Zebra battery technologies for all electric smart car

This paper describes the operational behaviour and advantages of the high temperature, sodium nickel chloride (Zebra) battery, for use in all electric urban (city) vehicles. It is shown that an equivalent parallel electrical circuit can be employed to accurately simulate the electrochemical behaviour inherent in the most recent generation of Zebra cells. The experimental procedure is outlined and summary attributes of the investigation validated by both simulation studies, and experimentally, via measurements from a prototype battery module intended for use in an all electric smart ca

Probiotics for preventing acute otitis media in children

This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (Intervention). The objectives are as follows: to assess the effects of probiotics to prevent the occurrence and reduce the severity of acute otitis media in children.</p

Optic radiation structure and anatomy in the normally developing brain determined using diffusion MRI and tractography

The optic radiation (OR) is a component of the visual system known to be myelin mature very early in life. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and its unique ability to reconstruct the OR in vivo were used to study structural maturation through analysis of DTI metrics in a cohort of 90 children aged 5–18 years. As the OR is at risk of damage during epilepsy surgery, we measured its position relative to characteristic anatomical landmarks. Anatomical distances, DTI metrics and volume of the OR were investigated for age, gender and hemisphere effects. We observed changes in DTI metrics with age comparable to known trajectories in other white matter tracts. Left lateralization of DTI metrics was observed that showed a gender effect in lateralization. Sexual dimorphism of DTI metrics in the right hemisphere was also found. With respect to OR dimensions, volume was shown to be right lateralised and sexual dimorphism demonstrated for the extent of the left OR. The anatomical results presented for the OR have potentially important applications for neurosurgical planning

The P-T-t architecture of a Gondwanan suture: REE, U-Pb and Ti-in-zircon thermometric constraints from the Palghat Cauvery shear system, South India

Understanding the relationship between accessory mineral growth and the evolution of silicate mineral assemblages along the entirety of a P-T-t path is a critical step in developing models for evolving tectonic systems. Here we combine U–Pb age data (for zircon and monazite), rare earth element (REE) data and compositionally specific phase diagrams (P-T pseudosections) for the rocks of the Palghat Cauvery shear system (PCSS), Southern Indian order to constrain the periodicity of heating/cooling and burial/exhumation events during the Ediacaran/Cambrian amalgamation of Gondwana. HREE data from zircon are consistent with zircon grow that 672–724 °C during the breakdown of garnet in the kyanite stability field at 535.0 ± 4.9 Ma. This represents a cooling that punctuates the P-T-t path. Subsequent monazite growth and symplectite formation occurred at 920 °C and 7.5 kbar, 10 Ma after zircon growth which reflects a period of reheating and decompression related to delamination and the collapse of the East African orogen. The REE chemistry of the monazite is consistent with the system having undergone partial melting prior to monazite growth, thereby altering the bulk rock chemistry. The periodicity of the heating and cooling cycles (10 Ma) from this study is consistent with recently proposed tectonic switching models for the formation of granulite metamorphism in accretionary/collisional tectonic settings. The elevated heat flows required to generate the UHT metamorphism are achievable in the proposed back-arc setting for the PCSS during Gondwana amalgamation.Chris Clark, Alan S. Collins, M. Santosh, Richard Taylor and Benjamin P. Wad

An accurate calculation of the nucleon axial charge with lattice QCD

We report on a lattice QCD calculation of the nucleon axial charge, $g_A$, using M\"{o}bius Domain-Wall fermions solved on the dynamical $N_f=2+1+1$ HISQ ensembles after they are smeared using the gradient-flow algorithm. The calculation is performed with three pion masses, $m_\pi\sim\{310,220,130\}$ MeV. Three lattice spacings ($a\sim\{0.15,0.12,0.09\}$ fm) are used with the heaviest pion mass, while the coarsest two spacings are used on the middle pion mass and only the coarsest spacing is used with the near physical pion mass. On the $m_\pi\sim220$ MeV, $a\sim0.12$ fm point, a dedicated volume study is performed with $m_\pi L \sim \{3.22,4.29,5.36\}$. Using a new strategy motivated by the Feynman-Hellmann Theorem, we achieve a precise determination of $g_A$ with relatively low statistics, and demonstrable control over the excited state, continuum, infinite volume and chiral extrapolation systematic uncertainties, the latter of which remains the dominant uncertainty. Our final determination at 2.6\% total uncertainty is $g_A = 1.278(21)(26)$, with the first uncertainty including statistical and systematic uncertainties from fitting and the second including model selection systematics related to the chiral and continuum extrapolation. The largest reduction of the second uncertainty will come from a greater number of pion mass points as well as more precise lattice QCD results near the physical pion mass.Comment: 17 pages + 11 pages of references and appendices. 15 figures. Interested readers can download the Python analysis scripts and an hdf5 data file at https://github.com/callat-qcd/project_gA_v

Western Educational Longitudinal Study (WELS) Baseline Survey of Transfer Students Entering Western in the Fall, 2013: Descriptive Statistics

The WELS Baseline Survey of Transfers Entering Western in the Fall, 2013 (Transfer Survey) is the companion survey to the Office of Survey Research’s (OSR) survey of incoming freshmen. Together, these surveys elicit information from students prior to the start of their Western academic careers and provide an initial contact in a longitudinal survey design that follows students through graduation and into their initial years as alumni. The Transfer Survey is designed with three purposes in mind: (1) to provide baseline observations of students prior to the Western experience that can be used to forecast and enhance student success; (2) to provide data that can assist university assessment and accreditation endeavors; and (3) to assess student needs based upon their selfreported characteristics, perceptions, and concerns. To accomplish these, the Transfer Survey integrates questions into seven sections: prior engagement and experiences, the college application process, course scheduling, academic skills and goals, major choice, expenses and employment, and demographics. In addition to these, various Western offices submitted questions that dealt with academic advising and the use of technology. The questions on the Transfer Survey are a mixture of open-ended, numerical and multiple choice types. This report lists all questions and reports basic descriptive statistics from equations which lend themselves to numerical analysis. Responses to open ended questions are available upon request