Wave forecasting dependent from bottom roughness: The case of the Marano and Grado Lagoon

Several forecasting curves have been developed in order to provide a useful estimation of the wind wave field generated on shallow depths. In particular, these equations can be successfully applied in confined and sheltered basins, such as lakes, or even lagoons and semi \u2013 enclosed estuarine in coastal environments. The important role of the bottom friction dissipation in the generation process has been deeply recognized, leading to a reformulation of the available curves in terms of the equivalent bed roughness. In the present study, the recent new set of equations is considered and applied to a coastal lagoon. The results in terms of significant wave height and peak period are compared to those derived from a complete numerical model and other previous curves. The performed application corroborates and further validate the forecasting equations

A complete morphodynamic study to face a river engineering issue

The last reach of the Tagliamento River, in North East Italy, is progressively changing its planimetric geometry, causing sediment deposition close to a port and preventing the regular navigation in that area. In the present paper, this river engineering issue has been addressed in a complete way, first investigating the cause which brought to the present situation, and then proposing a number of design solution to mitigate the problem. Some of them have been analyzed by means of a morphodynamic numerical model, reproducing the effects on the bottom height of an average year in terms of flow and tides. The results of each simulation are compared to those of the present situation, in order to underline any advantages of the proposed design solution

The tidal prism as a dynamic response of a nonlinear harmonic system

As known, the empirical relationship between the equilibrium cross-sectional area of a lagoon inlet and the tidal prism was intuited for the first time by LeConte ["Discussion on the paper, "Notes on the improvement of river and harbor outlets in the United States"by D. A. Watt,"Trans. ASCE 55, 306-308 (1905).] and then formalized by O'Brien ["Estuary tidal prism related to entrance areas,"Civ. Eng. 1(8), 738-739 (1931)]. This relationship requires knowledge of the tidal prism, which can be estimated either using the cubature method or the current data method [Jarrett, Tidal Prism-Inlet Area Relationships (Coastal Engineering Research Center, US Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Belvoir, VA, 1976)], both of which involve the execution of a number of experimental measurements. However, these methods, besides being very expensive, can only provide the prism value in the present condition and do not allow for predictions in the case of significant morphological changes, of both natural and anthropic origin, to the tidal inlet. On the other hand, the hydrodynamic relationship, which links the tidal prism to the product of the tidal range and the basin extension, can only give a coarse estimate of the prism, especially when the value of the tide outside the lagoon is considered. In this work, we propose a simple hydrodynamic relationship based on the dynamic response of a nonlinear harmonic system. This is a relationship that requires the calibration of a single physically based parameter. Through this relationship, knowing the geometric characteristics, the bottom friction of the inlet channel, the surface of the basin, and the tide amplitude in the open sea, it is possible to estimate the tidal prism. The application of this relationship to real cases shows a good agreement with the experimental data

THE POTENTIAL OF PHYSIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS USING ELECTROMYOGRAPHY IN THE DESIGN OF MOTORCYCLES

Two-wheel vehicle comfort is usually assessed by means of subjective scorings or by measuring physical quantities such as acceleration, sound pressure, etc. which do not depend on the human response. This study has chosen a different approach, which is to use electromyography for evaluating the levels of muscle activity. It focuses more specifically on comfort in relation to aerodynamic loads. The loads were simulated by a wind tunnel. ANOVA statistical analysis was used to establish the impact of aerodynamic loads and of various motorcycle models on muscle activity levels. The results showed that aerodynamic loads generally cause an increase of muscle activity, although their impact varies in relation to the design of the motorcycle: each model ofmotorcycle produces a specific distribution of activity levels among muscles. The methodology can be used for vehicle-design purposes as well as organising motorbike training programmes.Keywords: Motorcycle; Aerodynamic loads; SEM; Ergonomics; Comfor

Lipofection with Synthetic mRNA as a Simple Method for T-Cell Immunomonitoring.

The quantification of T-cell immune responses is crucial for the monitoring of natural and treatment-induced immunity, as well as for the validation of new immunotherapeutic approaches. The present study presents a simple method based on lipofection of synthetic mRNA in mononuclear cells as a method to determine in vitro T-cell responses. We compared several commercially available transfection reagents for their potential to transfect mRNA into human peripheral blood mononuclear cells and murine splenocytes. We also investigated the impact of RNA modifications in improving this method. Our results demonstrate that antigen-specific T-cell immunomonitoring can be easily and quickly performed by simple lipofection of antigen-coding mRNA in complex immune cell populations. Thus, our work discloses a convenient solution for the in vitro monitoring of natural or therapy-induced T-cell immune responses

Enhancement of antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity is associated with treatment response to extracorporeal photopheresis in Sézary syndrome.

Sézary syndrome (SS) is a rare, leukemic type of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL), for which extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) is a first-line therapy. Reliable biomarkers to objectively monitor the response to ECP in patients with SS are missing. We examined the quantitative and qualitative impact of ECP on natural killer (NK) cell activity in SS patients, and especially their functional ability for antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC). Further, we addressed the question whether the magnitude of the effect on ADCC can be associated with the anti-cancer efficacy of ECP in SS patients. We assessed numbers of NK cells, ADCC activity, and treatment response based on blood tumor staging in a cohort of 13 SS patients (8 women, 5 men) treated with ECP as a first-line therapy. Blood samples were collected before treatment start and after an average of 9 months of uninterrupted ECP treatment. NK cell numbers were reduced in SS patients compared to healthy individuals and showed a tendency of recovery after long-term ECP treatment, independent of the clinical response to treatment. Patients with marginal increase (≤1.5 AU-fold) or lack of increase in ADCC activity failed to respond clinically to treatment, while patients with an increased ADCC activity showed a reduction in blood tumor burden. NK-mediated ADCC is selectively enhanced and might be a mechanism underlying the effect of ECP while in addition it can possibly serve as a reliable biomarker to objectively monitor response to ECP in patients with SS

Fluorescent RT in situ PCR detection of MRP1 mRNA in human HCV infected liver.

Chronic hepatitis C is now a major cause of chronic liver disease, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Approximately 20% of cases of acute viral hepatitis are due to hepatitis C. Cirrhosis develops in more than 25% of patients with chronic infection and each year hepatocellular carcinoma occurs in 1-3% of patients with cirrhosis due to HCV (Hoofnagle 1999). Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma are characterized by nonresponsiveness to chemotherapeutic agents. A cause of refractivity to treatment has been ascribed to the overexpression of the Pgp (MDR) protein (Kim et al. 1999), and the additional involvement of multidrug resistance-associated proteins (MRPs) has been also hypothesized (Minemura et al. 1999)