Controlled-pH tissue cleanup protocol for signal enhancement of small molecule drugs analyzed by MALDI-MS imaging

The limit of detection of low-molecular weight compounds in tissue sections, analyzed by matrix assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSI), was significantly improved by employing sample washing using a pH-controlled buffer solution. The pH of the washing solutions were set at values whereby the target analytes would have low solubility. Washing the tissue sections in the buffered solution resulted in removal of endogenous soluble ionization-suppressing compounds and salts, while the target compound remained in situ with minor or no delocalization during the buffered washing procedure. Two pharmaceutical compounds (cimetidine and imipramine) and one new protease inhibitor compound were successfully used to evaluate the feasibility of the pH-controlled tissue washing protocol for MALDI-MSI. Enhancement in signal-to-noise ratio was achieved by a factor of up to 10.     

Contribution of City Prosperity to Decisions on Healthy Building Design:A cases tudy of Tehran

In this paper,the city prosperity manifest is analyzed through a logical process and a framework is then proposed for designing healthy buildings in Tehran. The current status of urbanization in terms of the number of people living together and the changes in old behavior and perspectives have resulted in deficiencies to the health and hygiene of buildings apart from their surrounding environment. Consequently,these problems have affected people's well-being.This study mainly aims to determine policies and strategies for the architecturaldesign of healthy buildings according to health and safety conditions that influence the quality of internal spaces and external environment of cities.The study is conducted based on logical reasoning and uses focus group and in-depth interviews to assess the final result. The result is aframework that suggests a number of policies that can promote the mental and physical health as well as hygiene of residents through healthy buildings.     

Ethylene glycol biodegradation in microbial fuel cell

Ethylene glycol is an environmental pollutant, which exists in airport runoff and industrial waste. In this article, biodegradation of ethylene glycol in a two-chamber, batch-mode microbial fuel cell was investigated. Glucose and ethylene glycol at different concentrations were used as carbon and energy sources. Chemical oxygen demand removal in the range of 92–98% indicated that microbial fuel cell can be used for biodegradation of ethylene glycol. Ethylene glycol also improved power generation and the maximum power density was 5.72 mW/m² (137.32 mW/m³), with respect to the same glucose and ethylene glycol concentrations (500 ppm).     

Microfluidic electrocapture-assisted mass spectrometry of membrane-associated polypeptides

To isolate membrane-associated proteins, which play diverse structural, catalytic, and regulatory roles in cells, they are often initially solubilized in detergents. Although detergents are essential for purifying membrane proteins, they tend to interfere strongly with subsequent analyses. A microfluidic method is presented here that surmounts this problem, allowing well-resolved mass spectra of test membrane-associated polypeptides, and their complexes with ions and detergents, to be acquired. As a front-end module it allows access to other advanced mass spectrometric strategies to be utilized toward defining biomolecular interactions. This opens up a new avenue for studying complexation and analysis of membrane proteins of general importance.     

Investigation of heat transfer enhancement in an enclosure filled with nanofluids using multiple relaxation time lattice Boltzmann modeling

This work investigates the heat transfer performance in an enclosure including nanofluids with a localized heat source. The velocity field is solved by multiple relaxation time lattice Boltzmann modeling (MRT) which has superior numerical advantages to single relaxation time lattice Boltzmann modeling (SRT); however, heat transfer is simulated separately using SRT-lattice Boltzmann modeling. The hydrodynamics and thermal fields are then coupled together using the Boussinesq approximation. The main objective of this study is to investigate the influence of several pertinent parameters such as Rayleigh number, solid particle volume fraction of nanoparticles, and the geometry as well as location of the localized heat source on the heat transfer performance of nanofluids. The results obtained from lattice Boltzmann modeling clearly indicate that heat transfer augmentation is possible using nano-fluids in comparison to conventional fluids, resulting in the compactness of many industrial devices.     

Structural modeling of petroleum fractions based on mixture viscosity and Watson K factor

Two procedures have been developed for structural modeling of petroleum fractions based on mixture viscosity and Watson K factor. The representative molecules of paraffinic, naphthenic and aromatic hydrocarbons, based upon Ruzicka’s structural model, have been determined for lube-oil cut SAE 10 from Tehran oil refinery. Unlike previous methods, the newly developed procedures do not require time-consuming and costly laboratory data such as true boiling point profile. Good agreement between predictions of the new models and experimental results has been observed. Moreover, the proposed methods take less run-time than previous models due to less experimental and computational complexities. The results indicate that Ruzicka’s procedure, based on vapor pressure, is only applicable for light hydrocarbon mixtures, while the new methods can be applied for structural modeling of a wide range of petroleum fractions. Furthermore, as a result of this study, the application of a vapor pressure constraint leads to a higher degree of accuracy than the earlier suggested constraint, partial pressure, by Ruzicka.     

Analysis of Effect of Pressure and Heat on Mechanical Characteristics of Butt Fusion Welding of Polyethylene Pipes

The butt fusion process is one of the most effective processes in welding polyethylene pipes. The heating stage is the most important step in this process. In this investigation, while the main objective was to reduce the final bead's size of the weld, 9 different experiments with different heat and pressure conditions and equal timing for each heating stage were defined. Numerical modeling of Finite Element Method (FEM) of the heating process was carried out in the computer software considering governing physical conditions in the weld to determine heat distribution as well as primary bead geometry. Subsequently, the model was compared with results from experimentations. Cross-cut of the formed primary beads at the end of the heating process were prepared and compared with results from the model. To review final quality of the weld and its mechanical characteristics, all samples were welded under equal pressure conditions. Cross-sections of beads formed at the final stage as well as some samples for tension test and impact test from all welded areas were prepared according to standard for determination of mechanical characteristics and then compared with each other. From mechanical strength perspective, the weld formed in 210°C and 0.18 MPa pressure demonstrated higher values. However, impact strength in the weld formed in 180°C was higher. By reducing pressure in a specified heating process, value of impact energy required to break the piece was reduced. Mechanical strength in heating condition 240°C was lower than all other cases. As for geometry of the formed bead; its size in 180°C and 0.03 MPa pressure in the first stage of the heating process was smaller than other cases.     

A fuzzy grey goal programming approach for aggregate production planning

Aggregate planning is a medium-range capacity planning that suggests the production strategies in order to meet the forecasted demand considering the capacity constraints. As the period of planning length increases, the uncertainty of information will grow. Regarding this point, in this paper, a multi-objective model is proposed for aggregate planning problem in which the parameters of the model are expressed in the form of grey numbers. The suggested grey multi-objective model is solved based on a goal programming problem with fuzzy aspiration levels. The model is applied in a real-world problem, and its results are illustrated. The obtained results give a range for decision variables, and decision makers can handle the inevitable uncertainty of information by using these ranges.