Hydraulic analysis of a mangrove planting zone for mitigation of typhoon-induced coastal erosion

Fully-grown mangroves provide natural protection to the coasts against waves and currents and stabilize the shorelines. However, young mangrove saplings transplanted onto coastal areas often die when immediately exposed to the natural wave environment. To increase the survival rate of mangrove transplants, engineering solutions are incorporated into traditional mangrove rehabilitation program. This study involves the analysis of the wave loading on protective structures for a typhoon-frequented coastal mangrove area, which is the pilot site for a planting zone of a community-engaged mangrove rehabilitation program. Engineering design and implementation of the solution are also discussed

High wave hazards on a seawall infrastructure along typhoon-frequented Manila bay

Manila Bay is an important host of several physical infrastructures of Metro Manila. During recent strong typhoons, the Roxas Boulevard seawall has been damaged and overtopped by huge waves from Manila Bay. The economic and other costs of the damage have been attributed to the inundation of the road and other infrastructures due to the overtopped seawall. In order to find suitable engineering interventions, it is important to understand and quantify the waves and water levels that may be induced near the seawall by offshore meteorological conditions. Initial results synthesized from the application of a nonlinear wave model are discussed in this paper based on available data of water levels and met-ocean forcing. The simulations indicate the critical importance of historical storm surge values and offshore wave approach conditions in determining the overtopping potential of waves on the seawall. Proposed mitigating solutions are also discussed

Bethe Ansatz solution for quantum spin-1 chains with boundary terms

The procedure for obtaining integrable open spin chain Hamiltonians via reflection matrices is explicitly carried out for some three-state vertex models. We have considered the 19-vertex models of Zamolodchikov-Fateev and Izergin-Korepin, and the $Z_{2}$-graded 19-vertex models with $sl(2|1)$ and $osp(1|2)$ invariances. In each case the eigenspectrum is determined by application of the coordinate Bethe Ansatz.Comment: 24 pages, LaTex, some misprints remove

Effet de la nutrition minérale sur l'incidence des "lixas" Sphaerodothis torrendiella et Sphaerodothis acrocomiae chez le cocotier Cocos nucifera L.

Les observations ont été réalisées pendant deux ans dans l'essai de nutrition minérale installé en 1984 dans le "municipio de Santa Luzia do Itanhy" - Sergipe, Brésil - pour déterminer l'effet de N, P, K, Mg sur l'incidence chez le cocotier Cocos nucifera des "lixas" petite et grande causées respectivement par Sphaerodothis torrendiella et S. acrocomiae. Un dispositif factoriel 2 exp. 4 a été utilisé avec et sans apport des nutriments de référence. Les évaluations du développement végétatif et de l'incidence des maladies ont été faites en comptant le nombre de feuilles émises, celui de feuilles vivantes, la circonférence du collet (cm) et le nombre de stromas de champignons sur six folioles de la feuille 7 la première année et de la feuille 10 la deuxième année. Les résultats obtenus démontrent que les éléments phosphore et potassium produisent des effets sur le développement végétatif des plants. La présence de N et/ou de P a induit une incidence moindre des "lixas", bien que cet effet n'ait été significatif qu'avec N sur la grande incidence de la maladie la première année. On a également noté une plus grande incidence sur la maladie la première année en présence de K, contrairement aux informations sur l'effet de cet élément sur d'autres maladies foliaires du cocotie

Search for the Rare Decay KL --> pi0 ee

The KTeV/E799 experiment at Fermilab has searched for the rare kaon decay KL--> pi0ee. This mode is expected to have a significant CP violating component. The measurement of its branching ratio could support the Standard Model or could indicate the existence of new physics. This letter reports new results from the 1999-2000 data set. One event is observed with an expected background at 0.99 +/- 0.35 events. We set a limit on the branching ratio of 3.5 x 10^(-10) at the 90% confidence level. Combining the results with the dataset taken in 1997 yields the final KTeV result: BR(KL --> pi0 ee) < 2.8 x 10^(-10) at 90% CL.Comment: 4 pages, three figure

Transmission of mitochondrial DNA following assisted reproduction and nuclear transfer

Review of the articleMitochondria are the organelles responsible for producing the majority of a cell's ATP and also play an essential role in gamete maturation and embryo development. ATP production within the mitochondria is dependent on proteins encoded by both the nuclear and the mitochondrial genomes, therefore co-ordination between the two genomes is vital for cell survival. To assist with this co-ordination, cells normally contain only one type of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) termed homoplasmy. Occasionally, however, two or more types of mtDNA are present termed heteroplasmy. This can result from a combination of mutant and wild-type mtDNA molecules or from a combination of wild-type mtDNA variants. As heteroplasmy can result in mitochondrial disease, various mechanisms exist in the natural fertilization process to ensure the maternal-only transmission of mtDNA and the maintenance of homoplasmy in future generations. However, there is now an increasing use of invasive oocyte reconstruction protocols, which tend to bypass mechanisms for the maintenance of homoplasmy, potentially resulting in the transmission of either form of mtDNA heteroplasmy. Indeed, heteroplasmy caused by combinations of wild-type variants has been reported following cytoplasmic transfer (CT) in the human and following nuclear transfer (NT) in various animal species. Other techniques, such as germinal vesicle transfer and pronuclei transfer, have been proposed as methods of preventing transmission of mitochondrial diseases to future generations. However, resulting embryos and offspring may contain mtDNA heteroplasmy, which itself could result in mitochondrial disease. It is therefore essential that uniparental transmission of mtDNA is ensured before these techniques are used therapeutically

An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics

For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types