXRD, atomic force microscopy (AFM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and impedance electrochemical test, respectively. The obtained results are indicative of generating a homogeneous, uniform, crack-free titania–Benzotriazole nanostructured coating associated with excellent optimization of corrosion resistance at 2.8% Benzotriazole.     

Design factors affecting the dynamic performance of soil suspension in an agitated,baffled tank

The effects of particle size, impeller clearance and impel er speed are assessed to show how condition variations influence power consumption in the water-solid slurry suspension in an agitated tank. The energy efficiency of slurry height variation, impel er type and diameter, and solid movement speed has been investigated with six soil series stirred in a soil-water slurry. Coarser sand particles are observed to significantly increase power consumption, while finer particles, for instance clay, decrease the stirring power requirement. The 3-blade HR100 SUPERMIX? impeller manufactured by SATAKE general y performs more efficiently than a conventional 4-pitched blade turbine. The impeller's geometric design, including diameter and number of blades influences the impeller's energy efficiency, and HR100 impellers with greater diameters remarkably reduce power consumption. The tests demonstrated that the power required to provide off-bottom solid suspension and solid dispersion can be reduced dramatically by increasing the slurry height rather than by accelerating the impel er, if this option is possible.     

Non-dominated ranked genetic algorithm for a multi-objective mixed-model assembly line sequencing problem

The increasing market demand for product variety forces manufacturers to design mixed-model assembly lines (MMAL) on which a variety of product models similar to product characteristics are assembled. This paper presents a method combining the new ranked based roulette wheel selection algorithm with Pareto-based population ranking algorithm, named non-dominated ranking genetic algorithm (NRGA) to a just-in-time (JIT) sequencing problem when two objectives are considered simultaneously. The two objectives are minimisation the number of setups and variation of production rates. This type of problem is NP-hard. Various operators and parameters of the proposed algorithm are reviewed to calibrate the algorithm by means of the Taguchi method. The solutions obtained via NRGA are compared against solutions obtained via total enumeration (TE) scheme in small problems and also against four other search heuristics in small, medium and large problems. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is competitive with these other algorithms in terms of quality and diversity of solutions.     

Facial expression recognition by using differential geometric features

ABSTRACT

In recent years, a growing interest has been created for improvement of human interaction with computers. Hence, automatic recognition of facial expressions has become one of the active research topics. The purpose of this paper is to identify facial expressions, by using differential geometric features. In the proposed method, only the first and last images are used and differential features are extracted from these two images. Differential geometric features are extracted from changes in the important points of the face in the two images. In this method, the distance between the important points of the face and the reference point was calculated in both directions x and y, for two images, and with the difference between the distance, the differential geometric features between the two images were obtained. Based on the results, with this method, recognition accuracy of six facial expressions in the database was 96.44%, CK +.