1,037 research outputs found
Comprehensive flood mitigation and management in the Chi River Basin, Thailand
Severe flooding of the flat downstream area of the Chi River Basin occurs frequently. This flooding is causing catastrophic loss of human lives, damage and economic loss. Effective flood management requires a broad and practical approach. Although flood disasters cannot completely be prevented, major part of potential loss of lives and damages can be reduced by comprehensive mitigation measures. In this paper, the effects of river normalisation, reservoir operation, green river (bypass), and retention have been analysed by using integrated hydrologic and hydraulic modelling. Every tributary has been simulated by a process-based hydrological model (SWAT) coupled with the 1D/2D SOBEK river routing model. Model simulation results under the design rainfall event, i.e. flood depth, flood extent, and damages for the situation with and without flood mitigation measures have been compared and evaluated to determine an optimal set of mitigation measures. The results reveal that a combination of river normalisation, reservoir operation, and green river (bypass) is most effective as it can decrease the extent of the 100-year flood event by approximately 24% and 31% for the economic damage. The results of this study will be useful for improving the present flood defence practice in the Chi River Basi
Heme oxygenase-1 as a modulator of intestinal inflammation development and progression
Indexación: Scopus.Heme Oxygenase 1 (HMOX1) is an enzyme that catalyzes the reaction that degrades the heme group contained in several important proteins, such as hemoglobin, myoglobin, and cytochrome p450. The enzymatic reaction catalyzed by HMOX1 generates Fe2+, biliverdin and CO. It has been shown that HMOX1 activity and the by-product CO can downmodulate the damaging immune response in several models of intestinal inflammation as a result of pharmacological induction of HMOX1 expression and the administration of non-toxic amounts of CO. Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, which includes Crohn's Disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC), are one of the most studied ailments associated to HMOX1 effects. However, microbiota imbalances and infections are also important factors influencing the occurrence of acute and chronic intestinal inflammation, where HMOX1 activity may play a major role. As part of this article we discuss the immune modulatory capacity of HMOX1 during IBD, as well during the infections and interactions with the microbiota that contribute to this inflammatory disease. © 2018 Sebastián, Salazar, Coronado-Arrázola, Schultz, Vallejos, Berkowitz, álvarez-Lobos, Riedel, Kalergis and Bueno.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2018.01956/ful
Species of Eurydice (Isopoda, Flabellifera) from southern Brazil
This paper reports species of Eurydice (Isopoda, Flabellifera) occurring on the continental shelf of southern Brazil, from lat. 22º00'S. Three species are recorded. E. littoralis (Moore, 1902), is a new occurrence from Brazil. Detailed illustrations and new morphologi cal data are furnished for this species hitherto inadequately described. E. elongata sp. n. and E. emarginata sp. n., are new to science. The flagellar process on the antenna 2, reported in three species of Eurydice, seems to be an exclusively male characteristic, and probably it will also occur in the males of most of the already described species. Genus and species diagnosis are provided, together with a classification key for all species recorded up to date from southern Brazil. All available distributional and ecological infor mation completes the account of each species.No presente trabalho faz-se um levantamento das especies do gênero Eurydice (Isopoda, Flabellifera) ocorrendo na plataforma continental centrosul do Brasil, a partir da Lat. 22º00'S. Tres espécies são assinaladas para a região: E. littoralis (Moore, 1902), E. elongata sp. n. e E. emarginata sp.n. Novos dados morfológicos e detalhadas ilustrações são apresentadas para a espécie E. littoralis. O processo flagelar da antena 2, observado em três espécies de Eurydice, parece constituir uma característica exclusiva dos machos, donde se pressupõe possa também ser encontrado em outros machos de espécies já descritas. São fornecidas diagnoses para o gênero e espécie, assim como urna chave de classificação para todas as espécies tratadas. Tanto quanto possível, observações ecológicas completam a descrição das espécies
A microscopic model for d-wave charge carrier pairing and non-Fermi-liquid behavior in a purely repulsive 2D electron system
We investigate a microscopic model for strongly correlated electrons with
both on-site and nearest neighbor Coulomb repulsion on a 2D square lattice.
This exhibits a state in which electrons undergo a ``somersault'' in their
internal spin-space (spin-flux) as they traverse a closed loop in external
coordinate space. When this spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic (AFM) insulator is
doped, the ground state is a liquid of charged, bosonic meron-vortices, which
for topological reasons are created in vortex-antivortex pairs. The magnetic
exchange energy of the distorted AFM background leads to a logarithmic
vortex-antivortex attraction which overcomes the direct Coulomb repulsion
between holes localized on the vortex cores. This leads to the appearance of
pre-formed charged pairs. We use the Configuration Interaction (CI) Method to
study the quantum translational and rotational motion of various charged
magnetic solitons and soliton pairs. The CI method systematically describes
fluctuation and quantum tunneling corrections to the Hartree-Fock Approximation
(HFA). We find that the lowest energy charged meron-antimeron pairs exhibit
d-wave rotational symmetry, consistent with the symmetry of the cuprate
superconducting order parameter. For a single hole in the 2D AFM plane, we find
a precursor to spin-charge separation in which a conventional charged
spin-polaron dissociates into a singly charged meron-antimeron pair. This model
provides a unified microscopic basis for (i) non-Fermi-liquid transport
properties, (ii) d-wave preformed charged carrier pairs, (iii) mid-infrared
optical absorption, (iv) destruction of AFM long range order with doping and
other magnetic properties, and (v) certain aspects of angled resolved
photo-emission spectroscopy (ARPES).Comment: 14 pages, 17 figure
Health behaviours of Australian men and the likelihood of attending a dedicated men's health service
Background: Redesigning primary health services may enhance timely and effective uptake by men. The primary aim of this study was to assess the likelihood of Australian men attending a dedicated men's health service (DMHS). The further aims were to better understand the reasons for their preferences and determine how health behaviours influence likelihood. Methods: A survey on health service use and preferences, health help-seeking behaviours, and the likelihood of attending a DMHS was administered by telephone to 1506 randomly selected men (median age 56 years, range 19-95). Likelihood of attending a DMHS was rated using a single item Likert scale where 0 was not at all likely and 10 highly likely. Respondents were classified by age ( = 65 years) and health status. Principal component analyses were used to define health behaviours, specifically help-seeking and delay/avoidance regarding visiting a doctor. Multivariable linear and logistic regression analyses were used to examine predictors of likelihood of attending a DMHS. Results: The mean likelihood of attending a DMHS was 5.8 (SD 3.3, median 6, moderate likelihood) and 21%, 26% and 23% of men rated likelihood as moderate, high and very high respectively. Being happy with their existing doctor was the most common reason (52%) for being less likely to attend a DMHS. In unadjusted analyses, younger men reported being more likely to attend a DMHS (p < 0.001) with older-sick men reporting being least likely (p < 0.001). Younger men were more likely than older men to score higher on delay/avoidance and were more likely to self-monitor. In the full model, men with current health concerns (p ≤ 0.01), who scored higher on delay/avoidance (p ≤ 0.0006), who were more likely to be information-seekers (p < 0.0001) and/or were motivated to change their health (p ≤ 0.0001) reported a higher likelihood of attending a DMHS irrespective of age and health status. Conclusions: Seventy percent of men reported a moderate or higher likelihood of attending a DMHS. As young healthy men are more likely than older men to display health behaviours that are associated with a higher likelihood of attending a DHMS, such as delay/avoidance, marketing a DMHS to such men may be of value.Andrew D. Vincent, Phoebe G. Drioli-Phillips, Jana Le, Lynette Cusack, Timothy J. Schultz, Margaret A. McGee, Deborah A. Turnbull, and Gary A. Witter
A numerical study of multi-soliton configurations in a doped antiferromagnetic Mott insulator
We evaluate from first principles the self-consistent Hartree-Fock energies
for multi-soliton configurations in a doped, spin-1/2, antiferromagnetic Mott
insulator on a two-dimensional square lattice. We find that nearest-neighbor
Coulomb repulsion stabilizes a regime of charged meron-antimeron vortex soliton
pairs over a region of doping from 0.05 to 0.4 holes per site for intermediate
coupling 3 < U/t <8. This stabilization is mediated through the generation of
``spin-flux'' in the mean-field antiferromagnetic (AFM) background. Holes
cloaked by a meron-vortex in the spin-flux AFM background are charged bosons.
Our static Hartree-Fock calculations provide an upper bound on the energy of a
finite density of charged vortices. This upper bound is lower than the energy
of the corresponding charged stripe configurations. A finite density of charge
carrying vortices is shown to produce a large number of unoccupied electronic
levels in the Mott-Hubbard charge transfer gap. These levels lead to
significant band tailing and a broad mid-infrared band in the optical
absorption spectrum as observed experimentally. At very low doping (below 0.05)
the doping charges create extremely tightly bound meron-antimeron pairs or even
isolated conventional spin-polarons, whereas for very high doping (above 0.4)
the spin background itself becomes unstable to formation of a conventional
Fermi liquid and the spin-flux mean-field is energetically unfavorable. Our
results point to the predominance of a quantum liquid of charged, bosonic,
vortex solitons at intermediate coupling and intermediate doping
concentrations.Comment: 12 pages, 25 figures; added references, modified/eliminated some
figure
Onset of magnetism in B2 transition metals aluminides
Ab initio calculation results for the electronic structure of disordered bcc
Fe(x)Al(1-x) (0.4<x<0.75), Co(x)Al(1-x) and Ni(x)Al(1-x) (x=0.4; 0.5; 0.6)
alloys near the 1:1 stoichiometry, as well as of the ordered B2 (FeAl, CoAl,
NiAl) phases with point defects are presented. The calculations were performed
using the coherent potential approximation within the Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker
method (KKR-CPA) for the disordered case and the tight-binding linear
muffin-tin orbital (TB-LMTO) method for the intermetallic compounds. We studied
in particular the onset of magnetism in Fe-Al and Co-Al systems as a function
of the defect structure. We found the appearance of large local magnetic
moments associated with the transition metal (TM) antisite defect in FeAl and
CoAl compounds, in agreement with the experimental findings. Moreover, we found
that any vacancies on both sublattices enhance the magnetic moments via
reducing the charge transfer to a TM atom. Disordered Fe-Al alloys are
ferromagnetically ordered for the whole range of composition studied, whereas
Co-Al becomes magnetic only for Co concentration >0.5.Comment: 11 pages with 9 embedded postscript figures, to be published in
Phys.Rev.
Density Matrix Renormalisation Group Approach to the Massive Schwinger Model
The massive Schwinger model is studied, using a density matrix
renormalisation group approach to the staggered lattice Hamiltonian version of
the model. Lattice sizes up to 256 sites are calculated, and the estimates in
the continuum limit are almost two orders of magnitude more accurate than
previous calculations. Coleman's picture of `half-asymptotic' particles at
background field theta = pi is confirmed. The predicted phase transition at
finite fermion mass (m/g) is accurately located, and demonstrated to belong in
the 2D Ising universality class.Comment: 38 pages, 18 figures, submitted to PR
Laser based series interconnection of chalcopyrite und perovskite solar cells Analysis of material modifications and implications for achieving small dead area widths
Both nanosecond pulses and picosecond laser pulses are used for P2 patterning of chalcopyrite Cu In,Ga Se2, CIGSe and metal halide perovskite solar cell absorber layers. For CIGSe, the range of the modified material visualized by photoluminescence imaging is significantly wider than the actual physical linewidth, since energy input by the laser pulses leads to material modification in the vicinity of the scribed lines. This effect does not occur with the perovskite absorber layers, where there is no apparent influence on the edge regions. From numerical calculations of the temperature depth profiles and the surface temperature distributions it is concluded that this effect is due to the significantly lower perovskite absorber layer thickness compared to CIGSe and the nevertheless significantly higher laser fluence required for perovskite ablation. The unaffected edge regions around the P2 line in the perovskite enabled a reduction of the dead area width in the fabrication of 3 segmented mini modules, which could be significantly reduced from 430 to 230 m, while increasing the aperture area power conversion efficiency and also the geometric fill factor, which could be increased up to 94.
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