Impingement Heat Transfer: CHT CFD Predictions of the Influence of Reduced Crossflow using Large Gaps.

Experimental and Numerical investigations were carried out on impingement jet cooling, for variable gap to diameter ratio Z/D ranging from 0.76 - 6.42 with varied Z, constant D and constant mass flux G of 1.93 kg/sm2bar, which is typical of G for regenerative backside cooling of gas turbine combustors. This is the cooling geometry relevant to reverse flow cylindrical combustors with low NOx burner where air used for film cooling increases the NOx. The geometries investigated were for 10 × 10 square array of impingement jet cooling holes at constant diameter D and pitch X, hence constant X/D ratio. The experimental results used the lumped capacity method to determine the locally surface average heat transfer with thermocouples spaced at 25.4 mm intervals in the direction of the single exit flow 152.4 mm long impingement gap. The target walls were 6.35 mm thick Nimonic-75 alloy materials that were electrically heated to about 353 K with a coolant air temperature of 288 K. Conjugate heat transfer (CHT) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) were applied to the same geometries. The predicted CFD results agreed with the measured pressure loss, which indicates that the predicted aerodynamics were good. Also, the locally X2 and overall surface average heat transfer coefficients (HTC) h were well predicted, apart from at the lowest Z/D. The pressure loss increased significantly for Z/D <3 and h also increased but this was not a practical design due to the excessive pressure loss

Harvesting multiple resources for software as a service offers: A big data study

© Springer International Publishing AG 2016. Currently, the World Wide Web (WWW) is the primary resource for cloud services information, including offers and providers. Cloud applications (Software as a Service), such as Google App, are one of the most popular and commonly used types of cloud services. Having access to a large amount of information on SaaS offers is critical for the potential cloud client to select and purchase an appropriate service. Web harvesting has become a primary tool for discovering knowledge from the Web source. This paper describes the design and development of Web scraper to collect information on SaaS offers from target Digital cloud services advertisement portals, namely www.getApp.com, and www.cloudreviews.com. The collected data were used to establish two datasets: a SaaS provider’s dataset and a SaaS reviews/feedback dataset. Further, we applied sentiment analysis on the reviews dataset to establish a third dataset called the SaaS sentiment polarity dataset. The significance of this study is that the first work focuses on Web harvesting for cloud computing domain, and it also establishes the first SaaS services datasets. Furthermore, we present statistical data that can be helpful to determine the current status of SaaS services and the number of services offered on the Web. In our conclusion, we provide further insight into improving Web scraping for SaaS service information. Our datasets are available online through www.bluepagesdataset.com

Blue Pages: Software as a Service Data Set

© 2015 IEEE. Blue Pages is a repository that contains data collected on Software as a Service(SaaS).The repository lists SaaS information according to an organization's functional needs. Blue Pages holds thousands of records on SaaS applications' business profiles. The data was extracted between February 2015 and August 2015 from the following web portals: www.cloudreviews.com and www.getApp.com. Every record holds details on the service offerings, including service name, the date the service was founded, service category, free trial (yes/no), mobile app (yes/no), starting price, service description, service type and provider link. The dataset is the first to provide information on SaaS.The dataset presented in this paper can be used in future research in cloud service selection and cloud service discovery. The dataset is available online through the Blue Page website http://www.bluepagesdataset.com/

Hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia and diabetes mellitus due to dominant ABCC8/KCNJ11 mutations

Dominantly acting loss-of-function mutations in the ABCC8/KCNJ11 genes can cause mild medically responsive hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia (HH). As controversy exists over whether these mutations predispose to diabetes in adulthood we investigated the prevalence of diabetes in families with dominantly inherited ATP-sensitive potassium (K-ATP) channel mutations causing HH in the proband.We studied the phenotype of 30 mutation carriers (14 children and 16 adults) from nine families with dominant ABCC8/KCNJ11 mutations. Functional consequences of six novel missense mutations were examined by reconstituting the K-ATP channel in human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cells and evaluating the effect of drugs and metabolic poisoning on the channels using the Rb-86 flux assay.The mutant channels all showed a lack of Rb-86 efflux on exposure to the channel agonist diazoxide or metabolic inhibition. In the families, dominant ABCC8/KCNJ11 mutations were associated with increased birthweight (median + 1.56 SD score [SDS]). Fourteen children had HH and five adults were reported with HH or hypoglycaemic episodes (63%). Progression from hypoglycaemia to diabetes mellitus occurred in two individuals. Eight adults had a history of gestational diabetes in multiple pregnancies or were diabetic (diagnosed at a median age of 31 years). Within these families, none of the 19 adults who were not carriers of the ABCC8/KCNJ11 mutation was known to be diabetic.The phenotype associated with dominant ABCC8/KCNJ11 mutations ranges from asymptomatic macrosomia to persistent HH in childhood. In adults, it may also be an important cause of dominantly inherited early-onset diabetes mellitus

Observations on Rehabilitation of Traumatic Paraplegia using Body Weight Support Training and Functional Electrical Stimulation

Walking is the unthinking transportation of daily life, supporting countless but essential trips within home and beyond, walking holds profound symbolic importance. When a person sustains spinal cord injury the most obvious functional limitation encountered is loss of ambulation. Conventional rehabilitation primarily provides compensatory strategy for accomplishing mobility and strengthening above the level of lesion. Recently new approach to facilitate locomotor recovery and bladder and bowel emptying have been explored,these include:-1) Body weight support walking (BWS), 2) Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) and 3) Interferential Therapy (IFT) To determine whether BWS training, FES and IFT have potential to improve walking function and bladder emptying in individuals with SCI, 20 subjects with spinal cord injury at the level of dorsolumber and lumbosacral regions were studied. Significant improvement in the muscle power of lower limbs and bladder control was seen in patients who received FES and IFT after the injury and at follow up of 6 months. Body support walking proved to be effective in early rehabilitation of patients with SCI. Hence comprehensive management with these gadgets provided early ambulation, bladder and bowel training and overall rehabilitation of patients. Such patients can be made independent for their ADL within the home with orthotic devices, wheel chair etc

Convergence and stability theorems for the Picard-Mann hybrid iterative scheme for a general class of contractive-like operators

In this paper we use the general class of contractive-like operators introduced by Bosede and Rhoades (J. Adv. Math. Stud. 3(2):1-3, 2010) to prove strong convergence and stability results for Picard-Mann hybrid iterative schemes considered in a real normed linear space. We establish the strong convergence and stability of the Picard iterative scheme as a corollary. Our results generalize and improve a multitude of results in the literature, including the recent results of Chidume (Fixed Point Theory Appl. 2014:233, 2014)

Vitamin D deficiency prevalence and predictors in early pregnancy among Arab women

Data regarding the prevalence and predictors of vitamin D deficiency during early pregnancy are limited. This study aims to fill this gap. A total of 578 Saudi women in their 1st trimester of pregnancy were recruited between January 2014 and December 2015 from three tertiary care antenatal clinics in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Information collected includes socio-economic, anthropometric, and biochemical data, including serum vitamin D (25(OH)D) levels, intake of calcium and vitamin D, physical activity, and sun exposure indices. Pregnant women with 25(OH)D levels 3.5), low HDL-cholesterol, and living in West Riyadh were significant independent predictors for vitamin D deficiency, with odds ratios (ORs) (95% confidence interval) of 25.4 (5.5–117.3), 17.8 (2.3–138.5), 4.0 (1.7–9.5), 3.3 (1.4–7.9), 2.8 (1.2–6.4), and 2.0 (1.1–3.5), respectively. Factors like increased physical activity, sun exposure at noon, sunrise or sunset, high educational status, and residence in North Riyadh were protective against vitamin D deficiency with ORs 0.2 (0.1–0.5); 0.2 (0.1–0.6); 0.3 (0.1–0.9); and 0.4 (0.2–0.8), respectively. All ORs were adjusted for age, BMI, sun exposure, parity, summer season, vitamin D intake, multivitamin intake, physical activity, education, employment, living in the north, and coverage with clothing. In conclusion, the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among Saudi women during early pregnancy was high (81%). Timely detection and appropriate supplementation with adequate amounts of vitamin D should reduce the risks of vitamin D deficiency and its complications during pregnancy

Pain and analgesic use associated with skeletal-related events in patients with advanced cancer and bone metastases

PURPOSE: Bone metastases secondary to solid tumors increase the risk of skeletal-related events (SREs), including the occurrence of pathological fracture (PF), radiation to bone (RB), surgery to bone (SB), and spinal cord compression (SCC). The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of SREs on patients' pain, analgesic use, and pain interference with daily functioning. METHODS: Data were combined from patients with solid tumors and bone metastases who received denosumab or zoledronic acid across three identically designed phase 3 trials (N = 5543). Pain severity (worst pain) and pain interference were assessed using the Brief Pain Inventory at baseline and each monthly visit. Analgesic use was quantified using the Analgesic Quantification Algorithm. RESULTS: The proportion of patients with moderate/severe pain and strong opioid use generally increased in the 6 months preceding an SRE and remained elevated, while they remained relatively consistent over time in patients without an SRE. Regression analysis indicated that all SRE types were significantly associated with an increased risk of progression to moderate/severe pain and strong opioid use. PF, RB, and SCC were associated with significantly greater risk of pain interference overall. Results were similar for pain interference with emotional well-being. All SRE types were associated with significantly greater risk of pain interference with physical function. CONCLUSIONS: SREs are associated with increased pain and analgesic use in patients with bone metastases. Treatments that prevent SREs may decrease pain and the need for opioid analgesics and reduce the impact of pain on daily functioning

Acquisition of pneumococci specific effector and regulatory Cd4+ T cells localising within human upper respiratory-tract mucosal lymphoid tissue

The upper respiratory tract mucosa is the location for commensal Streptococcus (S.) pneumoniae colonization and therefore represents a major site of contact between host and bacteria. The CD4(+) T cell response to pneumococcus is increasingly recognised as an important mediator of immunity that protects against invasive disease, with data suggesting a critical role for Th17 cells in mucosal clearance. By assessing CD4 T cell proliferative responses we demonstrate age-related sequestration of Th1 and Th17 CD4(+) T cells reactive to pneumococcal protein antigens within mucosal lymphoid tissue. CD25(hi) T cell depletion and utilisation of pneumococcal specific MHCII tetramers revealed the presence of antigen specific Tregs that utilised CTLA-4 and PDL-1 surface molecules to suppress these responses. The balance between mucosal effector and regulatory CD4(+) T cell immunity is likely to be critical to pneumococcal commensalism and the prevention of unwanted pathology associated with carriage. However, if dysregulated, such responses may render the host more susceptible to invasive pneumococcal infection and adversely affect the successful implementation of both polysaccharide-conjugate and novel protein-based pneumococcal vaccines