Numerical modelling of hydrodynamic responses of Ocean Farm 1 in waves and current and validation against model test measurements

With the continuous growing of the aquaculture industry and increasingly limited fish farming sites at close to shore areas both in Norway and worldwide, there is a need to develop fish farms suitable for aquaculture production in typical offshore environments. For this purpose, SALMAR has developed and deployed the Ocean Farm 1 facility for offshore fish farming. The main purpose of this paper is to develop a reliable numerical model and investigate the motion responses of the Ocean Farm 1 structure in waves and current. The established numerical model consists of the Ocean Farm 1's frame structure (with rigidly-connected circular column components), the net and the mooring system. The hydrodynamic external loads and coefficients of the frame structure are obtained by using potential flow theory. The quadratic drag load on the individual circular columns of the frame structure is formulated by a given drag coefficient. The loads on the net are formulated by using the screen model, where the Reynold number dependent lift and drag forces are formulated as a function of the solidity ratio Sn of the net, relative inflow angle and velocity. The hydrodynamic loads on the mooring lines are formulated using the Morison's equation and the structural responses of the mooring lines are obtained using a nonlinear FE model. With the developed numerical model, time domain simulations are performed. The simulation results are firstly validated against measured data from the decay tests, current tests, and regular wave tests. After the validation, numerical simulations are performed in different irregular wave and current combined weather conditions and the obtained motion response of Ocean Farm 1 are discussed and compared with available measurement data.acceptedVersio

Prevalence of Sarcoptes scabiei

Little is known about the prevalence of Sarcoptes scabiei infection in pet dogs in China. In the present study, the prevalence of S. scabiei infection in pet dogs in Guangzhou, southern China, was investigated between January and December, 2009. A total of 3,977 pet dogs admitted to animal hospitals were examined for the presence of S. scabiei using a parasitological approach. The average prevalence of S. scabiei infection in pet dogs is 1.18% (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.85–1.52%). The prevalence of S. scabiei was higher in winter (1.42%; 95% CI: 0.29–2.55%), summer (1.39%; 95% CI: 0.83–1.96%), and autumn (1.1%; 95% CI: 0.53–1.68%) than in spring (0.63%; 95% CI: 0.02–1.25%). Furthermore, the prevalence of S. scabiei was the highest in Pekingese (21.88%; 95% CI: 7.55–36.2%), followed by Papillon (5.26%; 95% CI: 0–11.06%) and Bichon Frise (3.19%; 95% CI: 0–6.75%). The results of the present investigation indicate that S. scabiei infection is prevalent in pet dogs in Guangzhou, China, which provides relevant “baseline” data for conducting control strategies and measures against scabies in this region and elsewhere in China. To our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive report of S. scabiei prevalence in pet dogs in China

Enumerasi Total Populasi Mikroba Tanah Gambut Di Teluk Meranti Kabupaten Riau

Teluk Meranti is one of the peatland area in Riau province. Most of these lands have beenchanged into palm oil plantation, timber plantation, agricultural area and settlement. Theaim of this research was to analyze the impact of land use changes on soil physical-chemical characteristics and microbial cell number. Soil samples were taken from eightdifferent locations, namely primary forest as control, secondary forest, rubber plantation(15 monthsyears old), rubber forest (40-60 years old), palm oil plantation (7-8 years old),acacia plantation (2-3 years old), corn field, and cassava field. Microbial cell number wasdetermined by spread plate method, employing appropriate media for the growth ofbacteria, fungi and actinomycetes. The results showed that the soil humidity, soiltemperature, percentage of soil dry weight, water content, soil bulk density and pH rangedfrom 29,63-55,88%, 27-31,5 o C, 14,9-35,5%, 64,9-85,1%, 0,16-0,39 g/cm 3 and 3,63-4,00,respectively. The copiotrophic bacterial cell number ranged from 0,6x10 5 -1,8x10 5 CFU/gsoil where the highest population was at the palm oil plantation,whereas the oligotrophicbacterial cell number ranged from 0,5x10 5 -1,4x10 5 CFU/g soil where the highest populationwas at the palm oil plantation. The population of fungi ranged from 0,4x10 5 -1,0x10 5 CFU/gsoil where the highest population was at the corn field. The population of actinomycetesranged from 0,4x10 5 -10,7x10 5 CFU/g soil where the highest population was at the palm oilplantation. Land use changes caused microbial cell number increased. The results indicatedthat land use changes influenced the microbial cell numbers

Comparison of Nasopharyngeal MR, 18 F-FDG PET/CT, and 18 F-FDG PET/MR for Local Detection of Natural Killer/T-Cell Lymphoma, Nasal Type.

Objectives The present study aims to compare the diagnostic efficacy of MR, 18F-FDG PET/CT, and 18F-FDG PET/MR for the local detection of early-stage extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type (ENKTL). Patients and Methods Thirty-six patients with histologically proven early-stage ENKTL were enrolled from a phase 2 study (Cohort A). Eight nasopharyngeal anatomical regions from each patient were imaged using 18F-FDG PET/CT and MR. A further nine patients were prospectively enrolled from a multicenter, phase 3 study; these patients underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT and PET/MR after a single 18F-FDG injection (Cohort B). Region-based sensitivity and specificity were calculated. The standardized uptake values (SUV) obtained from PET/CT and PET/MR were compared, and the relationship between the SUV and apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC) of PET/MR were analyzed. Results In Cohort A, of the 288 anatomic regions, 86 demonstrated lymphoma involvement. All lesions were detected by 18F-FDG PET/CT, while only 70 were detected by MR. 18F-FDG PET/CT exhibited a higher sensitivity than MR (100% vs. 81.4%, χ2 = 17.641, P < 0.001) for local detection of malignancies. The specificity of 18F-FDG PET/CT and MR were 98.5 and 97.5%, respectively (χ2 = 0.510, P = 0.475). The accuracy of 18F-FDG PET/CT was 99.0% and the accuracy of MR was 92.7% (χ2 = 14.087, P < 0.001). In Cohort B, 72 anatomical regions were analyzed. PET/CT and PET/MR have a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 92.5%. The two methods were consistent (κ = 0.833, P < 0.001). There was a significant correlation between PET/MR SUVmax and PET/CT SUVmax (r = 0.711, P < 0.001), and SUVmean (r = 0.685, P < 0.001). No correlation was observed between the SUV and the ADC. Conclusion In early-stage ENKTL, nasopharyngeal MR showed a lower sensitivity and a similar specificity when compared with 18F-FDG PET/CT. PET/MR showed similar performance compared with PET/CT

Association Between Connectivity of Hippocampal Sub-Regions and Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in Schizophrenia

Background: Hippocampal dysconnectivity has been detected in schizophrenia patients with auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs). Neuroanatomical evidence has indicated distinct sub-regions in the hippocampus, but which sub-regions within the hippocampus may emerge dysfunction in the brain network, and the relationship between connection strength and the severity of this debilitating disorder have yet to be revealed. Masked independent component analysis (mICA), i.e., ICA restricted to a defined region of interest, can provide insight into observing local functional connectivity in a particular brain region. We aim to map out the sub-regions in the hippocampus with dysconnectivity linked to AVHs in schizophrenia.Methods: In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study of schizophrenia patients with (n = 57) and without (n = 83) AVHs, and 71 healthy controls, we first examined hippocampal connectivity using mICA, and then the correlation between connection metric and clinical severity was generated.Results: As compared with patients without AVHs, mICA showed a group of hyper-connections for the left middle part, as well as another group of hypo-connections for the bilateral antero-lateral and right antero-medial parts in patients with AVHs. Connectivity was linked to the clinical symptoms scores in the sample of patients with AVHs.Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that the left middle part is more densely connected, but the bilateral antero-lateral and right antero-medial parts are more sparsely connected in schizophrenia patients with AVHs. The findings in the present study show proof of precious location in the hippocampus mediating the neural mechanism behind AVHs in schizophrenia

Yersinia pseudotuberculosis Exploits CD209 Receptors for Promoting Host Dissemination and Infection

Yersinia pseudotuberculosis is a Gram-negative enteropathogen and causes gastrointestinal infections. It disseminates from gut to mesenteric lymph nodes (MLNs), spleen, and liver of infected humans and animals. Although the molecular mechanisms for dissemination and infection are unclear, many Gram-negative enteropathogens presumably invade the small intestine via Peyer's patches to initiate dissemination. In this study, we demonstrate that Y. pseudotuberculosis utilizes its lipopolysaccharide (LPS) core to interact with CD209 receptors, leading to invasion of human dendritic cells (DCs) and murine macrophages. These Y. pseudotuberculosis CD209 interactions result in bacterial dissemination to MLNs, spleens, and livers of both wild-type and Peyer's patch-deficient mice. The blocking of the Y. pseudotuberculosis CD209 interactions by expression of 0-antigen and with oligosaccharides reduces infectivity. Based on the well-documented studies in which HIV-CD209 interaction leads to viral dissemination, we therefore propose an infection route for Y. pseudotuberculosis where this pathogen, after penetrating the intestinal mucosal membrane, hijacks the Y. pseudotuberculosis CD209 interaction antigen-presenting cells to reach their target destinations, MLNs, spleens, and livers.Peer reviewe

Clonal evolution in liver cancer at single-cell and single-variant resolution.

Genetic heterogeneity of tumor is closely related to its clonal evolution, phenotypic diversity and treatment resistance, and such heterogeneity has only been characterized at single-cell sub-chromosomal scale in liver cancer. Here we reconstructed the single-variant resolution clonal evolution in human liver cancer based on single-cell mutational profiles. The results indicated that key genetic events occurred early during tumorigenesis, and an early metastasis followed by independent evolution was observed in primary liver tumor and intrahepatic metastatic portal vein tumor thrombus. By parallel single-cell RNA-Seq, the transcriptomic phenotype of HCC was found to be related with genetic heterogeneity. For the first time we reconstructed the single-cell and single-variant clonal evolution in human liver cancer, and dissection of both genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity will facilitate better understanding of their relationship

Search for gravitational-lensing signatures in the full third observing run of the LIGO-Virgo network

Gravitational lensing by massive objects along the line of sight to the source causes distortions of gravitational wave-signals; such distortions may reveal information about fundamental physics, cosmology and astrophysics. In this work, we have extended the search for lensing signatures to all binary black hole events from the third observing run of the LIGO--Virgo network. We search for repeated signals from strong lensing by 1) performing targeted searches for subthreshold signals, 2) calculating the degree of overlap amongst the intrinsic parameters and sky location of pairs of signals, 3) comparing the similarities of the spectrograms amongst pairs of signals, and 4) performing dual-signal Bayesian analysis that takes into account selection effects and astrophysical knowledge. We also search for distortions to the gravitational waveform caused by 1) frequency-independent phase shifts in strongly lensed images, and 2) frequency-dependent modulation of the amplitude and phase due to point masses. None of these searches yields significant evidence for lensing. Finally, we use the non-detection of gravitational-wave lensing to constrain the lensing rate based on the latest merger-rate estimates and the fraction of dark matter composed of compact objects