The Investigation of Stability of Tunnels and Settlements with Centrifuge Modeling

In most of the larger cities underground transportation systems have been gettingdesired. Such systems are constructed in urban areas and involve a tunnel, especially in softground and in shallow zones.One of major concerns for tunneling operations in urban area is the effect onneighboring buildings, because the tunneling operation and near structures highly interacteach other. Whatever the used construction method is, the excavation of a tunnel causesdisplacement around the opening and may expand towards the ground surface. Thedislocations of the buildings interact with the ground movement, and the rigidity of existingstructures will promote reduction of the magnitude of displacements induced by tunneling.In this investigation, to determine displacements induced by tunneling, the centrifugemodeling was used. The small scale centrifuge model provided dependable information aboutthe face collapse of a shallow tunnel. A required support pressure for shield driven tunnels insoft materials, and the ground deformations along the longitudinal section of the tunnelmodel, can be identified by simulating a loss of tunnel face stability

Lender forbearance

We use a threshold-based design to study ex post discretion in lenders’ contractual enforcement of covenant violations. At preset thresholds, lenders enforce contractual breaches only infrequently, but this enforcement is associated with material consequences, e.g., fees and renegotiations. Enforcement varies significantly over time and peaks when credit conditions are tightest, indicating that enforcement is procyclical. Costly coordination reduces enforcement: syndicates with ex ante restrictive voting requirements enforce at lower rates. Consistent with theories of lender competition and implicit contracting, enforcement rates are lower for borrowers with access to alternative sources of financing and well-reputed lead arrangers

Assessment of procedure related anxiety and depression in oncologic patients before F-18 FDG PET-CT imaging

Background: The aim of this study was to study objectively the level of anxiety and depression in patients undergoing positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT).One hundred and forty four oncologic out-patients (76 male, 68 female) were included in this study. Methods: All patients were referred to Nuclear Medicine Department for Fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (F-18 FDG) PET-CT imaging for the assessment of their malignant or possibly malignant diseases. The Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale and the State and Trait Anxiety Inventory I and II were used to evaluate the anxiety and depression levels in these patients. Results: The mean anxiety and depression scores of The Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale prior to F-18 FDG PET-CT were 9.2 ( ± 3.8) and 6.6 ( ± 3.4), respectively. The mean state and trait anxiety scores of the State and Trait Anxiety Inventory I and II prior to F-18 FDG PET-CT were 40.4 (± 8.5) and 46.62 ± 7.8, respectively. The Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale and the State and Trait Anxiety Inventory I and II anxiety scores were found to be significantly higher in female patients, smokers and in patients with higher stage disease. Conclusion: Our results suggest that F-18 FDG PET-CT imaging may at least contribute to patient's baseline anxiety which is already generated by being an oncology patient, and thus nuclear medicine physicians should handle the patients with extra care to minimize this affect. © 2015, Umut Elboga, et al

Metric fluctuations and decoherence

Recently a model of metric fluctuations has been proposed which yields an effective Schr\"odinger equation for a quantum particle with a modified inertial mass, leading to a violation of the weak equivalence principle. The renormalization of the inertial mass tensor results from a local space average over the fluctuations of the metric over a fixed background metric. Here, we demonstrate that the metric fluctuations of this model lead to a further physical effect, namely to an effective decoherence of the quantum particle. We derive a quantum master equation for the particle's density matrix, discuss in detail its dissipation and decoherence properties, and estimate the corresponding decoherence time scales. By contrast to other models discussed in the literature, in the present approach the metric fluctuations give rise to a decay of the coherences in the energy representation, i. e., to a localization in energy space.Comment: 7 page

Deficiency of the first mannosylation step in the N-glycosylation pathway causes congenital disorder of glycosylation type Ik

Defects of N-linked glycosylation represent diseases with multiple organ involvements that are classified as congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG). In recent years, several CDG types have been attributed to defects of dolichol-linked oligosaccharide assembly in the endoplasmic reticulum. The profiling of [3H]mannose-labeled lipid-linked oligosaccharides was instrumental in identifying most of these glycosylation disorders. However, this method is poorly suited for the identification of short lipid-linked oligosaccharide biosynthesis defects. To adequately resolve deficiencies affecting the first steps of lipid-linked oligosaccharide formation, we have used a non-radioactive procedure employing the fluorescence detection of 2-aminobenzamide-coupled oligosaccharides after HPLC separation. By applying this method, we have detected the accumulation of dolichylpyrophosphate-GlcNAc2 in a previously untyped CDG patient. The accumulation pattern suggested a deficiency of the ALG1 β1,4 mannosyltransferase, which adds the first mannose residue to lipid-linked oligosaccharides. This was supported by the finding that this CDG patient was compound heterozygous for three mutations in the ALG1 gene, leading to the amino acid substitutions S150R and D429E on one allele and S258L on the other. The detrimental effect of these mutations on ALG1 protein function was demonstrated in a complementation assay using alg1 Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast mutants. The ALG1 mannosyltransferase defect described here represents a novel type of CDG, which should be referred to as CDG-I

The antioxidant Trolox restores mitochondrial membrane potential and Ca2+-stimulated ATP production in human complex I deficiency

Malfunction of mitochondrial complex I caused by nuclear gene mutations causes early-onset neurodegenerative diseases. Previous work using cultured fibroblasts of complex-I-deficient patients revealed elevated levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reductions in both total Ca2+ content of the endoplasmic reticulum (ERCa) and bradykinin(Bk)-induced increases in cytosolic and mitochondrial free Ca2+ ([Ca2+]C; [Ca2+]M) and ATP ([ATP]C; [ATP]M) concentration. Here, we determined the mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψ) in patient skin fibroblasts and show significant correlations with cellular ROS levels and ERCa, i.e., the less negative Δψ, the higher these levels and the lower ERCa. Treatment with 6-hydroxy-2,5,7,8-tetramethylchromane-2-carboxylic acid (Trolox) normalized Δψ and Bk-induced increases in [Ca2+]M and [ATP]M. These effects were accompanied by an increase in ERCa and Bk-induced increase in [Ca2+]C. Together, these results provide evidence for an integral role of increased ROS levels in complex I deficiency and point to the potential therapeutic value of antioxidant treatment

Heating and cooling of magnetars with accreted envelopes

We study the thermal structure and evolution of magnetars as cooling neutron stars with a phenomenological heat source in an internal layer. We focus on the effect of magnetized (B > 10^{14} G) non-accreted and accreted outermost envelopes composed of different elements, from iron to hydrogen or helium. We discuss a combined effect of thermal conduction and neutrino emission in the outer neutron star crust and calculate the cooling of magnetars with a dipole magnetic field for various locations of the heat layer, heat rates and magnetic field strengths. Combined effects of strong magnetic fields and light-element composition simplify the interpretation of magnetars in our model: these effects allow one to interpret observations assuming less extreme (therefore, more realistic) heating. Massive magnetars, with fast neutrino cooling in their cores, can have higher thermal surface luminosity.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, 5 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA

Incomplete Punishment Networks in Public Goods Games: Experimental Evidence

Abundant evidence suggests that high levels of contributions to public goods can be sustained through self-governed monitoring and sanctioning. This experimental study investigates the effectiveness of decentralized sanctioning institutions in alternative punishment networks. Our results show that the structure of punishment network significantly affects allocations to the public good. In addition, we observe that network configurations are more important than punishment capacities for the levels of public good provision, imposed sanctions and economic efficiency. Lastly, we show that targeted revenge is a major driver of anti-social punishment

Recent Progress on Anomalous X-ray Pulsars

I review recent observational progress on Anomalous X-ray Pulsars, with an emphasis on timing, variability, and spectra. Highlighted results include the recent timing and flux stabilization of the notoriously unstable AXP 1E 1048.1-5937, the remarkable glitches seen in two AXPs, the newly recognized variety of AXP variability types, including outbursts, bursts, flares, and pulse profile changes, as well as recent discoveries regarding AXP spectra, including their surprising hard X-ray and far-infrared emission, as well as the pulsed radio emission seen in one source. Much has been learned about these enigmatic objects over the past few years, with the pace of discoveries remaining steady. However additional work on both observational and theoretical fronts is needed before we have a comprehensive understanding of AXPs and their place in the zoo of manifestations of young neutron stars.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures; to appear in proceedings of the conference "Isolated Neutron Stars: From the Interior to the Surface" eds. S. Zane, R. Turolla, D. Page; Astrophysics & Space Science in pres

Annotated list of marine alien species in the Mediterranean with records of the worst invasive species

This collaborative effort by many specialists across the Mediterranean presents an updated annotated list of alien marine species in the Mediterranean Sea. Alien species have been grouped into six broad categories namely established, casual, questionable, cryptogenic, excluded and invasive, and presented in lists of major ecofunctional/taxonomic groups. The establishment success within each group is provided while the questionable and excluded records are commented in brief. A total of 963 alien species have been reported from the Mediterranean until December 2005, 218 of which have been classified as excluded (23%) leaving 745 of the recorded species as valid aliens. Of these 385 (52%) are already well established, 262 (35%) are casual records, while 98 species (13%) remain "questionable" records. The species cited in this work belong mostly to zoobenthos and in particular to Mollusca and Crustacea, while Fish and Phytobenthos are the next two groups which prevail among alien biota in the Mediterranean. The available information depends greatly on the taxonomic group examined. Thus, besides the three groups explicitly addressed in the CIESM atlas series (Fish, Decapoda/Crustacea and Mollusca), which are however updated in the present work, Polychaeta, Phytobenthos, Phytoplankton and Zooplankton are also addressed in this study. Among other zoobenthic taxa sufficiently covered in this study are Echinodermata, Sipuncula, Bryozoa and Ascidiacea. On the contrary, taxa such as Foraminifera, Amphipoda and Isopoda, that are not well studied in the Mediterranean, are insufficiently covered. A gap of knowledge is also noticed in Parasites, which, although ubiquitous and pervasive in marine systems, have been relatively unexplored as to their role in marine invasions. Conclusively the lack of funding purely systematic studies in the region has led to underestimation of the number of aliens in the Mediterranean. Emphasis is put on those species that are current or potential threats to the marine ecosystems, namely the Worst Invasive Alien Species providing their record across major groups