Performance of Distributed Multiple Viscoelastic Tuned Mass Dampers for Floor Vibration Applications

Floor vibration due to human activities is becoming a significant concern to designers and developers of long span lightweight floor systems. Modern office floors are now constructed with longer spans and lighter structural members. Actual office dead loads and floor damping are significantly lower than what they were in the past, increasing the potential for annoying floor vibration. Traditional techniques to reduce vibrations through structural modifications have some serious shortcomings, especially with existing structures. This paper discusses the development of an innovative configuration for a tuned mass damper (TMD) using viscoelastic material in rectifying problematic floors. General analytical formulae to predict the response of a floor fitted with multiple identical TMDs are developed. Experimental and numerical studies on the performance of a custom-made distributed multiple viscoelastic TMD system in suppressing the vibration level on an actual office floor subjected to various types of excitations are discussed. The effects of the damper location, the variation in the floor and/or dampers dynamic characteristics on the effectiveness of this control approach have been taken into account. The installed damper system has successfully suppressed the floor response level to an acceptable limit for human comfort, in the case study presented

MOESM1 of Novel identification and characterisation of Transient receptor potential melastatin 3 ion channels on Natural Killer cells and B lymphocytes: effects on cell signalling in Chronic fatigue syndrome/Myalgic encephalomyelitis patients

Additional file 1: Table S1. The cell populations CD56 Bright, CD56 Dim and CD19+ cells expressing TRPM3 as percentage of parent cells (%) and Mean Fluorescence Intensity (MFI)

MOESM2 of Novel identification and characterisation of Transient receptor potential melastatin 3 ion channels on Natural Killer cells and B lymphocytes: effects on cell signalling in Chronic fatigue syndrome/Myalgic encephalomyelitis patients

Additional file 2: Figure S1. Dot plots gating strategies for TRPM3 expressed on NK cells. Identification of NK cell subsets and TRPM3 positive in healthy controls (a.) and CFS/ME patient (b.) that are based on the isotype controls (c.)

MOESM3 of Novel identification and characterisation of Transient receptor potential melastatin 3 ion channels on Natural Killer cells and B lymphocytes: effects on cell signalling in Chronic fatigue syndrome/Myalgic encephalomyelitis patients

Additional file 3: Figure S2. Dot plots gating strategies for TRPM3 expressed on B cells. Identification of B cell subsets and TRPM3 positive in healthy controls (a.) and CFS/ME patient (b.) that are based on the isotype controls (c.)

Door to disposition times for obstetric triage visits: Is there a July phenomenon?

<p>The July phenomenon refers to a change in patient outcomes within teaching hospitals with the arrival of new and inexperienced house staff at the start of the academic year (July to June). In our obstetric triage unit we retrospectively evaluated the door to disposition time (DTDT) for 1817 patients who presented across July, December and May of academic years 2009–2010 and 2010–2011. DTDT was examined for three visit levels: non-urgent, urgent and emergent. No significant differences in disposition time were found for emergent visits. For urgent visits the median DTDT significantly decreased from 171 min in July to 155 min in December and 135 min in May (<i>p</i> < 0.001). Similarly for non-urgent visits, the median DTDT was greater during July than May (179 min vs. 133 min; <i>p</i> < 0.05). Electronic medical records (EMRs) were implemented in November 2010. Following the introduction of EMR shorter DTDT was seen in December 2010 versus December 2009 (median, 171 min vs. 150 min; <i>p</i> < 0.05), respectively. Our findings suggest a ‘July Phenomenon’ of greater disposition intervals for urgent and non-urgent obstetric triage visits across the academic year. Additionally the use of EMRs may facilitate patient flow through the OB triage unit.</p

3D printing: an emerging tool for novel microfluidics and lab-on-a-chip applications

In the past few years, 3D printing technology has witnessed an explosive growth, penetrating various aspects of our lives. Current best-in-class 3D printers can fabricate micrometer scale objects, which has made fabrication of microfluidic devices possible. The highest achievable resolution is already at nanometer scale, which is continuing to drop. Since geometric complexity is not a concern for 3D printing, novel 3D microfluidics and lab-on-a-chip systems that are otherwise impossible to produce with traditional 2D microfabrication technology have started to emerge in recent years. In this review, we first introduce the basics of 3D printing technology for the microfluidic community and then summarize its emerging applications in creating novel microfluidic devices. We foresee widespread utilization of 3D printing for future developments in microfluidic engineering and lab-on-a-chip technology

List of software for ancestral reconstruction.

List of software for ancestral reconstruction.</p

Graphical representation of an asymmetrical five-state 2-parameter Markov chain model.

<p>Graphical representation of an asymmetrical five-state 2-parameter Markov chain model.</p

Phylogeny of a hypothetical genus of plants with pollination states of either “bees”, “hummingbirds”, or “wind” denoted by pictues at the tips.

<p>Pollination state nodes in the phylogenetic tree inferred under maximum parsimony are coloured on the branches leading into them (yellow represents “bee” pollination, red representing “hummingbird” pollination, and black representing “wind” pollination, dual coloured branches are equally parsimonious for the two states coloured). Assignment of “hummingbird” as the root state (because of prior knowledge from the fossil record) leads to the pattern of ancestral states represented by symbols at the nodes of the phylogeny, the state requiring the fewest number of changes to give rise to the pattern observed at the tips is circled at each node.</p

Ancestral Reconstruction - Fig 5

<p><b>Plots of 200 trajectories of each of: Brownian motion with drift 0 and <i>σ</i>² = 1 (black); Ornstein–Uhlenbeck with <i>σ</i>² = 1 and <i>α</i> = −4 (green); and Ornstein–Uhlenbeck with <i>σ</i>² = 1 and <i>α</i> = −40 (orange)</b>.</p