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In this paper, we consider an optical-vibration method for studying the process of agglutination of red blood cells using monoclonal antibodies, which is the basis for determining the blood group. The main advantages of the proposed method of blood typing over the standard manual method are presented. The method for studying the process of agglutination of blood cells described in the article is based on the assessment of the optical properties of the test blood sample in the form of a lying drop with added reagents with monoclonal antibodies. The test sample is subjected to mechanical vibration. The vibration of the sample is used to enhance the process of agglutination of erythrocytes and to clear the probing zone from the formed cellular agglutinates. There is significant enlightenment of the sample due to the agglutination of red blood cells in the medium analyzed. Based on registration of changes in the light intensity transmitted through a blood sample, compared to a control sample where there is no agglutination, we can judge the presence of agglutination in the sample.

This article evaluate the effect of compaction on the physical and mechanical performance of a hot mix asphalt (HMA) with the addition of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) residues in the laboratory. To this end, a control HMA-19 type asphalt mixture was designed. Subsequently, five asphalt mixtures were manufactured with the same asphalt content of the control sample, adding the following contents of PET: 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3%, 0.4% and 0.5%. This addition was made with regard to the total mass of the mixture. In order to evaluate the effect of compaction, each mixture sample was manufactured with 25, 50 and 75 blows. In addition bulk specific gravity and resistance parameters to the action of monotonic load were determined using the Marshall test. As a great conclusion, it is reported that the mixture with 0.4% of PET presented the highest unit weight and consequently an increase in rigidity is evidenced with regard to the evaluated mixtures.

The shortage of water has become a frequent topic in recent decades, because the fresh water available in the world does not even reach 0.5% of all existing water; for this reason, the need to take care of water and promote its sustainable use is of vital importance, especially in those industries that consume it the most. Construction is a sector that demands millions of liters per year, especially in relation to the production and processing of concrete. In this way, this study starts from the problem of the lack of drinking water and places it as an alternative to its responsible consumption through the use of wastewater treated in the preparation of the concrete mixture. Likewise, the study compares the performance and durability of the samples of concrete made with two different treatment technologies, based on the control sample elaborated with drinking water through standardized tests that evaluate the mechanical and physical characteristics of the water, the aggregates and the mixture itself; in such a way that its feasibility as a structural concrete is evidenced. The research seeks to serve as a basis for future studies, so that an alternative to the development of concrete without the use of drinking water as mixing water is evidenced and in this way it is presented as a sustainable way of water care in the industry of the construction.

The aim of this research was to determine the influence of physical methods applied in agriculture (alternating magnetic field, impulse electric field, microwave radiation, C band ultraviolet radiation) on the content of starch and simple sugars in stored potato tubers (Solanum tuberosum L.) with regards to their economic use. The experiment which was carried out encompassed selected physical methods and the range of parameters which are usually used in experiments concerning stored potato crops in order to limit storage losses. The subject of the research encompassed potato tubers of medium-early and medium-late strains: Finezja, Redstar and Jelly. The starch content in the potato tubers was marked using the polarymetric method whilst a refractometer was used to mark the content of sugar. The tested material was stored in a cold storage room, in wooden boxes (in individual layers to ensure uniform conditions for the exchange of heat and biological material mass with the surroundings). The thermohigrometric conditions during storage complied with potato tuber storage methodology and the storage period lasted 179 days. In the tubers exposed to the influence of physical methods, a greater loss of starch and increased content of simple sugars were observed following the storage period with reference to the control sample.

Tunnel microwave heating technology has been widely used in grain drying. Development of a reliable control strategy for this process plays an essential role in improving the overall efficiency and productivity. Thus, a tunnel microwave heating system, which can automatically and continuously adjust microwave power and control sample temperature, is designed and used in rice drying. The rice sample is first dried with three fixed microwave power levels to obtain the prior knowledge of tunnel microwave drying process. An expert control system (ECS) based hierarchical control strategy is then developed to regulate the microwave power and track the desired drying temperature. The effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is validated by experiment carried out in the system, which demonstrates that the proposed strategy can commendably control the rice temperature.

Resistive Random Access Memory (RRAM) devices were designed using Al 2 O 3 /La 2 O 3 /Al 2 O 3 multilayer structure grown by atomic layer deposition as functional layers. The impact of Al+ ions implantation on the resistive switching performances was investigated. Compared with the control sample, the Al+ implanted devices exhibit significantly enhanced memory performances including the forming-free behavior, improved uniformity, stability, enlarged ON/OFF resistance ratio, and good data retention characteristics. The stable resistive switching behavior with an acceptable resistance ratio enable the Al+ implanted Al 2 O 3 /La 2 O 3 /Al 2 O 3 multilayer RRAM device for its application in the future nonvolatile memory devices.

In this paper, we demonstrate, for the first time, how we can pattern grid networks of human hNT astrocytes on parylene-C/SiO2 substrates down to the single cell level. We demonstrate that the functionality of the astrocyte networks by calcium release on the introduction of ATP and show that this is similar to that of a control sample. Thus, we demonstrate that the parylene-C/SiO2 platform is a viable way to investigate glial networks at the single cell level.

In order to explore the influence of phase change temperature-control fiber on wearability of textiles, the phase change temperature-control viscose knitted sample and its control sample ordinary viscose knitted fabric were developed with raw materials of phase change temperature-control viscose yarn, ordinary viscose yarn and nylon/spandex core-spun yarn. The thermo-regulating property, stretchability, air permeability and rigid flexibility of the samples were tested. The results showed that phase change temperature-control fabric has excellent thermo-regulating property. Compared with the ordinary fabric, the fabric modified with microcapsules of PCM (M-PCM) is more stiff, and the contact cold and warm feeling, the air permeability of the phase change temperature-control fabric is improved, however the stretch and recovery is decreased by 0.27%. Finally, multi-index comprehensive evaluation method was used to analyze the results. The results showed that comprehensive evaluation value of the phase change temperature-control fabric is higher, which confirm that phase change temperature-control fiber is suitable for the development of textiles.

this article has been conducted to study the feasibility of using commercial smart mobile application for assessment of hearing and vision abilities. The study selects three free mobile applications compatible with android operation system. The objective of this study is to enable periodic student assessment protocol in the primary schools with easy to use hearing and vision measuring test. The result of such test screen the student abilities and could help in further healthcare support. The experiment test sample was thirty school student and thirty university student. A control comparison has been conducted to evaluate the performance of mobile application tools with control hearing and vision medical device setup. The results of the ’’test your vision app’’ and ’’test vision’’ mobile application were done with optical center. The sensitivity was found around 70% of the samples match with the results of the optical centers devices tests with specificity of 90% to the comparison control sample. An ’’Audiogram’’ hearing device has been compared with the selected hearing check application; the sensitivity was 80% of the samples hearing check application samples comply with specificity of 80% to the control device.

Detection of hot spot defects for c-Si solar cell module is studied by a high-resolution infra-red (IR) system with a resolution of 200 m in minimum. To compare the temperature effect generated by the hot spot defects, different types of damages were imposed in the solar cells while a non-damaged counterpart was studied as a control sample. The solar cell module was applied with forward and reverse current with a bias of 10xVoc. According to the test results, the forward current of 6 A generally heat up the solar cells for both damaged and non-damaged samples. For the reverse current test, the defected locations were heated up significantly with the testing time. To record the heating condition of different location, it is shown that the damaged location heated in various thermodynamic law, while the others stayed in a condition at room temperature. The temperature of local defects increased with the testing time, and heating profile follows a linear equation with a constant heating rate. To study the thermal behavior of the heating spot, a long tern monitoring was operated to detect the temperature kept around 125 °C since 90 s. The reverse-biased testing method is approved to distinguish the solar of hot spot risks and further to classify the solar cells.

Our experiment focused on identifying the elemental chemical composition of salivary crystals' surface, obtained from patients with/without orthodontic appliances or metal-ceramic crowns in order to test their influence on human saliva. We used 110 samples of saliva derived from 19 patients (11 males and 8 females), with ages between 11–26 years old, divided into three groups: the control sample (without orthodontic appliances/metal-ceramic crowns), the study sample A (with orthodontic appliances/physiognomic metal-ceramic crowns) and the study sample B (former patients with previous orthodontic appliances). The surface elemental chemical composition was observed through Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and was analyzed by X-ray Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS). The statistical analysis was performed in SPSS 20.0. Metallic elements (Ni, Al, Zn) that do not derive from the chemical composition of human saliva were found on all the salivary crystals. There were found statistically significant differences for Ni between the study sample B and the control sample (p

The electrical characteristics of Ti/p-SiGe contacts with Ti thicknesses of 3nm and 5nm have been investigated in this paper. TiN was used as a cap layer on Ti. It is observed that as Ti film becomes thinner, Ti/p-SiGe contact resistivity (ρc) increases, but its Schottky barrier height (SBH) decreases, which does not coincide with the regular ρc-SBH dependence. Using TiN/p-SiGe as a control sample, it is concluded that when Ti film is thinned down to nm scale, the contact property is strongly influenced by TiN cap layer.

Proper evaluation of energy saving effect due to implementation of smart building technologies in residences requires statistical samples of treatment and control households. We show how to create a non-experimental control sample and use it for saving evaluation on the basis of a novel algorithm for prediction of participation propensity.

The objectives of this research was to analyze whether the problem based learning model has a better effect than the direct instructional model towards physics learning outcomes. It also aims at using the problem based learning model for analyzing the student learning activity in an experimental class. The populations used in this research are three classes of high school students in SMAN 2 Balige, Indonesia (Classes X1, X2, X3, A.Y. 2014/2015). The control sample was class X1 whereas the experimented class was class X3. The analysis of the experiment in this research was based on the quasi-experimental method with two groups were being used for pretest and posttest designs. The data were collected using learning outcomes of seven essay writing tests and the learning activities were observed using some predesigned observation sheet. The data were analyzed using the descriptive and inferential statistics of obtained from the t-test of independent samples. The test was done using a significance level of 0.05. The result of the test showed that both of the students' samples have normal distribution when the population was assumed to be homogeneous. The test showed that the problem based learning model provides better effects than the direct instructional model when used to assess the student learning outcomes in a dynamic electricity class.

Reconstructability Analysis (RA) is an information- and graph-theory-based method which has been successfully used in previous genomic studies. Here we apply it to genetic (14 SNPs) and non-genetic (Education, Age, Gender) data on Alzheimer disease in a well-characterized Case/Control sample of 424 individuals. We confirm the importance of APOE as a predictor of the disease, and identify one non-genetic factor, Education, and two SNPs, one in BINI and the other in SORCS1, as likely disease predictors. SORCS1 appears to be a common risk factor for people with or without APOE. We also identify a possible interaction effect between Education and BINI. Methodologically, we introduce and use to advantage some more powerful features of RA not used in prior genomic studies.

This experiment was focus to increase the germination and growth of hemp seed by using cold plasma discharge. The seeds of three hemp cultivars (Finola, Bialobrzeskie, and Carmagnola) were pre-treated in Plasonic AR-550-M and GlidArc apparatuses for three time expositions (180 s, 300 s, and 600 s). Commercial Plasonic AR-550-M apparatus was not suitable for plasma pre-treatment, because all seeds were obviously under a big stress. GlidArc device was suitable. GlidArc plasma pre-treatment positively affected the seeds of the cultivar Finola in all tested expositions above all. Seedling acceleration on the fifth day of the experiment showed higher values than control sample (153 % in length and 127 % in weight of seedlings). Although tested cultivars were taxonomically very similar, high differences in response to plasma pre-treatment were found.

The charging characteristics of Sb nanocrystals embedded in organic semiconductor copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) have been studied for the first time. The images from atomic force microscopy show that Sb NCs grown on the surface of CuPc film exhibit a vertical height of 10–15 nm and uniform distribution, which are interspersed with a few bigger ones (∼30 nm). Two kinds of capacitance-voltage measurements, frequency responds and hysteresis loops, of the control sample and the one embedded with Sb NCs indicate the charging and discharging of the Sb NCs.

By the intermittent test, we studied the acid fermentation rule after mixing excess sludge and distiller's grains. The results showed that the control sample and by the proportion of 0.2g/gTS, 0.4g/gTS, 0.6g/gTS added distiller's grains to the 4 reactors, the maximums of SCOD reached 775.83mg/L, 1136.92 mg/L, 1427.77mg/L and 2609.48mg/L, the TS loss ratios were 12.00%, 15.69%, 16.92% and 19.25%. With the increasing amount of distiller's grains added in, improving the performance of sludge dewatering centrifuge. At the same time, the activity of micro-organisms in the sludge is even greater. By means of molecular biology active sludge of microbial extract DNA, then PCR amplification, DGGE separation of PCR products, obtained fingerprints of microbial sludge. The results from the perspective of molecular biology to further confirm the above view. The acid fermentation after mixing sludge with distiller's grains can achieve on both resource use and the purpose of sludge reduction.

Exploring quantum dots or nano-sized particles of CdS as an alternative sensitizer for organic dye in dye sensitized solar cells have attracted great interest due to the high cost and the UV instability of the organic dye. In this work, a 2.46% (V oc =0.69 V, J sc = 6.54 mA/cm2, F.F. = 0.55) CdS sensitized nanoparticle TiO 2 solar cell is achieved under AM 1.5. The control sample of N3 dye sensitized TiO 2 solar cell has efficiency of 7.88%. However, the CdS sensitized TiO 2 cell degrades rapidly even under dark environment. Replacing TiO 2 with ZnO can increase the CdS sensitized solar cell stability. In addition, a solid state CdS sensitized DSSC is fabricated as another approach to improve cell stability.

Microwave and radio frequency (RF) radiation technologies have been used in a wide range of applications. These microwave and radio frequency (RF) radiation techniques produce electromagnetic fields (EMFs). EMFs are invisible electrical and magnetic forces radiating from the sources and generate an electro pollution phenomenon. While there have been many benefits from the use of RF radiation, people now are concerned that long-term exposure could affect their body biological system and health. The power deposition within the body from RF radiation is never uniform as it varies depends on the electrical properties of body tissues. Therefore, the experimental study was carried out, to study the biological effects on blood, internal organs, physical activities and birth rate on laboratory mice as the samples. The samples were exposed under radio frequency radiation for certain period of time. The control samples, which were under free radiation, were also involved in the experimental study as to compare the effects. After few months of exposure the samples were observed to be less active and sleepy. For biological test, the samples were taken to Veterinary Laboratory at Bukit Tengah, Seberang Prai Tengah, Pulau Pinang. This was carried out on the first week of every month, for seven months period. The same test was also carried out for the Control sample. The blood tests were done to observe any change in average packed cell volume (PCV), hemoglobin, red blood cells and white blood cells. It showed that the average White Blood Cells level increases as the samples were kept longer under the RF radiation while the average Red Blood Cells drops to about 3 million cells per micro liter. The exposure to RF radiation has some biological effects to the laboratory mice as well as human being, as they have some similarities in biological characteristics.

Hybrid charge trapping layer consisting of TaN nanocrystals (NCs) and silicon nitride (SiN) has been fabricated and characterized for silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS) type nonvolatile memory device. After annealing at 900degC, TaN NCs with average sizes of 3.5nm were formed by the phase separation method. Compared with a control sample without NC, memory devices with TaN NCs exhibit superior memory characteristics. The improvement can be explained by the formation of high density TaN NCs with a deeper trap energy level.

We successfully encapsulated Cu wiring with an ultra-thin self-forming barrier consisting of MnO and a bi-layer of MnO/Ta. TDDB test showed that the ILDs lifetime increased by a factor of 100 over that of our control sample. The encapsulated Cu wiring increased EM lifetime by a factor of more than 47. For via chains that are vulnerable to thermal stress, the encapsulated Cu wiring showed no SIV failure. The resistance of the encapsulated Cu wiring was 13% lower than that of the control sample. We expect encapsulated Cu wiring to have greater endurance to the electrical and thermal stresses for use in 32-nm nodes and beyond.

A laboratory experiment was performed in order to determine the influence of a short exposure to DC voltage on the growth of water trees in XLPE cable insulation. The results are of some practical importance, for a DC test voltage is commonly used by utilities when re-commissioning polymeric cable systems which have been previously energised. An accelerated water tree growth from a needle electrode was induced on the surface of samples of cable insulation. At various stages of water tree growth the DC voltage of 4U/sub 0/ (where U/sub 0/ is the rms rated voltage of the cable) was applied for duration of 15 minutes. After the DC exposure, water tree aging continued under AC conditions, and amounted to a total of 296 hours for each sample. The results have shown that there is an increase in the length of water trees grown in samples subjected to a DC voltage compared with the control sample aged, for the same period of time, without the DC exposure. >