Construction of a BAC library for Chinese amphioxus Branchiostoma belcheri and identification of clones containing Amphi-pax genes

Amphioxus is a crucial organism for the study of vertebrate evolution. Although a genomic BAC library of Branchiostoma floridae has been constructed, we report here another BAC library construction of its distant relative species Branchiostoma belcheri. The amphioxus BAC library established in present study consists of 45,312 clones arrayed in one hundred and eighteen 384-well plates. The average insert fragment size was 120 kb estimated by Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) analysis of 318 randomly selected clones. The representation of the library is about 12 equivalent to the genome, allowing a 99.9995% probability of recovering any specific sequence of interest. We further screened the library with 4 single copied Amphi-Pax genes and identified total of 26 positive clones with average of 6.5 clones for each gene. The result indicates this library is well suited for many applications and should also serve as a useful complemental resource for the scientific community.

Addressing the cognitive and social influence inhibitors during the ideation stages of technology roadmapping workshops

Technology roadmapping workshops are essentially a social mechanism for exploring, creating, shaping and implementing ideas. The front-end of a roadmapping session is based on brainstorming in order to tap into the group's diverse knowledge. The aim of this idea stimulation activity is to capture and share as many perspectives as possible across the full scope of the area of interest. The premise to such group brainstorming is that the sharing and exchange of ideas leads to cognitive stimulation resulting in a greater overall group idea generation performance in terms of the number, variety and originality of ideas. However, it must be recognized that the ideation stage in a roadmapping workshop is a complex psychosocial phenomenon with underlying cognitive and social processes. Thus, there are downsides to group interactions and these must be addressed in order to fully benefit from the power of a roadmapping workshop. This paper will highlight and discuss the key cognitive and social inhibitors involved. These include: production blocking, evaluation apprehension, free riding/social loafing, low norm setting/matching. Facilitation actions and process adjustments to counter such negative factors will be identified so as to provide a psychosocial basis for improving the running of roadmapping workshops. © 2009 PICMET.

Study of the electric loading aspects of the BDFM using a lumped parameter thermal model

Details of a lumped parameter thermal model for studying thermal aspects of the frame size 180 nested loop rotor BDFM at the University of Cambridge are presented. Predictions of the model are verified against measured end winding and rotor bar temperatures that were measured with the machine excited from a DC source. The model is used to assess the thermal coupling between the stator windings and rotor heating. The thermal coupling between the stator windings is assessed by studying the difference of the steady state temperatures of the two stator end windings for different excitations. The rotor heating is assessed by studying the temperatures of regions of interest for different excitations.

An overview of Sequential Monte Carlo methods for parameter estimation in general state-space models

Nonlinear non-Gaussian state-space models arise in numerous applications in control and signal processing. Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) methods, also known as Particle Filters, provide very good numerical approximations to the associated optimal state estimation problems. However, in many scenarios, the state-space model of interest also depends on unknown static parameters that need to be estimated from the data. In this context, standard SMC methods fail and it is necessary to rely on more sophisticated algorithms. The aim of this paper is to present a comprehensive overview of SMC methods that have been proposed to perform static parameter estimation in general state-space models. We discuss the advantages and limitations of these methods. © 2009 IFAC.

Geotechnical observations of construction OF A large shallow SCL tunnel in soft ground

The Fort Canning Tunnel is the first road tunnel in Singapore to be built using the sprayed concrete lining (SCL) method. The major technical challenge of this was to construct a 15m wide tunnel by mining in soft ground under a shallow overburden of 3m to 9m. This paper describes the geotechnical investigations and monitoring controls for the safe and progressive execution of the works, such as soil investigations, trial forepoling works, surface settlement monitoring, tunnel settlement monitoring, face movement monitoring, and the observational approach to construction. The monitored field data showed the volume loss to range from 0.4% to 2.1%, and the observed surface settlement trough was found to agree well with the theoretical Gaussian trough. Other observations made include substantial surface settlements induced by the stress relief at and ahead of the tunnel face in spite of the forepoling umbrella, and the higher volume losses associated with higher overburden. Tunnel face movements were observed during installation of forepoling. These observations are of interest to engineers planning future SCL tunnels in similar conditions.

A policy dimension required for technology roadmapping: Learning from the development of emerging wind energy industry in China

Innovation policies play an important role throughout the development process of emerging industries. However, existing policy studies view the process as a black-box, and fail to understand the policy-industry interactions through the process. This paper aims to develop an integrated technology roadmapping tool, in order to facilitate the better understanding of policy heterogeneity at the different stages of new energy industries in China. Through the case study of Chinese wind energy equipment manufacturing industry, this paper elaborates the dynamics between policy and the growth process of the industry. Further, this paper generalizes some Chinese specifics for the policy-industry interactions. As a practical output, this study proposes a policy-technology roadmapping framework that maps policy-market-product- technology interactions in response to the requirement for analyzing and planning the development of new industries in emerging economies (e.g. China). This paper will be of interest to policy makers, strategists, investors, and industrial experts. © 2011 IEEE.

Report on the occurrence of one subspecies of Scylla serrata (Forskal) in Cochin backwaters

The taxonomy of the mud crab, Scylla serrata has become a topic of interest. Alcock (1899) described this species from Indian waters. It was considered that under the genus Scylla, only one species, namely, Scylla serrata was valid. But Estampador (1949) revised the genus and reported the occurrence of four sorts, Scylla serrata, S. tranquebarica, S. oceanica and a variety S. serrata, var paramarnosain in Philippine waters. He established his claim based on the morphology such as colouration, relative length of chelae and also on the cytological events during gametogenesis. Serene (1952) pointed out that two distinct categories under this genus were demonstrable on the basis of colouration. But Stephenson & Campbell (1960) concluded them as only synonyms, but pointed out the need for further investigations.

Modular risk modeling and management of water infrastructure disaster incidents

Water supply and wastewater control are critical elements of society's infrastructure. The objective of this study will be to provide a generic risk assessment tool to provide municipalities and the nation as a whole with a quantifiable assessment of their vulnerability to water infrastructure threats. The approach will prioritize countermeasures and identify where research and development is required to further minimize risk. This paper outlines the current context, primary concerns and state-of-the art in critical infrastructure risk management for the water sector and proposes a novel approach to resolve existing questions in the field. The proposed approach is based on a modular framework that derives a quantitative risk index for varied domains of interest. The approach methodology is scaleable and based on formal definitions of event probability and severity. The framework is equally applicable to natural and human-induced hazard types and can be used for analysis of compound risk events.

Coarse-level object recognition using interlevel products of complex wavelets

This paper introduces the Interlevel Product (ILP) which is a transform based upon the Dual-Tree Complex Wavelet. Coefficients of the ILP have complex values whose magnitudes indicate the amplitude of multilevel features, and whose phases indicate the nature of these features (e.g. ridges vs. edges). In particular, the phases of ILP coefficients are approximately invariant to small shifts in the original images. We accordingly introduce this transform as a solution to coarse scale template matching, where alignment concerns between decimation of a target and decimation of a larger search image can be mitigated, and computational efficiency can be maintained. Furthermore, template matching with ILP coefficients can provide several intuitive "near-matches" that may be of interest in image retrieval applications. © 2005 IEEE.

Spreading of Persian Gulf water in the northwestern Arabian sea during the month of January

The presence of different water masses in the North Arabian Sea continues to remain of interest to scientists and researchers. Focus on these water masses is due to the unique monsoonal reversal features of the Arabian Sea. The encroachment of Persian Gulf water into the Arabian Sea has been acknowledged and traced. This paper presents the results of an investigation on the spreading patterns of Persian Gulf water in the northwestern Arabian Sea. The study incorporated two different techniques: the core-layer method and the constant sigma-theta surface method on data collected during the North Arabian Sea Environment and Ecosystem Research (NASEER) programme. Horizontal curves of temperature and salinity plotted by both methods show that the Persian Gulf water reduces in concentration as it moves from west to east, whereas the major direction of flow is along the coast of Oman. The results of the study indicate that features of the Persian Gulf water in the northwestern Arabian Sea are so pronounced that either of the method can be used to study and identify the water mass fairly well.

Gas-phase production of multifunctional composite nanoparticles by photoinduced chemical vapor deposition

As these results indicate, photo-CVD coating is a robust process that allows for the creation of core-shell nanoparticles. In the present work we demonstrated that photo-CVD can effectively coat Fe2O3 particles with silica for purposes of biological applications. TDMA results combined with TEM images indicate that all particles are effectively coated and that particle coating thicknesses can be tuned to desired thickness depending on the application. In addition, the ability to vary coating properties and to coat high concentrations of particles makes this technique of interest for industrial production where uniform properties are needed for large quantities of particles [2]. Copyright © 2010 by ASME.

A comparison of four sustainable manufacturing strategies

Effective use of materials is one possible component of a sustainable manufacturing strategy. There are many such strategies proposed in the literature and used in practice, with confusion over what they are, what the differences among them may be and how they can be used by practitioners in design and manufacture to improve the sustainability of their product and processes. This paper reviews the literature on sustainable manufacturing strategies that deliver improved material performance. Four primary strategies were found: waste minimisation; material efficiency; resource efficiency; and eco-efficiency. The literature was analysed to determine the key characteristics of these sustainable manufacturing strategies and 17 characteristics were found. The four strategies were then compared and contrasted against all the characteristics. While current literature often uses these strategy titles in a confusing, occasionally inter-changeable manner, this study attempts to create clear separation between them. Definition, scope and practicality of measurement are shown to be key characteristics that impact upon the ability of manufacturing companies to make effective use of the proposed strategy. It is observed that the most actionable strategies may not include all of the dimensions of interest to a manufacturer wishing to become more sustainable, creating a dilemma between ease of implementation and breadth of impact. © 2008 Taylor & Francis.

The analysis of impact forces in randomly vibrating elastic systems

This work is concerned with the characteristics of the impact force produced when two randomly vibrating elastic bodies collide with each other, or when a single randomly vibrating elastic body collides with a stop. The impact condition includes a non-linear spring, which may represent, for example, a Hertzian contact, and in the case of a single body, closed form approximate expressions are derived for the duration and magnitude of the impact force and for the maximum deceleration at the impact point. For the case of two impacting bodies, a set of algebraic equations are derived which can be solved numerically to yield the quantities of interest. The approach is applied to a beam impacting a stop, a plate impacting a stop, and to two impacting beams, and in each case a comparison is made with detailed numerical simulations. Aspects of the statistics of impact velocity are also considered, including the probability that the impact velocity will exceed a specified value within a certain time. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Lifetime determination of excited states in106Cd

Two separate experiments using the Differential Decay Curve Method have been performed to extract mean lifetimes of excited states in 106Cd. The medium-spin states of interest were populated by the 98Mo( 12C, 4n) 106Cd reaction performed at the Wright Nuclear Structure Lab., Yale University. From this experiment, two isomeric state mean lifetimes have been deduced. The low-lying states were populated by the 96Mo(13C, 3n)106Cd reaction performed at the Institut für Kernphysik, Universität zu Köln. The mean lifetime of the Iπ = 21 + state was deduced, tentatively, as 16.4(9) ps. This value differs from the previously accepted literature value from Coulomb excitation of 10.43(9) ps.

Development of realistic liquid equations of state for multi-phase CFD modelling

Several equations of state (EOS) have been incorporated into a novel algorithm to solve a system of multi-phase equations in which all phases are assumed to be compressible to varying degrees. The EOSs are used to both supply functional relationships to couple the conservative variables to the primitive variables and to calculate accurately thermodynamic quantities of interest, such as the speed of sound. Each EOS has a defined balance of accuracy, robustness and computational speed; selection of an appropriate EOS is generally problem-dependent. This work employs an AUSM+-up method for accurate discretisation of the convective flux terms with modified low-Mach number dissipation for added robustness of the solver. In this paper we show a newly-developed time-marching formulation for temporal discretisation of the governing equations with incorporated time-dependent source terms, as well as considering the system of eigenvalues that render the governing equations hyperbolic.