Bryant and Eastern Canyon systems are located on the northwest Gulf of Mexico, and they are characterized by a very complex sedimentological history related to glacioeustatic cycles, river discharges, and interactions of depositional and halokinetic processes. Both canyon systems were active during the low sea-level stand of Oxygen Isotope Stage 6, and provided the pathways for the transport of enormous amounts of sediments on the continental slope and abyssal plain of the northwest Gulf of Mexico. Right after their abandonment, at the beginning of Stage 5, salt diapirs encroached into the canyons, and resulted in their transformation into a network of intraslope basins. The transformation of the canyons resulted in the generation of massive sediment failures. The mid-shelf (Stages 4 and 3) to shelf edge (Stage 2) lowering of the sea-level during the last glacial episode resulted in: 1) extensive river-sourced deposits on the outer shelf and/or upper continental slope that contributed in a seaward mobilization of the underlying salt masses, and 2) the generation of numerous gravity flows and turbidity currents on the outer shelf/upper continental slope. The seaward mobilization of the salt masses resulted in the oversteepening of the flanks of the basins, and consequently in the generation of numerous and massive sediment failures. The turbidity currents were confined on the intraslope basins of the upper continental slope, depositing their coarsest material. However, their most diluted upper and end members were able to continue their downslope propagation depositing characteristic fine-grained turbidites. The frequency of the turbidity currents was highly increased during the last glacial maximum (Stage 2), and three short melt-water pulses centered at 30.5, 36, and 52 ky B.P. The last deglaciation event is characterized by the development of a major melt water event that resulted in the deposition of distinct organic rich sediments, similar to the sapropels of the Eastern Mediterranean. At about 11 ky B.P. the melt water discharges of the North America switched from Mississippi River to St Lawrence Seaway, causing the domination of hemipelagic sedimentation on the continental slope of the northwest Gulf of Mexico.

Atherosclerosis is a vascular degenerative disease leading to progressive thickening in the intima of large and medium sized arteries through the formation of plaque that is very rich with cholesterol. The cholesterol is carried by LDL (low density lipoprotein) particles which pass through the endothelium and accumulate in the intima. The passage of LDL is influenced by wall shear stress which activates physiological responses of the endothelium. However, the causal relationship between the physiological responses and their effect on LDL mass transport is not fully understood. To obtain blood flow patterns in human carotid arteries, a fluid structure interaction (FSI) computational approach is employed, based on the in-vivo arterial geometry constructed from black blood magnetic resonance images (BBMRI) and flow rate boundary conditions obtained from phase contrast images (PC). Wall shear stress (WSS) on the luminal surface is computed, and this variable is related to the formation of leaky junctions, which is a major transendothelial pathway for LDL. A model for the fraction of leaky junction at a surface is incorporated into the overall computational scheme for mass transport, along with pore theory. The theoretical model is applied to images from three human carotid arteries in which the degree of disease ranges from mild to moderate. Maximum mass flux is predicted to be in the downstream region of stenoses where WSS is low, and this result is consistent with the clinical observation of plaque progression downstream of the stenosis. The hypothesis that the majority of LDL enters into the intima through leaky junctions is supported by observation of similar distributions between the pattern of volume flux via leaky junctions and mass flux. These studies suggest that mass flux of LDL can be a predictor to indicate areas with potential for plaque formation and progression in human carotid artery disease.

A spectacular instability has been observed in low density round jets when the density ratio of jet fluid to ambient fluid falls below a threshold of approximately 0.6. This phenomenon has been observed in non-buoyant jets of helium in air, heated air jets and heated buoyant jets. The oscillation of the flow near the nozzle is extremely regular and periodic and consists of ring vortices. Even the smaller scale structures that appear downstream exhibit similar regularity. A theory for predicting the onset of this oscillation is based on finding regions of absolute instability from linear stability analysis of parallel flow. However, experiments suggest that the theory is at least incomplete and fortuitous as the oscillation is not a linear process. The present work is to observe and understand the process of regeneration of these oscillations by conducting numerical simulations. Here, two-dimensional, plane jets were simulated because they undergo a qualitatively similar process. A spatial and temporal picture of a heated jet has been obtained numerically. A perturbation expansion was used to obtain a system of conservation laws for compressible flows which is valid for low Mach numbers. The low Mach number approximation removes the high frequency acoustic waves from the flow field. This enables a larger time step to be taken without making the calculation unstable. To ensure that all the scales of motion are properly resolved, calculations were done at a low Reynolds number. The governing equations were discretized in space using second-order finite difference formulas on a staggered grid. Velocity fields were advanced using a second-order Adams-Bashforth explicit scheme and then corrected by solving for pressure such that continuity is satisfied at every time step. The Poisson problem for pressure requires the time derivative of the density which was approximated by a third-order backward difference formula. Gauss-Siedel iteration was used to find the pressure. Several numerical tests were conducted prior to simulations of variable density jets to check the stability and accuracy of the code. Two dimensional driven cavity flow calculations were done as a first test. Then a calculation of a forced, spatially developing, incompressible, plane mixing layer was done to check the time accuracy of the code. After obtaining satisfactory performance of the code for the different test cases, two-dimensional, variable density jets were simulated. Since the plane jet extends ad infinitum in the streamwise direction, a sufficiently large domain was used to capture all the relevant physics in the downstream regions of the jet. An advective boundary condition was imposed at the exit plane. Rigid, slipwall conditions were employed to prescribe lateral boundary conditions. A 2-D, incompressible plane jet was simulated first. The jet profile was approximated by two hyperbolic tangent shear layers. The most unstable mode of the inviscid shear layer for this profile, along with its first and second harmonics, was imposed on the velocity profile at the inlet plane. The amplitude of oscillation of the harmonics was chosen so as to provide sufficient energy in the perturbation to accelerate the growth of the layer. No explicit phase lag was introduced in the perturbation. The flow was allowed to develop long enough to wash out the effect of the initial condition. The results obtained for this case indicate that experimentally realized phenomena such as vortex pairing were captured in this simulation. Furthermore, to check the convective nature of instability of the incompressible jet, the forcing at the inlet plane was turned off. The disturbances were gradually convected downstream, out of the computational domain. Next, two-dimensional heated, non-buoyant jets were studied numerically. The effects of the ratio of jet density to ambient density S, the velocity ratio R, and jet width W, on the near field behavior of an initial laminar jet and the regeneration mechanism of the self-sustaining vortices were explored. The theory based on domain of absolute/convective instability identifies these three parameters. No initial perturbation was necessary to start roll-up of the shear layer. For certain choices, e.g., S= 0.75, R = 20, W =10.5, self-sustaining oscillations appeared spontaneously, and these cycles repeated for very long simulation intervals. Waviness on the jet shear layers grow and roll-up into vortices as in constant density shear layers. But unlike the incompressible plane jet, these vortices grow much larger and mixes more with the surrounding fluid. As these vortices evolve, packets of fluid break away as trailing legs similar to side jet expulsions observed in round jets and plumes. The growing vortices disturb the upstream shear layer. Consistently with linear theory, which predicts absolute instability for these parameters, these disturbances are able to grow and roll up. If these disturbances travelled faster than the downstream vortices, it would not be possible for the cycle to repeat. With sufficient shear between the co-flowing streams (R not too small), the entire regeneration process was found to begin from roughly the same streamwise location. Furthermore, it is the symmetric, varicose mode which occurs. At a slightly larger density ratio (S = 0.8, R = 10), self-sustaining oscillations appeared, but each new cycle began slightly farther downstream. It seems likely that these values are close to the boundary in parameter space between self-sustained oscillatory and convectively unstable behaviors. Jet width also influences the selection of these two behaviors. When jet width was reduced, W = 6, even for S = 0.75,R = 20, each new cycle began to shift downstream. For larger jet width (W = 12.3), self-sustaining oscillations occur but the response is now as an asymmetric sinuous mode after a short initial varicose mode. The detailed processes that have now been revealed in plane jets should serve as guidelines for the study of such processes in the technologically more important round jets.

ITC/USA 2014 Conference Proceedings / The Fiftieth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 20-23, 2014 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, CA / In some flight test scenarios the telemetry link is noise limited at long slant ranges or during signal fade events caused by antenna pattern nulls. In these situations, a mitigation technique such as forward error correction (FEC) can add several decibels to the link margin. The particular FEC code discussed in this paper is a variant of a low-density parity check (LDPC) code and is coupled with SOQPSK modulation in the hardware tested. This paper will briefly cover lab testing of the flight-ready hardware then present flight test results comparing a baseline uncoded telemetry link with a LDPC-coded telemetry link. This is the first known test dedicated to this specific FEC code in a real-world test environment with flight profile tailored to assess the viability of an LDPC-coded telemetry link.

At a time where almost 1.75 billion people around the world use the Internet on a regular basis, optical communication over optical fibers that is used in long distance and high demand applications has to be capable of providing higher communication speed and re-liability. In recent years, strong demand is driving the dense wavelength division multip-lexing network upgrade from 10 Gb/s per channel to more spectrally-efficient 40 Gb/s or 100 Gb/s per wavelength channel, and beyond. The 100 Gb/s Ethernet is currently under standardization, and in a couple of years 1 Tb/s Ethernet is going to be standardized as well for different applications, such as the local area networks (LANs) and the wide area networks (WANs). The major concern about such high data rates is the degradation in the signal quality due to linear and non-linear impairments, in particular polarization mode dispersion (PMD) and intrachannel nonlinearities. Moreover, the higher speed transceivers are expensive, so the alternative approaches of achieving the required rates is preferably done using commercially available components operating at lower speeds.In this dissertation, different LDPC-coded modulation techniques are presented to offer a higher spectral efficiency and/or power efficiency, in addition to offering aggregate rates that can go up to 1Tb/s per wavelength. These modulation formats are based on the bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) and include: (i) three-dimensional LDPC-coded modulation using hybrid direct and coherent detection, (ii) multidimensional LDPC-coded modulation, (iii) subcarrier-multiplexed four-dimensional LDPC-coded modulation, (iv) hybrid subcarrier/amplitude/phase/polarization LDPC-coded modulation, and (v) iterative polar quantization based LDPC-coded modulation.

In this thesis, we present a space-time coded system which achieves high through- put and good performance with low processing delay using low-complexity detection and decoding. Initially, Hamming codes are used in a simple interleaved bit-mapped coded modulation structure (BMCM). This is concatenated with Alamouti's or- thogonal space-time block codes. The good performance achieved by this system indicates that higher throughput is possible while maintaining performance. An analytical bound for the performance of this system is presented. We also develop a class of low density parity check codes which allows flexible "throughput versus performance" tradeoffs. We then focus on a Rate 2 quasi-orthogonal space-time block code structure which enables us to achieve an overall throughput of 5.6 bits/symbol period with good performance and relatively simple decoding using iterative parallel interference cancellation. We show that this can be achieved through the use of a bit-mapped coded modulation structure using parallel short low density parity check codes. The absence of interleavers here reduces processing delay significantly. The proposed system is shown to perform well on flat Rayleigh fading channels with a wide range of normalized fade rates, and to be robust to channel estimation errors. A comparison with bit-interleaved coded modulation is also provided (BICM).

Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes are a class of easily decodable error-correcting codes. Published parallel LDPC decoders demonstrate high throughput and low energy-per-bit but require a lot of silicon area. Decoders based on digit-online arithmetic (processing several bits per fundamental operation) process messages in a digit-serial fashion, reducing the area requirements, and can process multiple frames in frame-interlaced fashion. Implementations on Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) are usually power- and area-hungry, but provide flexibility compared with application-specific integrated circuit implementations. With the penetration of mobile devices in the electronics industry the power considerations have become increasingly important. The power consumption of a digit-online decoder depends on various factors, like input log-likelihood ratio (LLR) bit precision, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and maximum number of iterations. The design is implemented on an Altera Stratix IV GX EP4SGX230 FPGA, which comes on an Altera DE4 Development and Education Board. In this work, both parallel and digit-online block LDPC decoder implementations on FPGAs for WiMAX 576-bit, rate-3/4 codes are studied, and power measurements from the DE4 board are reported. Various components of the system include a random-data generator, WiMAX Encoder, shift-out register, additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) generator, channel LLR buffer, WiMAX Decoder and bit-error rate (BER) Calculator. The random-data generator outputs pseudo-random bit patterns through an implemented linear-feedback shift register (LFSR). Digit-online decoders with input LLR precisions ranging from 6 to 13 bits and parallel decoders with input LLR precisions ranging from 3 to 6 bits are synthesized in a Stratix IV FPGA. The digit-online decoders can be clocked at higher frequency for higher LLR precisions. A digit-online decoder can be used to decode two frames simultaneously in frame-interlaced mode. For the 6-bit implementation of digit-online decoder in single-frame mode, the minimum throughput achieved is 740 Mb/s at low SNRs. For the case of 11-bit LLR digit-online decoder in frame-interlaced mode, the minimum throughput achieved is 1363 Mb/s. Detailed analysis such as effect of SNR and LLR precision on decoder power is presented. Also, the effect of changing LLR precision on max clock frequency and logic utilization on the parallel and the digit-online decoders is studied. Alongside, power per iteration for a 6-bit LLR input digit-online decoder is also reported.

Heat shock protein (HSP)27 is traditionally described as an intracellular chaperone and signaling molecule, but growing evidence suggests it is released from immune cells where it plays an anti-inflammatory role during atherogenesis. Previously, the O’Brien lab found that overexpression of HSP27 led to augmented HSP27 serum levels in female apolipoprotein E knockout (ApoE-/-) mice, attenuated atherogenesis, and inhibited macrophage foam cell formation via physical binding with scavenger receptor (SR)-A. However, the precise mechanism of atheroprotection remained elusive. This thesis sought to ascertain the mechanism(s) by which HSP27 prevents foam cell formation, and determine if SR-A, a key receptor involved in the uptake of lipid into macrophages, plays an important role in HSP27-mediated atheroprotection. Pre-treatment of human macrophages with recombinant HSP27 (rHSP27) inhibited acytelated low density lipoprotein (acLDL) binding and uptake independent from receptor competition effect. Reduction in uptake was associated with attenuation of expression of SR-A mRNA, total protein, and cell surface expression. To explore the signaling mechanism by which HSP27 modulated SR-A expression it was hypothesized that nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kB), a major regulator of many atherosclerosis gene programs, is altered by extracellular HSP27. Indeed, rHSP27 markedly activated NF-kB signaling in macrophages. Using an inhibitor of NF-kBsignaling there was an attenuation of rHSP27-induced inhibition of SR-A gene and protein expression, as well as lipid uptake, suggesting that SR-A expression is regulated by NF-kB activation. Lastly, to investigate if SR-A is required for HSP27-mediated atheroprotection in vivo, ApoE-/- and ApoE-/-SR-A-/- mice fed a high fat diet were treated with rHSP25, the mouse orthologue of HSP27, or PBS for 3 weeks. While rHSP25 therapy equally reduced serum cholesterol levels in the mouse cohorts, aortic atherogenesis, assessed using en face and sinus cross-sectional analyses, was attenuated in ApoE-/- mice but not ApoE-/-SR-A-/- mice. In conclusion, rHSP27 inhibits foam cell formation by downregulating SR-A expression. This effect may be associated with NF-kB activation. Reductions in atherosclerotic burden by rHSP27 require SR-A, and are independent of changes in serum cholesterol levels, highlighting the importance of macrophage lipid uptake in atherogenesis. Results presented in this thesis demonstrate that SR-A is a major target for HSP27 atheroprotection in the vessel wall, and provide an impetus for further studies that investigate the potential therapeutic value of HSP27.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:07:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LuandaGD_DISSERT.pdf: 2374976 bytes, checksum: 5b49cc11854aa2427f22f38d6ff109c2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-24 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico / The study aimed at the treatment of attapulgite for the development and characterization of composite recycled low density polyethylene - PEBD_rec embedded with natural attapulgite - ATP_NAT, sifted - ATP_PN and attapulgite treated with sulfuric acid - ATP_TR in different compositions (1, 3 and 5%) and compared with the PEBD_rec. The atapulgitas, natural, screened and treated, were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), particle size analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and determining the area specific surface (BET). The composites were characterized by thermogravimetry (TG), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Xray diffraction (XRD), torque rheometry, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and traction. The composite PEBD_rec / ATP (natural, sieved and treated) were produced by mixing in the molten state in a single screw extruder matrix wire with subsequent reprocessing matrix tape. It was found that the screening of attapulgite not reduce the quantity of quartz and the acid treatment completely extracted dolomite aggregate impurities of the channels attapulgite, and increase their surface area. The addition of attapulgite in PEBD_rec acts as a catalyst, reducing the thermal stability of the polymer. The increased concentration of attapulgite, increases resistance and reduces the elongation at break and modulus of elasticity of the composite PEBD_rec / attapulgite / O trabalho teve como objetivo o tratamento da atapulgita para o desenvolvimento e a caracteriza??o de comp?sito de polietileno de baixa densidade reciclado PEBD_rec incorporado com atapulgita natural ATP_NAT, peneirada ATP_PN e com atapulgita tratada com ?cido sulf?rico ATP_TR, em diferentes composi??es (1, 3 e 5%) e comparado com o PEBD_rec. As atapulgitas, natural, peneirada e tratada, foram caracterizadas por difra??o de raios X (DRX), fluoresc?ncia de raios X (FRX), an?lise granulom?trica, microscopia eletr?nica de varredura (MEV), espectroscopia de energia dispersiva (EDS) e determina??o da ?rea superficial espec?fica (BET). Os comp?sitos foram caracterizados por an?lise termogravim?trica (TG), calorimetria diferencial explorat?ria (DSC), difra??o de raios X (DRX), reometria de torque, microscopia eletr?nica de varredura (MEV) e tra??o. Os comp?sitos de PEBD_rec /ATP (natural, peneirada e tratada) foram produzidos por meio de mistura no estado fundido em uma extrusora monorosca com matriz de fio com posterior reprocessamento com matriz de fita. Verificou-se que o peneiramento da atapulgita n?o reduziu o teor de quartzo e que o tratamento ?cido extraiu completamente a dolomita, impureza agregada nos canais da atapulgita, al?m de aumentar sua ?rea superficial. A adi??o da atapulgita no PEBD_rec atua como catalisador, reduzindo a estabilidade t?rmica do pol?mero. O aumento da concentra??o de atapulgita aumenta a resist?ncia e reduz o alongamento na ruptura e o m?dulo de elasticidade do comp?sito PEBD_rec / atapulgita

Orientador: Jose de Assis Fonseca Faria / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia de Alimentos / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-08T11:53:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Cardoso_ClaudioFernandes_M.pdf: 1146025 bytes, checksum: 703b38e7eec6c1ffc7f2de65b30ab581 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: O objetivo deste trabalho consistiu no processamento e avaliação de desempenho de um sistema asséptico piloto para filme de polietileno de baixa densidade (PEBD). Através da metodologia de planejamento experimental fatorial foram feitas variações de tempo de contato, temperatura do banho e concentração da solução esterilizante, bem como a variação do tempo de exposição à radiação ultravioleta (UVC). Estas variações tiveram por finalidade promover de 4 a 6 reduções decimais na população inicial de esporos de Bacillus subtilis var. globigii ATCC9372, em um curto espaço de tempo, gerando o menor residual do esterilizante em água envasada. Foram inoculados uniformemente 100µL do microrganismo teste em uma superfície de 16cm2. Testou-se como agente de esterilização química, o peróxido de hidrogênio (H2O2) e, como agente físico, a radiação UVC, sendo o primeiro aplicado na forma de banho de imersão e o segundo, por uma exposição a 2,5cm de distância do filme de PEBD logo após o banho de imersão. O sistema utilizado constituiu em uma envasadora automática e um protótipo com um tanque em aço inoxidável, desenvolvido especialmente para este tipo de teste. O H2O2 e a radiação UVC apresentaram ação esporicida significativa. O H2O2 demonstrou ação esporicida entre as concentrações de 18 e 35%, em um intervalo de temperatura de 46 a 70ºC, promovendo de 3 a 7 reduções decimais de Bacillus subtilis. A concentração de 20% de H2O2 não conferiu sabor estranho à água mineral envasada em embalagens de PEBD sanificadas, não diferindo, significativamente (p<0,05), do padrão. O residual de H2O2 das superfícies-teste sanificadas com soluções contendo de 18 a 35% de H2O2 foi superior a 0,5mg/L, nível máximo permitido pela FDA presente em água envasada sob as condições de produção. Os dados obtidos forneceram dois modelos matemáticos quadráticos, representativos da ação do H2O2 e radiação UVC, em função do tempo e da temperatura, sobre esporos de B. subtilis. Tais modelos, com R2 de 0,9349 para os tratamentos sem radiação UVC, e R2 de 0,9763 para os tratamentos com radiação UVC, limitaram-se a uma concentração de 35% de H2O2 e tempo máximo de exposição à radiação UVC de 8s. Superfícies-teste sanificadas com soluções de 28% de H2O2 a 60ºC, por 8s sem exposição à radiação UVC apresentaram 4 ciclos de redução decimal. Para as mesmas condições, porém com exposição à radiação UVC por 8s, este valor elevou-se para 7, demonstrando a existência do sinergismo entre a associação destes dois agentes. O sistema de esterilização testado apresentou desempenho satisfatório, podendo ser perfeitamente utilizado por indústrias de pequeno e médio porte na esterilização de filmes plásticos, sendo capaz de promover até 7 reduções decimais na população de esporos bacterianos / Abstract: The aim of this research consisted in the processing and performance evaluation of an aseptic pilot system for Low Density Polyethylene film (LDPE). Through the screening design methodology, variations of contact time, bath temperature, sanificant concentration and exposition time variation of ultraviolet radiation (UVC) was made. Such variations had as purpose to promote from 4 to 6 decimal reductions in the Bacillus subtilis var. globigii ATCC9372 spores, when applied to the LDPE film surface, in a short time, generating the minor residual of the sanificant in the plastic surface. Was evaluated as chemical agent, the hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and as physical agent, UVC radiation, being the first one applied as immersion bath and the second one as an exposition after the immersion bath, with 2,5cm of distance of the PEBD film. The system used was constituted in an automatic filling machine and an equipment with a stainless steel tank, especially developed for this type of test. H2O2 showed sporicidal action in from 18 to 35%, in temperatures of 46 to 70ºC, causing from 3 to 7 decimal reductions. The H2O2 20% did not confer off-taste in mineral water used as filling product, as well no significant difference from the standard was observed (p<0,05). The hydrogen peroxide residual surface-test after sanitation with 18 to 35% H2O2 was higher than 0,5mg/L. However, the use of hot air knives or roller pressers after the immersion bath will be able to diminish this residual. The quadratic model, with R2 of 0,9349 for the treatments without UVC radiation and R2 of 0,9763 for the treatments with UVC radiation are restricted to 35% H2O2 and UVC maximum exposition time of 8s. Surface-test treated with 28% H2O2 / 60ºC / 8s without UVC radiation exposition had presented 4 decimal reduction. In the same conditions, however with UVC radiation exposition (8s), this value was raised for 7, demonstrating the existence of synergism between these two agents. The sanification system tested showed satisfactory performance, effective to be used in small and medium industries, being capable to promote up to 7 decimal reductions in spores population / Mestrado / Mestre em Tecnologia de Alimentos