OBJECTIVES Gemstone cutters are potentially exposed to various carcinogenic and fibrogenic metals such as chromium, nickel, aluminium, and beryllium, as well as to lead. Increased beryllium concentrations had been reported in the air of workplaces of beryl cutters in Idar-Oberstein, Germany. The aim of the survey was to study the excretion of beryllium in cutters and grinders with occupational ...

Although significant efforts have been directed at developing efficient techniques for rare and super rare genome cutting, only limited success has been achieved. Here we propose a new approach to solve this problem. We demonstrate that peptide nucleic acid 'clamps' (bis-PNAs) bind strongly and sequence specifically to short homopyrimidine sites on lambda and yeast genomic DNAs. Such binding ef...

BACKGROUND Dual pneumatic systems use two separate air line tubes to open and close the cutter and can achieve high cut rates. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the influence of gauge size, cut rate and aspiration on the flow rate performance of ultra high-speed cutters operated with a commercially available dual pneumatic vitrectomy system. METHODS Analysis of a high-speed video was u...

There is a direct relationship between the efficiency of mechanized excavation in hard rocks and that of disc cutters. Disc cutter wear is an important effective factor involved in the functionality of tunnel boring machines. Replacement of disc cutters is a time-consuming and costly activity that can significantly reduce the TBM utilization and advance rate, and has a major effect on the total...

More than ten years ago, artificial restriction DNA cutters were developed by combining two pseudo-complementary peptide nucleic acid (pcPNA) strands with either Ce(IV)/EDTA or S1 nuclease. They have remarkably high site-specificity and can cut only one predetermined site in the human genome. In this article, recent progress of these man-made tools have been reviewed. By cutting the human genom...

OBJECTIVES To study Mesoamerican nephropathy (MeN) and its risk factors in three hot occupations. DESIGN Cross-sectional. SETTING Chinandega and León municipalities, a MeN hotspot on the Nicaraguan Pacific coast, January-February 2013. PARTICIPANTS 194 male workers aged 17-39 years: 86 sugarcane cutters, 56 construction workers, 52 small-scale farmers. OUTCOME MEASURES (1) Differences b...

A novel optimization methodology for the disc cutter designs of tunnel boring machines (TBM) was presented. To fully understand the characteristics and performance of TBM cutters, a comprehensive list of performance parameters were investigated, including maximum equivalent stress and strain, specific energy and wear life which were closely related to the cutting forces and profile geometry of ...

in this paper we present the problem of designing a three level hub center network. in our network, the top level consists of a complete network where a direct link is between all central hubs.  the second and third levels consist of star networks that connect the hubs to central hubs and the demand nodes to hubs and thus to central hubs, respectively. we model this problem in an incomplete net...