Adaptive Heterodyne Interferometer for Ultrasonic NDE

For NDE applications, the remote generation and detection of ultrasound by laser present many advantages over traditional piezo-electric based methods. They provide nonintrusive, point generation and detection with a large frequency bandwidth. For example, it can be used on surfaces of complex geometry and elevated temperature on a production line. Ultrasound generation using absorption of pulse laser energy is well known. Various interferometers for optical detection of ultrasound have been described in the literature [1]. In order for the interferometer to be attractive for NDE applications, the interferometer must also be able to operate, without loss of sensitivity, in an environment where large amplitude low frequency vibrations are generally present. Furthermore, the interferometer must be able to achieve a good sensitivity on rough surfaces. The laser light reflected on a rough surface is characterized by speckles. The random intensity and phase distributions of these speckles require the use of interferometer with large étendue. In addition, the possibility of using an optical fiber in the path of the probe beam without loss in the interferometer sensitivity is highly desirable for applications where access to the specimen is limited. The confocal Fabry-Pérot interferometer [1] has been shown to be well adapted for NDE applications. Unfortunately, since the elimination of the optical side-bands is based on the optical filtering action of the confocal cavity, it is sensitive mostly to high frequencies for a reasonable cavity size, typically above 1MHz for a 1 meter cavity length

Degeneracy: a link between evolvability, robustness and complexity in biological systems

A full accounting of biological robustness remains elusive; both in terms of the mechanisms by which robustness is achieved and the forces that have caused robustness to grow over evolutionary time. Although its importance to topics such as ecosystem services and resilience is well recognized, the broader relationship between robustness and evolution is only starting to be fully appreciated. A renewed interest in this relationship has been prompted by evidence that mutational robustness can play a positive role in the discovery of adaptive innovations (evolvability) and evidence of an intimate relationship between robustness and complexity in biology. This paper offers a new perspective on the mechanics of evolution and the origins of complexity, robustness, and evolvability. Here we explore the hypothesis that degeneracy, a partial overlap in the functioning of multi-functional components, plays a central role in the evolution and robustness of complex forms. In support of this hypothesis, we present evidence that degeneracy is a fundamental source of robustness, it is intimately tied to multi-scaled complexity, and it establishes conditions that are necessary for system evolvability

Impacts of Co-Solvent Flushing on Microbial Populations Capable of Degrading Trichloroethylene

With increased application of co-solvent flushing technologies for removal of nonaqueous phase liquids from groundwater aquifers, concern over the effects of the solvent on native microorganisms and their ability to degrade residual contaminant has also arisen. This study assessed the impact of ethanol flushing on the numbers and activity potentials of trichloroethylene (TCE)-degrading microbial populations present in aquifer soils taken immediately after and 2 years after ethanol flushing of a former dry cleaners site. Polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed soluble methane monooxygenase genes in methanotrophic enrichments, and 16S rRNA analysis identified Methylocystis parvus with 98% similarity, further indicating the presence of a type II methanotroph. Dissimilatory sulfite reductase genes in sulfate-reducing enrichments prepared were also observed. Ethanol flushing was simulated in columns packed with uncontaminated soils from the dry cleaners site that were dosed with TCE at concentrations observed in the field; after flushing, the columns were subjected to a continuous flow of 500 pore volumes of groundwater per week. Total acridine orange direct cell counts of the flushed and nonflushed soils decreased over the 15-week testing period, but after 5 weeks, the flushed soils maintained higher cell counts than the nonflushed soils. Inhibition of methanogenesis by sulfate reduction was observed in all column soils, as was increasing removal of total methane by soils incubated under methanotrophic conditions. These results showed that impacts of ethanol were not as severe as anticipated and imply that ethanol may mitigate the toxicity of TCE to the microorganisms

EuroSL – a European taxonomic backbone for vegetation databases and other taxon- related databases: version 1.0

Background: A taxonomic reference list is an indispensable tool to sample, manage and match biodiversity data from different sources. Merging vegetation databases or combining them with taxon-related attributes needs reliable and consistent information about the taxon concepts used and an appropriate naming. Aim: Creating a “taxonomic backbone” of European vascular plants and bryophytes with links to widespread taxonomic references. Methods: We used the Euro+Med plant list (Euro+Med 2006ff), version 2015/04. For all families not yet covered there we used taxa from Flora Europaea (Tutin et al. 1980ff). Additionally we included the aggregates from the Ehrendorfer (1973) list. For bryophytes we rely on Grolle & Long (2000) and Hill et al. (2006). Results: EuroSL 1.0 covers > 45T accepted taxa and >77T synonyms from approx. 370 families. At the species level this means approx. 32T accepted names and >44T synonyms. EuroSL list will be published open access to allow referencing and connecting taxon-related databases beyond country borders. Future releases of EuroSL might contain additional taxonomic groups (algae and lichens), aggregates or new names as needed. However, a thorough documentation and transparency regarding taxon concepts, i.e. name usage = taxon circumscription, given by citing the source lists, will remain the highest priority. The first application of EuroSL will be the compilation of Ecological Indicator Values for Europe (EIVE version 1.0)

Reductions in cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and respiratory mortality following the national Irish smoking ban: Interrupted time-series analysis

Copyright @ 2013 Stallings-Smith et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Background: Previous studies have shown decreases in cardiovascular mortality following the implementation of comprehensive smoking bans. It is not known whether cerebrovascular or respiratory mortality decreases post-ban. On March 29, 2004, the Republic of Ireland became the first country in the world to implement a national workplace smoking ban. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of this policy on all-cause and cause-specific, non-trauma mortality. Methods: A time-series epidemiologic assessment was conducted, utilizing Poisson regression to examine weekly age and gender-standardized rates for 215,878 non-trauma deaths in the Irish population, ages ≥35 years. The study period was from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2007, with a post-ban follow-up of 3.75 years. All models were adjusted for time trend, season, influenza, and smoking prevalence. Results: Following ban implementation, an immediate 13% decrease in all-cause mortality (RR: 0.87; 95% CI: 0.76-0.99), a 26% reduction in ischemic heart disease (IHD) (RR: 0.74; 95% CI: 0.63-0.88), a 32% reduction in stroke (RR: 0.68; 95% CI: 0.54-0.85), and a 38% reduction in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (RR: 0.62; 95% CI: 0.46-0.83) mortality was observed. Post-ban reductions in IHD, stroke, and COPD mortalities were seen in ages ≥65 years, but not in ages 35-64 years. COPD mortality reductions were found only in females (RR: 0.47; 95% CI: 0.32-0.70). Post-ban annual trend reductions were not detected for any smoking-related causes of death. Unadjusted estimates indicate that 3,726 (95% CI: 2,305-4,629) smoking-related deaths were likely prevented post-ban. Mortality decreases were primarily due to reductions in passive smoking. Conclusions: The national Irish smoking ban was associated with immediate reductions in early mortality. Importantly, post-ban risk differences did not change with a longer follow-up period. This study corroborates previous evidence for cardiovascular causes, and is the first to demonstrate reductions in cerebrovascular and respiratory causes

Sharing clinical information across care settings: the birth of an integrated assessment system

Background: Population ageing, the emergence of chronic illness, and the shift away from institutional care challenge conventional approaches to assessment systems which traditionally are problem and setting specific

Characterizing Interdisciplinarity of Researchers and Research Topics Using Web Search Engines

Researchers' networks have been subject to active modeling and analysis. Earlier literature mostly focused on citation or co-authorship networks reconstructed from annotated scientific publication databases, which have several limitations. Recently, general-purpose web search engines have also been utilized to collect information about social networks. Here we reconstructed, using web search engines, a network representing the relatedness of researchers to their peers as well as to various research topics. Relatedness between researchers and research topics was characterized by visibility boost-increase of a researcher's visibility by focusing on a particular topic. It was observed that researchers who had high visibility boosts by the same research topic tended to be close to each other in their network. We calculated correlations between visibility boosts by research topics and researchers' interdisciplinarity at individual level (diversity of topics related to the researcher) and at social level (his/her centrality in the researchers' network). We found that visibility boosts by certain research topics were positively correlated with researchers' individual-level interdisciplinarity despite their negative correlations with the general popularity of researchers. It was also found that visibility boosts by network-related topics had positive correlations with researchers' social-level interdisciplinarity. Research topics' correlations with researchers' individual- and social-level interdisciplinarities were found to be nearly independent from each other. These findings suggest that the notion of "interdisciplinarity" of a researcher should be understood as a multi-dimensional concept that should be evaluated using multiple assessment means.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in PLoS On