A distorted physical model to study sudden dam break flows

A distorted physical model, based upon Urkmez Dam in Izmir, Turkey, was built to study sudden dam break flows. The distorted model had a horizontal scale of 1/150 and vertical scale of 1/30, containing dam reservoir, dam body and downstream area—from dam body to Urkmez urban area until the sea coast. In the model, the reservoir is approximately 12 m3, the dam body has a width of 2.9 m and a height of 1.1 m and the downstream area is nearly 200 m2. The Ürkmez dam is chosen since it has reasonable dimensions and it is located close to Ürkmez village. The features creating roughness such as buildings, roads, plant, etc are also reflected in the physical model. The dam break problem is investigated for sudden partial collapse which is simulated by a trapezoidal breach on the dam body. The water depths are measured by using e+ WATER L (level) sensors. The velocities are determined by Ultrasonic Velocity Profiler (UVP) transducers. The propagation of the flood is recorded by a HD camera. The experimental results show that Urkmez area can be flooded in a matter of minutes, at depths reaching up to 3 meters in residential areas. The flood wave can reach in the residential areas in 4 minutes. Flood wave velocities at peak discharge can exceed 55 km/h

The cellular coding of temperature in the mammalian cortex

Temperature is a fundamental sensory modality separate from touch, with dedicated receptor channels and primary afferent neurons for cool and warm. Unlike for other modalities, however, the cortical encoding of temperature remains unknown, with very few cortical neurons reported that respond to non-painful temperature, and the presence of a 'thermal cortex' is debated. Here, using widefield and two-photon calcium imaging in the mouse forepaw system, we identify cortical neurons that respond to cooling and/or warming with distinct spatial and temporal response properties. We observed a representation of cool, but not warm, in the primary somatosensory cortex, but cool and warm in the posterior insular cortex (pIC). The representation of thermal information in pIC is robust and somatotopically arranged, and reversible manipulations show a profound impact on thermal perception. Despite being positioned along the same one-dimensional sensory axis, the encoding of cool and that of warm are distinct, both in highly and broadly tuned neurons. Together, our results show that pIC contains the primary cortical representation of skin temperature and may help explain how the thermal system generates sensations of cool and warm

Goos-H\"{a}nchen-like shifts for Dirac fermions in monolayer graphene barrier

We investigate the Goos-H\"{a}nchen-like shifts for Dirac fermions in transmission through a monolayer graphene barrier. The lateral shifts, as the functions of the barrier's width and the incidence angle, can be negative and positive in Klein tunneling and classical motion, respectively. Due to their relations to the transmission gap, the lateral shifts can be enhanced by the transmission resonances when the incidence angle is less than the critical angle for total reflection, while their magnitudes become only the order of Fermi wavelength when the incidence angle is larger than the critical angle. These tunable beam shifts can also be modulated by the height of potential barrier and the induced gap, which gives rise to the applications in graphene-based devices.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

SaFiDe: detection of saccade and fixation periods based on eye-movement attributes from video-oculography, scleral coil or electrooculography data

In this work, we present SaFiDe, a deterministic method to detect eye movements (saccades and fixations) from eye-trace data. We developed this method for human and nonhuman primate data from video- and coil-recorded eye traces and further applied the algorithm to eye traces computed from electrooculograms. All the data analyzed were from free-exploration paradigms, where the main challenge was to detect periods of saccades and fixations that were uncued by the task. The method uses velocity and acceleration thresholds, calculated from the eye trace, to detect saccade and fixation periods. We show that our fully deterministic method detects saccades and fixations from eye traces during free visual exploration. The algorithm was implemented in MATLAB, and the code is publicly available on a GitHub repository. The algorithm presented is entirely deterministic, simplifying the comparison between subjects and tasks. Thus far, the algorithm presented can operate over video-based eye tracker data, human electrooculogram records, or monkey scleral eye coil data

Electrochemical degradation of Diclofenac on catalysts based on CNT and M/CNT modified electrodes

Diclofenac (DCF) - a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug - is one of the most frequently detected pharmaceutical compounds in the aquatic environment. Because of its negative effects on public health and environment, this emerging pollutant monitoring and removal from wastewater are of high importance. Electrochemical oxidation has attracted growing interest in the last years, due to its versatility, high efficiency and environment compatibility.Electrochemical oxidation of DCF has been studied using multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNT) and monometallic catalysts based on carbon nanotubes (M/CNT), at different pH media. The electroreactivity of DCF on modified electrodes and the kinetic parameters of the redox reactions were determined using cyclic voltammetry. Electrodegradation of DCF in aqueous medium was carried out using long-term electrolyses. The products of these electrolyses were identified and quantified by HPLC-MS, GC-MS, HPLC-UV-RID and IC.BioTecNorte (operation NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) and “AIProcMat@N2020 -Advanced Industrial Processes and Materials for a Sustainable Northern Region of Portugal 2020”, NORTE-01-0145-FEDER- 000006, supported by the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This work also has been funded by national funds (FCT, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia), through the projects: PTDC/AAGTEC/5269/2014, Centre of Chemistry (UID/QUI/00686/2013 and UID/QUI/0686/2016) and LSRE-LCM (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006984)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Full-wave modeling of broadband near field scanning microwave microscopy

The authors would like to thank professor Dr. Gabriel Gomila from Institut de Bioenginyeria de Catalunya (IBEC) and Universitat de Barcelona for the fruitful discussion and support, as well as to Dr. Georg Gramse from Johannes Kepler University Linz for the experimental data. B.W. thanks the funding from the China Scholarship Council (CSC) for the support of his research at Queen Mary University of London, UK. Y.H. would like to thank EU-FP7 Nanomicrowave project for the financial support

IL-6 mediated JAK/STAT3 signaling pathway in cancer patients with cachexia

CONCLUSION: STAT3 may be considered as a therapeutic target for cachectic patients with gastric, lung and breast cancer. Furthermore, IL-6 mediates STAT3 activation in cachectic gastric and breast cancer patients (Tab. 5, Fig. 2, Ref. 62)

Geriatric oncology: comparing health related quality of life in head and neck cancer patients

Background: Population ageing is increasing the number of people annually diagnosed with cancer worldwide, once most types of tumours are age-dependent. High-quality healthcare in geriatric oncology requires a multimodal approach and should take into account stratified patient outcomes based on factors other than chronological age in order to develop interventions able to optimize oncology care. This study aims to evaluate the Health Related Quality of Life in head and neck cancer patients and compare the scores in geriatric and younger patients. Methods. Two hundred and eighty nine head and neck cancer patients from the Oncology Portuguese Institute participated in the Health Related Quality of Life assessment. Two patient groups were considered: the geriatric ( 65 years old, n = 115) and the younger (45-60 years old, n= 174). The EORTC QLQ-C30 and EORTC QLQ-H&N35 questionnaires were used. Results: Head and neck cancer patients were mostly males, 77.4% within geriatric group and 91.4% among younger patients group. The most frequent tumour locations were similar in both groups: larynx, oral cavity and oropharynx - base of the tongue. At the time of diagnosis, most of younger male patients were at disease stage III/IV (55.9%) whereas the majority of younger female patients were at disease stage I/II (83.4%). The geriatric patient distribution was found to be similar in any of the four disease stages and no gender differences were observed. We found that age (geriatrics scored generally worse), gender (females scored generally worse), and tumour site (larynx tumours denounce more significant problems between age groups) clearly influences Health Related Quality of Life perceptions. Conclusions: Geriatric oncology assessments signalize age-independent indicators that might guide oncologic geriatric care optimization. Decision-making in geriatric oncology must be based on tumour characteristics and chronological age but also on performance status evaluation, co-morbidity, and patient reported outcomes assessment.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Reply to Elmendorf and Ettinger: Photoperiod playsa dominantand irreplaceable role in triggering secondary growth resumption

In their Letter, Elmendorf and Ettinger (1) question the dominant role of photoperiod in driving secondary growth resumption (hereafter referred to as xylem formation onset) of the Northern Hemisphere conifers, recently reported by Huang et al. (2). Their opinions are grounded on the following three aspects, including 1) the seasonality of the photoperiod, 2) the dependence of the predictor variables (e.g., photoperiod, forcing, and chilling) on the response variable (the date of onset of xylem formation, day of the year [DOY]), and 3) the limited value of the obtained models for interannual forecasting. We think they bring up an interesting issue that deserves further discussion and clarification. Photoperiod is acknowledged to regulate spring bud swelling while wood formation starts (3, 4). Although photoperiod seasonality occurs at each site, its influence is marginal in our study given that the analysis involved comparisons among sites across the Northern Hemisphere. Our conclusion that photoperiod plays a dominant role was built upon the combination of several coherent pieces of evidence, rather than “the crux of Huang et al….” as they pointed out. First, we clearly stated that model 2, which modeled DOY as a function of the mean annual temperature of the site (MAT), forcing, chilling, and soil moisture, was considered the best model in terms of parsimony according to minimum Akaike information criterion and Bayesian information criterion, rather than R2 as referred to in their Letter. Second, photoperiod interacted with MAT and can explain 61.7% of the variance of MAT alone (2). Therefore, we concluded that secondary growth resumption was driven primarily by MAT and photoperiod or by their interaction, which is challenging to be disentangled without experimental data, we agree. In terms of biological functioning, they play an ..

Long-term exposure to hypoxia inhibits tumor progression of lung cancer in rats and mice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Hypoxia has been identified as a major negative factor for tumor progression in clinical observations and in animal studies. However, the precise role of hypoxia in tumor progression has not been fully explained. In this study, we extensively investigated the effect of long-term exposure to hypoxia on tumor progression <it>in vivo.</it></p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Rats bearing transplanted tumors consisting of A549 human lung cancer cells (lung cancer tumor) were exposed to hypoxia for different durations and different levels of oxygen. The tumor growth and metastasis were evaluated. We also treated A549 lung cancer cells (A549 cells) with chronic hypoxia and then implanted the hypoxia-pretreated cancer cells into mice. The effect of exposure to hypoxia on metastasis of Lewis lung carcinoma in mice was also investigated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that long-term exposure to hypoxia a) significantly inhibited lung cancer tumor growth in xenograft and orthotopic models in rats, b) significantly reduced lymphatic metastasis of the lung cancer in rats and decreased lung metastasis of Lewis lung carcinoma in mice, c) reduced lung cancer cell proliferation and cell cycle progression <it>in vitro</it>, d) decreased growth of the tumors from hypoxia-pretreated A549 cells, e) decreased Na⁺-K⁺ATPase α1 expression in hypoxic lung cancer tumors, and f) increased expression of hypoxia inducible factors (HIF1α and HIF2α) but decreased microvessel density in the lung cancer tumors. In contrast to lung cancer, the growth of tumor from HCT116 human colon cancer cells (colon cancer tumor) was a) significantly enhanced in the same hypoxia conditions, accompanied by b) no significant change in expression of Na⁺-K⁺ATPase α1, c) increased HIF1α expression (no HIF2α was detected) and d) increased microvessel density in the tumor tissues.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study demonstrated that long-term exposure to hypoxia repressed tumor progression of the lung cancer from A549 cells and that decreased expression of Na⁺-K⁺ATPase was involved in hypoxic inhibition of tumor progression. The results from this study provide new insights into the role of hypoxia in tumor progression and therapeutic strategies for cancer treatment.</p