Simulating the hydrology of small coastal ecosystems in conditions of limited data

Hydrology / Simulation / Ecosystems / Lagoons / Estuaries / Irrigation effects / Sri Lanka / South Africa / Karagan Lagoon / Bundala Lagoon

Incorporating river morphological changes to flood risk assessment: uncertainties, methodology and application

Risk zonation maps are mostly derived from design floods which propagate through the study area. The respective delineation of inundated flood plains is a fundamental input for the flood risk assessment of exposed objects. It is implicitly assumed that the river morphology will not vary, even though it is obvious that the river bed elevation can quickly and drastically change during flood events. The objectives of this study were to integrate the river bed dynamics into the flood risk assessment procedure and to quantify associated uncertainties. The proposed concept was applied to the River Ill in the Western Austrian Alps. In total, 138 flood and associated sediment transport scenarios were considered, simulated and illustrated for the main river stem. The calculated morphological changes of the river bed at the moment of peak flow provided a basis to estimate the variability of possible water surface levels and inundation lines which should be incorporated into flood hazard assessment. In the context of vulnerability assessment an advanced methodological approach to assess flood risk based on damage probability functions is described

Создание опытного образца геохода. Временной фактор изготовления компонентов и их сборки в конечное изделие

Изложен опыт реализации проекта №02.G25.31.0076 в рамках открытого конкурса Министерства образования и науки РФ и Постановления Правительства РФ №218 от 09.04.2010 г. Дано описание временных рамок реализации проекта, в частности, работы над созданием опытного образца щитового проходческого агрегата - геохода, диаметром 3,2 м. В настоящее время проект находится в стадии завершения. Главная идея статьи - поделиться опытом создания новой техники и показать, сколько времени затрачивается на решение тех или иных производственных процессов по созданию опытных образцов горных машин на примере геохода. Данная статья будет полезна организациям, планирующим участие в реализации проектов по созданию высокотехнологичного производства, и может являться ориентиром для составления Плана-графика реализации подобных проектов. Автор статьи лично принимал участие в реализации данного проекта и принимал решения по планированию и организации работ.The experience of the project №02.G25.31.0076 is presented. The project was operated in the framework of the open competition of the Ministry of education and science of the Russian Federation and the RF Government Decree №218 from 09.04.2010. Description of the time frame of the project implementation, particularly the activities of the TBM prototype creation - geokhod, with a diameter of 3.2 m. is presented. Currently, the project is closer to complete. The main idea of the article is to share the experience of creating new technology and show how much time is spent on the decision of production processes to create prototypes of mining machines on the example of a geokhod. This article will be useful for organizations planning to participate in the implementation of projects to create high-tech production, and can be a guide for drawing up a Plan-schedule of such projects. The author of this article personally participated in the implementation of this project and made decisions on planning and organization of activities

Chemisorption of NTCDA on Ag(1 1 1): a NIXSW study including non-dipolar and electron-stimulated effects

Abstract The adsorption of one monolayer of 1,4,5,8-naphthalene-tetracarboxylicacid-dianhydride (NTCDA) on the Ag(1 1 1)-surface was studied using the normal incidence X-ray standing waves (XSW) technique. Results regarding two key-issues are presented: Most prominent, the precise adsorbate-substrate bonding distance could be evaluated to 3.02 ± 0.02 Å (for the ''relaxed monolayer''-structure). This value is significantly smaller than a van der Waals bonding distance and clearly indicates the chemisorptive bonding character. Concordant results were obtained from both O 1s photo-and O KLL Auger electron emission. This was enabled by the development of a data analysis procedure--the second issue addressed--which takes into account non-dipolar contributions to the photoemission as well as electronstimulated Auger excitations. The latter effect adds a fraction to the total Auger yield being as high as 50% and hence may be important for any XSW study using Auger signals

Expression and Spectroscopic Characterization of Melanopsin and Squid Rhodopsin

FWN – Publicaties zonder aanstelling Universiteit Leide

Characteristics of large Martian dust devils using Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System visual and infrared images

A search for Martian dust devils has been carried out, using Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) visible-wavelength images. Simultaneous THEMIS thermal infrared wavelength images were then processed and analyzed to investigate the thermal properties of the dust devils observed; 3079 images were checked, concentrating on northern spring, summer, and autumn (LS from 0° to 270°, 20°S to 50°N). Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera, Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera, and other THEMIS visible images were used for comparison to potentially rule out any ambiguous geological features. Eight clear examples of dust devils have been found in five separate images, with a comparable number of unconfirmed possible devils. The rarity of dust devils observed is believed to result from a combination of the difficulty in identifying dust devils in medium resolution THEMIS data and the fact that the Mars Odyssey orbit flyover local time is later in the afternoon than would be optimum for dust devil searching. The temporal distribution of dust devil activity appears to be weighted more toward later afternoon, compared to Earth, but this may be a sampling effect due to size variation with time of sol, greater coverage later in the sol, or the small-number statistics. The thermal infrared images indicate that the lofted dust in the column is cooler than the surrounding surface and must be equilibrating with the atmosphere in the dust devil. This energy transfer is estimated to be about 10% of the heat flux energy that is available to drive the systems. The ground shadowed by the dust column also appears colder than the surroundings, because of reduced solar illumination. From the visible-wavelength images, the shadows of the dust columns were used to estimate the column opacity, which in turn gave estimates of the dust loadings, which ranged from 1.9 × 10?5 to 1.5 × 10?4 kg m?3, similar to lander-based observations. No thermal or visible trails are associated with the dust devils, indicating that the surface equilibrates quickly after the devil has passed and that track counting as a dust devil survey technique must underestimate dust devil populations and consequently dust loading calculations, confirming previous work

Influence of Biopsy Technique on Molecular Genetic Tumor Characterization in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer—The Prospective, Randomized, Single-Blinded, Multicenter PROFILER Study Protocol

The detection of molecular alterations is crucial for the individualized treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Missing targetable alterations may have a major impact on patient’s progression free and overall survival. Although laboratory testing for molecular alterations has continued to improve; little is known about how biopsy technique affects the detection rate of different mutations. In the retrospective study detection rate of epidermal growth factor (EGFR) mutations in tissue extracted by bronchoscopic cryobiopsy (CB was significantly higher compared to other standard biopsy techniques. This prospective, randomized, multicenter, single blinded study evaluates the accuracy of molecular genetic characterization of NSCLC for different cell sampling techniques. Key inclusion criteria are suspected lung cancer or the suspected relapse of known NSCLC that is bronchoscopically visible. Patients will be randomized, either to have a CB or a bronchoscopic forceps biopsy (FB). If indicated, a transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) of suspect lymph nodes will be performed. Blood liquid biopsy will be taken before tissue biopsy. The primary endpoint is the detection rate of molecular genetic alterations in NSCLC, using CB and FB. Secondary endpoints are differences in the combined detection of molecular genetic alterations between FB and CB, TBNA and liquid biopsy. This trial plans to recruit 540 patients, with 178 evaluable patients per study cohort. A histopathological and molecular genetic evaluation will be performed by the affiliated pathology departments of the national network for genomic medicine in lung cancer (nNGM), Germany. We will compare the diagnostic value of solid tumor tissue, lymph node cells and liquid biopsy for the molecular genetic characterization of NSCLC. This reflects a real world clinical setting, with potential direct impact on both treatment and survival

The value of selected in vitro and in silico methods to predict acute oral toxicity in a regulatory context: results from the European Project ACuteTox

ACuteTox is a project within the 6th European Framework Programme which had as one of its goals to develop, optimise and prevalidate a non-animal testing strategy for predicting human acute oral toxicity. In its last 6months, a challenging exercise was conducted to assess the predictive capacity of the developed testing strategies and final identification of the most promising ones. Thirty-two chemicals were tested blind in the battery of in vitro and in silico methods selected during the first phase of the project. This paper describes the classification approaches studied: single step procedures and two step tiered testing strategies. In summary, four in vitro testing strategies were proposed as best performing in terms of predictive capacity with respect to the European acute oral toxicity classification. In addition, a heuristic testing strategy is suggested that combines the prediction results gained from the neutral red uptake assay performed in 3T3 cells, with information on neurotoxicity alerts identified by the primary rat brain aggregates test method. Octanol-water partition coefficients and in silico prediction of intestinal absorption and blood-brain barrier passage are also considered. This approach allows to reduce the number of chemicals wrongly predicted as not classified (LD(50)>2000mg/kg b.w.).Peer Reviewe