cloud

The spontaneous growth of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) into cloud droplets under supersaturated water vapour conditions is described by classic Köhler theory. This spontaneous activation of CCN depends on the interplay between the Raoult effect, whereby activation potential increases with decreasing water activity or increasing solute concentration, and the Kelvin effect, whereby activation potential decreases with decreasing droplet size or increases with decreasing surface tension, which is sensitive to surfactants...

The inception and evolution of acoustic cavitation structures in thin liquid layers under different conditions and perturbations are investigated experimentally with high speed photography. The stability and characterization of cavitation structures are quantified by image analysis methods. It is found that cavitation structures (shape of bubble cloud and number of bubbles) are stable under unaltered experimental conditions, and the cavitation bubble cloud will return to the original structure and remain stable even in the face of large perturbations...

The subharmonic emission of sound coming from the nonlinear response of a bubble population is the most used indicator for stable cavitation. When driven at twice their resonance frequency, bubbles can exhibit subharmonic spherical oscillations if the acoustic pressure amplitude exceeds a threshold value. Although various theoretical derivations exist for the subharmonic emission by free or coated bubbles, they all rest on the single bubble model. In this paper, we propose an analytical expression of the subharmonic threshold for interacting bubbles in a homogeneous, monodisperse cloud...

Biomedical research is becoming increasingly large-scale and international. Cloud computing enables the comprehensive integration of genomic and clinical data, and the global sharing and collaborative processing of these data within a flexibly scalable infrastructure. Clouds offer novel research opportunities in genomics, as they facilitate cohort studies to be carried out at unprecedented scale, and they enable computer processing with superior pace and throughput, allowing researchers to address questions that could not be addressed by studies using limited cohorts...

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The Andes are the world's longest mountain chain, and the tropical Andes are the world's richest biodiversity hot spot. The origin of the tropical Andean cordillera is relatively recent because the elevation of the mountains was relatively low (400-2500 m palaeoelevations) only 10 MYA with final uplift being rapid. These final phases of the Andean orogeny are thought to have had a fundamental role in shaping processes of biotic diversification and biogeography, with these effects reaching far from the mountains themselves by changing the course of rivers and deposition of mineral-rich Andean sediments across the massive Amazon basin...

PROBLEM: Educators face many challenges in teaching professionalism. Despite attempts to define professionalism, it remains abstract for students and often not fully appreciated until they are in clinic. Without a way to make it personally relevant, students will likely be less motivated to learn. INTERVENTION: We used student-generated word clouds to facilitate reflection and discussions, thereby helping students make their perceptions of professionalism more explicit...

This paper proposes an artificial immune network based on cloud model (AINet-CM) for complex function optimization problems. Three key immune operators-cloning, mutation, and suppression-are redesigned with the help of the cloud model. To be specific, an increasing half cloud-based cloning operator is used to adjust the dynamic clone multipliers of antibodies, an asymmetrical cloud-based mutation operator is used to control the adaptive evolution of antibodies, and a normal similarity cloud-based suppressor is used to keep the diversity of the antibody population...

The oceans represent a significant global source of atmospheric aerosols. Sea spray aerosol (SSA) particles comprise sea salts and organic species in varying proportions. In addition to size, the overall composition of SSA particles determines how effectively they can form cloud droplets and ice crystals. Thus, understanding the factors controlling SSA composition is critical to predicting aerosol impacts on clouds and climate. It is often assumed that submicrometer SSAs are mainly formed by film drops produced from bursting bubble-cap films, which become enriched with hydrophobic organic species contained within the sea surface microlayer...

BACKGROUND: The Electrocardiogram ECG is one of the most important non-invasive tools for cardiac diseases diagnosis. Taking advantage of the developed telecommunication infrastructure, several approaches that address the development of telemetry cardiac devices were introduced recently. Telemetry ECG devices allow easy and fast ECG monitoring of patients with suspected cardiac issues. Choosing the right device with the desired working mode, signal quality, and the device cost are still the main obstacles to massive usage of these devices...

In the fog computing environment, the encrypted sensitive data may be transferred to multiple fog nodes on the edge of a network for low latency; thus, fog nodes need to implement a search over encrypted data as a cloud server. Since the fog nodes tend to provide service for IoT applications often running on resource-constrained end devices, it is necessary to design lightweight solutions. At present, there is little research on this issue. In this paper, we propose a fine-grained owner-forced data search and access authorization scheme spanning user-fog-cloud for resource constrained end users...

Poly (N-vinylcaprolactam) (PNVCL) is a polymer which offers superior characteristics for various potential medical device applications. In particular it offers unique thermoresponsive capabilities, which fulfils the material technology constraints required in targeted drug delivery applications. PNVCL phase transitions can be tailored in order to suit the requirements of current and next generation devices, by modifying the contents with regard to the material composition and aqueous polymer concentration. In this study, physically crosslinked Poly (N-vinylcaprolactam)-Vinyl acetate (PNVCL-VAc) copolymers were prepared by photopolymerisation...

Bacteria are abundant in atmospheric waters and can be disseminated by precipitation to the surface of the Earth, potentially influencing ecosystems, public health and climate. However, data on bacterial communities in rainwater, especially on the association with weather, are very limited. In this study, rainwater was collected at the coastal city Kumamoto, southwestern Japan, in 2015. The bacterial communities in fourteen samples were identified using 16S rRNA sequencing and compared according to the rain types at the synoptic scale, i...

Low frequency sonic waves, less than 10kHz were introduced to assist cloud point extraction of polyhydroxyalkanoate from Cupriavidus necator present within the crude broth. Process parameters including surfactant system variables and sonication parameters were studied for their effect on extraction efficiency. Introduction of low frequency sonic waves assists in the dissolution of microbial cell wall by the surfactant micelles and release of cellular content, polyhydroxyalkanoate granules released were encapsulated by the micelle core which was confirmed by crotonic acid assay...

BACKGROUND: The lifetime risk of developing a diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is at least 25%. A DFU carries a 50% risk for infection and at least 20% of those receive some form of amputation. The most significant parameter that prevents or delays ulcer healing is high plantar pressure. To improve the patient's healing process, the DFU's plantar pressure should remain cumulatively low. Therefore, a tool that continuously measures the DFU loading, and provides real-time feedback can improve the healing outcome...

BACKGROUND: The World Trade Center attack of September 11, 2001 in New York City (9/11) exposed thousands of people to intense concentrations of hazardous materials that have resulted in reports of increased levels of asthma, heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic diseases along with psychological illnesses such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Few studies have discriminated between health consequences of immediate (short-term or acute) intense exposures versus chronic residential or workplace exposures...

BACKGROUND: Optimization of stimulation parameters is essential to maximizing therapeutic efficacy and minimizing side effects. METHODS: The ANTHEM-HF study enrolled patients with heart failure who received chronic autonomic regulation therapy (ART) with an implantable vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) system on either the right (n=30) or left side (n=29). Acute effects of continuously cycling VNS on R-R interval dynamics were evaluated using post hoc Poincaré analysis of ECG recordings collected during multiple titration sessions over an 8-12week period...

Tetronic(®) 1307 (here after written as T1307) is a hydrophilic ethylene oxide-propylene oxide (EO-PO) star block copolymer with long EO chains (Total MW- 18000 and 70% EO). Although biocompatible, its use as a nanocarrier is restricted owing to its high critical micelle concentration (CMC) and temperature (CMT). We examined if the addition of glucose, a common pharmaceutical ingredient promotes micellization. Scattering and thermal studies show formation of stable unimodal micelles and cloud point (CP) decreased linearly...

Information regarding the intensity of surface UV radiation, provided for the public, is frequently given in terms of a daily maximum UV Index (UVI), based on a prognostic model. The quality of the UV forecast depends on the accuracy of column amount of ozone and cloudiness prediction. Daily variability of UVI is needed to determine the risk of the UV overexposure during outdoor activities. Various methods of estimating the temporary UVI and the maximum duration of UV exposures (received a dose equal to minimal erythemal dose - MED), at the site of sunbathing, were compared...

The albedo and microphysical properties of clouds are controlled in part by the hygroscopicity of particles serving as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Hygroscopicity of complex organic mixtures in the atmosphere varies widely and remains challenging to predict. Here we present new measurements characterizing the CCN activity of pure compounds in which carbon chain length and the number of hydroperoxy, carboxyl, and carbonyl functional groups were systematically varied to establish the contributions of these groups to organic aerosol apparent hygroscopicity...