Temperature measurements behind reflected shock waves in air

A radiometric method for the measurement of gas temperature in self-absorbing gases has been applied in the study of shock tube generated flows. This method involves making two absolute intensity measurements at identical wavelengths, but for two different pathlengths in the same gas sample. Experimental results are presented for reflected shock waves in air at conditions corresponding to incident shock velocities from 7 to 10 km/s and an initial driven tube pressure of 1 torr. These results indicate that, with this technique, temperature measurements with an accuracy of + or - 5 percent can be carried out. The results also suggest certain facility related problems

Stem cell mechanobiology

Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that are capable of proliferation, self-maintenance and differentiation towards specific cell phenotypes. These processes are controlled by a variety of cues including physicochemical factors associated with the specific mechanical environment in which the cells reside. The control of stem cell biology through mechanical factors remains poorly understood and is the focus of the developing field of mechanobiology. This review provides an insight into the current knowledge of the role of mechanical forces in the induction of differentiation of stem cells. While the details associated with individual studies are complex and typically associated with the stem cell type studied and model system adopted, certain key themes emerge. First, the differentiation process affects the mechanical properties of the cells and of specific subcellular components. Secondly, that stem cells are able to detect and respond to alterations in the stiffness of their surrounding microenvironment via induction of lineage-specific differentiation. Finally, the application of external mechanical forces to stem cells, transduced through a variety of mechanisms, can initiate and drive differentiation processes. The coalescence of these three key concepts permit the introduction of a new theory for the maintenance of stem cells and alternatively their differentiation via the concept of a stem cell 'mechano-niche', defined as a specific combination of cell mechanical properties, extracellular matrix stiffness and external mechanical cues conducive to the maintenance of the stem cell population.<br/

A Computational Method for the Rate Estimation of Evolutionary Transpositions

Genome rearrangements are evolutionary events that shuffle genomic architectures. Most frequent genome rearrangements are reversals, translocations, fusions, and fissions. While there are some more complex genome rearrangements such as transpositions, they are rarely observed and believed to constitute only a small fraction of genome rearrangements happening in the course of evolution. The analysis of transpositions is further obfuscated by intractability of the underlying computational problems. We propose a computational method for estimating the rate of transpositions in evolutionary scenarios between genomes. We applied our method to a set of mammalian genomes and estimated the transpositions rate in mammalian evolution to be around 0.26.Comment: Proceedings of the 3rd International Work-Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering (IWBBIO), 2015. (to appear

Stabilization of the high-spin state of Co3+^{3+} in LaCo1−x_{1-x}Rhx_{x}O3_3

The rhodium doping in the LaCo$_{1-x}$Rh$_{x}$O$_3$ perovskite series ($x=0.02-0.5$) has been studied by X-ray diffraction, electric transport and magnetization measurements, complemented by electronic structure GGA+U calculations in supercell for different concentration regimes. No charge transfer between Co$^{3+}$ and Rh$^{3+}$ is evidenced. The diamagnetic ground state of LaCoO$_3$, based on Co$^{3+}$ in low-spin (LS) state, is disturbed even by a small doping of Rh. The driving force is the elastic energy connected with incorporation of a large Rh$^{3+}$ cation into the matrix of small LS Co$^{3+}$ cations, which is relaxed by formation of large Co$^{3+}$ in high-spin (HS) state in the next-nearest sites to the inserted Rh atom. With increasing temperature, the population of Co$^{3+}$ in HS state increases through thermal excitation, and a saturated phase is obtained close to room temperature, consisting of a nearest-neighbor correlation of small (LS Co$^{3+}$) and large (HS Co$^{3+}$ and LS Rh$^{3+}$) cations in a kind of double perovskite structure. The stabilizing role of elastic and electronic energy contributions is demonstrated in supercell calculations for dilute Rh concentration compared to other dopants with various trivalent ionic radius.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure

Treatment of hyper-granulated limb wounds in horses

This study was performed to investigate the different methods of treating hyper granulation tissue on experimentally induced wounds in equine limbs. Wounds were induced by removal of a skin patch and subcutaneous tissue for about 5-7 cm width and 6-8 cm in length from the dorsal and lateral aspect of the fore and hind limbs below the carpal and tarsal joints. The wounds were left open without treatment and the animals were trained 2-2.5 hours every day for about 3-5 weeks until hyper granulation tissue was developed. The schedule for the treatment of hyper granulation was divided into five groups each contained eight wounds of hyper granulation tissue; each main group was divided into two subgroups. The subgroups of first, second, third, fourth and fifth groups were treated by the following schedules: bandage alone; copper sulphate ointment 10%; silver nitrate ointment 2%; red mercury ointment 11%; and laser therapy (at a total dose of 9.72 Joule / cm2) respectively. While the second subgroups were treated by surgical resection of the hyper granulation tissue, followed by the same treatments applied on the first subgroup. The bandage for all experimental groups was changed every 48 hours until healing was occurred. The clinical and histological observation of the first group revealed that the healing take long period comparing with other groups. The mean of wound healing were 65 days in non surgical removal of hyper granulation tissue subgroup, while 57 days in surgical removed of hyper granulation tissue subgroup. The results of the second, third, fourth groups revealed that the caustic material especially red mercury has a role in healing processes through depressing the hyper granulation tissue. The mean of wound healing of the second group was 42.25 days in non surgical removal of hyper granulation tissue subgroup while 37.25 days in surgically removed hyper granulation tissue subgroup. In the third group the mean of wound healing was 45.75 days in non surgical removal of hyper granulation tissue subgroup while 44.75 days in surgically removed hyper granulation tissue subgroup. While in the fourth group the mean of wound healing was 39 days in non surgical removal of hyper granulation tissue subgroup while 36 days in surgically removed hyper granulation tissue subgroup. In the fifth group the clinical and histological observation revealed that the using of laser lead to reduce the period for wound healing significantly comparing with other groups. The mean of wound healing was 25 days in non surgical removal of hyper granulation tissue subgroup while 20 days in surgically removed hyper granulation tissue subgroup, so that the laser was the best in this study and the using of surgical removal is better than of non surgical removal

Automated Sorting of Oriented Tobacco Leaves

A mechanism has been developed which removes cured burley tobacco leaves from plants so that midribs are oriented parallel. A photosensor was utilized to count leaves as they were removed and a microprocessor determined the number of leaves allocated to each of three grades. Experiments indicated that 84% of leaves removed could be correctly sorted with a 2.4% material loss at an effective rate of approximately 2.4 times that of conventional methods

Evidence of Vortex Jamming in Abrikosov Vortex Flux Flow Regime

We report on dynamics of non-local Abrikosov vortex flow in mesoscopic superconducting Nb channels. Magnetic field dependence of the non-local voltage induced by the flux flow shows that vortices form ordered vortex chains. Voltage asymmetry (rectification) with respect to the direction of vortex flow is evidence that vortex jamming strongly moderates vortex dynamics in mesoscopic geometries. The findings can be applied to superconducting devices exploiting vortex dynamics and vortex manipulation, including superconducting wires with engineered pinning centers.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Beyond the local approximation to exchange and correlation: the role of the Laplacian of the density in the energy density of Si

We model the exchange-correlation (XC) energy density of the Si crystal and atom as calculated by variational Monte Carlo (VMC) methods with a gradient analysis beyond the local density approximation (LDA). We find the Laplacian of the density to be an excellent predictor of the discrepancy between VMC and LDA energy densities in each system. A simple Laplacian-based correction to the LDA energy density is developed by means of a least square fit to the VMC XC energy density for the crystal, which fits the homogeneous electron gas and Si atom without further effort.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Other‐Sacrificing Options

I argue that you can be permitted to discount the interests of your adversaries even though doing so would be impartially suboptimal. This means that, in addition to the kinds of moral options that the literature traditionally recognises, there exist what I call other-sacrificing options. I explore the idea that you cannot discount the interests of your adversaries as much as you can favour the interests of your intimates; if this is correct, then there is an asymmetry between negative partiality toward your adversaries and positive partiality toward your intimates