Heat transfer in rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection with rough plates.

This experimental study focuses on the effect of horizontal boundaries withpyramid-shaped roughness elements on the heat transfer in rotating Rayleigh–Bénardconvection. It is shown that the Ekman pumping mechanism, which is responsible forthe heat transfer enhancement under rotation in the case of smooth top and bottomsurfaces, is unaffected by the roughness as long as the Ekman layer thicknessδEissignificantly larger than the roughness heightk. As the rotation rate increases, andthusδEdecreases, the roughness elements penetrate the radially inward flow in theinterior of the Ekman boundary layer that feeds the columnar Ekman vortices. Thisperturbation generates additional thermal disturbances which are found to increase theheat transfer efficiency even further. However, whenδE≈k, the Ekman boundary layeris strongly perturbed by the roughness elements and the Ekman pumping mechanismis suppressed. The results suggest that the Ekman pumping is re-established forδE�kas the faces of the pyramidal roughness elements then act locally as a slopingboundary on which an Ekman layer can be formed

Completed cohomology of Shimura curves and a p-adic Jacquet-Langlands correspondence

We study indefinite quaternion algebras over totally real fields F, and give an example of a cohomological construction of p-adic Jacquet-Langlands functoriality using completed cohomology. We also study the (tame) levels of p-adic automorphic forms on these quaternion algebras and give an analogue of Mazur's `level lowering' principle.Comment: Updated version. Contains some minor corrections compared to the published versio

Comparison of the Sedative Effect and Recovery Time of Dexmedetomidine and Fentanyl during Elective Colonoscopy

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Various medications such as propofol or midazolam are used with or without fentanyl as sedatives for colonoscopy. Dextroduromedine is a new sedative that activates the alpha-2 adrenergic receptor in the brain and the spinal cord with sedative, analgesic and sympatholytic effects. The aim of this study was to compare the sedative effect and recovery time of dexmedetomidine and fentanyl during elective colonoscopy. METHODS: In this double – blind clinical trial, 80 colonoscopy candidates aged 20-70 years old were randomly divided into two equal groups. 1 mcg/kg dexmedetomidine was administered to the intervention group and 0.5 mcg / kg fentanyl was administered to the control group before the start of the colonoscopy. Propofol (20 mg) was administered as bolus dose if needed during colonoscopy. The sedation rate was recorded based on Ramsay standard and mean bolus dose of propofol during colonoscopy. Recovery time and pain were recorded based on Visual Analog Scale (VAS) before discharge. FINDINGS: The two groups did not have a significant difference in terms of age, gender and sedation rate. The mean bolus dose of propofol in the fentanyl group was 72±14 and in the dexmedetomidine group was 7±0.24 mg (p=0.000). The recovery time in the fentanyl group was 4.38±2.38 minutes and in the dexmedetomidine group was 2.63±1.22 minutes (p=0.000). The pain after colonoscopy was 2.30±0.69 in the fentanyl group and 1.98±0.7 in the dexmedetomidine group (p=0.039). CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that the combination of dexmedetomidine and propofol are more suitable for colonoscopy compared to the combination of fentanyl and propofol due to shorter recovery time

The relationship between serum vitamin D level and premenstrual syndrome in Iranian women

Background: Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is among the most unfavorable problems in women in reproductive age; however its pathophysiology is still not fully confirmed. Vitamin D as an immunomodulator could prevent inflammatory state before and during menstruation. Objective: The aim was to investigate whether there is any relationship between serum vitamin D levels and PMS. Materials and Methods: In total, 82 women participate in this case-control study which was conducted in Shahid Akbar-abadi hospital from November 2013 to March 2015. Categorization was based on an Iranian version of the premenstrual symptoms screening tool (PSST). Levels of 25 hydroxy-vitamin D3 (25OHD) were determined by using 25-OH Vitamin D ELISA kit in luteal phase. Characteristics of participants and vitamin D levels were compared between two groups by using independent sample t-test. Results: Menarche age of women with PMS was significantly lower than normal women (p=0.04). Body mass index was not statistically different between groups. We observed a high rate of vitamin D deficiency and also its severe deficiency in both PMS and non-PMS groups. However, our study demonstrated no significant difference in the levels of serum 25OHD between the two groups. Conclusion: It seems there is no association between PMS and serum levels of vitamin D3; however, the high rate of vitamin D deficiency among young Iranian women emerges special health care considerations in this group. � 2016, Research and Clinical Center for Infertitlity. All rights reserved

Exact Solution for the Distribution of Transmission Eigenvalues in a Disordered Wire and Comparison with Random-Matrix Theory

An exact solution is presented of the Fokker-Planck equation which governs the evolution of an ensemble of disordered metal wires of increasing length, in a magnetic field. By a mapping onto a free-fermion problem, the complete probability distribution function of the transmission eigenvalues is obtained. The logarithmic eigenvalue repulsion of random-matrix theory is shown to break down for transmission eigenvalues which are not close to unity. ***Submitted to Physical Review B.****Comment: 20 pages, REVTeX-3.0, INLO-PUB-931028

A Stable Biologically Motivated Learning Mechanism for Visual Feature Extraction to Handle Facial Categorization

The brain mechanism of extracting visual features for recognizing various objects has consistently been a controversial issue in computational models of object recognition. To extract visual features, we introduce a new, biologically motivated model for facial categorization, which is an extension of the Hubel and Wiesel simple-to-complex cell hierarchy. To address the synaptic stability versus plasticity dilemma, we apply the Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) for extracting informative intermediate level visual features during the learning process, which also makes this model stable against the destruction of previously learned information while learning new information. Such a mechanism has been suggested to be embedded within known laminar microcircuits of the cerebral cortex. To reveal the strength of the proposed visual feature learning mechanism, we show that when we use this mechanism in the training process of a well-known biologically motivated object recognition model (the HMAX model), it performs better than the HMAX model in face/non-face classification tasks. Furthermore, we demonstrate that our proposed mechanism is capable of following similar trends in performance as humans in a psychophysical experiment using a face versus non-face rapid categorization task

Pelagic seabirds as biomonitors of persistent organic pollutants in the Southwestern Atlantic

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are accumulated through time and can exert different effect on ecosystems. POPs and Chlorpyrifos, a current use pesticide, were assessed in body feathers of males and females of Black-browed albatross (Thalassarche melanophris, BBA) and Cape petrels (Daption capense, CAP) during their non-breeding seasons at the Patagonian Shelf, Argentina. Chlorpyrifos showed the highest values among all pollutants in both species (49.56–84.88 ng g−1), resulting from current agricultural practices. The pattern OCPs > PCBs > PBDEs was observed in both species, and CAP showed higher concentrations than BBA probably as a consequence of higher lipid mobilization and pollutants availability during dispersion. Non-significant differences between sexes about POPs levels were found; however a slight tendency was observed, females>males in CAP, and males>females in BBA. More attention and further studies are needed to understand seabirds' physiology and its relationship with the pollutants distribution in their tissues and considering breeding season.Fil: Quadri Adrogué, Agustina. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Ciencias Marinas. Laboratorio de Ecotoxicología; ArgentinaFil: Miglioranza, Karina Silvia Beatriz. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Ciencias Marinas. Laboratorio de Ecotoxicología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Copello, Sofía. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Biología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Favero, Marco. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Biología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Seco Pon, Juan Pablo. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Biología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; Argentin