F-15 composite engine access door

This paper presents a summary of the successfully concluded phase 1 of the two-phase Design and Manufacture of Advanced Thermoplastic Structures (DMATS) program. It addresses the design, manufacture, and validation testing of a thermoplastic F-15E forward engine access door and includes lessons learned during the concurrent product and process design development phases of the program

On the sub-tropical jet stream and its role in the development of large-scale convection

This paper contains mainly the results of a synoptic and climatological study of the large-scale convection in northern India and Pakistan during the three months preceding the onset of the southwest monsoon. It has been shown that the sea-level and lower tropospheric charts give little clue to the development of the large-scale convection and that the latter is overwhelmingly determined by the divergence in the waves in the sub-tropical jet-stream. It has further been shown from detailed synoptic evidence that nor'westers, andhis and the majority of the thunderstorms without squalls in northern India and Pakistan in the pre-monsoon period are fundamentally the same phenomenon. The role of cold-air advection in the middle and upper troposphere in the development of large-scale convection has also been discussed. This study has further revealed that the regions of upper-divergence and convergence can be qualitatively located by identifying certain typical patterns on the high-level maps more than 12 hours before the usual time of commencement of convection and that, consequently, these maps can be used as effective tools in the issue of area-warnings against thunder in general and nor'westers and andhis in particular. A general study has also been made of the large-scale convection in southeast Australia, Union of South Africa, Bechuanaland, Southern Rhodesia, northeast Argentina, Uruguay, southeast Brazil and southeast United States and the similarities between the large-scale convection in these countries and in Indo-Pakistan have been brought out. On the basis of these studies, it has been suggested that the jet stream plays the very important role of producing large-scale convection in the subtropics all over the world wherever it over-runs on its equatorward side, moist air possessing a high degree of latent instability

Breaks in the Indian summer monsoon as a phenomenon of interaction between the easterly and the sub-tropical westerly jet streams

The present paper contains the results of the study of a synoptic situation over India during a period of 8 days in which normal monsoon conditions were followed by a break and were further followed by a return to normal monsoon. This study has shown that during breaks in the monsoon, a trough in the middle latitude westerlies with a jet embedded in it increases considerably in its amplitude and gets retarded as it moves into the Tibetan Plateau on account of its entering a region of weaker basic current. The large-amplitude trough weakens or destroys completely the Tibetan high at the 500 mb level and appreciably weakens the easterlies at the higher levels to the south of the Himalayas. Protruding into India and Pakistan, the large amplitude trough contributes to the development of heavy rainfall along and near the foot of the Himalayas which is characteristic of the break conditions. The southward protrusion of the trough and its subsequent movement eastward, is also indirectly responsible for a corresponding shift of the high over Iran and Arabia, which, in its turn, seems to lead to the formation of a secondary jet core in the easterlies west of 80° E between 20° N and 25° N. Consequent on the above developments, the westerly jet which had retreated to the north of the Himalayas at the time of the onset of the monsoon reenters the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent during the breaks. Thus we see during break conditions, the remarkable spectacle of two jets of entirely different types-the easterly and the sub-tropical westerly-within a short latitudinal distance of each other and dynamically interacting with each other. The above detailed study, supplemented by a general examination of the monthly mean 700 mb charts for the northern hemisphere for a period of 10 years, suggests that active monsoon over India is closely associated with high index circulation in middle latitudes over Asia and neighbourhood, while weak monsoon is closely associated with low index circulation over the same region

The Implications Of Expensing Stock Options On Corporate Governance

This paper examines the roots of the abuse of stock options, finding it centered on a principal/agent problem that arises when employee stock options are not required to be expensed in the income statement.  The failure of corporate governance, including the proper oversight of executive compensation, and the failure of FASB to require expensing stock options, leads to a management-centric organization whose motives diverge from the interests of shareholders

Iontophoresis to enhance topical delivery of terbinafine to the nail

The aim of this study was to investigate the application of electric current to enhance the ungual permeation of terbinafine – an antifungal agent that is currently delivered systemically for the treatment of onychomycosis

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF IN SILICO AND IN VITRO ANTICANCER ACTIVITY OF TRADITIONAL INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS-A REVERSE PHARMACOLOGICAL APPROACH

Objective: Cancer is one of the major deaths occurring worldwide and its prophylaxis demands the daily consumption of extracts or dietary supplements of traditional medicinal plants which possess anticancer activities. This study focuses on the evaluation of the chemo preventive and antiproliferative effects of the active constituents of Indian medicinal plants such as Withaniasomnifera, Phyllanthusemblica and Zingiberofficinale by in silico and in vitro studies.Methods: In silico docking analysis is performed using Molegro Virtual Docker choosing the targets as p-glycoprotein and thymidylate synthase for the identified phytoconstituents. In vitro colorimetric cell metabolic activity assay is performed for the standardized extracts of these plants in various cell lines using the standards.Results: The phytoconstituents in the plants, Withaniasomnifera and Phyllanthusemblica revealed good binding affinity towards thymidylate synthase and p-glycoprotein respectively as compared to that of the standards.Conclusion: Phyllanthusemblica showed a maximal antiproliferative effect on breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7) when compared to the other plant extracts. Zingiber officinalis was found to inhibit HT-29 cell lines to a greater extent and Withaniasomniferum resulted in highest A549 cell death. A combination of these extracts in any dosage form could be used in the therapeutic efficacy in cancer

Adding Sustainable Value: Linkages Between Growth, Governance And Social Responsibility

Key performance indicators such as high EPS and revenue growth are frequently used to evaluate high quality securities from successful companies.  Characterized as “growth” stock, these stocks are accompanied by high PE and PB ratios, indicating compelling potential for future capital appreciation. However, relentless stress on high growth alone has its disadvantages, and research has clearly shown that growth by itself is not a sufficient condition for long-term sustainable value.  Stakeholders driving company value also expect a strong underlying framework of accountability, transparency and fairness.  Concepts of socially responsible investing add societal expectations of commitment to employees, consumers and the environment.  This study explores the relationship between growth, corporate governance and corporate social responsibility as a possible basis for explaining long-term value.  Initial results indicate that these growth companies tend to have robust financial metrics but with higher risk, as indicated by financial metrics and a lower score in governance policies, but display insignificant variances on social responsibility factors

Global parameter identification of stochastic reaction networks from single trajectories

We consider the problem of inferring the unknown parameters of a stochastic biochemical network model from a single measured time-course of the concentration of some of the involved species. Such measurements are available, e.g., from live-cell fluorescence microscopy in image-based systems biology. In addition, fluctuation time-courses from, e.g., fluorescence correlation spectroscopy provide additional information about the system dynamics that can be used to more robustly infer parameters than when considering only mean concentrations. Estimating model parameters from a single experimental trajectory enables single-cell measurements and quantification of cell--cell variability. We propose a novel combination of an adaptive Monte Carlo sampler, called Gaussian Adaptation, and efficient exact stochastic simulation algorithms that allows parameter identification from single stochastic trajectories. We benchmark the proposed method on a linear and a non-linear reaction network at steady state and during transient phases. In addition, we demonstrate that the present method also provides an ellipsoidal volume estimate of the viable part of parameter space and is able to estimate the physical volume of the compartment in which the observed reactions take place.Comment: Article in print as a book chapter in Springer's "Advances in Systems Biology

A search for double beta decays of tin isotopes with enhanced sensitivity

A search for the various double beta decay modes of 124Sn and 112Sn has been performed on 75 kg.days of data. New half-life limits for excited states in 124Sn have been obtained including a lower limit for the decay into the first excited 2+ state of 124Te of T_half > 0.87e20 yrs (90% CL) and into the first excited 0+ state of T_half > 1.08e20 yrs (90% CL). Ground state and excited state transitions of 112Sn have also been experimentally explored. A limit for the 2 neutrino double electron capture of T_half > 1.8e19 yrs (90% CL) is obtained. The non-observation of de-excitation gammas from the 0+ at 1888.5keV results in a lower half-life limit on the 0 neutrino double electron capture decay of 112Sn of T_half > 0.8e19 yrs (90% CL), despite a possible resonant enhancement of the decay rate due to degenerated states.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, updated analysis and tex

Role of non-lipid risk factors like hs-CRP, uric acid and thyroid stimulating hormone in metabolic syndrome

Background: Metabolic syndrome is the cluster of diseases which arises due to excess of plasma glucose, cholesterol, fatty acids, blood pressure and obesity. The role of lipids in the development of MetS had been extensively studied. Though some non-lipid factors like hsCRP, uric acid and TSH level also remain elevated in the serum of the MetS patients, the role of these non-lipid risk factors remain incompletely understood. The objective of this study was to investigate which of these factors better predicts Mets, in order to help prevention and early detection of MetS and its associated type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases. Aim and objectives was to study the significance of serum highly sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), serum uric acid (SUA) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels in metabolic syndrome.Methods: A total of four hundred and fifty subjects (211 men and 239 women) aged ≥35 years attending the hospital were divided into three groups based on the components level of MetS as control (CS), normal (MS) and severe (SMS) MetS groups. Their fasting blood sample were taken and analyzed for the serum hs-CRP, uric acid and TSH levels. The result showed that the mean hs-CRP and uric acid levels were significantly higher in Metabolic Syndrome group (MS) and in Severe Metabolic Syndrome group (SMS) when compared to control group. But the mean TSH levels were more in MS group and in SMS group than the control which was statistically not significant. The analysis of relative significance of these risk factors showed that serum hs-CRP level had a positive linear correlation with the severity of MetS whereas, the TSH level was significantly high only in SMS and the uric acid level was not correlated with the MetS.Results: Our study revealed that type II (absence of sutural bones) was commoner than type I (presence of type I) asterion. The asterion was 4.82±0.58 cm from tip of the mastoid process on the right side and 4.70±0.70 cm on the left. It was greater in males than in females, p value being statistically significant (P = 0.00 and P = 0.02 for right and left sides respectively). The distance of asterion from supramastoid crest was 4.22±0.73 cm on the right and 4.23±0.58 cm on the left. The distance in males was more than in females. The P value 0.00 was statistically significant on the right side. Regarding the position of the asterion in relation to transverse sinus, it was on the transverse sinus in 62% cases, below it in 32% and above in 6%.Conclusions: In the present study, there was higher mean serum hs-CRP level in patients with metabolic syndrome which showed a linear increase with increasing number of components of the metabolic syndrome. Though available literature indicated that hyperuricemia adult subjects tend to develop MetS more frequently our findings showed this increase was not dependent on the severity of MetS. Also, significantly high TSH levels were found only in severe MetS suggest that as per this study the serum hs-CRP values may be consider as the diagnostic criteria for metabolic syndrome and helps to improve future prediction of development of type 2 DM and cardiovascular diseases