Development of a Computationally Efficient Tabulated Chemistry Solver for Internal Combustion Engine Optimization Using Stochastic Reactor Models

The use of chemical kinetic mechanisms in computer aided engineering tools for internal combustion engine simulations is of high importance for studying and predicting pollutant formation of conventional and alternative fuels. However, usage of complex reaction schemes is accompanied by high computational cost in 0-D, 1-D and 3-D computational fluid dynamics frameworks. The present work aims to address this challenge and allow broader deployment of detailed chemistry-based simulations, such as in multi-objective engine optimization campaigns. A fast-running tabulated chemistry solver coupled to a 0-D probability density function-based approach for the modelling of compression and spark ignition engine combustion is proposed. A stochastic reactor engine model has been extended with a progress variable-based framework, allowing the use of pre-calculated auto-ignition tables instead of solving the chemical reactions on-the-fly. As a first validation step, the tabulated chemistry-based solver is assessed against the online chemistry solver under constant pressure reactor conditions. Secondly, performance and accuracy targets of the progress variable-based solver are verified using stochastic reactor models under compression and spark ignition engine conditions. Detailed multicomponent mechanisms comprising up to 475 species are employed in both the tabulated and online chemistry simulation campaigns. The proposed progress variable-based solver proved to be in good agreement with the detailed online chemistry one in terms of combustion performance as well as engine-out emission predictions (CO, CO2, NO and unburned hydrocarbons). Concerning computational performances, the newly proposed solver delivers remarkable speed-ups (up to four orders of magnitude) when compared to the online chemistry simulations. In turn, the new solver allows the stochastic reactor model to be computationally competitive with much lower order modeling approaches (i.e., Vibe-based models). It also makes the stochastic reactor model a feasible computer aided engineering framework of choice for multi-objective engine optimization campaigns

Judicial Activism at the European Court of Justice: A Natural Feature in a Dialogical Context

This article analyses two aspects of judicial activism at the European Court of Justice. First, four German landmark cases concerning European law demonstrate the dialogical relationship between the European Union and their member states with regard to judicial activism. Here, the question of whether the interaction between the ECJ and the German Constitutional Court ('das Bundesverfassungsgericht') has consequences for the amount of judicial activism arises. Second, on the basis of rulings on discrimination law and the internal market law, it is substantiated that activism is not a negative, but a normal feature of the ECJ and that rather judicial restraint constitutes an interesting deviation. Consequently, we conclude that judicial activism at the ECJ is a natural feature in a dialogical context

Hospital-based or home-based administration of oncology drugs? A micro-costing study comparing healthcare and societal costs of hospital-based and home-based subcutaneous administration of trastuzumab

Objective: To investigate resource use and time investments of healthcare professionals, patients and their family and to compare healthcare and societal costs of one single hospital-based and one single home-based subcutaneous administration of trastuzumab in The Netherlands. Method: We conducted a bottom-up micro-costing study. Patients diagnosed with HER2+ early or metastatic breast cancer were recruited in four Dutch hospitals. For healthcare costs, data were collected on drug use, consumables, use of healthcare facilities, time of healthcare professionals, and travelling distance of the nurse. For societal costs, data were collected on patient and family costs (including travelling expenses and time of informal caregivers) and productivity losses of paid and unpaid work. Results: Societal costs of one single administration of SC trastuzumab were €1753 within the home-based and €1724 within the hospital-based setting. Drug costs of trastuzumab were identical in both settings (€1651). Healthcare costs were higher for home-based administration (€91 versus €47) mainly because of more time of healthcare professionals (110 versus 38 minutes). Costs for patient and family were, however, lower for home-based administration due to travelling expenses (€7 versus €0) and time of informal caregivers (€14 versus €4). Costs for productivity losses were similar for both settings. Conclusions: Home-based subcutaneous administration of trastuzumab is more time consuming for healthcare professionals and therefore more costly than hospital-based administration. The total budget impact can be large considering that a large number of patients receive a large number of cycles of oncology treatments. If home-based administration is the way forward, novel approaches are crucial for ensuring efficiency of home-based care

Beam-induced Fe nanopillars as tunable domain-wall pinning sites

Focused-electron-beam-induced deposition (FEBID) is employed to create freestanding magnetic nanostructures. By growing Fe nanopillars on top of a perpendicular magnetic domain wall (DW) conduit, pinning of the DWs is observed due to the stray fields emanating from the nanopillar. Furthermore, a different DW pinning behavior is observed between the up and down magnetic states of the pillar, allowing to deduce the switching fields of the pillar in a novel way. The implications of these results are two-fold: not only can 3-dimensional nano-objects be used to control DW motion in applications, it is also proposed that DW motion is a unique tool to probe the magnetic properties of nano-objects

Eligibility for Liver Transplantation in Patients with Perihilar Cholangiocarcinoma

Background: Liver transplantation (LT) has been performed in a select group of patients presenting with unresectable or primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC)-associated perihilar cholangiocarcinoma (pCCA) in the Mayo Clinic with a reported 5-year overall survival (OS) of 53% on intention-to-treat analysis. The objective of this study was to estimate eligibility for LT in a cohort of pCCA patients in two tertiary referral centers. Methods: Patients diagnosed with pCCA between 2002 and 2014 were included from two tertiary referral centers in the Netherlands. The selection criteria used by the Mayo Clinic were retrospectively applied to determine the proportion of patients that would have been eligible for LT. Results: A total of 732 consecutive patients with pCCA were identified, of whom 24 (4%) had PSC-associated pCCA. Overall, 154 patients had resectable disease on imaging and 335 patients were ineligible for LT because of lymph node or distant metastases. An age limit of 70 years led to the exclusion of 50 patients who would otherwise be eligible for LT. After applying the Mayo Clinic criteria, only 34 patients (5%) were potentially eligible for LT. Median survival from diagnosis for these 34 patients was 13 months (95% CI 3–23). Conclusion: Only 5% of all patients presenting with pCCA were potentially eligible for LT under the Mayo criteria. Without transplantation, a median OS of about 1 year was observed

Insight into the evolution of the Solanaceae from the parental genomes of Petunia hybrida

Petunia hybrida is a popular bedding plant that has a long history as a genetic model system. We report the whole-genome sequencing and assembly of inbred derivatives of its two wild parents, P. axillaris N and P. inflata S6. The current assemblies include 91.3% and 90.2% coverage of their diploid genomes (1.4 Gb; 2n=14) containing 32,928 and 36,697 protein-coding genes, respectively. The Petunia lineage has experienced at least two rounds of paleohexaploidization, the older gamma hexaploidy event, which is shared with other Eudicots, and the more recent Solanaceae paleohexaploidy event that is shared with tomato and other Solanaceae species. Transcription factors that were targets of selection during the shift from bee- to moth pollination reside in particularly dynamic regions of the genome, which may have been key to the remarkable diversity of floral color patterns and pollination systems. The high quality genome sequences will enhance the value of Petunia as a model system for basic and applied research on a variety of unique biological phenomena

Synthetic events for flood risk calculation by using a nested Copula structure

Risk analysis requires considering the entire frequency domain of flood consequences. Synthetic events were generated for the entire river system of the Scheldt estuary. This estuary contains multiple navigable waterways and is situated in Belgium and the Netherlands. Extreme water levels are influenced by rainfall-runoff discharges, tiding, storm surges, and wind speed and direction. For the generation of hydraulic boundary conditions for flood risk assessment, these influences and their mutual dependencies and correlations are taken into account by means of a nested extreme value copula structure. The variation in time is taken into account by standardized profiles, computed by normalizing all recorded extreme events and fitting a probability distribution to the variation of the standardized events, yielding 5 profile classes through another stratification. Eventually this resulted in a total of 1920 sets of synthetic events. All events were run through the hydrodynamic model of the river system. The frequency distribution of the resulting water levels are calculated by accumulation of the corresponding probabilities of occurrence of the synthetic events at each location. The methodology has the advantage that it determines a statistical distribution of consequences, rather than assigning frequencies to hydrodynamic boundary conditions

Exposure to arsenic in relation with DNA damage in adolescents of the 3rd Flemish environment and health study (2012-2014)

Arsenic (As) is a compound naturally present in the environment. Recent studies have shown detectable levels of As in rice, rice food products, and apple juice. As is a well known carcinogen and is related to multiple health effects, for example dermal and kidney toxicity. Recent epidemiological studies have shown that As exposure is also a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. We evaluated the exposure to As in a sample of 408 adolescents that were recruited from the general population in Flanders as part of the third Flemish Environment and Health Study (FLEHS3). We tested whether the current levels of As exposure were associated with oxidative stress biomarkers or biomarkers for DNA damage. In this study, the individual exposure to As was estimated by measuring total As in whole blood and different toxic As metabolites in urine: As III, As V, mono-methylarsonous acid (MMA), dimethylarsinous acid (DMA), and the non-toxic, organic compound arsenobetaine. The sum of the toxic compounds was defined as toxic relevant As (TRA). DNA damage was measured using the alkaline comet assay and the micronucleus test in whole blood samples, and by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA, Gentaur) quantifying 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) in urine. Multiple linear regression models were used to estimate the change of effect for an increase of the exposure from P25 to P75 (P25-P75). All models were adjusted for gender, age, smoking status and statistically significant (p<0.05) covariates. The exposure biomarker As III was categorised due to the large number values below the quantification limit (LOQ). The effect estimate was given for the group with the highest As III exposure versus the group with values below LOQ. Multiple regression analysis showed significant positive associations of urinary inorganic As III (iAsIII) and MMA with DNA breaks measured by the comet assay (iAsIII: β=0.333, 95% CI=0.061-0.605; MMA: β=0.090, 95% CI=0.014-0.166). Urinary iAs levels were positively associated with concentrations of 8-OHdG (iAsIII: OR=1.231, 95% CI=1.107-1.369; iAsV: OR=1.074, 95% CI=1.014-1.137; MMA: OR=1.154, 95% CI=1.105-1.205; DMA: OR=1.099, 95% CI: 1.041-1.160; TRA: OR=1.131, 95% CI= 1.073-1.192). No statistically significant associations were found with the micronucleus test. Although 82% of the adolescents had a TRA concentration below the Biomonitoring Equivalents for non-carcinogenic effects (≤6.4 µg/l), the data obtained in this study indicate that chronic exposure of Flemish adolescents to very low levels of As, compared to studies in e.g. Bangladesh, and both in whole blood (total As) or urine (TRA), is associated with oxidative stress and DNA damage. The studies of the Flemish Center of Expertise on Environment and Health were commissioned, financed and steered by the Ministry of the Flemish Community (Department of Economics, Science and Innovation; Flemish Agency for Care and Health; and Department of Environment, Nature and Energy)

Work arrangement "yo-yo": forced flexibility from the office to home and back again

Purpose: This study explored one form of remote working – work from home – to understand the impact of work disruptions on workers and human resource management (HRM) practice and therefore how to adapt to future crises. Specifically, the purpose is to understand the impact of events on employees when they are forced to move back and forth (yo-yoing) between work from home and a central office, using the case of Perth, Western Australia (WA). Design/methodology/approach: Thirty-nine interviews with leaders, managers and co-workers working in private and public organisations suggest that forced changes to work arrangements affect job content and demands, well-being and potentially career trajectories. Findings: The authors critically applied and developed the tenets of event system theory (EST) (novelty, disruption and criticality) by analysing an ongoing or “long” event rather than a discrete or time-limited one. The study found that the work-from-home experience influenced the individual perception of whether remote working would suit employees in the future, potentially influencing career paths. In addition, the selection of locations to live, preferred properties (e.g. home office space) and access to services (e.g. broadband infrastructure) has also become dominant features of work decisions. Research limitations/implications: While the study generated rich data, it is not without limitations. The participants were from one Australian state which may not reflect the COVID-19 experiences of other jurisdictions. In addition, the participants were mostly female so this may offer a different perspective than a more gender-balanced sample. The study was limited to the perspectives of employees and middle managers. Practical implications: The authors note three areas of implications for practitioners. First, the findings suggest that strong organisational and HRM support assists employees to cope well with change. Second, the importance of technological and social preparedness in improving employee experiences highlights the role of HRM in job design. Third, it is key that salient events are recognised as potential determinants of career pathways. Originality/value: The evidence from this research broadens the application of EST showing that forced flexibility has an influence on work arrangements by influencing a series of changes in features of work and experiences of employees. As such, this impacts employee's well-being and potentially future career decisions