Error Reduction Program

The details of a study to select, incorporate and evaluate the best available finite difference scheme to reduce numerical error in combustor performance evaluation codes are described. The combustor performance computer programs chosen were the two dimensional and three dimensional versions of Pratt & Whitney's TEACH code. The criteria used to select schemes required that the difference equations mirror the properties of the governing differential equation, be more accurate than the current hybrid difference scheme, be stable and economical, be compatible with TEACH codes, use only modest amounts of additional storage, and be relatively simple. The methods of assessment used in the selection process consisted of examination of the difference equation, evaluation of the properties of the coefficient matrix, Taylor series analysis, and performance on model problems. Five schemes from the literature and three schemes developed during the course of the study were evaluated. This effort resulted in the incorporation of a scheme in 3D-TEACH which is usuallly more accurate than the hybrid differencing method and never less accurate

Fine-mapping the wheat Snn1 locus conferring sensitivity to the Parastagonospora nodorum necrotrophic effector SnTox1 using an eight founder multiparent advanced generation inter-cross population

The necrotrophic fungus Parastagonospora nodorum is an important pathogen of one of the world’s most economically important cereal crops, wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). P. nodorum produces necrotrophic protein effectors that mediate host cell death, providing nutrients for continuation of the infection process. The recent discovery of pathogen effectors has revolutionized disease resistance breeding for necrotrophic diseases in crop species, allowing often complex genetic resistance mechanisms to be broken down into constituent parts. To date, three effectors have been identified in P. nodorum. Here we use the effector, SnTox1, to screen 642 progeny from an eight-parent multiparent advanced generation inter-cross (i.e., MAGIC) population, genotyped with a 90,000-feature single-nucleotide polymorphism array. The MAGIC founders showed a range of sensitivity to SnTox1, with transgressive segregation evident in the progeny. SnTox1 sensitivity showed high heritability, with quantitative trait locus analyses fine-mapping the Snn1 locus to the short arm of chromosome 1B. In addition, a previously undescribed SnTox1 sensitivity locus was identified on the long arm of chromosome 5A, termed here QSnn.niab-5A.1. The peak single-nucleotide polymorphism for the Snn1 locus was converted to the KASP genotyping platform, providing breeders and researchers a simple and cheap diagnostic marker for allelic state at Snn1

An eight-parent multiparent advanced generation inter-cross population for winter-sown wheat: creation, properties, and validation

MAGIC populations represent one of a new generation of crop genetic mapping resources combining high genetic recombination and diversity. We describe the creation and validation of an eight-parent MAGIC population consisting of 1091 F7 lines of winter-sown wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Analyses based on genotypes from a 90,000-single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array find the population to be well-suited as a platform for fine-mapping quantitative trait loci (QTL) and gene isolation. Patterns of linkage disequilibrium (LD) show the population to be highly recombined; genetic marker diversity among the founders was 74% of that captured in a larger set of 64 wheat varieties, and 54% of SNPs segregating among the 64 lines also segregated among the eight founder lines. In contrast, a commonly used reference bi-parental population had only 54% of the diversity of the 64 varieties with 27% of SNPs segregating. We demonstrate the potential of this MAGIC resource by identifying a highly diagnostic marker for the morphological character "awn presence/absence" and independently validate it in an association-mapping panel. These analyses show this large, diverse, and highly recombined MAGIC population to be a powerful resource for the genetic dissection of target traits in wheat, and it is well-placed to efficiently exploit ongoing advances in phenomics and genomics. Genetic marker and trait data, together with instructions for access to seed, are available at http://www.niab.com/MAGIC/

Characterization of particle rebound phenomena in the erosion of turbomachinery

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77337/1/AIAA-44864-924.pd

Clomiphene, Metformin, or Both for Infertility in the Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Background The polycystic ovary syndrome is a common cause of infertility. Clomiphene and insulin sensitizers are used alone and in combination to induce ovulation, but it is unknown whether one approach is superior. Methods We randomly assigned 626 infertile women with the polycystic ovary syndrome to receive clomiphene citrate plus placebo, extended-release metformin plus placebo, or a combination of metformin and clomiphene for up to 6 months. Medication was discontinued when pregnancy was confirmed, and subjects were followed until delivery. Results The live-birth rate was 22.5% (47 of 209 subjects) in the clomiphene group, 7.2% (15 of 208) in the metformin group, and 26.8% (56 of 209) in the combinationtherapy group (P\u3c0.001 for metformin vs. both clomiphene and combination therapy; P=0.31 for clomiphene vs. combination therapy). Among pregnancies, the rate of multiple pregnancy was 6.0% in the clomiphene group, 0% in the metformin group, and 3.1% in the combination-therapy group. The rates of first-trimester pregnancy loss did not differ significantly among the groups. However, the conception rate among subjects who ovulated was significantly lower in the metformin group (21.7%) than in either the clomiphene group (39.5%, P=0.002) or the combinationtherapy group (46.0%, P\u3c0.001). With the exception of pregnancy complications, adverse-event rates were similar in all groups, though gastrointestinal side effects were more frequent, and vasomotor and ovulatory symptoms less frequent, in the metformin group than in the clomiphene group. Conclusions Clomiphene is superior to metformin in achieving live birth in infertile women with the polycystic ovary syndrome, although multiple birth is a complication. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00068861.

Natural Convection Heat Transfer in Enclosures With Multiple Vertical Partitions

of air or vacuum, N 2 = n + IK is the complex refractive index of the lamina material, and 9 2 is the (complex) angle of refraction, which is related to 9 t by Snell's law: N, sin #, = N 2 sin 9 2 . Since r 2l = -r i2 , the reflectance at both interfaces is equal to p = r n rf 2 , where * denotes the complex conjugate. The internal transmittance T is related to the (complex) phase change 6 by r = exp . After carefully examining the transmittance formulae of a lamina, this work shows that the geometric-optics formula may result in a significant error for a highly absorbing medium even in the incoherent limit (when interference effects are negligible). Introduction Consider the transmission of electromagnetic radiation through a lamina with smooth and parallel surfaces. In the incoherent limit when radiation coherence length is much smaller than the thickness of the lamina, the transmittance (or reflectance) may be obtained either by tracing the multiply reflected radiant power fluxes (ray-tracing method) or by separating the power flux at each interface into an outgoing component and an incoming component (net-radiation method), viz. ( where p is the reflectance at the interface and r is the internal transmittance. This formula is also called the geometric-optics formula since it is obtained without considering interference effects. For a plane wave, p equals the square of the absolute value of the complex Fresnel reflection coefficient (i.e., the ratio of the reflected electric field to the incident electric field at the interface). The Fresnel reflection coefficient is (Heavens, 1965) r\ 2 = { cos 9 2 -N 2 cos f?i JVi cos (2) N, cos 0, -N 2 cos 6*2 , . , for s -polarization ,7V, cos 9 t + N 2 cos 9 2 where 9 l is the angle of incidence, /V, = 1 is the refractive index where d is the lamina thickness and X is the wavelength in vacuum. In the coherent limit, the transmittance of a lamina may be obtained from thin-film optics (i.e., wave optics) either by tracing the reflected and transmitted waves (Airy's method) or by separating the electric fields into a forward-propagating component (forward wave) and a backward-propagating component (backward wave), viz. (Heavens, 1965; Analysis and Discussion The power transmittance at the interface between the air (or vacuum) and the medium (lamina) is where (1 + r !2 ) is the Fresnel transmission coefficient. The power transmittance at the second interface between the medium and the air can be obtained by exchanging the subscripts 1 and 2 in Eq. (6). At normal incidence, r 12 = (1 -n -('K)/(1 If both K and Im(r 21 ) are nonzero, T 2 \ =t= 1 -p. As discussed by Journal of Heat Transfer AUGUST 1997, Vol. 119/645 Copyright © 1997 by ASME Zhang The above equation is identical to Eq. (5). However, it is not a simple replacement of (1 -p) 2 in Eq. As an example, suppose the lamina is a LaA10 3 wafer of thickness d = 100 p,m. The optical constants are calculated from the Lorentian dielectric function determined by (1) and the transmittance for a LaA10 3 lamina at wavelengths from 9 to 14 p,m at normal incidence are shown in The difference between the wave-optics formula and the incoherent formula is shown in For a highly absorbing lamina (i.e., r < § 1), multiple reflections may be neglected. The transmittance obtained from Eq. (1), when multiple reflections are negligible, is (1 -pfr. The transmittance calculated from Eq. (8) for T < 1 is where the last expression is for normal incidence only. Eq. Concluding Remarks By inspecting the energy balance at the second interface, this work reveals an implicit assumption associated with Eq. Certain important applications require the determination of transmittance below 10~4. Examples are in the characterization of attenuation filters, bandpass filters, and materials with strong absorption bands Acknowledgments This work has been supported by the University of Florida through a start-up fund and an Interdisciplinary Research Initiative award. / Vol. 119, AUGUST 1997 Transactions of the ASME A. A., 1994, "Modelling of the Reflectance of Silicon," Infrared Physics and Technology, Vol. 35, pp. 701 -708. Frenkel, A" and Zhang, Z. M" 1994, "Broadband High Optical Density Filters in the Infrared," Optics Letters, Vol. 19, pp. 1495-1497 Gentile, T. R., Frenkel, A" Migdall, A. L., and Zhang, Z. M" 1995, "Neutral Density Filter Measurements at the National Institute of Standards and Technology," Spectrophotometry, Luminescence and Colour; Science and Compliance, C. Burgess and D. G. Jones, eds., Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, pp. 129-139. Grossman, E. N" and McDonald, D. G" 1995, "Partially Coherent Transmittance of Dielectric Lamellae," Optical Engineering, Vol. 34, pp. 1289-1295. Heavens, O. S., 1965, Optical Properties of Thin Solid Films, Dover Publications, Inc., New York, chap. 4, pp. 46-95. Knittl, Z" 1976, Optical of Thin Films, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., NY, pp. 203-204. Salzberg, B., 1948, "A Note on the Significance of Power Reflection," American Journal of Physics, Vol. 16, pp. 444-446. Siegel, R" and Howell, J. R., 1992, Thermal Radiation Heat Transfer, 3rd ed" Hemisphere Publishing Corp., Washington D.C., chap. 4, p. 120, and chap. 18, pp. 928-930. Yeh, P., 1988, Optical Waves in Layered Media, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, chap. 4, pp. 83-101. Zhang, Z. M., 199

Infertility treatment outcome in sub groups of obese population

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Obesity is a common disorder with a negative impact on IVF treatment outcome. It is not clear whether morbidly obese women (BMI >= 35 kg/m2) respond to treatment differently as compared to obese women (BMI = 30–34.9 kg/m2) in IVF. Our aim was to compare the outcome of IVF or ICSI treatments in obese patients to that in morbidly obese patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This retrospective cohort study was conducted in a tertiary care centre. Patients inclusion criteria were as follows; BMI ≥ 30, age 20–40 years old, first cycle IVF/ICSI treatment with primary infertility and long follicular pituitary down regulation protocol.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 406 obese patients (group A) and 141 morbidly obese patients (group B) satisfied the inclusion criteria. Average BMI was 32.1 ± 1.38 kg/m2 for group A versus 37.7 ± 2.99 kg/m²for group B. Patient age, cause of infertility, duration of stimulation, fertilization rate, and number of transferred embryos were similar in both groups. Compared to group A, group B had fewer medium size and mature follicles (14 vs. 16), fewer oocytes collected (7 vs. 9) and required higher doses of HMG (46.2 vs. 38.5 amps). There was also a higher cancellation rate in group B (28.3% vs. 19%) and lower clinical pregnancy rate per started cycle (19.9% vs. 28.6%).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In a homogenous infertile and obese patient population stratified according to their BMI, morbid obesity is associated with unfavorable IVF/ICSI cycle outcome as evidenced by lower pregnancy rates. It is recommended that morbidly obese patients undergo appropriate counseling before the initiation of this expensive and invasive therapy.</p