Omnidirectional, circularly polarized, cylindrical microstrip antenna

A microstrip cylindrical antenna comprised of two concentric subelements on a ground cylinder, a vertically polarized (E-field parallel to the axis of the antenna cylinder) subelement on the inside and a horizontally polarized (E-field perpendicular to the axis) subelement on the outside. The vertical subelement is a wraparound microstrip radiator. A Y-shaped microstrip patch configuration is used for the horizontally polarized radiator that is wrapped 1.5 times to provide radiating edges on opposite sides of the cylindrical antenna for improved azimuthal pattern uniformity. When these subelements are so fed that their far fields are equal in amplitude and phased 90.degree. from each other, a circularly polarized EM wave results. By stacking a plurality of like antenna elements on the ground cylinder, a linear phased array antenna is provided that can be beam steered to the desired elevation angle

Detection and characterisation of Complement protein activity in bovine milk by bactericidal sequestration assay

Susan Maye is in receipt of a Teagasc Walsh Fellowship. Financial support by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is gratefully acknowledged.Copyright © Proprietors of Journal of Dairy Research 2015 (Institute of Food Research and the Hannah Research Institute)peer-reviewedWhile the Complement protein system in human milk is well characterised, there is little information on its presence and activity in bovine milk. Complement forms part of the innate immune system, hence the importance of its contribution during milk ingestion to the overall defences of the neonate. A bactericidal sequestration assay, featuring a Complement sensitive strain, Escherichia coli 0111, originally used to characterise Complement activity in human milk was successfully applied to freshly drawn bovine milk samples, thus, providing an opportunity to compare Complement activities in both human and bovine milks. Although not identical in response, the levels of Complement activity in bovine milk were found to be closely comparable with that of human milk. Differential counts of Esch. coli 0111 after 2 h incubation were 6·20 and 6·06 log CFU/ml, for raw bovine and human milks, respectively – the lower value representing a stronger Complement response. Exposing bovine milk to a range of thermal treatments e.g. 42, 45, 65, 72, 85 or 95 °C for 10 min, progressively inhibited Complement activity by increasing temperature, thus confirming the heat labile nature of this immune protein system. Low level Complement activity was found, however, in 65 and 72 °C heat treated samples and in retailed pasteurised milk which highlights the outer limit to which high temperature, short time (HTST) industrial thermal processes should be applied if retention of activity is a priority. Concentration of Complement in the fat phase was evident following cream separation, and this was also reflected in the further loss of activity recorded in low fat variants of retailed pasteurised milk. Laboratory-based churning of the cream during simulated buttermaking generated an aqueous (buttermilk) phase with higher levels of Complement activity than the fat phase, thus pointing to a likely association with the milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) layer.Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marin

The Hydro-Mechanical Properties of Fracture Intersections: Pressure-Dependant Permeability and Effective Stress Law

Fluid flow through the brittle crust is primarily controlled by the capability of fracture networks to provide pathways for fluid transport. The dominant permeability orientation within fractured rock masses has been consistently correlated with the development of fracture intersections; an observation also made at the meso-regional scale. Despite the importance attributed to fracture intersections in promoting fluid flow, the magnitude of their enhancement of fractured rock permeability has not yet been quantified. Here, we characterize the hydro-mechanical properties of intersections in samples of Seljadalur Basalt by generating two orthogonal, tensile fractures produced by two separate loadings using a Brazilian test apparatus, and measuring their permeability as a function of hydrostatic pressure. We observe that intersecting fractures are significantly more permeable and less compliant than two independent macro-fractures. We formulate a model for fracture intersection permeability as a function of pressure by adding the contributions of two independent fractures plus a tube-like cavity with an effective elastic compressibility determined by its geometry. Permeability measurements during cyclic loading allowed determination of the effective stress coefficient (α in pe = pc − αpp) for fracture and intersection permeability. We observe a trend of lower αintersection values with respect to αfracture, which suggests that the channels controlling fluid flow have a higher aspect ratio (are more tubular) for the intersections relative to independent fractures. Our results suggest that fracture intersections play a critical role in maintaining permeability at depth, which has significant implications for the quantification and upscaling of fracture permeability toward reservoir-scale simulations

From fly-by-wire to drive-by-wire: Safety implications of automation in vehicles

The purpose of this paper is to critically review the current trend in automobile engineering toward automation of many of the functions previously performed by the driver. Working on the assumption that automation in aviation represents the basic model for driver automation, the costs and benefits of automation in aviation are explored as a means of establishing where automation of drivers' tasks are likely to yield benefits. It is concluded that there are areas where automation can provide benefits to the driver, but there are other areas where this is unlikely to be the case. Automation per se does not guarantee success, and therefore it becomes vital to involve Human Factors into design to identify where automation of driver functions can be allocated with a beneficial outcome for driving performance

N-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFAs) Reverse the Impact of Early-Life Stress on the Gut Microbiota

Supporting Information S1 File. Microbiota Data Set. NS.S, NS.LD, NS.HD stand for non-separated Saline, non-separated Low Dose, non-separated High Dose, respectively. MS.S, MS.LD, MS.HD stand for maternally separated Saline, maternally separated Low Dose, maternally separated High Dose, respectively. (ZIP)peer-reviewedBackground Early life stress is a risk factor for many psychiatric disorders ranging from depression to anxiety. Stress, especially during early life, can induce dysbiosis in the gut microbiota, the key modulators of the bidirectional signalling pathways in the gut-brain axis that underline several neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. Despite their critical role in the development and function of the central nervous system, the effect of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) on the regulation of gut-microbiota in early-life stress has not been explored. Methods and Results Here, we show that long-term supplementation of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)/docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) (80% EPA, 20% DHA) n-3 PUFAs mixture could restore the disturbed gut-microbiota composition of maternally separated (MS) female rats. Sprague-Dawley female rats were subjected to an early-life stress, maternal separation procedure from postnatal days 2 to 12. Non-separated (NS) and MS rats were administered saline, EPA/DHA 0.4 g/kg/day or EPA/DHA 1 g/kg/day, respectively. Analysis of the gut microbiota in adult rats revealed that EPA/DHA changes composition in the MS, and to a lesser extent the NS rats, and was associated with attenuation of the corticosterone response to acute stress. Conclusions In conclusion, EPA/DHA intervention alters the gut microbiota composition of both neurodevelopmentally normal and early-life stressed animals. This study offers insights into the interaction between n-3 PUFAs and gut microbes, which may play an important role in advancing our understanding of disorders of mood and cognitive functioning, such as anxiety and depression.Research was funded by Food Institutional Research Measure (FIRM) under Grant No. 10/RD/TMFRC/709, the APC Microbiome Institute under Grant No. 07/CE/B1368 and 12/RC/2273, Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) under Grant No. 12/IA/1537

Uniaxial compression of 3D printed samples with voids: laboratory measurements compared with predictions from Effective Medium Theory

3D printing technology offers the possibility of producing synthetic samples with accurately defined microstructures. As indicated by effective medium theory (EMT), the shapes, orientations, and sizes of voids significantly affect the overall elastic response of a solid body. By performing uniaxial compression tests on twenty types of 3D-printed samples containing voids of different geometries, we examine whether the measured effective elasticities are accurately predicted by EMT. To manufacture the sample, we selected printers that use different technologies; fused deposition modelling (FDM), and stereolithography (SLA). We show how printer settings (FDM case) or sample cure time (SLA case) affect the measured properties. We also examine the reproducibility of elasticity tests on identically designed samples. To obtain the range of theoretical predictions, we assume either uniform strain or uniform stress. Our study of over two hundred samples shows that measured effective elastic moduli can fit EMT predictions with an error of less than 5% using both FDM and SLA methods if certain printing specifications and sample design considerations are taken into account. Notably, we find that the pore volume fraction of the designed samples should be above 1% to induce a measurable softening effect, but below 5% to produce accurate EMT estimations that fit the measured elastic properties of the samples. Our results highlight both the strengths of EMT for predicting the effective properties of solids with low pore fraction volume microstructural configurations, and the limitations for high porosity microstructures.Comment: 43 pages, 19 figs, 9 table

A Whole-Transcriptome Approach to Evaluating Reference Genes for Quantitative Gene Expression Studies: A Case Study in Mimulus

While quantitative PCR (qPCR) is widely recognized as being among the most accurate methods for quantifying gene expression, it is highly dependent on the use of reliable, stably expressed reference genes. With the increased availability of high-throughput methods for measuring gene expression, whole-transcriptome approaches may be increasingly utilized for reference gene selection and validation. In this study, RNA-seq was used to identify a set of novel qPCR reference genes and evaluate a panel of traditional housekeeping reference genes in two species of the evolutionary model plant genus Mimulus. More broadly, the methods proposed in this study can be used to harness the power of transcriptomes to identify appropriate reference genes for qPCR in any study organism, including emerging and nonmodel systems. We find that RNA-seq accurately estimates gene expression means in comparison to qPCR, and that expression means are robust to moderate environmental and genetic variation. However, measures of expression variability were only in agreement with qPCR for samples obtained from a shared environment. This result, along with transcriptome-wide comparisons, suggests that environmental changes have greater impacts on expression variability than on expression means. We discuss how this issue can be addressed through experimental design, and suggest that the ever-expanding pool of published transcriptomes represents a rich and low-cost resource for developing better reference genes for qPCR