Pediatric asthma and autism-genomic perspectives.

High-throughput technologies, ranging from microarrays to NexGen sequencing of RNA and genomic DNA, have opened new avenues for exploration of the pathobiology of human disease. Comparisons of the architecture of the genome, identification of mutated or modified sequences, and pre-and post- transcriptional regulation of gene expression as disease specific biomarkers are revolutionizing our understanding of the causes of disease and are guiding the development of new therapies. There is enormous heterogeneity in types of genomic variation that occur in human disease. Some are inherited, while others are the result of new somatic or germline mutations or errors in chromosomal replication. In this review, we provide examples of changes that occur in the human genome in two of the most common chronic pediatric disorders, autism and asthma. The incidence and economic burden of both of these disorders are increasing worldwide. Genomic variations have the potential to serve as biomarkers for personalization of therapy and prediction of outcomes

Locating pipe bursts in a District Metered Area via online hydraulic modelling

PublishedComputing and Control for the Water Industry (CCWI2015): Sharing the best practice in water managementThis paper presents an online burst location method which extends the recently developed methodology [1] for online burst detection in Water Distribution Systems (WDS) at the District Metered Area (DMA) level. This is achieved by a combination of data algorithms that make use of flow and pressure residuals between the online hydraulic model predictions and corresponding WDS observations. The leak location methodology was tested on a series of simulated pipe burst events in a real-life UK DMA. The results obtained show that the new methodology is effective in determining burst locations in near real-time and satisfactorily estimates the burst flows.The authors are grateful to Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and United Utilities (UU) including Mr T. Allen and UU hydraulic modelling team for providing the case study data and supporting financially the STREAM EngD project

Clinical Pathology of Plastic Ingestion in Marine Birds and Relationships with Blood Chemistry.

Pollution of the environment with plastic debris is a significant and rapidly expanding threat to biodiversity due to its abundance, durability, and persistence. Current knowledge of the negative effects of debris on wildlife is largely based on consequences that are readily observed, such as entanglement or starvation. Many interactions with debris, however, result in less visible and poorly documented sublethal effects, and as a consequence, the true impact of plastic is underestimated. We investigated the sublethal effects of ingested plastic in Flesh-footed Shearwaters (Ardenna carneipes) using blood chemistry parameters as a measure of bird health. The presence of plastic had a significant negative effect on bird morphometrics and blood calcium levels and a positive relationship with the concentration of uric acid, cholesterol, and amylase. That we found blood chemistry parameters being related to plastic pollution is one of the few examples to date of the sublethal effects of marine debris and highlights that superficially healthy individuals may still experience the negative consequences of ingesting plastic debris. Moving beyond crude measures, such as reduced body mass, to physiological parameters will provide much needed insight into the nuanced and less visible effects of plastic.Copyright © 2019 American Chemical Society. This document is the author’s final accepted version of the journal article. You are advised to consult the published version if you wish to cite from it

Online burst detection in a water distribution system using the Kalman filter and hydraulic modelling

PublishedThis paper presents a burst detection methodology that utilizes distributed real time sensor data in a district metered area using a data assimilation method and a hydraulic model. A sensitivity analysis was applied to evaluate the performance of various burst detection metrics under different conditions, and to identify appropriate thresholds for online burst detection using artificial generated burst events. It was found that the best performing metrics are the corrected flow residual and normalized corrected flow residual. This metric can be effective to detect bursts in a timely and reliable manner within a district metering area under assumed test conditions

Online modelling of water distribution system using Data Assimilation

PublishedConference Proceeding12th International Conference on Computing and Control for the Water Industry, CCWI2013This paper applies Data Assimilation (DA) methods to a Water Distribution System Model to improve the realtime estimation of water demand, and hydraulic system states. A time series model is used to forecast water demands which are used to drive the hydraulic model to predict the future system state. Both water demands and water demand model parameters are corrected via DA methods to update the system state. The results indicate that DA methods improved offline hydraulic modelling predictions. Of the DA methods, the Ensemble Kalman Filter outperformed the Kalman Filter in term of updating demands and water demand model parameters. © 2013 The Authors.The authors are grateful to United Utilities (UU), Mr D. Clucas, Mr T. Allen, Mr N. Croxton and UU hydraulic modelling team for providing the case study data and supporting financially the STREAM EngD project

Detection of ultrafine plastics ingested by seabirds using tissue digestion.

Plastic debris is a major global threat to marine ecosystems and species. However, our knowledge of this issue may be incomplete due to a lack of a standardized method for quantifying ingested ultrafine particles (1 μm - 1 mm) in wildlife. This study provides the first quantification of ultrafine plastic in seabirds using chemical and biological digestion treatments to extract plastic items from seabird gizzards. The alkaline agent, potassium hydroxide, outperformed the enzyme corolase, based on cost and efficiency (e.g., digestion time). Ultrafine plastics were observed in 7.0% of Flesh-footed Shearwater (Ardenna carneipes) gizzards collected from Lord Howe Island, Australia and accounted for 3.6% of all plastic items recovered (13 out of 359 items). Existing methods for extracting ingested plastic from seabirds do not account for ultrafine particles, therefore our results indicate current seabird plastic loads, and the associated physical and biological impacts, are underestimated.The attached document is the author(’s’) final accepted/submitted version of the journal article. You are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it

A panchromatic analysis of starburst galaxy M82: Probing the dust properties

(Abridged) We combine NUV, optical and IR imaging of the nearby starburst galaxy M82 to explore the properties of the dust both in the interstellar medium of the galaxy and the dust entrained in the superwind. The three NUV filters of Swift/UVOT enable us to probe in detail the properties of the extinction curve in the region around the 2175A bump. The NUV colour-colour diagram strongly rules out a Calzetti-type law, which can either reflect intrinsic changes in the dust properties or in the star formation history compared to starbursts well represented by such an attenuation law. We emphasize that it is mainly in the NUV region where a standard Milky-Way-type law is preferred over a Calzetti law. The age and dust distribution of the stellar populations is consistent with the scenario of an encounter with M81 in the recent 400 Myr. The radial gradients of the NUV and optical colours in the superwind region support the hypothesis that the emission in the wind cone is driven by scattering from dust grains entrained in the ejecta. The observed wavelength dependence reveals either a grain size distribution $n(a)\propto a^{-2.5}$, where $a$ is the size of the grain, or a flatter distribution with a maximum size cutoff, suggesting that only small grains are entrained in the supernovae-driven wind.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables, MNRAS, in pres

Puzzling asteroid 21 Lutetia: our knowledge prior to the Rosetta fly-by

A wide observational campaign was carried out in 2004-2009 aimed to complete the ground-based investigation of Lutetia prior to the Rosetta fly-by in July 2010. We have obtained BVRI photometric and V-band polarimetric measurements over a wide range of phase angles, and visible and infrared spectra in the 0.4-2.4 micron range. We analyzed them together with previously published data to retrieve information on Lutetia's surface properties. Values of lightcurve amplitudes, absolute magnitude, opposition effect, phase coefficient and BVRI colors of Lutetia surface seen at near pole-on aspect have been determined. We defined more precisely parameters of polarization phase curve and showed their distinct deviation from any other moderate-albedo asteroid. An indication of possible variations both in polarization and spectral data across the asteroid surface was found. To explain features found by different techniques we propose that (i) Lutetia has a non-convex shape, probably due to the presence of a large crater, and heterogeneous surface properties probably related to surface morphology; (ii) at least part of the surface is covered by a fine-grained regolith with particle size less than 20 microns; (iii) the closest meteorite analogues of Lutetia's surface composition are particular types of carbonaceous chondrites or Lutetia has specific surface composition not representative among studied meteorites