Behavior of Nailed Steep Slopes in Laboratory Shake Table Tests

This paper presents results of laboratory shake table tests performed to study the dynamic behavior of nailed steep slopes. The surface displacements, settlement of the crest and the acceleration responses along with the behavior of the facing wall are examined during the tests. Two 18 cm high 60° and 70° steep soil slopes reinforced with nine hollow aluminum nails placed in three rows are considered. Three strain gauges are glued to each nail to measure the tensile force developed in the nails. Four strain gauges are fixed at the center of the facing wall to measure the development of strains during shaking. The acceleration responses at the base and crest of the model slopes are monitored during the tests. The results clearly demonstrate advantage of a nailed slope over unreinforced slope. The failure surfaces observed in the shaking table tests are shallow and of rotational type. The nails oriented in horizontal direction are found to be more efficient. The nail forces and amplification of motion increase with the increase in slope angle and slope height. The amplitude of acceleration toward the outward slope direction is found to be larger than that toward the inward direction in all laboratory shaking tables tests

Emergence of a quasi-ergodic steady state in a dissipative Tavis-Cummings array

In an atom-photon interacting system described by Tavis Cummings Hubbard (TCH) model, we demonstrate the emergence of a quasi-steady state in a dissipative environment that exhibits intriguing ergodic behavior. The TCH model undergoes a dissipative transition from normal to superradiant phase hosting a gapped Higgs and gapless Goldstone modes. However, in a large region of the phase diagram, the instability of the Goldstone mode leads to the disappearance of the stable superradiant phase. In this regime, the decorrelator dynamics reveals light cone spreading of the perturbations and positive Lyapunov exponent, indicating enhanced fluctuations. Remarkably, a quasi-steady state emerges under quench dynamics in this unstable regime; in this state, a class of collective quantities such as site averaged photon number and atomic excitations approach a steady value, in spite of large temporal fluctuations in corresponding microscopic variables. This quasi-steady state describes an incoherent fluid of photons with significant phase fluctuation. The phase space dynamics reveals a fascinating ergodic behavior in presence of dissipation, leading to the characterization of the dynamical variables into two distinct classes. The first class includes site-averaged photon numbers and atomic excitations; these exhibit a stationary distribution regardless of the initial condition indicating ergodic behavior. The second class of variables, particularly those related to phase in contrast, retain information about the initial conditions, resulting in a violation of ergodicity for finite size system. Additionally, the dynamical variables of the ergodic class exhibit fascinating collective scarring phenomenon as the peak of their distribution is attracted towards the unstable steady state, analogous to the single particle quantum scar. We discuss the relevance of our findings in the current experiments

Physiology: Morphological characteristics of preimplantation stage endometrium in the rhesus monkey

The morphological characteristics of endometrium on day 6 after ovulation of conception (group 1) and non-fecund, menstrual (group 2) cycles have been studied in the rhesus monkey (n = 30). A conception cycle was distinguished by the presence of a developmentally normal, age—stage-synchronized embryo. Thus, 78% of the mated cycles (n = 18) yielding synchronous embryos (12 zona-encased and two zona-free blastocysts) were used for this study. On day 6 after ovulation, no significant changes in the serum concentrations of oestrogen and progesterone were seen in conception cycles (n = 14) compared with the non-mated, normal ovulatory cycles (n = 12). Morphometric analyses revealed that on day 6 of gestation (n = 8), endometrium differed from the corresponding non-mated luteal phase (n = 7) with significant increases in epithelial mitosis (P < 0.01), height of glandular epithelium (P < 0.05), volume ratio of gland cell to gland (P < 0.03), degree of pseudostratification (P < 0.02), and higher frequency of supranuclear, adluminal accumulation of vacuoles in gland cells (P < 0.05). The degree of stromal oedema was higher (P < 0.02) in fecund cycles but there was no change in venular diameter. In a separate set of experiments, estimates of tissue vascular response revealed a higher (P < 0.02) endometrial extravascular albumin space on the same day of gestation; there were no differences, however, in endometrial blood volume, or in the number of von Willebrand antigen-positive capillaries and small vessels between the two groups (group 1, n = 6; group 2, n = 5). The overall results of the present study together with our earlier reports support the hypothesis that differential changes occur in luteal phase endometrium functionalis in the presence of preimplantation stage blastocyst in the rhesus monke

Primary Metabolism of Chickpea Is the Initial Target of Wound Inducing Early Sensed Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri Race I

BACKGROUND: Biotrophic interaction between host and pathogen induces generation of reactive oxygen species that leads to programmed cell death of the host tissue specifically encompassing the site of infection conferring resistance to the host. However, in the present study, biotrophic relationship between Fusarium oxysporum and chickpea provided some novel insights into the classical concepts of defense signaling and disease perception where ROS (reactive oxygen species) generation followed by hypersensitive responses determined the magnitude of susceptibility or resistant potentiality of the host. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Microscopic observations detected wound mediated in planta pathogenic establishment and its gradual progression within the host vascular tissue. cDNA-AFLP showed differential expression of many defense responsive elements. Real time expression profiling also validated the early recognition of the wound inducing pathogen by the host. The interplay between fungus and host activated changes in primary metabolism, which generated defense signals in the form of sugar molecules for combating pathogenic encounter. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The present study showed the limitations of hypersensitive response mediated resistance, especially when foreign encounters involved the food production as well as the translocation machinery of the host. It was also predicted from the obtained results that hypersensitivity and active species generation failed to impart host defense in compatible interaction between chickpea and Fusarium. On the contrary, the defense related gene(s) played a critical role in conferring natural resistance to the resistant host. Thus, this study suggests that natural selection is the decisive factor for selecting and segregating out the suitable type of defense mechanism to be undertaken by the host without disturbing its normal metabolism, which could deviate from the known classical defense mechanisms

Comparative Study Between Combined Spinal Epidural Analgesia (CSEA) and Pre-Emptive Multimodal Analgesia for Pain Control in Joint Replacement Surgeries of Lower Limbs

Background and aims: Epidural analgesia has been considerably used for postoperative analgesia in Orthopaedic surgeries, however, combination of opioid and non-opioid medications in the perioperative period seems to provide an effective alternative. Objectives: To compare the efficacy of pre-emptive multimodal analgesia with combined spinal epidural for postoperative analgesia in lower limb arthroplasties. Materials and methods: 50 patients scheduled for elective lower limb Arthroplasties were randomly divided into two groups. Spinal anaesthesia with 2.5ml of 0.5% Bupivacaine (heavy) plus 0.5ml (25µg) Fentanyl was given in both the groups for procedure. Group I received Cap. Pregabalin 150mg and Inj Paracetamol 1000mg IV 1 hour before surgery and 75mg 12 hourly and 1000mg IV 8 hourly respectively, while Group II received epidural top up with 10 ml of 0.125% bupivacaine 8 hourly, both for 3 days postoperatively. Perioperative haemodynamics, postoperative VAS, rescue analgesics requirement, and Patient satisfaction level were monitored for 72 hours. Results: Postoperative VAS score was significantly higher in Group II from 4th hour postoperatively, and, accordingly, more patients in this group required rescue analgesia (21 and 20 in Group II vs 10 and 1 in group I in 12-24 hrs and 24-36 hrs respectively with p value <0.001). Modified Bromage score, haemodynamics and side effect profiles were comparable in the groups, however, patient satisfaction level was more in Group I (p value <0.001) after 72 hours. Conclusion: Pre-emptive multimodal analgesia can be used as an effective alternative to epidural for postoperative analgesia in patients undergoing lower limb joint replacement surgeries. Keywords: Pre-emptive multimodal analgesia, Combined spinal epidural analgesia, Lower limb arthroplasties, Postoperative analgesi