BACKGROUND A beneficial effect was observed in patients with psoriasis vulgaris following balneotherapy with Dead Sea bath salt. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the possible role of trace elements in the effectiveness of balneotherapy. METHODS Serum levels of 11 trace elements were analyzed in 23 patients with psoriasis vulgaris who participated in a double-blind controlled study of balneotherapy wi...

This paper presents a new application of a fractional order control system which controls the input energy to a three phase electric arc furnace. Graphite electrodes are used to convert electrical energy into heat via phase electric arcs. Constant arc length is desirable as it implies steady energy transfer from the graphite electrodes to the metallic charge in the furnace bath. With the charge...

The paper describes the abilities of some particular neural network structures (NNS) to provide condition monitoring in a real industrial system, designated for hot dip zinc galvanizing. Condition assessment of a molten zinc bath furnace, and more specifically analysis and prediction of the technical condition in galvanizing kettle walls are also developed in this paper.

Heat treatments are applied to orthodontic wires in order to relieve the stresses arising during orthodontic work. Four types of wires were heated in air, argon or vacuum environments, and cooled in the furnace or in a water bath. The susceptibility to corrosion and mechanical properties of the heat-treated wires were investigated. Heat treatment marginally increased the yield strength and elas...

Psychoactive bath salts (also called meph, drone, meow meow, m-CAT, bounce, bubbles, mad cow, etc.) contain a substance called mephedrone (4-methylcathinone) that may share psychostimulant properties with amphetamine and cocaine. However, there are only limited studies of the neuropharmacological profile of mephedrone. The present study used an established invertebrate (planarian) assay to test...

the design and manufacture of direct smelting reactors depends on the rate of the physico-chemical reactions that occur in the particles immersed into the molten bath. investigation of the effects of the important parameters that influence the smelting rate of the particles that in the furnace are both difficult and expensive if the aimed is to take measure meuts under real practical conditions...

A two-step strain-induced melt activation (TS-SIMA) process that omits the cold working step of the traditional strain-induced melt activation (SIMA) process is proposed for 6066 Al-Mg-Si alloy to obtain fine, globular, and uniform grains with a short-duration salt bath. The results show that increasing the salt bath temperature and duration leads to a high liquid phase fraction and a high degr...