Cloud chamber measurement of electron pairs for determination of synchrotron spectrum

The x-ray spectrum of the Iowa State College synchrotron operating at 65 Mev. has been measured. The method consisted of the observation, in a magnetic cloud chamber, of the momentum of each member of electron pairs produced in the air filling of the chamber. Using the theoretical values of cross section for pair production and the results of recent experiments, the energy spectrum of the x-ray quanta was computed. Due to the pronounced forward directional characteristic of electron pairs produced at extreme relativistic energies, discrimination of one energy region with respect to another was avoided and no solid angle corrections were necessary . The results are in agreement with the energy spectrum predicted by the Bethe-Heitler theory

An optimal condition based maintenance scheduling for metal structures based on a multidisciplinary research approach

Latest research findings show that the deterioration of metal coatings results due to complex combination of material and meteorological parameters. The classical maintenance scheduling do not consider complex interface of materials and meteorological parameters to determine optimal maintenance framework. The cost of recoating can be optimised through appropriate selection of coating specifications and maintenance strategy. This research provides a multidisciplinary algorithmic approach to determine cost-effective solutions for recoating. The specifications of red oxide primer coating and structural steel substrate system are considered for simulation analysis. The results show that the appropriate selection of 10% increase in coating thickness based on coating-substrate system specifications resulted in 20-25% reduction in annual patch failures which reduces 5-6 % cost of recoating. Furthermore, the proposed model also simulated to compare Patch recoating and Part recoating strategy and algorithm show that the Part recoating is cost-effective as compared to Patch recoating if number of annual patch failure is greater than ‘2’ and area of the part is ‘2x’times larger than the area of the patch. Contrary, the Patch recoating results in low cost if the part area is ‘10x’ times larger than patch area and number of annual patch failures are less than ‘7’

caCORRECT2: Improving the accuracy and reliability of microarray data in the presence of artifacts

© 2011 Moffitt et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.DOI: 10.1186/1471-2105-12-383Background. In previous work, we reported the development of caCORRECT, a novel microarray quality control system built to identify and correct spatial artifacts commonly found on Affymetrix arrays. We have made recent improvements to caCORRECT, including the development of a model-based data-replacement strategy and integration with typical microarray workflows via caCORRECT's web portal and caBIG grid services. In this report, we demonstrate that caCORRECT improves the reproducibility and reliability of experimental results across several common Affymetrix microarray platforms. caCORRECT represents an advance over state-of-art quality control methods such as Harshlighting, and acts to improve gene expression calculation techniques such as PLIER, RMA and MAS5.0, because it incorporates spatial information into outlier detection as well as outlier information into probe normalization. The ability of caCORRECT to recover accurate gene expressions from low quality probe intensity data is assessed using a combination of real and synthetic artifacts with PCR follow-up confirmation and the affycomp spike in data. The caCORRECT tool can be accessed at the website: http://cacorrect.bme.gatech.edu webcite. Results. We demonstrate that (1) caCORRECT's artifact-aware normalization avoids the undesirable global data warping that happens when any damaged chips are processed without caCORRECT; (2) When used upstream of RMA, PLIER, or MAS5.0, the data imputation of caCORRECT generally improves the accuracy of microarray gene expression in the presence of artifacts more than using Harshlighting or not using any quality control; (3) Biomarkers selected from artifactual microarray data which have undergone the quality control procedures of caCORRECT are more likely to be reliable, as shown by both spike in and PCR validation experiments. Finally, we present a case study of the use of caCORRECT to reliably identify biomarkers for renal cell carcinoma, yielding two diagnostic biomarkers with potential clinical utility, PRKAB1 and NNMT. Conclusions. caCORRECT is shown to improve the accuracy of gene expression, and the reproducibility of experimental results in clinical application. This study suggests that caCORRECT will be useful to clean up possible artifacts in new as well as archived microarray data

Religious Identity, Religious Attendance, and Parental Control

Using a national sample of adolescents aged 10–18 years and their parents (N = 5,117), this article examines whether parental religious identity and religious participation are associated with the ways in which parents control their children. We hypothesize that both religious orthodoxy and weekly religious attendance are related to heightened levels of three elements of parental control: monitoring activities, normative regulations, and network closure. Results indicate that an orthodox religious identity for Catholic and Protestant parents and higher levels of religious attendance for parents as a whole are associated with increases in monitoring activities and normative regulations of American adolescents

Water activity in liquid food systems : A molecular scale interpretation

Water activity has historically been and continues to be recognised as a key concept in the area of food science. Despite its ubiquitous utilisation, it still appears as though there is confusion concerning its molecular basis, even within simple, single component solutions. Here, by close examination of the well-known Norrish equation and subsequent application of a rigorous statistical theory, we are able to shed light on such an origin. Our findings highlight the importance of solute-solute interactions thus questioning traditional, empirically based “free water” and “water structure” hypotheses. Conversely, they support the theory of “solute hydration and clustering” which advocates the interplay of solute-solute and solute-water interactions but crucially, they do so in a manner which is free of any estimations and approximations

Contrasting Transcriptional Responses of a Virulent and an Attenuated Strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infecting Macrophages

Along with the recent identification of single nucleotide polymorphisms in H37Ra when compared to H37Rv, our demonstration of differential expression of PhoP-regulated and ESX-1 region-related genes during macrophage infection further highlights the significance of these genes in the attenuation of H37Ra

Study protocol for a randomised placebo-controlled trial of pramipexole in addition to mood stabilisers for patients with treatment resistant bipolar depression (the PAX-BD study)

Abstract Background Treatment Resistant Bipolar Depression (TRBD) is a major contributor to the burden of disease associated with Bipolar Disorder (BD). Treatment options for people experiencing bipolar depression are limited to three interventions listed by National Institute for Health and Care: lamotrigine, quetiapine and olanzapine, of which the latter two are often not well tolerated. The majority of depressed people with BD are therefore prescribed antidepressants despite limited efficacy. This demonstrates an unmet need for additional interventions. Pramipexole has been shown to improve mood symptoms in animal models of depression, in people with Parkinson’s Disease and two proof of principle trials of pramipexole for people with BD who are currently depressed. Methods The PAX-BD study, funded by the United Kingdom (UK) National Institute for Health Research, aims to extend previous findings by assessing the efficacy, safety and health economic impact of pramipexole in addition to mood stabilisers for patients with TRBD. A randomised, double-blind, placebo controlled design is conducted in a naturalistic UK National Health Service setting. An internal pilot study to examine feasibility and acceptability of the study design is included. Participants with TRBD are screened from National Health Service secondary care services in up to 40 mental health trusts in the UK, with the aim of recruiting approximately 414 participants into a pre-randomisation phase to achieve a target of 290 randomised participants. Primary safety and efficacy measures are at 12 weeks following randomisation, with follow up of participants to 52 weeks. The primary outcome is depressive symptoms as measured by Quick Inventory for Depressive Symptomatology – Self Report. Secondary outcomes include changes in anxiety, manic symptoms, tolerability, acceptability, quality of life and cost-effectiveness. Outcome measures are collected remotely using self-report tools implemented online, and observer-rated assessments conducted via telephone. ANCOVA will be used to examine the difference in rating scale scores between treatment arms, and dependent on compliance in completion of weekly self-report measures. A mixed effects linear regression model may also be used to account for repeated measures. Trial registration ISRCTN72151939. Registered on 28 August 2019, http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN72151939 Protocol Version: 04-FEB-2021, Version 9.0