Using object-based geomorphometry for hydro-geomorphological analysis in a Mediterranean research catchment

Abstract. The aim of the paper is to apply an object-based geomorphometric procedure to define the runoff contribution areas and support a hydro-geomorphological analysis of a 3 km2 Mediterranean research catchment (southern Italy). Daily and sub-hourly discharge and electrical conductivity data were collected and recorded during a 3-year monitoring activity. Hydro-chemograph analyses carried out on these data revealed a strong seasonal hydrological response in the catchment that differed from the stormflow events that occur in the wet periods and in dry periods. This analysis enabled us to define the hydro-chemograph signatures related to increasing flood magnitude, which progressively involves various runoff components (baseflow, subsurface flow and surficial flow) and an increasing contributing area to discharge. Field surveys and water table/discharge measurements carried out during a selected storm event enabled us to identify and map specific runoff source areas with homogeneous geomorphological units previously defined as hydro-geomorphotypes (spring points, diffuse seepage along the main channel, seepage along the riparian corridors, diffuse outflow from hillslope taluses and concentrate sapping from colluvial hollows). Following the procedures previously proposed and used by authors for object-based geomorphological mapping, a hydro-geomorphologically oriented segmentation and classification was performed with the eCognition (Trimble, Inc.) package. The best agreement with the expert-based geomorphological mapping was obtained with weighted plan curvature at different-sized windows. By combining the hydro-chemical analysis and object-based hydro-geomorphotype map, the variability of the contribution areas was graphically modeled for the selected event, which occurred during the wet season, by using the log values of flow accumulation that better fit the contribution areas. The results allow us to identify the runoff component on hydro-chemographs for each time step and calculate a specific discharge contribution from each hydro-geomorphotype. This kind of approach could be useful when applied to similar, rainfall-dominated, forested and no-karst catchments in the Mediterranean eco-region

Evidence for Non-Essential Salt Bridges in the M-Gates of Mitochondrial Carrier Proteins

Mitochondrial carriers, which transport metabolites, nucleotides, and cofactors across the mitochondrial inner membrane, have six transmembrane α-helices enclosing a translocation pore with a central substrate binding site whose access is controlled by a cytoplasmic and a matrix gate (M-gate). The salt bridges formed by the three PX[DE]XX[RK] motifs located on the odd-numbered transmembrane α-helices greatly contribute to closing the M-gate. We have measured the transport rates of cysteine mutants of the charged residue positions in the PX[DE]XX[RK] motifs of the bovine oxoglutarate carrier, the yeast GTP/GDP carrier, and the yeast NAD+ transporter, which all lack one of these charged residues. Most single substitutions, including those of the non-charged and unpaired charged residues, completely inactivated transport. Double mutations of charged pairs showed that all three carriers contain salt bridges non-essential for activity. Two double substitutions of these non-essential charge pairs exhibited higher transport rates than their corre-sponding single mutants, whereas swapping the charged residues in these positions did not increase activity. The results demonstrate that some of the residues in the charged residue positions of the PX[DE]XX[KR] motifs are important for reasons other than forming salt bridges, probably for playing specific roles related to the substrate interaction-mediated conformational changes leading to the M-gate opening/closing

Effects of Force Level and Hand Dominance on Bilateral Transfer of a Fine Motor Skill

Our research is about bilateral transfer, a concept in motor learning where skills learned by one limb are "transferred", allowing the opposite limb to benefit from what was learned by the first limb. Previous research into bilateral transfer has raised questions about whether specific aspects of motor coordination are or are not transferred. We wanted to see whether learning to control pinch force by the thumb and index finger is transferable, and if it is, whether the learning transfers equally from either hand. We also want to look into the effects of different force levels on the degree of transfer. We designed a task using a program that takes force levels as inputs and has the participant trace shapes on a screen. By having participants perform with one hand, then practice with the other, and finally perform again with the initial hand, we can measure transfer as the difference in performance before and after practice with the other hand.Kinesiology and Health Educatio

New Insights into the Evolution and Gene Structure of the Mitochondrial Carrier Family Unveiled by Analyzing the Frequent and Conserved Intron Positions

Mitochondrial carriers (MCs) belong to a eukaryotic protein family of transporters that in higher organisms is called the solute carrier family 25 (SLC25). All MCs have characteristic triplicated sequence repeats forming a 3-fold symmetrical structure of a six-transmembrane α-helix bundle with a centrally located substrate-binding site. Biochemical characterization has shown that MCs altogether transport a wide variety of substrates but can be divided into subfamilies, each transporting a few specific substrates. We have investigated the intron positions in the human MC genes and their orthologs of highly diversified organisms. The results demonstrate that several intron positions are present in numerous MC sequences at the same specific points, of which some are 3-fold symmetry related. Many of these frequent intron positions are also conserved in subfamilies or in groups of subfamilies transporting similar substrates. The analyses of the frequent and conserved intron positions in MCs suggest phylogenetic relationships not only between close but also distant homologs as well as a possible involvement of the intron positions in the evolution of the substrate specificity diversification of the MC family members

Can platelet-rich plasma be an alternative to surgery for resistant chronic patellar tendinopathy in sportive people? Poor clinical results at 1-year follow-up

Introduction and purpose: Patellar tendinopathy is a disease affecting particularly athletes. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections have gained increasing interest for their potential benefits. Anyway, a tendon disease longer than 6 months should be considered as an indication for surgery. The aim of our study was to evaluate the efficacy of PRP in athletes with a severe chronic patellar tendinopathy longer than 6 months when surgery should be chosen. Methods: We enrolled 17 sport practitioners (19 patellar tendons) who did not want to undergo surgery and who are nonresponders to other conservative treatments. We treated them with PRP and calculated the results using the visual analog scale (VAS), the Victorian Institute of Sport Assessment-Patellar (VISA-P) score, and Tegner Activity Scale. Every test has been conducted at T0, T1 (4 months), and T2 (12 months). Results: We found a poor improvement at T1 and a clinical worsening at T2 through VAS. VISA-P showed a medium improvement both at T1 and T2. Tegner scale did not show improvements. Conclusions: Our study was not able to remove the doubts about the benefits of PRP in patellar tendinopathy, confirming ambiguous certainties. Further investigations are needed to assess its effectiveness

More Chips to Nitroolefins: Decatungstate Photocatalysed Hydroalkylation Under Batch and Flow Conditions

The hydroalkylation of nitroalkenes and β-nitroacrylates via a photocatalytic strategy has been optimised under both batch and continuous flow conditions. This target has been achieved by exploiting the potentialities of the decatungstate anion as a versatile hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) photocatalyst for the generation of alkyl radicals from aliphatic heterocycles, amides and cycloalkanes

Deep Learning-Based Phase Retrieval Scheme for Minimum-Phase Signal Recovery

We propose a deep learning-based phase retrieval method to accurately reconstruct the optical field of a single-sideband minimum-phase signal from the directly detected intensity waveform. Our method relies on a fully convolutional Neural Network (NN) model to realize non-iterative and robust phase retrieval. The NN is trained so that it performs full-field reconstruction and jointly compensates for transmission impairments. Compared to the recently proposed Kramers-Kronig (KK) receiver, our method avoids the distortions introduced by the nonlinear operations involved in the KK phase-retrieval algorithm and hence does not require digital upsampling. We validate the proposed phase-retrieval method by means of extensive numerical simulations in relevant system settings, and we compare the performance of the proposed scheme with the conventional KK receiver operated with a 4-fold digital upsampling. The results show that the 7% hard-decision forward error correction (HD-FEC) threshold at BER 3.8e-3 can be achieved with up to 2.8 dB lower carrier-to-signal power ratio (CSPR) value and 1.8 dB better receiver sensitivity compared to the conventional 4-fold upsampled KK receiver. We also present a comparative analysis of the complexity of the proposed scheme with that of the KK receiver, showing that the proposed scheme can achieve the 7% HD-FEC threshold with 1.6 dB lower CSPR, 0.4 dB better receiver sensitivity, and 36% lower complexity

Favourable outcome of coronavirus disease 2019 in a patient with anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive non-small-cell lung cancer receiving alectinib

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