Hydrodynamics of impinging liquid jets used in cleaning

Impinging liquid jets are widely used in industrial cleaning-in-place (CIP) systems to remove residual product or soil layers from the internal surfaces of process equipment such as tanks and vessels. The optimisation of these cleaning operations is often done empirically as a large number of parameters are needed to define the problem. Three aspects of jet behaviour were investigated as a step towards enabling the systematic design and optimisation of CIP systems. The effect of jet length and wall curvature were explored. The flow patterns generated by the impingement of a coherent, turbulent, horizontal water jet on a flat, vertical target were characterised as a benchmark and compared with existing models that predict the shape of the radial flow zone (RFZ). As the jet length increased, some liquid was lost to splatter through jet breakup into droplets and rebound of liquid droplets off the target. The shape of the RFZ agreed with existing models once the fraction of liquid lost to splatter was accounted for. Tests on horizontal and vertical cylinders with curvatures in the range 6.9 to 20 m⁻¹ showed that wall curvature did not have a significant effect on the shape of the RFZ unless the liquid film wrapped around the inside of the cylinder, observed at high jet flow rates. There was no appreciable effect of wall curvature on cleaning behaviour. Soaking a water-soluble soil prior to cleaning increased its cleaning rate. In many CIP systems, the liquid jet impinges at an oblique angle to the target surface and an understanding of the liquid flow distribution created by inclined jets is needed to predict the cleaning behaviour. Tests with inclined jets were carried out to establish the shape of the hydraulic jump formed and their cleaning behaviour. Three flow distribution models were developed and compared with the experimental data, providing an insight into the liquid flow distribution, but further work remains to enable the liquid flow distribution to be predicted a priori. The cleaning of viscous soil layers (petroleum jelly, tomato ketchup and two toothpastes) from vertical walls by an intermittent water jet was investigated by using a moving interrupter plate to periodically disrupt the impingement of a continuous water jet. The use of intermittent jets was found to provide no improvement in the cleaning of these soil layers in the absence of soaking.PhD Studentship, Newnham College, Cambridg

Optimising self-directed funding for the long-term disabled: briefing document

People with long-term disabilities have become increasingly frustrated with the inadequate support services provided by the disability sector. In particular, people with long-term disabilities want to have support services which met their needs as well as greater choice and control in the decisions around them. Over the last five years the popularity of self-directed funding has increased significantly. In 2011/12 the Australian Government made a commitment to implement a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) as advised through an inquiry by the Productivity Commission to have full rollout country wide by 2018. Self-directed funding is used as a mechanism to promote self-determination and empowerment in people with long-term disabilities and to facilitate their living in the community independently. Self-directed funding can be provided by an individual package held by a provider, by an individual budget held by the person to spend through providers or by direct payments to spend on the open market. The implementation of self-directed funding models has been implemented in various forms over the past couple of decades, including the piloting of small scale programs and the introduction of larger scale programs by government bodies or departments in specific disability groups.  Self-directed funding models are strongly established in the UK, USA and Western Australia. The inclusion of infrastructure supports such as independent brokers, financial intermediaries and ongoing support for clients are beneficial features of established models, particularly for people with complex needs. Despite their popularity, there is a lack of evidence about the effectiveness of self-directed funding models in practice, and no evidence comparing different models.  No single model has been demonstrated to be superior to another, likely in part because the cultural and political context in which a scheme is introduced has a strong influence on its design, implementation and outcomes. Despite this, there are consistent indications that offering flexible and creative options within models is the best approach for ensuring people with more complex and potentially unmet needs, have an opportunity to take up self-directed funding successfully. There are limited studies of the feasibility and impact of self-directed funding for people in the compensable sector with catastrophic injuries. Qualitative studies using interviews or questionnaires reveal that, generally, people with long-term disabilities recognise that self-directed funding should be one option among the range of options for receiving necessary support services; however, there is variability in the stated willingness to take on self-directed funding themselves. A lack of awareness of what is involved in self-directed funding and how it can be managed has been reported. In addition, it has been suggested that not all people have the skills, education or experience to manage self-directed funding, hence training and information sessions that are understandable and comprehensive are likely to be necessary in order to encourage uptake.  This NTRI Forum aims to consider the factors which influence the uptake of self-directed funding by the long-term disabled. Two questions were identified for deliberation in a Stakeholder Dialogue: 1. What are the barriers and facilitators to optimal implementation and uptake of self- directed funding in Australia and New Zealand? 2. How can knowledge of barriers and facilitators be used to address these challenges

Reduction of the Cholesterol Sensor SCAP in the Brains of Mice Causes Impaired Synaptic Transmission and Altered Cognitive Function

The sterol sensor SCAP is a key regulator of SREBP-2, the major transcription factor controlling cholesterol synthesis. Recently, we showed that there is a global down-regulation of cholesterol synthetic genes, as well as SREBP-2, in the brains of diabetic mice, leading to a reduction of cholesterol synthesis. We now show that in mouse models of type 1 and type 2 diabetes, this is, in part, the result of a decrease of SCAP. Homozygous disruption of the Scap gene in the brains of mice causes perinatal lethality associated with microcephaly and gliosis. Mice with haploinsufficiency of Scap in the brain show a 60% reduction of SCAP protein and ~30% reduction in brain cholesterol synthesis, similar to what is observed in diabetic mice. This results in impaired synaptic transmission, as measured by decreased paired pulse facilitation and long-term potentiation, and is associated with behavioral and cognitive changes. Thus, reduction of SCAP and the consequent suppression of cholesterol synthesis in the brain may play an important role in the increased rates of cognitive decline and Alzheimer disease observed in diabetic states

Flexible transbronchial optical frequency domain imaging smart needle for biopsy guidance

Transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) is a procedure routinely performed to diagnose peripheral pulmonary lesions. However, TBNA is associated with a low diagnostic yield due to inappropriate needle placement. We have developed a flexible transbronchial optical frequency domain imaging (TB-OFDI) catheter that functions as a “smart needle” to confirm the needle placement within the target lesion prior to biopsy. The TB-OFDI smart needle consists of a flexible and removable OFDI catheter (430 µm dia.) that operates within a standard 21-gauge TBNA needle. The OFDI imaging core is based on an angle polished ball lens design with a working distance of 160 µm from the catheter sheath and a spot size of 25 µm. To demonstrate the potential of the TB-OFDI smart needle for transbronchial imaging, an inflated excised swine lung was imaged through a standard bronchoscope. Cross-sectional and longitudinal OFDI results reveal the detailed network of alveoli in the lung parenchyma suggesting that the TB-OFDI smart needle may be a useful tool for guiding biopsy acquisition to increase the diagnostic yield

ReCoDe: A Data Reduction and Compression Description for High Throughput Time-Resolved Electron Microscopy

Fast, direct electron detectors have significantly improved the spatio-temporal resolution of electron microscopy movies. Preserving both spatial and temporal resolution in extended observations, however, requires storing prohibitively large amounts of data. Here, we describe an efficient and flexible data reduction and compression scheme (ReCoDe) that retains both spatial and temporal resolution by preserving individual electron events. Running ReCoDe on a workstation we demonstrate on-the-fly reduction and compression of raw data streaming off a detector at 3 GB/s, for hours of uninterrupted data collection. The output was 100-fold smaller than the raw data and saved directly onto network-attached storage drives over a 10 GbE connection. We discuss calibration techniques that support electron detection and counting (e.g. estimate electron backscattering rates, false positive rates, and data compressibility), and novel data analysis methods enabled by ReCoDe (e.g. recalibration of data post acquisition, and accurate estimation of coincidence loss).Comment: 53 pages, 20 figure

Dual pathogenicity island transfer by piggybacking lateral transduction

Lateral transduction (LT) is the process by which temperate phages mobilize large sections of bacterial genomes. Despite its importance, LT has only been observed during prophage induction. Here, we report that superantigen-carrying staphylococcal pathogenicity islands (SaPIs) employ a related but more versatile and complex mechanism of gene transfer to drive chromosomal hypermobility while self-transferring with additional virulence genes from the host. We found that after phage infection or prophage induction, activated SaPIs form concatamers in the bacterial chromosome by switching between parallel genomic tracks in replication bubbles. This dynamic life cycle enables SaPIbov1 to piggyback its LT of staphylococcal pathogenicity island vSaα, which encodes an array of genes involved in host-pathogen interactions, allowing both islands to be mobilized intact and transferred in a single infective particle. Our findings highlight previously unknown roles of pathogenicity islands in bacterial virulence and show that their evolutionary impact extends beyond the genes they carry

Chromatin interaction neural network (ChINN): a machine learning-based method for predicting chromatin interactions from DNA sequences.

Chromatin interactions play important roles in regulating gene expression. However, the availability of genome-wide chromatin interaction data is limited. We develop a computational method, chromatin interaction neural network (ChINN), to predict chromatin interactions between open chromatin regions using only DNA sequences. ChINN predicts CTCF- and RNA polymerase II-associated and Hi-C chromatin interactions. ChINN shows good across-sample performances and captures various sequence features for chromatin interaction prediction. We apply ChINN to 6 chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patient samples and a published cohort of 84 CLL open chromatin samples. Our results demonstrate extensive heterogeneity in chromatin interactions among CLL patient samples

Healthcare Worker Seroconversion in SARS Outbreak

Serum samples were obtained from healthcare workers 5 weeks after exposure to an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). A sensitive dot blot enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, complemented by a specific neutralization test, shows that only persons in whom probable SARS was diagnosed had specific antibodies and suggests that subclinical SARS is not an important feature of the disease

First somatic mutation of E2F1 in a critical DNA binding residue discovered in well-differentiated papillary mesothelioma of the peritoneum

10.1186/gb-2011-12-9-r96Genome biology129R9

Conditional deletion of melanin-concentrating hormone receptor 1 from GABAergic neurons increases locomotor activity

Objective: Melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) plays a key role in regulating energy balance. MCH acts via its receptor MCHR1, and MCHR1 deletion increases energy expenditure and locomotor activity, which is associated with a hyperdopaminergic state. Since MCHR1 expression is widespread, the neurons supporting the effects of MCH on energy expenditure are not clearly defined. There is a high density of MCHR1 neurons in the striatum, and these neurons are known to be GABAergic. We thus de