Detailed Investigation of Glass Balustrade in Kashirskaya Shopping Mall Project

Glass balustrade construction, envisaged for architectural considerations, was utilised in Kashirskaya shopping center in Moscow, Russia. Modifications were required in the manufacturer's design, to be further verified by full scale tests, on the most used largest sized panels. 3-D finite element computer model of glass balustrades and connection members were formed and ultimate capacity and service limit calculations were made according to the related regulations. Results were compared with the experiments carried out on full-scale glass balustrades tested at METU Structural Mechanics Laboratory

DNA Repair Gene Polymorphism and the Risk of Mitral Chordae Tendineae Rupture

Polymorphisms in Lys939Gln XPC gene may diminish DNA repair capacity, eventually increasing the risk of carcinogenesis. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the significance of polymorphism Lys939Gln in XPC gene in patients with mitral chordae tendinea rupture (MCTR). Twenty-one patients with MCTR and thirty-seven age and sex matched controls were enrolled in the study. Genotyping of XPC gene Lys939Gln polymorphism was carried out using polymerase chain reaction-(PCR-) restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). The frequencies of the heterozygote genotype (Lys/Gln-AC) and homozygote genotype (Gln/Gln-CC) were significantly different in MCTR as compared to control group, respectively (52.4% versus 43.2%, = 0.049; 38.15% versus 16.2%, = 0.018). Homozygote variant (Gln/Gln) genotype was significantly associated with increased risk of MCTR (OR = 2.059; 95% CI: 1.097-3.863; = 0.018). Heterozygote variant (Lys/Gln) genotype was also highly significantly associated with increased risk of MCTR (OR = 1.489; 95% CI: 1.041-2.129; = 0.049). The variant allele C was found to be significantly associated with MCTR (OR = 1.481; 95% CI: 1.101-1.992; = 0.011). This study has demonstrated the association of XPC gene Lys939Gln polymorphism with MCTR, which is significantly associated with increased risk of MCTR

Spatial overlap of shark nursery areas and the salmon farming industry influences the trophic ecology of Squalus acanthias on the southern coast of Chile

© 2017 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Potential interactions between marine predators and humans arise in the southern coast of Chile where predator feeding and reproduction sites overlap with fisheries and aquaculture. Here, we assess the potential effects of intensive salmon aquaculture on food habits, growth, and reproduction of a common predator, the spiny dogfish—identified as Squalus acanthias via genetic barcoding. A total of 102 (89 females and 13 males) individuals were collected during winter and summer of 2013–2014 from the Chiloé Sea where salmon aquaculture activities are concentrated. The low frequency of males in our study suggests spatial segregation of sex, while immature and mature females spatially overlapped in both seasons. Female spiny dogfish showed a functional specialist behavior as indicated by the small number of prey items and the relative high importance of the austral hake and salmon pellets in the diet. Immature sharks fed more on pellets and anchovies than the larger hake-preferring mature females. Our results also indicate that spiny dogfish switch prey (anchovy to hake) to take advantage of seasonal changes in prey availability. Despite differences in the trophic patterns of S. acanthias due to the spatial association with intensive salmon farming, in this region, there appears to be no difference in fecundity or size at maturity compared to other populations. Although no demographic effects were detected, we suggest that a range of additional factors should be considered before concluding that intensive aquaculture does not have any impact on these marine predators.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Strengthening Angel Shark Conservation in the Northeastern Mediterranean Sea

Angel sharks are among the most threatened species of sharks globally. Twenty-two species have been identified globally so far, with three species being present in the Mediterranean Sea: Squatina aculeata, Squatina oculata, and Squatina squatina. The Mediterranean populations of all three species have been assessed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species due to the steep decline of their populations as a result of their historical and current overexploitation by demersal fisheries. Therefore, currently there is an ongoing increasing effort for advancing the conservation of the species in the basin. Recently, in the context of the Regional Action Plan for Mediterranean Angel Sharks, the Aegean Sea and Crete have been identified as critical areas for all three species. This study provides the first predictive distribution map of the three angel shark species in the basin, while critical areas for the conservation of the species were identified through a systematic spatial conservation planning analysis. Our analysis revealed low overlapping between the existing MPA network and critical areas for the distribution of the species primarily in Greece and then Turkey, while 20% of the critical areas for the distribution of the species overlaps with Fisheries Restricted Areas of the region. This highlights the need for creating MPAs focusing on shark conservation within the Mediterranean that are currently completely absent. In addition, we provide policy recommendations that can secure better protection of angel sharks through the enforcement of the current legislations and the engagement of all relevant stakeholders.</jats:p

Hållbarhetsredovisning : En studie av hur statliga företag efterföljer GRI:s senaste riktlinjer G3

I dagens samhälle ställs allt mer krav på att företagen ska ta ett större ansvar när det gäller sociala och miljömässiga frågor istället för att enbart fokusera på de ekonomiska aspekterna. Den 1 januari 2008 kom lagkravet om att statliga företagen ska upprätta en hållbarhetsredovisning enligt GRI:s riktlinjer. Målet med denna uppsats var att utifrån GRI:s senaste riktlinjer G3 undersöka hur de statliga företagen efterföljer riktlinjerna och analysera om varför dessa inte fullföljs. Uppsatsen bygger på en kvalitativ undersökning som omfattades av fyra statliga företag vilka var Sveaskog AB, Vattenfall AB, SAS AB och TeliaSonera AB. GRI är det mest använda och erkända ramverket inom redovisning och rapportering av hållbarhets information. Ett tydligt exempel ser man bland de delägda statliga företagen då de flesta använder sig av ramverket fastän det är frivilligt. Empiriska datan samlades in från intervjuer av kompetenta personer från respektive företag samt företagens hållbarhetsredovisningar och annan hållbarhetsrelaterad information. Efter den genomförda undersökningen kom vi fram till att det finns skillnader och likheter mellan företagens tillämpning av GRI:s riktlinjer. Det som framkom var att vissa indikatorer som var tillämpbara och relevanta för ett företag var inte relevant och tillämpbar för ett annat företag. Utifrån hur syftet har formulerats väljer vi att dra slutsatsen om att de undersökta företagens tillämpning av riktlinjerna samt fullföljelse beror på att dessa riktlinjer är för allmänna och inte branschspecificerade vilket då leder till att de inte kan fullfölja dessa. Men vi kan även konstatera att fastän det finns en hel del rödmarkerade indikatorer hos företagens hållbarhetsredovisning leder användningen av riktlinjerna till transparens och det kan många gånger vara lönsamt för företagen

Efficacy of antimicrobial peptide LL-37 against biofilm forming Staphylococcus aureus strains obtained from chronic wound infections

The antimicrobial peptide LL-37 showed inhibitory effects against Staphylococcus aureus strains, which often responsible for wound infections. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of biofilm-containing wound infections is important. Thus, this study aimed to investigate both the antimicrobial and biofilm efficacy of LL-37 against biofilm-positive methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) strains and biofilm-positive methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains obtained from chronic wound infections and its effect on different quorum sensing and virulence genes at suboptimal concentrations. Fifteen biofilm-forming MRSA and 15 biofilm-forming MSSA strains were included in this study. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values and biofilm formation were tested by microdilution methods. Real-time PCR was performed to determine gene expression levels. MIC values for LL-37 were 89.6 mg/L and 132.3 mg/L for MSSA and MRSA strains, respectively. No statistically significant difference was found between MRSA and MSSA strains in terms of the effect of LL-37 on biofilm formation. A statistically significant difference was found between MRSA and MSSA strains for atlA, RNAIII, and agrA gene expression levels following exposure to a suboptimal concentration of LL-37. Ultimately, the required LL-37 antimicrobial concentration was quite high; however, LL-37 antibiofilm concentration may be acceptable for use in humans against biofilm-forming MRSA and MSSA strains. This is the first study to investigate to effect of a suboptimal LL-37 concentration on gene expression levels of biofilm-forming MSSA and MRSA strains. LL-37 affected quorum sensing and biofilm producing mechanisms, even at suboptimal MIC concentrations

Effect of distance measures on confidences of t-SNE embeddings and its implications on clustering for scRNA-seq data

Arguably one of the most famous dimensionality reduction algorithms of today is t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE). Although being widely used for the visualization of scRNA-seq data, it is prone to errors as any algorithm and may lead to inaccurate interpretations of the visualized data. A reasonable way to avoid misinterpretations is to quantify the reliability of the visualizations. The focus of this work is first to find the best possible way to predict sample-based confidence scores for t-SNE embeddings and next, to use these confidence scores to improve the clustering algorithms. We adopt an RF regression algorithm using seven distance measures as features for having the sample-based confidence scores with a variety of different distance measures. The best configuration is used to assess the clustering improvement using K-means and Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN) based on Adjusted Rank Index (ARI), Normalized Mutual Information (NMI), and accuracy (ACC) scores. The experimental results show that distance measures have a considerable effect on the precision of confidence scores and clustering performance can be improved substantially if these confidence scores are incorporated before the clustering algorithm. Our findings reveal the usefulness of these confidence scores on downstream analyses for scRNA-seq data