IMPROVING COMMUNICATION OF SCHEDULING INFORMATION OF EARTHWORK CONSTRUCTION PROCESS USING 4D VISUALISATION MODEL IN ROAD PROJECTS

ABSTRACT Innovative visualization technology applied to construction simulation and optimization has the potential to improve communications and coordination amongst the project stakeholders. In this context and in the drive for innovation in construction management, this paper introduces a framework of a 4D prototype for the automatic generation of visual terrain surfaces during earthwork construction processes. The framework has been designed and developed by integrating road design data, quantities of cut and fill, productivity models, algorithms for modelling terrain profiles and a road profile visualiser. The paper details the prototype of 4D visualization model (4DVM) that has been designed and developed in this research using innovative methodology where 4D models of terrain surfaces are generated based on coordinate data and the productivity of earthwork. The model has been demonstrated with a case study that was used to validate the model. The 4DVM is intended to assist project planners/construction managers in logical decision making processes for construction scheduling and resource planning. It will also improve the communication gap amongst the construction team and consequently improve site coordination and operations. KEYWORDS Earthwork operations, innovative methodology, road profile generation, schedule communication, 4D visualization model (4DVM)

A liquid Xenon Positron Emission Tomograph for small animal imaging : first experimental results of a prototype cell

A detector using liquid Xenon (LXe) in the scintillation mode is studied for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) of small animals. Its specific design aims at taking full advantage of the Liquid Xenon scintillation properties. This paper reports on energy, time and spatial resolution capabilities of the first LXe prototype module equipped with a Position Sensitive Photo- Multiplier tube (PSPMT) operating in the VUV range (178 nm) and at 165 K. The experimental results show that such a LXe PET configuration might be a promising solution insensitive to any parallax effect.Comment: 34 pages, 18 pages, to appear in NIM

Molecular Characterization of Indian Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Varieties for Cold - Induced Sweetening Using SSR Markers

Cold - induced sweetening developed during storage of potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L .) at low temperature is a crucial factor influencing the processing quality of potato tubers and remains one of the principal concerns of potato processing industry . Developing CIS - resistant genotypes is the most effective method to cope with this stress . In this study , the genetic diversity of 11 Indian potato varieties with different reactions to CIS was assessed using 10 SSR primers . The primers detected a total of 42 alleles arranged in 44 different configurations , among which 37 alleles (88%) were polymorphic . The polymorphic information content (PIC) value of the SSR locus ranged from 0 . 473 to 0 . 787 thus indicating a high utility of these markers for study of genetic diversity in potato . A number of polymorphic fragments appeared to be specific to a given sugar - forming group . Primer Sti007 generated one fragment Sti007 131bp present only in all the high sugar - forming varieties . The dendrogram derived from Dice ’ s similarity coefficients among the 11 varieties could partially but efficiently differentiate close parents and sugar - forming groups among the varieties . These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of SSR markers to assess the genetic variation among potato cultivars in order to develop molecular markers associated with CIS to improve potato breeding programs

Unconventional motional narrowing in the optical spectrum of a semiconductor quantum dot

Motional narrowing refers to the striking phenomenon where the resonance line of a system coupled to a reservoir becomes narrower when increasing the reservoir fluctuation. A textbook example is found in nuclear magnetic resonance, where the fluctuating local magnetic fields created by randomly oriented nuclear spins are averaged when the motion of the nuclei is thermally activated. The existence of a motional narrowing effect in the optical response of semiconductor quantum dots remains so far unexplored. This effect may be important in this instance since the decoherence dynamics is a central issue for the implementation of quantum information processing based on quantum dots. Here we report on the experimental evidence of motional narrowing in the optical spectrum of a semiconductor quantum dot broadened by the spectral diffusion phenomenon. Surprisingly, motional narrowing is achieved when decreasing incident power or temperature, in contrast with the standard phenomenology observed for nuclear magnetic resonance

The Seroepidemiology of Haemophilus influenzae Type B Prior to Introduction of an Immunization Programme in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) is now recognized as an important pathogen in Asia. To evaluate disease susceptibility, and as a marker of Hib transmission before routine immunization was introduced in Kathmandu, 71 participants aged 7 months-77 years were recruited and 15 cord blood samples were collected for analysis of anti-polyribosylribitol phosphate antibody levels by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Only 20% of children under 5 years old had levels considered protective (>0.15 µg/ml), rising to 83% of 15-54 year-olds. Prior to introduction of Hib vaccine in Kathmandu, the majority of young children were susceptible to disease

Psychometric precision in phenotype definition is a useful step in molecular genetic investigation of psychiatric disorders

Affective disorders are highly heritable, but few genetic risk variants have been consistently replicated in molecular genetic association studies. The common method of defining psychiatric phenotypes in molecular genetic research is either a summation of symptom scores or binary threshold score representing the risk of diagnosis. Psychometric latent variable methods can improve the precision of psychiatric phenotypes, especially when the data structure is not straightforward. Using data from the British 1946 birth cohort, we compared summary scores with psychometric modeling based on the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) scale for affective symptoms in an association analysis of 27 candidate genes (249 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)). The psychometric method utilized a bi-factor model that partitioned the phenotype variances into five orthogonal latent variable factors, in accordance with the multidimensional data structure of the GHQ-28 involving somatic, social, anxiety and depression domains. Results showed that, compared with the summation approach, the affective symptoms defined by the bi-factor psychometric model had a higher number of associated SNPs of larger effect sizes. These results suggest that psychometrically defined mental health phenotypes can reflect the dimensions of complex phenotypes better than summation scores, and therefore offer a useful approach in genetic association investigations

Phenotyping of lymphoproliferative tumours generated in xenografts of non-small cell lung cancer

Background: Patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models involve the engraftment of tumour tissue in immunocompromised mice and represent an important pre-clinical oncology research method. A limitation of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) PDX model derivation in NOD-scid IL2Rgammanull (NSG) mice is that a subset of initial engraftments are of lymphocytic, rather than tumour origin. / Methods: The immunophenotype of lymphoproliferations arising in the lung TRACERx PDX pipeline were characterised. To present the histology data herein, we developed a Python-based tool for generating patient-level pathology overview figures from whole-slide image files; PATHOverview is available on GitHub (https://github.com/EpiCENTR-Lab/PATHOverview). / Results: Lymphoproliferations occurred in 17.8% of lung adenocarcinoma and 10% of lung squamous cell carcinoma transplantations, despite none of these patients having a prior or subsequent clinical history of lymphoproliferative disease. Lymphoproliferations were predominantly human CD20+ B cells and had the immunophenotype expected for post-transplantation diffuse large B cell lymphoma with plasma cell features. All lymphoproliferations expressed Epstein-Barr-encoded RNAs (EBER). Analysis of immunoglobulin light chain gene rearrangements in three tumours where multiple tumour regions had resulted in lymphoproliferations suggested that each had independent clonal origins. / Discussion: Overall, these data suggest that B cell clones with lymphoproliferative potential are present within primary NSCLC tumours, and that these are under continuous immune surveillance. Since these cells can be expanded following transplantation into NSG mice, our data highlight the value of quality control measures to identify lymphoproliferations within xenograft pipelines and support the incorporation of strategies to minimise lymphoproliferations during the early stages of xenograft establishment pipelines

Safe distances between groundwater-based water wells and pit latrines at different hydrogeological conditions in the Ganges Atrai floodplains of Bangladesh.

BACKGROUND: Groundwater drawn from shallow tubewells in Bangladesh is often polluted by nearby pit latrines, which are commonly used toilets in rural and sub-urban areas of the country. METHODS: To determine the minimum safe distance of a tubewell from a pit latrine in different hydrogeological conditions of Bangladesh, 20 monitoring wells were installed at three study sites (Manda, Mohanpur and Bagmara) with the vertical and horizontal distances ranging from 18-47 to 2-15 m, respectively. Water samples were collected three times in three seasons and tested for faecal coliforms (FC) and faecal streptococci (FS) as indicators of contamination. Soil samples were analysed for texture, bulk density and hydraulic conductivity following standard procedures. Sediment samples were collected to prepare lithological logs. RESULTS: When the shallow aquifers at one of the three sites (Mohanpur) were overlained by 18-23-m-thick aquitards, the groundwater of the monitoring wells was found contaminated with a lateral and vertical distances of 2 and 31 m, respectively. However, where the aquitard was only 9 m thick, contamination was found up to lateral and vertical distances of 4.5 and 40.5 m, respectively. The soil textures of all the sites were mainly composed of loam and sandy loam. The hydraulic conductivities in the first aquifer at Manda, Mohanpur and Bagmara were 5.2-7.3, 8.2 and 1.4-15.7 m/h, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that the safe distance from the tubewell to the pit latrine varied from site to site depending on the horizontal and vertical distances of the tubewell as well as hydrogeological conditions of a particular area

Secondary breast lymphoma diagnosed by vacuum-assisted breast biopsy: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Breast lymphoma, either as a manifestation of primary extranodal disease or as secondary involvement, is a rare malignancy, and its diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment have not been clearly defined. On the other hand, Vacuum-assisted breast biopsy (VABB) is a minimally invasive technique with ever-growing use for the diagnosis of mammographically detected, non-palpable breast lesions.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A symptom-free, 56-year-old woman presented with a non-palpable BI-RADS 4B lesion without microcalcifications. She had a positive family history for breast cancer and a history of atypical ductal hyperplasia in the ipsilateral breast four years ago. She reported having been treated for non-Hodgkin lymphoma 12 years ago. With the suspicion of breast cancer, mammographically guided VABB with 11-gauge probe (on the stereotactic Fisher's table) was performed. VABB made the diagnosis of a non-Hodgkin, grade II, B-cell germinal-center lymphoma. VABB yielded enough tissue for immunohistochemistry/WHO classification.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This is the first case in the literature demonstrating the successful diagnosis of breast lymphoma by VABB, irrespectively of the level of clinical suspicion. It should be stressed that VABB was able to yield enough tissue for WHO classification. In general, lymphoma should never be omitted in the differential diagnosis, since no pathognomonic radiologic findings exist for its diagnosis.</p

Autism as a disorder of neural information processing: directions for research and targets for therapy

The broad variation in phenotypes and severities within autism spectrum disorders suggests the involvement of multiple predisposing factors, interacting in complex ways with normal developmental courses and gradients. Identification of these factors, and the common developmental path into which theyfeed, is hampered bythe large degrees of convergence from causal factors to altered brain development, and divergence from abnormal brain development into altered cognition and behaviour. Genetic, neurochemical, neuroimaging and behavioural findings on autism, as well as studies of normal development and of genetic syndromes that share symptoms with autism, offer hypotheses as to the nature of causal factors and their possible effects on the structure and dynamics of neural systems. Such alterations in neural properties may in turn perturb activity-dependent development, giving rise to a complex behavioural syndrome many steps removed from the root causes. Animal models based on genetic, neurochemical, neurophysiological, and behavioural manipulations offer the possibility of exploring these developmental processes in detail, as do human studies addressing endophenotypes beyond the diagnosis itself