Discharge coefficients for thick-plate orifices

Investigation enables more accurate prediction of coolant flows within internally cooled turbine blades and vanes. The data is applicable for predicting flows in complex flow passages

Pharmacological management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

There have been significant changes in the approach to the management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) over the past decade. The World Health Organization suggests four components to a COPD management plan: (i) assess and monitor disease; (ii) reduce risk factors; (iii) manage stable COPD; and (iv) manage exacerbations. Encouraging patients to limit their risk exposure is essential, whether it be smoking cessation or removing exposure to biomass. The main objective of treatment is to relieve daily symptoms, improve quality of life and importantly decrease the risk of future exacerbations. Current guidelines are based on grade A and B evidence. Pneumococcal and annual influenza vaccinations are encouraged. A holistic approach that augments pharmacological treatment includes good nutrition and pulmonary rehabilitation. Bronchodilators are the cornerstone of management. Depending on the patient’s placement in the GOLD ABCD classification, treatment is individualised. Short-acting bronchodilators are used as rescue medication, while long-acting bronchodilators or/and long-acting muscarinic agents are the treatment of choice for patients in groups B, C and D. Inhaled corticosteroids are only recommended for groups C and D. Most patients respond well to combinations of the abovementioned medications. For patients who still have frequent exacerbations, alternative choices include long-term macrolides and phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitors

The effect of precipitation and application rate on dicyandiamide persistence and efficiency in two Irish grassland soils

peer-reviewedThe nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide (DCD) has had variable success in reducing nitrate (NO3-) leaching and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from soils receiving nitrogen (N) fertilisers. Factors such as soil type, temperature and moisture have been linked to the variable efficacy of DCD. Since DCD is water soluble it can be leached from the rooting zone where it is intended to inhibit nitrification. Intact soil columns (15 cm diameter by 35 cm long) were taken from luvic gleysol and haplic cambisol grassland sites and placed in growth chambers. DCD was applied at 15 or 30 kg DCD ha-1, with high or low precipitation. Leaching of DCD, mineral N and the residual soil DCD concentrations were determined over eight weeks High precipitation increased DCD in leachate and decreased recovery in soil. A soil x DCD rate interaction was detected for the DCD unaccounted (proxy for degraded DCD). In the cambisol degradation of DCD was high (circa 81%) and unaffected by DCD rate. In contrast DCD degradation in the gleysol was lower and differentially affected by rate, 67 and 46% for the 15 and 30 kg ha-1 treatments, respectively. Differences DCD degradation rates between soils may be related to differences in organic matter content and associated microbiological activity. Variable degradation rates of DCD in soil, unrelated to temperature or moisture, may contribute to varying DCD efficacy. Soil properties should be considered when tailoring DCD strategies for improving nitrogen use efficiency and crop yields, through the reduction of reactive nitrogen loss.This research was financially supported under the National Development Plan, through the Research Stimulus Fund, administered by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine under grants 07519 and 07545

Determination and Occurrence of Phenoxyacetic Acid Herbicides and Their Transformation Products in Groundwater Using Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography Coupled to Tandem Mass Spectrometry

This research is funded by the National Development Plan, through the Research Stimulus Fund, administered by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine (RS-544) and the Teagasc Walsh Fellowship Scheme.peer-reviewedA sensitive method was developed and validated for ten phenoxyacetic acid herbicides, six of their main transformation products (TPs) and two benzonitrile TPs in groundwater. The parent compounds mecoprop, mecoprop-p, 2,4-D, dicamba, MCPA, triclopyr, fluroxypr, bromoxynil, bentazone, and 2,3,6-trichlorobenzoic acid (TBA) are included and a selection of their main TPs: phenoxyacetic acid (PAC), 2,4,5-trichloro-phenol (TCP), 4-chloro-2-methylphenol (4C2MP), 2,4-dichlorophenol (DCP), 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (T2P), and 3,5-dibromo-4-hydroxybenzoic acid (BrAC), as well as the dichlobenil TPs 2,6-dichlorobenzamide (BAM) and 3,5-dichlorobenzoic acid (DBA) which have never before been determined in Irish groundwater. Water samples were analysed using an efficient ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) method in an 11.9 min separation time prior to detection by tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). The limit of detection (LOD) of the method ranged between 0.00008 and 0.0047 µg·L−1 for the 18 analytes. All compounds could be detected below the permitted limits of 0.1 µg·L−1 allowed in the European Union (EU) drinking water legislation [1]. The method was validated according to EU protocols laid out in SANCO/10232/2006 with recoveries ranging between 71% and 118% at the spiked concentration level of 0.06 µg·L−1. The method was successfully applied to 42 groundwater samples collected across several locations in Ireland in March 2012 to reveal that the TPs PAC and 4C2MP were detected just as often as their parent active ingredients (a.i.) in groundwater

Predicting soil moisture conditions for arable free draining soils in Ireland under spring cereal crop production

peer-reviewedTemporal prediction of soil moisture and evapotranspiration has a crucial role in agricultural and environmental management. A lack of Irish models for predicting evapotranspiration and soil moisture conditions for arable soils still represents a knowledge gap in this particular area of Irish agro-climatic modelling. The soil moisture deficit (SMD) crop model presented in this paper is based on the SMD hybrid model for Irish grassland (Schulte et al., 2005). Crop and site specific components (free-draining soil) have been integrated in the new model, which was calibrated and tested using soil tension measurements from two experimental sites located on a well-drained soil under spring barley cultivation in south-eastern Ireland. Calibration of the model gave an R2 of 0.71 for the relationship between predicted SMD and measured soil tension, while model testing yielded R2 values of 0.67 and 0.65 (two sites). The crop model presented here is designed to predict soil moisture conditions and effective drainage (i.e., leaching events). The model provided reasonable predictions of soil moisture conditions and effective drainage within its boundaries, i.e., free-draining land used for spring cereal production under Irish conditions. In general, the model is simple and practical due to the small number of required input parameters, and due to model outputs that have good practical applicability, such as for computing the cumulative amount of watersoluble nutrients leached from arable land under spring cereals in free-draining soils

Isoscalar meson spectroscopy from lattice QCD

We extract to high statistical precision an excited spectrum of single-particle isoscalar mesons using lattice QCD, including states of high spin and, for the first time, light exotic JPC isoscalars. The use of a novel quark field construction has enabled us to overcome the long-standing challenge of efficiently including quark-annihilation contributions. Hidden-flavor mixing angles are extracted and while most states are found to be close to ideally flavor mixed, there are examples of large mixing in the pseudoscalar and axial sectors in line with experiment. The exotic JPC isoscalar states appear at a mass scale comparable to the exotic isovector states.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Nurse telephone triage for same day appointments in general practice: multiple interrupted time series trial of effect on workload and costs

OBJECTIVE: To compare the workloads of general practitioners and nurses and costs of patient care for nurse telephone triage and standard management of requests for same day appointments in routine primary care. DESIGN: Multiple interrupted time series using sequential introduction of experimental triage system in different sites with repeated measures taken one week in every month for 12 months. SETTING: Three primary care sites in York. Participants: 4685 patients: 1233 in standard management, 3452 in the triage system. All patients requesting same day appointments during study weeks were included in the trial. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Type of consultation (telephone, appointment, or visit), time taken for consultation, presenting complaints, use of services during the month after same day contact, and costs of drugs and same day, follow up, and emergency care. RESULTS: The triage system reduced appointments with general practitioner by 29-44%. Compared with standard management, the triage system had a relative risk (95% confidence interval) of 0.85 (0.72 to 1.00) for home visits, 2.41 (2.08 to 2.80) for telephone care, and 3.79 (3.21 to 4.48) for nurse care. Mean overall time in the triage system was 1.70 minutes longer, but mean general practitioner time was reduced by 2.45 minutes. Routine appointments and nursing time increased, as did out of hours and accident and emergency attendance. Costs did not differ significantly between standard management and triage: mean difference £1.48 more per patient for triage (95% confidence interval -0.19 to 3.15). CONCLUSIONS: Triage reduced the number of same day appointments with general practitioners but resulted in busier routine surgeries, increased nursing time, and a small but significant increase in out of hours and accident and emergency attendance. Consequently, triage does not reduce overall costs per patient for managing same day appointments

The dust emission of high-redshift quasars

The detection of powerful near-infrared emission in high redshift (z>5) quasars demonstrates that very hot dust is present close to the active nucleus also in the very early universe. A number of high-redshift objects even show significant excess emission in the rest frame NIR over more local AGN spectral energy distribution (SED) templates. In order to test if this is a result of the very high luminosities and redshifts, we construct mean SEDs from the latest SDSS quasar catalogue in combination with MIR data from the WISE preliminary data release for several redshift and luminosity bins. Comparing these mean SEDs with a large sample of z>5 quasars we could not identify any significant trends of the NIR spectral slope with luminosity or redshift in the regime 2.5 < z < 6 and 10^45 < nuL_nu(1350AA) < 10^47 erg/s. In addition to the NIR regime, our combined Herschel and Spitzer photometry provides full infrared SED coverage of the same sample of z>5 quasars. These observations reveal strong FIR emission (L_FIR > 10^13 L_sun) in seven objects, possibly indicating star-formation rates of several thousand solar masses per year. The FIR excess emission has unusally high temperatures (T ~ 65 K) which is in contrast to the temperature typically expected from studies at lower redshift (T ~ 45 K). These objects are currently being investigated in more detail.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the proceedings to "The Central Kiloparsec in Galactic Nuclei (AHAR2011)", Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS), IOP Publishin