Solid Waste Landfill Performance During the 1994 Northridge Earthquake

The performance of 22landfills in the Los Angeles area during the January 17, 1994 Northridge earthquake has been investigated. Observations of damage at these landfills indicate that the overall performance of solid waste landfills was encouraging. None of the surveyed landfills showed any signs of major damage. However, one geosynthetic-lined landfill experienced two tears in the geomembrane liner. Most landfills within 30 km of the zone of energy release experienced some form of cracking in the soil cover. Beyond approximately 40 km from the zone of energy release, little to no damage was observed

Standard Penetration Test-Based Probabilistic and Deterministic Assessment of Seismic Soil Liquefaction Potential

This paper presents new correlations for assessment of the likelihood of initiation (or “triggering”) of soil liquefaction. These new correlations eliminate several sources of bias intrinsic to previous, similar correlations, and provide greatly reduced overall uncertainty and variance. Key elements in the development of these new correlations are (1) accumulation of a significantly expanded database of field performance case histories; (2) use of improved knowledge and understanding of factors affecting interpretation of standard penetration test data; (3) incorporation of improved understanding of factors affecting site-specific earthquake ground motions (including directivity effects, site-specific response, etc.); (4) use of improved methods for assessment of in situ cyclic shear stress ratio; (5) screening of field data case histories on a quality/uncertainty basis; and (6) use of high-order probabilistic tools (Bayesian updating). The resulting relationships not only provide greatly reduced uncertainty, they also help to resolve a number of corollary issues that have long been difficult and controversial including: (1) magnitude-correlated duration weighting factors, (2) adjustments for fines content, and (3) corrections for overburden stress

The Green Movement: Implications for Animals

The Green movement, a newly emerging political movement that is both global in scope and firmly anchored to each local region at the grassroots level, is destined to be of great import to those concerned with the status of nonhuman animals in our society. Closely allied with deep ecology and bioregionalism, Green thinking embodies an alteration in our perception of the human organism: no longer seen as separate from and superior to all the other components of the ecosystem, our species is placed in context as one among many interdependent forms of life, with the attainment of a sustainable balance among all life forms being the desired goal in designing our human activities. Translation of this viewpoint into political action is the challenge of Green organizations on several continents today

Cervical length and quantitative fetal fibronectin in the prediction of spontaneous preterm birth in asymptomatic women with congenital uterine anomaly

BACKGROUND: Congenital uterine anomalies (CUA) are associated with late miscarriage and spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB). OBJECTIVES: Our aim was to 1) determine the rate of sPTB in each type of CUA and 2) assess the performance of quantitative fetal fibronectin (qfFN) and transvaginal cervical length (CL) measurement by ultrasound in asymptomatic women with CUA for the prediction of sPTB at <34 and <37 weeks of gestation. STUDY DESIGN: This was a retrospective cohort of women with CUA asymptomatic for sPTB, from four UK tertiary referral centres (2001-2016). CUAs were categorised into fusion (unicornuate, didelphic and bicornuate uteri) or resorption defects (septate, with or without resection and arcuate uteri), based on pre-pregnancy diagnosis. All women underwent serial transvaginal ultrasound CL assessment in the second trimester (16 to 24 weeks' gestation); a subgroup underwent qfFN testing from 18 weeks' gestation. We investigated the relationship between CUA and predictive test performance for sPTB before 34 and 37 weeks' gestation. RESULTS: Three hundred and nineteen women were identified as having CUA within our high-risk population. 7% (23/319) delivered spontaneously <34 weeks, and 18% (56/319) <37 weeks' gestation. Rates of sPTB by type were: 26% (7/27) for unicornuate, 21% (7/34) for didelphic, 16% (31/189) for bicornuate, 13% (7/56) for septate and 31% (4/13) for arcuate. 80% (45/56) of women who had sPTB <37 weeks did not develop a short CL (<25 mm) during the surveillance period (16-24 weeks). The diagnostic accuracy of short CL had low sensitivity (20.3) for predicting sPTB <34 weeks. Cervical Length had ROC AUC of 0.56 (95% CI 0.48 to 0.64) and 0.59 (95% CI 0.55 to 0.64) for prediction of sPTB <34 and 37 weeks' respectively. The AUC for CL to predict sPTB <34 weeks was 0.48 for fusion defects (95% CI 0.39 to 0.57) but 0.78 (95% CI 0.66 to 0.91) for women with resorption defects. Overall quantitative fetal fibronectin had a AUC of 0.63 (95% CI 0.49 to 0.77) and 0.58 (95% CI 0.49 to 0.68) for prediction of sPTB <34 and 37 weeks, respectively. AUC for prediction of sPTB <37 weeks with qfFN for fusion defects was 0.52 (95% CI 0.41 to 0.63), but 0.79 (0.63 to 0.95) for women with resorption defects. Results were similar when women with intervention were excluded. CONCLUSION: Commonly used markers CL and qfFN have utility in prediction of sPTB in resorption congenital uterine defects but not in fusion defects. This is contrary to other high-risk populations. These findings need to be accounted for when planning antenatal care and have potential implications for predictive tests used in sPTB surveillance and intervention

Corvid Re-Caching without ‘Theory of Mind’: A Model

Scrub jays are thought to use many tactics to protect their caches. For instance, they predominantly bury food far away from conspecifics, and if they must cache while being watched, they often re-cache their worms later, once they are in private. Two explanations have been offered for such observations, and they are intensely debated. First, the birds may reason about their competitors' mental states, with a ‘theory of mind’; alternatively, they may apply behavioral rules learned in daily life. Although this second hypothesis is cognitively simpler, it does seem to require a different, ad-hoc behavioral rule for every caching and re-caching pattern exhibited by the birds. Our new theory avoids this drawback by explaining a large variety of patterns as side-effects of stress and the resulting memory errors. Inspired by experimental data, we assume that re-caching is not motivated by a deliberate effort to safeguard specific caches from theft, but by a general desire to cache more. This desire is brought on by stress, which is determined by the presence and dominance of onlookers, and by unsuccessful recovery attempts. We study this theory in two experiments similar to those done with real birds with a kind of ‘virtual bird’, whose behavior depends on a set of basic assumptions about corvid cognition, and a well-established model of human memory. Our results show that the ‘virtual bird’ acts as the real birds did; its re-caching reflects whether it has been watched, how dominant its onlooker was, and how close to that onlooker it has cached. This happens even though it cannot attribute mental states, and it has only a single behavioral rule assumed to be previously learned. Thus, our simulations indicate that corvid re-caching can be explained without sophisticated social cognition. Given our specific predictions, our theory can easily be tested empirically

New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. III: The 17th Street Drainage Canal

The failure of the levee and floodwall section on the east bank of the 17th Street drainage canal was one of the most catastrophic breaches that occurred during Hurricane Katrina. It produced a breach that rapidly scoured a flow pathway below sea level, so that after the storm surge had largely subsided, floodwaters still continued to stream in through this breach for the next two and a half days. This particular failure contributed massively to the overall flooding of the Metropolitan Orleans East Bank protected basin. Slightly more than half of the loss of life, and a similar fraction of the overall damages, occurred in this heavily populated basin. There are a number of important geotechnical and geoforensic lessons associated with this failure. Accordingly, this paper is dedicated solely to investigating this single failure. Geological and geotechnical details, such as a thin layer of sensitive clay that was laid down by a previous hurricane, proper strength characterization of soils at and beyond the toe of the levee, and recognition of a water-filled gap on the inboard side of the sheet pile cutoff wall are judged to be among the most critical factors in understanding this failure. The lessons learned from this study are of importance for similar flood protection systems throughout other regions of the United States and the world

Differences between <i>Trypanosoma brucei gambiense</i> groups 1 and 2 in their resistance to killing by Trypanolytic factor 1

&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Background:&lt;/b&gt; The three sub-species of &lt;i&gt;Trypanosoma brucei&lt;/i&gt; are important pathogens of sub-Saharan Africa. &lt;i&gt;T. b. brucei&lt;/i&gt; is unable to infect humans due to sensitivity to trypanosome lytic factors (TLF) 1 and 2 found in human serum. &lt;i&gt;T. b. rhodesiense&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; are able to resist lysis by TLF. There are two distinct sub-groups of &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; that differ genetically and by human serum resistance phenotypes. Group 1 &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; have an invariant phenotype whereas group 2 show variable resistance. Previous data indicated that group 1 &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; are resistant to TLF-1 due in-part to reduced uptake of TLF-1 mediated by reduced expression of the TLF-1 receptor (the haptoglobin-hemoglobin receptor (&lt;i&gt;HpHbR&lt;/i&gt;)) gene. Here we investigate if this is also true in group 2 parasites.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Methodology:&lt;/b&gt; Isogenic resistant and sensitive group 2 &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; were derived and compared to other T. brucei parasites. Both resistant and sensitive lines express the &lt;i&gt;HpHbR&lt;/i&gt; gene at similar levels and internalized fluorescently labeled TLF-1 similar fashion to &lt;i&gt;T. b. brucei&lt;/i&gt;. Both resistant and sensitive group 2, as well as group 1 &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt;, internalize recombinant APOL1, but only sensitive group 2 parasites are lysed.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Conclusions:&lt;/b&gt; Our data indicate that, despite group 1 &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; avoiding TLF-1, it is resistant to the main lytic component, APOL1. Similarly group 2 &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; is innately resistant to APOL1, which could be based on the same mechanism. However, group 2 &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; variably displays this phenotype and expression does not appear to correlate with a change in expression site or expression of &lt;i&gt;HpHbR&lt;/i&gt;. Thus there are differences in the mechanism of human serum resistance between &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; groups 1 and 2.&lt;/p&gt

Applying refinement to the use of mice and rats in rheumatoid arthritis research

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a painful, chronic disorder and there is currently an unmet need for effective therapies that will benefit a wide range of patients. The research and development process for therapies and treatments currently involves in vivo studies, which have the potential to cause discomfort, pain or distress. This Working Group report focuses on identifying causes of suffering within commonly used mouse and rat ‘models’ of RA, describing practical refinements to help reduce suffering and improve welfare without compromising the scientific objectives. The report also discusses other, relevant topics including identifying and minimising sources of variation within in vivo RA studies, the potential to provide pain relief including analgesia, welfare assessment, humane endpoints, reporting standards and the potential to replace animals in RA research