Hurricane Surge Flooding Damage Assessment and Web-Based Game Development to Support K12 Education for Understanding Climate Change Impact on Hurricane Surge Flooding Damage

Hurricane surge floods have caused devastating damage along coastal areas all over the world. Yet many recent studies have shown that global warming could increase the hurricane flooding damage by hurricane intensification and sea level rise. Hence, the ability to predict surge elevations and to use this information for damage estimation is fundamental for saving lives and protecting property. In this study, we developed a framework that allows one to acquire information of hurricane flooding damage (e.g. structural damage, population being affected, flooded area, etc.) for different hurricanes. This framework is based on Surge Response Functions (SRFs). SRFs are physical scaling laws derived from a suite of discrete ADvanced CIRCulation Model (ADCIRC) simulations and represent surge values as a function of hurricane parameters. The advantage of this SRF-based approach is that a large number of storms can be efficiently evaluated and considered in the analysis, without losing accuracy in the surge estimates. To extrapolate the surge water elevation inland, SRF zones were defined within which the water elevation was considered horizontal. Individual parcel flood damage was calculated based on the flood water depth and damage vs. water depth curves included in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) application HAZUS. Parcel data (property value, population) and business data (employee size, and sales volume) are collected and used to conduct risk analysis under different future climate scenarios. Expected changes for future climate scenarios (i.e., IPCC scenarios B1, A1B and A1FI for the 2030’s and 2080’s) were considered by accounting for projected sea surface temperature increases and sea level rise, which modify the probability distribution of hurricane central pressure and change the baseline of damage calculation, respectively. Flood risk estimates and maps are developed for Corpus Christi in Texas, and Gulfport in Mississippi. For the case of Corpus Christi, it was found that, as the projected sea surface temperature increased, higher surge values are more likely to occur, as expected, resulting in higher expected damage. The risk map of Port Aransas in the Corpus Christi area, for example, shows that the risk is in the range of 1% to 4% of the property value for current climate conditions, and shifts to 1% to 8% for the 2030’s and 1% to 14% for the 2080’s. The concept of the parameterized hurricane damage analysis is also used to construct a web-based game “VisHurricane” which is intent to be used as an educational tool for K-12 students to arise their attention of current issues on climate change and potential future hurricane surge flooding risk

Assessing the Integrity of Spillway Foundations

The erosion under a spillway can be a long-term issue that threatens the structural integrity of a water reservoir. The spillway under investigation was suspected to be defective after it had been commissioned in 1987 (Figure 1). Potholes and subsurface cavities were confirmed in the safety assessment using various NDT techniques including ground penetrating radar and impact echo. The GPR inspection was able to differentiate the intact region from the cavities under concrete slabs (Figure 2). The impact echo results and associated analyses provided further evidence of inferior condition in the soil under the concrete slabs. The engineering team designed and executed the repair project based on the conclusion of the integrity assessment. Subsequent GPR inspection has been performed so as to monitor the integrity of the spillway in a period of 18 months following the repair

Applying a Heuristic Approach for a Minimum-cost Operating Strategy for Tap Water

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchive

A novel regulatory event-based gene set analysis method for exploring global functional changes in heterogeneous genomic data sets

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Analyzing gene expression data by assessing the significance of pre-defined gene sets, rather than individual genes, has become a main approach in microarray data analysis and this has promisingly derive new biological interpretations of microarray data. However, the detection power of conventional gene list or gene set-based approaches is limited on highly heterogeneous samples, such as tumors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We developed a novel method, the regulatory <b>e</b>vent-based <b>G</b>ene <b>S</b>et <b>A</b>nalysis (eGSA), which considers not only the consistently changed genes but also every gene regulation (event) of each sample to overcome the detection limit. In comparison with conventional methods, eGSA can detect functional changes in heterogeneous samples more precisely and robustly. Furthermore, by utilizing eGSA, we successfully revealed novel functional characteristics and potential mechanisms of very early hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study creates a novel scheme to directly target the major cellular functional changes in heterogeneous samples. All potential regulatory routines of a functional change can be further analyzed by the regulatory event frequency. We also provide a case study on early HCCs and reveal a novel insight at the initial stage of hepatocarcinogenesis. eGSA therefore accelerates and refines the interpretation of heterogeneous genomic data sets in the absence of gene-phenotype correlations.</p

Dermoscopic characterization and image study of a Sister Mary Joseph nodule in a patient with esophageal cancer

AbstractA Sister Mary Joseph nodule (SMJN) is rare cutaneous metastasis spreading to the umbilicus. It originates mostly from an intra-abdominal or pelvic malignancy and is an ominous sign. In this paper, we report a case of a SMJN in a 64-year-old man with esophageal cancer. We recorded his clinical progression, radiologic and nuclear scintigraphic images, and histopathologic and dermoscopic findings. The image study provided information on the localization of the SMJN and dermoscopy showed a polymorphous vascular pattern. The patient received palliative therapy because of terminal disease