Sediment Production from Forest Roads with Wheel Ruts

Artificial rainfall was applied to two sets of paired plots 30.5 m long by 1.52 m wide, each set on a different soil type. One plot in each set contained a wheel rut while the other did not. Measurements of water and sediment yield on rutted plots showed sediment production declined with cumulative runoff while unrutted plots did not show a significant sediment depletion. This difference was a result of concentrated flow versus sheet flow

Energy Harvesting Device for Powering Onboard Condition Monitoring Modules in Rail Service

Rail transportation plays an important role in today’s economy by delivering a large quantity of goods and passengers to various locations throughout North America in an economic and efficient manner. Bearing failure is one of the leading causes of derailments that result in significant capital loss and in extreme cases tragic human loss. The two widely used bearing health monitoring systems are the Trackside Acoustic Detection System (TADS™) and the wayside Hot-Box Detector (HBD). These systems are reactive in nature and only give alerts when the bearings are nearing failure. To supplant that, a prototype wireless onboard condition monitoring system was developed by researchers at the University Transportation Center for Railway Safety (UTCRS). This onboard wireless system can detect bearing defects at their early stages of initiation so that proactive maintenance actions can be taken by the railroads and railcar owners. Due to the wireless nature of this system, a constant power supply is needed to ensure its continued operation. Currently, the prototype wireless system utilizes low-power circuitry that is powered by a rechargeable AA battery that can provide up to two years of operation depending on usage. Implementation of a suitable energy harvesting device can significantly increase the longevity of the batteries used in the wireless module, and in ideal operating conditions, generate consistent energy rendering the battery as a temporary energy storage device. The proposed energy harvesting device consists of thermoelectric generators, aluminum heat sinks, a switching boost convertor, and a battery management chip. This device was tested on a dynamic bearing test rig to assess the performance of the thermoelectric generators. To best simulate field operation conditions, the thermoelectric generators were placed on opposite sides of the bearing adapter; one exposed to direct forced convection while the other side is shielded by the adapter and experiences minimal convection. Thermoelectric generators were found to be an effective solution due to their ability to convert a temperature gradient into a usable voltage sufficient to charge the battery. The buck booster converter increases the voltage from the thermoelectric generators to 5-volts so that the battery management chip can regulate the voltage and efficiently charge the battery. This paper summarizes the performance of the thermoelectric modules under different operating conditions. The main goal of this project is to devise an energy harvesting device that allows the wireless module to be self-powered utilizing the heat generated from the bearing and the charge held by the battery as a hybrid power source

Optimization of Railroad Bearing Health Monitoring System for Wireless Utilization

In the railroad industry, systematic health inspections of freight railcar bearings are required. Bearings are subjected to high loads and run at high speeds, so over time the bearings may develop a defect that can potentially cause a derailment if left in service operation. Current bearing condition monitoring systems include Hot-Box Detectors (HBDs) and Trackside Acoustic Detection Systems (TADS™). The commonly used HBDs use non-contact infrared sensors to detect abnormal temperatures of bearings as they pass over the detector. Bearing temperatures that are about 94°C above ambient conditions will trigger an alarm indicating that the bearing must be removed from field service and inspected for defects. However, HBDs can be inconsistent, where 138 severely defective bearings from 2010 to 2019 were not detected. And from 2001 to 2007, Amsted Rail concluded that about 40% of presumably defective bearings detected by HBDs did not have any significant defects upon teardown and inspection. TADS™ use microphones to detect high-risk bearings by listening to their acoustic sound vibrations. Still, TADS™ are not very reliable since there are less than 30 active systems in the U.S. and Canada, and derailments may occur before bearings encounter any of these systems. Researchers from the University Transportation Center for Railway Safety (UTCRS) have developed an advanced algorithm that can accurately and reliably monitor the condition of the bearings via temperature and vibration measurements. This algorithm uses the vibration measurements collected from accelerometers on the bearing adapters to determine if there is a defect, where the defect is within the bearing, and the approximate size of the defect. Laboratory testing is performed on the single bearing and four bearing test rigs housed at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). The algorithm uses a four second sample window of the recorded vibration data and can reliably identify the defective component inside the bearing with up to a 100% confidence level. However, about 20,000 data points are used for this analysis, which requires substantial computational power. This can limit the battery life of the wireless onboard condition monitoring system. So, reducing the vibration sample window to conduct an accurate analysis should result in a more optimal power-efficient algorithm. A wireless onboard condition monitoring module that collects one second of vibration data (5,200 samples) was manufactured and tested to compare its efficacy against a wired setup that uses a four second sample window. This study investigates the root-mean-square values of the bearing vibration and its power spectral density plots to create an optimized and accurate algorithm for wireless utilization

Transcriptome Analysis and SNP Development Can Resolve Population Differentiation of Streblospio benedicti, a Developmentally Dimorphic Marine Annelid

Next-generation sequencing technology is now frequently being used to develop genomic tools for non-model organisms, which are generally important for advancing studies of evolutionary ecology. One such species, the marine annelid Streblospio benedicti, is an ideal system to study the evolutionary consequences of larval life history mode because the species displays a rare offspring dimorphism termed poecilogony, where females can produce either many small offspring or a few large ones. To further develop S. benedicti as a model system for studies of life history evolution, we apply 454 sequencing to characterize the transcriptome for embryos, larvae, and juveniles of this species, for which no genomic resources are currently available. Here we performed a de novo alignment of 336,715 reads generated by a quarter GS-FLX (Roche 454) run, which produced 7,222 contigs. We developed a novel approach for evaluating the site frequency spectrum across the transcriptome to identify potential signatures of selection. We also developed 84 novel single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers for this species that are used to distinguish coastal populations of S. benedicti. We validated the SNPs by genotyping individuals of different developmental modes using the BeadXPress Golden Gate assay (Illumina). This allowed us to evaluate markers that may be associated with life-history mode

The SOX2 response program in glioblastoma multiforme: an integrated ChIP-seq, expression microarray, and microRNA analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>SOX2 </it>is a key gene implicated in maintaining the stemness of embryonic and adult stem cells. <it>SOX2 </it>appears to re-activate in several human cancers including glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), however, the detailed response program of <it>SOX2 </it>in GBM has not yet been defined.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We show that knockdown of the <it>SOX2 </it>gene in LN229 GBM cells reduces cell proliferation and colony formation. We then comprehensively characterize the <it>SOX2 </it>response program by an integrated analysis using several advanced genomic technologies including ChIP-seq, microarray profiling, and microRNA sequencing. Using ChIP-seq technology, we identified 4883 <it>SOX2 </it>binding regions in the GBM cancer genome. <it>SOX2 </it>binding regions contain the consensus sequence wwTGnwTw that occurred 3931 instances in 2312 <it>SOX2 </it>binding regions. Microarray analysis identified 489 genes whose expression altered in response to <it>SOX2 </it>knockdown. Interesting findings include that <it>SOX2 </it>regulates the expression of SOX family proteins <it>SOX1 </it>and <it>SOX18</it>, and that <it>SOX2 </it>down regulates <it>BEX1 </it>(brain expressed X-linked 1) and <it>BEX2 </it>(brain expressed X-linked 2), two genes with tumor suppressor activity in GBM. Using next generation sequencing, we identified 105 precursor microRNAs (corresponding to 95 mature miRNAs) regulated by <it>SOX2</it>, including down regulation of miR-143, -145, -253-5p and miR-452. We also show that miR-145 and <it>SOX2 </it>form a double negative feedback loop in GBM cells, potentially creating a bistable system in GBM cells.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We present an integrated dataset of ChIP-seq, expression microarrays and microRNA sequencing representing the <it>SOX2 </it>response program in LN229 GBM cells. The insights gained from our integrated analysis further our understanding of the potential actions of <it>SOX2 </it>in carcinogenesis and serves as a useful resource for the research community.</p

Psychiatric inpatient expenditures and public health insurance programmes: analysis of a national database covering the entire South Korean population

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Medical spending on psychiatric hospitalization has been reported to impose a tremendous socio-economic burden on many developed countries with public health insurance programmes. However, there has been no in-depth study of the factors affecting psychiatric inpatient medical expenditures and differentiated these factors across different types of public health insurance programmes. In view of this, this study attempted to explore factors affecting medical expenditures for psychiatric inpatients between two public health insurance programmes covering the entire South Korean population: National Health Insurance (NHI) and National Medical Care Aid (AID).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This retrospective, cross-sectional study used a nationwide, population-based reimbursement claims dataset consisting of 1,131,346 claims of all 160,465 citizens institutionalized due to psychiatric diagnosis between January 2005 and June 2006 in South Korea. To adjust for possible correlation of patients characteristics within the same medical institution and a non-linearity structure, a Box-Cox transformed, multilevel regression analysis was performed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Compared with inpatients 19 years old or younger, the medical expenditures of inpatients between 50 and 64 years old were 10% higher among NHI beneficiaries but 40% higher among AID beneficiaries. Males showed higher medical expenditures than did females. Expenditures on inpatients with schizophrenia as compared to expenditures on those with neurotic disorders were 120% higher among NHI beneficiaries but 83% higher among AID beneficiaries. Expenditures on inpatients of psychiatric hospitals were greater on average than expenditures on inpatients of general hospitals. Among AID beneficiaries, institutions owned by private groups treated inpatients with 32% higher costs than did government institutions. Among NHI beneficiaries, inpatients medical expenditures were positively associated with the proportion of patients diagnosed into dementia or schizophrenia categories. However, for AID beneficiaries, inpatient medical expenditures were positively associated with the proportion of all patients with a psychiatric diagnosis that were AID beneficiaries in a medical institution.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study provides evidence that patient and institutional factors are associated with psychiatric inpatient medical expenditures, and that they may have different effects for beneficiaries of different public health insurance programmes. Policy efforts to reduce psychiatric inpatient medical expenditures should be made differently across the different types of public health insurance programmes.</p

Equipping Health Professions Educators to Better Address Medical Misinformation

As part of a cooperative agreement with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Federal Award Identification Number [FAIN]: NU50CK000586), the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) began a strategic initiative in 2022 both to increase confidence in COVID-19 vaccines and to address medical misinformation and mistrust through education in health professions contexts. Specifically, the AAMC solicited proposals for integrating competency-based, interprofessional strategies to mitigate health misinformation into new or existing curricula. Five Health Professions Education Curricular Innovations subgrantees received support from the AAMC in 2022 and reflected on the implementation of their ideas in a series of meetings over several months. Subgrantees included the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, the Maine Medical Center/Tufts University School of Medicine, and the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. This paper comprises insights from each of the teams and overarching observations regarding the challenges and opportunities involved with leveraging health professions education to address medical misinformation and improve patient health