Multi-Temporal InSAR Monitoring of the Aswan High Dam (Egypt)

The Aswan High Dam, Egypt, was built in the 1960s and is one of the biggest dams in the world. It stopped the seasonal flood of Nile river allowing the urban expansion of cities/villages and the full year cultivation, producing 10×10⁹ kWh of power annually. The dam is located in an area where several earthquakes (M L <;6) occurred from 1981 to 2007. In this paper, we want to identify any potential damage that could be caused to the dam, and assess its overall structural stability using Multi-Temporal InSAR (MT-InSAR). To reach this goal, we process Envisat data from descending orbits acquired between 2003 and 2010. Our initial estimates show relatively small rates (maximum around -3 mm/yr in the satellite Line-Of-Sight) of subsidence, whose implications must be further investigated. In addition, we perform a preliminary stress-strain analysis of the dam using FEL and FEM methods to assess if the detected movements correspond to the expected vertical behavior for such mega-structure

NPSR1 gene is associated with reduced risk of rheumatoid arthritis

Objective. Neuropeptide S receptor 1 (NPSR1) is a G protein-coupled receptor involved in immune response and is associated with several inflammatory diseases. We investigated the possible contribution of several polymorphisms in the intronic region of NPSR1 to rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods. Genotyping of 7 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) was performed in a total of 1232 patients with RA and 983 healthy controls of Spanish white origin by real-time polymerase chain reaction technology, using the TaqMan 5'-allele discrimination assay. Results. One out of the 7 SNP analyzed (rs740347) was associated with RA [p after Bonferroni correction (pBNF) = 1.2 × 10 -3, OR 0.73]. An association was also observed with rheumatoid factor-positive and shared epitope-positive RA (p BNF = 0.011, OR 0.73; p BNF = 0.037, OR 0.75, respectively). Conclusion. Our results show that variations in the NPSR1 intronic region are associated with low risk in patients with RA, supporting other evidence that this locus represents a common genetic factor in inflammatory diseases. The Journal of Rheumatology Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved.Peer Reviewe