The Effect of Pressure Gradient on the Aeroacoustics and WakDynamics of a Finite Wall-Mounted Square Cylinder

This paper reports an experimental investigation of the wake flow structures and noise production of a square finite-wall-mounted cylinder (FWMC) with an aspect ratio of 2.4. The cylinder was immersed in flows with favourable-, near-zero-and adverse-pressure gradients at a Reynolds number of 48000, based on cylinder width. Acoustic and particle image velocimetry measurements were taken simultaneously using the newly developed open-jet pressure gradient test rig in the UNSW Anechoic Wind Tunnel. An adverse pressure gradient was found to enhance the cylinder junction upwash, weaken the free-end downwash and suppress the primary tonal noise at a Strouhal number of approximately 0.1. Conversely, a favourable-pressure gradient promotes downwash over the free-end and leads to a higher tonal noise level. Wake flow structures that correlated with the far-field sound pressure were identified to understand noise generation or suppression mechanisms

Animal welfare concepts and strategy for poultry production: a review

Well being of animals had been historically a public concern, since the beginning of human kind history. As world's population grows there is a need for food including meat. In the last decades there has been a great improvement in poultry production based on the careful control of several aspects, among which nutrition and management (environment, health and rearing systems). Nowadays, the search for good welfare conditions is a global tendency in animal production; however issues surrounding farm animal welfare or well-being, such as definitions, measurements, interpretation, and perception, continue to be controversial. It is known that the result of a broiler not adequately housed is a direct loss in production which leads towards a thought that health, welfare and productivity are intimately connected. In the other hand hints are found in the observation of behavioral responses as well as vocalization, which may provide more precise assessment to welfare. This has been possible due to the use of information technology applied to the field of ethology as well as the multidisciplinary view of the problem. This text provides a review on broiler's welfare issues since its definition to several way of trying to assess it adequately.13714

Osteoblast-Restricted Disruption of the Growth Hormone Receptor in Mice Results in Sexually Dimorphic Skeletal Phenotypes

Growth hormone (GH) exerts profound anabolic actions during postnatal skeletal development, in part, through stimulating the production of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in liver and skeletal tissues. To examine the requirement for the GH receptor (GHR) in osteoblast function in bone, we used Cre-LoxP methods to disrupt the GHR from osteoblasts, both in vitro and in vivo. Disruption of GHR from primary calvarial osteoblasts in vitro abolished GH-induced signaling, as assessed by JAK2/STAT5 phosphorylation, and abrogated GH-induced proliferative and anti-apoptotic actions. Osteoblasts lacking GHR exhibited reduced IGF-1-induced Erk and Akt phosphorylation and attenuated IGF-1-induced proliferation and anti-apoptotic action. In addition, differentiation was modestly impaired in osteoblasts lacking GHR, as demonstrated by reduced alkaline phosphatase staining and calcium deposition. In order to determine the requirement for the GHR in bone in vivo, we generated mice lacking the GHR specifically in osteoblasts (ΔGHR), which were born at the expected Mendelian frequency, had a normal life span and were of normal size. Three week-old, female ΔGHR mice had significantly reduced osteoblast numbers, consistent with the in vitro data. By six weeks of age however, female ΔGHR mice demonstrated a marked increase in osteoblasts, although mineralization was impaired; a phenotype similar to that observed previously in mice lacking IGF-1R specifically in osteoblasts. The most striking phenotype occurred in male mice however, where disruption of the GHR from osteoblasts resulted in a feminization of bone geometry in 16 week-old mice, as observed by μCT. These results demonstrate that the GHR is required for normal postnatal bone development in both sexes. GH appears to serve a primary function in modulating local IGF-1 action. However, the changes in bone geometry observed in male ΔGHR mice suggest that, in addition to facilitating IGF-1 action, GH may function to a greater extent than previously appreciated in establishing the sexual dimorphism of the skeleton

Galectin-3 expression is ubiquitous in tumors of the sellar region, nervous system, and mimics - An immunohistochemical and RT-PCR study

Galectin-3 expression has been reported in spindle cell oncocytoma, certain pituitary adenoma subtypes, astrocytomas, oligodendrogliomas, and meningiomas. We evaluated galectin-3 protein expression by immunohistochemistry in 201 cases of a variety of nervous system and sellar tumors, as well as mRNA expression by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue in a subset (20 cases). Immunohistochemical results were evaluated in a semiquantitative fashion on a 4-tiered scale (0 to 3). Strong (3+) immunoreactivity was seen in most of the cases (61%), followed by 2+(22%), and 1+(13%) staining. Only 4% of the lesions studied were immunonegative. Galectin-3 mRNA was present in 15 of the 18 cases (83%) in which reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was successful. Significant differences in protein expression were noted in the following 2 settings: specific meningioma subtypes (P=0.004, Fisher exact test) wherein clear cell meningioma demonstrated weak protein expression when compared with other meningioma variants. No significant difference was noted with respect to World Health Organization grade. Galectin-3 was also strongly expressed in benign nerve sheath tumors but only moderately expressed in malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (P=0.0009, Fisher exact test). Although galectin-3 positivity is a key feature of the immunophenotype of spindle cell oncocytoma, its consistent expression in other morphologically similar tumors (meningioma, pituicytoma, nerve sheath tumors, granular cell tumor, metastases) makes it of little use in the differential diagnosis of sellar region tumors, a setting in which it should be discouraged. Diagnostic uses of this marker may be limited to specific settings, including some meningioma subtypes and nerve sheath tumors

Computer-Aided Medical Diagnosis Using Bayesian Classifier - Decision Support System for Medical Diagnosis

This study employs a Bayesian framework to construct a Web-based decision support system for medical diagnosis. The purpose is to help users (patients and physicians) with issues pertinent to medical diagnosis decisions and to detect diseases with highest probability through the Bayesian framework. Users could perform a more accurate diagnosis with the prior/conditional probabilities obtained from selected data sets and compute the posterior probability using the Bayes theorem. The proposed system identifies diseases by analyzing symptoms or by analyzing medical test results. Currently the system detects different types of diseases that people suffer in their day-to-day lives (general diseases) with an average detection accuracy of 92.56%. System also detects complex diseases (e.g.: heart disease - 83.67%, breast cancer - 80.98%, liver disorders - 79.43%, lung cancer - 71.00%, primary tumor - 78.02%, etc.) based on the analysis of the medical test results. The proposed system enhances the quality, accuracy and efficiency of decisions in medical diagnosis since the use of Bayesian theorem allows this system to offer more accurate platform than the conventional systems. Other than that this web-based system provides value-added services in conjunction with CAD system, such as; e-Chat & e-Channeling. More importantly, the targeted user group will be able to access the system as a software element freely and quickly. In this way the goal of this study – which is to provide a web-based medical diagnosis system is effectively achieved.KEYWORDS: Bayesian framework, medical decision support systems, computer-aided medical diagnosis, probability distributions, disease

Draft Genome Sequence of Erwinia toletana, a Bacterium Associated with Olive Knots Caused by Pseudomonas savastanoi pv. Savastanoi.

Erwinia toletana was first reported in 2004 as a bacterial species isolated from olive knots caused by the plant bacterium Pseudomonas savastanoi pv. savastanoi. Recent studies have shown that the presence of this bacterium in the olive knot environment increases the virulence of the disease, indicating possible interspecies interactions with P. savastanoi pv. savastanoi. Here, we report the first draft genome sequence of an E. toletana strain.D.P.D.S. was the beneficiary of an ICGEB fellowship. The laboratory of V.V. was financed by Progetto AGER and ICGEB core funding

Draft Genome Sequence of Beneficial Rice Rhizosphere Isolate Pseudomonas aeruginosa PUPa3.

Published onlinePseudomonas aeruginosa PUPa3 is a rhizosphere-colonizing and plant growth-promoting strain isolated from the rhizosphere of rice. This strain has, however, been shown to be pathogenic in two nonmammalian infection models. Here we report the draft genome sequence of P. aeruginosa PUPa3.G.U. and M.K. were funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Republic of Serbia (grant no. 173019). G.U. is also the beneficiary of FEMS Research Fellowship 2014-1. The laboratory of V.V. was financed by ICGEB core funding

Awareness of School Learning Environments

Now, and in the times that follow, student education should focus on developing inclusive skills such as problem-solving and decision-making, where the role of the learning environment plays a crucial part, i.e., it is a process where the screen of the universe of discourse is accomplished in order to consider not only the complex relationships that flow among the objects that populate it, but also its inner structure, co-existing incomplete/unknown or even self-contradictory information or knowledge. As a result, we will focus on the development of an Intelligent Social Machine to assess Learning Environments in high schools, based on factors like School and Disciplinary Climates as well as Parental Involvement. The formal background will be to use Logic Programming to define its architecture based on a Deep Learning-Big Data approach to Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, complemented by an Evolutionary approach to Computing grounded on Virtual Intellects