19,589 research outputs found
Phase II of the ASCE Benchmark Study on SHM
The task group on structural health monitoring of the Dynamic Committee of ASCE was formed in
1999 at the 12
th
Engineering Mechanics Conference. The task group has designed a number of analytical
studies on a benchmark structure and there are plans to follow these with an experimental program. The
first phase of the analytical studies was completed in 2001. The second phase, initiated in the summer of
2001, was formulated in the light of the experience gained on phase I and focuses on increasing realism in
the simulation of the discrepancies between the actual structure and the mathematical model used in the
analysis. This paper describes the rational that lead the SHM task group to the definition of phase II and
presents the details of the cases that are being considered
Generalized Background-Field Method
The graphical method discussed previously can be used to create new gauges
not reachable by the path-integral formalism. By this means a new gauge is
designed for more efficient two-loop QCD calculations. It is related to but
simpler than the ordinary background-field gauge, in that even the triple-gluon
vertices for internal lines contain only four terms, not the usual six. This
reduction simplifies the calculation inspite of the necessity to include other
vertices for compensation. Like the ordinary background-field gauge, this
generalized background-field gauge also preserves gauge invariance of the
external particles. As a check of the result and an illustration for the
reduction in labour, an explicit calculation of the two-loop QCD
-function is carried out in this new gauge. It results in a saving of
45% of computation compared to the ordinary background-field gauge.Comment: 17 pages, Latex, 18 figures in Postscrip
Low efficacy of the combination artesunate plus amodiaquine for uncomplicated falciparum malaria among children under 5 years in Kailahun, Sierra Leone.
OBJECTIVE: In 2004, Sierra Leone adopted artesunate plus amodiaquine as first-line antimalarial treatment. We evaluated the efficacy of this combination in Kailahun, where a previous study had shown 70.2% efficacy of amodiaquine in monotherapy. METHODS: Method and outcome classification of the study complied with WHO guidelines. Children 6-59 months with uncomplicated malaria were followed-up for 28 days. PCR genotyping was used to distinguish recrudescence from reinfection. Reinfections were reclassified as cured. RESULTS: Of 172 children who were referred to the study clinic, 126 satisfied inclusion criteria and were enrolled. No early treatment failures were reported. The day 14, efficacy was 98.2% (95% CI: 93.8-99.8). Of 65 recurrent parasitaemias analysed by PCR, 17 were recrudescences. The PCR-adjusted day 28 efficacy was 84.5% (95% CI: 76.4-90.7). All true failures occurred in the last 8 days of follow-up. Of 110 children who completed the 28-day follow-up, 54 (49.1%) experienced a novel infection. CONCLUSION: The efficacy of this combination was disappointing. The high reinfection rate suggested little prophylactic effect. In Kailahun a more efficacious combination might be necessary in the future. The efficacy of AS + AQ needs to be monitored in Kailahun and in the other regions of Sierra Leone
Corrigendum to "A novel downscaling technique for the linkage of global and regional air quality modeling" published in Atmos. Chem. Phys., 9, 9169–9185, 2009
Recently, downscaling global atmospheric model outputs (GCTM) for the USEPA Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Initial (IC) and Boundary Conditions (BC) have become practical because of the rapid growth of computational technologies that allow global simulations to be completed within a reasonable time. The traditional method of generating IC/BC by profile data has lost its advocates due to the weakness of the limited horizontal and vertical variations found on the gridded boundary layers. Theoretically, high quality GCTM IC/BC should yield a better result in CMAQ. Unfortunately, several researchers have found that the outputs from GCTM IC/BC are not necessarily better than profile IC/BC due to the excessive transport of O<sub>3</sub> aloft in GCTM IC/BC. In this paper, we intend to investigate the effects of using profile IC/BC and global atmospheric model data. In addition, we are suggesting a novel approach to resolve the existing issue in downscaling. <br><br> In the study, we utilized the GEOS-Chem model outputs to generate time-varied and layer-varied IC/BC for year 2002 with the implementation of tropopause determining algorithm in the downscaling process (i.e., based on chemical (O<sub>3</sub>) tropopause definition). The comparison between the implemented tropopause approach and the profile IC/BC approach is performed to demonstrate improvement of considering tropopause. It is observed that without using tropopause information in the downscaling process, unrealistic O<sub>3</sub> concentrations are created at the upper layers of IC/BC. This phenomenon has caused over-prediction of surface O<sub>3</sub> in CMAQ. In addition, the amount of over-prediction is greatly affected by temperature and latitudinal location of the study domain. With the implementation of the algorithm, we have successfully resolved the incompatibility issues in the vertical layer structure between global and regional chemistry models to yield better surface O<sub>3</sub> predictions than profile IC/BC for both summer and winter conditions. At the same time, it improved the vertical O<sub>3</sub> distribution of CMAQ outputs. It is strongly recommended that the tropopause information should be incorporated into any two-way coupled global and regional models, where the tropospheric regional model is used, to solve the vertical incompatibility that exists between global and regional models. <br><br><br><br> We have discovered that the previously published paper was not the latest version of the manuscript we intended to use. Some corrections made during the second ACPD reviewing process were not incorporated in the text. As a result, the figure numbers (i.e., figure number below the graph) were not referenced correctly in the manuscript. Therefore, we have decided to re-publish this paper as a corrigendum
Implementing Unitarity in Perturbation Theory
Unitarity cannot be perserved order by order in ordinary perturbation theory
because the constraint UU^\dagger=\1 is nonlinear. However, the corresponding
constraint for , being , is linear so it can be
maintained in every order in a perturbative expansion of . The perturbative
expansion of may be considered as a non-abelian generalization of the
linked-cluster expansion in probability theory and in statistical mechanics,
and possesses similar advantages resulting from separating the short-range
correlations from long-range effects. This point is illustrated in two QCD
examples, in which delicate cancellations encountered in summing Feynman
diagrams of are avoided when they are calculated via the perturbative expansion
of . Applications to other problems are briefly discussed.Comment: to appear in Phys. Rev.
Small-Recoil Approximation
In this review we discuss a technique to compute and to sum a class of
Feynman diagrams, and some of its applications. These are diagrams containing
one or more energetic particles that suffer very little recoil in their
interactions. When recoil is completely neglected, a decomposition formula can
be proven. This formula is a generalization of the well-known eikonal formula,
to non-abelian interactions. It expresses the amplitude as a sum of products of
irreducible amplitudes, with each irreducible amplitude being the amplitude to
emit one, or several mutually interacting, quasi-particles. For abelian
interaction a quasi-particle is nothing but the original boson, so this
decomposition formula reduces to the eikonal formula. In non-abelian situations
each quasi-particle can be made up of many bosons, though always with a total
quantum number identical to that of a single boson. This decomposition enables
certain amplitudes of all orders to be summed up into an exponential form, and
it allows subleading contributions of a certain kind, which is difficult to
reach in the usual way, to be computed. For bosonic emissions from a heavy
source with many constituents, a quasi-particle amplitude turns out to be an
amplitude in which all bosons are emitted from the same constituent. For
high-energy parton-parton scattering in the near-forward direction, the
quasi-particle turns out to be the Reggeon, and this formalism shows clearly
why gluons reggeize but photons do not. The ablility to compute subleading
terms in this formalism allows the BFKL-Pomeron amplitude to be extrapolated to
asymptotic energies, in a unitary way preserving the Froissart bound. We also
consider recoil corrections for abelian interactions in order to accommodate
the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal effect.Comment: 21 pages with 4 figure
Promiscuous and lineage-specific roles of cell cycle regulators in haematopoiesis
Haematopoietic cell number is maintained by a delicate balance between cell proliferation, differentiation and death. Gene knockout studies in mice have revealed the complex roles of cyclins, CDKs, and CDK inhibitors in regulating cell proliferation and differentiation in the haematopoietic system. These studies point to families of cell cycle regulators which display both redundant and unique roles within a lineage and developmental-stage specific manner. Moreover, the promiscuity of these cell cycle regulators is critical for haematopoietic cell proliferation and differentiation. In this review, we discuss the current evidence from mouse models that the complexity and multifarious nature of the haematopoietic system is critical for its form and function
Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor in Pregnancy: A Case Report
Background. Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are the most common mesenchymal tumors of the digestive tract and are diagnosed relatively seldom in pregnancy. Case. We describe a remarkable clinical course and long-term outcome, now nine years after first diagnosis, of a massive and metastatic, with a high malignancy grade GIST case, found in and treated from the first trimester of pregnancy onwards. Conclusion. GIST occurring during pregnancy is extremely rare. However, early diagnosis is important for optimal management. The recent better understanding of oncogenesis, the use of immunohistochemistry for differential diagnosis of GISTs, and the use of imatinib mesylate as the treatment of first choice are—as shown in this case—important for care of pregnant women with this type of malignancy
Unification of bulk and interface electroresistive switching in oxide systems
We demonstrate that the physical mechanism behind electroresistive switching
in oxide Schottky systems is electroformation, as in insulating oxides.
Negative resistance shown by the hysteretic current-voltage curves proves that
impact ionization is at the origin of the switching. Analyses of the
capacitance-voltage and conductance-voltage curves through a simple model show
that an atomic rearrangement is involved in the process. Switching in these
systems is a bulk effect, not strictly confined at the interface but at the
charge space region.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted in PR
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