Energy transfer in volume-reflecting heat shields

An approximate analytic solution is provided for the unsteady radiative heating of a highly scattering medium under constant heat flux boundary conditions. The accuracy of the method in representing the reflectance, radiative flux, and radiative flux divergence of the materials was also explored, as was the influence of anistropic scattering on these parameters

Heat shield Patent

Compact heat shielding for interplanetary space vehicle

Evaluating the impact of the rural dimension of specialism

Commissioned by the Specialist Schools and Academies TrustThe rural dimension is intended to offer the opportunity to schools to enhance and extend the curriculum. Its focus is the understanding of environmental issues and the countryside, and it is seen as relevant to all schools, including those in urban areas. The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) wishes to evaluate the extent to which the rural dimension is effective in raising standards. The aim of this study, commissioned by the SSAT, was to ascertain the extent to which the work schools undertake as part of their rural dimension has a demonstrable impact on achievement and attainment - in particular concerning: 1) attainment (pupil performance and school standards); 2) behaviour and attendance (on the part of pupils); 3) engagement (pupil interest and motivation, and raising aspirations among pupils and their families). The approach taken in the study is chiefly an interpretative and illuminative one with the aim of throwing light on how the rural dimension acts as an influence within the school context. Rather than looking for linear cause-and-effect, methodologically it was seen as more helpful to view organisations as complex processes of continual interaction in which any one initiative is the catalyst to multiple interpretations and reactions which generate further initiatives. Qualitative data are particularly helpful in throwing light on these processes. An exploratory case study approach was used, generating both qualitative and quantitative data in order to reflect the complexity of practice and experience in the rural dimension. Six case study schools were selected from rural dimension schools which expressed a wish to participate in the study. Criteria were used to maximise the variation in the sample used, although those with relatively large farms are over-represented. Each of the six case study schools was visited by one or more of the research team. Visits involved interviews, observation and perusal and collection of documentary data (including schools’ websites). This report also includes a selective literature review, highlighting some of the issues concerning research into specialisms and the value of education for sustainable development

Toward a functional characterization of the Acidic-domain of the chloroplast protein import receptor Toc159

Chloroplasts are members of a diverse class of organelles called plastids that differentiate plants from other eukaryotes, and are the site of a number of essential biochemical pathways including photosynthesis. Nuclear-encoded pre-proteins, which account for ~95% of chloroplast proteins, are post-translationally imported into plastids across the double envelope membrane. In the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, the majority of pre-proteins are imported via the Toc (translocon at outer envelope membrane of chloroplasts) and Tic (translocon at inner envelope membrane of chloroplasts) complexes, the key components of which have been identified. The Toc159 homologues, atToc159 and atToc132/120, have been shown to form structurally and functionally distinct Toc complexes and have been proposed to serve as the primary pre-protein receptors, recognizing and interacting with the N-terminal extensions of pre-proteins, called transit peptides. The tripartite structure of atToc159 includes a membrane anchor (M-) domain, a GTPase (G-) domain, and an acidic (A-) domain that is currently functionally uncharacterized. The A-domain is a large (733 a.a.), intrinsically unstructured protein domain. The sequence identity among Toc159 homologue A-domains is considerably lower than the G- and M-domains. The A-domain has been shown to play a role in the pre-protein specificity exhibited by distinct Toc complexes. In the current study, the A-domain of atToc159 was shown to remain associated with the chloroplast envelope membrane when proteolytically cleaved by thrombin and to interact specifically with the G-domain of atToc159 in vitro. There was not a large change in secondary structure associated with the interaction, as observed by CD, but the interaction between the A- and G-domains of atToc159 was observed to inhibit the hydrolysis of GTP by the G-domain

Semi-Supervised Deep Learning for Fully Convolutional Networks

Deep learning usually requires large amounts of labeled training data, but annotating data is costly and tedious. The framework of semi-supervised learning provides the means to use both labeled data and arbitrary amounts of unlabeled data for training. Recently, semi-supervised deep learning has been intensively studied for standard CNN architectures. However, Fully Convolutional Networks (FCNs) set the state-of-the-art for many image segmentation tasks. To the best of our knowledge, there is no existing semi-supervised learning method for such FCNs yet. We lift the concept of auxiliary manifold embedding for semi-supervised learning to FCNs with the help of Random Feature Embedding. In our experiments on the challenging task of MS Lesion Segmentation, we leverage the proposed framework for the purpose of domain adaptation and report substantial improvements over the baseline model.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Radiative transfer in highly scattering materials - numerical solution and evaluation of approximate analytic solutions

Numerical solutions for radiative transport in a class of anisotropically scattering materials are presented. Conditions for convergence and divergence of the iterative method are given and supported by computed results. The relation of two flux theories to the equation of radiative transfer for isotropic scattering is discussed. The adequacy of the two flux approach for the reflectance, radiative flux and radiative flux divergence of highly scattering media is evaluated with respect to solutions of the radiative transfer equation

Climb-dash real-time calculations

On-board rear-optimal climb-dash energy management, optimal symmetric flight with an intermediate vehicle model, and energy states are presented

Optimal symmetric flight studies

Several topics in optimal symmetric flight of airbreathing vehicles are examined. In one study, an approximation scheme designed for onboard real-time energy management of climb-dash is developed and calculations for a high-performance aircraft presented. In another, a vehicle model intermediate in complexity between energy and point-mass models is explored and some quirks in optimal flight characteristics peculiar to the model uncovered. In yet another study, energy-modelling procedures are re-examined with a view to stretching the range of validity of zeroth-order approximation by special choice of state variables. In a final study, time-fuel tradeoffs in cruise-dash are examined for the consequences of nonconvexities appearing in the classical steady cruise-dash model. Two appendices provide retrospective looks at two early publications on energy modelling and related optimal control theory

Description and validation of a novel real-time RT-PCR enterovirus assay

Journal ArticleEnteroviruses are a leading cause of aseptic meningitis in adult and pediatric populations. We describe the development of a real-time RT-PCR assay that amplifies a small target in the 5' nontranslated region upstream of the classical Rotbart enterovirus amplicon. The assay includes an RNA internal control and incorporates modified nucleotide chemistry

Reassessment of physico-chemical water quality in Setiu Wetland, Malaysia

Setiu Wetland is located in the southern part of South China Sea, Malaysia. This wetland has diverse ecosystems that represent a vast array of biological diversity and abundance in utilizable natural resources. However, there are large scales of aquaculture activities within and nearby the wetland which could threaten the ecosystems of this area. Thus, the main goal of the study was to assess the impact of these activities through the measurement of physico-chemical water quality parameters and then compare this to a previous study carried out in the same study area. The parameters (salinity, temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand and total suspended solids) were monitored monthly at the surface water from July to October 2008. The results showed that the impact of aquaculture activities on the water quality in the area with dissolved oxygen and total suspended solids concentrations were considerably lower than those observed previously. With respect to the Malaysian Marine Water Quality Criteria and Standard, most of the level of parameters measured remained Class 1, suggesting the physico-chemical environment were in line with sustainable conservation of the marine protected areas and marine parks of this wetland area