16,281 research outputs found
Dasia johnsinghi Harikrishnan, Vasudevan
No full textDasia johnsinghi Harikrishnan, Vasudevan, de Silva, Deepak, Kar, Naniwadekar, Lalremruata, Prasoona & Aggarwal, 2012 Dasia johnsinghi Harikrishnan, Vasudevan, de Silva, Deepak, Kar, Naniwadekar, Lalremruata, Prasoona & Aggarwal, 2012 Dasia haliana (non Euprepes halianus Nevill, 1887)— Vickram & Johnsingh 1985 part Dasia haliana —Joshua & Sekar 1985 part; Karthikeyan 1991 part, Somaweera & Somaweera 2009 part Dasia subcaeruleum (non Lygosoma subcaeruleum Boulenger 1891)— Wickramasinghe et al. 2011 part (6) Harikrishnan et al. (2012: 45) redescribed Dasia subcaerulea on the basis of a single specimen registered as ZSIC 25945, collected by M.S. Chaitra from Singsar game road, Kudremukh National Park, which is> 500 km north of the type locality of D. subcaerulea. However, they erroneously mention the registration number of this specimen to be BNHS 363 in their appendix of specimens examined. As the authors were unable to examine the holotype of Dasia subcaerulea, they obtained photographs and data from the Natural History Museum, London, where it is housed. They state to have assigned their new specimen from Kudremukh to D. subcaerulea based “only on external morphological characters”. The photographs of the holotype in Harikrishnan et al. (2012: 46) (and in Wickramasinghe et al., 2011: 1967) clearly depict the prefrontals being in broad contact with each other, completely preventing contact between the frontal and fronto-nasal. In the specimen of D. subcaerulea from Kudremukh (ZSIC 25945) the prefrontals areseparated from each other, enabling contact between the frontal and fronto-nasal, as stated by the authors themselves (Harikrishnan et al. 2012: 45). In addition, there are differences in the number of midbody scale rows [28 as recorded by Smith (1949) vs. 26 in Harikrishnan et al. (2012)]. This is especially ironic considering that the authors themselves have used prefrontal midline contact and midbody scale rows as diagnostic characters in their own key to distinguish species of Dasia, and have also genetically tested distributional outliers (see D. olivacea vs. D. cf. olivacea). While it is known that Dasia species are rare to encounter in south India (personal observations), the mismatch of these significant and diagnostic morphological characters coupled with the very distant and ecologically heterogeneous collection localities (Bodinayakanur: 10.02 ° N, 77.35 ° E, 353 m asl. vs. Kudremukh: 13.21 ° N, 75.18 ° E, 750 m asl.), across a significant bio-geographic barrier, the Palghat gap, raise serious doubt on the veracity of their allocation of ZSIC 25945 to D. subcaerulea sensu Smith (1949). This allocation impacts the concept of D. subcaerulea, and hence the phylogeographic implications presented by the authors. As ZSIC 25945 is currently an outlier to D. subcaerulea sensu Smith (1949), both morphologically and geographically, it would be important to seek topotypic specimens of D. subcaerulea and of populations from between the type locality and Kudremukh. Moreover, the number of congeners in the genus Dasia was repeatedly misinterpreted by Harikrishnan et al. (2012). In the first line of their introduction they mentioned “The genus is presently composed of seven valid species...”, but the map placed right below the above statement shows eight valid species (even excluding Dasia cf. olivacea and their new species D. johnsinghi which was described in that paper). Again in their discussion they misinterpreted the number of congeners in Dasia as “The description of D. johnsinghi sp. nov. from the southern Western Ghats brings the total number of Dasia species to eight...” (see Harikrishnan et al. 2012: 48)”. All of the above statements are erroneous, bringing the total species to nine including their new species, D. johnsinghi. We emphasize the importance of inferences made in taxonomic papers, which will be applied by other “end-users” such as ecologists and conservation managers. Hence, a more cautious approach towards sensitive taxonomic and nomenclatural issues is needed. Ironically, the errors that we have highlighted here recall the concerned criticism raised by Vasudevan et al. (2007) for taxonomic papers being “pernicious” by publishing “inaccurate and imprecise” descriptions that will hinder the progress in taxonomy. Such mistakes have unwittingly appeared in a number of recent research publications, and several examples in this region have been highlighted recently (Pethiyagoda, 2007). We recommend a cautious approach towards sensitive taxonomic issues and insist that taxonomic papers should undergo a thorough peer review by practicing taxonomists (Alberts et al. 2008; Bahir 2009; Bahir & Gabadage 2009), thereby minimizing the possibilities for such mistakes in future.Published as part of Chandramouli, S. R. & Thasun Amarasinghe, A. A., 2015, On some recent taxonomic advancement and the resultant problems in the arboreal skink genus Dasia Gray, 1839 (Reptilia: Scincidae), pp. 495-500 in Zootaxa 3914 (4) on pages 497-498, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3914.4.9, http://zenodo.org/record/23336
AFM study of the oxide film formed on dual phase Fe3Al-Fe3AlC intermetallies
No full textThe topography of the oxide film formed during initial stage of oxidation at 800 degreesC on the Fe3Al and Fe3AlC phases in an Fe- 16Al-0.5C alloy was analyzed using atomic force microscopy. The oxide film formed on the carbide phase was found to be thicker than that on the matrix, and the difference in thickness between two layers was around 0.5 mum. This was related to the presence of low Al content in the Fe3AlC phase compared with that in the Fe3Al phase. Due to different rate of oxidation in Fe3Al and Fe3AlC phases, the Fe- 16Al-0.5C alloy does not follow the parabolic rate behaviour. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.The author VSR thanks Prof. V.S. Raja of corrosion
science and engineering program, Indian Institute of
Technology, Bombay and Dr R.G. Baligidad of Defense
Metallurgical Research Laboratory, Hyderabad, India for
providing the material
Open access self-archiving: An author study
No full textThis, our second author international, cross-disciplinary study on open access had 1296 respondents. Its focus was on self-archiving. Almost half (49%) of the respondent population have self-archived at least one article during the last three years. Use of institutional repositories for this purpose has doubled and usage has increased by almost 60% for subject-based repositories. Self-archiving activity is greatest amongst those who publish the largest number of papers. There is still a substantial proportion of authors unaware of the possibility of providing open access to their work by self-archiving. Of the authors who have not yet self-archived any articles, 71% remain unaware of the option. With 49% of the author population having self-archived in some way, this means that 36% of the total author population (71% of the remaining 51%), has not yet been appraised of this way of providing open access. Authors have frequently expressed reluctance to self-archive because of the perceived time required and possible technical difficulties in carrying out this activity, yet findings here show that only 20% of authors found some degree of difficulty with the first act of depositing an article in a repository, and that this dropped to 9% for subsequent deposits. Another author worry is about infringing agreed copyright agreements with publishers, yet only 10% of authors currently know of the SHERPA/RoMEO list of publisher permissions policies with respect to self-archiving, where clear guidance as to what a publisher permits is provided. Where it is not known if permission is required, however, authors are not seeking it and are self-archiving without it. Communicating their results to peers remains the primary reason for scholars publishing their work; in other words,
researchers publish to have an impact on their field. The vast majority of authors (81%) would willingly comply with a mandate from their employer or research funder to deposit copies of their articles in an institutional or subject-based repository. A further 13% would comply reluctantly; 5% would not comply with such a mandate
Average per-author h-index vs Average REF Impact Score.
No full textAverage per-author h-index vs Average REF Impact Score.</p
Cerebral protection for the preclinical evaluation of a vascular graft in sheep carotid artery model.
No full textA protocol for cerebral protection without systemic hypothermia to aid the safe, smooth and
fast recovery of sheep used for the preclinical evaluation of a prosthetic vascular graft in the
carotid artery is presented in this study. Ten adult Ramnad white sheep (33.8± 3.2 kg) were
green grass deprived and anticoagulated from 5 days prior to surgery with aspirin 150 mg and
clopidogrel 75 mg till the end of the study. Aft er anesthetic premedication and endotracheal
intubation, the animals were ventilated at the rate of 12 breaths/min and tidal volume of 12 ml/
kg. Ten minutes prior to carotid artery clamping (right unilateral internal carotid artery) which
was performed aft er heparinisation, pharmacologic mitigation was done for cerebral protection
with a total dose of thiopentone 50 mg (2.5%), 8 mg dexamethasone, 100 mg hydrocortisone
and 15 ml (7.5% w/v) sodium bicarbonate as i/v bolus and 250 ml dextran 40 (10% w/v) at 40
ml/hour as i/v drip. Mean values of arterial pressure and heart rate were 94±16 mmHg and
88±11 min-1 respectively, over the entire intra operative period. A moderate alkalosis which
occurred in all animals under anaesthesia was postulated to supplement cerebral protection
and was corrected by reducing the respiratory rate and tidal volume to 10 breaths/min and
10ml/kg respectively. Signifi cant variation in pH (p<0.05) was observed at 90, 120, 150 and 180
minutes aft er induction of anaesthesia. Signifi cant variation in MAP (p<0.05) was observed at
180 minutes aft er premedication, which was related to alkalosis and resultant hypokalemia and
was eff ectively corrected with 31±7 meq potassium chloride (40 meq in 500 ml ringer lactate).
Th e total procedure lasted 126±18 minutes and total unilateral right carotid arterial clamping
time was 36.7±6.5 minutes. 28±5 minutes aft er spontaneous respiration, the animals were extubated
and moved to the postoperative cage. Th ree doses of nadroparine 3800 IU s/c at 12
hour intervals were given postoperatively. All animals were free from any neurological defi cits,
which showed the eff ectiveness of the perioperative protocol encompassing the cerebral protective
medicatio
Proportion of junior vs. senior authors positioned first in the author byline of POA publications.
No full textProportion of junior vs. senior authors positioned first in the author byline of POA publications.</p
Cerebral protection for the preclinical evaluation of a vascular graft in sheep carotid artery model
No full textA protocol for cerebral protection without systemic hypothermia to aid the safe, smooth and fast recovery of sheep used for the preclinical evaluation of a, prosthetic vascular graft in the carotid artery is presented in this study. Ten adult Ramnad white sheep (33.8 +/- 3.2 kg) were green grass deprived and anticoagulated from 5 days prior to surgery with aspirin 150 mg and clopidogrel 75 mg till the end of the study. After anesthetic premedication and endotracheal intubation, the animals were ventilated at the rate of 12 breaths/min and tidal volume of 12 ml/kg. Ten minutes prior to carotid artery clamping (right unilateral internal carotid artery) which was performed after heparinisation, pharmacologic mitigation was done for cerebral protection with a total dose of thiopentone 50 mg (2.5%), 8 mg dexamethasone, 100 mg hydrocortisone and 15 ml (7.5% w/v) sodium bicarbonate as i/v bolus and 250 ml dextran 40 (10% w/v) at 40 ml/hour as i/v drip. Mean values of arterial pressure and heart rate were 94 +/- 16 mmHg and 88 +/- 11 min(-1) respectively, over the entire intra operative period. A moderate alkalosis which occurred in all animals under anaesthesia was postulated to supplement cerebral protection and was corrected by reducing the respiratory rate and tidal volume to 10 breaths/min and 10ml/kg respectively. Significant variation in pH (p<0.05) was observed at 90, 120, 150 and 180 minutes after induction of anaesthesia. Significant variation in MAP (p<0.05) was observed at 180 minutes after premedication, which was related to alkalosis and resultant hypokalemia and was effectively corrected with 31 +/- 7 meq potassium chloride (40 meq in 500 ml ringer lactate). The total procedure lasted 126 +/- 18 minutes and total unilateral right carotid arterial clamping time was 36.7 +/- 6.5 minutes. 28 +/- 5 minutes after spontaneous respiration, the animals were extubated and moved to the postoperative cage. Three doses of nadroparine 3800 IU s/c at 12 hour intervals were given postoperatively. All animals were free from any neurological deficits, which showed the effectiveness of the perioperative protocol encompassing the cerebral protective medication
Compressible vs. incompressible pore water in fully-saturated poroelastic soil
No full textThis thesis aims to contribute to the understanding of how waves interact with soil. It is crucial for various applications in Civil Engineering to analyze the behaviour of soil and to understand the physics behind it. This master thesis contributes to this understanding via studying the impact of the boundary conditions on the model results with the aim of being able to model interaction between waves and soil.We assume a media that is poroelastic and fully-saturated, unless stated otherwise. We also assume that the porous media consists of incompressible soil particles and pore water particles that may either be compressible or incompressible. The main goals of this thesis are (1) to describe the response of porous media to transient hydraulic loads using numerical methods like the Finite-Element Method, and (2) to apply it to a one-dimensional case whereby a sandbed is subjected to waves. Currently, it is common to predict the changes in pore water pressures in porous media subjected to transient hydraulic loads using Biot’s model, which often assumes compressible pore water, assumes zero effective stresses on the surface of the seabed, and assumes that the wave load is completely carried by the pore water pressure only. Recently, a new model is proposed by Van Damme and Den Ouden-Van der Horst suggesting that transient hydraulic loads acting on a porous medium affect both the pore water pressures and effective stresses in soils. Note that this makes sure that the momentum balance equations are satisfied throughout the computational domain and its boundaries. The boundary conditions in this case do not satisfy Terzaghi’s effective stress principle, whereas the standard has been to impose Terzaghi’s effective stress principle when solving Biot’s equations. Terzaghi’s principle states that the sum of the effective stresses and pore water pressures must equal the hydraulic loads, whereas Biot’s model is in line with this principle.The model of Biot and the new model of Van Damme and Den Ouden-Van der Horst describe the physics differently which can have a large impact on the results. For example, the assumption of compressibility can significantly impact the distribution of the effective stress in the soil and thus the results.Biot’s model is more sensitive for changing the compressibility parameter than the new model. Both models give similar solutions to the water pressure. However, they give different solutions to the other variables like the volumetric strain and displacements which appear in both models. Furthermore, the new model in one dimension is in line with the momentum balance equations and satisfies the volume balance equation. On the other hand, the standard is to solve Biot’s model by imposing Terzaghi’s principle at the boundary. For the new model we found promising results for the water pressure, when validating with the data of two experiments. At the end, which model predict the best solutions for volumetricstrain, water pressure and displacements depends on what kind of problem the model is used for and the corresponding physics. The used code can be found at https://github.com/fpmklein/Compressiblevs.-incompressible-pore-water-in-fully-saturated-poroelastic-soil.https://github.com/fpmklein/Compressible-vs.-incompressible-pore-water-in-fully-saturated-poroelastic-soil The used code for this master thesis.Applied Mathematic
EasyCompress: Automated Compression for Deep Learning Models
No full textOver the past years the size of deep learning models has been growing consistently. This growth has led to significant improvements in performance, but at the expense of increased computational resource demands. Compression techniques can be used to improve the efficiency of deep learning models by shrinking their size and computational needs, whilepreserving performance.This thesis presents EasyCompress, an automated and user-friendly tool to compress deep learning models. The tool improves on existing compression research by focusing on generalizability and practical usability, in three ways. Firstly, it aligns with specific compression objectives and performance requirements, ensuring the compression accomplishes its intended goal effectively. Secondly, it employs flexible compression techniques, so that it is applicable to a diverse set of models without requiring deep model knowledge. Finally, it automates the compression process, eliminating difficult and time-consuming implementationefforts.EasyCompress intelligently selects, tailors, and combines various compression techniques to minimize model size, latency, or number of computations while preserving performance. It employs structured pruning to reduce the number of parameters and computations, uses knowledge distillation techniques to ensure better accuracy recovery, and uses quantization to achieve additional compression.The tool’s effectiveness is evaluated across diverse model architectures and configurations. Experimental results on a range of models and datasets demonstrate its ability to reduce the model size at least 5-fold, inference time by at least 1.5-fold, and the number of computations by at least 3-fold. Most compression rates are even higher, reaching up to 10, 20, and even 100-fold reductions.The tool is available online at https://thesis.abelvansteenweghen.com.https://thesis.abelvansteenweghen.com Deployed version of the web app. https://github.com/abel-vs/thesis GitHub repository containing the thesis code. https://github.com/abel-vs/thesis-app GitHub repository containing the web app code.Computer Science | Software Technolog
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