Development of apparatus of modelling a "shaft break-out" in clay

Shafts can have multiple uses including providing the access to underground-level tunnels or forming new sections of permanent works. The construction process often used to create the connection between a shaft and a tunnel is known as “shaft breakout”. This construction process involves the formation of an opening, disturbing the loading and supporting equilibrium of the shaft. Currently, there is limited published knowledge about the behaviour of the shaft lining and the ground adjacent to the opening during the breakout. This results in conservative design approaches and substantial temporary works. Insight into this complex underground construction process can be obtained by using geotechnical centrifuge modelling techniques. This paper details the design of a novel shaft breakout model that will be used to provide data on the short-term structural behaviour of a shaft during the formation of an opening in a parametric study. The model will consist of a preformed instrumented circular liner with a removable opening that will be situated within a Speswhite kaolin clay sample

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHROMOSOMAL ABERRATIONS AND GENE EXPRESSIONS IN THE p53 PATHWAY IN CHRONIC LYMPHOCYTIC LEUKEMIA

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a neoplasm characterized by excessive accumulation of B lymphocytes in the peripheral blood, bone marrow and lymph nodes. We assessed the expressions of 22 genes in the p53 pathway in 30 CLL patients and 15 healthy subjects by a RT2 Profiler PCR (polymerase chain reaction) Array technique and their relation to cytogenetic aberrations detected by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH). Our Student's t-test results indicated that ATM, ATR, BAX, CASP9, CDK4, CDKN2A, CHEK1, CHEK2,E2F3, MCL1 , MDM2, MDM4, PCNA, RB1, P53 and BCL2 genes were statistically significant (p <0.001). For six genes (APAFI, CDKNIA, E2F1, GADD45A, PTEN and PTX3) were not statistically significant. The ATM, ATR, BAX, CASP9, CDK4, CDKNIA, CDKN2A, CHEK1, CHEK2, MDM2, MDM4, PCNA, RB1, P53, E2F1, GADD45A and BCL2 genes were found to be upregulated by the 2(-Delta Delta Ct) (relative fold change in gene expression) method. The highest up-regulation was detected in CDKN2A and BCL2 genes, 10.22- and 8.51-fold, respectively. On the other hand, the PTX3 gene with a fold regulation of 1.84 was found to the highest downregulation. Overall, the CDNK2A BCL2 and PTX3 genes are related to the mechanism of the disease in the p53 pathway and may be an important predictor of the prognosis of the disease. The BCL2 gene may be associated with increased risk of developing CLL. We suggest that the PTX3 gene may be considered as a marker associated with CLL disease. The CDKN2A gene expression seems to play a protective role in CLL