ANALYSIS OF LOW-LEVEL JETS ASSOCIATED WITH IOP 2B CASE

The different methods of the numerical analysis of the small-scale features observed during MAP IOP cases are compared. The products from the MAP ECMWF Re-analysis are compared with the other analysis products. The properties of downscaling of MAP ECMWF Re-analysis to the meso-beta resolution are examined. The “blending initialisation method” developed under the ALADIN Project is applied as the initialisation technique. MAP IOP2 case has declared as the most intensive and complex event during MAP IOP period. The strong south flow intrusion into the Rhone valley on 20 September 1999 at 00 UTC has been measured by Lyon radiosonde. The tests describe how the analysis of low-level jet has been improved by the “blending initialisation method”

ANALYSIS OF LOW-LEVEL JETS ASSOCIATED WITH IOP 2B CASE

The different methods of the numerical analysis of the small-scale features observed during MAP IOP cases are compared. The products from the MAP ECMWF Re-analysis are compared with the other analysis products. The properties of downscaling of MAP ECMWF Re-analysis to the meso-beta resolution are examined. The “blending initialisation method” developed under the ALADIN Project is applied as the initialisation technique. MAP IOP2 case has declared as the most intensive and complex event during MAP IOP period. The strong south flow intrusion into the Rhone valley on 20 September 1999 at 00 UTC has been measured by Lyon radiosonde. The tests describe how the analysis of low-level jet has been improved by the “blending initialisation method”

Influence of activating fluxes on metallurgical characterizations in welding process for steels - a review

Activating fluxes can be used in welding processes like gas metal arc welding (GMAW) or tungsten inert gas welding (TIG) to improve the welding outcomes, as they can affect mechanical properties and microstructure as well as weld bead geometry, depth of penetration, shielding gas behavior, etc. The application of activating fluxes was researched on a wide range of welding materials like iron, magnesium, aluminum, or titanium alloys. This paper offers a summarized review of the effects of activating fluxes on the metallurgical properties of ferrous materials, presenting the influence of activating fluxes on the increase of ferrite content, phase transformation, and grain size

Influence of activating fluxes on metallurgical characterizations in welding process for steels - a review

Activating fluxes can be used in welding processes like gas metal arc welding (GMAW) or tungsten inert gas welding (TIG) to improve the welding outcomes, as they can affect mechanical properties and microstructure as well as weld bead geometry, depth of penetration, shielding gas behavior, etc. The application of activating fluxes was researched on a wide range of welding materials like iron, magnesium, aluminum, or titanium alloys. This paper offers a summarized review of the effects of activating fluxes on the metallurgical properties of ferrous materials, presenting the influence of activating fluxes on the increase of ferrite content, phase transformation, and grain size

The role of the neuroprotective factor Npas4 in cerebral ischemia

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and adult disability in the world. Although many molecules have been documented to have a neuroprotective effect, the majority of these molecules failed to improve the neurological outcomes for patients with brain ischemia. It has been proposed that neuroprotection alone may, in fact, not be adequate for improving the prognosis of ischemic stroke. Neuroprotectants that can regulate other processes which occur in the brain during ischemia could potentially be targets for the development of effective therapeutic interventions in stroke. Neuronal Per-Arnt-Sim domain protein 4 (Npas4) is an activity-dependent transcription factor whose expression is induced in various brain insults, including cerebral ischemia. It has been shown that Npas4 plays an important role in protecting neurons against many types of neurodegenerative insult. Recently, it was demonstrated that Npas4 indeed has a neuroprotective role in ischemic stroke and that Npas4 might be involved in modulating the cell death pathway and inflammatory response. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge of the roles that Npas4 may play in neuroinflammation and ischemia. Understanding how ischemic lesion size in stroke may be reduced through modulation of Npas4-dependent apoptotic and inflammatory pathways could lead to the development of new stroke therapies.Fong Chan Choy, Thomas S. Klari, Simon A. Koblar and Martin D. Lewi

Određivanje aflatoksina, okratoksina A, fumonizina i zearalenona u žitaricama i krmivu primjenom kompetetivnoga direktnog imunoenzimatskog testa (CD-ELISA) i tankoslojne kromatografije (TLC)

Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Fusarium species frequently contaminate crops. For this reason mycotoxins such as afl atoxins (AFs), ochratoxin A (OTA), fumonisins (FBs), and zearalenone (ZEA) are found in food and feed in a wide range of concentrations, depending on environmental and storage conditions. Consumption of mycotoxin-contaminated food and feed has been associated with acute and chronic poisoning and carcinoma. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence and co-occurrence of AFs (B1+B2+G1+G2), OTA, FBs (B1+B2+B3), and ZEA in 37 samples of cereals and feed randomly collected in 2007 from households of an endemic nephropathy (EN) area in Croatia. The mycotoxins were determined using the competitive direct ELISA test (CD-ELISA) in combination with thin-layer chromatography (TLC). The most frequent mycotoxin was ZEA (92 %, mean 318.3 μg kg-1), followed by FBs (27 %, 3690 μg kg-1), AFs (24.3 %, 4.6 μg kg-1), and OTA (16.2 %, 9.8 μg kg-1). Levels of AFs, ZEA, and FBs detected by CD-ELISA signifi cantly correlated with the TLC results. However, only one OTA-positive sample was confi rmed by TLC due to its high limit of detection. The levels of these mycotoxins were below the permissible limit for animal feed. Twenty-nine percent of cereals were contaminated with FBs, OTA, or ZEA in mass fractions above the permissible limit for humans. Co-occurrence of two toxins varied between 4.2 % and 54 % and of three between 4.2 % and 7.6 %. Prolonged co-exposure to AFs, OTA, FBs, and ZEA might increase the risk of various chronic diseases.Vrste plijesni iz rodova Aspergillus, Penicillium i Fusarium česti su kontaminanti usjeva te na takvim supstratima tvore mikotoksine. Stoga su žitarice i krmiva često kontaminirana afl atoksinima (AFs), okratoksinom A (OTA), fumonizinima (FBs) i zearalenonom (ZEA) u različitim koncentracijama ovisno o mikroklimatskim uvjetima na polju i u skladištu. Konzumiranje hrane kontaminirane mikotoksinima često je povezano s akutnim ili kroničnim trovanjima, ali i s razvojem karcinoma. Cilj ovog rada bio je odrediti istodobnu pojavnost AFs (B1+B2+G1+G2), OTA, FBs (B1+B2+B3) i ZEA u uzorcima žitarica i krme (N=37) koji su nasumično skupljeni u individualnim domaćinstvima na području endemske nefropatije (EN) u Hrvatskoj (2007). Za određivanje navedenih mikotoksina korišten je kompetitivni direktni ELISA-test (CD-ELISA) u kombinaciji s tankoslojnom kromatografi jom (TLC). Najzastupljeniji mikotoksin bio je ZEA (92 %, srednja koncentracija 318.3 μg kg-1), nakon čega slijede FBs (27 %, 3690 μg kg-1), AFs (24.3 %, 4.6 μg kg-1) te OTA (16.2 %, 9.8 μg kg-1). Koncentracije AFs, FBs i ZEA određene CD-ELISA-testom statistički značajno koreliraju s rezultatima dobivenim s TLC. OTA je potvrđen metodom TLC samo u jednom uzorku zbog visokog limita detekcije. Dokazane koncentracije su ispod razina dopuštenih za krmiva, dok je 29 % uzoraka žitarica sadržavalo FBs, OTA ili ZEA u koncentracijama iznad dopuštenih u hrani za ljude. Kokontaminacija s dvama odnosno trima toksinima varirala je između 4.2 % i 54 % odnosno između 4.2 % i 7.6 %. Dugotrajni unos AFs, OTA, FBs i ZEA putem hrane može povećati rizik od razvoja različitih kroničnih bolesti zbog njihova mogućega sinergističkog djelovanja

Integrating omics datasets with the OmicsPLS package

Background With the exponential growth in available biomedical data, there is a need for data integration methods that can extract information about relationships between the data sets. However, these data sets might have very different characteristics. For interpretable results, data-specific variation needs to be quantified. For this task, Two-way Orthogonal Partial Least Squares (O2PLS) has been proposed. To facilitate application and development of the methodology, free and open-source software is required. However, this is not the case with O2PLS. Results We introduce OmicsPLS, an open-source implementation of the O2PLS method in R. It can handle both low- and high-dimensional datasets efficiently. Generic methods for inspecting and visualizing results are implemented. Both a standard and faster alternative cross-validation methods are available to determine the number of components. A simulation study shows good performance of OmicsPLS compared to alternatives, in terms of accuracy and CPU runtime. We demonstrate OmicsPLS by integrating genetic and glycomic data. Conclusions We propose the OmicsPLS R package: a free and open-source implementation of O2PLS for statistical data integration. OmicsPLS is available at https://cran.r-project.org/package=OmicsPLS and can be installed in R via install.packages(“OmicsPLS”)