Muon spin spectroscopy: magnetism, soft matter and the bridge between the two

LS would like to acknowledge financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation, grant numbers PBFRP2-138632 and PBFRP2-142820. AD would like to acknowledge financial support from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, grant number EP/G054568/1, the European Union Seventh Framework Programme project NMP3-SL- 2011-263104 ‘HINTS’ and the European Research Council project ‘Muon Spin Spectroscopy of Excited States (MuSES)’ proposal number 307593LS would like to acknowledge financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation, grant numbers PBFRP2-138632 and PBFRP2-142820. AD would like to acknowledge financial support from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, grant number EP/G054568/1, the European Union Seventh Framework Programme project NMP3-SL- 2011-263104 ‘HINTS’ and the European Research Council project ‘Muon Spin Spectroscopy of Excited States (MuSES)’ proposal number 307593LS would like to acknowledge financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation, grant numbers PBFRP2-138632 and PBFRP2-142820. AD would like to acknowledge financial support from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, grant number EP/G054568/1, the European Union Seventh Framework Programme project NMP3-SL- 2011-263104 ‘HINTS’ and the European Research Council project ‘Muon Spin Spectroscopy of Excited States (MuSES)’ proposal number 30759

Performance metrics for characterization of a seizure detection algorithm for offline and online use

Purpose: To select appropriate previously reported performance metrics to evaluate a new seizure detection algorithm for offline and online analysis, and thus quantify any performance variation between these metrics. Methods: Traditional offline algorithms mark out any EEG section (epoch) of a seizure (event), so that neurologists only analyze the detected and adjacent sections. Thus, offline algorithms could be evaluated using number of correctly detected events, or event-based sensitivity (SEVENT), and epoch-based specificity (percentage of incorrectly detected background epochs). In contrast, online seizure detection (especially, data selection) algorithms select for transmission only the detected EEG sections and hence need to detect the entire duration of a seizure. Thus, online algorithms could be evaluated using percentage of correctly detected seizure duration, or epoch-based sensitivity (SEPOCH), and epoch-based specificity. Here, a new seizure detection algorithm is evaluated using the selected performance metrics for epoch duration ranging from 1s to 60s. Results: For 1s epochs, the area under the event-based sensitivity-specificity curve was 0.95 whilst SEPOCH achieves 0.81. This difference is not surprising, as intuitively, detecting any epoch within a seizure is easier than detecting every epoch - especially as seizures evolve over time. For longer epochs of 30s or 60s, SEVENT falls to 0.84 and 0.82 respectively and SEPOCH reduces to 0.76. Here, decreased SEVENT shows that fewer seizures are detected, possibly due to easy-to-detect short seizure sections being masked by surrounding EEG. However, detecting one long epoch constitutes a larger percentage of a seizure than a shorter one and thus SEPOCH does not decrease proportionately. Conclusions: Traditional offline and online seizure detection algorithms require different metrics to effectively evaluate their performance for their respective applications. Using such metrics, it has been shown that a decrease in performance may be expected when an offline seizure detection algorithm (especially with short epoch duration) is used for online analysis.Accepted versio

Burglary project

This report outlines the process and findings from an innovative project for students. This work was part of the curriculum and involved students working with West Yorkshire Police as part of the safer Leeds project in designing and making a film for students n crime prevention and personal safety in Leed

Using the simple peel test to measure the adhesive fracture energy, Ga

The adhesive fracture energy of structural adhesive joints may be readily ascertained from linear-elastic fracture-mechanics (LEFM) methods, and indeed an ISO Test Method (ISO 25217: 2009) now exists for the LEFM Mode I value, Gc, as a result of the efforts of the European Structural Integrity Society (ESIS) ‘TC4 Committee’ [1,2]. These LEFM test methods involve the preparation and testing of adhesively-bonded double-cantilever beam (DCB) and tapered double-cantilever beam (TDCB) specimens [3,4]. Notwithstanding the sound and reproducible results that may be obtained from such methods, the LEFM test specimens are relatively complex and expensive to make and test, and many industries would far prefer to deduce the value of the adhesive fracture energy from the very common and widely-used ‘peel test’. (In the present paper, for clarity, the adhesive fracture energy is termed GA when deduced from a peel test.) Indeed, the peel test is an attractive test method to assess the fracture performance of a wide range of structural adhesive joints and flexible laminates. However, although it is a relatively simple test to undertake, it is often a complex test to analyse and thus obtain a characteristic measure of the toughness of the adhesive joint, or laminate

Global soil moisture bimodality in satellite observations and climate models

A new diagnostic metric based on soil moisture bimodality is developed in order to examine and compare soil moisture from satellite observations and Earth System Models. The methodology to derive this diagnostic is based on maximum likelihood estimator encoded into an iterative algorithm, which is applied to the soil moisture probability density function. This metric is applied to satellite data from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System and global climate models data from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). Results show high soil moisture bimodality in transitional climate areas and high latitudes, potentially associated with land-atmosphere feedback processes. When comparing satellite versus climate models, a clear difference in their soil moisture bimodality is observed, with systematically higher values in the case of CMIP5 models. These differences appear related to areas where land-atmospheric feedback may be overestimated in current climate models

Heat and mass transfer under an infant radiant warmer – Development of a numerical model

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Medical Engineering & Physics. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2010 Elsevier B.V.The main objectives of this paper are to present a procedure of how to create and set up a model for the physical processes that take place within an infant radiant warmer and to validate that Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) can be used to resolve such problems. In this study, the results are obtained for a simplified model, both in terms of the geometry employed and the prescribed boundary conditions. The results were numerically verified in terms of the convergence history, monitor data and the physical correctness. This study shows that the physical situation is unsteady and the results tend to oscillate, almost periodically, around a mean value. The results presented in the paper are found to be in qualitative agreement with the experimental data. This gives us confidence that the techniques employed in this paper are appropriate and form the starting point for the inclusion of more realistic effects, e.g. real shape of the newborn and radiant lamp, heat generated inside the newborn, moisture transport, etc.European Union Marie Curie Fellowship programm

Localisation of the melanocortin-2-receptor and its accessory proteins in the developing and adult adrenal gland

The melanocortin-2-receptor (MC2R)/MC2R accessory protein (MRAP) complex is critical to the production of glucocorticoids from the adrenal cortex. Inactivating mutations in either MC2R or MRAP result in the clinical condition familial glucocorticoid deficiency. The localisation of MC2R together with MRAP within the adrenal gland has not previously been reported. Furthermore, MRAP2, a paralogue of MRAP, has been shown in vitro to have a similar function to MRAP, facilitating MC2R trafficking and responsiveness to ACTH. Despite similar MC2R accessory functions, in vivo, patients with inactivating mutations of MRAP fail to be rescued by a functioning MRAP2 gene, suggesting differences in adrenal expression, localisation and/or function between the two MRAPs. In this study on the rat adrenal gland, we demonstrate that while MRAP and MC2R are highly expressed in the zona fasciculata, MRAP2 is expressed throughout the adrenal cortex in low quantities. In the developing adrenal gland, both MRAP and MRAP2 are equally well expressed. The MC2R/MRAP2 complex requires much higher concentrations of ACTH to activate compared with the MC2R/MRAP complex. Interestingly, expression of MC2R and MRAP in the undifferentiated zone would support the notion that ACTH may play an important role in adrenal cell differentiation and maintenance