Laboratory Test Methods Research Articles

Autoimmune Dysphagia Related to Rheumatologic Disorders: A Focused Review on Diagnosis and Treatment.

Autoimmune dysphagia is defined as dysphagia caused by autoimmune processes affecting various components of the swallowing processsuch as muscle, neuromuscular junction, nerves, roots, brainstem, or cortex. These autoimmune causes can be classified into gastroenterological, dermatological, rheumatologic, and neurologic. Rheumatological disorders, such as scleroderma, Sjogren's syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, sarcoidosis, Behcet's disease, anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis, or granulomatosis with polyangiitis, have been associated with dysphagia. Autoimmune dysphagia in the context of rheumatological disorders is particularly significant because it can occur as a sole manifestation or as part of a symptom complex associated with the underlying disorder and often responds to immunosuppressive therapies. However, diagnosing autoimmune dysphagia can be challenging as it requires the exclusion of structural and primary motility disorders through procedures such as endoscopy and manometry. Early diagnosis is important to improve the quality of life and prevent significant mortality and morbidity. Management focuses on treating the underlying disease activity, and a multidisciplinary approach involving various medical specialties may be necessary to achieve success. This article aims to review the autoimmune rheumatological conditions that can lead to dysphagia and discuss the associated pathophysiological mechanisms. We also outline the clinical clues and laboratory testing methods that facilitate early diagnosis, with the goal of improving patient outcomes through timely intervention and appropriate management.

Wave structuring viscosity in the shock compaction of solid matter

The response of geologic matter to large scale impact or explosion is dependent on the time history of the encompassing shock wave. The kinetics of localized physical and chemical transitions brought about by the shock wave are responsive to this time history. Solid state viscosity of the media is responsible for establishing the time history of a shock wave. Melosh [2003] recognized need for the understanding of viscosity on the petrologic and lithologic scale, and accordingly, undertook the assessment and analysis of available nuclear ground shock measurements. Fundamental observations were achieved. The present report furthers the epic efforts of Melosh. Pursuing both the nuclear ground shock data and supporting laboratory test data, methods for, and calculations of, the viscosity of solid materials on the respective scales are undertaken. Recognition of the applicability of viscoelasticity in modelling the shock response is demonstrated and applied. The report closes with discussion of universal features of the shock wave viscous time-history in solid materials. Solid viscosity as an adiabatic invariant is posed and commonalties are noted of the solid shock wave with the nonlinear dynamics of ocean waves.

The Influence of Different Types of Expandable Graphite on the Thermal Resistance of Spruce Wood

In order to not limit the possibilities of using wood due to its flammability, the implementation of fire protection is an essential requirement. An integral part of the research on the fire protection of wood is the determination of the effectiveness of the applied protective means and their effect on changing its behavior under fire conditions. In this work, samples of spruce wood (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst) (50 mm × 40 mm × 10 mm) were treated with an aqueous solution of sodium silicate and different types of expandable graphite flakes that were applied to the surface of the samples. The fire characteristics of the samples were studied using a non-standard test method, the radiant heat source test, which was used to determine the mass loss, burning rate, and ignition time of the test samples, and the measurement was carried out via visual recording with a thermal camera. The results of the laboratory test method showed a significant positive effect of the application of all types of expandable graphite flakes. The main insight is that a suitable wood modification using expandable graphite flakes in combination with water glass has the potential to reduce mass loss by at least 73 ± 3% and reduce the temperature rise on the surface of the sample. The lower temperature of the surface of the burning material reduces the possibility of heat transfer to the surrounding materials and thus reduces the rate of fire spread.

Прочностные характеристики массива мелкозернистого песчаного грунта с вертикальными армоэлементами из крупного заполнителя

This work's main objective was to increase the value of the coefficient of friction between soil grains in the test specimen by adding coarse gravel columns to the fine, sandy soil. In this regard, it was determined that a soil's lowest void ratio should be used as a measuring criterion because it matches the crucial requirement of an independent friction angle from soil gradation, all of the results above were calculated using the outcomes of a laboratory test method. Pressure addition was used to determine the relationships between a mixture with a low void ratio and the critical state or high coefficient of friction angles. Determining the strength characteristics of sand-gravel mixtures may be helped by the linkages. The riverbanks of the Tigris, which had previously been subject to similar cracks and collapses, served as the location for the collection of samples for the purpose of this research.
 The completion of the study and examination, it was discovered that the soil is composed of river sediments and that it has the potential to be categorized as soil that is constructed of fine sand. It is generally acknowledged that shear loads are a significant element that contributed to the demise of numerous riverbanks. In this particular field of research, a variety of coarse aggregate column widths and aggregate sizes used to increase the friction angle of soil are investigated via direct shear testing.
 When analyzing the qualities of soil, the minimal void ratio is important, Particle size distributions and particle shapes influence their relationship to compressive characteristics, permeability, and shear strength of the soil. While previous studies have modeled the minimal void ratio in terms of the impact of particle size distributions, they have largely disregarded the role that particle shape might play in this parameter. This work examines the effects of three different sizes of coarse aggregate on the minimal void ratio with respect to particle size distributions. Experiments have shown that when the number of fine particles increased the minimum void ratio reduced. The more irregularity there was in the particle shapes, the more difficult it was for particles to make touch with one another, and the more space there was between them. Diagrams depicting the connection between shear strength, angle of friction, and particle size distribution were created from experimental data.

Carbon steel corrosion in a bentonite buffer: A comparison between in situ exposure and lab based experiments

AbstractIn this paper, carbon steel corrosion rates from experiments performed in situ (performed in an underground rock laboratory) and ex situ (performed in a conventional laboratory) test methods in anaerobic saturated bentonite are compared. The results indicate that the long‐term corrosion rate follows a power law decay curve, with a higher initial rate and greater rate of decay at higher temperature. In compacted bentonite blocks, varying the density has no significant effect on the corrosion rate measured during in situ testing, whereas granular bentonite of an equal dry density leads to a higher corrosion rate. Precorrosion of test specimens in an aerated solution at room temperature has a negligible effect on the subsequent anaerobic corrosion rate when tested ex situ for durations up to 11.8 years. The main difference between in situ and ex situ tests is the formation of silicon‐rich corrosion products in the ex situ tests but not in the in situ tests. Despite these differences, the corrosion rates in both tests exhibit the same general temporal evolution and similar magnitudes, suggesting that the main steel degradation processes are maintained in both configurations.

Design and Implementation of Online Medical Laboratory Diagnostic System

The laboratory testing method in today's world, is inefficient and error-prone. Laboratory errors are inherently enigmatic because they are difficult to detect and, once discovered, are more difficult to comprehend than other types of medical errors. Medical errors, such as the loss of patient data and the mixing up of patient findings, can no longer be considered unavoidable, but can instead be actively minimized and prevented. In light of the COVID epidemic, this approach eliminates the necessity for direct physical contact between the laboratory technician and the patient being tested, as well as the resources and time spent bringing oneself to the hospital and waiting for a test that takes only a few minutes. This paper proffers a solution for the above stated issues and also provided a foundational framework for scalability. Prototyping software development model was adopted and use cases was for modelling of the system.

Dynamic Thermal Performance Analysis of PCM Products Used for Energy Efficiency and Internal Climate Control in Buildings

PCMs are attractive for the future generation of buildings, where energy efficiency targets and thermal comfort expectations are increasingly prioritized. Experimental analysis of local thermal processes in these dynamic components and whole-building energy consumption predictions are essential for the proper implementation of PCMs in buildings. This paper discusses the experimental analysis of the thermophysical characteristics of both a latent heat storage material (PCM) and a product containing this PCM. The prototype product under investigation is a panelized PCM technology containing inorganic, salt-hydrate-based PCM. The thermal analysis includes studies of melting and freezing temperatures, enthalpy changes during phase change processes, nucleation intensity, sub-cooling effects, and PCM stability. The PCM’s stability is also investigated, as is the ability of PCM products to control local temperatures and peak load transmission times. Two inorganic PCM formulations based on calcium chloride hexahydrate (CaCl2.6H2O) were prepared and tested in laboratory conditions. Material-scale testing results were compared with outcomes from the system-scale analysis, using both laboratory test methods as well as field exposure in test huts. This work demonstrates that PCM technologies used in buildings can effectively control both the magnitude of thermal storage capacity as well as the time of the peak thermal load. It was found that commonly used material-scale testing methods may not always be beneficial in assessing the dynamic thermal performance characteristics of building technologies containing PCMs.

Investigation of the Tendency of Carbon Fibers to Disintegrate into Respirable Fiber-Shaped Fragments

Recent reports of the release of large numbers of respirable and critically long fiber-shaped fragments from mesophase pitch-based carbon fiber polymer composites during machining and tensile testing have raised inhalation toxicological concerns. As carbon fibers and their fragments are to be considered as inherently biodurable, the fiber pathogenicity paradigm motivated the development of a laboratory test method to assess the propensity of different types of carbon fibers to form such fragments. It uses spallation testing of carbon fibers by impact grinding in an oscillating ball mill. The resulting fragments were dispersed on track-etched membrane filters and morphologically analyzed by scanning electron microscopy. The method was applied to nine different carbon fiber types synthesized from polyacrylonitrile, mesophase or isotropic pitch, covering a broad range of material properties. Significant differences in the morphology of formed fragments were observed between the materials studied. These were statistically analyzed to relate disintegration characteristics to material properties and to rank the carbon fiber types according to their propensity to form respirable fiber fragments. This tendency was found to be lower for polyacrylonitrile-based and isotropic pitch-based carbon fibers than for mesophase pitch-based carbon fibers, but still significant. Although there are currently only few reports in the literature of increased respirable fiber dust concentrations during the machining of polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber composites, we conclude that such materials have the potential to form critical fiber morphologies of WHO dimensions. For safe-and-sustainable carbon fiber-reinforced composites, a better understanding of the material properties that control the carbon fiber fragmentation is imperative.

Skrining Fitokimia Polifenol Ekstrak Etanol Daun Ubi Jalar Kuning (Ipomea batatas) dari Madiun

Yellow sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) leaves are an easy source of polyphenols because they are often not used after harvest. This leaf began to be used as an herbal ingredient or alternative treatment for the community, empirically showing improvement in conditions and symptoms in Dengue Fever patients. This study determined the content of secondary metabolites from yellow sweet potato leaves. Methods: Research using laboratory testing methods was carried out at the Herbal Materia Medika Laboratory in Batu. Yellow-green sweet potato leaves, as much as 200 grams were collected from the Madiun, East Java. It was extracted by maceration using 2L of ethanol 96% for 2 days and evaporated in a vacuum rotary evaporator to thick extract. Furthermore, phytochemical screening tests were carried out. Results: The results of this study indicated that the yellow sweet potato leaves contained of Alkaloids, Flavonoids, Tannins, Saponins, Terpenoids, Triterpenoids, and Phenols. So the yellow sweet potato leaves are very representative as herbal products.

Laboratory testing methods to evaluate the reliability of occupancy sensors for commercial building applications

The energy performance of commercial buildings is greatly influenced by occupants which are highly variable and among the most unpredictable components of a building's operation. While most building control systems use fixed, predetermined occupancy schedules, these fixed occupancy levels can be quite different from actual occupancy. This can cause unnecessary energy consumption, particularly from heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) and lighting systems which are responsible for approximately 60% of commercial buildings' energy use. The use of occupancy counting sensor systems integrated with building management system controls is one method that can be used to improve the energy-consuming performance of buildings. However, there is no standardized universal methodology and metrics to evaluate their reliability. The aim of this research is to develop a uniform evaluation methodology to assess the reliability of occupancy counting sensor systems in a controlled laboratory environment. The developed testing methodology includes both “typical” scenarios representing the occupancy scenarios of a typical commercial building, and “failure” testing scenarios which represent a range of potential scenarios that may impact a sensor system's reliability. These methods were then implemented in a case study to evaluate the performance of two novel occupancy counting sensor systems (i.e., door-centric, and camera-based). Results suggest that typical testing results can be used to compare the overall performance of the occupancy counting sensor systems; however, failure testing is also important to understand the weaknesses of the sensor system in order to select the suitable one for the intended use of the commercial building. In addition, the proposed methodology includes a modified confusion matrix which enables the ability to identify if failures are caused by over or under counting occupants and to what extent this occurs over the testing period.

Deep learning-based methods for classification of microsatellite instability in endometrial cancer from HE-stained pathological images.

Microsatellite instability (MSI) is one of the essential tumor biomarkers for cancer treatment and prognosis. The presence of more significant PD-L1 expression on the surface of tumor cells in endometrial cancer with MSI suggests that MSI may be a promising biomarker for anti-PD-1/PD-L1 immunotherapy. However, the conventional testing methods are labor-intensive and expensive for patients. Inspired by classifiers for MSI based on fast and low-cost deep-learning methods in previous investigations, a new architecture for MSI classification based on an attention module is proposed to extract features from pathological images. Especially, slide-level microsatellite status will be obtained by the bag of words method to aggregate probabilities predicted by the proposed model. The H&E-stained whole slide images (WSIs) from The Cancer Genome Atlas endometrial cohort are collected as the dataset. The performances of the proposed model were primarily evaluated by the area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve, accuracy, sensitivity, and F1-Score. On the randomly divided test dataset, the proposed model achieved an accuracy of 0.80, a sensitivity of 0.857, a F1-Score of 0.826, and an AUROC of 0.799. We then visualize the results of the microsatellite status classification to capture more specific morphological features, helping pathologists better understand how deep learning performs the classification. This study implements the prediction of microsatellite status in endometrial cancer cases using deep-learning methods directly from H&E-stained WSIs. The proposed architecture can help the model capture more valuable features for classification. In contrast to current laboratory testing methods, the proposed model creates a more convenient screening tool for rapid automated testing for patients. This method can potentially be a clinical method for detecting the microsatellite status of endometrial cancer.

Evaluation of Crack Development Through a Bituminous Interface Reinforced With Geosynthetic Materials by Using a Novel Approach

Using interlayers made of geosynthetic materials has proved its effectiveness with respect to postponing the appearance of reflective cracking on the surface. In this regard, in a reinforced bituminous interface, the crack first propagates from its origin upward until it reaches the interlayer. When the interlayer has higher stiffness than its surrounding bituminous material, the crack path diverts horizontally along the interlayer plane until the whole energy of the crack dissipates. Nevertheless, this mechanical improvement needs to be further studied to quantify the reinforcement effects of geosynthetic materials in mechanistic-based design of reinforced sections. This study aimed to develop a laboratory test method that not only is able to illuminate the crack resistance effect of geosynthetics but is also able to differentiate the load–displacement curves among different types of reinforced bituminous interfaces. The results led to the advent of a new test device called the crack widening device in which reproducibility and statistical variability of the outcomes were all within the acceptable range. On this ground, using paving fabric showed superior performance among others with respect to energy dissipation capability and retarding the loss in the stiffness modulus during the crack propagation stage compared with the corresponding unreinforced cases. On the other hand, using the reinforcement grids led to a higher initial stiffness of the reinforced structure, especially when embedded between coarse hot mixtures.

Drinking Water Quality of Water Refill Station in Gebang Raya Tanggerang

Introduction: As a drinking water provider, refill drinking water station must comply with hygiene and sanitation standards for water quality, including the microbiological value standard for clean water. This study was conducted to determine the microbial levels in refill drinking water station and analyze the drinking water quality based on sanitation hygiene observations. Methods: The study included laboratory test methods, cross-sectional analysis tests, and a descriptive analysis. Drinking water sampling and sanitation observations were performed using the total sampling technique on 17 water station. As much as 100 ml of drinking water samples were taken directly from the faucet to refill water with a sterile bottle container. Sanitary hygiene was studied through interviews using an observation sheet. Results and Discussion: The most bacteria were found at 108 per 100ml in Escherichia coli parameters and 866 per 100ml in coliform parameters in the station water samples with the Station 8 (SK) code. The interviews showed that seven station did not meet the criteria for good sanitation hygiene. Conclusion: Sanitary hygiene is carried out to reduce or eliminate bacterial contamination in drinking water. Observations and laboratory tests show that good sanitation is related to drinking water quality.

Testing Method for Electric Bus Auxiliary Heater Emissions

Auxiliary diesel heaters are commonly used in all types of vehicles in cold climates and conditions around the world. Electric buses used in public transport utilise diesel-burning auxiliary heaters to provide thermal comfort for passengers under cold weather conditions while maintaining the operational range otherwise reduced by electric heating. However, the downside of utilising diesel burners is that they cause similar exhaust pollutants to conventional diesel vehicles. Because the emission control for auxiliary heaters is lax, the diesel burners typically lack any exhaust aftertreatment (EAT), resulting in potentially high local emissions. As the public transport sectors around the world seem to transit from traditional internal combustion engine-vehicles to battery electric applications, the significance of the emissions caused by diesel auxiliary heaters is continuously increasing. EVs are generally considered zero-emission vehicles but the implementation of diesel burners is evidently conflicting with this concept. Nevertheless, publicly available experimental results from studies around this topic are surprisingly limited. The data of the few available publications are not directly comparable because there is no direct procedure or protocol for determining the exhaust pollutants from auxiliary heaters in real-world conditions at present. As a result, assessing the direct effect of the pollutants caused by electric vehicles utilising auxiliary heaters in the public transport is challenging. This study addresses this problem by introducing two methods for measuring auxiliary heater emissions; first, a field-test method that is applicable for a quick screening of the emissions of multiple heater units; secondly, a laboratory test method for a more detailed emission characterisation in a simulated real-world operation environment. In these experiments, the primarily objective was to study the emissions of the auxiliary heaters, including CO2, CO, NOx and soot. The heater operation was found to be cyclic with numerous start-ups during its typical operation. The cyclic operation resulted in concurrent emission peaks in CO and soot. Measurements of actual operation showed auxiliary heater utilisation rates similar to the controlled measurements, although the whole temperature range of the controlled measurements was not reached in real-world conditions. The measurements conducted during the field screening revealed high variations between emissions of individual units. A further screening of auxiliary heaters would provide a better outlook for the mitigation of their emissions.

Establishment of Pathogenicity Test Method for Macrophomina phaseolina Causing Soybean Charcoal Rot

The establishment of a laboratory assay and a greenhouse assay was conducted for evaluating the pathogenicity of Macrophomina phaseolina causing soybean charcoal rot established. In the laboratory assay, microsclerotia and hyphae were used as inoculum. In the laboratory assays using microsclerotia as an inoculum, disease incidences of M. phaseolina NSW17-108 and HSM17-034 were higher at 35°C than 25°C. Of the two isolates NSW17-108 and HSM17-034, the disease incidence of HSM17-034 isolated from diseased sesame is higher than that of NSW17-108 isolated from diseased soybean. When the mycelia of M. phaseolina were used as an inoculum, the disease incidence of NSW17-108 and HSM17-034 at 35°C exceeded 80% even after only 5 days of inoculation. Even at 25°C, furthermore, that of HSM17-034 exceeded 80% 5 days later. In the pathogenicity assays at a greenhouse, toothpicks where microsclerotia were produced or microsclerotia harvested from potato dextrose agar medium were used as an inoculum. In all greenhouse assays, M. phaseolina NSW17-108 and HSM17-034 showed 40–60% of disease incidences 35–65 days after inoculation with the pathogen, depending on the inoculation method. Between the two isolates, the pathogenicity of HSM17-034 was stronger than that of NSW17-108, and this result was consistent with laboratory assay results. Since the laboratory and greenhouse test methods tested in this study have different advantages and disadvantages depending on each test method, it is thought that the test method that can meet the purpose of the study should be selected and used.

Gambaran Kualitas Lingkungan Sungai Cimandiri Akibat Cemaran Merkuri di Wilayah Penambangan Emas Skala Kecil (PESK) Kabupaten Sukabumi

In Indonesia, ASGM has increased. This results in an increased risk of mercury pollution in the environment (Minamata Initial Assessment Report, 2019). The amalgamation process for ASGM in Sukabumi, it used mercury as basic material for amalgamation process. It can increase to negative impacts on the environment and humans. This study aims to describe the impact of mercury contamination on the environmental quality of the Cimandiri River around ASGM in Sukabumi District. This research was conducted using a laboratory test method with reference to PP No. 22 at 2021 and SNI 7387 at 2009. The results of the tests found that the highest mercury exposure occurred in aquatic biota (catfish, snakehead and eel) which exceeded the quality standard, although the media water and sediment does not exceed the quality standard. This indicates that the quality of the Cimandiri River is unsafe for biota due to mercury contamination in local biota around ASGM. Therefore, there is a need for further studies on the safety of local food products from the Cimandiri River.

Rapid determination of the key temperatures in diesel distillation process based on near-infrared spectroscopy

The distillation temperature of petroleum is the significant information for the determination of refinery operating conditions. As the standard laboratory test method, ASTM D86 is often cost, time-consuming and not well suitable for on-line determination. In this paper, we proposed a simple approach to the prediction the key temperatures in diesel distillation process based on the raw near infrared (NIR) spectra of samples. After the NIR spectrum was decomposed by discrete wavelet transform to get the different NIR sub-signals, the selected sub-signals by genetic algorithm (GA) were superposed to form the new effective signal. Then stepwise regression was employed to build the linear prediction models. The proposed strategy was applied to predict the five distillation temperatures of diesel simultaneously, and the obtained Rp2 values of independent external test set were more than 0.96 as well as the average relative errors (ARE) were lower than 1%, which showed that the predicted values were well correlated with the reference values. Compared with the other conventional methods, such as PLS, iPLS, siPLS and stepwise, the proposed approach could obtain more accurate and reliable prediction models. This study not only indicated the validity of the new approach, but also provided an important support for the further realization of on-line NIR detection to predict the distillation temperatures.

3D printable concrete: Mixture design and laboratory test methods

Experimental results of the mix design and fresh properties of a proposed concrete for 3D printing are presented in this paper. Layer-by-layer sample components were built by the designed concrete and extruded through a nozzle. The two most critical rheological properties of the designed mix are extrudability and buildability as they are both highly influenced by mix proportion and the presence of superplasticizers. Therefore, this study focused on mix proportion design approaches and laboratory test methods, which generally allowed access to the fresh concrete’s printable properties. Because they are efficient and convenient in construction, materials including cement, fly ash, natural sand, and superplasticizer were selected for mixing proportion analysis. Slump-flow tests, V-funnel tests, buildability tests, and extrudability tests were also employed to access the printability of the proposed mixture in this study. This first analysis on the mixture design approach and laboratory test methods to evaluate the printable properties of 3D-printable concrete can be considered a reference and orientation to further develop 3D printing technology in Vietnam.

Low-cost, facile droplet modification of screen-printed arrays for internally validated electrochemical detection of serum procalcitonin

This manuscript presents the design and facile production of screen-printed arrays (SPAs) for the internally validated determination of raised levels of serum procalcitonin (PCT). The screen-printing methodology produced SPAs with six individual working electrodes that exhibit an inter-array reproducibility of 3.64% and 5.51% for the electrochemically active surface area and heterogenous electrochemical rate constant respectively. The SPAs were modified with antibodies specific for the detection of PCT through a facile methodology, where each stage simply uses droplets incubated on the surface, allowing for their mass-production. This platform was used for the detection of PCT, achieving a linear dynamic range between 1 and 10 ng mL−1 with a sensor sensitivity of 1.35 × 10−10 NIC%/ng mL−1. The SPA produced an intra- and inter-day %RSD of 4.00 and 5.05%, with a material cost of £1.14. Internally validated human serum results (3 sample measurements, 3 control) for raised levels of PCT (>2 ng mL−1) were obtained, with no interference effects seen from CRP and IL-6. This SPA platform has the potential to offer clinicians vital information to rapidly begin treatment for “query sepsis” patients while awaiting results from more lengthy remote laboratory testing methods. Analytical ranges tested make this an ideal approach for rapid testing in specific patient populations (such as neonates or critically ill patients) in which PCT ranges are inherently wider. Due to the facile modification methods, we predict this could be used for various analytes on a single array, or the array increased further to maintain the internal validation of the system.

Which number is correct? Making sense of acoustical test results

Acoustical consultants and designers rely on sound data published by manufacturers to make informed design decisions. Even when manufacturers make efforts to communicate these data clearly, acoustical test values can be misinterpreted or misapplied. Nuanced sample mounting methods, specific test system configurations, and variability inherent in laboratory test methods are all factors that can affect test results and how or what data are published in manufacturer literature. Since at least the early 1950s, United States Gypsum (USG) has tested and published sound data for its products and systems. A brief history of USG’s acoustical testing and sound-related publications will be presented, along with examples of variability of results, influencing factors, and how this information is communicated to different audiences.