1,072 research outputs found
Global change and its effect on coastal water resources – Cases of the Asia pacific region
While global change is directly affecting water resources, it is also well know that anthropogenic impacts on
hydro-geological systems can result in long term harm and the degradation of the resource if they are not
adequately managed. While this witnessed around the world, management options to prevent increasing
damage to the surrounding environment are being developed on an individual site basis. Salinity intrusion with
the eventual degradation of both land and water quality is one of the most common examples of this type of
problem. Due to increase in demand to fresh water resources, ground water is being exploited, and coastal
ground water systems hydraulically connected to the ocean necessarily has to cope with salinity intrusion. This
paper presents our observations and analyses of salinity intrusion at selected areas in the Asia Pacific region,
namely in New Zealand, Australia, Japan and India. It discusses the characteristics of each site, simulates some
sites using state of the art soft ware, and analyzes the impacts on the environment. It also presents the
management practices used to mitigate the resulting damage on the environment at each site
Glueball masses in the large N limit
The lowest-lying glueball masses are computed in SU() gauge theory on a
spacetime lattice for constant value of the lattice spacing and for
ranging from 3 to 8. The lattice spacing is fixed using the deconfinement
temperature at temporal extension of the lattice . The calculation is
conducted employing in each channel a variational ansatz performed on a large
basis of operators that includes also torelon and (for the lightest states)
scattering trial functions. This basis is constructed using an automatic
algorithm that allows us to build operators of any size and shape in any
irreducible representation of the cubic group. A good signal is extracted for
the ground state and the first excitation in several symmetry channels. It is
shown that all the observed states are well described by their large
values, with modest corrections. In addition spurious states
are identified that couple to torelon and scattering operators. As a byproduct
of our calculation, the critical couplings for the deconfinement phase
transition for N=5 and N=7 and temporal extension of the lattice are
determined.Comment: 1+36 pages, 22 tables, 21 figures. Typos corrected, conclusions
unchanged, matches the published versio
A frequentist framework of inductive reasoning
Reacting against the limitation of statistics to decision procedures, R. A.
Fisher proposed for inductive reasoning the use of the fiducial distribution, a
parameter-space distribution of epistemological probability transferred
directly from limiting relative frequencies rather than computed according to
the Bayes update rule. The proposal is developed as follows using the
confidence measure of a scalar parameter of interest. (With the restriction to
one-dimensional parameter space, a confidence measure is essentially a fiducial
probability distribution free of complications involving ancillary statistics.)
A betting game establishes a sense in which confidence measures are the only
reliable inferential probability distributions. The equality between the
probabilities encoded in a confidence measure and the coverage rates of the
corresponding confidence intervals ensures that the measure's rule for
assigning confidence levels to hypotheses is uniquely minimax in the game.
Although a confidence measure can be computed without any prior distribution,
previous knowledge can be incorporated into confidence-based reasoning. To
adjust a p-value or confidence interval for prior information, the confidence
measure from the observed data can be combined with one or more independent
confidence measures representing previous agent opinion. (The former confidence
measure may correspond to a posterior distribution with frequentist matching of
coverage probabilities.) The representation of subjective knowledge in terms of
confidence measures rather than prior probability distributions preserves
approximate frequentist validity.Comment: major revisio
Scattering Of Obliquely Incident Rayleigh Waves by a Surface-Breaking Crack
Recent results on reflection, transmission and scattering of obliquely incident Rayleigh surface waves by an infinitely long surface-breaking crack are reviewed. Sets of crack-opening displacements for infinitely long cracks with various depths are used to construct approximate crack-opening fields for the scattering of a Rayleigh wave by a surface-breaking crack of large length-to-depth ratio. The scattered surface-wave fields for the finite-length crack are subsequently obtained by the use of a representation integral over an appropriate Green’s function and the approximate crack-opening displacements. Polar diagrams are presented for the amplitude of the scattered surface-wave field
The Minimal Scale Invariant Extension of the Standard Model
We perform a systematic analysis of an extension of the Standard Model that
includes a complex singlet scalar field and is scale invariant at the tree
level. We call such a model the Minimal Scale Invariant extension of the
Standard Model (MSISM). The tree-level scale invariance of the model is
explicitly broken by quantum corrections, which can trigger electroweak
symmetry breaking and potentially provide a mechanism for solving the gauge
hierarchy problem. Even though the scale invariant Standard Model is not a
realistic scenario, the addition of a complex singlet scalar field may result
in a perturbative and phenomenologically viable theory. We present a complete
classification of the flat directions which may occur in the classical scalar
potential of the MSISM. After calculating the one-loop effective potential of
the MSISM, we investigate a number of representative scenarios and determine
their scalar boson mass spectra, as well as their perturbatively allowed
parameter space compatible with electroweak precision data. We discuss the
phenomenological implications of these scenarios, in particular, whether they
realize explicit or spontaneous CP violation, neutrino masses or provide dark
matter candidates. In particular, we find a new minimal scale-invariant model
of maximal spontaneous CP violation which can stay perturbative up to
Planck-mass energy scales, without introducing an unnaturally large hierarchy
in the scalar-potential couplings.Comment: 71 pages, 34 eps figures, numerical error corrected, clarifying
comments adde
SHIRAZ: an automated histology image annotation system for zebrafish phenomics
Histological characterization is used in clinical and research contexts as a highly sensitive method for detecting the morphological features of disease and abnormal gene function. Histology has recently been accepted as a phenotyping method for the forthcoming Zebrafish Phenome Project, a large-scale community effort to characterize the morphological, physiological, and behavioral phenotypes resulting from the mutations in all known genes in the zebrafish genome. In support of this project, we present a novel content-based image retrieval system for the automated annotation of images containing histological abnormalities in the developing eye of the larval zebrafish
High Density Microarray Analysis Reveals New Insights into Genetic Footprints of Listeria monocytogenes Strains Involved in Listeriosis Outbreaks
Listeria monocytogenes, a foodborne bacterial pathogen, causes invasive and febrile gastroenteritis forms of listeriosis in humans. Both invasive and febrile gastroenteritis listeriosis is caused mostly by serotypes 1/2a, 1/2b and 4b strains. The outbreak strains of serotype 1/2a and 4b could be further classified into several epidemic clones but the genetic bases for the diverse pathophysiology have been unsuccessful. DNA microarray provides an important tool to scan the entire genome for genetic signatures that may distinguish the L. monocytogenes strains belonging to different outbreaks. We have designed a pan-genomic microarray chip (Listeria GeneChip) containing sequences from 24 L. monocytogenes strains. The chip was designed to identify the presence/absence of genomic sequences, analyze transcription profiles and identify SNPs. Analysis of the genomic profiles of 38 outbreak strains representing 1/2a, 1/2b and 4b serotypes, revealed that the strains formed distinct genetic clusters adhering to their serotypes and epidemic clone types. Although serologically 1/2a and 1/b strains share common antigenic markers microarray analysis revealed that 1/2a strains are further apart from the closely related 1/2b and 4b strains. Within any given serotype and epidemic clone type the febrile gastroenteritis and invasive strains can be further distinguished based on several genetic markers including large numbers of phage genome, and intergenic sequences. Our results showed that the microarray-based data can be an important tool in characterization of L. monocytogenes strains involved in both invasive and gastroenteritis outbreaks. The results for the first time showed that the serotypes and epidemic clones are based on extensive pan-genomic variability and the 1/2b and 4bstrains are more closely related to each other than the 1/2a strains. The data also supported the hypothesis that the strains causing these two diverse outbreaks are genotypically different and this finding might be important in understanding the pathophysiology of this organism
CXCL10 Can Inhibit Endothelial Cell Proliferation Independently of CXCR3
CXCL10 (or Interferon-inducible protein of 10 kDa, IP-10) is an interferon-inducible chemokine with potent chemotactic activity on activated effector T cells and other leukocytes expressing its high affinity G protein-coupled receptor CXCR3. CXCL10 is also active on other cell types, including endothelial cells and fibroblasts. The mechanisms through which CXCL10 mediates its effects on non-leukocytes is not fully understood. In this study, we focus on the anti-proliferative effect of CXCL10 on endothelial cells, and demonstrate that CXCL10 can inhibit endothelial cell proliferation in vitro independently of CXCR3. Four main findings support this conclusion. First, primary mouse endothelial cells isolated from CXCR3-deficient mice were inhibited by CXCL10 as efficiently as wildtype endothelial cells. We also note that the proposed alternative splice form CXCR3-B, which is thought to mediate CXCL10's angiostatic activity, does not exist in mice based on published mouse CXCR3 genomic sequences as an in-frame stop codon would terminate the proposed CXCR3-B splice variant in mice. Second, we demonstrate that human umbilical vein endothelial cells and human lung microvascular endothelial cells that were inhibited by CXL10 did not express CXCR3 by FACS analysis. Third, two different neutralizing CXCR3 antibodies did not inhibit the anti-proliferative effect of CXCL10. Finally, fourth, utilizing a panel of CXCL10 mutants, we show that the ability to inhibit endothelial cell proliferation correlates with CXCL10's glycosaminoglycan binding affinity and not with its CXCR3 binding and signaling. Thus, using a very defined system, we show that CXCL10 can inhibit endothelial cell proliferation through a CXCR3-independent mechanism
Low Frequency Scattering by a Planar Crack
The detection of cracks with the aid of ultrasonics is an important nondestructive evaluation technique. The corresponding theoretical problem of the scattering of elastic waves by cracks has attracted considerable attention. Scattering of time harmonic plane wave by an isolated two dimensional Griffith, or an penny-shaped crack in an unbounded elastic medium has been studied extensively. However, studies of the scattering problem by a three dimensional crack other than circular shape have been rather limited. Few studies of scattering from an elliptical crack in an elastic body of infinite extent can be found in the literature. Datta[1] studied the problem using the method of matched asymptotic expansion. Gubernatis et al. [2] and Budiansky and O’Connell [3] have used the elastostatic approximation to determine the scattered field. The backscattered field from an elliptical crack has been obtained by Kino [4] in the low frequency limit by a formula derived from elastodynamic reciprocity theorem. An integro-differential equation technique was employed by Roy [5]–[6] to study the same problem.</p
The immunogenicity and safety of a reduced PRP-content DTPw-HBV/Hib vaccine when administered according to the accelerated EPI schedule
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Combination vaccines improve coverage, compliance and effectively introduce new antigens to mass vaccination programmes. This was a phase III, observer-blind, randomized study of GSK Biologicals diphtheria-tetanus-whole cell pertussis vaccine combined with hepatitis B and <it>Haemophilus influenzae </it>type b vaccines, containing a reduced amount of polyribosyl-ribitol-phosphate (PRP) and a DTPw component manufactured at a different site (DTPw-HBV/Hib<sub>2.5 </sub>[Kft]). The primary aim of this study was to demonstrate that DTPw-HBV/Hib<sub>2.5 </sub>[Kft] was not inferior to the licensed DTPw-HBV/Hib (<it>Tritanrix</it>(tm)-HepB/<it>Hiberix</it>(tm)) vaccine or the DTPw-HBV/Hib<sub>2.5 </sub>vaccine, also containing a reduced amount of PRP, with respect to the immune response to the PRP antigen, when administered to healthy infants, according to the Expanded Programme for Immunization (EPI) schedule at 6, 10 and 14 weeks of age.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>299 healthy infants were randomised to receive either DTPw-HBV/Hib<sub>2.5 </sub>[Kft] DTPw-HBV/Hib<sub>2.5 </sub>or DTPw-HBV/Hib according to the 6-10-14 week EPI schedule. Blood samples were analysed prior to the first dose of study vaccine and one month after the third vaccine dose for the analysis of immune responses. Solicited local and general symptoms such as pain, redness and swelling at the injection site and drowsiness and fever, unsolicited symptoms (defined as any additional adverse event) and serious adverse events (SAEs) were recorded up to 20 weeks of age.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>One month after the third vaccine dose, 100% of subjects receiving DTPw-HBV/Hib<sub>2.5 </sub>[Kft] or DTPw-HBV/Hib and 98.8% of subjects receiving DTPw-HBV/Hib<sub>2.5 </sub>vaccine had seroprotective levels of anti-PRP antibodies (defined as anti-PRP antibody concentration ≥0.15 μg/ml). Seroprotective antibody concentrations were attained in over 98.9% of subjects for diphtheria, tetanus and hepatitis B. The vaccine response rate to pertussis antigen was at least 97.8% in each group. Overall, the DTPw-HBV/Hib<sub>2.5 </sub>[Kft] vaccine was well tolerated in healthy infants; no SAEs were reported in any group.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The DTPw-HBV/Hib<sub>2.5 </sub>[Kft] vaccine was immunogenic and well-tolerated when administered according to the EPI schedule to Indian infants.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p><url>http://www.clinicaltrials.gov</url> NCT00473668</p
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