Surface tension implementation for Gensmac 2D

In the present work we describe a method which allows the incorporation of surface tension into the GENSMAC2D code. This is achieved on two scales. First on the scale of a cell, the surface tension effects are incorporated into the free surface boundary conditions through the computation of the capillary pressure. The required curvature is estimated by fitting a least square circle to the free surface using the tracking particles in the cell and in its close neighbors. On a sub-cell scale, short wavelength perturbations are filtered out using a local 4-point stencil which is mass conservative. An efficient implementation is obtained through a dual representation of the cell data, using both a matrix representation, for ease at identifying neighbouring cells, and also a tree data structure, which permits the representation of specific groups of cells with additional information pertaining to that group. The resulting code is shown to be robust, and to produce accurate results when compared with exact solutions of selected fluid dynamic problems involving surface tension

Anti-listerial inhibitory lactic acid bacteria isolated from commercial cold smoked salmon

The natural microflora of cold-smoked fish at the end of shelf-life are lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Some of these display a capacity to inhibit spoilage as well as several strains of pathogenic micro-organisms, e.g. Listeria monocytogenes which is isolated frequently from cold-smoked salmon (CSS). Eight batches of sliced vacuum-packed CSS from Norway, Scotland and Spain were collected at retail. Packs were stored at 5 1C and examined for chemical and microbiological characteristics, at purchase date and at expiration date. pH, water activity and salt content were similar to available data on lightly preserved fish products. There was a consistent pattern in the development of the microflora on CSS; the initial level of LAB was low on freshly produced CSS (102 cfu g 1); however, storage in vacuum packaging at refrigeration temperature was elective for LAB. At the end of the stated shelf-life these micro-organisms, represented mainly by Lactobacillus spp., attained ca.107 cfu g 1 while Enterobacteriaceae counts were consistently lower (105 cfu g 1), which indicates the ability of LAB to grow and compete with few carbohydrates available and in the presence of moderate salt concentrations. L. monocytogenes was not found in any sample. Forty-one percent of LAB strains isolated exhibited inhibitory capacity against Listeria innocua, in a plate assay. A majority of the inhibitory effects were non-bacteriocinogenic, but nevertheless were very competitive cultures which may provide an additional hurdle for improved preservation by natural means. r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Marfan Syndrome and Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.

Objective: Marfan syndrome (MS) is a multisystem disorder caused by a mutation in FBN1 gene. It shares some phenotypic features with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) such as joint hypermobility. EDS is a group of inherited heterogenous multisystem disorders characterized by skin hyperextensibility, atrophic scarring, joint hypermobility, and generalized tissue fragility. Hypermobile EDS (hEDS) is thought to be the most common type. Recent studies have suggested an association between connective tissue hypermobility and functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGDs). The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of gastrointestinal symptoms in patients with Marfan syndrome and hypermobile EDS. Method: Patients with a diagnosis of either MS or hEDS attending cardiology or rheumatology outpatients at our hospital were asked to complete SF36 RAND and Rome IV Diagnostic questionnaires. Questionnaires were also completed by patients who are members of Marfan Association UK. The same questionnaires were also completed by age- and gender-matched controls attending fracture clinic without existing diagnoses of MS or hEDS. Results: Data were collected from 45 MS patients (12 males and 33 females, age range 19-41 years, mean 28 years) and 45 hEDS patients (6 males and 39 females, age range 18-32 years, mean 24 years). None had a previous organic gastrointestinal diagnosis. The control group was matched for age and sex (18 males and 72 females, age range 18-45, mean 29 years). Both MS and hEDS groups showed a higher prevalence of abdominal symptoms compared to the control group; however, the hEDS group not only showed a higher prevalence but more frequent and severe symptoms meeting Rome IV criteria for diagnosis of FGIDs. Nearly half of the hEDS patients met the criteria for more than one FGID. The hEDS group also scored lower on quality of life (QOL) scores in comparison to either of the other groups with a mean score of 48.6 as compared to 54.2 in the Marfan group and 78.6 in the control group. Conclusion: FGIDs are reported in both Marfan syndrome and hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome but appear to be more common and severe in hEDS. These patients score lower on quality of life scores as well despite hypermobility being a common feature of both conditions. Further work is needed to understand the impact of connective tissue disorders on gastrointestinal symptoms

On the Use of KPCA to Extract Artifacts in One-Dimensional Biomedical Signals

Kernel principal component analysis(KPCA) is a nonlinear projective technique that can be applied to decompose multi-dimensional signals and extract informative features as well as reduce any noise contributions. In this work we extend KPCA to extract and remove artifact-related contributions as well as noise from one-dimensional signal recordings. We introduce an embedding step which transforms the one-dimensional signal into a multi-dimensional vector. The latter is decomposed in feature space to extract artifact related contaminations. We further address the preimage problem and propose an initialization procedure to the fixed-point algorithm which renders it more efficient. Finally we apply KPCA to extract dominant Electrooculogram (EOG) artifacts contaminating Electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings in a frontal channel.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio