738 research outputs found

    Global ocean vertical velocity from a dynamically consistent ocean state estimate

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    Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2017. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 122 (2017): 8208–8224, doi:10.1002/2017JC012985.Estimates of the global ocean vertical velocities (Eulerian, eddy-induced, and residual) from a dynamically consistent and data-constrained ocean state estimate are presented and analyzed. Conventional patterns of vertical velocity, Ekman pumping, appear in the upper ocean, with topographic dominance at depth. Intense and vertically coherent upwelling and downwelling occur in the Southern Ocean, which are likely due to the interaction of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and large-scale topographic features and are generally canceled out in the conventional zonally averaged results. These “elevators” at high latitudes connect the upper to the deep and abyssal oceans and working together with isopycnal mixing are likely a mechanism, in addition to the formation of deep and abyssal waters, for fast responses of the deep and abyssal oceans to the changing climate. Also, Eulerian and parameterized eddy-induced components are of opposite signs in numerous regions around the global ocean, particularly in the ocean interior away from surface and bottom. Nevertheless, residual vertical velocity is primarily determined by the Eulerian component, and related to winds and large-scale topographic features. The current estimates of vertical velocities can serve as a useful reference for investigating the vertical exchange of ocean properties and tracers, and its complex spatial structure ultimately permits regional tests of basic oceanographic concepts such as Sverdrup balance and coastal upwelling/downwelling.National Science Foundation Grant Numbers: OCE-1736633 , OCE-1534618 , OCE-0961713; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Grant Number: NA10OAR43101352018-04-2

    Molecular Characteristics and Pathogenicity of a Novel Transplacental Rat Cytomegalovirus

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    Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a species-specific betaherpesvirus which causes acute, persistent and latent infections in both humans and animals. CMV is the most frequent congenital infection in humans. RCMV strain ALL-03 was the first CMV ever isolated from the placenta and uterus of the house rat (Rattus rattus diardii). As such, hypothetically, this RCMV should be a distinct strain from the existing isolates that is capable to cross placenta and infect the fetus. The objectives of the study were (i) to identify the novelty of the RCMV strain ALL-03, (ii) to characterize its immediateearly (IE) genes, and (iii) to determine its pathogenicity by developing the in utero transmission and neonatal infection models in rats. Overall, the present study signifies the virological and molecular detection of the RCMV antigen, DNA and mRNA in addition to the serological demonstration of the RCMV-specific immune response. Other than the traditional diagnostic methods, the study had also used advanced techniques, for examples, double antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent iv assay (DAS-ELISA), quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and real-time PCR. The study was commenced by characterizing the strain ALL-03. Upon infection, the virus showed delayed cytopathology, cellassociation, low maximum titres, the presence of herpesviral inclusion bodies and herpesvirus related particles in infected rat embryonic fibroblast (REF) cells; specific antigen-antibody reaction with RCMV strain Maastricht; and rat-specific are all in accord with a RCMV. The genetic difference at the genome level with that of Maastricht, English, UPM/Sg and UPM/Kn strains had confirmed its novelty. The first recognized genes expressed during CMV infection, the IE genes were studied by analyzing the mRNA transcripts of infected-REF cells. The cDNA libraries were cloned into plasmids for sequencing. Each sequence was then probed towards the databanks for an identity search. Following the PCR and hybridization techniques, two distinct transcripts of unknown identities within the databanks were confirmed to be of the strain ALL-03 origin. These two IE transcripts were found considerably different to the IE genes of RCMV strains Maastricht and English. Meanwhile, a real-time RT-PCR assay was developed specifically to quantify the in vitro transcription levels of the two RCMV IE mRNAs. The kinetic transcription profiles and the bioinformatics analyses suggested them as exon 4 or IE1 and exon 5 or IE2. An in utero infection model demonstrated the clinical signs, pathological changes and anatomical virus distribution to the uterus, placenta, embryo, fetus, lung, kidney, spleen, liver and salivary gland of rats. The placenta was observed to be involved in the maternofetal RCMV infection. The maternal viremia leading to uterine infection which subsequently transmitting to the fetus through the placenta is the most likely phenomenon of congenital CMV v infection in the model. The study has established a useful rat model that mimics the neonatal CMV infection in humans especially for the virus dissemination in different organs, viremia and immune response. The kinetic quantitation of the viral antigen, DNA and antibody was assessed by DAS-ELISA, real-time PCR and ELISA respectively. This neonatal rat model demonstrated a characteristic splenomegaly and acute virus dissemination in blood, spleen, liver, lung and kidney. The salivary gland infection is suggested to augment the antibody response that may be responsible for a reduction of viremia. The study has provided important new insights of CMV disease particularly for a congenital infection in humans. The exploitation of the major IE regions has permitted greatest advances as a candidate of viral-vectored immunocontraception for rat control and generation of eukaryotic expression vectors

    The Health Status of Electronics Women Workers in Relation to Their Lifestyle

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    This study aims to examine the lifestyle factors that affect the women workers' health status. Women from selected factories who were Malaysians, production workers aged 17 and above, and bad worked for at least one year in their current factory were invited to participate in the study on a voluntary basis. The final number of respondents was 484 women. The data was collected using a pre-coded questionnaire. Anthropometric measurements (weight and height) were obtained to calculate body mass index (BMI). Further study was conducted among a sub-sample of women (33) to obtai

    Attitudes and factors affecting acceptability of self-administered cervicovaginal sampling for human papillomavirus (HPV) genotyping as an alternative to Pap testing among multiethnic Malaysian women.

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    OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine the attitudes and acceptability of self-administered cervicovaginal sampling compared with conventional physician-acquired Papanicolaou (Pap) smear among multiethnic Malaysian women. METHOD: A cross-sectional study was carried out via interviewer-administered surveys from August 2013 through August 2015 at five government-run, urban health clinics in the state of Selangor. Subjects were participants from an ongoing community-based human papillomavirus (HPV) prevalence study who answered a standard questionnaire before and after self-sampling. The cervicovaginal self-sampling for HPV genotyping was performed using a simple brush (\u27Just for Me\u27; Preventive Oncology International, Hong Kong). Detailed data on sociodemographics, previous Pap smear experience, and attitudes towards self-administered cervicovaginal sampling were collected and analysed. Acceptability was inferred using a five-item Likert scale that included six different subjective descriptives: experience, difficulty, convenience, embarrassment, discomfort or pain, and confidence in collecting one\u27s own sample. RESULTS: Of the 839 participants, 47.9% were Malays, followed by 30.8% Indians, 18.8% Chinese and 2.5% from other ethnicities. The median age of the participants was 38 years (IQR 30-48). Some 68.2% of participants indicated a preference for self-sampling over the Pap test, with 95% indicating willingness to follow-up a positive result at the hospital. Age, ethnicity and previous Pap test experience were significant independent factors associated with preference for self-sampling. The older the individual, the less likely they were to prefer self-sampling (adjusted OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.90 to 0.98). The Chinese were less likely to prefer self-sampling (72.6%) than the Malays (85.1%) (adjusted OR 0.57, 95% CI 0.33 to 0.98, p=0.004). Participants who had never undergone a Pap smear were also more likely to prefer self-sampling (88.5%) than women who had undergone a previous Pap (80.9%) (adjusted OR 0.06, 95% CI 0.35 to 0.87). CONCLUSIONS: Overall, urban Malaysian women from multiethnic backgrounds found self-sampling to be an acceptable alternative to Pap smear

    Dwelling environments in Taichung, Taiwan : an analysis for the development of urban settlements.

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    Thesis. 1979. M.Arch.A.S.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH.Bibliography: p. 52.M.Arch.A.S

    Annual acknowledgement of manuscript reviewers

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    INTELLIGENT MACHINE VISION SYSTEM FOR ROAD TRAFFIC SIGN RECOGNITION

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    Abstract We proposed an intelligent machine vision system to recognize traffic signs captured from a video camera installed in a vehicle. By recognizing the traffic signs automatically, it helps the driver to recognize the signs properly when drivig, to avoid accidents caused by mis-recognized the traffic signs.The system is divided into two stages : detection stage to localize signs from a whole image, and classification stage that classifies the detected sign into one of the reference signs. A geometric fragmentation technique, a method somewhat similar to Genetic Algorithm (GA) is employed to detect circular sign. Then a ring partitioned method that divides an image into several ring-shaped areas is used to classify the signs. From the experimental results, the proposed techniques are able to recognize traffic sign images under the problems of illumination changes, rotation, and occlusion efficiently. Keywords : Machine vision, traffic sign recognition, geometric fragmentation, ring partitioned matching

    Study of Reversible Scheme for Data Hiding

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    Web is the prominent correspondence media now a days yet message exchange over the web is confronting a few issue, for example, copyright control, information security, information, confirmation and so forth. Information stowing away assumes a critical part in information security. It is a procedure in which mystery information or data is put away or covered up into cover media. Thus many explores are advancing on the field like web security, steganography, and cryptography. At the point when exchange the safe or private information over a shaky channel it is expected to encode cover or unique information and after that insert the protected information into that unique or, on the other hand cover picture

    Multilevel near optimal thresholding applied to watershed grouping

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    The major drawback of watershed transformation is over-segmentation. It also has a significant advantage: very good edge extraction. Thresholding methods usually utilize only global information such as an image histogram; however, they have the ability to group pixels into clusters by their value. The method presented in this paper combines the advantages of watershed segmentation and multilevel thresholding. This was achieved by modifying selected optimal thresholding methods so that they treat watersheds as a whole and using those methods in a multilevel thresholding algorithm for grouping watersheds. Otsu's, Kapur's, maximum entropy and step function approximation thresholding methods have been tested. The obtained results are presented and discussed

    Learning Management System

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    Education is considered as the shaping tool of people. In a developing country like India, education is very important to provide students with practical knowledge and experience. However, during tough situations like that of the pandemic will make in-class education really impossible. There comes the use of online platforms. The systems that are used for the learning of students and for the communication of teachers in a virtual environment are called Learning Management Systems (LMS). The LMS allows students and teachers to obtain quality education at low cost even without coming in real. These LMS were really helpful to cut the overall time wasted on factors like transportation, in between teacher shifting, and much more. Learning Management Systems are created with various factors in mind, which can change according to the needs of various institutions. In this paper, the approach to design a LMS is based on the common needs that any institution would require
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