Economic analysis of flood risk applied to the rehabilitation of drainage networks

Over time, cities have grown, developing various activities and accumulating important economic assets. Floods are a problem that worry city administrators who seek to make cities more resilient and safer. This increase in flood events is due to different causes: poor planning, population increase, aging of networks, etc. However, the two main causes for the increase in urban flooding are the increment in frequency of extreme rainfall, generated mainly by climate change, and the increase in urbanized areas in cities, which reduce green areas, decreasing the percentage of water that seeps naturally into the soil. As a contribution to solve these problems, the work presented shows a method to rehabilitate drainage networks that contemplates implementing different actions in the network: renovation of pipes, construction of storm tanks and installation of hydraulic controls. This work focuses on evaluating the flood risk in economic terms. To achieve this, the expected annual damage from floods and the annual investments in infrastructure to control floods are estimated. These two terms are used to form an objective function to be minimized. To evaluate this objective function, an optimization model is presented that incorporates a genetic algorithm to find the best solutions to the problem; the hydraulic analysis of the network is performed with the SWMM model. This work also presents a strategy to reduce computation times by reducing the search space focused mainly on large networks. This is intended to show a complete and robust methodology that can be used by managers and administrators of drainage networks in cities

Locally erasable couplers for optical device testing in silicon on insulator

Wafer scale testing is critical to reducing production costs and increasing production yield. Here we report a method that allows testing of individual optical components within a complex optical integrated circuit. The method is based on diffractive grating couplers, fabricated using lattice damage induced by ion implantation of germanium. These gratings can be erased via localised laser annealing, which is shown to reduce the outcoupling efficiency by over 20 dB after the device testing is completed. Laser annealing was achieved by employing a CW laser, operating at visible wavelengths thus reducing equipment costs and allowing annealing through thick oxide claddings. The process used also retains CMOS compatibility

The Joint European Compound Library:boosting precompetitive research

The Joint European Compound Library (JECL) is a new high-throughput screening collection aimed at driving precompetitive drug discovery and target validation. The JECL has been established with a core of over 321000 compounds from the proprietary collections of seven pharmaceutical companies and will expand to around 500000 compounds. Here, we analyse the physicochemical profile and chemical diversity of the core collection, showing that the collection is diverse and has a broad spectrum of predicted biological activity. We also describe a model for sharing compound information from multiple proprietary collections, enabling diversity and quality analysis without disclosing structures. The JECL is available for screening at no cost to European academic laboratories and SMEs through the IMI European Lead Factory (http://www.europeanleadfactory.eu/)

Human Pleural Fluid Elicits Pyruvate and Phenylalanine Metabolism in Acinetobacter baumannii to Enhance Cytotoxicity and Immune Evasion

The CCAAT box-harboring proteins represent a family of heterotrimeric transcription factors which is highly conserved in eukaryotes. In fungi, one of the particularly important homologs of this family is the Hap complex that separates the DNA-binding domain from the activation domain and imposes essential impacts on regulation of a wide range of cellular functions. So far, a comprehensive summary of this complex has been described in filamentous fungi but not in the yeast. In this review, we summarize a number of studies related to the structure and assembly mode of the Hap complex in a list of representative yeasts. Furthermore, we emphasize recent advances in understanding the regulatory functions of this complex, with a special focus on its role in regulating respiration, production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and iron homeostasis.Fil: Nyah, Rodman. California State University; Estados UnidosFil: Martinez, Jasmine. California State University; Estados UnidosFil: Fung, Sammie. California State University; Estados UnidosFil: Nakanouchi, Jun. California State University; Estados UnidosFil: Myers, Amber L.. California State University; Estados UnidosFil: Harris, Caitlin M.. California State University; Estados UnidosFil: Dang, Emily. California State University; Estados UnidosFil: Fernandez, Jennifer. California State University; Estados UnidosFil: Liu, Christine. California State University; Estados UnidosFil: Mendoza, Anthony M.. California State University; Estados UnidosFil: Jimenez, Verónica. California State University; Estados UnidosFil: Nikolaidis, Nikolas. California State University; Estados UnidosFil: Brennan, Catherine A.. California State University; Estados UnidosFil: Bonomo, Robert A.. Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Cente; Estados Unidos. Center for Antimicrobial Resistance and Epidemiology; Estados Unidos. Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine; Estados UnidosFil: Sieira, Rodrigo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Ramirez, Maria Soledad. California State University; Estados Unido

Video Endoscopy for Laser Photoresection in Tracheobronchial Pathology: Some Considerations After 9 Years Experience With 2105 Treatments

Between 1984 and 1993 we performed 2105 laser treatments in 1210 patients: 52% of treatments were done for malignant pathology, 45% for benign tracheal stenoses and 3% were in a miscellaneous group. The procedure was carried out with a rigid bronchoscope under general anaesthesia. In patients with malignant tumors, it is a good palliative treatment—safe, well tolerated and with immediate results; it can be repeated as many times as needed with and is well accepted by the patient. In patients without tumors, this method avoids emergency tracheotomies. The long term results are now under evaluation

Cosmic Chronometers: Constraining the Equation of State of Dark Energy. I: H(z) Measurements

We present new determinations of the cosmic expansion history from red-envelope galaxies. We have obtained for this purpose high-quality spectra with the Keck-LRIS spectrograph of red-envelope galaxies in 24 galaxy clusters in the redshift range 0.2 < z < 1.0. We complement these Keck spectra with high-quality, publicly available archival spectra from the SPICES and VVDS surveys. We improve over our previous expansion history measurements in Simon et al. (2005) by providing two new determinations of the expansion history: H(z) = 97 +- 62 km/sec/Mpc at z = 0.5 and H(z) = 90 +- 40 km/sec/Mpc at z = 0.8. We discuss the uncertainty in the expansion history determination that arises from uncertainties in the synthetic stellar-population models. We then use these new measurements in concert with cosmic-microwave-background (CMB) measurements to constrain cosmological parameters, with a special emphasis on dark-energy parameters and constraints to the curvature. In particular, we demonstrate the usefulness of direct H(z) measurements by constraining the dark- energy equation of state parameterized by w0 and wa and allowing for arbitrary curvature. Further, we also constrain, using only CMB and H(z) data, the number of relativistic degrees of freedom to be 4 +- 0.5 and their total mass to be < 0.2 eV, both at 1-sigma.Comment: Submitted to JCA

Prospects in Constraining the Dark Energy Potential

We generalize to non-flat geometries the formalism of Simon et al. (2005) to reconstruct the dark energy potential. This formalism makes use of quantities similar to the Horizon-flow parameters in inflation, can, in principle, be made non-parametric and is general enough to be applied outside the simple, single scalar field quintessence. Since presently available and forthcoming data do not allow a non-parametric and exact reconstruction of the potential, we consider a general parametric description in term of Chebyshev polynomials. We then consider present and future measurements of H(z), Baryon Acoustic Oscillations surveys and Supernovae type 1A surveys, and investigate their constraints on the dark energy potential. We find that, relaxing the flatness assumption increases the errors on the reconstructed dark energy evolution but does not open up significant degeneracies, provided that a modest prior on geometry is imposed. Direct measurements of H(z), such as those provided by BAO surveys, are crucially important to constrain the evolution of the dark energy potential and the dark energy equation of state, especially for non-trivial deviations from the standard LambdaCDM model.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures. 2 references correcte

Tranexamic acid attenuates inflammatory response in cardiopulmonary bypass surgery through blockade of fibrinolysis: a case control study followed by a randomized double-blind controlled trial

INTRODUCTION: Extracorporeal circulation induces hemostatic alterations that lead to inflammatory response (IR) and postoperative bleeding. Tranexamic acid (TA) reduces fibrinolysis and blood loss after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). However, its effects on IR and vasoplegic shock (VS) are not well known and elucidating these effects was the main objective of this study. METHODS: A case control study was carried out to determine factors associated with IR after CPB. Patients undergoing elective CPB surgery were randomly assigned to receive 2 g of TA or placebo (0.9% saline) before and after intervention. We performed an intention-to-treat analysis, comparing the incidence of IR and VS. We also analyzed several biological parameters related to inflammation, coagulation, and fibrinolysis systems. We used SPSS version 12.2 for statistical purposes. RESULTS: In the case control study, 165 patients were studied, 20.6% fulfilled IR criteria, and the use of TA proved to be an independent protective variable (odds ratio 0.38, 95% confidence interval 0.18 to 0.81; P < 0.01). The clinical trial was interrupted. Fifty patients were randomly assigned to receive TA (24) or placebo (26). Incidence of IR was 17% in the TA group versus 42% in the placebo group (P = 0.047). In the TA group, we observed a significant reduction in the incidence of VS (P = 0.003), the use of norepinephrine (P = 0.029), and time on mechanical ventilation (P = 0.018). These patients showed significantly lower D-dimer, plasminogen activator inhibitor 1, and creatine-kinase levels and a trend toward lower levels of soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor and interleukin-6 within the first 24 hours after CPB. CONCLUSION: The use of TA attenuates the development of IR and VS after CPB. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN05718824