Thermal analysis of submicron nanocrystalline diamond films

The thermal properties of sub-μm nanocrystalline diamond films in the range of 0.37–1.1 μm grown by hot filament CVD, initiated by bias enhanced nucleation on a nm-thin Si-nucleation layer on various substrates, have been characterized by scanning thermal microscopy. After coalescence, the films have been outgrown with a columnar grain structure. The results indicate that even in the sub-μm range, the average thermal conductivity of these NCD films approaches 400 W m− 1 K− 1. By patterning the films into membranes and step-like mesas, the lateral component and the vertical component of the thermal conductivity, k<sub>lateral</sub> and k<sub>vertical</sub>, have been isolated showing an anisotropy between vertical conduction along the columns, with k<sub>vertical</sub> ≈ 1000 W m− 1 K− 1, and a weaker lateral conduction across the columns, with k<sub>lateral</sub> ≈ 300 W m− 1 K− 1

Unsupervised grounding of textual descriptions of object features and actions in video

We propose a novel method for learning visual concepts and their correspondence to the words of a natural language. The concepts and correspondences are jointly inferred from video clips depicting simple actions involving multiple objects, together with corresponding natural language commands that would elicit these actions. Individual objects are first detected, together with quantitative measurements of their colour, shape, location and motion. Visual concepts emerge from the co-occurrence of regions within a measurement space and words of the language. The method is evaluated on a set of videos generated automatically using computer graphics from a database of initial and goal configurations of objects. Each video is annotated with multiple commands in natural language obtained from human annotators using crowd sourcing

A versatile and fully instrumented test station for piezoelectric energy harvesters

This paper describes the implementation of LabVIEW software to control instruments and acquire data from a piezoelectric energy harvesting test station which is based on a cantilever structure. The experiment is run in the Clean Energy Laboratory on the Ambient Energy Harvester Test Station. A digital multimeter, a programmable resistance selector, an arbitrary waveform generator, a shaker table, an accelerometer and a laser displacement sensor are used to control and acquire data in terms of harvested energy as a function of vibration frequency and load resistance. LabVIEW software is used to control the test station which makes near real-time data measurements, displays waveforms on a PC screen, and stores data for later analysis. Acquired waveforms are presented in terms of frequency versus voltage of the vibrating cantilever at preselected ranges of load resistances in terms of either AC or DC voltages. The vibration of the cantilever beam is measured with an accelerometer and beam movement is measured with a laser displacement meter. Test results are stored in a comma separated variable text file which can be imported into any data analysis software package. All experiments are performed on an isolated optical bench to avoid interference from mechanical noise that may exist in the surrounding environment. The system provides an integrated approach to characterize key performance indicators for energy harvesting materials and devices.</p

Asymptotic properties of parameter estimates for random fields with tapered data

In this paper we present novel results on the asymptotic be-havior of the so-called Ibragimov minimum contrast estimates. The case of tapered data for various models of Gaussian random fields is investigated. MSC 2010 subject classifications: Primary 62F12, 62M30; secondary 60G60

Feeding/Swallowing Disorders: Maintaining Quality of Life in Persons with Intellectual Disability

Persons with intellectual disability (ID) have received little attention in systematic studies of healthcare and quality of life. Less attention has been provided to specific disorders, such as those impacting the swallowing mechanism. In comparison to the general population, persons with ID experience noticeably greater healthcare inequalities and despite greater life expectancy, it is still lower than the general population. This paper serves as an introduction to healthcare colleagues regarding the risks involved in choking and swallowing disorders in persons with ID, how to evaluate these potential risks and possible treatments. Associated etiologies are presented. A discussion on feeding disorders versus swallowing disorders is also introduced. The inadequacy of swallowing assessment services to persons with ID may be related to the lack of professionals with specialized training in working with this population, reduced funding for research to explore options for improved nutrition and reduced risk of choking and minimal research on changes in feeding skills and/or swallow physiology in this select group of individual

QSRlib: a software library for online acquisition of qualitative spatial relations from video

There is increasing interest in using Qualitative Spatial Relations as a formalism to abstract from noisy and large amounts of video data in order to form high level conceptualisations, e.g. of activities present in video. We present a library to support such work. It is compatible with the Robot Operating System (ROS) but can also be used stand alone. A number of QSRs are built in; others can be easily added

High- and low-affinity PEGylated hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers: differential oxidative stress in a Guinea pig transfusion model

Hemoglobin (Hb)-based oxygen carriers (HBOCs) are an investigational replacement for blood transfusions and are known to cause oxidative damage to tissues. To investigate the correlation between their oxygen binding properties and these detrimental effects, we investigated two PEGylated HBOCs endowed with different oxygen binding properties - but otherwise chemically identical - in a Guinea pig transfusion model. Plasma samples were analyzed for biochemical markers of inflammation, tissue damage and organ dysfunction; proteins and lipids of heart and kidney extracts were analyzed for markers of oxidative damage. Overall, both HBOCs produced higher oxidative stress in comparison to an auto-transfusion control group. Particularly, tissue 4-hydroxynonenal-adducts, tissue malondialdehyde adducts and plasma 8-oxo-2'-deoxyguanosine exhibited significantly higher levels in comparison with the control group. For malondialdehyde adducts, a higher level in the renal tissue was observed for animals treated with PEG-Hboxy, hinting at a correlation between the HBOCs oxygen binding properties and the oxidative stress they produce. Moreover, we found that the high-affinity HBOC produced greater tissue oxygenation in comparison with the low affinity one, possibly correlating with the higher oxidative stress it induced

Overlapping variants in the blood, tissues and cell lines for patients with intracranial meningiomas are predominant in stem cell-related genes

Objective: Bulk tissue genomic analysis of meningiomas identified common somatic mutations, however, it often excluded blood-related variants. In contrast, genomic characterisation of primary cell lines that can provide critical information regarding growth and proliferation, have been rare. In our work, we identified the variants that are present in the blood, tissues and corresponding cell lines that are likely to be predictive, tumorigenic and progressive. Method: Whole-exome sequencing was used to identify variants and distinguish related pathways that exist in 42 blood, tissues and corresponding cell lines (BTCs) samples for patients with intracranial meningiomas. Conventional sequencing was used for the confirmation of variants. Integrative analysis of the gene expression for the corresponding samples was utilised for further interpretations. Results: In total, 926 BTC variants were detected, implicating 845 genes. A pathway analysis of all BTC genes with damaging variants indicated the 'cell morphogenesis involved in differentiation' stem cell-related pathway to be the most frequently affected pathway. Concordantly, five stem cell-related genes, GPRIN2, ALDH3B2, ASPN, THSD7A and SIGLEC6, showed BTC variants in at least five of the patients. Variants that were heterozygous in the blood and homozygous in the tissues or the corresponding cell lines were rare (average: 1.3 +/- 0.3%), and included variants in the RUNX2 and CCDC114 genes. An analysis comparing the variants detected only in tumours with aggressive features indicated a total of 240 BTC genes, implicating the 'homophilic cell adhesion via plasma membrane adhesion molecules' pathway, and identifying the stem cell-related transcription coactivator NCOA3/AIB1/SRC3 as the most frequent BTC gene. Further analysis of the possible impact of the poly-Q mutation present in the NCOA3 gene indicated associated deregulation of 15 genes, including the up-regulation of the stem cell related SEMA3D gene and the angiogenesis related VEGFA gene. Conclusion: Stem cell-related pathways and genes showed high prevalence in the BTC variants, and novel variants in stem cell-related genes were identified for meningioma. These variants can potentially be used as predictive, tumorigenic and progressive biomarkers for meningioma

Physical Features of High-Density Barium–Tungstate–Phosphate (BTP) Glasses: Elastic Moduli, and Gamma Transmission Factors

We present elastic moduli, gamma radiation attenuation characteristics, and transmission factor of barium–tungstate–phosphate (BTP) glasses with the chemical formula (60-y)BaO-yWO3-40P2O5, where y = 10 (S1)–40 (S4) in steps of 10 mole%. Different types of mathematical and simulation approaches, such as the Makishima-Mackenzie model, the Monte Carlo method, and the online Phy-X/PSD software, are utilized in terms of determining these parameters. The total packing density (Vt) is enriched from 0.607 to 0.627, while the total energy dissociation (Gt) is enriched by increasing the WO3 content (from 52.2 (kJ/cm3). In the investigated glasses, increasing tungstate trioxide (WO3) contribution enhanced Young’s, shear, bulk, and longitudinal moduli. Moreover, Poisson’s ratio is improved by increasing the WO3 content in the BTP glasses. The 20BaO-40WO3-40P2O5 sample possessed the highest values of both linear (µ) and mass attenuation (µm) coefficients, i.e., (µ, µm)S4 > (µ, µm)S3 > (µ, µm)S2 > (µ, µm)S1. Moreover, the 20BaO-40WO3-40P2O5 sample had the lowest values of half (HVL) and tenth (TVL) layers, i.e., (half, tenth)S4 < (half, tenth)S3 < (half, tenth)S2 < (half, tenth)S1. The effective atomic number (Zeff) of the studied glasses has the same behavior as µ and µm. Finally, the 20BaO-40WO3-40P2O5 is reported with the minimum values of transmission factor (TF) for all the BTP investigated at a thickness of 3 cm. In conclusion, the sample with composition 20BaO-40WO3-40P2O5 which has the maximum WO3 reinforcement may be a beneficial glass sample, along with its advanced mechanical and gamma ray shielding properties. © 2022 by the authors.Dunarea de Jos” University of GalatiUmm Al-Qura Univer-sityUmm Al-Qura University, UQU, (22UQU4300274DSR01)Deanship of Scientific Research, King Saud UniversityFunding text 1: Deanship of Scientific Research at Umm Al-Qura University supported this work by Grant Code: (22UQU4300274DSR01).Funding text 2: Conceptualization, H.O.T., H.M.H.Z., A.M.A.M., G.A. and S.A.M.I.methodology, F.T.A. and H.O.T.software, D.S.B., A.H.A., H.M.H.Z. and A.E.validation, S.A.M.I., A.M.A.M., D.S.B., D.E.A., W.E., Y.S.R. and A.E.formal analysis, H.M.H.Z., and F.T.A.investigation, H.O.T., W.E., and G.A.resources, F.T.A. and D.S.B.data curation, S.A.M.I., A.H.A. and A.E.writing—original draft preparation, Y.S.R., D.E.A., H.O.T., D.E.A., F.T.A. and A.E.writing—review and editing, H.M.H.Z., S.I, A.M.A.M., A.H.A. and A.E.visualization, W.E. and A.E.supervision, H.M.H.Z., W.E., Y.S.R. and D.S.B.project administration, H.O.T., A.E., Y.S.R. and S.A.M.I.funding acquisition A.E. (The APC was funded by “Dunarea de Jos” University of Galati, Romania). All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.Funding text 3: The authors would like to thank the Deanship of Scientific Research at the Umm Al-Qura Univer-sity for supporting this work by grant code (22UQU4300274DSR01). The APC was covered by “Dunarea de Jos” University of Galati, Romania