Material Characterization and Real-Time Wear Evaluation of Pistons and Cylinder Liners of the Tiger 131 Military Tank

Material characterisation and wear evaluation of the original and replacement pistons and cylinder-liners of Tiger 131 is reported. Original piston and cylinder-liner were operative in the Tigers’ engine during WWII. The replacement piston and cylinder-liner were used as substitutes and were obtained after failure in two hours of operation in the actual engine. Material characterisation revealed that the original piston was aluminium silicon hypereutectic alloy whereas the replacement piston was aluminium copper alloy with very low silicon content. Both original and replacement cylinder-liners consisted of mostly iron which is indicative of cast iron, a common material for this application. The replacement piston average surface roughness was found to be 9.09 μm while for replacement cylinder-liner it was 5.78 μm

An experimental study of columnar crystals using monodisperse microbubbles

We investigate the ordered arrangements of monodisperse microbub bles con ned within narrow cylinders. These foams were imaged using X ray tomography, allowing the 3D positions of the bubbles of the foam to be accurately determined. The structure of these foams closely re semble the minimum energy con guration of hard spheres in cylindrical con nement as found in simulations. For larger ratios, , of cylinder to bubble diameter two and three layered crystals were formed. Each layer of these structures is found to be ordered, with each internal layer resem bling structures found at lower values. The average number of contacts per bubble is seen to increase wit

Increased expression of HLA DR2 in acquired aplastic anemia and its impact on response to immunosuppressive therapy

Objective: To study the frequency of HLA DR2 status of patients with aplastic anemia and their response to immunosuppressive therapy at a tertiary care hospital. Methods: Thirty eight consecutive patients of acquired aplastic anemia were evaluated with respect to demographic features, severity of HLA DR2 status and response outcome to immunosuppressive therapy. Results: The mean age of the patients was 24.6 years + 16.4 with a male to female ratio of 2.8:1. Positivity of HLA DR2 was markedly high in acquired aplastic anemia patients. Twenty four (65%) out of 38 patients as compared to 45 (15%) of 300 healthy controls (p\u3c0.0001) were positive for HLA DR2. Response to immunosuppressive therapy, which included antilymphocyte globulin, cyclosporin and methylprednisolone, was available in sixteen HLA DR2 positive patients and was found satisfactory in 12/16 (75%) patients. Conclusion: HLA DR2 was significantly higher in patients with acquired aplastic anemia and favourable response to immunosuppressive therapy was also associated with HLA DR2 positivity (JPMA 54:251;2004)

Boundary condition at the junction

The quantum graph plays the role of a solvable model for a two-dimensional network. Here fitting parameters of the quantum graph for modelling the junction is discussed, using previous results of the second author.Comment: Replaces unpublished draft on related researc

Antitumour activity of pembrolizumab in advanced mucosal melanoma: a post-hoc analysis of KEYNOTE-001, 002, 006.

BackgroundMucosal melanoma is an aggressive melanoma with poor prognosis. We assessed efficacy of pembrolizumab in patients with advanced mucosal melanoma in KEYNOTE-001 (NCT01295827), -002 (NCT01704287), and -006 (NCT01866319).MethodsPatients received pembrolizumab 2 mg/kg every 3 weeks (Q3W) or 10 mg/kg Q2W or Q3W. Response was assessed by independent central review per RECIST v1.1.Results1567 patients were treated and 84 (5%) had mucosal melanoma. Fifty-one of 84 were ipilimumab-naive. In patients with mucosal melanoma, the objective response rate (ORR) was 19% (95% CI 11-29%), with median duration of response (DOR) of 27.6 months (range 1.1 + to 27.6). Median progression-free survival (PFS) was 2.8 months (95% CI 2.7-2.8), with median overall survival (OS) of 11.3 months (7.7-16.6). ORR was 22% (95% CI 11-35%) and 15% (95% CI 5-32%) in ipilimumab-naive and ipilimumab-treated patients.ConclusionPembrolizumab provides durable antitumour activity in patients with advanced mucosal melanoma regardless of prior ipilimumab

Conserved Quantities in f(R)f(R) Gravity via Noether Symmetry

This paper is devoted to investigate $f(R)$ gravity using Noether symmetry approach. For this purpose, we consider Friedmann Robertson-Walker (FRW) universe and spherically symmetric spacetimes. The Noether symmetry generators are evaluated for some specific choice of $f(R)$ models in the presence of gauge term. Further, we calculate the corresponding conserved quantities in each case. Moreover, the importance and stability criteria of these models are discussed.Comment: 14 pages, accepted for publication in Chin. Phys. Let

Jet Quenching in Heavy Ion Collisions

This review article was prepared for the Landolt-Boernstein volume on Relativisitc Heavy Ion Physics.Comment: Review articel accepted for publication in the Landolt-Boernstein Handbook of Physics, ed. R. Stock. 41 pages LaTex, 7 eps-figure

Estimates of hadron azimuthal anisotropy from multiparton interactions in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 14 TeV

We estimate the amount of collective "elliptic flow" expected at mid-rapidity in proton-proton (p-p) collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), assuming that any possible azimuthal anisotropy of the produced hadrons with respect to the plane of the reaction follows the same overlap-eccentricity and particle-density scalings as found in high-energy heavy ion collisions. Using a Glauber eikonal model, we compute the p-p eccentricities, transverse areas and particle-multiplicities for various phenomenological parametrisations of the proton spatial density. For realistic proton transverse profiles, we find integrated elliptic flow v2 parameters below 3% in p-p collisions at sqrt(s) = 14 TeV.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures. Very minor mods. Version to appear in EPJ-

Treatment of Forty Adult Patients with Hodgkin Disease; Baghdad Teaching Hospital Experience

Background: Hodgkin disease was the first cancer in which the curative potential of combination chemotherapy was demonstrated. The affected patients are often young and there is a great potential for adding years of productive life by giving curative therapy even when the disease is advanced. Objective: to describe the experience of the hematology unit,Baghdad Teaching Hospital, in the management of 40 adult patients with Hodgkin disease. Patients and Methods: a retrospective cohort study of forty adult Iraqi patients with Hodgkin disease between 2005 and 2013 in the hematology unit. Patients were treated initially with 6-8 cycles of ABVD chemotherapy protocol (doxorubicine+ bleomycin+ vinblastin+ dacarbazine) , nine patients received additional involved field radiotherapy for residual masses or bulky disease. Overall survival and progression free survivals were estimated using Kaplan Meier survival plot. Results: The mean age was 28.6±12.88 years with females forming 61.5% of patients, mean duration of follow up was 27.9± 20.6 months. Staging showed that 55% and 27.5% had stage II and III respectively. B symptoms were found in 72.5% patients , bulky disease in 42.5% patients. Complete Response+ Complete Response undetermined was seen in 85% of cases. First Relapse occurred in 14%, and death in 7.5% of the patients. The 8 year overall survival and progression free survival were 82% and 50% respectively while the mean overall survival and progression free survival times were 84.7 and 59.9 months respectively. Conclusion: The results of the treatment of adult patients with Hodgkin disease in our unit is rather comparable to the results from other studies