On the almost sure central limit theorem for ARX processes in adaptive tracking

The goal of this paper is to highlight the almost sure central limit theorem for martingales to the control community and to show the usefulness of this result for the system identification of controllable ARX(p,q) process in adaptive tracking. We also provide strongly consistent estimators of the even moments of the driven noise of a controllable ARX(p,q) process as well as quadratic strong laws for the average costs and estimation errors sequences. Our theoretical results are illustrated by numerical experiments

Use of elastic stability analysis to explain the stress-dependent nature of soil strength

The peak and critical state strengths of sands are linearly related to the stress level, just as the frictional resistance to sliding along an interface is related to the normal force. The analogy with frictional sliding has led to the use of a ‘friction angle’ to describe the relationship between strength and stress for soils. The term ‘friction angle’ implies that the underlying mechanism is frictional resistance at the particle contacts. However, experiments and discrete element simulations indicate that the material friction angle is not simply related to the friction angle at the particle contacts. Experiments and particle-scale simulations of model sands have also revealed the presence of strong force chains, aligned with the major principal stress. Buckling of these strong force chains has been proposed as an alternative to the frictional-sliding failure mechanism. Here, using an idealized abstraction of a strong force chain, the resistance is shown to be linearly proportional to the magnitude of the lateral forces supporting the force chain. Considering a triaxial stress state, and drawing an analogy between the lateral forces and the confining pressure in a triaxial test, a linear relationship between stress level and strength is seen to emerge from the failure-by-buckling hypothesis

A critical analysis of COA research.

Five experts respected for their significant contributions to the scientific literature on children of alcoholics (COA's) offer their perspectives in a panel discussion format. The panel members reflect on the historical roots of COA research and comment on its current status and future direction. Enriched by the panelists' variety of backgrounds, research interests, and approaches, the discussion emphasizes the need to consider multiple variables that influence the risk for alcoholism among COA's

Investigating IoT Middleware Platforms for Smart Application Development

With the growing number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, the data generated through these devices is also increasing. By 2030, it is been predicted that the number of IoT devices will exceed the number of human beings on earth. This gives rise to the requirement of middleware platform that can manage IoT devices, intelligently store and process gigantic data generated for building smart applications such as Smart Cities, Smart Healthcare, Smart Industry, and others. At present, market is overwhelming with the number of IoT middleware platforms with specific features. This raises one of the most serious and least discussed challenge for application developer to choose suitable platform for their application development. Across the literature, very little attempt is done in classifying or comparing IoT middleware platforms for the applications. This paper categorizes IoT platforms into four categories namely-publicly traded, open source, developer friendly and end-to-end connectivity. Some of the popular middleware platforms in each category are investigated based on general IoT architecture. Comparison of IoT middleware platforms in each category, based on basic, sensing, communication and application development features is presented. This study can be useful for IoT application developers to select the most appropriate platform according to their application requirement

Nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin lymphoma behaves as a distinct clinical entity with good outcome: evidence from 14-year followup in the West of Scotland Cancer Network

Clinically and biologically, nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin lymphoma (NLPHL) has much more in common with germinal-center derived B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) than with classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL). Management of NLPHL remains controversial. In a 14-year multicenter series, 69 cases were analyzed, and the median follow-up was 53 months (range 11–165.) B-symptoms were present in only 4.3% of patients, and 81.1% of patients had stage I/II disease. Treatment was with radiotherapy (53.6%), chemotherapy (21.7%), combined modality (17.4%), and observation (7.2%). In all, 10.1% of patients relapsed and 2.9% of patients developed high-grade transformation to DLBCL. All relapses and transformations were salvageable. No patient died of their disease. The 5-year relapse-free survival was 92%, transformation-free survival 98.4%, and overall survival 100%. We conclude that NLPHL behaves as a distinct clinical entity, often presenting at an early stage without risk factors. It has an excellent outcome. It may be possible, in early-stage disease, to reduce the intensity of therapy in NLPHL, to single-modality radiotherapy, without affecting OS

High efficiency In Vivo genome engineering with a simplified 15-RVD GoldyTALEN design

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Metabolic flexibility as a major predictor of spatial distribution in microbial communities

A better understand the ecology of microbes and their role in the global ecosystem could be achieved if traditional ecological theories can be applied to microbes. In ecology organisms are defined as specialists or generalists according to the breadth of their niche. Spatial distribution is often used as a proxy measure of niche breadth; generalists have broad niches and a wide spatial distribution and specialists a narrow niche and spatial distribution. Previous studies suggest that microbial distribution patterns are contrary to this idea; a microbial generalist genus (Desulfobulbus) has a limited spatial distribution while a specialist genus (Methanosaeta) has a cosmopolitan distribution. Therefore, we hypothesise that this counter-intuitive distribution within generalist and specialist microbial genera is a common microbial characteristic. Using molecular fingerprinting the distribution of four microbial genera, two generalists, Desulfobulbus and the methanogenic archaea Methanosarcina, and two specialists, Methanosaeta and the sulfate-reducing bacteria Desulfobacter were analysed in sediment samples from along a UK estuary. Detected genotypes of both generalist genera showed a distinct spatial distribution, significantly correlated with geographic distance between sites. Genotypes of both specialist genera showed no significant differential spatial distribution. These data support the hypothesis that the spatial distribution of specialist and generalist microbes does not match that seen with specialist and generalist large organisms. It may be that generalist microbes, while having a wider potential niche, are constrained, possibly by intrageneric competition, to exploit only a small part of that potential niche while specialists, with far fewer constraints to their niche, are more capable of filling their potential niche more effectively, perhaps by avoiding intrageneric competition. We suggest that these counter-intuitive distribution patterns may be a common feature of microbes in general and represent a distinct microbial principle in ecology, which is a real challenge if we are to develop a truly inclusive ecology

Effect of CO2 Dilution on the Structure and Emissions from Turbulent, Non-premixed Methane-Air Jet Flames

This investigation gives a comparison of the variation of temperature and gas compositions in lifted, turbulent non-premixed methane–air jet flames firing vertically into still air with different carbon dioxide diluent concentrations in the fuel jet. The carbon dioxide mole fraction ranged from 0 to 0.22 and was varied with a fixed jet velocity so that dilution-induced extinction was achieved. The effect of the changes due to this dilution on the post-flame emissions was investigated. Similarly, visual observation of the changes in the flame structure in mixture fraction space at different diluent mole fraction has been studied. An examination of the changes in the flame length, lift-off height, flame temperature, composition, and on the emission indices of the species in the post-flame region were made. They showed an increase in the flame's lift-off height, a decrease in the overall flame length, a reduction in the flame temperature and a reduction in the NOx concentration at various levels of dilution of carbon dioxide in the fuel

A distinct mitochondrial myopathy, lactic acidosis and sideroblastic anemia (MLASA) phenotype associates with YARS2 mutations

Nuclear-encoded disorders of mitochondrial translation are clinically and genetically heterogeneous. Genetic causes include defects of mitochondrial aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, and factors required for initiation, elongation and termination of protein synthesis as well as ribosome recycling. We report on a new case of myopathy, lactic acidosis and sideroblastic anemia (MLASA) syndrome caused by defective mitochondrial tyrosyl aminoacylation. The patient presented at 1 year with anemia initially attributed to iron deficiency. Bone marrow aspirate at 5 years revealed ringed sideroblasts but transfusion dependency did not occur until 11 years. Other clinical features included lactic acidosis, poor weight gain, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and severe myopathy leading to respiratory failure necessitating ventilatory support. Long-range PCR excluded mitochondrial DNA rearrangements. Clinical diagnosis of MLASA prompted direct sequence analysis of the YARS2 gene encoding the mitochondrial tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase, which revealed homozygosity for a known pathogenic mutation, c.156C>G;p.F52L. Comparison with four previously reported cases demonstrated remarkable clinical homogeneity. First line investigation of MLASA should include direct sequence analysis of YARS2 and PUS1 (encoding a tRNA modification factor) rather than muscle biopsy. Early genetic diagnosis is essential for counseling and to facilitate appropriate supportive therapy. Reasons for segregation of specific clinical phenotypes with particular mitochondrial aminoacyl tRNA-synthetase defects remain unknown. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Combining Morphological Population Balances with Face-Specific Growth Kinetics Data to Model and Predict the Crystallization Processes for Ibuprofen

A route map for modeling pharmaceutical manufacturing processes utilizing morphological population balance (MPB) is presented in terms of understanding and controlling particle shape and size for optimizing the efficiency of both the manufacturing process and final properties of the formulated drugs. This is applied to batch cooling crystallization of the pharmaceutical compound ibuprofen from supersaturated ethanolic solutions in which the MPB is combined with the known crystal morphology and associated face-specific growth kinetics (Nguyen et al. CrystEngComm 2014, 16, 4568-4586) to predict the temporal evolution of the shape and size distributions of all crystals. The MPB simulations capture the temporal evolution of the size and shape of ibuprofen crystals and their distributions at each time instance during the crystallization processes. The volume equivalent spherical diameter and crystal size distribution converted from MPB simulation are validated against the experimental studies on the 1 L scale size (Rashid et al. Chem. Eng. Res. Des. 2012, 90, 158-161), confirming the promise of this approach as a powerful simulation, optimization, and control tool for the digital design of precision pharmaceutical processes and products with the desirable properties, with potential applications in crystallization design for personalized medicines