Identifying the impact of tidal level variation on river basin flooding

Different parts of Sri Lanka are regularly subjected to a wide range of natural disasters, of which floods are most common. When severe, flooding can decrease the economic and social development of the country and the Government of Sri Lanka has to spend huge amounts of money each year to address such problems. Floods occur mostly because of heavy rainfall combined with human-induced factors in the catchment areas. In this project, tidal level variation is considered as a factor for floods in the river basins. The tidal level changes periodically due to the gravitational attraction from the sun and the moon and the centrifugal force of the earth’s rotation. This project studied the relationship between changes in tide and river water level in the mouth of the Kelani River. Tidal data was collected from the Colombo Harbor, and water level data and river flow data was obtained from the Nagalagam Street gauge and Hanwella gauge. It was found that there is a direct relationship between tidal level and flood level in the river mouth area. Therefore, it is proposed that tidal level variations be considered in order to make accurate flood predictions in the river mouth areas.Length: pp.119-126River basinsFlooding

PSR J0737-3039B: A probe of radio pulsar emission heights

In the double pulsar system PSR J0737-3039A/B the strong wind produced by pulsar A distorts the magnetosphere of pulsar B. The influence of these distortions on the orbital-dependent emission properties of pulsar B can be used to determine the location of the coherent radio emission generation region in the pulsar magnetosphere. Using a model of the wind-distorted magnetosphere of pulsar B and the well defined geometrical parameters of the system, we determine the minimum emission height to be ~ 20 neutron star radii in the two bright orbital longitude regions. We can determine the maximum emission height by accounting for the amount of deflection of the polar field line with respect to the magnetic axis using the analytical magnetic reconnection model of Dungey and the semi-empirical numerical model of Tsyganenko. Both of these models estimate the maximum emission height to be ~ 2500 neutron star radii. The minimum and maximum emission heights we calculate are consistent with those estimated for normal isolated pulsars.Comment: 29 pages, 14 figures, Accepted by ApJ on 3 March 201

Baby Buddy App for Breastfeeding and Behavior Change: Retrospective Study of the App Using the Behavior Change Wheel

BackgroundBreastfeeding plays a major role in the health of mothers and babies and has the potential to positively shape an individual's life both in the short and long term. In the United Kingdom (UK), although 81% of women initiate breastfeeding, only 1% of women breastfeed exclusively to 6 months as recommended by the World Health Organization. In the UK, women who are socially disadvantaged and younger are less likely to breastfeed at 6 to 8 weeks postpartum. One strategy that aims to improve these statistics is the Baby Buddy app, which has been designed and implemented by the UK charity Best Beginnings to be a universal intervention to help reduce health inequalities, including those in breastfeeding.ObjectiveThis study aimed to retrospectively examine the development of Baby Buddy by applying the Behavior Change Wheel (BCW) framework to understand how it might increase breastfeeding self-efficacy, knowledge, and confidence.MethodsRetrospective application of the BCW was completed after the app was developed and embedded into maternity services. A three-stage process evaluation used triangulation methods and formalized tools to gain an understanding of the potential mechanisms and behaviors used in apps that are needed to improve breastfeeding rates in the UK. First, we generated a behavioral analysis by mapping breastfeeding barriers and enablers onto the Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation-Behavior (COM-B) system using documents provided by Best Beginnings. Second, we identified the intervention functions and policy categories used. Third, we linked these with the behavior change techniques identified in the app breastfeeding content using the Behavior Change Techniques Taxonomy (BCTTv1).ResultsBaby Buddy is a well-designed platform that could be used to change breastfeeding behaviors. Findings from stage one showed that Best Beginnings had defined breastfeeding as a key behavior requiring support and demonstrated a thorough understanding of the context in which breastfeeding occurs, the barriers and enablers of breastfeeding, and the target actions needed to support breastfeeding. In stage two, Best Beginnings had used intervention and policy functions to address the barriers and enablers of breastfeeding. In stage three, Baby Buddy had been assessed for acceptability, practicability, effectiveness, affordability, safety, and equity. Several behavior change techniques that could assist women with decision making around breastfeeding (eg, information about health consequences and credible sources) and possibly affect attitudes and self-efficacy were identified. Of the 39 videos in the app, 19 (49%) addressed physical capabilities related to breastfeeding and demonstrated positive breastfeeding behaviors.ConclusionsApplying a theoretical framework retrospectively to a mobile app is possible and results in useful information to understand potential health benefits and to inform future development. Future research should assess which components and behavioral techniques in the app are most effective in changing behavior and supporting breastfeeding

Heterogeneous slow dynamics in a two dimensional doped classical antiferromagnet

We introduce a lattice model for a classical doped two dimensional antiferromagnet which has no quenched disorder, yet displays slow dynamics similar to those observed in supercooled liquids. We calculate two-time spatial and spin correlations via Monte Carlo simulations and find that for sufficiently low temperatures, there is anomalous diffusion and stretched-exponential relaxation of spin correlations. The relaxation times associated with spin correlations and diffusion both diverge at low temperatures in a sub-Arrhenius fashion if the fit is done over a large temperature-window or an Arrhenius fashion if only low temperatures are considered. We find evidence of spatially heterogeneous dynamics, in which vacancies created by changes in occupation facilitate spin flips on neighbouring sites. We find violations of the Stokes-Einstein relation and Debye-Stokes-Einstein relation and show that the probability distributions of local spatial correlations indicate fast and slow populations of sites, and local spin correlations indicate a wide distribution of relaxation times, similar to observ ations in other glassy systems with and without quenched disorder.Comment: 12 pages, 17 figures, corrected erroneous figure, and improved quality of manuscript, updated reference

Random Walks on a Fluctuating Lattice: A Renormalization Group Approach Applied in One Dimension

We study the problem of a random walk on a lattice in which bonds connecting nearest neighbor sites open and close randomly in time, a situation often encountered in fluctuating media. We present a simple renormalization group technique to solve for the effective diffusive behavior at long times. For one-dimensional lattices we obtain better quantitative agreement with simulation data than earlier effective medium results. Our technique works in principle in any dimension, although the amount of computation required rises with dimensionality of the lattice.Comment: PostScript file including 2 figures, total 15 pages, 8 other figures obtainable by mail from D.L. Stei

Heterogeneous Diffusion in Highly Supercooled Liquids

The diffusivity of tagged particles is demonstrated to be very heterogeneous on time scales comparable to or shorter than the $\alpha$ relaxation time $\tau_{\alpha}$ ($\cong$ the stress relaxation time) in a highly supercooled liquid via 3D molecular dynamics simulation. The particle motions in the relatively active regions dominantly contribute to the mean square displacement, giving rise to a diffusion constant systematically larger than the Einstein-Stokes value. The van Hove self-correlation function $G_s(r,t)$ is shown to have a long distance tail which can be scaled in terms of $r/t^{1/2}$ for t \ls 3\tau_{\alpha}. Its presence indicates heterogeneous diffusion in the active regions. However, the diffusion process eventually becomes homogeneous on time scales longer than the life time of the heterogeneity structure ($\sim 3 \tau_{\alpha}$).Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Diffusion and viscosity in a supercooled polydisperse system

We have carried out extensive molecular dynamics simulations of a supercooled polydisperse Lennard-Jones liquid with large variations in temperature at a fixed pressure. The particles in the system are considered to be polydisperse both in size and mass. The temperature dependence of the dynamical properties such as the viscosity ($\eta$) and the self-diffusion coefficients ($D_i$) of different size particles is studied. Both viscosity and diffusion coefficients show super-Arrhenius temperature dependence and fit well to the well-known Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann (VFT) equation. Within the temperature range investigated, the value of the Angell's fragility parameter (D $\approx 1.4$) classifies the present system into a strongly fragile liquid. The critical temperature for diffusion ($T_o^{D_i}$) increases with the size of the particles. The critical temperature for viscosity ($T_o^{\eta}$) is larger than that for the diffusion and a sizeable deviations appear for the smaller size particles implying a decoupling of translational diffusion from viscosity in deeply supercooled liquid. Indeed, the diffusion shows markedly non-Stokesian behavior at low temperatures where a highly nonlinear dependence on size is observed. An inspection of the trajectories of the particles shows that at low temperatures the motions of both the smallest and largest size particles are discontinuous (jump-type). However, the crossover from continuous Brownian to large length hopping motion takes place at shorter time scales for the smaller size particles.Comment: Revtex4, 7 pages, 8 figure

Histidine switch controlling pH-dependent protein folding and DNA binding in a transcription factor at the core of synthetic network devices

© 2016 The Royal Society of Chemistry. Therapeutic strategies have been reported that depend on synthetic network devices in which a urate-sensing transcriptional regulator detects pathological levels of urate and triggers production or release of urate oxidase. The transcription factor involved, HucR, is a member of the multiple antibiotic resistance (MarR) protein family. We show that protonation of stacked histidine residues at the pivot point of long helices that form the scaffold of the dimer interface leads to reversible formation of a molten globule state and significantly attenuated DNA binding at physiological temperatures. We also show that binding of urate to symmetrical sites in each protein lobe is communicated via the dimer interface. This is the first demonstration of regulation of a MarR family transcription factor by pH-dependent interconversion between a molten globule and a compact folded state. Our data further suggest that HucR may be utilized in synthetic devices that depend on detection of pH changes

Development of a Real-Time, Secure and Reliable Automobile Service Center

Lack of ambition will prevent you from moving forward in life, as much like a car without petrol. The majority of people on earth isobsessed with automobiles. We have provided you with a web application for Real time automobile service that functions effectively on all the platforms. Occasionally, automobiles and other motorized vehicles require maintenance. They must be maintained clean, just as humans practice proper hygiene. They run on dirty streets and in polluted environment. They are subjected to loads that harm them since they travel on uneven roads with obstacles. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain automobiles and other motorized vehicles on a regular basis. This project aims to keep service centers running smoothly in terms of things like vehicle maintenance, customer quotation generation, vehicle servicing, spare parts sales, customer information, and customer feedback. The system is efficient at generating reports that will make service center routine maintenance easy.Additionally, it can handle car repairs, insurance, payments, delivery, etc. This project will be very helpful to customers who want to fix or repair their cars. As a result, we develop a software that is both compatible and unique