Edema-like symptoms are common in ultra-distance cyclists and driven by overdrinking, use of analgesics and female sex – a study of 919 athletes

Background Ultra-endurance cyclists regularly report various extents of bodily decline during long-distance bicycle rides, including potential kidney function-related symptoms such as swelling of body parts and urine changes. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of these symptoms in a representative cohort of ultra-endurance cyclists and shed light on potential predictors related to the ride, the rider and the rider’s behavior. Methods Between November 26 and December 14, 2020, 1350 people participated in an online survey investigating potential kidney-related symptoms of ultra-distance cycling. Frequency and severity of edema-like (“swelling”) symptoms and perceived changes in urine output, concentration and quality were associated with ride-related factors, demographic parameters and rider behavior-related variables. Results A total of 919 participants met the predefined inclusion criteria. The majority (N = 603, 65.6%) stated that they suffered from at least one potential kidney function-related symptom, out of which 498 (54.2%) stated one or more edema-like (“swelling”) symptoms. In correlational and multiple regression analyses, female sex, intake of analgesics and drinking strategies correlated with swelling symptoms. Further analyses indicated that drinking due to thirst and/or drinking adapted to ambient sweating and temperature negatively correlated with swelling symptoms, whereas “drinking as much as possible” enhanced these. Intake of analgesics was moderately positively correlated with swelling symptoms. Conclusions According to our survey, edema-like symptoms occur in the majority of ultra-distance cyclists and female sex, drinking strategy and intake of analgesic drugs are major predictors thereof. Studies are needed to investigate the underlying pathophysiological processes of such symptoms.

Biological treatment of palm oil mill effluent by using a downflow hanging sponge reactor

The performance of biological treatment using a downflow hanging sponge reactor as post-treatment of agro-industrial wastewater has been recognized worldwide. However, the effectiveness of the system in treating POME is remain unknown. Therefore, with this background in mind, an anaerobic treatment operated at COD loading rate of 0.4-0.6 kg/m3/day, HRT of 2 hours and input pH of 7.6 was run using a DHS reactor packed with sponge media for the treatment of POME. During the study, the output concentration performances of COD (32-58%), Colour (41-76%), ammoniacal nitrogen (66-92%) and phosphate (54-87%) were recorded. These results indicate comparable performances with the existing biological treatment system. However, it also offered additional credits in-term of fouling and clogging issues, practically as well as lower cost and energy consumption. Thus, it will be great to have a system that is capable to provide a simple technology which is affordable to various industrial scales.

Thermal System Design for Sulfuric Acid Dilution Device - A Case of Awash Melkassa Aluminum Sulphate and Sulfuric Acid S. Co

Preparation of the diluted sulfuric acid not only causes chemical burns, but also secondary thermal burns because of dehydration. However, the domestic acid company only supply the (98-98.5 percentage) of concentrated sulfuric acid to the customer. Thus, customers have no choice, and manually dilute the concentrated sulfuric acid at home while they face the problem of strong acid dilution hazards. In response to this problem, the main objective of this thesis is to design an acid dilution system of capacity that delivers (1 97 ⁄%) diluted acid concentration. The main components of the system are pipelines, heat exchanger, storage tanks, pumps, mixing device, valves and fittings. The method used for developing the overall conceptual design of the acid dilution system is inferring the existing worldwide acid dilution system experience using solid work 2016 for modelling and mathematical investigation, and M.S Excel 2016 for iteration. The required flow rate of both concentrated sulfuric acid and diluent water is calculated for each output concentration, and the heat load as well as final temperature during dilution is determined and validated. Considering the allowable velocity and surface roughness for each material as the design variable with two conflicting objectives of pressure drop and pipe diameter over each output concentration, among the seven recommended concentrated sulfuric acid pipe materials the carbon steel is selected. Moreover, stainless steel is used for diluent and cooling water piping and the appropriate dimension of the pipe is determined. In addition, the size of tank capacity per day with time is determined using a simple finite difference method. Moreover, other auxiliary system equipment’s, like pump, static mixer, valve is selected as per requirement.

STUDY OF KEEPING PROBIOTIC PROPERTIES OF SOUR-CREAM BUTTER AT STORAGE

The aim of the work was the study of keeping probiotic properties of sour-milk butter with inclusion of Lactobacillus acidophilus La-5 (La-5) monoculture. Flora Danica mesophile culture independently (FD); in combination with La-5 and La-5 independently were used for fermenting cream. The output consistence of culture in cream was 1×106 CFU/cm3. In autumn-winter and spring-summer period of the year four butter groups were prepared, they differed by temperature of cream fermentation: I group – (30±1) ºС; II – (37±1) ºС; III – stage regimes of combination of fermentation and physical maturing; IV group – introduction of cultures into oil kernel; the output concentration – 1·108 CFU/cm3. As to the features of summer and winter periods, in summer one cream fermentation is more active that is indicated by more number of cells of both microbial cultures. The best parameters of viable cells keeping were typical to the samples at FD+La-5 use and temperature of cream fermentation (30±1) ºС. Storage life of sour-cream butter with probiotic properties is 35 days at temperature 0…-5 ºС.

Negative autoregulation matches production and demand in synthetic transcriptional networks

We propose a negative feedback architecture that regulates activity of artificial genes, or "genelets", to meet their output downstream demand, achieving robustness with respect to uncertain open-loop output production rates. In particular, we consider the case where the outputs of two genelets interact to form a single assembled product. We show with analysis and experiments that negative autoregulation matches the production and demand of the outputs: the magnitude of the regulatory signal is proportional to the error between the circuit output concentration and its actual demand. This two-device system is experimentally implemented using in vitro transcriptional networks, where reactions are systematically designed by optimizing nucleic acid sequences with publicly available software packages. We build a predictive ordinary differential equation (ODE) model that captures the dynamics of the system, and can be used to numerically assess the scalability of this architecture to larger sets of interconnected genes. Finally, with numerical simulations we contrast our negative autoregulation scheme with a cross-activation architecture, which is less scalable and results in slower response times.

POTENSI NIRA AREN (Arenga pinnata) SEBAGAI BAHAN BAKU BIOETANOL

Aren (Arenga pinnata) is one of the plants that can be utilize as the raw material for bioetanol. The research of bioetanol producing used nira aren as raw material has been conducted by yeast of pure culture Saccharomyces cerevisiae and fermipan. The process is done by fermentation and distillation based on the duration of fermentation, concentration ratio of starter to the substrate by each type of yeast used. The result of research shows that the highest yield of bioetanol on pure culture fermentation as long 50 hours with 10 % concentration of starter, that is 14,9 %. The highest content of bioetanol is on fermentation as long 75 hours with 5 % concentration of starter, that is 73,0 %. Fermentation with fermipan, the the highest yield and concentration of bioetanol is at the fermentation as long 75 hours with the starter concentration of 15 %, that is 10,1 % and 66,0 %.Keywords: nira aren, saccharomyces cerevisiae, fermipan, starter concentration, output concentration of bioetanol

Joint Use of Traveling Wave Dielectrophoresis and AC-Electroosmosis for Particle Manipulation

Joint effect of traveling wave dielectrophoresis and AC electroosmotic fluid flow is used to sort bacteria from other particles and increase the bacteria output concentration in a microfluidic device. The device consists of a thin and long rectangular channel with two interdigitated electrode arrays, one at the bottom and one at the top of the channel, that are used to generate a nonuniform electric field. A four-phase signal at high frequency superposed on a low frequency signal is applied. At the end of the channel, the fluid is collected in two outputs: the bacteria are collected on one side and fluid without bacteria is collected on the other side. We have previously demonstrated a method to optimize cell separation using multiple frequency dielectrophoresis. The device presented here illustrates a novel use of multiple frequencies that permits the combined use of traveling wave dielectrophoresis and AC electroosmotic fluid flow.