The use of NF and RO membrane system for reclamation and recycling of wastewaters generated from a hard coal mining

In this study, the possibility of treatment of wastewater generated from underground hard coal mining excavation was experimentally investigated using Nano filtration (NF) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) membrane systems. Two-stage sequential treatment method was applied to perform the study. In the first stage, the raw wastewater was treated using NF membrane filtration system without any pre-processes. In the second stage, the effluents of NF membrane system were fed into RO membrane system for the treatment. To determine the treatment performance of the NF and RO membrane system, the operating pressures were fixed at 10, 20 and 30 bar (KN/m2) for both systems during the experimental study. Turbidity, sodium, calcium, magnesium, manganese, iron, copper, aluminium, ammonium, sulphate and electrical conductivity were analysed in raw wastewater and permeate flow of NF and RO membrane systems to determine the treatment performances. Treatment performance of RO membrane system was observed to have highest yield of80% for all parameters examined at 20 bar operating pressure.Keywords: Polymeric membrane, wastewater treatment, coal excavation, water recycle and reus

A critical approach to game studies : analysis of Fallout 3® as an example of non-linear gameplay

Ankara : The Department of Graphic Design and the Institute of Fine Arts of Bilkent University, 2010.Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 2010.Includes bibliographical references leaves 80-84.Contemporary video games are unlike their pioneering counterparts, almost completely changed in all possible ways ranging from, the hardware that the games are run on to their usage of narrative elements and how one experiences games. They are not just another medium for human expression, rather a phenomenon that combines many elements from different forms and create something unique; a cultural artifact. This thesis aims to approach the field of video game studies, and compile and combine the existent research and establish an improved understanding of the video game as a cultural artifact. It will introduce the world of video games, by explaining the aspects that constitute the phenomenon and compare and contrast the previous attempts to consolidate a framework approaching from different fields of media. Furthermore, by the use of the computer role playing game (cRPG) titled Fallout 3, the study will utilize an analysis of it through the implementation of the methodology and toolsets suggested by researchers such as Espen J. Aarseth and Jesper Juul, and study the subject of nonlinearity and its effects to the gameplay experience, thereby utilizing both a playing analysis and non-playing research. In the course of the study, a general area of game and gameplay will be researched prior to the detailed exemplification of those subjects by using the aforementioned game title.İnce, Levent YM.S

Leukocyte-Endothelium Interaction in the Sublingual Microcirculation of Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting Patients

Objective: The aim of this study was to apply an innovative methodology to incident dark-field (IDF) imaging in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) patients for the identification and quantification of rolling leukocytes along the sublingual microcirculatory endothelium. Methods: This study was a post hoc analysis of a prospective study that evaluated the perioperative course of the sublingual microcirculation in CABG patients. Video images were captured using IDF imaging following the induction of anesthesia (T-0) and cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) (T-1) in 10 patients. Rolling leukocytes were identified and quantified using frame averaging, which is a technique that was developed for correctly identifying leukocytes. Results: The number of rolling leukocytes increased significantly from T-0 (7.5 {[}6.4-9.1] leukocytes/capillary-postcapillary venule/4 s) to T-1 (14.8 {[}13.2-15.5] leukocytes/capillary-postcapillary venule/4 s) (p < 0.0001). A significant increase in systemic leukocyte count was also detected from 7.4 +/- 0.9 x 10(9)/L (preoperative) to 12.4 +/- 4.4 x 10(9)/L (postoperative) (p < 0.01). Conclusion: The ability to directly visualize leukocyte-endothelium interaction using IDF imaging facilitates the diagnosis of a systemic inflammatory response after CPB via the identification of rolling leukocytes. Integration of the frame averaging algorithm into the software of handheld vital microscopes may enable the use of microcirculatory leukocyte count as a real-time parameter at the bedside.1JAN8-155

Information search under uncertainty across transdiagnostic psychopathology and healthy ageing

When making decisions in everyday life, we often rely on an internally generated sense of confidence to help us revise and direct future behaviours. For instance, confidence directly informs whether further information should be sought prior to commitment to a final decision. Many studies have shown that aging and both clinical and sub-clinical symptoms of psychopathology are associated with systematic alterations in confidence. However, it remains unknown whether these confidence distortions influence information-seeking behaviour. We investigated this question in a large general population sample (N = 908). Participants completed a battery of psychiatric symptom questionnaires and performed a perceptual decision-making task with confidence ratings in which they were offered the option to seek helpful information (at a cost) before committing to a final decision. Replicating previous findings, an 'anxious-depression' (AD) symptom dimension was associated with systematically low confidence, despite no detriment in objective task accuracy. Conversely, a 'compulsive behaviour and intrusive thoughts' (CIT) dimension was associated with impaired task accuracy but paradoxical over-confidence. However, neither symptom dimension was significantly associated with an increased or decreased tendency to seek information. Hence, participants scoring highly for AD or CIT did not use the option to information seek any more than average to either increase their confidence (AD) or improve the accuracy of their decisions (CIT). In contrast, older age was associated with impaired accuracy and decreased confidence initially, but increased information seeking behaviour mediated increases in both accuracy and confidence for final decisions. Hence, older adults used the information seeking option to overcome initial deficits in objective performance and to increase their confidence accordingly. The results show an appropriate use of information seeking to overcome perceptual deficits and low confidence in healthy aging which was not present in transdiagnostic psychopathology.</p

Linearisable Mappings and the Low-Growth Criterion

We examine a family of discrete second-order systems which are integrable through reduction to a linear system. These systems were previously identified using the singularity confinement criterion. Here we analyse them using the more stringent criterion of nonexponential growth of the degrees of the iterates. We show that the linearisable mappings are characterised by a very special degree growth. The ones linearisable by reduction to projective systems exhibit zero growth, i.e. they behave like linear systems, while the remaining ones (derivatives of Riccati, Gambier mapping) lead to linear growth. This feature may well serve as a detector of integrability through linearisation.Comment: 9 pages, no figur

Physical simulation of wind pressure on building models at various arrangement and airflow conditions

The results of modeling and distribution of the pressure coefficient on the faces of the faces of the model of a high-rise building with a relative height of H/a = 3 and 6 are obtained under the influence of vortex flows created by an obstacle with similar geometric parameters with its lateral displacement from the longitudinal axis of the channel. The accepted range of transverse displacements is L2/a = 0.5; 1; 1.5; 2. In the range of studies, the airflow angle of 0 degrees was adopted with the maximum Reynolds number (Re) = 4.25´104. The distances between the models in the wake correspond to the calibers L1/a = 1.5; 3 and 6. A series of experiments was carried out on the basis of the theory of modeling. The experiments are based on the modeling of the model buildings under study on the basis of the similarity theory. Systematic data are obtained on the distribution of the pressure coefficients Cp on the faces of the model, depending on its location in the track of the upstream model with a change in the distance between them in the transverse direction relative to the direction of the air flow

MicroTools enables automated quantification of capillary density and red blood cell velocity in handheld vital microscopy

Direct assessment of capillary perfusion has been prioritized in hemodynamic management of critically ill patients in addition to optimizing blood flow on the global scale. Sublingual handheld vital microscopy has enabled online acquisition of moving image sequences of the microcirculation, including the flow of individual red blood cells in the capillary network. However, due to inherent content complexity, manual image sequence analysis remained gold standard, introducing inter-observer variability and precluding real-time image analysis for clinical therapy guidance. Here we introduce an advanced computer vision algorithm for instantaneous analysis and quantification of morphometric and kinetic information related to capillary blood flow in the sublingual microcirculation. We evaluated this technique in a porcine model of septic shock and resuscitation and cardiac surgery patients. This development is of high clinical relevance because it enables implementation of point-of-care goal-directed resuscitation procedures based on correction of microcirculatory perfusion in critically ill and perioperative patients

Concurrent acute pancreatitis and pericardial effusion

While pleural effusion and ascites secondary to acute pancreatitis are common, clinically relevant pericardial effusion and cardiac tamponade are observed rarely. In a study by Pezzilli et al., pleural effusion was noted in 7 of the 21 patients with acute pancreatitis whereas the authors detected pericardial effusion development in only three. The authors asserted that pleural effusion was associated with severe acute pancreatitis, while pericardial effusion and the severity of acute pancreatitis were not significantly related

A generalization of determinant formulas for the solutions of Painlev\'e II and XXXIV equations

A generalization of determinant formulas for the classical solutions of Painlev\'e XXXIV and Painlev\'e II equations are constructed using the technique of Darboux transformation and Hirota's bilinear formalism. It is shown that the solutions admit determinant formulas even for the transcendental case.Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX 2.09(IOP style), submitted to J. Phys.

The stochastic pump current and the non-adiabatic geometrical phase

We calculate a pump current in a classical two-state stochastic chemical kinetics by means of the non-adiabatic geometrical phase interpretation. The two-state system is attached to two particle reservoirs, and under a periodic perturbation of the kinetic rates, it gives rise to a pump current between the two-state system and the absorbing states. In order to calculate the pump current, the Floquet theory for the non-adiabatic geometrical phase is extended from a Hermitian case to a non-Hermitian case. The dependence of the pump current on the frequency of the perturbative kinetic rates is explicitly derived, and a stochastic resonance-like behavior is obtained.Comment: 11 page