Weather-based estimation of wildfire risk

Catastrophic wildfires in California have become more frequent in past decades, while insured losses per event have been rising substantially. On average, California ranks the highest among states in the U.S. in the number of fires as well as the number of acres burned each year. The study of catastrophic wildfire models plays an important role in the prevention and mitigation of such disasters. Accurate forecasts of potential large fires assist fire managers in preparing resources and strategic planning for fire suppression. Furthermore, fire forecasting can a priori inform insurers on potential financial losses due to large fires. This paper describes a probabilistic model for predicting wildland fire risks using the two-stage Heckman procedure. Using 37 years of spatial and temporal information on weather and fire records in Southern California, this model measures the probability of a fire occurring and estimates the expected size of the fire on a given day and location, offering a technique to predict and forecast wildfire occurrences based on weather information that is readily available at low cost.biased sampling, forest fires, fire occurrence probabilities, fire weather

Development of taxane resistance in a panel of human lung cancer cell lines

Using a selection process designed to reflect clinically relevant conditions, a panel of taxane-selected variants were developed to study further the mechanisms of resistance in lung cancer. Unlike continuous or pulse exposure to high concentrations of chemotherapeutic drugs which yield high resistance and often cross resistance, most variants developed here displayed low level resistance to the selecting drug with slight cross-resistance. Pulsing with taxol resulted in more highly resistant clones (up to 51.4-fold). Analysis of taxol and taxotere in the four major lung cancer cell types showed the taxanes to be more effective against NSCLC (with the exception of SKMES-taxane selected variants) than against the SCLC. Comparison of taxol and taxotere shows that taxol induces higher levels of resistance than taxotere. Further, in taxotere-selected cell lines, the cells are more resistant to taxol than taxotere, suggesting that taxotere may be a superior taxane from a clinical view. Taxol treatment resulted in increased cross-resistance to 5-FU in all classes of lung cancer except DMS-53. The high levels of Pgp in the DMS-53 and selected variant suggests this mechanism is not related to Pgp expression. Analysis of the Pgp and MRP-1 status by combination inhibitory assays and Western blotting showed no consistent relationship between expression of the membrane pumps Pgp or MRP-1 and resistance. However, where high level resistance was seen, the parent cell line expressed Pgp or MRP-1 and was accompanied by increased levels in the variants. Overall we found that the clinically relevant models used here are useful for investigating mechanisms of taxane resistance

I 270 North Design Build Project

The I-270 North DB project is a $278M project in North St. Louis County. Safety and mobility were increased through a series of innovations, including additional lanes on highly-congested I-270, conversion of existing 2-way outer roads to 1-way, reconfiguring interchanges, TSMO enhancements, ITS upgrades, and pedestrian upgrades. The project also included significant public outreach which required creativity due to the pandemic

Modelling Immunological Memory

Accurate immunological models offer the possibility of performing highthroughput experiments in silico that can predict, or at least suggest, in vivo phenomena. In this chapter, we compare various models of immunological memory. We first validate an experimental immunological simulator, developed by the authors, by simulating several theories of immunological memory with known results. We then use the same system to evaluate the predicted effects of a theory of immunological memory. The resulting model has not been explored before in artificial immune systems research, and we compare the simulated in silico output with in vivo measurements. Although the theory appears valid, we suggest that there are a common set of reasons why immunological memory models are a useful support tool; not conclusive in themselves