One-dimension visco-elastic modelling of wood in the process of formation to clarify the Hygrothermal Recovery behavior of tension wood

International audienceWood production on stem by deposit of concentric layers on its periphery are going along with the setting up of growth stress. Growth stress has two origins: (1) loading due to weight of the structure is applied progressively when the tree is growing; (2) cell maturation, which happened at the end of the deposit of a new layer, causes an expansion, called maturation deformation, which can’t happen freely due to the previous layer and lead to the creation of initial growth stress [1]. The growth stress can be released during cutting and also during hygrothermal treatment (HT), it can be called Hygrothermal Recovery (HTR) [2]

Inertial- and Dissipation-Range Asymptotics in Fluid Turbulence

We propose and verify a wave-vector-space version of generalized extended self similarity and broaden its applicability to uncover intriguing, universal scaling in the far dissipation range by computing high-order (\leq 20\/) structure functions numerically for: (1) the three-dimensional, incompressible Navier Stokes equation (with and without hyperviscosity); and (2) the GOY shell model for turbulence. Also, in case (2), with Taylor-microscale Reynolds numbers 4 \times 10^{4} \leq Re_{\lambda} \leq 3 \times 10^{6}\/, we find that the inertial-range exponents (\zeta_{p}\/) of the order - p\/ structure functions do not approach their Kolmogorov value p/3\/ as Re_{\lambda}\/ increases.Comment: RevTeX file, with six postscript figures. epsf.tex macro is used for figure insertion. Packaged using the 'uufiles' utilit

Analytical Modelling of Thirty Meter Telescope Optics Polarization

The polarization introduced due to Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) optics is calculated using an analytical model. Mueller matrices are also generated for each optical element using Zemax, based on which the instrumental polarization due to the entire system at the focal plane is estimated and compared with the analytical model. This study is significant in the estimation of the telescope sensitivity and also has great implications for future instruments

Timely digital patient-clinician communication in specialist clinical services for young people : a mixed-methods study (the LYNC study)

BACKGROUND: Young people (aged 16-24 years) with long-term health conditions can disengage from health services, resulting in poor health outcomes, but clinicians in the UK National Health Service (NHS) are using digital communication to try to improve engagement. Evidence of effectiveness of this digital communication is equivocal. There are gaps in evidence as to how it might work, its cost, and ethical and safety issues. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to understand how the use of digital communication between young people with long-term conditions and their NHS specialist clinicians changes engagement of the young people with their health care; and to identify costs and necessary safeguards. METHODS: We conducted mixed-methods case studies of 20 NHS specialist clinical teams from across England and Wales and their practice providing care for 13 different long-term physical or mental health conditions. We observed 79 clinical team members and interviewed 165 young people aged 16-24 years with a long-term health condition recruited via case study clinical teams, 173 clinical team members, and 16 information governance specialists from study NHS Trusts. We conducted a thematic analysis of how digital communication works, and analyzed ethics, safety and governance, and annual direct costs. RESULTS: Young people and their clinical teams variously used mobile phone calls, text messages, email, and voice over Internet protocol. Length of clinician use of digital communication varied from 1 to 13 years in 17 case studies, and was being considered in 3. Digital communication enables timely access for young people to the right clinician at the time when it can make a difference to how they manage their health condition. This is valued as an addition to traditional clinic appointments and can engage those otherwise disengaged, particularly at times of change for young people. It can enhance patient autonomy, empowerment and activation. It challenges the nature and boundaries of therapeutic relationships but can improve trust. The clinical teams studied had not themselves formally evaluated the impact of their intervention. Staff time is the main cost driver, but offsetting savings are likely elsewhere in the health service. Risks include increased dependence on clinicians, inadvertent disclosure of confidential information, and communication failures, which are mostly mitigated by young people and clinicians using common-sense approaches. CONCLUSIONS: As NHS policy prompts more widespread use of digital communication to improve the health care experience, our findings suggest that benefit is most likely, and harms are mitigated, when digital communication is used with patients who already have a relationship of trust with the clinical team, and where there is identifiable need for patients to have flexible access, such as when transitioning between services, treatments, or lived context. Clinical teams need a proactive approach to ethics, governance, and patient safety

Probing Dust in the Atmosphere of Brown Dwarfs Through Polarization

Theoretical analysis and observational evidences indicate that a brown dwarf with effective temperature greater than 1400 K would have dust cloud in its atmosphere. In this letter, we show that dust scattering should yield polarized continuum radiation from the relatively warm brown dwarfs and the polarized flux profile could be a potential diagnosis tool for the optical and the physical properties of dust grains. The degree of polarization due to multiple scattering will be more in the optical region if the particle size is small while significant polarization should be detected in the infra-red region if the particle size is large. It is pointed out that the departure from sphericity in the shape of the object due to rapid rotation and due to tidal effect by the companion in a binary system ensures the disc integrated polarization to be non-zero.Comment: 9 pages (Latex AAS v4.0), 2 postscript figures, Accepted by The Astrophysical Journal Letter

The impacts of decentralisation on health systems: a systematic review of reviews

Background: Despite decentralisation being a common mechanism through which health systems around the world have been reformed, a clear understanding of how decentralisation impacts health systems is lacking. Although both primary and secondary research exists, the evidence remains scattered. This review collected and synthesised evidence generated by previous reviews on the impact of decentralising health system governance on the six WHO (World Health Organization) health system building blocks. Methods: We systematically searched for reviews exploring the impact of decentralisation on the health system from five databases. Reviews, both systematic and non-systematic, published in the English language from 1990 to February 2022 were included. Quality assessment of the reviews was conducted using CASP for systematic reviews and SANRA for non-systematic reviews. Results: Nine reviews, each addressing slightly different questions, contexts and health system issues, were synthesised. They showed that devolution can have positive or negative impacts on the health system and its components. Moreover, impact assessments are significantly affected by complexities surrounding decentralisation and health system concepts: their dynamic mechanisms, inconsistent and often differently operationalized health system and health system component variables, and methodological challenges. For the WHO health system components, more negative than positive impacts were reported. The reviews highlight the importance of closely assessing (pre-)existing (political and non-political) characteristics of countries and their health systems to better understand impacts. Conclusions: Decentralisation can have a negative or a positive impact on the health system and its components; the impacts are shaped by pre-existing country contexts. Generating conclusive and generalisable evidence of the impacts of decentralisation on health systems is challenging. Whilst decentralisation may seek to enhance community engagement and improve the responsiveness of decision-making, it has the potential to create serious challenges to the health system, the manifestations of which are likely to be context-specific. Protocol Registration: PROSPERO CRD4202230201

STAT2 Mediates Innate Immunity to Dengue Virus in the Absence of STAT1 via the Type I Interferon Receptor

Dengue virus (DENV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus, and symptoms of infection range from asymptomatic to the severe dengue hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome (DHF/DSS). High viral loads correlate with disease severity, and both type I & II interferons (IFNs) are crucial for controlling viral replication. We have previously reported that signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) 1-deficient mice are resistant to DENV-induced disease, but little is known about this STAT1-independent mechanism of protection. To determine the molecular basis of the STAT1-independent pathway, mice lacking STAT1, STAT2, or both STAT1 and STAT2 were infected with a virulent mouse-adapted strain of DENV2. In the first 72 hours of infection, the single-deficient mice lacking STAT1 or STAT2 possessed 50–100 fold higher levels of viral RNA than wild type mice in the serum, spleen, and other visceral tissues, but remained resistant to DENV-induced death. In contrast, the double-deficient mice exhibited the early death phenotype previously observed in type I and II IFN receptor knockout mice (AG129), indicating that STAT2 is the mediator of the STAT1-independent host defense mechanism. Further studies demonstrated that this STAT2-dependent STAT1-independent mechanism requires the type I IFN receptor, and contributes to the autocrine amplification of type I IFN expression. Examination of gene expression in the spleen and bone marrow-derived macrophages following DENV infection revealed STAT2-dependent pathways can induce the transcription of a subset of interferon stimulated genes even in the absence of STAT1. Collectively, these results help elucidate the nature of the poorly understood STAT1-independent host defense mechanism against viruses by identifying a functional type I IFN/STAT2 signaling pathway following DENV infection in vivo