Endoscopic ultrasonography

Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) is nowadays a clinically relevant technology and its findings can have a major impact on patient management. This technique is currently indicated for staging digestive cancers, assessment of submucosal tumors, diagnosis of intestinal wall infiltrative diseases, common bile-duct stones and gut neuroendocrine tumors. As far as neoplasms are concerned, EUS appears to be a reliable and safe technique, thus making the physician able to plan either an aggressive surgical treatment, or a conservative palliative therapy. This is of the utmost importance in order to optimize medical-related costs, and to make the best therapeutic decision for each individual patient. EUS is also helpful in monitoring the course of a disease, as it is simple and virtually without complications. When EUS findings are not sufficient for a complete diagnosis, it is now possible to perform an EUS-guided fine-needle biopsy, which can allow a cytological diagnosis. Finally, some therapeutic endosonography-guided procedures are being increasingly adopted, such as cystoenterostomy, celiac plexus neurolysis, cholangio-pancreatography and selective injection of botulinum toxin in the muscle layer of the lower esophageal sphincter.     

Novel method for determination of gas solubilities in low vapor pressure liquids

A modified version of a standard device for measuring gas adsorption and desorption isotherms and surface area of adsorbents and catalysts (ASAP (Accelerated Surface Area and Porosimetry System) 2020, Micromeritics USA) is used for the first time to measure gas solubilities (i.e., CO₂) in low vapor pressure liquids (i.e., the IUPAC standard ionic liquid 1‐hexyl‐3‐methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([C₆mim][Tf₂N])) in the Henry's law region. The solubility data are in very good agreement with the reported data in literature. Furthermore, the Henry's law constants are calculated from the solubility data and compared to the experimental data found in literature. The results from this study demonstrate that Micromeritics ASAP 2020 is a suitable apparatus for gas absorption by solvents with reduced vapor pressures. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 2981–2986, 2017     

Biochemical and molecular characterization of polymorphisms of αs1-casein in Sudanese camel (Camelus dromedarius) milk

This work was designed to detect occurrence of biochemical polymorphism of α_s1-casein in two ecotypes of Sudanese camel (Camelus dromedarius) and to characterize these variants on molecular level. Milk samples were screened for α_s1-casein variability by isoelectric focusing, using skimmed milk, as well as isolated α_s1-casein. Two protein patterns, named α_s1-casein A and C, were identified, whereas the major allele A revealed frequencies of 0.8214 and 0.8615 in the two ecotypes. CSN1S1*A and CSN1S1*C are both characterized by missing of exon 16 on mRNA-level compared with the previously described CSN1S1*B. However, the sequence of exon 16 occurs on DNA-level in both. Therefore, this exon seems to be skipped out during mRNA-processing. Furthermore, CSN1S1*C shows a single G > T nucleotide substitution in exon 5, leading to a non-synonymous amino acid exchange (p.Glu30 > Asp30; GenBank ID: JF429138). A polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism-method was established as a DNA-based test for this nucleotide substitution.     

The physicochemical and microbiological quality of the Sudanese yoghurt Mish produced by traditional and modernised methods

The traditional and modernised processing of Mish were assessed by comparing samples from modernised process with the traditional process: in each case, six batches were evaluated, with six samples per batch. The results indicated highly significant (P ≤ 0.001) differences in protein, ash and fat content, the viscosity and all microbiological parameters tested between the traditional and modern produced Mish. However, the storage period showed significant variations only for the microbiological parameters, as some contaminants were found for samples processed by the traditional procedure. Hence, the study recommended that Mish processing should be carried out following the modernised procedure to ensure better hygienic quality.     

Opportunistic RPL for reliable AMI mesh networks

Driven by the need to improve energy efficiency and reduce environmental impact, we observe a thrust towards enabling a Smart Grid. It is envisaged that to achieve these goals, the Smart Grid will be equipped with communications infrastructure and mechanisms that will enable near real-time control of the grid components. One of the key elements of the Smart Grid is the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) which is expected to facilitate the transport of meter readings from a smart electricity meter at the customer premises to the utility provider, and control data in the other direction. These communications can be potentially realized by deploying a self-organizing mesh network composed of smart metering nodes connected to concentrator nodes which in turn are connected to the utility provider data management systems. This paper explores a cooperative communications approach to improve reliability of such mesh networks. The proposed opportunistic forwarding protocol called ‘ORPL’ has been realized as an enhancement on top of the routing protocol for low power and lossy networks, a connectivity enabling mechanism in AMI mesh networks. In ORPL, smart meter nodes select multiple candidate relays to facilitate reliable transport of smart metering data to the concentrator node. Moreover, it is designed to work in a distributed manner thereby ensuring scalability. We also present a further extension to ORPL, i.e., ORPLx with adaptive medium access control retransmit limit, which reduces unnecessary retransmissions. Our protocols have been evaluated and verified with comprehensive experimental results, demonstrating their effectiveness and favorable characteristics.