Academic literature on the topic 'Unconventional samples'

In this investigation, three different ways of sintering Inconel 718 MIM samples are compared. The conventional way of sintering in a furnace will be compared to FAHP and microwave sintering. The difficulty of these two methods is to be able to control the shrinkage of the sample and so its shape. These methods have yet not been investigated with a super alloy powder and so, the effects of a high sintering rate on a MIM sample. By accelerating the sintering kinetics, the thermal behavior may be modified. Hence, the behavior of the Inconel 718 sintered by field assisted and microwave sintering has been investigated. The sintered samples were all injected from a feedstock composed of a fine particle Inconel powder and a binder principally composed of CAB and PEG. They were debinded into water for 24h and put in a furnace at 500°C during 2 hours. The heating rate of the furnace was set to 5°C/min until 1290°C during 2 hours. The heating rate of the FAHP was set to 50°C/min until 1250°C during 15 minutes. The microwave samples were sintered around 1300°C during 1 hour, the temperature was increased progressively by steps of 100°C. The effects of the different process on the microstructure and the mechanical properties are then compared. There was no difference in distribution of pores between the conventional sintering and the FAHP sintering but a finer grain size showed better hardness. The microwave sintering of a MIM sample is more complex and the best properties were not obtained.

Relevance. The study of the collection is one of the main sources of replenishing the source material for the breeding process. The presence of the necessary genetic traits can speed up the breeding process. Therefore, at the Bykovskaya melon breeding experimental station, the genetic diversity of melon plants is assessed and promising samples are selected for use in breeding.Materials and methods. The object of research was samples of table watermelon with an unconventional color of the pulp. The aim of the work is to study and isolate the source material of watermelon for use in the breeding process to create new varieties and hybrids of melon crops. In the course of the study, 12 varieties of table watermelon were identified from 33 varieties of the collection nursery, which are sources of economically valuable traits. The selection was carried out according to the yield, the rate of entry into fruiting, taste, color of the pulp.Results. In the course of the research, the obtained samples of table watermelon with an unconventional color of the pulp were evaluated according to a set of economic characteristics in comparison with the standards: Zenith and Sinchevsky. The analysis of the tested samples made it possible to identify 12 samples by economically valuable traits: 3 samples by early maturity and taste: White sugar lump, White wonder, Golden revenge F1; 7 samples with a high dry matter content, in terms of yield and large fruit: Moon and stars yellowflesh, Sweet Siberian, Orangeglo, Daisy, Clay county yellow meat, Mountain sweet yellow, Tendergold; 2 samples for color and pulp consistency: Early moon beane Bakerlneek, Tenderweet orange. The selected samples meet the modern requirements of the industrial melon growing industry, resistant to stress factors of the environment, good taste and consumer properties.Findings. The obtained experimental data will be used to create a genetic collection of watermelon according to the traits that determine the economic value of the gene pool for further use in the breeding process.

This work presents the results of investigations of unconventionally glow-discharge nitrided 316L austenitic steel. The process of nitriding was performed using a variety of variants of sample orientation in glow-discharge chamber. The samples subject to nitriding were located directly on cathode, on the surface isolated from both cathode and anode, in so-called ‘plasma potential’, while the part of the samples with this orientation were additionally covered with screens to supported nitriding process. In order to evaluate the efficiency of various variants of nitriding, the following investigations were conducted: hardness test, element distribution profile within surface layer, metallographic tests, tribological and corrosion resistance tests.

During drug research and development, biomarkers are broadly used to improve the understanding of drug mechanism of action, to investigate drug efficacy and safety, to support the selection of target patient population and to optimize treatment schedule. Among different classes of biomarkers, genomic biomarkers are defined as a measurable DNA or RNA characteristics that are indicator of normal biologic processes, pathogenic processes, and/or response to therapeutic or other intervention. A genomic biomarker can consist, for example, in one or more DNA characteristics such as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), insertions, deletions or RNA characteristics such as RNA expression levels, RNA processing (splicing and editing) and microRNA levels. The present research aimed at developing new genomics-based tools using non-conventional biological samples that might support biomarker investigations in clinical settings. Concerning DNA biomarkers, Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) analysis was validated on DNA extracted from Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded (FFPE) tissue, from Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) stained FFPE slides, and from serum samples. Unconventional samples represent a challenge for genetic analysis due to limitation of biological material and/or the poor quality of the DNA extracted. For example, due to fixation effect and formaldehyde interaction DNA extracted from FFPE samples are characterized by degradation, cross-link, limitation of material, methylol derivatives and PCR inhibitors presence. Therefore before analyzing these samples a method validation is necessary to prove data reliability in accordance with Regulatory Agencies guidelines that encourage the scientific community to perform a fit-for-purpose method validation to support any pharmacogenetic data submission. SNPs were investigated by Real-Time PCR using TaqMan SNP genotyping assays. Polymorphisms in a panel of genes involved in EGFR pathway, which is directly associated with many type of cancer, were evaluated. In particular, each single assay was first validated for accuracy, intra-assay precision (repeatability under the same operating conditions) and ruggedness (reproducibility with different operators, different batches). These parameters were tested first on good quality DNA such as DNA extracted from cell lines and then on real sample to evaluate the non-conventional matrix. On this purpose, the impact of fragmented DNA (FFPE samples) and H&E staining on FFPE samples was evaluated. DNA was extracted from different tissues of 10 commercial donors. DNA genotyping results of unstained FFPE and H&E staining were compared with the genotype obtained from high quality genomic DNA extracted from Fresh Frozen (FF) tissues obtained from the same donors (used as reference samples). Overall, these results demonstrate that SNP genotyping can be performed on archived FFPE tissues providing reliable results. As additional test serum was used as source of DNA to perform SNPs analyses. Serum is usually used to investigate protein biomarker and is generally collected in most of the clinical trials. It has been demonstrated indeed that free circulating DNA is present in serum: in particular, DNA is present in healthy individual at low concentration while levels are higher in cancer patients, in arthritis, hepatitis (Board et al., 2008; Gahana et al., 2008; Gormally et al., 2007). To validate SNPs analysis on serum, two aliquots of whole blood were obtained from 35 healthy volunteers. For each subject one aliquot was used to extract good quality DNA, the other was used to prepare serum prior to DNA extraction. As expected DNA quantity was very low for serum samples. As result, even though DNA was not degraded, genotype analysis was successful only on 70% of the samples. Overall, the validation conducted showed that serum could be used as source of biological material to conduct genetic analyses. However limitation of DNA does not consent to perform a large panel of analysis. These could be further explored in patients since circulating DNA is present at higher levels in several diseases. Part of the present thesis focused also on the validation of methods for KRAS mutation analysis. This gene encodes for a G-protein which plays a key role in the Ras/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway and located downstream Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) which is involved in colorectal cancer (CRC). KRAS status can predict which patients benefit (KRAS wild-type) or do not benefit (KRAS mutated) from anti-EGFR therapy. Since KRAS analysis is also used for diagnostic analysis, an accurate validation of the method was required. The aim was to compare and validate two different methods for KRAS mutation detection on FFPE tumor specimens, and on H&E stained FFPE which represent an unconventional source of samples for this type of analysis. In particular, DxS ThreraScreen KRAS mutation kit, a Real-Time PCR assay, was compared to the PyroMark KRAS Kit, based on pyrosequencing technology. The DxS ThreraScreen KRAS mutation test kit is able to detect 7 different mutations present in codons 12 and 13 of the KRAS gene while PyroMark KRAS Kit is able to detect 9 KRAS mutations in codon 12-13 and 5 mutations in codon 61. Results from validation showed that both Pyrosequencing assay both DxS ThreraScreen assay are accurate and reproducible. Moreover no impact of degraded DNA obtained from FFPE or influence due to H&E staining was observed in both methods. In conclusion PyroMark KRAS Kit showed advantages such as lower amount of DNA needed for analysis, detection of additional mutations in cod.12/13 and codon 61 than DxS TheraScreen KRAS kit; on the other hand DxS TheraScreen KRAS resulted more sensitive than pyrosequencing assays and less time consuming. This thesis focused also on establishing a simple method to perform gene expression investigation on hair follicles (HF) and to evaluate its applicability in clinical trials. Despite 80% of solid cancers arising from epithelial tissues, blood is still one of the most common peripheral tissues used for biomarkers and pharmacogenomic investigations in oncology. Hair follicles may offer a viable alternative since they can reflect biological response in epithelial tissue, they are easy to collect (non-invasive) and available from most individuals. After the establishment of sample collection and RNA extraction, HFs were collected from 23 health donors to evaluate inter-individual variability of RNA yield and quality. Gene expression analysis was then conducted on the extracted RNA. First it was evaluated a panel of 16 housekeeping genes to assess the feasibility of the analysis. Then it was shown that in HF a panel of epithelial specific genes were expressed. Indeed, Realtime PCR analyses showed that EGFR, Keratin 19 (KRT19), Collagen, Melan-A were expressed in HFs but not in RNA derived from blood. On the opposite, FPR1 and PRF1 genes were expressed only in blood. These results suggest that HF represents a valuable biological source to study pathways active in epithelial tissue. Finally, gene expression analysis was conducted on an in vivo experiment to evaluate if a response to treatment could be observed in HFs. In particular, PD markers of Interferon treatment were investigated after in vivo subministration of Interferon-beta (IFN-β) in Macaca fascicularis. The expression of the known IFN-β responding genes MxA was investigated both in blood and in anagen HFs. Results showed that MxA induction was observed both in blood and HF: gene induction in blood was observed at 6 hours after subministration while in HF at 24 hours probably due to a different IFN-β distribution. These data suggest that gene expression analysis can be carried out in HF samples. However, it is important to highlight that in HF the response had a lower degree of induction and higher variability than in blood. However this preliminary observations need to be further explored in pilot clinical studies to evaluate its applicability. Overall the validation of different genomic analysis on unconventional sampled opens the possibility to conduct biomarker investigations on several clinical trials conducted in the past or to plan new investigations with non invasive methods. In addition, from the deep evaluation of the current guidelines from the Regulatory Agencies (and from the open debate in the scientific community) a proper strategy to validate genomic analytical assays was proposed according to fit-for-purpose criteria.

En este trabajo se aborda el problema de controlar un proceso cuya salida se muestrea de forma irregular. Para ello se propone utilizar un predictor que estima las salidas del proceso en instantes regulares de tiempo más un controlador convencional que calcula la acción de control a partir de las estimaciones del predictor (técnica conocida como control inferencial). La predicción consiste en estimar las variables de salida que se desean controlar a partir de las mediciones realizadas con diversos sensores utilizando para ello un modelo matemático del proceso. El filtro de Kalman permite hacer la predicción de forma óptima si las perturbaciones tienen una distribución gaussiana de media cero, pero con el inconveniente de requerir un elevado coste computacional cuando se utilizan diferentes sensores con retardos temporales variantes. En este trabajo se propone una estrategia de predicción alternativa de bajo coste computacional cuyo diseño se basa en el conocimiento de la disponibilidad de mediciones y de los retardos (del proceso, del sistema de medición o del sistema de transmisión de datos) y de la naturaleza de las perturbaciones. Los predictores propuestos minimizan el error de predicción frente al muestreo aleatorio con retardos variantes, perturbaciones, ruido de medida, error de modelado, retardos en la acción de control e incertidumbre en los tiempos de medición. Las diferentes estrategias de diseño que se proponen se clasifican según el tipo de información que se dispone de las perturbaciones y del coste computacional requerido. Se han planteado los diseños para sistemas monovariables, multivariables, lineales y no lineales. Asimismo, también se ha elaborado una forma más eficiente de incluir mediciones escasas con retardo en el filtro de Kalman, con el objetivo de reducir el coste computacional de la predicción. En este trabajo se demuestra que los sistemas de control inferencial que utilizan los predictores propuestos cumplen con el principio de sep
Peñarrocha Alós, I. (2006). Sensores virtuales para procesos con medidas escasas y retardos temporales [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/3882
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Unconventional risk quantification methods focused on risk assessments only are reviewed. It is shown that all unconventional methods are actually not risk quantification methods being aimed at evaluation of overall project durations and costs. Three methods are reviewed—parametric, artificial neural networks (ANN), and system dynamics. Reasons for high systematic errors and low accuracy of parametric methods are uncovered. They stem from using biased sampling—convenience and judgement samples—as well as from mathematical shortcomings of parametric methods. ANN methodology is positioned as a possible fundamental upgrade for parametric methods. It is shown that the ANN method also depends on quality of used samples. The system dynamics method is introduced to reveal non-linear interactions in project systems based on implications of project rework cycles. It is pointed out that if identified and addressed project risks are factored into the system dynamics modelling the latter could be requalified as a conventional methodology.

Volcanic rocks are unconventional oil and gas reservoirs, and the pore structure of the rock is relatively complex. In this study, we selected samples from CS105 well and DS9 well from Yingcheng Formation volcanic reservoirs in the southern Songliao Basin to study the pore structure. First, we performed experiments on two rock samples using computed tomography (CT), and then measured the porosity and density of the two rock samples using mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP). According to the data obtained by micron computed tomography (Micro-CT), Avizo 2019.1 software was used to perform three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction on the micron level of the two wellhead samples. Analyze the microscopic pore structure of the rock sample and compare it with the porosity of the sample obtained by the mercury injection method. Compared with MIP, Micro-CT more accurately characterizes the pore structure and porosity of volcanic rocks.

The projects in this chapter are designed to teach musical originality. They strike a balance between regimented sequences and playful open-endedness. The goal of the projects is to foster students’ development of their own unique voices by leading them from executing teachers’ instructions to setting and attaining their own creative goals. The projects include unconventional musical forms: untimed abstract soundscapes, vaporwave tracks based on samples of commercial music and advertisements, turning finely edited video clips into a “beatboxed” drum pattern, creating music using samples of existing songs, and, finally, having students design their own projects. Throughout, the aim is to move beyond simply teaching technical skills and toward fostering imaginative thinking, the expression of emotions through sound, authenticity of voice, and irreverence. Another aim is to empower teachers to use tools and techniques unconventionally, and to adapt creative deviation methods to their own project planning and curriculum design.

The fascinating domain of ghost imaging has been a subject of interest in the fundamental and applied research for the last two decades with its promising applications in various imaging and characterization scenarios. In this chapter, we discuss the recently developed ghost diffraction holography (GDH) system with due emphasis on the capability of quantitative complex-field imaging in the ghost framework. The development of the unconventional correlation-assisted GDH technique by adopting the holography concept in ghost diffraction scheme is described, and the quantitative phase imaging capability is demonstrated in the microscopy. In addition, the technique exploits the spatial statistics of time-frozen recorded speckle intensity with snapshot detection in ghost framework, which could broaden the applications of the developed microscopy to real-time imaging of two- and three-dimensional biological samples with high resolution. Furthermore, we discuss demonstrated applications of the technique in the imaging various spatially varying complex-valued macroscopic and microscopic samples and the potential application of the technique in the recovery and characterization of orbital angular momentum modes encoded in spatially incoherent speckle field.

Optimum conductivity is essential for hydraulic fracturing due to its significant role in maintaining productivity. Hydraulic fracture networks with required fracture conductivities are decisive for the cost-effective production from unconventional shale reservoirs. Fracture conductivity reduces significantly in shale formations due to the high embedment of proppants. In this research, the mechanical properties of shale samples from Sungai Perlis beds, Terengganu, Malaysia, have been used for computational contact analysis of proppant between fracture surfaces. The finite element code in ANSYS is used to simulate the formation/proppant contact-impact behavior in the fracture surface. In the numerical analysis, a material property of proppant and formation characteristics is introduced based on experimental investigation. The influences of formation load and resulted deformation of formation are calculated by total penetration of proppant. It has been found that the formation stresses on both sides of fractured result in high penetration of proppant in the fracture surfaces, although proppant remains un-deformed.

Abstract: Unconventional sexual interests and behaviors can be classified in four ways. The system that appeals most to each person depends on the person’s background and preferred working paradigm. Those who think of paraphilias from a medical perspective will tend to think of possible anatomic or physiologic pathologies. Those who think of paraphilias from a behavioral perspective will tend to think of learned interests and behaviors due to mechanisms such as unconditioned and conditioned primary and second-order responses, blocking, generalization, punishment, and extinction. Those who think of paraphilias as variations on the range of sexual interests and behaviors shared by diverse population samples of humans will be prone to depathologize paraphilias and avoid categories. Those who focus on understanding the meaning that the paraphilia has for the person with the paraphilia will tend to think in terms of the person’s life history. This chapter reviews perspectives and paradigms concerning the paraphilias. A new classification scheme for the paraphilias is presented. The benefits of a new paradigm for the paraphilias that explains the changes seen in people with paraphilias is presented. A plea is made for productive future collaborations.