Optimisation of ecofriendly adsorption refrigeration system

Adsorption cooling system can be classified into two main types, namely, intermittent adsorption system and continuous adsorption system. In this paper, attention has been focussed on the intermittent adsorption refrigeration system. Continuous adsorption system requires a pump, which requires electricity, and more heat exchangers and more than one adsorbent bed, which increases the cost. Intermittent adsorption system can be operated without electricity. This vapour adsorption refrigeration system is optimised to reduce the product cost through Evaluation and Optimization method.     

Midazolam's dose effects on fixed-ratio response rate in rats depend on amount of prior training experience.

To investigate the effects of amount of prior training on the operant response rate-decreasing effects of midazolam, the authors examined 6 oral (PO) doses of this drug (0.3, 1.0, 3.0, 10.0, 17.3, 30.0 mg/kg, 30 min before sessions) in 3 separate groups of rats (Rattus narvegicus). The rats received 29, 85, or 106 daily sessions (low, medium, and high groups, respectively) of fixed-ratio 30 water-reinforced training before the dose-effect determinations. Despite all 3 groups having had similar baseline response rates, the medium- and high-experience groups were significantly more sensitive to the rate-decreasing effects of the 3 highest doses of midazolam. All 3 groups were equally unresponsive (neither increasing nor decreasing response rate) to PO midazolam treatment at the 3 lowest doses. The experience-related sensitization to midazolam's behavior-disrupting effects suggests a role for amount as well as type of behavioral history as a determinant of behavioral drug effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spaces of vision: architecture and visuality in the modern era

The film has enriched our field of perception with methods which can be illustrated by those of Freudian theory. … Since the Psychopathology of Everyday Life things have changed. This book isolated and made analyzable things which had heretofore floated along unnoticed in the broad stream of perception. For the entire spectrum of optical and now acoustical, perception the film has brought about a similar deepening of apperception. … By close-ups of the things around us, by focusing on hidden details of familiar objects, by exploring commonplace milieus under the ingenious guidance of the camera, the film, on the one hand, extends our comprehension of the necessities which rule our lives; on the other hand, it manages to assure us of an immense and unexpected field of action. Our taverns and our metropolitan streets, our offices and furnished rooms, our railroad stations and our factories appeared to have us locked up hopelessly. Then came the film and burst this prison-world asunder by the dynamite of the tenth of a second. … Evidently a different nature opens itself to the camera than opens to the naked eye—if only because an unconsciously penetrated space is substituted for a space consciously explored by man … The camera introduces us to unconscious optics as does psychoanalysis to unconscious impulses.1 1 Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” in Hannah Arendt (ed), Illuminations, New York: Schocken Books, 1988, pp. 236–237 (my emphasis). “The Work of Art” essay was first published in the 1930s. Walter Benjamin

I have never set foot in scores of buildings in scores of towns, but they are familiar to me. I know thousands of buildings, streets and cities, not from any tactile encounter, but through trips in vehicles and through images taken by cameras. Not long ago I spent an entire day viewing architecture on the run. Downtown, in a major industrial city, I boarded an elevated train that skimmed by walls, rooftops and antennae and in sight of faraway towers. At the airport, I boarded a plane and, viewed from aloft, that same city receded into the geometries of line and plane. Airborne, I watched a film that transported me to a car chase through the streets of Mexico City. On the ground in a new city, the walk to baggage claim took me past an exhibit of sepia photos of Victorian storefronts. The cab ride from the airport wheeled me back into the present along a strip-malled highway, its signs looking like colorful tinted cellophane through the windshield. At the end of the day, in a motel, a cable news station broadcast pictures of a volcanic eruption that had destroyed the town of Goma in the Congo, red lava submerging houses on the large screen just a few feet from my bed. I was in the zoomscape all day—a largely optical mode of perception characterized by speed and surface.2 2 Mitchell Schwarzer, Zoomscape: architecture in motion and media, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2004, p. 12. Mitchell Schwarzer     

Size effect on failure of overreinforced concrete beams

The results of full-scale failure of singly reinforced four-point-bend beams of different sizes containing deformed longitudinal reinforcing bars are reported. The tests consisted of four groups with one, two and three different size combinations. The specimens were made of concrete with a maximum aggregate size of 10 mm. The beams were geometrically similar in one, two and three-dimensions, and even the bar diameter and cover thicknesses were scaled in proportion. The reinforcement ratio was 3%. The results revealed the existence of a significant size effect, which can approximately be described by the size effect law previously proposed by Bazant. The size effect is found to be stronger in two-dimensional similarities than for one and three-dimensional similarities.     

A note on the incidences of Salmonella spp., Listeria spp. and Escherichia coli O157:H7 serotypes in Turkish sausage (Soudjouck)

The incidence of Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli O157:H7 was determined in 100 Turkish sausage (soudjouck) samples collected from shops and markets in the Afyon province, Turkey. Salmonella spp. were detected in 7% of the samples. All of the isolates were S. enterica Paratyphi B. In addition, Listeria spp. were detected in 9% of the samples. Its distribution was 7% L. monocytogenes and 1% each of L. ivanovii and L. innocua. Serological study of the seven L. monocytogenes isolates showed that three of these were 1/2 ab, three were 5/6 ab and one was 1 ab. E. coli O157:H7 was not detected in any of the samples. The pH values of the samples ranged from 4.8 to 6.5. In conclusion, increasing number of listeriosis and salmonellosis cases in Turkey and the contamination levels found indicate that risk assessment and improved preventive measures are required for these sausages.     

Beneficial effects of dexamethasone in children with pneumococcal meningitis

Fifty-six children older than 2 years with meningitis caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae were enrolled in a prospective, double blind, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of dexamethasone therapy in addition to antimicrobial therapy. Twenty-nine of 56 received dexamethasone (0.6 mg/kg/day iv, divided into 4 daily doses for 4 days) and the remaining 27 received placebo. At the beginning of therapy the clinical and laboratory characteristics of the patients in the treatment groups were comparable, except for the Glasgow coma score (P = 0.004), which was lower in the dexamethasone group. Patients were examined daily during hospitalization and 6 weeks after discharge from the hospital. Hearing was assessed 6 weeks after discharge by means of pure tone audiometry. Two patients in the dexamethasone group and one patient in the placebo group died. There were no differences between the two groups with regard to the duration of fever, the incidence of secondary fever and electrolyte imbalance, seizure activities occurring during hospitalization and rash. Although the differences were statistically insignificant, moderate or severe unilateral or bilateral sensorineural hearing loss at 6 weeks and the overall neurologic sequelae, including hearing loss, at 1 year were higher in the placebo group, at 23% vs. 7.4% (P = 0.11) and 26.9% vs. 7.4% (P = 0.062), respectively. At 3 months after discharge, because of the improvement in hearing loss in one dexamethasone-treated patient the incidence of hearing impairment was significantly less than that in the placebo group, at 3.7% vs. 23%, respectively (P = 0.044). No improvement in hearing loss was observed after 3 months.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

EGFR-Targeted Pentacyclic Triterpene Analogues for Glioma Therapy

Glioma, particularly its most malignant form, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), is the most common and aggressive malignant central nervous system tumor. The drawbacks of the current chemotherapy for GBM have aroused curiosity in the search for targeted therapies. Aberrantly overexpressed epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in GBM results in poor prognosis, low survival rates, poor responses to therapy and recurrence, and therefore EGFR-targeted therapy stands out as a promising approach for the treatment of gliomas. In this context, a series of pentacyclic triterpene analogues were subjected to in vitro and in silico assays, which were conducted to assess their potency as EGFR-targeted anti-glioma agents. In particular, compound 10 was the most potent anti-glioma agent with an IC₅₀ value of 5.82 µM towards U251 human glioblastoma cells. Taking into account its low cytotoxicity to peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), compound 10 exerts selective antitumor action towards Jurkat human leukemic T-cells. This compound also induced apoptosis and inhibited EGFR with an IC₅₀ value of 9.43 µM compared to erlotinib (IC₅₀ = 0.06 µM). Based on in vitro and in silico data, compound 10 stands out as a potential orally bioavailable EGFR-targeted anti-glioma agent endowed with the ability to cross the blood–brain barrier (BBB).     

Environmental performance assessment of manufacturing sectors

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - This study addresses to rank the environmental performance of manufacturing sectors using Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment...     

Analysis of climate factors for the development of greenhouses in Eastern Blacksea Region

Eastern Blacksea Region is one of the less developed regions of Turkey in agriculture. That is why greenhouses are incited as an alternative income source for the region. In this study, aiming to evaluate the suitability of the climate conditions for greenhouses, heating and ventilation requirements for initially proposed two model greenhouses were calculated based on multi-years climate data. Climate parameters of region provinces were also evaluated and they were compared with climate characteristics of Samsun Province, where there were intensive greenhouse practices. As a result, it was determined that coastal provinces of the region had significant similarities with Samsun Province and they were more suitable than the inner provinces for greenhouse practices. Depending on the evaluations carried out, advantages and disadvantages of the region for greenhouse practices were determined and recommendations were made to regional producers.     

Irrigation water pricing in water user associations,Turkey

Countries' social and economic policies as well as their priorities and preferences determine irrigation water pricing; it is a very complex, multi-dimensional and unknown problem in all countries. There is no guiding principle; therefore many different factors affect water pricing in agriculture. The water fee is the main revenue of Water User Associations (WUAs) in Turkey. Irrigation water fees have been determined by WUAs, taking into consideration crop area for gravity irrigation and volume for pump irrigation. Legal changes should be made in order to achieve sustainable WUAs immediately. Irrigation water pricing should be required to balance multiple objectives, such as economic efficiency, equity, water saving, management effectiveness and financial sustainability.