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Nonlinear hydrodynamic and thermoacoustic oscillations of a bluff-body stabilised turbulent premixed flame
Turbulent premixed flames often experience thermoacoustic instabilities when the combustion heat release rate is in phase with acoustic pressure fluctuations. Linear methods often assume a priori that oscillations are periodic and occur at a dominant frequency with a fixed amplitude. Such assumptions are not made when using nonlinear analysis. When an oscillation is fully saturated, nonlinear analysis can serve as a useful avenue to reveal flame behaviour far more elaborate than period-one limit cycles, including quasi-periodicity and chaos in hydrodynamically or thermoacoustically self-excited system. In this paper, the behaviour of a bluff-body stabilised turbulent premixed propane/air flame in a model jet-engine afterburner configuration is investigated using computational fluid dynamics. For the frequencies of interest in this investigation, an unsteady Reynolds-averaged NavierāStokes approach is found to be appropriate. Combustion is represented using a modified laminar flamelet approach with an algebraic closure for the flame surface density. The results are validated by comparison with existing experimental data and with large eddy simulation, and the observed self-excited oscillations in pressure and heat release are studied using methods derived from dynamical systems theory. A systematic analysis is carried out by increasing the equivalence ratio of the reactant stream supplied to the premixed flame. A strong variation in the global flame structure is observed. The flame exhibits a self-excited hydrodynamic oscillation at low equivalence ratios, becomes steady as the equivalence ratio is increased to intermediate values, and again exhibits a self-excited thermoacoustic oscillation at higher equivalence ratios. Rich nonlinear behaviour is observed and the investigation demonstrates that turbulent premixed flames can exhibit complex dynamical behaviour including quasiperiodicity, limit cycles and period-two limit cycles due to the interactions of various physical mechanisms. This has implications in selecting the operating conditions for such flames and for devising proper control strategies for the avoidance of thermoacoustic instability.The authors would like to acknowledge financial support from the Dorothy Hodgkin Postgraduate Award and Rolls-Royce Plc.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13647830.2015.111855
Nematicidal, larvicidal and antimicrobial activities of some new mannich base imidazole derivatives
Purpose: To synthesize Mannich base imidazole derivatives, and evaluate their antimicrobial, nematicidal and larvicidal properties .Methods: Compounds 1a-g and 2a-g were prepared using a Mannich condensation method. The chemical structures of compounds 2a-g were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (IR), proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR), carbon nuclear magnetic resonance (13C-NMR), and mass spectrometry (MS) and elemental analyses. Compounds 1a-f and 2a-f were screened for antimicrobial properties using an agar diffusion method. The nematicidal activity of the compounds was evaluated against juvenile Meloidogyne javanica as test organism while larvicidal activity was assessed against the urban mosquito, Culex. Quinquefasciatus, using a standard bioassay protocol.Results: Compounds 1b, 1g, 2e and 2g were highly active against a few bacterial organisms compared with the reference antibacterial, ciprofloxacin while the antifungal activity of compound 2d was high compared with the reference, clotrimazole. Compounds 1c, 1e, 1g, and 2e showed high toxicity levels of larvicidal activity based their half maximal lethal dose (LD50) values. Compounds 1d, 1e, 1f, 1g, 2d and 2e were highly toxic to nematodes.Conclusion: Compounds 1b, 1g, 2e and 2g may be useful as lead molecules for the development of new classes of larvicidal, nematicidal and antimicrobial agents
Skeletal muscle glucose uptake during treadmill exercise in neuronal nitric oxide synthase-Ī¼ knockout mice
Nitric oxide influences intramuscular signaling that affects skeletal muscle glucose uptake during exercise. The role of the main NO-producing enzyme isoform activated during skeletal muscle contraction, neuronal nitric oxide synthase-Ī¼ (nNOSĪ¼), in modulating glucose uptake has not been investigated in a physiological exercise model. In this study, conscious and unrestrained chronically catheterized nNOSĪ¼+/+ and nNOSĪ¼ā/ā mice either remained at rest or ran on a treadmill at 17 m/min for 30 min. Both groups of mice demonstrated similar exercise capacity during a maximal exercise test to exhaustion (17.7 Ā± 0.6 vs. 15.9 Ā± 0.9 min for nNOSĪ¼+/+ and nNOSĪ¼ā/ā, respectively, P > 0.05). Resting and exercise blood glucose levels were comparable between the genotypes. Very low levels of NOS activity were detected in skeletal muscle from nNOSĪ¼ā/ā mice, and exercise increased NOS activity only in nNOSĪ¼+/+ mice (4.4 Ā± 0.3 to 5.2 Ā± 0.4 pmolĀ·mgā1Ā·minā1, P < 0.05). Exercise significantly increased glucose uptake in gastrocnemius muscle (5- to 7-fold) and, surprisingly, more so in nNOSĪ¼ā/ā than in nNOSĪ¼+/+ mice ( P < 0.05). This is in parallel with a greater increase in AMPK phosphorylation during exercise in nNOSĪ¼ā/ā mice. In conclusion, nNOSĪ¼ is not essential for skeletal muscle glucose uptake during exercise, and the higher skeletal muscle glucose uptake during exercise in nNOSĪ¼ā/ā mice may be due to compensatory increases in AMPK activation. </jats:p
Using a model of group psychotherapy to support social research on sensitive topics
This article describes the exploratory use of professional therapeutic support by social researchers working on a sensitive topic. Talking to recently bereaved parents about the financial implications of their child's death was expected to be demanding work, and the research design included access to an independent psychotherapeutic service. Using this kind of professional support is rare within the general social research community, and it is useful to reflect on the process. There are likely to be implications for collection and interpretation of data, research output and the role and experience of the therapist. Here, the primary focus is the potential impact on researcher well-being
Sharp Global Bounds for the Hessian on Pseudo-Hermitian Manifolds
We find sharp bounds for the norm inequality on a Pseudo-hermitian manifold,
where the L^2 norm of all second derivatives of the function involving
horizontal derivatives is controlled by the L^2 norm of the sub-Laplacian.
Perturbation allows us to get a-priori bounds for solutions to sub-elliptic PDE
in non-divergence form with bounded measurable coefficients. The method of
proof is through a Bochner technique. The Heisenberg group is seen to be en
extremal manifold for our inequality in the class of manifolds whose Ricci
curvature is non-negative.Comment: 13 page
Explainable Disease Classification via weakly-supervised segmentation
Deep learning based approaches to Computer Aided Diagnosis (CAD) typically
pose the problem as an image classification (Normal or Abnormal) problem. These
systems achieve high to very high accuracy in specific disease detection for
which they are trained but lack in terms of an explanation for the provided
decision/classification result. The activation maps which correspond to
decisions do not correlate well with regions of interest for specific diseases.
This paper examines this problem and proposes an approach which mimics the
clinical practice of looking for an evidence prior to diagnosis. A CAD model is
learnt using a mixed set of information: class labels for the entire training
set of images plus a rough localisation of suspect regions as an extra input
for a smaller subset of training images for guiding the learning. The proposed
approach is illustrated with detection of diabetic macular edema (DME) from OCT
slices. Results of testing on on a large public dataset show that with just a
third of images with roughly segmented fluid filled regions, the classification
accuracy is on par with state of the art methods while providing a good
explanation in the form of anatomically accurate heatmap /region of interest.
The proposed solution is then adapted to Breast Cancer detection from
mammographic images. Good evaluation results on public datasets underscores the
generalisability of the proposed solution
Statin-induced increases in atrophy gene expression occur independently of changes in PGC1Ī± protein and mitochondrial content
One serious side effect of statin drugs is skeletal muscle myopathy. Although the mechanism(s) responsible for statin myopathy remains to be fully determined, an increase in muscle atrophy gene expression and changes in mitochondrial content and/or function have been proposed to play a role. In this study, we examined the relationship between statin-induced expression of muscle atrophy genes, regulators of mitochondrial biogenesis, and markers of mitochondrial content in slow- (ST) and fast-twitch (FT) rat skeletal muscles. Male Sprague Dawley rats were treated with simvastatin (60 or 80 mg·kg(-1)·day(-1)) or vehicle control via oral gavage for 14 days. In the absence of overt muscle damage, simvastatin treatment induced an increase in atrogin-1, MuRF1 and myostatin mRNA expression; however, these were not associated with changes in peroxisome proliferator gamma co-activator 1 alpha (PGC-1α) protein or markers of mitochondrial content. Simvastatin did, however, increase neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), endothelial NOS (eNOS) and AMPK α-subunit protein expression, and tended to increase total NOS activity, in FT but not ST muscles. Furthermore, simvastatin induced a decrease in β-hydroxyacyl CoA dehydrogenase (β-HAD) activity only in FT muscles. These findings suggest that the statin-induced activation of muscle atrophy genes occurs independent of changes in PGC-1α protein and mitochondrial content. Moreover, muscle-specific increases in NOS expression and possibly NO production, and decreases in fatty acid oxidation, could contribute to the previously reported development of overt statin-induced muscle damage in FT muscles
Triggering Cell Stress and Death Using Conventional UV Laser Confocal Microscopy.
Using a standard confocal setup, a UV ablation method can be utilized to selectively induce cellular injury and to visualize single-cell responses and cell-cell interactions in the CNS in real-time. Previously, studying these cell-specific responses after injury often required complicated setups or the transfer of cells or animals into different, non-physiological environments, confounding immediate and short-term analysis. For example, drug-mediated ablation approaches often lack the specificity that is required to study single-cell responses and immediate cell-cell interactions. Similarly, while high-power pulsed laser ablation approaches provide very good control and tissue penetration, they require specialized equipment that can complicate real-time visualization of cellular responses. The refined UV laser ablation approach described here allows researchers to stress or kill an individual cell in a dose- and time-dependent manner using a conventional confocal microscope equipped with a 405-nm laser. The method was applied to selectively ablate a single neuron within a dense network of surrounding cells in the zebrafish spinal cord. This approach revealed a dose-dependent response of the ablated neurons, causing the fragmentation of cellular bodies and anterograde degeneration along the axon within minutes to hours. This method allows researchers to study the fate of an individual dying cell and, importantly, the instant response of cells-such as microglia and astrocytes-surrounding the ablation site
Collider Signatures of the N=3 Lee-Wick Standard Model
Inspired by the Lee-Wick higher-derivative approach to quantum field theory,
Grinstein, O'Connell, and Wise have illustrated the utility of introducing into
the Standard Model negative-norm states that cancel quadratic divergences in
loop diagrams, thus posing a potential resolution of the hierarchy problem.
Subsequent work has shown that consistency with electroweak precision
parameters requires many of the partner states to be too massive to be detected
at the LHC. We consider the phenomenology of a yet-higher derivative theory
that exhibits three poles in its bare propagators (hence N=3), whose states
alternate in norm. We examine the interference effects of W boson partners on
LHC scattering cross sections, and find that the N=3 LWSM already makes
verifiable predictions at 10 fb^(-1) of integrated luminosity.Comment: 15 pages, 4 PDF figures. Version accepted for publication by JHE
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