An Innovative Structural Solution to Failed Stabilized Earth Embankment in Multilevel Interchange

This paper summarizes a case study of a failure in a mechanically stabilized earth retaining wall ramp heading to a multilevel interchange. The failure was caused by a washout cavity resulting from a long-term leakage from unknown existing wet utilities adjacent to the mechanically stabilized earth retaining wall. The interchange is located within a very congested traffic area and has limited right of way and working space. The methodology of investigation, root cause of the failure, evaluation of the existing structure and innovative solution to the problem within fast-track design and construction are studied in this paper. Due to the necessity of maintaining the existing traffic movements at the interchange which is located at one of the most important expressway routes, timely rectification methodology was conceived, designed and implemented. This paper is prepared only to evaluate the technical innovative alternatives, solutions and fast-track construction without mentioning the interchange and project area

Four-point injection technique for lip augmentation

Introduction: Lip augmentation procedures with hyaluronic acid dermal fillers have become increasingly popular worldwide because full lips are often considered beautiful and youthful. The goal of a lip augmentation procedure is to create smooth lips with adequate volume and a natural appearance. Various techniques for lip augmentation have been utilized and described. Methods: In the four-point injection technique, the lips were divided equally into right side and left side. Four entry points were made above the vermilion border for the upper lip and below the vermilion border for the lower lip. The filler was administered with a fanning technique through each entry point. Results: Between January 2017 and November 2017, 50 female patients underwent a nonsurgical lip augmentation procedure with injectable fillers using this technique. Forty-five patients (90%) reported that they were satisfied or extremely satisfied with their lip enhancement procedure. No serious complications were observed. Conclusion: The advantages of this technique are reducing the risk of complications like erythema, edema, and vascular injuries, and providing easy access to injection sites

Robust Distributed Averaging on Networks with Adversarial Intervention

We study the interaction between a network designer and an adversary over a dynamical network. The network consists of nodes performing continuous-time distributed averaging. The goal of the network designer is to assist the nodes reach consensus by changing the weights of a limited number of links in the network. Meanwhile, an adversary strategically disconnects a set of links to prevent the nodes from converging. We formulate two problems to describe this competition where the order in which the players act is reversed in the two problems. We utilize Pontryagin's Maximum Principle (MP) to tackle both problems and derive the optimal strategies. Although the canonical equations provided by the MP are intractable, we provide an alternative characterization for the optimal strategies that highlights a connection with potential theory. Finally, we provide a sufficient condition for the existence of a saddle-point equilibrium (SPE) for this zero-sum game.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, submitted to CDC 201

Adaptive Resource Allocation in Jamming Teams Using Game Theory

In this work, we study the problem of power allocation and adaptive modulation in teams of decision makers. We consider the special case of two teams with each team consisting of two mobile agents. Agents belonging to the same team communicate over wireless ad hoc networks, and they try to split their available power between the tasks of communication and jamming the nodes of the other team. The agents have constraints on their total energy and instantaneous power usage. The cost function adopted is the difference between the rates of erroneously transmitted bits of each team. We model the adaptive modulation problem as a zero-sum matrix game which in turn gives rise to a a continuous kernel game to handle power control. Based on the communications model, we present sufficient conditions on the physical parameters of the agents for the existence of a pure strategy saddle-point equilibrium (PSSPE).Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, submitted to RAWNET/WNC3 201

Insulators and domains of gene expression

The genomic organization into active and inactive chromatin domains imposes specific requirements for having domain boundaries to prohibit interference between the opposing activities of neighbouring domains. These boundaries provide an insulator function by binding architectural proteins that mediate long-range interactions. Among these, CTCF plays a prominent role in establishing chromatin loops (between pairs of CTCF binding sites) through recruiting cohesin. CTCF-mediated long-range interactions are integral for a multitude of topological features of interphase chromatin, such as the formation of topologically associated domains, domain insulation, enhancer blocking and even enhancer function