EVALUATION OF HEAT TRANSFER BOUNDARY CONDITIONS FOR CFD MODELING OF A 3D PLATE HEAT EXCHANGER GEOMETRY

In this paper fluid flow and heat transfer are modeled in a corrugated 3D plate heat exchanger geometry with a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) program, Fluent 6.1.22 (Fluent Inc., Lebanon), in order to find out the most realistic heat transfer boundary conditions for a plate heat exchanger. The built-in boundary conditions of Fluent available for this case are Heat flux, Convection and Constant wall temperature. The CFD models are verified with correlations and experimental data obtained by a flat plate test equipment of which parameters can be calculated analytically. Deficiencies are found in all the built-in heat transfer boundary conditions. Heat transfer modeling with CFD in a corrugated plate heat exchanger is problematic because of the assumptions that have to be made when defining the boundary conditions in the complex geometry. The values of the computational parameters have spatial variations and can not be defined explicitly. However, when compared to the experimental correlations in the literature, the Convection boundary condition gives the most realistic results in the case of corrugated plate heat exchanger

Is there a shared social work signature pedagogy cross-nationally? : Using a case study methodology to explore signature pedagogy in England, Israel, Finland, Spain and Sweden

While there is an international definition of social work as a profession, little is known about whether there is also a shared pedagogy in social work cross-nationally. To our knowledge, this paper is the first empirical study which aims to fill this gap by applying the concept of signature pedagogy in social work education to explore the commonality of social work pedagogy across countries. The study uses a multi-site case study (six universities in five European countries) through applying a 'critical teacher-researcher' approach in generating the data, followed by a two-phased thematic analysis. The study evidenced a shared principle of social work pedagogy which nurtures social work student to think and perform like a social worker and develop the professional self through developing relationships and dialogue, professional practice, group work, self-reflection and critical thinking. It is argued from, this exploratory study, that even between countries which have different welfare ideology as well as social work history and education systems, there is some common ground in social work pedagogy where one can learn from another through the use of 'teacher as researcher' methodologically.Peer reviewe

Hypomethylation of HOXA4 promoter is common in Silver-Russell syndrome and growth restriction and associates with stature in healthy children

Silver-Russell syndrome (SRS) is a growth retardation syndrome in which loss of methylation on chromosome 11p15 (11p15 LOM) and maternal uniparental disomy for chromosome 7 [UPD(7) mat] explain 20-60% and 10% of the syndrome, respectively. To search for a molecular cause for the remaining SRS cases, and to find a possible common epigenetic change, we studied DNA methylation pattern of more than 450 000 CpG sites in 44 SRS patients. Common to all three SRS subgroups, we found a hypomethylated region at the promoter region of HOXA4 in 55% of the patients. We then tested 39 patients with severe growth restriction of unknown etiology, and found hypomethylation of HOXA4 in 44% of the patients. Finally, we found that methylation at multiple CpG sites in the HOXA4 promoter region was associated with height in a cohort of 227 healthy children, suggesting that HOXA4 may play a role in regulating human growth by epigenetic mechanisms.Peer reviewe

Measuring inequality: tools and an illustration

BACKGROUND: This paper examines an aspect of the problem of measuring inequality in health services. The measures that are commonly applied can be misleading because such measures obscure the difficulty in obtaining a complete ranking of distributions. The nature of the social welfare function underlying these measures is important. The overall object is to demonstrate that varying implications for the welfare of society result from inequality measures. METHOD: Various tools for measuring a distribution are applied to some illustrative data on four distributions about mental health services. Although these data refer to this one aspect of health, the exercise is of broader relevance than mental health. The summary measures of dispersion conventionally used in empirical work are applied to the data here, such as the standard deviation, the coefficient of variation, the relative mean deviation and the Gini coefficient. Other, less commonly used measures also are applied, such as Theil's Index of Entropy, Atkinson's Measure (using two differing assumptions about the inequality aversion parameter). Lorenz curves are also drawn for these distributions. RESULTS: Distributions are shown to have differing rankings (in terms of which is more equal than another), depending on which measure is applied. CONCLUSION: The scope and content of the literature from the past decade about health inequalities and inequities suggest that the economic literature from the past 100 years about inequality and inequity may have been overlooked, generally speaking, in the health inequalities and inequity literature. An understanding of economic theory and economic method, partly introduced in this article, is helpful in analysing health inequality and inequity

Biologian kenttäopetus yliopistoissa: yhteistyöllä uuteen nousuun

Kenttäkurssit ovat keskeinen osa biologian ja lähitieteiden opetusta yliopistoissa. Luonnossa tapahtuva opetus kehittää sekä ymmärrystä tieteenalan teoreettisista perusteista että ammatillisia käytännön taitoja. Kenttäkursseilla omat havainnot muodostuvat oppimisen perustaksi muiden oppimistapojen rinnalla. Vaikka kenttäopetuksen tarpeellisuudesta ollaan yksimielisiä, kenttäkursseja uhkaavat yliopistojen rahoituksen väheneminen ja tutkimusasemaverkoston karsiminen. Tässä kirjoituksessa pohdimme, kuinka uhkista huolimatta kenttäopetuksen määrää, laatua ja kustannustehokkuutta voidaan lisätä yliopistojen ja niiden tutkimusasemien välisellä yhteistyöllä.</p

Gain-of-function CEBPE mutation causes noncanonical autoinflammatory inflammasomopathy

Background: CCAAT enhancer-binding protein epsilon (C/EBP epsilon) is a transcription factor involved in late myeloid lineage differentiation and cellular function. The only previously known disorder linked to C/EBP epsilon is autosomal recessive neutrophil-specific granule deficiency leading to severely impaired neutrophil function and early mortality. Objective: The aim of this study was to molecularly characterize the effects of C/EBP epsilon transcription factor Arg219His mutation identified in a Finnish family with previously genetically uncharacterized autoinflammatory and immunodeficiency syndrome. Methods: Genetic analysis, proteomics, genome-wide transcriptional profiling by means of RNA-sequencing, chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) sequencing, and assessment of the inflammasome function of primary macrophages were performed. Results: Studies revealed a novel mechanism of genome-wide gain-of-function that dysregulated transcription of 464 genes. Mechanisms involved dysregulated noncanonical inflammasome activation caused by decreased association with transcriptional repressors, leading to increased chromatin occupancy and considerable changes in transcriptional activity, including increased expression of NLR family, pyrin domain-containing 3 protein (NLRP3) and constitutively expressed caspase-5 in macrophages. Conclusion: We describe a novel autoinflammatory disease with defective neutrophil function caused by a homozygous Arg219His mutation in the transcription factor C/EBP epsilon. Mutated C/EBPe acts as a regulator of both the inflammasome and interferome, and the Arg219His mutation causes the first human monogenic neomorphic and noncanonical inflammasomopathy/immunodeficiency. The mechanism, including widely dysregulated transcription, is likely not unique for C/EBP epsilon. Similar multiomics approaches should also be used in studying other transcription factor-associated diseases.Peer reviewe