Our objective was to characterize changes in cell wall composition and digestibility of sugarcane bagasse, pith from bagasse, and wheat straw after treatment with alkaline hydrogen peroxide (AHP). The AHP treatment solution contained 1% H2O2 (wt/vol) maintained at pH 11.5 with NaOH. The H2O2 in solution amounted to 25% of the quantity of substrate treated. After treatment, residues were washed ...

This paper proposes a modified software quality evaluation method based on products comparison, judging by user perceived satisfaction in terms of quality. The focused evaluation model is formulated on the bases of the ISO 9126 quality model as a generally accepted standard and ISO 12119 for software package, and of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) which is appropriate for comparing paired ...

Activation of cardiac mast cells has been shown to alter parasympathetic neuronal function via the activation of histamine receptors. The present study examined the ability of prostaglandins to alter the activity of guinea pig intracardiac neurons. Intracellular voltage recordings from whole mounts of the cardiac plexus showed that antigen-mediated mast cell degranulation produces an attenuatio...

Globalization of business and competitiveness in manufacturing has forced companies to improve their manufacturing facilities to respond to market requirements. Machine tool evaluation involves an essential decision using imprecise and vague information, and plays a major role to improve the productivity and flexibility in manufacturing. The aim of this study is to present an integrated approac...

Effective supply chain design calls for robust analytical models and design tools. Previous works in this area are mostly Operation Research oriented without considering manufacturing aspects. Recently, researchers have begun to realize that the decision and integration effort in supply chain design should be driven by the manufactured product, specifically, product characteristics and product ...

Motion adaptation in directionally selective tangential cells (TC) of the fly visual system has previously been explained as a presynaptic mechanism. Based on the observation that adaptation is in part direction selective, which is not accounted for by the former models of motion adaptation, we investigated whether physiological changes located in the TC dendrite can contribute to motion adapta...

We investigated the contribution of large conductance calcium-activated potassium (BK) channels to spontaneous activity of cerebellar Purkinje neurons in mice and rats. In Purkinje neurons which fire tonically, block of BK channels increased the firing rate and caused the neurons to fire irregularly. In Purkinje neurons which exhibited a trimodal pattern of activity, present primarily in mature...

The decision to recruit manpower in an organization requires clear identification of the criteria (attributes) that distinguish successful from unsuccessful performance. The choice of appropriate attributes or criteria in different levels of hierarchy in an organization is a multi-criteria decision problem and therefore multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) techniques can be used for prioritiza...

CA1 pyramidal cells receive two major excitatory inputs; the perforant path (PP) terminates in the most distal dendrites whereas the Schaffer collateral (SC) terminates more proximally. We have examined the mechanism of the afterhyperpolarization (AHP) that follows single subthreshold EPSPs in these inputs. The AHPs were not reduced by a GABA A antagonist or by agents that block Ca 2+ entry. Ap...