The role of wind gusts in upper ocean diurnal variability

Upper ocean processes play a key role in air-sea coupling, with variability on both short and long time scales. The diurnal cycle associated with diurnal solar insolation and nighttime cooling, may act, along with stochastic wind variability, on upper ocean temperatures and stratification resulting in a diurnal warm layer and a nonlinear rectified effect on longer time scales. This study describes diurnal changes in upper ocean temperature for a location in the equatorial Indian Ocean, using observations from the Dynamics of the Madden-Julian Oscillation field campaign, a high vertical resolution 1-D process model, and a diurnal cycling scheme. Solar forcing is the main driver of diurnal variability in upper ocean temperature and stratification. Yet except during nighttime convection, winds with variability on the order of hours (here referred to as “wind gusts”) regulate how fast surface water is mixed to greater depths when daily mean winds are weak. Wind gusts are much stronger than diurnal winds. Even using stochastic wind gusts but no diurnal winds as input in a 1-D process model yields an estimate of diurnal temperature that compares well with observations. A new version of the Large and Caron (2015) scheme (LC2015) provides an estimate of upper ocean diurnal temperature that is consistent with observations. LC2015 has the advantage of being suitable for implementation in a climate model, with the goal to improve SST estimates, hence the simulated heat flux at the air-sea interface. Yet LC2015 is not very sensitive to the inclusion or omission of the high-frequency component of the wind

Making sense of consumers' tweets: sentiment outcomes for fast fashion retailers through big data analytics

Purpose- Consumers online interactions, posts, rating and ranking, reviews of products/attractions/restaurants and so on lead to a massive amount of data that marketers might access to improve the decision-making process, by impacting the competitive and marketing intelligence. The aim of this research is to help to develop understanding of consumers online generated contents in terms of positive or negative comments to increase marketing intelligence. Design/Methodology/Approach- The research focuses on the collection of 9,652 tweets referring to three fast fashion retailers of different sizes operating in the UK market, which have been shared among consumers and between consumer and firm, and subsequently evaluated through a sentiment analysis based on machine learning. Findings- Findings provide the comparison and contrast of consumers’ response towards the different retailers, while providing useful guidelines to systematically making sense of consumers’ tweets and enhancing marketing intelligence. Practical Implications- Our research provides an effective and systemic approach to (i) accessing the rich data set on consumers’ experiences based the massive number of contents that consumers generate and share online, and (ii) investigating this massive amount of data to achieve insights able to impact on retailers’ marketing intelligence. Originality/Value- To best of our knowledge, while other authors tried to identify the effect of positive or negative online comments/posts/reviews, the present study is the first one to show how to systematically detect the positive or negative sentiments of shared tweets for improving the marketing intelligence of fast fashion retailers

Knowledge, attitudes, and behavior concerning dental trauma among parents of children attending primary school

BACKGROUND: Traumatic dental injuries occur frequently in children and adolescents. The purpose of the present study is to examine the levels of knowledge and behaviors regarding dental trauma among parents of children attending primary schools in the Apulia region of Italy. METHODS: The study was carried out using an anonymous questionnaire with closed answers distributed to 2,775 parents who were enrolled based on the entire regional school population. Analyses were conducted using the PROC CORRESP (procedure to perform multiple correspondence analysis) and PROC FASTCLUS (procedure to perform cluster analysis). Statistical significance was set at p-value <0.05. RESULTS: A total 15.5% of the sample reported that their children had experienced dental trauma. Overall, 53.8% of respondents stated that they knew what to do in cases of dental injury. Regarding the time limit within which it is possible to usefully intervene for dental trauma, 56.8% of respondents indicated "within 30 minutes". Of the total sample, 56.5% knew how to preserve a displaced tooth. A total 62.9% of parents felt it was appropriate for their children to use dental guards during sports activities. The multivariate analysis showed that wrong knowledge are distributed among all kinds of subject. Parents with previous experience of dental trauma referred right behaviours, instead weak knowledge and wrong behaviours are associated with parents that easily worried for dental events. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that most parents reported no experience of dental trauma in their children, and half of them did not know what to do in case of traumatic dental injury and they would intervene within 30 minutes, suggesting that dental trauma may trigger panic. However, they did not have the information needed to best assist the affected child. Motivating parents to assume a preventive approach towards dental trauma may produce positive changes that would result an increase of long-term health benefits among both parents and children

MicroRNA-551b expression profile in low and high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the expression of microRNA (miR)-551b in patients with low and high grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and to find an association with high-risk Human Papillomavirus (HR-HPV) infection-related prognostic biomarkers. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The expression level of miR-551b was determined in 50 paraffin-embedded cervical specimens (10 normal squamous epithelium, 18 condylomas, 8 CIN1, and 14 CIN2-3) using quantitative Real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). χ2-test compared miR-551b expression in different diagnosis groups. An Ordered Logistic Regression and a Probit correlation were made to correlate miR-551b expression levels with the cervical tissue histological findings. The immunohistochemical distribution of p16 and Ki-67 according to histopathological findings was also assessed. RESULTS: The distribution of the miR-551b expression profile was significantly lower in CIN1-3 samples compared to other histological diagnosis groups (condyloma and negative). The expression levels were inversely correlated to the cervical pathological grade, from negative to CIN2-3. A 1% increase in miR-551b expression level produced an increase of 19% to the probability of a minor histological grade diagnosis in a range from negative to CIN2-3 and an increase of 13% to the probability of a negative histological grade diagnosis. Among the cases with miR-551b expression < 0.02 (considered as cut-off value) a significant statistical correlation was found between p16 and Ki-67 expression and the diagnosis of CIN2-3. CONCLUSIONS: O ur d ata s howed a s ignificant inverse correlation between miR-551b expression and the histological grading of the lesions, suggesting a tumor suppressive function in the different stages of cervical dysplasia

Characterization of anisotropic nano-particles by using depolarized dynamic light scattering in the near field

Light scattering techniques are widely used in many fields of condensed and sof t matter physics. Usually these methods are based on the study of the scattered light in the far field. Recently, a new family of near field detection schemes has been developed, mainly for the study of small angle light scattering. These techniques are based on the detection of the light intensity near to the sample, where light scattered at different directions overlaps but can be distinguished by Fourier transform analysis. Here we report for the first time data obtained with a dynamic near field scattering instrument, measuring both polarized and depolarized scattered light. Advantages of this procedure over the traditional far field detection include the immunity to stray light problems and the possibility to obtain a large number of statistical samples for many different wave vectors in a single instantaneous measurement. By using the proposed technique we have measured the translational and rotational diffusion coefficients of rod-like colloidal particles. The obtained data are in very good agreement with the data acquired with a traditional light scattering apparatus.Comment: Published in Optics Express. This version has changes in bibliograph

Afatinib in the first-line treatment of patients with non-small cell lung cancer: clinical evidence and experience

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene mutations identify a molecularly defined subset of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who display an excellent sensitivity to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). First-generation reversible EGFR TKIs, gefitinib and erlotinib have been proven to improve the objective response rate and to prolong the progression-free survival compared with standard chemotherapy in large phase III trials. Unfortunately, virtually all patients develop resistance to treatment, usually within 9–12 months. Afatinib is an irreversible ErbB family inhibitor initially designed to overcome the development of resistance. Compared with gefitinib in a first-line setting, afatinib prolonged progression-free survival and time to treatment failure, without impacting on overall survival in the general population of EGFR-mutant patients. However, afatinib has been shown to prolong overall survival in the subset of patients with an EGFR exon 19 deletion compared with chemotherapy. The aim of this review is to summarize the clinical evidence available to date and to critically discuss the place in therapy of afatinib in the rapidly expanding landscape of EGFR-mutant NSCLC first-line therapy

Biological characteristics modulating the sensitivity of calcification to ocean acidification: comparative approach in echinoderms

The increase of the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, due to human activities, induces changes in ocean chemistry, namely a decrease in carbonate concentration and an increase in proton concentration. These two phenomena are called Ocean Acidification (OA). In Metazoa, different physiological processes, including calcification, can be affected by this acidification. However, the magnitude of the OA impact differs according to taxa or even within taxa. Several hypotheses about the mechanisms behind these differences were proposed: (1) contrasted acidbase physiologies, (2) differences in variability of the original habitats, (3) differences in the quality or quantity of available foods. For instance, in echinoderms, a taxon provided with a welldeveloped high-magnesium calcite skeleton, the calcification process is affected by OA but at different degrees according to the considered species. The goal of the present study is to assess the importance of different biological characteristics which could modulate the sensitivity of calcification to OA in Metazoa. A comparative approach using different postmetamorphic echinoderms with contrasted acid-base physiologies and food sources and originating from contrasted habitats (variable or stable) is developed. Studied organisms principally come from long term OA experiments and natural CO2 vents. The significance of the considered factor is determined by comparing the effects of OA on the skeleton of echinoderms with contrasted characteristics for this factor. The effects on the skeleton is studied at the morphological, mechanical and calcification gene expression levels

Numerical Calculation of Crack Parameters for Propagation Assessment in a Complex Component with Residual Stresses

AbstractFatigue is an actual issue, especially in the structural assessment of highly critical components where failure may provoke the loss of the whole system they belong to. This is especially true in a damage tolerant scenario. In this case the use of a component is permitted even after damage has occurred, but extensive knowledge of the damage status and the effect of the damage on the reliability of the component is required. An experimental approach to damage tolerance is often very complex both for the damage creation and for the subsequent step of fatigue tests. A reliable and efficient methodology for fatigue simulation and crack propagation is therefore of interest both from a theoretical and an industrial point of view. The aim of the paper is to investigate crack parameters in a transmission shaft subjected to ballistic impact damage; cracks can nucleate from the point of damage and propagate due the application of service loads Starting from the outcome of a FEM simulation of a ballistic impact, different strategies for numerical crack propagation under service loads are presented and assessed. Specifically the damage under investigation is composed of two holes separated by a septum. Experiments reveal that the crack that nucleates from one of the two holes is strongly influenced by residual stresses. The complexity and the variety of the phenomena involved (complex damage, presence of residual stresses, shape of the component) make the numerical simulation of the phenomenon not trivial and give grounds for a thorough investigation of different modelling approaches

Distal renal tubular acidosis: a systematic approach from diagnosis to treatment

Renal tubular acidosis (RTA) comprises a group of disorders in which excretion of hydrogen ions or reabsorption of filtered HCO3 is impaired, leading to chronic metabolic acidosis with normal anion gap. In the current review, the focus is placed on the most common type of RTA, Type 1 RTA or Distal RTA (dRTA), which is a rare chronic genetic disorder characterized by an inability of the distal nephron to secrete hydrogen ions in the presence of metabolic acidosis. Over the years, knowledge of the molecular mechanisms behind acid secretion has improved, thereby greatly helping the diagnosis of dRTA. The primary or inherited form of dRTA is mostly diagnosed in infancy, childhood, or young adulthood, while the acquired secondary form, as a consequence of other disorders or medications, can happen at any age, although it is more commonly seen in adults. dRTA is not as “benign” as previously assumed, and can have several, highly variable long-term consequences. The present review indeed reports and summarizes both clinical symptoms and diagnosis, long-term outcomes, genetic inheritance, epidemiology and current treatment options, with the aim of shedding more light onto this rare disorder. Being a chronic condition, dRTA also deserves attention in the transition between pediatric and adult nephrology care, and as a rare disease it has a place in the European and Italian rare nephrological diseases network