Shape optimization of tibial prosthesis components

NASA technology and optimal design methodologies originally developed for the optimization of composite structures (engine blades) are adapted and applied to the optimization of orthopaedic knee implants. A method is developed enabling the shape tailoring of the tibial components of a total knee replacement implant for optimal interaction within the environment of the tibia. The shape of the implant components are optimized such that the stresses in the bone are favorably controlled to minimize bone degradation, to improve the mechanical integrity of the implant/interface/bone system, and to prevent failures of the implant components. A pilot tailoring system is developed and the feasibility of the concept is demonstrated and evaluated. The methodology and evolution of the existing aerospace technology from which this pilot optimization code was developed is also presented and discussed. Both symmetric and unsymmetric in-plane loading conditions are investigated. The results of the optimization process indicate a trend toward wider and tapered posts as well as thicker backing trays. Unique component geometries were obtained for the different load cases

The directivity of the forced radiation of sound from panels and openings

This paper presents a method for calculating the directivity of the radiation of sound from a two dimensional panel or opening, whose vibration is forced by the incidence of sound from the other side. The directivity of the radiation depends on the angular distribution of the incident sound energy. For panels or openings in the wall of a room, the angular distribution of the incident sound energy is predicted using a physical model which depends on the sound absorption coefficient of the room surfaces. For an opening at the end of a duct, the sound absorption coefficient model is used in conjunction with a two dimensional model for the directivity of the sound source in the duct. The finite size of the duct or panel is taken into account by using a two dimensional model for the real part of the radiation efficiency of the finite size panel or opening. For angles of radiation close to 90° to the normal to the panel or opening, the effect of the diffraction by the panel or opening, or by the finite baffle in which the panel or opening is mounted, needs to be included. The directivity of the radiation depends strongly on the length of the radiating object in the direction of the observer and only slightly on the width of the object at right angles to the direction of the observer. For panels, the plate wave impedance of the panel is used. Above its critical frequency, a single panel radiates strongly at the angle at which coincidence occurs. The method is compared with published experimental results

SNIFFER WFD119: Enhancement of the River Invertebrate Classification Tool (RICT)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Project funders/partners: Environment Agency (EA), Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA), Scotland & Northern Ireland Forum for Environmental Research (SNIFFER), Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) Background to research The Regulatory Agencies in the UK (the Environment Agency; Scottish Environment Protection Agency; and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency) now use the River Invertebrate Classification Tool (RICT) to classify the ecological quality of rivers for Water Framework Directive compliance monitoring. RICT incorporates RIVPACS IV predictive models and is a highly capable tool written in a modern software programming language. While RICT classifies waters for general degradation and organic pollution stress, producing assessments of status class and uncertainty, WFD compliance monitoring also requires the UK Agencies to assess the impacts of a wide range of pressures including hydromorphological and acidification stresses. Some of these pressures alter the predictor variables that current RIVPACS models use to derive predicted biotic indices. This project has sought to broaden the scope of RICT by developing one or more RIVPACS model(s) that do not use predictor variables that are affected by these stressors, but instead use alternative GIS based variables that are wholly independent of these pressures. This project has also included a review of the wide range of biotic indices now available in RICT, identifying published sources, examining index performance, and where necessary making recommendations on further needs for index testing and development. Objectives of research •To remove and derive alternative predictive variables that are not affected by stressors, with particular emphasis on hydrological/acidification metric predictors. •To construct one or more new RIVPACS model(s) using stressor independent variables. •Review WFD reporting indices notably AWIC(species), LIFE (species), PSI & WHPT. Key findings and recommendations : Predictor variables and intellectual property rights : An extensive suite of new variables have been derived by GIS for the RIVPACS reference sites that have been shown to act as stressor-independent predictor variables. These include measures of stream order, solid and drift geology, and a range of upstream catchment characteristics (e.g. catchment area, mean altitude of upstream catchment, and catchment aspect). It is recommended that decisions are reached on which of the newly derived model(s) are implemented in RICT so that IPR issues for the relevant datasets can be quickly resolved and the datasets licensed. It is also recommended that licensing is sought for a point and click system (where the dataset cannot be reverse engineered) that is capable of calculating any of the time-invariant RIVPACS environmental predictor variables used by any of the newly derived (and existing) RIVPACS models, and for any potential users. New stressor-independent RIVPACS models : Using the existing predictor variables, together with new ones derived for their properties of stressor-independence, initial step-wise forward selection discriminant models suggested a range of 36 possible models that merited further testing. Following further testing, the following models are recommended for assessing watercourses affected by flow/hydromorphological and/or acidity stress: • For flow/hydromorphological stressors that may have modified width, depth and/or substrate in GB, it is suggested that a new ‘RIVPACS IV – Hydromorphology Independent’ model (Model 24) is used (this does not use the predictor variables width, depth and substratum, but includes a suite of new stressor-independent variables). • For acidity related stressors in GB, it is suggested that a new ‘RIVPACS IV – Alkalinity Independent’ model (Model 35) is used (this does not use the predictor variable alkalinity, but includes new stressor-independent variables). • For flow/hydromorphological stressors and acidity related stressors in GB, it is suggested that a new ‘RIVPACS IV – Hydromorphology & Alkalinity Independent’ model (Model 13) is used (this does not use the predictor variables width, depth, substratum and alkalinity, but includes a suite of new stressor-independent variables). • Reduced availability of appropriate GIS tools at this time has meant that no new models have been developed for Northern Ireland. Discriminant functions and end group means have now been calculated to enable any of these models to be easily implemented in the RICT software. Biotic indices : The RIVPACS models in RICT can now produce expected values for a wide range of biotic indices addressing a variety of stressors. These indices will support the use of RICT as a primary tool for WFD classification and reporting of the quality of UK streams and rivers. There are however a number of outstanding issues with indices that need to be addressed: • There is a need to develop a biotic index for assessing metal pollution. • WFD EQR banding schemes are required for many of the indices to report what is considered an acceptable degree of stress (High-Good) and what is not (Moderate, Poor or Bad). • A comprehensive objective testing process needs to be undertaken on the indices in RICT using UK-wide, large-scale, independent test datasets to quantify their index-stressor relationships and their associated uncertainty, for example following the approach to acidity index testing in Murphy et al., (in review) or organic/general degradation indices in Banks & McFarland (2010). • Following objective testing, the UK Agencies should make efforts to address any index under-performance issues that have been identified, and where necessary new work should be commissioned to modify existing indices, or develop new ones where required so that indices for all stress types meet certain minimum performance criteria. • Testing needs to be done to examine index-stressor relationships with both observed index scores and RIVPACS observed/expected ratios. Work should also be done to compare the existing RIVPACS IV and the new stressor-independent models (developed in this project) as alternative sources of the expected index values for these tests. • Consideration should be given to assessing the extent to which chemical and biological monitoring points co-occur. Site-matched (rather than reach-matched) chemical and biological monitoring points would i) generate the substantial training datasets needed to refine or develop new indices and ii) generate the independent datasets for testing

Optimal design of composite hip implants using NASA technology

Using an adaptation of NASA software, we have investigated the use of numerical optimization techniques for the shape and material optimization of fiber composite hip implants. The original NASA inhouse codes, were originally developed for the optimization of aerospace structures. The adapted code, which was called OPORIM, couples numerical optimization algorithms with finite element analysis and composite laminate theory to perform design optimization using both shape and material design variables. The external and internal geometry of the implant and the surrounding bone is described with quintic spline curves. This geometric representation is then used to create an equivalent 2-D finite element model of the structure. Using laminate theory and the 3-D geometric information, equivalent stiffnesses are generated for each element of the 2-D finite element model, so that the 3-D stiffness of the structure can be approximated. The geometric information to construct the model of the femur was obtained from a CT scan. A variety of test cases were examined, incorporating several implant constructions and design variable sets. Typically the code was able to produce optimized shape and/or material parameters which substantially reduced stress concentrations in the bone adjacent of the implant. The results indicate that this technology can provide meaningful insight into the design of fiber composite hip implants

Experimental and numerical investigation of enclosed cavity noise in the presence of interior trim materials

This paper presents a rigid walled car cabin model to predict the acoustic effects of vehicle interior trim materials. The car cavity is made of a rigid walled enclosure system with one flexible wall on the front firewall position, where the interior trim materials are applied to the inner surface of the front firewall to modify the coupling between the flexible wall and the cabin air cavity. The car cabin is acoustically excited by using a single point source positioned at one corner of the inner air cavity to imitate the airborne noise. The propagated noise is measured by using pressure microphones at different locations inside the car cabin: one near the driver's ear position and another one near the passenger's ear position. An acoustic FE (Finite Element) model is also developed to investigate and predict the effects of interior trim materials on the car cabin noise level. Finally, the simulation results are compared with the experimentally acquired acoustic effects of the interior trim materials. The predicted acoustic response results show that the simulation agrees well with the experiment data, both with and without the interior trim materials. The noise propagating inside the car cabin is reduced by a similar ratio in both the experimental method and in the numerical analysis. The selected interior trim materials are starting to absorb noise at frequencies above 500 Hz, but they do not reduce the low-frequency noise effectively

Discovery of a High Proper Motion L Dwarf Binary: 2MASS J15200224-4422419AB

We report the discovery of the wide L1.5+L4.5 binary 2MASS J15200224-4422419AB, identified during spectroscopic followup of high proper motion sources selected from the Two Micron All Sky Survey. This source was independently identified by Kendall et al. in the SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey. Resolved JHK photometry and low resolution near-infrared spectroscopy demonstrate that this system is composed of two well-separated (1"174+/-0"016) L dwarfs. Component classifications are derived using both spectral ratios and comparison to near-infrared spectra of previously classified field L dwarfs. Physical association for the pair is deduced from the large (mu = 0"73+/-0"03 /yr) common proper motion of the components and their similar spectrophotometric distances (19+/-2 pc). The projected separation of the binary, 22+/-2 AU, is consistent with maximum separation/total system mass trends for very low mass binaries. The 2MASS J1520-4422 system exhibits both large tangential (66+/-7 km/s) and radial velocities (-70+/-18 km/s), and its motion in the local standard of rest suggests that it is an old member of the Galactic disk population. This system joins a growing list of well-separated (>0"5), very low mass binaries, and is an excellent target for resolved optical spectroscopy to constrain its age as well as trace activity/rotation trends near the hydrogen-burning limit.Comment: 35 pages, 8 figures; accepted for publication to ApJ; see also Kendall et al. astro-ph/060939

Pharmaceutical Applications on Columns Packed with Sub-2 µm Particles

During the last few years, there has been a great interest in the development of fast liquid chromatography. Among the reported approaches, the reduction of the particle size to attain sub-2µm diameter represents a good solution for achieving both increased separation power and faster analysis time. This paper demonstrates the chromatographic performance of such supports using plateheight curves and reveals the possibility for obtaining ultra-fast or highly efficient separations, according to the column geometry and system pressure limitations. The stability of these columns is initially evaluated using a system suitability experiment. The chromatographic performance remains stable in terms of retention, efficiency, and pressure for more than 1700 injections with pressure conditions ranging from 200 to 800 bar. Several fast and ultra-fast pharmaceutical applications are reported. In isocratic mode, a 5- to 10-fold reduction in analysis time is obtained with limited influence on efficiency and resolution. The run time is further reduced by 30-fold with the shorter available columns (i.e., 30 mm length). In gradient mode, the separation of a complex mixture containing an active pharmaceutical compound and related impurities is significantly improved with column length equal to 100 mm, to increase peak capacity and resolutio

Examining the shared and unique features of self-concept content and structure in Borderline Personality Disorder and Depression

AcceptedArticleCopyright © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10608-015-9695-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.A number of clinical theories emphasise self-concept disturbance as central to borderline personality disorder (BPD). To date, however, there has been limited empirical examination of exactly how BPD changes the content and structure of self-concept. Moreover, it is unclear if patterns of self-concept disturbance are unique to BPD or are driven by axis-I comorbidities such as depression. To examine this issue, the present study adopted a dimensional design, examining how performance on a novel adaptation of a well-validated measure of self-concept (the Psychological Distance Scaling Task) was related to BPD and depression symptoms in a sample of 93 individuals with a wide range of symptom severity. While greater BPD severity was associated with less positive and more negative content of self-concept, this was driven by depression symptoms. Similarly, positive content was more diffuse and negative content more interconnected at higher levels of BPD severity, but for positive content, this was most clearly linked to comorbid depression features. In contrast, BPD severity (over and above depression symptoms) was uniquely associated with greater ‘clustering’ for positive and negative content (i.e. a more fragmented self-concept). This pattern of results lends support to clinical theories arguing that self-concept fragmentation is core to BPD and also supports the utility of dimensional analyses to identify patterns of cognitive-affective disturbance unique to BPD versus those shared with comorbid conditions like depression.MR

Les effets pro-arythmiques des médicaments

RésuméLes effets pro-arythmiques des médicaments sont fréquents et graves, et sont associés à une surmortalité non négligeable. La polymédication augmente le nombre d’effets indésirables et d’interactions graves voire mortelles. Certains sont facilement évitables. Cependant, au-delà de l’allongement de l’intervalle QT, d’autres mécanismes peuvent avoir un rôle majeur comme les dysfonctions du RyR2, responsable d’arythmie calcium-dépendantes par surcharge calcique intracellulaire, avec apparition de post-dépolarisations tardives, sans modifications de l’intervalle QT. Les bloqueurs des canaux sodiques sont également un problème sérieux de part le risque de démasquer ou d’aggraver une dysfonction du canal sodique chez des patients atteints de syndrome de Brugada asymptomatique ou non. Leur dépistage à un stade précoce du développement des médicaments peut avoir un intérêt majeur.SummaryThe cardiac safety of new and marketed drugs is a major concern for public authorities, patients, physicians as well as pharmaceutical companies. Letal adverse drug reactions are indeed a leading cause of death worldwide and increase at a greater rate than the increase in total hospital admission. The increasing use of polypharmacy in current clinical practice is also associated to a growing number of side effects and interactions leading to fatal adverse events. Measurement of the QT interval is an established, albeit incomplete, approach to assess the proarrhythmic risk of a drug. Ventricular arrhythmia (VA) can be caused by a QT-prolonging drug inducing abnormal repolarization of the action potential (AP) of ventricular cardiomyocytes. Emerging evidence, derived from recent understanding of these mechanisms and of similar mechanisms reported for heart failure (HF), suggest that diastolic Ca2+ leak from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) related to RyR2 dysfunction can induce Ca2+ dependent arrhythmia. In this report, we review mechanisms underlying drug-induced arrhythmogenic effects and Ca2+ dependent arrhythmia, and, for the latter, we discuss some of the issues associated to worsening of cardiac arrhythmias

Mucus Sugar Content Shapes the Bacterial Community Structure in Thermally Stressed Acropora muricata

It has been proposed that the chemical composition of a coral’s mucus can influence the associated bacterial community. However, information on this topic is rare, and non-existent for corals that are under thermal stress. This study therefore compared the carbohydrate composition of mucus in the coral Acropora muricata when subjected to increasing thermal stress from 26°C to 31°C, and determined whether this composition correlated with any changes in the bacterial community. Results showed that, at lower temperatures, the main components of mucus were N-acetyl glucosamine and C6 sugars, but these constituted a significantly lower proportion of the mucus in thermally-stressed corals. The change in the mucus composition coincided with a shift from a γ-Proteobacteria- to a Verrucomicrobiae- and α-Proteobacteria-dominated community in the coral mucus. Bacteria in the class Cyanobacteria also started to become prominent in the mucus when the coral was thermally stressed. The increase in the relative abundance of the Verrucomicrobiae at higher temperature was strongly associated with a change in the proportion of fucose, glucose and mannose in the mucus. Increase in the relative abundance of α-Proteobacteria were associated with GalNAc and glucose, while the drop in relative abundance of γ-Proteobacteria at high temperature coincided with changes in fucose and mannose. Cyanobacteria were highly associated with arabinose and xylose. Changes in mucus composition and the bacterial community in the mucus layer occurred at 29°C, which were prior to visual signs of coral bleaching at 31°C. A compositional change in the coral mucus, induced by thermal stress could therefore be a key factor leading to a shift in the associated bacterial community. This, in turn, has the potential to impact the physiological function of the coral holobiont