Pressure drop and holdup predictions in horizontal oil-water flows for curved and wavy interfaces

In this work a modified two-fluid model was developed based on experimental observations of the interface configuration in stratified liquid-liquid flows. The experimental data were obtained in a horizontal 14. mmID acrylic pipe, for test oil and water superficial velocities ranging from 0.02. m/s to 0.51. m/s and from 0.05. m/s to 0.62. m/s, respectively. Using conductance probes, average interface heights were obtained at the pipe centre and close to the pipe wall, which revealed a concave interface shape in all cases studied. A correlation between the two heights was developed that was used in the two-fluid model. In addition, from the time series of the probe signal at the pipe centre, the average wave amplitude was calculated to be 0.0005. m and was used as an equivalent roughness in the interfacial shear stress model. Both the interface shape and roughness were considered in the two-fluid model together with literature interfacial shear stress correlations. Results showed that the inclusion of both the interface curvature and the equivalent roughness in the two-fluid model improved its predictions of pressure drop and interface height over the range of studied superficial oil and water velocities. Compared to the two-fluid model with other interfacial shear stress correlations, the modified model performed better particularly for predicting pressure drop

Growth regulatory effects of cyclic AMP and polyamine depletion are dissociable in cultured mouse lymphoma cells.

Treatment of mouse lymphoma S49 cells with D,L-alpha-difluoromethylornithine (DFMO), an inhibitor of ornithine decarboxylase, depleted cellular polyamine levels and stopped cell growth. The cells were arrested predominantly in G1. Thus, polyamine depletion may lead to a regulatory growth arrest in S49 cells. We tested two hypotheses regarding the relationship of growth arrest mediated by polyamine limitation to that mediated by cyclic AMP (cAMP). The hypothesis that cAMP-induced arrest results from polyamine depletion is not tenable, because the arrest could not be reversed by addition of exogenous polyamines, and because cellular polyamine levels do not drop in dibuturyl cyclic AMP (Bt2cAMP)-arrested cells. The hypothesis that polyamine-mediated growth arrest is effected via modulation of cAMP levels or cAMP-dependent protein kinase activity was also shown to be incorrect, because a S49 variant deficient in cAMP-dependent protein kinase was arrested by DFMO. The activities of the polyamine-synthesizing enzymes ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) and S-adenosyl methionine decarboxylase (SAMD) are both reduced in Bt2cAMP-treated cells to about 10% of that in control populations, as shown previously. DFMO diminishes ODC activity and augments SAMD activity in both untreated and Bt2cAMP-treated cells, leading to polyamine depletion in both cases

Variation in pelvic morphology may prevent the identification of anterior pelvic tilt

Pelvic tilt is often quantified using the angle between the horizontal and a line connecting the anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS) and the posterior superior iliac spine (PSIS). Although this angle is determined by the balance of muscular and ligamentous forces acting between the pelvis and adjacent segments, it could also be influenced by variations in pelvic morphology. The primary objective of this anatomical study was to establish how such variation may affect the ASIS-PSIS measure of pelvic tilt. In addition, we also investigated how variability in pelvic landmarks may influence measures of innominate rotational asymmetry and measures of pelvic height. Thirty cadaver pelves were used for the study. Each specimen was positioned in a fixed anatomical reference position and the angle between the ASIS and PSIS measured bilaterally. In addition, side-to-side differences in the height of the innominate bone were recorded. The study found a range of values for the ASIS-PSIS of 0–23 degrees, with a mean of 13 and standard deviation of 5 degrees. Asymmetry of pelvic landmarks resulted in side-to-side differences of up to 11 degrees in ASISPSIS tilt and 16 millimeters in innominate height. These results suggest that variations in pelvic morphology may significantly influence measures of pelvic tilt and innominate rotational asymmetry

On the dynamics of WKB wave functions whose phase are weak KAM solutions of H-J equation

In the framework of toroidal Pseudodifferential operators on the flat torus $\Bbb T^n := (\Bbb R / 2\pi \Bbb Z)^n$ we begin by proving the closure under composition for the class of Weyl operators $\mathrm{Op}^w_\hbar(b)$ with simbols $b \in S^m (\mathbb{T}^n \times \mathbb{R}^n)$. Subsequently, we consider $\mathrm{Op}^w_\hbar(H)$ when $H=\frac{1}{2} |\eta|^2 + V(x)$ where $V \in C^\infty (\Bbb T^n;\Bbb R)$ and we exhibit the toroidal version of the equation for the Wigner transform of the solution of the Schr\"odinger equation. Moreover, we prove the convergence (in a weak sense) of the Wigner transform of the solution of the Schr\"odinger equation to the solution of the Liouville equation on $\Bbb T^n \times \Bbb R^n$ written in the measure sense. These results are applied to the study of some WKB type wave functions in the Sobolev space $H^{1} (\mathbb{T}^n; \Bbb C)$ with phase functions in the class of Lipschitz continuous weak KAM solutions (of positive and negative type) of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation $\frac{1}{2} |P+ \nabla_x v_\pm (P,x)|^2 + V(x) = \bar{H}(P)$ for $P \in \ell \Bbb Z^n$ with $\ell >0$, and to the study of the backward and forward time propagation of the related Wigner measures supported on the graph of $P+ \nabla_x v_\pm$

Effect of urban vs. rural residence on the association between atopy and wheeze in Latin America: findings from a case-control analysis.

BACKGROUND: The association between atopy and asthma is attenuated in non-affluent populations, an effect that may be explained by childhood infections such as geohelminths. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between atopy and wheeze in schoolchildren living in urban and rural areas of Ecuador and examine the effects of geohelminths on this association. METHODS: We performed nested case-control studies among comparable populations of schoolchildren living in rural communities and urban neighbourhoods in the Province of Esmeraldas, Ecuador. We detected geohelminths in stool samples, measured recent wheeze and environmental exposures by parental questionnaire, and atopy by specific IgE (sIgE) and skin prick test (SPT) reactivity to aeroallergens. RESULTS: Atopy, particularly sIgE to house dust mite (HDM), was more strongly associated with recent wheeze in urban than rural schoolchildren: (urban, adj. OR 5.19, 95% CI 3.37-8.00, P < 0.0001; rural, adj. OR 1.81, 95%CI 1.09-2.99, P = 0.02; interaction, P < 0.001). The population fractions of wheeze attributable to atopy were approximately two-fold greater in urban schoolchildren: SPT to any allergen (urban 23.5% vs. rural 10.1%), SPT to HDM (urban 18.5% vs. rural 9.6%), and anti-HDM IgE (urban 26.5% vs. rural 10.5%), while anti-Ascaris IgE was related to wheeze in a high proportion of rural (49.7%) and urban (35.4%) children. The association between atopy and recent wheeze was attenuated by markers of geohelminth infections. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that urban residence modifies the association between HDM atopy and recent wheeze, and this effect is explained partly by geohelminth infections

Quadriceps strength and functional performance after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction in professional soccer players at time of return to sport

Poor quadriceps strength has been associated with poor outcome after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction (ACLR). This study aims to assess quadriceps strength, muscle inhibition, and hop test performance in professional soccer players after ACLR. Fifteen professional soccer players (age 22.3 ± 3.1 years, body mass 81.0 ± 11.5 kg, and height 1.75 ± 0.1 m) who had undergone ACLR participated. Isometric, eccentric, and concentric quadriceps strength was assessed, along with quadriceps inhibition and single and cross-over hop performance, at the time of return to full-time unrestricted play. In comparison with the uninjured leg, the ACLR leg demonstrated large significant (d ≥ 0.84, p < 0.01) deficits in isometric, eccentric, and concentric quadriceps strength, quadriceps inhibition, and hop distance. Over 80% of the players failed to exceed the limb symmetry criteria of ≥90% for strength tests, although 75% of the cohort passed the ≥90% criteria for hop tests. The outcome from ACLR in professional soccer players who received full-time intensive rehabilitation has not previously been reported in detail. There were significant deficits in quadriceps strength at the time of return to sport, whereas hop testing, a commonly used outcome measure, failed to show the same levels of deficit. These deficits in quadriceps function may have implications for the development of ongoing knee symptoms and risk of future ACL injury. If this proves to be the case, then it would seem that greater attention should be paid to re-establishing full quadriceps strength before returning to unrestricted sporting activity

COCO_TS Dataset: Pixel-level Annotations Based on Weak Supervision for Scene Text Segmentation

The absence of large scale datasets with pixel-level supervisions is a significant obstacle for the training of deep convolutional networks for scene text segmentation. For this reason, synthetic data generation is normally employed to enlarge the training dataset. Nonetheless, synthetic data cannot reproduce the complexity and variability of natural images. In this paper, a weakly supervised learning approach is used to reduce the shift between training on real and synthetic data. Pixel-level supervisions for a text detection dataset (i.e. where only bounding-box annotations are available) are generated. In particular, the COCO-Text-Segmentation (COCO_TS) dataset, which provides pixel-level supervisions for the COCO-Text dataset, is created and released. The generated annotations are used to train a deep convolutional neural network for semantic segmentation. Experiments show that the proposed dataset can be used instead of synthetic data, allowing us to use only a fraction of the training samples and significantly improving the performances

Migrant Roma in the United Kingdom and the need to estimate population size

Within the political framework of the European Union (EU), there has been long standing recognition that the on-going exclusion of Roma represents a key challenge for human rights, justice and social inclusion agendas. By introducing a requirement for Member States to produce National Roma Integration Strategies (NRIS), the European Commission hopes that Member States will work in partnership with the EU and key stakeholders to achieve inclusion objectives in respect of housing, health, education and employment. The form and content of the United Kingdom’s (UK) NRIS submission has been criticised in a number of key areas; notably its ‘migrant blind’ approach (Craig, 2011; 2013). This article draws on recent research undertaken by the authors (Brown, Martin and Scullion, 2013), which aimed to estimate the size of the recently arrived Roma population in the UK and document some of the local level responses as a result of this migration. It provides an overview of the context giving rise to the research, and how previous population estimates have been attempted, both across the EU and in the UK. The paper considers whether conventional methodologies can be fit for purpose when attempting to assess the population size of a transnational and highly mobile ethnic group, or whether more experimental approaches might yield a fresh approach. More specifically, it examines the strengths and weaknesses of adopting a place typology approach (Lupton et al., 2011). Finally the paper looks at the publication of research about Roma populations in a highly politicised arena in the wake of ongoing national and international attention on Rom

Elastic Form Factors of 3,4^{3,4}He up to Large Q2Q^2

Elastic electron scattering off $^3$He and $^4$He has recently been studied at forward and backward scattering angles in Hall A at JLab. The results will provide accurate data on the elastic form factors, charge and magnetic for $^3$He and charge only for $^4$He, up to squared momentum transfer $Q^2$-values of 3.2 GeV$^2$.Comment: 3 pages, Proceedings of EFB2

A comparison of frontal plane projection angle across landing tasks in female gymnasts

The aim of this study was to compare FPPA between three landing tasks and determine the reliability of FPPA in 15 competitive female gymnasts (age 13.5 ± 2.07 years). Reliability of FPPA was highest in the drop landing task, with no learning effect present. The backaway task showed the greatest FFPA (right: 26.75 ± 9.57°; left: 19.67 ± 9.03°), which was greater than the drop landing task (right: 19.07 ± 7.42°; left: 12.18 ± 4.83°). Individuals involved in training young female gymnasts are encouraged to screen for injury risk using FPPA during the drop landing task