Isothermal nucleic acid amplification assays such as the loop mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), are well suited for field use as they do not require thermal cyclers to amplify the DNA. To further facilitate the use of LAMP assays in remote settings, simpler sample preparation methods and lyophilized reagents are required. The performance of a commercial malaria LAMP assay (Illumigene Ma...

The motion of spheres in non-Newtonian liquids is of widespread and fundamental importance to many complex industrial processes. In the oil, paint, detergent and cosmetic industries, for example, there is the problem of controlling the settling and suspension of particles in non-Newtonian media. Study of the flow around a sphere can also benefit the understanding of complex cyclic flows such as...

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) poses a great threat to the environment. However, it contains valuable resources such as energy, water and nutrients that could be recovered for sustainable development. Currently, anaerobic digester has been employed to recover the energy potential in POME. However, the presence of suspended solids in the digestate hinders the downstream nutrients recovery process...

The paper deals with the reliability–based design optimization (RBDO) of concrete gravity dams subjected to earthquake load using subset simulation. The optimization problem is formulated such that the optimal shape of concrete gravity dam described by a number of variables is found by minimizing the total cost of concrete gravity dam for the given target reliability. In order to achieve this p...

The propagation of torsional waves in a prestressed fiber-reinforced half-space under the effect of magnetic field and gravity has been discussed. The problem has been solved analytically using Whittaker function to obtain the exact solution frequency equations. Numerical results for stress, gravity and magnetic field are given and illustrated graphically. Comparisons are made with the results ...

Gravity data inversion is one of the important steps in the interpretation of practical gravity data. The inversion result can be obtained by minimization of the Tikhonov objective function. The determination of an optimal regularization parameter is highly important in the gravity data inversion. In this work, an attempt was made to use the active constrain balancing (ACB) method to select the...

Fruit ripening involves a series of changes in gene expression regulated by the phytohormone ethylene. AVOe3, a ripening-related gene in avocado fruit (Persea americana Mill. cv Hass), was characterized with regard to its ethylene-regulated expression. The AVOe3 mRNA and immunopositive protein were induced in mature fruit within 12 hours of propylene treatment. The AVOe3 mRNA levels reached a m...

Improved methods for studying the growth of Mycoplasma hominis (ATCC 14027) have been developed, involving modified growth conditions and preparation of the organisms under minimally distorting conditions. Cells so prepared from batch cultures show relatively uniform exponential growth and appear to be dividing by binary fission; but pleomorphic forms appear upon further incubation. Similar beh...

Reticular content was sampled in cows before and 2 and 5 hours after they were fed various forages. Dry matter, particle size distribution, pH, osmotic pressure and viscosity of the liquid phase were measured. Consistency was also evaluated using purpose-built apparatus. The contents were fractionated by vertical distribution under gravity and by intermittent flow through an orifice into fracti...