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The effect of cooling rate on the microstructure evolution and the mechanical properties of ingots and rods of 2–5 mm diameter of (Ni0.92Zr0.08)100−xAlx (0 ≤ x ≤ 4 at.%) ultrafine eutectic composites have been investigated. The microstructure of the composites is comprised of micrometer size γ-Ni dendrites embedded in a nano/-ultrafine lamellar fcc γ-Ni and Ni5Zr matrix. The evolution of the microstructure at a wide range of cooling rates (10–104 K/s) has been analyzed in respect of volume fraction of the phases, lamellar spacing, and secondary dendritic arm spacing. All these composites exhibit high hardness up to 4.6 GPa and yield strength up to 1.6 GPa with large compressive plasticity up to 22% at room temperature. The effect of cooling rates on the strength and hardness, and the plasticity of the nanolamellar composites with wide range of alloy composition have been correlated.
A total of 45 strains of Vibrio cholerae O1 isolated from 10 different places in India where they were associated with cases of cholera between the years 2007 and 2008 were examined by molecular methods. With the help of phenotypic and genotypic tests the strains were confirmed to be O1 El Tor biotype strains with classical ctxB gene. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis by double – mismatch amplification mutation assay PCR showed 16 of these strains carried the ctxB-7 allele reported in Haitian strains. Sequencing of the ctxB gene in all the 45 strains revealed that in 16 strains the histidine at the 20th amino acid position had been replaced by asparagine and this single nucleotide polymorphism did not affect cholera toxin production as revealed by beads enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. This study shows that the new ctxB gene sequence was circulating in different places in India. Seven representatives of these 45 strains analysed by pulsed – field gel electrophoresis showed four distinct Not I digested profiles showing that multiple clones were causing cholera in 2007 and 2008.
There is a genetic contribution to the risk of suicide, but sparse prior research on the genetics of suicidal ideation.
Methods
Active and passive suicidal ideation were assessed in a Sri Lankan population-based twin registry (n = 3906 twins) and a matched non-twin sample (n = 2016). Logistic regression models were used to examine associations with socio-demographic factors, environmental exposures and psychiatric symptoms. The heritability of suicidal ideation was assessed using structural equation modelling.
Results
The lifetime prevalence of any suicidal ideation was 13.0% (11.7–14.3%) for men; 21.8% (20.3–23.2%) for women, with no significant difference between twins and non-twins. Factors that predicted suicidal ideation included female gender, termination of marital relationship, low education level, urban residence, losing a parent whilst young, low standard of living and stressful life events in the preceding 12 months. Suicidal ideation was strongly associated with depression, but also with abnormal fatigue and alcohol and tobacco use. The best fitting structural equation model indicated a substantial contribution from genetic factors (57%; CI 47–66) and from non-shared environmental factors (43%; CI 34–53) in both men and women. In women this genetic component was largely mediated through depression, but in men there was a significant heritable component to suicidal ideation that was independent of depression.
Conclusions
These are the first results to show a genetic contribution to suicidal ideation that is independent of depression outside of a high-income country. These phenomena may be generalizable, because previous research highlights similarities between the aetiology of mental disorders in Sri Lanka and higher-income countries.
We address two aspects of finitely generated modules of finite projective dimension over local rings and their connection in between: embeddability and grade of order ideals of minimal generators of syzygies. We provide a solution of the embeddability problem and prove important reductions and special cases of the order ideal conjecture. In particular, we derive that, in any local ring R of mixed characteristic p > 0, where p is a nonzero divisor, if I is an ideal of finite projective dimension over R and p 𝜖 I or p is a nonzero divisor on R/I, then every minimal generator of I is a nonzero divisor. Hence, if P is a prime ideal of finite projective dimension in a local ring R, then every minimal generator of P is a nonzero divisor in R.
We report on the effects of the frequency dispersion in light sensitive materials used in photoimpedance wireless sensors. An example of such a sensor is a gated semiconductor connecting two or more fixed capacitances. The impedance of the device under illumination is changed by the change in the photoresistance of the semiconductor layer and the change in the gate-semiconductor capacitance. We report on the design and simulation of the frequency dispersion of the impedance of this device in silicon and discuss the physics and device performance. We also evaluate the dynamic range and sensitivity of the wireless photoimpedance sensors and show their advantages for wireless sensing applications compared to more conventional light sensors.
We develop a framework for analysing the outcome of resource competition based on
bifurcation theory. We elaborate our methodology by readdressing the problem of
competition of two species for two resources in a chemostat environment. In the case of
perfect-essential resources it has been extensively discussed using Tilman’s
representation of resource quarter plane plots. Our mathematically rigorous analysis
yields bifurcation diagrams with a striking similarity to Tilman’s method including the
interpretation of the consumption vector and the resource supply vector. However, our
approach is not restricted to a particular class of models but also works with other
trophic interaction formulations. This is illustrated by the analysis of a model
considering interactively-essential or complementary resources instead of
prefect-essential resources. Additionally, our approach can also be used for other
ecosystem compositions: multiple resources–multiple species communities with equilibrium
or oscillatory dynamics. Hence, it gives not only a new interpretation of Tilman’s
graphical approach, but it constitutes an extension of competition analyses to communities
with many species as well as non-equilibrium dynamics.
Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum, Schlecht. emend. Snyd. & Hans. f. sp. ciceri is prevalent in most chickpea-growing countries and is a major devastating disease. Host plant resistance is the most practical method of disease management. Indigenous chickpea germplasm reveals a heterogeneous genetic make-up and the response of resistance to wilt is an unexplored potential source for disease resistance. There are 70 indigenous germplasm lines selected on the basis of their agronomic performance and diverse areas of collections in the country. Of these, four accessions had a highly resistant score of 1 and six had a score of 3 using a 1–9 rating scale, indicating their level of resistance to Fusarium wilt (race 4). Other germplasm accessions of chickpea were found to be moderately resistant to highly susceptible disease reaction. Likewise, the same set of germplasm was also screened for Meloidogyne incognita (race 1) using pot culture under controlled condition. Only one accession was found to be resistant to this pest. These resistant gene sources can be utilised effectively for race-specific chickpea wilt and root-knot resistance breeding programmes.
A temporal relationship of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) transmission in pigs, mosquitoes and humans revealed that sentinel pig seroconversions were significantly associated with human cases 4 weeks before (P = 0·04) their occurrence, highly correlated during the same time and 2 weeks before case occurrence (P < 0·001), and remained significantly correlated up to 2 weeks after human case occurrence (P < 0·01). JEV was detected in the same month in pigs and mosquitoes, and peaks of pig seroconversion were preceded by 1–2 months of peaks of infection in vectors. Kaplan–Meier analysis indicated that detection of JEV-positive mosquitoes was significantly associated with the median time to occurrence of seroconversion in pigs (P < 0·05). This study will not only help in predicting JEV activity but also accelerate timely vector control measures and vaccination programmes for pigs and humans to reduce the Japanese encephalitis risk in endemic areas.
The excess mortality following first-contact psychosis is well recognized. However, the causes of death in a complete incidence cohort and mortality patterns over time compared with the general population are unknown.
Method
All 2723 patients who presented for the first time with psychosis in three defined catchment areas of the UK in London (1965–2004, n=2056), Nottingham (1997–1999, n=203) and Dumfries and Galloway (1979–1998, n=464) were traced after a mean of 11.5 years follow-up and death certificates were obtained. Data analysis was by indirect standardization.
Results
The overall standardized mortality ratio (SMR) for first-contact psychosis was 184 [95% confidence interval (CI) 167–202]. Most deaths (84.2%, 374/444) were from natural causes, although suicide had the highest SMR (1165, 95% CI 873–1524). Diseases of the respiratory system and infectious diseases had the highest SMR of the natural causes of death (232, 95% CI 183–291). The risk of death from diseases of the circulatory system was also elevated compared with the general population (SMR 139, 95% CI 117–164) whereas there was no such difference for neoplasms (SMR 111, 95% CI 86–141). There was strong evidence that the mortality gap compared with the general population for all causes of death (p<0.001) and all natural causes (p=0.01) increased over the four decades of the study. There was weak evidence that cardiovascular deaths may be increasing relative to the general population (p=0.07).
Conclusions
People with first-contact psychosis have an overall mortality risk that is nearly double that of the general population. Most excess deaths are from natural causes. The widening of the mortality gap over the last four decades should be of concern to all clinicians involved in delivering healthcare.
This paper deals with the design and implementation of a visual kinematic control scheme for a redundant manipulator. The inverse kinematic map for a redundant manipulator is a one-to-many relation problem; i.e. for each Cartesian position, multiple joint angle vectors are associated. When this inverse kinematic relation is learnt using existing learning schemes, a single inverse kinematic solution is achieved, although the manipulator is redundant. Thus a new redundancy preserving network based on the self-organizing map (SOM) has been proposed to learn the one-to-many relation using sub-clustering in joint angle space. The SOM network resolves redundancy using three criteria, namely lazy arm movement, minimum angle norm and minimum condition number of image Jacobian matrix. The proposed scheme is able to guide the manipulator end-effector towards the desired target within 1-mm positioning accuracy without exceeding physical joint angle limits. A new concept of neighbourhood has been introduced to enable the manipulator to follow any continuous trajectory. The proposed scheme has been implemented on a seven-degree-of-freedom (7DOF) PowerCube robot manipulator successfully with visual position feedback only. The positioning accuracy of the redundant manipulator using the proposed scheme outperforms existing SOM-based algorithms.
Three solid solutions of pyrochlores in the series Nd2-yearsGdyZr2O7 (y = 0.8, 1.0, 1.2) were synthesized by the gel combustion method using citric acid as fuel. This results in a soft agglomerate powder as verified by dynamic light scattering. The single-phase nature of the products has been confirmed by x-ray diffraction. The increase in full width at half-maxima in the Raman spectra with an increase in Gd3+ content indicates that disorder increases with Gd3+ content. The morphology and particle size of the products were investigated by transmission electron microscopy. Scanning electron microscopy study reveals that the sintered pellets have a density higher than 92% of theoretical densities. The total ionic conductivity measurements in the temperature range 375–800 °C show that with the increase of disorder (Gd3+ content) in the system the activation energy of conduction increases from 0.98 to 1.06 eV and the preexponential factor, which is proportional to the number of mobile species, also follow the same trend of increase. The total conductivity measured in reducing atmosphere shows no change in electrical conductivity, which verifies a negligible contribution of electronic contribution in this system.
Information and communication technologies, especially in the forms of mobile telecommunications, satellite imaging, and geographical information systems, promise to significantly improve the practice of humanitarian relief. A working group convened at the Humanitarian Action Summit 2009, has begun investigating the challenges to implementing these technologies in field operations, keeping in mind the ethical considerations of linking people to place, and pledging to build a community of practice among academics, practitioners, and developers.
To compare the effects of subcutaneous and intradermal methods of administration of TAB vaccine for primary immunization against enteric infections an investigation was carried out on 257 Army recruits.
The general and local reactions were more unfavourable by the intradermal method. The agglutinin responses were better with the intradermal route.
The development of surgical robotics is a dynamic process, a constant interplay between clinical need and technologic capability. As both of these factors are constantly changing, it is unlikely that the form the surgical robot takes today will be the form it takes in 20 years. In many aspects, the technology has progressed beyond perceived clinical need. This has created a novel challenge for the surgeon — to determine whether a technologic innovation with apparent benefit has meaningful clinical application. This process has defined the in corporation of robotic technologies into many surgical disciplines, including gynecologic, cardiothoracic, urologic, abdominal, and pediatric surgeries. In whatever way this interplay of technology and clinical need progresses, surgeons are left with the task of guiding its impact on patient care.
The term robot is a misnomer when describing this surgical device. Derived from the Czech robota meaning “drudgery,” this term implies autonomous function, which most surgical robots do not have. Instead, they are better described as computerassisted telemanipulators, implying that they are subject to human control. The complexity of surgical procedures does not currently allow for devices that work entirely autonomously. Nevertheless, the term robot has added a flare of futurism to the endeavor and has been the one most commonly used in the literature.
The multilayers of ferroelectric (FE) Pb(Zr, Ti)O3 (PZT) and ferromagnetic (FM) CoFe2O4 (CFO) thin films with 3, 5, and 9 layers having configurations PZT/CFO (PC) and CFO/PZT (CP) were fabricated by pulsed laser deposition technique. We have investigated the effect of inter-diffusion at the interface of multilayers (MLs) and reversing the order of FE and FM layers in the multilayers configuration on the electrical/magnetic properties. The TEM of the films showed that the layer structure was not maintained and the inter-diffusion of the CFO into PZT and vice verse were observed at the interface of MLs. Both the PC and CP configurations of multilayer films exhibited pseudo FE hysteresis loop and proper FM hysteresis loops at room temperature. Reversing the multilayer configuration from CP to PC resulted in increasing the pseudo remanent polarization, however this behavior was not observed in magnetic properties. The frequency and temperature dependences of the impedance and modulus spectroscopy of the multilayer PC and CP films were studied in the ranges of 102 to 106 Hz and 200 to 650 K respectively. The electrical response of all multilayer films investigated could be resolved into two contributions. We attributed these to the grain and grain boundary effects in impedance and modulus formalism. We found that the difference between the grain and grain boundary capacitive effect decreased due to increase of the number of layers.