A review of the toxicology of oil in vertebrates : what we have learned following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

This research was made possible by a grant from The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative. This publication is UMCES contribution No. 6045 and Ref. No. [UMCES] CBL 2022-008. This is National Marine Mammal Foundation Contribution #314 to peer-reviewed scientific literature.In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, a number of government agencies, academic institutions, consultants, and nonprofit organizations conducted lab- and field-based research to understand the toxic effects of the oil. Lab testing was performed with a variety of fish, birds, turtles, and vertebrate cell lines (as well as invertebrates); field biologists conducted observations on fish, birds, turtles, and marine mammals; and epidemiologists carried out observational studies in humans. Eight years after the spill, scientists and resource managers held a workshop to summarize the similarities and differences in the effects of DWH oil on vertebrate taxa and to identify remaining gaps in our understanding of oil toxicity in wildlife and humans, building upon the cross-taxonomic synthesis initiated during the Natural Resource Damage Assessment. Across the studies, consistency was found in the types of toxic response observed in the different organisms. Impairment of stress responses and adrenal gland function, cardiotoxicity, immune system dysfunction, disruption of blood cells and their function, effects on locomotion, and oxidative damage were observed across taxa. This consistency suggests conservation in the mechanisms of action and disease pathogenesis. From a toxicological perspective, a logical progression of impacts was noted: from molecular and cellular effects that manifest as organ dysfunction, to systemic effects that compromise fitness, growth, reproductive potential, and survival. From a clinical perspective, adverse health effects from DWH oil spill exposure formed a suite of signs/symptomatic responses that at the highest doses/concentrations resulted in multi-organ system failure.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Fast simulation of muons produced at the SHiP experiment using generative adversarial networks

This paper presents a fast approach to simulating muons produced in interactions of the SPS proton beams with the target of the SHiP experiment. The SHiP experiment will be able to search for new long-lived particles produced in a 400 GeV/c SPS proton beam dump and which travel distances between fifty metres and tens of kilometers. The SHiP detector needs to operate under ultra-low background conditions and requires large simulated samples of muon induced background processes. Through the use of Generative Adversarial Networks it is possible to emulate the simulation of the interaction of 400 GeV/c proton beams with the SHiP target, an otherwise computationally intensive process. For the simulation requirements of the SHiP experiment, generative networks are capable of approximating the full simulation of the dense fixed target, offering a speed increase by a factor of Script O(106). To evaluate the performance of such an approach, comparisons of the distributions of reconstructed muon momenta in SHiP's spectrometer between samples using the full simulation and samples produced through generative models are presented. The methods discussed in this paper can be generalised and applied to modelling any non-discrete multi-dimensional distribution

The experimental facility for the Search for Hidden Particles at the CERN SPS

The International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) logo The International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) logo The following article is OPEN ACCESS The experimental facility for the Search for Hidden Particles at the CERN SPS C. Ahdida44, R. Albanese14,a, A. Alexandrov14, A. Anokhina39, S. Aoki18, G. Arduini44, E. Atkin38, N. Azorskiy29, J.J. Back54, A. Bagulya32Show full author list Published 25 March 2019 • © 2019 CERN Journal of Instrumentation, Volume 14, March 2019 Download Article PDF References Download PDF 543 Total downloads 7 7 total citations on Dimensions. Article has an altmetric score of 1 Turn on MathJax Share this article Share this content via email Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on Mendeley Article information Abstract The Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP) Collaboration has shown that the CERN SPS accelerator with its 400 GeV/c proton beam offers a unique opportunity to explore the Hidden Sector [1–3]. The proposed experiment is an intensity frontier experiment which is capable of searching for hidden particles through both visible decays and through scattering signatures from recoil of electrons or nuclei. The high-intensity experimental facility developed by the SHiP Collaboration is based on a number of key features and developments which provide the possibility of probing a large part of the parameter space for a wide range of models with light long-lived super-weakly interacting particles with masses up to Script O(10) GeV/c2 in an environment of extremely clean background conditions. This paper describes the proposal for the experimental facility together with the most important feasibility studies. The paper focuses on the challenging new ideas behind the beam extraction and beam delivery, the proton beam dump, and the suppression of beam-induced background

Corneal Involvement In Primary Biliary Cirrhosis : An In Vivo Confocal Microscopy Study

Purpose:To investigate the corneal involvement in Primary Biliary Cirrhosis (PBC), a slowly progressive cholestatic liver disease of autoimmune etiology. Methods:Seven female patients affected by PBC underwent a slit-lamp biomicroscopy of the anterior segment with and without Goldmann's three-mirror contact lens, and laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM, Heidelberg Engineering Germany). LSCM images were acquired and analyzed for all layers of central and peripheral cornea (four quadrants). Results:All patients had normal findings both at slit-lamp biomicroscopy and at gonioscopy. Peculiar findings were shown at LSCM: all patients showed keratocytes activation (Figure 1); sub-basal nerve fibers with beadlike structure (Figure 2) were found in six patients (86%); four subjects (57%) had hyper-reflective stromal macro-deposits (Figure 2). No deposits suggestive for copper deposition were detected at the level of Descemet\u2019s membrane. Conclusions:To the best of our knowledge this is the first confocal microscopy study on PBC patients. LSCM could show that subclinical corneal inflammation is a very common finding also in ophthalmoscopically normal patients affected by this autoimmune disease

Computerized assessment of cognitive late effects among adolescent brain tumor survivors

BACKGROUND: Advantages of computerized assessment of neuropsychological functions include improved standardization and increased reliability of response time variables. ImPACT (Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing) is a computerized battery developed for monitoring recovery following mild brain injuries that assesses attention, memory and processing speed. Despite evidence that core areas of deficit among cancer survivors are those assessed by ImPACT, it has not previously been used with this population. PROCEDURE: Twenty four childhood brain tumor (BT) survivors treated with conformal radiation therapy (mean age= 15.7±1.6; mean age at irradiation= 9.8±2.5), twenty solid tumor (ST) survivors treated without CNS-directed therapy (mean age= 16.2±1.8) and twenty healthy siblings (mean age= 15.1± 1.6 years) were administered an age modified version of ImPACT. Additional computerized measures of working memory and recognition memory were administered. RESULTS: Univariate ANOVAs revealed group differences (p< .05) on measures of recognition memory, spatial working memory, processing speed and reaction time, with BT survivors performing significantly worse than ST survivors and siblings. Pearson correlation coefficients revealed significant associations between ImPACT memory tasks and computerized forced choice recognition tasks (rs= .30-.33, p< .05). Multiple surgical resections, hydrocephalus and CSF shunt placement most consistently predicted worse ImPACT performance using linear mixed models (p< .05). CONCLUSIONS: The ImPACT test battery demonstrated sensitivity to cognitive late effects experienced by some BT survivors with clinical predictors of performance consistent with the pediatric oncology literature. Correlations with measures of similar constructs provide evidence for convergent validity. Findings offer initial support for the utility of ImPACT for monitoring of cognitive late effects

Classification of Oil Spill by Thicknesses using Multiple Remote Sensors

Satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an operational tool for monitoring and assessment of oil spills. Satellite SAR has primarily been used to detect the presence/absence of oil, yet its ability to discriminate oil emulsions within a detected oil slick has not been fully exploited. Additionally, one of the challenges in the past has been the ability to deliver strategic information derived from satellite remote sensing in a timely fashion to responders in the field. This study presents methods for the rapid classification of oil types and estimated thicknesses, from which information about thick oil and oil emulsions (i.e., “actionable” oil) can be delivered in an operational timeframe to responders in the field. Experiments carried out at the OHMSETT test facility in New Jersey demonstrate that under specific viewing conditions, a single polarization satellite SAR image can record a signal variance between thick stable emulsions and non-emulsified oil. During a series of field campaigns in the Gulf of Mexico with in situ measurements of oil thickness, multiple satellite data were obtained including fully polarimetric C-band SAR imagery from RADARSAT-2 and multispectral imagery from ASTER and WorldView-2. One campaign included the airborne polarimetric UAVSAR L-band sensor. An oil/emulsion thickness classification product was generated based on RADARSAT-2 polarimetric imagery using entropy and the damping ratio derivations. Herein, we present the classification methods to generate oil thickness products from SAR, validated by sea-truth observations, the multispectral imagery, and the UAVSAR data. We tested the ability to deliver these products with minimum latency to responding vessels via NOAA. During field operations in the Gulf of Mexico, a satellite SAR-based product of oil delineation by relative thickness was delivered to a responding vessel 42 min after the RADARSAT-2 data acquisition. This proof-of-concept test using satellite SAR and multispectral imagery to detect emulsions and deliver a derived information product to a vessel in near-real-time points directly to methods for satellite-based assets to be used in the near future for oil spill tactical response operations

Direct Versus Indirect Corneal Neurotization for the Treatment of Neurotrophic Keratopathy: A Multicenter Prospective Comparative Study

Purpose: To analyze the comparative safety and efficacy of two techniques of corneal neurotization (CN) (direct corneal neurotization [DCN] vs indirect corneal neurotization [ICN]) for the treatment of neurotrophic keratopathy (NK). Design: Multicenter interventional prospective comparative case series. Methods: This study took place at ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo University Hospital, Milan; S.Orsola-Malpighi University Hospital, Bologna; and Santa Maria alle Scotte University Hospital, Siena, Italy. The study population consisted of consecutive patients with NK who underwent CN between November 2014 and October 2019. The intervention procedures included DCN, which was was performed by transferring contralateral supraorbital and supratrochlear nerves. ICN was performed using a sural nerve graft. The main outcome measures included NK healing, corneal sensitivity, corneal nerve fiber length (CNFL) measured by in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM), and complication rates. Results: A total of 26 eyes in 25 patients were included: 16 eyes were treated with DCN and 10 with ICN. After surgery, NK was healed in all patients after a mean period of 3.9 months without differences between DCN and ICN. Mean corneal sensitivity improved significantly 1 year after surgery (from 3.07 to 22.11 mm; P &lt; .001) without differences between the 2 groups. The corneal sub-basal nerve plexus that was absent before surgery in all patients, except 4, become detectable in all cases (mean CNFL: 14.67 \ub1 7.92 mm/mm2 1 year postoperatively). No major complications were recorded in both groups. Conclusions: CN allowed the healing of NK in all patients as well as improvement of corneal sensitivity in most of them thanks to nerve regeneration documented by IVCM. One year postoperatively, DCN and ICN showed comparable outcomes