Bridge Scour Data Management

A Bridge Scour Data Management System has been developed by the U.S. Geological Survey to support preparation, compilation, and analysis of bridge scour measurement data. Users may interactively store, retrieve, select, update, and display bridge scour and associated data. Interactive processing makes use of full-screen menus and form fill-ins, and an instruction window. Optional help and limits windows provide additional information for each of about 150 items in the data set for each bridge-scour site. The data set items include all of the essential information from a detailed scour measurement. Each data set has four categories of information: site data; measured scour data; flood event data; and channel geometry data. Program options permit selection of prediction equations and computation of scour depth estimates for comparison with observed scour depths. The program is written in Fortran 77 and is portable to personal computers, workstations, and minicomputers. The data base will facilitate: (1) developing improved estimators of scour for specific regions or conditions; (2) describing scour processes; and (3) reducing risk from scour at bridges

County Smoke-Free Laws and Asthma Discharges: Evidence from 17 US States

Although approximately 82 percent of the US population was covered by some form of law that restricted smoking in public establishments as of 2014, most research examining the relationship between smoke-free laws and health has been focused at the state level. Purpose. To examine the effect of county workplace smoke-free laws over and above the effect of other (restaurant or bar) smoke-free laws on adult asthma. Methods. The study estimated the effect of rates of adult asthma discharges before and after the implementation of county nonhospitality workplace smoke-free laws and county restaurant and bar smoke-free laws. Data were from2002 to 2009, and all analyses were performed in 2011 through 2013. Results. A statistically significant relationship (−5.43, �� \u3c .05) was found between county restaurant or bar smoke-free laws and reductions in working age adult asthma discharges. There was no statistically significant effect of nonhospitality workplace smoke-free laws over and above the effect of county restaurant or bar laws. Conclusions.This study suggests that further gains in preventable asthma-related hospitalizations in the US are more likely to be made by focusing on smoke-free laws in bars or restaurants rather than in nonhospitality workplaces

An alignment algorithm for bisulfite sequencing using the Applied Biosystems SOLiD System

Summary: Bisulfite sequencing allows cytosine methylation, an important epigenetic marker, to be detected via nucleotide substitutions. Since the Applied Biosystems SOLiD System uses a unique di-base encoding that increases confidence in the detection of nucleotide substitutions, it is a potentially advantageous platform for this application. However, the di-base encoding also makes reads with many nucleotide substitutions difficult to align to a reference sequence with existing tools, preventing the platform's potential utility for bisulfite sequencing from being realized. Here, we present SOCS-B, a reference-based, un-gapped alignment algorithm for the SOLiD System that is tolerant of both bisulfite-induced nucleotide substitutions and a parametric number of sequencing errors, facilitating bisulfite sequencing on this platform. An implementation of the algorithm has been integrated with the previously reported SOCS alignment tool, and was used to align CpG methylation-enriched Arabidopsis thaliana bisulfite sequence data, exhibiting a 2-fold increase in sensitivity compared to existing methods for aligning SOLiD bisulfite data

Explore, Exploit or Listen: Combining Human Feedback and Policy Model to Speed up Deep Reinforcement Learning in 3D Worlds

We describe a method to use discrete human feedback to enhance the performance of deep learning agents in virtual three-dimensional environments by extending deep-reinforcement learning to model the confidence and consistency of human feedback. This enables deep reinforcement learning algorithms to determine the most appropriate time to listen to the human feedback, exploit the current policy model, or explore the agent's environment. Managing the trade-off between these three strategies allows DRL agents to be robust to inconsistent or intermittent human feedback. Through experimentation using a synthetic oracle, we show that our technique improves the training speed and overall performance of deep reinforcement learning in navigating three-dimensional environments using Minecraft. We further show that our technique is robust to highly innacurate human feedback and can also operate when no human feedback is given

Analytical Validation and Capabilities of the Epic CTC Platform: Enrichment-Free Circulating Tumour Cell Detection and Characterization

The Epic Platform was developed for the unbiased detection and molecular characterization of circulating tumour cells (CTCs). Here, we report assay performance data, including accuracy, linearity, specificity and intra/inter-assay precision of CTC enumeration in healthy donor (HD) blood samples spiked with varying concentrations of cancer cell line controls (CLCs). Additionally, we demonstrate clinical feasibility for CTC detection in a small cohort of metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients. The Epic Platform demonstrated accuracy, linearity and sensitivity for the enumeration of all CLC concentrations tested. Furthermore, we established the precision between multiple operators and slide staining batches and assay specificity showing zero CTCs detected in 18 healthy donor samples. In a clinical feasibility study, at least one traditional CTC/mL (CK+, CD45-, and intact nuclei) was detected in 89 % of 44 mCRPC samples, whereas 100 % of samples had CTCs enumerated if additional CTC subpopulations (CK-/CD45- and CK+ apoptotic CTCs) were included in the analysis. In addition to presenting Epic Platform’s performance with respect to CTC enumeration, we provide examples of its integrated downstream capabilities, including protein biomarker expression and downstream genomic analyses at single cell resolution

Channel Scour at Bridges in the United States

DTFH61-87-Y-00123Scour of the channel bed around bridge foundations is the leading cause of failure among more than 487,000 bridges over water in the United States. Field measurements of scour at bridges are needed to improve the understanding of scour processes and the ability to predict scour depths accurately. This report documents methods to measure and interpret bridge scour data, presents an extensive pier scour measurement data base, evaluates scour processes in an analysis of these data, and compares observed and predicted scour depths for several scour prediction equations. More than 380 measurements of local scour around bridge piers have been compiled from 56 bridges in 14 States in a cooperative investigation of the U.S. Geological Survey and the Federal Highway Administration. The data are stored in an interactive bridge scour data base management system developed in this study. Improved planning for scour measurements during floods and advances in scour measurement instrumentation and techniques have improved the quantity and quality of measured scour data. Consistent and representative methods are used to interpret scour measurement data that were compiled from several investigations. The relation of scour depth to several explanatory variables, including effective pier width, flow depth, flow intensity, and sediment parameters, is investigated. The data distributions of individual scour variables are typically right skewed. The effective pier width generally has the greatest influence on scour depth. Flow depth has a positive relation with scour depth over the range of measured data; but the influence of flow depth decreases with increasing scour. The positive relation of flow intensity to scour depth is apparent when bed-load transport is negligible, but appears insignificant for active bed-load transport conditions. The influence of sediment size and gradation on local scour depth is inconclusive on the basis of this analysis. Selected local scour prediction equations are evaluated and compared based on the field data. None of the selected equations accurately predict the depth of scour for all the measured conditions. Several equations did better than others when evaluated as design equations. The information in this report is provided to contribute to the improved design and evaluation of bridges, and to the safety of the traveling public

Essays on river mechanics

CER94-95-PYJ-3.Presented by the Graduate Students in CE 717 - River Mechanics (Spring, 1995).Instructor: P.Y. Julien.Includes bibliographical references.April 1995

Phenotypic diversity of circulating tumour cells in patients with metastatic castration‐resistant prostate cancer

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139087/1/bju13631_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139087/2/bju13631.pd

An Intraocular Pressure Polygenic Risk Score Stratifies Multiple Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma Parameters Including Treatment Intensity

Purpose: To examine the combined effects of common genetic variants associated with intraocular pressure (IOP) on primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) phenotype using a polygenic risk score (PRS) stratification. Design: Cross-sectional study. Participants: For the primary analysis, we examined the glaucoma phenotype of 2154 POAG patients enrolled in the Australian and New Zealand Registry of Advanced Glaucoma, including patients recruited from the United Kingdom. For replication, we examined an independent cohort of 624 early POAG patients. Methods Using IOP genome-wide association study summary statistics, we developed a PRS derived solely from IOP-associated variants and stratified POAG patients into 3 risk tiers. The lowest and highest quintiles of the score were set as the low- and high-risk groups, respectively, and the other quintiles were set as the intermediate risk group. Main Outcome Measures: Clinical glaucoma phenotype including maximum recorded IOP, age at diagnosis, number of family members affected by glaucoma, cup-to-disc ratio, visual field mean deviation, and treatment intensity. Results: A dose–response relationship was found between the IOP PRS and the maximum recorded IOP, with the high genetic risk group having a higher maximum IOP by 1.7 mmHg (standard deviation [SD], 0.62 mmHg) than the low genetic risk group (P = 0.006). Compared with the low genetic risk group, the high genetic risk group had a younger age of diagnosis by 3.7 years (SD, 1.0 years; P < 0.001), more family members affected by 0.46 members (SD, 0.11 members; P < 0.001), and higher rates of incisional surgery (odds ratio, 1.5; 95% confidence interval, 1.1–2.0; P = 0.007). No statistically significant difference was found in mean deviation. We further replicated the maximum IOP, number of family members affected by glaucoma, and treatment intensity (number of medications) results in the early POAG cohort (P ≤ 0.01). Conclusions: The IOP PRS was correlated positively with maximum IOP, disease severity, need for surgery, and number of affected family members. Genes acting via IOP-mediated pathways, when considered in aggregate, have clinically important and reproducible implications for glaucoma patients and their close family members