Experimental and numerical investigation of floating large woody debris impact on a masonry arch bridge

Masonry arch bridges form an essential part of existing transport infrastructure around the world, including mainland Europe and the northeastern US. Recent extreme flood events highlight that masonry arch bridges spanning watercourses are vulnerable to flood-induced hydrodynamic and debris impact loads. When the flow interacts with the bridge superstructure, with or without discrete floating debris, a complex interaction is observed. This paper presents both experimental and numerical studies to investigate this complex phenomenon, including fluid–structure and structure–structure interactions. A typical single-span masonry arch bridge and large woody debris representing a tree log are investigated. Experimental observations from a scaled hydraulic model, with and without debris in the flow, are first presented for the case where the abutment of the bridge is fully submerged. Next, the capability of the numerical method smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) in simulating the hydrodynamic behaviour and debris impact observed in the experiment is discussed. Following this, both hydrodynamic and debris-induced pressure–time histories on the bridge are obtained using the SPH model. Results reveal that the debris impact leads to a significantly more localised load on the bridge compared to the situation with hydrodynamic load only

Long-distance early endosome motility in Aspergillus fumigatus promotes normal hyphal growth behaviors in controlled microenvironments but is dispensable for virulence

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via the DOI in this recordIn filamentous fungi, early endosomes are continuously trafficked to, and from, the growing hyphal tip by microtubule-based motor proteins, serving as platforms for the long-distance transport of diverse cargos including mRNA, signaling molecules, and other organelles which hitchhike on them. While the cellular machinery for early endosome motility in filamentous fungi are fairly well characterized, the broader physiological significance of this process remains less well understood. We set out to determine the importance of long-distance early endosome trafficking in Aspergillus fumigatus, an opportunistic human pathogenic fungus that can cause devastating pulmonary infections in immunocompromised individuals. We first characterized normal early endosome motile behavior in A. fumigatus, then generated a mutant in which early endosome motility is severely perturbed through targeted deletion of the gene encoding for FtsA, one of a complex of proteins that links early endosomes to their motor proteins. Using a microfluidics-based approach we show that contact-induced hyphal branching behaviors are impaired in ΔftsA mutants, but that FtsA-mediated early endosome motility is dispensable for virulence in an invertebrate infection model. Overall, our study provides new insight into early endosome motility in an important human pathogenic fungus.Arkansas Biosciences Institut

Controls on sill and dyke-sill hybrid geometry and propagation in the crust: The role of fracture toughness

Analogue experiments using gelatine were carried out to investigate the role of the mechanical properties of rock layers and their bonded interfaces on the formation and propagation of magma-filled fractures in the crust. Water was injected at controlled flux through the base of a clear-Perspex tank into superposed and variably bonded layers of solidified gelatine. Experimental dykes and sills were formed, as well as dyke-sill hybrid structures where the ascending dyke crosses the interface between layers but also intrudes it to form a sill. Stress evolution in the gelatine was visualised using polarised light as the intrusions grew, and its evolving strain was measured using digital image correlation (DIC). During the formation of dyke-sill hybrids there are notable decreases in stress and strain near the dyke as sills form, which is attributed to a pressure decrease within the intrusive network. Additional fluid is extracted from the open dykes to help grow the sills, causing the dyke protrusion in the overlying layer to be almost completely drained. Scaling laws and the geometry of the propagating sill suggest sill growth into the interface was toughness-dominated rather than viscosity-dominated. We define KIc* as the fracture toughness of the interface between layers relative to the lower gelatine layer KIcInt / KIcG. Our results show that KIc* influences the type of intrusion formed (dyke, sill or hybrid), and the magnitude of KIcInt impacted the growth rate of the sills. KIcInt was determined during setup of the experiment by controlling the temperature of the upper layer Tm when it was poured into place, with Tm < 24 °C resulting in an interface with relatively low fracture toughness that is favourable for sill or dyke-sill hybrid formation. The experiments help to explain the dominance of dykes and sills in the rock record, compared to intermediate hybrid structures

Vangl2 promotes the formation of long cytonemes to enable distant Wnt/β-catenin signaling

This is the final version. Available on open access from Nature Research via the DOI in this recordData availability: The FCCS data that support the findings of this study are available in Dryad, Dataset https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.cfxpnvx4p. Additional data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Source data are provided with this paper.Wnt signaling regulates cell proliferation and cell differentiation as well as migration and polarity during development. However, it is still unclear how the Wnt ligand distribution is precisely controlled to fulfil these functions. Here, we show that the planar cell polarity protein Vangl2 regulates the distribution of Wnt by cytonemes. In zebrafish epiblast cells, mouse intestinal telocytes and human gastric cancer cells, Vangl2 activation generates extremely long cytonemes, which branch and deliver Wnt protein to multiple cells. The Vangl2-activated cytonemes increase Wnt/β-catenin signaling in the surrounding cells. Concordantly, Vangl2 inhibition causes fewer and shorter cytonemes to be formed and reduces paracrine Wnt/β-catenin signaling. A mathematical model simulating these Vangl2 functions on cytonemes in zebrafish gastrulation predicts a shift of the signaling gradient, altered tissue patterning, and a loss of tissue domain sharpness. We confirmed these predictions during anteroposterior patterning in the zebrafish neural plate. In summary, we demonstrate that Vangl2 is fundamental to paracrine Wnt/β-catenin signaling by controlling cytoneme behaviour.Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)Living Systems Institute, University of ExeterMedical Research Council (MRC)National Research Foundation of SingaporeNational Medical Research CouncilWellcome Trus

Health literacy, health status, and healthcare utilization of Taiwanese adults: results from a national survey

Abstract Background Low health literacy is considered a worldwide health threat. The purpose of this study is to assess the prevalence and socio-demographic covariates of low health literacy in Taiwanese adults and to investigate the relationships between health literacy and health status and health care utilization. Methods A national survey of 1493 adults was conducted in 2008. Health literacy was measured using the Mandarin Health Literacy Scale. Health status was measured based on self-rated physical and mental health. Health care utilization was measured based on self-reported outpatient clinic visits, emergency room visits, and hospitalizations. Results Approximately thirty percent of adults were found to have low (inadequate or marginal) health literacy. They tended to be older, have fewer years of schooling, lower household income, and reside in less populated areas. Inadequate health literacy was associated with poorer mental health (OR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.35-0.91). No association was found between health literacy and health care utilization even after adjusting for other covariates. Conclusions Low (inadequate and marginal) health literacy is prevalent in Taiwan. High prevalence of low health literacy is not necessarily indicative of the need for interventions. Systematic efforts to evaluate the impact of low health literacy on health outcomes in other countries would help to illuminate features of health care delivery and financing systems that may mitigate the adverse health effects of low health literacy.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78252/1/1471-2458-10-614.xmlhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78252/2/1471-2458-10-614.pdfPeer Reviewe

A fast framework construction and visualization method for particle-based fluid

© 2017, The Author(s). Fast and vivid fluid simulation and visualization is a challenge topic of study in recent years. Particle-based simulation method has been widely used in the art animation modeling and multimedia field. However, the requirements of huge numerical calculation and high quality of visualization usually result in a poor computing efficiency. In this work, in order to improve those issues, we present a fast framework for 3D fluid fast constructing and visualization which parallelizes the fluid algorithm based on the GPU computing framework and designs a direct surface visualization method for particle-based fluid data such as WCSPH, IISPH, and PCISPH. Considering on conventional polygonization or adaptive mesh methods may incur high computing costs and detail losses, an improved particle-based method is provided for real-time fluid surface rendering with the screen-space technology and the utilities of the modern graphics hardware to achieve the high performance rendering; meanwhile, it effectively protects fluid details. Furthermore, to realize the fast construction of scenes, an optimized design of parallel framework and interface is also discussed in our paper. Our method is convenient to enforce, and the results demonstrate a significant improvement in the performance and efficiency by being compared with several examples