Corrigendum: Solar cycles or random processes? Evaluating solar variability in Holocene climate records

This is the final version of the article. Available from Springer Nature via the DOI in this record.The article to which this is the corrigendum is in ORE at http://hdl.handle.net/10871/21766A coding error in the Monte Carlo procedure for the determination of critical values in running correlation analysis (presented in Supplementary Data S8) has been brought to the attention of the authors.[...

The effect of high dose antibiotic impregnated cement on rate of surgical site infection after hip hemiarthroplasty for fractured neck of femur : a protocol for a double-blind quasi randomised controlled trial

Background: Mortality following hip hemiarthroplasty is in the range of 10-40% in the first year, with much attributed to post-operative complications. One such complication is surgical site infection (SSI), which at the start of this trial affected 4.68% of patients in the UK having this operation. Compared to SSI rates of elective hip surgery, at less than 1%, this figure is elevated. The aim of this quasi randomised controlled trial (RCT) is to determine if high dose antibiotic impregnated cement can reduce the SSI in patients at 12-months after hemiarthroplasty for intracapsular fractured neck of femur. Methods: 848 patients with an intracapsular fractured neck of femur requiring a hip hemiarthroplasty are been recruited into this two-centre double-blind quasi RCT. Participants were recruited before surgery and quasi randomised to standard care or intervention group. Participants, statistician and outcome assessors were blind to treatment allocation throughout the study. The intervention consisted of high dose antibiotic impregnated cement consisting of 1 gram Clindamycin and 1 gram of Gentamicin. The primary outcome is Health Protection Agency (HPA) defined deep surgical site infection at 12 months. Secondary outcomes include HPA defined superficial surgical site infection at 30 days, 30 and 90-day mortality, length of hospital stay, critical care stay, and complications. Discussion: Large randomised controlled trials assessing the effectiveness of a surgical intervention are uncommon, particularly in the speciality of orthopaedics. The results from this trial will inform evidence-based recommendations for antibiotic impregnated cement in the management of patients with a fractured neck of femur undergoing a hip hemiarthroplasty. If high dose antibiotic impregnated cement is found to be an effective intervention, implementation into clinical practice could improve long-term outcomes for patients undergoing hip hemiarthroplasty

Gitksan medicinal plants-cultural choice and efficacy

BACKGROUND: The use of plants for healing by any cultural group is integrally related to local concepts of the nature of disease, the nature of plants, and the world view of the culture. The physical and chemical properties of the plants themselves also bear on their selection by people for medicines, as does the array of plants available for people to choose from. I examine use of medicinal plants from a "biobehavioral" perspective to illuminate cultural selection of plants used for medicine by the Gitksan of northwestern British Columbia, Canada. METHODS: Consultant consensus, "intercultural consensus", independent use of the same plants by other cultural groups, and phytochemistry and bioassay results from the literature, were employed in analysis of probable empirical efficacy of plant uses. RESULTS: 70% of 37 Gitksan medicinal plants were used similarly by other cultures where direct diffusion is not known to have occurred; eleven plants, including the eight most frequently mentioned medicinal plants, also show active phytochemicals or bioassays indicating probable physiologically based therapeutic effects. CONCLUSION: Analysis of intercultural consensus revealed that the majority of cultures in the British Columbia region within the plant ranges use the same plants, or closely related species, in similar ways. The rigor of this analysis is effected by the lack of consistent data on all taxa of interest for all cultures within the region

Quantitative analysis of dribble volumes and rates using three-dimensional reconstruction of X-ray and diffused back-illumination images of diesel sprays

[EN] Post-injection fuel dribble is known to lead to incomplete atomisation and combustion due to the release of slow-moving, and often surface-bound, liquid fuel after the end of injection. This can have a negative effect on engine emissions, performance and injector durability. To better quantify this phenomenon, we developed an image-processing approach to measure the volume of ligaments produced during the end of injection. We applied our processing approach to an Engine Combustion Network 'Spray B' 3-hole injector, using datasets from 220 injections generated by different research groups, to decouple the effect of gas temperature and pressure on the fuel dribble process. High-speed X-ray phase-contrast images obtained at room temperature conditions (297 K) at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, together with diffused back-illumination images captured at a wide range of temperature conditions (293-900 K) by CMT Motores Termicos were analysed and compared quantitatively. We found a good agreement between image sets obtained by Argonne National Laboratory and CMT Motores Termicos using different imaging techniques. The maximum dribble volume within the field of view of the imaging system and the mean rate of fuel dribble were considered as characteristic parameters of the fuel dribble process. Analysis showed that the absolute mean dribble rate increases with temperature when injection pressure is higher than 1000 bar and slightly decreases at high injection pressures (>500 bar) when temperature is close to 293 K. Larger maximum volumes of the fuel dribble were observed at lower gas temperatures (similar to 473 K) and low gas pressures (<30 bar), with a slight dependence on injection pressure.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The image processing research was supported by the United Kingdom's Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (Grants EP/K020528/1 and EP/M009424/1) and BP Formulated Products Technology. The X-ray measurements were performed at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. Use of the Advanced Photon Source (APS) is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract No. DEAC02-06CH11357. The X-ray component of this research was partially funded by DOE's Vehicle Technologies Program, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.Sechenyh, V.; Duke, DJ.; Swantek, AB.; Matusik, KE.; Kastengren, AL.; Powell, CF.; Viera, A.... (2020). Quantitative analysis of dribble volumes and rates using three-dimensional reconstruction of X-ray and diffused back-illumination images of diesel sprays. International Journal of Engine Research. 21(1):43-54. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468087419860955S4354211Örley, F., Hickel, S., Schmidt, S. J., & Adams, N. A. (2016). Large-Eddy Simulation of turbulent, cavitating fuel flow inside a 9-hole Diesel injector including needle movement. International Journal of Engine Research, 18(3), 195-211. doi:10.1177/1468087416643901Benajes, J., Novella, R., De Lima, D., & Tribotté, P. (2014). Analysis of combustion concepts in a newly designed two-stroke high-speed direct injection compression ignition engine. International Journal of Engine Research, 16(1), 52-67. doi:10.1177/1468087414562867Moon, S., Huang, W., Li, Z., & Wang, J. (2016). End-of-injection fuel dribble of multi-hole diesel injector: Comprehensive investigation of phenomenon and discussion on control strategy. Applied Energy, 179, 7-16. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.06.116Kook, S., Pickett, L. M., & Musculus, M. P. B. (2009). Influence of Diesel Injection Parameters on End-of-Injection Liquid Length Recession. SAE International Journal of Engines, 2(1), 1194-1210. doi:10.4271/2009-01-1356Kastengren, A., Powell, C. F., Tilocco, F. Z., Liu, Z., Moon, S., Zhang, X., & Gao, J. (2012). End-of-Injection Behavior of Diesel Sprays Measured With X-Ray Radiography. Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power, 134(9). doi:10.1115/1.4006981Manin, J., Bardi, M., Pickett, L. M., & Payri, R. (2016). Boundary condition and fuel composition effects on injection processes of high-pressure sprays at the microscopic level. International Journal of Multiphase Flow, 83, 267-278. doi:10.1016/j.ijmultiphaseflow.2015.12.001Payri, R., Bracho, G., Marti-Aldaravi, P., & Viera, A. (2017). NEAR FIELD VISUALIZATION OF DIESEL SPRAY FOR DIFFERENT NOZZLE INCLINATION ANGLES IN NON-VAPORIZING CONDITIONS. Atomization and Sprays, 27(3), 251-267. doi:10.1615/atomizspr.2017017949Gimeno, J., Martí-Aldaraví, P., Carreres, M., & Peraza, J. E. (2018). Effect of the nozzle holder on injected fuel temperature for experimental test rigs and its influence on diesel sprays. International Journal of Engine Research, 19(3), 374-389. doi:10.1177/1468087417751531Payri, R., Salvador, F. J., Manin, J., & Viera, A. (2016). Diesel ignition delay and lift-off length through different methodologies using a multi-hole injector. Applied Energy, 162, 541-550. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.10.118Duke, D. J., Matusik, K. E., Kastengren, A. L., Swantek, A. B., Sovis, N., Payri, R., … Powell, C. F. (2017). X-ray radiography of cavitation in a beryllium alloy nozzle. International Journal of Engine Research, 18(1-2), 39-50. doi:10.1177/1468087416685965Duke, D., Swantek, A., Kastengren, A., Fezzaa, K., & Powell, C. (2015). Recent Developments in X-ray Diagnostics for Cavitation. SAE International Journal of Fuels and Lubricants, 8(1), 135-146. doi:10.4271/2015-01-0918Walko, D. A., Adams, B. W., Doumy, G., Dufresne, E. M., Li, Y., March, A. M., … Zhu, Y. (2016). Developments in time-resolved x-ray research at APS beamline 7ID. doi:10.1063/1.4952871Fessler, J. A., & Macovski, A. (1991). Object-based 3-D reconstruction of arterial trees from magnetic resonance angiograms. IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 10(1), 25-39. doi:10.1109/42.75608Canny, J. (1986). A Computational Approach to Edge Detection. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, PAMI-8(6), 679-698. doi:10.1109/tpami.1986.4767851Kastengren, A. L., Tilocco, F. Z., Duke, D. J., Powell, C. F., Zhang, X., & Moon, S. (2014). TIME-RESOLVED X-RAY RADIOGRAPHY OF SPRAYS FROM ENGINE COMBUSTION NETWORK SPRAY A DIESEL INJECTORS. Atomization and Sprays, 24(3), 251-272. doi:10.1615/atomizspr.2013008642Edelsbrunner, H., & Mücke, E. P. (1994). Three-dimensional alpha shapes. ACM Transactions on Graphics, 13(1), 43-72. doi:10.1145/174462.156635Lafarge, T., Pateiro-López, B., Possolo, A., & Dunkers, J. P. (2014). RImplementation of a Polyhedral Approximation to a 3D Set of Points Using theα-Shape. Journal of Statistical Software, 56(4). doi:10.18637/jss.v056.i04Koci, C., Dempsey, A., Nudd, J., & Knier, B. (2017). Understanding Hydrocarbon Emissions in Heavy Duty Diesel Engines Combining Experimental and Computational Methods. SAE International Journal of Engines, 10(3), 1093-1109. doi:10.4271/2017-01-070

X-ray Absorption and Reflection in Active Galactic Nuclei

X-ray spectroscopy offers an opportunity to study the complex mixture of emitting and absorbing components in the circumnuclear regions of active galactic nuclei, and to learn about the accretion process that fuels AGN and the feedback of material to their host galaxies. We describe the spectral signatures that may be studied and review the X-ray spectra and spectral variability of active galaxies, concentrating on progress from recent Chandra, XMM-Newton and Suzaku data for local type 1 AGN. We describe the evidence for absorption covering a wide range of column densities, ionization and dynamics, and discuss the growing evidence for partial-covering absorption from data at energies > 10 keV. Such absorption can also explain the observed X-ray spectral curvature and variability in AGN at lower energies and is likely an important factor in shaping the observed properties of this class of source. Consideration of self-consistent models for local AGN indicates that X-ray spectra likely comprise a combination of absorption and reflection effects from material originating within a few light days of the black hole as well as on larger scales. It is likely that AGN X-ray spectra may be strongly affected by the presence of disk-wind outflows that are expected in systems with high accretion rates, and we describe models that attempt to predict the effects of radiative transfer through such winds, and discuss the prospects for new data to test and address these ideas.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astronomy and Astrophysics Review. 58 pages, 9 figures. V2 has fixed an error in footnote

The pharmaceutical use of permethrin: Sources and behavior during municipal sewage treatment

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.Permethrin entered use in the 1970s as an insecticide in a wide range of applications, including agriculture, horticultural, and forestry, and has since been restricted. In the 21st century, the presence of permethrin in the aquatic environment has been attributed to its use as a human and veterinary pharmaceutical, in particular as a pedeculicide, in addition to other uses, such as a moth-proofing agent. However, as a consequence of its toxicity to fish, sources of permethrin and its fate and behavior during wastewater treatment are topics of concern. This study has established that high overall removal of permethrin (approximately 90%) was achieved during wastewater treatment and that this was strongly dependent on the extent of biological degradation in secondary treatment, with more limited subsequent removal in tertiary treatment processes. Sources of permethrin in the catchment matched well with measured values in crude sewage and indicated that domestic use accounted for more than half of the load to the treatment works. However, removal may not be consistent enough to achieve the environmental quality standards now being derived in many countries even where tertiary treatment processes are applied.United Utilities PL

An 800-million-solar-mass black hole in a significantly neutral Universe at redshift 7.5

Quasars are the most luminous non-transient objects known and as a result they enable studies of the Universe at the earliest cosmic epochs. Despite extensive efforts, however, the quasar ULAS J1120+0641 at z=7.09 has remained the only one known at z>7 for more than half a decade. Here we report observations of the quasar ULAS J134208.10+092838.61 (hereafter J1342+0928) at redshift z=7.54. This quasar has a bolometric luminosity of 4e13 times the luminosity of the Sun and a black hole mass of 8e8 solar masses. The existence of this supermassive black hole when the Universe was only 690 million years old---just five percent of its current age---reinforces models of early black-hole growth that allow black holes with initial masses of more than about 1e4 solar masses or episodic hyper-Eddington accretion. We see strong evidence of absorption of the spectrum of the quasar redwards of the Lyman alpha emission line (the Gunn-Peterson damping wing), as would be expected if a significant amount (more than 10 per cent) of the hydrogen in the intergalactic medium surrounding J1342+0928 is neutral. We derive a significant fraction of neutral hydrogen, although the exact fraction depends on the modelling. However, even in our most conservative analysis we find a fraction of more than 0.33 (0.11) at 68 per cent (95 per cent) probability, indicating that we are probing well within the reionization epoch of the Universe.Comment: Updated to match the final journal versio

Endomicroscopic and transcriptomic analysis of impaired barrier function and malabsorption in environmental enteropathy

Introduction: Environmental enteropathy (EE) is associated with growth failure, micronutrient malabsorption and impaired responses to oral vaccines. We set out to define cellular mechanisms of impaired barrier function in EE and explore protective mechanisms. Methods: We studied 49 adults with environmental enteropathy in Lusaka, Zambia using confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE); histology, immunohistochemistry and mRNA sequencing of small intestinal biopsies; and correlated these with plasma lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and a zinc uptake test. Results: CLE images (median 134 for each study) showed virtually ubiquitous small intestinal damage. Epithelial defects, imaged by histology and claudin 4 immunostaining, were predominantly seen at the tips of villi and corresponded with leakage imaged in vivo by CLE. In multivariate analysis, circulating log-transformed LPS was correlated with cell shedding events (β = 0.83; P = 0.035) and with serum glucagon-like peptide-2 (β = -0.13; P = 0.007). Zinc uptake from a test dose of 25mg was attenuated in 30/47 (64%) individuals and in multivariate analysis was reduced by HIV, but positively correlated with GLP-2 (β = 2.72; P = 0.03). There was a U-shaped relationship between circulating LPS and villus surface area. Transcriptomic analysis identified 23 differentially expressed genes in severe enteropathy, including protective peptides and proteins. Conclusions: Confocal endomicroscopy, claudin 4 immunostaining and histology identify epithelial defects which are probably sites of bacterial translocation, in the presence of which increased epithelial surface area increases the burden of translocation. GLP 2 and other protective peptides may play an important role in mucosal protection in EE