Direct numerical simulation of turbulent counterflow nonpremixed flames

This paper presents our recent progress in terascale three-dimensional simulations of turbulent nonpremixed flames in the presence of a mean flow strain and fine water droplets. Under the ongoing university collaborative project supported by the DOE SciDAC Program [1] along with the INCITE 2007 Project [2], the study aims at bringing the state-of-the-art high-fidelity simulation capability to the next level by incorporating various advanced physical models for soot formation, radiative heat transfer, and lagrangian spray dynamics, to an unprecedented degree of detail in high-fidelity simulation application. The targeted science issue is fundamental characteristics of flame suppression by the complex interaction between turbulence, chemistry, radiation, and water spray. The high quality simulation data with full consideration of multi-physics processes will allow fundamental understanding of the key physical and chemical mechanisms in the flame quenching behavior. In this paper, recent efforts on numerical algorithms and model development toward the targeted terascale 3D simulations are discussed and some preliminary results are presented.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/58180/2/jpconf7_78_012029.pd

Akabane viral encephalitis in calves in South Korea

This work was supported by the Brain Korea 21 Project and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (399002-3), Republic of Korea

The evolution of electrocardiographic changes in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophies

PurposeMyocardial dysfunction and dysrhythmias are inevitable consequences of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. We aimed to evaluate specific trends of electrocardiographic changes that reflect the progress of cardiomyopathy in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.MethodsFifty electrocardiograms (ECGs) of 30 patients (ages 1 to 27 years) who had not been prescribed medications for heart failure treatment at the time of examination were retrospectively analyzed and compared with 116 ECGs of age-matched healthy 116 controls. Heart rate, leads with fragmented QRS (fQRS), corrected QT, Tpeak-to-Tend, and Tpeak-to-Tend/QT were analyzed.ResultsThe patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy failed to show a normal age-related decline in heart rate but showed an increasing trend in the prevalence of fQRS, corrected QT, corrected Tpeak-to-Tend, and Tpeak-to-Tend/QT over time. In the ≤10-year-old patient group, a significant difference was found only in the prevalence of fQRS between the patients and the controls. The prevalence of fQRS, heart rate, Tpeak-to-Tend/QT, and corrected Tpeak-to-Tend demonstrated significant differences between the patients and the controls in the middle age group (11 to 15 years old). All the indexes were statistically significantly different in the ≥16-year-old patient group.ConclusionThe prevalence of lead with fQRS representing regional wall motion abnormalities was higher in the young patients than in the young healthy controls, and this might be one of the first signs of myocardial change in the patients. Markers of depolarization and repolarization abnormalities were gradually prominent in the patients aged >10 years. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings

Comparison of The Genome Profiles Between Head and Body Lice

The body louse (Pediculus humanus humanus) is known to have diverged from the head louse (P. humanus capitis) but genomic differences between these two subspecies still remain unexplored. To compare genomic profiles between head and body lice, whole genome sequences of head lice were determined by next generation sequencing methods based on both Illumina Genome analyzer and Roche GS FLX pyrosequencing and compared with the reference genome sequences of the body louse. Total consensuses generated by mapping to the body louse genome in conjunction with de novo assembly of head louse genome sequences revealed a head louse genome size of 110 Mbp with a 96% coverage of the body louse genome sequences. A total of 12,651 genes were predicted from the head louse genome sequences although more precise assembly and functional annotation of the genome is required for a more accurate gene count. Among the 873 genes that were putatively specific to the head louse, 15 genes were confirmed to be transcribed in both head and body lice, suggesting the previously estimated gene number of the body louse was likely underestimated. The single nucleotide polymorphism analysis showed that the nucleotide diversity of genome between head and body lice was 2.2%, which was larger than that of the transcriptome between head and body lice. An endosymbiont genome analysis showed that the composition of endosymbionts in head lice was similar to that of body lice and Candidatus Riesia pediculicola was the primary endosymbiont in both head and body lice

Outbreak and control of haemorrhagic pneumonia due to Streptococcus equi subspecies zooepidemicus in dogs

This work was supported by the Brain Korea 21 Program for Veterinary Science and the Korea Research Foundation (KRF- 2004-005-E00077)

Performance evaluation of the HepB Typer-Entecavir kit for detection of entecavir resistance mutations in chronic hepatitis B

Background/AimsMolecular diagnostic methods have enabled the rapid diagnosis of drug-resistant mutations in hepatitis B virus (HBV) and have reduced both unnecessary therapeutic interventions and medical costs. In this study we evaluated the analytical and clinical performances of the HepB Typer-Entecavir kit (GeneMatrix, Korea) in detecting entecavir-resistance-associated mutations.MethodsThe HepB Typer-Entecavir kit was evaluated for its limit of detection, interference, cross-reactivity, and precision using HBV reference standards made by diluting high-titer viral stocks in HBV-negative human serum. The performance of the HepB Typer-Entecavir kit for detecting mutations related to entecavir resistance was compared with direct sequencing for 396 clinical samples from 108 patients.ResultsUsing the reference standards, the detection limit of the HepB Typer-Entecavir kit was found to be as low as 500 copies/mL. No cross-reactivity was observed, and elevated levels of various interfering substances did not adversely affect its analytical performance. The precision test conducted by repetitive analysis of 2,400 replicates with reference standards at various concentrations showed 99.9% agreement (2398/2400). The overall concordance rate between the HepB Typer-Entecavir kit and direct sequencing assays in 396 clinical samples was 99.5%.ConclusionsThe HepB Typer-Entecavir kit showed high reliability and precision, and comparable sensitivity and specificity for detecting mutant virus populations in reference and clinical samples in comparison with direct sequencing. Therefore, this assay would be clinically useful in the diagnosis of entecavir-resistance-associated mutations in chronic hepatitis B

Interaction of turbulence, chemistry, and radiation in strained nonpremixed flames

This paper provides an overview of recent progress in our development of highfidelity simulation of turbulent combustion with detailed chemistry. In particular, two major accomplishments are presented and discussed: (a) As for the computational aspects, it was recognized that many existing techniques to treat inflow and outflow boundary conditions for compressible flow simulations suffered from spurious errors when applied to highly turbulent reacting flow problems. Upon careful examination, the sources of these problems have been identified and an improved characteristic boundary condition strategy has been developed. The new method has been applied to various test problems, thereby demonstrating that the improved boundary conditions can successfully reproduce complex combustion events in a finite domain size with desired accuracy and stability. (b) As a science application, more advanced physical models for soot formation and radiative heat transfer have been developed in order to provide fundamental understanding of the interaction among turbulence, chemistry and radiation. We have performed several parametric simulations of two-dimensional ethyleneair nonpremixed counterflow flames interacting with counter-rotating vortex pairs and injected turbulent flows to investigate transient dynamics of soot formation process. Detailed analysis on the transient characteristics of soot behavior is discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/49003/2/jpconf5_16_011.pd