817 research outputs found
Continuous laser hardening with induction pre-heating
A novel way of continuous surface hardening of steel bodies by a laser beam is modeled. This heat treatment is supplemented with pre-heating of the hardened parts by a classic inductor in order to reduce the temperature gradients and subsequent mechanical stresses in the processed material. The mathematical model of the process is solved numerically in 3D and the solution respects all important nonlinearities (a saturation curve of the hardened steel and temperature dependences of its physical properties). The methodology is illustrated with a typical example, whose results are presented and discussed
Media sharing websites and the US financial markets
Recently, one of the main issues of concern within the world wide web is the understanding of web 2.0 mass
collaboration systems. These systems have emerged in recent years and gained enormous popularity. It must, however, be
pointed out, that the potential and practical application of web 2.0 are still not well understood and deserve academic
attention. In this paper we investigate the online media sharing collaborative community and its applications for uses in
stock market analysis and prediction. Specifically, we look at Youtube.com, one of the most popular social media sharing
websites. The association with stock market behaviour and usage patterns are investigated. This work became of more
interest and significance with the recent credit crunch crisis. The data under investigation is novel, and to our knowledge,
this paper reports the first investigation of its kind to the use of collaborative media sharing website for stock market
analysis. We find significant association between video meta-data and textual data using a content driven sentiment text
mining approach. The results are very encouraging and importantly highlight efficient information transfer to online
media sharing communities as there seems to be predictive value in youtube data
In silico and in vivo analysis reveal a novel gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae trehalose metabolism
BACKGROUND: The ability to respond rapidly to fluctuations in environmental changes is decisive for cell survival. Under these conditions trehalose has an essential protective function and its concentration increases in response to enhanced expression of trehalose synthase genes, TPS1, TPS2, TPS3 and TSL1. Intriguingly, the NTH1 gene, which encodes neutral trehalase, is highly expressed at the same time. We have previously shown that trehalase remains in its inactive non-phosphorylated form by the action of an endogenous inhibitor. Recently, a comprehensive two-hybrid analysis revealed a 41-kDa protein encoded by the YLR270w ORF, which interacts with NTH1p. RESULTS: In this work we investigate the correlation of this Trehalase Associated Protein, in trehalase activity regulation. The neutral trehalase activity in the ylr270w mutant strain was about 4-fold higher than in the control strain. After in vitro activation by PKA the ylr270w mutant total trehalase activity increased 3-fold when compared to a control strain. The expression of the NTH1 gene promoter fused to the heterologous reporter lacZ gene was evaluated. The mutant strain lacking YLR270w exhibited a 2-fold increase in the NTH1-lacZ basal expression when compared to the wild type strain. CONCLUSIONS: These results strongly indicate a central role for Ylr270p in inhibiting trehalase activity, as well as in the regulation of its expression preventing a wasteful futile cycle of synthesis-degradation of trehalose
Cosmological CMBR dipole in open universes ?
The observed CMBR dipole is generally interpreted as a Doppler effect arising
from the motion of the Earth relative to the CMBR frame. An alternative
interpretation, proposed in the last years, is that the dipole results from
ultra-large scale isocurvature perturbations. We examine this idea in the
context of open cosmologies and show that the isocurvature interpretation is
not valid in an open universe, unless it is extremely close to a flat universe,
.Comment: 26 pages, Latex, 6 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Strike point splitting induced by the application of magnetic perturbations on MAST
Divertor strike point splitting induced by resonant magnetic perturbations
(RMPs) has been observed on MAST for a variety of RMP configurations in a
plasma scenario with Ip=750kA where those configurations all have similar
resonant components. Complementary measurements have been obtained with
divertor Langmuir probes and an infrared camera. Clear splitting consistently
appears in this scenario only in the even configuration of the perturbation
coils, similarly to the density pump-out. These results present a challenge for
models of plasma response to RMPs.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, submitted to the proceedings of the 20th
Conference on Plasma Surface Interactions, to be published in the Journal of
Nuclear Material
EMon : embodied monitorization
Serie : Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 5859The amount of seniors in need of constant care is rapidly rising: an
evident consequence of population ageing. There are already some
monitorization environments which aim to monitor these persons while they
remain at home. This, however, although better than delocalizing the elder to
some kind of institution, may not still be the ideal solution, as it forces them to
stay inside the home more than they wished, as going out means lack of
accompaniment and a consequent sensation of fear. In this paper we propose
EMon: a monitorization device small enough to be worn by its users, although
powerful enough to provide the higher level monitorization systems with vital
information about the user and the environment around him. We hope to allow
the representation of an intelligent environment to move with its users, instead
of being static, mandatorily associated to a single physical location. The first
prototype of EMon, as presented in this paper, provides environmental data as
well as GPS coordinates and pictures that are useful to describe the context of
its user
Utilization of Never-Medicated Bipolar Disorder Patients towards Development and Validation of a Peripheral Biomarker Profile
There are currently no biological tests that differentiate patients with bipolar disorder (BPD) from healthy controls. While there is evidence that peripheral gene expression differences between patients and controls can be utilized as biomarkers for psychiatric illness, it is unclear whether current use or residual effects of antipsychotic and mood stabilizer medication drives much of the differential transcription. We therefore tested whether expression changes in first-episode, never-medicated BPD patients, can contribute to a biological classifier that is less influenced by medication and could potentially form a practicable biomarker assay for BPD. We employed microarray technology to measure global leukocyte gene expression in first-episode (n=3) and currently medicated BPD patients (n=26), and matched healthy controls (n=25). Following an initial feature selection of the microarray data, we developed a cross-validated 10-gene model that was able to correctly predict the diagnostic group of the training sample (26 medicated patients and 12 controls), with 89% sensitivity and 75% specificity (p<0.001). The 10-gene predictor was further explored via testing on an independent cohort consisting of three pairs of monozygotic twins discordant for BPD, plus the original enrichment sample cohort (the three never-medicated BPD patients and 13 matched control subjects), and a sample of experimental replicates (n=34). 83% of the independent test sample was correctly predicted, with a sensitivity of 67% and specificity of 100% (although this result did not reach statistical significance). Additionally, 88% of sample diagnostic classes were classified correctly for both the enrichment (p=0.015) and the replicate samples (p<0.001). We have developed a peripheral gene expression biomarker profile, that can classify healthy controls from patients with BPD receiving antipsychotic or mood stabilizing medication, which has both high sensitivity and specificity. Moreover, assay of three first-episode patients who had never received such medications, to first enrich the expression dataset for disease-related genes independent of medication effects, and then to test the 10-gene predictor, validates the peripheral biomarker approach for BPD
Inflationary Cosmological Perturbations of Quantum-Mechanical Origin
This review article aims at presenting the theory of inflation. We first
describe the background spacetime behavior during the slow-roll phase and
analyze how inflation ends and the Universe reheats. Then, we present the
theory of cosmological perturbations with special emphasis on their behavior
during inflation. In particular, we discuss the quantum-mechanical nature of
the fluctuations and show how the uncertainty principle fixes the amplitude of
the perturbations. In a next step, we calculate the inflationary power spectra
in the slow-roll approximation and compare these theoretical predictions to the
recent high accuracy measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation
(CMBR) anisotropy. We show how these data already constrain the underlying
inflationary high energy physics. Finally, we conclude with some speculations
about the trans-Planckian problem, arguing that this issue could allow us to
open a window on physical phenomena which have never been probed so far.Comment: Review Article, 47 pages, 3 figures. Lectures given at the 40th
Karpacz Winter School on Theoretical Physics (Poland, Feb. 2004), submitted
to Lecture Notes in Physic
Fly ash-derived MCM-41 as a low-cost silica support for polyethyleneimine in post-combustion CO2 capture
The mesoporous silicate molecular sieve, MCM-41, has been synthesized from pulverized coal fly ash (PFA), where the silicate filtrate used is a by-product from hydrothermal zeolite production. Rice husk ash was also used for comparison but fusion with sodium hydroxide was used to prepare the silicate filtrate, along similar lines to earlier reports of using PFA as a precursor for MCM-41 synthesis. The MCM-41 samples are chemically and mineralogically similar to a commercially available sample, but with higher pore volumes dominated by mesopores (0.92–1.13 cf. 0.88 cm3 g−1). After polyethyleneimine (PEI) impregnation for CO2 capture, the ash derived MCM-41 samples displayed higher uptakes than the commercial sample with the maximum achievable PEI loading of 60 Wt.% PEI (dry basis) before particle agglomeration occurs, approximately 13 compared to 11 Wt.%, respectively, the latter being comparable to earlier reports in the literature. The PFA sample that displays the fastest kinetics to achieve 90% of the equilibrium uptake had the largest mesopore volume of 1.13 cm3 g−1. Given the PFA-derived MCM-41 uses a waste silicate solution for hydrothermal preparation and no prior preparation is needed, production costs are estimated to be considerable lower where silicate solutions need to be prepared by base treatment, even if ash is used, as for the RHA derived MCM-41 used here
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