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Many ship panels may be subjected to operational or accidental impact loads, and increased crashworthiness is a desirable design feature. A designer may reach this goal using different structural configurations that are available nowadays. However, the selection of the appropriate design parameters is not simple, due to the complexity of predicting impact response. This research is based on published experimental crashworthiness results of a steel stiffened panel tested under low-velocity impact loading. A series of finite element analyses is performed to develop a master model that can be applied to different parameters. The results showed good agreement between the developed finite element model and the experimental results, which confirms the accuracy and reliability of the numerical model. A parametric study is carried out to investigate the effect of design parameters such as plating thickness, stiffener section modulus, stiffener spacing, and stiffener profiles on the crashworthiness characteristics of the calibrated model, and the geometrical configurations that offer the best crashworthiness without considerable increased weight may be then determined based on a proposed criterion. To cover complex realistic scenarios during operation, pre-existing mechanical damage consisting of a specified dent is applied to the intact panel, to check the survivability of the proposed model with respect to the intact one. Finally, simplified design guidelines are proposed to improve both the safety and structural integrity characteristics of the structural configurations considered.

Azadirachtin is one of the successful botanical pesticides in agricultural use with a broad-spectrum insecticide activity, but its possible transgenerational effects have not been under much scrutiny. The effects of sublethal doses of azadirachtin on life-table traits and oviposition behaviour of a model organism in toxicological studies, D. melanogaster , were evaluated. The fecundity and oviposition preference of flies surviving to single azadirachtin-treated larvae of parental generation was adversely affected and resulted in the reduction of the number of eggs laid and increased aversion to this compound over two successive generations. In parental generation, early exposure to azadirachtin affects adult’s development by reducing the number of organisms, delay larval and pupal development; male biased sex ratio and induced morphological alterations. Moreover, adult’s survival of the two generations was significantly decreased as compared to the control. Therefore, Single preimaginal azadirachtin treatment can affect flies population dynamics via transgenerational reductions in survival and reproduction capacity as well as reinforcement of oviposition avoidance which can contribute as repellent strategies in integrated pest management programs. The transgenerational effects observed suggest a possible reduction both in application frequency and total amount of pesticide used, would help in reducing both control costs and possible ecotoxicological risks.

Advanced female age and extended in vitro culture have both been implicated in zona pellucida (ZP) hardening and thickening. This study aimed to determine the influence of (i) the woman's age and (ii) prolonged in vitro culture of embryos on ZP thickness and density using non-invasive polarized light (LC-PolScope) microscopy. ZP thickness and density (measured as retardance) were determined in oocytes, embryos and blastocysts in women undergoing intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in two age groups (older, >38 years; younger, ≤38 years). A total of 193 oocytes from 29 patients were studied. The younger group contained 100 oocytes and the older group 93 oocytes. The ZP was significantly thicker in metaphase II oocytes in the older group compared with the younger group (mean ± SD: 24.1 ± 2.5 μm vs 23.1 ± 3.3 μm; p = 0.01) but ZP density was equal (2.8 ± 0.7 nm). By day 2 of culture, embryos from the two groups had similar ZP thickness (22.2 ± 2.2 μm vs 21.7 ± 1.6 μm; p = 0.28) and density (2.9 ± 0.7 nm vs 2.8 ± 0.8 nm; p = 0.57). For the embryos cultured to blastocyst (older: n = 20; younger: n = 18) ZP thickness was similar in the two groups (19.2 ± 2.7 μm vs 19.1 ± 5.0 μm; p = 0.8) but thinner than on day 2. The older group had significantly denser ZP than the younger group (4.2 ± 0.5 nm vs 3.3 ± 1.0 nm, p < 0.01). Blastocysts from both groups had significantly denser ZP than their corresponding day 2 embryos (older: 4.2 ± 0.5 nm vs 2.9 ± 0.7 nm, p < 0.001; younger: 3.3 ± 1.0 nm vs 2.8 ± 0.8 nm, p = 0.013). It is concluded that there is little relationship between ZP thickness and its density as measured by polarized light microscopy. While ZP thickness decreases with extended embryo culturing, the density of the ZP increases. ZP density increases in both age groups with extended culture and, interestingly, more in embryos from older compared with younger women.

Modern mobile communication devices tend to integrate multiple communication systems into a mobile handset. Since each communication protocol may operates in distinctive frequency bands, instead of using several antennas, it is highly useful to have one multiband antenna to meet the need of multiple communication systems [5]. The design evolution of the proposed antenna is presented in Figure 2, the validation of the patch antenna with multi frequency operation capabilities is due to the multiple resonances introduced by the combination optimization of the geometry antenna, cutting notched and slot shaped on the radiator patch and ground faces. Therfore we have done an application by using this atenna which permits to send an SMS using GSM Ntework and in the same time validates the microstrip antenna for GSM band. 4.Conclusion In this paper, a new monopole multiband microstrip antenna structure for mobile phone and wireless applications is proposed and validated by using two electromagnetic solvers. The proposed antenna can radiate bi-directional patterns at all the operating frequency bands which makes it suitable for use in mobile phone and other wireless applications.

Essential oil from the tubers of Cyperus rotundus, obtained by steam distillation, was analyzed by GC and GC/MS. In total, 33 compounds were identified. The oil was characterized by its high content of sesquiterpenes with cyperene (30.9%) being major. The antibacterial activity of oil from tubers of Cyperus rotundus, showed more important activity against Gram-positive bacteria specially Staphylococcus aureus than Gram-negative bacteria. The antimutagenic activity was tested by the \"SOS Chromotest\" and the \"Ames\" test. C. rotundus oil acted as an antimutagen against Aflatoxin B1 in both Salmonella strains (TA100 and TA98) and Escherichia coli strain (PQ37) and against nifuroxazide in Escherichia coli strain (PQ37), where its mutagenicity is not expressed. The highest rates of AFB1 mutagenesis inhibition tested by Ames assay, ranged from about 82.56% for TA100 strain to 85.47% for TA98 strain at the same dose of 50 microgram AFB1 per plate. Whereas, the mutagenic effect of respectively nifuroxazide and AFB1 (50 microgram/assay) were reduced by approximately 58.19% and 81.67% when tested by the SOS chromotest assay.

The High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) is the last planned upgrade of the LHC and it will increase the instantaneous luminosity by a factor of 10. To cope with the predicted high particle rates and the extreme radiation dosage, the ATLAS detector will require substantial modifications and in particular a new all-silicon inner tracking detector will be constructed. The thesis reviews the design of the new tracking detector and identifies the design choices that need to be made. It presents the digital design of the new ATLAS ABC130 readout chip which will be deployed in the new tracking detector and tests of the associated readout modules. Results on the electromagnetic compatibility of the readout modules are presented along with characterization and electrical modelling of the new ATLAS silicon strip sensors.

The petroleum ether, chloroformic, ethyl acetate, methanolic, Total Oligomers Flavonoids (TOF) enriched extracts, water extract as well as its fractions A1, A2, A3 obtained from aerial parts ofRhamnus alaternus, a Tunisian-Mediterranean medicinal species, were investigated for the contents of phenolic compounds, cytotoxic activity against the K562 human chronic myelogenous leukaemia cell line and L1210 leukaemia murine cells and for antibacterial activity against Gram positive and Gram negative bacterial reference strains. A pronounced cytotoxic effect on both the cell lines was shown in the TOF, ethyl acetate, methanolic, aqueous extracts and A2 fraction, with respectively IC50 values 75, 232, 298, 606 and 571 μg/ml on K562 cells and 198, 176, 767, 560 and 614 μg/ml on L1210 cell line. Significant activity against bacterial reference strains:Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Salmonella enteritidis andSalmonella typhimurium was shown with ethyl acetate, TOF extracts and A2 fraction. The antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities showed byR. alatemus depended on the chemical composition of the tested extracts.

BackgroundCurrently, the general understanding of the RA development is that the RA biological initiation precedes the clinical onset of the disease by up to several years. To identify new risk factors and pre-RA biomarkers that would detect specific disease development of pre-clinical phases and eventually predict disease onset and outcome, sampling in new large cohorts of asymptomatic individuals was initiated. Characterization of such individuals at high risk of developing RA will provide helpful strategies for early preventive treatment of RA.ObjectivesBenefiting of such a cohort collected in Switzerland, we aimed to characterize whole expression profile using blood samples from healthy first degree relatives of RA. A differential expression study was performed after stratification regarding clinical symptoms onset during follow-up.MethodsWhole transcriptome analysis was performed with Illumina HumanHT-12 v4 Expression BeadChip using RNAs extracted from blood samples of 69 healthy first degree RA relatives. During the follow-up, 15 out of 69 became symptomatic with at least one swollen or tender joint. After differential expression analysis, bioinformatics tools were used to identify pathways and/or biological process enrichment.ResultsControlling the false discovery rate at 0.5 level to optimize detection of putative signatures, we identified a list of 201 differentially expressed genes. Several pathways and biological process have been highlighted through this gene list.ConclusionsThis preliminary study provides candidate gene expression signatures which could be relevant for the development of RA. These candidate signatures have to be tested for their RA predictive value in a new sample set from first degree RA relatives from a French similar cohort and molecular validation of genes differentially expressed has to be performed. Follow-up of individuals will allow stratification of symptomatic relatives considering rheumatoid arthritis development, to refine expression signatures.Disclosure of InterestNone declared