Holder Unit Research Articles

Comparison of the effect of changing the spatial distance with exposure time to mobile phones radiation on the structure and function of the testis in NMRI mice

The present study was conducted to compare the effect of changing the spatial distance and time radio frequency (RF) radiation from mobile phone in standby mode on the structure and function of testicles. NMRI mice were randomly divided into three groups. The first group was the control and the second group (exposed group) was divided into four subgroups: groups A (A1 and A2) and groups B (B1 and B2), which were placed in plastic holder units at two distances of 5 cm and 20 cm from RF radiation, respectively. A1 and B1, and A2 and B2 were exposed to RF radiation for six and 10 weeks, respectively. The exposure duration was 5 days/week, 6 hours/day. The third group with two subgroups (sham1 and sham2) were kept in plastic holder units without being exposed to radiation and were evaluated after six and 10 weeks, respectively. The changes in the external diameters of seminiferous tubules and the height of germinal epithelium obviously depended more on the distance from the radiation source than on the exposure time. The decrease in the diameter of the testicles and sperm motility were found to be time-dependent. These effects had a clear but unpredictable dependence on the two variables of distance and RF radiation time.

On-line ATR-MIR for real-time quantification of chemistry kinetics along the barrel in extrusion-based processes

This work deals with the development and validation of an on-line infrared spectroscopic set-up for the real time quantification of the melt extrudate during reactive extrusion based processes. The arrangement consists of an infrared spectrophotometer operating in attenuated total reflectance ATR-FTIR, fitted on-line, along the extruder barrel. The setting helps understand the effects of extrusion process parameters and the reaction conversion during development of polymer blends and compound in-processing. The ATR-FTIR spectroscopic probe has been coupled along with an extruder to analyze/understand the process during operation in the MID region of the infrared spectrum. The ATR-FTIR prototype probe was calibrated and validated using off-line measurements. The probe is interfaced to the extruder through to a probe holder unit (PHU), also described herein. The on-line ATR-FTIR measurements were conducted at various locations (L/D) along the length of the extruder. Polymer blends of PP/PA6 in various compositions were investigated and reactive blend of PP-g-AA/PA6 were used to validate the on-line measurements compared to the standard off-line ATR-FTIR analysis.

Design and modeling of robotic surgical system for transurethral operations

The paper examines the design and modeling of the robotic surgical system that is used for transurethral operations with resectoscopes. The proposed system consists of a robot-manipulator and a control system for a surgeon. A design feature of the robot-manipulator is the presence of free rotation units that ensure the mobility of the instrument together with the holder unit. This design eliminates a patient injury when one is displaced relative to the initial position. Another important feature of the proposed surgical robotic system is the ability to use an existing surgical instrument (resectoscope). The article describes the design, as well as the results of the modeling of the robot in the V-rep system. The parameters of the forces and torques of the executive system of the robot are obtained by simulation.

Measurement Uncertainty Analysis of a Stitching Linear-Scan Method for the Evaluation of Roundness of Small Cylinders

Influences of angular misalignments of a small cylinder on its roundness measurement by the method referred to as the stitching linear scan method are theoretically investigated. To compensate for the influences, a technique for measuring angular misalignments of a small cylinder by utilizing the linear-scan surface form stylus profilometer, which is employed for roundness measurement, is newly proposed. In addition, for roundness measurement, a holder unit capable of compensating for the angular misalignments of a small cylinder is developed, and the feasibility of the proposed technique is verified in experiments. Furthermore, a measurement uncertainty analysis of the stitching linear-scan method is carried out through numerical calculations based on a Monte Carlo method.

Handheld Nerve Electrode Insertion Tool

This paper introduces a new type of miniature device to insert an intrafascicular electrode into a peripheral nervous system that is covered with tough tissue membranes. The developed device is called nerve electrode insertion tool (NEIT) and consists of a nerve holder unit and an electrode insertion unit. Users can easily adjust the insertion position and direction of nerve electrodes while freely manipulating this compact handheld device. This paper introduces the form, configuration, and underlying mechanisms of the device and related surgical procedure. Utility tests using elastomer-made nerve models show that the electrode insertion time and position accuracy, respectively, improve from 72.1 to 4.17 s and 0.37 to 0.11 mm when employing the NEIT. Animal experiment results show that multishank planar electrodes (2 × 2 mm2) are successfully implanted into sciatic nerves of six rats. Treadmill tests and histological analysis present the neural functions of all the treated nerves are successfully recovered after three weeks. We expect the NEIT to be employed for other kinds of nerve electrodes and simplify the surgical process in neural engineering research.

Importancia del proceso de limpieza y desinfección de superficies críticas en un servicio dental. Impacto de un programa de intervención

Introduction Dental care has become a challenge for healthcare associated infection prevention programs, since the environment, within other factors, plays an important role in the transmission chain. Materials and Methods An intervention program was designed for the Dental Unit of Hospital Militar de Santiago, between years 2014 and 2015. The program contemplated 3 stages: diagnostic, intervention and evaluation stage. Objective To improve the safety of critical surfaces involved in dental healthcare. Results During the diagnostic stage, the cleaning and disinfection process was found to be deficient. The most contaminated critical surface was the instrument holder unit, then the clean area and lamp handle. The surfaces that significantly reduced their contamination, after the intervention, were the clean area and the instrument carrier unit. Conclusion Training in the processes of cleaning and disinfecting surfaces and dental equipment is one of the cost-effective strategies in preventing healthcare-associated infections (HCAI), with simple and easy-to-apply methods.

Completion of the Commissioning of the EDIPO Test Facility

The main coils of the new European DIPOle (EDIPO) test facility, which is able to provide a background magnetic field up to 12.35 T, were commissioned at the Center for Research in Plasma Physics in July 2013. A field homogeneity of +/-1% was achieved over a 900-mm length, as compared to SULTAN's 10.9 T over 425 mm. To complete the commissioning of the test facility, the new superconducting transformer has been operated in 2015, and a high-current NbTi sample, which was earlier tested in the SULTAN test facility, has been tested in EDIPO under the same conditions as in SULTAN to benchmark the results. During the initial commissioning of the 100-kA transformer in 2013, the primary coil was found to be insufficiently cooled due to the debonding of the primary winding from its former that also served as the liquid helium cryostat. The NbTi primary coil was therefore modified to be in direct contact with liquid helium. At the next attempt of commissioning, in March 2014, a mechanical failure due to the imperfect alignment of the primary and secondary windings caused major damage. A replacement primary coil, which was wound in Summer 2014, was used in the third commissioning campaign in November 2014, but it failed due to the poor impregnation of the NbTi winding. Eventually, the original primary winding was repaired and commissioned in April 2015. The commissioning included a calibration of the current meter for the secondary winding and the high-current test, i.e., up to 95 kA at various background fields, of the “Trasek” conductor sample, which is a rectangular cable-in-conduit conductor made of 324 SnAg-coated NbTi strands. An excellent agreement was found between the results obtained from the two facilities. The sample holder unit is also equipped with a high-temperature superconducting (HTS) adapter and a counterflow heat exchanger to allow testing in EDIPO of HTS high-current samples over a broad range of operating temperatures, from 4.5 up to 50 K.

Epidemiology of bovine viral diarrhoea among tropical small holder dairy units in Kerala, India.

Prevalence of bovine viral diarrhoea among 385 dairy cattle reared under a small holder system in Trichur District of Kerala State in India was determined through an ELISA targeting antibodies against p80-p125 non-structural protein of the virus. Prevalence was 24.7% among the total population, but was higher (52%) when 85 animals having infertility problems alone were considered. Significant serum biochemistry differences between animals could be noticed only in total protein, globulin and phosphorous, all of which were low in seropositive animals. All animals which were seronegative for antibodies were screened by another ELISA targeting the E(rns) protein of the viral nucleocapsid to detect persistently infected (PI) animals. The single, positive animal had only a transient period of antigens in the blood, indicating absence of PI animals in the study population. High prevalence of the disease in isolated small holder units even in the absence of PI animals is discussed in view of identifying the common source of infection and initiating control measures.

Survivability of Immunoassay Reagents Exposed to the Space Radiation Environment on board the ESA BIOPAN-6 Platform as a Prelude to Performing Immunoassays on Mars

The Life Marker Chip (LMC) instrument is an immunoassay-based sensor that will attempt to detect signatures of life in the subsurface of Mars. The molecular reagents at the core of the LMC have no heritage of interplanetary mission use; therefore, the design of such an instrument must take into account a number of risk factors, including the radiation environment that will be encountered during a mission to Mars. To study the effects of space radiation on immunoassay reagents, primarily antibodies, a space study was performed on the European Space Agency's 2007 BIOPAN-6 low-Earth orbit (LEO) space exposure platform to complement a set of ground-based radiation studies. Two antibodies were used in the study, which were lyophilized and packaged in the intended LMC format and loaded into a custom-made sample holder unit that was mounted on the BIOPAN-6 platform. The BIOPAN mission went into LEO for 12 days, after which all samples were recovered and the antibody binding performance was measured via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). The factors expected to affect antibody performance were the physical conditions of a space mission and the exposure to space conditions, primarily the radiation environment in LEO. Both antibodies survived inactivation by these factors, as concluded from the comparison between the flight samples and a number of shipping and storage controls. This work, in combination with the ground-based radiation tests on representative LMC antibodies, has helped to reduce the risk of using antibodies in a planetary exploration mission context.

Evolução do Sistema de Franquias no Brasil

A cada ano cresce no Brasil o interesse pelo sistema de franquias, e para continuidade de uma boa relao entre as partes em longo prazo, o controle do franqueador sobre as possveis fontes de conflito parece ser fator relevante. Neste trabalho teve-se como objetivos verificar as vantagens do sistema de franquia, verificar os nveis de satisfao de franqueadores e franqueados em relao ao sistema de franquia e tambm demonstrar as diferenas nos aspectos legais dos sistemas de licenciamento e franquia. A pesquisa foi executada em trs etapas. Inicialmente, foram levantados dados do setor que tm demonstrado o grande avano do segmento na economia brasileira. Na sequncia, uma comparao dos sistemas de franquia e licenciamento tambm foi realizada. Por fim, foram selecionados e aplicados questionrios s empresas franqueadoras atravs de e-mails e em seguida, s unidades franqueadas. A amostra foi composta por 45 empresas franqueadoras em seis segmentos distintos e 270 unidades franqueadas. A partir da anlise de dados foram identificadas caractersticas do relacionamento das partes, especialmente aquelas associadas ao valor da marca, gesto de marketing, comunicao intra-rede e satisfao com o investimento na franquia empresarial. Percebeu-se relativa associao entre o segmento de atuao do franqueado e o respectivo nvel de satisfao, bem como a associao com o tempo de operao do negcio. DOI: 10.5585/remark.v11i1.2261

Preparatory Work to Host the EDIPO Test Facility at CRPP

CRPP has been selected to host the EDIPO test facility for the quality control tests of the ITER conductors. The new facility will be erected next to the existing SULTAN test facility at CRPP (Villigen) in Switzerland and will share the same cryo-plant. Operation of the two facilities is planned in parallel starting 2009. The new facility is designed to test short length samples built to the same specification as for SULTAN. EFDA procures 17 tons superconducting winding under industrial contract that will be delivered to CRPP in late 2008. The preparatory work at CRPP includes the design and procurement of several items as well as the final assembly and commissioning of the facility. An overview and the progress are reported, with focus on the main components: the vacuum vessel, the superconducting transformer and sample holder unit, the cryogenic cooling loop, the power supply and quench protection system, the HTS current leads and the magnetic screen.

Sample container temperature gradient influence on the BET specific surface area

Differences between BET specific surface area (BET SSA) values exist due to data collected in stainless steel and less thermally conductive sample holders. Not accounting for the temperature gradient along stainless steel sample holders during manometric gas adsorption measurements at cryogenic temperatures leads to errors of up to 3.2% in the BET SSA values with a relative combined standard uncertainty (RCSU) of 0.63%. A unidimensional heat flow model accurately accounts for the temperature gradient, leading to an agreement of 0.16% between the BET SSA values for both sample holder units.

Intelligent sheet stamping process using segment blankholder modules

A sheet forming simulator with a finely segmented blank holder for stamping process of non-circular parts was developed to confirm the effect of variable distributed blank holding pressure (BHP). The BHP was controlled through an intelligent press control system. The same evaluation functions for fracture and wrinkling as ones in the previous work were adopted for fuzzy inference of incremental BHP. In this study, the simulator was applied to square-cup deep-drawing process, using 36 blank holder modules with 3 embedded hydraulic cylinders, that is, a total of 108 segment blank holding actuators were employed for controlling the material flow of blank into the die cavity. The blank holder unit can be flexibly constructed for forming process of an arbitrary shape because of a segment module structure. To facilitate the implementation of the simulator, the concept of virtual processing system was utilized. The BHP trajectories for each blank holder were obtained by the virtual database and finite element method (FEM)-assisted intelligent press control system based on the concept. Through the implementation of sequential BHP control according to the trajectory, the potential application of the simulator to non-circular parts was verified and discussed.

The practical application of reflectance spectrophotometry for the demonstration of haemoglobin and its degradation in bruises

Aims: To develop a non-invasive method to demonstrate the presence of haemoglobin and its degradation products in bruises in live human subjects for the purposes of objectively assisting in the...

Kedudukan Hukum Pemegang Unit Penyertaan Reksa Dana Kontrak Investasi Kolektif

The holder unit of reksadana participation become the third party on collective investment contract between investment manager and kustodian bank who is taking their agreement for holder interest participation unit In the construction of private law, the holder interest participation un it have authority to the investment manager and kustodian bank.

Development of Novel Coupling Method for Biochemical IC Family and Micro Chemical Devices

We developed a simple and effective coupling method “silicone rubber coupling method” for interconnecting modular micro fluidic devices such as “Biochemical IC Family” proposed by Ikuta. This coupling method utilizes thin silicone rubber films and the holder unit. The biochemical IC chips are stacked up into the holder unit. And reusable thin silicone rubber films formed by a polymer mold are sandwiched between the IC chips. This simple coupler provided a good seal under high pressure (>400 kPa). Moreover, the experiments of this method showed that the maximum leakage pressure increases while the thickness of the silicone rubber gets thin, differing from general sealing technology “O-ring”. Thin coupling part is effective in practical use. This method is useful not only for the biochemical IC chips but also other micro fluidic devices.

An experimental study of crude oil alteration in reservoir rocks by water washing

The objective of this research was to establish the effect of water washing on the physical and chemical properties of crude oils. To simulate water washing under reservoir conditions, crude oil was washed in sandstone and limestone cores by as much as 240 liters of a degassed, bacteria-free water over a period of up to 149 days at 90°C (194°F) under a confining pressure of 138 bars (2000 psi) in a flow-through core holder unit. The water-washed oils were recovered by Soxhlet extraction. Compared to the original oils, water-washed oils show lower API gravities, lower concentrations of light aromatic compounds such as phenanthrene and dibenzothiophene, lower metal and sulfur content, lower light paraffins with respect to heavy paraffins and isoprenoids, more negative stable carbon isotopic ratios for the NSO fraction, lower diterpane content relative to triterpane content, lower C 27 steranes relative to C 30 hopane and 4-methyl sterane, and altered bicyclic alkane and aromatic steroid biomarkers. Oils washed in limestone cores show a more severe reduction in API gravity and loss of aromatics than those in sandstone cores. These changes can be used to discern the effects of water washing from those caused by biodegradation, deasphalting, and maturation of related crude oils. Diterpane, triterpane, and sterane biomarkers are little affected by water washing and therefore can be used to correlate water-washed oils with related, unaltered oils and source rocks and to assess the depositional environments of the source rocks for the water-washed oils. Although these experiments did not produce tarmat, tarmat formation by water washing over geological time cannot be ruled out. The API gravity, sulfur, and metal content of oils may be reduced by water injection.