Remote Detection of Saline Intrusion in a Coastal Aquifer Using Borehole Measurements of Self-Potential

Funded by NERC CASE studentship . Grant Number: NE/I018417/1Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The Rumsfeld Effect: The unknown unknown

A set of studies tested whether people can use awareness of ignorance to provide enhanced test consistency over time if they are allowed to place uncertain items into a “don’t know” category. For factual knowledge this did occur, but for a range of other forms of knowledge relating to conceptual knowledge and personal identity, no such effect was seen. Known unknowns would appear to be largely restricted to factual kinds of knowledge

Oral Bone Grafting in a Rat Model and the Use of Scanning Electron Microscopy for Tissue Morphology Evaluation

Oral bone grafting is a procedure widely performed in current dentistry. Several biomaterials fit this purpose.  The aim of this study was to use scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to evaluate the ultrastructural  aspects of bone repair in a rat model, with periodontal tissues involved. Two groups (I and II) of 20 animals  each were operated on to create a surgical defect with a round carbide burr (3mm) on the right side  of their mandible, anterior to the mental foramen. Both groups were evenly divided with 5 animals each to  receive the application of either bifasic calcium phosphate bioceramic (B), lyophilized deproteinated  bovine bone (L), bifasic bioceramic associated with lyophilized deproteinated bovine bone (BL), or no biomaterial  (control or C). Group I was monitored for one week and group II for three weeks prior to euthanasia.  Hemi-mandibles were prepared for SEM analysis. Parameters such as exposure of incisive root surface,  width of the cross-section of filiform structures and presence of mineralized-like globuli (area) were evaluated.  The findings of this study suggested that surgical procedures for introduction or not of biomaterial  did not cause problems with normal feeding to the animals. Both of the biomaterials used promoted a periodontal  ligament involvement. Fibers (single filiform structures) could be detected in a range from 0.07 to  0.18μm of diameter, except for L that was larger – considered to be due to residual fibers of bovine origin.  C bundles (groups of fibers) showed larger width of cross-section than with the use of biomaterials.  Globuli areas (mineralization) were smaller to C than with the biomaterials use. B showed larger globuli  areas, suggesting slow incorporation. It was concluded that the use of these biomaterials favored maintenance  of tissue volume although slowing remodeling, and the combination (BL) presented the best performance.

Locating regions in a sequence under density constraints

Several biological problems require the identification of regions in a sequence where some feature occurs within a target density range: examples including the location of GC-rich regions, identification of CpG islands, and sequence matching. Mathematically, this corresponds to searching a string of 0s and 1s for a substring whose relative proportion of 1s lies between given lower and upper bounds. We consider the algorithmic problem of locating the longest such substring, as well as other related problems (such as finding the shortest substring or a maximal set of disjoint substrings). For locating the longest such substring, we develop an algorithm that runs in O(n) time, improving upon the previous best-known O(n log n) result. For the related problems we develop O(n log log n) algorithms, again improving upon the best-known O(n log n) results. Practical testing verifies that our new algorithms enjoy significantly smaller time and memory footprints, and can process sequences that are orders of magnitude longer as a result.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures; v2: minor revisions, additional explanations; to appear in SIAM Journal on Computin

Noise and thermal stability of vibrating micro-gyrometers preamplifiers

The preamplifier is a critical component of gyrometer's electronics. Indeed the resolution of the sensor is limited by its signal to noise ratio, and the gyrometer's thermal stability is limited by its gain drift. In this paper, five different kinds of preamplifiers are presented and compared. Finally, the design of an integrated preamplifier is shown in order to increase the gain stability while reducing its noise and size.Comment: Submitted on behalf of EDA Publishing Association (http://irevues.inist.fr/EDA-Publishing

Protocol for the Reconstructing Consciousness and Cognition (ReCCognition) Study

Important scientific and clinical questions persist about general anesthesia despite the ubiquitous clinical use of anesthetic drugs in humans since their discovery. For example, it is not known how the brain reconstitutes consciousness and cognition after the profound functional perturbation of the anesthetized state, nor has a specific pattern of functional recovery been characterized. To date, there has been a lack of detailed investigation into rates of recovery and the potential orderly return of attention, sensorimotor function, memory, reasoning and logic, abstract thinking, and processing speed. Moreover, whether such neurobehavioral functions display an invariant sequence of return across individuals is similarly unknown. To address these questions, we designed a study of healthy volunteers undergoing general anesthesia with electroencephalography and serial testing of cognitive functions (NCT01911195). The aims of this study are to characterize the temporal patterns of neurobehavioral recovery over the first several hours following termination of a deep inhaled isoflurane general anesthetic and to identify common patterns of cognitive function recovery. Additionally, we will conduct spectral analysis and reconstruct functional networks from electroencephalographic data to identify any neural correlates (e.g., connectivity patterns, graph-theoretical variables) of cognitive recovery after the perturbation of general anesthesia. To accomplish these objectives, we will enroll a total of 60 consenting adults aged 20–40 across the three participating sites. Half of the study subjects will receive general anesthesia slowly titrated to loss of consciousness (LOC) with an intravenous infusion of propofol and thereafter be maintained for 3 h with 1.3 age adjusted minimum alveolar concentration of isoflurane, while the other half of subjects serves as awake controls to gauge effects of repeated neurobehavioral testing, spontaneous fatigue and endogenous rest-activity patterns

Pengaruh Keberadaan Fasilitas Pendidikan Terhadap Pola Keruangan Lahan Terbangun (Kasus: Kecamatan Depok, Kabupaten Sleman)

Perkembangan Kota Yogyakarta tidak dapat dipisahkan dengan fungsiKota Yogyakarta sebagai kota pelajar. Berkaitan dengan klasifikasi KotaYogyakarta sebagai kota pelajar yang perkembangannya dipengaruhi oleh faktorpendidikan, Kecamatan Depok di Kabupaten Sleman merupakan salah satukecamatan yang memiliki perkembangan fasilitas pendidikan cukup pesat.Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji keberadaan fasilitas pendidikan danpengaruhnya terhadap pola keruangan lahan terbangun di Kecamatan DepokKabupaten Sleman.Penelitian di Kecamatan Depok Kabupaten Sleman ini menggunakanmetode sensus untuk keberadaan fasilitas pendidikan dan untuk mengetahui polakeruangan lahan terbangun dilakukan survai di lokasi penelitian serta interpretasicitra secara visual. Peta yang dihasilkan diolah dengan teknik penampalankemudian dianalisis menggunakan teknik deskriptif-eksplanasi.271Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa fasilitas pendidikan yangmemberikan pengaruh terhadap pola keruangan lahan terbangun di KecamatanDepok adalah fasilitas pendidikan jenjang SMA dan perguruan tinggi

Study of tribological properties of moulds obtained by stereolithography

Stereolithography (SL) is a process that allows the rapid manufacturing of high-accuracy rapid tools using an ultraviolet laser beam to polymerize a liquid resin, layer-by-layer. In this work, the friction properties of commercial SL resins in contact with several thermoplastics were assessed. Friction experiments were done with plastics overmoulded onto moulding blocks made from SL resins. It was observed that polymers with Hildebrand solubility parameters close to the resins showed adhesion characteristics that were not observed in polymers with values of this parameter further apart.EU Programme ALFA (project Plastinet-master