On the rate of evaporation of water into a stream of dry air, humidified air and superheated steam, and the inversion temperature

The concept of inversion temperature was developed in order to assess the effectiveness of superheated steam as a drying agent when compared with dry or humid air above a given temperature. The inversion temperature can be defined in different ways, for different physical situations, thus leading to strong discrepancies between its reported numerical values. A clear understanding of such definitions and its consequences over the inversion temperature values is of major importance, as well as the way to estimate the inversion temperature of interest for a given practical evaporation process. Analytical expressions are proposed for some possible definitions of the inversion temperature. Special emphasis is devoted to the physical reasoning on the existence of the inversion temperature and how its value is affected by other variables such as humidity level, mass flow rate and geometry of the evaporative system.     

The use of X-ray diffraction, microscopy, and magnetic measurements for analysing microstructural features of a duplex stainless steel

X-ray diffraction, light optical microscopy, and magnetization saturation measurements were employed to analyse the microstructural features of a UNS S31803 duplex stainless steel modified by high-temperature treatments. The samples were heated to 1300 °C and cooled by different ways to produce five different microstructures. Solution treatments at 1000 °C were also employed to produce another five conditions. Three methods were employed to determine the austenite/ferrite proportions. X-ray diffraction gave higher austenite values than the other methods, due to the influence of texture, but can be successfully used to determine the microstrain level in each phase. Magnetic saturation measurement is a very simple and precise method for quantification of austenite and ferrite volume fractions in samples that were fast-cooled and slow-cooled. Light microscopy can give a fast and precise measurement of the phase proportions and reveals important features related to the morphology of the phases, but in the samples where the austenite content is low, quantification becomes difficult and imprecise.     

The ParTriCluster Algorithm for Gene Expression Analysis

Analyzing gene expression patterns is becoming a highly relevant task in the Bioinformatics area. This analysis makes it possible to determine the behavior patterns of genes under various conditions, a fundamental information for treating diseases, among other applications. A recent advance in this area is the Tricluster algorithm, which is the first algorithm capable of determining 3D clusters (genes × samples × timestamps), that is, groups of genes that behave similarly across samples and timestamps. However, even though biological experiments collect an increasing amount of data to be analyzed and correlated, the triclustering problem remains a bottleneck due to its NP-Completeness, so its parallelization seems to be an essential step towards obtaining feasible solutions. In this work we propose and evaluate the implementation of a parallel version of the Tricluster algorithm using the filter-labeled-stream paradigm supported by the Anthill parallel programming environment. The results show that our parallelization scales well with the data size, being able to handle severe load imbalances that are inherent to the problem. Further more, the parallelization strategy is applicable to any depth-first searches.     

Brachial plexus injury during cardiac catheterisation in children. Report of two cases

The arm is particularly vulnerable to neurological injury, due to the intimate anatomical relationship between the brachial plexus and the traction zones. Severe injuries of the brachial plexus can be caused by compression, traction or laceration. Fortunately, many deficits are superficial and permanent neurovascular deficits are rare. Nevertheless, it is important to identify the probable cause of the injury since the prognosis for recovery directly depends on the underlying nature of the neurological deficit. Two anaesthetised children who suffered brachial plexus injury during cardiac catheterisation are reported. The first, with Ebstein's anomaly and significant pulmonary valve stenosis, presented, after the procedure, with a right arm motor deficit with proximal predominance. The second patient, with tetralogy of Fallot and pulmonary atresia, presented difficulty in left arm abduction and external rotation on awakening. The risk factors for brachial plexus lesions during anaesthesia are discussed. These include improper positioning, anaesthetic agents, extreme variations of body mass index and anatomical anomalies. Prevention, evolution and treatment of the brachial plexus injury are also considered. With proper care by the cardio-radiologist and anaesthesiologist the frequency of this injury can be reduced.     

Lumped-differential analysis of concurrent flow double-pipe heat exchanger

A mixed lumped-differential formulation for double-pipe heat exchangers is presented that radially lumps the temperature distribution in the outer channel, providing a differential problem for the inner channel that involves a more general type of boundary condition for the wall temperature. The generalized integral transform technique is extended to allow for the analytical solution of this class of problems. Applicability limits for the simplified model are then established in terms of related parameters, based on numerical results obtained for bulk temperatures and Nusselt numbers, as compared to more involved approaches for the complete differential model.     

Arterial branches to the Palmaris Longus muscle

The use of the long palmar muscle in surgeries of muscular transposition and transplantation in orthopedic and plastic surgeries has encouraged the investigation of arterial branches for the long palmar muscle. This study was carried out in 58 upper limbs of child cadavers aged up to one year. It was observed that the muscle was not present in 31.04% of the forearms. It more frequently presents one to two arterial branches which arise mainly, from the ulnar artery (85.71%) and less frequently from brachial artery (22.86%). The arterial branches penetrate the muscle through the posterior face, 62.71% being at the proximal third and 33.90% at the medium third. The most frequent models of the branch disposition were from one to two branches of the ulnar artery which penetrate the proximal thirds (28.57%) and two branches of the ulnar artery, the median and proximal thirds, respectively (17.14%).     

Using Bulk Built-in Current Sensors to Detect Soft Errors

Connecting a built-in current sensor in the design bulk of a digital system increases sensitivity for detecting transient upsets in combinational and sequential logic. SPICE simulations validate this approach and show only minor penalties in terms of area, performance, and power consumption     

The (1–3, 1–4)‐β‐Glucanases in Malting Barley: Enzyme Survival and Genetic and Environmental Effects

Eighteen barley genotypes used in Brazilian malting barley breeding programs were characterized in relation to (1–3, 1–4)‐β‐glucanase activity in green and kilned malt. They were tested to determine the loss of enzyme activity during kilning in the malting process and the environmental effects on enzyme activity were measured. The genotypes analyzed showed great variation regarding the enzyme activity in both kinds of malt, in a range from 531.94 to 934.31 U/kg in green malt, and from 187.02 to 518.40 U/kg in dry malt. The mean enzyme activity loss during kilning was close to 60%, very similar to the results obtained in other studies. The loss among genotypes varied from 8.04% to 71.54%. The enzyme activity varied significantly under the different environments tested, showing existence of environmental effects on the genotypes analyzed. Embrapa 127 was the genotype that exhibited the highest enzyme activity in finished malt although it had shown a low activity in green malt, reflecting a negligible loss of activity during kilning. The data indicate promising results to malting barley breeding due to the wide variability exhibited by genotypes as to enzyme activity and levels of isoenzyme with high thermostability.