Quenching of acoustic bandgaps by flow noise

Copyright (2009) American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics along with the following message: The following article appeared in Appl. Phys. Lett. 94, 134104 (2009) and may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3111797. Authors own version of final article on e-print serversWe report an experimental study of acoustic effects produced by wind impinging on noise barriers based on two-dimensional sonic crystals with square symmetry. We found that the attenuation strength of sonic-crystal bandgaps decreases for increasing values of flow speed. A quenching of the acoustic bandgap appears at a certain speed value that depends of the barrier filling ratio. For increasing values of flow speed, the data indicate that the barrier becomes a sound source because of its interaction with the wind. We conclude that flow noise should be taken into account in designing acoustic barriers based on sonic crystals.This work was supported by the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation (AECI), the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICIIN), and the Spanish Ministry of Public Works (MF). J.S.-D. acknowledges useful conversations with A. Broatch.Elnady, T.; Elsabbagh, A.; Akl, W.; Mohamady, O.; Garcia Chocano, VM.; Torrent Martí, D.; Cervera Moreno, FS.... (2009). Quenching of acoustic bandgaps by flow noise. Applied Physics Letters. 94(13). doi:10.1063/1.3111797S9413Sánchez-Pérez, J. V., Caballero, D., Mártinez-Sala, R., Rubio, C., Sánchez-Dehesa, J., Meseguer, F., … Gálvez, F. (1998). Sound Attenuation by a Two-Dimensional Array of Rigid Cylinders. Physical Review Letters, 80(24), 5325-5328. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.80.5325Rubio, C., Caballero, D., Sanchez-Perez, J. V., Martinez-Sala, R., Sanchez-Dehesa, J., Meseguer, F., & Cervera, F. (1999). The existence of full gaps and deaf bands in two-dimensional sonic crystals. Journal of Lightwave Technology, 17(11), 2202-2207. doi:10.1109/50.803012Caballero, D., Sánchez-Dehesa, J., Rubio, C., Mártinez-Sala, R., Sánchez-Pérez, J. V., Meseguer, F., & Llinares, J. (1999). Large two-dimensional sonic band gaps. Physical Review E, 60(6), R6316-R6319. doi:10.1103/physreve.60.r6316Caballero, D., Sánchez-Dehesa, J., Martínez-Sala, R., Rubio, C., Sánchez-Pérez, J. V., Sanchis, L., & Meseguer, F. (2001). Suzuki phase in two-dimensional sonic crystals. Physical Review B, 64(6). doi:10.1103/physrevb.64.064303Chen, Y.-Y., & Ye, Z. (2001). Acoustic Attenuation by Two-Dimensional Arrays of Rigid Cylinders. Physical Review Letters, 87(18). doi:10.1103/physrevlett.87.184301Sanchez-Perez, J. V., Rubio, C., Martinez-Sala, R., Sanchez-Grandia, R., & Gomez, V. (2002). Acoustic barriers based on periodic arrays of scatterers. Applied Physics Letters, 81(27), 5240-5242. doi:10.1063/1.1533112Goffaux, C., Maseri, F., Vasseur, J. O., Djafari-Rouhani, B., & Lambin, P. (2003). Measurements and calculations of the sound attenuation by a phononic band gap structure suitable for an insulating partition application. Applied Physics Letters, 83(2), 281-283. doi:10.1063/1.1592016Goffaux, C., & Vigneron, J. P. (2001). Theoretical study of a tunable phononic band gap system. Physical Review B, 64(7). doi:10.1103/physrevb.64.075118Zhong, L., Wu, F., Zhang, X., Zhong, H., & Zhong, S. (2005). Effects of orientation and symmetry of rods on the complete acoustic band gap in two-dimensional periodic solid/gas systems. Physics Letters A, 339(1-2), 164-170. doi:10.1016/j.physleta.2005.03.025Umnova, O., Attenborough, K., & Linton, C. M. (2006). Effects of porous covering on sound attenuation by periodic arrays of cylinders. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 119(1), 278-284. doi:10.1121/1.2133715Martínez-Sala, R., Rubio, C., García-Raffi, L. M., Sánchez-Pérez, J. V., Sánchez-Pérez, E. A., & Llinares, J. (2006). Control of noise by trees arranged like sonic crystals. Journal of Sound and Vibration, 291(1-2), 100-106. doi:10.1016/j.jsv.2005.05.030Sanchis, L., Håkansson, A., Cervera, F., & Sánchez-Dehesa, J. (2003). Acoustic interferometers based on two-dimensional arrays of rigid cylinders in air. Physical Review B, 67(3). doi:10.1103/physrevb.67.03542

Potential role of calprotectin as a monitoring biomarker for clinical and sonographic activity and treatment outcome in recent-onset rheumatoid arthritis

Background Calprotectin is a protein released during the activation and turnover of leukocytes. It can be used as a biomarker of inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Aim The current study aimed to measure the serum level of calprotectin in RA patients, recently diagnosed and after initiation of treatment, to determine its association with clinical disease, synovial inflammation determined by Ultrasound (US), and its relation to therapy when compared with other inflammatory markers. Patients and methods A total of 32 patients with recent RA and 20 healthy individuals were assessed for serum calprotectin level (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay). C-reactive protein (CRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) were also measured in patients who were reassessed 4 months after initiation of therapy. Disease activity was evaluated by the disease activity score of 28 joints (DAS28), and US assessment was performed. Results The mean level of serum calprotectin was significantly higher (P<0.001) than that of controls. At baseline, there were significant (P<0.001) correlations of calprotectin serum level with DAS28, ESR, CRP, grayscale, and power Doppler (PD) synovitis scores. After therapy, all except DAS28 and ESR significantly correlated with calprotectin serum level. Calprotectin was shown to be better (P=0.001) than CRP (P=0.922) and ESR (P=0.104, r2=0.495) in predicting power Doppler synovitis score. Calprotectin results showed higher sensitivity in predicting disease activity at the stage of active inflammation. Conclusion Serum calprotectin level is strongly associated with clinical, laboratory, and US parameters of inflammation in recent-onset RA. Calprotectin is a confident biomarker for monitoring the treatment outcome in RA patients

Longitudinal Study of Some Bacterial, Parasitic, and Viral Enteric Pathogens isolated from Diarrheic Calves from Dairy Herd in Egypt

Neonatal calf diarrhea remains one of the most important problems faced by livestock, causing great economic losses. Fecal samples were collected from 100 diarrheic calves in Al-Fayoum governorate, Egypt during 2021, and 2022, to investigate the prevalence of Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC), Salmonella typhimurium, Klebsiella pneumonia, Clostridium perfringens, bovine rotavirus, bovine coronavirus, and Cryptosporidium parvum which are the major enteropathogens associated with neonatal calf diarrhea, the prevalence of enteropathogens were 58%, 29%, 34%, 14%, 35%, 8%, and 65% respectively. Molecular characterization was performed to confirm the E. coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Salmonella typhimurium, Clostridium perfringens, and Cryptosporidium isolates and to detect some virulent genes associated with their pathogenicity. All the bacterial isolates gave a clear band with 16S rRNA. In E. coli, virulent genes (K99, F41, phoA) were detected, also; Salmonella strains were found positive for the invA and sopB gene, while all Clostridium perfringens strains were tested positive for Alpha and Beta toxin but negative for Epsilon toxin. On the other hand, all Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates were tested positive with iutA and fimH genes. Also, the in-vitro antibiotic sensitivity testing of bacterial isolates was applied. Statistical analysis was carried out to determine the potential influence of age factor on the reported prevalences of concurrent infections, which revealed that the animals age significantly affected the infection prevalence in all pathogens inversely excepts those infected by Klebsiella was affected by age directly, and those infected by E. Coli, or Cryptosporidium, were not affected by age at all. Good hygienic management and good vaccination program are very important to overcome acute diarrhea in neonate calves and the misuse of antibiotic revealed the presence of multidrug resistance isolates of some enteropathogenic bacteria

Impact of sustained remission on quality of life among women with rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus: a prospective observational study

Abstract Background Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) as a patient reported outcome plays important roles in the life of patients with RA (rheumatoid arthritis) and SLE (Systemic lupus erythematosus) as well as their families. Evaluating the impact of sustained remission on HRQOL is important and could be of potential help in daily practice. Thus, we aimed to assess and compare prospectively the impact of sustained remission on HRQOL in Saudi RA and SLE female cohorts. Results Sixty-two female patients with active RA and 34 female patients with active SLE fulfilled the inclusion-, entry- and follow-up criteria. At baseline, the SLE patients had significantly better SF-36 scores than the RA patients. In both groups, significant correlations were found between disease activity and physical (PCS) and mental (MCS) components summary of the SF-36 (all p’s ≤ 0.001). In sustained remission, both SLE and RA patients showed significant improvements of the SF-36 scores (p < 0.001) compared to baseline. RA patients in sustained remission had a significantly better general health, bodily pain and physical functioning, and total PCS scores (p < 0.001) than those with SLE. Conclusions Both SLE and RA patients in sustained remission showed strongly improved HRQOL. In sustained remission, RA patients had comparable or better HRQOL than SLE patients