Pathogenesis of Mycobacterium bovis infection in cattle

This paper reviews the pathogenesis of Mycobacterium bovis infection in cattle, focusing on aspects relating to the host rather than the organism. A broad concept of pathogenesis has been considered and information is presented on sources and routes of infection, as well as the immune responses and pathology. In addition, data is presented on the excretion of M. bovis from tuberculous cattle.     

Experimental measurements of the phase and group velocities of body waves in a transversely isotropic medium

In this study, we perform an experimental result for measurements of the body wave phase and group velocities in transversely isotropic media (TIM) by through-transmission technique. After comparing the experimental and theoretical first arrival times of the waves, a difference between the phase velocity and group velocity is observed. When the ratio between propagation distance (d) of the wave and the diameter (D) of transducer is 2.4 for measuring phase velocity and the point probes configuration for measuring group velocity, the accuracy in velocity estimation can reach the limit of system's resolution. However if d/D is 7.8, the wave will propagate with an intermediate velocity between the phase and group velocities. The rapid change of the wave velocity and waveform for qSV-wave propagation with the group velocity has been observed at the propagation direction near the cusps. Therefore, in order to reduce the error in group velocity estimation of qSV-waves, the optimum directions are suggested at 20 and 60°.     

Nanocellulose-Carboxymethylcellulose Electrolyte for Stable,High-Rate Zinc-Ion Batteries

Aqueous Zn ion batteries (ZIBs) are one of the most promising battery chemistries for grid-scale renewable energy storage. However, their application is limited by issues such as Zn dendrite formation and undesirable side reactions that can occur in the presence of excess free water molecules and ions. In this study, a nanocellulose-carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) hydrogel electrolyte is demonstrated that features stable cycling performance and high Zn²⁺ conductivity (26 mS cm⁻¹), which is attributed to the material's strong mechanical strength (≈70 MPa) and water-bonding ability. With this electrolyte, the Zn-metal anode shows exceptional cycling stability at an ultra-high rate, with the ability to sustain a current density as high as 80 mA cm⁻² for more than 3500 cycles and a cumulative capacity of 17.6 Ah cm⁻² (40 mA cm⁻²). Additionally, side reactions, such as hydrogen evolution and surface passivation, are substantially reduced due to the strong water-bonding capacity of the CMC. Full Zn||MnO₂ batteries fabricated with this electrolyte demonstrate excellent high-rate performance and long-term cycling stability (>500 cycles at 8C). These results suggest the cellulose-CMC electrolyte as a promising low-cost, easy-to-fabricate, and sustainable aqueous-based electrolyte for ZIBs with excellent electrochemical performance that can help pave the way toward grid-scale energy storage for renewable energy sources.     

A modular approach to learning manipulation strategies from human demonstration

Object manipulation is a challenging task for robotics, as the physics involved in object interaction is complex and hard to express analytically. Here we introduce a modular approach for learning a manipulation strategy from human demonstration. Firstly we record a human performing a task that requires an adaptive control strategy in different conditions, i.e. different task contexts. We then perform modular decomposition of the control strategy, using phases of the recorded actions to guide segmentation. Each module represents a part of the strategy, encoded as a pair of forward and inverse models. All modules contribute to the final control policy; their recommendations are integrated via a system of weighting based on their own estimated error in the current task context. We validate our approach by demonstrating it, both in a simulation for clarity, and on a real robot platform to demonstrate robustness and capacity to generalise. The robot task is opening bottle caps. We show that our approach can modularize an adaptive control strategy and generate appropriate motor commands for the robot to accomplish the complete task, even for novel bottles.     

Grain boundary effect on electron-beam-induced current in La3Ga5.5Ta0.5O14 crystal

La₃Ga_5.5Ta_0.5O₁₄ crystal recently attracted more attention due to its superior electromechanical properties and high Q × f product. We report that the first electron-beam-induced current experiment on La₃Ga_5.5Ta_0.5O₁₄ single crystal. This method is employed to study the effect of the crystal's grain boundary on the incident electron beam. The experimental results clearly show that when the electron beam scans over the grain boundary of the crystal, a fraction of the carriers recombine at the grain boundary and is unavailable for the current generation. This recombination rate will be enhanced when the electron beam was close to the boundary and cause a dip in the collected current. Although the crystal is an insulator, this effect still can be observed if the coating metal is proper to be chosen. It is also pointed out that the different diffusion lengths of the crystal might be due to the tilted grain boundary.     

Boundary cell-based acceleration for volume ray casting

Several effective acceleration techniques for volume rendering offer efficient means to skip over empty space, providing significant speedup without affecting image quality. The effectiveness of such an approach depends on its ability to accurately estimate the object boundary inside a volume with minimal computational overhead. We propose a novel boundary cell-based acceleration technique for ray casting which skips over empty space by accurately calculating the intersection distance for each ray. Very short distance estimation time is achieved by exploiting a projection template to calculate the parallel-projection values of each boundary cell and the coherency of adjacent cells. Since no hardware acceleration is used, the projection procedure can also be efficiently parallelized. Experimental results are provided to demonstrate the performance of our new algorithm.     

The Literacy Myth in the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives

One of the central endeavors in contemporary literacy studies is to interrogate traditional definitions of literacy and deconstruct literacy myths. The Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives (DALN), a publicly accessible online repository for literacy narratives, implicates itself in this effort. This essay examines instantiations of the literacy myth within literacy narratives and the archive itself. An analysis of the content and design of the DALN offers insight into how the archive provides contributors both subversive and traditional frameworks for understanding literacy and literacy narratives. Then an examination of three digital literacy narratives in the DALN demonstrates how a combination of narrative analytics can be directed towards revealing constructions of the literacy myth in the telling and meaning-making of individual lives.     

Choice of GP: who do young rural women prefer?

A community-based interdisciplinary health professions education project, involving the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing and Public and Allied Health, was implemented at the undergraduate level at East Tennessee State University from 1990 to the present. The outcomes of this project and the extension of the project into graduate health profession programs are described. Committed leadership, effective communication, and genuine community involvement are identified as essential to the success of community-based, interdisciplinary health professions training programs.