Search results for: extraction wound

Authors: Mário Silva, Filipa Gomes, Filipa Oliveira, Simone Morais, Cristina Delerue-Matos

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Brown seaweeds are abundant in Portuguese coastline and represent an almost unexploited marine economic resource. One of the most common species, easily available for harvesting in the northwest coast, is Saccorhiza polyschides grows in the lowest shore and costal rocky reefs. It is almost exclusively used by local farmers as natural fertilizer, but contains a substantial amount of valuable compounds, particularly alginates, natural biopolymers of high interest for many industrial applications. Alginates are natural polysaccharides present in cell walls of brown seaweed, highly biocompatible, with particular properties that make them of high interest for the food, biotechnology, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. Conventional extraction processes are based on thermal treatment. They are lengthy and consume high amounts of energy and solvents. In recent years, microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) has shown enormous potential to overcome major drawbacks that outcome from conventional plant material extraction (thermal and/or solvent based) techniques, being also successfully applied to the extraction of agar, fucoidans and alginates. In the present study, acid pretreatment of brown seaweed Saccorhiza polyschides for subsequent microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) of alginate was optimized. Seaweeds were collected in Northwest Portuguese coastal waters of the Atlantic Ocean between May and August, 2014. Experimental design was used to assess the effect of temperature and acid pretreatment time in alginate extraction. Response surface methodology allowed the determination of the optimum MAE conditions: 40 mL of HCl 0.1 M per g of dried seaweed with constant stirring at 20ºC during 14h. Optimal acid pretreatment conditions have enhanced significantly MAE of alginates from Saccorhiza polyschides, thus contributing for the development of a viable, more environmental friendly alternative to conventional processes.

Keywords: acid pretreatment, alginate, brown seaweed, microwave-assisted extraction, response surface methodology

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Authors: Khaled Khaladi, Rafika Bibi, Hind Mokrane, Boubekeur Nadjemi

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Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is an important cereal crop grown in the semi-arid tropics of Africa and Asia due to its drought tolerance. Sorghum grain has protein content varying from 6 to 18%, with an average of 11%, Sorghum proteins can be broadly classified into prolamin and non-prolamin proteins. Kafirins, the major storage proteins, are classified as prolamins, and as such, they contain high levels of proline and glutamine and are soluble in non-polar solvents such as aqueous alcohols. Kafirins account for 77 to 82% of the protein in the endosperm, whereas non-prolamin proteins (namely, albumins, globulins, and glutelins) make up about 30% of the proteins. To optimize the extraction of sorghum proteins, several variables were examined: detergent type and concentration, reducing agent type and concentration, and buffer pH and concentration. Samples were quantified and characterized by RP-HPLC.

Keywords: sorghum, protein extraction, detergent, food science

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Authors: Tharini N. de Silva, Xiao Zhibo, Zhao Rui, Mao Kezhi

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Causal relation identification is a crucial task in information extraction and knowledge discovery. In this work, we present two approaches to causal relation identification. The first is a classification model trained on a set of knowledge-based features. The second is a deep learning based approach training a model using convolutional neural networks to classify causal relations. We experiment with several different convolutional neural networks (CNN) models based on previous work on relation extraction as well as our own research. Our models are able to identify both explicit and implicit causal relations as well as the direction of the causal relation. The results of our experiments show a higher accuracy than previously achieved for causal relation identification tasks.

Keywords: causal realtion extraction, relation extracton, convolutional neural network, text representation

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Authors: Yassine Jamoussi, Ameni Youssfi, Henda Ben Ghezala

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With the growing interest in social networking, the interaction of social actors evolved to a source of knowledge in which it becomes possible to perform context aware-reasoning. The information extraction from social networking especially Twitter and Facebook is one of the problems in this area. To extract text from social networking, we need several lexical features and large scale word clustering. We attempt to expand existing tokenizer and to develop our own tagger in order to support the incorrect words currently in existence in Facebook and Twitter. Our goal in this work is to benefit from the lexical features developed for Twitter and online conversational text in previous works, and to develop an extraction model for constructing a huge knowledge based on actions

Keywords: social networking, information extraction, part-of-speech tagging, natural language processing

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Authors: Teerapon Pirom, Ura Pancharoen

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Amoxicillin is an antibiotic which is widely used to treat various infections in both human beings and animals. However, when amoxicillin is released into the environment, it is a major problem. Amoxicillin causes bacterial resistance to these drugs and failure of treatment with antibiotics. Liquid membrane is of great interest as a promising method for the separation and recovery of the target ions from aqueous solutions due to the use of carriers for the transport mechanism, resulting in highly selectivity and rapid transportation of the desired metal ions. The simultaneous processes of extraction and stripping in a single unit operation of liquid membrane system are very interesting. Therefore, it is practical to apply liquid membrane, particularly the HFSLM for industrial applications as HFSLM is proved to be a separation process with lower capital and operating costs, low energy and extractant with long life time, high selectivity and high fluxes compared with solid membranes. It is a simple design amenable to scaling up for industrial applications. The extraction and recovery for (Amoxicillin) through the hollow fiber supported liquid membrane (HFSLM) using aliquat336 as a carrier were explored with the experimental data. The important variables affecting on transport of amoxicillin viz. extractant concentration and operating time were investigated. The highest AMOX- extraction percentages of 85.35 and Amoxicillin stripping of 80.04 were achieved with the best condition at 6 mmol/L [aliquat336] and operating time 100 min. The extraction reaction order (n) and the extraction reaction rate constant (kf) were found to be 1.00 and 0.0344 min-1, respectively.

Keywords: aliquat336, amoxicillin, HFSLM, kinetic

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Authors: Nidal F. Shilbayeh, Remah W. Al-Khatib, Sameer A. Nooh

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Arabic offline handwriting recognition systems are considered as one of the most challenging topics. Arabic Handwritten Numeral Strings are used to automate systems that deal with numbers such as postal code, banking account numbers and numbers on car plates. Segmentation of connected numerals is the main bottleneck in the handwritten numeral recognition system.  This is in turn can increase the speed and efficiency of the recognition system. In this paper, we proposed algorithms for automatic segmentation and feature extraction of Arabic handwritten numeral strings based on Watershed approach. The algorithms have been designed and implemented to achieve the main goal of segmenting and extracting the string of numeral digits written by hand especially in a courtesy amount of bank checks. The segmentation algorithm partitions the string into multiple regions that can be associated with the properties of one or more criteria. The numeral extraction algorithm extracts the numeral string digits into separated individual digit. Both algorithms for segmentation and feature extraction have been tested successfully and efficiently for all types of numerals.

Keywords: handwritten numerals, segmentation, courtesy amount, feature extraction, numeral recognition

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Authors: Tomyslav Sledevič, Artūras Serackis, Gintautas Tamulevičius, Dalius Navakauskas

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This paper presents a comparative evaluation of features extraction algorithm for a real-time isolated word recognition system based on FPGA. The Mel-frequency cepstral, linear frequency cepstral, linear predictive and their cepstral coefficients were implemented in hardware/software design. The proposed system was investigated in the speaker-dependent mode for 100 different Lithuanian words. The robustness of features extraction algorithms was tested recognizing the speech records at different signals to noise rates. The experiments on clean records show highest accuracy for Mel-frequency cepstral and linear frequency cepstral coefficients. For records with 15 dB signal to noise rate the linear predictive cepstral coefficients give best result. The hard and soft part of the system is clocked on 50 MHz and 100 MHz accordingly. For the classification purpose, the pipelined dynamic time warping core was implemented. The proposed word recognition system satisfies the real-time requirements and is suitable for applications in embedded systems.

Keywords: isolated word recognition, features extraction, MFCC, LFCC, LPCC, LPC, FPGA, DTW

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Authors: Rona Lee Suelo-Calanao, Mahmoud Loubani

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Objective: Sternal wound infection (SWI) following cardiac operation has a significant impact on patient morbidity and mortality. It also contributes to longer hospital stays and increased treatment costs. SWI management is mainly focused on treatment rather than prevention. This study looks at the effect of closed incision negative pressure therapy (ciNPT) dressing to help reduce the incidence of superficial SWI in high-risk patients after cardiac surgery. The ciNPT dressing was evaluated at 3 cardiac hospitals in the United Kingdom". Methods: All patients who had cardiac surgery from 2013 to 2021 were included in the study. The patients were classed as high risk if they have two or more of the recognised risk factors: obesity, age above 80 years old, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Patients receiving standard dressing (SD) and patients using ciNPT were propensity matched, and the Fisher’s exact test (two-tailed) and unpaired T-test were used to analyse categorical and continuous data, respectively. Results: There were 766 matched cases in each group. Total SWI incidences are lower in the ciNPT group compared to the SD group (43 (5.6%) vs 119 (15.5%), P=0.0001). There are fewer deep sternal wound infections (14(1.8%) vs. 31(4.04%), p=0.0149) and fewer superficial infections (29(3.7%) vs. 88 (11.4%), p=0.0001) in the ciNPT group compared to the SD group. However, the ciNPT group showed a longer average length of stay (11.23 ± 13 days versus 9.66 ± 10 days; p=0.0083) and higher mean logistic EuroSCORE (11.143 ± 13 versus 8.094 ± 11; p=0.0001). Conclusion: Utilization of ciNPT as an approach to help reduce the incidence of superficial and deep SWI may be effective in high-risk patients requiring cardiac surgery.

Keywords: closed incision negative pressure therapy, surgical wound infection, cardiac surgery complication, high risk cardiac patients

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Authors: Delphine Vendryes, Dushyanth Sekhar, Baojia Tong, Matthew Theisen, Chester Curme

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Much of the data that inform the decisions of governments, corporations and individuals are harvested from unstructured documents. Data extraction is defined here as a process that turns non-machine-readable information into a machine-readable format that can be stored, for instance, in a database. In financial services, introducing more automation in data extraction pipelines is a major challenge. Information sought by financial data consumers is often buried within vast bodies of unstructured documents, which have historically required thorough manual extraction. Automated solutions provide faster access to non-machine-readable datasets, in a context where untimely information quickly becomes irrelevant. Data quality standards cannot be compromised, so automation requires high data integrity. This multifaceted task is broken down into smaller steps: ingestion, table parsing (detection and structure recognition), text analysis (entity detection and disambiguation), schema-based record extraction, user feedback incorporation. Selected intermediary steps are phrased as machine learning problems. Solutions leveraging cutting-edge approaches from the fields of computer vision (e.g. table detection) and natural language processing (e.g. entity detection and disambiguation) are proposed.

Keywords: computer vision, entity recognition, finance, information retrieval, machine learning, natural language processing

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Authors: Noha Mohammed Ismael Awad Eladal, Aala Shoukry Emara

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Background: Wound healing after dental implant surgery is critical to the procedure's success. The aim of this study was to explore the effects of rutin+vitamin C supplementation in wound healing following the placement of dental implants. Methodology: There were 20 participants in this randomized controlled clinical trial who needed dental implants to replace missing teeth. Patients were divided into two groups, and group A received dental implants. Group B received dental implants with vitamin C administration. Follow-up appointments were performed on day 3, day 7, and day 14 post-surgery, during which soft tissue healing and pain response scores were evaluated using the visual analog scale. Postoperative digital panoramas were taken immediately after surgery, 3 months and 6 months postoperatively. Changes in bone density along with the bone-implant interface at the mesial, distal and apical sides were assessed using the digora software. Results: An independent t-test was used to compare the means of variables between the two groups. At the same time, repeated measures were employed to compare the means of variables between two groups. ANOVA was used to compare bone density for the same group at different dates. Significant increased differences were observed at the mesial, distal and apical sides Surrounding the implants of both groups per time. However, the rate of increase was significantly higher in group B The mean difference at the mesial side after 6 months was 21.99 ± 5.48 in the group B and 14.21 ± 4.95 in group A, while it read 21.74 ± 3.56 in the group B and 10.78 ± 3.90 in group A at the distal side and was 18.90 ± 5.91 in the group B and 10.39 ± 3.49 group A at the apical side. Significance was recorded at P = 0.004, P = 0.0001, and 0.001 at the mesial, distal and apical sides respectively. The mean pain score and wound healing were significantly higher in group A as compared to group B, respectively. Conclusion: The rutin c + vitamin c group significantly promoted bone healing and speeded up the osseointegration process and improved soft tissue healing.

Keywords: osseointegration, soft tissue, rutin c, dental implant

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Authors: Mingjun Xu, Man Pun Wan

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This study proposed an effective smoke control strategy for the large flat space with a low ceiling to achieve the requirement of perpetual tenability. For the large flat space with a low ceiling, the depth of the smoke reservoir is very shallow, and it is difficult to perpetually constrain the smoke within a limited space. A series of numerical tests were conducted to determine the smoke strategy. A zonal design i.e., the fire zone and two adjacent zones was proposed and validated to be effective in controlling smoke. Once a fire happens in a compartment space, the Engineered Smoke Control (ESC) system will be activated in three zones i.e., the fire zone, in which the fire happened, and two adjacent zones. The smoke can be perpetually constrained within the three smoke zones. To further improve the extraction efficiency, sequential activation of the ESC system within the 3 zones turned out to be more efficient than simultaneous activation. Additionally, the proposed zonal and sequential extraction design can reduce the mechanical extraction flow rate by up to 40.7 % as compared to the conventional method, which is much more economical than that of the conventional method.

Keywords: performance-based design, perpetual tenability, smoke control, fire plume

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Authors: Marina Stramarkou, Sofia Papadaki, Konstantina Kyriakopoulou, Magdalini Krokida

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Nowadays, microalgae represent the diverse branch of microorganism that is used not only in fish farming, but also in food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and biofuel production as they can produce a wide range of unique functional ingredients. In the present work, a remarkable microalga Chlorella vulgaris (CV) was selected as a raw material for the recovery of multifunctional extracts. First of all, the drying of raw biomass was examined with freeze-drying showing the best behavior. Ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE) using different solvents was applied under the specific optimized conditions. In case of raw biomass, ethanol was the suitable solvent, whereas on dried samples water performed better. The total carotenoid, β-carotene, chlorophyll and protein content in the raw materials, extracts and extraction residues was determined using UV-Vis spectrometry. The microalgae biomass and the extracts were evaluated regarding their antiradical activity using the DPPH method.

Keywords: antioxidant activity, pigments, proteins, ultrasound assisted extraction

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Authors: A. Abdi, A. Barari, A. Hojatollah Nikbakht, Khosro Ebrahim

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Aim: The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effect of a high intensity treadmill running training (8 weeks) with or without aqueous extraction of Crataegus pentagyna on heart and plasma LDH and CK. Design: Thirty-two Wistar male rats (4-6 weeks old, 125-135 gr weight) were used. Animals were randomly assigned into training (n = 16) and control (n = 16) groups and further divided into saline-control (SC, n = 8), saline-training (ST, n = 8), red Crataegus pentagyna extraction -control (CPEC, n = 8), and red Crataegus pentagyna extraction -training (CPET, n = 8) groups. Training groups have performed a high-intensity running program 34 m/min on 0% grade, 60 min/day, 5 days/week) on a motor-driven treadmill for 8 weeks. Animals were fed orally with Crataegus extraction and saline solution (500mg/kg body weight/or 10ml/kg body weight) for last six weeks. Seventy- two hours after the last training session, rats were sacrificed; plasma and heart were excised and immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen. LDH and CK levels were measured by colorimetric method. Statistical analysis was performed using a one way analysis of variance and Tukey test. Significance was accepted at P = 0.05. Results: Result showed that consumption crataegus lowers LDH and CK in heart and plasma. Also the heart LDH and CK were lower in the CPET compared to the ST, while plasma LDH and CK in CPET was higher than the ST. The results of ANOVA showed that the due high-intensity exercise and consumption crataegus, there are significant differences between levels of hearth LDH (P < 0/001), plasma (P < 0/006) and hearth (P < 0/001) CK. Conclusion: It appears that high-intensity exercise led to increased tissue damage and inflammatory factors in plasma. In other hand, consumption aqueous extraction of Red Crataegus maybe inhibits these factors and prevents muscle and heart damage.

Keywords: LDH, CK, crataegus, intensity

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Authors: Hui Zhang, Ye Tian, Fang Ye, Ziming Guo

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Communication signal modulation recognition technology is one of the key technologies in the field of modern information warfare. At present, communication signal automatic modulation recognition methods are mainly divided into two major categories. One is the maximum likelihood hypothesis testing method based on decision theory, the other is a statistical pattern recognition method based on feature extraction. Now, the most commonly used is a statistical pattern recognition method, which includes feature extraction and classifier design. With the increasingly complex electromagnetic environment of communications, how to effectively extract the features of various signals at low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is a hot topic for scholars in various countries. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a feature extraction algorithm for the communication signal based on the improved Holder cloud feature. And the extreme learning machine (ELM) is used which aims at the problem of the real-time in the modern warfare to classify the extracted features. The algorithm extracts the digital features of the improved cloud model without deterministic information in a low SNR environment, and uses the improved cloud model to obtain more stable Holder cloud features and the performance of the algorithm is improved. This algorithm addresses the problem that a simple feature extraction algorithm based on Holder coefficient feature is difficult to recognize at low SNR, and it also has a better recognition accuracy. The results of simulations show that the approach in this paper still has a good classification result at low SNR, even when the SNR is -15dB, the recognition accuracy still reaches 76%.

Keywords: communication signal, feature extraction, Holder coefficient, improved cloud model

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Authors: S. Haque, M. Kanapathy, E. Bollen, I. Younis, A. Mosahebi

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Background: Implant loss due to infection is the most devastating complication of implant-based breast reconstruction. The use of negative pressure wound therapy with instillation (NPWTi) for salvage of infected implant-based breast reconstructions has shown promising results to allow early reinsertion of a new implant as an alternative to current management of delayed reinsertion. This study compares the cost implication of NPWTi against current management of delayed reinsertion of infected breast implants. Methods: 20 cases of an infected breast implant treated with NPWTi (V.A.C. VERAFLO™ Therapy) followed by early re-insertion of a new implant were compared with 20 cases who had delayed reinsertion (non-NPWTi). Average cost per person was calculated using total operative expenses, cost of inpatient stay, cost of investigations, cost of antibiotics, and cost of outpatient visits. Results: Treatment with NPWTi allowed for earlier re-insertion of a new implant (NPWTi: 9.04 ± 2.92 days vs. non-NPWTi: 236.25 ± 123.89 days). The average cost per patient for NPWTi and non-NPWTi was £14,343.13 ± £2,786.70 and £8,920.31 ± £3,005.73 respectively. All patients treated with NPWTi had one admission and spent 11.9 ± 4.1days as an inpatient while non-NPWTi patients had 2.1 ± 0.3 admissions with total length of inpatient stay of 7.1 ± 5.8days. Patients treated with NPWTi had more surgeries (NPWTi: 3.35 ± 0.81 vs. non-NPWTi: 2.2 ± 0.41), however 3 non-NPWTi cases required flap reconstruction. Patients treated with NPWTi had fewer total outpatient visits (NPWTi: 12 ± 6 vs. non-NPWTi: 14.2 ± 6.3). Conclusion: Patients treated with NPWTi incurred higher average cost per patient, longer inpatient stay, and more procedures; however, had early re-insertion of new implants and fewer admissions and outpatient visits. A further study on patient-reported outcome is essential to compare cost against patient benefit.

Keywords: breast reconstruction, cost evaluation, infection, negative pressure wound therapy

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Authors: Amesh P, Suneesh A S, Venkatesan K A

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The magnetic solid-phase extraction is a relatively new method among the other solid-phase extraction techniques for the separating of metal ions from aqueous solutions, such as mine water and groundwater, contaminated wastes, etc. However, the bare magnetic particles (Fe3O4) exhibit poor selectivity due to the absence of target-specific functional groups for sequestering the metal ions. The selectivity of these magnetic particles can be remarkably improved by covalently tethering the task-specific ligands on magnetic surfaces. The magnetic particles offer a number of advantages such as quick phase separation aided by the external magnetic field. As a result, the solid adsorbent can be prepared with the particle size ranging from a few micrometers to the nanometer, which again offers the advantages such as enhanced kinetics of extraction, higher extraction capacity, etc. Conventionally, the magnetite (Fe3O4) particles were prepared by the hydrolysis and co-precipitation of ferrous and ferric salts in aqueous ammonia solution. Since the covalent linking of task-specific functionalities on Fe3O4 was difficult, and it is also susceptible to redox reaction in the presence of acid or alkali, it is necessary to modify the surface of Fe3O4 by silica coating. This silica coating is usually carried out by hydrolysis and condensation of tetraethyl orthosilicate over the surface of magnetite to yield a thin layer of silica-coated magnetite particles. Since the silica-coated magnetite particles amenable for further surface modification, it can be reacted with task-specific functional groups to obtain the functionalized magnetic particles. The surface area exhibited by such magnetic particles usually falls in the range of 50 to 150 m2.g-1, which offer advantage such as quick phase separation, as compared to the other solid-phase extraction systems. In addition, the magnetic (Fe3O4) particles covalently linked on mesoporous silica matrix (MCM-41) and task-specific ligands offer further advantages in terms of extraction kinetics, high stability, longer reusable cycles, and metal extraction capacity, due to the large surface area, ample porosity and enhanced number of functional groups per unit area on these adsorbents. In view of this, the present paper deals with the synthesis of uranium specific diethylenetriamine ligand (DETA) ligand anchored on silica-coated magnetite (Fe-DETA) as well as on magnetic mesoporous silica (MCM-Fe-DETA) and studies on the extraction of uranium from aqueous solution spiked with uranium to mimic the mine water or groundwater contaminated with uranium. The synthesized solid-phase adsorbents were characterized by FT-IR, Raman, TG-DTA, XRD, and SEM. The extraction behavior of uranium on the solid-phase was studied under several conditions like the effect of pH, initial concentration of uranium, rate of extraction and its variation with pH and initial concentration of uranium, effect of interference ions like CO32-, Na+, Fe+2, Ni+2, and Cr+3, etc. The maximum extraction capacity of 233 mg.g-1 was obtained for Fe-DETA, and a huge capacity of 1047 mg.g-1 was obtained for MCM-Fe-DETA. The mechanism of extraction, speciation of uranium, extraction studies, reusability, and the other results obtained in the present study suggests Fe-DETA and MCM-Fe-DETA are the potential candidates for the extraction of uranium from mine water, and groundwater.

Keywords: diethylenetriamine, magnetic mesoporous silica, magnetic solid-phase extraction, uranium extraction, wastewater treatment

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Authors: Roberto Cassino, Valeria Dissette, Carlo Alberto Bignozzi, Daniele Pazzi

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Background and Aims: The aim of this work was to investigate, both ‘in vitro’ and ‘in vivo’, if the new SCX technology (SiO2-Ag+Chlorex) can easily defeat infections and it is really more effective than SSD (SilverSulfaDiazine). ‘In vitro’ methods: we tested ‘in vitro’ the effectiveness of both silver materials using a pool of 5 strains: Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia Coli, Enterococcus hirae and Candida Albicans. 100 µl of this pool have been seeded on Petri dishes and kept for 24 hours in incubation at 37 C°. ‘In vivo’ methods: we enrolled patients with multiple infectious chronic wounds (according with cutting & harding criteria for infection); after a qualitative evaluation of the wounds bacterial population, taking a sample by plug, we included in the study 6 patients for a total of 10 wounds, infected by one or more of the microorganisms used for the ‘in vitro’ test. The protocol consisted of a treatment with a spray powder of SSD every 48 hours for 14 days; in case of worsening we should have to start a new treatment with a spray powder containing silicon dioxide, ionic silver and chlorexidine (SiO2-Ag+Chlorex) every 48 hours for 14 days. We evaluated the number of clinical signs of infection and the disappearance or not of the wound edge erithema. ‘In vitro’ results: SSD demonstrated a wide zone of inhibition within 24 hours, but after 5 days there was no more signs of inhibition; on the contrary SCX had a good inhibition ring that lasted more than 5 days. ‘In vivo’ results: all wounds treated with SSD got worse; the signs of infection increased and the wound edge erithema did not disappear. According with the protocol, we treated then all wounds with SCX and they all improved within the period of observation with complete disappearance of clinical signs of infection and no more wound edge erithema. Conclusions: the study demonstrated the effectiveness of SiO2-Ag+Chlorex, especially in terms of long lasting antimicrobial action. We had the same results ‘in vitro’, so that there has been a perfect correspondence between the laboratory outcomes and the clinical ones.

Keywords: chronic wounds, infections, ionic silver, SSD

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Authors: A. Hoppe, T. Kagele, B. Hall, A. Nichols, B. Messner

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The Spokane Street Medicine (SSM) Program aims to deliver medical care to members of Spokane, Washington, experiencing homelessness. Street medicine is designed to function in a non-traditional setting to help deliver healthcare to the underserved homeless population. In this analysis, clinical charts from street and shelter encounters made by the Spokane Street Medicine Program in early 2021 were reviewed in order to better understand the healthcare inequities prevalent among people experiencing homelessness in Spokane, WA. Pain, wound-care, and follow-up efforts were predominant concerns among the homeless population. More than half of the conditions addressed were acute, and almost a quarter of all chief complaints involved chronic unmanaged conditions. This analysis gives reason for the priorities of the SSM Program to be focused on pain, wound-care, and follow-up efforts. Understanding the specific medical needs of this population will allow for better resource allocation and improved health outcomes among people experiencing homelessness.

Keywords: equity issues in public health, health disparities, health services accessibility, medical public health, street medicine

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Authors: Alexandra C. Blaga, Dan Caşcaval, Alexandra Tucaliuc, Madalina Poştaru, Anca I. Galaction

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Amino acids are valuable chemical products used in in human foods, in animal feed additives and in the pharmaceutical field. Recently, there has been a noticeable rise of amino acids utilization throughout the world to include their use as raw materials in the production of various industrial chemicals: oil gelating agents (amino acid-based surfactants) to recover effluent oil in seas and rivers and poly(amino acids), which are attracting attention for biodegradable plastics manufacture. The amino acids can be obtained by biosynthesis or from protein hydrolysis, but their separation from the obtained mixtures can be challenging. In the last decades there has been a continuous interest in developing processes that will improve the selectivity and yield of downstream processing steps. The liquid-liquid extraction of amino acids (dissociated at any pH-value of the aqueous solutions) is possible only by using the reactive extraction technique, mainly with extractants of organophosphoric acid derivatives, high molecular weight amines and crown-ethers. The purpose of this study was to analyse the separation of nine amino acids of acidic character (l-aspartic acid, l-glutamic acid), basic character (l-histidine, l-lysine, l-arginine) and neutral character (l-glycine, l-tryptophan, l-cysteine, l-alanine) by reactive extraction with di-(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid (D2EHPA) dissolved in butyl acetate. The results showed that the separation yield is controlled by the pH value of the aqueous phase: the reactive extraction of amino acids with D2EHPA is possible only if the amino acids exist in aqueous solution in their cationic forms (pH of aqueous phase below the isoeletric point). The studies for individual amino acids indicated the possibility of selectively separate different groups of amino acids with similar acidic properties as a function of aqueous solution pH-value: the maximum yields are reached for a pH domain of 2–3, then strongly decreasing with the pH increase. Thus, for acidic and neutral amino acids, the extraction becomes impossible at the isolelectric point (pHi) and for basic amino acids at a pH value lower than pHi, as a result of the carboxylic group dissociation. From the results obtained for the separation from the mixture of the nine amino acids, at different pH, it can be observed that all amino acids are extracted with different yields, for a pH domain of 1.5–3. Over this interval, the extract contains only the amino acids with neutral and basic character. For pH 5–6, only the neutral amino acids are extracted and for pH > 6 the extraction becomes impossible. Using this technique, the total separation of the following amino acids groups has been performed: neutral amino acids at pH 5–5.5, basic amino acids and l-cysteine at pH 4–4.5, l-histidine at pH 3–3.5 and acidic amino acids at pH 2–2.5.

Keywords: amino acids, di-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid, reactive extraction, selective extraction

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Authors: Mohd Iz'aan Paiz Bin Zamri, Anis Salwa Mohd Khairuddin, Norrima Mokhtar, Rubiyah Yusof

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Effective statistical feature extraction and classification are important in image-based automatic inspection and analysis. An automatic wood species recognition system is designed to perform wood inspection at custom checkpoints to avoid mislabeling of timber which will results to loss of income to the timber industry. The system focuses on analyzing the statistical pores properties of the wood images. This paper proposed a fuzzy-based feature extractor which mimics the experts’ knowledge on wood texture to extract the properties of pores distribution from the wood surface texture. The proposed feature extractor consists of two steps namely pores extraction and fuzzy pores management. The total number of statistical features extracted from each wood image is 38 features. Then, a backpropagation neural network is used to classify the wood species based on the statistical features. A comprehensive set of experiments on a database composed of 5200 macroscopic images from 52 tropical wood species was used to evaluate the performance of the proposed feature extractor. The advantage of the proposed feature extraction technique is that it mimics the experts’ interpretation on wood texture which allows human involvement when analyzing the wood texture. Experimental results show the efficiency of the proposed method.

Keywords: classification, feature extraction, fuzzy, inspection system, image analysis, macroscopic images

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Authors: Narayana Murthy Akurathi, Vijaya Lakshmi Marella

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The literature is reviewed with regard to online Super critical fluid extraction (SFE) coupled directly with supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) -mass spectrometry that have typically more sensitive than conventional LC-MS/MS and GC-MS/MS. It is becoming increasingly interesting to use on-line techniques that combine sample preparation, separation and detection in one analytical set up. This provides less human intervention, uses small amount of sample and organic solvent and yields enhanced analyte enrichment in a shorter time. The sample extraction is performed under light shielding and anaerobic conditions, preventing the degradation of thermo labile analytes. It may be able to analyze compounds over a wide polarity range as SFC generally uses carbon dioxide which was collected as a by-product of other chemical reactions or is collected from the atmosphere as it contributes no new chemicals to the environment. The diffusion of solutes in supercritical fluids is about ten times greater than that in liquids and about three times less than in gases which results in a decrease in resistance to mass transfer in the column and allows for fast high resolution separations. The drawback of SFC when using carbon dioxide as mobile phase is that the direct introduction of water samples poses a series of problems, water must therefore be eliminated before it reaches the analytical column. Hundreds of compounds analysed simultaneously by simple enclosing in an extraction vessel. This is mainly applicable for pharmaceutical industry where it can analyse fatty acids and phospholipids that have many analogues as their UV spectrum is very similar, trace additives in polymers, cleaning validation can be conducted by putting swab sample in an extraction vessel, analysing hundreds of pesticides with good resolution.

Keywords: super critical fluid extraction (SFE), super critical fluid chromatography (SFC), LCMS/MS, GCMS/MS

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Authors: Andriana Mkrtchyan, Vahe Khlghatyan

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The choice of a profession is one of the most important decisions people make throughout their life. With the development of modern science, technologies, and all the spheres existing in the modern world, more and more professions are being arisen that complicate even more the process of choosing. Hence, there is a need for a guiding platform to help people to choose a profession and the right career path based on their interests, skills, and personality. This review aims at analyzing existing methods of comparing PDF format documents and suggests that a 3-stage approach is implemented for the comparison, that is – 1. text extraction from PDF format documents, 2. comparison of the extracted text via NLP algorithms, 3. comparison representation using special shape and color psychology methodology.

Keywords: color psychology, data acquisition/extraction, data augmentation, disambiguation, natural language processing, outlier detection, semantic similarity, text-mining, user evaluation, visual search

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Authors: Ananya Barui, Provas Banerjee, Jyotirmoy Chatterjee

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Application of optical technology in medicine and biology has a long track-record. In this endeavor, OCT is able to attract both engineers and biologists to work together in the field of photonics for establishing a striking non-invasive imaging technology. In contrast to other in vivo imaging modalities like Raman imaging, confocal imaging, two-photon microscopy etc. which can perform in vivo imaging upto 100-200 micron depth due to limitation in numerical aperture or scattering, however, OCT can achieve high-resolution imaging upto few millimeters of tissue structures depending on their refractive index in different anatomical location. This tomographic system depends on interference of two light waves in an interferometer to produce a depth profile of specimen. In wound healing, frequent collection of biopsies for follow-up of repair process could be avoided by such imaging technique. Real time skin OCT (the optical biopsy) has efficacy in deeper and faster illumination of cutaneou tissue to acquire high resolution cross sectional images of their internal micro-structure. Swept Source-OCT (SS-OCT), a novel imaging technique, can generate high-speed depth profile (~ 2 mm) of wound at a sweeping rate of laser with micron level resolution and optimum coherent length of 5-6 mm. Normally multi-layered skin tissue depicts different optical properties along with variation in thickness, refractive index and composition (i.e. keratine layer, water, fat etc.) according to their anatomical location. For instance, stratum corneum, the upper-most and relatively dehydrated layer of epidermis reflects more light and produces more lucid and a sharp demarcation line with rest of the hydrated epidermal region. During wound healing or regeneration, optical properties of cutaneous tissue continuously altered with maturation of wound bed. More mature and less hydrated tissue component reflects more light and becomes visible as a brighter area in comparison to immature region which content higher amount water or fat that depicts as a darker area in OCT image. Non-healing wound possess prolonged inflammation and inhibits nascent proliferative stage. Accumulation of necrotic tissues also prevents the repair of non-healing wounds. Due to high resolution and potentiality to reflect the compositional aspects of tissues in terms of their optical properties, this tomographic method may facilitate in differentiating non-healing and acute wounds in addition to clinical observations. Non-invasive OCT offers better insight regarding specific biological status of tissue in health and pathological conditions, OCT images could be associated with histo-pathological ‘gold standard’. This correlated SS-OCT and microscopic evaluation of the wound edges can provide information regarding progressive healing and maturation of the epithelial components. In the context of searching analogy between two different imaging modalities, their relative performances in imaging of healing bed were estimated for probing an alternative approach. Present study validated utility of SS-OCT in revealing micro-anatomic structure in the healing bed with newer information. Exploring precise correspondence of OCT images features with histo-chemical findings related to epithelial integrity of the regenerated tissue could have great implication. It could establish the ‘optical biopsy’ as a potent non-invasive diagnostic tool for cutaneous pathology.

Keywords: histo-pathology, non invasive imaging, OCT, wound healing

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Authors: Aliya Kurbanova, Nurlan Akhmetov, Abilmansur Yeshmuratov, Yerzhigit Sugurbekov, Ramiz Zulkharnay, Gulzat Demeuova, Murat Baisariyev, Gulnar Sugurbekova

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Last decades crude oils have tended to become more challenge to process due to increasing amounts of sour and heavy crude oils. Some crude oils contain high vanadium and nickel content, for example Pavlodar LLP crude oil, which contains more than 23.09 g/t nickel and 58.59 g/t vanadium. In this study, we used two types of metal removing methods such as solvent extraction and electrochemical. The present research is conducted for comparative analysis of the deasphalting with organic solvents (cyclohexane, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform) and electrochemical method. Applying the cyclic voltametric analysis (CVA) and Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP MS), these mentioned types of metal extraction methods were compared in this paper. Maximum efficiency of deasphalting, with cyclohexane as the solvent, in Soxhlet extractor was 66.4% for nickel and 51.2% for vanadium content from crude oil. Percentage of Ni extraction reached maximum of approximately 55% by using the electrochemical method in electrolysis cell, which was developed for this research and consists of three sections: oil and protonating agent (EtOH) solution between two conducting membranes which divides it from two capsules of 10% sulfuric acid and two graphite electrodes which cover all three parts in electrical circuit. Ions of metals pass through membranes and remain in acid solutions. The best result was obtained in 60 minutes with ethanol to oil ratio 25% to 75% respectively, current fits into the range from 0.3A to 0.4A, voltage changed from 12.8V to 17.3V.

Keywords: demetallization, deasphalting, electrochemical removal, heavy metals, petroleum engineering, solvent extraction

Procedia PDF Downloads 274

Authors: Muhammad Naveed Ali, Hamad Bin Rashid, Muhammad Arif Khan, Abdul Basit, Hafiz Muhammad Arshad

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Abdominal defects are very common in pigeons. A new technique is known as intraabdominal mesh transplant that give better protection for herniorrhaphy. The aim of this study was to determine the performance of hernia mesh. In this study, an efficacy of two synthetic hernia mesh implants viz. conventional Prolene and a lightweight mesh monofilament polyester were assessed for the abdominal wall repair in pigeons. Twenty four healthy pigeons were selected and randomly distributed into three groups, A, B and C (n=8). In all groups, experimental laparotomy was performed; thereafter, abdominal muscles and peritoneum were sutured together, while, a 2 x 2 cm defect was created in the abdominal muscles. For onlay hernioplasty, the hernia mesh (Prolene mesh: group A; Polyester mesh: group B) was implanted over the external oblique muscles of the abdomen. In group C (control), the mesh was not implanted; instead, the laparotomy incision was closed after a herniorrhaphy. Post-operative pain wound healing, adhesion formation, histopathological findings and formation of hematoma, abscess and seroma were assessed as short-term complications. Post-operatively, pain at surgical site was significantly less (P < 0.001) in group B (Polyester mesh); wound healing was also significantly better and rapid in group B (P < 0.05) than in group A (Prolene mesh). Group B (Polyester mesh) also depicted less than 25% adhesions when assessed on the basis of a Quantitative Modified Diamond scale; a Qualitative Adhesion Tenacity scale also depicted either no adhesions or flimsy adhesions (n=2) in group B (Polyester mesh), in contrast to group A (Prolene), which manifested greater adhesion formation and presence of dense adhesions requiring blunt dissection. There were observed hematoma, seroma and abscess formations in birds treated by Prolene mesh only. Conclusively, the polyester mesh proved superior to the Prolene mesh regarding lesser adhesion, better in wound healing, and no short-term follow-up complications.

Keywords: adhesion, mesh, polyester, prolene

Procedia PDF Downloads 218

Authors: M. Budakoglu, M. Karaman, D. Kiran, Z. Doner, B. Zeytuncu, B. Tanç, M. Kumral

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Lake Acıgöl is one of the large saline lacustrine environment in Turkey. Eleven trace metals (Cr, Mn, Fe, Al, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb and As) in 9 surface and subsurface sediment samples from the Lake Acıgöl were analyzed with the bulk and sequential extraction analysis methods by ICP-MS to obtain the metal distribution patterns in this extreme environment. Five stepped sequential extraction technique (1- exchangeable, 2- bond to carbonates, 3- bond to iron and manganese oxides/hydroxides, 4- bond to organic matter and sulphides, and 5- residual fraction incorporated into clay and silicate mineral lattices) was used to characterize the various forms of metals in the <63μ size sediments. The metal contents (ppm) and their percentages for each extraction step were reported and compared with the results obtained from the total digestion. Results indicate that sum of the four fraction are in good agreement with the total digestion results of Ni, Cd, As, Zn, Cu and Fe with the satisfactory recoveries (94.04–109.0%) and the method used is reliable and repeatable for these elements. It was found that there were high correlations between Fe vs. Ni loads in the fraction of F2 and F4 with R2= 0,91 and 0,81, respectively. Comparison of totally 135 chemical analysis results in three sampling location and for 5 fraction between Fe-Co, Co-Ni and Fe-Ni element couples were presented elevated correlations with R2=0,98, 0,92 and 0,91, respectively.

Keywords: Lake Acigol, sequancial extraction, recent lake sediment, geochemical speciation of heavy metals

Procedia PDF Downloads 380

Authors: Parvaneh Hajeb, Shahram Shakibazadeh, Md. Zaidul Islam Sarker

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High-quality fish oil for human consumption requires low levels of toxic elements. The aim of this study was to develop a method to extract oil from fish wastes with the least toxic elements contamination. Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) was applied to detoxify fish oils from toxic elements. The SFE unit used consisted of an intelligent HPLC pump equipped with a cooling jacket to deliver CO2. The freeze-dried fish waste sample was extracted by heating in a column oven. Under supercritical conditions, the oil dissolved in CO2 was separated from the supercritical phase using pressure reduction. The SFE parameters (pressure, temperature, CO2 flow rate, and extraction time) were optimized using response surface methodology (RSM) to extract the highest levels of toxic elements. The results showed that toxic elements in fish oil can be reduced using supercritical CO2 at optimum pressure 40 MPa, temperature 61 ºC, CO2 flow rate 3.8 MPa, and extraction time 4.25 hr. There were significant reductions in the mercury (98.2%), cadmium (98.9%), arsenic (96%), and lead contents (99.2%) of the fish oil. The fish oil extracted using this method contained elements at levels that were much lower than the accepted limits of 0.1 μg/g. The reduction of toxic elements using the SFE method was more efficient than that of the conventional methods due to the high selectivity of supercritical CO2 for non-polar compounds.

Keywords: food safety, toxic elements, fish oil, supercritical carbon dioxide

Procedia PDF Downloads 397

Authors: Rammah Abdlbagi, Similoluwa Biyi, Aakash Pai

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Introduction: Short-term ureteric stents are commonly placed after ureteroscopy procedures. The removal usually entails having a flexible cystoscopy, which entails a further invasive procedure. There are often delays in removing the stent as departments have limited cystoscopy availability. However, if stents with extraction strings are used, the patient or a clinician can remove them. The aim of the study is to assess the safety and effectiveness of the use of a stent with a string. Method: A retrospective, single-institution study was conducted over a three-month period. Twenty consecutive patients had ureteric stents with string insertion. Ten of the patients had a stent removal procedure previously with flexible cystoscopy. A validated questionnaire was used to assess outcomes. Primary outcomes included: dysuria, hematuria, urinary frequency, and disturbance of the patient’s daily activities. Secondary outcomes included pain experience during the stent removal. Result: Fifteen patients (75%) experienced hematuria and frequency. Two patients experienced pain and discomfort during the stent removal (10%). Two patients had experienced a disturbance in their daily activity (10%). All patients who had stent removal before using flexible cystoscopy preferred the removal of the stent using a string. None of the patients had stent displacement. The median stent dwell time was five days. Conclusion: Patient reported outcomes measures for the indwelling period of a stent with extraction string are equivalent to the published data on stents. Extraction strings mean that the stent dwell time can be reduced. The removal of the stent on extraction strings is more tolerable than the conventional stent.

Keywords: ureteric stent, string flexible cystoscopy, stent symptoms, validated questionnaire

Procedia PDF Downloads 72

Authors: Vanessa De Carvalho, Chad MacPherson, Julien Tremblay, Julie Champagne, Stephanie-Anne Girard

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Background: The interactions between bacteria and fungi in the human vaginal microbiome are fundamental to the concept of health and disease. The means by which the microbiota and mycobiota interact is still poorly understood and further studies are necessary to properly characterize this complex ecosystem. The aim of this study was to select a DNA extraction method capable of recovering high qualities of fungal and bacterial DNA from a single vaginal swab. Methods: 11 female volunteers ( ≥ 20 to < 55 years old) self-collected vaginal swabs in triplicates. Three commercial extraction kits: Masterpure Yeast Purification kit (Epicenter), PureLink™ Microbiome DNA Purification kit (Invitrogen), and Quick-DNA™ Fecal/Soil Microbe Miniprep kit (Zymo) were evaluated on the ability to recover fungal and bacterial DNA simultaneously. The extraction kits were compared on the basis of recovery, yield, purity, and the community richness of bacterial (16S rRNA - V3-V4 region) and fungal (ITS1) microbiota composition by Illumina MiSeq amplicon sequencing. Results: Recovery of bacterial DNA was achieved with all three kits while fungal DNA was only consistently recovered with Masterpure Yeast Purification kit (yield and purity). Overall, all kits displayed similar microbiota profiles for the top 20 OTUs; however, Quick-DNA™ Fecal/Soil Microbe Miniprep kit (Zymo) showed more species richness than the other two kits. Conclusion: In the present study, Masterpure Yeast purification kit proved to be a good candidate for purification of high quality fungal and bacterial DNA simultaneously. These findings have potential benefits that could be applied in future vaginal microbiome research. Whilst the use of a single extraction method would lessen the burden of multiple swab sampling, decrease laboratory workload and off-set costs associated with multiple DNA extractions, thoughtful consideration must be taken when selecting an extraction kit depending on the desired downstream application.

Keywords: bacterial vaginosis, DNA extraction, microbiota, mycobiota, vagina, vulvovaginal candidiasis, women’s health

Procedia PDF Downloads 170

Authors: Orose Rugchati, Khumthong Mahawongwiriya

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Dendrobium hybrid cv. Ear-Sakul has become one of the important commercial commodities in Thailand agricultural industry worldwide, either as potted plants or as cut flowers due to the attractive color produced in flower petals. Anthocyanins are the main flower pigments and responsible for the natural attractive display of petal colors. These pigments play an important role in functionality, such as to attract animal pollinators, classification, and grading of these orchids. Dendrobium hybrid cv. Ear-Sakul has been collected from local area farm in different stage flowers (F1, F2-F5, and F6). Anthocyanins pigment were extracted from the fresh flower by solvent extraction (MeOH–TFA 99.5:0.5v/v at 4ºC) and purification with ethyl acetate. The main anthocyanins components are cyanidin, pelargonidin, and delphinidin. Pure anthocyanin contents were analysis by UV-Visible spectroscopy technique at λ max 535, 520 and 546 nm respectively. The anthocyanins contents were converted in term of monomeric anthocyanins pigment (mg/L). The anthocyanins contents of all sample were compared with standard pigments cyanidin, pelargonidin and delphinidin. From this experiment is a simple extraction and analysis anthocyanins content in different stage of flowers results shown that monomeric anthocyanins pigment contents of different stage flowers (F1, F2-F5 and F6 ): cyanidin – 3 – glucoside (mg/l) are 0.85+0.08, 24.22+0.12 and 62.12+0.6; Pelargonidin 3,5-di- glucoside(mg/l) 10.37+0.12, 31.06+0.8 and 81.58+ 0.5; Delphinidin (mg/l) 6.34+0.17, 18.98+0.56 and 49.87+0.7; and the appearance of extraction pure anthocyanins in L(a, b): 2.71(1.38, -0.48), 1.06(0.39,-0.66) and 2.64(2.71,-3.61) respectively. Dendrobium Hybrid cv. Ear-Sakul could be used as a source of anthocyanins by simple solvent extraction and stage of flowers as a guideline for the prediction amount of main anthocyanins components are cyanidin, pelargonidin, and delphinidin could be application and development in quantities, and qualities with the advantage for food pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.

Keywords: analysis, anthocyanins contents, different stage flowers, Dendrobium Hybrid cv. Ear-Sakul

Procedia PDF Downloads 121