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To reduce soil-tool adhesion followed by an improvement in draft force, many attempts have been made on the surface modification of moldboard ploughs by applying plastic coatings to them. Like moldboards, furrowers may also show adherence to soil according to its physical condition. This research aimed at draft force improvement of furrowers using surface coatings. Due to the self-scouring ability and low frictional characteristics of ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMW-PE), a narrow metal furrower has been coated with the plastic. For comparison, a steel tine equal in shape and dimension to the plastic-coated tine has been built. The tines were designed like the furrowers and were tested for draft force in a linear soil bin filled with heavy clay soil. Each experiment was repeated three times over a depth of 20 cm with two different compactions and gravimetric moisture content of 4% and 18% dry based. The average draft force value of the polythene coated tine was significantly lower at both moisture levels. In high compacted soil with 18% MC (gravimetric moisture content), the draft force of the UHMW-PE coated tine measured 29% less than that of the steel tine. In conclusion it has been found that the modification to the furrower tines by UHMW-PE coating can reduce draft force significantly.

Aspergillus flavus is the second leading cause of invasive and non-invasive aspergillosis, as well as the most common cause of fungal sinusitis, cutaneous infections, and endophthalmitis in tropical countries. Since resistance to antifungal agents has been observed in patients, susceptibility testing is helpful in defining the activity spectrum of antifungals and determining the appropriate drug for treatment. A collection of 199 clinical and environmental strains of Aspergillus flavus consisted of clinical (n=171) and environmental (n=28) were verified by DNA sequencing of the partial b-tubulin gene. MICs of amphotericin B, itraconazole, voriconazole, posaconazole, and MEC of caspofungin were determined in accordance with the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute M38-A2 document. Caspofungin, followed by posaconazole, exhibited the lowest minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC). All isolates had caspofungin MEC90 (0.063μg/ml) lower than the epidemiologic cutoff values, and 3.5% of the isolates had amphotericin B MIC higher than the epidemiologic cutoff values. However, their clinical effectiveness in the treatment of A. flavus infection remains to be determined.

Considering the necessity of using light weight, high strength and corrosion resistant materials, automotive and aerospace industries need to use advanced production technologies. Hydroforming has been regarded as one of the new technologies in forming of aluminium and magnesium alloys. These alloys have very low formability at room temperature which will be improved at elevated temperatures. In this paper, AA1050 aluminium alloy tube is numerically and experimentally investigated at different temperatures. Thickness distribution in forming zone is studied under different thermal conditions. Numerical results have been verified by experiments and there is a good agreement.

Organosolv pulping of bagasse was conducted following a central composite design using a two-level factorial plan involving three pulping variables (temperature: 190-210 degrees C, time: 120-180 min, organic solvent charge: 40-60% dimethyl formamide). Responses of pulp properties (yield and holocellulose, alpha-cellulose, kappa number, ash and ethanol-dichloromethane extractives contents) and the pH of the resulting wastewater to the process variables were analyzed using statistical software (MINITAB). Main factor analysis revealed that optimum pulp has the following characteristics: 82.7% (yield), 92.9 (kappa number), 95.84% (holocellulose), 83.53% (alpha-cellulose), 1.403% (ash), 2.562% (ethanol-dichloromethane extractives contents) and 6.39 (pH). These results showed that acceptable properties of pulps could be gained at 200-210 degrees C for 150 min and 40-60% DMF. Based on these results, this method could be used for pulping of bagasse equivalent NSSC concerning high yield at a fixed kappa number. In addition, bagasse could be pulped with ease to approximately 55% yield with a kappa number approximately 31. Numerical analyses showed that cooking temperature had the greatest influence on properties of obtained pulps within the DMF concentrations and cooking time as cooking variables.

Background: Prolonged antiacid and antibiotic usage in gasterointestinal diseases may predispose candidial colonization in GI tract. In order to isolate and diagnose of candida infections in patients with gastritis, duodenitis, gastric ulcer and duodenal ulcer, this study have been planned. Methods: We studied 300 biopsy specimens of patients referred to hospital, 51.7% of the patients were male and the others were female. The isolated fungi were identified by direct examination and culture of specimens. Results: Forthy four cases of yeasts were isolated in this investigation. Isolated yeasts have been identified as follows: 26 cases of C.albicance , I case C.tropicalis, 2 cases of C.krusei, and finally 1 case of unknown yeast. Conclusion: All the patients had a positive history of long lasting antacid taking for gastric ulser or gastritis. Candidiasis must be investigated in patients with gastritis, duodenitis and gastric ulcer, who are refractory to classic therapies and also in patients who have the chronic disease .

Apple fruits are subjected to different loading from harvesting to supermarket shelf. Bruising has been attracted many researchers as one of the most important damage criteria. In this research, the effects of some factors such as contact surface material, drop height and linear velocity of apples were investigated. Influence of these factors on bruising of “Golden Delicious” variety was analyzed by a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with factorial test at three level of drop height (10, 20 and 30 cm), linear velocity (0.05, 0.1 and 0.15 ms-1) and four contact surface (wooden, steel, plastic and cardboard). Tests were conducted at three replications with 108 treatments. Analysis of variance results showed that the effects of drop height and contact surface material on bruising area at 1% level was significant while bruising volume only affected by contact surface material (meaningful difference at 1% level). Mean comparison test indicated that there significant difference between levels of drop height on the bruise area. Also, there was a meaningful difference between contact surface of cardboard with steel, wood and plastic. There was a significant difference between surface materials of steel and wooden with cardboard and plastic. Therefore, drop height and contact surface material must be considered in designing the apple processing systems.

Hemodynamic changes are major hazards of general anesthesia and are probably generated by direct laryngoscopy and endotracheal intubation. We designed this prospective randomised study to assess the cardiovascular changes after either laryngeal mask airway (LMA), face mask (FM) or endotracheal tube (ETT) insertion in the airway management of adult patients anesthetised with nitrous oxide and halothane. A total of 195 healthy normotensive adult patients with normal airways were randomly assigned to one of the three groups according to their airway management (n= 65 each) for transurethral lithotripsy procedures. Heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) values were recorded before the induction of anesthesia, and then every three minutes until 30 min thereafter. The mean maximum HR and MAP values obtained during 15 and 30 minutes after insertion of LMA were 81±13, 73±8 bpm and 82±14, 79 ±11 mmHg, respectively which were significantly smaller compared to those with FM (84±12, 80±6 bpm and 86±10, 83±13 mmHg) and ETT (96±8, 88±7 bpm and 91±11, 82±9 mmHg) (P< 0.05). Direct stimulation of the trachea appears to be a major cause of the hemodynamic changes associated with tracheal intubation during general anesthesia, but why hemodynamic changes in LMA were smaller than facemask needs further study. In healthy normotensive patients the use of LMA for the airway management during general anesthesia results in a smaller cardiovascular change than FM and ETT.