Investigation of the performance of a staggered configuration of tidal turbines using CFD

This paper investigates the influence of wake interaction and blockage on the performance of individual turbines in a staggered configuration in a tidal stream farm using the CFD based Immersed Body Force turbine modelling method. The inflow condition to each turbine is unknown in advance making it difficult to apply the correct loading to individual devices. In such cases, it is necessary to establish an appropriate range of operating points by varying the loading or body forces in order to understand the influence of wake interaction and blockage on the performance of the individual devices. The performance of the downstream turbines was heavily affected by the wake interaction from the upstream turbines, though there were accelerated regions within the farm which could be potentially used to increase the overall power extraction from the farm. Laterally closely packed turbines can improve the performance of those turbines due to the blockage effect, but this could also affect the performance of downstream turbines. Thus balancing both the effect of blockage and wake interaction continues to be a huge challenge for optimising the performance of devices in a tidal stream farm

Mild clinical course of covid-19 in 3 patients receiving therapeutic monoclonal antibodies targeting c5 complement for hematologic disorders

© Am J Case Rep, 2020. Objective: Rare co-existance of disease or pathology Background: Patients receiving immunosuppressive therapies might be more susceptible to COVID-19. Conversely, an exaggerated inflammatory response to the SARS-CoV-2 infection might be blunted by certain forms of immunosuppression, which could be protective. Indeed, there are data from animal models demonstrating that complement may be a part of the pathophysiology of coronavirus infections. There is also evidence from an autopsy series demonstrating complement deposition in the lungs of patients with COVID-19. This raises the question of whether patients on anti-complement therapy could be protected from COVID-19. Case Reports: Case 1 is a 39-year-old woman with an approximately 20-year history of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), who had recently been switched from treatment with eculizumab to ravulizumab prior to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Case 2 is a 54-year-old woman with a cadaveric renal transplant for lupus nephritis, complicated by thrombotic microangiopathy, who was maintained on eculizumab, which she started several months before she developed the SARS-CoV-2 infection. Case 3 is a 60-year-old woman with a 14-year history of PNH, who had been treated with eculizumab since 2012, and was diagnosed with COVID-19 at the time of her scheduled infusion. All 3 patients had a relatively mild course of COVID-19. Conclusions: We see no evidence of increased susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 in these patients on anti-complement therapy, which might actually have accounted for the mild course of infection. The effect of anti-complement therapy on COVID-19 disease needs to be determined in clinical trials

Numerical simulation of a new type of cross flow tidal turbine using OpenFOAM - Part II: Investigation of turbine-to-turbine interaction

Copyright © 2013 Elsevier. NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Renewable Energy. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Renewable Energy, Volume 50 (2013), DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2012.08.064Prediction of turbine-to-turbine interaction represents a significant challenge in determining the optimized power output from a tidal stream farm, and this is an active research area. This paper presents a detailed work which examines the influence of surrounding turbines on the performance of a base case (isolated turbine). The study was conducted using a new CFD based, Immersed Body Force (IBF) model, which was validated in the first paper, and an open source CFD software package OpenFOAM was used for the simulations. The influence of the surrounding turbines was investigated using randomly chosen initial lateral and longitudinal spacing among the turbines. The initial spacing was then varied to obtain four configurations to examine the relative effect that positioning can have on the performance of the base turbine

Headstrong intervention for pediatric migraine headache: a randomized clinical trial

Background The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a self-guided CD-ROM program (“Headstrong”) containing cognitive-behavioral self-management strategies versus an educational CD-ROM program for treating headaches, headache-related disability, and quality of life. Methods Participants were 35 children ages 7–12 years with migraine recruited from one university medical center and two children’s hospital headache clinics. Participants were randomly assigned to complete the Headstrong or educational control CD-ROM program over a 4-week period. Data on headache frequency, duration, and severity, migraine-related disability, and quality of life (QOL) were obtained at baseline, post-intervention, and 3-months post-intervention. Results At post-intervention, Headstrong resulted in lower severity (on a 10-point scale) than the control group by child report (5.06 ± 1.50 SD vs. 6.25 ± 1.92 SD, p = 0.03, ES = 0.7). At 3-months post-intervention, parents reported less migraine-related disability (on the PedMIDAS) in the Headstrong group compared to the control group (1.36 ± 2.06 SD vs. 5.18 ± 6.40 SD; p = 0.04, ES = 0.8). There were no other group differences at post treatment or at 3-months post-intervention. Conclusions When compared to an educational control, Headstrong resulted in lower pain severity at post-treatment and less migraine-related disability at 3-months post-intervention, by child and parent report respectively. Headache frequency and quality of life did not change more for Headstrong versus control. Additional research is needed on the Headstrong Program to increase its efficacy and to test it with a larger sample recruited from multiple centers simultaneously.The study reported in this paper was funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke), R01-NS046641, Michael Rapoff, Principal Investigator

Experimental evaluation of the wake characteristics of cross flow turbine arrays

One key factor in the exploitation of tidal energy is the study of interactions of turbines when working in tidal turbine farms. The Momentum Reversal and Lift (MRL) turbine is a novel cross flow turbine. The three blades rotate around a common central horizontal axis which is parallel to their own axis and perpendicular to the flow. The novelty of the MRL turbine is that it relies on the combination of both lift and momentum reversal (drag) for energy extraction. Scaled MRL turbine models of 0.164 m in diameter were used to characterise the flow in three different tidal array settings. Detailed maps of axial velocity profiles and velocity deficits downstream of the turbine are presented, enabling the visualisation of characteristic flow patterns. The results show that the MRL generates lower velocity deficits and turbulence intensities in the near wake than those associated with horizontal axis turbines. The downstream wake was not completely symmetrical which was related to the geometry of the device but also due to the flow developed in the flume. Amongst the three array configurations studied, a fence of turbines with the lowest separation provided the highest power output

Human Platelet-Rich Plasma- and Extracellular Matrix-Derived Peptides Promote Impaired Cutaneous Wound Healing In Vivo

Previous work in our laboratory has described several pro-angiogenic short peptides derived from endothelial extracellular matrices degraded by bacterial collagenase. Here we tested whether these peptides could stimulate wound healing in vivo. Our experiments demonstrated that a peptide created as combination of fragments of tenascin X and fibrillin 1 (comb1) applied into cranial dermal wounds created in mice treated with cyclophosphamide to impair wound healing, can improve the rate of wound closure. Furthermore, we identify and characterize a novel peptide (UN3) created and modified from two naturally-occurring peptides, which are present in human platelet-rich plasma. In vitro testing of UN3 demonstrates that it causes a 50% increase in endothelial proliferation, 250% increase in angiogenic response and a tripling of epithelial cell migration in response to injury. Results of in vivo experiments where comb1 and UN3 peptides were added together to cranial wounds in cyclophosphamide-treated mice leads to improvement of wound vascularization as shown by an increase of the number of blood vessels present in the wound beds. Application of the peptides markedly promotes cellular responses to injury and essentially restores wound healing dynamics to those of normal, acute wounds in the absence of cyclophosphamide impairment. Our current work is aimed at understanding the mechanisms underlying the stimulatory effects of these peptides as well as identification of the cellular receptors mediating these effects.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant EY15125)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant EY19533)Wound Care Partners, LL

The state of the Martian climate

60°N was +2.0°C, relative to the 1981–2010 average value (Fig. 5.1). This marks a new high for the record. The average annual surface air temperature (SAT) anomaly for 2016 for land stations north of starting in 1900, and is a significant increase over the previous highest value of +1.2°C, which was observed in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Average global annual temperatures also showed record values in 2015 and 2016. Currently, the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of lower latitudes

SNP genotyping to screen for a common deletion in CHARGE Syndrome

BACKGROUND: CHARGE syndrome is a complex of birth defects including coloboma, choanal atresia, ear malformations and deafness, cardiac defects, and growth delay. We have previously hypothesized that CHARGE syndrome could be caused by unidentified genomic microdeletion, but no such deletion was detected using short tandem repeat (STR) markers spaced an average of 5 cM apart. Recently, microdeletion at 8q12 locus was reported in two patients with CHARGE, although point mutation in CHD7 on chromosome 8 was the underlying etiology in most of the affected patients. METHODS: We have extended our previous study by employing a much higher density of SNP markers (3258) with an average spacing of approximately 800 kb. These SNP markers are diallelic and, therefore, have much different properties for detection of deletions than STRs. RESULTS: A global error rate estimate was produced based on Mendelian inconsistency. One marker, rs431722 exceeded the expected frequency of inconsistencies, but no deletion could be demonstrated after retesting the 4 inconsistent pedigrees with local flanking markers or by FISH with the corresponding BAC clone. Expected deletion detection (EDD) was used to assess the coverage of specific intervals over the genome by deriving the probability of detecting a common loss of heterozygosity event over each genomic interval. This analysis estimated the fraction of unobserved deletions, taking into account the allele frequencies at the SNPs, the known marker spacing and sample size. CONCLUSIONS: The results of our genotyping indicate that more than 35% of the genome is included in regions with very low probability of a deletion of at least 2 Mb

The adjusted global antiphospholipid syndrome score (aGAPSS) and the risk of recurrent thrombosis: Results from the APS ACTION cohort

Objectives: To assess whether patients with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) and history of recurrent thrombosis have higher levels of adjusted Global AntiphosPholipid Syndrome Score (aGAPSS) when compared to patients without recurrent thrombosis. Methods: In this cross-sectional study of antiphospholipid antibody (aPL)-positive patients, we identified APS patients with a history of documented thrombosis from the AntiPhospholipid Syndrome Alliance For Clinical Trials and InternatiOnal Networking (APS ACTION) Clinical Database and Repository (“Registry”). Data on aPL-related medical history and cardiovascular risk factors were retrospectively collected. The aGAPSS was calculated at Registry entry by adding the points corresponding to the risk factors: three for hyperlipidemia, one for arterial hypertension, five for positive anticardiolipin antibodies, four for positive anti-β2 glycoprotein-I antibodies and four for positive lupus anticoagulant test. Results: The analysis included 379 APS patients who presented with arterial and/or venous thrombosis. Overall, significantly higher aGAPSS were seen in patients with recurrent thrombosis (arterial or venous) compared to those without recurrence (7.8 ± 3.3 vs. 6 ± 3.9, p<0.05). When analyzed based on the site of the recurrence, patients with recurrent arterial, but not venous, thrombosis had higher aGAPSS (8.1 ± SD 2.9 vs. 6 ± 3.9; p<0.05). Conclusions: Based on analysis of our international large-scale Registry of aPL-positive patients, the aGAPSS might help risk stratifying patients based on the likelihood of developing recurrent thrombosis in APS

Lessons learned from additional research analyses of unsolved clinical exome cases

BACKGROUND: Given the rarity of most single-gene Mendelian disorders, concerted efforts of data exchange between clinical and scientific communities are critical to optimize molecular diagnosis and novel disease gene discovery. METHODS: We designed and implemented protocols for the study of cases for which a plausible molecular diagnosis was not achieved in a clinical genomics diagnostic laboratory (i.e. unsolved clinical exomes). Such cases were recruited to a research laboratory for further analyses, in order to potentially: (1) accelerate novel disease gene discovery; (2) increase the molecular diagnostic yield of whole exome sequencing (WES); and (3) gain insight into the genetic mechanisms of disease. Pilot project data included 74 families, consisting mostly of parent-offspring trios. Analyses performed on a research basis employed both WES from additional family members and complementary bioinformatics approaches and protocols. RESULTS: Analysis of all possible modes of Mendelian inheritance, focusing on both single nucleotide variants (SNV) and copy number variant (CNV) alleles, yielded a likely contributory variant in 36% (27/74) of cases. If one includes candidate genes with variants identified within a single family, a potential contributory variant was identified in a total of ~51% (38/74) of cases enrolled in this pilot study. The molecular diagnosis was achieved in 30/63 trios (47.6%). Besides this, the analysis workflow yielded evidence for pathogenic variants in disease-associated genes in 4/6 singleton cases (66.6%), 1/1 multiplex family involving three affected siblings, and 3/4 (75%) quartet families. Both the analytical pipeline and the collaborative efforts between the diagnostic and research laboratories provided insights that allowed recent disease gene discoveries (PURA, TANGO2, EMC1, GNB5, ATAD3A, and MIPEP) and increased the number of novel genes, defined in this study as genes identified in more than one family (DHX30 and EBF3). CONCLUSION: An efficient genomics pipeline in which clinical sequencing in a diagnostic laboratory is followed by the detailed reanalysis of unsolved cases in a research environment, supplemented with WES data from additional family members, and subject to adjuvant bioinformatics analyses including relaxed variant filtering parameters in informatics pipelines, can enhance the molecular diagnostic yield and provide mechanistic insights into Mendelian disorders. Implementing these approaches requires collaborative clinical molecular diagnostic and research efforts