Starting, Travelling & Colliding Vortices: DBD Plasma in Quiescent Air

Development and interaction of starting vortices initiated by Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasma actuators in quiescent air are illustrated in the attached fluid dynamics videos. These include a series of smoke flow visualisations, showing the starting vortices moving parallel or normal to the wall at several different actuator configurations.Comment: 1 page, hyperlinked to two fluid mechanics videos MPEG fomat

Potential impact of northern resource development on aquatic biota: toxicity of chromium and rare earth element processing reagent

Chromite and rare earth element development was identified in the 2015 Canadian Federal budget as a significant opportunity, however, key data gaps exist regarding the environmental concerns related to these resource developments. Chromium is essential in the production of stainless steel, and no suitable substitute is known. Rare earth elements (REEs) are a series of metals that are composed of 15 lanthanides, as well as scandium and yttrium. Uses for REEs range from electronic devices (i.e. cell phones, computers, televisions) to magnets and controlling nuclear reactors. While commercial production of REEs signify a great economic opportunity for Canada, key data gaps regarding chemicals involved in processing REEs has been identified. The first objective of this study was to determine the acute toxicity of hexavalent chromium (Cr (VI)) to the invertebrate species Hyalella azteca and to identify the potential mitigating influences of cations and dissolved organic matter (DOM). The second objective was to evaluate the acute toxicity of flotation reagent AERO 6493, conduct toxicity identification/reduction studies, and test REE processing wastewater toxicity to H. azteca and Daphnia magna. Standard methods were followed for both 48 h (D. magna) and 96 h (H. azteca) acute toxicity tests, in media with pH 7.3 and water hardness of 120 mg CaCO3 /L (D. magna) and 60 mg CaCO3 /L (H. azteca) for both objectives. For objective 1, effect of altering water chemistry on Cr (VI) toxicity to H. azteca was tested with additions of Ca (0.5-3.5mM), Na (0.5-3 mM), Mg (0.13-0.64mM), as well as additions of natural sources of DOC (from Pickle Lake and Luther Marsh) at concentrations of 5 and 12 mg DOC/L. No protective effect was observed with additions of Na+, Pickle Lake and 2016 Luther Marsh DOC sources, but a significant protective effect was observed for 2015 Luther Marsh DOC, elevated Mg2+ and Ca2+ concentrations. For objective 2, LC50 was calculated based on survival/mortality for H. azteca (2.6 E-16 % dilution of parent AERO 6493 compound for fresh, 3.9 E-18 % for aged) and immobilization for D. magna (2.0E-5 %). Acute REE processing wastewater toxicity was also calculated for H. azteca (2.44%) and D. magna (23.35%). Studies conducted to determine acute toxicity of Cr (VI) to H. azteca not only lead to an improved understanding of site-specific Cr (VI) toxicity, but also may help to improve the water quality guidelines for protection of aquatic life. As for the toxicity of REE processing reagent AERO 6493, dilutions anticipating the worst possible scenario was tested to invertebrate species. Calculated LC50s and EC50s of parent AERO 6493 and wastewater will help develop a better understanding of toxicity of chemicals incorporated in REE processing, as well as potential suggestions for risk assessment and remediation steps

Effect of Socio-Demographics, Health-Related Problems, and Family Structure on Chronic Absenteeism Among Children

Purpose/Background: From 5 to 7.5 million school children are chronically absent, defined as missing ≥15 days of school within a year. Students miss schools due to various reasons such as health, socioeconomic status, and environmental factors. We examined child’s health and behavior, family structure, and socio-demographics to understand chronic absenteeism. Materials & Methods: The population included children ages 6 to 17 years from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) years 2008-2013. Multivariable logistic regressions were used to identify the risk factors of chronic absenteeism, adjusting for the complex sampling design. Results: Among socio-demographic variables, age ≥14 years, race/ethnicity, lower-income family, public health insurance, US-born, and speaking English at home were associated with chronic absenteeism. Asians, Mexican Hispanics, and blacks have lower chronic absenteeism than whites. Among health-related variables, children using an inhaler for asthma, having behavioral problems, and less healthy than other children were more likely to be chronically absent. Among family variables, a smaller family size was a risk factor for chronic absenteeism. Discussion/Conclusion: Asthma and behavioral problems were highly associated with chronic absenteeism. The identification of children at risk for chronic absenteeism will help the educational professionals identify the barriers to academic achievements and develop integrated educational interventions and policies to support disadvantaged children

Preliminary Outcomes of Temporary Collagen Punctal Plugs for Patients with Dry Eye and Glaucoma

The aim of this study was using a temporary collagen punctal plug as a pre-test before decision of permanent punctal closure or long-term plug use for patients with dry eye disease (DED) and primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG). This case-control study was conducted at a single office in Honolulu, Hawaii from January 2017 to August 2018. In the case group, a temporary collagen plug was used in 33 eyes of 33 patients with DED and POAG who were receiving glaucoma medications with good control. On the other hand in the control group, 33 eyes of 33 patients with DED and POAG who were receiving glaucoma medications with good control were included, but punctal plug was not used. In the case group, one of the lower lid puncta was selected for the study and a canalicular rod shape plug was inserted as a therapeutic trial to predict the efficacy of long-term punctal plug placement or punctal closure. The mean changes of intraocular pressure (IOP) and improvement in symptoms/signs of DED were compared between the two study groups. Results revealed a statistically significant IOP reduction in the case group compared to the control group. Furthermore, DED improved significantly more in the case group compared to the control group (P< 0.001). We concluded that temporary punctal plug in patients with DED and POAG can significantly improve DED and lower IOP. Therefore, we could consider permanent punctal closure or long-term plug for patients with DED and POAG who responded well to temporary punctal plug without epiphora or other complications

Direct Virtual Memory Access from FPGA for High-Productivity Heterogeneous Computing

Heterogeneous computing utilizing both CPU and FPGA requires access to data in the main memory from both devices. While a typical system relies on software executing on the CPU to orchestrate all data movements between the FPGA and the main memory, our demo presents a complementary FPGA-centric approach that allows gateware to directly access the virtual memory space as part of the executing process without involving the CPU. A caching address translation buffer was implemented alongside the user FPGA gateware to provide runtime mapping between virtual and physical memory addresses. The system was implemented on a commercial off-the-shelf FPGA add-on card to demonstrate the viability of such approach in low-cost systems. Experiment demonstrated reasonable performance improvement when compared to a typical software-centric implementation; while the number of context switches between FPGA and CPU in both kernel and user mode was significantly reduced, freeing the CPU for other concurrent user tasks. © 2013 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Improving femtosecond laser pulse delivery through a hollow core photonic crystal fiber for temporally focused two-photon endomicroscopy

In this paper, we present a strategy to improve delivery of femtosecond laser pulses from a regenerative amplifier through a hollow core photonic crystal fiber for temporally focused wide-field two-photon endomicroscopy. For endomicroscope application, wide-field two-photon excitation has the advantage of requiring no scanning in the distal end. However, wide-field two-photon excitation requires peak power that is 10[superscript 4]–10[superscript 5] times higher than the point scanning approach corresponding to femtosecond pulses with energy on the order of 1–10 μJ at the specimen plane. The transmission of these high energy pulses through a single mode fiber into the microendoscope is a significant challenge. Two approaches were pursued to partially overcome this limitation. First, a single high energy pulse is split into a train of pulses with energy below the fiber damage threshold better utilizing the available laser energy. Second, stretching the pulse width in time by introducing negative dispersion was shown to have the dual benefit of reducing fiber damage probability and compensating for the positive group velocity dispersion induced by the fiber. With these strategy applied, 11 fold increase in the two photon excitation signal has been demonstrated.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (9P41EB015871-26A1)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (5R01EY017656-02)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (5R01 NS051320)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (4R44EB012415-02)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (CBET-0939511)Singapore-MIT AllianceSingapore-MIT Alliance for Research and TechnologySkolkovo Institute of Science and TechnologyHamamatsu CorporationDavid H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. Bridge Project Initiativ