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Utilization of grey water as an alternative source of water is a recent useful option to serve environmental sustainability, especially in water stressed and water scarce areas. Public acceptance is one of the key determinants of the success of grey water reuse. Surveys were conducted in the Turkish megacity Istanbul to investigate awareness and attitude of the public, and the impact of supplying information upon acceptance of grey water reuse. The major focus of the paper is placed on sources of grey water, possible final uses and economic considerations. The results revealed that the reuse of grey water as flush water was accepted the most with 79% which increased to 92%. The highest impact upon positive opinion was with acceptance on the reuse of grey water from washing machines with 93% change in approval after supplying information. The results reveal that informing public and awareness raising regarding grey water and its management are major factors for improving the level of acceptance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Processing of the liquid phase remaining after nutrient recovery from source separated urine using clinoptilolite is an important issue regarding environmental protection. Possibility of anaerobic treatment using an expanded granular sludge bed reactor for this purpose is investigated as an option to remove organic matter together with possible biogas generation. To start this investigation, an anaerobic granular sludge from a confectionery industry was adapted to source separated fresh urine, which is highly saline with an electrical conductivity of 8,000 µS/cm, has a high ammonium concentration (900 mg NH4 +-N/L) and relatively high organic content of 1,200 mg COD/L. In a period of observation which exceeded 2 months, 75% and 60% of removal could be achieved for soluble and total COD, respectively, together with minor amounts of NH4 + release into the liquid phase. The amount of CH4 to be produced was calculated from COD removal as 1.3 L CH4/d and 0.24 L CH4/L urine. The preliminary results obtained in this work were motivating for further investigation upon the subject matter with emphasis on the effect of high salinity content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Urinary free cortisol excretion by an ultra-sensitive LC-MS/MS assay. • Establishing cutoff value for 24 h urinary free cortisol excretion. • Retrospective patient chart review of Cushing's diagnosis. • Selecting cutoff value to determine clinical diagnostic sensitivity and specificity. 24 h urinary free cortisol measurement is a clinically important first-line screening test for Cushing's syndrome (CS). Tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) assays have superior sensitivity and specificity compared to immunoassays. Our goal was to improve and validate a LC-MS/MS method to measure urinary free cortisol in both adult and pediatric patients and to characterize its clinical diagnostic performance of CS by chart review. We improved a LC-MS/MS method previously reported for urinary free cortisol to be able to measure urinary and salivary cortisol in the same batch for increased efficiency. The sample preparation was by liquid-liquid extraction using dichloromethane followed by stepwise washing with acidic, basic and neutral solutions. The assay's analytical performance was characterized, and a retrospective patient chart review was conducted to evaluate the assay's clinical performance in diagnosing CS. The LC-MS/MS assay demonstrated enhanced sensitivity and was linear within an analytical measurement range of 10–10,000 ng/dL. Assay accuracy was satisfactory as determined by spike and recovery studies and highly correlated with a reference LC-MS/MS method. The assay's clinical diagnostic sensitivity and specificity in detecting CS was 96% and 91%, respectively, when compared to a urinary cortisol excretion of at least 50 µg/24 h. The improved LC-MS/MS method is both sensitive and specific with enhanced analytical performance and clinical diagnostic utility to screen for CS. The clinical diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were superior based on retrospective patient chart review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the performance of the traditional and balanced time-spreading wavelength-hopping (TW) optical code division multiple access (OCDMA) receivers associated with their appropriate codes. Several 2-D TW codes with different properties are simulated in this work. The experimental simulations are implemented by Optisystem software to demonstrate the performance of a three-user OCDMA system operating at 10 Gb/s. The simulation results reveal that the traditional receiver employing zero cross-correlation (ZCC) codes has better performance if compared to the balanced scheme. In addition, for ZCC codes, the assigned wavelengths to each user highly affect the system performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The air conditioning applications in mosques are considered as one of the important HVAC applications, which indoor air quality depend on the behavior of the airflow, the distributions of temperatures and relative humidity and concentration of carbon dioxide due to high occupancy load of people. The paper is devoted to numerically investigate the influence of ventilation rate on indoor air quality. The example shown here is Al-Masa’a between Al-Safa and Al-Marwa hills inside Al-Haram mosque located at Makkah-Saudi Arabia. The work focuses on air flow, thermal behavior and carbon dioxide dispersion where large number of people. Five different cases for change in ACH are studied to reveal the impact of changing it on the all people. The performance of the air conditioning system is characterized by airflow patterns, temperature, relative humidity contours and CO2 concentration as well as the most commonly used comfort parameters PMV and PPD based on Fanger’s model. The study is carried out using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation techniques as embedded in the commercially available CFD code (ANSYS 15). The CFD modeling techniques solved the continuity, momentum and energy conservation equations in addition to RNG k – ε model equations for turbulence closure. Mesh sizes used in present work exceeded 4.5 million approximately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnopharmacological relevance Asiaticoside is claimed as a bioactive compound capable of wound healing. In order to ensure that the pharmacological activity of the extract is traceable and measurable, the present study attempted to evaluate the bioactivity of rich fractionated extract of asiaticoside. Aim of the study The current study evaluates the wound healing efficacy via in vitro scratch assay and in vivo circular wound excision model. Materials and methods The ethanol extract was fractionated into seven fractions via vacuum liquid chromatography. The compound of interest in the fractions was qualitatively identified using thin layer chromatography and the positive fraction containing asiaticoside was further quantified using reverse-phase HPLC. The asiaticoside-rich fraction was subjected to (i) colorimetric MTT (methylthiazoltetrazolium) cytotoxicity assay following incubation with human dermal fibroblast (HDF) and human dermal keratinocyte (HaCaT); (ii) in vitro 12-well plate scratch assay (using HDF and HaCaT cells) and (iii) topically apply (40%, 10% and 2.5%, w/w) on in vivo circular wound excision of rabbits. Data on wound contraction, epithelisation period, hydroxyproline content and histophatological analysis was collected from in vivo study. Results The results showed that the methanol fraction of the extract contained about 2.4% asiaticoside. Based on the results of colorimetric MTT (methylthiazoltetrazolium) cytotoxicity assay, both HDF and HaCaT showed significant stimulation upon application of the methanolic fraction of extract at concentrations of 100 μg/mL and 0.19 μg/mL. The methanol fraction showed almost no toxicity effect at the concentrations tested since their IC 50 could not be determined in concentrations ranging from 100 μg/mL to 0.19 μg/mL. Since all the concentrations tested allowed for more than 90% cell viability, the concentrations chosen for the scratch assay were randomly chosen and designated as highest (100 μg/mL), medium (6 μg/mL) and lowest (0.2 μg/mL) concentrations. In the scratch assay, methanol fraction of extract with concentration of 0.2 μg/mL and 100 μg/mL showed significant effect on HDF and HaCaT compared to the positive control ( p < 0.05). In vivo , it was shown that the methanol fraction of the extract induced collagen synthesis. Histopathology data also concluded that dose-dependent effect of the tested extract as a wound healer was present. Conclusions Taken together, recent findings suggest that methanol fraction of C. asiatica demonstrated remarkable polyvalent activity, and thus has potential as an effective wound healer. In conclusion, the claim of the presence of wound healing properties in C. asiatica had been well supported based on the results obtained in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) provides sensitivity and specificity for monitoring tacrolimus drug level in blood, but it requires an LC system and sample preparation, which is not amenable to random access testing typical of immunoassays. Paper spray (PS) ionization generates gas phase analyte ions directly from dried blood spots without sample preparation and LC. We evaluated a PS-MS/MS method for tacrolimus drug monitoring in a clinical diagnostic laboratory. Methods Whole blood sample was mixed with stable isotope labeled internal standard ([ 13 C, 2 H 2 ]-FK506) and spotted onto a cartridge containing triangular shaped card paper. After drying, samples were analyzed by PS MS/MS in the selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode, with a run time of 3 min/sample. Results Analytical measurement range was 1.5–30 ng/ml. Assay inter-day imprecision was 13%, 8%, and 5% at tacrolimus concentrations of 4.5, 10.5, and 24.5 ng/ml, respectively. Accuracy was determined by pure tacrolimus solution and was confirmed by result correlation to an immunoassay (slope = 1.0, intercept = − 0.02; r 2 = 0.99), and to a conventional LC-MS/MS method (slope = 0.90, intercept = 0.4; r 2 = 0.94). Conclusions PS-MS/MS provides accurate results for tacrolimus with rapid turnaround time amenable to random access testing protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two models of heterocyclic reactive dyes based on disazo pyrazoloprymidine derivatives and possessing a sulfatoethylsulfone reactive group were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, IR and 1H NMR spectroscopy. The dyes were applied to cotton, wool and silk fabrics. Effects of varying dyeing conditions were investigated. The results assessed for the exhaust dyeing methods on the different fabrics indicate that these reactive dyes showed high exhaustion and fixation values. The dyed fabrics also showed very good light fastness and good to excellent washing, rubbing and perspiration fastness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Recently, a rotating polarizer analyzer ellipsometer (RPAE) in which the two optical elements rotate in opposite directions with the same angular speed has been proposed. Calculated optical constants of some materials obtained from this ellipsometric configuration were in good agreement with published values except in the low photon energy regime. We here improve the structure by adding a fixed compensator after the rotating polarizer. The optical constants of c-Si calculated from the noisy signal in the low energy regime show a high reduction in the percent error when compared to that obtained from the previous structure that does not contain the fixed compensator. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We propose theoretically two optical sensor structures based on Fabry–Perot resonator and fringes of equal thickness structure. Different from the conventional slab waveguide sensors in which the sample interacts with the evanescent field in the cladding layer, the proposed sensors contain the sample in the core layer. The first proposed sensor comprises a piezoelectric material as a substrate with the driving potential difference as the sensing probe for refractive index changes of the sample. The second sensor comprises fringes of equal thickness structure with the number of fringes per unit length is the probe for changes in the index of the sample. The calculations reveal that the proposed sensors have high sensitivity to changes in the refractive index of the sample. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Dielectric multilayer stacks can exhibit anisotropy along the normal to the substrate. We present a polynomial approach for the spectroscopic ellipsometry of anisotropic multilayer structure in the cases where the off-diagonal elements of the dielectric tensor are zero. The ellipsometric parameters ψ and Δ of a stratified anisotropic planar structure can be written in a form so simple that they can be given directly without any calculation for any number of interfaces. The variation of ψ and Δ of two simple structures with the incidence angle is shown. The numerical results reveal an exact match with the well known traditional formalism. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A detailed mathematical derivation and an experimental characterization of one to two ratio rotating polarizer analyzer ellipsometer (RPAE) are presented. The alignment, calibration, and testing of reference samples are also discussed. The optical properties of some known materials obtained by the proposed ellipsometer will be shown and compared to accepted values. Moreover, the constructed ellipsometer will be tested using two ellipsometry standards with different thicknesses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Devonian Redwater reef is being assessed for geological storage of CO2 for the Heartland Area Redwater CO2 Storage Project (HARP). The reef complex is one of the largest Devonian reefs in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. It has an area of about 600 km2 and lies at depth of approximately 1000 m, and has a thickness of up to 300 m. The reef is of Devonian age and is made up of the Lower, Middle and Upper Leduc Formations. It is underlain by the Cooking Lake carbonate platform and overlain by the Ireton Shale which forms the caprock to the oil-bearing leg on the updip side of the reef as well as for the proposed CO2 storage. A shale embayment occurs around some parts of the reef margin at the Mid-Leduc level. In order to assess seismic monitoring potential for the CO2 storage project, fluid substitution seismic modeling was undertaken. Gassmann fluid substitution modeling was undertaken using on-reef wells which penetrated the Cooking Lake platform below the reef. Porosity of the Leduc Formation was calculated from the density logs and ranged from 4% to 6%. Synthetic seismograms were calculated from the log data before and after fluid substitution with supercritical CO2 replacing brine. Gassmann fluid substitution calculations were computed for the entire thickness of the Leduc Formation (over a depth range from 1086 to 1324 m) for both on-reef wells. A P-wave velocity decrease of 4% is predicted to occur between 0% to about 40% CO2 saturation, assuming uniform CO2 saturation. For CO2 saturations above 40%, the P-wave velocity will increase slightly. In comparison, the S-wave velocity is calculated to increase almost linearly with CO2 saturation by a maximum of 0.6%, yielding an increase in Vp/Vs of about 4.5%. Seismic modeling was based on the changes in Leduc acoustic impedance predicted to occur between the wet in-situ reservoir and after replacement of pore fluids with supercritical CO2. From this modeling, a time delay of 4.3 ms is observed for reflections from the base of the Lower Leduc Formation, assuming that the entire reef interval has at least 40% CO2 saturation. An integrated surface seismic and vertical seismic profile time-lapse seismic program has been designed to monitor CO2 injection for HARP, planned to start by 2011. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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Abstract: This paper presents a novel combinatorial search algorithm for determining minimum circumscribed (MC) circles and spheres from discrete data points. The presented algorithm is able to efficiently identify the essential subset of the input data points to construct the MC circle/sphere for the entire data set. The common issue of computational explosion for a large data set due to a greatly increased number of combinatorial searches is thus of no concern. The main feature of this work is the derivation of an innovative geometric property, named the Integrated Property (IP), for a unique three-point subset in 2D or a unique four-point subset in 3D. The significance is that the MC circle/sphere for the identified IP point subset is in fact the MC circle/sphere for the entire data set. As the unique IP point subset can always be found, the presented algorithm is guaranteed to yield exact MC circle/sphere solutions. A related data exchange scheme is formulated to efficiently identify the unique IP point subset from the input point set. The expected computational complexity of the search algorithm is quantified to be through a large number of computational test cases. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The present paper deals with three-layer planar waveguide optical sensor. Different from the conventional slab waveguide sensors in which the effective refractive index of the propagating mode is taken to be the probe for detection changes in the analyte refractive index, we adopt Goos–Hänchen (GH) shift as the sensing probe for the proposed sensor. We show that the GH shift is strongly dependent on the refractive index of the cladding, thus it is a good candidate for detection changes in the analyte refractive index. We present and study the sensitivity of the GH shift at the cladding–film and substrate–film interfaces. It is found that GH shift has a high sensitivity and can be used for versatile optical slab waveguide sensors. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

One of the most preventable errors of a surgeon's career is operating on the incorrect surgical site (ICSS). No study in any specialty has ever investigated the incidence of ICSS events in lower-income countries. This study focuses on identifying the occurrence of these events along with an analysis of potential causes leading to these unfortunate events. The authors distributed a survey to neurosurgical colleagues from around the world. These surgeons were first asked to identify details about their practice and incidence and personal experience with ICSS in their own careers. At the end of the survey, they responded to questions about their knowledge of safety checklists. In this study there was a 63.4% response rate. When combined with those who participated through various social media platforms, there were 178 responses. The incidence rate for every 10,000 cases performed was found to be 22.8 in the cranial group, 88.6 in the cervical group, and 158.8 in the lumbar procedural group. This study identified that 40% of participants had never learned or experienced the ABCD time-out strategy and that 60% of surgeons did not use intraoperative navigation or imaging in their practices. The error has never been disclosed to the patient in 48% of the ICSS cases. Due to a lack of application of safety checklist protocol, there is an increased occurrence of ICSS events in lower-income countries. The results of this study demonstrate the necessity of investing time and resources dedicated to avoiding preventable errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the Dalbergiella welwitschia alkaloid-rich extracts on liver damage in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Hence, to induce diabetes, 45 mg/kg body weight of streptozotocin was intraperitoneally injected into the Wistar rats. Subsequently, 5 % (w/v) of glucose water was given to the induced animals for 24 h. Thus, the animals (48) were grouped into five groups (n = 8), containing normal control (NC), diabetic control (DC), diabetic rats placed on low (50 mg/kg body weight) and high (100 mg/kg body weight) doses of D. welwitschi alkaloid-rich leaf extracts (i.e. DWL and DWH respectively), and diabetic rats administered 200 mg/kg body weight of metformin (MET). The animals were sacrificed on the 21st day of the experiment, blood and liver were harvested, and different liver damage biomarkers were evaluated. The results obtained demonstrated that diabetic rats administered DWL, DWH and MET significantly (p < 0.05) increased hepatic AST, ALT, albumin, SOD, CAT, GSH, and GPX levels when compared to DC with no significant (p > 0.05) different when compared with NC. Also, diabetic rats administered DWL, DWH and MET revealed a significant (p < 0.05) decrease in GGT and MDA levels, as well as, fragmented DNA and protein carbonyl levels when compared to DC with no significant (p > 0.05) different when compared with NC. In addition, histological examination revealed that diabetic rats placed on DWL, DWH and MET normalized the hepatocytes. Consequently, it can be inferred that alkaloid-rich extracts from D. welwitschi leaf could be helpful in improving liver damage associated with diabetes mellitus rats. [Display omitted] • The results obtained demonstrated that diabetic rats administered DWL, DWH and MET significantly (p < 0.05) increased hepatic AST, ALT, albumin, SOD, CAT, GSH, and GPX levels compared to DC. • Also, diabetic rats administered DWL, DWH and MET revealed a significant (p < 0.05) decrease in GGT and MDA levels, as well as, fragmented DNA and protein carbonyl levels. Diabetic rats maintained on DWL, DWH and MET normalized the hepatocytes. • Consequently, it can be inferred that alkaloid-rich extracts from Dalbergiella welwitschi leaf could be helpful in improving liver damage associated with diabetes mellitus rats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vernonia glaberrima is a medicinal plant that is used in African traditional medicine for the treatment of skin cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate the anticancer activity of V. glaberrima leaves and isolate its bioactive constituents. Crude methanolic leaves extract of V. glaberrima showing significant cytotoxic activity against cancer cell lines was subjected to chromatographic separation, purification and hydrolysis to yield four compounds namely, nonacosanoic acid, lupeol, 5-methylcoumarin-4-β-glucoside and 4-hydroxy-5-methylcoumarin. Three of the isolated compounds showed significant cytotoxic activity against human malignant melanoma (A375) cell line (IC 50 : 59.18 ± 2.70 to 139.53 ± 10.79 μg/mL) and human caucasian colon adenocarcinoma (HT-29) cell line (IC 50 : 4.22 ± 0.13 to 20.0 ± 1.91 μg/mL) while only lupeol displayed significant activity against human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF7) (IC 50 : 34.15 ± 2.32 μg/mL) cell line. CDK2 receptor and CAIX were identified through molecular docking as potential targets for the bioactive compounds. The findings of this study have revealed the therapeutic potential of V. glaberrima against breast cancer, skin cancer and colorectal carcinoma, respectively and further support its traditional uses in the treatment of skin cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents a new and robust approach for the accurate evaluation of minimum-zone spatial straightness error from a set of coordinate measurement data points. The algorithm iteratively searches for the specific data points that define the minimum bound of the spatial straightness zone using combinatorial optimization. It is based on the fact that the minimum circumscribed cylinder of a point set, which is equivalent to the minimum spatial straightness zone of the measurement data, will pass through three, four, or five of the data points that constitute the convex hull vertices of the entire data set. Computed results have shown that although the presented approach may lead to increased computational time, it is robust and able to construct the exact minimum circumscribed cylinder for a given point set. The minimum-zone spatial straightness error can thus be evaluated with the best possible accuracy. The advantage of the presented algorithm is demonstrated via comparison with published computed results of existing algorithms. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The interest in carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as reinforcements for aluminium (Al) has been growing considerably. Efforts have been largely focused on investigating their contribution to the enhancement of the mechanical performance of the composites. The uniform dispersion of CNTs in the Al matrix has been identified as being critical to the pursuit of enhanced properties. Ball milling as a mechanical dispersion technique has proved its potential. In this work, we use ball milling to disperse up to 5wt.% CNT in an Al matrix. The effect of CNT content on the mechanical properties of the composites was investigated. Cold compaction and hot extrusion were used to consolidate the ball-milled Al–CNT mixtures. Enhancements of up to 50% in tensile strength and 23% in stiffness compared to pure aluminium were observed. Some carbide formation was observed in the composite containing 5wt.% CNT. In spite of the observed overall reinforcing effect, the large aspect ratio CNTs used in the present study were difficult to disperse at CNT wt.% greater than 2, and thus the expected improvements in mechanical properties with increase in CNT weight content were not fully realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]