Ureteroscopy is a minimally invasive surgical procedure for the removal of kidney stones. A ureteroscope, containing a hollow, cylindrical working channel, is inserted into the patient's kidney. The renal space proximal to the scope tip is irrigated, to clear stone particles and debris, with a saline solution that flows in through the working channel. We consider the fluid dynamics of irrigation fluid within the renal pelvis, resulting from the emerging jet through the working channel and return flow through an access sheath. Representing the renal pelvis as a two-dimensional rectangular cavity, we investigate the effects of flow rate and cavity size on flow structure and subsequent clearance time of debris. Fluid flow is modelled with the steady incompressible Navier–Stokes equations, with an imposed Poiseuille profile at the inlet boundary to model the jet of saline, and zero-stress conditions on the outlets. The resulting flow patterns in the cavity contain multiple vortical structures. We demonstrate the existence of multiple solutions dependent on the Reynolds number of the flow and the aspect ratio of the cavity using complementary numerical simulations and particle image velocimetry experiments. The clearance of an initial debris cloud is simulated via solutions to an advection–diffusion equation and we characterise the effects of the initial position of the debris cloud within the vortical flow and the Péclet number on clearance time. With only weak diffusion, debris that initiates within closed streamlines can become trapped. We discuss a flow manipulation strategy to extract debris from vortices and decrease washout time.

This paper considers the significant role of cross-sectional geometry on resistance in co-axial pipe flows. We consider an axially flowing viscous fluid in between two long and thin elliptical coaxial cylinders, one inside the other. The outer cylinder is stationary, while the inner cylinder (rod) is free to move. The rod poses a resistance to the axial flow, while the viscous fluid poses a resistance to any motion of the rod. We show that the equations for flow in the axial direction – driven by a prescribed flux – and for flow within the cross-section of the domain – driven by the motion of the rod – decouple in the asymptotic limit of small cylinder aspect ratio into axial Poiseuille flow and transverse Stokes flow, respectively. The objective of this paper is to calculate numerically the axial and cross-sectional resistances and to determine their dependence on cross-sectional geometry – i.e. rod position and the ellipticities of the rod and bounding cylinder. We characterise axial resistance, first for three reduced parameter spaces that have not been fully analysed in the literature: (i) a circle in an ellipse, (ii) an ellipse in a circle and (iii) an ellipse in an ellipse of equal eccentricity and orientation, before extending our geometric parameter space to determine the overall optimal geometry to minimise axial flow resistance for fixed cross-sectional area. Cross-sectional resistance is characterised via coefficients in a Stokes resistance matrix and we highlight the interdependent effects of cross-sectional ellipticity and boundary interactions.

We present ALMA band 7 data of the extreme OH/IR star, OH 26.5+0.6. In addition to lines of CO and its isotopologues, the circumstellar envelope also exhibits a number of emission lines due to metal-containing molecules, e.g., NaCl and KCl. A lack of C18O is expected, but a non-detection of C17O is puzzling given the strengths of H217O in Herschel spectra of the star. However, a line associated with Si17O is detected. We also report a tentative detection of a gas-phase emission line of MgS. The ALMA spectrum of this object reveals intriguing features which may be used to investigate chemical processes and dust formation during a high mass-loss phase.

Adler et al. (2016) open with a summary of the business case driving our field to change and close by providing principles for accomplishing that change, where they conclude that “there is no right answer to the ratings question” (p. 244). Lying between the opening and closing sections is a series of arguments for and against today's performance rating status quo, arguments illustrating just what happens when too many years are spent seeking answers along too narrow a path. In this commentary, we provide additional support for the strategy- and outcome-driven approach to performance management advocated in the article. In addition, we offer ideas for what has contributed to getting us and keeping us where we are. Unless we understand what has driven performance ratings research and practice to be the object of an intense and lengthy debate, these same forces may well drive us to carry out years-long experiments of questionable value along similarly narrow paths. We want to offer our views on how to foster outcome-based practice more broadly.

The mass and dynamics of protoplanetary disks are dominated by molecular hydrogen (H2). However, observationally very little is known about the H2. In this paper, we discuss two projects aimed to constrain the properties of H2 in the disk's planet forming region (R<50AU). First, we present a sensitive survey for pure-rotational H2 emission at 12.278 and 17.035 μm in a sample of nearby Herbig Ae/Be and T Tauri stars using VISIR, ESO's VLT high-resolution mid-infrared spectrograph. Second, we report on a search for H2 ro-vibrational emission at 2.1228, 2.2233 and 2.2477 μm in the classical T Tauri star LkHα 264 and the debris disk 49 Cet employing CRIRES, ESO's VLT high-resolution near-infrared spectrograph.

VISIR project: none of the sources show H2 mid-IR emission. The observed disks contain less than a few tenths of MJupiter of optically thin H2 at 150 K, and less than a few MEarth at T>300 K. % and higher T. Our non-detections are consistent with the low flux levels expected from the small amount of H2 gas in the surface layer of a Chiang and Goldreich (1997) Herbig Ae two-layer disk model. In our sources the H2 and dust in the surface layer have not significantly departed from thermal coupling (Tgas/Tdust<2) and the gas-to-dust ratio in the surface layer is very likely <1000.

CRIRES project: The H2 lines at 2.1218 μm and 2.2233 μm are detected in LkHα 264. An upper limit on the 2.2477 μm H2 line flux in LkHα 264 is derived. 49 Cet does not exhibit H2 emission in any of observed lines. There are a few MMoon of optically thin hot H2 in the inner disk (∼0.1 AU) of LkHα 264, and less than a tenth of a MMoon of hot H2 in the inner disk of 49 Cet. The shape of the 1–0 S(0) line indicates that LkHα disk is close to face-on (i<35o). The measured 1–0 S(0)/1–0 S(1) and 2–1 S(1)/1–0 S(1) line ratios in LkHα 264 indicate that the H2 is thermally excited at T<1500 K. The lack of H2 emission in the NIR spectra of 49 Cet and the absence of Hα emission suggest that the gas in the inner disk of 49 Cet has dissipated.

Commander Derek Howse, who has died aged 78, was a man of many talents which he used unstintingly in time of war, and in times of peace for the public benefit. After a distinguished career in the Royal Navy he joined the Museum service, and rose in it to become the leading authority on the history of the buildings, instruments and astronomical timekeepers of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, on the solution in the eighteenth century of the problem of determining the longitude at sea by lunar distance and by chronometer, and on the development and use of radar at sea.

Derek was the son of a Captain of the Royal Navy, and at the age of thirteen and a half years followed his father into the Navy as a Naval Cadet. In HMS Britannia (then the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth) for the next three and a half years Derek was given a very broad – for those, even more for present times – education, for it was in the sciences and the humanities, in marine engineering and in seamanship, before going to sea as a midshipman in the 16″-gun battleship HMS Rodney for some two years. He then completed his sub-lieutenant's qualifying courses in navigation, gunnery, torpedoes, anti-submarine warfare and signals in 1939, as the Second World War broke out, when he again went to sea.

Sailors, indeed anyone interested in the development of sailing craft, will be for ever indebted to Joseph Needham. Today they will find with ease literature that describes the origins, characteristics, and development of sailing craft in the various regions of the world; the inter-relationships between natural products, and native hull stuctures and forms, sails' fabrics, shapes, and performance. They can learn, too, that the closestowing anchor, the water-tight bulkhead, the balanced rudder (and other features of the modern efficiency-conscious ship constructor) have all been adapted from the millenniaold, so-long-despised by Westerners, Chinese junk, just as has, late in this twentieth century, the stiffened sail of the modern high-performance yacht.

The use of thiourea/ammonia pre-treatments on (100) InP, followed by chemical bath deposition (CBD) of CdS thin films (∼ 30 Å), with low-temperature, low-pressure chemical vapor deposited SiO2 has been shown to produce metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) samples with near-ideal capacitance-voltage (C-V) response. Here, we report on x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis of the near-surface of InP following pre-treatment and CdS deposition. The pre-treatment was shown by XPS to form an indium sulfide layer and effectively remove native oxides from the InP surface. The subsequent deposition of CdS on a sulfur-passivated surface forms a stable layer which protects the substrate from oxidation during SiO2 chemical vapor deposition. MIS samples prepared using the pre-treatment without CdS deposition showed improved C- V response, while samples prepared with both the pre-treatment and CdS deposition showed a dramatic reduction in the density of interface states.

This review provides an overview of the present state of the art in applying AI techniques to the work of Chemical and Process Engineers. Such work is described, where necessary, in order to make this paper understandable to an audience outside the process engineering community. The first section discusses the nature of chemical engineering design and draws the important distinction between process design and plant design. The complete design cycle is covered a stage at a time and AI applications and issues identified. The section finishes with a discussion of integrated or concurrent design, which is the ultimate aim of much current research. The second section discusses AI applications in process operation. This covers process monitoring, alarm processing and fault diagnosis. The third section discusses, in some depth, design stage loss prevention, that is the design of plants to be safe and reliable. Safety is an integral part of design, but the inclusion of a separate section is appropriate as the qualitative and judgemental nature of many safety related problems has encouraged the use of AI techniques. Applications of AI planning to the problem of automatic operating procedure synthesis and applications of qualitative simulation to chemical engineering problems are also discussed in this section.

Intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) was used to map the primary motor cortex of four adult female baboons, anesthetized with a mixture of halothane and nitrous oxide and supplemented with sodium pentobarbital. The sequence of observed muscle contractions in response to ICMS provided evidence of an orderly mototopic representation of the tongue, face, hand, forearm and upper body. A zone of cortex unresponsive to microstimulation was consistently observed at the border between the face and hand representation of the mototopic map. This zone was observed in all four animals and was consistent over time. Repeated confirmations of the unresponsive nature of these regions were obtained both early and late in the same experiment. No motor-unit responses or muscle contractions were detected by electromyographic (EMG) recording during stimulation of the unresponsive zones. The absence of both visually observed and EMG-recorded contractions and the fact that muscle contractions could be elicited from adjacent regions of cortex with ICMS as low as 1-5 μA provide compelling evidence that the finding reflects a true physiological condition rather than an experimental artifact.

In the mid-16th century the English began to expand their merchant and fighting navies to sail beyond the waters of north-west Europe. This necessitated mathematical navigation, charts, and written and illustrated sailing directions; all, from the 1580s, were embodied in the printed ‘waggoners’ of the Dutch and were used in translation by the English seamen.