Isolation and characterization of the tsetse thrombin inhibitor: a potent antithrombotic peptide from the saliva of Glossina morsitans morsitans

A case of cranial hypertrophic pachymeningitis of unknown etiology in a patient with 15-year history of headaches, cranial nerve palsies, and gait disturbance is reported. A 77-year-old woman was brought to our institute in a coma. CT revealed intracerebral hemorrhage in the right temporal lobe and thickening of the falx and tentorium. Fifteen years previously the patient had undergone CT scanning because of headaches, cranial nerve palsies, and progressive gait disturbance and a thickened tentorium, mild hydrocephalus and edematous change in the right temporal lobe had been reported. Since the etiology of her symptoms was unclear at the time, she did not receive adequate treatment. Her symptoms gradually progressed thereafter, and her visual acuity and hearing deteriorated. MR imaging in 1994 showed the thickened tentorium as a hypointense area with hyperintense edges on Gd-DTPA enhanced images. Angiography revealed narrowing of posterior portion of the superior sagittal sinus. The patient's condition rapidly deteriorated due to the intracranial hypertension and she subsequently died. Autopsy revealed a thickened tentorium with xanthochromic surface. This hypertrophic change was also seen in the dura mater of the posterior and middle cranial fossa. Microscopic examination of the thickened tentorium revealed extensive fibrous tissue with a chronic inflammatory infiltrate, predominantly of lymphocytes. No specific lesions were revealed by staining with hematoxylin-eosin, PAS, Gram's or Ziehl-Neelsen stains. The patient had no inflammatory or infectious diseases of other organs, and a diagnosis of idiopathic cranial hypertrophic pachymeningitis of unknown etiology was made. Considering the above findings, the thickened tentorium depicted as a hypointense area on the T1- and T2-weighted images and the Gd-enhanced edges of the tentorium are thought to be represent fibrous tissue and inflammatory regions, respectively.     

The influence of gallium on the magnetocaloric properties of Gd5Si2Ge2

Gd₅Si₂Ge₂ was alloyed with varying amounts of Ga to study its influence on the giant magnetocaloric effect. Investigations on Gd₅(Si_2−xGe_2−x)Ga_2x with 2x = 0.03, 0.05 and 0.13 were carried out using X-ray powder diffraction, temperature and magnetic field dependent magnetization measurements, and differential scanning calorimetry. We observe that as the Ga content increases, the temperature stability range of the monoclinic phase narrows, and the orthorhombic structure gains stability. This is expected to be related to the decrease in the (Si/Ge)(Si/Ge) bond distance in the monoclinic phase. The maximum entropy change for the parent compound at 270 K was found to be 9.8 J kg⁻¹ K⁻¹ in an applied field of 5 T. For 2x = 0.03, this value reduces to 8.5 J kg⁻¹ K⁻¹, and the temperature corresponding to the maximum entropy change shifts marginally to 278 K. For other 2x values, the maximum entropy change further decreases.     

Field and laboratory performance comparison for asphalt mixtures with different moisture conditioning systems

The purpose of this study is to compare laboratory and field performances for dense graded asphalt mixtures. Control road pavement section was constructed in Black Sea Coast Highway. Marshall identical control samples produced in laboratory and core samples taken from wearing courses before the traffic opened were used. Three different moisture conditioning methods were applied to control laboratory and core samples. Mechanical properties of samples were evaluated with indirect tension, indirect tension strength and repeated creep tests. Indirect tensile strength test results for laboratory mixtures were found 1.22 and 1.30 times more in accordance with field samples at 10 °C and 20 °C respectively. Marshall samples gave higher resilient modulus for all control and conditioned mixtures. Repeated creep test results also proved the difference between laboratory and field sample performance. Laboratory samples protected their structural integrity along with the test duration and did not showed tertiary creep. It is concluded from this study that laboratory samples state expressly higher performance according to the core field samples.     

Characteristics of safflower seed oils of turkish origin

Technological characteristics of oils extracted from seventeen varieties of safflower seeds (Carthamus tinctorius L.) of Turkish origin were investigated for their utilization prospects in the food industry and in other industrial sectors. Standard procedures were applied to determine the technological characteristics of seventeen varieties of safflower seeds and the safflower seed oils; fatty acid compositions were determined by gas-liquid chromatography. Results show that safflower seed oils are suitable both for food and industrial purposes.     

A new benchmark for pose estimation with ground truth from virtual reality

The development of programming paradigms for industrial assembly currently gets fresh impetus from approaches in human demonstration and programming-by-demonstration. Major low- and mid-level prerequisites for machine vision and learning in these intelligent robotic applications are pose estimation, stereo reconstruction and action recognition. As a basis for the machine vision and learning involved, pose estimation is used for deriving object positions and orientations and thus target frames for robot execution. Our contribution introduces and applies a novel benchmark for typical multi-sensor setups and algorithms in the field of demonstration-based automated assembly. The benchmark platform is equipped with a multi-sensor setup consisting of stereo cameras and depth scanning devices (see Fig. 1). The dimensions and abilities of the platform have been chosen in order to reflect typical manual assembly tasks. Following the eRobotics methodology, a simulatable 3D representation of this platform was modelled in virtual reality. Based on a detailed camera and sensor simulation, we generated a set of benchmark images and point clouds with controlled levels of noise as well as ground truth data such as object positions and time stamps. We demonstrate the application of the benchmark to evaluate our latest developments in pose estimation, stereo reconstruction and action recognition and publish the benchmark data for objective comparison of sensor setups and algorithms in industry.     

Detection of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in ground beef using immunomagnetic separation and multiplex PCR

In the study 251 fresh ground beef samples sold in Ankara were analyzed to evaluate the prevalence of Escherichia coli O157:H7 by immunomagnetic separation (IMS) based cultivation technique. Virulence factors of the isolates were determined by multiplex PCR. Nineteen (7.6%) of 251 ground beef samples were found as contaminated with E. coli O157. By PCR analyse in two of the isolates fliC_h7 gene was detected and identified as E. coli O157:H7. According to the multiplex PCR one of the isolate has all stx₁, stx₂, eaeA, hly and fliC_h7 genes and the other has stx₁, eaeA, hly and fliC_h7 genes.