The interplay between submesoscale instabilities and turbulence in the surface layer of the Bay of Bengal

The Air-Sea Interactions Regional Initiative (ASIRI) aims to understand vertical fluxes of momentum and heat across the surface layer in the Bay of Bengal. As the mesoscale and submesoscale eddies redistribute freshwater input over saline water of the bay, they influence the vertical distribution of salinity and thus impact air-sea fluxes. This study reports on numerical simulations performed to investigate processes that can lead to the observed vertical structure of stratification near the ocean surface. Processes are explored at multiple lateral scales, ranging from a few meters to tens of kilometers, to elucidate how the interplay among large-scale motion, submesoscale instabilities, and small-scale turbulent motion affects the surface layer

Women's perspectives on termination service delivery in Vietnam: a cross-sectional survey in three provinces.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the perspectives of abortion service users regarding termination methods and abortion service delivery in Vietnam. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Structured exit interviews were conducted between August and November 2011 with women who underwent termination of pregnancy at 62 public health facilities in Hanoi, Khanh Hoa, and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. All women presenting for termination during the study period were recruited to participate in the study. Following their abortion, women were asked about their perspectives on abortion service delivery and attributes of medical abortion (MA) versus manual vacuum aspiration (MVA). Multiple logistic regression was used to assess the association between current method uptake and each attribute. RESULTS: A total of 1,233 women were included in the survey: 541 (43.9%) from Hanoi, 163 (13.2%) from Khanh Hoa, and 529 (42.9%) from Ho Chi Minh: 23.1% underwent MA; 78.9% reported that women should be given a choice between MA and MVA; and 77.6% thought that abortion services were accessible. Among the 48% who responded, 30.1% thought that MA should be made available at primary/secondary health care facilities. Among women who had previously undergone both methods, women who reported that MA "feels more natural" (like a menstrual regulation/period) were more likely to choose MA for their current abortion (odds ratio 2.15, 95% confidence interval 1.26-3.69). CONCLUSION: MA uptake is significantly lower than MVA uptake. Further insights to women's perceptions of MA in Vietnam could help improve abortion service delivery in the country

Attributes and perspectives of public providers related to provision of medical abortion at public health facilities in Vietnam: a cross-sectional study in three provinces.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate attributes of public service providers associated with the provision of medical abortion in Vietnam. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study via interviewer-administered questionnaire among abortion providers from public health facilities in Hanoi, Khanh Hoa, and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam between August 2011 and January 2012. We recruited abortion providers at all levels of Vietnam's public health service delivery system. Participants were questioned about their medical abortion provision practices and perspectives regarding abortion methods. RESULTS: A total of 905 providers from 62 health facilities were included, comprising 525 (58.0%) from Hanoi, 122 (13.5%) from Khanh Hoa, and 258 (28.5%) from Ho Chi Minh City. The majority of providers were female (96.7%), aged ≥25 years (94%), married (84.4%), and had at least one child (89%); 68.9% of providers offered only manual vacuum aspiration and 31.1% performed both medical abortion and manual vacuum aspiration. Those performing both methods included physicians (74.5%), midwives (21.7%), and nurses (3.9%). Unadjusted analyses showed that female providers (odds ratio 0.1; 95% confidence interval 0.01-0.30) and providers in rural settings (odds ratio 0.3; 95% confidence interval 0.08-0.79) were less likely to provide medical abortion than their counterparts. Obstetricians and gynecologists were more likely to provide medical abortion than providers with nursing/midwifery training (odds ratio 22.2; 95% confidence interval 3.81-129.41). The most frequently cited advantages of medical abortion for providers were that no surgical skills are required (61.7%) and client satisfaction is better (61.0%). CONCLUSION: Provision of medical abortion in Vietnam is lower than provision of manual vacuum aspiration. While the majority of abortion providers are female midwives in Vietnam, medical abortion provision is concentrated in urban settings among physicians. Individuals providing medical abortion found that the method yields high client satisfaction

Effect of a negative regulatory element (NRE) on the human CYP1A1 gene expression in breast carcinoma MCF-7 and hepatoma HepG2 cells

AbstractThe expression of the cytochrome P4501A1 gene, CYP1A1, is induced by e.g. 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) mainly by transcriptional mechanisms. The inducers mediate their effect upon binding and activation of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) transcription-factor complex. Utilizing chimeric CYP1A1/HCAT constructs transient gene expression experiments indicate that the putative negative regulatory element (NRE) of CYP1A1 influence the relative TCDD induced CAT activity in HepG2 cells, whereas this effect was not observed in MCF-7 cells. Differences in the formation of cell-specific protein-DNA complexes were demonstrated by gel retardation assays suggesting a functional difference of NRE in these two cell lines

Machine learning approaches for lateral strength estimation in squat shear walls:A comparative study and practical implications

This study investigated the influence of input parameters on the shear strength of RC squat walls using machine learning (ML) models and finite element method (FEM) analysis. The analyses were conducted on the largest currently available dataset of 639 squat RC walls with a height-to-length ratio of less than or equal to 2.0. The findings suggest that ensemble learning models, specifically XGBoost, CatBoost, GBRT, and RF, are effective in predicting the shear strength of RC short shear walls and using Bayesian Optimization for hyperparameter tuning improves their performance. The axial load had a greater influence on the shear strength than reinforcement ratio, and longitudinal reinforcement had a more significant impact compared to horizontal and vertical reinforcement. The performance of XGBoost model significantly outperforms traditional design models such as ACI 318-19, ASCE/SEI 43-05, and Wood 1990. Additionally, reducing the number of input features from 13 to 10, 8, or 6 still yields reliable predictions with high accuracy. The finding suggests that the use of XGBoost models provides not only comparable accuracy to FEM simulations with non-linear pushover analysis but also the first one can predict the lateral strength in the case of incomplete data which could not be done by FEM. A web application incorporating XGBoost model with various input features can provide valuable insights for predicting the lateral strength of squat shear walls in building structures.</p

Enhancing gold recovery from electronic waste via lixiviant metabolic engineering in Chromobacterium violaceum

10.1038/srep02236Scientific Reports3

Modeling of Environmental Fate and Effects of Oil Leakages from Abandoned Subsea Wells Using an Environmental Impact Factor Tool

Potential environmental consequences of oil leakages (i.e., continuous uncontrolled releases at low flow rate over a long period of time) need to be taken into consideration in the ongoing development of plug and abandonment (P&A) activities on the Norwegian continental shelf. Regulations of P&A wells employ a “zero leakage” target; however, environmental risk monitoring strategies for permanent abandonment are not yet in place. Predicting and estimating the consequences of adverse environmental impacts through a modeling approach can play a key role in evaluating and monitoring environmental risk. In this paper, we present a modeling study of the fate and effects of an oil leakage from abandoned wells using a theoretical scenario on the Norwegian continental shelf. Environmental impact factors (EIFs) derived from the Dose related Risk and Effect Assessment Model (DREAM), previously designed to characterize the effects of produced water discharges, were used to assess impacts of leakages from abandoned wells. Exposure assessments for the EIFs were modified to include specific hydrocarbon contributions derived from different sized oil droplets from the leakages. Because DREAM is not generally used for chronic low-rate oil releases, an update of the database with chronic predicted no-effect concentrations, as input data for effects modeling, was conducted. In general, EIFs became stable after simulations of 30 d. The area from the release site and up to a few hundred meters southward had the most locations of high impact. Chronic exposure and effects on organisms potentially occurred as a steady-state effect over a long period. Risks, at which more than 95% of species will be negatively affected, appeared surrounding the release site, indicating a need for mitigation measures. These results show that the EIF tool can be used for risk management and P&A regulation by identifying potentially harmful leakages.publishedVersio

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Development of a shape-based algorithm for identification of asymptomatic vertebral compression fractures: A proof-of-principle study.

OBJECTIVES: Vertebral fracture is both common and serious among adults, yet it often goes undiagnosed. This study aimed to develop a shape-based algorithm (SBA) for the automatic identification of vertebral fractures. METHODS: The study included 144 participants (50 individuals with a fracture and 94 without a fracture) whose plain thoracolumbar spine X-rays were taken. Clinical diagnosis of vertebral fracture (grade 0 to 3) was made by rheumatologists using Genant's semiquantitative method. The SBA algorithm was developed to determine the ratio of vertebral body height loss. Based on the ratio, SBA classifies a vertebra into 4 classes: 0 = normal, 1 = mild fracture, 2 = moderate fracture, 3 = severe fracture). The concordance between clinical diagnosis and SBA-based classification was assessed at both person and vertebra levels. RESULTS: At the person level, the SBA achieved a sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 62% (95% CI, 51%-72%). At the vertebra level, the SBA achieved a sensitivity of 84% (95% CI, 72%-93%), and a specificity of 88% (95% CI, 85%-90%). On average, the SBA took 0.3 s to assess each X-ray. CONCLUSIONS: The SBA developed here is a fast and efficient tool that can be used to systematically screen for asymptomatic vertebral fractures and reduce the workload of healthcare professionals