bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Piezoelectret Foam-Based Vibration Energy Harvester for Low-Power Energy Generation
Authors: Anton Steven R. , Farinholt Kevin M.
Published: July 2013

The use of energy harvesting systems to provide power to low-power electronic devices has the potential to create autonomous, self-powered electronics. While research has been performed to study the harvesting of ambient energy through a wide variety of transduction mechanisms, this paper presents the investigation of a novel material for vibration-based energy harvesting. Piezoelectret foam, a polymer-based electret material exhibiting piezoelectric properties, is investigated for low-power energy generation. An overview of the fabrication and operation of piezoelectret foams is first given. Mechanical testing is then performed to evaluate the tensile properties of the material, where anisotropy in the length direction is found along with Young’s moduli between 0.5–1 GPa and tensile strengths from 35–70 MPa. Dynamic electromechanical characterization is performed in order to measure the piezoelectric d33 coefficient of the foam over a wide frequency range. The d33 coefficient is found to be relatively constant at 35 pC/N from 5 Hz – 1 kHz. Lastly, energy harvesting tests are performed to evaluate the ability of piezoelectric foam to harvest vibration energy. Frequency response measurements of foam samples excited along the length direction confirm the anisotropic behavior of the material. Harmonic excitation of a pre-tensioned 15.2 cm × 15.2 cm sample at a frequency of 60 Hz and displacement of ± 73 μm yields an average power of 5.8 μW delivered to a 1 mF storage capacitor through a simple diode bridge rectifier. The capacitor is charged to 4.67 V in 30 minutes, proving the ability of piezoelectret foam to supply power to low-power electronics.
Numerical Investigation of the Response of Active Bend-Twist PZT Actuator
Authors: Riddick Jaret C. , Hall Asha J. , Myers Oliver J.
Published: July 2013

Army combat operations have placed a high premium on reconnaissance missions for micro air vehicles (MAVs). An analysis of insect flight indicates that in addition to the bending excitation (flapping), simultaneous excitation of the twisting degree-of-freedom is required to manipulate the control surface adequately. By adding a layer of angled piezoelectric segments to a Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (also referred to as PZT) bimorph actuator, a bend-twist coupling may be introduced to the flexural response of the layered PZT, thereby creating a biaxial actuator capable of driving wing oscillation in flapping wing MAVs. The present study presents numerical investigation of the response of functionally–modified bimorph designs intended for active bend-twist actuation of cm-scale flapping wing devices. The relationships of geometry and orientation of the angled segments with bimorph bend-twist response will be presented using results of finite-element analyses.
A New Imaging Approach to In Situ and Ex-Situ Inspections of Fibre Reinforced Composites by Magnetic Induction Tomography (MIT)
Authors: Renner Axel , Fischer Wolf-Joachim , Marschner Uwe
Published: July 2013

Fiber reinforced composites (FRP) for industrial applications face constantly increasing demands regarding efficiency, reliability and economy. Furthermore, it was shown that FRP’s with tailored reinforcements are superior to metallic or monolithic materials. However, a trustworthy description of load-specific failure behaviour and damage evolution of composite structures can hardly be given, because these processes are very complex and are still not entirely understood. Amongst other things, several research groups have shown that material damages like fiber fracture, delamination, matrix cracking or flaws can be discovered by analyzing the electrical properties of conducting composites, e.g. carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP). Furthermore, it was shown that this method could be used for structural health monitoring or non-destructive testing (NDT) [8–12].Within this work, Magnetic Induction Tomography (MIT), which is a new imaging approach, is introduced into the topic of NDT of CFRP’s. This non-contacting imaging method gains the inner spatial distribution of conductivity of a specimen and depicts material inhomogeneity, like damages, in 2D or 3D images. Numerical and experimental investigations are presented and give a first impression of the performance of this technique. It is demonstrated that MIT is a promising approach for NDT and could be used for fabrication quality control of conductive FRP’s and could potentially be used as a health monitoring system using an integrated setup.
A Bidirectional-Controllable Magnetorheological Energy Absorber for Shock and Vibration Isolation Systems
Authors: Bai Xian-Xu , Wereley Norman M. , Hu Wei , Wang Dai-Hua
Published: July 2013

Semi-active shock and vibration isolation systems using magnetorheological energy absorbers (MREAs) require minimization of the field-off damping force at high speed. This is because the viscous damping force for high shaft speed become excessive. This implies that the controllable dynamic force range, defined as the ratio of the field-on damping force to the field-off damping force, is dramatically reduced. In addition, fail-safe MREA performance, if power were to be lost, is of great importance to shock and vibration isolation systems. A key design goal is to minimize field-off damping force while maximizing MREA dynamic force, while maintaining fail-safe performance. This study presents the principle of a bidirectional-controllable MREA that can produce large damping force and dynamic force range, as well as excellent fail-safe performance. The bidirectional-controllable MREA is configured and its hydro-mechanical model is theoretically constructed. From the hydro-mechanical model, the mathematical model for the MREA is established using a Bingham-plastic nonlinear fluid model. The characteristics of the MREA are theoretically evaluated and compared with those of a conventional flow-mode MREA with an identical volume. In order to investigate the feasibility and capability of the bidirectional-controllable MREA in the context of the semi-active shock and vibration isolation systems, a mechanical model of a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) isolation system using a bidirectional-controllable MREA is constructed and the governing equation for the SDOF isolation system is derived. A skyhook control algorithm is utilized to improve the shock and vibration isolation performance of the isolation systems. Simulated vibration isolation performance using bidirectional-controllable and conventional MREAs under shock loads due to vertical impulses (the initial velocity is as high as 10 m/s), and sinusoidal vibrations, are evaluated, compared, and analyzed.
Thermomechanical Behavior of Low CTE Metal-Matrix Composites Fabricated Through Ultrasonic Additive Manufacturing
Authors: Hahnlen Ryan , Dapino Marcelo J.
Published: July 2013

Shape memory and superelastic NiTi are often utilized for their large strain recovery and actuation properties. The objective of this research is to utilize the stresses generated by pre-strained NiTi as it is heated in order to tailor the CTE of metal-matrix composites. The composites studied consist of an Al 3003-H18 matrix with embedded NiTi ribbons fabricated through an emerging rapid prototyping process called Ultrasonic Additive Manufacturing (UAM). The thermally-induced strain of the composites is characterized and results show that the two key parameters in adjusting the effective CTE are the NiTi volume fraction and prestrain of the embedded NiTi. From the observed behavior, a constitutive composite model is developed based constitutive SMA models and strain matching composite models. Additional composites were fabricated to characterize the NiTi-Al interface through EDS and DSC. These methods were used to investigate the possibility of metallurgical bonding between the ribbon and matrix and determine interface shear strength. Interface investigation indicates that mechanical coupling is accomplished primarily through friction and the shear strength of the interface is 7.28 MPa. Finally, using the developed model, a composite was designed and fabricated to achieve a near zero CTE. The model suggests that the finished composite will have a zero CTE at a temperature of 135°C.
Sensing Reduced Translation
Authors: Hurtley Stella M.
Published: July 2013

Chemical and genetic screening links ribosome activity levels and a transcriptional regulator in malignant cells.
Digoxin Dangers
Authors: Ash Caroline
Published: July 2013

The heart drug digoxin can be inactivated by a strain of gut microbe bearing a cardiac glycoside reductase operon.
Decreasing the CHANCE of Stroke
Authors: Mack William J.
Published: July 2013

Combination treatment with clopidogrel and aspirin decreases the risk of stroke after a transient ischemic attack.
Red Hot Chili Peppers Rock Obesity Research
Authors: Tirosh Amir
Published: July 2013

Exposure to cold or capsinoids found in chili peppers activates human brown fat, thus revealing a new target for obesity drugs.
Genome Sequences of Multidrug-Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii Strains from Nosocomial Outbreaks in Japan
Authors: Suzuki Masato , Matsui Mari , Suzuki Satowa , Rimbara Emiko , Asai Satomi , Miyachi Hayato , Takata Tohru , Hiraki Yoichi , Kawano Fumio , Shibayama Keigo
Published: July 2013

Acinetobacter baumannii
has emerged worldwide as an important nosocomial pathogen in medical institutions. Here, we present the draft genome sequences of
A. baumannii
strains MRY09-0642, MRY10-0558, and MRY12-0277 that were isolated from nosocomial outbreaks in Japan between 2008 and 2012 and that are resistant to antimicrobial agents, including carbapenems, fluoroquinolones, and aminoglycosides.
Yet more knots in the radial artery, unravelling purely by counter clockwise rotation
Authors: Gupta Prabha Nini , Velappan Praveen , Mullamala Ullas R , Padmajan Sabin
Published: July 2013

We describe here two more radial knots that could be unravelled by counter-clockwise rotation alone. We and others have previously described radial knots that occur when trying to engage the right coronary artery (RCA). Here, we show two knots that were unravelled purely by counter-clockwise rotation. One occurred during RCA catheterisation and the other occurred during left coronary angiography via the radial route. In one of the patients, severe pain occurred in the right shoulder. This occurred even though the artery was not in spasm. We were able to move the catheter. Therefore it is possible that pain combined with the ability to move the catheter may be a marker of an intravascular knot.
The retrieval of the diagnostic catheter which broke and embolised twice
Authors: Vijayalakshmi I B , Agrawal Navin , Mallikarjun Kavya , Manjunath C N
Published: July 2013

We are presenting a nightmare case of successful retrieval of the broken distal tip of a multipurpose catheter which embolised into the left pulmonary artery (LPA) during atrial septal defect device closure. During the course of snaring it initially slipped once in the LPA and subsequently while snaring it into the delivery sheath it slipped again in the inferior vena cava and yet again embolised into the LPA!! Subsequent attempt was successful but the distal fragment itself broke into two parts while being pulled inside the delivery sheath. Luckily the fragments did not embolise again as they were stuck at the tip of the sheath. The distal fragments were pulled out en masse along with the delivery sheath maintaining negative pressure at the side port of the delivery sheath using a 20 mL syringe. The final outcome was successful and the patient was unharmed by this potentially grave complication.
Effect of season and interval of prescribed burn on ponderosa pine butterfly defoliation patterns
Authors: Kerns B.K. , Westlind Douglas J.
Published: July 2013

Current knowledge concerning the interactions between forest disturbances such as fire and insect defoliation is limited. Wildfires and prescribed burns may influence the intensity and severity of insect outbreaks by affecting the vigor of residual trees, altering aspects of stand structure and abundance of preferred hosts, and by changing the physical environment within forest stands. Prescribed burn timing and frequency are particularly important aspects of the fire regime to consider because they can alter numerous aspects of tree vigor, stand structure, and environmental conditions, and can be manipulated by managers. We evaluated ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Douglas ex P. Lawson & C. Lawson) defoliation patterns in relation to season (fall and spring) and interval (5 or 15 years) of prescribed burn in the southern Blue Mountains of Oregon. Beginning in 2008 a pine butterfly (Neophasia menapia C. Felder & R. Felder) (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) outbreak coincided with a long-term experimental study, providing a unique opportunity to address this question. Defoliation patterns were measured in 2012. The 5 year interval plots had burned three times with five growing seasons of recovery and the 15 year interval plots had burned once with 15 growing seasons of recovery. Mean pine butterfly defoliation across the study area was about 71%. We found a significant interaction between season of burn and interval of burn on defoliation. Areas burned in the fall every 5 years had marginally less (about 5%) defoliation compared with areas that were burned in the fall 15 years previous. Regression tree analysis revealed that defoliation patterns varied based on stand location, percent mortality since the start of the experiment, and tree height. Our results show that (i) season of burn and interval of burn did not predispose these stands to increased defoliation during a pine butterfly outbreak and (ii) repeat burning may actually lead to lower defoliation. However, the effect we document is small and only marginally significant.
Geraniin induces apoptotic cell death in human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells in vitro and in vivo
Authors: Li Jia , Wang Siran , Yin Jimei , Pan Linna
Published: July 2013

Geraniin has previously been reported to possess extensive biological activity. In this study, we reported that geraniin is an inhibitor of tumor activity in vitro and in vivo. Geraniin suppressed the proliferation of A549 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Geraniin arrested the cell cycle in the S phase and induced a significant accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), as well as an increased percentage of cells with mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) disruption. Western blot analysis showed that geraniin inhibited Bcl-2 expression and induced Bax expression to disintegrate the outer mitochondrial membrane and cause cytochrome c release. Mitochondrial cytochrome c release was associated with the activation of caspase-9 and caspase-3 cascades. Additionally, geraniin resulted in tumor growth inhibition in A549 xenografts. Our results indicate cytotoxic activity of geraniin towards cancer cells in vitro and in vivo.
RNA POLYMERASE ON DNA AS A FERMI SYSTEM: INTERNAL ENERGY, ENTROPY, HEAT CAPACITY, AND NEGATIVE TEMPERATURE
Authors: FRANK T. D.
Published: July 2013

The distribution function of RNA polymerase enzymes bound at specific and nonspecific sites of the DNA is studied by means of Fermi statistics. To this end, a model proposed earlier in the literature is used that consists of a finite number of discrete nonspecific binding sites and one specific site: the DNA promoter. Exact expressions for entropy, energy and specific heat as functions of the number of binding sites and the number of RNA enzymes are obtained. It is shown that the many-body system of bound RNA polymerase exhibits negative temperature at very low transcription rates. We speculate that negative temperature may be used as a thermodynamic mechanism to produce a pressure for transcription.
MULTIFRACTAL ASPECTS OF AN EFFICIENT CHANGE-MAKING PROCESS
Authors: YAMAMOTO KEN , YAMAZAKI YOSHIHIRO
Published: July 2013

In this paper, we focus on the "minimal payment" which minimizes the number of coins left after the payment. Two kinds of multifractal properties of the minimal payment are studied. The first one is a frequency distribution of change amounts, and the second one is a visiting probability on the delay plot of successive change amounts. When the face values of coins are power of two (1, 2, 4, 8, …), we find that these two distributions are related to well-known multifractal models, and derive analytical expressions of multifractal spectra.
Discovering semantic relations from the web and organizing them with PATTY
Authors: Nakashole Ndapandula , Weikum Gerhard , Suchanek Fabian
Published: July 2013

PATTY is a system for automatically distilling relational patterns from the Web, for example, the pattern "X covered Y" between a singer and someone else's song. We have extracted a large collection of such patterns and organized them in a taxonomic manner, similar in style to the WordNet thesaurus but capturing relations (binary predicates) instead of concepts and classes (unary predicates). The patterns are organized by semantic types and synonyms, and they form a hierarchy based on subsumptions. For example, "X covered Y" is subsumed by "X sang Y", which in turn is subsumed by "X performed Y" (where X can be any musician, not just a singer). In this paper we give an overview of the PATTY system and the resulting collections of relational patterns. We discuss the four main components of PATTY's architecture and a variety of use cases, including the paraphrasing of relations, and semantic search over subjectpredicate- object triples. This kind of search can handle entities, relations, semantic types, noun phrases, and relational phrases.
ISA 2012 workshop report
Authors: Claramunt Christophe , Li Ki-Joune
Published: July 2013

With recent progress of mobile devices and indoor positioning techniques as well as indoor data modeling methods, indoor space is now considered as an extension of outdoor for seamless geospatial application such as pedestrian navigation, indoor routing services, and indoor space analysis. With such a background and strong demands from the industry, the international workshop on Indoor Spatial Awareness (ISA) has been established as a regular scientific event since 2009. The first workshop was held in conjunction with the conference of MDM (Mobile Data Management) in Taiwan and has joined the ACM SIGSpatial workshop from the second edition in 2010. Since the first workshop, it has served as an important forum bringing together researchers, developers, and practitioners who work on different topics of indoor spatial awareness and inspiring interdisciplinary discussions in all relevant aspects.
Buffer overflow patching for C and C++ programs
Authors: Shahriar Hossain , Haddad Hisham M. , Vaidya Ishan
Published: July 2013

The presence of buffer overflow (BOF) vulnerabilities in programs hampers essential security objectives such as confidentiality, integrity and availability. In particular, exploitations of BOF might lead to many unwanted consequences including denial of service through program crash, control flow hijacking, and corrupted program state. When BOF vulnerabilities are detected, they need to be patched before the software is redeployed. Source level automatic patching of vulnerabilities has the challenges of finding a set of general rules and consistently applying them without bringing any side effects to intended software. This paper proposes a set of general rules to address the mitigation of BOF vulnerabilities for C/C++ programs. In particular, we developed a set of rules to identify vulnerable code and how to make the code vulnerability free. The proposed rule-based approach addresses both simple (one statement) and complex (multiple statements) forms of code that can be vulnerable to BOF ranging from unsafe library function calls to the pointer usage in control flow structures (loop and conditional statements). We evaluated the proposed approach using two publicly available benchmarks and a number of open source C/C++ applications. The results show that the proposed rules can not only identify previously known BOF vulnerabilities, but also find new vulnerabilities. Moreover, the patching rules impose negligible overhead to the application.
Eliminating redundancy in CSPs through merging and subsumption of domain values
Authors: Likitvivatanavong Chavalit , Yap Roland H. C.
Published: July 2013

Onto-substitutability has been shown to be intrinsic to how a domain value is considered redundant in Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSPs). A value is onto-substitutable if any solution involving that value remains a solution when that value is replaced by some other value. We redefine onto-substitutability to accommodate binary relationships and study its implication. Joint interchangeability, an extension of onto-substitutability to its interchangeability counterpart, emerges as one of the results. We propose a new way of removing interchangeable values by constructing a new value as an intermediate step, as well as introduce virtual interchangeability, a local reasoning that leads to joint interchangeability and allows values to be merged together. Algorithms for removing onto-substitutable values are also proposed.
A framework for processing complex queries in wireless sensor networks
Authors: Maia Jose E. Bessa , Brayner Angelo , Rodrigues Fernando
Published: July 2013

In this work, we present a framework, denoted
ADAGA
--
P
*, for processing complex queries and for managing sensor-field regression models. The proposed mechanism builds and instantiates sensor-field models. Thus
ADAGA
--
P
* makes query engines able to answer complex queries such as
give the probability of rain for the next two days in the city of Fortaleza
. On the other hand, it is well known that minimizing energy consumption in a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is a critical issue for increasing the network lifetime. An efficient strategy for saving power in WSNs is to reduce the data volume injected into the network. For that reason,
ADAGA
--
P
* implements an in-network data prediction mechanism in order to avoid that all sensed data have to be sent to fusion center node (or base station). Thus, sensor nodes only transmit data which are novelties for a regression model applied by
ADAGA
--
P
*. Experiments using real data have been executed to validate our approach. The results show that
ADAGA
--
P
* is quite efficient regarding communication cost and the number of executed float-point operations. In fact, the energy consumption rate to run
ADAGA
--
P
* is up to 14 times lower than the energy consumed by kernel distributed regression for an RMSE difference of 0.003.
Excess TSH causes abnormal skeletal development in young mice with hypothyroidism via suppressive effects on the growth plate
Authors: Endo Toyoshi , Kobayashi Tetsuro
Published: July 2013

Hypothyroidism in the young leads to irreversible growth failure. hyt/hyt Mice have a nonfunctional TSH receptor (TSHR) and are severely hypothyroid, but growth retardation was not observed in adult mice. We found that epiphysial cartilage as well as cultured chondrocytes expressed functional TSHR at levels comparable to that seen in the thyroid, and that addition of TSH to cultured chondrocytes suppressed expression of chondrocyte differentiation marker genes such as Sox-9 and type IIa collagen. Next, we compared the long bone phenotypes of two distinct mouse models of hypothyroidism: thyroidectomized (THYx) mice and hyt/hyt mice. Although both THYx and hyt/hyt mice were severely hypothyroid and had similar serum Ca2+ and growth hormone levels, the tibia was shorter and the proliferating and hypertrophic zones in the growth plate was significantly narrower in THYx mice than in hyt/hyt mice. Supplementation of hyt/hyt mice thyroid hormone resulted in a wider growth plate compared with that of wild-type mice. Expressions of chondrocyte differentiation marker genes Sox-9 and type IIa collagen in growth plate from THYx mice were 52 and 60% lower than those of hyt/hyt mice, respectively. High serum TSH causes abnormal skeletal development in young mice with hypothyroidism via suppressive effects on the growth plate.
Dietary protein decreases exercise endurance through rapamycin-sensitive suppression of muscle mitochondria
Authors: Mitsuishi Masanori , Miyashita Kazutoshi , Muraki Ayako , Tamaki Masanori , Tanaka Kumiko , Itoh Hiroshi
Published: July 2013

Loss of physical performance is linked not only to decreased activity in daily life but also to increased onset of cardiovascular diseases and mortality. A high-protein diet is recommended for aged individuals in order to preserve muscle mass; however, the regulation of muscle mitochondria by dietary protein has not been clarified. We investigated the long-term effects of a high-protein diet on muscle properties, focusing especially on muscle mitochondria. Mice were fed a high-protein diet from the age of 8 wk and examined for mitochondrial properties and exercise endurance at the ages of 20 and 50 wk. Compared with normal chow, a high-protein diet significantly decreased the amount of muscle mitochondria, mitochondrial activity, and running distance at 50 wk, although it increased muscle mass and grip power. Inhibition of TORC1-dependent signal pathways by rapamycin from 8 wk suppressed the decline in mitochondria and exercise endurance observed when mice were fed the high-protein diet in association with preserved AMPK activity. Collectively, these findings suggest a role for dietary protein as a suppressor of muscle mitochondria and indicate that the age-associated decline in exercise endurance might be accelerated by excessive dietary protein through rapamycin-sensitive suppression of muscle mitochondria.
Characterizing the neuroendocrine and ovarian defects of androgen receptor-knockout female mice
Authors: Cheng Xiaobing B. , Jimenez Mark , Desai Reena , Middleton Linda J. , Joseph Shai R. , Ning Guang , Allan Charles M. , Smith Jeremy T. , Handelsman David J. , Walters Kirsty A.
Published: July 2013

Homozygous androgen receptor (AR)-knockout (ARKO) female mice are subfertile due to both intra- and extraovarian (neuroendocrine) defects as defined by ovary transplantation. Using ARKO mice, this study set out to reveal the precise AR-regulated pathways required for optimal androgen-regulated ovulation and fertility. ARKO females exhibit deficient neuroendocrine negative feedback, with a reduced serum luteinizing hormone (LH) response to ovariectomy (OVX) ( P < 0.01). Positive feedback is also altered as intact ARKO females, at late proestrus, exhibit an often mistimed endogenous ovulatory LH surge. Furthermore, at late proestrus, intact ARKO females display diminished preovulatory serum estradiol (E2; P < 0.01) and LH ( P < 0.05) surge levels and reduced Kiss1 mRNA expression in the anteroventral periventricular nucleus ( P < 0.01) compared with controls. However, this reduced ovulatory LH response in intact ARKO females can be rescued by OVX and E2 priming or treatment with endogenous GnRH. These findings reveal that AR regulates the negative feedback response to E2, E2-positive feedback is compromised in ARKO mice, and AR-regulated negative and positive steroidal feedback pathways impact on intrahypothalamic control of the kisspeptin/GnRH/LH cascade. In addition, intraovarian AR-regulated pathways controlling antral to preovulatory follicle dynamics are disrupted because adult ARKO ovaries collected at proestrus have small antral follicles with reduced oocyte/follicle diameter ratios ( P < 0.01) and increased proportions of unhealthy large antral follicles ( P < 0.05) compared with controls. As a consequence of aberrant follicular growth patterns, proestrus ARKO ovaries also exhibit fewer preovulatory follicle ( P < 0.05) and corpora lutea numbers ( P < 0.01). However, embryo development to the blastocyst stage is unchanged in ARKO females, and hence, the subfertility is a consequence of reduced ovulations and not altered embryo quality. These findings reveal that the AR has a functional role in neuroendocrine regulation and timing of the ovulatory LH surge as well as antral/preovulatory follicle development.
New Jacobi Elliptic Function Solutions for the Kudryashov-Sinelshchikov Equation Using Improved F-Expansion Method
Authors: He Yinghui
Published: July 2013

Based on the F-expansion method with a new subequation, an improved F-expansion method is introduced. As illustrative examples, some new exact solutions expressed by the Jacobi elliptic function of the Kudryashov-Sinelshchikov equation are obtained. When the modulusmof the Jacobi elliptic function is driven to the limits 1 and 0, some exact solutions expressed by hyperbolic function and trigonometric function can also be obtained. The method is straightforward and concise and is promising and powerful for other nonlinear evolution equations in mathematical physics.
Inertia Effects in the Flow of a Herschel-Bulkley ERF between Fixed Surfaces of Revolution
Authors: Walicka A. , Falicki J.
Published: July 2013

Many electrorheological fluids (ERFs) as fluids with microstructure demonstrate viscoplastic behaviours. Rheometric measurements indicate that some flows of these fluids may be modelled as the flows of a Herschel-Bulkley fluid. In this paper, the flow of a Herschel-Bulkley ER fluid—with a fractional power-law exponent—in a narrow clearance between two fixed surfaces of revolution with common axis of symmetry is considered. The flow is externally pressurized, and it is considered with inertia effect. In order to solve this problem, the boundary layer equations are used. The influence of inertia forces on the pressure distribution is examined by using the method of averaged inertia terms of the momentum equation. Numerical examples of externally pressurized ERFs flows in the clearance between parallel disks and concentric spherical surfaces are presented.
Fabrication of Customized Sectional Impression Trays in Management of Patients with Limited Mouth Opening: A Simple and Unique Approach
Authors: Krishna CH Vamsi , Mahendranadh Reddy K. , Gupta Nidhi , Mahadev Shastry Y. , Chandra Sekhar N. , Aditya Venkat , Reddy G. V. K. Mohan
Published: July 2013

Impression making is not only important but is also the most significant step in the fabrication of any fixed or removable prosthesis. Proper impression making may be hindered by certain pathologic conditions. Reduced mouth opening is one of the common mechanical obstructions for proper orientation of the impression tray in the patient’s mouth. In patients with trismus induced by submucous fibrosis, the procedure may be even more difficult to carry out because of reduced tissue resiliency and obliteration of vestibular spaces. Use of sectional trays offers one of the alternatives to overcome the problem of restricted mouth opening. Fabrication of customized impression trays according to the patient dentition improves the accuracy of impression making. The present case reports describe the fabrication of sectional custom trays designed for dentulous patients with chronic tobacco-induced submucous fibrosis.
Telescoping Intestine in an Adult
Authors: Shaheen Khaldoon , Eisa Naseem , Alraiyes Abdul Hamid , Alraies M. Chadi , Merugu Srinivas
Published: July 2013

Protrusion of a bowel segment into another (intussusception) produces severe abdominal pain and culminates in intestinal obstruction. In adults, intestinal obstruction due to intussusception is relatively rare phenomenon, as it accounts for minority of intestinal obstructions in this population demographic. Organic lesion is usually identifiable as the cause of adult intussusceptions, neoplasms account for the majority. Therefore, surgical resection without reduction is almost always necessary and is advocated as the best treatment of adult intussusception. Here, we describe a rare case of a 44-year-old male with a diffuse large B-cell lymphoma involving the terminal ileum, which had caused ileocolic intussusception and subsequently developed intestinal obstruction requiring surgical intervention. This case emphasizes the importance of recognizing intussusception as the initial presentation for bowel malignancy.
Photocatalytic Degradation of Humic Acid by Fe-TiO2Supported on Spherical Activated Carbon with Enhanced Activity
Authors: Baek Mi-Hwa , Hong Ji-Sook , Yoon Ji-Won , Suh Jeong-Kwon
Published: July 2013

Fe-TiO2supported on spherical activated carbon (Fe-TiO2/SAC) with different Fe contents was prepared by heat treatment process after ion exchange method. The prepared Fe-TiO2/SAC was characterized by SEM, EDS, and BET. Batch experiments for photocatalytic degradation of humic acid by Fe-TiO2/SAC were carried out in the fluidized bed photoreactor. It was found that 0 wt% Fe-TiO2/SAC had high photocatalytic activity in the wavelength range of 100~280 nm. However, Fe-TiO2/SAC with Fe contents of 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8 wt% exhibited higher photocatalytic activity than 0 wt% Fe-TiO2/SAC in the wavelength range of 315~400 nm compared to that of 100~280 nm. The optimum Fe content was 0.6 wt% for maximum photocatalytic degradation of humic acid. Moreover, Fe-TiO2/SAC does not require an additional process step for separation of photocatalyst from treated water after photocatalysis.
Systematic Modeling of Impacts of Land Use and Land Cover Changes on Regional Climate: A Review
Authors: Deng Xiangzheng , Zhao Chunhong , Yan Haiming
Published: July 2013

There have been tremendous changes in the global land use pattern in the past 50 years, which has directly or indirectly exerted significant influence on the global climate change. Quantitative analysis for the impacts of land use and land cover changes (LUCC) on surface climate is one of the core scientific issues to quantitatively analyze the impacts of LUCC on the climate so as to scientifically understand the influence of human activities on the climate change. This paper comprehensively analyzed the primary scientific issues about the impacts of LUCC on the regional climate and reviewed the progress in relevant researches. Firstly, it introduced the influence mechanism of LUCC on the regional climate and reviewed the progress in the researches on the biogeophysical process and biogeochemical process. Then the model simulation of effects of LUCC on the regional climate was introduced, and the development from the global climate model to the regional climate model and the integration of the improved land surface model and the regional climate model were reviewed in detail. Finally, this paper discussed the application of the regional climate models in the development and management of agricultural land and urban land.
FructationIn Vivo: Detrimental and Protective Effects of Fructose
Authors: Semchyshyn H. M.
Published: July 2013

There is compelling evidence that long-term intake of excessive fructose can have deleterious side effects in different experimental models. However, the role of fructosein vivoremains controversial, since acute temporary application of fructose is found to protect yeast as well as animal tissues against exogenous oxidative stress. This review suggests the involvement of reactive carbonyl and oxygen species in both the cytotoxic and defensive effects of fructose. Potential mechanisms of the generation of reactive species by fructose in the nonenzymatic reactions, their implication in the detrimental and protective effects of fructose are discussed.
A Novel Algorithm for Feature Level Fusion Using SVM Classifier for Multibiometrics-Based Person Identification
Authors: Gawande Ujwalla , Zaveri Mukesh , Kapur Avichal
Published: July 2013

Recent times witnessed many advancements in the field of biometric and ultimodal biometric fields. This is typically observed in the area, of security, privacy, and forensics. Even for the best of unimodal biometric systems, it is often not possible to achieve a higher recognition rate. Multimodal biometric systems overcome various limitations of unimodal biometric systems, such as nonuniversality, lower false acceptance, and higher genuine acceptance rates. More reliable recognition performance is achievable as multiple pieces of evidence of the same identity are available. The work presented in this paper is focused on multimodal biometric system using fingerprint and iris. Distinct textual features of the iris and fingerprint are extracted using the Haar wavelet-based technique. A novel feature level fusion algorithm is developed to combine these unimodal features using the Mahalanobis distance technique. A support-vector-machine-based learning algorithm is used to train the system using the feature extracted. The performance of the proposed algorithms is validated and compared with other algorithms using the CASIA iris database and real fingerprint database. From the simulation results, it is evident that our algorithm has higher recognition rate and very less false rejection rate compared to existing approaches.
An Acute Transverse Myelitis Attack after Total Body Irradiation: A Rare Case
Authors: Keklik Muzaffer , Kaynar Leylagul , Yildirim Afra , Sivgin Serdar , Eroglu Celalettin , Cingoz Serife , Pala Cigdem , Eser Bulent , Cetin Mustafa , Unal Ali
Published: July 2013

Total body irradiation (TBI) combined with chemotherapy is widely used as a pretreatment regimen of bone marrow transplantation (BMT) in hematologic disorders. Late complications related to TBI as part of the conditioning regimen for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation have been revealed. Acute transverse myelitis (ATM) is a neurological syndrome characterized by disorder of motor, sensorial, and autonomic nerves, and tracts at medulla spinalis, which is resulted from involvement of spinal cord. In this paper, we presented an ATM attack developed after TBI in a patient with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) as it is a rarely seen case.
Advances in the Applications of Polyhydroxyalkanoate Nanoparticles for Novel Drug Delivery System
Authors: Shrivastav Anupama , Kim Hae-Yeong , Kim Young-Rok
Published: July 2013

Drug delivery technology is emerging as an interdisciplinary science aimed at improving human health. The controlled delivery of pharmacologically active agents to the specific site of action at the therapeutically optimal rate and dose regimen has been a major goal in designing drug delivery systems. Over the past few decades, there has been considerable interest in developing biodegradable drug carriers as effective drug delivery systems. Polymeric materials from natural sources play an important role in controlled release of drug at a particular site. Polyhydroxyalkanoates, due to their origin from natural sources, are given attention as candidates for drug delivery materials. Biodegradable and biocompatible polyhydroxyalkanoates are linear polyesters produced by microorganisms under unbalanced growth conditions, which have emerged as potential polymers for use as biomedical materials for drug delivery due to their unique physiochemical and mechanical properties. This review summarizes many of the key findings in the applications of polyhydroxyalkanoates and polyhydroxyalkanoate nanoparticles for drug delivery system.
Structural and Electrical Characteristics of Metal-Ferroelectric Pb1.1(Zr0.40Ti0.60)O3-Insulator (ZnO)-Silicon Capacitors for Nonvolatile Applications
Authors: Krishnamoorthi S. R. , Venkatesh K. S. , Ilangovan Rajangam
Published: July 2013

In this work metal-ferroelectric-insulator-semiconductor (MFIS) thin-film structures usingPb1.1Zr0.40Ti0.60O3(PZT) as the ferroelectric layer and zinc oxide (ZnO) as the insulator layer were fabricated on n-type (100) Si substrate.Pb1.1Zr0.40Ti0.60O3and ZnO thin films were prepared on Si by the sol-gel route and thermal deposition method, respectively. On the optimized PZT (140 nm) and ZnO (40 nm) films were examined by scanning electron microscope (SEM). From AFM data the root mean square (r.m.s.) roughness of the film surface is 13.11 nm. The leakage current density of ZnO/n-Si (MIS) structure was as low as 1.8 × 10−8A/cm2at 2.5 V. The capacitance versus voltage (C-V) characteristics of the annealed ZnO/Si (MIS) diode indicated the good interface properties and no hysteresis was observed. Au/PZT (140 nm)/ZnO (40 nm)/Si (100) leakage-current density was about 5.7 × 10−8 A/cm2at positive bias voltage of 3 V. The large memory window width in C-V (capacitance-voltage) curve of Au/PZT/ZnO/Si capacitor was about 2.9 V under ±12 V which thus possibly enables nonvolatile applications. The memory window as a function of temperature was also discussed.
Analytical Treatment and Convergence of the Adomian Decomposition Method for Instability Phenomena Arising during Oil Recovery Process
Authors: Meher Ramakanta , Meher Srikanta K.
Published: July 2013

An abstract result is proved for the convergence of Adomian decomposition method for partial differential equations that model porous medium equation. Moreover, we prove that this decomposition scheme applied to a porous medium equation arising in instability phenomena in double phase flow through porous media is convergent in a suitable Hilbert space. Furthermore, this technique is utilized to find closed-form solutions for the problem under consideration.
Cuttings Transport Models and Experimental Visualization of Underbalanced Horizontal Drilling
Authors: Wei Na , Meng YingFeng , Li Gao , Wan LiPing , Xu ZhaoYang , Xu XiaoFeng , Zhang YuRui
Published: July 2013

Aerated underbalanced horizontal drilling technology has become the focus of the drilling industry at home and abroad, and one of the engineering core issues is the horizontal borehole cleaning. Therefore, calculating the minimum injection volume of gas and liquid accurately is essential for the construction in aerated underbalanced horizontal drilling. This paper establishes a physical model of carrying cuttings and borehole cleaning in wellbore of horizontal well and a critical transport mathematical model according to gas-liquid-solid flow mechanism and large plane dunes particle transport theory.
Correlating Pap Smear Results and Colposcopy-Directed Large Loop Excision of the Transformation Zone Histopathology in HIV-Infected and HIV-Uninfected Women: A Case-Control Study in South Africa
Authors: van Bogaert Louis-J.
Published: July 2013

Background. In low-resource settings (LRS) with high HIV/AIDS and cervical cancer rates, new screening strategies face many logistic hurdles. Since cytology is there to stay, at least in the median-term future, it is important to assess to what extent HIV-HPV coinfection impacts the accuracy of screening methods and strategies. Methods. We audited the correlation between cytological diagnosis of minimal abnormality (CIN1), CIN2+, or cancer and the histological diagnosis of colposcopy-directed large loop excision of the transformation zone of 399 HIV-uninfected controls and 389 HIV-infected cases. Results. The average age at diagnosis of CIN2+ of the cases was 4.2 years younger than controls (). The endpoint used to assess the accuracy of cytology was minimal cytological abnormality (≤CIN1/LGSIL). The sensitivity, specificity, and negative and positive predictive values were 92.7, 18.5, 45.1, and 77.9%, respectively. The overall ratio of discordance/concordance between cytology and histology was similar in both groups. Conclusion. In LRS, where rapid-HPV testing is not yet part of screening algorithms, a cytological diagnosis of minimal abnormality requires visual inspection and treatment of visualized lesions especially in HIV-infected women aged 30 years. The cytological endpoint of accuracy should be set low to avoid false negative smears.
Some New Classes of Open Distance-Pattern Uniform Graphs
Authors: Jose Bibin K.
Published: July 2013

Given an arbitrary nonempty subset M of vertices in a graph G=(V,E), each vertex u in G is associated with the set fMo(u)={d(u,v):v∈M,u≠v} and called its open M-distance-pattern. The graph G is called open distance-pattern uniform (odpu-) graph if there exists a subset M of V(G) such that fMo(u)=fMo(v) for all u,v∈V(G), and M is called an open distance-pattern uniform (odpu-) set of G. The minimum cardinality of an odpu-set in G, if it exists, is called the odpu-number of G and is denoted by od(G). Given some property P, we establish characterization of odpu-graph with property P. In this paper, we characterize odpu-chordal graphs, and thereby characterize interval graphs, split graphs, strongly chordal graphs, maximal outerplanar graphs, and ptolemaic graphs that are odpu-graphs. We also characterize odpu-self-complementary graphs, odpu-distance-hereditary graphs, and odpu-cographs. We prove that the odpu-number of cographs is even and establish that any graph G can be embedded into a self-complementary odpu-graph H, such that G and G¯ are induced subgraphs of H. We also prove that the odpu-number of a maximal outerplanar graph is either 2 or 5.
Proteomic Changes Induced by Effective Chemopreventive Ratios of n-3:n-6 Fatty Acids and Tamoxifen against MNU-Induced Mammary Cancer in the Rat
Authors: Skibinski Christine G. , Thompson Henry J. , Das Arunangshu , Manni Andrea , Bortner James D. , Stanley Anne , Stanley Bruce A. , El-Bayoumy Karam
Published: July 2013

We used a proteomic approach to gain insights into the mechanisms of protection at the protein level by a high n-3:n-6 ratio in the absence and presence of Tamoxifen. Four groups were treated with 1-methyl-1-nitrosourea (MNU) and fed the following diets with varied n-3:n-6 ratios; group 1 = 1:1; groups 2 and 3 = 10:1 and 25:1, respectively; group 4: (25:1) plus Tamoxifen (1 mg/kg diet). The plasma from six rats/group was pooled and analyzed with the isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation method; 148 proteins were identified with 95% confidence by ProteinPilot 4.0. In plasma of rats fed 10:1, 25:1 n-3:n-6, and 25:1 plus Tamoxifen, the number of proteins that met our criteria (P ≤ 0.05, error factor ≤ 2) were 10, 14, and 19 proteins, respectively. Selected proteins were further validated by Western blotting. Compared to 1:1, both 10:1 and 25:1 diets upregulated vitamin D binding protein, gelsolin, and 14-3-3 sigma, reported to have tumor suppressive effects, whereas alpha-1B-glycoprotein, which has been reported to be elevated in the serum of breast cancer patients was decreased. Compared to 25:1, the 25:1 plus Tamoxifen diet downregulated apolipoprotein E, haptoglobin, and inter-α-inhibitor H4 heavy chain. Ingenuity pathway analysis determined that the trends of specific proteins were related to lipid metabolism in the 25:1 n-3:n-6 group, whereas the 25:1 n-3:n-6 plus Tamoxifen group included proteins involved in cancer and inflammation. Our results show that several proteins were altered in a manner consistent with chemoprevention. Such proteins may serve as biomarkers to monitor efficacy of n-3 and Tamoxifen in future clinical chemoprevention trials. Cancer Prev Res; 6(9); 979–88. ©2013 AACR.
Africa e Brasil: uma transposição didática e cultural
Authors: Inafuku Isis Megumi , Zago Natália Dresser
Published: July 2013

Este depoimento relata uma experiência de aula que buscava, usando aspectos do continente africano, realizar uma transposição didática, explorando conteúdos ligados a Geografia, História, alfabetização, interpretação de texto, diversidade cultural e movimentos corporais.