Biomechanical analysis of suture anchors and suture materials in the canine femur

Objective— Biomechanical analysis of acute load to failure (ALF) of 3 veterinary and 1 human suture anchor and cyclic load to failure with two suture material/suture anchor constructs in canine femoral condyles.
Study Design— Biomechanical in vitro study.
Sample Population— Cadaveric femora from 20–30 kg dogs.
Methods— Three veterinary and 1 human suture anchor were placed in the cranial and caudal aspects of the femoral condyle and subjected to 0° ALF. Anchors were loaded with 5 USP Fiberwire or 27 kg test nylon leader line (NLL) and subjected to 90° cyclic testing for 10,000 cycles followed by ALF at 90°.
Results— No significant difference in ALF for any anchor type was detected in the cranial aspect of the femoral condyle; however all veterinary anchors had higher ALF in the caudal aspect of the femoral condyle. In cyclic testing, the constructs in descending order (most cycles to least) were: (1) FlexiTwist/NLL, (2) Securos/Fiberwire, Securos/NLL, (3) IMEX/Fiberwire, IMEX/NLL, and (4) FlexiTwist/Fiberwire, Fastin/Fiberwire. Fiberwire was significantly stronger than NLL in post-cycling ALF testing.
Conclusions— Veterinary anchors had higher ALF in the caudal versus cranial aspect of the femoral condyle. Except for the FlexiTwist in which NLL performed better, Fiberwire and NLL both had similar cyclic performance with each veterinary anchor type. The veterinary anchors exceeded the human anchor in ALF and cycles to failure.
Clinical Relevance— The tested veterinary suture anchors with Fiberwire or NLL may be used in the femoral condyle, preferably in the caudal aspect, and should withstand estimated loading conditions in appropriately confined postoperative canine patients.     

Estimation of the Colour Properties of Apples Varieties Using Neural Network

The consumer acceptance and the quality standard of agricultural products such as apple are determined mostly by their colour. Colour is measured with a colorimeter and quantified using the C.I.E. L^*, a^*, b^* colour space system. It is used commonly by researchers for the classification and identification of apple fruit. To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first study investigating the prediction of some colour properties of six apple varieties through artificial neural networks (ANN). The apple varieties are ‘Amasya’, ‘Starking’, ‘Granny Smith’, ‘Pink Lady’, ‘Golden Delicious’, ‘Arapk?z?’ and the colour properties are L^* (lightness), a^* (redness), b^* (yellowness), C^* (chroma), h^* (hue angle), CI (chroma index). General Regression Neural Networks (GRNN) and Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Interface System (ANFIS) structures were employed to predict the colour properties. According to the experimental and simulation results, the proposed ANFIS predictor had a superior performance in prediction of these colour parameters.     

Control of the mushroom phorid fly, Megaselia halterata (Wood), with plant extracts

BACKGROUND: The most serious insect pest problems affecting the cultivation of mushroom [Agaricus bisporus (Lange) Imbach] in Turkey are mushroom flies (sciarids, cecids and phorids). Mushroom phorid fly, Megaselia halterata (Wood), is the most common insect pest species during April‐October. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential for eight botanical materials (two commercial neem‐based products and six hot‐water plant extracts) to control M. halterata populations in three successive growing periods. RESULTS: Treatment efficacy was evaluated by assessing adult emergence and sporophore damage rates compared with that of a standard insecticide, chlorpyrifos‐ethyl (positive control). All plant extracts caused significant reductions in the mean number of emerging adults and sporophore damage rates compared with the water‐treated control (negative control). Reduction in adult emergence in both neem treatments, Neemazal and Greeneem oil, was greater than that in the positive control. While Neemazal and Origanum onites L. extract had significantly lower sporophore damage rates than the positive control, there were no significant differences between the chlorpyrifos‐ethyl, Greeneem oil and Pimpinella anisum L. extract treatments. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that both neem products and hot‐water extracts of O. onites and P. anisum may be potential alternatives to conventional pesticides for the control of mushroom phorid fly. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

Structural characterization of LbL assembled multilayers by using different polyelectrolytes on cotton fabrics

An alternative approach to application of chitosan based on layer by layer (LbL) assembled technique is studied in this paper. For this aim, chitosan (CHT) was used as a bio-based cationic polyelectrolyte and pentasodium tripolyphosphate (TPP) and poly(sodium 4-styrene sulfonate) (PSS) were selected as anionic polyelectrolyte. TPP/CHT and PSS/CHT based bilayers were fabricated on the cationized woven cotton fabrics via layer-by-layer self-assembly technique. The characterization of coatings on the fabric surface in terms of surface appearance, atomal content, and chemical bondings were made in detail through SEM, XPS, and FTIR-ATR analysis. Also, the antibacterial activity, air permeability, and water contact angle were measured. Surface analyses demonstrate the interaction between TPP, PSS and chitosan separately. XPS spectra also showed the existence of LbL deposition over cotton substrates in terms of both elemental composition and the presence of different types of bondings on the fabric surface. The antibacterial activity analysis revealed that the modified cotton fabric with the addition of CHT/TPP and CHT/PSS bilayers could increase the degree of inhibition on K. pneumanie and S. aureus bacteria.     

Comparative Analysis of MLR,ANN, and ANFIS Models for Prediction of Field Capacity and Permanent Wilting Point for Bafra Plain Soils

ABSTRACT

Soil hydraulic parameters like moisture content at field capacity and permanent wilting point constitute significant input parameters of various biophysical models and agricultural practices (irrigation timing and amount of irrigation to be applied). In this study, the performance of three different methods (Multiple linear regression – MLR, Artificial Neural Network – ANN and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System – ANFIS) with different input parameters in prediction of field capacity and permanent wilting point from easily obtained soil characteristics were compared. Correlation analysis indicated that clay content, sand content, cation exchange capacity, CaCO₃, and organic matter had significant correlations with FC and PWP (p < .01). Validation results revealed that the ANN model with the greatest R² and the lowest MAE and RMSE value exhibited better performance for prediction of FC and PWP than the MLR and ANFIS models. ANN model had R² = 0.83, MAE = 2.36% and RMSE = 3.30% for FC and R² = 0.81, MAE = 2.15%, RMSE = 2.89% for PWP in training dataset; R² = 0.80, MAE = 2.27%, RMSE = 3.12% for FC and R² = 0.83, MAE = 1.84%, RMSE = 2.40% for PWP in testing dataset. Also, Bayesian Regularization (BR) algorithm exhibited better performance for both FC and PWP than the other training algorithms.     

Optimization of Ammonia Removal from Aqueous Solution by Microwave-Assisted Air Stripping

In this study, the optimum conditions for the ammonia removal from aqueous solution by microwave-assisted air stripping have been investigated at pH 11. Ammonia solution with five different initial ammonia concentrations was prepared synthetically. The Taguchi method was applied to optimize the ammonia removal conditions. Initial ammonia concentration, air flow rate, temperature, stirring speed, microwave radiation power, and radiation time were defined as the optimization parameters. Experiments were carried out at five different levels for each operational parameter. The results of the experiments revealed that 1800 ppm of initial ammonia concentration, 7.5 L min^?1 of air flow rate, 60 °C of temperature, 500 rpm of stirring speed, and 500 W of microwave radiation power for 180 min. of microwave radiation time are optimum conditions for complete ammonia removal. In addition to present experimental data, the optimum operational conditions predicted by the balanced characteristics of orthogonal array were confirmed experimentally. Finally, the effect of optimization parameters was discussed in detail.

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Improving certain properties of wool fibers by applying chitosan nanoparticles and atmospheric plasma treatment

The nanochitosan particles were prepared by ionic gelation method using sodium tripolyphosphate (TPP) as anionic chemical agent. Structural and morphological properties of the nanoparticles were characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analyses. The results showed that nanoparticles were spherical with a diameter range of 17-105 nm. After nanochitosan synthesis, the effects of chitosan and nanochitosan concentrations on the dyeability, fastness properties, shrink-proofing, tensile strengths, and surface friction coefficients of untreated and plasma treated wool fabrics were investigated. The studies revealed that nanochitosan treated wool fabric possesses better dyeing and shrink-proofing properties in comparison with conventional chitosan treated fabrics.     

Enhancing Skin Color and Phenolic Compounds of Cv. Red Globe Table Grape (<Emphasis Type="Italic">V. Vinifera</Emphasis> L.) Utilizing of Different Preharvest Treatments

Foliar sprayings of grapevines with different plant growth regulators or chemicals were evaluated for determining grape skin color and phenolic compounds content and enhancing table grape quality characteristics of cv. Red Globe in this study. Grape skin color is one of the most important quality factors for table grapes. Sometimes, it can be viewed difficulties in skin coloration of some red table grape cultivars grown in various grape growing regions of the world and poor skin coloration of red table grapes is a frequent trouble that reduces production efficiency. Despite the fact that it is utilized from some canopy management practices; plant growth regulators, chemicals with plant hormones and hormone-like compounds as active ingredients can be recently used for improving anthocyanin accumulation in growing of some table grape cultivars. In current study, nine different preharvest treatments were used for improving quality parameters of cv. Red Globe, including 1?Control (C), 2–300?mg/L Abscisic acid (ABA), 3–300?mg/L Ethephon (Eth), 4–30% Ethanol (EtOH), 5–300?mg/L ABA + 300?mg/L Eth, 6–300?mg/L ABA + 30% EtOH, 7–300?mg/L Eth + 30% EtOH, 8–300?mg/L ABA + 300?mg/L Eth + 30% EtOH and 9?Cluster tip cutting (CTC). Although the best results from total phenolic compounds content and total anthocyanin content of cv. Red Globe were obtained in CTC treatment in all preharvest treatments, Eth+ETOH treatment especially gave rise to the best results among the preharvest chemical treatments.     

INFLUENCE OF ALUMINUM ON MINERAL NUTRIENT UPTAKE AND ACCUMULATION IN URTICA PILULIFERA L.

Pollutants can have detrimental effects on living organisms. They can cause toxicity, damaging cells, tissues and organs because of their high concentrations or activities. Plants provide a useful system for screening and monitoring environmental pollutants. Among pollutants, aluminum is considered as a primary growth limiting factor for plants resulting in decreased plant growth and development. Although considered to be a non-essential and highly toxic metal ion for growth and development, aluminum (Al) is easily absorbed by plants. Urticaceae family members have high nutrient requirements demonstrated by leaves containing high levels of calcium (Ca), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), and nitrogen (N). Urtica pilulifera is one of the important traditional medicinal plants in Turkey. In this study, U. pilulifera was used as a bioindicator to investigate the possible differences in the absorption and accumulation of mineral nutrients at different levels of the Al exposure and examine the mineral nutrition composition of U. pilulifera under Al stress. Also, some growth parameters (leaf-stem fresh and dry weights, root dry weights, stem lengths and leaf surface area) were investigated. U. pilulifera seedlings were grown for two months in growth-room conditions and watered with spiked Hoagland solution, which contained 0, 100, and 200 μM aluminium chloride (AlCl₃). It was observed that macro- and micro-nutritional status of roots and leaves was altered by Al exposure. The concentrations of some macro- and micronutrients were reduced while concentrations of others were increased by excess of Al. Some macro- and micronutrients were increased at low level of Al whereas reductions were observed at high level of Al, and vice versa. The patterns were dependent on the macro- or micronutrient and the plant part.     

Virulence of Puccinia triticina in Turkey and leaf rust resistance in Turkish wheat cultivars

Leaf rust caused by Puccinia triticina is a common disease on wheat in the coastal regions of Turkey. Collections of P. triticina from infected wheat leaves were obtained from the main wheat production zones of Turkey in 2009 and 2010. A total of 104 single uredinial isolates were tested for virulence on 20 lines of Thatcher wheat that differ for single leaf rust resistance genes. Forty-four different virulence phenotypes were identified over both years. Four phenotypes were found in both years. Phenotype FHPTQ found in 2009, with virulence to genes Lr2c, Lr3, Lr16, Lr26, Lr3ka, Lr17a, Lr30, LrB, Lr10, Lr14a, Lr18, Lr3bg, and Lr14b, was the most common phenotype at 15.4 % of the total isolates. Forty-three winter and spring wheat cultivars from Turkey were tested as seedlings with 13 different P. triticina virulence phenotypes from Canada, the US and Turkey. The infection types on the cultivars were compared with infection types on the Thatcher near isogenic lines to postulate the presence of seedling leaf rust resistance genes in the cultivars. Resistance genes Lr1, Lr3a, Lr10, Lr14a, Lr17a, Lr20, Lr23, and Lr26 were postulated to be present in the Turkish wheat cultivars. DNA of the wheat cultivars was tested with PCR markers to determine the presence of the adult plant resistance genes Lr34 and Lr37. Marker data indicated the presence of Lr34 in 20 cultivars and Lr37 in three cultivars. Field plot evaluations of the wheat cultivars indicated that no single Lr gene conditioned highly effective leaf rust resistance. Resistant cultivars varied for combinations of seedling and adult plant resistance genes.