Nondestructive assessment of penetration of electron-beam welds

Empirical method correlates penetration of an electron-beam weld with external measurements of the weld. Empirical polygon accurately confirms full-penetration welds while a second, larger polygon provides for penetration of welds near the tip

Delivery of small-for-gestational-age neonate and association with early-onset impaired maternal endothelial function

Objective Women who have delivered a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant are at an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) in later life. Endothelial dysfunction is a subclinical sign of early CVD. It is unknown whether women who have recently had a pregnancy complicated by SGA, in the absence of other maternal and fetal diseases, have subclinical endothelial dysfunction. Our aim was to assess maternal endothelial function 6 months after a pregnancy complicated by SGA. Methods This was a case–control study conducted in a tertiary referral hospital in London, UK, over a 15-month period. Flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) of the brachial artery was measured in women 6.9 ± 2.5 months after childbirth. Forty-four women were included in the study, of whom 15 had a SGA neonate (mean ± SD customized birth centile of 1.9 ± 2.3) and 29 delivered an appropriately grown baby (mean ± SD customized birth centile of 47.5 ± 26.3). The primary continuous variable, FMD, was assessed in each group and compared using unpaired t-test. Results Women who had a SGA neonate had lower postpartum FMD (6.79 ± 0.95%) than did those who had an appropriately grown offspring (10.26 ± 2.44% (95% CI for difference between groups, −5.37 to −1.57); P = 0.0007). There were no differences in postnatal maternal blood pressure, abdominal circumference, weight and glucose, insulin and lipid profiles between the two groups. Conclusions Women who had a pregnancy affected by SGA, probably due to placental failure in the absence of pre-eclampsia, have evidence of subclinical endothelial dysfunction within 6 months of childbirth. These women may benefit from lifestyle measures focused on the primary prevention of CVD. Further research in larger populations is needed to ascertain if such postpartum maternal endothelial dysfunction is a pregnancy-induced phenomenon or if it is related to the pre-existing maternal phenotype, and whether it persists long term

Thermal bifurcation in the upper solar photosphere inferred from heterodyne spectroscopy of OH rotational lines

Low noise high spectral resolution observations of two pure rotation transitions of OH from the solar photosphere were obtained. The observations were obtained using the technique of optically null-balanced infrared heterodyne spectroscopy, and consist of center-to-limb line profiles of a v=1 and a v=0 transition near 12 microns. These lines should be formed in local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE), and are diagnostics of the thermal structure of the upper photosphere. The v=0 R22 (24.5)e line strengthens at the solar limb, in contradiction to the predictions of current one dimensional photospheric models. Data for this line support a two dimensional model in which horizontal thermal fluctuations of order + or - 800K occur in the region Tau (sub 5000) approximately .001 to .01. This thermal bifurcation may be maintained by the presence of magnetic flux tubes, and may be related to the solar limb extensions observed in the 30 to 200 micron region

End-of-life priorities of older adults with terminal illness and caregivers: A qualitative consultation

Abstract Background As older adults approach the end‐of‐life (EOL), many are faced with complex decisions including whether to use medical advances to prolong life. Limited information exists on the priorities of older adults at the EOL. Objective This study aimed to explore patient and family experiences and identify factors deemed important to quality EOL care. Method A descriptive qualitative study involving three focus group discussions (n = 18) and six in‐depth interviews with older adults suffering from either a terminal condition and/or caregivers were conducted in NSW, Australia. Data were analysed thematically. Results Seven major themes were identified as follows: quality as a priority, sense of control, life on hold, need for health system support, being at home, talking about death and competent and caring health professionals. An underpinning priority throughout the seven themes was knowing and adhering to patient's wishes. Conclusion Our study highlights that to better adhere to EOL patient's wishes a reorganization of care needs is required. The readiness of the health system to cater for this expectation is questionable as real choices may not be available in acute hospital settings. With an ageing population, a reorganization of care which influences the way we manage terminal patients is required

Is there any chlorine monoxide in the stratosphere?

A ground based search for the 856.50137/cm R(9.5) and for the 859.76765 R(12.5) transitions of stratospheric (Cl-35)O was made in the solar absorption mode using an infrared heterodyne spectrometer. Lines due to stratospheric HNO3 and tropospheric OCS were detected, at about 0.3% absorption levels. The expected lines of ClO in this same region were not detected, even though the optical depth of the ClO lines should be on the order of 0.2% using currently accepted ClO abundances. These infrared measurements suggest that stratospheric ClO is at least a factor of 7 less abundant than is indicated by indirect in situ fluorescence measurements, and the upper limit of 2.4x10 to the 13th power molecules/sq cm to the integrated column density of ClO is a factor of over 4 less than is indicted by microwave measurements. Results imply that the release of fluorocarbon precursors of ClO may be significantly less important for the destruction of stratospheric ozone than was previously thought

On reducing mesh delay for peer-to-peer live streaming

Peer-to-peer (P2P) technology has emerged as a promising scalable solution for live streaming to large group. In this paper, we address the design of overlay which achieves low source-to-peer delay, is robust to user churn, accommodates of asymmetric and diverse uplink bandwidth, and continuously improves based on existing user pool. A natural choice is the use of mesh, where each peer is served by multiple parents. Since the peer delay in a mesh depends on its longest path through its parents, we study how to optimize such delay while meeting a certain streaming rate requirement. We first formulate the minimum delay mesh problem and show that it is NP-hard. Then we propose a centralized heuristic based on complete knowledge which serves as our benchmark and optimal solution for all the other schemes under comparison. Our heuristic makes use of the concept of power in network given by the ratio of throughput and delay. By maximizing the network power, our heuristic achieves very low delay. We then propose a simple distributed algorithm where peers select their parents based on the power concept. The algorithm makes continuous improvement on delay until some minimum delay is reached. Simulation results show that our distributed protocol performs close to the centralized one, and substantially outperforms traditional and state-of-the-art approaches

Analysis Stego-image Extraction Using Rot13 and Least Significant Bit (Lsb) Algorithm Method on Text Security

Cryptography is both a science and an art to keep the message confidential. While steganography is the science and art of hiding secret messages in other messages so that the existence of such secret messages is unknowable and generally serves to disguise the existence of confidential data making it difficult to detect and protect the copyright of a product. Steganography requires two properties, namely container media and secret messages. The application of steganographic and cryptographic combination is done by Least Significant Bit (LSB) and ROT13 algorithm. Steganography with the LSB method is one of the methods used to hide messages on digital media by inserting it to the lowest bits or the most right bits of the pixel data that compile the file. In this research, the authors propose the technique of securing Steganography secret messages with layered security, by adding Cryptography to secret messages that will be inserted into digital images and then messages inserted into digital images through Steganography using LSB method

Fiery Ice-Gas Hydrates

All around the world, beneath the seafloor, there are huge volumes of natural gas. But these are not the normal gas reservoirs that we collect to use for cooking, heating our homes, and making electricity in power stations. This gas is locked up in what we call gas hydrates. Gas hydrates are a solid form of water, rather like ice, that contains gas molecules locked up in a “cage” of water molecules. Gas hydrates are found on continental shelves around the world and in permafrost in the arctic. We are interested in gas hydrates because they could be used as a future source of natural gas. They are also important because they can cause large landslides on the seafloor, damaging offshore pipelines and cables and contributing to the formation of tsunami waves

The NMDA receptor GluN2C subunit controls cortical excitatoryinhibitory balance, neuronal oscillations and cognitive function

Despite strong evidence for NMDA receptor (NMDAR) hypofunction as an underlying factor for cognitive disorders, the precise roles of various NMDAR subtypes remains unknown. The GluN2Ccontaining NMDARs exhibit unique biophysical properties and expression pattern, and lower expression of GluN2C subunit has been reported in postmortem brains from schizophrenia patients. We found that loss of GluN2C subunit leads to a shift in cortical excitatory-inhibitory balance towards greater inhibition. Specifically, pyramidal neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of GluN2C knockout mice have reduced mEPSC frequency and dendritic spine density and a contrasting higher frequency of mIPSCs. In addition a greater number of perisomatic GAD67 puncta was observed suggesting a potential increase in parvalbumin interneuron inputs. At a network level the GluN2C knockout mice were found to have a more robust increase in power of oscillations in response to NMDAR blocker MK- 801. Furthermore, GluN2C heterozygous and knockout mice exhibited abnormalities in cognition and sensorimotor gating. Our results demonstrate that loss of GluN2C subunit leads to cortical excitatoryinhibitory imbalance and abnormal neuronal oscillations associated with neurodevelopmental disorders