Facilitated Assessment of Tissue Loss Following Traumatic Brain Injury

All experimental models of traumatic brain injury (TBI) result in a progressive loss of brain tissue. The extent of tissue loss reflects the injury severity and can be measured to evaluate the potential neuroprotective effect of experimental treatments. Quantitation of tissue volumes is commonly performed using evenly spaced brain sections stained using routine histochemical methods and digitally captured. The brain tissue areas are then measured and the corresponding volumes are calculated using the distance between the sections. Measurements of areas are usually performed using a general purpose image analysis software and the results are then transferred to another program for volume calculations. To facilitate the measurement of brain tissue loss we developed novel algorithms which automatically separate the areas of brain tissue from the surrounding image background and identify the ventricles. We implemented these new algorithms by creating a new computer program (SectionToVolume) which also has functions for image organization, image adjustments and volume calculations. We analyzed brain sections from mice subjected to severe focal TBI using both SectionToVolume and ImageJ, a commonly used image analysis program. The volume measurements made by the two programs were highly correlated and analysis using SectionToVolume required considerably less time. The inter-rater reliability was high. Given the extensive use of brain tissue loss measurements in TBI research, SectionToVolume will likely be a useful tool for TBI research. We therefore provide both the source code and the program as attachments to this article

Endophytes dominate fungal communities in six-year-old veteranisation wounds in living oak trunks

Old trees are rare in the landscape, as are many of their associated species. Veteranisation is a method by which attempts are made to create microhabitats, otherwise found only in old trees, in younger trees at an earlier stage than would occur naturally. Here, we analysed the early fungal succession in 6 y-old veteranisation wounds in ca. 100 y old living oak trunks by DNA-barcoding of the wood at eight sites in Sweden and Norway. We hypothesised basidiomycetes would be most abundant, and exposed sapwood and heartwood would select for different communities. We identified 686 fungal taxa, mainly ascomycetes, with a large overlap in species composition and surprisingly similar species richness, i.e. 325 vs. 308–360, between intact and different types of damaged wood, respectively. Endophytes continued to be present and common in damaged wood. The results demonstrate that damage to sapwood and heartwood partly select for different fungi and that 6 y is too early to evaluate if veteranisation can positively favour fungi of conservation interest

Modeling the actinides with disordered local moments

A first-principles disordered local moment (DLM) picture within the local-spin-density and coherent potential approximations (LSDA+CPA) of the actinides is presented. The parameter free theory gives an accurate description of bond lengths and bulk modulus. The case of $\delta$-Pu is studied in particular and the calculated density of states is compared to data from photo-electron spectroscopy. The relation between the DLM description, the dynamical mean field approach and spin-polarized magnetically ordered modeling is discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Cosmic dust fluxes in the atmospheres of Earth, Mars and Venus

The ablation of cosmic dust injects a range of metals into planetary upper atmospheres. In addition, dust particles which survive atmospheric entry can be an important source of organic material at a planetary surface. In this study the contribution of metals and organics from three cosmic dust sources – Jupiter-Family comets (JFCs), the Asteroid belt (AST), and Halley-Type comets (HTCs) – to the atmospheres of Earth, Mars and Venus is estimated by combining a Chemical Ablation Model (CABMOD) with a Zodiacal Cloud Model (ZoDy). ZoDy provides the mass, velocity, and radiant distributions for JFC, AST, and HTC particles. JFCs are shown to be the main mass contributor in all three atmospheres (68% for Venus, 70% Earth, and 52% for Mars), providing a total input mass for Venus, Earth and Mars of 31 ± 18 t d⁻¹, 28 ± 16 t d⁻¹ and 2 ± 1 t d⁻¹, respectively. The mass contribution of AST particles increases with heliocentric distance (6% for Venus, 9% for Earth, and 14% for Mars). A novel multiphase treatment in CABMOD, tested experimentally in a Meteoric Ablation Simulator, is implemented to quantify atmospheric ablation from both the silicate melt and Fe-Ni metal domains. The ratio of Fe:Ni ablation fluxes at Earth, Mars and Venus are predicted to be close to their CI chondritic ratio of 18, in agreement with mass spectrometric measurements of Fe+:Ni+ = 20.0–₈.₀+¹³·⁰ in the terrestrial ionosphere. In contrast, lidar measurements of the neutral atoms at Earth indicate Fe:Ni = 38 ± 11, and observations by the Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer on the MAVEN spacecraft at Mars indicate Fe+:Ni+ = 43–₁₀+¹³. Given the slower average entry velocity of cosmic dust particles at Mars, the accretion rate of unmelted particles in Mars represents 60% of the total input mass, of which a significant fraction of the total unmelted mass (22%) does not reach an organic pyrolysis temperature (~900 K), leading to a flux of intact carbon of 14 kg d⁻¹. This is significantly smaller than previous estimates

Research and Design of a Routing Protocol in Large-Scale Wireless Sensor Networks

无线传感器网络，作为全球未来十大技术之一，集成了传感器技术、嵌入式计算技术、分布式信息处理和自组织网技术，可实时感知、采集、处理、传输网络分布区域内的各种信息数据，在军事国防、生物医疗、环境监测、抢险救灾、防恐反恐、危险区域远程控制等领域具有十分广阔的应用前景。 本文研究分析了无线传感器网络的已有路由协议，并针对大规模的无线传感器网络设计了一种树状路由协议，它根据节点地址信息来形成路由，从而简化了复杂繁冗的路由表查找和维护，节省了不必要的开销，提高了路由效率，实现了快速有效的数据传输。 为支持此路由协议本文提出了一种自适应动态地址分配算——ADAR（AdaptiveDynamicAddre...As one of the ten high technologies in the future, wireless sensor network, which is the integration of micro-sensors, embedded computing, modern network and Ad Hoc technologies, can apperceive, collect, process and transmit various information data within the region. It can be used in military defense, biomedical, environmental monitoring, disaster relief, counter-terrorism, remote control of haz...学位：工学硕士院系专业：信息科学与技术学院通信工程系_通信与信息系统学号：2332007115216

New Control Concept for Haldex Limited Slip Coupling

The aim of this master thesis is to investigate a new control principal for Haldex Limited Slip Coupling. HLSC can be characterized as a hydraulic slip coupling intended to be part of a 4WD-system for passenger vehicles fitted between the front and rear axle. The investigation is to be both theoretical and practical. The current system can be described with the three following functional blocks: A pump which delivers an even flow proportional to the number of differential revolutions. A controllable throttle valve with an Electronic Control Unit. A wet multi-plate clutch which transfers the torque. This solution has several advantages and one disadvantage, it's temperature dependency. The effect is today compensated by the throttle's position via the ECU. The new control principal to be examined is made by replacing the throttle valve, including its ECU, by a system containing: A proportional pressure relief valve, measurement of the rotational and a new ECU. Tests have been performed on three different proportional valves (p.v.) along with reference testing with the throttle valve (t.v.). The general conclusions from the testing and the time delay simulation are: The p.v. have a stable behaviour during most of the temperature range, with smaller variation than the t.v. The deviation becomes significant in the neighborhood of temperatures below -10C. The p.v. have a large number of parameters to be optimized for maximum performance, such as feeding current, system dependency and internal construction. The delays in the information of the numbers of differential revolutions are acceptable. The tested control principle works and shows potential to be as fast as the current system. The new principle offers a number of new approached in HLSC, i.e. one can change the control characteristics to being more flexible or make changes in the pump without loss of performance