Energy efficient fish attraction

Fish migration past a hydro power plant (HPP) requires not only flow in the actual fish passage (e.g. fish ladder) but also sufficient water to attract the fish to the entrance. Such attraction water is typically created by spilling water of the order of 10 m3/s, and there are potential savings if the amount of water can be reduced without loss of functionality. The possibility to use ejectors (jet pumps) to pump water from the area downstream of the HPP into the fish passage has been investigated with physical model tests and numerical modelling (CFD). The ambition has been to make use of fairly simple geometries without changing the layout of the suggested fish ladder, and a solution in which the ejectors are located in a separate channel parallel to the fish ladder has been evaluated. The results show that the required spill can be reduced to 1/3 despite the low head (7 m) of the considered HPP, and the savings will be even larger in HPPs with higher head. More energy efficient ways to attract fish can be obtained if the jets are positioned within the actual fish way, but a prerequisite for such solution is that the fish is not intimidated by the jets. Another interesting option to evaluate is the possibility to guide the fish to the fish ladder entrance by an array of individual jets positioned in the river. To investigate these ideas tests with live fish are scheduled during second half of 2018

Suppression of Alzheimer-Associated Inflammation by Microglial Prostaglandin-E-2 EP4 Receptor Signaling

A persistent and nonresolving inflammatory response to accumulating Aβ peptide species is a cardinal feature in the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In response to accumulating Aβ peptide species, microglia, the innate immune cells of the brain, generate a toxic inflammatory response that accelerates synaptic and neuronal injury. Many proinflammatory signaling pathways are linked to progression of neurodegeneration. However, endogenous anti-inflammatory pathways capable of suppressing Aβ-induced inflammation represent a relatively unexplored area. Here we report that signaling through the prostaglandin-E2 (PGE2) EP4 receptor potently suppresses microglial inflammatory responses to Aβ42 peptides. In cultured microglial cells, EP4 stimulation attenuated levels of Aβ42-induced inflammatory factors and potentiated phagocytosis of Aβ42. Microarray analysis demonstrated that EP4 stimulation broadly opposed Aβ42-driven gene expression changes in microglia, with enrichment for targets of IRF1, IRF7, and NF-κB transcription factors. In vivo, conditional deletion of microglial EP4 in APPSwe-PS1ΔE9 (APP-PS1) mice conversely increased inflammatory gene expression, oxidative protein modification, and Aβ deposition in brain at early stages of pathology, but not at later stages, suggesting an early anti-inflammatory function of microglial EP4 signaling in the APP-PS1 model. Finally, EP4 receptor levels decreased significantly in human cortex with progression from normal to AD states, suggesting that early loss of this beneficial signaling system in preclinical AD development may contribute to subsequent progression of pathology

Cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers of axonal and synaptic degeneration in a population-based sample

Background: Neurofilament light (NfL) and neurogranin (Ng) are promising candidate AD biomarkers, reflecting axonal and synaptic damage, respectively. Since there is a need to understand the synaptic and axonal damage in preclinical Alzheimer’s disease (AD), we aimed to determine the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of NfL and Ng in cognitively unimpaired elderly from the Gothenburg H70 Birth Cohort Studies classified according to the amyloid/tau/neurodegeneration (A/T/N) system. Methods: The sample consisted of 258 cognitively unimpaired older adults (age 70, 129 women and 129 men) from the Gothenburg Birth Cohort Studies. We compared CSF NfL and Ng concentrations in A/T/N groups using Student’s T-test and ANCOVA. Results: CSF NfL concentration was higher in the A−T−N+ group (p=0.001) and the A−T+N+ group (p=0.006) compared with A−T−N−. CSF Ng concentration was higher in the A−T−N+, A−T+N+, A+T−N+, and A+T+N+ groups (p<0.0001) compared with A−T−N−. We found no difference in NfL or Ng concentration in A+ compared with A− (disregarding T− and N− status), whereas those with N+ had higher concentrations of NfL and Ng compared with N− (p<0.0001) (disregarding A− and T− status). Conclusions: CSF NfL and Ng concentrations are increased in cognitively normal older adults with biomarker evidence of tau pathology and neurodegeneration

Ciutats

[p.4] "La culpa de tot és dels grans"[p.8] Què van fer les sargantanes i els dragons?[p.13] Desenvolupament urbà sostenible[p.21] Una dura lliçó per ser apresa[p.32] La ciutat com a aventura iniciàtica[p.37] Una competició per la sostenibilitat?[p.44] Entrevista a Salvador RuedaPeer Reviewe

The MAP-HAND : psychometric properties and differences in activity performance between patients with carpometacarpal osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis

Objective: To assess construct validity (Rasch analyses) of the Measure of Activity Performance of the Hand (MAP-Hand) in people with carpometacarpal osteoarthritis (CMC1 OA), and to explore differences in activity performance between people with CMC1 OA and those with rheumatoid arthritis. Design: Cross-sectional study. Subjects: A total of 180 people with CMC1 OA referred for surgical consultation were recruited from rheumatology clinics in Norway, and 340 people with rheumatoid arthritis were recruited from outpatient rheumatology clinics in the UK. Methods: The MAP-Hand consists of 18 predefined items scored on a 4-point scale from 1 (no difficulty) to 4 (unable to do), from which a mean score is calculated. Construct validity was assessed using Rasch analyses. Differences between the 2 groups were assessed using an independent sample t-test at the group level and differential item functioning (condition as grouping variable) at the item level. Results: Some mis-targeting of data and clusters of dependency were found, but the MAP-Hand scores showed an overall fit to the model. No between group difference in total mean MAP-Hand score was found, but there were significant differences between the 2 groups on item levels. Conclusion: The MAP-Hand showed satisfactory construct validity and could differentiate between people with CMC1 OA and those with rheumatoid arthritis on item levels

Gravastar energy conditions revisited

We consider the gravastar model where the vacuum phase transition between the de Sitter interior and the Schwarzschild or Schwarzschild-de Sitter exterior geometries takes place at a single spherical delta-shell. We derive sharp analytic bounds on the surface compactness (2m/r) that follow from the requirement that the dominant energy condition (DEC) holds at the shell. In the case of Schwarzschild exterior, the highest surface compactness is achieved with the stiff shell in the limit of vanishing (dark) energy density in the interior. In the case of Schwarzschild-de Sitter exterior, in addition to the gravastar configurations with the shell under surface pressure, gravastar configurations with vanishing shell pressure (dust shells), as well as configurations with the shell under surface tension, are allowed by the DEC. Respective bounds on the surface compactness are derived for all cases. We also consider the speed of sound on the shell as derived from the requirement that the shell is stable against the radial perturbations. The causality requirement (sound speed not exceeding that of light) further restricts the space of allowed gravastar configurations.Comment: LaTeX/IOP-style, 16 pages, 2 figures, changes wrt v1: motivation for eq. (6) clarified, several referecnes added (to appear in Class. Quantum Grav.

Experimental Study of Head Loss over Laser scanned Rock Tunnel

Flow in hydropower tunnels is characterized by high Reynolds number and often very rough rock walls. Due to the roughness of the walls, the flow in the tunnel is highly disturbed, resulting in large fluctuations of velocity and pressure in both time and space. Erosion problems and even partial collapse of tunnel walls are in some cases believed to be caused by hydraulic jacking from large flow induced pressure fluctuations. The objective of this work is to investigate the effects of the rough walls on the pressure variations in time and space over the rock surfaces. Pressure measurement experiments were performed in a 10 m long Plexiglas tunnel where one of the smooth walls was replaced with a rough surface. The rough surface was created from a down-scaled (1:10) laser scanned wall of a hydraulic tunnel. The differential pressure was measured at the smooth surface between points placed at the start and end of the first four 2 m sections of the channel. 10 gauge pressure sensors where flush mounted on the rough surface, these sensors measure the magnitude and the fluctuations of the pressure on the rough surface. The measurements showed significant spatial variation of the pressure on the surface. To exemplify, sensors placed on protruding roughness elements showed low gauge pressure but high fluctuations. The differential pressure indicated a head loss through the tunnel which was almost four times higher than a theoretical smooth channel