Tropical Cyclone Impacts Along the Bangladesh Coast: Evaluation of Future Impacts and a Methodology for Assessing Local-Scale Dynamic Risk

Tropical cyclones (TCs) are highly influential and impactful weather phenomena, greatly affecting both the environment and society. It is well recognized that their activity and physical impacts are likely to be influenced by anthropogenic climate change. The primary objective of this study is to examine the effects of TCs making landfall in the Bay of Bengal and, more specifically, on the Bangladesh coast, both currently and under projected climate scenarios. Additionally, the study aims to develop a local-scale dynamic risk framework specifically designed for TC hazards. To achieve these objectives, an extensive analysis of TCs in the North Indian Ocean is conducted by: 1) analyzing historical TC best-track data spanning from 1989 to 2018 to evaluate TC exposure in the North Indian Ocean. 2) simulating historical landfalling TCs in Bangladesh under current and two future projection scenarios for the 2050s, 2070s, and 2090s using the pseudowarming framework based on climate perturbations from the CSIRO ACCESS-CM2 model. 3) developing an innovative risk framework that combines the impacts of climate change and local-scale socio-demographic scenarios to assess the potential impact of TCs and evaluate their associated risk levels. The findings suggest that there has been a slight decrease in the frequency of TC landfalls in the region over the past 30 years, accompanied by a spatial shift in landfall patterns, with a higher occurrence of landfalling TCs in northern India and western Bangladesh and a decrease in eastern Bangladesh. In the future, results suggest that the central coast of Bangladesh is likely to experience an increase in TC-related hazards, particularly rainfall while the western and eastern coastal regions will experience reduced hazards. Finally, a dynamic risk framework is presented that captures the realistic behavior of district-level socio-demographic indices. The framework is evaluated for a district situated on the central coast of Bangladesh and demonstrates that the risk due to TCs will likely be heightened in that location due to the pressure of increased TC hazards on modeled socio-demographic conditions

Effect of microtubule immobilization by glutaraldehyde on kinesin-driven cargo transport

The glutaraldehyde fixation method for fixing tissues is attractive for its ease of use and straightforward surface chemistry. We investigated the effect of glutaraldehyde-induced microtubule immobilization on kinesin-driven cargo transport along microtubules and found that at low glutaraldehyde concentrations, the microtubule-kinesin interaction remains unperturbed. Such findings may facilitate the application of the glutaraldehyde fixation method for many in vitro studies aiming to build nanodevices powered by the microtubule-motor protein interaction

Comparison of microtubules stabilized with the anticancer drugs cevipabulin and paclitaxel

Microtubules, one of the major components of the cytoskeleton, play important roles as pathways for neuronal transport of cellular traffic. The loss of structural stability of microtubules causes detrimental effects on neurons and may contribute to several neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Huntington's disease, etc. The triazolopyrimidine class compound cevipabulin is a synthetic microtubule-stabilizing agent that has recently emerged as a drug for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. However, the mechanism of microtubule stabilization by cevipabulin has not yet been revealed. Here, we explored the effect of cevipabulin on stabilizing microtubules polymerized from purified tubulins in vitro. We observed the effects of the concentration of microtubule-stabilizing drugs, incubation time, and modification of the cevipabulin structure on the stabilization of microtubules in comparison to those of the most commonly used anticancer drug, paclitaxel. This study will provide insight into the action of cevipabulin in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Stabilization of microtubules occurs by paclitaxel bound to the taxoid site and cevipabulin (and its derivative) bound to the taxoid site and/or vinca alkaloid domain of the beta-tubulin in tubulin heterodimer

Development of a Matrix Based Statistical Framework to Compute Weight for Composite Hazards, Vulnerability and Risk Assessments

Selection of relative weights for different indicators is a critical step during assessment of composite hazards, vulnerability, and risk. While assigning weight to an indicator, it is important to consider the influence of an individual indicator on a particular composite index. In general, the larger the weight of the indicator, the higher the importance of that indicator compared to other indicators. In this study, a new matrix based statistical framework (MSF) for weight assignment is developed that can be considered as the simplest and most accurate method for assigning weights for a large number of indicators. This method (MSF) is based on the valuation of the correlation matrix and Eigenvector associated with Eigenvalue. Relying on the inter build up methodology, MSF can fulfill some built-in gaps among other weightage methods. It can also directly give the ‘decision’ to select the relative weights that are found from the Eigenvector corresponding to the largest Eigenvalue. The new method is applied by assigning weights to 15 socio-economic indicators and assessed vulnerability and risk in the Bangladesh coast. While comparing with other weight methods, it is found that MSF gives the most acceptable physical explanation about the relative values of weights of indicators. In terms of accuracy, MSF is found to be most accurate compared to other weight methods. When large numbers of indicators are involved in an application, MSF is found to be relatively simple and easy to apply compared to other methods

Determining the most sensitive socioeconomic parameters for quantitative risk assessment

Risk is assessed as a function of exposure, hazard, and vulnerability, defined in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), where exposure and vulnerability are described through socioeconomic indicators. Indicators are selected through sensitivity analysis performed by applying a non-linear programming system, which is solved by Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions. In this article, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistical test is applied to select the set of indicators that are the most sensitive for the system to assess risk, and then applied to the case of the Bangladesh coast to determine the most sensitive socioeconomic indicators.UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID

Deformation of microtubules regulates translocation dynamics of kinesin

Microtubules, the most rigid components of the cytoskeleton, can be key transduction elements between external forces and the cellular environment. Mechanical forces induce microtubule deformation, which is presumed to be critical for the mechanoregulation of cellular events. However, concrete evidence is lacking. In this work, with high-speed atomic force microscopy, we unravel how microtubule deformation regulates the translocation of the microtubule-associated motor protein kinesin-1, responsible for intracellular transport. Our results show that the microtubule deformation by bending impedes the translocation dynamics of kinesins along them. Molecular dynamics simulation shows that the hindered translocation of kinesins can be attributed to an enhanced affinity of kinesins to the microtubule structural units in microtubules deformed by bending. This study advances our understanding of the role of cytoskeletal components in mechanotransduction