Morphological characterization of standard chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat.)

Ten diverse chrysanthemum varieties were evaluated for their suitability as cut flower, flower arrangement and pot plant. The maximum plant height at bud appearance (71.82 cm) and at anthesis (77.23 cm) was recorded in Snow Ball, while, it was recorded minimum at bud appearance (44.08 cm) and flower opening stage (48.10 cm) in Purnima. The longest duration of flowering (33.73 days) was recorded in Thai Chen Queen, whereas, the least flowering duration (23.63 days) was recorded in Swan Dance. The variety Pusa Centenary exhibited the longest vase life (22.00 days), however, the least vase life (16.00 days) was recorded in Valliant. Depending upon the compactness, medium size and vase life, Thai Chen Queen, Purnima, Pusa Centenary, Otam Blaze and Denise Oatridge were found suitable for pot culture, cut flower and flower arrangements, whereas, the varieties with big flower such as Snow Ball, Kikobiory, Sonar Bangla, Valliant and Swan Dance were identified for pot culture and exhibition purpose

Computational modelling of emboli travel trajectories in cerebral arteries: Influence of microembolic particle size and density

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Ischaemic stroke is responsible for up to 80 % of stroke cases. Prevention of the reoccurrence of ischaemic attack or stroke for patients who survived the first symptoms is the major treatment target. Accurate diagnosis of the emboli source for a specific infarction lesion is very important for a better treatment for the patient. However, due to the complex blood flow patterns in the cerebral arterial network, little is known so far of the embolic particle flow trajectory and its behaviour in such a complex flow field. The present study aims to study the trajectories of embolic particles released from carotid arteries and basilar artery in a cerebral arterial network and the influence of particle size, mass and release location to the particle distributions, by computational modelling. The cerebral arterial network model, which includes major arteries in the circle of Willis and several generations of branches from them, was generated from MRI images. Particles with diameters of 200, 500 and 800 μ m and densities of 800, 1,030 and 1,300 kg/m 3 were released in the vessel's central and near-wall regions. A fully coupled scheme of particle and blood flow in a computational fluid dynamics software ANASYS CFX 13 was used in the simulations. The results show that heavy particles (density large than blood or a diameter larger than 500 μ m) normally have small travel speeds in arteries; larger or lighter embolic particles are more likely to travel to large branches in cerebral arteries. In certain cases, all large particles go to the middle cerebral arteries; large particles with higher travel speeds in large arteries are likely to travel at more complex and tortuous trajectories; emboli raised from the basilar artery will only exit the model from branches of basilar artery and posterior cerebral arteries. A modified Circle of Willis configuration can have significant influence on particle distributions. The local branch patterns of internal carotid artery to middle cerebral artery and anterior communicating artery can have large impact on such distributions. © 2014 The Author(s)

DNA amplification fingerprinting of chrysanthemum cultivars

The genetic distance of closely related cultivars of chrysanthemum (Dendranthema grandiflora) was assessed using DNA Amplification Fingerprinting (DAF). Twenty-one cultivars of chrysanthemum included in the study were members of the following series: Anne (3), Blush (3), Boaldi (2), Charm (5), Davis (4), and Pomona (4). The genetic variability of these cultivars within and between series were evaluated using eleven arbitrary octamer primers. A few polymorphic loci were found that uniquely identified closely related cultivars within a series. In contrast, many polymorphisms were observed between members of different series. Genetic distances between cultivars were evaluated using UPGMA (Unweighted Pair Group Cluster Analysis Using Arithmetic Means) and Principal Coordinate Analysis. The average genetic distance between series was ten fold greater than between cultivars within a series. DNA from all cultivars belonging to a series were also bulked to generate DNA profiles containing unique amplified products for each series. Polymorphic loci that were generated by the DAF technique can possibly be utilized for patent protection, phylogenic studies and for identification of useful markers in breeding

Identification of High Platelet Reactivity Despite ADP P2Y12 Inhibitor Treatment: Two Populations in the Vasodilator-Stimulated Phosphoprotein Assay and Variable PFA-P2Y Shapes of Curve.

Introduction Response to ADP P2Y <sub>12</sub> receptor inhibition by clopidogrel can be evaluated by various techniques. Here, we compared a functional rapid point-of-care technique (PFA-P2Y) with the degree of biochemical inhibition assessed by the VASP/P2Y <sub>12</sub> assay. Methods Platelet response to clopidogrel was investigated in 173 patients undergoing elective intracerebral stenting (derivation cohort n = 117; validation cohort n = 56). High platelet reactivity (HPR) was defined as PFA-P2Y occlusion time <106 seconds or VASP/P2Y <sub>12</sub> platelet reactivity index (PRI) >50%. Results In the derivation cohort, receiver operator characteristics analysis for the ability of PFA-P2Y to detect biochemical HPR showed high specificity (98.4%) but poor sensitivity (20.0%) and a very low area under the curve (0.59). The VASP/P2Y <sub>12</sub> assay revealed two coexisting platelet populations with different levels of vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP) phosphorylation: a fraction of highly phosphorylated, inhibited platelets and another of poorly phosphorylated, reactive platelets. Analysis of the PFA-P2Y curve shape revealed different types, categorized by time of occlusion (<106 seconds, 106 to 300 seconds, >300 seconds), and pattern (regular, irregular, and atypical). Noteworthy, curves with late occlusion and permeable curves with an irregular or atypical pattern correlated with VASP-PRI >50% and smaller sizes of the inhibited platelet subpopulation. Considering the PFA-P2Y shape of the curve for the detection of HPR improved sensitivity (72.7%) and preserved specificity (91.9%), with a rather high AUC (0.823). The validation cohort confirmed the VASP/P2Y <sub>12</sub> assay data and the usefulness of considering the PFA-P2Y curve shape. Conclusion In patients treated with acetylsalicylic acid and clopidogrel for 7-10 days, the VASP/P2Y <sub>12</sub> assay reveals two coexisting subpopulations of differentially inhibited platelets, whose relative sizes predict global PRI and distinct PFA-P2Y curve patterns, indicating incomplete clopidogrel efficacy. The detailed analysis of both VASP/P2Y <sub>12</sub> and PFA-P2Y is necessary for optimal detection of HPR

In and Out: Senses and Meaning Extension of Mandarin Spatial Terms nei and wai

PACLIC 19 / Taipei, taiwan / December 1-3, 200

A multi-level parallel solver for rarefied gas flows in porous media

A high-performance gas kinetic solver using multi-level parallelization is developed to enable pore-scale simulations of rarefied flows in porous media. The Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook model equation is solved by the discrete velocity method with an iterative scheme. The multi-level MPI/OpenMP parallelization is implemented with the aim to efficiently utilize the computational resources to allow direct simulation of rarefied gas flows in porous media based on digital rock images for the first time. The multi-level parallel approach is analyzed in detail confirming its better performance than the commonly-used MPI processing alone for an iterative scheme. With high communication efficiency and appropriate load balancing among CPU processes, parallel efficiency of 94% is achieved for 1536 cores in the 2D simulations, and 81% for 12288 cores in the 3D simulations. While decomposition in the spatial space does not affect the simulation results, one additional benefit of this approach is that the number of subdomains can be kept minimal to avoid deterioration of the convergence rate of the iteration process. This multi-level parallel approach can be readily extended to solve other Boltzmann model equations

Gravitational Search Algorithm for NURBS Curve Fitting

By providing great flexibility non-uniform rational B-spline (NURBS) curves and surfaces are reason of preferability on areas like computer aided design, medical imaging and computer graphics. Knots, control points and weights provide this flexibility. Computation of these parameters makes the problem as a non-linear combinational optimization problem on a process of reverse engineering. The ability of solving these problems using meta-heuristics instead of conventional methods attracts researchers. In this paper, NURBS curve estimation is carried out by a novel optimization method namely gravitational search algorithm. Both knots and knots together weights simultaneous optimization process is implemented by using research agents. The high performance of the proposed method on NURBS curve fitting is showed by obtained results.Keywords: Non-uniform rational B-spline, gravitational search algorithm, meta-heuristi