Damage quantification techniques in acoustic emission monitoring

Acoustic emission (AE) analysis is one of the several diagnostic techniques available nowadays for structural health monitoring (SHM) of engineering structures. Some of its advantages over other techniques include high sensitivity to crack growth and capability of monitoring a structure in real time. The phenomenon of rapid release of energy within a material by crack initiation or growth in form of stress waves is known as acoustic emission (AE). In AE technique, these stress waves are recorded by means of suitable sensors placed on the surface of a structure. Recorded signals are subsequently analysed to gather information about the nature of the source. By enabling early detection of crack growth, AE technique helps in planning timely retrofitting or other maintenance jobs or even replacement of the structure if required. In spite of being a promising tool, some challenges do still exist behind the successful application of AE technique. Large amount of data is generated during AE testing, hence effective data analysis is necessary, especially for long term monitoring uses. Appropriate analysis of AE data for quantification of damage level is an area that has received considerable attention. Various approaches available for damage quantification for severity assessment are discussed in this paper, with special focus on civil infrastructure such as bridges. One method called improved b-value analysis is used to analyse data collected from laboratory testing

A GIS Application to Explore Postal Retail Outlet Locations

The use of GIS in solving a wide variety of problems in postal operations is expanding. This approach provides the development and usage of new methods in spatial data analysis, as support in achieving a better quality of the decision-making process. The use of location analysis model based on GIS software is implemented in solving the Belgrade postal retail outlet problem. One of the most important experiences of model implementation is that the local environmental conditions have a significant impact on strategic as well as operational approach. A portion of the material included in the paper has resulted from the Serbian PTT and CPC (Canada Post Corporation) joint project Location Analysis

Nutrition and neurodevelopmental outcomes in preterm infants: a systematic review

A systematic review with meta-analysis was carried out to investigate the effects of increased nutritional intake, via either macronutrient or multi-nutrient intervention, during the neonatal period on neurodevelopmental outcomes in infants born at <32 weeks of gestation or weighing <1501g at birth.Conclusion: Although the relationship remains unclear, increased early nutrition may reduce neurodevelopmental impairment in this group of infants. Future research should focus on using standardised nutritional interventions and an agreed neurodevelopmental assessment battery

Estudio para el monitoreo y evaluación del proyecto bosques, paisajes y medios de vida sostenibles (LLS-UICN) en la microcuenca esquichá y asistenica técnica agrícola a la Comunidad San Pablo Tacaná, Departamento de San Marcos

El presente trabajo de investigación se realizó en la microcuenca Esquichá, del municipio de Tacaná, del departamento de San Marcos. A través del monitorear se pudo conocer la situación actual de la microcuenca Esquichá, se elaboró una línea base con una serie de indicadores con énfasis en aspectos naturales y socioeconómicos de los pobladores de las comunidades. Dicho diagnóstico sirvió para determinar los problemas más notorios que estaban afectando la productividad de cultivos principalmente de tomate, cebolla y rosas. Así también se realizaron varios servicios en la comunidad, entre los que se destacan: la asistencia técnica en los cultivos mencionados, la construcción de un invernadero para el grupo de señoras de la cooperativa el intercambio entre la Asociación de Floricultores de San Juan Sacatepéquez (ASOFLORSA), Guatemala, con los trabajadores de la cooperativa “Unión y Progreso”. R. L. Esta última actividad representa una oportunidad para mejorar la producción de rosas en la comunidad, ya que por medio de ésta gira se conoció básicamente el manejo adecuado del cultivo y representa una oportunidad para mejorar las condiciones actuales. En síntesis, los principales aportes de este trabajo de graduación, muestran que las iniciativas para mejorar el manejo integral de las microcuencas, deben incluir acciones para fortalecer los sistemas de producción agrícola, con lo cual también se favorece el desarrollo de las comunidades rurales del país

Impacts of the East Asian monsoon on lower tropospheric ozone over coastal South China

The impact of the East Asian monsoon (EAM) on climatology and interannual variability of tropospheric ozone (O3) over the coastal South China was investigated by analyzing 11 years of ozonesonde data over Hong Kong with the aid of Lagrangian dispersion modeling of carbon monoxide and calculation of an EAM index. It was found that the seasonal cycle of O3 in the lower troposphere is highly related to the EAM over the study region. Ozone enhancements in the free troposphere are associated with the monsoon-induced transport of pollutants of continental anthropogenic and biomass burning origins. Lower tropospheric O3 levels showed high interannual variability, with an annual averaged amplitude up to 61% of averaged concentrations in the boundary layer (0–1 km altitudes) and 49% below 3 km altitude. In spring and autumn, the interannual variability in boundary layer O3 levels was predominately influenced by the EAM intensity, with high O3 mixing ratios associated with northeasterly circulation anomalies

Dirac quasinormal modes of the Reissner-Nordstr\"om de Sitter black hole

The quasinormal modes of the Reissner-Nordstr\"om de Sitter black hole for the massless Dirac fields are studied using the P\"oshl-Teller potential approximation. We find that the magnitude of the imaginary part of the quasinormal frequencies decreases as the cosmological constant or the orbital angular momentum increases, but it increases as the charge or the overtone number increases. An interesting feature is that the imaginary part is almost linearly related to the real part as the cosmological constant changes for fixed charge, and the linearity becomes better as the orbital angular momentum increases. We also prove exactly that the Dirac quasinormal frequencies are the same for opposite chirality.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, Phys. Rev. D in pres

Implication of Genetic Variants Near TCF7L2, SLC30A8, HHEX, CDKAL1, CDKN2A/B, IGF2BP2, and FTO in Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity in 6,719 Asians

OBJECTIVE— Recent genome-wide association studies have identified six novel genes for type 2 diabetes and obesity and confirmed TCF7L2 as the major type 2 diabetes gene to date in Europeans. However, the implications of these genes in Asians are unclear

MicroRNA clusters integrate evolutionary constraints on expression and target affinities : the miR-6/5/4/286/3/309 cluster in Drosophila

This research was supported by the Hong Kong Research Grant Council GRF Grant (14103516), The Chinese University of Hong Kong Direct Grant (4053248), and TUYF Charitable Trust (6903957) (JHLH).A striking feature of microRNAs is that they are often clustered in the genomes of animals. The functional and evolutionary consequences of this clustering remain obscure. Here, we investigated a microRNA cluster miR-6/5/4/286/3/309 that is conserved across drosophilid lineages. Small RNA sequencing revealed expression of this microRNA cluster in Drosophila melanogaster leg discs, and conditional overexpression of the whole cluster resulted in leg appendage shortening. Transgenic overexpression lines expressing different combinations of microRNA cluster members were also constructed. Expression of individual microRNAs from the cluster resulted in a normal wild-type phenotype, but either the expression of several ancient microRNAs together (miR-5/4/286/3/309) or more recently evolved clustered microRNAs (miR-6-1/2/3) can recapitulate the phenotypes generated by the whole-cluster overexpression. Screening of transgenic fly lines revealed down-regulation of leg patterning gene cassettes in generation of the leg-shortening phenotype. Furthermore, cell transfection with different combinations of microRNA cluster members revealed a suite of downstream genes targeted by all cluster members, as well as complements of targets that are unique for distinct microRNAs. Considered together, the microRNA targets and the evolutionary ages of each microRNA in the cluster demonstrates the importance of microRNA clustering, where new members can reinforce and modify the selection forces on both the cluster regulation and the gene regulatory network of existing microRNAs.PostprintPeer reviewe

FBP17 and CIP4 recruit SHIP2 and lamellipodin to prime the plasma membrane for fast endophilin-mediated endocytosis

Endocytosis mediates the cellular uptake of micronutrients and the turnover of plasma membrane proteins. Clathrin-mediated endocytosis is the major uptake pathway in resting cells, but several clathrin-independent endocytic routes exist in parallel. One such pathway, fast endophilin-mediated endocytosis (FEME), is not constitutive but triggered upon activation of certain receptors, including the β adrenergic receptor. FEME activates promptly following stimulation as endophilin is pre-enriched by the phosphatidylinositol-3,4-bisphosphate-binding protein lamellipodin. However, in the absence of stimulation, endophilin foci abort and disassemble after a few seconds. Looking for additional proteins involved in FEME, we found that 20 out of 65 BAR domain-containing proteins tested colocalized with endophilin spots. Among them, FBP17 and CIP4 prime the membrane of resting cells for FEME by recruiting the 5'-lipid phosphatase SHIP2 and lamellipodin to mediate the local production of phosphatidylinositol-3,4-bisphosphate and endophilin pre-enrichment. Membrane-bound GTP-loaded Cdc42 recruits FBP17 and CIP4, before being locally deactivated by RICH1 and SH3BP1 GTPase-activating proteins. This generates the transient assembly and disassembly of endophilin spots, which lasts 5-10 seconds. This mechanism periodically primes patches of the membrane for prompt responses upon FEME activation