Integrating fish resources to agro-ecosystem analyses

In October 2005, a consortium of partners led by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) proposed a project aimed at integrating fish resources management in agricultural management in the Tonle Sap area. This 2-years project assistance was accepted for funding by the Challenge Program on Water and Food and started in January 2008. The overall goal of this project is to improve allocation and use of water in combined farming and fishing systems in order to enhance food security of rural communities and water productivity. The general objectives of the Fisheries component are: 1) to contribute to the review of existing fisheries and aquaculture information, assessment and data collection systems and existing databases from a fisheries perspective 2) to determine key questions that could be asked at the commune level that would enable the identification of fisheries issues for different agroecosystem zones. These would include both threats and potential threats to fisheries based on key ecological variables and opportunities that fisheries and aquaculture could represent in local livelihoods.Research, Lake fisheries, Agropisciculture, Ecosystems, Analysis, Cambodia, Tonle Sap L.,

Limits of flexural wave absorption by open lossy resonators: reflection and transmission problems

The limits of flexural wave absorption by open lossy resonators are analytically and numerically reported in this work for both the reflection and transmission problems. An experimental validation for the reflection problem is presented. The reflection and transmission of flexural waves in 1D resonant thin beams are analyzed by means of the transfer matrix method. The hypotheses, on which the analytical model relies, are validated by experimental results. The open lossy resonator, consisting of a finite length beam thinner than the main beam, presents both energy leakage due to the aperture of the resonators to the main beam and inherent losses due to the viscoelastic damping. Wave absorption is found to be limited by the balance between the energy leakage and the inherent losses of the open lossy resonator. The perfect compensation of these two elements is known as the critical coupling condition and can be easily tuned by the geometry of the resonator. On the one hand, the scattering in the reflection problem is represented by the reflection coefficient. A single symmetry of the resonance is used to obtain the critical coupling condition. Therefore the perfect absorption can be obtained in this case. On the other hand, the transmission problem is represented by two eigenvalues of the scattering matrix, representing the symmetric and anti-symmetric parts of the full scattering problem. In the geometry analyzed in this work, only one kind of symmetry can be critically coupled, and therefore, the maximal absorption in the transmission problem is limited to 0.5. The results shown in this work pave the way to the design of resonators for efficient flexural wave absorption

Patient and Public Involvement in the Development of Healthcare Guidance: An Overview of Current Methods and Future Challenges

Clinical guidelines and health technology assessments are valuable instruments to improve the quality of healthcare delivery and aim to integrate the best available evidence with real-world, expert context. The role of patient and public involvement in their development has grown in recent decades, and this article considers the international literature exploring aspects of this participation, including the integration of experiential and scientific knowledge, recruitment strategies, models of involvement, stages of involvement, and methods of evaluation. These developments have been underpinned by the parallel rise of public involvement and evidence-based medicine as important concepts in health policy. Improving the recruitment of guideline group chairs, widening evidence reviews to include patient preference studies, adapting guidance presentation to highlight patient preference points and providing clearer instructions on how patient organisations can submit their intelligence are emerging proposals that may further enhance patient and public involvement in their processes

Hidden hotspot track beneath the eastern United States

Hotspot tracks are thought to be the surface expressions of tectonic plates moving over upwelling mantle plumes, and are characterized by volcanic activity that is age progressive. At present, most hotspot tracks are observed on oceanic or thin continental lithosphere. For old, thick continental lithosphere, such as the eastern United States, hotspot tracks are mainly inferred from sporadic diamondiferous kimberlites putatively sourced from the deep mantle. Here we use seismic waveforms initiated by the 2011 M_w 5.6 Virginia earthquake, recorded by the seismic observation network USArray, to analyse the structure of the continental lithosphere in the eastern United States. We identify an unexpected linear seismic anomaly in the lower lithosphere that has both a reduced P-wave velocity and high attenuation, and which we interpret as a hotspot track. The anomaly extends eastwards, from Missouri to Virginia, cross-cutting the New Madrid rift system, and then bends northwards. It has no clear relationship with the surface geology, but crosses a 75-million-year-old kimberlite in Kentucky. We use geodynamical modelling to show that an upwelling thermal mantle plume that interacts with the base of continental lithosphere can produce the observed seismic anomaly. We suggest that the hotspot track could be responsible for late Mesozoic reactivation of the New Madrid rift system and seismicity of the eastern United States

Analysis of rolling contact spall life in 440 C steel bearing rims

The results of a two year study of the mechanisms of spall failure in the HPOTP bearings are described. The objective was to build a foundation for detailed analyses of the contact life in terms of: cyclic plasticity, contact mechanics, spall nucleation, and spall growth. Since the laboratory rolling contact testing is carried out in the 3 ball/rod contact fatigue testing machine, the analysis of the contacts and contact lives produced in this machine received attention. The results from the experimentally observed growth lives are compared with calculated predictions derived from the fracture mechanics calculations

CD74-dependent Deregulation of the Tumor Suppressor Scribble in Human Epithelial and Breast Cancer Cells

The γ subunit of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II complex, CD74, is overexpressed in a significant proportion of metastatic breast tumors, but the mechanistic foundation and biologic significance of this phenomenon are not fully understood. Here, we show that when CD74 is overexpressed in human cancer and noncancerous epithelial cells, it interacts and interferes with the function of Scribble, a product of a well-known tumor suppressor gene. Furthermore, using epithelial cell lines expressing CD74 under the control of tetracycline-inducible promoter and quantitative high-resolution mass spectrometry, we demonstrate that, as a result of CD74 overexpression, the phosphorylation pattern of the C-terminal part of Scribble undergoes specific changes. This is accompanied with a translocation of the protein from the sites of cell-to-cell contacts at the plasma membrane to the cytoplasm, which is likely to effectively enhance the motility and invasiveness of the cancer cells. © 2013 Neoplasia Press, Inc. All rights reserved

A Massively Parallel Imaging System Based on the Self-Mixing Effect in a Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser Array

In this work we propose a massively parallel self-mixing imaging system, based on an array of VCSELs, to measure surface profiles of displacement, distance, velocity and liquid flow rate. The feasibility of this concept is demonstrated by the successful operation of a small scale prototype consisting of eight individual commercial VCSELs with integrated photodetectors. The system is used to accurately measure the velocity at different radial points on a rotating disk. The results show no influence of crosstalk. A massive version of the system will be useful in many industrial and biomedical applications where real-time surface profiling, vibrometry and velocimetry will be very beneficial

Orthogonal polynomials of discrete variable and Lie algebras of complex size matrices

We give a uniform interpretation of the classical continuous Chebyshev's and Hahn's orthogonal polynomials of discrete variable in terms of Feigin's Lie algebra gl(N), where N is any complex number. One can similarly interpret Chebyshev's and Hahn's q-polynomials and introduce orthogonal polynomials corresponding to Lie superlagebras. We also describe the real forms of gl(N), quasi-finite modules over gl(N), and conditions for unitarity of the quasi-finite modules. Analogs of tensors over gl(N) are also introduced.Comment: 25 pages, LaTe

Penetration depth study of the type-I superconductor PdTe2

Superconductivity in the topological non-trivial Dirac semimetal PdTe$_2$ was recently shown to be type-I. We here report measurements of the relative magnetic penetration depth, $\Delta \lambda$, on several single crystals using a high precision tunnel diode oscillator technique. The temperature variation $\Delta \lambda (T)$ follows an exponential function for $T/T_c < 0.4$, consistent with a fully-gapped superconducting state and weak or moderately coupling superconductivity. By fitting the data we extract a $\lambda (0)$-value of $\sim 500$~nm. The normalized superfluid density is in good agreement with the computed curve for a type-I superconductor with nonlocal electrodynamics. Small steps are observed in $\Delta \lambda (T)$, which possibly relates to a locally lower $T_c$ due to defects in the single crystalline sample. single crystalline sample.Comment: 13 pages, including 5 figure

PathVisio Analysis: An Application Targeting the miRNA Network Associated with the p53 Signaling Pathway in Osteosarcoma

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small single-stranded, non-coding RNA molecules involved in the pathogenesis and progression of cancer, including osteosarcoma. We aimed to clarify the pathways involving miRNAs using new bioinformatics tools. We applied WikiPathways and PathVisio, two open-source platforms, to analyze miRNAs in osteosarcoma using miRTar and ONCO.IO as integration tools. We found 1298 records of osteosarcoma papers associated with the word "miRNA". In osteosarcoma patients with good response to chemotherapy, miR-92a, miR- 99b, miR-193a-5p, and miR-422a expression is increased, while miR-132 is decreased. All identified miRNAs seem to be centered on the TP53 network. This is the first application of PathVisio to determine miRNA pathways in osteosarcoma. MiRNAs have the potential to become a useful diagnostic and prognostic tool in the management of osteosarcoma. PathVisio is a full pathway editor with the potentiality to illustrate the biological events, augment graphical elements, and elucidate all the physical structures and interactions with standard external database identifiers