Cylindrically Symmetric Vacuum Solutions in Higher Dimensional Brans-Dicke Theory

Higher dimensional, static, cylindrically symmetric vacuum solutions with and without a cosmological constant in the Brans-Dicke theory are presented. We show that, for a negative cosmological constant and for specific values of the parameters, a particular subclass of these solutions include higher dimensional topological black hole-type solutions with a flat horizon topology. We briefly extend our discussion to stationary vacuum and $\Lambda-$vacuum solutions.Comment: V3: Published Versio

Integrating Prosodic and Lexical Cues for Automatic Topic Segmentation

We present a probabilistic model that uses both prosodic and lexical cues for the automatic segmentation of speech into topically coherent units. We propose two methods for combining lexical and prosodic information using hidden Markov models and decision trees. Lexical information is obtained from a speech recognizer, and prosodic features are extracted automatically from speech waveforms. We evaluate our approach on the Broadcast News corpus, using the DARPA-TDT evaluation metrics. Results show that the prosodic model alone is competitive with word-based segmentation methods. Furthermore, we achieve a significant reduction in error by combining the prosodic and word-based knowledge sources.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figure

Effect of Thidiazuron used as an Elicitor in the Production of Capsaicin on Total Protein and Phenolic Amounts, Antioxidant Enzyme Activities of Pepper Plants

The effect of thidiazuron (TDZ) used as an elicitor on the total phenolic, total protein, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) enzyme activities, and production of capsaicin in the cell suspension culture of Maraş-1 pepper seeds was determined. TDZ was applied in four levels (0, 0.1 mM, 0.2 mM, 0.4 mM) and at three times (days 8, 10, and 12) to the cell suspensions. The content of the capsaicin in suspended cells was identified by high-performance liquid chromatography after extraction with ethyl acetate. It was identified that TDZ had a variable effect on the capsaicin accumulation. The highest capsaicin content was determined by84.859 µg/g f.w. at 0.4 mM TDZ 10d. The highest increase by 181.48% at 0.2 mM TDZ 10d, the highestdecrease by 49.83% at 0.4 mM TDZ 10d was determined intotal phenolic amount. The total protein amount decreased at 0.4 mM TDZ 8dand 12d. The highest SOD (457.983 enzyme units/g f.w.) and CAT (0.143 enzyme units/g f.w.) activities at 0.4 mM TDZ 8d, the lowest SOD (73.526 enzyme units/g f.w.) and CAT (0.030 enzyme units/g f.w.) activities at 0.2 mM TDZ 12d were measured

Straight versus S-shaped sternotomy: a histologic study in the sheep model

INTRODUCTION: Straight sternotomy is the most common access for open heart surgery. Techniques have been proposed for maximizing sternal stability in high-risk patients. This trend implies a growing need for newer surgical techniques. The aim of this experimental study in the sheep model is to evaluate median vs. S shaped sternotomy the feasibility of using a special device to accelerate the sternal instability and bone healing. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We enrolled 31 sheep, weighing 18–30 kg. For all animals a midline skin incision was made. In group I (n = 16 animals), straight median sternotomy and in group II (n = 15 animals), S-shaped incision was marked on the periosteum of the sternum by new created device for standard S-shaped sternotomy. Sternum biopsies were performed on second surgery month for all survived animals from the sternum and the surrounding soft tissue. RESULTS: No early superficial wound complications were observed. Overall mortality in the initial approach group was 19.3% (6 sheep). In group I; 3 sheep had died on first surgery day, the reason may be hemorrhage and in group II; 3 sheep developed intractable VF during surgery procedure or immediately afterwards so died. There were statistically significant differences in the scores of bone healing between group 1 and group 2 (4.2 vs.7.3, ANOVA, p < 0.001). DISCUSSION: Our work is based on the use of a standard S-shaped sternotomy procedure on sheep sternum. In our experience with the sternal healing in the sheep model, the process of new bone formation was accelerated with S- shaped cut than straight sternotomy procedure. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13019-014-0173-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

CD28 between tolerance and autoimmunity: The side effects of animal models [version 1; referees: 2 approved]

Regulation of immune responses is critical for ensuring pathogen clearance and for preventing reaction against self-antigens. Failure or breakdown of immunological tolerance results in autoimmunity. CD28 is an important co-stimulatory receptor expressed on T cells that, upon specific ligand binding, delivers signals essential for full T-cell activation and for the development and homeostasis of suppressive regulatory T cells. Many in vivo mouse models have been used for understanding the role of CD28 in the maintenance of immune homeostasis, thus leading to the development of CD28 signaling modulators that have been approved for the treatment of some autoimmune diseases. Despite all of this progress, a deeper understanding of the differences between the mouse and human receptor is required to allow a safe translation of pre-clinical studies in efficient therapies. In this review, we discuss the role of CD28 in tolerance and autoimmunity and the clinical efficacy of drugs that block or enhance CD28 signaling, by highlighting the success and failure of pre-clinical studies, when translated to humans

Higher Dimensional Cylindrical or Kasner Type Electrovacuum Solutions

We consider a D dimensional Kasner type diagonal spacetime where metric functions depend only on a single coordinate and electromagnetic field shares the symmetries of spacetime. These solutions can describe static cylindrical or cosmological Einstein-Maxwell vacuum spacetimes. We mainly focus on electrovacuum solutions and four different types of solutions are obtained in which one of them has no four dimensional counterpart. We also consider the properties of the general solution corresponding to the exterior field of a charged line mass and discuss its several properties. Although it resembles the same form with four dimensional one, there is a difference on the range of the solutions for fixed signs of the parameters. General magnetic field vacuum solution are also briefly discussed, which reduces to Bonnor-Melvin magnetic universe for a special choice of the parameters. The Kasner forms of the general solution are also presented for the cylindrical or cosmological cases.Comment: 16 pages, Revtex. Text and references are extended, Published versio

INDEPENDENT TECHNICAL REVIEW OF THE FOCUSED FEASIBILITY STUDY AND PROPOSED PLAN FOR DESIGNATED SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT UNITS CONTRIBUTING TO THE SOUTHWEST GROUNDWATER PLUME AT THE PADUCAH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT

The U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) is currently developing a Proposed Plan (PP) for remediation of designated sources of chlorinated solvents that contribute contamination to the Southwest (SW) Groundwater Plume at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP), in Paducah, KY. The principal contaminants in the SW Plume are trichloroethene (TCE) and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs); these industrial solvents were used and disposed in various facilities and locations at PGDP. In the SW plume area, residual TCE sources are primarily in the fine-grained sediments of the Upper Continental Recharge System (UCRS), a partially saturated zone that delivers contaminants downward into the coarse-grained Regional Gravel Aquifer (RGA). The RGA serves as the significant lateral groundwater transport pathway for the plume. In the SW Plume area, the four main contributing TCE source units are: (1) Solid Waste Management Unit (SWMU) 1 / Oil Landfarm; (2) C-720 Building TCE Northeast Spill Site (SWMU 211A); (3) C-720 Building TCE Southeast Spill Site (SWMU 211B); and (4) C-747 Contaminated Burial Yard (SWMU 4). The PP presents the Preferred Alternatives for remediation of VOCs in the UCRS at the Oil Landfarm and the C-720 Building spill sites. The basis for the PP is documented in a Focused Feasibility Study (FFS) (DOE, 2011) and a Site Investigation Report (SI) (DOE, 2007). The SW plume is currently within the boundaries of PGDP (i.e., does not extend off-site). Nonetheless, reasonable mitigation of the multiple contaminant sources contributing to the SW plume is one of the necessary components identified in the PGDP End State Vision (DOE, 2005). Because of the importance of the proposed actions DOE assembled an Independent Technical Review (ITR) team to provide input and assistance in finalizing the PP

Biodegradation of chlorophenol containing wastewater using a rotating biological contactor

Bu &ccedil;alışmada pepton, 4-klorofenol (4-KF) ve 2,4-Diklorofenol (2,4-DKF) i&ccedil;eren sentetik olarak hazırlanmış, bir numunenin arıtımı, 5 rpm&rsquo;de &ccedil;alıştırılan iki kademeli D&ouml;nen Biyolojik Disk (DBD) reakt&ouml;r kullanılarak araştırılmıştır. Ayrıca, biyolojik olarak kolay ayrışabilen bir maddenin (pepton) reakt&ouml;r performansı &uuml;zerine etkileri de araştırılmıştır. Y&uuml;ksek verimde klorofenol ve KOİ giderimi ancak reakt&ouml;r&uuml;n ilave havalandırıcılarla havalandırılması durumunda m&uuml;mk&uuml;n olmuştur. Aklimasyon sırasında giriş 4-KF konsantrasyonu 200 mg/L&rsquo;ye, 2,4-DKF konsantrasyonu ise 100 mg/L&rsquo;ye y&uuml;kseltilmiştir. Reakt&ouml;r&uuml;n birinci kademesinde y&uuml;ksek klorofenol (&gt;%98) ve KOİ (&gt;%94) giderimleri g&ouml;zlenmiş ve ikinci kademe giderim verimini kısmen artırmıştır. 260 g&uuml;nl&uuml;k bir işletmeyi takiben, reakt&ouml;r 3.5 ay boyunca sadece pepton ile beslenerek, biyok&uuml;tle deaklime edilmiştir. Deaklimasyonu takiben,16 g&uuml;n i&ccedil;erisinde giriş 4-KF konsantrasyonu 200 mg/L&rsquo;ye, 2,4-DKF konsantrasyonu ise 100 mg/L&rsquo;ye y&uuml;kseltilmiştir. Mikroorganizmanın 16 g&uuml;n i&ccedil;ersinde tekrar y&uuml;ksek konsatrasyonlarda beslenen klorofenollere aklime olduğu ve reakt&ouml;r girişinden peptonun ani olarak &ccedil;ekilmesinin performansı &uuml;zerine olumsuz bir etkisinin olmadığı g&ouml;zlenmiştir. 2,4-DKF, 4-KF arıtımını yarış&ccedil;ıl (competitive) olarak inhibe ettiği i&ccedil;in, şok 4-KF (822.7&plusmn;1.4 mg/L) ve 2,4-DKF (424.6&plusmn;1.9 mg/L) y&uuml;klemesi reakt&ouml;r&uuml;n hem birinci hem de ikinci kademesinde 4-KF konsantrasyonunun 2,4-DKF konsantrasyonuna kıyasla 4 kat artmasına neden olmuştur. Şok y&uuml;kleme sırasında reakt&ouml;rler tek karbon ve enerji kaynağı olarak klorofenoller ile beslenmiş ve reakt&ouml;r&uuml;n birinci kademesinde maksimum 4-KF giderim hızı 2305 mg/L&middot;g&uuml;n (18.3 g/m2&middot;g&uuml;n), 2,4-DKF giderim hızı ise 1202 mg/L&middot;g&uuml;n (9.5 g/m2&middot;g&uuml;n) olarak g&ouml;zlenmiştir.&nbsp;Anahtar Kelimeler: 4-Klorofenol, 2,4-Diklorofenol, d&ouml;nen biyolojik disk reakt&ouml;r.Chlorophenols are introduced into the environment through various human activities such as waste incineration, uncontrolled use of wood preservatives, pesticides, fungicides and herbicides, as well as via bleaching of pulp with chlorine and the chlorination of drinking water. Despite the recalcitrance of chlorophenols, efforts are still being made to treat them biologically for economic reasons and in expectation of few by-products. Although biofilm reactors are more resistant to high chlorophenols loads, limited information is currently available on biofilm based chlorophenols degradation. In this view, this study aims at evaluating the performance of a two stage rotating biological contactor (RBC) for the treatment of synthetic wastewater containing peptone, 4-chlorophenol (4-CP) and 2,4-Dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) at 5 rpm. The RBC had two equal stages with 9 disks in each stage. The diameter of each disk was 18 cm and the total surface area for biomass attachment was 0.44 m2 per stage. Around 40% of disks were submerged in water. Total liquid volume in the reactor was 7.0 L. The study consists of four successive steps. In the first part of the study, feed chlorophenols concentrations were gradually increased, while, peptone concentration was kept constant at 400 mg/L. In the second step, peptone concentration was gradually decreased keeping the 4-CP and 2,4-DCP concentrations constant at 220 and 110 mg/L, respectively. In the third step, reactor was fed with 400 mg/L peptone in the absence of chlorophenols for around 3.5 months to deacclimated biomass and then the biomass was reacclimated to chlorophenols mixture. Lastly, the effect of shock chlorophenols loadings, in the absence of peptone was extensively evaluated. The HRT of the reactor was kept at 0.7 d throughout the study. During the experiments, the reactor was sampled regularly and analyzes were done immediately for COD, chlorophenols and 5-chloro-2-hydroxymuconic semialdehyde (CHMS). During the acclimation, CHMS, which is-meta cleavage product of 4-CP, appeared at the effluent when reactor was fed with 20 mg/L 4-CP and 10 mg/L 2,4-DCP. Although both 4-CP and 2,4-DCP removals were complete, the CHMS appeared at the effluent for around 1 month. Also, low dissolved oxygen concentration (1mg/L) favored the filamentous growth  in the first stage of RBC. On day 60, the liquid phase of the reactor was aerated to have at least 3 mg/L of dissolved oxygen (rotational speed was kept at 5 rpm). Under these conditions, CHMS disappeared within a few days along with complete removal of chlorophenols. Then, the concentrations of 4-CP and 2,4-DCP were increased steadily up to 220 mg/L 4-CP and 110 mg/L 2,4-DCP within the 138 days of operation. Most of the chlorophenols were degraded in the first stage and the concentrations were below detection limit in the second stage. Similarly, the effluent COD concentrations were between 20-40 mg/L and the average COD removal efficiency was 96±2.36%. During this period, Pseudomonas sp. and Pseudomonas stutzeri (98% similarity) were the dominant species in biofilm. Decreasing the peptone concentration from 400 mg/L to null did not cause any remarkable adverse effect on chlorophenols degradation as the average 4-CP and 2,4-DCP concentrations in the first stage were 1.53±0.27 and 0.27±0.16 mg/L, respectively. On day 260 and the reactor was fed with 400 mg/L of peptone for 3.5 months to deacclimate the microorganisms. After 3.5 months of operation, the reactor directly started with high chlorophenols removal efficiency without experiencing any lag and no further deterioration in the overall performance was observed even the feed 4-CP and 2,4-DCP concentrations were increased to 200 and 100 mg/L, respectively, within 16 days. When the feed was containing 400 mg/L peptone, 200 mg/L 4-CP and 100 mg/L 2,4-DCP (COD =  915±13 mg/L), the second stage COD was 17±2 mg/L. During the shock loading, the concentrations were increased up to 822.7±1.4 mg/L 4-CP and 424.6±1.9 mg/L 2,4-DCP (total CP loading = 1781 mg/L·d), within 7 days. As feed chlorophenols concentrations were increased, the effluent concentrations in both stages increased linearly. For both stages, the effluent 4-CP concentrations were almost 4 times higher than 2,4-DCP, which may be due to strong competitive inhibition of 2,4-DCP on 4-CP degradation. The observed maximum 4-CP and 2,4-DCP removal rates in the first stage were 2305 mg/L·d (18.3 g/m2·d) and 1202 mg/L·d (9.5 g/m2·d), respectively. Keywords: 4-Chlorophenol, 2,4-Dichlorophenol, rotating biological contactor