Advances in Plasmonic Technologies for Point of Care Applications

Demand for accessible and affordable healthcare for infectious and chronic diseases present significant challenges for providing high-value and effective healthcare. Traditional approaches are expanding to include point-of-care (POC) diagnostics, bedside testing, and community-based approaches to respond to these challenges. Innovative solutions utilizing recent advances in mobile technologies, nanotechnology, imaging systems, and microfluidic technologies are envisioned to assist this transformation.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (RO1 AI093282)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (RO1 AI081534)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (U54EB15408)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (R21 AI087107

An Experimental Study on Cross-Shore Sediment Transport

The cross-shore sediment transport in a coastal region causes the important changes in beach morphological properties. The accurate estimation of the cross-shore sediment transport is important for the designing of the marine structures such as seawalls, jetties, breakwaters etc, and the preventing coastal erosion and accretion due to on-off shore sediment transportation. In this study, the experiments on cross- shore sediment transport carried out in a laboratory wave channel for initial beach slopes of 1/8, 1/10 and 1/15. Using the regular waves with different deep-water wave steepness generated by a pedal-type wave generator, the geometrical characteristics of beach profiles under storm conditions and the parameters affecting on-off shore sediment transport are investigated for the beach materials having medium diameters of d50=0.25, 0.32, 0.45, 0.62 and 0.80 mm. The experimental results obtained from this study compared with previous experimental work and found to be of the same magnitude as the experimental measurements and followed the expected basic trend

Simulation of Density Flow in Dam Reservoirs Using Two Dimensional Mathematical Models

Density inflow is modeled in two dimensions through a reservoir with sloping bottom. If an in flow of higher density enters ambient dam reservoir water, then it plunges below theambient water and then becomes density underflow. In the present model, nonlinear andunsteady continuity, momentum, energy and turbulence model equations are formulated in theCartesian coordinates. For the turbulence viscosity, k-ε turbulence model is used with anextension to include production or destruction of turbulent kinetic energy. In order toinvestigate the Coriolis force effect on the density flow in a dam reservoir, Coriolis forceparameter is included in the governing equations. The equations of the model are solved basedon the initial and boundary conditions of the dam reservoir flow for a range of bottom slopes.The results of the present model are compared with the previous experimental work and themathematical model. Present mode

Determination of Nearshore Sandbar Crest Depth Using Neural Network Approach

For the coastal structure designs, nearshore sandbars are crucial since they are affected highly from various parameters like beach slope, the height and period of the wave and the properties of the material forming the bed. In this study, it was investigated the sediment movements in nearshore by using various bar crest depths and a physical model. Erosion profile output is used for determination of the bar crest depths. Linear and non-linear regression methods are used for obtaining the non-dimensional equations with the experimental data. These equations are then compared with the ones found in the literature. Transportation of on-off shore sediments is affected by bar crest depth which has been examined with the materials forming the beach by using various diameter of the medium as d50=0.25, 0.32, 0.45, 0.62 and 0.80 mm. In order to estimate nearshore sandbar crest depth, we have developed an approach by using neural network (ANN). For proposing the efficiency of the study, ANN and multi-nonlinear regression models are compared with each other

Flexural strength and microhardness of anterior composites after accelerated aging

This study aimed to evaluate the flexural strength and microhardness of three different anterior composites after 10 000 thermocycles. The mechanical properties of a nano-fill composite (Filtek Ultimate Universal Restorative (FUR) (Enamel)), a nano-hybrid composite (Clearfil Majesty ES2 (ES2) (Enamel)), and a micro-hybrid composite (G Aenial Anterior (GAA)) were investigated in this study. For the microhardness test, 8-mm diameter and 2-mm thickness composite discs were used (n = 10), and for the flexural strength test, 25x2x2 mm bar-shaped specimens were prepared (n = 13). The specimens were tested at 24 h and after 10 000 thermocycles. Data were analyzed using two-way analysis of variance and the post-hoc Tukey test (p .05). Pearson correlation analysis revealed that there was a negative relationship between the mean hardness and flexural strength values (correlation coefficient = -0.367, p = .043). After 10 000 thermocycles, microhardness values of each material and flexural strength of ES2 and GAA decreased significantly according to 24 h. The nano-fill composite FUR displayed significantly higher microhardness values. However, each resin composite was statistically similar for flexural strength values. Ten thousand thermocycles significantly affected microhardness and flexural strength

Drexel University

We present a 3D matching framework based on a many-to-many matching algorithm that works with skeletal representations of 3D volumetric objects. We demonstrate the performance of this approach on a large database of 3D objects containing more than 1000 exemplars. The method is especially suited to matching objects with distinct part structure and is invariant to part articulation. Skeletal matching has an intuitive quality that helps in defining the search and visualizing the results. In particular, the matching algorithm produces a direct correspondence between two skeletons and their parts, which can be used for registration and juxtaposition. 1

Forecasting of Suspended Sediment in Rivers Using Artificial Neural Networks Approach

Suspended sediment estimation is important to the water resources management and water quality problem. In this article, artificial neural networks (ANN), M5tree (M5T) approaches and statistical approaches such as Multiple Linear Regression (MLR), Sediment Rating Curves (SRC) are used for estimation daily suspended sediment concentration from daily temperature of water and streamflow in river. These daily datas were measured at Iowa station in US. These prediction aproaches are compared to each other according to three statistical criteria, namely, mean square errors (MSE), mean absolute relative error (MAE) and correlation coefficient (R). When the results are compared ANN approach have better forecasts suspended sediment than the other estimation methods

Characterization of Sideritis trojana Bornm. essential oil and its antimicrobial activity

WOS: 000417369600015The components of the essential oil obtained from the dried aerial parts of Sideritis trojana Bornm. by hydrodistillation was analyzed both by GC-FID and GC-MS, simultaneously. Overall 57 compounds were identified representing 83.8% of the oil. The major components of the oil were identified as valeranone (11.3%), alpha-bisabolol (10.9%) and beta-caryophyllene (8.8%), respectively. The composition of the oil showed quantitative chemical variation from previously studied material in terms of its major components. Moreover, the essential oil was evaluated for its in vitro antibacterial and anticandidal activities using a broth microdilution method. A selected panel of standard strains of Gram (+) and Gram (-) human pathogens as well as Candida albicans were used in the assay. As a preliminary result, it was observed that the oil displayed relatively moderate antibacterial activity against Helicobacter pylori with MIC value of 250 mu g/mL when compared to standard antimicrobials. As a conclusion, it is worthwhile to evaluate the plant material against a broader spectrum of activities

Karaciğer yağlanmasına karşı kullanılan bitkisel preparatlar: Sistematik derleme

The fatty liver disease is defined as more than 5% of liver histiocytes filled with fatty vacuoles, depending on diet and indepen- dent of alcohol consumption. As it is known, fatty liver and related dis- orders are common, but still have no effective treatment. It is one of the important health problems in developed countries, associated with social and economic problems. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is among the most common chronic metabolic disorders. It was observed that the prevalence of NAFLD has increased significantly worldwide in recent years. With advancing obesity epidemics, NAFLD has become the most common cause of chronic liver disease both in adults and children. Therefore, the clinical and economic burden of the disease is remarkable and increasing within the health system. While fatty liver is a metabolic disorder that has no definite drug treatment today, there are some traditional preparations used for this purpose as ethnobotanically. According to ethnobotanical studies in the current lit- erature associated to liver diseases; various in vitro, in vivo, or clinical experimental studies were reported with successful results. Thus, in this present review, studies on natural sourced raw materials, herbal for- mulations related to liver diseases, especially fatty liver, obesity, hy- perlipidemia were compiled mainly from ethnobotanical origin.Beslenmeye bağlı, alkol tüketiminden bağımsız karaciğer his- tiositlerinin %5’ten fazlasının yağ vakuolleriyle dolu olması “yağlı ka- raciğer hastalığı” olarak tan ımlanmaktadır. Bilindiği üzere karaci ğer yağlanması ve karaciğer yağlanmasına bağlı rahatsızlıklar sık görülen ancak günümüzde kanıtlanmış etkin bir tedavisi olmayan metabolik ra- hatsızlıklardır. Ülkemizde de önemli sa ğlık sorunlarının başında gel- mekte olup, sosyal ve ekonomik problemleri beraberinde getirmektedir. Nonalkolik yağlı karaciğer hastalığı, gelişmiş ülkelerde en yaygın kro- nik metabolik rahats ızlıklar arasındadır. Son y ıllarda alkole ba ğlı ol- mayan yağlı karaciğer hastalığı prevalansının dünya genelinde önemli bir şekilde arttığı gözlenmiştir. İlerleyen obezite salgınları ile nonalko- lik yağlı karaciğer hastalığı, erişkinlerde ve çocuklarda kronik karaci- ğer hastalığının en yayg ın nedeni hâline gelmi ştir. Bu nedenle ya ğlı karaciğer hastalığının klinik ve ekonomik yükü dikkate de ğerdir. Ka- raciğer yağlanması, günümüzde kesin bir ilaç tedavisi olmayan bir me- tabolik rahats ızlık iken, halk aras ında bu amaçla kullan ılan baz ı geleneksel preparatlar mevcuttur. Karaciğer rahatsızlıklarında bitkiler etnobotanik çalışmalarda yer almış; çeşitli in vitro, in vivo veya klinik deneysel araştırmalarda yer almış olup, başarılı sonuçlar alınmıştır. Bu derlemede, bilhassa karaciğer yağlanması, obezite, hiperlipidemi başta olmak üzere karaciğer rahatsızlıkları ile ilişkili bitkiler, bitkisel formü- lasyonlar ve bitkilerden elde edilen do ğal kaynaklı ham maddeler ile yapılan çalışmalar listelenmiştir. Gerek halk arasında kullanımları içe- ren, gerek deneysel çalışmaları (in vivo ve klinik çalışmalar) içeren ma- kaleler derlenmiş ve özetlenmiştir

Nanostructured Optical Photonic Crystal Biosensor for HIV Viral Load Measurement

Detecting and quantifying biomarkers and viruses in biological samples have broad applications in early disease diagnosis and treatment monitoring. We have demonstrated a label-free optical sensing mechanism using nanostructured photonic crystals (PC) to capture and quantify intact viruses (HIV-1) from biologically relevant samples. The nanostructured surface of the PC biosensor resonantly reflects a narrow wavelength band during illumination with a broadband light source. Surface-adsorbed biotarget induces a shift in the resonant Peak Wavelength Value (PWV) that is detectable with <10 pm wavelength resolution, enabling detection of both biomolecular layers and small number of viruses that sparsely populate the transducer surface. We have successfully captured and detected HIV-1 in serum and phosphate buffered saline (PBS) samples with viral loads ranging from 104 to 108 copies/mL. The surface density of immobilized biomolecular layers used in the sensor functionalization process, including 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (3-MPS), N-gamma-Maleimidobutyryl-oxysuccinimide ester (GMBS), NeutrAvidin, anti-gp120, and bovine serum albumin (BSA) were also quantified by the PC biosensor