centrifugeR: Non-Trivial Balance of Centrifuge Rotors

Loading tubes in opposite buckets has been used universally, yet intuitively to balance centrifuge rotors. Most rotors support tube distributions with rotational symmetry of order not only 2 but also other prime divisors of the total bucket number. This potential allows rotors to be balanced by the non-trivial placement of tubes, which offers users greater flexibility and more safety in centrifuge operation. Based on linear combinations and random samples, centrifugeR finds the numbers of tubes that can be loaded in centrifuge rotors in a single operation and shows how to balance these tubes in cases of equal or unequal masses.

Rain concentration and sheltering effect of solar panels on cultivated plots

Agrivoltaism is the association of agricultural and photovoltaic energy production on the same land area, coping with the increasing pressure on land use and water resources while delivering clean and renewable energy. However, the solar panels located above the cultivated plots also have a seemingly yes unexplored effect on rain redistribution, sheltering large parts of the plot but redirecting concentrated fluxes on a few locations. The spatial heterogeneity in water amounts observed on the ground is high in the general case; its dynamical patterns are directly attributable to the mobile panels through their geometrical characteristics (dimensions, height, coverage percentage) and the strategies selected to rotate them around their support tube. A coefficient of variation is used to measure this spatial heterogeneity and to compare it with the coefficient of uniformity that classically describes the efficiency of irrigation systems. A rain redistribution model (AVrain) was derived from literature elements and theoretical grounds and then validated from experiments in both field and controlled conditions. AVrain simulates the effective rain amounts on the plot from a few forcing data (rainfall, wind velocity and direction) and thus allows real-time strategies that consist in operating the panels so as to limit the rain interception mainly responsible for the spatial heterogeneities. Such avoidance strategies resulted in a sharp decrease in the coefficient of variation, e.g. 0.22 vs. 2.13 for panels held flat during one of the monitored rain events, which is a fairly good uniformity score for irrigation specialists. Finally, the water amounts predicted by AVrain were used as inputs to Hydrus-2D for a brief exploratory study on the impact of the presence of solar panels on rain redistribution at shallow depths within soils: similar, more diffuse patterns were simulated and were coherent with field measurements.

Rain concentration and sheltering effect of solar panels on cultivated plots

Agrivoltaism is the association of agricultural and photovoltaic energy production on the same land area, coping with the increasing pressure on land use and water resources while delivering a clean and renewable energy. However the solar panels located above the cultivated plots also have a seemingly unexplored yet effect on rain redistribution, sheltering large parts of the plot but redirecting concentrated fluxes on a few locations. The spatial heterogeneity in water amounts observed on the ground is high in the general case; its dynamical patterns are directly attributable to the mobile panels through their geometrical characteristics (dimensions, height, coverage percentage) and the strategies selected to rotate them around their support tube. A coefficient of variation is used to measure this spatial heterogeneity and to compare it with the coefficient of uniformity that classically describes the efficiency of irrigation systems. A rain redistribution model (AVrain) was derived from literature elements and theoretical grounds then validated from experiments in both field and controlled conditions. AVrain simulates the effective rain amounts on the plot from a few forcing data (rainfall, wind velocity and direction) thus allows real-time strategies that consist in operating the panels so as to limit rain interception mainly responsible for the spatial heterogeneities. Such avoidance strategies resulted in a sharp decrease of the coefficient of variation, e.g. 0.22 against 2.13 for panels held flat during one of the monitored rain events, that is a fairly good uniformity score for irrigation specialists. Finally, the water amounts predicted by AVrain were used as inputs to HYDRUS-2D for a brief exploratory study on the impact of the presence of solar panels on rain redistribution at shallow depths within soils : similar, more diffuse patterns were simulated and coherent with field measurements.

Preparation and Resistivity of Zirconia Oxygen Sensor Probe

A ZrO2/Al2O3 (molar ratio of 1: 1, ZA) composite ceramic was formed by slip casting as solid electrolyte in a zirconia oxygen sensor. The bonding of the ZA ceramic green body to 95% Al2O3 ceramic green body support tube was carried out at 900 oC for 60 min by the gradient joining technique using pure Al2O3 slurry as the interlayer. Subsequently, the Pt slurry was coated on the surface of the pre-sintered composite ceramic, and then co-sintered at 1550 oC for 60 min to fabricate a Pt/ceramic composite probe. The interface microstructure and bonding mechanism were briefly investigated, and the electrical conductivity of the probe was tested. The experimental results show that the two high-quality ZA/Al2O3 and ZA/Pt interfaces were obtained. In particular, the relationship between the logarithm of conductivity (lnρ) and the reciprocal of temperature was well in accord with the Arrhenius equation. The Pt/ceramic composite probe presented the typical characteristic of high-temperature ionic conduction.

Treatment preference discussion in oncology outpatient clinic.

106 Background: Often end of life discussions are either not held in a timely manner or remain poorly communicated when outpatients are transferred to hospital care. This leads to unwarranted and costly interventions. Methods: In an academic oncology clinic we developed an electronic medical record (EMR) template that listed important information for management decisions, including life expectancy, goals of management and specific patient treatment preferences (ventilator support, tube feedings, transfusions, do-not-resuscitate (DNR) wishes, etc.). The completed note was placed in an easily retrievable location in patients’ electronic charts. Clinic charts were reviewed one week ahead of visits to identify patients who were within the last year of life and a pop up reminder for the treating physician was placed in the EMR. The physicians who admitted our patients to the hospital were educated on utilization of the template notice. We compared the percentage of patients with advanced directives or treatment preference notes before the intervention with the percentage 1½ years after the intervention was begun. We utilized a cross-sectional, self-administered survey to compare in-patient physician responses before and after implementation of the intervention to evaluate the in-hospital utility of the intervention. Results: Easily accessible treatment preference or advanced directive discussions with patients in their last year of life increased from 32% to 55% (p =0.004) with the intervention. Results of the survey also showed improved understanding of patient’s wishes for DNR status (26.9% vs 52.6%, p = 0.08) among admitting physicians. Conclusions: The development of an easily utilized EMR template to record the treatment preferences of patients near the end of life, with an EMR accountability instrument, improved both documentation of discussion and physician understanding of patient treatment preferences when patients were transferred from outpatient to inpatient care. We hypothesize that this intervention will lead to a decline in costly and unwanted interventions for patients near the end of life, and plan to test this hypothesis with further outcomes measures.

A Design of Electric Hydraulic Lifting Device Supported by Mechanical Structure

In hydraulic transmission, Hydraulic pressure can not support heavy objects long time. For the shortcoming, an electro-hydraulic lifting device is designed with mechanical structural supporting; Electric motor is the motive power. The weight is lifted by hydraulic transmission technology; the base of the device is set up a lifting rigid leg and pushing forward Casters .After hydraulic system lifting heavy objects, the lifting devices rely on the support tube, mechanical positioning tube and rigid supporting legs to lock the lifting position. In order to ensure the same high of support on different positions, a vertical fine adjustment mechanism is set. The design solves the problem that hydraulic transmission cannot lift long time. The lifting device is safe operation, easy moved, accuracy positioning, and stable support, energy-saving and environmental protection.