Baltimore Red Line Project: An Overview of the Cooks Lane Tunnel

The Maryland Transit Administration’s Baltimore Red Line is a proposed 14.1-mile east-west Light Rail Transit (LRT) line connecting the areas of Woodlawn, Edmondson Village, West Baltimore, downtown Baltimore, Inner Harbour East, Fells Point, Canton and the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Centre Campus. Red Line has two tunnel segments namely, the Downtown and the Cooks Lane Tunnels. The Cooks Lane Tunnel (CLT) is the shorter of the two tunnels and will connect the proposed at-grade LRT segment running alongside I-70 with the at-grade LRT segment along Edmondson Avenue. The western CLT portal will be west of the intersection of North Forest Park Avenue and Cooks Lane and the eastern portal will be in the median of Edmondson Avenue close to the intersection with Cooks Lane. The length of the CLT is approximately 7,100 feet inclusive of the cut-and-cover and retained cut sections at both ends. The proposed CLT will be excavated below water table and in a variety of ground conditions ranging from soft ground to competent rock. Variable geotechnical conditions, mixed-face tunnel excavation, tunneling adjacent to the existing buildings and utilities, and cut-and-cover construction in urban environment characterize the design challenges of the CLT. This paper presents the design approach for the Preliminary Engineering of the CLT and describes the current proposed design and construction methodology. Different alternatives for the CLT including double-track large-diameter TBM-bored tunnel, single-track twin TBM-bored tunnels, and mined (NATM) tunnel are discussed in this paper. The paper also discusses ground water control during construction, tunnel muck removal, and brief description on numerical modeling and tunnel structural design

Efficient JPEG 2000 Image Compression Scheme for Multihop Wireless Networks

 When using wireless sensor networks for real-time data transmission, some critical points should be considered. Restricted computational power, reduced memory, narrow bandwidth and energy supplied present strong limits in sensor nodes. Therefore, maximizing network lifetime and minimizing energy consumption are always optimization goals. To overcome the computation and energy limitation of individual sensor nodes during image transmission, an energy efficient image transport scheme is proposed, taking advantage of JPEG2000 still image compression standard using MATLAB and C from Jasper. JPEG2000 provides a practical set of features, not necessarily available in the previous standards. These features were achieved using techniques: the discrete wavelet transform (DWT), and embedded block coding with optimized truncation (EBCOT). Performance of the proposed image transport scheme is investigated with respect to image quality and energy consumption. Simulation results are presented and show that the proposed scheme optimizes network lifetime and reduces significantly the amount of required memory by analyzing the functional influence of each parameter of this distributed image compression algorithm.

D-Glucose Oxidation by Cold Atmospheric Plasma-Induced Reactive Species

The glucose oxidation cascade is fascinating; although oxidation products have high economic value, they can manipulate the biological activity through posttranslational modification such as glycosylation of proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. The concept of this work is based on the ability of reactive species induced by cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) in aqueous liquids and the corresponding gas-liquid interface to oxidize biomolecules under ambient conditions. Here, we report the oxidation of glucose by an argon-based dielectric barrier discharge plasma jet (kINPen) with a special emphasis on examining the reaction pathway to pinpoint the most prominent reactive species engaged in the observed oxidative transformation. Employing d-glucose and d-glucose-13C6solutions and high-resolution mass spectrometry and ESI-tandem MS/MS spectrometry techniques, the occurrence of glucose oxidation products, for example, aldonic acids and aldaric acids, glucono- and glucaro-lactones, as well as less abundant sugar acids including ribonic acid, arabinuronic acid, oxoadipic acid, 3-deoxy-ribose, glutaconic acid, and glucic acid were surveyed. The findings provide deep insights into CAP chemistry, reflecting a switch of reactive species generation with the feed gas modulation (Ar or Ar/O2with N2curtain gas). Depending on the gas phase composition, a combination of oxygen-derived short-lived hydroxyl (•OH)/atomic oxygen [O(3P)] radicals was found responsible for the glucose oxidation cascade. The results further illustrate that the presence of carbohydrates in cell culture media, gel formulations (agar), or other liquid targets (juices) modulate the availability of CAP-generated species in vitro. In addition, a glycocalyx is attached to many mammalian proteins, which is essential for the respective physiologic role. It might be questioned if its oxidation plays a role in CAP activity

Anti nociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects of aerial parts of Gundelia tournefortii L. on NMRI male mice

زمینه و هدف: گیاه کنگر (.Gundelia tournefortii L) به طور سنتی برای تخفیف درد و التهاب به کار می رود. این پژوهش به منظور ارزیابی اثر ضد دردی و ضد التهابی این گیاه انجام شد. روش بررسی: در این پژوهش تجربی از موش کوچک نر نژاد NMRI استفاده شد. پس از تعیین میزان دوز کشنده عصاره تام گیاه کنگر LD50))، عصاره در دوزهای مختلف به صورت داخل صفاقی به موش ها تزریق شد و سپس اثر ضد دردی و ضد التهابی آن با استفاده از تست های فرمالین و گزیلن تعیین گردید. داده ها به کمک آزمون های آماری تحلیل واریانس یک طرفه و توکی تجزیه و تحلیل گردید. یافته ها: میزان LD50 عصاره در پژوهش حاضر، 28/6 گرم بر کیلوگرم وزن حیوان به دست آمد. نتایج نشان داد که عصاره تام گیاه کنگر در دوزهای 3/0، 6/0، 2/1 و 4/2 گرم بر کیلوگرم قادر به ایجاد اثرات مشخص ضد دردی و ضد التهابی در مقایسه با گروه شاهد بود. بیشترین تاثیر در دوز g/kg4/2 مشاهده شد (01/0

Insight into the Impact of Oxidative Stress on the Barrier Properties of Lipid Bilayer Models

As a new field of oxidative stress-based therapy, cold physical plasma is a promising tool for several biomedical applications due to its potential to create a broad diversity of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS). Although proposed, the impact of plasma-derived RONS on the cell membrane lipids and properties is not fully understood. For this purpose, the changes in the lipid bilayer functionality under oxidative stress generated by an argon plasma jet (kINPen) were investigated by electrochemical techniques. In addition, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was employed to analyze the plasma-induced modifications on the model lipids. Various asymmetric bilayers mimicking the structure and properties of the erythrocyte cell membrane were transferred onto a gold electrode surface by Langmuir-Blodgett/Langmuir-Schaefer deposition techniques. A strong impact of cholesterol on membrane permeabilization by plasma-derived species was revealed. Moreover, the maintenance of the barrier properties is influenced by the chemical composition of the head group. Mainly the head group size and its hydrogen bonding capacities are relevant, and phosphatidylcholines are significantly more susceptible than phosphatidylserines and other lipid classes, underlining the high relevance of this lipid class in membrane dynamics and cell physiology

Peak-to-average power ratio reduction based on cross-correlation in OFDM systems

Two of the most important techniques of Peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) reduction in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems are Partial Transmit Sequence PAPR (PTS-PAPR) and Cross-Correlation-PTS. This paper investigates a complete analysis on these two techniques providing simulation and discussion of their performance on PAPR reduction and bit error rate (BER). Moreover the comparison of these methods by using Saleh model amplifier in an OFDM system is provided. The results show that PTS-PAPR outperforms the Cross-Correlation-PTS in terms of PAPR performance while Cross-Correlation-PTS method is more efficient in BER reduction

Evaluation of Proper Prescription of Antacid Agents in a Group of Critically Ill Children Admitted to PICU in 2018-2019

Background: Critically ill patients, especially those requiring admission to intensive care units (ICU), are at risk for stress-related gastrointestinal mucosal damage. We aimed to evaluate the frequency of proper prescription of antacid agents in a group of critically ill children admitted to PICU. Methods: In this retrospective study, the medical records of children aged between 1 month and 15 years who were admitted in 2018-2019 to the PICU of Imam Hossein children's hospital, Isfahan, Iran, were reviewed. Demographic data, indications for PICU admission, principal diagnosis, the severity of the disease, incidence of bleeding during hospitalization, indications for stress ulcer prophylaxis, prescription of the antacid agents, type of antacid prescribed, and the patient's final outcome were recorded. All the data were gathered and organized by a medical intern. We calculated the rate of the patients who were indicated for SUP, those who were not indicated for SUP (Stress Ulcer Prophylaxis), those who received SUP (Stress Ulcer Prophylaxis), and those who did not receive SUP. Data analysis was performed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software (SPSS, version 24.0, IBM, Armonk, New York). Results: We found that 204 (92.7%) of our patients received antacid agents for gastric SUP. Among the patients receiving SUP, 198 (90%) had an indication for SUP, and only 6 (2.7%) cases received unnecessary prophylaxis? In addition, 16 (7.2%) patients had no indication of receiving SUP and did not receive any prophylaxis. We also reviewed the type of antacid medication that was prescribed for SUP and found that 157 (72%) patients had received PPI, and 57 (30%) had received H2Ras. Conclusions: The findings of the current study revealed that almost all of our study population who had an indication for prophylaxis of stress ulcer appropriately received antacid agents. We suggest that there is a crucial need to conduct large prospective and multicentric studies in pediatric centers to prepare a universally accepted guideline for the prophylaxis of stress ulcers in the pediatric age group

Preoperative Mechanical Bowel Evacuation Reduces Intraoperative Bleeding and Operation Time in Spinal Surgery

Study Design Randomized clinical trial. Purpose In this study, we evaluated the effect of mechanical evacuation of the bowels prior to operation on intraoperative bleeding. Overview of Literature Bleeding is the most significant complication in patients undergoing spinal surgery. Methods We randomly divided 108 individuals planned to undergo spinal surgery into two age-, sex-, and co-morbidity (especially preoperative hemoglobin [Hb])-matched groups of 54. The treatment group was administered polyethylene glycol (PEG) before the operation, whereas the control group was not. The exact amount (mL) of bleeding during operation, operative time, and approximate amount of blood transfused were recorded. The volume of bleeding and Hb level were also recorded 24 and 48 hours postoperatively. Results T-tests revealed that intraoperative bleeding, the volume of transfusion, and operative time were significantly lower in the treatment group than in the control group. Statistically significant correlations of intraoperative bleeding with age, body mass index (BMI), preoperative Hb levels, operative time, the volume of transfusion, hospitalization time, and 24- and 48-hour postoperative bleeding were observed (p =0.001, all). Repeated measures analysis of covariance after adjusting the covariate variables revealed that the volume of bleeding showed a near-significant trend in the treatment group compared with that in the control group (p =0.056). Diabetic females had the highest bleeding amount between the groups (p =0.03). Bleeding was higher in patients with higher BMI (p =0.02) and was related to operative time (p =0.001) in both the groups. Conclusions Preoperative gastrointestinal tract evacuation by PEG administration can decrease intraoperative bleeding in spinal surgeries; however, more research is imperative regarding PEG administration in surgical procedures for this purpose

The effects of Hydroalcolic extract of Cyperus rotundus on nociception in diabetic rat

Background and Aim: Hyperalgesiua is a symptom of neuropathy due to diabetes. The present study aimed at investigating . antineurologic effect of hydroalcoholic extract of Cyperus Rotundus in diabetic rats. Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, the rats were randomly divided into seven equal groups i.e. control, Cyperus Rotundus treated control (dose 100mg/kg), diabetic, diabetic receiving sodium salicylate (dose 200 mg/kg) , ., and 3 more diabetic groups peritoneally receiving . Cyperus Rotundus extract doses of 1mg/kg, 10mg/kg, 100mg/kg, respectively. The injections. were performed one week after diabetes induction for two weeks. Then, thermoalgesia rate in the subjects was assessed using formalin, acetic acid, and tail immersion of the rats in hot water. Results: Cyperus rotundus extract significantly reduced both phases of formalin-induced pain in a dose-dependent manner of 10mg/kg and 100mg/kg followed by a significant decrease of antineuragia (P<0.001 and P<0.01, repectively) . In the hot water tail immersion test, the treatment of the dose-dependent extract was followed by a significant increase in tail immersion latency in hot water compared to non- treated diabetic group (P<0.1 , P<0.05 and P<0.00, respectively1). In the acetic acid test. treatment with dose-dependent extract decreased the number of abdominal compressions compared to the control and non- treated diabetic groups. Conclusion: Administration of Cyperus rotundus extract for 2 weeks .increased thermoalgia tolerance and reducedchemical pain in an experimental model of diabetes mellitus rats . Thus, this administration can act as an auxiliary treatment for diabetic hyperalgesia