Large Coarse Research Articles

Comparisons of PM10, PM2.5, Particle Number, and CO2 Levels inside Metro Trains between Traveling in Underground Tunnels and on Elevated Tracks

Commuters spend considerable time, in some cases up to 1–2 h a day, traveling in metro trains. However, few studies have compared air quality between trains traveling above-ground and underground. This study measures the PM10, PM2.5, particle number (PN) and CO2 levels inside metro trains traveling in underground tunnels and on elevated tracks on a metro line in the Taipei metro system. The results demonstrated that PM10, PM2.5 and CO2 levels inside metro trains traveling in underground environments are approximately 20–50% higher than those in above-ground environments. However, PN levels inside metro trains traveling in underground environments are approximately 20% lower than those in above-ground ones. These measurement results reveal that levels of pollutant species inside the metro trains are significantly affected by traveling environmental conditions––in underground tunnels or on elevated tracks. Moreover, the levels of pollutant species inside the metro trains traveling on the same route are also different in different traveling directions. Fine PM inside the metro trains is transferred from the outside and significantly influenced by the surrounding conditions of the trains. Additionally, a high fraction of large coarse PM (> 10 μm) is observed inside the metro trains, possibly due to re-suspension by the movement of commuters. The measurement results show that, unlike PM, which is transferred from outside environments, CO2 inside metro trains is elevated internally by exhalation from commuters. Clearly, CO2 exhaled by commuters could accumulate inside metro trains and, compared to PM, is not as easily removed by the ventilation system when air circulation does not provide enough fresh air in the metro trains, particularly in trains traveling in underground environments.

An asymptotic preserving scheme for the vlasov-poisson-fokker-planck system in the high field regime

The Vlasov-Poisson-Fokker-Planck system under the high field scaling describes the Brownian motion of a large system of particles in a surrounding bath where both collision and field effects (electrical or gravitational) are dominant. Numerically solving this system becomes challenging due to the stiff collision term and stiff nonlinear transport term with respect to the high field. We present a class of Asymptotic-Preserving scheme which is efficient in the high field regime, namely, large time steps and coarse meshes can be used, yet the high field limit is still captured. The idea is to combine the two stiff terms and treat them implicitly. Thanks to the linearity of the collision term, using the discretization described in [Jin S, Yan B. J. Comp. Phys., 2011, 230: 6420–6437] we only need to invert a symmetric matrix. This method can be easily extended to higher dimensions. The method is shown to be positive, stable, mass and asymptotic preserving. Numerical experiments validate its efficiency in both kinetic and high field regimes including mixing regimes.

Pressure slip casting of coarse grain oxide ceramics

This contribution investigates the pressure slip casting of large coarse grain oxide ceramic bodies with a water soluble organic additive system. This organic additive system allows the preparation of a stable and pumpable slip containing alumina rich magnesia aluminate spinel of a size of up to 3 mm and an easy demolding of crack free, dimensionally stable bodies with negligible gradients due to sedimentation. Cut out samples of fired bodies are examined on apparent porosity, dynamic elastic modulus, modulus of rupture, and pore size distribution. Computer tomography showed very homogenous and dense bodies. The effects of different maximum grain sizes as well as possible sedimentation and segregation of the slip on the mechanical properties and microstructure are evaluated by using the Student's t-test. The most promising results of this study indicate that it is possible to reproducible fabricate coarse grain ceramics for refractory and other high temperature applications by pressure slip casting.

Creep crack behaviour of a coarse grain nickel-base super alloy

The paper presents creep crack growth data, obtained for cast nickel-base super alloy IN-738 LC, which represents a typical large coarse grain structure. Long term creep crack growth experiments were performed at 700 and 850°C on side-grooved compact tension and corner crack specimens. In parallel, uniaxial creep tests on smooth specimens were conducted. The coarse grain structure has been examined using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD).Creep fracture in polycrystalline materials is observed to be typically intergranular and dominates along grain boundaries. These observations were confirmed for the investigated alloy. From metallographic examinations, an effect of grain orientation on creep crack behaviour, however, was not observed.The Nikbin – Smith –Webster (NSW) model, which is based on the creep fracture mechanics parameter C*, and a damage accumulation model, which considers only nominal stress in the ligament, lead to reasonable results when recalculating creep crack growth.

A three-level BDDC algorithm for a saddle point problem

BDDC algorithms have previously been extended to the saddle point problems arising from mixed formulations of elliptic and incompressible Stokes problems. In these two-level BDDC algorithms, all iterates are required to be in a benign space, a subspace in which the preconditioned operators are positive definite. This requirement can lead to large coarse problems, which have to be generated and factored by a direct solver at the beginning of the computation and they can ultimately become a bottleneck. An additional level is introduced in this paper to solve the coarse problem approximately and to remove this difficulty. This three-level BDDC algorithm keeps all iterates in the benign space and the conjugate gradient methods can therefore be used to accelerate the convergence. This work is an extension of the three-level BDDC methods for standard finite element discretization of elliptic problems and the same rate of convergence is obtained for the mixed formulation of the same problems. Estimate of the condition number for this three-level BDDC methods is provided and numerical experiments are discussed.

Environmental Controls on Coastal Coarse Aerosols: Implications for Microbial Content and Deposition in the Near-Shore Environment

Coarse aerosols (particle diameter (D(p)) > 2 μm) produced in coastal surf zones carry chemical and microbial content to shore, forming a connection between oceanic, atmospheric, and terrestrial systems that is potentially relevant to coastal ecology and human health. In this context, the effects of tidal height, wind speed, and fog on coastal coarse aerosols and microbial content were quantified on the southern coast of Maine, USA. Aerosols at this site displayed clear marine influence and had high concentrations of ecologically relevant nutrients. Coarse aerosol concentrations significantly increased with tidal height (i.e., decreasing distance from waterline), onshore wind speed, and fog presence. As onshore wind speeds rose above 3 m s(-1), the mean half-deposition distance of coarse aerosols increased to an observed maximum of 47.6 ± 10.9 m from the water's edge at wind speeds from 5.5-8 m s(-1). Tidal height and fog presence did not significantly influence total microbial aerosol concentrations but did have a significant effect on culturable microbial aerosol fallout. At low wind speeds, culturable microbial aerosols falling out near-shore decreased by half at a distance of only 1.7 ± 0.4 m from the water's edge, indicating that these microbes may be associated with large coarse aerosols with rapid settling rates.

Variability of fMRI‐response patterns at different spatial observation scales

Functional organization units of the cerebral cortex exist over a wide range of spatial scales, from local circuits to entire cortical areas. In the last decades, scale-space representations of neuroimaging data suited to probe the multi-scale nature of cortical functional organization have been introduced and methodologically elaborated. For this purpose, responses are statistically detected over a range of spatial scales using a family of Gaussian filters, with small filters being related to fine and large filters-to coarse spatial scales. The goal of the present study was to investigate the degree of variability of fMRI-response patterns over a broad range of observation scales. To this aim, the same fMRI data set obtained from 18 subjects during a visuomotor task was analyzed with a range of filters from 4- to 16-mm full width at half-maximum (FWHM). We found substantial observation-scale-related variability. For example, using filter widths of 6- to 8-mm FWHM, in the group-level results, significant responses in the right secondary visual but not in the primary visual cortex were detected. However, when larger filters were used, the responses in the right primary visual cortex reached significance. Often, responses in probabilistically defined areas were significant when both small and large filters, but not intermediate filter widths were applied. This suggests that brain responses can be organized in local clusters of multiple distinct activation foci. Our findings illustrate the potential of multi-scale fMRI analysis to reveal novel features in the spatial organization of human brain responses.

MRI artifacts in human brain tissue after prolonged formalin storage

For the interpretation of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) abnormalities in brain pathology, often ex vivo tissue is used. The purpose of this study was to determine the pathological substrate of several distinct forms of MR hypointensities that were found in formalin-fixed brain tissue with amyloid-beta deposits. Samples of brain cortex were scanned using effective transverse relaxation time-weighted protocols at several resolutions on a 9.4 T MRI scanner. High resolution MRI showed large coarse hypointensities throughout the cortical gray and white matter, corresponding to macroscopic discolorations and microscopic circumscribed areas of granular basophilic neuropil changes, without any further specific tissue reactions or amyloid-beta related pathology. These coarse MRI hypointensities were identified as localized areas of absent neuropil replaced by membrane/myelin sheath remnants using electron microscopy. Interestingly, the presence/absence of these tissue alterations was not related to amyloid deposits, but strongly correlated to the fixation time of the samples in unrefreshed formalin. These findings show that prolonged storaged of formalin fixed brain tissue results in subtle histology artifacts, which show on MRI as hypointensities that on first appearance are indistinguishable from genuine brain pathology. This indicates that postmortem MRI should be interpreted with caution, especially if the history of tissue preservation is not fully known.

Creep crack behaviour of a coarse grain nickel-base super alloy

The paper presents creep crack growth data, obtained for cast nickel-base super alloy IN-738 LC, which represents a typical large coarse grain structure. Long term creep crack growth experiments were performed at 700 and 850°C on side-grooved compact tension and corner crack specimens. In parallel, uniaxial creep tests on smooth specimens were conducted. The coarse grain structure has been examined using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD).Creep fracture in polycrystalline materials is observed to be typically intergranular and dominates along grain boundaries. These observations were confirmed for the investigated alloy. From metallographic examinations, an effect of grain orientation on creep crack behaviour, however, was not observed.The Nikbin – Smith –Webster (NSW) model, which is based on the creep fracture mechanics parameter C*, and a damage accumulation model, which considers only nominal stress in the ligament, lead to reasonable results when recalculating creep crack growth.

Sheet moulding compound (SMC) from carbon fibre recyclate

This study reports on the first attempt to develop a new sheet moulding compound (SMC) using low cost carbon fibre (CF) recyclate as the reinforcing component in place of conventional glass fibres. A newly designed manufacturing system allows large coarse recyclate fibrous materials to be utilised within existing SMC production lines, and with careful control of virgin and recyclate fibre distribution, a viable SMC grade utilising recycled CF can be obtained.

Sources of aerosol as determined from elemental composition and size distributions in Beijing

Abstract Samples of PM 2.5 , PM 10 , and TSP from 2001 to 2003 have been collected in Beijing during spring (low-dust), spring (high dust), summer and winter. The concentration of TSP, PM 10 , and PM 2.5 was most abundant in spring with high dust followed by winter, spring with little dust and summer. The average mass ratios of PM > 10 , PM 2.5–10 and PM 2.5 to TSP show that the large coarse fraction (PM > 10 ) and the fine fraction (PM 2.5 ) contribute most in spring with high dust while PM 2.5 , PM 2.5–10 , and PM > 10 contributed similar fractions to TSP in summer and PM 2.5 in winter. Sixteen cascade impaction samples were collected for elemental analysis in 2000 and 2001 and 16 major components were analyzed by PIXE. Based on the characteristics of the size distribution, three different patterns are observed: coarse mode, fine mode and bimodal mode. Different groups showed different characteristics. Crustal elements showed stable size shapes between different seasons, however, pollution elements showed complex and more variations, and the size distribution showed tendency to vary between unimodal fine modes and bimodal modes. Additionally, the concentration of aerosols and the temporal variation of the elements varied significantly according to different meteorological conditions especially on haze–fog weather conditions. Different elements showed different size distributions on haze–fog weather, i.e. crustal elements of Al, Si, Ca showed similar variation with those average days, pollution elements of S, As, Zn showed significantly higher level than those average values but mixed elements of K, Mn, Cu, Pb showed not so higher than those pollution elements. The high S in haze–fog weather was most from water soluble sulfate parts, the bimodal modes of elements showed unimodal variation and the peak of accumulation modes showed tendency variation to the larger sizes in haze–fog weather. However, most crustal elements showed not much increase during haze–fog condition, which is consistent to other researches. Most of the elements in coarse fractions showed higher concentrations in the nighttime than those in the daytime. In addition, most peaks of accumulation modes showed higher in daytime than those in nighttime, and/or showed tendency to increase to larger sizes. Taking into account the properties of aerosols coming from different sources in the winter, the direction from which air masses are transported affects the characteristics of the particles, i.e. cleaner air from the northwest and more polluted air from the south. There were also similar variations in potassium and manganese, indicating waste incineration as a common source.

Looking at the origin of phenotypic variation from pattern formation gene networks

This article critically reviews some widespread views about the overall functioning of development. Special attention is devoted to views in developmental genetics about the superstructure of developmental gene networks. According to these views gene networks are hierarchic and multilayered. The highest layers partition the embryo in large coarse areas and control downstream genes that subsequently subdivide the embryo into smaller and smaller areas. These views are criticized on the bases of developmental and evolutionary arguments. First, these views, although detailed at the level of gene identities, do not incorporate morphogenetic mechanisms nor do they try to explain how morphology changes during development. Often, they assume that morphogenetic mechanisms are subordinate to cell signaling events. This is in contradiction to the evidence reviewed herein. Experimental evidence on pattern formation also contradicts the view that developmental gene networks are hierarchically multilayered and that their functioning is decodable from promoter analysis. Simple evolutionary arguments suggest that, indeed, developmental gene networks tend to be non-hierarchic. Re-use leads to extensive modularity in gene networks while developmental drift blurs this modularity. Evolutionary opportunism makes developmental gene networks very dependent on epigenetic factors.

Bird Response to Prescribed Silvicultural Treatments in Bottomland Hardwood Forests

ABSTRACT Silvicultural treatments prescribed to enhance wildlife habitat by promoting structural heterogeneity via retention of large live trees, snags, and coarse woody debris has been termed wildlife‐forestry. Wildlife‐forestry has been advocated for management of bottomland hardwood forests on public conservation lands within the Mississippi Alluvial Valley, USA. On Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Louisiana, we used distance sampling during 6 visits to 138 point locations to estimate avian densities within stands subjected to variable‐retention harvests, within a 13‐year chronosequence, and untreated control stands. Densities of 9 species, including 6 species of conservation concern, were greater in treated stands than on untreated stands. Five species responded negatively to treatments and had greater densities in untreated control stands. Based on conservation concern scores established by Partners in Flight and annual detections of each of 30 species, treated stands afforded greater community‐wide bird conservation than did untreated stands. For most species, maximum treatment response was between 5 years and 8 years posttreatment with duration of treatment effect <13 years. Therefore, habitat conditions on treated stands should be reevaluated at circa 15‐year intervals and, if warranted, additional silvicultural treatment prescribed to rejuvenate habitat conditions.

Comprehensive Evaluation of AIMS Texture, Angularity, and Dimension Measurements

Aggregates are the most widely used construction materials in the world in structures built from both asphaltic and portland cement concrete composites. The performance of these composites is affected by aggregate shape characteristics (e.g., angularity, texture, and dimensions). The aggregate imaging system (AIMS) is a computer automated system that was developed to measure aggregate shape characteristics using digital camera images of aggregates. This paper addresses four issues concerning AIMS measurements: (1) enhanced ways of handling and classifying the large data sets typically generated; (2) enhanced automation in processing fine aggregate images that appear to contain touching particles; (3) an improved consideration of measurement variability or repeatability between different operators, different AIMS units, and for aggregate placement and orientation; and (4) comparison of AIMS dimensional measurements with true three-dimensional measurements using X-ray computed tomography on a large coarse a...

The production of niobium powder and electric properties of niobium capacitors

In order to evaluate the electrical and frequency properties of niobium powder manufactured by the metallothermic reduction method for use as a capacitor, the present study measured capacitor performance evaluation factors such as leakage current, permittivity loss (tanδ) and capacitance, etc. The niobium powder used in this experiment was processed using the external continuous supply method and had large coarse globular particles of 0.5 μm to 1.0 μm, but the granularity distribution was very irregular. Capacitance decreased significantly from 150 μF in electrolyte (wet cap) to 130 μF after carbon (C)/silver (Ag) solution coating, and to around 115 μF after aging, falling within the capacity tolerance of tantalum capacitors. Converted to CV/g, capacitance was around 81,000 CV/g. Permittivity loss (tanδ) decreased significantly from 13.0 % after C/Ag coating to 7.5 % after aging, satisfying the general standard level of 10 % or less. Leakage current was 2.5 μA after C/Ag coating and 3.0 μA after aging, both less than the standard level of 6.3 μA. On the whole, the niobium capacitor showed somewhat more unstable characteristics than commercial tantalum capacitors but is nonetheless considered applicable as a future substitute for tantalum capacitors.

Habitat use by platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) in a modified Australian Wet Tropics catchment, north-eastern Queensland

The habitat affiliations of platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) were investigated in the upper Barron River and its tributaries, a modified Wet Tropics catchment in north-eastern Queensland, Australia. A habitat assessment was carried out at 46 sites, and a visual monitoring survey was used to determine whether platypus were present at these sites. Habitat assessment of riparian and in-stream parameters included an evaluation of factors known to influence platypus populations: disturbance level, stream depth and width, riparian continuity, the amount of overhanging vegetation, bare soil along banks, large woody debris, weeds, pool and riffle area and substrate types. Sites where platypus sightings occurred were characterised by a minimum channel width of 3.8 m and slow-flowing pools with depths of 0.49–2.0 m. These findings concur with platypus habitat preferences as described in other regions, although some in-stream and riparian factors considered as important components of platypus habitat in other studies (riparian continuity, large woody debris, undercut banks and coarse stream substrate) were not associated with the presence of platypus in this study. This study represents the first investigation of the influence of human-induced habitat modification on platypus affiliations in an Australian Wet Tropics river system.

Meso-analysis on Skeleton Structure of Coarse-graded Asphalt Mixtures

In this paper, the meso-structure of the skeleton of coarse-graded asphalt mixtures was studied numerically in terms of particle coordination numbers and mixture porosity. The results show that coarse aggregates play a double role in the mixture. They are elements of the mixture skeleton and also void filling materials of the skeleton structure. Upon the assumption that the coarse aggregates can be further categorized into 2 classes as larger coarse aggregates and fine-coarse aggregates which divided by the sieve size of 1/2 of the nominal maximum size, some fine-coarse particles will actually act as void fillers rather than the elements of the skeleton structure. With the increase of the number of the fine-coarse aggregates, more fine-coarse aggregates will have a similar spatial location as that of the larger coarse aggregates in the mixture. It is therefore justifiable to reason that if fine aggregates in the mixture exceed certain amounts, the skeleton of coarse aggregate to coarse aggregate contact will no longer predominate. Reasonably good agreement was obtained between the numerical studies and the laboratory work.

Electron backscattering diffraction analysis of an ancient wootz steel blade from central India

The electron backscattering diffraction technique was used to analyse the nature of carbides present in an ancient wootz steel blade. Bulky carbides, pro-eutectoid carbide along the prior austenite grain boundaries and fine spheroidized carbides were detected. Electron backscattering diffraction was employed to understand the texture of these carbides. The orientations of the cementite frequently occur in clusters, which points to a common origin of the members of the cluster. For the bands of coarse cementite, the origin is probably large coarse particles formed during the original cooling of the wootz cake. Pearlite formed earlier in the forging process has led to groups of similarly oriented fine cementite particles. The crystallographic texture of the cementite is sharp whereas that of the ferrite is weak. The sharp cementite textures point to the longevity of the coarse cementite throughout the repeated forging steps and to the influence of existing textured cementite on the nucleation of new cementite during cooling.

Partial cutting as a conservation alternative for oak ( Quercus spp.) forest—Response of bryophytes and lichens on dead wood

Semi-open oak-rich forests may support many species adapted to large trees and coarse woody debris. Currently many oak-rich forests in northern Europe have more or less closed canopies due to lack of natural and cultural disturbances. In these forests, conservation oriented partial harvesting of biofuel may restore a desired forest structure and light regime that potentially may favour many species that have declined during the last century. We quantified effects of such cutting on lichens and bryophytes living on dead wood in southern Sweden, using a design with paired cutting and control plots (each 1 ha) in 15 forests. In each plot we surveyed the same five logs and three stumps before and after harvest (25% of the tree basal area removed). The epixylic species composition shifted towards a flora typical for dryer dead wood. The mean species number of lichens per stump increased (clear effect) and the mean number of bryophytes per stump decreased (nearly significantly) due to harvesting. The species composition, but not species richness, on logs was affected. No increases or decreases in species of conservation concern could be detected. Since the overall negative effects were weak, we suggest that partial harvesting of dense oak forests is compatible with maintenance of the diversity of lichens and bryophytes on dead wood. However, the amount of such forest harvested needs to be carefully assessed in relation to demands of other taxa.

MR thermometry characterization of a hyperthermia ultrasound array designed using the k-space computational method

BackgroundUltrasound induced hyperthermia is a useful adjuvant to radiation therapy in the treatment of prostate cancer. A uniform thermal dose (43°C for 30 minutes) is required within the targeted cancerous volume for effective therapy. This requires specific ultrasound phased array design and appropriate thermometry method. Inhomogeneous, acoustical, three-dimensional (3D) prostate models and economical computational methods provide necessary tools to predict the appropriate shape of hyperthermia phased arrays for better focusing. This research utilizes the k-space computational method and a 3D human prostate model to design an intracavitary ultrasound probe for hyperthermia treatment of prostate cancer. Evaluation of the probe includes ex vivo and in vivo controlled hyperthermia experiments using the noninvasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) thermometry.MethodsA 3D acoustical prostate model was created using photographic data from the Visible Human Project®. The k-space computational method was used on this coarse grid and inhomogeneous tissue model to simulate the steady state pressure wavefield of the designed phased array using the linear acoustic wave equation. To ensure the uniformity and spread of the pressure in the length of the array, and the focusing capability in the width of the array, the equally-sized elements of the 4 × 20 elements phased array were 1 × 14 mm. A probe was constructed according to the design in simulation using lead zerconate titanate (PZT-8) ceramic and a Delrin® plastic housing. Noninvasive MRI thermometry and a switching feedback controller were used to accomplish ex vivo and in vivo hyperthermia evaluations of the probe.ResultsBoth exposimetry and k-space simulation results demonstrated acceptable agreement within 9%. With a desired temperature plateau of 43.0°C, ex vivo and in vivo controlled hyperthermia experiments showed that the MRI temperature at the steady state was 42.9 ± 0.38°C and 43.1 ± 0.80°C, respectively, for 20 minutes of heating.ConclusionUnlike conventional computational methods, the k-space method provides a powerful tool to predict pressure wavefield in large scale, 3D, inhomogeneous and coarse grid tissue models. Noninvasive MRI thermometry supports the efficacy of this probe and the feedback controller in an in vivo hyperthermia treatment of canine prostate.