Monitoring of human enteric viruses and coliform bacteria in waters after urban flood in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Floodwaters in Kampung Melayu village, Jakarta, Indonesia, as well as river water and consumable water (including groundwater and tap water) samples in flooded and non-flooded areas, were quantitatively analysed to assess occurrence of viruses and total coliforms and E. coli as bacterial indicators after flooding event. High numbers of enterovirus, hepatitis A virus, norovirus (G1, G2) and adenovirus were detected at high concentration in floodwaters and waters sampled from Ciliwung River which runs across metropolitan Jakarta and is used widely for agriculture and domestic purposes by poor residents. One out of three groundwater wells in the flooded area was contaminated with all viruses tested while no viruses were found in groundwater samples in non-flooded areas and tap water samples. The results revealed that human enteric viruses, especially hepatitis A virus and adenovirus, were prevalent in Jakarta, Indonesia. This study suggested that flooding posed a higher risk of viral infection to the people through contamination of drinking water sources or direct contact with floodwaters.     

Effects of soil erosion on water quality and water uses in the upper Phong watershed.

The main objective of this paper is to simulate the effects of soil erosion on river water quality and on agricultural production as a result of the transformation of forestlands in the catchment of the upstream Phong River. Suspended solids carry down attached nutrients and agricultural chemicals causing water pollution in the downstream. There are four different types of land use in this simulation, namely forestlands, flatland and highland sugarcane plantation areas, and paddy fields. The highest mean annual amount of soil erosion is from paddy fields (585,700 tons/year), followed by highland (73,800 tons/year) and flatland (63,950 tons/year) sugarcane plantation areas and forestlands (41,800 tons/year), respectively. However, as most of paddy fields are located in a low land and are wet type cultivations, the soil erosion occurred has less impact on river water quality and its production compared to the soil erosion from the steeper slopes of highland plantation areas. Under the resource-based agriculture, the sugarcane production is mainly increased by expanding the plantation areas leading to a significant loss of topsoil and a considerable reduction of agricultural production. Soil erosion contributes to an increase in the average annual suspended solids concentration by 72 mg/l.     

Optical bistability and set-reset operation of a Fabry-Perotsemiconductor laser amplifier with two detuned light injections

Optical bistability in a Fabry-Perot semiconductor laser amplifier when two optical inputs detuned from the resonant wavelength of a semiconductor laser amplifier are injected is discussed. A split branch is found in the optical output versus input characteristics in addition to conventional optical bistability behavior. It is shown analytically and experimentally that set and reset can be achieved in the optical output of the semiconductor laser amplifier for each wavelength by applying two detuned optical pulses and using the split branch     

Computational Methods for Parachute Fluid–Structure Interactions

The computational challenges posed by fluid–structure interaction (FSI) modeling of parachutes include the lightness of the parachute canopy compared to the air masses involved in the parachute dynamics, in the case of “ringsail” parachutes the geometric complexities created by the construction of the canopy from “rings” and “sails” with hundreds of ring “gaps” and sail “slits”, and in the case of parachute clusters the contact between the parachutes. The Team for Advanced Flow Simulation and Modeling () has successfully addressed these computational challenges with the Stabilized Space–Time FSI (SSTFSI) technique, which was developed and improved over the years by the and serves as the core numerical technology, and a number of special techniques developed in conjunction with the SSTFSI technique. The quasi-direct and direct coupling techniques developed by the , which are applicable to cases with incompatible fluid and structure meshes at the interface, yield more robust algorithms for FSI computations where the structure is light and therefore more sensitive to the variations in the fluid dynamics forces. The special technique used in dealing with the geometric complexities of the rings and sails is the Homogenized Modeling of Geometric Porosity, which was developed and improved in recent years by the . The Surface-Edge-Node Contact Tracking (SENCT) technique was introduced by the as a contact algorithm where the objective is to prevent the structural surfaces from coming closer than a minimum distance in an FSI computation. The recently-introduced conservative version of the SENCT technique is more robust and is now an essential technology in the parachute cluster computations carried out by the . We provide an overview of the core and special techniques developed by the , present single-parachute FSI computations carried out for design-parameter studies, and report FSI computation and dynamical analysis of two-parachute clusters.     

Thermal properties of ethylene ionomers

The annealing effect of ethylene ionomers annealed at various temperatures and for various periods was studied by differential scanning calorimetry. Two endothermic melting peaks were observed for all the ethylene ionomers annealed. The melting peak at the lower temperature, which was assigned to bundlelike crystal owing to a Hoffman-Weeks relationship, shifted to a higher temperature with the annealing temperature and period, indicative of recrystallization. There is physical cross-linking consisting of ionic aggregates, such as multiplets and clusters in ethylene ionomers. The crystallization kinetics of ethylene ionomers was fundamentally similar, but different from that of low-density polyethylene. Crystallization and recrystallization suggested a mobile ethylene chain in both amorphous regions and ionic aggregates even in the presence of cross-linking.     

Surface active N-acylglutamate: I. Preparation of long chain N-acylglutamic acid

Long chain N-acylglutamic acid was prepared in a high yield by a reaction of glutamic acid with fatty acid chloride in a mixed solvent of water and a water miscible organic solvent such as acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, dioxane, tetrahydrofuran,t-butyl alcohol or cyclohexanone. In this reaction the composition of the mixed solvent influenced the yield of N-acylated glutamic acid and the best yield was obtained when the reaction was carried out in the mixed solvent comprising 30–60% v/v of the organic solvent. Long chain N-acylaspartic acid was also obtained in a high yield by the same method. As the other method to obtain N-lauroyl-D L-glutamic acid, it was examined that N-acyl-α-aminoglutarodinitrile which was obtained by a reaction of α-aminoglutarodinitrile with fatty acid chloride was hydrolyzed with an aqueous alkaline solution. The salts of long chain N-acylglutamic acid are known as the surface active agents that react mildly on the human skin.     

Engineering Analysis and Design with ALE-VMS and Space–Time Methods

Flow problems with moving boundaries and interfaces include fluid–structure interaction (FSI) and a number of other classes of problems, have an important place in engineering analysis and design, and offer some formidable computational challenges. Bringing solution and analysis to them motivated the Deforming-Spatial-Domain/Stabilized Space–Time (DSD/SST) method and also the variational multiscale version of the Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian method (ALE-VMS). Since their inception, these two methods and their improved versions have been applied to a diverse set of challenging problems with a common core computational technology need. The classes of problems solved include free-surface and two-fluid flows, fluid–object and fluid–particle interaction, FSI, and flows with solid surfaces in fast, linear or rotational relative motion. Some of the most challenging FSI problems, including parachute FSI, wind-turbine FSI and arterial FSI, are being solved and analyzed with the DSD/SST and ALE-VMS methods as core technologies. Better accuracy and improved turbulence modeling were brought with the recently-introduced VMS version of the DSD/SST method, which is called DSD/SST-VMST (also ST-VMS). In specific classes of problems, such as parachute FSI, arterial FSI, ship hydrodynamics, fluid–object interaction, aerodynamics of flapping wings, and wind-turbine aerodynamics and FSI, the scope and accuracy of the FSI modeling were increased with the special ALE-VMS and ST FSI techniques targeting each of those classes of problems. This article provides an overview of the core ALE-VMS and ST FSI techniques, their recent versions, and the special ALE-VMS and ST FSI techniques. It also provides examples of challenging problems solved and analyzed in parachute FSI, arterial FSI, ship hydrodynamics, aerodynamics of flapping wings, wind-turbine aerodynamics, and bridge-deck aerodynamics and vortex-induced vibrations.     

Physiologic effects of cisapride on gastric emptying after pylorus-preserving gastrectomy for early gastric cancer

Pylorus-preserving gastrectomy (PPG) has been considered reasonable reduction surgery. However, even patients in whom more than 1 year passed after surgery frequently have a feeling of gastric fullness after meals and long-term retention of foods in the residual stomach. To treat this syndrome, cisapride has been administered. We studied the emptying time of a semisolid diet (radioisotope method using 99mTc-tin colloid-labeled rice gruel) and the emptying time of a fluid diet (acetaminophen method with orange juice) before and after oral administration of cisapride (15 mg/day for 1 month) in 14 patients (10 men, 4 women; 32-70 years old, average 60.6 years) who underwent PPG (Billroth I procedure, D2 lymph node dissection, curability A) for treatment of early gastric cancer. Ten healthy volunteers without gastrointestinal symptoms and digestive diseases (7 men, 3 women; 28-61 years old, average 49.8 years) were enrolled as controls. The results showed obviously delayed emptying time of the semisolid diet before administration of cisapride in patients with PPG compared with that of the control group, whereas the emptying curves for the fluid diet showed an almost normal pattern. One month after the start of cisapride administration the emptying time of the semisolid diet was improved, and the emptying curves were close to the patterns in the control group. Emptying of the fluid diet was slightly accelerated compared with that before administration of cisapride, and the emptying curves showed almost the same pattern as in the control group. A postgastrectomy symptom, "gastric fullness," after PPG was alleviated by cisapride. These results showed that cisapride improved delayed emptying of a semisolid diet after PPG and prevented the feeling of gastric fullness after meals due to retention in the residual stomach.     

Estimation of element-based zero-stress state for arterial FSI computations

In patient-specific arterial fluid–structure interaction (FSI) computations the image-based arterial geometry comes from a configuration that is not stress-free. We present a method for estimation of element-based zero-stress (ZS) state. The method has three main components. (1) An iterative method, which starts with an initial guess for the ZS state, is used for computing the element-based ZS state such that when a given pressure load is applied, the image-based target shape is matched. (2) A method for straight-tube geometries with single and multiple layers is used for computing the element-based ZS state so that we match the given diameter and longitudinal stretch in the target configuration and the “opening angle.” (3) An element-based mapping between the arterial and straight-tube configurations is used for mapping from the arterial configuration to the straight-tube configuration, and for mapping the estimated ZS state of the straight tube back to the arterial configuration, to be used as the initial guess for the iterative method that matches the image-based target shape. We present a set of test computations to show how the method works.