Transmission loss predictions for dissipative silencers of arbitrary cross section in the presence of mean flow

A numerical technique is developed for the analysis of dissipative silencers of arbitrary, but axially uniform, cross section. Mean gas flow is included in a central airway which is separated from a bulk reacting porous material by a concentric perforate screen. The analysis begins by employing the finite element method to extract the eigenvalues and associated eigenvectors for a silencer of infinite length. Point collocation is then used to match the expanded acoustic pressure and velocity fields in the silencer chamber to those in the inlet and outlet pipes. Transmission loss predictions are compared with experimental measurements taken for two automotive dissipative silencers with elliptical cross sections. Good agreement between prediction and experiment is observed both without mean flow and for a mean flow Mach number of 0.15. It is demonstrated also that the technique presented offers a considerable reduction in computational expenditure when compared to a three dimensional finite element analysis

A Method for Greatly Reduced Edge Effects and Crosstalk in CCT Magnets

Iron-free CCT magnet design offers many advantages, one being the excellent field quality and the absence of multipole components. However, edge effects are present, although they tend to integrate out over the length of the magnet. Many modern accelerator applications, however, require that these magnets are placed in an area of rapidly varying optics parameters, so magnets with greatly reduced edge effects have an advantage. We have designed such a magnet (a quadrupole) by adding multipole components of the opposite sign to the edge distortions of the magnet. A possible application could be the final focus magnets of the FCC-ee, where beam sizes at the entry and exit point of the magnets vary by large factors. We have then used this technique to effectively eliminate cross talk between adjacent final focus quadrupoles for the incoming and outgoing beams.Comment: Poster presented at MT25,25th International Conference on Magnet Technology, Amsterdam, August 27 - September 1, 201

A Study of Different Modeling Choices For Simulating Platelets Within the Immersed Boundary Method

The Immersed Boundary (IB) method is a widely-used numerical methodology for the simulation of fluid-structure interaction problems. The IB method utilizes an Eulerian discretization for the fluid equations of motion while maintaining a Lagrangian representation of structural objects. Operators are defined for transmitting information (forces and velocities) between these two representations. Most IB simulations represent their structures with piecewise-linear approximations and utilize Hookean spring models to approximate structural forces. Our specific motivation is the modeling of platelets in hemodynamic flows. In this paper, we study two alternative representations - radial basis functions (RBFs) and Fourier-based (trigonometric polynomials and spherical harmonics) representations - for the modeling of platelets in two and three dimensions within the IB framework, and compare our results with the traditional piecewise-linear approximation methodology. For different representative shapes, we examine the geometric modeling errors (position and normal vectors), force computation errors, and computational cost and provide an engineering trade-off strategy for when and why one might select to employ these different representations.Comment: 33 pages, 17 figures, Accepted (in press) by APNU

Oocyte cryopreservation as an adjunct to the assisted reproductive technologies

The document attached has been archived with permission from the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included. See page 2 of PDF for this item.Keith L Harrison, Michelle T Lane, Jeremy C Osborn, Christine A Kirby, Regan Jeffrey, John H Esler and David Mollo

Quantifying the performance of a top-down natural ventilation windcatcher

Measurements and smoke tests show that the quadrants of a Windcatcher with a positive pressure across them act as supply ducts, while those with a negative pressure across them act as exhaust ducts. However, analysis of the side and leeward Cp values shows that they do not necessarily balance mass flow in and out of the Windcatcher, indicating that either the pressure in the supplied room drops or there is an amount of infiltration through the building fabric initiated by the Windcatcher. In order to better understand Windcatcher performance, a simple analytic model is developed that utilises experimental data to estimate the losses in the system. Two different scenarios are considered for the room adjoining the Windcatcher: (i) this room is perfectly sealed; and (ii) air infiltration is allowed into the room so that the pressure in the room remains atmospheric. Here, it is observed that, for those values of Cp reported for a square Windcatcher in the literature, the overall volume flow rate of air out of the room always exceeds that coming into the room. Based on this data, the analytic model may be used to estimate the losses in the Windcatcher, from which it is then straightforward to derive a simple relationship between the overall area of the Windcatcher and the volume flow rates into and out of the Windcatcher in order to predict Windcatcher performance for a given application

Which lipid measurement should we monitor? An analysis of the LIPID study

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the optimal lipid to measure in monitoring patients, we assessed three factors that influence the choice of monitoring tests: (1) clinical validity; (2) responsiveness to therapy changes and (3) the size of the long-term ‘signal-to-noise’ ratio. DESIGN: Longitudinal analyses of repeated lipid measurement over 5 years. SETTING: Subsidiary analysis of a Long-Term Intervention with Pravastatin in Ischaemic Disease (LIPID) study—a clinical trial in Australia, New Zealand and Finland. PARTICIPANTS: 9014 patients aged 31–75 years with previous acute coronary syndromes. INTERVENTIONS: Patients were randomly assigned to 40 mg daily pravastatin or placebo. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: We used data on serial lipid measurements—at randomisation, 6 months and 12 months, and then annually to 5 years—of total cholesterol; low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and their ratios; triglycerides; and apolipoproteins A and B and their ratio and their ability to predict coronary events. RESULTS: All the lipid measures were statistically significantly associated with future coronary events, but the associations between each of the three ratio measures (total or LDL cholesterol to HDL cholesterol, and apolipoprotein B to apolipoprotein A1) and the time to a coronary event were better than those for any of the single lipid measures. The two cholesterol ratios also ranked highly for the long-term signal-to-noise ratios. However, LDL cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol showed the most responsiveness to treatment change. CONCLUSIONS: Lipid monitoring is increasingly common, but current guidelines vary. No single measure was best on all three criteria. Total cholesterol did not rank highly on any single criterion. However, measurements based on cholesterol subfractions—non-HDL cholesterol (total cholesterol minus HDL cholesterol) and the two ratios—appeared superior to total cholesterol or any of the apolipoprotein options. Guidelines should consider using non-HDL cholesterol or a ratio measure for initial treatment decisions and subsequent monitoring

Clinical Information System (CIS) teaching is ESSENTIAL for Primary Care

Supported by the local SHA and PCTs and with live access to a clinical information system (CIS), Leeds University Academic Unit of Primary Care and the Yorkshire Centre for Health Informatics together developed teaching tools to meet this outcome and prepare undergraduate medical students for clinical placements and future practice. Tomorrow’s Doctors Outcome 19 (TD 19) states that doctors should make effective use of computers and information systems, understand confidentiality and data protection and apply the principle of health informatics to medical practice. The aim of the project is to ensure health care professionals are better able to use clinical information system (CIS) for patient care (4PC), and that CIS use is maximised in supporting teaching of undergraduates, postgraduates and in continuing professional development. The main objectives of CIS4PC include enabling students’ to explore the CIS and understanding how CISs support clinical care (e.g.: decision aids, prompts,); quality monitoring and patient safety (e.g.: read coding, audit, e-Prescribing); and communication (e.g.: Choose and Book, GP2GP record transfer). The live system (TPPs SystmOne) is used to deliver ‘hands on’ interactive teaching sessions covering topics on information governance, patient record keeping, the consultation, chronic disease management and soon prescribing and public health. The poster provided an overview of the project, what has been developed, delivered and student feedback on the benefits of received the teaching

Diffusive transport in networks built of containers and tubes

We developed analytical and numerical methods to study a transport of non-interacting particles in large networks consisting of M d-dimensional containers C_1,...,C_M with radii R_i linked together by tubes of length l_{ij} and radii a_{ij} where i,j=1,2,...,M. Tubes may join directly with each other forming junctions. It is possible that some links are absent. Instead of solving the diffusion equation for the full problem we formulated an approach that is computationally more efficient. We derived a set of rate equations that govern the time dependence of the number of particles in each container N_1(t),N_2(t),...,N_M(t). In such a way the complicated transport problem is reduced to a set of M first order integro-differential equations in time, which can be solved efficiently by the algorithm presented here. The workings of the method have been demonstrated on a couple of examples: networks involving three, four and seven containers, and one network with a three-point junction. Already simple networks with relatively few containers exhibit interesting transport behavior. For example, we showed that it is possible to adjust the geometry of the networks so that the particle concentration varies in time in a wave-like manner. Such behavior deviates from simple exponential growth and decay occurring in the two container system.Comment: 21 pages, 18 figures, REVTEX4; new figure added, reduced emphasis on graph theory, additional discussion added (computational cost, one dimensional tubes

Linking dwarf galaxies to halo building blocks with the most metal-poor star in Sculptor

Current cosmological models indicate that the Milky Way's stellar halo was assembled from many smaller systems. Based on the apparent absence of the most metal-poor stars in present-day dwarf galaxies, recent studies claimed that the true Galactic building blocks must have been vastly different from the surviving dwarfs. The discovery of an extremely iron-poor star (S1020549) in the Sculptor dwarf galaxy based on a medium-resolution spectrum cast some doubt on this conclusion. However, verification of the iron-deficiency and measurements of additional elements, such as the alpha-element Mg, are mandatory for demonstrating that the same type of stars produced the metals found in dwarf galaxies and the Galactic halo. Only then can dwarf galaxy stars be conclusively linked to early stellar halo assembly. Here we report high-resolution spectroscopic abundances for 11 elements in S1020549, confirming the iron abundance of less than 1/4000th that of the Sun, and showing that the overall abundance pattern mirrors that seen in low-metallicity halo stars, including the alpha-elements. Such chemical similarity indicates that the systems destroyed to form the halo billions of years ago were not fundamentally different from the progenitors of present-day dwarfs, and suggests that the early chemical enrichment of all galaxies may be nearly identical.Comment: 16 pages, including 2 figures. Accepted for publication in Nature. It is embargoed for discussion in the press until formal publication in Natur