Motion of a viscous fluid with suspended particles in a curved tube

In this paper we have discussed the motion of a viscous fluid with suspended particles through a curved tube of small curvature ratio. The system is treated as two separate interacting continua. Solutions for axial and secondary velocities are obtained in the form of asymptotic expansions in powers of Dean Number. The streamline pattern for the particulate phase reveals many interesting features. The influence of the particulate continium on the fluid is described by the parameter τ which depends on the density ratio of the two continua. The concentration distribution of the particles in a given cross section is determined. It is noticed that the particles move closer to the wall for certain values of the concentration and the density ratio.

The development and preliminary testing of an instrument for assessing fatigue self-management outcomes in patients with advanced cancer

Background: Fatigue is one of the most distressing and commonly experienced symptoms in patients with advanced cancer. Although the self-management (SM) of cancer-related symptoms has received increasing attention, no research instrument assessing fatigue SM outcomes for patients with advanced cancer is available. Objectives: to describe the development and preliminary testing of an interviewer administered instrument for assessing the frequency, and perceived levels of effectiveness and self-efficacy associated with fatigue SM behaviors in patients with advanced cancer. Methods: The development and testing of the Self-efficacy in Managing Symptoms Scale- Fatigue Subscale for Patients with Advanced Cancer (SMSFS-A) involved a number of procedures: item-generation using a comprehensive literature review and semi-structured interviews, content validity evaluation using expert panel reviews, and face validity and test-retest reliability evaluation using pilot testing. Results: Initially, 23 items (22 specific behaviors with one global item) were generated from the literature review and semi-structured interviews. After two rounds of expert panel review, the final scale was reduced to 17 items (16 behaviors with one global item). Participants in the pilot test (n=10) confirmed that the questions in this scale were clear and easy to understand. Bland-Altman analysis showed agreement of results over a one-week interval. Conclusions: The SMSFS-A items were generated using multiple sources. This tool demonstrated preliminary validity and reliability. Implications for practice: The SMSFS-A has the potential to be used for clinical and research purposes. Nurses can use this instrument for collecting data to inform the initiation of appropriate fatigue SM support for this population.

MPC controlled multirotor with suspended slung load: System architecture and visual load detection

There is an increased interest in the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for load transportation from environmental remote sensing to construction and parcel delivery. One of the main challenges is accurate control of the load position and trajectory. This paper presents an assessment of real flight trials for the control of an autonomous multi-rotor with a suspended slung load using only visual feedback to determine the load position. This method uses an onboard camera to take advantage of a common visual marker detection algorithm to robustly detect the load location. The load position is calculated using an onboard processor, and transmitted over a wireless network to a ground station integrating MATLAB/SIMULINK and Robotic Operating System (ROS) and a Model Predictive Controller (MPC) to control both the load and the UAV. To evaluate the system performance, the position of the load determined by the visual detection system in real flight is compared with data received by a motion tracking system. The multi-rotor position tracking performance is also analyzed by conducting flight trials using perfect load position data and data obtained only from the visual system. Results show very accurate estimation of the load position (~5% Offset) using only the visual system and demonstrate that the need for an external motion tracking system is not needed for this task.

Development and preliminary validation of the Drinking Expectancy Sexual Vulnerabilities Questionnaire (DESV-Q): A purpose-specific instrument for rape-perception research

Background Alcohol expectancies likely play a role in people’s perceptions of alcohol-involved sexual violence. However, no appropriate measure exists to examine this link comprehensively. Objective The aim of this research was to develop an alcohol expectancy measure which captures young adults’ beliefs about alcohol’s role in sexual aggression and victimization. Method Two cross-sectional samples of young Australian adults (18–25 years) were recruited for scale development (Phase 1) and scale validation (Phase 2). In Phase 1, participants (N = 201; 38.3% males) completed an online survey with an initial pool of alcohol expectancy items stated in terms of three targets (self, men, women) to identify the scale’s factor structure and most effective items. A revised alcohol expectancy scale was then administered online to 322 young adults (39.6% males) in Phase 2. To assess the predictive, convergent, and discriminant validity of the scale, participants also completed established measures of personality, social desirability, alcohol use, general and context-specific alcohol expectancies, and impulsiveness. Results Principal axis factoring (Phase 1) and confirmatory factor analysis (Phase 2) resulted in a target-equivalent five-factor structure for the final 66-item Drinking Expectancy Sexual Vulnerabilities Questionnaire (DESV-Q). The factors were labeled: - (1) Sexual Coercion - (2) Sexual Vulnerability - (3) Confidence - (4) Self-Centeredness - (5) Negative Cognitive and Behavioral Changes The measure demonstrated effective items, high internal consistency, and satisfactory predictive, convergent, and discriminant validity. Conclusions The DESV-Q is a purpose-specific instrument that could be used in future research to elucidate people’s attributions for alcohol-involved sexual aggression and victimization.

Evidence of package trading in a mature multi-species ITQ market

In multi-species fisheries managed under ITQs, the existence of joint production may lead to complex catch-quota balancing issues. Previous modelling and experimental research suggest that, in such fisheries, some fishers may benefit from the ability to trade packages of fishing quotas, rather than fulfil their quota needs by simultaneously bidding on separate single-species quota markets. This note presents evidence of naturally occurring package trades in a real fishery. Based on this evidence, we suggest that further empirical and modelling research is required on the potential and limitations of package quota trading in mixed fisheries managed with ITQs. © 2014.

Instrument for simultaneous assessment of tear film surface quality and subjective vision

To develop and test a custom-built instrument to simultaneously assess tear film surface quality (TFSQ) and subjective vision score (SVS).

PolyPatEx : an R package for paternity exclusion in autopolyploids

Microsatellite markers have demonstrated their value for performing paternity exclusion and hence exploring mating patterns in plants and animals. Methodology is well established for diploid species, and several software packages exist for elucidating paternity in diploids; however, these issues are not so readily addressed in polyploids due to the increased complexity of the exclusion problem and a lack of available software. We introduce polypatex, an r package for paternity exclusion analysis using microsatellite data in autopolyploid, monoecious or dioecious/bisexual species with a ploidy of 4n, 6n or 8n. Given marker data for a set of offspring, their mothers and a set of candidate fathers, polypatex uses allele matching to exclude candidates whose marker alleles are incompatible with the alleles in each offspring–mother pair. polypatex can analyse marker data sets in which allele copy numbers are known (genotype data) or unknown (allelic phenotype data) – for data sets in which allele copy numbers are unknown, comparisons are made taking into account all possible genotypes that could arise from the compared allele sets. polypatex is a software tool that provides population geneticists with the ability to investigate the mating patterns of autopolyploids using paternity exclusion analysis on data from codominant markers having multiple alleles per locus.

Biotransformation of cholesterol to diosgenin by freely suspended and immobilised cells of Dioscorea bulbifera L.

The cell suspension cultures, established from the friable callus which was risen from the nodal segments of Dioscorea bulbifera L. in Murashige-Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with indole-3-butryic acid (20 mg L- 1), was examined for cell growth in MS medium fed with cholesterol (50 mg L- 1 and 100 mg L- 1) after 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18 days of culture. The growth index of the cell suspension culture on the 8th day was 1.2 and gradually inclined to 1.9 on the 16th day and remained the same at the 18th day. There is no marked difference in the cell growth of cholesterol-treated and control cell suspension culture. The maximum accumulation of diosgenin was noticed on the 14th day in control and cholesterol-treated cell suspension culture and immobilised cell cultures. The highest concentration of diosgenin, 2.94% and 2.14% dry weight, was obtained in immobilised cell culture and cell suspension culture treated with 100 mg L- 1 cholesterol, respectively.

Studies of solar and stellar flares using multi-instrument data

Solar flares were first observed by plain eye in white light by William Carrington in England in 1859. Since then these eruptions in the solar corona have intrigued scientists. It is known that flares influence the space weather experienced by the planets in a multitude of ways, for example by causing aurora borealis. Understanding flares is at the epicentre of human survival in space, as astronauts cannot survive the highly energetic particles associated with large flares in high doses without contracting serious radiation disease symptoms, unless they shield themselves effectively during space missions. Flares may be at the epicentre of man s survival in the past as well: it has been suggested that giant flares might have played a role in exterminating many of the large species on Earth, including dinosaurs. Having said that prebiotic synthesis studies have shown lightning to be a decisive requirement for amino acid synthesis on the primordial Earth. Increased lightning activity could be attributed to space weather, and flares. This thesis studies flares in two ways: in the spectral and the spatial domain. We have extracted solar spectra using three different instruments, namely GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite), RHESSI (Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager) and XSM (X-ray Solar Monitor) for the same flares. The GOES spectra are low resolution obtained with a gas proportional counter, the RHESSI spectra are higher resolution obtained with Germanium detectors and the XSM spectra are very high resolution observed with a silicon detector. It turns out that the detector technology and response influence the spectra we see substantially, and are important to understanding what conclusions to draw from the data. With imaging data, there was not such a luxury of choice available. We used RHESSI imaging data to observe the spatial size of solar flares. In the present work the focus was primarily on current solar flares. However, we did make use of our improved understanding of solar flares to observe young suns in NGC 2547. The same techniques used with solar monitors were applied with XMM-Newton, a stellar X-ray monitor, and coupled with ground based Halpha observations these techniques yielded estimates for flare parameters in young suns. The material in this thesis is therefore structured from technology to application, covering the full processing path from raw data and detector responses to concrete physical parameter results, such as the first measurement of the length of plasma flare loops in young suns.

Investigations of planetary boundary layer processes and particle formation in the atmosphere of planet Mars

The planet Mars is the Earth's neighbour in the Solar System. Planetary research stems from a fundamental need to explore our surroundings, typical for mankind. Manned missions to Mars are already being planned, and understanding the environment to which the astronauts would be exposed is of utmost importance for a successful mission. Information of the Martian environment given by models is already now used in designing the landers and orbiters sent to the red planet. In particular, studies of the Martian atmosphere are crucial for instrument design, entry, descent and landing system design, landing site selection, and aerobraking calculations. Research of planetary atmospheres can also contribute to atmospheric studies of the Earth via model testing and development of parameterizations: even after decades of modeling the Earth's atmosphere, we are still far from perfect weather predictions. On a global level, Mars has also been experiencing climate change. The aerosol effect is one of the largest unknowns in the present terrestrial climate change studies, and the role of aerosol particles in any climate is fundamental: studies of climate variations on another planet can help us better understand our own global change. In this thesis I have used an atmospheric column model for Mars to study the behaviour of the lowest layer of the atmosphere, the planetary boundary layer (PBL), and I have developed nucleation (particle formation) models for Martian conditions. The models were also coupled to study, for example, fog formation in the PBL. The PBL is perhaps the most significant part of the atmosphere for landers and humans, since we live in it and experience its state, for example, as gusty winds, nightfrost, and fogs. However, PBL modelling in weather prediction models is still a difficult task. Mars hosts a variety of cloud types, mainly composed of water ice particles, but also CO2 ice clouds form in the very cold polar night and at high altitudes elsewhere. Nucleation is the first step in particle formation, and always includes a phase transition. Cloud crystals on Mars form from vapour to ice on ubiquitous, suspended dust particles. Clouds on Mars have a small radiative effect in the present climate, but it may have been more important in the past. This thesis represents an attempt to model the Martian atmosphere at the smallest scales with high resolution. The models used and developed during the course of the research are useful tools for developing and testing parameterizations for larger-scale models all the way up to global climate models, since the small-scale models can describe processes that in the large-scale models are reduced to subgrid (not explicitly resolved) scale.