Design of a Novel High Frequency Ultrasound Annular Array

AbstractThe design of a novel 50MHz 7-elment annular array is described. Equal-width electrodes are deposited on the rear face of piezoelectric layer to form a kerfless array, instead of mechanical cutting. Compared with equal-area designs, much better performance is achieved by the novel design. The cross talk is down to -20dB, the -6dB bandwidth and insertion loss are 41% and 18dB, respectively. The pulse responses are largely improved compared with conventional kerfless annular arrays. Furthermore, no pre-focus lens for the central element is required in this array, promising simplified fabrication

Fingering instability in wildfire fronts

A two-dimensional model for the evolution of the fire line – the interface between burned and unburned regions of a wildfire – is formulated. The fire line normal velocity has three contributions: (i) a constant rate of spread representing convection and radiation effects; (ii) a curvature term that smooths the fire line; and (iii) a Stefan-like term in the direction of the oxygen gradient. While the first two effects are geometrical, (iii) is dynamical and requires the solution of the steady advection–diffusion equation for oxygen, with advection owing to a self-induced ‘fire wind’, modelled by the gradient of a harmonic potential field. The conformal invariance of this coupled pair of partial differential equations, which has the Péclet number Pe as its only parameter, is exploited to compute numerically the evolution of both radial and infinitely long periodic fire lines. A linear stability analysis shows that fire line instability is possible, dependent on the ratio of curvature to oxygen effects. Unstable fire lines develop finger-like protrusions into the unburned region; the geometry of these fingers is varied and depends on the relative magnitudes of (i)–(iii). It is argued that for radial fires, the fire wind strength scales with the fire's effective radius, meaning that Pe increases in time, so all fire lines eventually become unstable. For periodic fire lines, Pe remains constant, so fire line stability is possible. The results of this study provide a possible explanation for the formation of fire fingers observed in wildfires

Dietary patterns, insulin sensitivity and inflammation in older adults.

Background/objectivesSeveral studies have linked dietary patterns to insulin sensitivity and systemic inflammation, which affect risk of multiple chronic diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate the dietary patterns of a cohort of older adults, and to examine relationships of dietary patterns with markers of insulin sensitivity and systemic inflammation.Subjects/methodsThe Health, Aging and Body Composition (Health ABC) Study is a prospective cohort study of 3075 older adults. In Health ABC, multiple indicators of glucose metabolism and systemic inflammation were assessed. Food intake was estimated with a modified Block food frequency questionnaire. In this study, dietary patterns of 1751 participants with complete data were derived by cluster analysis.ResultsSix clusters were identified, including a 'healthy foods' cluster, characterized by higher intake of low-fat dairy products, fruit, whole grains, poultry, fish and vegetables. In the main analysis, the 'healthy foods' cluster had significantly lower fasting insulin and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance values than the 'breakfast cereal' and 'high-fat dairy products' clusters, and lower fasting glucose than the 'high-fat dairy products' cluster (P≤0.05). No differences were found in 2-h glucose. With respect to inflammation, the 'healthy foods' cluster had lower interleukin-6 than the 'sweets and desserts' and 'high-fat dairy products' clusters, and no differences were seen in C-reactive protein or tumor necrosis factor-α.ConclusionsA dietary pattern high in low-fat dairy products, fruit, whole grains, poultry, fish and vegetables may be associated with greater insulin sensitivity and lower systemic inflammation in older adults

Directional gene flow and ecological separation in Yersinia enterocolitica

Yersinia enterocolitica is a common cause of food-borne gastroenteritis worldwide. Recent work defining the phylogeny of the genus Yersinia subdivided Y. enterocolitica into six distinct phylogroups. Here, we provide detailed analyses of the evolutionary processes leading to the emergence of these phylogroups. The dominant phylogroups isolated from human infections, PG3–5, show very little diversity at the sequence level, but do present marked patterns of gain and loss of functions, including those involved in pathogenicity and metabolism, including the acquisition of phylogroup-specific O-antigen loci. We tracked gene flow across the species in the core and accessory genome, and show that the non-pathogenic PG1 strains act as a reservoir for diversity, frequently acting as donors in recombination events. Analysis of the core and accessory genome also suggested that the different Y. enterocolitica phylogroups may be ecologically separated, in contrast to the long-held belief of common shared ecological niches across the Y. enterocolitica species