Prediction of blast wave effects on a developed site

The guidelines for protecting against and mitigating explosion hazards require knowledge and either the experimental or theoretical evaluation of blast wave parameters. To this end, this article proposes a numerical method for simulating blast wave propagation in complex geometries. This method permits an on-the-ground TNT-like explosion and the subsequent blast wave to be simulated, with the possibility of modifying the ground topology by adding a number of obstacles. The numerical model is explored from both a qualitative and quantitative point of view by comparing it to experimental data, with a correct determination of the wave amplitude and phase signature at different key-positions. The pressure and Mach number distributions deduced from simulations in complex congested areas highlight various fluid–solid interactions, such as regular reflections and diffractions. The iso-damage diagrams of different obstacle layouts are also presented and discussed.     

Failure of hippocampectomy to facilitate classical conditioning at an optimal interstimulus interval is not due to a "ceiling effect."

Examined the effects of amphetamine injection (2 mg/kg), hippocampal lesions, and cortical lesions in 30 naive New Zealand albino rabbits during classical conditioning of the rabbit nictitating membrane response. An optimal interstimulus interval (ISI) was employed. Whereas neocortical and hippocampal damage had no significant effect on the rate of acquisition, amphetamine treatment produced a marked facilitation. A control group of amphetamine-treated Ss receiving explicitly unpaired presentations of the conditioned stimulus/stimuli (CS) and unconditioned stimulus/stimuli (UCS) failed to exceed spontaneous response rates throughout training. The failure of hippocampectomy to accelerate conditioning under an optimal ISI does not appear to be due to a ceiling effect. Rather, it is suggested that the response system is predisposed to conditioned responses of a given latency. Optimal ISIs may fall within this range. Thus, in short or long intervals, temporal aspects of the motor response must be adjusted to conform to the stimulus configuration. It appears that the hippocampus is a likely source of response modulation. Thus, loss of hippocampal input accelerates conditioning under nonoptimal intervals at the expense of proper timing. Conditioning under an optimal interval would occur at normal rates because no modulation is required. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Surface and bulk properties of ancient Egyptian mortars. Part I: X-ray diffraction studies

A series of Ancient Egyptian Mortars were extracted from the great Giza Pyramid, the second Giza Pyramid and the Sphinx and its adjoining temple. X-Ray Diffraction studies revealed the presence of gypsum, calcite and silica in most of the samples with a clearcut predominance of gypsum in the samples extracted from the Sphinx. Calcium silicates of different crystallographic modifications seem to be present in a large proportion of the samples. X-Ray studies carried out on heat-treated samples indicated the prevalence of the hemihydrate or γ-CaSO₄ modification until a temperature as high as 400°C.     

储冰球相变传热数值计算及分析

对圆球形相变储冷器的相变传热问题进行了详细分析，采用焓法模型对常用相变介质水在球内的凝结过程进行了数值求解，得出了第一类边界条件下的相变界面位置变化与界面部移动速度变化以及相奕时间与球径和传热温差的关系等结果，可以为圆球形及其它形状的相变储的设计和分析计算提供理论依据与参考。     

Feasibility and performance evaluation of a 6LoWPAN‐enabled platform for ubiquitous healthcare monitoring

Technology has revolutionized medical practices by enabling more convenient and non‐intrusive monitoring of patient's health, leading to next generation ubiquitous healthcare (u‐healthcare). The exploitation of the Internet protocol version 6 addressing space along with the miniaturization of electronic devices has fostered providing interoperability and connectivity of wearable sensor devices in wireless body area networks to the Internet of Things. In this paper, we propose to integrate the IPv6 over low power wireless personal area network (6LoWPAN) to the u‐healthcare monitoring system architecture. The main objective is to study the feasibility of the 6LoWPAN‐enabled platform in real‐world scenarios dealing with medical data. The performance evaluation of this platform is carried out initially through simulations using OMNet++ and then supported by an experimental study using sensor motes and a customized micro‐computing unit. Performance metrics such as throughput, end‐to‐end delay, packet error rate, and energy consumption are investigated under acute health conditions, where patient's health information has to be sent continuously and at maximum rate to the care provider. The obtained results show that the proposed 6LoWPAN solution fulfills the main quality of service requirements of u‐healthcare applications. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A silica supported Fe-Co bimetallic catalyst prepared by the sol/gel technique: Operating conditions, catalytic properties and characterization

A Co/Fe catalyst was prepared using the sol/gel technique in order to study its catalytic activity and selectivity in the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. The effect of a range of operation variables such as pressure, temperature and H₂/CO molar feed ratio on the catalytic performance of 40%Fe/60%Co/15 wt.%SiO₂/1.5 wt.%K catalyst was investigated. It was found that the optimum operating conditions is a H₂/CO = 2/1 molar feed ratio at 350 °C temperature and 3 bar pressure. Characterization of both precursor and calcined catalysts was carried out using XRD, SEM, EDS, TPR, BET surface area measurements and thermal analysis methods such as TGA and DSC. It was observed that all of the different operation variables influenced the structure, morphology and catalytic performance of the catalysts.     

Photocatalytic degradation of diclofenac using hybrid MIL-53(Al)@TiO2 and MIL-53(Al)@ZnO catalysts

In this work, TiO₂ and ZnO were incorporated successfully into a MIL-53(Al) metal–organic framework (MOF) to form nanocomposites via a facile post-modification technique. The hybrid MIL-53(Al)@TiO₂ and MIL-53(Al)@ZnO were characterized by several characterization tests. The X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) analyses showed evidence of the successful incorporation of TiO₂ and ZnO within the MIL-53(Al) framework. The thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) analysis demonstrated the excellent thermal stability of MIL-53(Al)@TiO₂ and MIL-53(Al)@ZnO, while diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) determined the direct optical band gaps of MIL-53(Al)@ZnO and MIL-53(Al)@TiO₂ to be 3.24 and 3.34 eV, respectively. The composites were also tested for the photocatalytic degradation of diclofenac (DCF) as a micropollutant. The DCF degradation efficiency of the photocatalysts was ranked in the following order: MIL-53(Al)@TiO₂ > MIL-53(Al) > TiO₂ > ZnO > MIL-53(Al)@ZnO. The incorporation of TiO₂ enhanced the optical properties of MIL-53 (Al), which was confirmed with the superior photodegradation efficiency of MIL-53(Al)@TiO₂ (>85% in 2 h) as compared to the pristine MIL-53(Al) (around 80% in 2 h). The improvement in the photodegradation of the hybrid-MOF is mostly associated with the possible dual function of the adsorption and photodegradation mechanisms. The reusability of MIL-53(Al) and its composites was inspected over 3 cycles of photodegradation experiments with DCF. The photocatalytic activity of MIL-53(Al)@TiO₂ remained unchanged (>90%), while for MIL-53(Al) and MIL-53(Al)@ZnO a slight drop was observed over three cyclic degradation experiments. Fluorescence measurements revealed that the hydroxyl radical is an important reactive oxygen species produced by all the photocatalysts that aid in the photodegradation of DCF. Furthermore, the kinetic modelling of the photoreaction identified a second-order kinetics for all catalysts. Experiments with scavengers showed that hydroxyl radicals played a major role in the photocatalytic process, and it was found that only 2 h of treatment was sufficient to obtain a considerable chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction of 58%.     

Carbon Nanotube (10, 0) and Silicon Nanotube (7, 0) as a Novel Material for Drug Delivery of Substituted Eugenols as Antioxidant Drugs

Silicon - The potential of CNT(10, 0) and SiNT(7, 0) and their metal doped CNT(10, 0) and SiNT(7, 0) to adsorb the NH2, OH and Ethyl eugenols are examined. The antioxidant potential of NH2-, OH-...     

Nuclear-cytoplasmic incompatibility and inefficient development of pig-mouse cytoplasmic hybrid embryos

Inter-species somatic cell nuclear transfer (iSCNT) embryos usually fail to develop to the blastocyst stage and beyond due to incomplete reprogramming of donor cell. We evaluated whether using a karyoplast that would require less extensive reprogramming such as an embryonic blastomere or the meiotic spindle from metaphase II oocytes would provide additional insight into the development of iSCNT embryos. Our results showed that karyoplasts of embryonic or oocyte origin are no different from somatic cells; all iSCNT embryos, irrespective of karyoplast origin, were arrested during early development. We hypothesized that nuclear-cytoplasmic incompatibility could be another reason for failure of embryonic development from iSCNT. We used pig-mouse cytoplasmic hybrids as a model to address nuclear-cytoplasmic incompatibility in iSCNT embryos. Fertilized murine zygotes were reconstructed by fusing with porcine cytoplasts of varying cytoplasmic volumes (1/10 (small) and 1/5 (large) total volume of mouse zygote). The presence of pig cytoplasm significantly reduced the development of mouse zygotes to the blastocyst stage compared with control embryos at 120?h post-human chorionic gondotropin (41 vs 6 vs 94%, P<0.05; 1/10, 1/5, control respectively). While mitochondrial DNA copy numbers remained relatively unchanged, expression of several important genes namely Tfam, Polg, Polg2, Mfn2, Slc2a3 (Glut3), Slc2a1 (Glut1), Bcl2, Hspb1, Pou5f1 (Oct4), Nanog, Cdx2, Gata3, Tcfap2c, mt-Cox1 and mt-Cox2 was significantly reduced in cytoplasmic hybrids compared with control embryos. These results demonstrate that the presence of even a small amount of porcine cytoplasm is detrimental to murine embryo development and suggest that a range of factors are likely to contribute to the failure of inter-species nuclear transfer embryos.