Estimation of drag forces caused by natural woody vegetation of different scales

To reliably estimate water levels and velocities in vegetated rivers and floodplains, flow resistance models based on physical plant properties are advantageous. The purpose of this study is （1） to assess the suitable parameterization of woody riparian vegetation in estimating the drag forces, （2） to address the effect of plant scale on the drag estimates and reconfiguration, and （3） to evaluate the applicability of three recently developed flow resistance models. Experiments on four tree species in a towing tank together with detailed characterization of tree properties were carried out to establish a novel dataset. Despite the variability in the tree height （0.9 m-3.4 m）, the stem, leaf and total areas proved to be suitable characteristic dimensions for estimating the flow resistance at different scales. Evaluations with independent data revealed that the tested models produced reasonable results. The performance of the models was controlled by the parameter values used rather than the model structure or the plant scale.     

Context-aware pervasive service composition and its implementation

Incorporating service composition and pervasive computing into managing users’ complex everyday activities calls for the Pervasive Service Composition paradigm for everyday life. In this paper, we propose the concept of Context-Aware Pervasive Service Composition (CAPSC), which aims at enabling a pervasive system to provide user service compositions that are relevant to the situation at hand. We investigate CAPSC requirements and design a CAPSC architecture by taking into account context-aware peer coordination, context-aware process service adaptation, and context-aware utility service adaptation. We present a proof of concept application prototype as well.     

Bayesian Robust PCA of Incomplete Data

We present a probabilistic model for robust factor analysis and principal component analysis in which the observation noise is modeled by Student-t distributions in order to reduce the negative effect of outliers. The Student-t distributions are modeled independently for each data dimensions, which is different from previous works using multivariate Student-t distributions. We compare methods using the proposed noise distribution, the multivariate Student-t and the Laplace distribution. Intractability of evaluating the posterior probability density is solved by using variational Bayesian approximation methods. We demonstrate that the assumed noise model can yield accurate reconstructions because corrupted elements of a bad quality sample can be reconstructed using the other elements of the same data vector. Experiments on an artificial dataset and a weather dataset show that the dimensional independency and the flexibility of the proposed Student-t noise model can make it superior in some applications.     

Distinct Fatty Acid Compositions of HDL Phospholipids Are Characteristic of Metabolic Syndrome and Premature Coronary Heart Disease—Family Study

HDL particles can be structurally modified in atherosclerotic disorders associated with low HDL cholesterol level (HDL-C). We studied whether the lipidome of the main phosphatidylcholine (PC), lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) and sphingomyelin (SM) species of HDL2 and HDL3 subfractions is associated with premature coronary heart disease (CHD) or metabolic syndrome (MetS) in families where common low HDL-C predisposes to premature CHD. The lipidome was analyzed by LC-MS. Lysophosphatidylcholines were depleted of linoleic acid relative to more saturated and shorter-chained acids containing species in MetS compared with non-affected subjects: the ratio of palmitic to linoleic acid was elevated by more than 30%. A minor PC (16:0/16:1) was elevated (28–40%) in MetS. The contents of oleic acid containing PCs were elevated relative to linoleic acid containing PCs in MetS; the ratio of PC (16:0/18:1) to PC (16:0/18:2) was elevated by 11–16%. Certain PC and SM ratios, e.g., PC (18:0/20:3) to PC (16:0/18:2) and a minor SM 36:2 to an abundant SM 34:1, were higher (11–36%) in MetS and CHD. The fatty acid composition of certain LPCs and PCs displayed a characteristic pattern in MetS, enriched with palmitic, palmitoleic or oleic acids relative to linoleic acid. Certain PC and SM ratios related consistently to CHD and MetS.     

Refining visualization reference model for context information

Context-awareness can be used to decrease the need for interaction with a mobile device. This is increasingly important since the functionality of mobile devices and personal digital assistants gets more and more complex while the input and output capabilities remain restricted. An important aspect of context-awareness is to present the current context to the user. We propose a model for visualizing contextual information on the mobile terminal screen. The model is a refinement of a well-known visualization reference model; it takes into account the specific characteristics of mobile use and context information. We present the design of the model in detail, and discuss its applicability for a variety of contexts and tasks by providing a full-fledged use case.     

Expert elicitation on ultrafine particles: likelihood of health effects and causal pathways

Background

Exposure to fine ambient particulate matter (PM) has consistently been associated with increased morbidity and mortality. The relationship between exposure to ultrafine particles (UFP) and health effects is less firmly established. If UFP cause health effects independently from coarser fractions, this could affect health impact assessment of air pollution, which would possibly lead to alternative policy options to be considered to reduce the disease burden of PM. Therefore, we organized an expert elicitation workshop to assess the evidence for a causal relationship between exposure to UFP and health endpoints.

Methods

An expert elicitation on the health effects of ambient ultrafine particle exposure was carried out, focusing on: 1) the likelihood of causal relationships with key health endpoints, and 2) the likelihood of potential causal pathways for cardiac events. Based on a systematic peer-nomination procedure, fourteen European experts (epidemiologists, toxicologists and clinicians) were selected, of whom twelve attended. They were provided with a briefing book containing key literature. After a group discussion, individual expert judgments in the form of ratings of the likelihood of causal relationships and pathways were obtained using a confidence scheme adapted from the one used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Results

The likelihood of an independent causal relationship between increased short-term UFP exposure and increased all-cause mortality, hospital admissions for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, aggravation of asthma symptoms and lung function decrements was rated medium to high by most experts. The likelihood for long-term UFP exposure to be causally related to all cause mortality, cardiovascular and respiratory morbidity and lung cancer was rated slightly lower, mostly medium. The experts rated the likelihood of each of the six identified possible causal pathways separately. Out of these six, the highest likelihood was rated for the pathway involving respiratory inflammation and subsequent thrombotic effects.

Conclusion

The overall medium to high likelihood rating of causality of health effects of UFP exposure and the high likelihood rating of at least one of the proposed causal mechanisms explaining associations between UFP and cardiac events, stresses the importance of considering UFP in future health impact assessments of (transport-related) air pollution, and the need for further research on UFP exposure and health effects.     

Building leakage,infiltration, and energy performance analyses for Finnish detached houses

This study focuses on the relation between the airtightness of a building envelope, infiltration, and energy use of a typical modern Finnish detached house in the cold climate of Finland. The study is conducted with an empirically tested dynamic IDA-ICE simulation model of a detached house. The effect of several factors, such as Finnish climate and wind conditions, balance of ventilation system and leakage distribution, on infiltration was studied and a simple adapted model for the rough estimation of annual infiltration in Finnish detached houses was determined from the numerical simulation results. The energy impact of infiltration is also studied, taking into account the infiltration heat recovery effect. According to the results, infiltration causes about 15–30% of the energy use of space heating including ventilation in the typical Finnish detached house. The average infiltration rate and heat energy use increase almost linearly with the building leakage rate n₅₀. Finland can be roughly divided into two zones based on the average infiltration rate of detached houses, for which stack-induced infiltration is typically dominant, regardless of the climate zone. The infiltration heat recovery effect is minor in the studied detached house.     

Modeling of helical gear contact with tooth deflection

The majority of gear tribological studies are made on spur gears. However, helical gears are generally used in industry, and their contact behavior deserves more attention to establish a realistic base for detailed friction, wear and life studies. This study focuses on the modeling of helical gear contact with tooth deflection. A calculation model for helical gear contact analysis is introduced. Helical gear surface profiles are constructed from gear tool geometry by simulating the hobbing process. The model uses three-dimensional finite elements for the calculation of tooth deflection including tooth bending, shearing and tooth foundation flexibility. The model combines contact analysis with structural analysis to avoid large meshes. Tooth foundation flexibility was found to have an essential role in contact load sharing between the meshing teeth, whereas contact flexibility plays only a minor role. The capability of different local contact calculation methods was also studied.     

Sperm Physiological Response to Female Serum—Potential New Insights into the Reproductive Incompatibility Diagnostics

Infertility is assumed to arise exclusively from male- and female-dependent pathological factors. However, recent studies have indicated that reproductive failure may also result from the reproductive incompatibility of the partners. Selection against such incompatibilities likely occurs via female-derived reproductive secretions, including follicular fluid (FF), that mediate gamete-level mate choice towards the sperm of specific males. To facilitate potential development of diagnostic tests for human reproductive incompatibility, we examined whether sperm physiological response to female serum indicate male–female compatibility in the presence of FF. We performed a full-factorial experiment, in which the sperm of 10 males were treated with the FF and serum of 6 healthy females. We found that sperm motility and viability in both biofluids were highly similar and that in 70% of the males, sperm serum treatment predicted male–female compatibility. We also identified male human leucocyte antigen (HLA) alleles and female (FF and serum) anti-HLA antibodies and tested whether the number of allele–antibody matches predict sperm physiological response to female fluids. However, no association was found between measured sperm traits and the number of allele–antibody matches. Overall, the present results may open novel possibilities for the future development of reproductive incompatibility tests and may pave the way towards more accurate infertility diagnostics and treatments.