Modeling of liquid flow in surface discontinuities

Polymer composite and metallic materials have found wide application in various industries such as aviation, rocket, car manufacturing, ship manufacturing, etc. Many design elements need permanent quality control. Ensuring high quality and reliability of products is impossible without effective nondestructive testing methods. One of these methods is penetrant testing using penetrating substances based on liquid penetration into defect cavities. In this paper, we propose a model of liquid flow to determine the rates of filling the defect cavities with various materials and, based on this, to choose optimal control modes

Experimental demonstration of extended depth-of-field f/1.2 visible High Definition camera with jointly optimized phase mask and real-time digital processing

Increasing the depth of field (DOF) of compact visible high resolution cameras while maintaining high imaging performance in the DOF range is crucial for such applications as night vision goggles or industrial inspection. In this paper, we present the end-to-end design and experimental validation of an extended depth-of-field visible High Definition camera with a very small f-number, combining a six-ring pyramidal phase mask in the aperture stop of the lens with a digital deconvolution. The phase mask and the deconvolution algorithm are jointly optimized during the design step so as to maximize the quality of the deconvolved image over the DOF range. The deconvolution processing is implemented in real-time on a Field-Programmable Gate Array and we show that it requires very low power consumption. By mean of MTF measurements and imaging experiments we experimentally characterize the performance of both cameras with and without phase mask and thereby demonstrate a significant increase in depth of field of a factor 2.5, as it was expected in the design step

Experimental demonstration of extended depth-of-field f/1.2f/1.2 visible High Definition camera with jointly optimized phase mask and real-time digital processing

International audienceIncreasing the depth of field (DOF) of compact visible high resolution cameras while maintaining high imaging performance in the DOF range is crucial for such applications as night vision goggles or industrial inspection. In this paper, we present the end-to-end design and experimental validation of an extended depth-of-field visible High Definition camera with a very small f-number, combining a six-ring pyramidal phase mask in the aperture stop of the lens with a digital deconvolution. The phase mask and the deconvolution algorithm are jointly optimized during the design step so as to maximize the quality of the deconvolved image over the DOF range. The deconvolution processing is implemented in real-time on a Field-Programmable Gate Array and we show that it requires very low power consumption. By mean of MTF measurements and imaging experiments we experimentally characterize the performance of both cameras with and without phase mask and thereby demonstrate a significant increase in depth of field of a factor 2.5, as it was expected in the design step

The discovery of novel coronaviruses in bat guano, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo

Purpose Virological surveillance was conducted in to determine the presence of bat CoVs in the bat population in Wind Cave Nature Reserve, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. Methods & Materials Partial RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) gene sequences of 11 bat-CoV positive guano collected in Wind Cave Nature Reserve was analysed. Five pellets of fresh guano from insectivorous bats were collected on plastic tarp and pooled in 500uL of ice-cold viral transport medium. The 440-bp gene was amplified using family-wide hemi-nested RT-PCR for phylogenetic analysis. Amplicon sequences were analysed using Basic Local Alignment Search Tool software (BLAST) to determine their corresponding species. Sequence alignment was carried out without primer sequence and phylogenetic tree with Maximum Likelihood bootstrap-Bayesian inference value (MLb/PPv) support. Results The positive rate was 47.6% (10/21) with the distribution of 60% (n=6/10) and 40% (n=4/10) Alpha and Beta-coronaviruses respectively. BatCoVs identified in this study formed four novel monophyletic clades referred to as Borneo Alpha-1 and -2, and Borneo Beta-1 and -2. Borneo Alpha-1 and -2 viruses diverged to form a monophyletic clade with Decacovirus-1 and Decacovirus-2 respectively (83.0-85.1% and 80.7-81.0% nucleotide identity) with batCoV found in Sabah (NCBI Accession# KX284940). Borneo Beta-1 viruses are also closely related to BatCoV found in Sabah (KX284939) (86.5-87.5% nt identity), forming a monophyletic group with Sarbecovirus. Meanwhile, Borneo Beta-2 are closer to BatCoVs in Loas (MN312609) (89.7-90.4% nt identity), forming a monophyletic clade with Hibecovirus. It is worthy to note that viruses found in the Sarbecovirus subgenus such as SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 attributed to two zooneses with Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) over the past two decades. However, Borneo Beta-1 viruses are distant to the RaTG13 (MN996532) (69.1-697% nt identity), the proposed progenitor of the pandemic SARS-CoV-2. Conclusion The study has discovered both novel alpha and beta bat-coronaviruses in 40% of the guano sampled in Wind Cave Nature Reserve, Sarawak, East Malaysia based on the phylogeny of the partial RdRp gene sequence. The batCoVs are phylogenetically grouped into four clades via phylogeny confirms the presence of Borneo Beta-1 clade being monophyletic to the epidemic Sarbecoviruses

Genetic diversity of Macaca fascicularis (Cercopithecidae) from Penang, Malaysia as inferred from mitochondrial control region segment

The genetic diversity of the long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) from Penang, Malaysia, including Jerejak Island and the mainland area of the state of Penang, Seberang Perai were examined using 1,042 bp control region (CR) segment of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Twenty haplotypes were described with a single haplotype sharing between the mainland and the island which suggests that it is a remnant of the genetic makeup from the mainland. Compared to previous studies based on the CR, all the Penang haplotypes are newly described with none shared with the other regional populations of M. fascicularis. A single deletion mutation unique to the Penang samples (Groups I and II) could be a good indicator for the conservation of the genetic uniqueness and possibly should be managed as a management unit (MU). A summarised phylogenetic tree (NJ, MP, ML and Bayesian) supports the monophyletic clustering of the M. fascicularis as described in previous studies. The topology separates the Penang haplotypes into three major groups, which generally corresponds to their geographical distribution. We also noted that the Penang haplotypes are of the continental lineage which separated from the insular lineage at around 1.04 mya. Finally, we showed that the CR of the mtDNA is powerful and suitable for the quantification of intraspecific diversity in M. fascicularis

Risultati preliminari della ricerca sul paesaggio marittimo della Costiera Amalfitana

Il progetto Ancient Maritime Dynamics (AMD) promosso dall’Università di Koç di Istanbul, estende ai metodi dell’archeologia tradizionale i sistemi informativi geografici al fine di comprendere e modellare gli elementi del paesaggio marittimo del Mediterraneo nell’antichità. A partire dal 2016, questo progetto sta focalizzando i suoi sforzi sul tratto di costa tra Salerno e Punta Campanella, effettuando ricerche subacquee e terrestri per iniziare a decifrare attività marittime praticate nel passato in questa area e verificare ipotesi riguardanti la costruzione dello spazio marittimo mediterraneo. Questo studio è un resoconto dei risultati conseguiti sino ad oggi, oltre ad essere un’anticipazione dei progetti futuri

Modelling the Maritime Cultural Landscape of the Costiera Amalfitana: The First Three Seasons of Research (2016–2018)

Human activity along the Amalfi coastline in Italy has been tied to the sea for millennia – for sustenance, migration, trade, warfare, and leisure. As a result, this region has an equally rich and extensive maritime cultural landscape composed of tangible and intangible elements. In 2016, a multi-disciplinary project began efforts to model and to understand changes within this landscape, and this essay presents the preliminary results of our first three seasons of work. Some efforts, such as the documentation of maritime cultural heritage in local museums, archival work, and geomorphological research proceeded smoothly. Unexpectedly, however, little material from the pre-modern era was found under water, adding questions to this study that future work in the Marine Protected Area west of Positano may answer