Response Ant Colony Optimization of end milling surface roughness.

Metal cutting processes are important due to increased consumer demands for quality metal cutting related products (more precise tolerances and better product surface roughness) that has driven the metal cutting industry to continuously improve quality control of metal cutting processes. This paper presents optimum surface roughness by using milling mould aluminium alloys (AA6061-T6) with Response Ant Colony Optimization (RACO). The approach is based on Response Surface Method (RSM) and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO). The main objectives to find the optimized parameters and the most dominant variables (cutting speed, feedrate, axial depth and radial depth). The first order model indicates that the feedrate is the most significant factor affecting surface roughness.

Validity and reliability of the Malay version of WHOQOL-HIV BREF in patients with HIV infection.

This study determines the validity and reliability of the Malay version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL) assessment instrument in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. A cross-sectional study on 157 patients with HIV seen at the Infectious Disease Unit, Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II, Kota Bharu, Kelantan was conducted. Factor analysis identified five major domains: physical needs, spirituality, social relationship, psychological, and environment. Significant correlation was found between each domain scores and the general health questions. The instrument was able to discriminate between asymptomatic and symptomatic HIV positive patients for all domain scores except for the spirituality domain. The internal consistency of the five domains ranged from 0.70 to 0.83. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) ranged from 0.60 to 0.87 across all domains. In conclusion, the Malay version of WHOQOL-HIV BREF is a valid and reliable instrument in assessing quality of life in HIV positive patients.

Monoclonal antibody that recognizes an epitope of the sperm equatorial region and specifically inhibits sperm-oolemma fusion but not binding.

Balb/c mice were immunized with purified hamster sperm heads for induction of antisera and the production of monoclonal antibodies that recognize preferentially the equatorial segment. Twenty-six hybridoma clones secreted monoclonal antibodies with strong affinity for spermatozoa. The supernatants of 16 clones contained antibodies against the equatorial segment, of which 11 were specific to this region. Five supernatants (M1-M5) containing antibodies that bind to various regions of the sperm head were selected and assessed for the ability to inhibit hamster fertilization in vitro using intact and zona-free oocytes. All the supernatants inhibited fertilization compared with the control. However, M1 supernatant specifically inhibited sperm-egg fusion in a concentration-dependent manner, while sperm-oolemma binding and sperm motility remained unaffected. M1 supernatant recognized an epitope that is exclusive to the equatorial segment and expression of this epitope increased after capacitation and the acrosome reaction. Preliminary immunoblot analysis indicated that M1 monoclonal antibody recognized two protein bands of 37.5 and 34.0 kDa.