The elasticity and viscosity of the human erythrocyte membrane were measured as a function of the concentration of wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) in a suspending solution containing 1 mg/ml albumin, approximately 5 X 10(5) cells/ml and between 0.0 and 0.2 microgram/ml WGA. Membrane elasticity was characterized by the elastic shear modulus, which provided a measure of the resistance of the membrane...

BACKGROUND Tuberculosis (TB) is a major health problem, and accurate and rapid diagnosis of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extended drug-resistant (XDR) TB is important for appropriate treatment. In this study, performances of solid and liquid culture methods were compared with respect to MDR- and XDR-TB isolate recovery and drug susceptibility testing. METHODS Sputum specimens from 304 patien...

Ti-TiC-TiC/diamond-like carbon (DLC) gradient nano-composite films have been prepared on NiTi alloy substrates by the technique of plasma immersion ion implantation and deposition (PIIID) combined with plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). The influence of negative bias voltage applied to the substrate (from -100 V to -500 V) on the chemical structure, microstructure, mechanical pr...

We carried out lacerations of 50%, followed by trimming, in ten turkey flexor tendons in vitro and measured the coefficient of friction at the tendon-pulley interface with loads of 200 g and 400 g and in 10 degrees , 30 degrees, 50 degrees and 70 degrees of flexion. Laceration increased the coefficient of friction from 0.12 for the intact tendon to 0.3 at both the test loads. Trimming the lacer...

This paper reports on a tactile sensor using piezoresistive beams for detection of the coefficient of static friction merely by pressing the sensor against an object. The sensor chip is composed of three pairs of piezoresistive beams arranged in parallel and embedded in an elastomer; this sensor is able to measure the vertical and lateral strains of the elastomer. The coefficient of static fric...

A stochastic epidemic model is presented to study infection transmission dynamics, and hence epidemic severity and disease incidence, in a closed population. The aim was to understand the relative importance of various parameters that influence the dynamics of potential epidemics, particularly when the genetic mechanisms of resistance or tolerance to infection are considered. Simulations explor...

The present paper contains the test results of a planing catamaran model. The aim of the tests was to study the effect of hydrofoil in these types of crafts. First, experiments were carried out on the bare body (i.e. without hydrofoils) to obtain non-dimensional hydrodynamic resistance coefficient versus speed. Then, the model with hydrofoils, by various locations and attack angles were subject...

Three methods have been used to experimentally determine the roughness function (DU) for several rough surfaces. These include the rotating disk, the towed plate, and the velocity profile methods. The first two are indirect methods in as much as they rely on measurements of overall torque or resistance and boundary layer similarity laws to obtain DU, whereas the velocity profile method provides...

The present paper contains the test results of a planing catamaran model. The aim of the tests was to study the effect of hydrofoil in these types of crafts. First, experiments were carried out on the bare body (i.e. without hydrofoils) to obtain non-dimensional hydrodynamic resistance coefficient versus speed. Then, the model with hydrofoils, by various locations and attack angles were subject...

this study was conducted to investigate the effects of age and sex on the fleece characteristics of 40 iranian indigenous khorasan goats. goats were divided into two different sex and age (kids and adults) groups. fiber characteristics under study were: fleece weight, fiber length, lock length, fiber diameter, coefficient of fiber diameter, breaking load, resistance, elongation, hair percentage...