Tank: The Progress of a Monstrous War Machine

The tank constitutes perhaps the most readily identifiable symbol of land war- fare. From its initial appearance during World War I to the final stage of the Gulf War, its considerable impact on the outcome of some of last century’s most significant wars is not in doubt. Whether battles were fought on the plains of Eastern Europe or in the deserts of the Middle East, the opponent that made better use of the tank generally emerged victorious. In the early twenty-first century, the tank remains the dominant instrument of land war- fare

Interdisciplinary Approaches to New Chemical Analysis

The primary focus of this dissertation is the development of new chemical analyses for inorganic, organic, and organometallic compounds. Interdisciplinary approaches combining analytical, polymer, inorganic, organic, and materials chemistry have been used to develop new analytical methods. Topics discussed in this dissertation include the development of a sol-gel based metal ion sensor, photochemical oxidation of a biomimetic Cr(III) complex, photochemical oxidation of organic ligands and other interferences in model Pd catalyst complexes, modified Fujiwara reactions for the detection of halogenated hydrocarbons, and the development of a controlled-release polymer for delivery of reagents needed for chemical sensing applications

Dynamic optimisation and parameter estimation for biochemical process systems

A vast number of contemporary production processes rely on living cells or biomolecules preforming chemical transformations as a vital step in the manufacture of valuable products. Providing sustainable supplies of food and drink relies on such biochemical processes which are essentially unchanged for millennia, and will remain quintessential for future communities and societies. Likewise many pharmaceutical products and produced from similar systems, and have formed an essential component of modern civilisation. To ensure high productivity without wasting resources (agricultural feedstock, equipment, time), it is critical to determine optimal dynamic operating profiles toward prescribing implementable control methodologies. Mathematical models have been developed for many important food and drink manufacturing processes operated using suboptimal recipes: these journal publications are quite rigorous and extensive (often describing not only composition, but also how flavour can be tuned as desired), but they frequently require consistent kinetic parameter estimation on the basis of industrial data, which is itself a dynamic optimisation problem (multi-parametric error minimisation). Dynamic optimisation of biochemical processes is of extreme technoeconomic interest and importance in industrial control practice, particularly for biochemical process systems which display steady-state and/or operating regime multiplicity, and require sizeable vectors of time-dependent concentrations and temperature-dependent kinetic parameters. Alcohol fermentation is undergoing continuous development for several millennia via concurrent advances in chemistry and chemical engineering (which greatly affected the art of bringing yeast, barley and hops together); at the same time, the biological evolution of yeast strands by natural selection as well as empirical recipes and procedures have impacted brewing even more. Ensuring high product quality is not a trivial task, particularly when strong market demand dictates process intensification. Producing food and drink in shorter times (more efficiently) with optimised processes (more cost-effectively) requires in-depth knowledge of reactive systems. The problems of consistent kinetic parameter estimation and systematic determination of optimal operating profiles to improve industrial practice are explored in this thesis for several different biochemical systems. For the first time attainable performance in beer fermentation has been exhaustively mapped under a comprehensive family of realistic time dependent temperature manipulations, providing invaluable insight to industrial brewing collaborators. This is expanded upon with the computation of optimal dynamic fermentor temperature profiles subject to a range of realistic threshold constraints on flavour degrading compounds in the product. Herein the influence of each individual by-product level on the achievable process performance can be explicitly quantified and visualised. Furthermore, the inherent trade-off in brewing process targets (batch time vs product quality) has been explored for the first time in this work, mapping the Pareto front via multi-objective dynamic optimisation. These results can be used by decision makers to better inform process decisions with significant economic implications. Following an extensive experimental campaign the first lumped parameter model and associated parameter values for the enzymatic hydrolysis of keratin waste is also proposed in this work. The model is used to formulate a dynamic optimisation problem, demonstrating that treatment of this waste can be accelerated with novel feed strategies. This work highlights the immense value in systematic and rigorous model based simulation and optimisation campaigns for biochemical process systems

Role of endothelin-1 in lung disease

Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is a 21 amino acid peptide with diverse biological activity that has been implicated in numerous diseases. ET-1 is a potent mitogen regulator of smooth muscle tone, and inflammatory mediator that may play a key role in diseases of the airways, pulmonary circulation, and inflammatory lung diseases, both acute and chronic. This review will focus on the biology of ET-1 and its role in lung disease

The predictive potential of the sweat chloride test in cystic fibrosis patients with the G551D mutation

AbstractBackgroundIvacaftor, a cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator (CFTR) potentiator, decreased sweat chloride concentrations and improved clinical measures in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients with the G551D mutation.ResultsSweat chloride measurements at day 15 had an overall positive predictive value (PPV) of 86.3%, a negative predictive value (NPV) of 65.5%, sensitivity of 73.9%, and specificity of 80.9% for an FEV1 improvement of ≥5% from baseline at week 16. For ivacaftor patients the median FEV1 improvement was 16.7%; for placebo patients 0.4%. For patients aged 6–11years who received ivacaftor and who had a sweat chloride decrease of ≥40mmol/L from baseline at day 15, a median weight gain of 11.2% at week 16, compared to 6% for those with a smaller decrease was observed.ConclusionsChanges in sweat chloride concentration at day 15 following treatment with ivacaftor may have sufficient predictive potential to identify individuals that show improvement in pulmonary function and weight gain after 16weeks of treatment

Mantenimiento e implementación de un sistema de adquisición de datos a la máquina de ensayos mecánicos péndulo Charpy II del laboratorio de resistencia de materiales de la Facultad de Mecánica

La veracidad y exactitud de los resultados de un ensayo mecánico garantizan la correcta selección de un material en base a sus propiedades mecánicas, por lo tanto, se realizó el mantenimiento e implementación de un sistema de adquisición de datos a la máquina de ensayos Péndulo de Charpy II, con fines investigativos para la Escuela de Ingeniería Mecánica de la Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo. Se utilizó el método investigativo para la recopilación de la información pertinente al desarrollo de los objetivos planteados, además de un método analítico para seleccionar el controlador más adecuado a las condiciones ambientales y didácticas que se tomaron en cuenta, siendo el seleccionado un microordenador conocido como Raspberry pi 3 B +, que en conjunto con un enconder rotativo incremental captaron y procesaron los valores de posición del martillo luego del impacto con las diferentes probetas, este valor en conjunto con las ecuaciones respectivas nos permitió determinar la energía absorbida por los diferentes materiales seleccionados, siendo estos los aceros 1040 , ASTM A36 y ASTM A304, que son los más utilizados en el mercado nacional. Además, se realizó un mantenimiento correctivo y preventivo a los diferentes elementos que componen a péndulo de Charpy , en donde se sustituyó los elementos deteriorados por el uso, y se protegió a los que se hallaron en buen estado, se creó un nuevo plan de mantenimiento preventivo en base a los nuevos requerimientos del Equipo, finalmente se logró mejorar la precisión y exactitud de la maquina al implementar un sistema digital de obtención de datos , que brindo mayor precisión con un error porcentual de 0,44%, todo esto bajo las recomendaciones de las normas ASTM E23,INEN 130, INEN 1503.The veracity and accuracy of the results of a mechanical test guarantee the correct selection of a material based on its mechanical properties, therefore, the maintenance and implementation of a data acquisition system was carried out on the Pendulum Charpy II testing machine for research parpases for the School of Mechanical Engineering of the Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo. The investigative method was used to compile information pertinent to the development of the proposed objectives, in addition to an analytical method to select the most appropriate controller for the environmental and educational conditions that were considered, the selected being a microcomputer known as Raspberry pi 3 B+, which together with an incremental rotary encoder captured and processed the hammer position values after impact with the different specimens. This value together with the respective equations allowed to determine the energy absorbed by the different selected materials, these being the 1040, ASTM A36 and ASTM A304 steels, which are the most widely used in the national market. In addition, corrective and preventive maintenance was carried out on the different elements that make up the Charpy pendulum, where the elements deteriorated due to use were replaced, and those that were found in good condition were protected, a new maintenance plan was created, based on the new requirements of the equipment. It was finally possible to improve the precision and accuracy of the machine by implementing a digital data collection system, which provided greater precision with a percentage error of 0.44%, all this under the recommendations of the ASTM E23, INEN 130, INEN 1503 standards

The Role of Racial Identity and Implicit Racial Bias in Self-Reported Racial Discrimination: Implications for Depression Among African American Men

Racial discrimination is conceptualized as a psychosocial stressor that has negative implications for mental health. However, factors related to racial identity may influence whether negative experiences are interpreted as instances of racial discrimination and subsequently reported as such in survey instruments, particularly given the ambiguous nature of contemporary racism. Along these lines, dimensions of racial identity may moderate associations between racial discrimination and mental health outcomes. This study examined relationships between racial discrimination, racial identity, implicit racial bias, and depressive symptoms among African American men between 30 and 50 years of age (n = 95). Higher racial centrality was associated with greater reports of racial discrimination, while greater implicit anti-Black bias was associated with lower reports of racial discrimination. In models predicting elevated depressive symptoms, holding greater implicit anti-Black bias in tandem with reporting lower racial discrimination was associated with the highest risk. Results suggest that unconscious as well as conscious processes related to racial identity are important to consider in measuring racial discrimination, and should be integrated in studies of racial discrimination and mental health

Upregulation of nitric oxide synthase in mice with severe hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension

BACKGROUND: The importance of nitric oxide (NO) in hypoxic pulmonary hypertension has been demonstrated using nitric oxide synthase (NOS) knockout mice. In that model NO from endothelial NOS (eNOS) plays a central role in modulating pulmonary vascular tone and attenuating hypoxic pulmonary hypertension. However, the normal regulation of NOS expression in mice following hypoxia is uncertain. Because genetically engineered mice are often utilized in studies of NO, we conducted the present study to determine how hypoxia alters NOS expression in wild-type mice. METHOD: Mice were exposed to sea level, ambient conditions (5280 feet) or severe altitude (17,000 feet) for 6 weeks from birth, and hemodynamics and lung NOS expression were assessed. RESULTS: Hypoxic mice developed severe pulmonary hypertension (right ventricular systolic pressure [RVsP] 60 mmHg) as compared with normoxic mice (27 mmHg). Using quantitative reverse-transcription PCR, it was found that expressions of eNOS and inducible NOS (iNOS) increased 1.5-fold and 3.5-fold, respectively, in the lung. In addition, the level of lung eNOS protein was increased, neuronal NOS (nNOS) protein was unchanged, and iNOS was below the limit of detection. Immunohistochemistry demonstrated no change in lung iNOS or nNOS staining in either central or peripheral areas, but suggested increased eNOS in the periphery following hypoxia. CONCLUSION: In mice, hypoxia is associated with increases in lung eNOS, possibly in iNOS, but not in nNOS; this suggests that the pattern of lung NOS expression following hypoxia must be considered in studies using genetically engineered mice