A rare cause of recurrent spontaneous pneumothorax: Birt-hogg-dube syndrome

Birt-Hogg-Dube (BHD) syndrome is an unusual disorder characterized by the triad of cutaneous lesions, renal tumors and lung cysts. In cases with BHD syndrome, the frequency of recurrent pneumothorax is increased due to presence of multiple lung cysts. It is important to evaluate the BHD syndrome in differential diagnosis of recurrent pneumothorax especially with multiple lung cysts predominating in the lung base. In these patients, the presence of accompanying kidney and other tumors should be investigated. Herein, we report a case of BHD syndrome presenting with recurrent pneumothorax. © 2018 by Turkish Thoracic Society

MICROCLIMATE ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENT URBAN FORMS IN COLD CLIMATES AND THE EFFECT OF THERMAL COMFORT

In this study, it is aimed to understand the relation between micro-climate and urban planning in the case of a cold-climate city, Erzurum. The effects of different urban patterns on micro-climate are analyzed in the context of this study. As a methodology, ENVI-met is used for processing micro-climate simulation of selected urban areas by using measured and obtained climate data such as air temperature, relative humidity, average reflected temperature, surface temperatures, sky view factor, wind velocity and direction. In order to check the accuracy of the simulation for the case study area, obtained data (from meteorology station) is simulated with ENVI-met and results were compared with measured data in the area. Also, land uses and field searches based on the observation of existing situation of urban environment were included into analysis. The findings show that irregular building plot sizes and building heights are mostly existing in historical areas and those urban forms increase thermal comfort under cold climate conditions. The results of simulations provided that same heights of the buildings, regular separation of buildings and regular plot sizes have led to severe urban micro-climates. In contrast, it is observed that variety of those urban physical environment features supported comfortable micro-climate conditions. Urban geometry and climate variables are two of the most important factors shaping outdoor spaces thermal comfort feeling

Microstructural and electrical characterization of Ti and Mg doped Cu-clad MgB2 superconducting wires

The recent studies on Ti doping effect on the critical current density (Jc) of MgB2 composite superconductors prepared under ambient pressure has shown an important enhancement at 20 K. In the present work, we have fabricated Ti and Mg doped superconducting MgB2 wires by packing reacted MgB2 and Ti or Mg powders together inside Cu tubes with a diameter of 6 mm. The tubes were then cold worked by rolling or drawing to smaller diameters. The prepared Cu-clad Ti and Mg added MgB 2 superconducting wires were annealed at various temperatures to enhance the grain connectivity of the MgB2 bulk materials. The effect of the sintering time has been investigated for high performance characteristics of superconducting Cu-clad Ti and Mg added MgB2 wires. The microstructural evaluation of the superconducting wires has been carried out using XRD and SEM equipped with EDX analysis system. The interfacial properties between Cu sheath and superconducting core was characterized using SEM-EDX. Furthermore, the influence of the presence of Ti and Mg on Tc has been investigated to understand the structural and electronic properties of superconducting Ti and Mg doped MgB2 wires

Collective Excitations of (154)Sm nucleus at FEL{gamma}+LHC Collider

The production of collective excitations of the (154)Sm at FEL{gamma}+LHC collider is investigated. We show that this machine will be a powerful tool for investigation of high energy level excitations.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, 4 table

Plant Secondary Metabolites and Abiotic Stress Tolerance: Overview and Implications

Plant secondary metabolites (PSM) are one of the major sources of industrially important products such as food additives due to their distinctive tastes, smells, and flavors. Unlike primary metabolites such as carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins, these secondary chemicals are not involved in plant growth, development, and reproduction but play a significant role in ecosystem functioning. These secondary biochemicals also play a key role in plant communication and defense, particularly under different environmental stresses. Plants may exhibit a defense response to combat these abiotic environmental stressors by generating a variety of PSMs to minimize cell and tissue damage. Secondary metabolites are very diverse (almost more than 200,000) in nature, majorly classified into terpenoids, phenolic compounds, nitrogen, and sulfur-containing secondary metabolites, separated based on biosynthetic pathways (shikimate pathway, mevalonic pathway, and tricarboxylic acid cycle pathway). This chapter summarizes the stimulating effects of different abiotic stressors (heavy metals, cold and high temperature, light, salinity, and drought) on secondary metabolite production. A major focus is given on the synthesis of secondary metabolite and accumulation in plants under stressful conditions, and their role in the regulation of plant defense

Proximate ferromagnetic state in the Kitaev model material α-RuCl3

α-RuCl$_{3}$ is a major candidate for the realization of the Kitaev quantum spin liquid, but its zigzag antiferromagnetic order at low temperatures indicates deviations from the Kitaev model. We have quantified the spin Hamiltonian of α-RuCl$_{3}$ by a resonant inelastic x-ray scattering study at the Ru L$_{3}$ absorption edge. In the paramagnetic state, the quasi-elastic intensity of magnetic excitations has a broad maximum around the zone center without any local maxima at the zigzag magnetic Bragg wavevectors. This finding implies that the zigzag order is fragile and readily destabilized by competing ferromagnetic correlations. The classical ground state of the experimentally determined Hamiltonian is actually ferromagnetic. The zigzag state is stabilized by quantum fluctuations, leaving ferromagnetism – along with the Kitaev spin liquid – as energetically proximate metastable states. The three closely competing states and their collective excitations hold the key to the theoretical understanding of the unusual properties of α-RuCl$_{3}$ in magnetic fields

Vowel reduction in word-final position by early and late Spanish-English bilinguals

Vowel reduction is a prominent feature of American English, as well as other stress-timed languages. As a phonological process, vowel reduction neutralizes multiple vowel quality contrasts in unstressed syllables. For bilinguals whose native language is not characterized by large spectral and durational differences between tonic and atonic vowels, systematically reducing unstressed vowels to the central vowel space can be problematic. Failure to maintain this pattern of stressed-unstressed syllables in American English is one key element that contributes to a ?foreign accent? in second language speakers. Reduced vowels, or ?schwas,? have also been identified as particularly vulnerable to the co-articulatory effects of adjacent consonants. The current study examined the effects of adjacent sounds on the spectral and temporal qualities of schwa in word-final position. Three groups of English-speaking adults were tested: Miami-based monolingual English speakers, early Spanish-English bilinguals, and late Spanish-English bilinguals. Subjects performed a reading task to examine their schwa productions in fluent speech when schwas were preceded by consonants from various points of articulation. Results indicated that monolingual English and late Spanish-English bilingual groups produced targeted vowel qualities for schwa, whereas early Spanish-English bilinguals lacked homogeneity in their vowel productions. This extends prior claims that schwa is targetless for F2 position for native speakers to highly-proficient bilingual speakers. Though spectral qualities lacked homogeneity for early Spanish-English bilinguals, early bilinguals produced schwas with near native-like vowel duration. In contrast, late bilinguals produced schwas with significantly longer durations than English monolinguals or early Spanish-English bilinguals. Our results suggest that the temporal properties of a language are better integrated into second language phonologies than spectral qualities. Finally, we examined the role of nonstructural variables (e.g. linguistic history measures) in predicting native-like vowel duration. These factors included: Age of L2 learning, amount of L1 use, and self-reported bilingual dominance. Our results suggested that different sociolinguistic factors predicted native-like reduced vowel duration than predicted native-like vowel qualities across multiple phonetic environments