Laboratory Evaluation of Smear Zone and Correlation between Permeability and Moisture Content

In this study, the extent of the smear zone and the reduction of permeability and water content within the smear zone were investigated using a large-scale consolidometer. The installation of vertical drains by means of a mandrel causes significant disturbance of the subsoil surrounding the mandrel, resulting in a smear zone. The extent of the smear zone for Moruya clay (New South Wales, Australia) was estimated on the basis of normalized permeability and the reduction of water content by taking undisturbed samples (horizontally and vertically) at different locations. This study reveals that a significant reduction in water content and horizontal permeability takes place towards the drain, whereas the variation in the vertical permeability is negligible. The smear zone for Moruya clay was found to be 2.5 times the equivalent radius of the mandrel with the horizontal permeability varying from 1.09 to 1.64, an average of 1.34 times smaller than that of the undisturbed zone. Finally, a correlation between the permeability decrease and water content reduction within smear zone is proposed.     

Analytical and Numerical Modeling of Soft Soil Stabilized by Prefabricated Vertical Drains Incorporating Vacuum Preloading

This paper describes the analytical formulation of a modified consolidation theory incorporating vacuum pressure, and numerical modeling of soft clay stabilized by prefabricated vertical drains, with a linearly distributed (trapezoidal) vacuum pressure for both axisymmetric and plane strain conditions. The effects of the magnitude and distribution of vacuum pressure on soft clay consolidation are examined through average time-dependent excess pore pressure and consolidation settlement analyses. The plane strain analysis was executed by transforming the actual vertical drains into a system of equivalent parallel drain walls by adjusting the coefficient of permeability of the soil and the applied vacuum pressure. The converted parameters are incorporated in the finite element code ABAQUS, employing the modified Cam-clay theory. Numerical analysis is conducted to study the performance of a full-scale test embankment constructed on soft Bangkok clay. The performance of this selected embankment is predicted on the basis of four different vacuum pressure distributions. The predictions are compared with the available field data. The assumption of distributing the vacuum pressure as a constant over the soil surface and varying it linearly along the drains seems justified in relation to the field data.     

Three-dimensional imaging of human stem cells using soft X-ray tomography

Three-dimensional imaging of human stem cells using transmission soft X-ray tomography (SXT) is presented for the first time. Major organelle types—nuclei, nucleoli, mitochondria, lysosomes and vesicles—were discriminated at approximately 50 nm spatial resolution without the use of contrast agents, on the basis of measured linear X-ray absorption coefficients and comparison of the size and shape of structures to transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images. In addition, SXT was used to visualize the distribution of a cell surface protein using gold-labelled antibody staining. We present the strengths of SXT, which include excellent spatial resolution (intermediate between that of TEM and light microscopy), the lack of the requirement for fixative or contrast agent that might perturb cellular morphology or produce imaging artefacts, and the ability to produce three-dimensional images of cells without microtome sectioning. Possible applications to studying the differentiation of human stem cells are discussed.     

Cancellation technique to reduce intercarrier interference in OFDM

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems are sensitive to frequency errors, which cause intercarrier interference among subcarriers. A new cancellation method to reduce the effects of frequency offset errors is presented. The main feature is to map each data symbol a_k which is to be transmitted onto a pair of non-adjacent subcarriers, with weightings +1 and -1, rather than to a single subcarrier. The carrier-to-interference ratio gain of the proposed method over normal OFDM varies between 10 to 30 dB. This method also offers a frequency diversity effect in a multipath fading channel     

Bridge condition modelling and prediction using dynamic Bayesian belief networks

The development of a condition-based deterioration modelling methodology at bridge group level using Bayesian belief network (BBN) is presented in this paper. BBN is an efficient tool to handle complex interdependencies within elements of engineering systems, by means of conditional probabilities specified on a fixed model structure. The advantages and limitations of the BBN for such applications are reviewed by analysing a sample group of masonry bridges on the UK railway infrastructure network. The proposed methodology is then extended to develop a time dependent deterioration model using a dynamic Bayesian network. The condition of elements within the selected sample of bridges and a set of conditional probabilities for static and time dependent variables, based on inspection experience, are used as input to the models to yield, in probabilistic terms, overall condition-based deterioration profiles for bridge groups. Sensitivity towards various input parameters, as well as underlying assumptions, on the point-in-time performance and the deterioration profile of the group are investigated. Together with results from ‘what if’ scenarios, the potential of the developed methodology is demonstrated in relation to the specification of structural health monitoring requirements and the prioritisation of maintenance intervention activities.     

Mitosis in the human embryo: the vital role of the sperm centrosome (centriole)

The pattern of sperm centrosomal (centriolar) inheritance, centrosomal replication and perpetuation during mitosis of the human embryo is reviewed with a series of electron micrographs. Embryonic cleavage involves repeated mitoses, a convenient sequence to study centriolar behaviour during cell division. After the paternal inheritance of centrioles in the human was reported (Sathananthan et al., 1991a), there has been an upsurge of centrosomal research in mammals, which largely follow the human pattern. The human egg has an inactive non-functional centrosome. The paternal centrosome contains a prominent centriole (proximal) associated with pericentriolar material which is transmitted to the embryo at fertilization and persists during sperm incorporation. Centriolar duplication occurs at the pronuclear stage (interphase) and the centrosome initially organizes a sperm aster when male and female pronuclei breakdown (prometaphase). The astral centrosome containing diplosomes (two typical centrioles) splits and relocates at opposite poles of a bipolar spindle to establish bipolarization, a prerequisite to normal cell division. Single or double centrioles occupy pivotal positions on spindle poles and paternal and maternal chromosomes organize on the equator of a metaphase spindle, at syngamy. Bipolarization occurs in all monospermic and in most dispermic ova. Dispermic embryos occasionally form two sperm asters initially and produce tripolar spindles (tripolarization). Anaphase and telophase follows producing two or three cells respectively, completing the first cell cycle. Descendants of the sperm centriole were found at every stage of perimplantation embryo development and were traced from fertilization through cleavage (first four cell cycles) to the morula and hatching blastocyst stage. Centrioles were associated with nuclei at interphase, when they were often replicating and occupied pivotal positions on spindle poles during mitosis. Sperm remnants were associated with centrioles and were found at most stages of cleavage. Centrioles were found in trophoblast, embryoblast and endoderm cells in hatching blastocysts. Pericentriolar, centrosomal material nucleated astral and spindle microtubules. Abnormal nuclear configurations observed in embryos reflect mitotic aberrations. The bovine embryo closely resembles the human embryo in centriolar behaviour during mitosis. It is concluded that the sperm centrosome is the functional active centrosome in humans and is likely the ancestor of centrioles within centrosomes in foetal and adult somatic cells. The role of the sperm centrosome in embryogenesis and male infertility is discussed, since it is of clinical importance in assisted reproduction.     

From oogonia to mature oocytes: inactivation of the maternal centrosome in humans

The fine structure of human oogonia and growing oocytes has been reviewed in fetal and adult ovaries. Preovulatory maturation and the ultrastructure of stimulated oocytes from the germinal vesicle (GV) stage to metaphase II (MII) stage are also documented. Oogonia have large nuclei, scanty cytoplasm with complex mitochondria. During folliculogenesis, follicle cell processes establish desmosomes and deep gap junctions at the surface of growing oocytes, which are retracted during the final stages of maturation. The zona pellucida is secreted in secondary follicles. Growing oocytes have mitochondria, Golgi, rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER), ribosomes, lysosomes, and lipofuscin bodies, often associated with Balbiani bodies and have nuclei with reticulated nucleoli. Oocytes from antral follicles show numerous surface microvilli and cortical granules (CGs) separated from the oolemma by a band of microfilaments. The CGs are evidently secreted by Golgi membranes. The GV oocytes have peripheral Golgi complexes associated with a single layer of CGs close to the oolemma. They have many lysosomes, and nuclei with dense compact nucleoli. GV breakdown occurs by disorganization of the nuclear envelope and the oocyte enters a transient metaphase I followed by MII, when it is arrested and ovulated. Maturation of oocytes in vitro follows the same pattern of meiosis seen in preovulatory oocytes. The general organization of the human oocyte conforms to that of most other mammals but has some unique features. The MII oocyte has the basic cellular organelles such as mitochondria, smooth endoplasmic reticulum, microfilaments, and microtubules, while Golgi, RER, lysosomes, multivesicular, residual and lipofuscin bodies are very rare. It neither has yolk nor lipid inclusions. Its surface has few microvilli, and 1-3 layers of CGs, aligned beneath the oolemma. Special reference has been made to the reduction and inactivation of the maternal centrosome during oogenesis. The MII spindle, often oriented perpendicular to the oocyte surface, is barrel-shaped, anastral and lacks centrioles. Osmiophilic centrosomes are not demonstrable in human eggs, since the maternal centrosome is nonfunctional. However, oogonia and growing oocytes have typical centrioles, similar to those of somatic cells. The sperm centrosome activates the egg and organizes the sperm aster and mitotic spindles of the embryo, after fertilization.     

Robust adaptive control of nonaffine nonlinear plants with small input signal changes

Assuming small input signal magnitudes, ARMA models can approximate the NARMA model of nonaffine plants. Recently, NARMA-L1 and NARMA-L2 approximate models were introduced to relax such input magnitude restrictions. However, some applications require larger input signals than allowed by ARMA, NARMA-L1 and NARMA-L2 models. Under certain assumptions, we recently developed an affine approximate model that eliminates the small input magnitude restriction and replaces it with a requirement of small input changes. Such a model complements existing models. Using this model, we present an adaptive controller for discrete nonaffine plants with unknown system equations, accessible input-output signals, but inaccessible states. Our approximate model is realized by a neural network that learns the unknown input-output map online. A deadzone is used to make the weight update algorithm robust against modeling errors. A control law is developed for asymptotic tracking of slowly varying reference trajectories.     

Probability of error calculation of OFDM systems with frequencyoffset

Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) is sensitive to the carrier frequency offset (CFO), which destroys orthogonality and causes intercarrier interference (ICI), Previously, two methods were available for the analysis of the resultant degradation in performance. Firstly, the statistical average of the ICI could be used as a performance measure. Secondly, the bit error rate (BER) caused by CFO could be approximated by assuming the ICI to be Gaussian. However, a more precise analysis of the performance (i.e., BER or SER) degradation is desirable. In this letter, we propose a precise numerical technique for calculating the effect of the CFO on the BER or symbol error in an OFDM system. The subcarriers can be modulated with binary phase shift keying (BPSK), quaternary phase shift keying (QPSK), or 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM), used in many OFDM applications. The BPSK case is solved using a series due to Beaulieu (1990). For the QPSK and 16-QAM cases, we use an infinite series expression for the error function in order to express the average probability of error in terms of the two-dimensional characteristic function of the ICI     

Reaction time as a diagnostic measure in senility

Both simple and disjunctive reaction times (RT) are known to slow with aging but there is a paucity of information on RT changes in senility. Since disjunctive RT involves cognition in addition to the sensory-motor speed and attentional components of simple RT, it was hypothesized that disjunctive RT would be a reliable index of age-related mental decline. To test this prediction, simple and disjunctive RT were measured in matched groups of 20 normal and 20 cognitively impaired elderly. Simple RT was slower in the senile patients than in the normal subjects, but this difference was accounted for by differences in disjunctive RT. The senile patients showed a much larger performance decrement with respect to disjunctive RT than did the normal subjects--a difference which was not accounted for by differences in simple RT. In a discriminant function analysis, disjunctive RT alone correctly identified the senile patients and the normal subjects with 86% accuracy. Thus, this measure proved to be a reliable index of age-related mental decline. Preliminary data indicate that disjunctive RT slowing is correlated with non-memory mental decline, and that poor performance is related to the need for care and supervision.