Polygenic determinants in extremes of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.

Science.gov (United States)

Dron, Jacqueline S; Wang, Jian; Low-Kam, Cécile; Khetarpal, Sumeet A; Robinson, John F; McIntyre, Adam D; Ban, Matthew R; Cao, Henian; Rhainds, David; Dubé, Marie-Pierre; Rader, Daniel J; Lettre, Guillaume; Tardif, Jean-Claude; Hegele, Robert A

2017-11-01

HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) remains a superior biochemical predictor of CVD risk, but its genetic basis is incompletely defined. In patients with extreme HDL-C concentrations, we concurrently evaluated the contributions of multiple large- and small-effect genetic variants. In a discovery cohort of 255 unrelated lipid clinic patients with extreme HDL-C levels, we used a targeted next-generation sequencing panel to evaluate rare variants in known HDL metabolism genes, simultaneously with common variants bundled into a polygenic trait score. Two additional cohorts were used for validation and included 1,746 individuals from the Montréal Heart Institute Biobank and 1,048 individuals from the University of Pennsylvania. Findings were consistent between cohorts: we found rare heterozygous large-effect variants in 18.7% and 10.9% of low- and high-HDL-C patients, respectively. We also found common variant accumulation, indicated by extreme polygenic trait scores, in an additional 12.8% and 19.3% of overall cases of low- and high-HDL-C extremes, respectively. Thus, the genetic basis of extreme HDL-C concentrations encountered clinically is frequently polygenic, with contributions from both rare large-effect and common small-effect variants. Multiple types of genetic variants should be considered as contributing factors in patients with extreme dyslipidemia. Copyright © 2017 by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Polygenic determinants in extremes of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol[S

Science.gov (United States)

Dron, Jacqueline S.; Wang, Jian; Low-Kam, Cécile; Khetarpal, Sumeet A.; Robinson, John F.; McIntyre, Adam D.; Ban, Matthew R.; Cao, Henian; Rhainds, David; Dubé, Marie-Pierre; Rader, Daniel J.; Lettre, Guillaume; Tardif, Jean-Claude

2017-01-01

HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) remains a superior biochemical predictor of CVD risk, but its genetic basis is incompletely defined. In patients with extreme HDL-C concentrations, we concurrently evaluated the contributions of multiple large- and small-effect genetic variants. In a discovery cohort of 255 unrelated lipid clinic patients with extreme HDL-C levels, we used a targeted next-generation sequencing panel to evaluate rare variants in known HDL metabolism genes, simultaneously with common variants bundled into a polygenic trait score. Two additional cohorts were used for validation and included 1,746 individuals from the Montréal Heart Institute Biobank and 1,048 individuals from the University of Pennsylvania. Findings were consistent between cohorts: we found rare heterozygous large-effect variants in 18.7% and 10.9% of low- and high-HDL-C patients, respectively. We also found common variant accumulation, indicated by extreme polygenic trait scores, in an additional 12.8% and 19.3% of overall cases of low- and high-HDL-C extremes, respectively. Thus, the genetic basis of extreme HDL-C concentrations encountered clinically is frequently polygenic, with contributions from both rare large-effect and common small-effect variants. Multiple types of genetic variants should be considered as contributing factors in patients with extreme dyslipidemia. PMID:28870971

Observations and Predictions of Wave Runup, Extreme Water Levels, and Medium-Term Dune Erosion during Storm Conditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Serge Suanez

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Monitoring of dune erosion and accretion on the high-energy macrotidal Vougot beach in North Brittany (France over the past decade (2004–2014 has revealed significant morphological changes. Dune toe erosion/accretion records have been compared with extreme water level measurements, defined as the sum of (i astronomic tide; (ii storm surge; and (iii vertical wave runup. Runup parameterization was conducted using swash limits, beach profiles, and hydrodynamic (Hm0, Tm0,–1, and high tide water level—HTWL data sets obtained from high frequency field surveys. The aim was to quantify in-situ environmental conditions and dimensional swash parameters for the best calibration of Battjes [1] runup formula. In addition, an empirical equation based on observed tidal water level and offshore wave height was produced to estimate extreme water levels over the whole period of dune morphological change monitoring. A good correlation between this empirical equation (1.01Hmoξo and field runup measurements (Rmax was obtained (R2 85%. The goodness of fit given by the RMSE was about 0.29 m. A good relationship was noticed between dune erosion and high water levels when the water levels exceeded the dune foot elevation. In contrast, when extreme water levels were below the height of the toe of the dune sediment budget increased, inducing foredune recovery. These erosion and accretion phases may be related to the North Atlantic Oscillation Index.

Probability modeling of high flow extremes in Yingluoxia watershed, the upper reaches of Heihe River basin

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Zhanling; Li, Zhanjie; Li, Chengcheng

2014-05-01

Probability modeling of hydrological extremes is one of the major research areas in hydrological science. Most basins in humid and semi-humid south and east of China are concerned for probability modeling analysis of high flow extremes. While, for the inland river basin which occupies about 35% of the country area, there is a limited presence of such studies partly due to the limited data availability and a relatively low mean annual flow. The objective of this study is to carry out probability modeling of high flow extremes in the upper reach of Heihe River basin, the second largest inland river basin in China, by using the peak over threshold (POT) method and Generalized Pareto Distribution (GPD), in which the selection of threshold and inherent assumptions for POT series are elaborated in details. For comparison, other widely used probability distributions including generalized extreme value (GEV), Lognormal, Log-logistic and Gamma are employed as well. Maximum likelihood estimate is used for parameter estimations. Daily flow data at Yingluoxia station from 1978 to 2008 are used. Results show that, synthesizing the approaches of mean excess plot, stability features of model parameters, return level plot and the inherent independence assumption of POT series, an optimum threshold of 340m3/s is finally determined for high flow extremes in Yingluoxia watershed. The resulting POT series is proved to be stationary and independent based on Mann-Kendall test, Pettitt test and autocorrelation test. In terms of Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Anderson-Darling test and several graphical diagnostics such as quantile and cumulative density function plots, GPD provides the best fit to high flow extremes in the study area. The estimated high flows for long return periods demonstrate that, as the return period increasing, the return level estimates are probably more uncertain. The frequency of high flow extremes exhibits a very slight but not significant decreasing trend from 1978 to

On extreme atmospheric and marine nitrogen fluxes and chlorophyll-a levels in the Kattegat Strait

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. B. Hasager

2003-01-01

Full Text Available A retrospective analysis is carried out to investigate the importance of the vertical fluxes of nitrogen to the marine sea surface layer in which high chlorophyll a levels may cause blooms of harmful algae and subsequent turn over and oxygen depletion at the bottom of the sea. Typically nitrogen is the limiting factor for phytoplankton in the Kattegat Strait during summer periods (May to August and the major nitrogen inputs come from the atmosphere and deep-water entrainment. The extreme reoccurrence values of nitrogen from atmospheric wet and dry deposition and deep-water flux entrainments are calculated by the periodic maximum method and the results are successfully compared to a map of chlorophyll return periods based on in-situ observations. The one-year return of extreme atmospheric wet deposition is around 60 mg N m-2 day-1 and 30 mg N m-2 day-1 for deep-water entrainment. Atmospheric nitrogen dry deposition is insignificant in the context of algal blooms. At longer time-scales e.g. at 10-year return, the nitrogen deep-water entrainment is larger than the extreme of atmospheric wet deposition. This indicates that the pool of nitrogen released from the sea bottom by deep-water entrainment forced by high winds greatly exceeds the atmospheric pool of nitrogen washed out by precipitation. At the frontal zone of the Kattegat Strait and Skagerrak, the nitrogen deep-water entrainment is very high and this explains the high 10-year return chlorophyll level at 8 mg m-3 in the Kattegat Strait. In the southern part, the extreme chlorophyll level is only 4 mg m-3 according to the statistics of a multi-year time-series of water samples. The chlorophyll level varies greatly in time and space as documented by a series of SeaWiFS satellite maps (OC4v4 algorithm of chlorophyll ScanFish and buoy observations from an experimental period in the Kattegat Strait. It is recommended to sample in-situ chlorophyll observation collocated in time to the satellite

Exome sequencing in schizophrenic patients with high levels of homozygosity identifies novel and extremely rare mutations in the GABA/glutamatergic pathways.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Edoardo Giacopuzzi

Full Text Available Inbreeding is a known risk factor for recessive Mendelian diseases and previous studies have suggested that it could also play a role in complex disorders, such as psychiatric diseases. Recent inbreeding results in the presence of long runs of homozygosity (ROHs along the genome, which are also defined as autozygosity regions. Genetic variants in these regions have two alleles that are identical by descent, thus increasing the odds of bearing rare recessive deleterious mutations due to a homozygous state. A recent study showed a suggestive enrichment of long ROHs in schizophrenic patients, suggesting that recent inbreeding could play a role in the disease. To better understand the impact of autozygosity on schizophrenia risk, we selected, from a cohort of 180 Italian patients, seven subjects with extremely high numbers of large ROHs that were likely due to recent inbreeding and characterized the mutational landscape within their ROHs using Whole Exome Sequencing and, gene set enrichment analysis. We identified a significant overlap (17%; empirical p-value = 0.0171 between genes inside ROHs affected by low frequency functional homozygous variants (107 genes and the group of most promising candidate genes mutated in schizophrenia. Moreover, in four patients, we identified novel and extremely rare damaging mutations in the genes involved in neurodevelopment (MEGF8 and in GABA/glutamatergic synaptic transmission (GAD1, FMN1, ANO2. These results provide insights into the contribution of rare recessive mutations and inbreeding as risk factors for schizophrenia. ROHs that are likely due to recent inbreeding harbor a combination of predisposing low-frequency variants and extremely rare variants that have a high impact on pivotal biological pathways implicated in the disease. In addition, this study confirms that focusing on patients with high levels of homozygosity could be a useful prioritization strategy for discovering new high-impact mutations in

Exome sequencing in schizophrenic patients with high levels of homozygosity identifies novel and extremely rare mutations in the GABA/glutamatergic pathways.

Science.gov (United States)

Giacopuzzi, Edoardo; Gennarelli, Massimo; Minelli, Alessandra; Gardella, Rita; Valsecchi, Paolo; Traversa, Michele; Bonvicini, Cristian; Vita, Antonio; Sacchetti, Emilio; Magri, Chiara

2017-01-01

Inbreeding is a known risk factor for recessive Mendelian diseases and previous studies have suggested that it could also play a role in complex disorders, such as psychiatric diseases. Recent inbreeding results in the presence of long runs of homozygosity (ROHs) along the genome, which are also defined as autozygosity regions. Genetic variants in these regions have two alleles that are identical by descent, thus increasing the odds of bearing rare recessive deleterious mutations due to a homozygous state. A recent study showed a suggestive enrichment of long ROHs in schizophrenic patients, suggesting that recent inbreeding could play a role in the disease. To better understand the impact of autozygosity on schizophrenia risk, we selected, from a cohort of 180 Italian patients, seven subjects with extremely high numbers of large ROHs that were likely due to recent inbreeding and characterized the mutational landscape within their ROHs using Whole Exome Sequencing and, gene set enrichment analysis. We identified a significant overlap (17%; empirical p-value = 0.0171) between genes inside ROHs affected by low frequency functional homozygous variants (107 genes) and the group of most promising candidate genes mutated in schizophrenia. Moreover, in four patients, we identified novel and extremely rare damaging mutations in the genes involved in neurodevelopment (MEGF8) and in GABA/glutamatergic synaptic transmission (GAD1, FMN1, ANO2). These results provide insights into the contribution of rare recessive mutations and inbreeding as risk factors for schizophrenia. ROHs that are likely due to recent inbreeding harbor a combination of predisposing low-frequency variants and extremely rare variants that have a high impact on pivotal biological pathways implicated in the disease. In addition, this study confirms that focusing on patients with high levels of homozygosity could be a useful prioritization strategy for discovering new high-impact mutations in genetically

Wave-induced extreme water levels in the Puerto Morelos fringing reef lagoon

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Torres-Freyermuth

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Wave-induced extreme water levels in the Puerto Morelos fringing reef lagoon are investigated by means of a phase-resolving non-hydrostatic wave model (SWASH. This model solves the nonlinear shallow water equations including non-hydrostatic pressure. The one-dimensional version of the model is implemented in order to investigate wave transformation in fringing reefs. Firstly, the numerical model is validated with (i laboratory experiments conducted on a physical model (Demirbilek et al., 2007and (ii field observations (Coronado et al., 2007. Numerical results show good agreement with both experimental and field data. The comparison against the physical model results, for energetic wave conditions, indicates that high- and low-frequency wave transformation is well reproduced. Moreover, extreme water-level conditions measured during the passage of Hurricane Ivan in Puerto Morelos are also estimated by the numerical tool. Subsequently, the model is implemented at different along-reef locations in Puerto Morelos. Extreme water levels, wave-induced setup, and infragravity wave energy are estimated inside the reef lagoon for different storm wave conditions (H_s >2 m. The numerical results revealed a strong correlation between the offshore sea-swell wave energy and the setup. In contrast, infragravity waves are shown to be the result of a more complex pattern which heavily relies on the reef geometry. Indeed, the southern end of the reef lagoon provides evidence of resonance excitation, suggesting that the reef barrier may act as either a natural flood protection morphological feature, or as an inundation hazard enhancer depending on the incident wave conditions.

Extreme states of matter high energy density physics

CERN Document Server

Fortov, Vladimir E

2016-01-01

With its many beautiful colour pictures, this book gives fascinating insights into the unusual forms and behaviour of matter under extremely high pressures and temperatures. These extreme states are generated, among other things, by strong shock, detonation and electric explosion waves, dense laser beams,electron and ion beams, hypersonic entry of spacecraft into dense atmospheres of planets, and in many other situations characterized by extremely high pressures and temperatures.Written by one of the world's foremost experts on the topic, this book will inform and fascinate all scientists dealing with materials properties and physics, and also serve as an excellent introduction to plasma-, shock-wave and high-energy-density physics for students and newcomers seeking an overview. This second edition is thoroughly revised and expanded, in particular with new material on high energy-density physics, nuclear explosions and other nuclear transformation processes.

Total Water Level Fun Facts: The Relative Contribution of Extreme Total Water Levels Along the US West Coast

Science.gov (United States)

Serafin, K.; Ruggiero, P.; Stockdon, H. F.

2016-02-01

In the fall of 2014, parts of the US West Coast endured some of the highest monthly mean sea level anomalies on record, likely due to the presence of "the blob" (Bond et al., 2015), an anomalously warm water mass in the NE Pacific. However, despite the significantly above average water levels, the coastline experienced only marginal coastal flooding and erosion hazards because the ensuing winter lacked significant storms, underscoring the fact that extreme total water levels (TWLs) are compound events. To better understand how several individual processes combine to cause devastating coastal hazards, we investigate the relative contribution that each component (waves, tides, and non-tidal residuals) has on extreme TWLs on sandy beaches. Water level records along the US West Coast are decomposed into mean sea level, astronomical tide, and non-tidal residuals (NTRs). The NTR is further split into an intra-annual seasonal signal, monthly mean sea level anomalies (inter-annual variability), and meteorological surge. TWL time series are then generated by combining water levels with wave runup, computed using wave data and beach morphology. We use this data-driven, structural function approach to investigate the spatial variability of the relative contribution of each component to the maximum TWL event on record. We also use a probabilistic, full simulation TWL model (Serafin and Ruggiero, 2014) to generate multiple, synthetic TWL records, to explore the relative contribution of each component to extreme TWL return levels. We assess the sensitivity to local beach morphology by computing TWLs for a range of observed beach slopes. Extreme TWLs are higher in Oregon and Washington than in California. Wave runup typically comprises > 50% of the TWL signal, while NTRs often compose < 5%, illustrating the importance wave climate has on the potential for extreme TWLs. While waves are typically larger in the North, California experiences greater contributions to extreme TWLs from

Extreme water level and wave estimation for nearshore of Ningde City

Science.gov (United States)

Jin, Y. D.; Wang, E. K.; Xu, G. Q.

2017-08-01

The high and low design water levels are calculated by observation tidal data in sea areas of Ningde offshore wind power project from September 2010 to August 2011, with the value 318 cm and -246 cm, respectively. The extreme high and low levels are also calculated using synchronous difference ratio method based on station data from 1973 to 2005 at Sansha station. The value is 431 cm and -378 cm respectively. The design wave elements are estimated using the wave data from Beishuang Station and Pingtan station. On this basis, the SWAN wave model is applied to calculating the design wave elements in the engineering sea areas. The results show that the southern sea area is mainly affected by the wave effect on ESE, and the northern is mainly affected by the E waves. This paper is helpful and useful for design and construction of offshore and coastal engineering.

Extreme lipoprotein(a) levels and risk of myocardial infarction in the general population

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kamstrup, Pia R; Benn, Marianne; Tybjaerg-Hansen, Anne

2008-01-01

Elevated lipoprotein(a) levels are associated with myocardial infarction (MI) in some but not all studies. Limitations of previous studies include lack of risk estimates for extreme lipoprotein(a) levels, measurements in long-term frozen samples, no correction for regression dilution bias, and lack...... of absolute risk estimates in the general population. We tested the hypothesis that extreme lipoprotein(a) levels predict MI in the general population, measuring levels shortly after sampling, correcting for regression dilution bias, and calculating hazard ratios and absolute risk estimates....

Laser waveform control of extreme ultraviolet high harmonics from solids.

Science.gov (United States)

You, Yong Sing; Wu, Mengxi; Yin, Yanchun; Chew, Andrew; Ren, Xiaoming; Gholam-Mirzaei, Shima; Browne, Dana A; Chini, Michael; Chang, Zenghu; Schafer, Kenneth J; Gaarde, Mette B; Ghimire, Shambhu

2017-05-01

Solid-state high-harmonic sources offer the possibility of compact, high-repetition-rate attosecond light emitters. However, the time structure of high harmonics must be characterized at the sub-cycle level. We use strong two-cycle laser pulses to directly control the time-dependent nonlinear current in single-crystal MgO, leading to the generation of extreme ultraviolet harmonics. We find that harmonics are delayed with respect to each other, yielding an atto-chirp, the value of which depends on the laser field strength. Our results provide the foundation for attosecond pulse metrology based on solid-state harmonics and a new approach to studying sub-cycle dynamics in solids.

Subseasonal to Seasonal Predictions of U.S. West Coast High Water Levels

Science.gov (United States)

Khouakhi, A.; Villarini, G.; Zhang, W.; Slater, L. J.

2017-12-01

Extreme sea levels pose a significant threat to coastal communities, ecosystems, and assets, as they are conducive to coastal flooding, coastal erosion and inland salt-water intrusion. As sea levels continue to rise, these sea level extremes - including occasional minor coastal flooding experienced during high tide (nuisance floods) - are of concern. Extreme sea levels are increasing at many locations around the globe and have been attributed largely to rising mean sea levels associated with intra-seasonal to interannual climate processes such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Here, intra-seasonal to seasonal probabilistic forecasts of high water levels are computed at the Toke Point tide gage station on the US west coast. We first identify the main climate drivers that are responsible for high water levels and examine their predictability using General Circulation Models (GCMs) from the North American Multi-Model Ensemble (NMME). These drivers are then used to develop a probabilistic framework for the seasonal forecasting of high water levels. We focus on the climate controls on the frequency of high water levels using the number of exceedances above the 99.5th percentile and above the nuisance flood level established by the National Weather Service. Our findings indicate good forecast skill at the shortest lead time, with the skill that decreases as we increase the lead time. In general, these models aptly capture the year-to-year variability in the observational records.

Analysis of extreme sea level along the east coast of India

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Unnikrishnan, A.S.; Sundar, D.; Blackman, D.

the r-largest annual maximum method, the joint probability method (JPM) as well as the revised joint probability method (RJPM) was performed to estimate the return periods of extreme sea level. JPM gave an underestimate of levels for long return periods...

Modelling the increased frequency of extreme sea levels in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta due to sea level rise and other effects of climate change.

Science.gov (United States)

Kay, S; Caesar, J; Wolf, J; Bricheno, L; Nicholls, R J; Saiful Islam, A K M; Haque, A; Pardaens, A; Lowe, J A

2015-07-01

Coastal flooding due to storm surge and high tides is a serious risk for inhabitants of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) delta, as much of the land is close to sea level. Climate change could lead to large areas of land being subject to increased flooding, salinization and ultimate abandonment in West Bengal, India, and Bangladesh. IPCC 5th assessment modelling of sea level rise and estimates of subsidence rates from the EU IMPACT2C project suggest that sea level in the GBM delta region may rise by 0.63 to 0.88 m by 2090, with some studies suggesting this could be up to 0.5 m higher if potential substantial melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet is included. These sea level rise scenarios lead to increased frequency of high water coastal events. Any effect of climate change on the frequency and severity of storms can also have an effect on extreme sea levels. A shelf-sea model of the Bay of Bengal has been used to investigate how the combined effect of sea level rise and changes in other environmental conditions under climate change may alter the frequency of extreme sea level events for the period 1971 to 2099. The model was forced using atmospheric and oceanic boundary conditions derived from climate model projections and the future scenario increase in sea level was applied at its ocean boundary. The model results show an increased likelihood of extreme sea level events through the 21st century, with the frequency of events increasing greatly in the second half of the century: water levels that occurred at decadal time intervals under present-day model conditions occurred in most years by the middle of the 21st century and 3-15 times per year by 2100. The heights of the most extreme events tend to increase more in the first half of the century than the second. The modelled scenarios provide a case study of how sea level rise and other effects of climate change may combine to produce a greatly increased threat to life and property in the GBM delta by the end

Automatic residue removal for high-NA extreme illumination

Science.gov (United States)

Moon, James; Nam, Byong-Sub; Jeong, Joo-Hong; Kong, Dong-Ho; Nam, Byung-Ho; Yim, Dong Gyu

2007-10-01

An epidemic for smaller node has been that, as the device architecture shrinks, lithography process requires high Numerical Aperture (NA), and extreme illumination system. This, in turn, creates many lithography problems such as low lithography process margin (Depth of Focus, Exposure Latitude), unstable Critical Dimension (CD) uniformity and restricted guideline for device design rule and so on. Especially for high NA, extreme illumination such as immersion illumination systems, above all the related problems, restricted design rule due to forbidden pitch is critical and crucial issue. This forbidden pitch is composed of numerous optical effects but majority of these forbidden pitch compose of photo resist residue and these residue must be removed to relieve some room for already tight design rule. In this study, we propose automated algorithm to remove photo resist residue due to high NA and extreme illumination condition. This algorithm automatically self assembles assist patterns based on the original design layout, therefore insuring the safety and simplicity of the generated assist pattern to the original design and removes any resist residue created by extreme illumination condition. Also we tested our automated algorithm on full chip FLASH memory device and showed the residue removal effect by using commercial verification tools as well as on actual test wafer.

Mechanical characterization of alloys in extreme conditions of high strain rates and high temperature

Science.gov (United States)

Cadoni, Ezio

2018-03-01

The aim of this paper is the description of the mechanical characterization of alloys under extreme conditions of temperature and loading. In fact, in the frame of the Cost Action CA15102 “Solutions for Critical Raw Materials Under Extreme Conditions (CRM-EXTREME)” this aspect is crucial and many industrial applications have to consider the dynamic response of materials. Indeed, for a reduction and substitution of CRMs in alloys is necessary to design the materials and understand if the new materials behave better or if the substitution or reduction badly affect their performance. For this reason, a deep knowledge of the mechanical behaviour at high strain-rates of considered materials is required. In general, machinery manufacturing industry or transport industry as well as energy industry have important dynamic phenomena that are simultaneously affected by extended strain, high strain-rate, damage and pressure, as well as conspicuous temperature gradients. The experimental results in extreme conditions of high strain rate and high temperature of an austenitic stainless steel as well as a high-chromium tempered martensitic reduced activation steel Eurofer97 are presented.

Extreme value modeling for the analysis and prediction of time series of extreme tropospheric ozone levels: a case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Escarela, Gabriel

2012-06-01

The occurrence of high concentrations of tropospheric ozone is considered as one of the most important issues of air management programs. The prediction of dangerous ozone levels for the public health and the environment, along with the assessment of air quality control programs aimed at reducing their severity, is of considerable interest to the scientific community and to policy makers. The chemical mechanisms of tropospheric ozone formation are complex, and highly variable meteorological conditions contribute additionally to difficulties in accurate study and prediction of high levels of ozone. Statistical methods offer an effective approach to understand the problem and eventually improve the ability to predict maximum levels of ozone. In this paper an extreme value model is developed to study data sets that consist of periodically collected maxima of tropospheric ozone concentrations and meteorological variables. The methods are applied to daily tropospheric ozone maxima in Guadalajara City, Mexico, for the period January 1997 to December 2006. The model adjusts the daily rate of change in ozone for concurrent impacts of seasonality and present and past meteorological conditions, which include surface temperature, wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity, and ozone. The results indicate that trend, annual effects, and key meteorological variables along with some interactions explain the variation in daily ozone maxima. Prediction performance assessments yield reasonably good results.

Administering different levels of parenteral phosphate and amino acids did not influence growth in extremely preterm infants

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thomsen, Katrine Moe; Beck-Nielsen, Signe Sparre; Lando, Ane

2015-01-01

AIM: When a new high amino acid parenteral nutrition (PN) solution was introduced to our hospital, a design error led to decreased phosphate levels. This prompted us to examine the effect of three different PN solutions on plasma phosphate, plasma calcium and weight increases on extremely preterm...

The Effect of Sport Specialization on Lower Extremity Injury Rates in High School Athletes

OpenAIRE

McGuine, Timothy A.; Bell, David; Brooks, Margaret Alison; Hetzel, Scott; Pfaller, Adam; Post, Eric

2017-01-01

Objectives: Sport specialization has been shown to be associated with increased risk of musculoskeletal lower extremity injuries (LEI) in adolescent athletes presenting in clinical settings. However, the association of sport specialization and incidence of LEI has not been studied prospectively in a large population of adolescent athletes. The objective of this study was to compare the incidence of LEI in high school athletes identified as having low (LOW), moderate (MOD) or high (HIGH) level...

Lower extremity muscle activation during baseball pitching.

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, Brian M; Stodden, David F; Nixon, Megan K

2010-04-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate muscle activation levels of select lower extremity muscles during the pitching motion. Bilateral surface electromyography data on 5 lower extremity muscles (biceps femoris, rectus femoris, gluteus maximus, vastus medialis, and gastrocnemius) were collected on 11 highly skilled baseball pitchers and compared with individual maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) data. The pitching motion was divided into 4 distinct phases: phase 1, initiation of pitching motion to maximum stride leg knee height; phase 2, maximum stride leg knee height to stride foot contact (SFC); phase 3, SFC to ball release; and phase 4, ball release to 0.5 seconds after ball release (follow-through). Results indicated that trail leg musculature elicited moderate to high activity levels during phases 2 and 3 (38-172% of MVIC). Muscle activity levels of the stride leg were moderate to high during phases 2-4 (23-170% of MVIC). These data indicate a high demand for lower extremity strength and endurance. Specifically, coaches should incorporate unilateral and bilateral lower extremity exercises for strength improvement or maintenance and to facilitate dynamic stabilization of the lower extremities during the pitching motion.

FDG-PET imaging of lower extremity muscular activity during level walking

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oi, Naoyuki; Iwaya, Tsutomu; Tobimatsu, Yoshiko; Fujimoto, Toshihiko; Itoh, Masatoshi; Yamaguchi, Keiichiro

2003-01-01

We analyzed muscular activity of the lower extremities during level walking using positron emission tomography (PET) with 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose ( 18 F-FDG). We examined 17 healthy male subjects; 11 were assigned to a walking group and 6 to a resting group. After 18 F-FDG injection, the walking group subjects walked at a free speed for 15 min. A whole-body image was then obtained by a PET camera, and the standardized uptake ratio (SUR) was computed for each muscle. The SUR for each muscle of the walking group was compared with that for the corresponding muscles in the resting group. The level of muscular activity of all the muscles we examined were higher during level walking than when resting. The activity of the lower leg muscles was higher than that of the thigh muscles during level walking. The muscular activity of the soleus was highest among all the muscles examined. Among the gluteal muscles, the muscular activity of the gluteus minimus was higher than that of the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius. The concurrent validity of measuring muscular activity of the lower extremity during level walking by the PET method using 18 F-FDG was demonstrated. (author)

Sandy berm and beach-ridge formation in relation to extreme sea-levels

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bendixen, Mette; Clemmensen, Lars B; Kroon, Aart

2013-01-01

The formation of berms and their transformation into beach ridges in a micro-tidal environment is coupled to wave run-up and overtopping during extreme sea levels. A straight-forward comparison between extreme sea levels due to storm-surges and active berm levels is impossible in the semi...... prograding spit on the south-eastern Baltic shores of Zealand, Denmark. The modern, sandy beach at this location consists of a beachface with a shallow incipient berm, a mature berm, and a dune-covered beach ridge. It borders a beach-ridge plain to the west, where more than 20 N–S oriented beach ridges...... and swales are present. Measured water-level data from 1991 to 2012 and topographical observations, carried out during fair weather period and during a storm event, provided the basis for a conceptual model exhibiting berm formation and transformation into the local beach-ridge system. The character...

Serum levels of fetal antigen 1 in extreme nutritional States

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andries, Alin; Niemeier, Andreas; Støving, Rene K

2012-01-01

Objective. Recent data suggest that fetal antigen (FA1) is linked to disorders of body weight. Thus, we measured FA1 serum levels in two extreme nutritional states of morbid obesity (MO) and anorexia nervosa (AN) and monitored its response to weight changes. Design. FA1 and insulin serum...

[Clinical characteristics and prognosis of colon cancer patient with extremely elevated carcinoembryonic antigen level].

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Pengju; Yao, Yunfeng; Zhang, Dakui; Gu, Jin

2015-10-01

To explore the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of colon cancer patients with extremely elevated serum carcinoembryonic antigen(CEA) level before operation(>50 μg/L). Clinicopathological and follow-up data of 1250 patients with colonic adenocarcinoma undergoing primary tumor resection between January 2001 and December 2011 were retrospectively analyzed. All the patients were divided into three groups according to the preoperative serum CEA levels as normal group (0-5 μg/L, 721 cases), elevated group(5-50 μg/L, 408 cases) and extremely elevated(>50 μg/L, 121 cases). Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the overall survival and disease-free survival. Log-rank test was used to compare the survival between groups. Cox regression was used to screen the independent prognostic factors of colon cancer. Compared with normal and elevated groups, patients with extremely elevated CEA had more advanced T,N,M stages (Pcolon cancer (all PColon cancer patients with extremely elevated preoperative CEA levels are associated with more unfavorable pathological factors, advanced TNM stage and more distant metastases (especially the liver metastases) during the follow-up. The elevated degree of preoperative CEA level is an independent poor prognostic factor of patients with colon cancer.

Inelastic X-ray scattering experiments at extreme conditions: high temperatures and high pressures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S.Hosokawa

2008-03-01

Full Text Available In this article, we review the present status of experimental techniques under extreme conditions of high temperature and high pressure used for inelastic X-ray scattering (IXS experiments of liquid metals, semiconductors, molten salts, molecular liquids, and supercritical water and methanol. For high temperature experiments, some types of single-crystal sapphire cells were designed depending on the temperature of interest and the sample thickness for the X-ray transmission. Single-crystal diamond X-ray windows attached to the externally heated high-pressure vessel were used for the IXS experiment of supercritical water and methanol. Some typical experimental results are also given, and the perspective of IXS technique under extreme conditions is discussed.

Understanding extreme sea levels for broad-scale coastal impact and adaptation analysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wahl, T.; Haigh, I.D.; Nicholls, R.J.; Arns, A.; Dangendorf, S.; Hinkel, J.; Slangen, A.B.A.

2017-01-01

One of the main consequences of mean sea level rise (SLR) on human settlements is an increase in flood risk due to an increase in the intensity and frequency of extreme sea levels (ESL). While substantial research efforts are directed towards quantifying projections and uncertainties of future

Observations and estimates of wave-driven water level extremes at the Marshall Islands

Science.gov (United States)

Merrifield, M. A.; Becker, J. M.; Ford, M.; Yao, Y.

2014-10-01

Wave-driven extreme water levels are examined for coastlines protected by fringing reefs using field observations obtained in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The 2% exceedence water level near the shoreline due to waves is estimated empirically for the study sites from breaking wave height at the outer reef and by combining separate contributions from setup, sea and swell, and infragravity waves, which are estimated based on breaking wave height and water level over the reef flat. Although each component exhibits a tidal dependence, they sum to yield a 2% exceedence level that does not. A hindcast based on the breaking wave height parameterization is used to assess factors leading to flooding at Roi-Namur caused by an energetic swell event during December 2008. Extreme water levels similar to December 2008 are projected to increase significantly with rising sea level as more wave and tide events combine to exceed inundation threshold levels.

Recurrent Embolic Strokes of Undetermined Source in a Patient with Extreme Lipoprotein(a Levels

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zachary Bulwa

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Lipoprotein(a is a plasma lipoprotein and known cardiovascular risk factor most recently implicated in the development of high-risk carotid atherosclerotic plaques without significant carotid stenosis. We present a case of a young African-American female with recurrent embolic strokes of undetermined source. After our thorough investigation we identified the link between a small, irregular plaque in the right internal carotid artery and an extremely elevated plasma level of lipoprotein(a as the source of her embolic strokes.

High resolution spectroscopy of six new extreme helium stars

Science.gov (United States)

Heber, U.; Jones, G.; Drilling, J. S.

1986-01-01

High resolution spectra of six newly discovered extreme helium stars are presented. LSS 5121 is shown to be a spectroscopical twin of the hot extreme helium star HD 160641. A preliminary LTE analysis of LSS 3184 yielded an effective temperature of 22,000 K and a surface gravity of log g = 3.2. Four stars form a new subgroup, classified by sharp-lined He I spectra and pronounced O II spectra, and it is conjectured that these lie close to the Eddington limit. The whole group of extreme helium stars apparently is inhomogeneous with respect to luminosity to mass ratio and chemical composition.

Workshop on extremely high energy density plasmas and their diagnostics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ishii, Shozo (ed.)

2001-09-01

Compiled are the papers presented at the workshop on 'Extremely High Energy Density Plasmas and Their Diagnostics' held at National Institute for Fusion Science. The papers cover physics and applications of extremely high-energy density plasmas such as dense z-pinch, plasma focus, and intense pulsed charged beams. Separate abstracts were presented for 7 of the papers in this report. The remaining 25 were considered outside the subject scope of INIS. (author)

Workshop on extremely high energy density plasmas and their diagnostics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ishii, Shozo

2001-09-01

Compiled are the papers presented at the workshop on 'Extremely High Energy Density Plasmas and Their Diagnostics' held at National Institute for Fusion Science. The papers cover physics and applications of extremely high-energy density plasmas such as dense z-pinch, plasma focus, and intense pulsed charged beams. Separate abstracts were presented for 7 of the papers in this report. The remaining 25 were considered outside the subject scope of INIS. (author)

Extremely-high vacuum pressure measurement by laser ionization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kokubun, Kiyohide

1991-01-01

Laser ionization method has the very high sensitivity for detecting atoms and molecules. Hurst et al. successfully detected a single Cs atom by means of resonance ionization spectroscopy developed by them. Noting this high sensitivity, the authors have attempted to apply the laser ionization method to measure gas pressure, particularly in the range down to extremely high vacuum. At present, hot cathode ionization gauges are used for measuring gas pressure down to ultrahigh vacuum, however, those have a number of disadvantages. The pressure measurement using lasers does not have such disadvantages. The pressure measurement utilizing the laser ionization method is based on the principle that when laser beam is focused through a lens, the amount of atom or molecule ions generated in the focused space region is proportional to gas pressure. In this paper, the experimental results are presented on the nonresonant multiphoton ionization characteristics of various kinds of gases, the ion detection system with high sensitivity and an extremely high vacuum system prepared for the laser ionization experiment. (K.I.)

Extreme levels of 222Rn and U in a private water supply

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lowry, J.D.; Hoxie, D.C.; Moreau, E.

1987-01-01

In 1985, the Maine Department of Human Services discovered a private water supply in Leeds, ME, that contains over 40,700 BqL -1 (1.1 x 10 +6 pCil -1 ) of 222 Rn on average, and ranges between 13,300 and 59,200 Bql -1 . The well water also contains a gross alpha concentration of approximately 10.0 BqL -1 (270 pCiL -1 ), of which more than 95 percent is U (403 ugL -1 ). The ratio of 234 U to 238 U averages 1.17, which compares closely to the sea water at 1.14. The Ra content comprises less than 2 percent of the gross alpha. The levels of 222 Rn and U are considered to be extremely high, with the 222 Rn being the highest known level the authors are aware of for a drinking water supply. This area of Maine has geologic features characteristic of those shown by others to have a high potential for elevated levels of 222 Rn and other radioisotopes. The purpose of this paper is to update the information presented previously about this site, in particular to the ramifications on treatment alternatives associated with the presence of both 222 Rn and U in a water supply

Extremely high frequency RF effects on electronics.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Loubriel, Guillermo Manuel; Vigliano, David; Coleman, Phillip Dale; Williams, Jeffery Thomas; Wouters, Gregg A.; Bacon, Larry Donald; Mar, Alan

2012-01-01

The objective of this work was to understand the fundamental physics of extremely high frequency RF effects on electronics. To accomplish this objective, we produced models, conducted simulations, and performed measurements to identify the mechanisms of effects as frequency increases into the millimeter-wave regime. Our purpose was to answer the questions, 'What are the tradeoffs between coupling, transmission losses, and device responses as frequency increases?', and, 'How high in frequency do effects on electronic systems continue to occur?' Using full wave electromagnetics codes and a transmission-line/circuit code, we investigated how extremely high-frequency RF propagates on wires and printed circuit board traces. We investigated both field-to-wire coupling and direct illumination of printed circuit boards to determine the significant mechanisms for inducing currents at device terminals. We measured coupling to wires and attenuation along wires for comparison to the simulations, looking at plane-wave coupling as it launches modes onto single and multiconductor structures. We simulated the response of discrete and integrated circuit semiconductor devices to those high-frequency currents and voltages, using SGFramework, the open-source General-purpose Semiconductor Simulator (gss), and Sandia's Charon semiconductor device physics codes. This report documents our findings.

Climate-driven ground-level ozone extreme in the fall over the Southeast United States.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yuzhong; Wang, Yuhang

2016-09-06

Ground-level ozone is adverse to human and vegetation health. High ground-level ozone concentrations usually occur over the United States in the summer, often referred to as the ozone season. However, observed monthly mean ozone concentrations in the southeastern United States were higher in October than July in 2010. The October ozone average in 2010 reached that of July in the past three decades (1980-2010). Our analysis shows that this extreme October ozone in 2010 over the Southeast is due in part to a dry and warm weather condition, which enhances photochemical production, air stagnation, and fire emissions. Observational evidence and modeling analysis also indicate that another significant contributor is enhanced emissions of biogenic isoprene, a major ozone precursor, from water-stressed plants under a dry and warm condition. The latter finding is corroborated by recent laboratory and field studies. This climate-induced biogenic control also explains the puzzling fact that the two extremes of high October ozone both occurred in the 2000s when anthropogenic emissions were lower than the 1980s and 1990s, in contrast to the observed decreasing trend of July ozone in the region. The occurrences of a drying and warming fall, projected by climate models, will likely lead to more active photochemistry, enhanced biogenic isoprene and fire emissions, an extension of the ozone season from summer to fall, and an increase of secondary organic aerosols in the Southeast, posing challenges to regional air quality management.

Observations and predictions of wave runup, extreme water levels, and medium-term dune erosion during storm conditions

OpenAIRE

Suanez , Serge ,; Cancouët , Romain; Floc'h , France; Blaise , Emmanuel; Ardhuin , Fabrice; Filipot , Jean-François; Cariolet , Jean-Marie; Delacourt , Christophe

2015-01-01

Monitoring of dune erosion and accretion on the high-energy macrotidal Vougot beach in North Brittany (France) over the past decade (2004–2014) has revealed significant morphological changes. Dune toe erosion/accretion records have been compared with extreme water level measurements, defined as the sum of (i) astronomic tide; (ii) storm surge; and (iii) vertical wave runup. Runup parameterization was conducted using swash limits, beach profiles, and hydrodynamic (Hm0, Tm0,–1, and high tide wa...

Solidification at the High and Low Rate Extreme

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Meco, Halim [Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)

2004-12-19

The microstructures formed upon solidification are strongly influenced by the imposed growth rates on an alloy system. Depending on the characteristics of the solidification process, a wide range of growth rates is accessible. The prevailing solidification mechanisms, and thus the final microstructure of the alloy, are governed by these imposed growth rates. At the high rate extreme, for instance, one can have access to novel microstructures that are unattainable at low growth rates. While the low growth rates can be utilized for the study of the intrinsic growth behavior of a certain phase growing from the melt. Although the length scales associated with certain processes, such as capillarity, and the diffusion of heat and solute, are different at low and high rate extremes, the phenomena that govern the selection of a certain microstructural length scale or a growth mode are the same. Consequently, one can analyze the solidification phenomena at both high and low rates by using the same governing principles. In this study, we examined the microstructural control at both low and high extremes. For the high rate extreme, the formation of crystalline products and factors that control the microstructure during rapid solidification by free-jet melt spinning are examined in Fe-Si-B system. Particular attention was given to the behavior of the melt pool at different quench-wheel speeds. Since the solidification process takes place within the melt-pool that forms on the rotating quench-wheel, we examined the influence of melt-pool dynamics on nucleation and growth of crystalline solidification products and glass formation. High-speed imaging of the melt-pool, analysis of ribbon microstructure, and measurement of ribbon geometry and surface character all indicate upper and lower limits for melt-spinning rates for which nucleation can be avoided, and fully amorphous ribbons can be achieved. Comparison of the relevant time scales reveals that surface-controlled melt

The spatial return level of aggregated hourly extreme rainfall in Peninsular Malaysia

Science.gov (United States)

Shaffie, Mardhiyyah; Eli, Annazirin; Wan Zin, Wan Zawiah; Jemain, Abdul Aziz

2015-07-01

This paper is intended to ascertain the spatial pattern of extreme rainfall distribution in Peninsular Malaysia at several short time intervals, i.e., on hourly basis. Motivation of this research is due to historical records of extreme rainfall in Peninsular Malaysia, whereby many hydrological disasters at this region occur within a short time period. The hourly periods considered are 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, and 24 h. Many previous hydrological studies dealt with daily rainfall data; thus, this study enables comparison to be made on the estimated performances between daily and hourly rainfall data analyses so as to identify the impact of extreme rainfall at a shorter time scale. Return levels based on the time aggregate considered are also computed. Parameter estimation using L-moment method for four probability distributions, namely, the generalized extreme value (GEV), generalized logistic (GLO), generalized Pareto (GPA), and Pearson type III (PE3) distributions were conducted. Aided with the L-moment diagram test and mean square error (MSE) test, GLO was found to be the most appropriate distribution to represent the extreme rainfall data. At most time intervals (10, 50, and 100 years), the spatial patterns revealed that the rainfall distribution across the peninsula differ for 1- and 24-h extreme rainfalls. The outcomes of this study would provide additional information regarding patterns of extreme rainfall in Malaysia which may not be detected when considering only a higher time scale such as daily; thus, appropriate measures for shorter time scales of extreme rainfall can be planned. The implementation of such measures would be beneficial to the authorities to reduce the impact of any disastrous natural event.

Quantifying the role of climate variability on extreme total water level impacts: An application of a full simulation model to Ocean Beach, California

Science.gov (United States)

Serafin, K.; Ruggiero, P.; Stockdon, H. F.; Barnard, P.; Long, J.

2014-12-01

Many coastal communities worldwide are vulnerable to flooding and erosion driven by extreme total water levels (TWL), potentially dangerous events produced by the combination of large waves, high tides, and high non-tidal residuals. The West coast of the United States provides an especially challenging environment to model these processes due to its complex geological setting combined with uncertain forecasts for sea level rise (SLR), changes in storminess, and possible changes in the frequency of major El Niños. Our research therefore aims to develop an appropriate methodology to assess present-day and future storm-induced coastal hazards along the entire U.S. West coast, filling this information gap. We present the application of this framework in a pilot study at Ocean Beach, California, a National Park site within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area where existing event-scale coastal change data can be used for model calibration and verification. We use a probabilistic, full simulation TWL model (TWL-FSM; Serafin and Ruggiero, in press) that captures the seasonal and interannual climatic variability in extremes using functions of regional climate indices, such as the Multivariate ENSO index (MEI), to represent atmospheric patterns related to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). In order to characterize the effect of climate variability on TWL components, we refine the TWL-FSM by splitting non-tidal residuals into low (monthly mean sea level anomalies) and high frequency (storm surge) components. We also develop synthetic climate indices using Markov sequences to reproduce the autocorrelated nature of ENSO behavior. With the refined TWL-FSM, we simulate each TWL component, resulting in synthetic TWL records providing robust estimates of extreme return level events (e.g., the 100-yr event) and the ability to examine the relative contribution of each TWL component to these extreme events. Extreme return levels are then used to drive storm impact models

Image-based motion compensation for high-resolution extremities cone-beam CT

Science.gov (United States)

Sisniega, A.; Stayman, J. W.; Cao, Q.; Yorkston, J.; Siewerdsen, J. H.; Zbijewski, W.

2016-03-01

Purpose: Cone-beam CT (CBCT) of the extremities provides high spatial resolution, but its quantitative accuracy may be challenged by involuntary sub-mm patient motion that cannot be eliminated with simple means of external immobilization. We investigate a two-step iterative motion compensation based on a multi-component metric of image sharpness. Methods: Motion is considered with respect to locally rigid motion within a particular region of interest, and the method supports application to multiple locally rigid regions. Motion is estimated by maximizing a cost function with three components: a gradient metric encouraging image sharpness, an entropy term that favors high contrast and penalizes streaks, and a penalty term encouraging smooth motion. Motion compensation involved initial coarse estimation of gross motion followed by estimation of fine-scale displacements using high resolution reconstructions. The method was evaluated in simulations with synthetic motion (1-4 mm) applied to a wrist volume obtained on a CMOS-based CBCT testbench. Structural similarity index (SSIM) quantified the agreement between motion-compensated and static data. The algorithm was also tested on a motion contaminated patient scan from dedicated extremities CBCT. Results: Excellent correction was achieved for the investigated range of displacements, indicated by good visual agreement with the static data. 10-15% improvement in SSIM was attained for 2-4 mm motions. The compensation was robust against increasing motion (4% decrease in SSIM across the investigated range, compared to 14% with no compensation). Consistent performance was achieved across a range of noise levels. Significant mitigation of artifacts was shown in patient data. Conclusion: The results indicate feasibility of image-based motion correction in extremities CBCT without the need for a priori motion models, external trackers, or fiducials.

Comparison of different statistical methods for estimation of extreme sea levels with wave set-up contribution

Science.gov (United States)

Kergadallan, Xavier; Bernardara, Pietro; Benoit, Michel; Andreewsky, Marc; Weiss, Jérôme

2013-04-01

Estimating the probability of occurrence of extreme sea levels is a central issue for the protection of the coast. Return periods of sea level with wave set-up contribution are estimated here in one site : Cherbourg in France in the English Channel. The methodology follows two steps : the first one is computation of joint probability of simultaneous wave height and still sea level, the second one is interpretation of that joint probabilities to assess a sea level for a given return period. Two different approaches were evaluated to compute joint probability of simultaneous wave height and still sea level : the first one is multivariate extreme values distributions of logistic type in which all components of the variables become large simultaneously, the second one is conditional approach for multivariate extreme values in which only one component of the variables have to be large. Two different methods were applied to estimate sea level with wave set-up contribution for a given return period : Monte-Carlo simulation in which estimation is more accurate but needs higher calculation time and classical ocean engineering design contours of type inverse-FORM in which the method is simpler and allows more complex estimation of wave setup part (wave propagation to the coast for example). We compare results from the two different approaches with the two different methods. To be able to use both Monte-Carlo simulation and design contours methods, wave setup is estimated with an simple empirical formula. We show advantages of the conditional approach compared to the multivariate extreme values approach when extreme sea-level occurs when either surge or wave height is large. We discuss the validity of the ocean engineering design contours method which is an alternative when computation of sea levels is too complex to use Monte-Carlo simulation method.

Extreme Transients in the High Energy Universe

Science.gov (United States)

Kouveliotou, Chryssa

2013-01-01

The High Energy Universe is rich in diverse populations of objects spanning the entire cosmological (time)scale, from our own present-day Milky Way to the re-ionization epoch. Several of these are associated with extreme conditions irreproducible in laboratories on Earth. Their study thus sheds light on the behavior of matter under extreme conditions, such as super-strong magnetic fields (in excess of 10^14 G), high gravitational potentials (e.g., Super Massive Black Holes), very energetic collimated explosions resulting in relativistic jet flows (e.g., Gamma Ray Bursts, exceeding 10^53 ergs). In the last thirty years, my work has been mostly focused on two apparently different but potentially linked populations of such transients: magnetars (highly magnetized neutron stars) and Gamma Ray Bursts (strongly beamed emission from relativistic jets), two populations that constitute unique astrophysical laboratories, while also giving us the tools to probe matter conditions in the Universe to redshifts beyond z=10, when the first stars and galaxies were assembled. I did not make this journey alone I have either led or participated in several international collaborations studying these phenomena in multi-wavelength observations; solitary perfection is not sufficient anymore in the world of High Energy Astrophysics. I will describe this journey, present crucial observational breakthroughs, discuss key results and muse on the future of this field.

Wave-mixing with high-order harmonics in extreme ultraviolet region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dao, Lap Van; Dinh, Khuong Ba; Le, Hoang Vu; Gaffney, Naylyn; Hannaford, Peter

2015-01-01

We report studies of the wave-mixing process in the extreme ultraviolet region with two near-infrared driving and controlling pulses with incommensurate frequencies (at 1400 nm and 800 nm). A non-collinear scheme for the two beams is used in order to spatially separate and to characterise the properties of the high-order wave-mixing field. We show that the extreme ultraviolet frequency mixing can be treated by perturbative, very high-order nonlinear optics; the modification of the wave-packet of the free electron needs to be considered in this process

Characteristics of Extreme Extratropical Cyclones in a High-Resolution Global Climate Model

Science.gov (United States)

Catalano, A. J.; Broccoli, A. J.; Kapnick, S. B.; Janoski, T. P.

2017-12-01

In the northeastern United States, many of the strongest impacts from extratropical cyclones (ETCs) are associated with storms that exhibit slow movement, unusual tracks, or exceptional intensity. Examples of extreme ETCs include the Appalachian storm of November 1950, the Perfect Storm of October 1991, and the Superstorm of March 1993. Owing to the rare nature of these events, it is difficult to quantify the associated risks (e.g. high winds, storm surge) given the limited duration of high-quality observational datasets. Furthermore, storms with even greater impacts than those observed may be possible, particularly in a warming climate. In the context of tropical cyclones, Lin and Emanuel (2016) have used the metaphor "grey swans" to refer to high-impact events that have not been observed but may be physically possible. One method for analyzing "grey swans" is to generate a larger sample of ETCs using a coupled climate model. Therefore, we use long simulations (over 1,000 years with atmospheric constituents fixed at 1990 levels) from a global climate model (GFDL FLOR) with 50km atmospheric resolution. FLOR has been shown to realistically simulate the spatial distribution and climatology of ETCs during the reanalysis era. We will discuss the climatological features of these extreme ETC events.

High resolution modelling of extreme precipitation events in urban areas

Science.gov (United States)

Siemerink, Martijn; Volp, Nicolette; Schuurmans, Wytze; Deckers, Dave

2015-04-01

The present day society needs to adjust to the effects of climate change. More extreme weather conditions are expected, which can lead to longer periods of drought, but also to more extreme precipitation events. Urban water systems are not designed for such extreme events. Most sewer systems are not able to drain the excessive storm water, causing urban flooding. This leads to high economic damage. In order to take appropriate measures against extreme urban storms, detailed knowledge about the behaviour of the urban water system above and below the streets is required. To investigate the behaviour of urban water systems during extreme precipitation events new assessment tools are necessary. These tools should provide a detailed and integral description of the flow in the full domain of overland runoff, sewer flow, surface water flow and groundwater flow. We developed a new assessment tool, called 3Di, which provides detailed insight in the urban water system. This tool is based on a new numerical methodology that can accurately deal with the interaction between overland runoff, sewer flow and surface water flow. A one-dimensional model for the sewer system and open channel flow is fully coupled to a two-dimensional depth-averaged model that simulates the overland flow. The tool uses a subgrid-based approach in order to take high resolution information of the sewer system and of the terrain into account [1, 2]. The combination of using the high resolution information and the subgrid based approach results in an accurate and efficient modelling tool. It is now possible to simulate entire urban water systems using extreme high resolution (0.5m x 0.5m) terrain data in combination with a detailed sewer and surface water network representation. The new tool has been tested in several Dutch cities, such as Rotterdam, Amsterdam and The Hague. We will present the results of an extreme precipitation event in the city of Schiedam (The Netherlands). This city deals with

Frequency Analysis of High Flow Extremes in the Yingluoxia Watershed in Northwest China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhanling Li

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Statistical modeling of hydrological extremes is significant to the construction of hydraulic engineering. This paper, taking the Yingluoxia watershed as the study area, compares the annual maximum (AM series and the peaks over a threshold (POT series in order to study the hydrological extremes, examines the stationarity and independence assumptions for the two series, and discusses the estimations and uncertainties of return levels from the two series using the Generalized Extreme Value (GEV and Generalized Pareto distribution (GPD models. For comparison, the return levels from all threshold excesses with considering the extremal index are also estimated. For the POT series, the threshold is selected by examining the mean excess plot and the stability of the parameter estimates and by using common-sense. The serial correlation is reduced by filtering out a set of dependent threshold excesses. Results show that both series are approximately stationary and independent. The GEV model fits the AM series well and the GPD model fits the POT series well. The estimated return levels are fairly comparable for the AM series, the POT series, and all threshold excesses with considering the extremal index, with the difference being less than 10% for return periods longer than 10 years. The uncertainties of the estimated return levels are the highest for the AM series, and next for the POT series and then for all threshold excesses series in turn.

Analyzing extreme sea levels for broad-scale impact and adaptation studies

Science.gov (United States)

Wahl, T.; Haigh, I. D.; Nicholls, R. J.; Arns, A.; Dangendorf, S.; Hinkel, J.; Slangen, A.

2017-12-01

Coastal impact and adaptation assessments require detailed knowledge on extreme sea levels (ESL), because increasing damage due to extreme events is one of the major consequences of sea-level rise (SLR) and climate change. Over the last few decades, substantial research efforts have been directed towards improved understanding of past and future SLR; different scenarios were developed with process-based or semi-empirical models and used for coastal impact studies at various temporal and spatial scales to guide coastal management and adaptation efforts. Uncertainties in future SLR are typically accounted for by analyzing the impacts associated with a range of scenarios and model ensembles. ESL distributions are then displaced vertically according to the SLR scenarios under the inherent assumption that we have perfect knowledge on the statistics of extremes. However, there is still a limited understanding of present-day ESL which is largely ignored in most impact and adaptation analyses. The two key uncertainties stem from: (1) numerical models that are used to generate long time series of storm surge water levels, and (2) statistical models used for determining present-day ESL exceedance probabilities. There is no universally accepted approach to obtain such values for broad-scale flood risk assessments and while substantial research has explored SLR uncertainties, we quantify, for the first time globally, key uncertainties in ESL estimates. We find that contemporary ESL uncertainties exceed those from SLR projections and, assuming that we meet the Paris agreement, the projected SLR itself by the end of the century. Our results highlight the necessity to further improve our understanding of uncertainties in ESL estimates through (1) continued improvement of numerical and statistical models to simulate and analyze coastal water levels and (2) exploit the rich observational database and continue data archeology to obtain longer time series and remove model bias

Evolution of extreme high waters along the east coast of India and at the head of the Bay of Bengal

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Antony, C.; Unnikrishnan, A.S.; Woodworth, P.L.

. The highest water levels above mean sea level have the greatest magnitude towards the northern part of the Bay, which decreases towards its south-west. Extreme high waters were observed to result from a combination of moderate, or even small, surges with large...

Regional-Scale High-Latitude Extreme Geoelectric Fields Pertaining to Geomagnetically Induced Currents

Science.gov (United States)

Pulkkinen, Antti; Bernabeu, Emanuel; Eichner, Jan; Viljanen, Ari; Ngwira, Chigomezyo

2015-01-01

Motivated by the needs of the high-voltage power transmission industry, we use data from the high-latitude IMAGE magnetometer array to study characteristics of extreme geoelectric fields at regional scales. We use 10-s resolution data for years 1993-2013, and the fields are characterized using average horizontal geoelectric field amplitudes taken over station groups that span about 500-km distance. We show that geoelectric field structures associated with localized extremes at single stations can be greatly different from structures associated with regionally uniform geoelectric fields, which are well represented by spatial averages over single stations. Visual extrapolation and rigorous extreme value analysis of spatially averaged fields indicate that the expected range for 1-in-100-year extreme events are 3-8 V/km and 3.4-7.1 V/km, respectively. The Quebec reference ground model is used in the calculations.

SPECIFICITY OF SELF-PRESERVATION MOTIVATION IN EXTREME SITUATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ekaterina Anatolevna Karacheva

2015-02-01

Full Text Available The article presents the results of the study motivation of self-preservation in an extreme situation. Usually extreme situation unfold from the point of view of functioning, health, high negative level mental stress and tension. The extreme situation is the situation of human activity to which man acts, carrying out certain activities. The article provides an overview of russian and foreign authors dealing with this problem. Theoretical models of motivation of self-preservation Z. Freud, A. Maslow, G. Murray, M. Magomed-Eminov. The study explores the leading motivation in an extreme situation and analyzed the levels of motivation of self-preservation. The study was conducted in the Afghan veterans, using a method of unfinished sentences and other. Identified two levels of motivation of self-preservation: individual and personal. Revealed that the motivation of self-preservation is the leading motivation in an extreme situation.

Definitive intraoperative very high-dose radiotherapy for localized osteosarcoma in the extremities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oya, Natsuo; Kokubo, Masaki; Mizowaki, Takashi; Shibamoto, Yuta; Nagata, Yasushi; Sasai, Keisuke; Nishimura, Yasumasa; Tsuboyama, Tadao; Toguchida, Junya; Nakamura, Takashi; Hiraoka, Masahiro

2001-01-01

Purpose: To evaluate the outcome and adverse effects in patients with osteosarcoma treated with very high-dose definitive intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT), with the intention of saving the affected limb. Methods and Materials: Thirty-nine patients with osteosarcoma in their extremities were treated with definitive IORT. The irradiation field included the tumor plus an adequate wide margin and excluded the major vessels and nerves. Forty-five to 80 Gy of electrons or X-rays were delivered. The median follow-up of the surviving patients was 124 months. Results: The cause-specific and relapse-free 5-year survival rate was 50% and 43%, respectively. Distant metastasis developed in 23 patients; 19 died and 4 were alive for >10 years. Nine local recurrences were found 4-29 months after IORT in the affected limb. No radiation-induced skin reaction or nerve palsy was observed in the patients treated with X-rays. Experiments using phantoms also confirmed that the scatter dose was below the toxic level in the IORT setting with X-rays. Conclusions: Very high-dose definitive IORT combined with preventive nailing and chemotherapy appeared to be a promising quality-of-life-oriented alternative to treating patients with osteosarcomas in the extremities, although the problem of recurrences from the surrounding unirradiated soft tissue remains to be solved

Safe disposal of high-level radioactive wastes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ringwood, A E [Australian National Univ., Canberra. Research School of Earth Sciences

1980-10-01

Current strategies in most countries favour the immobilisation of high-level radioactive wastes in borosilicate glasses, and their burial in large, centralised, mined repositories. Strong public opposition has been encountered because of concerns over safety and socio-political issues. The author develops a new disposal strategy, based on immobilisation of wastes in an extremely resistant ceramic, SYNROC, combined with burial in an array of widely dispersed, very deep drill holes. It is demonstrated that the difficulties encountered by conventional disposal strategies can be overcome by this new approach.

High-resolution Sonographic Measurements of Lower Extremity Bursae in Chinese Healthy Young Men

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yong-Yan Gao

2016-01-01

Conclusions: Using HR-US imaging, we were able to analyze lower extremity bursae with high detection rates in healthy young men. The normal ranges of lower extremity bursa dimensions in healthy young men measured by HR-US in this study could be used as reference values for evaluation of bursa abnormalities in the lower extremity.

Extremely high thermal conductivity anisotropy of double-walled carbon nanotubes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhaoji Ma

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Based on molecular dynamics simulations, we reveal that double-walled carbon nanotubes can possess an extremely high anisotropy ratio of radial to axial thermal conductivities. The mechanism is basically the same as that for the high thermal conductivity anisotropy of graphene layers - the in-plane strong sp2 bonds lead to a very high intralayer thermal conductivity while the weak van der Waals interactions to a very low interlayer thermal conductivity. However, different from flat graphene layers, the tubular structures of carbon nanotubes result in a diameter dependent thermal conductivity. The smaller the diameter, the larger the axial thermal conductivity but the smaller the radial thermal conductivity. As a result, a DWCNT with a small diameter may have an anisotropy ratio of thermal conductivity significantly higher than that for graphene layers. The extremely high thermal conductivity anisotropy allows DWCNTs to be a promising candidate for thermal management materials.

Relative Sea Level, Tidal Range, and Extreme Water Levels in Boston Harbor from 1825 to 2016

Science.gov (United States)

Talke, S. A.; Kemp, A.; Woodruff, J. D.

2017-12-01

Long time series of water-level measurements made by tide gauges provide a rich and valuable observational history of relative sea-level change, the frequency and height of extreme water levels and evolving tidal regimes. However, relatively few locations have available tide-gauge records longer than 100 years and most of these places are in northern Europe. This spatio-temporal distribution hinders efforts to understand global-, regional- and local-scale trends. Using newly-discovered archival measurements, we constructed a 200 year, instrumental record of water levels, tides, and storm surges in Boston Harbor. We detail the recovery, datum reconstruction, digitization, quality assurance, and analysis of this extended observational record. Local, decadally-averaged relative sea-level rose by 0.28 ± 0.05 m since the 1820s, with an acceleration of 0.023 ±0.009 mm/yr2. Approximately 0.13 ± 0.02 m of the observed RSL rise occurred due to ongoing glacial isostatic adjustment, and the remainder occurred due to changes in ocean mass and volume associated with the onset of modern mean sea-level rise. Change-point analysis of the new relative sea level record confirms that anthropogenic rise began in 1924-1932, which is in agreement with global mean sea level estimates from the global tide gauge network. Tide range decreased by 5.5% between 1830 and 1910, likely due in large part to anthropogenic development. Storm tides in Boston Harbor are produced primarily by extratropical storms during the November-April time frame. The three largest storm tides occurred in 1851, 1909, and 1978. Because 90% of the top 20 storm tides since 1825 occurred during a spring tide, the secular change in tide range contributes to a slight reduction in storm tide magnitudes. However, non-stationarity in storm hazard was historically driven primarily by local relative sea-level rise; a modest 0.2 m increase in relative sea level reduces the 100 year high water mark to a once-in-10 year event.

Extreme Consumption Drinking Gaming and Prepartying among High School Students

Science.gov (United States)

Tomaso, Cara C.; Zamboanga, Byron L.; Haas, Amie L.; Kenney, Shannon R.; Ham, Lindsay S.; Borsari, Brian

2016-01-01

Drinking games and prepartying (i.e., drinking before going to a social gathering/event) have emerged as high-risk drinking behaviors in high school students. The present study examines the current prepartying behaviors of high school students who report current participation in extreme-consumption games (e.g., chugging) with those who do not.…

On the use of non-Gaussian models for prediction of extreme pollution levels in environmental studies

Science.gov (United States)

Berg, D. B.; Medvedev, A. N.; Sergeev, A. P.; Taubayev, A. A.

2015-11-01

The aim of this work is to study the distribution of contamination at the territory on the data of snow samples analysis, in order to find an approach to forecasting of the extreme pollution levels. The hypothesis of normal distribution of the values of pollution index (the intensity of dust fallout on the territory, mg /m2/day) is not confirmed on the results of statistical analysis of the data for six different experimental sites (from 81 to 256 values of the index for each site). For the set of 243 values of the pollution index at the territory of a city, there is made an attempt of forecast of its possible extreme values not detected on the results of the snow sampling. For this, the linear dependence "pollution index - the number of points with the given pollution index" built in double logarithmic coordinates, is extrapolated into the area of high values of the pollution index.

Glomeromycota communities survive extreme levels of metal toxicity in an orphan mining site.

Science.gov (United States)

Sánchez-Castro, I; Gianinazzi-Pearson, V; Cleyet-Marel, J C; Baudoin, E; van Tuinen, D

2017-11-15

Abandoned tailing basins and waste heaps of orphan mining sites are of great concern since extreme metal contamination makes soil improper for any human activity and is a permanent threat for nearby surroundings. Although spontaneous revegetation can occur, the process is slow or unsuccessful and rhizostabilisation strategies to reduce dispersal of contaminated dust represent an option to rehabilitate such sites. This requires selection of plants tolerant to such conditions, and optimization of their fitness and growth. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can enhance metal tolerance in moderately polluted soils, but their ability to survive extreme levels of metal contamination has not been reported. This question was addressed in the tailing basin and nearby waste heaps of an orphan mining site in southern France, reaching in the tailing basin exceptionally high contents of zinc (ppm: 97,333 total) and lead (ppm: 31,333 total). In order to contribute to a better understanding of AMF ecology under severe abiotic stress and to identify AMF associated with plants growing under such conditions, that may be considered in future revegetation and rhizostabilisation of highly polluted areas, nine plant species were sampled at different growing seasons and AMF root colonization was determined. Glomeromycota diversity was monitored in mycorrhizal roots by sequencing of the ribosomal LSU. This first survey of AMF in such highly contaminated soils revealed the presence of several AMF ribotypes, belonging mainly to the Glomerales, with some examples from the Paraglomerales and Diversisporales. AMF diversity and root colonization in the tailing basin were lower than in the less-contaminated waste heaps. A Paraglomus species previously identified in a polish mining site was common in roots of different plants. Presence of active AMF in such an environment is an outstanding finding, which should be clearly considered for the design of efficient rhizostabilisation processes

Determining the Extremes of the Cellular NAD(H) Level by Using an Escherichia coli NAD+-Auxotrophic Mutant ▿

OpenAIRE

Zhou, Yongjin; Wang, Lei; Yang, Fan; Lin, Xinping; Zhang, Sufang; Zhao, Zongbao K.

2011-01-01

NAD (NAD+) and its reduced form (NADH) are omnipresent cofactors in biological systems. However, it is difficult to determine the extremes of the cellular NAD(H) level in live cells because the NAD+ level is tightly controlled by a biosynthesis regulation mechanism. Here, we developed a strategy to determine the extreme NAD(H) levels in Escherichia coli cells that were genetically engineered to be NAD+ auxotrophic. First, we expressed the ntt4 gene encoding the NAD(H) transporter in the E. co...

Hygienic diagnosis in extreme conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sofronov, G.A.

1997-01-01

Review for book by M.P. Zakharchenko, S.A. Lopatin, G.N. Novozhilov, V.I. Zakharov Hygienic diagnosis in extreme conditions is presented discussing the problem of people health preservation under extreme conditions. Hygienic diagnosis is considered illustrated by cases of hostilities (Afghan War), earthquake response in Armenia (1988) and Chernobyl accident response. Attention is paid to the estimation of radiation doses to people and characteristics of main types of dosimeters. The high scientific level of the book is marked

High-resolution stochastic generation of extreme rainfall intensity for urban drainage modelling applications

Science.gov (United States)

Peleg, Nadav; Blumensaat, Frank; Molnar, Peter; Fatichi, Simone; Burlando, Paolo

2016-04-01

Urban drainage response is highly dependent on the spatial and temporal structure of rainfall. Therefore, measuring and simulating rainfall at a high spatial and temporal resolution is a fundamental step to fully assess urban drainage system reliability and related uncertainties. This is even more relevant when considering extreme rainfall events. However, the current space-time rainfall models have limitations in capturing extreme rainfall intensity statistics for short durations. Here, we use the STREAP (Space-Time Realizations of Areal Precipitation) model, which is a novel stochastic rainfall generator for simulating high-resolution rainfall fields that preserve the spatio-temporal structure of rainfall and its statistical characteristics. The model enables a generation of rain fields at 102 m and minute scales in a fast and computer-efficient way matching the requirements for hydrological analysis of urban drainage systems. The STREAP model was applied successfully in the past to generate high-resolution extreme rainfall intensities over a small domain. A sub-catchment in the city of Luzern (Switzerland) was chosen as a case study to: (i) evaluate the ability of STREAP to disaggregate extreme rainfall intensities for urban drainage applications; (ii) assessing the role of stochastic climate variability of rainfall in flow response and (iii) evaluate the degree of non-linearity between extreme rainfall intensity and system response (i.e. flow) for a small urban catchment. The channel flow at the catchment outlet is simulated by means of a calibrated hydrodynamic sewer model.

Asthma in Patients Climbing to High and Extreme Altitudes in the Tibetan Everest Region

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Huismans, Henrike K.; Douma, W. Rob; Kerstjens, Huib A. M.; Renkema, Tineke E. J.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the behavior of asthma in patients traveling to high and extreme altitudes. Methods: Twenty-four Dutch patients with mild asthma did a trekking at high and extreme altitudes (up to 6410 m = 21030 ft) in the Tibetan Everest region. Asthma symptoms,

Expected extreme sea levels at Forsmark and Laxemar-Simpevarp up until year 2100

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brydsten, Lars; Engqvist, Anders; Naeslund, Jens-Ove; Lindborg, Tobias

2009-01-01

Literature data on factors that can affect the highest expected shoreline during the operational lifetime of a final repository up until ca 2100 AD have been compiled for Forsmark and Laxemar/Simpevarp. The study takes into consideration eustasy (global sea level), isostasy (isostatic rebound) and their trends, as well as regional (North Sea) and local (Baltic Sea) annual extremes of today's sea levels and those in year 2100. The most uncertain factor of these is the future global sea level change. For this factor, three possible scenarios have been included from the literature, forming an rough uncertainty interval around a case with an 'intermediate' global sea level. To this end, the study thus makes use of information on global sea level change that has been published since the IPCC's (UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) most recent report (2007). The local cumulative impact on the shoreline of the eustatic and isostatic components for both the Forsmark and Laxemar/Simpevarp coastal areas is that the maximum sea level occurs at the end of the investigation period, by year 2100. The interaction of these estimates is discussed in terms of coastal oceanographic aspects and estimated return periods for local extreme sea level-impacting events, including estimated storm surge. Maximum sea levels in year 2100 based on the sea level rise estimates by Rahmstorf are + 254 cm for Forsmark and + 297 cm for Laxemar/Simpevarp, both of these levels with an uncertainty interval of about ± 70 cm. The numbers apply for the worst possible case in regard to future sea level rise, and for occasions of short duration during heavy storms. In this context it is important to note that the data on which these estimates are based are the subject of intense research, and that revisions are therefore to be expected

Expected extreme sea levels at Forsmark and Laxemar-Simpevarp up until year 2100

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brydsten, Lars (Umeaa Univ., Umeaa (Sweden)); Engqvist, Anders (Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (Sweden)); Naeslund, Jens-Ove; Lindborg, Tobias (Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co., Stockholm (Sweden))

2009-01-15

Literature data on factors that can affect the highest expected shoreline during the operational lifetime of a final repository up until ca 2100 AD have been compiled for Forsmark and Laxemar/Simpevarp. The study takes into consideration eustasy (global sea level), isostasy (isostatic rebound) and their trends, as well as regional (North Sea) and local (Baltic Sea) annual extremes of today's sea levels and those in year 2100. The most uncertain factor of these is the future global sea level change. For this factor, three possible scenarios have been included from the literature, forming an rough uncertainty interval around a case with an 'intermediate' global sea level. To this end, the study thus makes use of information on global sea level change that has been published since the IPCC's (UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) most recent report (2007). The local cumulative impact on the shoreline of the eustatic and isostatic components for both the Forsmark and Laxemar/Simpevarp coastal areas is that the maximum sea level occurs at the end of the investigation period, by year 2100. The interaction of these estimates is discussed in terms of coastal oceanographic aspects and estimated return periods for local extreme sea level-impacting events, including estimated storm surge. Maximum sea levels in year 2100 based on the sea level rise estimates by Rahmstorf are + 254 cm for Forsmark and + 297 cm for Laxemar/Simpevarp, both of these levels with an uncertainty interval of about +- 70 cm. The numbers apply for the worst possible case in regard to future sea level rise, and for occasions of short duration during heavy storms. In this context it is important to note that the data on which these estimates are based are the subject of intense research, and that revisions are therefore to be expected

High resolution extremity CT for biomechanics modeling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ashby, A.E.; Brand, H.; Hollerbach, K.; Logan, C.M.; Martz, H.E.

1995-01-01

With the advent of ever more powerful computing and finite element analysis (FEA) capabilities, the bone and joint geometry detail available from either commercial surface definitions or from medical CT scans is inadequate. For dynamic FEA modeling of joints, precise articular contours are necessary to get appropriate contact definition. In this project, a fresh cadaver extremity was suspended in parafin in a lucite cylinder and then scanned with an industrial CT system to generate a high resolution data set for use in biomechanics modeling

High resolution extremity CT for biomechanics modeling

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ashby, A.E.; Brand, H.; Hollerbach, K.; Logan, C.M.; Martz, H.E.

1995-09-23

With the advent of ever more powerful computing and finite element analysis (FEA) capabilities, the bone and joint geometry detail available from either commercial surface definitions or from medical CT scans is inadequate. For dynamic FEA modeling of joints, precise articular contours are necessary to get appropriate contact definition. In this project, a fresh cadaver extremity was suspended in parafin in a lucite cylinder and then scanned with an industrial CT system to generate a high resolution data set for use in biomechanics modeling.

Production and utilization of high level and long duration shocks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Labrot, R.

1978-01-01

In order to verify the behaviour of equipments under extreme environmental conditions (propulsion, falls, impacts...), it is necessary to create 'high level and long duration shocks'. For these shocks, the velocity variation ΔV, which is equal to the area under the accelerogram γ (t), can reach several hundred meters per second. These velocity variations cannot be performed via classical free fall shock machine (ΔV [fr

State-of-the-Art of Extreme Pressure Lubrication Realized with the High Thermal Diffusivity of Liquid Metal.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Haijiang; Tian, Pengyi; Lu, Hongyu; Jia, Wenpeng; Du, Haodong; Zhang, Xiangjun; Li, Qunyang; Tian, Yu

2017-02-15

Sliding between two objects under very high load generally involves direct solid-solid contact at molecular/atomic level, the mechanism of which is far from clearly disclosed yet. Those microscopic solid-solid contacts could easily lead to local melting of rough surfaces. At extreme conditions, this local melting could propagate to the seizure and welding of the entire interface. Traditionally, the microscopic solid-solid contact is alleviated by various lubricants and additives based on their improved mechanical properties. In this work, we realized the state-of-the-art of extreme pressure lubrication by utilizing the high thermal diffusivity of liquid metal, 2 orders of magnitude higher than general organic lubricants. The extreme pressure lubrication property of gallium based liquid metal (GBLM) was compared with gear oil and poly-α-olefin in a four-ball test. The liquid metal lubricates very well at an extremely high load (10 kN, the maximum capability of a four-ball tester) at a rotation speed of 1800 rpm for a duration of several minutes, much better than traditional organic lubricants which typically break down within seconds at a load of a few kN. Our comparative experiments and analysis showed that this superextreme pressure lubrication capability of GBLM was attributed to the synergetic effect of the ultrafast heat dissipation of GBLM and the low friction coefficient of FeGa 3 tribo-film. The present work demonstrated a novel way of improving lubrication capability by enhancing the lubricant thermal properties, which might lead to mechanical systems with much higher reliability.

Injuries in an Extreme Conditioning Program

OpenAIRE

Aune, Kyle T.; Powers, Joseph M.

2016-01-01

Background: Extreme conditioning programs (ECPs) are fitness training regimens relying on aerobic, plyometric, and resistance training exercises, often with high levels of intensity for a short duration of time. These programs have grown rapidly in popularity in recent years, but science describing the safety profile of these programs is lacking. Hypothesis: The rate of injury in the extreme conditioning program is greater than the injury rate of weightlifting and the majority of injuries occ...

Production processes at extremely high energies

CERN Document Server

Gastmans, R; Wu, Tai Tsun

2013-01-01

The production processes are identified that contribute to the rise of the total cross section in proton-proton scattering at extremely high energies, s->~. At such energies, the scattering can be described by a black disk (completely absorptive) with a radius expanding logarithmically with energy surrounded by a gray fringe (partially absorptive). For the leading term of (lns)^2 in the increasing total cross section, the gray fringe is neglected, and geometrical optics is generalized to production processes. It is known that half of the rise in the total cross section is due to elastic scattering. The other half is found to originate from the production of jets with relatively small momenta in the center-of-mass system.

Extreme pressure differences at 0900 NZST and winds across New Zealand

Science.gov (United States)

Salinger, M. James; Griffiths, Georgina M.; Gosai, Ashmita

2005-07-01

Trends in extremes in station daily sea-level pressure differences at 0900 NZST are examined, and extreme daily wind gusts, across New Zealand, since the 1960s. Annual time series were examined (with indices of magnitude and frequency over threshold percentiles) from the daily indices selected. These follow from earlier indices of normalized monthly mean sea-level pressure differences between station pairs, except the daily indices are not normalized. The frequency statistics quantify the number of extreme zonal (westerly and easterly), or extreme meridional (southerly or northerly), pressure gradient events. The frequency and magnitude of extreme westerly episodes has increased slightly over New Zealand, with a significant increase in the westerly extremes to the south of New Zealand. In contrast, the magnitude and frequency of easterly extremes has decreased over New Zealand, but increased to the south, with some trends weakly significant. The frequency and magnitude of daily southerly extremes has decreased significantly in the region.Extreme daily wind gust events at key climate stations in New Zealand and at Hobart, Australia, are highly likely to be associated with an extreme daily pressure difference. The converse was less likely to hold: extreme wind gusts were not always observed on days with extreme daily pressure difference, probably due to the strong influence that topography has on localized station winds. Significant correlations exist between the frequency indices and both annual-average mean sea-level pressures around the Australasian region and annual-average sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the Southern Hemisphere. These correlations are generally stronger for indices of extreme westerly or extreme southerly airflows. Annual-average pressures in the Tasman Sea or Southern Ocean are highly correlated to zonal indices (frequency of extreme westerlies). SST anomalies in the NINO3 region or on either side of the South Island are

Genetic basis of olfactory cognition: extremely high level of DNA sequence polymorphism in promoter regions of the human olfactory receptor genes revealed using the 1000 Genomes Project dataset.

Science.gov (United States)

Ignatieva, Elena V; Levitsky, Victor G; Yudin, Nikolay S; Moshkin, Mikhail P; Kolchanov, Nikolay A

2014-01-01

The molecular mechanism of olfactory cognition is very complicated. Olfactory cognition is initiated by olfactory receptor proteins (odorant receptors), which are activated by olfactory stimuli (ligands). Olfactory receptors are the initial player in the signal transduction cascade producing a nerve impulse, which is transmitted to the brain. The sensitivity to a particular ligand depends on the expression level of multiple proteins involved in the process of olfactory cognition: olfactory receptor proteins, proteins that participate in signal transduction cascade, etc. The expression level of each gene is controlled by its regulatory regions, and especially, by the promoter [a region of DNA about 100-1000 base pairs long located upstream of the transcription start site (TSS)]. We analyzed single nucleotide polymorphisms using human whole-genome data from the 1000 Genomes Project and revealed an extremely high level of single nucleotide polymorphisms in promoter regions of olfactory receptor genes and HLA genes. We hypothesized that the high level of polymorphisms in olfactory receptor promoters was responsible for the diversity in regulatory mechanisms controlling the expression levels of olfactory receptor proteins. Such diversity of regulatory mechanisms may cause the great variability of olfactory cognition of numerous environmental olfactory stimuli perceived by human beings (air pollutants, human body odors, odors in culinary etc.). In turn, this variability may provide a wide range of emotional and behavioral reactions related to the vast variety of olfactory stimuli.

Determining the Extremes of the Cellular NAD(H) Level by Using an Escherichia coli NAD+-Auxotrophic Mutant ▿

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Yongjin; Wang, Lei; Yang, Fan; Lin, Xinping; Zhang, Sufang; Zhao, Zongbao K.

2011-01-01

NAD (NAD+) and its reduced form (NADH) are omnipresent cofactors in biological systems. However, it is difficult to determine the extremes of the cellular NAD(H) level in live cells because the NAD+ level is tightly controlled by a biosynthesis regulation mechanism. Here, we developed a strategy to determine the extreme NAD(H) levels in Escherichia coli cells that were genetically engineered to be NAD+ auxotrophic. First, we expressed the ntt4 gene encoding the NAD(H) transporter in the E. coli mutant YJE001, which had a deletion of the nadC gene responsible for NAD+ de novo biosynthesis, and we showed NTT4 conferred on the mutant strain better growth in the presence of exogenous NAD+. We then constructed the NAD+-auxotrophic mutant YJE003 by disrupting the essential gene nadE, which is responsible for the last step of NAD+ biosynthesis in cells harboring the ntt4 gene. The minimal NAD+ level was determined in M9 medium in proliferating YJE003 cells that were preloaded with NAD+, while the maximal NAD(H) level was determined by exposing the cells to high concentrations of exogenous NAD(H). Compared with supplementation of NADH, cells grew faster and had a higher intracellular NAD(H) level when NAD+ was fed. The intracellular NAD(H) level increased with the increase of exogenous NAD+ concentration, until it reached a plateau. Thus, a minimal NAD(H) level of 0.039 mM and a maximum of 8.49 mM were determined, which were 0.044× and 9.6× those of wild-type cells, respectively. Finally, the potential application of this strategy in biotechnology is briefly discussed. PMID:21742902

Extremely Durable, Flexible Supercapacitors with Greatly Improved Performance at High Temperatures.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Sung-Kon; Kim, Hae Jin; Lee, Jong-Chan; Braun, Paul V; Park, Ho Seok

2015-08-25

The reliability and durability of energy storage devices are as important as their essential characteristics (e.g., energy and power density) for stable power output and long lifespan and thus much more crucial under harsh conditions. However, energy storage under extreme conditions is still a big challenge because of unavoidable performance decays and the inevitable damage of components. Here, we report high-temperature operating, flexible supercapacitors (f-SCs) that can provide reliable power output and extreme durability under severe electrochemical, mechanical, and thermal conditions. The outstanding capacitive features (e.g., ∼40% enhancement of the rate capability and a maximum capacitances of 170 F g(-1) and 18.7 mF cm(-2) at 160 °C) are attributed to facilitated ion transport at elevated temperatures. Under high-temperature operation and/or a flexibility test in both static and dynamic modes at elevated temperatures >100 °C, the f-SCs showed extreme long-term stability of 100000 cycles (>93% of initial capacitance value) and mechanical durability after hundreds of bending cycles (at bend angles of 60-180°). Even at 120 °C, the versatile design of tandem serial and parallel f-SCs was demonstrated to provide both desirable energy and power requirements at high temperatures.

Extremely High Phosphate Sorption Capacity in Cu-Pb-Zn Mine Tailings.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Longbin; Li, Xiaofang; Nguyen, Tuan A H

2015-01-01

Elevated inorganic phosphate (Pi) concentrations in pore water of amended tailings under direct revegetation may cause toxicity in some native woody species but not native forbs or herb species, all of which are key constituents in target native plant communities for phytostabilizing base metal mine tailings. As a result, Pi sorption capacity has been quantified by a conventional batch procedure in three types of base metal mine tailings sampled from two copper (Cu)-lead (Pb)-zinc (Zn) mines, as the basis for Pi-fertiliser addition. It was found that the Pi-sorption capacity in the tailings and local soil was extremely high, far higher than highly weathered agricultural soils in literature, but similar to those of volcanic ash soils. The Langmuir P-sorption maximum was up to 7.72, 4.12, 4.02 and 3.62 mg P g-1 tailings, in the fresh tailings of mixed Cu-Pb-Zn streams (MIMTD7), the weathered tailings of mixed Cu-Pb-Zn streams (MIMTD5), EHM-TD (fresh Cu-stream, high magnetite content) and local soil (weathered shale and schist), respectively. Physicochemical factors highly correlated with the high Pi-sorption in the tailings were fine particle distribution, oxalate and dithionite-citrate-bicarbonate extractable Fe (FeO and Fed), oxalate-extractable Al and Mn, and the levels of soluble Cd and Zn, and total S and Fe. Large amounts of amorphous Fe oxides and oxyhydroxides may have been formed from the oxidation of pyritic materials and redox cycles of Fe-minerals (such as pyrite (FeS2), ankerite (Ca(Fe Mg)(CO3)2 and siderite (FeCO3), as indicated by the extractable FeO values. The likely formation of sparingly soluble Zn-phosphate in the Pb-Zn tailings containing high levels of Zn (from sphalerite ((Zn,Fe)S, ZnS, (Zn,Cd)S)) may substantially lower soluble Zn levels in the tailings through high rates of Pi-fertiliser addition. As a result, the possibility of P-toxicity in native plant species caused by the addition of soluble phosphate fertilizers would be minimal.

High current density ion beam obtained by a transition to a highly focused state in extremely low-energy region

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hirano, Y., E-mail: y.hirano@aist.go.jp, E-mail: hirano.yoichi@phys.cst.nihon-u.ac.jp [Innovative Plasma Processing Group, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8568 (Japan); College of Science and Technologies, Nihon University, Chiyodaku, Tokyo 101-0897 (Japan); Kiyama, S.; Koguchi, H. [Innovative Plasma Processing Group, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8568 (Japan); Fujiwara, Y.; Sakakita, H. [Innovative Plasma Processing Group, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8568 (Japan); Department of Engineering Mechanics and Energy, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8577 (Japan)

2015-11-15

A high current density (≈3 mA/cm{sup 2}) hydrogen ion beam source operating in an extremely low-energy region (E{sub ib} ≈ 150–200 eV) has been realized by using a transition to a highly focused state, where the beam is extracted from the ion source chamber through three concave electrodes with nominal focal lengths of ≈350 mm. The transition occurs when the beam energy exceeds a threshold value between 145 and 170 eV. Low-level hysteresis is observed in the transition when E{sub ib} is being reduced. The radial profiles of the ion beam current density and the low temperature ion current density can be obtained separately using a Faraday cup with a grid in front. The measured profiles confirm that more than a half of the extracted beam ions reaches the target plate with a good focusing profile with a full width at half maximum of ≈3 cm. Estimation of the particle balances in beam ions, the slow ions, and the electrons indicates the possibility that the secondary electron emission from the target plate and electron impact ionization of hydrogen may play roles as particle sources in this extremely low-energy beam after the compensation of beam ion space charge.

Comparison of Extreme Precipitation Return Levels using Spatial Bayesian Hierarchical Modeling versus Regional Frequency Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Love, C. A.; Skahill, B. E.; AghaKouchak, A.; Karlovits, G. S.; England, J. F.; Duren, A. M.

2017-12-01

We compare gridded extreme precipitation return levels obtained using spatial Bayesian hierarchical modeling (BHM) with their respective counterparts from a traditional regional frequency analysis (RFA) using the same set of extreme precipitation data. Our study area is the 11,478 square mile Willamette River basin (WRB) located in northwestern Oregon, a major tributary of the Columbia River whose 187 miles long main stem, the Willamette River, flows northward between the Coastal and Cascade Ranges. The WRB contains approximately two ­thirds of Oregon's population and 20 of the 25 most populous cities in the state. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Portland District operates thirteen dams and extreme precipitation estimates are required to support risk­ informed hydrologic analyses as part of the USACE Dam Safety Program. Our intent is to profile for the USACE an alternate methodology to an RFA that was developed in 2008 due to the lack of an official NOAA Atlas 14 update for the state of Oregon. We analyze 24-hour annual precipitation maxima data for the WRB utilizing the spatial BHM R package "spatial.gev.bma", which has been shown to be efficient in developing coherent maps of extreme precipitation by return level. Our BHM modeling analysis involved application of leave-one-out cross validation (LOO-CV), which not only supported model selection but also a comprehensive assessment of location specific model performance. The LOO-CV results will provide a basis for the BHM RFA comparison.

Design, fabrication, and characterization of high-efficiency extreme ultraviolet diffusers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Naulleau, Patrick P.; Liddle, J. Alexander; Salmassi, Farhad; Anderson, Erik H.; Gullikson, Eric M.

2004-02-19

As the development of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography progresses, interest grows in the extension of traditional optical components to the EUV regime. The strong absorption of EUV by most materials and its extremely short wavelength, however, makes it very difficult to implement many components that are commonplace in the longer wavelength regimes. One such example is the diffuser often implemented with ordinary ground glass in the visible light regime. Here we demonstrate the fabrication of reflective EUV diffusers with high efficiency within a controllable bandwidth. Using these techniques we have fabricated diffusers with efficiencies exceeding 10% within a moderate angular single-sided bandwidth of approximately 0.06 radians.

Ionizing Radiation Effects on the Noise of 65 nm CMOS Transistors for Pixel Sensor Readout at Extreme Total Dose Levels

CERN Document Server

Re, V.; Manghisoni, M.; Riceputi, E.; Traversi, G.; Ratti, L.

2018-01-01

This paper is focused on the study of the noise performance of 65 nm CMOS transistors at extremely high total ionizing dose (TID) levels of the order of several hundreds of Mrad(SiO2). Noise measurements are reported and discussed, analyzing radiation effects on 1/ f noise and channel thermal noise. In nMOSFETs, up to 10 Mrad(SiO2), the experimental behavior is consistent with a damage mechanism mainly associ- ated with lateral isolation oxides, and can be modeled by parasitic transistors turning on after irradiation and contributing to the total noise of the device. At very high dose, these parasitic transistors tend to be turned off by negative charge accumulating in interface states and compensating radiation-induced positive charge building up inside thick isolation oxides. Effects associated with ionization and hydrogen transport in spacer oxides may become dominant at 600 Mrad(SiO2) and may explain the observed noise behavior at extremely high TID. The results of this analysis provide an understanding o...

Bright high-repetition-rate source of narrowband extreme-ultraviolet harmonics beyond 22 eV

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, He [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Materials Sciences Division; Xu, Yiming [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Materials Sciences Division; Ulonska, Stefan [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Materials Sciences Division; Robinson, Joseph S. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Materials Sciences Division; Ranitovic, Predrag [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Materials Sciences Division; Kaindl, Robert A. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Materials Sciences Division

2015-06-11

Novel table-top sources of extreme-ultraviolet light based on high-harmonic generation yield unique insight into the fundamental properties of molecules, nanomaterials or correlated solids, and enable advanced applications in imaging or metrology. Extending high-harmonic generation to high repetition rates portends great experimental benefits, yet efficient extreme-ultraviolet conversion of correspondingly weak driving pulses is challenging. In this article, we demonstrate a highly-efficient source of femtosecond extreme-ultraviolet pulses at 50-kHz repetition rate, utilizing the ultraviolet second-harmonic focused tightly into Kr gas. In this cascaded scheme, a photon flux beyond ≈3 × 10¹³ s^-1 is generated at 22.3 eV, with 5 × 10^-5 conversion efficiency that surpasses similar harmonics directly driven by the fundamental by two orders-of-magnitude. The enhancement arises from both wavelength scaling of the atomic dipole and improved spatio-temporal phase matching, confirmed by simulations. Finally, spectral isolation of a single 72-meV-wide harmonic renders this bright, 50-kHz extreme-ultraviolet source a powerful tool for ultrafast photoemission, nanoscale imaging and other applications.

Neighbourhood income level and outcomes of extremely preterm neonates: protection conferred by a universal health care system.

Science.gov (United States)

Ko, Gary; Shah, Prakesh; Kovacs, Lajos; Ojah, Cecil; Riley, Patricia; Lee, Shoo K

2012-11-07

To determine the impact of neighbourhood income and maternal residence population density on mortality and various morbidities at discharge or transfer from the NICU among extremely preterm neonates (<27 weeks gestation) in Canada. Neighbourhood income level and residential status was derived using a postal code conversion file and census data. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the risk-adjusted odds ratio (AOR) of mortality and survival without major morbidities (chronic lung disease, necrotizing enterocolitis, severe intraventricular hemorrhage, and retinopathy of prematurity) among 2,752 extremely preterm infants admitted to 25 tertiary level neonatal intensive care units in Canada between 2007 and 2008. There were no significant differences between mothers from different neighbourhood income quintiles (Q1 = low; Q5 = high) and neonatal mortality AOR (95% confidence interval): Q1: 1.10 (0.74-1.62), Q2: 1.00 (0.67-1.49), Q3: 1.39 (0.93-2.07), Q4: 1.01 (0.67-1.52), Q5: 1 (reference); or survival without major morbidity: Q1: 1.01 (0.70-1.44), Q2: 0.84 (0.58-1.23), Q3: 0.85 (0.58-1.24), Q4: 0.92 (0.63-1.35), Q5: 1 (reference). There were no significant differences in mortality (AOR 1.14 [0.83-1.57]) or in survival without major morbidity (AOR 0.92 [0.67-1.26]) between infants of mothers residing in sparsely populated areas compared to densely populated areas. Maternal residence in a low-income neighbourhood or sparsely populated area was not associated with higher odds of mortality or survival free of major morbidities in extremely preterm infants.

The effect of extremely high glucose concentrations on 21 routine chemistry and thyroid Abbott assays: interference study

OpenAIRE

?uhadar, Serap; K?seo?lu, Mehmet; ?inpolat, Yasemin; Bu?dayc?, G?ler; Usta, Murat; Semerci, Tuna

2016-01-01

Abstract Introduction: Extremely high glucose concentrations have been shown to interfere with creatinine assays especially with Jaffe method in peritoneal dialysate. Because diabetes is the fastest growing chronic disease in the world, laboratories study with varying glucose concentrations. We investigated whether different levels of glucose spiked in serum interfere with 21 routine chemistry and thyroid assays at glucose concentrations between 17-51 mmol/L. Materials and methods: Base...

Mitigation of houses with extremely high indoor radon concentrations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jiranek, M.; Neznal, M.

2006-01-01

parameters caused by soil ventilation and depressurization. Measured data were used not only for the verification of the remediation effectiveness, but also for the analysis of possible negative effects (reduced under floor temperatures, drying and freezing of the subsoil, etc.). Investigation of these effects is very important, because they can lead to additional settlement of the house resulting in appearance of micro -cracks in the house substructure. To minimize negative effects both fans operate in intermittent mode with the frequency of operating periods depending on the rate of decrease and increase of indoor radon concentration after switching on and off the fans. The effectiveness of installed measures had been verified by measurements of indoor radon concentration during various operating modes. Radon levels in all habitable rooms had been successfully reduced below the action level for existing houses 400 Bq/m 3 . These results indicate that even in houses with extremely high indoor radon concentrations effective reduction of indoor radon is possible supposing that only effective measures are applied and their design takes into account specific soil and house characteristics. (authors)

Extreme High-Temperature Events Over East Asia in 1.5°C and 2°C Warmer Futures: Analysis of NCAR CESM Low-Warming Experiments

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Donghuan; Zhou, Tianjun; Zou, Liwei; Zhang, Wenxia; Zhang, Lixia

2018-02-01

Extreme high-temperature events have large socioeconomic and human health impacts. East Asia (EA) is a populous region, and it is crucial to assess the changes in extreme high-temperature events in this region under different climate change scenarios. The Community Earth System Model low-warming experiment data were applied to investigate the changes in the mean and extreme high temperatures in EA under 1.5°C and 2°C warming conditions above preindustrial levels. The results show that the magnitude of warming in EA is approximately 0.2°C higher than the global mean. Most populous subregions, including eastern China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan, will see more intense, more frequent, and longer-lasting extreme temperature events under 1.5°C and 2°C warming. The 0.5°C lower warming will help avoid 35%-46% of the increases in extreme high-temperature events in terms of intensity, frequency, and duration in EA with maximal avoidance values (37%-49%) occurring in Mongolia. Thus, it is beneficial for EA to limit the warming target to 1.5°C rather than 2°C.

Genetic basis of olfactory cognition: extremely high level of DNA sequence polymorphism in promoter regions of the human olfactory receptor genes revealed using the 1000 Genomes Project dataset

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena V. Ignatieva

2014-03-01

Full Text Available The molecular mechanism of olfactory cognition is very complicated. Olfactory cognition is initiated by olfactory receptor proteins (odorant receptors, which are activated by olfactory stimuli (ligands. Olfactory receptors are the initial player in the signal transduction cascade producing a nerve impulse, which is transmitted to the brain. The sensitivity to a particular ligand depends on the expression level of multiple proteins involved in the process of olfactory cognition: olfactory receptor proteins, proteins that participate in signal transduction cascade, etc. The expression level of each gene is controlled by its regulatory regions, and especially, by the promoter (a region of DNA about 100–1000 base pairs long located upstream of the transcription start site. We analyzed single nucleotide polymorphisms using human whole-genome data from the 1000 Genomes Project and revealed an extremely high level of single nucleotide polymorphisms in promoter regions of olfactory receptor genes and HLA genes. We hypothesized that the high level of polymorphisms in olfactory receptor promoters was responsible for the diversity in regulatory mechanisms controlling the expression levels of olfactory receptor proteins. Such diversity of regulatory mechanisms may cause the great variability of olfactory cognition of numerous environmental olfactory stimuli perceived by human beings (air pollutants, human body odors, odors in culinary etc.. In turn, this variability may provide a wide range of emotional and behavioral reactions related to the vast variety of olfactory stimuli.

Serum Levels of Fetal Antigen 1 in Extreme Nutritional States

Science.gov (United States)

Andries, Alin; Niemeier, Andreas; Støving, Rene K.; Abdallah, Basem M.; Wolf, Anna-Maria; Hørder, Kirsten; Kassem, Moustapha

2012-01-01

Objective. Recent data suggest that fetal antigen (FA1) is linked to disorders of body weight. Thus, we measured FA1 serum levels in two extreme nutritional states of morbid obesity (MO) and anorexia nervosa (AN) and monitored its response to weight changes. Design. FA1 and insulin serum concentrations were assessed in a cross-sectional study design at defined time points after gastric restrictive surgery for 25 MO patients and 15 women with AN. Results. Absolute FA1 serum levels were within the assay normal range and were not different between the groups at baseline. However, the ratio of FA1/BMI was significantly higher in AN. FA1 was inversely correlated with BMI before and after weight change in AN, but not in MO patients. In addition, MO patients displayed a significant concomitant decrease of FA1 and insulin with the first 25% of EWL, while in AN patients a significant increase of FA1 was observed in association with weight gain. Conclusion. FA1 is a sensitive indicator of metabolic adaptation during weight change. While FA1 serum levels in humans generally do not correlate with BMI, our results suggest that changes in FA1 serum levels reflect changes in adipose tissue turnover. PMID:22844611

Characteristics of extreme ultraviolet emission from high-Z plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohashi, H.; Higashiguchi, T.; Suzuki, Y.; Kawasaki, M.; Suzuki, C.; Tomita, K.; Nishikino, M.; Fujioka, S.; Endo, A.; Li, B.; Otsuka, T.; Dunne, P.; O'Sullivan, G.

2016-01-01

We demonstrate the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and soft x-ray sources in the 2 to 7 nm spectral region related to the beyond EUV (BEUV) question at 6.x nm and the water window source based on laser-produced high-Z plasmas. Resonance emission from multiply charged ions merges to produce intense unresolved transition arrays (UTAs), extending below the carbon K edge (4.37 nm). An outline of a microscope design for single-shot live cell imaging is proposed based on high-Z plasma UTA source, coupled to multilayer mirror optics. (paper)

Characteristics of extreme ultraviolet emission from high-Z plasmas

Science.gov (United States)

Ohashi, H.; Higashiguchi, T.; Suzuki, Y.; Kawasaki, M.; Suzuki, C.; Tomita, K.; Nishikino, M.; Fujioka, S.; Endo, A.; Li, B.; Otsuka, T.; Dunne, P.; O'Sullivan, G.

2016-03-01

We demonstrate the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and soft x-ray sources in the 2 to 7 nm spectral region related to the beyond EUV (BEUV) question at 6.x nm and the water window source based on laser-produced high-Z plasmas. Resonance emission from multiply charged ions merges to produce intense unresolved transition arrays (UTAs), extending below the carbon K edge (4.37 nm). An outline of a microscope design for single-shot live cell imaging is proposed based on high-Z plasma UTA source, coupled to multilayer mirror optics.

Regional Sea Level Scenarios for Coastal Risk Management: Managing the Uncertainty of Future Sea Level Change and Extreme Water Levels for Department of Defense Coastal Sites Worldwide

Science.gov (United States)

2016-04-01

authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the authors’ Agencies. MANAGING THE UNCERTAINTY OF FUTURE SEA LEVEL CHANGE AND EXTREME WATER LEVELS FOR...COASTAL RISK MANAGEMENT 2-20 contingent probabilities given their dependence on non-probabilistic emissions futures, have extended the ranges of...flood risk provides confidence in the associated projection as a true minimum value for risk management purposes. The contemporary rate observed by

Segmentectomy for giant pulmonary sclerosing haemangiomas with high serum KL-6 levels

OpenAIRE

Kuroda, Hiroaki; Mun, Mingyon; Okumura, Sakae; Nakagawa, Ken

2012-01-01

We describe a 61-year old female patient with a giant pulmonary sclerosing haemangioma (PSH) and an extremely high preoperative serum KL-6 level. During an annual health screening, the patient showed a posterior mediastinal mass on chest radiography. Chest computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging revealed a well-circumscribed 60 mm diameter nodule with a marked contrast enhancement in the left lower lobe. The preoperative serum KL-6 level was elevated to 8204 U/ml. We performed a fo...

Segmentectomy for giant pulmonary sclerosing haemangiomas with high serum KL-6 levels

Science.gov (United States)

Kuroda, Hiroaki; Mun, Mingyon; Okumura, Sakae; Nakagawa, Ken

2012-01-01

We describe a 61-year old female patient with a giant pulmonary sclerosing haemangioma (PSH) and an extremely high preoperative serum KL-6 level. During an annual health screening, the patient showed a posterior mediastinal mass on chest radiography. Chest computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging revealed a well-circumscribed 60 mm diameter nodule with a marked contrast enhancement in the left lower lobe. The preoperative serum KL-6 level was elevated to 8204 U/ml. We performed a four-port thoracoscopic basal segmentectomy and lymph node sampling for diagnosis and therapy. The postoperative diagnosis showed PSH. The serum KL-6 level decreased dramatically with tumour resection. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a patient with PSH showing a high serum KL-6 level. PMID:22454483

Extremely High Phosphate Sorption Capacity in Cu-Pb-Zn Mine Tailings.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Longbin Huang

Full Text Available Elevated inorganic phosphate (Pi concentrations in pore water of amended tailings under direct revegetation may cause toxicity in some native woody species but not native forbs or herb species, all of which are key constituents in target native plant communities for phytostabilizing base metal mine tailings. As a result, Pi sorption capacity has been quantified by a conventional batch procedure in three types of base metal mine tailings sampled from two copper (Cu-lead (Pb-zinc (Zn mines, as the basis for Pi-fertiliser addition. It was found that the Pi-sorption capacity in the tailings and local soil was extremely high, far higher than highly weathered agricultural soils in literature, but similar to those of volcanic ash soils. The Langmuir P-sorption maximum was up to 7.72, 4.12, 4.02 and 3.62 mg P g-1 tailings, in the fresh tailings of mixed Cu-Pb-Zn streams (MIMTD7, the weathered tailings of mixed Cu-Pb-Zn streams (MIMTD5, EHM-TD (fresh Cu-stream, high magnetite content and local soil (weathered shale and schist, respectively. Physicochemical factors highly correlated with the high Pi-sorption in the tailings were fine particle distribution, oxalate and dithionite-citrate-bicarbonate extractable Fe (FeO and Fed, oxalate-extractable Al and Mn, and the levels of soluble Cd and Zn, and total S and Fe. Large amounts of amorphous Fe oxides and oxyhydroxides may have been formed from the oxidation of pyritic materials and redox cycles of Fe-minerals (such as pyrite (FeS2, ankerite (Ca(Fe Mg(CO32 and siderite (FeCO3, as indicated by the extractable FeO values. The likely formation of sparingly soluble Zn-phosphate in the Pb-Zn tailings containing high levels of Zn (from sphalerite ((Zn,FeS, ZnS, (Zn,CdS may substantially lower soluble Zn levels in the tailings through high rates of Pi-fertiliser addition. As a result, the possibility of P-toxicity in native plant species caused by the addition of soluble phosphate fertilizers would be minimal.

LEVELS OF EXTREMELY LOW-FREQUENCY ELECTRIC AND MAGNETIC FIELDS FROM OVERHEAD POWER LINES IN THE OUTDOOR ENVIRONMENT OF RAMALLAH CITY-PALESTINE.

Science.gov (United States)

Abuasbi, Falastine; Lahham, Adnan; Abdel-Raziq, Issam Rashid

2018-05-01

In this study, levels of extremely low-frequency electric and magnetic fields originated from overhead power lines were investigated in the outdoor environment in Ramallah city, Palestine. Spot measurements were applied to record fields intensities over 6-min period. The Spectrum Analyzer NF-5035 was used to perform measurements at 1 m above ground level and directly underneath 40 randomly selected power lines distributed fairly within the city. Levels of electric fields varied depending on the line's category (power line, transformer or distributor), a minimum mean electric field of 3.9 V/m was found under a distributor line, and a maximum of 769.4 V/m under a high-voltage power line (66 kV). However, results of electric fields showed a log-normal distribution with the geometric mean and the geometric standard deviation of 35.9 and 2.8 V/m, respectively. Magnetic fields measured at power lines, on contrast, were not log-normally distributed; the minimum and maximum mean magnetic fields under power lines were 0.89 and 3.5 μT, respectively. As a result, none of the measured fields exceeded the ICNIRP's guidelines recommended for general public exposures to extremely low-frequency fields.

High Energy Ion Acceleration by Extreme Laser Radiation Pressure

Science.gov (United States)

2017-03-14

published in the internationally leading journal Physical Review Letters. We continued to progress this pionee 15.  SUBJECT TERMS ion therapy, heavy ion ...Thomson parabola spectrometer: To separate and provide a measurement of the charge -to-mass ratio and energy spectrum of the different ion species...AFRL-AFOSR-UK-TR-2017-0015 High energy ion acceleration by extreme laser radiation pressure Paul McKenna UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE VIZ ROYAL COLLEGE

Single-photon detector operating under extremely high background photon flux conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prochazka, Ivan; Sopko, Bruno; Blazej, Josef

2009-01-01

We are reporting our results in research and development in the field of avalanche semiconductor single-photon detectors and their application. Our goal was a development of a solid-state photon-counting detector capable of high-precision photon arrival time tagging in extremely harsh operating conditions. The background photon flux exceeding 10 9 photons per second hitting the detector active area should not avoid the useful signal detection and recognition on the signal level of units of photons per second. This is background photon flux about two orders of magnitude higher than what the conventional solid-state photon counters accept. The detection timing resolution should be better than 100 ps and the delay stability should be on picosecond level. We have developed and tested the active quenched and gated avalanche structure on silicon providing the required features in connection with the K14 detection chips. The detector is capable of gated operation under the conditions of background photon flux of 5x10 9 photons per second. The operational detector tolerates long term exposures to the input photon flux exceeding 10 15 photons (>1 mW) per second without damage.

Extreme total solar irradiance due to cloud enhancement at sea level of the NE Atlantic coast of Brazil

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Piacentini, Ruben D. [Instituto de Fisica Rosario (CONICET-Universidad Nacional de Rosario), 27 de Febrero 210bis, 2000 Rosario (Argentina); Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Ingenieria y Agrimensura, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Pellegrini 250, 2000 Rosario (Argentina); Salum, Graciela M. [Instituto de Fisica Rosario (CONICET-Universidad Nacional de Rosario), 27 de Febrero 210bis, 2000 Rosario (Argentina); Facultad Regional Concepcion del Uruguay, Universidad Tecnologica Nacional, Concepcion del Uruguay (Argentina); Fraidenraich, Naum; Tiba, Chigueru [Grupo de Pesquisas em Fontes Alternativas de Energia, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Av. Prof. Luiz Freire, 1000 - 50.740-540, Recife, PE (Brazil)

2011-01-15

Extraterrestrial total solar irradiance, usually called Solar Constant, is attenuated by the atmosphere in different proportions, depending mainly on solar zenith angle and altitude of the measurement point. In this work, it is presented very high and extreme horizontal plane measurements of global solar irradiance that in some days overpassed the Solar Constant corrected by the actual Sun-Earth distance (CSC). They were obtained at sea level of the intertropical Atlantic coast, in the city of Recife, Brazil, in the period February 2008-January 2009. Extreme total solar irradiance values larger than CSC were measured during 3.4% of the days of the total registered period. This percentage increases to 7.4% for global solar irradiance within 95.1-100% of the CSC and to 15.3% within 90.1-95% of the CSC. The largest extreme total solar irradiance value, 1477 {+-} 30 W/m{sup 2}, was registered the 28th of March 2008 at 11:34 local time (UT - 3h). It overpassed by 7.9% the CSC value for this day (1369.4 W/m{sup 2}) and by 42.3% the estimated value of the clear sky Iqbal C radiation model (1037.7 W/m{sup 2}). The observation of extreme values should be taken into account in the study of solar radiation effects related to materials exposed to the outside, UV index and biological effects, among others. Also, the detailed knowledge of this interesting effect may contribute significantly to clarify physical aspects about the interaction of global solar radiation with the ecosystem and climate change. (author)

QCD under extreme conditions: an informal discussion

CERN Document Server

Fraga, E.S.

2015-05-22

We present an informal discussion of some aspects of strong interactions un- der extreme conditions of temperature and density at an elementary level. This summarizes lectures delivered at the 2013 and 2015 CERN – Latin-American Schools of High-Energy Physics and is aimed at students working in experi- mental high-energy physics.

A web-based study of bipolarity and impulsivity in athletes engaging in extreme and high-risk sports.

Science.gov (United States)

Dudek, Dominika; Siwek, Marcin; Jaeschke, Rafał; Drozdowicz, Katarzyna; Styczeń, Krzysztof; Arciszewska, Aleksandra; Chrobak, Adrian A; Rybakowski, Janusz K

2016-06-01

We hypothesised that men and women who engage in extreme or high-risk sports would score higher on standardised measures of bipolarity and impulsivity compared to age and gender matched controls. Four-hundred and eighty extreme or high-risk athletes (255 males and 225 females) and 235 age-matched control persons (107 males and 128 females) were enrolled into the web-based case-control study. The Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) were administered to screen for bipolarity and impulsive behaviours, respectively. Results indicated that extreme or high-risk athletes had significantly higher scores of bipolarity and impulsivity, and lower scores on cognitive complexity of the BIS-11, compared to controls. Further, there were positive correlations between the MDQ and BIS-11 scores. These results showed greater rates of bipolarity and impulsivity, in the extreme or high-risk athletes, suggesting these measures are sensitive to high-risk behaviours.

Evaluation of high resolution spatio-temporal precipitation extremes from a stochastic weather generator

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørup, Hjalte Jomo Danielsen; Christensen, O. B.; Arnbjerg-Nielsen, Karsten

2017-01-01

Spatio-temporal rainfall is modelled for the North-Eastern part of Zealand (Denmark) using the Spatio-Temporal Neyman-Scott Rectangular Pulses model as implemented in the RainSim software. Hourly precipitation series for fitting the model are obtained from a dense network of tipping bucket rain...... gauges in the model area. The spatiotemporal performance of the model with respect to precipitation extremes is evaluated in the points of a 2x2 km regular grid covering the full model area. The model satisfactorily reproduces the extreme behaviour of the observed precipitation with respect to event...... intensity levels and unconditional spatial correlation when evaluated using an event based ranking approach at point scale and an advanced spatiotemporal coupling of extreme events. Prospectively the model can be used as a tool to evaluate the impact of climate change without relying on precipitation output...

Evaluation of high resolution spatio-temporal precipitation extremes from a stochastic weather generator

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørup, Hjalte Jomo Danielsen; Christensen, O. B.; Arnbjerg-Nielsen, Karsten

gauges in the model area. The spatio-temporal performance of the model with respect to precipitation extremes is evaluated in the points of a 2x2 km regular grid covering the full model area. The model satisfactorily reproduces the extreme behaviour of the observed precipitation with respect to event...... intensity levels and unconditional spatial correlation when evaluated using an event based ranking approach at point scale and an advanced spatio-temporal coupling of extreme events. Prospectively the model can be used as a tool to evaluate the impact of climate change without relying onprecipitation output......Spatio-temporal rainfall is modelled for the North-Eastern part of Zealand (Denmark) using the Spatio-Temporal Neyman-Scott Rectangular Pulses model as implemented in the RainSim software. Hourly precipitation series for fitting the model are obtained from a dense network of tipping bucket rain...

Understanding extreme sea levels for broad-scale coastal impact and adaptation analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Wahl, T.; Haigh, I. D.; Nicholls, R. J.; Arns, A.; Dangendorf, S.; Hinkel, J.; Slangen, A. B. A.

2017-07-01

One of the main consequences of mean sea level rise (SLR) on human settlements is an increase in flood risk due to an increase in the intensity and frequency of extreme sea levels (ESL). While substantial research efforts are directed towards quantifying projections and uncertainties of future global and regional SLR, corresponding uncertainties in contemporary ESL have not been assessed and projections are limited. Here we quantify, for the first time at global scale, the uncertainties in present-day ESL estimates, which have by default been ignored in broad-scale sea-level rise impact assessments to date. ESL uncertainties exceed those from global SLR projections and, assuming that we meet the Paris agreement goals, the projected SLR itself by the end of the century in many regions. Both uncertainties in SLR projections and ESL estimates need to be understood and combined to fully assess potential impacts and adaptation needs.

Assessing extreme sea levels due to tropical cyclones in the Atlantic basin

Science.gov (United States)

Muis, Sanne; Lin, Ning; Verlaan, Martin; Winsemius, Hessel; Vatvani, Deepak; Ward, Philip; Aerts, Jeroen

2017-04-01

Tropical cyclones (TCs), including hurricanes and typhoons, are characterised by high wind speeds and low pressure and cause dangerous storm surges in coastal areas. Over the last 50 years, storm surge incidents in the Atlantic accounted for more than 1,000 deaths in the United Stated. Recent flooding disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005 and, Hurricane Sandy in New York in 2012, exemplify the significant TC surge risk in the United States. In this contribution, we build on Muis et al. (2016), and present a new modelling framework to simulate TC storm surges and estimate their probabilities for the Atlantic basin. In our framework we simulate the surge levels by forcing the Global Tide and Surge Model (GTSM) with wind and pressure fields from TC events. To test the method, we apply it to historical storms that occurred between 1988 and 2015 in the Atlantic Basin. We obtain high-resolution meteorological forcing by applying a parametric hurricane model (Holland 1980; Lin and Chavas 2012) to the TC extended track data set (Demuth et al. 2006; updated), which describes the position, intensity and size of the historical TCs. Preliminary results show that this framework is capable of accurately reproducing the main surge characteristics during past events, including Sandy and Katrina. While the resolution of GTSM is limited for local areas with a complex bathymetry, the overall performance of the model is satisfactory for the basin-scale application. For an accurate assessment of risk to coastal flooding in the Atlantic basin it is essential to provide reliable estimates of surge probabilities. However, the length of observed TC tracks is too short to accurately estimate the probabilities of extreme TC events. So next steps are to statistically extend the observed record to many thousands of years (e.g., Emanuel et al. 2006), in order to force GTSM with a large number of synthetic storms. Based on these synthetic simulations, we would be able to

Tide-surge historical assessment of extreme water levels for the St. Johns River: 1928-2017

Science.gov (United States)

Bacopoulos, Peter

2017-10-01

An historical storm population is developed for the St. Johns River, located in northeast Florida-US east coast, via extreme value assessment of an 89-year-long record of hourly water-level data. Storm surge extrema and the corresponding (independent) storm systems are extracted from the historical record as well as the linear and nonlinear trends of mean sea level. Peaks-over-threshold analysis reveals the top 16 most-impactful (storm surge) systems in the general return-period range of 1-100 years. Hurricane Matthew (2016) broke the record with a new absolute maximum water level of 1.56 m, although the peak surge occurred during slack tide level (0.00 m). Hurricanes and tropical systems contribute to return periods of 10-100 years with water levels in the approximate range of 1.3-1.55 m. Extratropical systems and nor'easters contribute to the historical storm population (in the general return-period range of 1-10 years) and are capable of producing extreme storm surges (in the approximate range of 1.15-1.3 m) on par with those generated by hurricanes and tropical systems. The highest astronomical tide is 1.02 m, which by evaluation of the historical record can contribute as much as 94% to the total storm-tide water level. Statically, a hypothetical scenario of Hurricane Matthew's peak surge coinciding with the highest astronomical tide would yield an overall storm-tide water level of 2.58 m, corresponding to an approximate 1000-year return period by historical comparison. Sea-level trends (linear and nonlinear) impact water-level return periods and constitute additional risk hazard for coastal engineering designs.

Assessing the suitability of extreme learning machines (ELM for groundwater level prediction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yadav Basant

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Fluctuation of groundwater levels around the world is an important theme in hydrological research. Rising water demand, faulty irrigation practices, mismanagement of soil and uncontrolled exploitation of aquifers are some of the reasons why groundwater levels are fluctuating. In order to effectively manage groundwater resources, it is important to have accurate readings and forecasts of groundwater levels. Due to the uncertain and complex nature of groundwater systems, the development of soft computing techniques (data-driven models in the field of hydrology has significant potential. This study employs two soft computing techniques, namely, extreme learning machine (ELM and support vector machine (SVM to forecast groundwater levels at two observation wells located in Canada. A monthly data set of eight years from 2006 to 2014 consisting of both hydrological and meteorological parameters (rainfall, temperature, evapotranspiration and groundwater level was used for the comparative study of the models. These variables were used in various combinations for univariate and multivariate analysis of the models. The study demonstrates that the proposed ELM model has better forecasting ability compared to the SVM model for monthly groundwater level forecasting.

A genome-wide analysis of putative functional and exonic variation associated with extremely high intelligence.

Science.gov (United States)

Spain, S L; Pedroso, I; Kadeva, N; Miller, M B; Iacono, W G; McGue, M; Stergiakouli, E; Davey Smith, G; Putallaz, M; Lubinski, D; Meaburn, E L; Plomin, R; Simpson, M A

2016-08-01

Although individual differences in intelligence (general cognitive ability) are highly heritable, molecular genetic analyses to date have had limited success in identifying specific loci responsible for its heritability. This study is the first to investigate exome variation in individuals of extremely high intelligence. Under the quantitative genetic model, sampling from the high extreme of the distribution should provide increased power to detect associations. We therefore performed a case-control association analysis with 1409 individuals drawn from the top 0.0003 (IQ >170) of the population distribution of intelligence and 3253 unselected population-based controls. Our analysis focused on putative functional exonic variants assayed on the Illumina HumanExome BeadChip. We did not observe any individual protein-altering variants that are reproducibly associated with extremely high intelligence and within the entire distribution of intelligence. Moreover, no significant associations were found for multiple rare alleles within individual genes. However, analyses using genome-wide similarity between unrelated individuals (genome-wide complex trait analysis) indicate that the genotyped functional protein-altering variation yields a heritability estimate of 17.4% (s.e. 1.7%) based on a liability model. In addition, investigation of nominally significant associations revealed fewer rare alleles associated with extremely high intelligence than would be expected under the null hypothesis. This observation is consistent with the hypothesis that rare functional alleles are more frequently detrimental than beneficial to intelligence.

So small, so loud: extremely high sound pressure level from a pygmy aquatic insect (Corixidae, Micronectinae).

Science.gov (United States)

Sueur, Jérôme; Mackie, David; Windmill, James F C

2011-01-01

To communicate at long range, animals have to produce intense but intelligible signals. This task might be difficult to achieve due to mechanical constraints, in particular relating to body size. Whilst the acoustic behaviour of large marine and terrestrial animals has been thoroughly studied, very little is known about the sound produced by small arthropods living in freshwater habitats. Here we analyse for the first time the calling song produced by the male of a small insect, the water boatman Micronecta scholtzi. The song is made of three distinct parts differing in their temporal and amplitude parameters, but not in their frequency content. Sound is produced at 78.9 (63.6-82.2) SPL rms re 2.10(-5) Pa with a peak at 99.2 (85.7-104.6) SPL re 2.10(-5) Pa estimated at a distance of one metre. This energy output is significant considering the small size of the insect. When scaled to body length and compared to 227 other acoustic species, the acoustic energy produced by M. scholtzi appears as an extreme value, outperforming marine and terrestrial mammal vocalisations. Such an extreme display may be interpreted as an exaggerated secondary sexual trait resulting from a runaway sexual selection without predation pressure.

So small, so loud: extremely high sound pressure level from a pygmy aquatic insect (Corixidae, Micronectinae.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jérôme Sueur

Full Text Available To communicate at long range, animals have to produce intense but intelligible signals. This task might be difficult to achieve due to mechanical constraints, in particular relating to body size. Whilst the acoustic behaviour of large marine and terrestrial animals has been thoroughly studied, very little is known about the sound produced by small arthropods living in freshwater habitats. Here we analyse for the first time the calling song produced by the male of a small insect, the water boatman Micronecta scholtzi. The song is made of three distinct parts differing in their temporal and amplitude parameters, but not in their frequency content. Sound is produced at 78.9 (63.6-82.2 SPL rms re 2.10(-5 Pa with a peak at 99.2 (85.7-104.6 SPL re 2.10(-5 Pa estimated at a distance of one metre. This energy output is significant considering the small size of the insect. When scaled to body length and compared to 227 other acoustic species, the acoustic energy produced by M. scholtzi appears as an extreme value, outperforming marine and terrestrial mammal vocalisations. Such an extreme display may be interpreted as an exaggerated secondary sexual trait resulting from a runaway sexual selection without predation pressure.

Global predictability of temperature extremes

Science.gov (United States)

Coughlan de Perez, Erin; van Aalst, Maarten; Bischiniotis, Konstantinos; Mason, Simon; Nissan, Hannah; Pappenberger, Florian; Stephens, Elisabeth; Zsoter, Ervin; van den Hurk, Bart

2018-05-01

Extreme temperatures are one of the leading causes of death and disease in both developed and developing countries, and heat extremes are projected to rise in many regions. To reduce risk, heatwave plans and cold weather plans have been effectively implemented around the world. However, much of the world’s population is not yet protected by such systems, including many data-scarce but also highly vulnerable regions. In this study, we assess at a global level where such systems have the potential to be effective at reducing risk from temperature extremes, characterizing (1) long-term average occurrence of heatwaves and coldwaves, (2) seasonality of these extremes, and (3) short-term predictability of these extreme events three to ten days in advance. Using both the NOAA and ECMWF weather forecast models, we develop global maps indicating a first approximation of the locations that are likely to benefit from the development of seasonal preparedness plans and/or short-term early warning systems for extreme temperature. The extratropics generally show both short-term skill as well as strong seasonality; in the tropics, most locations do also demonstrate one or both. In fact, almost 5 billion people live in regions that have seasonality and predictability of heatwaves and/or coldwaves. Climate adaptation investments in these regions can take advantage of seasonality and predictability to reduce risks to vulnerable populations.

The paradox of extreme high-altitude migration in bar-headed geese Anser indicus

Science.gov (United States)

Hawkes, L. A.; Balachandran, S.; Batbayar, N.; Butler, P. J.; Chua, B.; Douglas, D. C.; Frappell, P. B.; Hou, Y.; Milsom, W. K.; Newman, S. H.; Prosser, D. J.; Sathiyaselvam, P.; Scott, G. R.; Takekawa, J. Y.; Natsagdorj, T.; Wikelski, M.; Witt, M. J.; Yan, B.; Bishop, C. M.

2013-01-01

Bar-headed geese are renowned for migratory flights at extremely high altitudes over the world's tallest mountains, the Himalayas, where partial pressure of oxygen is dramatically reduced while flight costs, in terms of rate of oxygen consumption, are greatly increased. Such a mismatch is paradoxical, and it is not clear why geese might fly higher than is absolutely necessary. In addition, direct empirical measurements of high-altitude flight are lacking. We test whether migrating bar-headed geese actually minimize flight altitude and make use of favourable winds to reduce flight costs. By tracking 91 geese, we show that these birds typically travel through the valleys of the Himalayas and not over the summits. We report maximum flight altitudes of 7290 m and 6540 m for southbound and northbound geese, respectively, but with 95 per cent of locations received from less than 5489 m. Geese travelled along a route that was 112 km longer than the great circle (shortest distance) route, with transit ground speeds suggesting that they rarely profited from tailwinds. Bar-headed geese from these eastern populations generally travel only as high as the terrain beneath them dictates and rarely in profitable winds. Nevertheless, their migration represents an enormous challenge in conditions where humans and other mammals are only able to operate at levels well below their sea-level maxima. PMID:23118436

The evolution of extreme precipitations in high resolution scenarios over France

Science.gov (United States)

Colin, J.; Déqué, M.; Somot, S.

2009-09-01

Over the past years, improving the modelling of extreme events and their variability at climatic time scales has become one of the challenging issue raised in the regional climate research field. This study shows the results of a high resolution (12 km) scenario run over France with the limited area model (LAM) ALADIN-Climat, regarding the representation of extreme precipitations. The runs were conducted in the framework of the ANR-SCAMPEI national project on high resolution scenarios over French mountains. As a first step, we attempt to quantify one of the uncertainties implied by the use of LAM : the size of the area on which the model is run. In particular, we address the issue of whether a relatively small domain allows the model to create its small scale process. Indeed, high resolution scenarios cannot be run on large domains because of the computation time. Therefore one needs to answer this preliminary question before producing and analyzing such scenarios. To do so, we worked in the framework of a « big brother » experiment. We performed a 23-year long global simulation in present-day climate (1979-2001) with the ARPEGE-Climat GCM, at a resolution of approximately 50 km over Europe (stretched grid). This first simulation, named ARP50, constitutes the « big brother » reference of our experiment. It has been validated in comparison with the CRU climatology. Then we filtered the short waves (up to 200 km) from ARP50 in order to obtain the equivalent of coarse resolution lateral boundary conditions (LBC). We have carried out three ALADIN-Climat simulations at a 50 km resolution with these LBC, using different configurations of the model : * FRA50, run over a small domain (2000 x 2000 km, centered over France), * EUR50, run over a larger domain (5000 x 5000 km, centered over France as well), * EUR50-SN, run over the large domain (using spectral nudging). Considering the facts that ARPEGE-Climat and ALADIN-Climat models share the same physics and dynamics

1,4-Dioxane Remediation by Extreme Soil Vapor Extraction (XSVE). Screening-Level Feasibility Assessment and Design Tool in Support of 1,4-Dioxane Remediation by Extreme Soil Vapor Extraction (XSVE) ESTCP Project ER 201326

Science.gov (United States)

2017-10-01

USER GUIDE 1,4-Dioxane Remediation by Extreme Soil Vapor Extraction (XSVE) Screening-Level Feasibility Assessment and Design Tool in...Support of 1,4-Dioxane Remediation by Extreme Soil Vapor Extraction (XSVE) ESTCP Project ER-201326 OCTOBER 2017 Rob Hinchee Integrated Science...Technology, Inc. 1509 Coastal Highway Panacea, FL 32346 8/8/2013 - 8/8/2018 10-2017 1,4-Dioxane Remediation by Extreme Soil Vapor Extraction (XSVE) Screening

Fabrication of surfaces with extremely high contact angle hysteresis from polyelectrolyte multilayer.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Liming; Wei, Jingjing; Su, Zhaohui

2011-12-20

High contact angle hysteresis on polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) ion-paired with hydrophobic perfluorooctanoate anions is reported. Both the bilayer number of PEMs and the ionic strength of deposition solutions have significant influence on contact angle hysteresis: higher ionic strength and greater bilayer number cause increased contact angle hysteresis values. The hysteresis values of ~100° were observed on smooth PEMs and pinning of the receding contact line on hydrophilic defects is implicated as the cause of hysteresis. Surface roughness can be used to further tune the contact angle hysteresis on the PEMs. A surface with extremely high contact angle hysteresis of 156° was fabricated when a PEM was deposited on a rough substrate coated with submicrometer scale silica spheres. It was demonstrated that this extremely high value of contact angle hysteresis resulted from the penetration of water into the rough asperities on the substrate. The same substrate hydrophobized by chemical vapor deposition of 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyltriethoxysilane exhibits high advancing contact angle and low hysteresis. © 2011 American Chemical Society

Computing the distribution of return levels of extreme warm temperatures for future climate projections

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pausader, M.; Parey, S.; Nogaj, M. [EDF/R and D, Chatou Cedex (France); Bernie, D. [Met Office Hadley Centre, Exeter (United Kingdom)

2012-03-15

In order to take into account uncertainties in the future climate projections there is a growing demand for probabilistic projections of climate change. This paper presents a methodology for producing such a probabilistic analysis of future temperature extremes. The 20- and 100-years return levels are obtained from that of the normalized variable and the changes in mean and standard deviation given by climate models for the desired future periods. Uncertainty in future change of these extremes is quantified using a multi-model ensemble and a perturbed physics ensemble. The probability density functions of future return levels are computed at a representative location from the joint probability distribution of mean and standard deviation changes given by the two combined ensembles of models. For the studied location, the 100-years return level at the end of the century is lower than 41 C with an 80% confidence. Then, as the number of model simulations is low to compute a reliable distribution, two techniques proposed in the literature (local pattern scaling and ANOVA) have been used to infer the changes in mean and standard deviation for the combinations of RCM and GCM which have not been run. The ANOVA technique leads to better results for the reconstruction of the mean changes, whereas the two methods fail to correctly infer the changes in standard deviation. As standard deviation change has a major impact on return level change, there is a need to improve the models and the different techniques regarding the variance changes. (orig.)

An ensemble study of extreme storm surge related water levels in the North Sea in a changing climate

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Sterl

2009-09-01

Full Text Available The height of storm surges is extremely important for a low-lying country like The Netherlands. By law, part of the coastal defence system has to withstand a water level that on average occurs only once every 10 000 years. The question then arises whether and how climate change affects the heights of extreme storm surges. Published research points to only small changes. However, due to the limited amount of data available results are usually limited to relatively frequent extremes like the annual 99%-ile. We here report on results from a 17-member ensemble of North Sea water levels spaning the period 1950–2100. It was created by forcing a surge model of the North Sea with meteorological output from a state-of-the-art global climate model which has been driven by greenhouse gas emissions following the SRES A1b scenario. The large ensemble size enables us to calculate 10 000 year return water levels with a low statistical uncertainty. In the one model used in this study, we find no statistically significant change in the 10 000 year return values of surge heights along the Dutch during the 21st century. Also a higher sea level resulting from global warming does not impact the height of the storm surges. As a side effect of our simulations we also obtain results on the interplay between surge and tide.

A High-Throughput, High-Accuracy System-Level Simulation Framework for System on Chips

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guanyi Sun

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Today's System-on-Chips (SoCs design is extremely challenging because it involves complicated design tradeoffs and heterogeneous design expertise. To explore the large solution space, system architects have to rely on system-level simulators to identify an optimized SoC architecture. In this paper, we propose a system-level simulation framework, System Performance Simulation Implementation Mechanism, or SPSIM. Based on SystemC TLM2.0, the framework consists of an executable SoC model, a simulation tool chain, and a modeling methodology. Compared with the large body of existing research in this area, this work is aimed at delivering a high simulation throughput and, at the same time, guaranteeing a high accuracy on real industrial applications. Integrating the leading TLM techniques, our simulator can attain a simulation speed that is not slower than that of the hardware execution by a factor of 35 on a set of real-world applications. SPSIM incorporates effective timing models, which can achieve a high accuracy after hardware-based calibration. Experimental results on a set of mobile applications proved that the difference between the simulated and measured results of timing performance is within 10%, which in the past can only be attained by cycle-accurate models.

Impacts of Extreme Events on Human Health. Chapter 4

Science.gov (United States)

Bell, Jesse E.; Herring, Stephanie C.; Jantarasami, Lesley; Adrianopoli, Carl; Benedict, Kaitlin; Conlon, Kathryn; Escobar, Vanessa; Hess, Jeremy; Luvall, Jeffrey; Garcia-Pando, Carlos Perez;

An Extreme Degree of Difficulty: The Educational Demographics of Urban Neighborhood High Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Neild, Ruth Curran; Balfanz, Robert

2006-01-01

Despite the growth of a variety of alternatives to the neighborhood high school, most students in big-city school systems still attend large comprehensive high schools that serve a particular residential area. The authors contend that the extreme concentration of educational need at these schools is often overlooked by policymakers, school reform…

The extreme condition analyzing for NEMPI shielding of electronic system in high-intensity pulsed radiation diagnosing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cheng Xiaolei; Liu Fang; Ouyang Xiaoping

2012-01-01

The difficulty for estimating the NEMPI (electromagnetic pulsed interference caused by the nuclear reaction) on the electronic system in high-intensity pulsed radiation diagnosing is analyzed in this article. To solve the difficulty, a method called 'Extreme Condition Analyzing' is presented for estimating the NEMPI conservatively and reliably. Through an extreme condition hypothesizing which could be described as 'Entire Coupling of Electric Field Energy', the E max (maximum electric field intensity which could be endured by the electronic system in the high-intensity pulsed radiation) could be figured out without any other information of the EMP caused by the nuclear reaction. Then a feasibility inspection is introduced, to confirm that the EMPI shielding request according to E max is not too extreme to be achieved. (authors)

INLA goes extreme: Bayesian tail regression for the estimation of high spatio-temporal quantiles

KAUST Repository

Opitz, Thomas

2018-05-25

This work is motivated by the challenge organized for the 10th International Conference on Extreme-Value Analysis (EVA2017) to predict daily precipitation quantiles at the 99.8% level for each month at observed and unobserved locations. Our approach is based on a Bayesian generalized additive modeling framework that is designed to estimate complex trends in marginal extremes over space and time. First, we estimate a high non-stationary threshold using a gamma distribution for precipitation intensities that incorporates spatial and temporal random effects. Then, we use the Bernoulli and generalized Pareto (GP) distributions to model the rate and size of threshold exceedances, respectively, which we also assume to vary in space and time. The latent random effects are modeled additively using Gaussian process priors, which provide high flexibility and interpretability. We develop a penalized complexity (PC) prior specification for the tail index that shrinks the GP model towards the exponential distribution, thus preventing unrealistically heavy tails. Fast and accurate estimation of the posterior distributions is performed thanks to the integrated nested Laplace approximation (INLA). We illustrate this methodology by modeling the daily precipitation data provided by the EVA2017 challenge, which consist of observations from 40 stations in the Netherlands recorded during the period 1972–2016. Capitalizing on INLA’s fast computational capacity and powerful distributed computing resources, we conduct an extensive cross-validation study to select the model parameters that govern the smoothness of trends. Our results clearly outperform simple benchmarks and are comparable to the best-scoring approaches of the other teams.

Adjuvant radiotherapy in high-grade extremity sarcomas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Franca, Carlos Antonio da Silva; Penna, Antonio Belmiro Rodrigues Campbell; Carvalho, Antonio Carlos Pires; Vieira, Sergio Lannes

2010-01-01

Objective: to evaluate the therapies utilized in the authors' institution for management of high-grade extremity sarcomas, analyzing the overall survival rates following multidisciplinary treatment. Materials and methods: retrospective study developed in the period from 1993 to 2007 with 36 patients diagnosed with stages IIb/III, submitted to postoperative external beam radiotherapy, with or without boost dose, utilizing high-dose brachytherapy. Results: thirty-six patients underwent surgery followed by adjuvant external beam radiation therapy. Four patients (11%) received boost dose with brachytherapy, and seven (19%) received chemotherapy. The average dose for radiotherapy was 50 Gy (CI 95%: 47-53 Gy), and the four patients with brachytherapy boost received doses ranging from 16.2 to 35 Gy. Chemotherapy was indicated for seven patients (19%) with positive margins. Fifteen patients (42%) presented local or distant recurrence, and all of them progressed to death. Twenty-one patients (58%) remain with no clinical/radiological evidence of local/distant recurrence. The mean follow-up time was 88 months (IC 95%: 74-102). The overall seven years survival rate was 80%. Conclusion: combined surgery and radiotherapy is an effective treatment with excellent outcomes in cases where brachytherapy is associated, with improved overall survival rates. (author)

Estimation of return levels against different return periods of extreme annual rainfall over Baluchistan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ali, M.; Jan, B.; Iqbal, J.

2012-01-01

Unprecedented heavy monsoon rainfall began in the last week of July 2010 in the Northern part of our country, causes floods in Baluchistan and Sindh. As the high frequency rainfall events are a significant cause of current severe flooding in Pakistan and any fluctuation in the level of such events may cause huge economic losses as well as social problem, urban structures (i.e. dams, urban drainage systems and flood). Statistical distributions are used to identify extremes of annual rainfall of different cities of Baluchistan (Quetta, Sibbi, Khuzdar, Lasbella, Dalbandin and Pasni) with their return periods. Analysis predicts that Gumbel Max. (GM) Distribution is the best fitted distribution for Sibbi and Lasbella while the GEV distribution is the best fitted for Quetta, Khuzdar, Dalbandin and Pasni. The analysis also suggests that different cities of Baluchistan have 30-years return period for getting more than 90 mm average daily rainfall while they have 100-years return period for receiving more than 118 mm daily rainfall. This suggests for suitable flood forecasting and improving the river structure in Baluchistan, Pakistan. (author)

Extreme hypoxia tolerance of naked mole-rat brain.

Science.gov (United States)

Larson, John; Park, Thomas J

2009-12-09

Mammalian brains have extremely high levels of aerobic metabolism and typically suffer irreversible damage after brief periods of oxygen deprivation such as occur during stroke or cardiac arrest. Here we report that brain tissue from naked mole-rats, rodents that live in a chronically low-oxygen environment, is remarkably resistant to hypoxia: naked mole-rat neurons maintain synaptic transmission much longer than mouse neurons and can recover from periods of anoxia exceeding 30 min. We suggest that brain tolerance to hypoxia may result from slowed or arrested brain development in these extremely long-lived animals.

Extreme-scale Algorithms and Solver Resilience

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dongarra, Jack [Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)

2016-12-10

A widening gap exists between the peak performance of high-performance computers and the performance achieved by complex applications running on these platforms. Over the next decade, extreme-scale systems will present major new challenges to algorithm development that could amplify this mismatch in such a way that it prevents the productive use of future DOE Leadership computers due to the following; Extreme levels of parallelism due to multicore processors; An increase in system fault rates requiring algorithms to be resilient beyond just checkpoint/restart; Complex memory hierarchies and costly data movement in both energy and performance; Heterogeneous system architectures (mixing CPUs, GPUs, etc.); and Conflicting goals of performance, resilience, and power requirements.

Hazard analysis of typhoon-related external events using extreme value theory

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Yo Chan; Jang, Seung Cheol [Integrated Safety Assessment Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Lim, Tae Jin [Dept. of Industrial Information Systems Engineering, Soongsil University, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2015-02-15

After the Fukushima accident, the importance of hazard analysis for extreme external events was raised. To analyze typhoon-induced hazards, which are one of the significant disasters of East Asian countries, a statistical analysis using the extreme value theory, which is a method for estimating the annual exceedance frequency of a rare event, was conducted for an estimation of the occurrence intervals or hazard levels. For the four meteorological variables, maximum wind speed, instantaneous wind speed, hourly precipitation, and daily precipitation, the parameters of the predictive extreme value theory models were estimated. The 100-year return levels for each variable were predicted using the developed models and compared with previously reported values. It was also found that there exist significant long-term climate changes of wind speed and precipitation. A fragility analysis should be conducted to ensure the safety levels of a nuclear power plant for high levels of wind speed and precipitation, which exceed the results of a previous analysis.

Extreme sea-level events in coastal regions

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Unnikrishnan, A.S.

that the outcome of the project has been a code that is capable of predicting correct trends more often (15 out of 20) than the other ‘black box’ codes in operation at various agencies. U. N. SINHA CSIR-Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer... of the extreme climate events. Their past trends, future projections and vulnerabi- lity and adaptation to such events are discussed in the report. The report was based on the efforts of both the working groups of the IPCC, WG I, which deals with the science...

Extremely Elevated CA 125 and CA 19-9 in Endometrioma; A Case Series

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vugar Bayramov

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Although endometriosis is a benign condition, increased levels of the tumor markers CA 125 and CA 19-9 may be seen. However, these tumor markers reach to very high levels, rarely. In this report, 4 patients between 20 and 43 year-old with extremely elevated CA 125, CA 19-9 and CA 15-3 levels are discussed. In endometriosis extremely increased tumor markers are determined in the case of ruptured endometrioma cyst. There are two mechanisms to clarify extremely elevated levels of CA 125 in endometriosis. First, the peritoneal irritation of CA 125 molecule after the rupture of endometioma cyst and CA 125 secretion from the periton. And the second is penetration of the CA 125 moecule easily to the circulation through the peritoneal endothelial surface after the cyst rupture. In conclusion, the diagnosis of ruptured endometrioma cyst should be kept in mind especially in young patients with extremely elevated serum CA 125 levels with regard to the history and ultrasonographical signs and invasive procedures should be avoided.

Millimeter waves or extremely high frequency electromagnetic fields in the environment: what are their effects on bacteria?

Science.gov (United States)

Soghomonyan, Diana; Trchounian, Karen; Trchounian, Armen

2016-06-01

Millimeter waves (MMW) or electromagnetic fields of extremely high frequencies at low intensity is a new environmental factor, the level of which is increased as technology advance. It is of interest that bacteria and other cells might communicate with each other by electromagnetic field of sub-extremely high frequency range. These MMW affected Escherichia coli and many other bacteria, mainly depressing their growth and changing properties and activity. These effects were non-thermal and depended on different factors. The significant cellular targets for MMW effects could be water, cell plasma membrane, and genome. The model for the MMW interaction with bacteria is suggested; a role of the membrane-associated proton FOF1-ATPase, key enzyme of bioenergetic relevance, is proposed. The consequences of MMW interaction with bacteria are the changes in their sensitivity to different biologically active chemicals, including antibiotics. Novel data on MMW effects on bacteria and their sensitivity to different antibiotics are presented and discussed; the combined action of MMW and antibiotics resulted with more strong effects. These effects are of significance for understanding changed metabolic pathways and distinguish role of bacteria in environment; they might be leading to antibiotic resistance in bacteria. The effects might have applications in the development of technique, therapeutic practices, and food protection technology.

High dose rate brachytherapy for the treatment of soft tissue sarcoma of the extremity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Speight, J.L.; Streeter, O.E.; Chawla, S.; Menendez, L.E.

1996-01-01

Purpose: we examined the role of preoperative neoadjuvant chemoradiation and adjuvant high-dose rate brachytherapy on the management of prognostically unfavorable soft tissue sarcomas of the extremities. Our goal was to examine the effect of high dose rate interstitial brachytherapy (HDR IBT) on reducing the risk of local recurrence following limb-sparing resection, as well as shortening treatment duration. Materials and methods: eleven patients, ranging in age from 31 to 73 years old, with soft tissue sarcoma of the extremity were treated at USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center during 1994 and 1995. All patients had biopsy proven soft tissue sarcoma, and all were suitable candidates for limb-sparing surgery. All lesions were greater than 5cm in size and were primarily high grade. Tumor histologies included malignant fibrous histiocytoma (45%), liposarcoma (18%) and leiomyosarcoma, synovial cell sarcoma and spindle cell sarcoma (36%). Sites of tumor origin were the lower extremity (55%), upper extremity (18%) and buttock (9%), 1 patient (9%) had lesions in both the upper and lower extremity. Patients received HDR IBT following combined chemotherapy and external beam irradiation (EBRT) and en bloc resection of the sarcoma. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy consisted of three to four cycles of either Ifosfamide/Mesna with or without Adriamycin, or Mesna, Adriamycin, Ifosfamide and Dacarbazine. One patient received Cis-platin in addition to Ifos/Adr. A minimum of two cycles of chemotherapy were administered prior to EBRT. Additional cycles of chemotherapy were completed concurrently with EBRT but prior to HDR IBT. Preoperative EBRT doses ranging from 40 to 59.4 Gy were given in daily fractions of 180 to 200cGy. Following en bloc resection, HDR IBT was administered using the Omnitron tm 2000 remote afterloading system. Doses ranging from 13 to 30 Gy were delivered to the surgical tumor bed at depths of 0.5mm to 0.75mm from the radioactive source. Results: median follow-up was

The fire-walker's high: affect and physiological responses in an extreme collective ritual.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ronald Fischer

Full Text Available How do people feel during extreme collective rituals? Despite longstanding speculation, few studies have attempted to quantify ritual experiences. Using a novel pre/post design, we quantified physiological fluctuations (heart rates and self-reported affective states from a collective fire-walking ritual in a Mauritian Hindu community. Specifically, we compared changes in levels of happiness, fatigue, and heart rate reactivity among high-ordeal participants (fire-walkers, low-ordeal participants (non-fire-walking participants with familial bonds to fire-walkers and spectators (unrelated/unknown to the fire-walkers. We observed that fire-walkers experienced the highest increase in heart rate and reported greater happiness post-ritual compared to low-ordeal participants and spectators. Low-ordeal participants reported increased fatigue after the ritual compared to both fire-walkers and spectators, suggesting empathetic identification effects. Thus, witnessing the ritualistic suffering of loved ones may be more exhausting than experiencing suffering oneself. The findings demonstrate that the level of ritual involvement is important for shaping affective responses to collective rituals. Enduring a ritual ordeal is associated with greater happiness, whereas observing a loved-one endure a ritual ordeal is associated with greater fatigue post-ritual.

Extreme-ultraviolet wavelength and lifetime measurements in highly ionized krypton

CERN Document Server

Kukla, K W; Vogt, C M V; Berry, H G; Dunford, R W; Curtis, L J; Cheng, S

2005-01-01

We have studied the spectrum of highly ionized krypton in the extreme-ultraviolet wavelength region (50-300 Aa), using beam-foil excitation of fast krypton ions at the Argonne ATLAS accelerator facility. We report measurements of transition wavelengths and excited-state lifetimes for n=2 states in the lithiumlike, berylliumlike, and boronlike ions, Kr/sup 31+,32+,33+/. Excited state lifetimes ranging from 10 ps to 3 ns were measured by acquiring time- of-flight-delayed spectra with a position-sensitive multichannel detector.

Long term variations of extreme rainfall in Denmark and southern Sweden

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gregersen, Ida Bülow; Madsen, Henrik; Rosbjerg, Dan

2015-01-01

A high number of studies have detected changes in the observed heavy rainfall in Northern and Central Europe, all adding to the debate on anthropogenic climate change and its potential impact on rainfall extremes. However, it is equally relevant to understand natural variations on which...... the anthropogenic changes are imposed. This study identifies multi-decadal variations in daily rainfall extremes from Denmark and southern Sweden, with a recurrence level relevant for flood hazard analysis. Based on smoothed series it is concluded that the frequency of the extreme events shows both a general...

Comparison on the Analysis on PM10 Data based on Average and Extreme Series

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohd Amin Nor Azrita

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The main concern in environmental issue is on extreme phenomena (catastrophic instead of common events. However, most statistical approaches are concerned primarily with the centre of a distribution or on the average value rather than the tail of the distribution which contains the extreme observations. The concept of extreme value theory affords attention to the tails of distribution where standard models are proved unreliable to analyse extreme series. High level of particulate matter (PM10 is a common environmental problem which causes various impacts to human health and material damages. If the main concern is on extreme events, then extreme value analysis provides the best result with significant evidence. The monthly average and monthly maxima PM10 data for Perlis from 2003 to 2014 were analysed. Forecasting for average data is made by Holt-Winters method while return level determine the predicted value of extreme events that occur on average once in a certain period. The forecasting from January 2015 to December 2016 for average data found that the highest forecasted value is 58.18 (standard deviation 18.45 on February 2016 while return level achieved 253.76 units for 24 months (2015-2016 return periods.

Study of a pressure measurement method using laser ionization for extremely-high vacuum

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kokubun, Kiyohide

1991-01-01

A method of measuring pressures in the range of extremely-high vacuum (XHV) using the laser ionization has been studied. For this purpose, nonresonant multiphoton ionization of various kinds of gases has been studied, and highly-sensitive ion-detection systems and an extremely-high vacuum equipment were fabricated. These results are presented in detail. Two ion-detection systems were fabricated and tested: the one is based on the pulse-counting method, and the other utilizes the image-processing technique. The former is superior in detecting a few ions or less. The latter was processing technique. The former is superior in detecting a few ions or less. The latter was verified to able to count accurately the number of ions in the range of a few to several hundreds. To obtain the information on residual gases and test our pressure measurement system, an extremely-high vacuum system was fabricated in our own fashion, attained a pressure lower than 1 x 10 -10 Pa, measured with an extractor gauge. The outgassing rate of this vacuum vessel was measured to be 7.8 x 10 -11 Pa·m 3 /s·m 2 . The surface structures and the surface compositions of the raw material, the machined material, and the machined-and-outgased material were studied by SEM and AES. Besides, the pumping characteristics and the residual gases of the XHV system were investigated in detail at each pumping stage. On the course of these studies, the method of pressure measurement using the laser-ionization has been verified to be very effective for measuring pressures in XHV. (J.P.N.)

High-level verification

CERN Document Server

Lerner, Sorin; Kundu, Sudipta

2011-01-01

Given the growing size and heterogeneity of Systems on Chip (SOC), the design process from initial specification to chip fabrication has become increasingly complex. This growing complexity provides incentive for designers to use high-level languages such as C, SystemC, and SystemVerilog for system-level design. While a major goal of these high-level languages is to enable verification at a higher level of abstraction, allowing early exploration of system-level designs, the focus so far for validation purposes has been on traditional testing techniques such as random testing and scenario-based

Suggestions on R and D work of high-level radioactive waste disposal in China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu Guoqing

2012-01-01

The difference between repository and generic underground facilities is described. Some differences and similarities of site selection between the low and medium radioactive waste disposal, nuclear power station and high-level radioactive waste repository are also discussed here. We trend to extremely emphasize the safety of high-level radioactive waste disposal because of high toxicity, long half-life and long safety disposal period of this kind of radioactive wastes; because radioactive waste in the repository is of high specific activities and buried in depth, it would be difficult to meddle with its safety. In case of repository system being destroyed, the author considers that in the stages of regional and area site selection, the first task is to investigate regional tectonic stability. Some problems about disposal options and others are also discussed in this paper. (author)

Porous glass matrix method for encapsulating high-level nuclear wastes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Macedo, P.B.; Tran, D.C.; Simmons, J.H.; Saleh, M.; Barkatt, A.; Simmons, C.J.; Lagakos, N.; DeWitt, E.

1979-01-01

A novel process which uses solidified porous high-silica glass powder to fixate radioactive high-level wastes is described. The process yields cylinders consisting of a core of high-silica glass containing the waste elements in its structure and a protective layer also of high-silica glass completely free of waste elements. The process can be applied to waste streams containing 0 to 100% solids. The core region exhibits a higher coefficient of thermal expansion and a lower glass transition temperature than the outer protective layer. This leads to mechanical strengthening of the glass and good resistance to stress corrosion by the development of a high residual compressive stress on the surface of the sample. Both the core and the protective layer exhibit extremely high chemical durability and offer an effective fixation of the radioactive waste elements, including 239 Pu and 99 Tc which have long half-lives, for calculated periods of more than 1 million years, when temperatures are not allowed to rise above 100 0 C

SHAM: High-level seismic tests of piping at the HDR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kot, C.A.; Srinivasan, M.G.; Hsieh, B.J.; Malcher, L.; Schrammel, D.; Steinhilber, H.; Costello, J.F.

1988-01-01

As part of the second phase of vibrational/earthquake investigations at the HDR (Heissdampfreaktor) Test Facility in Kahl/Main, FRG, high-level simulated seismic tests (SHAM) were performed during April--May 1988 on the VKL (Versuchskreislauf) in-plant piping system with two servohydraulic actuators, each capable of generating 40 tons of force. The purpose of these experiments was to study the behavior of piping subjected to seismic excitation levels that exceed design levels manifold and may result in failure/plastification of pipe supports and pipe elements, and to establish seismic margins for piping and pipe supports. The performance of six different dynamic pipe support systems was compared in these tests and the response, operability, and fragility of dynamic supports and of a typical US gate valve were investigated. Data obtained in the tests are used to validate analysis methods. Very preliminary evaluations lead to the observation that, in general, failures of dynamic supports (in particular snubbers) occur only at load levels that substantially exceed the design capacity. Pipe strains at load levels exceeding the design level threefold are quite small, and even when exceeding the design level eightfold are quite tolerable. Hence, under seismic loading, even at extreme levels and in spite of multiple support failures, pipe failure is unlikely. 5 refs., 16 figs

Global patterns of NDVI-indicated vegetation extremes and their sensitivity to climate extremes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Guo; Liu Hongyan; Yin Yi

2013-01-01

Extremes in climate have significant impacts on ecosystems and are expected to increase under future climate change. Extremes in vegetation could capture such impacts and indicate the vulnerability of ecosystems, but currently have not received a global long-term assessment. In this study, a robust method has been developed to detect significant extremes (low values) in biweekly time series of global normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from 1982 to 2006 and thus to acquire a global pattern of vegetation extreme frequency. This pattern coincides with vegetation vulnerability patterns suggested by earlier studies using different methods over different time spans, indicating a consistent mechanism of regulation. Vegetation extremes were found to aggregate in Amazonia and in the semi-arid and semi-humid regions in low and middle latitudes, while they seldom occurred in high latitudes. Among the environmental variables studied, extreme low precipitation has the highest slope against extreme vegetation. For the eight biomes analyzed, these slopes are highest in temperate broadleaf forest and temperate grassland, suggesting a higher sensitivity in these environments. The results presented here contradict the hypothesis that vegetation in water-limited semi-arid and semi-humid regions might be adapted to drought and suggest that vegetation in these regions (especially temperate broadleaf forest and temperate grassland) is highly prone to vegetation extreme events under more severe precipitation extremes. It is also suggested here that more attention be paid to precipitation-induced vegetation changes than to temperature-induced events. (letter)

Retrospective Review of Air Transportation Use for Upper Extremity Amputations at a Level-1 Trauma Center.

Science.gov (United States)

Grantham, W Jeffrey; To, Philip; Watson, Jeffry T; Brywczynski, Jeremy; Lee, Donald H

2016-08-01

Air transportation to tertiary care centers of patients with upper extremity amputations has been utilized in hopes of reducing the time to potential replantation; however, this mode of transportation is expensive and not all patients will undergo replantation. The purpose of this study is to review the appropriateness and cost of air transportation in upper extremity amputations. Consecutive patients transported by aircraft with upper extremity amputations in a 7-year period at a level-1 trauma center were retrospectively reviewed. The distance traveled was recorded, along with the times of the injury, referral, transportation duration, arrival, and start of the operation. The results of the transfer were defined as replantation or revision amputation. Overall, 47 patients were identified with 43 patients going to the operating room, but only 14 patients (30%) undergoing replantation. Patients arrived at the tertiary hand surgery center with a mean time of 182.3 minutes following the injury, which includes 105.2 minutes of transportation time. The average distance traveled was 105.4 miles (range, 22-353 miles). The time before surgery of those who underwent replantation was 154.6 minutes. The average cost of transportation was $20,482. Air transportation for isolated upper extremity amputations is costly and is not usually the determining factor for replantation. The type of injury and patients' expectations often dictate the outcome, and these may be better determined at the time of referral with use of telecommunication photos, discussion with a hand surgeon, and patient counseling. III.

Quantifying the consequences of changing hydroclimatic extremes on protection levels for the Rhine

Science.gov (United States)

Sperna Weiland, Frederiek; Hegnauer, Mark; Buiteveld, Hendrik; Lammersen, Rita; van den Boogaard, Henk; Beersma, Jules

2017-04-01

The Dutch method for quantifying the magnitude and frequency of occurrence of discharge extremes in the Rhine basin and the potential influence of climate change hereon are presented. In the Netherlands flood protection design requires estimates of discharge extremes for return periods of 1000 up to 100,000 years. Observed discharge records are too short to derive such extreme return discharges, therefore extreme value assessment is based on very long synthetic discharge time-series generated with the Generator of Rainfall And Discharge Extremes (GRADE). The GRADE instrument consists of (1) a stochastic weather generator based on time series resampling of historical f rainfall and temperature and (2) a hydrological model optimized following the GLUE methodology and (3) a hydrodynamic model to simulate the propagation of flood waves based on the generated hydrological time-series. To assess the potential influence of climate change, the four KNMI'14 climate scenarios are applied. These four scenarios represent a large part of the uncertainty provided by the GCMs used for the IPCC 5th assessment report (the CMIP5 GCM simulations under different climate forcings) and are for this purpose tailored to the Rhine and Meuse river basins. To derive the probability distributions of extreme discharges under climate change the historical synthetic rainfall and temperature series simulated with the weather generator are transformed to the future following the KNMI'14 scenarios. For this transformation the Advanced Delta Change method, which allows that the changes in the extremes differ from those in the means, is used. Subsequently the hydrological model is forced with the historical and future (i.e. transformed) synthetic time-series after which the propagation of the flood waves is simulated with the hydrodynamic model to obtain the extreme discharge statistics both for current and future climate conditions. The study shows that both for 2050 and 2085 increases in discharge

High-level Zn and Cd tolerance in Silene paradoxa L. from a moderately Cd- and Zn-contaminated copper mine tailing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arnetoli, Miluscia; Vooijs, Riet; Gonnelli, Cristina; Gabbrielli, Roberto; Verkleij, Jos A.C.; Schat, Henk

2008-01-01

Cadmium and zinc tolerance were examined in populations of Silene paradoxa, one from uncontaminated calcareous soil (CVD) and one from a mine tailing (FC) (Cd < 1-15 ppm, Zn 400-1300 ppm, pH 2-6). The mine population exhibited extremely high Zn and Cd tolerance levels, although the degrees of Cd and Zn enrichment relatively low at the population site. Cd and Zn hypertolerance in FC were associated with reduced rates of accumulation of these metals, both in roots and shoots (Cd), or exclusively in shoots (Zn). However, exclusion potentially explained only a minor part of the superior tolerance in FC. Cd hypertolerance in FC was associated with decreased, rather than enhanced phytochelatin accumulation. The remarkably high levels of Cd and Zn hypertolerance in FC might relate to the low soil pH, due to oxidation of sulphide minerals, and the absence of soil organic matter at the FC site. - Silene paradoxa from a copper mine exhibits extreme levels of Zn and Cd tolerance

Neurodevelopmental problems and extremes in BMI

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nóra Kerekes

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Background. Over the last few decades, an increasing number of studies have suggested a connection between neurodevelopmental problems (NDPs and body mass index (BMI. Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD and autism spectrum disorders (ASD both seem to carry an increased risk for developing extreme BMI. However, the results are inconsistent, and there have been only a few studies of the general population of children.Aims. We had three aims with the present study: (1 to define the prevalence of extreme (low or high BMI in the group of children with ADHD and/or ASDs compared to the group of children without these NDPs; (2 to analyze whether extreme BMI is associated with the subdomains within the diagnostic categories of ADHD or ASD; and (3 to investigate the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to BMI in boys and girls at ages 9 and 12.Method. Parents of 9- or 12-year-old twins (n = 12,496 were interviewed using the Autism—Tics, ADHD and other Comorbidities (A-TAC inventory as part of the Child and Adolescent Twin Study in Sweden (CATSS. Univariate and multivariate generalized estimated equation models were used to analyze associations between extremes in BMI and NDPs.Results. ADHD screen-positive cases followed BMI distributions similar to those of children without ADHD or ASD. Significant association was found between ADHD and BMI only among 12-year-old girls, where the inattention subdomain of ADHD was significantly associated with the high extreme BMI. ASD scores were associated with both the low and the high extremes of BMI. Compared to children without ADHD or ASD, the prevalence of ASD screen-positive cases was three times greater in the high extreme BMI group and double as much in the low extreme BMI group. Stereotyped and repetitive behaviors were significantly associated with high extreme BMIs.Conclusion. Children with ASD, with or without coexisting ADHD, are more prone to have low or high extreme BMIs than

Recent and future warm extreme events and high-mountain slope stability.

Science.gov (United States)

Huggel, C; Salzmann, N; Allen, S; Caplan-Auerbach, J; Fischer, L; Haeberli, W; Larsen, C; Schneider, D; Wessels, R

2010-05-28

The number of large slope failures in some high-mountain regions such as the European Alps has increased during the past two to three decades. There is concern that recent climate change is driving this increase in slope failures, thus possibly further exacerbating the hazard in the future. Although the effects of a gradual temperature rise on glaciers and permafrost have been extensively studied, the impacts of short-term, unusually warm temperature increases on slope stability in high mountains remain largely unexplored. We describe several large slope failures in rock and ice in recent years in Alaska, New Zealand and the European Alps, and analyse weather patterns in the days and weeks before the failures. Although we did not find one general temperature pattern, all the failures were preceded by unusually warm periods; some happened immediately after temperatures suddenly dropped to freezing. We assessed the frequency of warm extremes in the future by analysing eight regional climate models from the recently completed European Union programme ENSEMBLES for the central Swiss Alps. The models show an increase in the higher frequency of high-temperature events for the period 2001-2050 compared with a 1951-2000 reference period. Warm events lasting 5, 10 and 30 days are projected to increase by about 1.5-4 times by 2050 and in some models by up to 10 times. Warm extremes can trigger large landslides in temperature-sensitive high mountains by enhancing the production of water by melt of snow and ice, and by rapid thaw. Although these processes reduce slope strength, they must be considered within the local geological, glaciological and topographic context of a slope.

INLA goes extreme: Bayesian tail regression for the estimation of high spatio-temporal quantiles

KAUST Repository

Opitz, Thomas; Huser, Raphaë l; Bakka, Haakon; Rue, Haavard

2018-01-01

approach is based on a Bayesian generalized additive modeling framework that is designed to estimate complex trends in marginal extremes over space and time. First, we estimate a high non-stationary threshold using a gamma distribution for precipitation

Sea level oscillations over minute timescales: a global perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Vilibic, Ivica; Sepic, Jadranka

2016-04-01

Sea level oscillations occurring over minutes to a few hours are an important contributor to sea level extremes, and a knowledge on their behaviour is essential for proper quantification of coastal marine hazards. Tsunamis, meteotsunamis, infra-gravity waves and harbour oscillations may even dominate sea level extremes in certain areas and thus pose a great danger for humans and coastal infrastructure. Aside for tsunamis, which are, due to their enormous impact to the coastlines, a well-researched phenomena, the importance of other high-frequency oscillations to the sea level extremes is still underrated, as no systematic long-term measurements have been carried out at a minute timescales. Recently, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) established Sea Level Monitoring Facility portal (http://www.ioc-sealevelmonitoring.org), making 1-min sea level data publicly available for several hundred tide gauge sites in the World Ocean. Thereafter, a global assessment of oscillations over tsunami timescales become possible; however, the portal contains raw sea level data only, being unchecked for spikes, shifts, drifts and other malfunctions of instruments. We present a quality assessment of these data, estimates of sea level variances and contributions of high-frequency processes to the extremes throughout the World Ocean. This is accompanied with assessment of atmospheric conditions and processes which generate intense high-frequency oscillations.

Extreme Environment Circuit Blocks for Spacecraft Power & Propulsion System & Other High Reliability Applications, Phase II

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Chronos Technology (DIv of FMI, Inc.) proposes to design, fabricate, and deliver a performance proven, and commercially available set of extreme high operating...

Hot-wall corrosion testing of simulated high level nuclear waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chandler, G.T.; Zapp, P.E.; Mickalonis, J.I.

1995-01-01

Three materials of construction for steam tubes used in the evaporation of high level radioactive waste were tested under heat flux conditions, referred to as hot-wall tests. The materials were type 304L stainless steel alloy C276, and alloy G3. Non-radioactive acidic and alkaline salt solutions containing halides and mercury simulated different high level waste solutions stored or processed at the United States Department of Energy's Savannah River Site. Alloy C276 was also tested for corrosion susceptibility under steady-state conditions. The nickel-based alloys C276 and G3 exhibited excellent corrosion resistance under the conditions studied. Alloy C276 was not susceptible to localized corrosion and had a corrosion rate of 0.01 mpy (0.25 μm/y) when exposed to acidic waste sludge and precipitate slurry at a hot-wall temperature of 150 degrees C. Type 304L was susceptible to localized corrosion under the same conditions. Alloy G3 had a corrosion rate of 0.1 mpy (2.5 μm/y) when exposed to caustic high level waste evaporator solution at a hot-wall temperature of 220 degrees C compared to 1.1 mpy (28.0 μ/y) for type 304L. Under extreme caustic conditions (45 weight percent sodium hydroxide) G3 had a corrosion rate of 0.1 mpy (2.5 μm/y) at a hot-wall temperature of 180 degrees C while type 304L had a high corrosion rate of 69.4 mpy (1.8 mm/y)

Experiences with High-Level Programming Directives for Porting Applications to GPUs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ding, Wei; Chapman, Barbara; Sankaran, Ramanan; Graham, Richard L.

2012-01-01

HPC systems now exploit GPUs within their compute nodes to accelerate program performance. As a result, high-end application development has become extremely complex at the node level. In addition to restructuring the node code to exploit the cores and specialized devices, the programmer may need to choose a programming model such as OpenMP or CPU threads in conjunction with an accelerator programming model to share and manage the difference node resources. This comes at a time when programmer productivity and the ability to produce portable code has been recognized as a major concern. In order to offset the high development cost of creating CUDA or OpenCL kernels, directives have been proposed for programming accelerator devices, but their implications are not well known. In this paper, we evaluate the state of the art accelerator directives to program several applications kernels, explore transformations to achieve good performance, and examine the expressiveness and performance penalty of using high-level directives versus CUDA. We also compare our results to OpenMP implementations to understand the benefits of running the kernels in the accelerator versus CPU cores.

High-level seismic tests of piping at the HDR [Heissdampfreaktor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kot, C.A.; Srinivasan, M.G.; Hsieh, B.J.; Costello, J.F.

1989-01-01

As part of the second-phase testing at the Heissdampfreaktor (HDR) Test Facility in Kahl/Main, Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), high-level seismic experiments, designated SHAM, were performed on an in-plant piping system during the period of 19 April to 27 May 1988. The objectives of the SHAM experiments were to (1) study the response of piping subjected to seismic excitation levels that exceed design levels manifold and which may result in failure/plastification of pipe supports and pipe elements; (2) provide data for the validation of linear and nonlinear pipe response analyses; (3) compare and evaluate, under identical loading conditions, the performance of various dynamic support system, ranging from very flexible to very stiff support configurations; (4) establish seismic margins for piping, dynamic pipe supports, and pipe anchorages; and (5) investigate the response, operability, and fragility of dynamic supports and of a typical US gate valve under extreme levels of seismic excitation. A brief description of the SHAM tests is provided, followed by highlights of the test results that are given primarily in the form of maximum response values. Also presented are very limited comparisons of experimental data and pretest analytical predictions. 6 refs., 8 figs

Optimization with Extremal Dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boettcher, Stefan; Percus, Allon G.

2001-01-01

We explore a new general-purpose heuristic for finding high-quality solutions to hard discrete optimization problems. The method, called extremal optimization, is inspired by self-organized criticality, a concept introduced to describe emergent complexity in physical systems. Extremal optimization successively updates extremely undesirable variables of a single suboptimal solution, assigning them new, random values. Large fluctuations ensue, efficiently exploring many local optima. We use extremal optimization to elucidate the phase transition in the 3-coloring problem, and we provide independent confirmation of previously reported extrapolations for the ground-state energy of ±J spin glasses in d=3 and 4

Structural extremes in a cretaceous dinosaur.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paul C Sereno

Full Text Available Fossils of the Early Cretaceous dinosaur, Nigersaurus taqueti, document for the first time the cranial anatomy of a rebbachisaurid sauropod. Its extreme adaptations for herbivory at ground-level challenge current hypotheses regarding feeding function and feeding strategy among diplodocoids, the larger clade of sauropods that includes Nigersaurus. We used high resolution computed tomography, stereolithography, and standard molding and casting techniques to reassemble the extremely fragile skull. Computed tomography also allowed us to render the first endocast for a sauropod preserving portions of the olfactory bulbs, cerebrum and inner ear, the latter permitting us to establish habitual head posture. To elucidate evidence of tooth wear and tooth replacement rate, we used photographic-casting techniques and crown thin sections, respectively. To reconstruct its 9-meter postcranial skeleton, we combined and size-adjusted multiple partial skeletons. Finally, we used maximum parsimony algorithms on character data to obtain the best estimate of phylogenetic relationships among diplodocoid sauropods. Nigersaurus taqueti shows extreme adaptations for a dinosaurian herbivore including a skull of extremely light construction, tooth batteries located at the distal end of the jaws, tooth replacement as fast as one per month, an expanded muzzle that faces directly toward the ground, and hollow presacral vertebral centra with more air sac space than bone by volume. A cranial endocast provides the first reasonably complete view of a sauropod brain including its small olfactory bulbs and cerebrum. Skeletal and dental evidence suggests that Nigersaurus was a ground-level herbivore that gathered and sliced relatively soft vegetation, the culmination of a low-browsing feeding strategy first established among diplodocoids during the Jurassic.

Glass: a candidate engineered material for management of high level nuclear waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mishra, R.K.; Kaushik, C.P.

2011-01-01

While the commercial importance of glass is generally recognized, a few people are aware of extremely wide range of glass formulations that can be made and of the versatility of this engineered material. Some of the recent developments in the field of glass leading to various technological applications include glass fiber reinforcement of cement to give new building materials, substrates for microelectronics circuitry in form of semiconducting glasses, nuclear waste immobilization and specific medical applications. The present paper covers fundamental understanding of glass structure and its application for immobilization of high level radioactive liquid waste. High level radioactive liquid waste (HLW) arising during reprocessing of spent fuel are immobilized in sodium borosilicate glass matrix developed indigenously. Glass compositions are modified according to the composition of HLW to meet the criteria of desirable properties in terms. These glass matrices have been characterized for different properties like homogeneity, chemical durability, thermal stability and radiation stability. (author)

The relative contribution of waves, tides, and nontidal residuals to extreme total water levels on U.S. West Coast sandy beaches

Science.gov (United States)

Serafin, Katherine A.; Ruggiero, Peter; Stockdon, Hilary F.

2017-01-01

To better understand how individual processes combine to cause flooding and erosion events, we investigate the relative contribution of tides, waves, and nontidal residuals to extreme total water levels (TWLs) at the shoreline of U.S. West Coast sandy beaches. Extreme TWLs, defined as the observed annual maximum event and the simulated 100 year return level event, peak in Washington, and are on average larger in Washington and Oregon than in California. The relative contribution of wave-induced and still water levels (SWL) to the 100 year TWL event is similar to that of the annual maximum event; however, the contribution of storm surge to the SWL doubles across events. Understanding the regional variability of TWLs will lead to a better understanding of how sea level rise, changes in storminess, and possible changes in the frequency of major El Niños may impact future coastal flooding and erosion along the U.S. West Coast and elsewhere.

Successful treatment of extreme acute lead intoxication.

Science.gov (United States)

Mikler, J; Banovcin, P; Jesenak, M; Hamzikova, J; Statelova, D

2009-03-01

Severe acute lead intoxications are rare and are associated with accidental or purposeful ingestion. There were only few cases of severe to fatal poisonings reported in literature in children. We report a case of acute lead intoxication in a child with extremely high lead blood level of 20.4 micromol/L (422.7 microg/dL), who was treated with chelation and in whom significant organ dysfunction did not develop. Documented significant high level above 3.37 micromol/L (corresponding to 70 microg/dL) in this patient persisted for approximately 24 h. Adequate, single or combined chelatation therapy in early phase of acute lead poisoning is essential for the further patient's outcome.

Assessing Climate Variability using Extreme Rainfall and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

user1

extreme frequency); the average intensity of rainfall from extreme events ... frequency and extreme intensity indices, suggesting that extreme events are more frequent and intense during years with high rainfall. The proportion of total rainfall from ...

Urban renewal based wind environment at pedestrian level in high-density and high-rise urban areas in Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, J. W.; Zheng, J. Y.; Zhao, Y.; Shao, Y. H.; Yuan, F.

2017-11-01

In high-density and high-rise urban areas, pedestrian level winds contribute to improve comfort, safety and diffusion of heat in urban areas. Outdoor wind study is extremely vital and a prerequisite in high-density cities considering that the immediate pedestrian level wind environment is fundamentally impacted by the presence of a series of high-rise buildings. In this paper, the research site of Sai Ying Pun in Hong Kong will be analysed in terms of geography, climate and urban morphology, while the surrounding natural ventilation has also been simulated by the wind tunnel experiment Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). It has found that, the existing problems in this district are the contradiction between planning control and commercial interests, which means some areas around tall buildings are not benefit to the residents because of the unhealthy wind environment. Therefore, some recommendation of urban renewal strategy has been provided.

Technology improves upper extremity rehabilitation.

Science.gov (United States)

Kowalczewski, Jan; Prochazka, Arthur

2011-01-01

Stroke survivors with hemiparesis and spinal cord injury (SCI) survivors with tetraplegia find it difficult or impossible to perform many activities of daily life. There is growing evidence that intensive exercise therapy, especially when supplemented with functional electrical stimulation (FES), can improve upper extremity function, but delivering the treatment can be costly, particularly after recipients leave rehabilitation facilities. Recently, there has been a growing level of interest among researchers and healthcare policymakers to deliver upper extremity treatments to people in their homes using in-home teletherapy (IHT). The few studies that have been carried out so far have encountered a variety of logistical and technical problems, not least the difficulty of conducting properly controlled and blinded protocols that satisfy the requirements of high-level evidence-based research. In most cases, the equipment and communications technology were not designed for individuals with upper extremity disability. It is clear that exercise therapy combined with interventions such as FES, supervised over the Internet, will soon be adopted worldwide in one form or another. Therefore it is timely that researchers, clinicians, and healthcare planners interested in assessing IHT be aware of the pros and cons of the new technology and the factors involved in designing appropriate studies of it. It is crucial to understand the technical barriers, the role of telesupervisors, the motor improvements that participants can reasonably expect and the process of optimizing IHT-exercise therapy protocols to maximize the benefits of the emerging technology. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Relationship of psychophysiological characteristics with different levels of motivation in judo athletes of high qualification

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G.V. Korobeynikov

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Aim : to study the connection of psychophysiological characteristics with different levels of motivation in judo athletes of high qualification. Material: highly qualified athletes were examined, members of the National Judo Team (men. All athletes (n = 25 were divided into three groups, depending on the level of motivation to achieve success. Results: it is established that the high level of motivation for achieving success in judo is provided by activation of neurodynamic, cognitive functions and the level of light resistance. Athletes with a high level of motivation to achieve success is observed the predominance of the values of neurodynamic functions: endurance of the nervous system; speed of visual reactions. Athletes with an average level of motivation to achieve success identified higher values: productivity, speed, accuracy, effectiveness of verbal information. Athletes with a predominance of avoidance of failure motivation have a preference for other groups in the speed, efficiency and stability of the processes of thinking and processing information. Conclusions: judo athletes with a predominance of motivation to avoid a failure form coping strategy to prevent psycho-emotional stress. This helps to minimize the exhaustion of vegetative resources in conditions of extreme sports activity. Judo athletes with high level of motivation to achieve success, the presence of mental state of relative comfort is associated with the search for support among others and orientation toward internal beliefs.

Stationary and non-stationary extreme value modeling of extreme temperature in Malaysia

Science.gov (United States)

Hasan, Husna; Salleh, Nur Hanim Mohd; Kassim, Suraiya

2014-09-01

Extreme annual temperature of eighteen stations in Malaysia is fitted to the Generalized Extreme Value distribution. Stationary and non-stationary models with trend are considered for each station and the Likelihood Ratio test is used to determine the best-fitting model. Results show that three out of eighteen stations i.e. Bayan Lepas, Labuan and Subang favor a model which is linear in the location parameter. A hierarchical cluster analysis is employed to investigate the existence of similar behavior among the stations. Three distinct clusters are found in which one of them consists of the stations that favor the non-stationary model. T-year estimated return levels of the extreme temperature are provided based on the chosen models.

Extremely deformable structures

CERN Document Server

2015-01-01

Recently, a new research stimulus has derived from the observation that soft structures, such as biological systems, but also rubber and gel, may work in a post critical regime, where elastic elements are subject to extreme deformations, though still exhibiting excellent mechanical performances. This is the realm of ‘extreme mechanics’, to which this book is addressed. The possibility of exploiting highly deformable structures opens new and unexpected technological possibilities. In particular, the challenge is the design of deformable and bi-stable mechanisms which can reach superior mechanical performances and can have a strong impact on several high-tech applications, including stretchable electronics, nanotube serpentines, deployable structures for aerospace engineering, cable deployment in the ocean, but also sensors and flexible actuators and vibration absorbers. Readers are introduced to a variety of interrelated topics involving the mechanics of extremely deformable structures, with emphasis on ...

Effects of elevated mean and extremely high temperatures on the physio-ecological characteristics of geographically distinctive populations of Cunninghamia lanceolata

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Ting; Jia, Xiaorong; Liao, Huixuan; Peng, Shijia; Peng, Shaolin

2016-12-01

Conventional models for predicting species distribution under global warming scenarios often treat one species as a homogeneous whole. In the present study, we selected Cunninghamia lanceolata (C. lanceolata), a widely distributed species in China, to investigate the physio-ecological responses of five populations under different temperature regimes. The results demonstrate that increased mean temperatures induce increased growth performance among northern populations, which exhibited the greatest germination capacity and largest increase in the overlap between the growth curve and the monthly average temperature. However,tolerance of the southern population to extremely high temperatures was stronger than among the population from the northern region,shown by the best growth and the most stable photosynthetic system of the southern population under extremely high temperature. This result indicates that the growth advantage among northern populations due to increased mean temperatures may be weakened by lower tolerance to extremely high temperatures. This finding is antithetical to the predicted results. The theoretical coupling model constructed here illustrates that the difference in growth between populations at high and low latitudes and altitudes under global warming will decrease because of the frequent occurrence of extremely high temperatures.

Performance of High Temperature Operational Amplifier, Type LM2904WH, under Extreme Temperatures

Science.gov (United States)

Patterson, Richard; Hammoud, Ahmad; Elbuluk, Malik

2008-01-01

Operation of electronic parts and circuits under extreme temperatures is anticipated in NASA space exploration missions as well as terrestrial applications. Exposure of electronics to extreme temperatures and wide-range thermal swings greatly affects their performance via induced changes in the semiconductor material properties, packaging and interconnects, or due to incompatibility issues between interfaces that result from thermal expansion/contraction mismatch. Electronics that are designed to withstand operation and perform efficiently in extreme temperatures would mitigate risks for failure due to thermal stresses and, therefore, improve system reliability. In addition, they contribute to reducing system size and weight, simplifying its design, and reducing development cost through the elimination of otherwise required thermal control elements for proper ambient operation. A large DC voltage gain (100 dB) operational amplifier with a maximum junction temperature of 150 C was recently introduced by STMicroelectronics [1]. This LM2904WH chip comes in a plastic package and is designed specifically for automotive and industrial control systems. It operates from a single power supply over a wide range of voltages, and it consists of two independent, high gain, internally frequency compensated operational amplifiers. Table I shows some of the device manufacturer s specifications.

Extreme Nonlinear Optics An Introduction

CERN Document Server

Wegener, Martin

2005-01-01

Following the birth of the laser in 1960, the field of "nonlinear optics" rapidly emerged. Today, laser intensities and pulse durations are readily available, for which the concepts and approximations of traditional nonlinear optics no longer apply. In this regime of "extreme nonlinear optics," a large variety of novel and unusual effects arise, for example frequency doubling in inversion symmetric materials or high-harmonic generation in gases, which can lead to attosecond electromagnetic pulses or pulse trains. Other examples of "extreme nonlinear optics" cover diverse areas such as solid-state physics, atomic physics, relativistic free electrons in a vacuum and even the vacuum itself. This book starts with an introduction to the field based primarily on extensions of two famous textbook examples, namely the Lorentz oscillator model and the Drude model. Here the level of sophistication should be accessible to any undergraduate physics student. Many graphical illustrations and examples are given. The followi...

Differential Diagnosis of Dementia with High Levels of Cerebrospinal Fluid Tau Protein.

Science.gov (United States)

Grangeon, Lou; Paquet, Claire; Bombois, Stephanie; Quillard-Muraine, Muriel; Martinaud, Olivier; Bourre, Bertrand; Lefaucheur, Romain; Nicolas, Gaël; Dumurgier, Julien; Gerardin, Emmanuel; Jan, Mary; Laplanche, Jean-Louis; Peoc'h, Katell; Hugon, Jacques; Pasquier, Florence; Maltête, David; Hannequin, Didier; Wallon, David

2016-01-01

Total Tau concentration in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is widely used as a biomarker in the diagnosis of neurodegenerative process primarily in Alzheimer's disease (AD). A particularly high Tau level may indicate AD but may also be associated with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). In such situations little is known about the distribution of differential diagnoses. Our study aimed to describe the different diagnoses encountered in clinical practice for patients with dementia and CSF Tau levels over 1000 pg/ml. We studied the p-Tau/Tau ratio to specify its ability to distinguish AD from CJD. Patients (n = 202) with CSF Tau levels over 1000 pg/ml were recruited in three memory clinics in France. All diagnoses were made using the same diagnostic procedure and criteria. Patients were diagnosed with AD (n = 148, 73.2%), mixed dementia (n = 38, 18.8%), CJD, vascular dementia (n = 4, 2.0% for each), Lewy body dementia, and frontotemporal dementia (n = 3, 1.5% for each). Dispersion of CSF Tau levels clearly showed an overlap between all diagnoses. Using the p-Tau/Tau ratio suggestive of CJD (<0.075), all CJD patients were correctly categorized and only two AD patients were miscategorized. This ratio was highly associated with CJD compared to AD (p < 0.0001). Our study showed that in clinical practice, extremely high CSF Tau levels are mainly related to diagnosis of AD. CJD patients represent a minority. Our results support a sequential interpretation algorithm for CSF biomarkers in dementia. High CSF Tau levels should alert clinicians to check the p-Tau/Tau ratio to consider a probable diagnosis of CJD.

Extremity x-ray

Science.gov (United States)

... page: //medlineplus.gov/ency/article/003461.htm Extremity x-ray To use the sharing features on this page, ... in the body Risks There is low-level radiation exposure. X-rays are monitored and regulated to provide the ...

Extreme events assessment methodology coupling rainfall and tidal levels in the coastal floodplain of the São Paulo North Coast (Brazil) for drainage purposes

Science.gov (United States)

Alfredini, P.; Cartacho, D. L.; Arasaki, E.; Rosso, M.; Sousa, W. C., Jr.; Lanzieri, D. R.; Ferreira, J. P. M.

2012-04-01

The Caraguatatuba Coastal Plain is the wider in São Paulo State (Brazil) North Coastline. The Santo Antônio Torrent Catchmenth drains that region with high urban concentration (around 100,000 permanent inhabitants), which may quintuplicate with the turists in the summer period. In the last decade important oil and gas sea reserves were discovered and the facilities for their treatment were located in that region. For that great economic growth scenario it is mandatory to design mitigation risk measures to have the fluvial forcing processes well known, considering the natural hazards. The Santo Antônio catchment has a surface area of 40 km2, heavy rainfall rates (around 3000 mm/year), concentrated mainly in the summer period, producing high fluvial sediment transport capacity, floods and debris-flows. Due to the steep slopes and the altitude (~ 1000 m) of the mountains near the coast, the hydrological orographic effect rapidly condensates the sea humidity and recurrent and intense flood events cause extensive risks and damages to population and infrastructures. Strong debris-flows occur in that region, because rains higher than 300-400 mm per day occur in multi decadal periods. Due to the wind blowing landward the humidity from the sea, also meteorological tides occur in correspondence of high rainfall rates. The aim of this project is to present an extreme hydrological assessment methodology, coupling rainfall rates and tidal levels, to show the impact of climate changes during the last decades. It is also presented the magnitude of the rising meteorological tide coupled with the extreme rainfall events. The data base analysed comprised long term data of rainfall and tidal measurements from 1954 to 2003. The correlations of the two data were divided in five classes of rainfall in mm per day (> 0, > 25, > 50, > 75 and > 100) and estimated the tidal levels for different return periods in years (2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 75 and 100). The comparison of two distint periods

Extreme Environment High Temperature Communication Systems, Phase I

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The purpose of this project is to develop and demonstrate a communications system capable of operation at extreme temperatures and pressures in hostile and corrosive...

Temporal energy partitions of Florida extreme sea level events as a function of Atlantic multidecadal oscillation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Park

2010-06-01

Full Text Available An energy-conservative metric based on the discrete wavelet transform is applied to assess the relative energy distribution of extreme sea level events across different temporal scales. The metric is applied to coastal events at Key West and Pensacola Florida as a function of two Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO regimes. Under AMO warm conditions there is a small but significant redistribution of event energy from nearly static into more dynamic (shorter duration timescales at Key West, while at Pensacola the AMO-dependent changes in temporal event behaviour are less pronounced. Extreme events with increased temporal dynamics might be consistent with an increase in total energy of event forcings which may be a reflection of more energetic storm events during AMO warm phases. As dynamical models mature to the point of providing regional climate index predictability, coastal planners may be able to consider such temporal change metrics in planning scenarios.

Moderate and extreme maternal obesity.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Abdelmaboud, M O

2012-05-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of moderate and extreme obesity among an Irish obstetric population over a 10-year period, and to evaluate the obstetric features of such pregnancies. Of 31,869 women delivered during the years 2000-2009, there were 306 women in the study group, including 173 in the moderate or Class 2 obese category (BMI 35-39.9) and 133 in the extreme or Class 3 obese category (BMI > or = 40).The prevalence of obese women with BMI > or = 35 was 9.6 per 1000 (0.96%), with an upward trend observed from 2.1 per 1000 in the year 2000, to 11.8 per 1000 in the year 2009 (P = 0.001). There was an increase in emergency caesarean section (EMCS) risk for primigravida versus multigravid women, within both obese categories (P < 0.001). However, there was no significant difference in EMCS rates observed between Class 2 and Class 3 obese women, when matched for parity. The prevalence of moderate and extreme obesity reported in this population is high, and appears to be increasing. The increased rates of abdominal delivery, and the levels of associated morbidity observed, have serious implications for such women embarking on pregnancy.

The influence of non thermal coherent EMR with low intensity and extremely high frequency on total activity and isoenzyme composition of peroxidase

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nerkararyan, A.V.; Shahinyan, M.A.; Khachatryan, A.V.; Vardevanyan, P.O.

2011-01-01

In this work the influence of non-thermal coherent electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with low intensity and extremely high frequency on intensity of wheat developing germ metabolism has been investigated. Particularly, total activity and isoenzymatic composition of peroxidase of germ cells have been determined during their growth. The role of water in formation of organism response reaction to the external physical field effect has also been investigated. It has been shown, that water appears to be a primary element of extremely high frequency EMR effect on bio system. Extremely high frequency EMR irradiation of germinating seeds and the cultivation of dry seeds and their germs by irradiated water stimulate peroxidase synthesis in germ cells. The redistribution of quantitative composition of peroxidase molecular forms takes place in germ cells effected by EMR with extremely high frequency and low intensity

Extremity doses to interventional radiologists

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wihtby, M.; Martin, C. J.

2002-01-01

Radiologists performing interventional procedures are often required to stand close to the patient's side when carrying out manipulations under fluoroscopic control. This can result in their extremities receiving a high radiation dose, due to scattered radiation. These doses are sometimes high enough to warrant that the radiologist in question be designated a classified radiation worker. Classification in the UK is a result of any worker receiving or likely to receive in the course of their duties in excess of 3/10ths of any annual dose limit (500mSv to extremities, skin). The doses to the legs of radiologists have received less attention than those to the hands, however the doses may be high, due to the proximity of the legs and feet to scattered radiation. The legs can be exposed to a relatively high level of scattered radiation as the radiation in produced from scatter of the un attenuated beam from the bottom of the patient couch. The routine monitoring of extremity doses in interventional radiology is difficult due to several factors. Firstly a wide range of interventional procedures in undertaken in every radiology department, and these procedures require many different techniques, equipment and skills. This means that the position the radiologist adopts in relation to scattering medium and therefore their exposure, depends heavily on the type of procedure. As the hands which manipulate the catheters within the patient are often located close to the patients side and to the area under irradiation, the distribution of dose across the hands can be variable, with very high localised doses, making routine monitoring difficult. The purpose of this study was to determine the magnitude and distribution of dose to the hands and legs of interventional radiologists carrying out a wide range of both diagnostic and therapeutic interventional procedures. To ascertain the most effective method of monitoring the highest dose in accordance with the Basic safety standards

Evolution of extreme Total Water Levels along the northern coast of the Iberian Peninsula

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. F. Rasilla Álvarez

2011-02-01

Full Text Available This paper assesses the evolution of storminess along the northern coast of the Iberian Peninsula through the calculation of extreme (1% Total Water Levels (eTWL on both observed (tide gauge and buoy data and hindcasted (SIMAR-44 data. Those events were first identified and then characterized in terms of oceanographic parameters and atmospheric circulation features. Additionally, an analysis of the long-term trends in both types of data was performed. Most of the events correspond to a rough wave climate and moderate storm surges, linked to extratropical disturbances following a northern track. While local atmospheric conditions seem to be evolving towards lesser storminess, their impact has been balanced by the favorable exposure of the northern coast of the Iberian Peninsula to the increasing frequency and strength of distant disturbances crossing the North Atlantic. This evolution is also correctly reproduced by the simulated long-term evolution of the forcing component (meteorological sea level residuals and wave run up of the Total Water Level values calculated from the SIMAR 44 database, since sea level residuals have been experiencing a reduction while waves are arriving with longer periods. Finally, the addition of the rate of relative sea level trend to the temporal evolution of the atmospheric forcing component of the Total Water Level values is enough to simulate more frequent and persistent eTWL.

Rapid adaptation of microalgae to bodies of water with extreme pollution from uranium mining: an explanation of how mesophilic organisms can rapidly colonise extremely toxic environments.

Science.gov (United States)

García-Balboa, C; Baselga-Cervera, B; García-Sanchez, A; Igual, J M; Lopez-Rodas, V; Costas, E

2013-11-15

Extreme environments may support communities of microalgae living at the limits of their tolerance. It is usually assumed that these extreme environments are inhabited by extremophile species. However, global anthropogenic environmental changes are generating new extreme environments, such as mining-effluent pools of residual waters from uranium mining with high U levels, acidity and radioactivity in Salamanca (Spain). Certain microalgal species have rapidly adapted to these extreme waters (uranium mining in this area began in 1960). Experiments have demonstrated that physiological acclimatisation would be unable to achieve adaptation. In contrast, rapid genetic adaptation was observed in waters ostensibly lethal to microalgae by means of rare spontaneous mutations that occurred prior to the exposure to effluent waters from uranium mining. However, adaptation to the most extreme conditions was only possible after recombination through sexual mating because adaptation requires more than one mutation. Microalgae living in extreme environments could be the descendants of pre-selective mutants that confer significant adaptive value to extreme contamination. These "lucky mutants" could allow for the evolutionary rescue of populations faced with rapid environmental change. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Extremely low temperature properties of epoxy GFRP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kadotani, Kenzo; Nagai, Matao; Aki, Fumitake.

1983-01-01

The examination of fiber-reinforced plastics, that is, plastics such as epoxy, polyester and polyimide reinforced with high strength fibers such as glass, carbon, boron and steel, for extremely low temperature use began from the fuel tanks of rockets. Therafter, the trial manufacture of superconducting generators and extremely low temperature transformers and the manufacture of superconducting magnets for nuclear fusion experimental setups became active, and high performance FRPs have been adopted, of which the extremely low temperature properties have been sufficiently grasped. Recently, the cryostats made of FRPs have been developed, fully utilizing such features of FRPs as high strength, high rigidity, non-magnetic material, insulation, low heat conductivity, light weight and the freedom of molding. In this paper, the mechanical properties at extremely low temperature of the plastic composite materials used as insulators and structural materials for extremely low temperature superconducting equipment is outlined, and in particular, glass fiber-reinforced epoxy laminates are described somewhat in detail. The fracture strain of GFRP at extremely low temperature is about 1.3 times as large as that at room temperature, but at extremely low temperature, clear cracking occurred at 40% of the fracture strain. The linear thermal contraction of GFRP showed remarkable anisotropy. (Kako, I.)

The effect of extremely high glucose concentrations on 21 routine chemistry and thyroid Abbott assays: interference study.

Science.gov (United States)

Çuhadar, Serap; Köseoğlu, Mehmet; Çinpolat, Yasemin; Buğdaycı, Güler; Usta, Murat; Semerci, Tuna

2016-01-01

Extremely high glucose concentrations have been shown to interfere with creatinine assays especially with Jaffe method in peritoneal dialysate. Because diabetes is the fastest growing chronic disease in the world, laboratories study with varying glucose concentrations. We investigated whether different levels of glucose spiked in serum interfere with 21 routine chemistry and thyroid assays at glucose concentrations between 17-51 mmol/L. Baseline (group I) serum pool with glucose concentration of 5.55 (5.44-5.61) mmol/L was prepared from patient sera. Spiking with 20% dextrose solution, sample groups were obtained with glucose concentrations: 17.09, 34.52, and 50.95 mmol/L (group II, III, IV, respectively). Total of 21 biochemistry analytes and thyroid tests were studied on Abbott c8000 and i2000sr with commercial reagents. Bias from baseline value was checked statistically and clinically. Creatinine increased significantly by 8.74%, 31.66%, 55.31% at groups II, III, IV, respectively with P values of < 0.001. At the median glucose concentration of 50.95 mmol/L, calcium, albumin, chloride and FT4 biased significantly clinically (-0.85%, 1.63%, 0.65%, 7.4% with P values 0.138, 0.214, 0.004, < 0.001, respectively). Remaining assays were free of interference. Among the numerous biochemical parameters studied, only a few parameters are affected by dramatically increased glucose concentration. The creatinine measurements obtained in human sera with the Jaffe alkaline method at high glucose concentrations should be interpreted with caution. Other tests that were affected with extremely high glucose concentrations were calcium, albumin, chloride and FT4, hence results should be taken into consideration in patients with poor diabetic control.

Extreme events in total ozone over Arosa – Part 1: Application of extreme value theory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. E. Rieder

2010-10-01

Full Text Available In this study ideas from extreme value theory are for the first time applied in the field of stratospheric ozone research, because statistical analysis showed that previously used concepts assuming a Gaussian distribution (e.g. fixed deviations from mean values of total ozone data do not adequately address the structure of the extremes. We show that statistical extreme value methods are appropriate to identify ozone extremes and to describe the tails of the Arosa (Switzerland total ozone time series. In order to accommodate the seasonal cycle in total ozone, a daily moving threshold was determined and used, with tools from extreme value theory, to analyse the frequency of days with extreme low (termed ELOs and high (termed EHOs total ozone at Arosa. The analysis shows that the Generalized Pareto Distribution (GPD provides an appropriate model for the frequency distribution of total ozone above or below a mathematically well-defined threshold, thus providing a statistical description of ELOs and EHOs. The results show an increase in ELOs and a decrease in EHOs during the last decades. The fitted model represents the tails of the total ozone data set with high accuracy over the entire range (including absolute monthly minima and maxima, and enables a precise computation of the frequency distribution of ozone mini-holes (using constant thresholds. Analyzing the tails instead of a small fraction of days below constant thresholds provides deeper insight into the time series properties. Fingerprints of dynamical (e.g. ENSO, NAO and chemical features (e.g. strong polar vortex ozone loss, and major volcanic eruptions, can be identified in the observed frequency of extreme events throughout the time series. Overall the new approach to analysis of extremes provides more information on time series properties and variability than previous approaches that use only monthly averages and/or mini-holes and mini-highs.

Nutrition security under extreme events

Science.gov (United States)

Martinez, A.

2017-12-01

Nutrition security under extreme events. Zero hunger being one of the Sustainable Development Goal from the United Nations, food security has become a trending research topic. However extreme events impact on global food security is not yet 100% understood and there is a lack of comprehension of the underlying mechanisms of global food trade and nutrition security to improve countries resilience to extreme events. In a globalized world, food is still a highly regulated commodity and a strategic resource. A drought happening in a net food-exporter will have little to no effect on its own population but the repercussion on net food-importers can be extreme. In this project, we propose a methodology to describe and quantify the impact of a local drought to human health at a global scale. For this purpose, nutrition supply and global trade data from FAOSTAT have been used with domestic food production from national agencies and FAOSTAT, global precipitation from the Climate Research Unit and health data from the World Health Organization. A modified Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) has been developed to measure the level of resilience of one country to a drought happening in another country. This index describes how a country is dependent of importation and how diverse are its importation. Losses of production and exportation due to extreme events have been calculated using yield data and a simple food balance at country scale. Results show that countries the most affected by global droughts are the one with the highest dependency to one exporting country. Changes induced by droughts also disturbed their domestic proteins, fat and calories supply resulting most of the time in a higher intake of calories or fat over proteins.

DIRECTIONS OF EXTREME TOURISM IN UKRAINE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. V. Martseniuk

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Purpose. In the world market of tourist services the extreme tourism is very popular, as it does not require the significant financial costs and enables year on year to increase the offers of holiday packages, associated with active travel. Ukraine has significant potential for the development of extreme kinds of rest, but it is not developed enough. Forms of extreme tourism are unknown for domestic tourists, and therefore, they formed a negative attitude. The aim of the article is the analysis of extreme resort potential of Ukraine and promotion of the development of extreme tourism destinations in the travel market. Theoretical and methodological basis of research is the system analysis of the problems of ensuring the competitiveness of the tourism industry, theoretical principles of economic science in the field of the effectiveness of extreme tourism and management of tourist flows. Methodology. The author offers the directions of tourist flows control, which differ from the current expansion of services to tourists in Ukraine. The development of extreme tourism with the help of co-operation of railways and sport federations was proposed. Findings. During the research the author proved that the implementation of the tasks will be promote: 1 increase in budget revenues at all levels of the inner extreme tourism; 2 raise the image of Ukraine and Ukrainian Railways; 3 increase the share of tourism and resorts in the gross domestic product to the level of developed countries; 4 bringing the number of employees in tourism and resorts to the level of developed countries; 5 the creation of an effective system of monitoring the quality of tourist services; 6 the creation of an attractive investment climate for attracting the investment in the broad development of tourism, engineering and transport and municipal infrastructure; 7 improvement the safety of tourists, ensure the effective protection of their rights and legitimate interests and

CLASH: EXTREME EMISSION-LINE GALAXIES AND THEIR IMPLICATION ON SELECTION OF HIGH-REDSHIFT GALAXIES

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang, Xingxing; Wang, Junxian; Shu, Xinwen; Zheng, Wei; Ford, Holland; Lemze, Doron; Moustakas, John; Van der Wel, Arjen; Zitrin, Adi; Frye, Brenda L.; Postman, Marc; Bradley, Larry; Coe, Dan; Bartelmann, Matthias; Benítez, Narciso; Broadhurst, Tom; Donahue, Megan; Infante, Leopoldo

2015-01-01

We utilize the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble observations of 25 clusters to search for extreme emission-line galaxies (EELGs). The selections are carried out in two central bands: F105W (Y 105 ) and F125W (J 125 ), as the flux of the central bands could be enhanced by the presence of [O III] λλ4959, 5007 at redshifts of ∼0.93-1.14 and 1.57-1.79, respectively. The multiband observations help to constrain the equivalent widths (EWs) of emission lines. Thanks to cluster lensing, we are able to identify 52 candidates down to an intrinsic limiting magnitude of 28.5 and to a rest-frame [O III] λλ4959, 5007 EW of ≅ 3700 Å. Our samples include a number of EELGs at lower luminosities that are missed in other surveys, and the extremely high EW can only be found in such faint galaxies. These EELGs can mimic a dropout feature similar to that of high-redshift galaxies and contaminate the color-color selection of high-redshift galaxies when the signal-to-noise ratio is limited or the band coverage is incomplete

CLASH: EXTREME EMISSION-LINE GALAXIES AND THEIR IMPLICATION ON SELECTION OF HIGH-REDSHIFT GALAXIES

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huang, Xingxing; Wang, Junxian; Shu, Xinwen [CAS Key Laboratory for Research in Galaxies and Cosmology, Department of Astronomy, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (China); Zheng, Wei; Ford, Holland; Lemze, Doron [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States); Moustakas, John [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Siena College, 515 Loudon Road, Loudonville, NY 12211 (United States); Van der Wel, Arjen [Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy, Königstuhl 17, D-69117, Heidelberg (Germany); Zitrin, Adi [Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, MS 249-17, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Frye, Brenda L. [Steward Observatory/Department of Astronomy, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721-0065 (United States); Postman, Marc; Bradley, Larry; Coe, Dan [Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21208 (United States); Bartelmann, Matthias [Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, P. O. Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden (Netherlands); Benítez, Narciso [Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC), C/Camino Bajo de Huétor 24, Granada E-18008 (Spain); Broadhurst, Tom [Department of Theoretical Physics, University of Basque Country UPV/EHU E-Bilbao (Spain); Donahue, Megan [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 (United States); Infante, Leopoldo, E-mail: hxx@mail.ustc.edu.cn [Departamento de Astronoía y Astrofísica, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, V. Mackenna 4860 Santiago 22 (Chile); and others

2015-03-01

We utilize the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble observations of 25 clusters to search for extreme emission-line galaxies (EELGs). The selections are carried out in two central bands: F105W (Y {sub 105}) and F125W (J {sub 125}), as the flux of the central bands could be enhanced by the presence of [O III] λλ4959, 5007 at redshifts of ∼0.93-1.14 and 1.57-1.79, respectively. The multiband observations help to constrain the equivalent widths (EWs) of emission lines. Thanks to cluster lensing, we are able to identify 52 candidates down to an intrinsic limiting magnitude of 28.5 and to a rest-frame [O III] λλ4959, 5007 EW of ≅ 3700 Å. Our samples include a number of EELGs at lower luminosities that are missed in other surveys, and the extremely high EW can only be found in such faint galaxies. These EELGs can mimic a dropout feature similar to that of high-redshift galaxies and contaminate the color-color selection of high-redshift galaxies when the signal-to-noise ratio is limited or the band coverage is incomplete.

Deployment of quasi-digital sensor for high temperature molten salt level measurement in pyroprocessing plants

Science.gov (United States)

Sanga, Ramesh; Agarwal, Sourabh; Sivaramakrishna, M.; Rao, G. Prabhakara

2018-04-01

Development of a liquid molten salt level sensor device that can detect the level of liquid molten salt in the process vessels of pyrochemical reprocessing of spent metallic fuels is detailed. It is proposed to apply a resistive-type pulsating sensor-based level measurement approach. There are no commercially available sensors due to limitations of high temperature, radiation, and physical dimensions. A compact, simple, rugged, low power, and high precise pulsating sensor-based level probe and simple instrumentation for the molten salt liquid level sensor to work in the extreme conditions has been indigenously developed, with high precision and accuracy. The working principle, design concept, and results have been discussed. This level probe is mainly composed of the variable resistor made up of ceramic rods. This resistor constitutes the part of resistance-capacitance-type Logic Gate Oscillator (LGO). A change in the molten salt level inside the tank causes a small change in the resistance which in turn changes the pulse frequency of the LGO. Thus the frequency, the output of the instrument that is displayed on the LCD of an embedded system, is a function of molten salt level. In the present design, the range of level measurement is about 10 mm. The sensitivity in position measurement up to 10 mm is ˜2.5 kHz/mm.

Local likelihood estimation of complex tail dependence structures in high dimensions, applied to US precipitation extremes

KAUST Repository

Camilo, Daniela Castro

2017-10-02

In order to model the complex non-stationary dependence structure of precipitation extremes over the entire contiguous U.S., we propose a flexible local approach based on factor copula models. Our sub-asymptotic spatial modeling framework yields non-trivial tail dependence structures, with a weakening dependence strength as events become more extreme, a feature commonly observed with precipitation data but not accounted for in classical asymptotic extreme-value models. To estimate the local extremal behavior, we fit the proposed model in small regional neighborhoods to high threshold exceedances, under the assumption of local stationarity. This allows us to gain in flexibility, while making inference for such a large and complex dataset feasible. Adopting a local censored likelihood approach, inference is made on a fine spatial grid, and local estimation is performed taking advantage of distributed computing resources and of the embarrassingly parallel nature of this estimation procedure. The local model is efficiently fitted at all grid points, and uncertainty is measured using a block bootstrap procedure. An extensive simulation study shows that our approach is able to adequately capture complex, non-stationary dependencies, while our study of U.S. winter precipitation data reveals interesting differences in local tail structures over space, which has important implications on regional risk assessment of extreme precipitation events. A comparison between past and current data suggests that extremes in certain areas might be slightly wider in extent nowadays than during the first half of the twentieth century.

Local likelihood estimation of complex tail dependence structures in high dimensions, applied to US precipitation extremes

KAUST Repository

Camilo, Daniela Castro; Huser, Raphaë l

2017-01-01

In order to model the complex non-stationary dependence structure of precipitation extremes over the entire contiguous U.S., we propose a flexible local approach based on factor copula models. Our sub-asymptotic spatial modeling framework yields non-trivial tail dependence structures, with a weakening dependence strength as events become more extreme, a feature commonly observed with precipitation data but not accounted for in classical asymptotic extreme-value models. To estimate the local extremal behavior, we fit the proposed model in small regional neighborhoods to high threshold exceedances, under the assumption of local stationarity. This allows us to gain in flexibility, while making inference for such a large and complex dataset feasible. Adopting a local censored likelihood approach, inference is made on a fine spatial grid, and local estimation is performed taking advantage of distributed computing resources and of the embarrassingly parallel nature of this estimation procedure. The local model is efficiently fitted at all grid points, and uncertainty is measured using a block bootstrap procedure. An extensive simulation study shows that our approach is able to adequately capture complex, non-stationary dependencies, while our study of U.S. winter precipitation data reveals interesting differences in local tail structures over space, which has important implications on regional risk assessment of extreme precipitation events. A comparison between past and current data suggests that extremes in certain areas might be slightly wider in extent nowadays than during the first half of the twentieth century.

Coupled thermo-fluid stress analysis of Kambara Reactor with various anchors in the stirring of molten iron at extremely high temperatures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang, De-Shau; Huang, Feng-Chi

2014-01-01

Kambara Reactors (KR) are commonly used to reduce sulfur content in steel making, achieving efficiency levels exceeding 85% at 1300 °C. Unfortunately, the operational lifespan of the KR impeller is somewhat limited due to fracturing of the refractory material via thermal shock, resulting in the penetration of molten iron into the inner core. Few studies have investigated the coupled thermo-fluid stress of KR impellers at extremely high temperatures. This study employed CFX and FEM to simulate and analyze the molten iron and the resulting thermal stress imposed on the KR impeller. Simulation results including flow field, temperature, and thermal stress under extremely high temperatures are in strong agreement with empirical data. V-type anchors for the KR impeller outperformed Y-type anchors. - Highlights: • A thermo-fluid coupling approach is proposed to analyze the thermal stress. • The temperature and stress of the impeller are 790 °C and 744 MPa at the final stage. • The highest temperatures occur at the tip of anchors, which causes material crack. • The thermal stress in impellers with Y-type anchors is greater than V-type anchors

Nitrogen accumulation and partitioning in a High Arctic tundra ecosystem from extreme atmospheric N deposition events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choudhary, Sonal; Blaud, Aimeric; Osborn, A. Mark; Press, Malcolm C.; Phoenix, Gareth K.

2016-01-01

Arctic ecosystems are threatened by pollution from recently detected extreme atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition events in which up to 90% of the annual N deposition can occur in just a few days. We undertook the first assessment of the fate of N from extreme deposition in High Arctic tundra and are presenting the results from the whole ecosystem "1"5N labelling experiment. In 2010, we simulated N depositions at rates of 0, 0.04, 0.4 and 1.2 g N m"−"2 yr"−"1, applied as "1"5NH_4"1"5NO_3 in Svalbard (79"°N), during the summer. Separate applications of "1"5NO_3"− and "1"5NH_4"+ were also made to determine the importance of N form in their retention. More than 95% of the total "1"5N applied was recovered after one growing season (~ 90% after two), demonstrating a considerable capacity of Arctic tundra to retain N from these deposition events. Important sinks for the deposited N, regardless of its application rate or form, were non-vascular plants > vascular plants > organic soil > litter > mineral soil, suggesting that non-vascular plants could be the primary component of this ecosystem to undergo measurable changes due to N enrichment from extreme deposition events. Substantial retention of N by soil microbial biomass (70% and 39% of "1"5N in organic and mineral horizon, respectively) during the initial partitioning demonstrated their capacity to act as effective buffers for N leaching. Between the two N forms, vascular plants (Salix polaris) in particular showed difference in their N recovery, incorporating four times greater "1"5NO_3"− than "1"5NH_4"+, suggesting deposition rich in nitrate will impact them more. Overall, these findings show that despite the deposition rates being extreme in statistical terms, biologically they do not exceed the capacity of tundra to sequester pollutant N during the growing season. Therefore, current and future extreme events may represent a major source of eutrophication. - Highlights: • High Arctic tundra demonstrated a

Extreme ultraviolet spectroscopy of highly charged argon ions at the Berlin EBIT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Biedermann, C; Radtke, R; Fussmann, G; Allen, F I

2007-01-01

Extreme ultraviolet radiation from highly charged argon was investigated at the Berlin Electron Beam Ion Trap with a 2 m grazing incidence spectrometer. Lines in the wavelength range 150 to 660 A originating from C-like Ar 12+ to Li-like Ar 15+ ions have been identified and are compared with database information from solar line lists and predictions. Line ratios for the observed resonance, intercombination and forbidden lines offer important diagnostic capabilities for low density, hot plasmas

The opposite end of the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder continuum: genetic and environmental aetiologies of extremely low ADHD traits.

Science.gov (United States)

Greven, Corina U; Merwood, Andrew; van der Meer, Jolanda M J; Haworth, Claire M A; Rommelse, Nanda; Buitelaar, Jan K

2016-04-01

Although attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is thought to reflect a continuously distributed quantitative trait, it is assessed through binary diagnosis or skewed measures biased towards its high, symptomatic extreme. A growing trend is to study the positive tail of normally distributed traits, a promising avenue, for example, to study high intelligence to increase power for gene-hunting for intelligence. However, the emergence of such a 'positive genetics' model has been tempered for ADHD due to poor phenotypic resolution at the low extreme. Overcoming this methodological limitation, we conduct the first study to assess the aetiologies of low extreme ADHD traits. In a population-representative sample of 2,143 twins, the Strength and Weaknesses of ADHD Symptoms and Normal behaviour (SWAN) questionnaire was used to assess ADHD traits on a continuum from low to high. Aetiological influences on extreme ADHD traits were estimated using DeFries-Fulker extremes analysis. ADHD traits were related to behavioural, cognitive and home environmental outcomes using regression. Low extreme ADHD traits were significantly influenced by shared environmental factors (23-35%) but were not significantly heritable. In contrast, high-extreme ADHD traits showed significant heritability (39-51%) but no shared environmental influences. Compared to individuals with high extreme or with average levels of ADHD traits, individuals with low extreme ADHD traits showed fewer internalizing and externalizing behaviour problems, better cognitive performance and more positive behaviours and positive home environmental outcomes. Shared environmental influences on low extreme ADHD traits may reflect passive gene-environment correlation, which arises because parents provide environments as well as passing on genes. Studying the low extreme opens new avenues to study mechanisms underlying previously neglected positive behaviours. This is different from the current deficit-based model of

Life at extreme elevations on Atacama volcanoes: the closest thing to Mars on Earth?

Science.gov (United States)

Schmidt, S K; Gendron, E M S; Vincent, K; Solon, A J; Sommers, P; Schubert, Z R; Vimercati, L; Porazinska, D L; Darcy, J L; Sowell, P

2018-03-20

Here we describe recent breakthroughs in our understanding of microbial life in dry volcanic tephra ("soil") that covers much of the surface area of the highest elevation volcanoes on Earth. Dry tephra above 6000 m.a.s.l. is perhaps the best Earth analog for the surface of Mars because these "soils" are acidic, extremely oligotrophic, exposed to a thin atmosphere, high UV fluxes, and extreme temperature fluctuations across the freezing point. The simple microbial communities found in these extreme sites have among the lowest alpha diversity of any known earthly ecosystem and contain bacteria and eukaryotes that are uniquely adapted to these extreme conditions. The most abundant eukaryotic organism across the highest elevation sites is a Naganishia species that is metabolically versatile, can withstand high levels of UV radiation and can grow at sub-zero temperatures, and during extreme diurnal freeze-thaw cycles (e.g. - 10 to + 30 °C). The most abundant bacterial phylotype at the highest dry sites sampled (6330 m.a.s.l. on Volcán Llullaillaco) belongs to the enigmatic B12-WMSP1 clade which is related to the Ktedonobacter/Thermosporothrix clade that includes versatile organisms with the largest known bacterial genomes. Close relatives of B12-WMSP1 are also found in fumarolic soils on Volcán Socompa and in oligotrophic, fumarolic caves on Mt. Erebus in Antarctica. In contrast to the extremely low diversity of dry tephra, fumaroles found at over 6000 m.a.s.l. on Volcán Socompa support very diverse microbial communities with alpha diversity levels rivalling those of low elevation temperate soils. Overall, the high-elevation biome of the Atacama region provides perhaps the best "natural experiment" in which to study microbial life in both its most extreme setting (dry tephra) and in one of its least extreme settings (fumarolic soils).

Variability of extreme wet events over Malawi

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Libanda Brigadier

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Adverse effects of extreme wet events are well documented by several studies around the world. These effects are exacerbated in developing countries like Malawi that have insufficient risk reduction strategies and capacity to cope with extreme wet weather. Ardent monitoring of the variability of extreme wet events over Malawi is therefore imperative. The use of the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI has been recommended by many studies as an effective way of quantifying extreme wet events. In this study, ETCCDI indices were used to examine the number of heavy, very heavy, and extremely heavy rainfall days; daily and five-day maximum rainfall; very wet and extremely wet days; annual wet days and simple daily intensity. The Standard Normal Homogeneity Test (SNHT was employed at 5% significance level before any statistical test was done. Trend analysis was done using the nonparametric Mann-Kendall statistical test. All stations were found to be homogeneous apart from Mimosa. Trend results show high temporal and spatial variability with the only significant results being: increase in daily maximum rainfall (Rx1day over Karonga and Bvumbwe, increase in five-day maximum rainfall (Rx5day over Bvumbwe. Mzimba and Chileka recorded a significant decrease in very wet days (R95p while a significant increase was observed over Thyolo. Chileka was the only station which observed a significant trend (decrease in extremely wet rainfall (R99p. Mzimba was the only station that reported a significant trend (decrease in annual wet-day rainfall total (PRCPTOT and Thyolo was the only station that reported a significant trend (increase in simple daily intensity (SDII. Furthermore, the findings of this study revealed that, during wet years, Malawi is characterised by an anomalous convergence of strong south-easterly and north-easterly winds. This convergence is the main rain bringing mechanism to Malawi.

Global projections of extreme sea levels in view of climate change

Science.gov (United States)

Vousdoukas, M. I.; Feyen, L.; Voukouvalas, E.; Mentaschi, L.; Verlaan, M.; Jevrejeva, S.; Jackson, L. P.

2017-12-01

Global warming is expected to drive increasing extreme sea levels (ESLs) and flood risk along the world's coasts. The present contribution aims to present global ESL projections obtained by combining dynamic simulations of all the major ESL components during the present century, considering the latest CMIP5 projections for RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. Baseline values are obtained combining global re-analyses of tides, waves, and storm surges, including the effects of tropical cyclones. The global average RSLR is projected around 20 and 24 cm by the 2050s under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, respectively and is projected to reach 46 and 67 cm by the year 2100. The largest increases in MSL are projected along the South Pacific, Australia and West Africa, while the smaller RSLR is projected around East North America, and Europe. Contributions from waves and storm surges show a very weak increasing global trend, which becomes statistically significant only towards the end of the century and under RCP8.5. However, for areas like the East China Sea, Sea of Japan, Alaska, East Bering Sea, as well as the Southern Ocean, climate extremes could increase up to 15%. By the end of this century the 100-year event ESL along the world's coastlines will on average increase by 48 cm for RCP4.5 and 75 cm for RCP8.5. The strongest rise is projected along the Southern Ocean exceeding 1 m under RCP8.5 by the end of the century. Increase exceeding 80 cm is projected for East Asia, West North America, East South America, and the North Indian Ocean. Considering always the business as usual and the year 2100, the lowest increase in ESL100 is projected along the East North America and Europe (below 50 cm). The present findings indicate that, under both RCPs, by the year 2050 the present day 100-year event will occur every 5 years along a large part of the tropics, rendering coastal zones exposed to intermittent flood hazard.

High-level language computer architecture

CERN Document Server

Chu, Yaohan

1975-01-01

High-Level Language Computer Architecture offers a tutorial on high-level language computer architecture, including von Neumann architecture and syntax-oriented architecture as well as direct and indirect execution architecture. Design concepts of Japanese-language data processing systems are discussed, along with the architecture of stack machines and the SYMBOL computer system. The conceptual design of a direct high-level language processor is also described.Comprised of seven chapters, this book first presents a classification of high-level language computer architecture according to the pr

Other-than-high-level waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bray, G.R.

1976-01-01

The main emphasis of the work in the area of partitioning transuranic elements from waste has been in the area of high-level liquid waste. But there are ''other-than-high-level wastes'' generated by the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle that are both large in volume and contaminated with significant quantities of transuranic elements. The combined volume of these other wastes is approximately 50 times that of the solidified high-level waste. These other wastes also contain up to 75% of the transuranic elements associated with waste generated by the back end of the fuel cycle. Therefore, any detailed evaluation of partitioning as a viable waste management option must address both high-level wastes and ''other-than-high-level wastes.''

Modulation of Extreme Flood Levels by Impoundment Significantly Offset by Floodplain Loss Downstream of the Three Gorges Dam

Science.gov (United States)

Mei, Xuefei; Dai, Zhijun; Darby, Stephen E.; Gao, Shu; Wang, Jie; Jiang, Weiguo

2018-04-01

River flooding—the world's most significant natural hazard—is likely to increase under anthropogenic climate change. Most large rivers have been regulated by damming, but the extent to which these impoundments can mitigate extreme flooding remains uncertain. Here the catastrophic 2016 flood on the Changjiang River is first analyzed to assess the effects of both the Changjiang's reservoir cascade and the Three Gorges Dam (TGD), the world's largest hydraulic engineering project on downstream flood discharge and water levels. We show that the Changjiang's reservoir cascade impounded over 30.0 × 103 m3/s of flow at the peak of the flood on 25 July 2016, preventing the occurrence of what would otherwise have been the second largest flood ever recorded in the reach downstream of the TGD. Half of this flood water storage was retained by the TGD alone, meaning that impoundment by the TGD reduced peak water levels at the Datong hydrometric station (on 25 July) by 1.47 m, compared to pre-TGD conditions. However, downstream morphological changes, in particular, extensive erosion of the natural floodplain, offset this reduction in water level by 0.22 m, so that the full beneficial impact of floodwater retention by the TGD was not fully realized. Our results highlight how morphological adjustments downstream of large dams may inhibit their full potential to mitigate extreme flood risk.

Controlling extreme events on complex networks

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Yu-Zhong; Huang, Zi-Gang; Lai, Ying-Cheng

2014-08-01

Extreme events, a type of collective behavior in complex networked dynamical systems, often can have catastrophic consequences. To develop effective strategies to control extreme events is of fundamental importance and practical interest. Utilizing transportation dynamics on complex networks as a prototypical setting, we find that making the network ``mobile'' can effectively suppress extreme events. A striking, resonance-like phenomenon is uncovered, where an optimal degree of mobility exists for which the probability of extreme events is minimized. We derive an analytic theory to understand the mechanism of control at a detailed and quantitative level, and validate the theory numerically. Implications of our finding to current areas such as cybersecurity are discussed.

Extremes temperatures and enthalpy in Finland and Sweden in a changing climate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Venaelaeinen, A.; Saku, S.; Jylhae, K.; Nikulin, G.; Kjellstroem, E.; Baerring, L.

2009-06-01

Though risks caused by harsh weather conditions are taken into account in the planning of nuclear power plants, some exceptional weather events or combination of different events may prevent normal power operation and simultaneously endanger safe shutdown of the plant. Extreme weather events could influence, for example, the external power grid connection, emergency diesel generators (blockage of air intakes), ventilation and cooling of electric and electronics equipment rooms and the seawater intake. Due to the influence of an intensified greenhouse effect the climate is changing rapidly during the coming decades and this change is expected to have an influence also on the occurrence of extreme weather events. In this report we have examined extreme temperatures. Enthalpy is a parameter that combines air temperature and air humidity and it is used in the design of air conditioning systems. Therefore, we have included also return levels of enthalpy in our analysis. The influence of climate change on extreme temperatures is analysed based on regional climate model simulations. The reoccurrence times of high temperatures combined with high air humidity was analysed based on measurements made at five Finnish and three Swedish meteorological stations. Based on the observational records we find the 10 year return level of daily maximum temperature to be around 32 deg. C and the 100 year return level around 35 deg. C. If we look the return levels of warm and humid conditions then for example in Helsinki the 10 year return level of one week mean temperature in case mean air humidity is above 80% is 20.1 deg. C. The 10 year return level of daily maximum enthalpy is around 60 kJ/kg and the 100 year return level almost 70 kJ/kg. According to the climate model simulations the largest increase of 50-year return level of daily maximum temperature is found in southern Sweden and south-western Finland. By the end of this century the increase can be 3-5 deg. C. The largest change

Extremes temperatures and enthalpy in Finland and Sweden in a changing climate

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Venaelaeinen, A.; Saku, S.; Jylhae, K. (Finnish Meteorological Institute (Finland)); Nikulin, G.; Kjellstroem, E.; Baerring, L. (Swedish Meteorological Institute (Sweden))

2009-06-15

Though risks caused by harsh weather conditions are taken into account in the planning of nuclear power plants, some exceptional weather events or combination of different events may prevent normal power operation and simultaneously endanger safe shutdown of the plant. Extreme weather events could influence, for example, the external power grid connection, emergency diesel generators (blockage of air intakes), ventilation and cooling of electric and electronics equipment rooms and the seawater intake. Due to the influence of an intensified greenhouse effect the climate is changing rapidly during the coming decades and this change is expected to have an influence also on the occurrence of extreme weather events. In this report we have examined extreme temperatures. Enthalpy is a parameter that combines air temperature and air humidity and it is used in the design of air conditioning systems. Therefore, we have included also return levels of enthalpy in our analysis. The influence of climate change on extreme temperatures is analysed based on regional climate model simulations. The reoccurrence times of high temperatures combined with high air humidity was analysed based on measurements made at five Finnish and three Swedish meteorological stations. Based on the observational records we find the 10 year return level of daily maximum temperature to be around 32 deg. C and the 100 year return level around 35 deg. C. If we look the return levels of warm and humid conditions then for example in Helsinki the 10 year return level of one week mean temperature in case mean air humidity is above 80% is 20.1 deg. C. The 10 year return level of daily maximum enthalpy is around 60 kJ/kg and the 100 year return level almost 70 kJ/kg. According to the climate model simulations the largest increase of 50-year return level of daily maximum temperature is found in southern Sweden and south-western Finland. By the end of this century the increase can be 3-5 deg. C. The largest change

Likelihood estimators for multivariate extremes

KAUST Repository

Huser, Raphaë l; Davison, Anthony C.; Genton, Marc G.

2015-01-01

The main approach to inference for multivariate extremes consists in approximating the joint upper tail of the observations by a parametric family arising in the limit for extreme events. The latter may be expressed in terms of componentwise maxima, high threshold exceedances or point processes, yielding different but related asymptotic characterizations and estimators. The present paper clarifies the connections between the main likelihood estimators, and assesses their practical performance. We investigate their ability to estimate the extremal dependence structure and to predict future extremes, using exact calculations and simulation, in the case of the logistic model.

Likelihood estimators for multivariate extremes

KAUST Repository

Huser, Raphaël

2015-11-17

The main approach to inference for multivariate extremes consists in approximating the joint upper tail of the observations by a parametric family arising in the limit for extreme events. The latter may be expressed in terms of componentwise maxima, high threshold exceedances or point processes, yielding different but related asymptotic characterizations and estimators. The present paper clarifies the connections between the main likelihood estimators, and assesses their practical performance. We investigate their ability to estimate the extremal dependence structure and to predict future extremes, using exact calculations and simulation, in the case of the logistic model.

Risk Factors for Lower-Extremity Injuries Among Contemporary Dance Students.

Science.gov (United States)

van Seters, Christine; van Rijn, Rogier M; van Middelkoop, Marienke; Stubbe, Janine H

2017-10-10

To determine whether student characteristics, lower-extremity kinematics, and strength are risk factors for sustaining lower-extremity injuries in preprofessional contemporary dancers. Prospective cohort study. Codarts University of the Arts. Forty-five first-year students of Bachelor Dance and Bachelor Dance Teacher. At the beginning of the academic year, the injury history (only lower-extremity) and student characteristics (age, sex, educational program) were assessed using a questionnaire. Besides, lower-extremity kinematics [single-leg squat (SLS)], strength (countermovement jump) and height and weight (body mass index) were measured during a physical performance test. Substantial lower-extremity injuries during the academic year were defined as any problems leading to moderate or severe reductions in training volume or in performance, or complete inability to participate in dance at least once during follow-up as measured with the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center (OSTRC) Questionnaire on Health Problems. Injuries were recorded on a monthly basis using a questionnaire. Analyses on leg-level were performed using generalized estimating equations to test the associations between substantial lower-extremity injuries and potential risk factors. The 1-year incidence of lower-extremity injuries was 82.2%. Of these, 51.4% was a substantial lower-extremity injury. Multivariate analyses identified that ankle dorsiflexion during the SLS (OR 1.25; 95% confidence interval, 1.03-1.52) was a risk factor for a substantial lower-extremity injury. The findings indicate that contemporary dance students are at high risk for lower-extremity injuries. Therefore, the identified risk factor (ankle dorsiflexion) should be considered for prevention purposes.

Legacies from extreme drought increase ecosystem sensitivity to future extremes

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, M. D.; Knapp, A.; Hoover, D. L.; Avolio, M. L.; Felton, A. J.; Wilcox, K. R.

2016-12-01

Climate extremes, such as drought, are increasing in frequency and intensity, and the ecological consequences of these extreme events can be substantial and widespread. Although there is still much to be learned about how ecosystems will respond to an intensification of drought, even less is known about the factors that determine post-drought recovery of ecosystem function. Such knowledge is particularly important because post-drought recovery periods can be protracted depending on the extent to which key plant populations, community structure and biogeochemical processes are affected. These drought legacies may alter ecosystem function for many years post-drought and may impact future sensitivity to climate extremes. We experimentally imposed two extreme growing season droughts in a central US grassland to assess the impacts of repeated droughts on ecosystem resistance (response) and resilience (recovery). We found that this grassland was not resistant to the first extreme drought due to reduced productivity and differential sensitivity of the co-dominant C4 grass (Andropogon gerardii) and C3 forb (Solidago canadensis) species. This differential sensitivity led to a reordering of species abundances within the plant community. Yet, despite this large shift in plant community composition, which persisted post-drought, the grassland was highly resilient post-drought, due to increased abundance of the dominant C4 grass. Because of this shift to increased C4 grass dominance, we expected that previously-droughted grassland would be more resistant to a second extreme drought. However, contrary to these expectations, previously droughted grassland was more sensitive to drought than grassland that had not experienced drought. Thus, our result suggest that legacies of drought (shift in community composition) may increase ecosystem sensitivity to future extreme events.

Projected changes of extreme weather events in the eastern United States based on a high resolution climate modeling system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gao, Y; Fu, J S; Drake, J B; Liu, Y; Lamarque, J-F

2012-01-01

This study is the first evaluation of dynamical downscaling using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model on a 4 km × 4 km high resolution scale in the eastern US driven by the new Community Earth System Model version 1.0 (CESM v1.0). First we examined the global and regional climate model results, and corrected an inconsistency in skin temperature during the downscaling process by modifying the land/sea mask. In comparison with observations, WRF shows statistically significant improvement over CESM in reproducing extreme weather events, with improvement for heat wave frequency estimation as high as 98%. The fossil fuel intensive scenario Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 was used to study a possible future mid-century climate extreme in 2057–9. Both the heat waves and the extreme precipitation in 2057–9 are more severe than the present climate in the Eastern US. The Northeastern US shows large increases in both heat wave intensity (3.05 °C higher) and annual extreme precipitation (107.3 mm more per year). (letter)

Ultra-high field upper extremity peripheral nerve and non-contrast enhanced vascular imaging.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shailesh B Raval

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to explore the efficacy of Ultra-high field [UHF] 7 Tesla [T] MRI as compared to 3T MRI in non-contrast enhanced [nCE] imaging of structural anatomy in the elbow, forearm, and hand [upper extremity].A wide range of sequences including T1 weighted [T1] volumetric interpolate breath-hold exam [VIBE], T2 weighted [T2] double-echo steady state [DESS], susceptibility weighted imaging [SWI], time-of-flight [TOF], diffusion tensor imaging [DTI], and diffusion spectrum imaging [DSI] were optimized and incorporated with a radiofrequency [RF] coil system composed of a transverse electromagnetic [TEM] transmit coil combined with an 8-channel receive-only array for 7T upper extremity [UE] imaging. In addition, Siemens optimized protocol/sequences were used on a 3T scanner and the resulting images from T1 VIBE and T2 DESS were compared to that obtained at 7T qualitatively and quantitatively [SWI was only qualitatively compared]. DSI studio was utilized to identify nerves based on analysis of diffusion weighted derived fractional anisotropy images. Images of forearm vasculature were extracted using a paint grow manual segmentation method based on MIPAV [Medical Image Processing, Analysis, and Visualization].High resolution and high quality signal-to-noise ratio [SNR] and contrast-to-noise ratio [CNR]-images of the hand, forearm, and elbow were acquired with nearly homogeneous 7T excitation. Measured [performed on the T1 VIBE and T2 DESS sequences] SNR and CNR values were almost doubled at 7T vs. 3T. Cartilage, synovial fluid and tendon structures could be seen with higher clarity in the 7T T1 and T2 weighted images. SWI allowed high resolution and better quality imaging of large and medium sized arteries and veins, capillary networks and arteriovenous anastomoses at 7T when compared to 3T. 7T diffusion weighted sequence [not performed at 3T] demonstrates that the forearm nerves are clearly delineated by fiber tractography. The

Spin-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy using femtosecond extreme ultraviolet light pulses from high-order harmonic generation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Plötzing, M.; Adam, R., E-mail: r.adam@fz-juelich.de; Weier, C.; Plucinski, L.; Schneider, C. M. [Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Peter Grünberg Institut (PGI-6), 52425 Jülich (Germany); Eich, S.; Emmerich, S.; Rollinger, M.; Aeschlimann, M. [University of Kaiserslautern and Research Center OPTIMAS, 67663 Kaiserslautern (Germany); Mathias, S. [Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, I. Physikalisches Institut, 37077 Göttingen (Germany)

2016-04-15

The fundamental mechanism responsible for optically induced magnetization dynamics in ferromagnetic thin films has been under intense debate since almost two decades. Currently, numerous competing theoretical models are in strong need for a decisive experimental confirmation such as monitoring the triggered changes in the spin-dependent band structure on ultrashort time scales. Our approach explores the possibility of observing femtosecond band structure dynamics by giving access to extended parts of the Brillouin zone in a simultaneously time-, energy- and spin-resolved photoemission experiment. For this purpose, our setup uses a state-of-the-art, highly efficient spin detector and ultrashort, extreme ultraviolet light pulses created by laser-based high-order harmonic generation. In this paper, we present the setup and first spin-resolved spectra obtained with our experiment within an acquisition time short enough to allow pump-probe studies. Further, we characterize the influence of the excitation with femtosecond extreme ultraviolet pulses by comparing the results with data acquired using a continuous wave light source with similar photon energy. In addition, changes in the spectra induced by vacuum space-charge effects due to both the extreme ultraviolet probe- and near-infrared pump-pulses are studied by analyzing the resulting spectral distortions. The combination of energy resolution and electron count rate achieved in our setup confirms its suitability for spin-resolved studies of the band structure on ultrashort time scales.

Suction is kid's play: extremely fast suction in newborn seahorses

Science.gov (United States)

Van Wassenbergh, Sam; Roos, Gert; Genbrugge, Annelies; Leysen, Heleen; Aerts, Peter; Adriaens, Dominique; Herrel, Anthony

2009-01-01

Ongoing anatomical development typically results in a gradual maturation of the feeding movements from larval to adult fishes. Adult seahorses are known to capture prey by rotating their long-snouted head extremely quickly towards prey, followed by powerful suction. This type of suction is powered by elastic recoil and requires very precise coordination of the movements of the associated feeding structures, making it an all-or-none phenomenon. Here, we show that newborn Hippocampus reidi are able to successfully feed using an extremely rapid and powerful snout rotation combined with a high-volume suction, surpassing that observed in adult seahorses. An inverse dynamic analysis shows that an elastic recoil mechanism is also used to power head rotation in newborn H. reidi. This illustrates how extreme levels of performance in highly complex musculoskeletal systems can be present at birth given a delayed birth and rapid development of functionally important structures. The fact that the head skeleton of newborn seahorses is still largely cartilaginous may not be problematic because the hydrodynamic stress on the rotating snout appeared considerably lower than in adult syngnathids. PMID:19324657

High-energy roller injuries to the upper extremity.

Science.gov (United States)

Askins, G; Finley, R; Parenti, J; Bush, D; Brotman, S

1986-12-01

Eleven cases of high-energy industrial roller injuries treated between 1980 and 1984 were retrospectively reviewed. The dominant extremity was affected in nine. Six patients sustained fractures and/or dislocations, and three of these patients required fasciotomies for clinical signs of impending compartment syndromes. All fracture/dislocations, with the exception of a scapula fracture, anterior dislocation of a thumb interphalangeal joint, and a fractured coronoid process of the ulna, required open reduction with internal fixation. Three patients required split-thickness skin grafting for extensive skin degloving. Two patients required immediate amputation. Late sequelae included prolonged edema, nutritional depletion, neuroma formation of the superficial branch of the radial nerve, late carpal tunnel syndrome, and partial brachial plexus palsy. Industrial roller injuries continue to be an occupational hazard associated with more severe crushing trauma than the low-energy wringer washer injuries first described by MacCollum (11). Attention must be paid to the treatment of crushed skin, muscle, and nerves, fracture stabilization, nutritional support, and occupational therapy. Concurrent monitoring for signs of a developing compartment syndrome and complications of rhabdomyolysis is essential.

A case of severe anorexia, excessive weight loss and high peptide YY levels after sleeve gastrectomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Pucci, Andrea; Cheung, Wui Hang; Jones, Jenny; Manning, Sean; Kingett, Helen; Adamo, Marco; Elkalaawy, Mohamed; Jenkinson, Andrew; Finer, Nicholas; Doyle, Jacqueline; Hashemi, Majid; Batterham, Rachel L

2015-01-01

Sleeve gastrectomy (SG) is the second most commonly performed bariatric procedure worldwide. Altered circulating gut hormones have been suggested to contribute post-operatively to appetite suppression, decreased caloric intake and weight reduction. In the present study, we report a 22-year-old woman who underwent laparoscopic SG for obesity (BMI 46 kg/m(2)). Post-operatively, she reported marked appetite reduction, which resulted in excessive weight loss (1-year post-SG: BMI 22 kg/m(2), weight loss 52%, >99th centile of 1-year percentage of weight loss from 453 SG patients). Gastrointestinal (GI) imaging, GI physiology/motility studies and endoscopy revealed no anatomical cause for her symptoms, and psychological assessments excluded an eating disorder. Despite nutritional supplements and anti-emetics, her weight loss continued (BMI 19 kg/m(2)), and she required nasogastric feeding. A random gut hormone assessment revealed high plasma peptide YY (PYY) levels. She underwent a 3 h meal study following an overnight fast to assess her subjective appetite and circulating gut hormone levels. Her fasted nausea scores were high, with low hunger, and these worsened with nutrient ingestion. Compared to ten other post-SG female patients, her fasted circulating PYY and nutrient-stimulated PYY and active glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP1) levels were markedly elevated. Octreotide treatment was associated with suppressed circulating PYY and GLP1 levels, increased appetite, increased caloric intake and weight gain (BMI 22 kg/m(2) after 6 months). The present case highlights the value of measuring gut hormones in patients following bariatric surgery who present with anorexia and excessive weight loss and suggests that octreotide treatment can produce symptomatic relief and weight regain in this setting. Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and SG produce marked sustained weight reduction. However, there is a marked individual variability in this reduction, and post-operative weight loss

Pyogenic Arthritis of the Ankle Joint Following a High-Voltage Electrical Burn in the Lower Extremity: A Case Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Kuk Seon; Lee, Gyung Kyu; Kang, Ik Won; Hwang, Dae Hyun; Lee, Eil Seong; Min, Seon Jung; Han, You Mie [Dept. of Radiology, Hangang Scared Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Lee, Eil Seong [Dept.of Radiology, Gyeongju Hospital, Dongguk University College of Medicine, Gyeongju (Korea, Republic of)

2011-04-15

A high-voltage electrical burn caused extensive deep muscle injuries beneath a relatively small skin wound at the contact point. Hidden, undetected deep muscle injuries have a tendency for progressive tissue necrosis, which can lead to major amputations or sepsis. The radiologic features of this rare, sometimes life-threatening injury have occasionally been described in the literature. However, to the best of our knowledge, there have been no reports on a case of pyogenic arthritis of the ankle joint following a high-voltage electrical burn involving the lower extremity. We report a case of the pyogenic arthritis of the ankle joint following a high-voltage electrical burn involving the lower extremity.

A COMPARISON OF UPPER-EXTREMITY REACTION FORCES BETWEEN THE YURCHENKO VAULT AND FLOOR EXERCISE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matthew Kirk Seeley

2005-06-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to examine reaction forces transmitted to the upper extremities of high-level gymnasts during the round-off phase of the Yurchenko vault. A secondary purpose of this study was to compare reaction forces during the Yurchenko vault to reaction forces observed in a tumbling pass during the floor exercise. Ten high-level, female gymnasts volunteered to participate. Conditions of the independent variable were the Yurchenko vault and floor exercise; dependent variables were peak vertical and peak anterior-posterior reaction forces. Each participant performed three trials of both conditions with the trail hand contacting a force platform. Vertical and anterior-posterior reaction forces, normalized to body weight, were greater (p < 0.05 during the round-off phase of the Yurchenko vault (2.38 than during the floor exercise round-off (2.15. Vertical reaction forces during the round-off phase of the Yurchenko vault and floor exercise round-off are similar to reaction forces transmitted to upper extremities during other gymnastic skills and ground reaction forces transmitted to lower extremities while running and walking at various speeds. Results of this study reveal a need for further research considering methods aimed at reducing reaction forces transmitted to the upper extremities during the Yurchenko vault and floor exercise.

Extremely high efficiency phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes with horizontal emitting dipoles

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Kwon-Hyeon; Moon, Chang-Ki; Lee, Jeong-Hwan; Kim, Jang-Joo

2014-10-01

We present the factors influencing the orientation of the phosphorescent dyes in phosphorescent OLEDs. And, we report that an OLED containing a phosphorescent emitter with horizontally oriented dipoles in an exciplex-forming co-host that exhibits an extremely high EQE of 32.3% and power efficiency of 142 lm/W, the highest values ever reported in literature. Furthermore, we experimentally and theoretically correlated the EQE of OLEDs to the PL quantum yield and the horizontal dipole ratio of phosphorescent dyes using three different dyes.

Nitrogen accumulation and partitioning in a High Arctic tundra ecosystem from extreme atmospheric N deposition events

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Choudhary, Sonal, E-mail: S.Choudhary@sheffield.ac.uk [Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN (United Kingdom); Management School, University of Sheffield, Conduit Road, Sheffield S10 1FL (United Kingdom); Blaud, Aimeric [Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN (United Kingdom); Osborn, A. Mark [Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN (United Kingdom); School of Applied Sciences, RMIT University, PO Box 71, Bundoora, VIC 3083 (Australia); Press, Malcolm C. [School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT (United Kingdom); Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, M15 6BH (United Kingdom); Phoenix, Gareth K. [Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN (United Kingdom)

2016-06-01

Arctic ecosystems are threatened by pollution from recently detected extreme atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition events in which up to 90% of the annual N deposition can occur in just a few days. We undertook the first assessment of the fate of N from extreme deposition in High Arctic tundra and are presenting the results from the whole ecosystem {sup 15}N labelling experiment. In 2010, we simulated N depositions at rates of 0, 0.04, 0.4 and 1.2 g N m{sup −2} yr{sup −1}, applied as {sup 15}NH{sub 4}{sup 15}NO{sub 3} in Svalbard (79{sup °}N), during the summer. Separate applications of {sup 15}NO{sub 3}{sup −} and {sup 15}NH{sub 4}{sup +} were also made to determine the importance of N form in their retention. More than 95% of the total {sup 15}N applied was recovered after one growing season (~ 90% after two), demonstrating a considerable capacity of Arctic tundra to retain N from these deposition events. Important sinks for the deposited N, regardless of its application rate or form, were non-vascular plants > vascular plants > organic soil > litter > mineral soil, suggesting that non-vascular plants could be the primary component of this ecosystem to undergo measurable changes due to N enrichment from extreme deposition events. Substantial retention of N by soil microbial biomass (70% and 39% of {sup 15}N in organic and mineral horizon, respectively) during the initial partitioning demonstrated their capacity to act as effective buffers for N leaching. Between the two N forms, vascular plants (Salix polaris) in particular showed difference in their N recovery, incorporating four times greater {sup 15}NO{sub 3}{sup −} than {sup 15}NH{sub 4}{sup +}, suggesting deposition rich in nitrate will impact them more. Overall, these findings show that despite the deposition rates being extreme in statistical terms, biologically they do not exceed the capacity of tundra to sequester pollutant N during the growing season. Therefore, current and future extreme events

Why do people buy dogs with potential welfare problems related to extreme conformation and inherited disease? A representative study of Danish owners of four small dog breeds

OpenAIRE

Sand?e, P.; Kondrup, S. V.; Bennett, P. C.; Forkman, B.; Meyer, I; Proschowsky, H. F.; Serpell, J. A.; Lund, T. B.

2017-01-01

number of dog breeds suffer from welfare problems due to extreme phenotypes and high levels of inherited diseases but the popularity of such breeds is not declining. Using a survey of owners of two popular breeds with extreme physical features (French Bulldog and Chihuahua), one with a high load of inherited diseases not directly related to conformation (Cavalier King Charles Spaniel), and one representing the same size range but without extreme conformation and with the same level of disease...

Pituitary, gonadal and adrenal hormones after prolonged residence at extreme altitude in man.

Science.gov (United States)

Basu, M; Pal, K; Prasad, R; Malhotra, A S; Rao, K S; Sawhney, R C

1997-06-01

High altitude-induced alterations in pituitary, gonadal and adrenal hormones were studied in (i) eugonadal men from the armed forces who were resident at sea level (SL), (ii) SL residents staying at an altitude of 3542 m for periods ranging from 3 to 12 months (acclimatized lowlanders, ALL), (iii) ALL who stayed at 6300 m for 6 months, (iv) ALL who trekked from 3542 to 5080 m and stayed at an altitude of more than 6300 m in the glacier region for 6 months, and (v) high-altitude natives (HAN) resident at an altitude of 3300-3700 m. Circulating levels of LH, FSH, prolactin, cortisol, testosterone, dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and progesterone in ALL at 3542 m and in HAN were not significantly different (p > 0.05) from the SL control values. When the ALL living at 3542 m trekked to an extreme altitude of 5080 m, their testosterone levels showed a significant decrease (p 0.05) from the SL values. The LH levels after trekking to 5080 m were significantly higher (p 0.05) from the SL values. Plasma progesterone levels tended to increase on arrival at 5080 m but a significant increase (p < 0.001) was evident only after a 6-month stay at extreme altitude. These observations suggest that prolonged residence at lower as well as at extreme altitude does not appreciably alter blood levels of pituitary, gonadal or adrenal hormones except for plasma levels of progesterone. The exact mechanism and significance of this increase remains unknown, but may be important in increasing the sensitivity of the hypoxic ventilatory response and activation of haemoglobin synthesis.

Evaluation of trends in high temperature extremes in north-western Europe in regional climate models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Min, E; Hazeleger, W; Van Oldenborgh, G J; Sterl, A

2013-01-01

Projections of future changes in weather extremes on the regional and local scale depend on a realistic representation of trends in extremes in regional climate models (RCMs). We have tested this assumption for moderate high temperature extremes (the annual maximum of the daily maximum 2 m temperature, T ann.max ). Linear trends in T ann.max from historical runs of 14 RCMs driven by atmospheric reanalysis data are compared with trends in gridded station data. The ensemble of RCMs significantly underestimates the observed trends over most of the north-western European land surface. Individual models do not fare much better, with even the best performing models underestimating observed trends over large areas. We argue that the inability of RCMs to reproduce observed trends is probably not due to errors in large-scale circulation. There is also no significant correlation between the RCM T ann.max trends and trends in radiation or Bowen ratio. We conclude that care should be taken when using RCM data for adaptation decisions. (letter)

Bivariate generalized Pareto distribution for extreme atmospheric particulate matter

Science.gov (United States)

Amin, Nor Azrita Mohd; Adam, Mohd Bakri; Ibrahim, Noor Akma; Aris, Ahmad Zaharin

2015-02-01

The high particulate matter (PM10) level is the prominent issue causing various impacts to human health and seriously affecting the economics. The asymptotic theory of extreme value is apply for analyzing the relation of extreme PM10 data from two nearby air quality monitoring stations. The series of daily maxima PM10 for Johor Bahru and Pasir Gudang stations are consider for year 2001 to 2010 databases. The 85% and 95% marginal quantile apply to determine the threshold values and hence construct the series of exceedances over the chosen threshold. The logistic, asymmetric logistic, negative logistic and asymmetric negative logistic models areconsidered as the dependence function to the joint distribution of a bivariate observation. Maximum likelihood estimation is employed for parameter estimations. The best fitted model is chosen based on the Akaike Information Criterion and the quantile plots. It is found that the asymmetric logistic model gives the best fitted model for bivariate extreme PM10 data and shows the weak dependence between two stations.

The effects of extracorporeal shockwave on acute high-energy long bone fractures of the lower extremity.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Ching-Jen; Liu, Hao-Chen; Fu, Te-Hu

2007-02-01

High-energy long bone fractures of the lower extremity are at risk of poor fracture healing and high rate of non-union. Extracorporeal shockwave was shown effective to heal non-union of long bone fracture. However, the effect of shockwave on acute fractures is unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of shockwave on acute high-energy fractures of the lower extremity. Between January and October 2004, 56 patients with 59 acute high-energy fractures were enrolled in this study. Patients were randomly divided into two groups with 28 patients with 28 fractures in the study group and 28 patients with 31 fractures in the control group. Both groups showed similar age, gender, type of fracture and follow-up time. Patients in the study group received open reduction and internal fixation and shockwave treatment immediately after surgery on odd-numbered days of the week, whereas, patients in the control group received open reduction and internal fixation without shockwave treatment on even-numbered days of the week. Postoperative managements were similarly performed in both groups including crutch walking with non-weight bearing on the affected limb until fracture healing shown on radiographs. The evaluation parameters included clinical assessments of pain score and weight bearing status of the affected leg and serial radiographs at 3, 6 and 12 months. The primary end-point is the rate of non-union at 12 months, and the secondary end point is the rate of fracture healing at 3, 6 and 12 months. At 12 months, the rate of non-union was 11% for the study group versus 20% for the control group (P fracture healing was noted in the study group than the control group at 3, 6 and 12 months (P fracture healing and decreasing the rate of non-union in acute high-energy fractures of the lower extremity.

The management of high-level radioactive wastes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lennemann, Wm.L.

1979-01-01

The definition of high-level radioactive wastes is given. The following aspects of high-level radioactive wastes' management are discussed: fuel reprocessing and high-level waste; storage of high-level liquid waste; solidification of high-level waste; interim storage of solidified high-level waste; disposal of high-level waste; disposal of irradiated fuel elements as a waste

Study on extreme high temperature of cooling water in Chinese coastal nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yu Fan; Jiang Ziying

2012-01-01

In order to protect aquatic life from the harmful effects of thermal discharge, the appropriate water temperature limits or the scope of the mixing zone is a key issue in the regulatory control of the environmental impact of thermal discharge. Based on the sea surface temperature in the Chinese coastal waters, the extreme value of the seawater temperature change was analyzed by using the Gumbel model. The limit of the design temperature rise of cooling water in the outfall is 9 ℃, and the limit of the temperature rise of cooling water in the edge of the mixing zone is 4 ℃. The extreme high temperature of the cooling water in Chinese coastal nuclear power plant is 37 ℃ in the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, and is 40 ℃ in East China Sea, South China Sea. (authors)

Invited Article: Visualisation of extreme value events in optical communications

Science.gov (United States)

Derevyanko, Stanislav; Redyuk, Alexey; Vergeles, Sergey; Turitsyn, Sergei

2018-06-01

Fluctuations of a temporal signal propagating along long-haul transoceanic scale fiber links can be visualised in the spatio-temporal domain drawing visual analogy with ocean waves. Substantial overlapping of information symbols or use of multi-frequency signals leads to strong statistical deviations of local peak power from an average signal power level. We consider long-haul optical communication systems from this unusual angle, treating them as physical systems with a huge number of random statistical events, including extreme value fluctuations that potentially might affect the quality of data transmission. We apply the well-established concepts of adaptive wavefront shaping used in imaging through turbid medium to detect the detrimental phase modulated sequences in optical communications that can cause extreme power outages (rare optical waves of ultra-high amplitude) during propagation down the ultra-long fiber line. We illustrate the concept by a theoretical analysis of rare events of high-intensity fluctuations—optical freak waves, taking as an example an increasingly popular optical frequency division multiplexing data format where the problem of high peak to average power ratio is the most acute. We also show how such short living extreme value spikes in the optical data streams are affected by nonlinearity and demonstrate the negative impact of such events on the system performance.

Final disposal of high-level radioactive waste. State of knowledge and development for safety assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sato, Seichi; Muraoka, Susumu; Murano, Toru

1995-01-01

In Europe and USA, the formation disposal of high level radioactive waste entered the stage of doing the activities aiming at its execution. Also in Japan, the storage of high level waste began in the spring of 1995. Regarding the utilization of nuclear power, the establishment of the technology for disposing radioactive waste is the subject of fist priority, and the stage that requires its social recognition has set in. There are the features of formation disposal in that the disposal is in the state of confining extremely large amount of radioactivity, and that the assessment of long term safety exceeding tens of thousands years is demanded. The amount of occurrence and the main nuclides of high level radioactive waste, the disposal as seen in the Coady report and in the IAEA standard, the selection of dispersion or confinement and the selection of passive system or long term human participation, the reason why formation disposal is selected, the features of formation disposal and the way of advancing the research, the general techniques of safety assessment, artificial barriers and natural barriers for formation disposal, and the subjects of formation disposal are described. (K.I.) 57 refs

Detection and Attribution of Climate Change : From global mean temperature change to climate extremes and high impact weather.

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2013-01-01

This talk will describe how evidence has grown in recent years for a human influence on climate and explain how the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that it is extremely likely (>95% probability) that human influence on climate has been the dominant cause of the observed global-mean warming since the mid-20th century. The fingerprint of human activities has also been detected in warming of the ocean, in changes in the global water cycle, in reductions in snow and ice, and in changes in some climate extremes. The strengthening of evidence for the effects of human influence on climate extremes is in line with long-held basic understanding of the consequences of mean warming for temperature extremes and for atmospheric moisture. Despite such compelling evidence this does not mean that every instance of high impact weather can be attributed to anthropogenic climate change, because climate variability is often a major factor in many locations, especially for rain...

Check List of Symptoms SCL - 90 - R at Persons with Extremities Amputations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Suada Kapidžić-Duraković

2006-02-01

Full Text Available Multidimensional Inventory Check List of Symptoms (SCL-90-r is based on self-evaluation and it has been used for determination of level of: somatisation, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobias, paranoia and psychosis at persons which are exposed to long term emotional and physical stress. Our goal was to determine relations of physical trauma and psychological changes at persons with lower extremities amputations and to determine factors which influence those changes. Thirty seven persons with lower extremities amputations were examined. The sample included 26 (70.2 % veterans and 11 (29.7 % civilians with diseases related amputations. They voluntarily filled Check List of Symptoms SCL-90-r. Symptoms Inventory includes 9 dimensions of primary symptoms: SCL1-somatisation, SCL2-obsessive-compulsive symptoms, SCL3-interpersonal sensitivity, SCL4-depression, SCL5-anxiety, SCL6-hostility, SCL7-phobias, SCL8-paranoia, SCL9-psychosis and SCL10-extra scale. Inventory includes 90 statements, each evaluated with five-level scale of disorder. Every answer is graded with 0-4 points. Thirty seven persons with lower extremities amputations and average chronological age 46.2 +/- 10.92 years were analyzed. Considering marital status 30 (81.1 % of them were married, 4 (10.8 % were not married and 3 (8.1 % were widowers. Considering level of amputation 27 of them (73.0 % had amputation below knee, 5 (13.5 % of them amputation above knee and 5 of them (13.5 % foot amputation. SCL-90-r in both groups determined high level of sensitivity, anxiety, hostility and paranoia. Veterans showed higher level of paranoia comparing to civilians (p<0.002, and younger veterans and married ones had higher level of paranoia comparing to other veterans (p<0.01. Persons with amputations below and above knee showed higher level of paranoia comparing those with foot amputation (p<0.001. Persons with lower extremities

Complex Plasma Research Under Extreme Conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ishihara, Osamu

2008-01-01

Complex plasma research under extreme conditions is described. The extreme conditions include low-dimensionality for self-organized structures of dust particles, dust magnetization in high magnetic field, criticality in phase transition, and cryogenic environment for Coulomb crystals and dust dynamics.

Rapid adaptation of microalgae to bodies of water with extreme pollution from uranium mining: An explanation of how mesophilic organisms can rapidly colonise extremely toxic environments

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

García-Balboa, C.; Baselga-Cervera, B. [Genetica, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid (Spain); García-Sanchez, A.; Igual, J.M. [Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Salamanca (IRNASA-CSIC), PO Box 257, 37071 Salamanca (Spain); Lopez-Rodas, V. [Genetica, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid (Spain); Costas, E., E-mail: ecostas@vet.ucm.es [Genetica, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid (Spain)

2013-11-15

Highlights: •Some microalgae species survive to extreme environments in ponds of residual waters from uranium mining. •Adaptation of microalgae to U arose very fast. •Spontaneous mutations that confer large adaptive value were able to produce the adaptation to residual waters of U mining. •Adaptation to more extreme waters of U mining is only possible after the recombination subsequent to sexual mating. •Resistant microalgae bio-adsorbs uranium to the cell wall and internalises uranium inside the cytoplasm. -- Abstract: Extreme environments may support communities of microalgae living at the limits of their tolerance. It is usually assumed that these extreme environments are inhabited by extremophile species. However, global anthropogenic environmental changes are generating new extreme environments, such as mining-effluent pools of residual waters from uranium mining with high U levels, acidity and radioactivity in Salamanca (Spain). Certain microalgal species have rapidly adapted to these extreme waters (uranium mining in this area began in 1960). Experiments have demonstrated that physiological acclimatisation would be unable to achieve adaptation. In contrast, rapid genetic adaptation was observed in waters ostensibly lethal to microalgae by means of rare spontaneous mutations that occurred prior to the exposure to effluent waters from uranium mining. However, adaptation to the most extreme conditions was only possible after recombination through sexual mating because adaptation requires more than one mutation. Microalgae living in extreme environments could be the descendants of pre-selective mutants that confer significant adaptive value to extreme contamination. These “lucky mutants” could allow for the evolutionary rescue of populations faced with rapid environmental change.

Rapid adaptation of microalgae to bodies of water with extreme pollution from uranium mining: An explanation of how mesophilic organisms can rapidly colonise extremely toxic environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

García-Balboa, C.; Baselga-Cervera, B.; García-Sanchez, A.; Igual, J.M.; Lopez-Rodas, V.; Costas, E.

2013-01-01

Highlights: •Some microalgae species survive to extreme environments in ponds of residual waters from uranium mining. •Adaptation of microalgae to U arose very fast. •Spontaneous mutations that confer large adaptive value were able to produce the adaptation to residual waters of U mining. •Adaptation to more extreme waters of U mining is only possible after the recombination subsequent to sexual mating. •Resistant microalgae bio-adsorbs uranium to the cell wall and internalises uranium inside the cytoplasm. -- Abstract: Extreme environments may support communities of microalgae living at the limits of their tolerance. It is usually assumed that these extreme environments are inhabited by extremophile species. However, global anthropogenic environmental changes are generating new extreme environments, such as mining-effluent pools of residual waters from uranium mining with high U levels, acidity and radioactivity in Salamanca (Spain). Certain microalgal species have rapidly adapted to these extreme waters (uranium mining in this area began in 1960). Experiments have demonstrated that physiological acclimatisation would be unable to achieve adaptation. In contrast, rapid genetic adaptation was observed in waters ostensibly lethal to microalgae by means of rare spontaneous mutations that occurred prior to the exposure to effluent waters from uranium mining. However, adaptation to the most extreme conditions was only possible after recombination through sexual mating because adaptation requires more than one mutation. Microalgae living in extreme environments could be the descendants of pre-selective mutants that confer significant adaptive value to extreme contamination. These “lucky mutants” could allow for the evolutionary rescue of populations faced with rapid environmental change

High-resolution projections of mean and extreme precipitations over China through PRECIS under RCPs

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Jinxin; Huang, Gordon; Wang, Xiuquan; Cheng, Guanhui; Wu, Yinghui

2018-06-01

The impact of global warming on the characteristics of mean and extreme precipitations over China is investigated by using the Providing REgional Climate Impacts for Studies (PRECIS) model. The PRECIS model was driven by the Hadley Centre Global Environment Model version 2 with Earth System components and coupling (HadGEM2-ES). The results of both models are analyzed in terms of mean precipitation and indices of precipitation extremes (R95p, R99p, SDII, WDF, and CWD) over China at the resolution of 25 km under the Representative Concentration Pathways 4.5 and 8.5 (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) scenarios for the baseline period (1976-2005) and two future periods (2036-2065 and 2070-2099). With improved resolution, the PRECIS model is able to better represent the fine-scale physical process than HadGEM2-ES. It can provide reliable spatial patterns of precipitation and its related extremes with high correlations to observations. Moreover, there is a notable improvement in temporal patterns simulation through the PRECIS model. The PRECIS model better reproduces the regional annual cycle and frequencies of daily precipitation intensity than its driving GCM. Under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, both the HadGEM2-ES and the precis project increasing annual precipitation over the entire country for two future periods. Precipitation increase in winter is greater than the increase in summer. The results suggest that increased radiative forcing from RCP4.5 to RCP8.5 would further intensify the magnitude of projected precipitation changes by both PRECIS and HadGEM2-ES. For example, some parts of south China with decreased precipitation under RCP4.5 would expect even less precipitation under RCP8.5; regions (northwest, northcentral and northeast China) with increased precipitation under RCP4.5 would expect more precipitation under RCP8.5. Apart from the projected increase in annual total precipitation, the results also suggest that there will be an increase in the days with precipitation higher than

Prevention of Lower Extremity Injuries in Basketball

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Jeffrey B.; Ford, Kevin R.; Nguyen, Anh-Dung; Terry, Lauren N.; Hegedus, Eric J.

2015-01-01

Context: Lower extremity injuries are common in basketball, yet it is unclear how prophylactic interventions affect lower extremity injury incidence rates. Objective: To analyze the effectiveness of current lower extremity injury prevention programs in basketball athletes, focusing on injury rates of (1) general lower extremity injuries, (2) ankle sprains, and (3) anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears. Data Sources: PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus, and the Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials were searched in January 2015. Study Selection: Studies were included if they were randomized controlled or prospective cohort trials, contained a population of competitive basketball athletes, and reported lower extremity injury incidence rates specific to basketball players. In total, 426 individual studies were identified. Of these, 9 met the inclusion criteria. One other study was found during a hand search of the literature, resulting in 10 total studies included in this meta-analysis. Study Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Level of Evidence: Level 2. Data Extraction: Details of the intervention (eg, neuromuscular vs external support), size of control and intervention groups, and number of injuries in each group were extracted from each study. Injury data were classified into 3 groups based on the anatomic diagnosis reported (general lower extremity injury, ankle sprain, ACL rupture). Results: Meta-analyses were performed independently for each injury classification. Results indicate that prophylactic programs significantly reduced the incidence of general lower extremity injuries (odds ratio [OR], 0.69; 95% CI, 0.57-0.85; P basketball athletes. Conclusion: In basketball players, prophylactic programs may be effective in reducing the risk of general lower extremity injuries and ankle sprains, yet not ACL injuries. PMID:26502412

Modeling extreme PM10 concentration in Malaysia using generalized extreme value distribution

Science.gov (United States)

Hasan, Husna; Mansor, Nadiah; Salleh, Nur Hanim Mohd

2015-05-01

Extreme PM10 concentration from the Air Pollutant Index (API) at thirteen monitoring stations in Malaysia is modeled using the Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) distribution. The data is blocked into monthly selection period. The Mann-Kendall (MK) test suggests a non-stationary model so two models are considered for the stations with trend. The likelihood ratio test is used to determine the best fitted model and the result shows that only two stations favor the non-stationary model (Model 2) while the other eleven stations favor stationary model (Model 1). The return level of PM10 concentration that is expected to exceed the maximum once within a selected period is obtained.

Extreme Unconditional Dependence Vs. Multivariate GARCH Effect in the Analysis of Dependence Between High Losses on Polish and German Stock Indexes

Science.gov (United States)

Rokita, Pawel

Classical portfolio diversification methods do not take account of any dependence between extreme returns (losses). Many researchers provide, however, some empirical evidence for various assets that extreme-losses co-occur. If the co-occurrence is frequent enough to be statistically significant, it may seriously influence portfolio risk. Such effects may result from a few different properties of financial time series, like for instance: (1) extreme dependence in a (long-term) unconditional distribution, (2) extreme dependence in subsequent conditional distributions, (3) time-varying conditional covariance, (4) time-varying (long-term) unconditional covariance, (5) market contagion. Moreover, a mix of these properties may be present in return time series. Modeling each of them requires different approaches. It seams reasonable to investigate whether distinguishing between the properties is highly significant for portfolio risk measurement. If it is, identifying the effect responsible for high loss co-occurrence would be of a great importance. If it is not, the best solution would be selecting the easiest-to-apply model. This article concentrates on two of the aforementioned properties: extreme dependence (in a long-term unconditional distribution) and time-varying conditional covariance.

RPython high-level synthesis

Science.gov (United States)

Cieszewski, Radoslaw; Linczuk, Maciej

2016-09-01

The development of FPGA technology and the increasing complexity of applications in recent decades have forced compilers to move to higher abstraction levels. Compilers interprets an algorithmic description of a desired behavior written in High-Level Languages (HLLs) and translate it to Hardware Description Languages (HDLs). This paper presents a RPython based High-Level synthesis (HLS) compiler. The compiler get the configuration parameters and map RPython program to VHDL. Then, VHDL code can be used to program FPGA chips. In comparison of other technologies usage, FPGAs have the potential to achieve far greater performance than software as a result of omitting the fetch-decode-execute operations of General Purpose Processors (GPUs), and introduce more parallel computation. This can be exploited by utilizing many resources at the same time. Creating parallel algorithms computed with FPGAs in pure HDL is difficult and time consuming. Implementation time can be greatly reduced with High-Level Synthesis compiler. This article describes design methodologies and tools, implementation and first results of created VHDL backend for RPython compiler.

Modeling annual extreme temperature using generalized extreme value distribution: A case study in Malaysia

Science.gov (United States)

Hasan, Husna; Salam, Norfatin; Kassim, Suraiya

2013-04-01

Extreme temperature of several stations in Malaysia is modeled by fitting the annual maximum to the Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) distribution. The Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) and Phillips Perron (PP) tests are used to detect stochastic trends among the stations. The Mann-Kendall (MK) test suggests a non-stationary model. Three models are considered for stations with trend and the Likelihood Ratio test is used to determine the best-fitting model. The results show that Subang and Bayan Lepas stations favour a model which is linear for the location parameters while Kota Kinabalu and Sibu stations are suitable with a model in the logarithm of the scale parameters. The return level is the level of events (maximum temperature) which is expected to be exceeded once, on average, in a given number of years, is obtained.

Development of a structural model to analyze public opinion on a high-level radioactive waste facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Flynn, J.; Slovic, P.; Mertz, C.K.; Burns, W.

1991-01-01

Studies show that Nevada residents and state officials oppose the proposed high-level radioactive waste repository project at Yucca Mountain. Nevada residents view the Yucca Mountain repository as having extremely high risk; nuclear experts, in contrast, feel the risks are very low. These experts have suggested that public risk perceptions may be reduced by better program management, increased trust in the federal government, and/or by increased benefits and compensation for accepting a repository. The model described in this paper is designed to examine the relationship between risk perception and various strategies for risk management using a confirmatory multivariate method known as covariance structure analysis

ACUTE EFFECTS OF STATIC STRETCHING, DYNAMIC EXERCISES, AND HIGH VOLUME UPPER EXTREMITY PLYOMETRIC ACTIVITY ON TENNIS SERVE PERFORMANCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ertugrul Gelen

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to compare the acute effects of static stretching; dynamic exercises and high volume upper extremity plyometric activity on tennis serve performance. Twenty-six elite young tennis players (15.1 ± 4.2 years, 167.9 ± 5.8 cm and 61.6 ± 8.1 kg performed 4 different warm-up (WU routines in a random order on non-consecutive days. The WU methods consisted of traditional WU (jogging, rally and serve practice (TRAD; traditional WU and static stretching (TRSS; traditional WU and dynamic exercise (TRDE; and traditional WU and high volume upper extremity plyometric activity (TRPLYP. Following each WU session, subjects were tested on a tennis serve ball speed test. TRAD, TRSS, TRDE and TRPLYO were compared by repeated measurement analyses of variance and post-hoc comparisons. In this study a 1 to 3 percent increase in tennis serve ball speed was recorded in TRDE and TRPLYO when compared to TRAD (p 0.05. ICCs for ball speed showed strong reliability (0.82 to 0.93 for the ball speed measurements.The results of this study indicate that dynamic and high volume upper extremity plyometric WU activities are likely beneficial to serve speed of elite junior tennis players.

Australian climate extremes at 1.5 °C and 2 °C of global warming

Science.gov (United States)

King, Andrew D.; Karoly, David J.; Henley, Benjamin J.

2017-06-01

To avoid more severe impacts from climate change, there is international agreement to strive to limit warming to below 1.5 °C. However, there is a lack of literature assessing climate change at 1.5 °C and the potential benefits in terms of reduced frequency of extreme events. Here, we demonstrate that existing model simulations provide a basis for rapid and rigorous analysis of the effects of different levels of warming on large-scale climate extremes, using Australia as a case study. We show that limiting warming to 1.5 °C, relative to 2 °C, would perceptibly reduce the frequency of extreme heat events in Australia. The Australian continent experiences a variety of high-impact climate extremes that result in loss of life, and economic and environmental damage. Events similar to the record-hot summer of 2012-2013 and warm seas associated with bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef in 2016 would be substantially less likely, by about 25% in both cases, if warming is kept to lower levels. The benefits of limiting warming on hydrometeorological extremes are less clear. This study provides a framework for analysing climate extremes at 1.5 °C global warming.

Quantitative methods for stochastic high frequency spatio-temporal and non-linear analysis: Assessing health effects of exposure to extreme ambient temperature

Science.gov (United States)

Liss, Alexander

Extreme weather events, such as heat waves and cold spells, cause substantial excess mortality and morbidity in the vulnerable elderly population, and cost billions of dollars. The accurate and reliable assessment of adverse effects of extreme weather events on human health is crucial for environmental scientists, economists, and public health officials to ensure proper protection of vulnerable populations and efficient allocation of scarce resources. However, the methodology for the analysis of large national databases is yet to be developed. The overarching objective of this dissertation is to examine the effect of extreme weather on the elderly population of the Conterminous US (ConUS) with respect to seasonality in temperature in different climatic regions by utilizing heterogeneous high frequency and spatio-temporal resolution data. To achieve these goals the author: 1) incorporated dissimilar stochastic high frequency big data streams and distinct data types into the integrated data base for use in analytical and decision support frameworks; 2) created an automated climate regionalization system based on remote sensing and machine learning to define climate regions for the Conterminous US; 3) systematically surveyed the current state of the art and identified existing gaps in the scientific knowledge; 4) assessed the dose-response relationship of exposure to temperature extremes on human health in relatively homogeneous climate regions using different statistical models, such as parametric and non-parametric, contemporaneous and asynchronous, applied to the same data; 5) assessed seasonal peak timing and synchronization delay of the exposure and the disease within the framework of contemporaneous high frequency harmonic time series analysis and modification of the effect by the regional climate; 6) modeled using hyperbolic functional form non-linear properties of the effect of exposure to extreme temperature on human health. The proposed climate

Improved Survival With Radiation Therapy in High-Grade Soft Tissue Sarcomas of the Extremities: A SEER Analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koshy, Matthew; Rich, Shayna E.; Mohiuddin, Majid M.

2010-01-01

Purpose: The benefit of radiation therapy in extremity soft tissue sarcomas remains controversial. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of radiation therapy on overall survival among patients with primary soft tissue sarcomas of the extremity who underwent limb-sparing surgery. Methods and Materials: A retrospective study from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database that included data from January 1, 1988, to December 31, 2005. A total of 6,960 patients constituted the study population. Overall survival curves were constructed using the Kaplan-Meir method and for patients with low- and high-grade tumors. Hazard ratios were calculated based on multivariable Cox proportional hazards models. Results: Of the cohort, 47% received radiation therapy. There was no significant difference in overall survival among patients with low-grade tumors by radiation therapy. In high-grade tumors, the 3-year overall survival was 73% in patients who received radiation therapy vs. 63% for those who did not receive radiation therapy (p < 0.001). On multivariate analysis, patients with high-grade tumors who received radiation therapy had an improved overall survival (hazard ratio 0.67, 95% confidence interval 0.57-0.79). In patients receiving radiation therapy, 13.5% received it in a neoadjuvant setting. The incidence of patients receiving neoadjuvant radiation did not change significantly between 1988 and 2005. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the largest population-based study reported in patients undergoing limb-sparing surgery for soft tissue sarcomas of the extremities. It reports that radiation was associated with improved survival in patients with high-grade tumors.

Microsystem for remote sensing of high energy radiation with associated extremely low photon flux densities

Science.gov (United States)

Otten, A.; Jain, V. K.

2015-08-01

This paper presents a microsystem for remote sensing of high energy radiation in extremely low flux density conditions. With wide deployment in mind, potential applications range from nuclear non-proliferation, to hospital radiation-safety. The daunting challenge is the low level of photon flux densities - emerging from a Scintillation Crystal (SC) on to a ~1 mm-square detector, which are a factor of 10000 or so lower than those acceptable to recently reported photonic chips (including `single-photon detection' chips), due to a combination of low Lux, small detector size, and short duration SC output pulses - on the order of 1 μs. These challenges are attempted to be overcome by the design of an innovative `System on a Chip' type microchip, with high detector sensitivity, and effective coupling from the SC to the photodetector. The microchip houses a tiny n+ diff p-epi photodiode (PD) as well as the associated analog amplification and other related circuitry, all fabricated in 0.5micron, 3-metal 2-poly CMOS technology. The amplification, together with pulse-shaping of the photocurrent-induced voltage signal, is achieved through a tandem of two capacitively coupled, double-cascode amplifiers. Included in the paper are theoretical estimates and experimental results.

Risk assessment of precipitation extremes in northern Xinjiang, China

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Jun; Pei, Ying; Zhang, Yanwei; Ge, Quansheng

2018-05-01

This study was conducted using daily precipitation records gathered at 37 meteorological stations in northern Xinjiang, China, from 1961 to 2010. We used the extreme value theory model, generalized extreme value (GEV) and generalized Pareto distribution (GPD), statistical distribution function to fit outputs of precipitation extremes with different return periods to estimate risks of precipitation extremes and diagnose aridity-humidity environmental variation and corresponding spatial patterns in northern Xinjiang. Spatiotemporal patterns of daily maximum precipitation showed that aridity-humidity conditions of northern Xinjiang could be well represented by the return periods of the precipitation data. Indices of daily maximum precipitation were effective in the prediction of floods in the study area. By analyzing future projections of daily maximum precipitation (2, 5, 10, 30, 50, and 100 years), we conclude that the flood risk will gradually increase in northern Xinjiang. GEV extreme value modeling yielded the best results, proving to be extremely valuable. Through example analysis for extreme precipitation models, the GEV statistical model was superior in terms of favorable analog extreme precipitation. The GPD model calculation results reflect annual precipitation. For most of the estimated sites' 2 and 5-year T for precipitation levels, GPD results were slightly greater than GEV results. The study found that extreme precipitation reaching a certain limit value level will cause a flood disaster. Therefore, predicting future extreme precipitation may aid warnings of flood disaster. A suitable policy concerning effective water resource management is thus urgently required.

Modelling sea level rise impacts on storm surges along US coasts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tebaldi, Claudia; Strauss, Benjamin H; Zervas, Chris E

2012-01-01

Sound policies for protecting coastal communities and assets require good information about vulnerability to flooding. Here, we investigate the influence of sea level rise on expected storm surge-driven water levels and their frequencies along the contiguous United States. We use model output for global temperature changes, a semi-empirical model of global sea level rise, and long-term records from 55 nationally distributed tidal gauges to develop sea level rise projections at each gauge location. We employ more detailed records over the period 1979–2008 from the same gauges to elicit historic patterns of extreme high water events, and combine these statistics with anticipated relative sea level rise to project changing local extremes through 2050. We find that substantial changes in the frequency of what are now considered extreme water levels may occur even at locations with relatively slow local sea level rise, when the difference in height between presently common and rare water levels is small. We estimate that, by mid-century, some locations may experience high water levels annually that would qualify today as ‘century’ (i.e., having a chance of occurrence of 1% annually) extremes. Today’s century levels become ‘decade’ (having a chance of 10% annually) or more frequent events at about a third of the study gauges, and the majority of locations see substantially higher frequency of previously rare storm-driven water heights in the future. These results add support to the need for policy approaches that consider the non-stationarity of extreme events when evaluating risks of adverse climate impacts. (letter)

Spatial dependence of extreme rainfall

Science.gov (United States)

Radi, Noor Fadhilah Ahmad; Zakaria, Roslinazairimah; Satari, Siti Zanariah; Azman, Muhammad Az-zuhri

2017-05-01

This study aims to model the spatial extreme daily rainfall process using the max-stable model. The max-stable model is used to capture the dependence structure of spatial properties of extreme rainfall. Three models from max-stable are considered namely Smith, Schlather and Brown-Resnick models. The methods are applied on 12 selected rainfall stations in Kelantan, Malaysia. Most of the extreme rainfall data occur during wet season from October to December of 1971 to 2012. This period is chosen to assure the available data is enough to satisfy the assumption of stationarity. The dependence parameters including the range and smoothness, are estimated using composite likelihood approach. Then, the bootstrap approach is applied to generate synthetic extreme rainfall data for all models using the estimated dependence parameters. The goodness of fit between the observed extreme rainfall and the synthetic data is assessed using the composite likelihood information criterion (CLIC). Results show that Schlather model is the best followed by Brown-Resnick and Smith models based on the smallest CLIC's value. Thus, the max-stable model is suitable to be used to model extreme rainfall in Kelantan. The study on spatial dependence in extreme rainfall modelling is important to reduce the uncertainties of the point estimates for the tail index. If the spatial dependency is estimated individually, the uncertainties will be large. Furthermore, in the case of joint return level is of interest, taking into accounts the spatial dependence properties will improve the estimation process.

Extreme Value Analysis of Induced Geoelectric Field in South Africa

Science.gov (United States)

Lotz, S. I.; Danskin, D. W.

2017-10-01

Extreme geomagnetic disturbances occur rarely but can have great impact on technological systems such as power supply networks. Long-term planning for extreme events requires the estimation of event impact for occurrence periods greater than the length of observed data. With this in mind an analysis of extreme geomagnetic events observed in South Africa (middle geomagnetic latitude) is performed over four solar cycles (1974-2015). An algorithm to identify active periods with minimum SYM-H ≤-100 nT is demonstrated. The sum of induced electric field over the course of each event is used to characterize the severity of each active period. It is found that the severity index (accumulated electric field magnitude ΣE) shares a highly linear relationship with accumulated SYM-H over each event. The index ΣE is lognormal distributed, with tail deviating greater than lognormal, confirming heavy-tailed occurrence. A general Pareto distribution is fitted to the tail of the distribution and extrapolated to calculate the return levels of extreme events. Return levels of once in 100 and once in 200 year events are estimated to be 9.4 × 104 mV/km min and 1.09 × 105 mV/km min, respectively. The top three events, in ascending order of severity, are the March 1989 storm, the events of late October 2003, and the April 1994 event—a long interval of coronal-hole driven disturbances, bookended by two intense geomagnetic storms.

Climate extremes promote fatal co-infections during canine distemper epidemics in African lions.

Science.gov (United States)

Munson, Linda; Terio, Karen A; Kock, Richard; Mlengeya, Titus; Roelke, Melody E; Dubovi, Edward; Summers, Brian; Sinclair, Anthony R E; Packer, Craig

2008-06-25

Extreme climatic conditions may alter historic host-pathogen relationships and synchronize the temporal and spatial convergence of multiple infectious agents, triggering epidemics with far greater mortality than those due to single pathogens. Here we present the first data to clearly illustrate how climate extremes can promote a complex interplay between epidemic and endemic pathogens that are normally tolerated in isolation, but with co-infection, result in catastrophic mortality. A 1994 canine distemper virus (CDV) epidemic in Serengeti lions (Panthera leo) coincided with the death of a third of the population, and a second high-mortality CDV epidemic struck the nearby Ngorongoro Crater lion population in 2001. The extent of adult mortalities was unusual for CDV and prompted an investigation into contributing factors. Serological analyses indicated that at least five "silent" CDV epidemics swept through the same two lion populations between 1976 and 2006 without clinical signs or measurable mortality, indicating that CDV was not necessarily fatal. Clinical and pathology findings suggested that hemoparsitism was a major contributing factor during fatal epidemics. Using quantitative real-time PCR, we measured the magnitude of hemoparasite infections in these populations over 22 years and demonstrated significantly higher levels of Babesia during the 1994 and 2001 epidemics. Babesia levels correlated with mortalities and extent of CDV exposure within prides. The common event preceding the two high mortality CDV outbreaks was extreme drought conditions with wide-spread herbivore die-offs, most notably of Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer). As a consequence of high tick numbers after the resumption of rains and heavy tick infestations of starving buffalo, the lions were infected by unusually high numbers of Babesia, infections that were magnified by the immunosuppressive effects of coincident CDV, leading to unprecedented mortality. Such mass mortality events may become

Climate extremes promote fatal co-infections during canine distemper epidemics in African lions.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Linda Munson

Full Text Available Extreme climatic conditions may alter historic host-pathogen relationships and synchronize the temporal and spatial convergence of multiple infectious agents, triggering epidemics with far greater mortality than those due to single pathogens. Here we present the first data to clearly illustrate how climate extremes can promote a complex interplay between epidemic and endemic pathogens that are normally tolerated in isolation, but with co-infection, result in catastrophic mortality. A 1994 canine distemper virus (CDV epidemic in Serengeti lions (Panthera leo coincided with the death of a third of the population, and a second high-mortality CDV epidemic struck the nearby Ngorongoro Crater lion population in 2001. The extent of adult mortalities was unusual for CDV and prompted an investigation into contributing factors. Serological analyses indicated that at least five "silent" CDV epidemics swept through the same two lion populations between 1976 and 2006 without clinical signs or measurable mortality, indicating that CDV was not necessarily fatal. Clinical and pathology findings suggested that hemoparsitism was a major contributing factor during fatal epidemics. Using quantitative real-time PCR, we measured the magnitude of hemoparasite infections in these populations over 22 years and demonstrated significantly higher levels of Babesia during the 1994 and 2001 epidemics. Babesia levels correlated with mortalities and extent of CDV exposure within prides. The common event preceding the two high mortality CDV outbreaks was extreme drought conditions with wide-spread herbivore die-offs, most notably of Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer. As a consequence of high tick numbers after the resumption of rains and heavy tick infestations of starving buffalo, the lions were infected by unusually high numbers of Babesia, infections that were magnified by the immunosuppressive effects of coincident CDV, leading to unprecedented mortality. Such mass mortality

Climate Extremes Promote Fatal Co-Infections during Canine Distemper Epidemics in African Lions

Science.gov (United States)

Munson, Linda; Terio, Karen A.; Kock, Richard; Mlengeya, Titus; Roelke, Melody E.; Dubovi, Edward; Summers, Brian; Sinclair, Anthony R. E.; Packer, Craig

2008-01-01

Extreme climatic conditions may alter historic host-pathogen relationships and synchronize the temporal and spatial convergence of multiple infectious agents, triggering epidemics with far greater mortality than those due to single pathogens. Here we present the first data to clearly illustrate how climate extremes can promote a complex interplay between epidemic and endemic pathogens that are normally tolerated in isolation, but with co-infection, result in catastrophic mortality. A 1994 canine distemper virus (CDV) epidemic in Serengeti lions (Panthera leo) coincided with the death of a third of the population, and a second high-mortality CDV epidemic struck the nearby Ngorongoro Crater lion population in 2001. The extent of adult mortalities was unusual for CDV and prompted an investigation into contributing factors. Serological analyses indicated that at least five “silent” CDV epidemics swept through the same two lion populations between 1976 and 2006 without clinical signs or measurable mortality, indicating that CDV was not necessarily fatal. Clinical and pathology findings suggested that hemoparsitism was a major contributing factor during fatal epidemics. Using quantitative real-time PCR, we measured the magnitude of hemoparasite infections in these populations over 22 years and demonstrated significantly higher levels of Babesia during the 1994 and 2001 epidemics. Babesia levels correlated with mortalities and extent of CDV exposure within prides. The common event preceding the two high mortality CDV outbreaks was extreme drought conditions with wide-spread herbivore die-offs, most notably of Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer). As a consequence of high tick numbers after the resumption of rains and heavy tick infestations of starving buffalo, the lions were infected by unusually high numbers of Babesia, infections that were magnified by the immunosuppressive effects of coincident CDV, leading to unprecedented mortality. Such mass mortality events may

Using damage data to estimate the risk from summer convective precipitation extremes

Science.gov (United States)

Schroeer, Katharina; Tye, Mari

2017-04-01

This study explores the potential added value from including loss and damage data to understand the risks from high-intensity short-duration convective precipitation events. Projected increases in these events are expected even in regions that are likely to become more arid. Such high intensity precipitation events can trigger hazardous flash floods, debris flows, and landslides that put people and local assets at risk. However, the assessment of local scale precipitation extremes is hampered by its high spatial and temporal variability. In addition to this, not only are extreme events rare, but such small-scale events are likely to be underreported where they do not coincide with the observation network. Reports of private loss and damage on a local administrative unit scale (LAU 2 level) are used to explore the relationship between observed rainfall events and damages reportedly related to hydro-meteorological processes. With 480 Austrian municipalities located within our south-eastern Alpine study region, the damage data are available on a much smaller scale than the available rainfall data. Precipitation is recorded daily at 185 gauges and 52% of these stations additionally deliver sub-hourly rainfall information. To obtain physically plausible information, damage and rainfall data are grouped and analyzed on a catchment scale. The data indicate that rainfall intensities are higher on days that coincide with a damage claim than on days for which no damage was reported. However, approximately one third of the damages related to hydro-meteorological hazards were claimed on days for which no rainfall was recorded at any gauge in the respective catchment. Our goal is to assess whether these events indicate potential extreme events missing in the observations. Damage always is a consequence of an asset being exposed and susceptible to a hazardous process, and naturally, many factors influence whether an extreme rainfall event causes damage. We set up a statistical

Warmer and wetter winters: characteristics and implications of an extreme weather event in the High Arctic

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hansen, Brage B; Isaksen, Ketil; Benestad, Rasmus E; Kohler, Jack; Pedersen, Åshild Ø; Loe, Leif E; Coulson, Stephen J; Larsen, Jan Otto; Varpe, Øystein

2014-01-01

One predicted consequence of global warming is an increased frequency of extreme weather events, such as heat waves, droughts, or heavy rainfalls. In parts of the Arctic, extreme warm spells and heavy rain-on-snow (ROS) events in winter are already more frequent. How these weather events impact snow-pack and permafrost characteristics is rarely documented empirically, and the implications for wildlife and society are hence far from understood. Here we characterize and document the effects of an extreme warm spell and ROS event that occurred in High Arctic Svalbard in January–February 2012, during the polar night. In this normally cold semi-desert environment, we recorded above-zero temperatures (up to 7 °C) across the entire archipelago and record-breaking precipitation, with up to 98 mm rainfall in one day (return period of >500 years prior to this event) and 272 mm over the two-week long warm spell. These precipitation amounts are equivalent to 25 and 70% respectively of the mean annual total precipitation. The extreme event caused significant increase in permafrost temperatures down to at least 5 m depth, induced slush avalanches with resultant damage to infrastructure, and left a significant ground-ice cover (∼5–20 cm thick basal ice). The ground-ice not only affected inhabitants by closing roads and airports as well as reducing mobility and thereby tourism income, but it also led to high starvation-induced mortality in all monitored populations of the wild reindeer by blocking access to the winter food source. Based on empirical-statistical downscaling of global climate models run under the moderate RCP4.5 emission scenario, we predict strong future warming with average mid-winter temperatures even approaching 0 °C, suggesting increased frequency of ROS. This will have far-reaching implications for Arctic ecosystems and societies through the changes in snow-pack and permafrost properties. (letter)

Warmer and wetter winters: characteristics and implications of an extreme weather event in the High Arctic

Science.gov (United States)

Hansen, Brage B.; Isaksen, Ketil; Benestad, Rasmus E.; Kohler, Jack; Pedersen, Åshild Ø.; Loe, Leif E.; Coulson, Stephen J.; Larsen, Jan Otto; Varpe, Øystein

2014-11-01

One predicted consequence of global warming is an increased frequency of extreme weather events, such as heat waves, droughts, or heavy rainfalls. In parts of the Arctic, extreme warm spells and heavy rain-on-snow (ROS) events in winter are already more frequent. How these weather events impact snow-pack and permafrost characteristics is rarely documented empirically, and the implications for wildlife and society are hence far from understood. Here we characterize and document the effects of an extreme warm spell and ROS event that occurred in High Arctic Svalbard in January-February 2012, during the polar night. In this normally cold semi-desert environment, we recorded above-zero temperatures (up to 7 °C) across the entire archipelago and record-breaking precipitation, with up to 98 mm rainfall in one day (return period of >500 years prior to this event) and 272 mm over the two-week long warm spell. These precipitation amounts are equivalent to 25 and 70% respectively of the mean annual total precipitation. The extreme event caused significant increase in permafrost temperatures down to at least 5 m depth, induced slush avalanches with resultant damage to infrastructure, and left a significant ground-ice cover (˜5-20 cm thick basal ice). The ground-ice not only affected inhabitants by closing roads and airports as well as reducing mobility and thereby tourism income, but it also led to high starvation-induced mortality in all monitored populations of the wild reindeer by blocking access to the winter food source. Based on empirical-statistical downscaling of global climate models run under the moderate RCP4.5 emission scenario, we predict strong future warming with average mid-winter temperatures even approaching 0 °C, suggesting increased frequency of ROS. This will have far-reaching implications for Arctic ecosystems and societies through the changes in snow-pack and permafrost properties.

Probing the origin of cosmic-rays with extremely high energy neutrinos using the IceCube Observatory

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Aartsen, M.G.; Abbasi, R.; Ackermann, M.

2013-01-01

originate from cosmogenic neutrinos produced in the interactions of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays with ambient photons while propagating through intergalactic space. Exploiting IceCube’s large exposure for extremely high energy neutrinos and the lack of observed events above 100 PeV, we can rule out...

Prospect for extreme field science

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tajima, T. [Ludwig Maximilian Univ. and Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, Garching (Germany); Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Kyoto and KEK, Tsukuba (Japan)

2009-11-15

The kind of laser extreme light infrastructure (ELI) provides will usher in a class of experiments we have only dreamed of for years. The characteristics that ELI brings in include: the highest intensity ever, large fluence, and relatively high repetition rate. A personal view of the author on the prospect of harnessing this unprecedented opportunity for advancing science of extreme fields is presented. The first characteristic of ELI, its intensity, will allow us to access, as many have stressed already, extreme fields that hover around the Schwinger field or at the very least the neighboring fields in which vacuum begins to behave as a nonlinear medium. In this sense, we are seriously probing the 'material' property of vacuum and thus the property that theory of relativity itself described and will entail. We will probe both special theory and general theory of relativity in regimes that have been never tested so far. We may see a glimpse into the reach of relativity or even its breakdown in some extreme regimes. We will learn Einstein and may even go beyond Einstein, if our journey is led. Laser-driven acceleration both by the laser field itself and by the wakefield that is triggered in a plasma is huge. Energies, if not luminosity, we can access, may be unprecedented going far beyond TeV. The nice thing about ELI is that it has relatively high repetition rate and average fluence as compared with other extreme lasers. This high fluence can be a key element that leads to applications to high energy physics, such as gamma-gamma collider driver experiment, and some gamma ray experiments that may be relevant in the frontier of photo-nuclear physics, and atomic energy applications. Needless to say, high fluence is one of most important features that industrial and medical applications may need. If we are lucky, we may see a door opens at the frontier of novel physics that may not be available by any other means. (authors)

Global Warming Denial: The Human Brain on Extremes

Science.gov (United States)

Marrouch, N.; Johnson, B. T.; Slawinska, J. M.

2016-12-01

Future assessments of climate change rely on multi-model intercomparisons, and projections of the extreme events frequency are of particular interest as associated with significant economic costs and social threats. Notably, systematically simulated increases in the number of extreme weather events agree well with observational data over the last decade. At the same time, as the climate grows more volatile, widespread denial of climate change and its anthropocentric causes continues to proliferate (based on nationally representative U.S. polls). Simultaneous increases in both high-impact exposure and its denial is in stark contrast with our knowledge of socio-natural dynamics and its models. Disentangling this paradox requires an understanding of the origins of global warming denial at an individual level, and how subsequently it propagates across social networks of many scales, shaping global policies. However, as the real world and its dynamical models are complex (high-dimensional and coupled), separating the particular feedback of interest remains a challenge. Here, we demonstrate this feedback in a controlled experiment, where increasing unpredictability using helplessness-training paradigms induces changes in global warming denial, and the endorsement of conservative ideology. We explain these results in the context of evolutionary theory framing self-deception and denial as remnants of evolutionary processes that shaped and facilitated the survival of the human species. Further we link these findings to changes in neural and higher-level cognitive processes in response to unpredictable stimuli. We argue that climate change denial is an example of an extreme belief system that carries the potential to threaten the wellbeing of both humans and other species alike. It is therefore crucial to better quantify climate denial using social informatics tools that provide the means to improve its representations in coupled socio-geophysical models to mitigate its

Daily sea level prediction at Chiayi coast, Taiwan using extreme learning machine and relevance vector machine

Science.gov (United States)

Imani, Moslem; Kao, Huan-Chin; Lan, Wen-Hau; Kuo, Chung-Yen

2018-02-01

The analysis and the prediction of sea level fluctuations are core requirements of marine meteorology and operational oceanography. Estimates of sea level with hours-to-days warning times are especially important for low-lying regions and coastal zone management. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the applicability and capability of extreme learning machine (ELM) and relevance vector machine (RVM) models for predicting sea level variations and compare their performances with powerful machine learning methods, namely, support vector machine (SVM) and radial basis function (RBF) models. The input dataset from the period of January 2004 to May 2011 used in the study was obtained from the Dongshi tide gauge station in Chiayi, Taiwan. Results showed that the ELM and RVM models outperformed the other methods. The performance of the RVM approach was superior in predicting the daily sea level time series given the minimum root mean square error of 34.73 mm and the maximum determination coefficient of 0.93 (R2) during the testing periods. Furthermore, the obtained results were in close agreement with the original tide-gauge data, which indicates that RVM approach is a promising alternative method for time series prediction and could be successfully used for daily sea level forecasts.

Structural studies of disordered materials using high-energy x-ray diffraction from ambient to extreme conditions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kohara, Shinji [Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (SPring-8/JASRI), 1-1-1 Kouto, Sayo, Hyogo 679-5198 (Japan); Itou, Masayoshi [Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (SPring-8/JASRI), 1-1-1 Kouto, Sayo, Hyogo 679-5198 (Japan); Suzuya, Kentaro [Japan Atomic Energy Agency (J-PARC/JAEA), Tokai, Naka, Ibaraki 319-1195 (Japan); Inamura, Yasuhiro [Japan Atomic Energy Agency (J-PARC/JAEA), Tokai, Naka, Ibaraki 319-1195 (Japan); Sakurai, Yoshiharu [Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (SPring-8/JASRI), 1-1-1 Kouto, Sayo, Hyogo 679-5198 (Japan); Ohishi, Yasuo [Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (SPring-8/JASRI), 1-1-1 Kouto, Sayo, Hyogo 679-5198 (Japan); Takata, Masaki [Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (SPring-8/JASRI), 1-1-1 Kouto, Sayo, Hyogo 679-5198 (Japan)

2007-12-19

High-energy x-rays from a synchrotron radiation source allow us to obtain high-quality diffraction data for disordered materials from ambient to extreme conditions, which is necessary for revealing the detailed structures of glass, liquid and amorphous materials. We introduced high-energy x-ray diffraction beamlines and a dedicated diffractometer for glass, liquid and amorphous materials at SPring-8 and report the recent developments of ancillary equipment. Furthermore, the structures of liquid and amorphous materials determined from the high-energy x-ray diffraction data obtained at SPring-8 are discussed.

Modelling of extreme minimum rainfall using generalised extreme value distribution for Zimbabwe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Delson Chikobvu

2015-09-01

Full Text Available We modelled the mean annual rainfall for data recorded in Zimbabwe from 1901 to 2009. Extreme value theory was used to estimate the probabilities of meteorological droughts. Droughts can be viewed as extreme events which go beyond and/or below normal rainfall occurrences, such as exceptionally low mean annual rainfall. The duality between the distribution of the minima and maxima was exploited and used to fit the generalised extreme value distribution (GEVD to the data and hence find probabilities of extreme low levels of mean annual rainfall. The augmented Dickey Fuller test confirmed that rainfall data were stationary, while the normal quantile-quantile plot indicated that rainfall data deviated from the normality assumption at both ends of the tails of the distribution. The maximum likelihood estimation method and the Bayesian approach were used to find the parameters of the GEVD. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Anderson-Darling goodnessof- fit tests showed that the Weibull class of distributions was a good fit to the minima mean annual rainfall using the maximum likelihood estimation method. The mean return period estimate of a meteorological drought using the threshold value of mean annual rainfall of 473 mm was 8 years. This implies that if in the year there is a meteorological drought then another drought of the same intensity or greater is expected after 8 years. It is expected that the use of Bayesian inference may better quantify the level of uncertainty associated with the GEVD parameter estimates than with the maximum likelihood estimation method. The Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm for the GEVD was applied to construct the model parameter estimates using the Bayesian approach. These findings are significant because results based on non-informative priors (Bayesian method and the maximum likelihood method approach are expected to be similar.

Identifying evidence of climate change impact on extreme events in permeable chalk catchments

Science.gov (United States)

Butler, A. P.; Nubert, S.

2009-12-01

The permeable chalk catchments of southern England are vital for the economy and well being of the UK. Not only important as a water resource, their freely draining soils support intensive agricultural production, and the rolling downs and chalk streams provide important habitants for many protected plant and animal species. Consequently, there are concerns about the potential impact of climate change on such catchments, particularly in relation to groundwater recharge. Of major concern are possible changes in extreme events, such as groundwater floods and droughts, as any increase in the frequency and/or severity of these has important consequences for water resources, ecological systems and local infrastructure. Studies of climate change impact on extreme events for such catchments have indicated that, under medium and high emissions scenarios, droughts are likely to become more severe whilst floods less so. However, given the uncertainties in such predictions and the inherent variability in historic data, producing definitive evidence of changes in flood/drought frequency/severity poses a significant challenge. Thus, there is a need for specific extreme event statistics that can be used as indicators of actual climate change in streamflow and groundwater level observations. Identifying such indicators that are sufficiently robust requires catchments with long historic time series data. One such catchment is the River Lavant, an intermittent chalk stream in West Sussex, UK. Located within this catchment is Chilgrove House, the site of the UK’s longest groundwater monitoring well (with a continuous record of water level observations of varying frequency dating back to 1836). Using a variety of meteorological datasets, the behaviour of the catchment has been modelled, from 1855 to present, using a 'leaky aquifer' conceptual model. Model calibration was based on observed daily streamflow, at a gauging station just outside the town of Chichester, from 1970. Long

High potassium level

Science.gov (United States)

... level is very high, or if you have danger signs, such as changes in an ECG . Emergency ... Seifter JL. Potassium disorders. In: Goldman L, Schafer AI, eds. Goldman-Cecil Medicine . 25th ed. Philadelphia, PA: ...

Exploring societal solidarity in the context of extreme prematurity.

Science.gov (United States)

Hendriks, Manya J; Bucher, Hans Ulrich; Klein, Sabine D; Streuli, Jürg C; Baumann-Hölzle, Ruth; Fauchère, Jean-Claude

2017-03-21

Extreme prematurity can result in long-term disabilities. Its impact on society is often not taken into account and deemed controversial. Our study examined attitudes of the Swiss population regarding extreme prematurity and people's perspectives regarding the question of solidarity with disabled people. We conducted a nationwide representative anonymous telephone survey with 1210 Swiss residents aged 18 years or older. We asked how people estimate their own personal solidarity, the solidarity of their social environment and the solidarity across the country with disabled persons. Spearman's correlation calculations were used to assess if a correlation exists between solidarity and setting financial limits to intensive care and between solidarity and withholding neonatal intensive care. According to 36.0% of the respondents intensive medical care should not be withheld from extremely preterm infants, even if their chances for an acceptable quality of life were poor. For 28.8%, intensive care should be withheld from these infants, and 26.9% held an intermediate position depending on the situation. A total of 31.5% were against setting a financial limit to treatment of extremely preterm newborns with an uncertain future quality of life, 34.2% were in favour and 26.9% were deliberating. A majority (88.8%) considered their solidarity toward disabled people as substantial; the solidarity of their personal environment and of the society at large was estimated as high by 79.1% and 48.6%, respectively. The Swiss population expressed a high level of solidarity which may alleviate some pressure on parents and health care providers in the decision-making process in neonatal intensive care units. In addition, there was no relationship between solidarity and people's willingness to pay for the care or withholding treatment of extremely preterm babies.

Stellar atmosphere modeling of extremely hot, compact stars

Science.gov (United States)

Rauch, Thomas; Ringat, Ellen; Werner, Klaus

Present X-ray missions like Chandra and XMM-Newton provide excellent spectra of extremely hot white dwarfs, e.g. burst spectra of novae. Their analysis requires adequate NLTE model atmospheres. The Tuebingen Non-LTE Model-Atmosphere Package (TMAP) can calculate such model at-mospheres and spectral energy distributions at a high level of sophistication. We present a new grid of models that is calculated in the parameter range of novae and supersoft X-ray sources and show examples of their application.

Statistical Model of Extreme Shear

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Gunner Chr.; Hansen, Kurt Schaldemose

2004-01-01

In order to continue cost-optimisation of modern large wind turbines, it is important to continously increase the knowledge on wind field parameters relevant to design loads. This paper presents a general statistical model that offers site-specific prediction of the probability density function...... by a model that, on a statistically consistent basis, describe the most likely spatial shape of an extreme wind shear event. Predictions from the model have been compared with results from an extreme value data analysis, based on a large number of high-sampled full-scale time series measurements...... are consistent, given the inevitabel uncertainties associated with model as well as with the extreme value data analysis. Keywords: Statistical model, extreme wind conditions, statistical analysis, turbulence, wind loading, statistical analysis, turbulence, wind loading, wind shear, wind turbines....

A critical study on the IAEA definition of high level radioactive waste unsuitable for dumping at sea

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miyake, Yasuo; Saruhashi, Katsuko.

1976-01-01

The definition of high level radioactive waste and other high level radioactive matter not suitable for dumping at sea has been given by IAEA (1975). Since this definition is based on the report by Webb and Morley (1973), a critical study is made on their report. The result of study shows that owing to the assumption of a very small value of the horizontal eddy diffusion coefficient (10 4 cm 2 /s) for the sake of safety for these nuclides, the limiting environmental capacity for such nuclides as 226 Ra and 239 Pu with longer half-lives is extremely overestimated. And due to a very small value of a daily intake of marine foods (6 g/d) and a larger value of the ratio of nuclidic concentrations between the top of the deep layer and the surface layer (100), the environmental capacity is also overestimated for every nuclide. It is proposed that the definition of high level radioactive waste should be reassessed carefully by experts in various countries. (auth.)

Using extreme value theory approaches to forecast the probability of outbreak of highly pathogenic influenza in Zhejiang, China.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiangpeng Chen

Full Text Available Influenza is a contagious disease with high transmissibility to spread around the world with considerable morbidity and mortality and presents an enormous burden on worldwide public health. Few mathematical models can be used because influenza incidence data are generally not normally distributed. We developed a mathematical model using Extreme Value Theory (EVT to forecast the probability of outbreak of highly pathogenic influenza.The incidence data of highly pathogenic influenza in Zhejiang province from April 2009 to November 2013 were retrieved from the website of Health and Family Planning Commission of Zhejiang Province. MATLAB "VIEM" toolbox was used to analyze data and modelling. In the present work, we used the Peak Over Threshold (POT model, assuming the frequency as a Poisson process and the intensity to be Pareto distributed, to characterize the temporal variability of the long-term extreme incidence of highly pathogenic influenza in Zhejiang, China.The skewness and kurtosis of the incidence of highly pathogenic influenza in Zhejiang between April 2009 and November 2013 were 4.49 and 21.12, which indicated a "fat tail" distribution. A QQ plot and a mean excess plot were used to further validate the features of the distribution. After determining the threshold, we modeled the extremes and estimated the shape parameter and scale parameter by the maximum likelihood method. The results showed that months in which the incidence of highly pathogenic influenza is about 4462/2286/1311/487 are predicted to occur once every five/three/two/one year, respectively.Despite the simplicity, the present study successfully offers the sound modeling strategy and a methodological avenue to implement forecasting of an epidemic in the midst of its course.

Data co-processing for extreme scale analysis level II ASC milestone (4745).

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rogers, David; Moreland, Kenneth D.; Oldfield, Ron A.; Fabian, Nathan D.

2013-03-01

Exascale supercomputing will embody many revolutionary changes in the hardware and software of high-performance computing. A particularly pressing issue is gaining insight into the science behind the exascale computations. Power and I/O speed con- straints will fundamentally change current visualization and analysis work ows. A traditional post-processing work ow involves storing simulation results to disk and later retrieving them for visualization and data analysis. However, at exascale, scien- tists and analysts will need a range of options for moving data to persistent storage, as the current o ine or post-processing pipelines will not be able to capture the data necessary for data analysis of these extreme scale simulations. This Milestone explores two alternate work ows, characterized as in situ and in transit, and compares them. We nd each to have its own merits and faults, and we provide information to help pick the best option for a particular use.

Economic Growth and the Rise of Political Extremism

OpenAIRE

Markus Bruckner; Hans Peter Gruner

2011-01-01

In many western democracies, political parties with extreme platforms challenge more moderate incumbents. This paper analyses the impact of economic growth on the support for extreme political platforms. We provide a theoretical argument in favor of growth effects (as opposed to level effects) on the support for extreme political parties and we empirically investigate the relationship between growth and extremist votes. Lower growth rates benefit right-wing and nationalist parties, but do not...

High-level Petri Nets

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

various journals and collections. As a result, much of this knowledge is not readily available to people who may be interested in using high-level nets. Within the Petri net community this problem has been discussed many times, and as an outcome this book has been compiled. The book contains reprints...... of some of the most important papers on the application and theory of high-level Petri nets. In this way it makes the relevant literature more available. It is our hope that the book will be a useful source of information and that, e.g., it can be used in the organization of Petri net courses. To make......High-level Petri nets are now widely used in both theoretical analysis and practical modelling of concurrent systems. The main reason for the success of this class of net models is that they make it possible to obtain much more succinct and manageable descriptions than can be obtained by means...

Foundations of high-energy-density physics physical processes of matter at extreme conditions

CERN Document Server

Larsen, Jon

2017-01-01

High-energy-density physics explores the dynamics of matter at extreme conditions. This encompasses temperatures and densities far greater than we experience on Earth. It applies to normal stars, exploding stars, active galaxies, and planetary interiors. High-energy-density matter is found on Earth in the explosion of nuclear weapons and in laboratories with high-powered lasers or pulsed-power machines. The physics explored in this book is the basis for large-scale simulation codes needed to interpret experimental results whether from astrophysical observations or laboratory-scale experiments. The key elements of high-energy-density physics covered are gas dynamics, ionization, thermal energy transport, and radiation transfer, intense electromagnetic waves, and their dynamical coupling. Implicit in this is a fundamental understanding of hydrodynamics, plasma physics, atomic physics, quantum mechanics, and electromagnetic theory. Beginning with a summary of the topics and exploring the major ones in depth, thi...

Long term oscillations in Danish rainfall extremes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gregersen, Ida Bülow; Madsen, Henrik; Rosbjerg, Dan

The frequent flooding of European cities within the last decade has motivated a vast number of studies, among others addressing the non-stationary behaviour of hydrological extremes driven by anthropogenic climate change. However, when considering future extremes it also becomes relevant to search...... for and understand natural variations on which the anthropogenic changes are imposed. This study identifies multi-decadal variations in six 137-years-long diurnal rainfall series from Denmark and southern Sweden, focusing on extremes with a reoccurrence level relevant for Danish drainage design. By means of a Peak...

Acclimatization to extreme heat

Science.gov (United States)

Warner, M. E.; Ganguly, A. R.; Bhatia, U.

2017-12-01

Heat extremes throughout the globe, as well as in the United States, are expected to increase. These heat extremes have been shown to impact human health, resulting in some of the highest levels of lives lost as compared with similar natural disasters. But in order to inform decision makers and best understand future mortality and morbidity, adaptation and mitigation must be considered. Defined as the ability for individuals or society to change behavior and/or adapt physiologically, acclimatization encompasses the gradual adaptation that occurs over time. Therefore, this research aims to account for acclimatization to extreme heat by using a hybrid methodology that incorporates future air conditioning use and installation patterns with future temperature-related time series data. While previous studies have not accounted for energy usage patterns and market saturation scenarios, we integrate such factors to compare the impact of air conditioning as a tool for acclimatization, with a particular emphasis on mortality within vulnerable communities.

PHASE QUANTIZATION STUDY OF SPATIAL LIGHT MODULATOR FOR EXTREME HIGH-CONTRAST IMAGING

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dou, Jiangpei; Ren, Deqing, E-mail: jpdou@niaot.ac.cn, E-mail: jiangpeidou@gmail.com [Physics and Astronomy Department, California State University Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge, CA 91330 (United States)

2016-11-20

Direct imaging of exoplanets by reflected starlight is extremely challenging due to the large luminosity ratio to the primary star. Wave-front control is a critical technique to attenuate the speckle noise in order to achieve an extremely high contrast. We present a phase quantization study of a spatial light modulator (SLM) for wave-front control to meet the contrast requirement of detection of a terrestrial planet in the habitable zone of a solar-type star. We perform the numerical simulation by employing the SLM with different phase accuracy and actuator numbers, which are related to the achievable contrast. We use an optimization algorithm to solve the quantization problems that is matched to the controllable phase step of the SLM. Two optical configurations are discussed with the SLM located before and after the coronagraph focal plane mask. The simulation result has constrained the specification for SLM phase accuracy in the above two optical configurations, which gives us a phase accuracy of 0.4/1000 and 1/1000 waves to achieve a contrast of 10{sup -10}. Finally, we have demonstrated that an SLM with more actuators can deliver a competitive contrast performance on the order of 10{sup -10} in comparison to that by using a deformable mirror.

Future extreme water levels and floodplains in Gironde Estuary considering climate change

Science.gov (United States)

Laborie, V.; Hissel, F.; Sergent, P.

2012-04-01

Within THESEUS European project, an overflowing model of Gironde Estuary has been used to evaluate future surge levels at Le Verdon and future water levels at 6 specific sites of the estuary : le Verdon, Richard, Laména, Pauillac, Le Marquis and Bordeaux. It was then used to study the evolution of floodplains' location and areas towards 2100 in the entire Estuary. In this study, no breaching and no modification in the elevation of the dike was considered. The model was fed by several data sources : wind fields at Royan and Mérignac interpolated from the grid of the European Climatolologic Model CLM/SGA, a tide signal at Le Verdon, the discharges of Garonne (at La Réole), the Dordogne (at Pessac) and Isle (at Libourne). A simplified mathematical model of surge levels has been adjusted at Le Verdon with 10 surge storms and by using wind and pressure fields given by CLM/SGA. This adjustment was led so that the statistical analysis of the global signal at Le Verdon gives the same quantiles as the same analysis driven on maregraphic observations for the period [1960 ; 2000]. The assumption used for sea level rise was the pessimistic one of the French national institute for climate change: 60 cm in 2100. The model was then used to study the evolution of extreme water levels towards 2100. The analysis of surge levels at Le Verdon shows a decrease in quantiles which is coherent with the analysis of climatologic fields. The analysis of water levels shows that the increase in mean water levels quantiles represents only a part of sea level rise in Gironde Estuary. Moreover this effect seems to decrease from the maritime limit of the model towards upstream. Concerning floodplains, those corresponding to return periods from 2 to 100 years for present conditions and 3 slices [2010; 2039], [2040; 2069] and [2070; 2099] have been mapped for 3 areas in Gironde Estuary : around Le Verdon, at the confluence between Garonne and Dordogne, and near Bordeaux. Concerning the evolution

High-z X-ray Obscured Quasars in Galaxies with Extreme Mid-IR/Optical Colors

Science.gov (United States)

Piconcelli, E.; Lanzuisi, G.; Fiore, F.; Feruglio, C.; Vignali, C.; Salvato, M.; Grappioni, C.

2009-05-01

Extreme Optical/Mid-IR color cuts have been used to uncover a population of dust-enshrouded, mid-IR luminous galaxies at high redshifts. Several lines of evidence point towards the presence of an heavily absorbed, possibly Compton-thick quasar at the heart of these systems. Nonetheless, the X-ray spectral properties of these intriguing sources still remain largely unexplored. Here we present an X-ray spectroscopic study of a large sample of 44 extreme dust-obscured galaxies (EDOGs) with F24 μm/FR>2000 and F24 μm>1.3 mJy selected from a 6 deg2 region in the SWIRE fields. The application of our selection criteria to a wide area survey has been capable of unveiling a population of X-ray luminous, absorbed z>1 quasars which is mostly missed in the traditional optical/X-ray surveys performed so far. Advances in the understanding of the X-ray properties of these recently-discovered sources by Simbol-X observations will be also discussed.

Transport behavior in superconductors at extreme dissipation levels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kunchur, M.N.

1996-09-01

A number of fundamental physical phenomena unfold in the mixed state of superconductor, when subjected to enormous current and power-dissipation levels. A sufficiently large current can destroy the superconducting state itself--the so-called pair-breaking effect. At intermediate current densities, below the onset of pair-breaking, one expects to see the free viscous flow of flux vortices. In the present work a pulsed-current technique was used to explore this dissipative regime of high-T c superconductors, verifying both free flux flow and the pair-breaking effect, as predicted by traditional theories. This paper concentrates on the dissipation and Hall behavior in the free flux flow state

Synthesis of knowledge of extreme fire behavior: volume I for fire managers

Science.gov (United States)

Paul A. Werth; Brian E. Potter; Craig B. Clements; Mark A. Finney; Scott L. Goodrick; Martin E. Alexander; Miguel G. Cruz; Jason A. Forthofer; Sara S. McAllister

2011-01-01

The National Wildfire Coordinating Group definition of extreme fire behavior (EFB) indicates a level of fire behavior characteristics that ordinarily precludes methods of direct control action. One or more of the following is usually involved: high rate of spread, prolific crowning/spotting, presence of fire whirls, and strong convection column. Predictability is...

High-Resolution Dynamical Downscaling Ensemble Projections of Future Extreme Temperature Distributions for the United States

Science.gov (United States)

Zobel, Zachary; Wang, Jiali; Wuebbles, Donald J.; Kotamarthi, V. Rao

2017-12-01

The aim of this study is to examine projections of extreme temperatures over the continental United States (CONUS) for the 21st century using an ensemble of high spatial resolution dynamically downscaled model simulations with different boundary conditions. The downscaling uses the Weather Research and Forecast model at a spatial resolution of 12 km along with outputs from three different Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 global climate models that provide boundary conditions under two different future greenhouse gas (GHG) concentration trajectories. The results from two decadal-length time slices (2045-2054 and 2085-2094) are compared with a historical decade (1995-2004). Probability density functions of daily maximum/minimum temperatures are analyzed over seven climatologically cohesive regions of the CONUS. The impacts of different boundary conditions as well as future GHG concentrations on extreme events such as heat waves and days with temperature higher than 95°F are also investigated. The results show that the intensity of extreme warm temperature in future summer is significantly increased, while the frequency of extreme cold temperature in future winter decreases. The distribution of summer daily maximum temperature experiences a significant warm-side shift and increased variability, while the distribution of winter daily minimum temperature is projected to have a less significant warm-side shift with decreased variability. Using "business-as-usual" scenario, 5-day heat waves are projected to occur at least 5-10 times per year in most CONUS and ≥95°F days will increase by 1-2 months by the end of the century.

Steep Hard-X-ray Spectra Indicate Extremely High Accretion Rates in Weak Emission-Line Quasars

Science.gov (United States)

Marlar, Andrea; Shemmer, Ohad; Anderson, Scott F.; Brandt, W. Niel; Diamond-Stanic, Aleksandar M.; Fan, Xiaohui; Luo, Bin; Plotkin, Richard; Richards, Gordon T.; Schneider, Donald P.; Wu, Jianfeng

2018-06-01

We present XMM-Newton imaging spectroscopy of ten weak emission-line quasars (WLQs) at 0.928 ≤ z ≤ 3.767, six of which are radio quiet and four which are radio intermediate. The new X-ray data enabled us to measure the hard-X-ray power-law photon index (Γ) in each source with relatively high accuracy. These measurements allowed us to confirm previous reports that WLQs have steeper X-ray spectra, therefore indicating higher accretion rates with respect to "typical" quasars. A comparison between the Γ values of our radio-quiet WLQs and those of a carefully-selected, uniform sample of 84 quasars shows that the first are significantly higher, at the ≥ 3σ level. Collectively, the four radio-intermediate WLQs have lower Γ values with respect to the six radio-quiet WLQs, as may be expected if the spectra of the first group are contaminated by X-ray emission from a jet. These results suggest that, in the absence of significant jet emission along our line of sight, WLQs constitute the extreme high end of the accretion rate distribution in quasars. We detect soft excess emission in our lowest-redshift radio-quiet WLQ, in agreement with previous findings suggesting that the prominence of this feature is associated with a high accretion rate. We have not detected signatures of Compton reflection, Fe Kα lines, or strong variability between two X-ray epochs in any of our WLQs.

WEAK LINE QUASARS AT HIGH REDSHIFT: EXTREMELY HIGH ACCRETION RATES OR ANEMIC BROAD-LINE REGIONS?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shemmer, Ohad; Trakhtenbrot, Benny; Netzer, Hagai; Anderson, Scott F.; Brandt, W. N.; Schneider, Donald P.; Diamond-Stanic, Aleksandar M.; Fan Xiaohui; Lira, Paulina; Plotkin, Richard M.; Richards, Gordon T.; Strauss, Michael A.

2010-01-01

We present Gemini-North K-band spectra of two representative members of the class of high-redshift quasars with exceptionally weak rest-frame ultraviolet emission lines (WLQs), SDSS J114153.34+021924.3 at z = 3.55 and SDSS J123743.08+630144.9 at z = 3.49. In both sources, we detect an unusually weak broad Hβ line and place tight upper limits on the strengths of their [O III] lines. Virial, Hβ-based black hole mass determinations indicate normalized accretion rates of L/L Edd =0.4 for these sources, which is well within the range observed for typical quasars with similar luminosities and redshifts. We also present high-quality XMM-Newton imaging spectroscopy of SDSS J114153.34+021924.3 and find a hard-X-ray photon index of Γ = 1.91 +0.24 -0.22 , which supports the virial L/L Edd determination in this source. Our results suggest that the weakness of the broad emission lines in WLQs is not a consequence of an extreme continuum-emission source but instead due to abnormal broad emission line region properties.

[Injury mechanisms in extreme violence settings].

Science.gov (United States)

Arcaute-Velazquez, Fernando Federico; García-Núñez, Luis Manuel; Noyola-Vilallobos, Héctor Faustino; Espinoza-Mercado, Fernando; Rodríguez-Vega, Carlos Eynar

2016-01-01

Extreme violence events are consequence of current world-wide economic, political and social conditions. Injury patterns found among victims of extreme violence events are very complex, obeying several high-energy injury mechanisms. In this article, we present the basic concepts of trauma kinematics that regulate the clinical approach to victims of extreme violence events, in the hope that clinicians increase their theoretical armamentarium, and reflecting on obtaining better outcomes. Copyright © 2016. Published by Masson Doyma México S.A.

Extreme Learning Machine to Analyze the Level of Default in Spanish Deposit Institutions || Análisis de la morosidad de las entidades financieras españolas mediante Extreme Learning Machine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Becerra-Alonso, David

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The level of default in financial institutions is a key piece of information in the activity of these organizations and reveals their level of risk. This in turn explains the growing attention given to variables of this kind, during the crisis of these last years. This paper presents a method to estimate the default rate using the non-linear model defined by standard Multilayer Perceptron (MLP neural networks trained with a novel methodology called Extreme Learning Machine (ELM. The experimental results are promising, and show a good performance when comparing the MLP model trained with the Leverberg-Marquard algorithm. || La morosidad en las entidades financieras es un dato muy importante de la actividad de estas instituciones pues permite conocer el nivel de riesgo asumido por éstas. Esto a su vez explica la creciente atención otorgada a esta variable, especialmente en los últimos años de crisis. Este artículo presenta un método para estimar el nivel de la tasa de morosidad por medio de un modelo no lineal definido por la red neuronal Multilayer Perceptron (MLP entrenada con una nueva metodología llamada Extreme Learning Machine (ELM. Los resultados experimentales son prometedores, mostrando un buen resultado si se compara con el modelo MLP entrenado con el algoritmo de Leverberg-Marquard.

Enhancing protein to extremely high content in photosynthetic bacteria during biogas slurry treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Anqi; Zhang, Guangming; Meng, Fan; Lu, Pei; Wang, Xintian; Peng, Meng

2017-12-01

This work proposed a novel approach to achieve an extremely high protein content in photosynthetic bacteria (PSB) using biogas slurry as a culturing medium. The results showed the protein content of PSB could be enhanced strongly to 90% in the biogas slurry, which was much higher than reported microbial protein contents. The slurry was partially purified at the same time. Dark-aerobic was more beneficial than light-anaerobic condition for protein accumulation. High salinity and high ammonia of the biogas slurry were the main causes for protein enhancement. In addition, the biogas slurry provided a good buffer system for PSB to grow. The biosynthesis mechanism of protein in PSB was explored according to theoretical analysis. During biogas slurry treatment, the activities of glutamate synthase and glutamine synthetase were increased by 26.55%, 46.95% respectively. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Violent Extremism, National Security and Prevention. Institutional Discourses and Their Implications for Schooling

Science.gov (United States)

Mattsson, Christer; Säljö, Roger

2018-01-01

Currently, threats to societal security from extremist groups are high on the political agenda in many countries. Politicians, policymakers at various levels and communities are searching for methods to counteract recruitment to violent organizations. These efforts are often referred to as Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE-programmes). One of…

A new framework for estimating return levels using regional frequency analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Winter, Hugo; Bernardara, Pietro; Clegg, Georgina

2017-04-01

We propose a new framework for incorporating more spatial and temporal information into the estimation of extreme return levels. Currently, most studies use extreme value models applied to data from a single site; an approach which is inefficient statistically and leads to return level estimates that are less physically realistic. We aim to highlight the benefits that could be obtained by using methodology based upon regional frequency analysis as opposed to classic single site extreme value analysis. This motivates a shift in thinking, which permits the evaluation of local and regional effects and makes use of the wide variety of data that are now available on high temporal and spatial resolutions. The recent winter storms over the UK during the winters of 2013-14 and 2015-16, which have caused wide-ranging disruption and damaged important infrastructure, provide the main motivation for the current work. One of the most impactful natural hazards is flooding, which is often initiated by extreme precipitation. In this presentation, we focus on extreme rainfall, but shall discuss other meteorological variables alongside potentially damaging hazard combinations. To understand the risks posed by extreme precipitation, we need reliable statistical models which can be used to estimate quantities such as the T-year return level, i.e. the level which is expected to be exceeded once every T-years. Extreme value theory provides the main collection of statistical models that can be used to estimate the risks posed by extreme precipitation events. Broadly, at a single site, a statistical model is fitted to exceedances of a high threshold and the model is used to extrapolate to levels beyond the range of the observed data. However, when we have data at many sites over a spatial domain, fitting a separate model for each separate site makes little sense and it would be better if we could incorporate all this information to improve the reliability of return level estimates. Here

MR imaging findings of high-voltage electrical burns in the upper extremities: correlation with angiographic findings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Gyung Kyu; Kang, Ik Won; Hwang, Dae Hyun; Min, Seon Jung; Han, You Mi (Dept. of Radiology, Hallym Univ. College of Medicine, Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)); Suh, Kyung Jin (Dept. of Radiology, Dongguk Univ. College of Medicine, Gyeongju Hospital, Gyeongju (Korea, Republic of)), email: kyungjin.suh@gmail.com; Choi, Min Ho (Dept. of Internal Medicine, Hallym Univ. College of Medicine, Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital, Seoul (Korea, Republic of))

2011-02-15

Background: A high-voltage electrical burn is often associated with deep muscle injuries. Hidden, undetected deep muscle injuries have a tendency for progressive tissue necrosis, and this can lead to major amputations or sepsis. MRI has excellent soft tissue contrast and it may aid in differentiating the areas of viable deep muscle from the areas of non-viable deep muscle. Purpose: To describe the MR imaging findings of a high-voltage electrical burn in the upper extremity with emphasis on the usefulness of the gadolinium-enhanced MRI and to compare the MR imaging findings with angiography. Material and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the imaging studies of six patients with high-voltage electrical burns who underwent both MRI and angiography at the burn center of our hospital from January 2005 to December 2009. The imaging features were evaluated for the involved locations, the MR signal intensity of the affected muscles, the MR enhancement pattern, the involved arteries and the angiographic findings (classified as normal, sluggish flow, stenosis or occlusion) of the angiography of the upper extremity. We assessed the relationship between the MR imaging findings and the angiographic findings. Results: The signal intensities of affected muscles were isointense or of slightly high signal intensity as compared with the adjacent unaffected skeletal muscle on the T1-weighted MR images. Affected muscles showed heterogenous high signal intensity relative to the adjacent unaffected skeletal muscle on the T2- weighted images. The gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted images showed diffuse inhomogeneous enhancement or peripheral rim enhancement of the affected muscles. The angiographic findings of the arterial injuries showed complete occlusion in three patients, severe stenosis in two patients and sluggish flow in one patient. Of these, the five patients with complete occlusion or severe stenosis on angiography showed non-perfused and non-viable areas of edematous muscle on

Performance testing of extremity dosimeters, Study 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harty, R.; Reece, W.D.; Hooker, C.D.

1990-04-01

The Health Physics Society Standards Committee (HPSSC) Working Group on Performance Testing of Extremity Dosimeters has issued a draft of a proposed standard for extremity dosimeters. The draft standard proposes methods to be used for testing dosimetry systems that determine occupational radiation dose to the extremities and the performance criterion used to determine compliance with the standard. Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) has conducted two separate evaluations of the performance of extremity dosimeter processors to determine the appropriateness of the draft standard, as well as to obtain information regarding the performance of extremity dosimeters. Based on the information obtained during the facility visits and the results obtained from the performance testing, it was recommended that changes be made to ensure that the draft standard is appropriate for extremity dosimeters. The changes include: subdividing the mixture category and the beta particle category; eliminating the neutron category until appropriate flux-to-dose equivalent conversion factors are derived; and changing the tolerance level for the performance criterion to provide consistency with the performance criterion for whole body dosimeters, and to avoid making the draft standard overly difficult for processors of extremity dosimeters to pass. 20 refs., 10 figs., 6 tabs

Changes in extremely hot days under stabilized 1.5 and 2.0 °C global warming scenarios as simulated by the HAPPI multi-model ensemble

Science.gov (United States)

Wehner, Michael; Stone, Dáithí; Mitchell, Dann; Shiogama, Hideo; Fischer, Erich; Graff, Lise S.; Kharin, Viatcheslav V.; Lierhammer, Ludwig; Sanderson, Benjamin; Krishnan, Harinarayan

2018-03-01

The half a degree additional warming, prognosis and projected impacts (HAPPI) experimental protocol provides a multi-model database to compare the effects of stabilizing anthropogenic global warming of 1.5 °C over preindustrial levels to 2.0 °C over these levels. The HAPPI experiment is based upon large ensembles of global atmospheric models forced by sea surface temperature and sea ice concentrations plausible for these stabilization levels. This paper examines changes in extremes of high temperatures averaged over three consecutive days. Changes in this measure of extreme temperature are also compared to changes in hot season temperatures. We find that over land this measure of extreme high temperature increases from about 0.5 to 1.5 °C over present-day values in the 1.5 °C stabilization scenario, depending on location and model. We further find an additional 0.25 to 1.0 °C increase in extreme high temperatures over land in the 2.0 °C stabilization scenario. Results from the HAPPI models are consistent with similar results from the one available fully coupled climate model. However, a complicating factor in interpreting extreme temperature changes across the HAPPI models is their diversity of aerosol forcing changes.

Modeling and evaluation of a high-resolution CMOS detector for cone-beam CT of the extremities.

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Qian; Sisniega, Alejandro; Brehler, Michael; Stayman, J Webster; Yorkston, John; Siewerdsen, Jeffrey H; Zbijewski, Wojciech

2018-01-01

Quantitative assessment of trabecular bone microarchitecture in extremity cone-beam CT (CBCT) would benefit from the high spatial resolution, low electronic noise, and fast scan time provided by complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) x-ray detectors. We investigate the performance of CMOS sensors in extremity CBCT, in particular with respect to potential advantages of thin (CMOS x-ray detector incorporating the effects of CsI:Tl scintillator thickness was developed. Simulation studies were performed using nominal extremity CBCT acquisition protocols (90 kVp, 0.126 mAs/projection). A range of scintillator thickness (0.35-0.75 mm), pixel size (0.05-0.4 mm), focal spot size (0.05-0.7 mm), magnification (1.1-2.1), and dose (15-40 mGy) was considered. The detectability index was evaluated for both CMOS and a-Si:H flat-panel detector (FPD) configurations for a range of imaging tasks emphasizing spatial frequencies associated with feature size aobj. Experimental validation was performed on a CBCT test bench in the geometry of a compact orthopedic CBCT system (SAD = 43.1 cm, SDD = 56.0 cm, matching that of the Carestream OnSight 3D system). The test-bench studies involved a 0.3 mm focal spot x-ray source and two CMOS detectors (Dalsa Xineos-3030HR, 0.099 mm pixel pitch) - one with the standard CsI:Tl thickness of 0.7 mm (C700) and one with a custom 0.4 mm thick scintillator (C400). Measurements of modulation transfer function (MTF), detective quantum efficiency (DQE), and CBCT scans of a cadaveric knee (15 mGy) were obtained for each detector. Optimal detectability for high-frequency tasks (feature size of ~0.06 mm, consistent with the size of trabeculae) was ~4× for the C700 CMOS detector compared to the a-Si:H FPD at nominal system geometry of extremity CBCT. This is due to ~5× lower electronic noise of a CMOS sensor, which enables input quantum-limited imaging at smaller pixel size. Optimal pixel size for high-frequency tasks was CMOS

High-energy synchrotron x-ray diffraction studies on disordered materials. From ambient condition to an extreme condition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kohara, Shinji; Ohishi, Yasuo; Suzuya, Kentaro; Takata, Masaki

2007-01-01

High-energy x-rays from synchrotron radiation source allow us to measure high-quality diffraction data of the disordered materials from under ambient condition to an extreme condition, which is necessary to reveal the detailed structure of glass, liquid, and amorphous materials. We introduce the high-energy x-ray diffraction beamline and dedicated diffractometer for glass, liquid, and amorphous materials with the recent developments of ancillary equipments. Furthermore our recent studies on the structures of disordered materials reviewed. (author)

High-level expression, secretion, and purification of the thermostable aqualysin I from Thermus aquaticus YT-1 in Pichia pastoris

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Oledzka, G.; Dabrowski, Slawomir; Kur, J.

2003-01-01

Aqualysin I is a heat-stable subtilisin-type serine protease which is secreted into the culture medium by Thermus aquaticus YT-1, an extreme thermophile. We report the high-level expression of an aqualysin I protein using its native signal sequence for secretion in the methylotrophic yeast, Pichia...... to that of the native enzyme. We also explored the possibility of secreting the GAP expressed aqualysin I in P. pastoris by in-frame fusion of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae alpha-factor secretion signal. However, the levels of secreted pro-aqualysin I particles were approximately 10 times lower, possibly...

Are recent severe floods in Xiang River basin of China linked with the increase extreme precipitation?

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, L.; Du, J.

2015-12-01

The Xiang River, a main tributary of the Yangtze River, is subjected to high floods frequently in recent twenty years. Climate change, including abrupt shifts and fluctuations in precipitation is an important factor influencing hydrological extreme conditions. In addition, human activities are widely recognized as another reasons leading to high flood risk. With the effects of climate change and human interventions on hydrological cycle, there are several questions that need to be addressed. Are floods in the Xiang River basin getting worse? Whether the extreme streamflow shows an increasing tendency? If so, is it because the extreme rainfall events have predominant effect on floods? To answer these questions, the article detected existing trends in extreme precipitation and discharge using Mann-Kendall test. Continuous wavelet transform method was employed to identify the consistency of changes in extreme precipitation and discharge. The Pearson correlation analysis was applied to investigate how much degree of variations in extreme discharge can be explained by climate change. The results indicate that slightly upward trends can be detected in both extreme rainfalls and discharge in the upper region of Xiang River basin. For the most area of middle and lower river basin, the extreme rainfalls show significant positive trends, but the extreme discharge displays slightly upward trends with no significance at 90% confidence level. Wavelet transform analysis results illustrate that highly similar patterns of signal changes can be seen between extreme precipitation and discharge in upper section of the basin, while the changes in extreme precipitation for the middle and lower reaches do not always coincide with the extreme streamflow. The correlation coefficients of the wavelet transforms for the precipitation and discharge signals in most area of the basin pass the significance test. The conclusion may be drawn that floods in recent years are not getting worse in

Modeling Spatial Dependence of Rainfall Extremes Across Multiple Durations

Science.gov (United States)

Le, Phuong Dong; Leonard, Michael; Westra, Seth

2018-03-01

Determining the probability of a flood event in a catchment given that another flood has occurred in a nearby catchment is useful in the design of infrastructure such as road networks that have multiple river crossings. These conditional flood probabilities can be estimated by calculating conditional probabilities of extreme rainfall and then transforming rainfall to runoff through a hydrologic model. Each catchment's hydrological response times are unlikely to be the same, so in order to estimate these conditional probabilities one must consider the dependence of extreme rainfall both across space and across critical storm durations. To represent these types of dependence, this study proposes a new approach for combining extreme rainfall across different durations within a spatial extreme value model using max-stable process theory. This is achieved in a stepwise manner. The first step defines a set of common parameters for the marginal distributions across multiple durations. The parameters are then spatially interpolated to develop a spatial field. Storm-level dependence is represented through the max-stable process for rainfall extremes across different durations. The dependence model shows a reasonable fit between the observed pairwise extremal coefficients and the theoretical pairwise extremal coefficient function across all durations. The study demonstrates how the approach can be applied to develop conditional maps of the return period and return level across different durations.

Influence of Mascarene High and Indian Ocean dipole on East African extreme weather events

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ogwang Bob Alex

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Extreme weather and climate events such as floods and droughts are common in East Africa, causing huge socio-economic losses. This study links the east African October-December (OND rainfall, Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD and Mascarene High (MH.Correlation analysis is applied to quantify the relationship between the index of IOD (Dipole Mode Index (DMI and OND rainfall. Results show that there exists a significant correlation between OND rainfall and DMI, with a correlation coefficient of 0.6. During dry years, MH is observed to intensify and align itself in the southeast-northwest orientation, stretching up to the continent, which in turn inhibits the influx of moisture from Indian Ocean into East Africa. During wet years, MH weakens, shifts to the east and aligns itself in the zonal orientation. Moisture from Indian Ocean is freely transported into east Africa during wet years. Analysis of the drought and flood years with respect to the different variables including wind, velocity potential and divergence/ convergence revealed that the drought (flood years were characterized by divergence (convergence in the lower troposphere and convergence (divergence at the upper level, implying sinking (rising motion, especially over the western Indian Ocean and the study area. Convergence at low level gives rise to vertical stretching, whereas divergence results in vertical shrinking, which suppresses convection due to subsidence. Positive IOD (Negative IOD event results into flood (drought in the region. The evolution of these phenomena can thus be keenly observed for utilization in the update of seasonal forecasts.

Atomic and electronic structures of an extremely fragile liquid.

Science.gov (United States)

Kohara, Shinji; Akola, Jaakko; Patrikeev, Leonid; Ropo, Matti; Ohara, Koji; Itou, Masayoshi; Fujiwara, Akihiko; Yahiro, Jumpei; Okada, Junpei T; Ishikawa, Takehiko; Mizuno, Akitoshi; Masuno, Atsunobu; Watanabe, Yasuhiro; Usuki, Takeshi

2014-12-18

The structure of high-temperature liquids is an important topic for understanding the fragility of liquids. Here we report the structure of a high-temperature non-glass-forming oxide liquid, ZrO2, at an atomistic and electronic level. The Bhatia-Thornton number-number structure factor of ZrO2 does not show a first sharp diffraction peak. The atomic structure comprises ZrO5, ZrO6 and ZrO7 polyhedra with a significant contribution of edge sharing of oxygen in addition to corner sharing. The variety of large oxygen coordination and polyhedral connections with short Zr-O bond lifetimes, induced by the relatively large ionic radius of zirconium, disturbs the evolution of intermediate-range ordering, which leads to a reduced electronic band gap and increased delocalization in the ionic Zr-O bonding. The details of the chemical bonding explain the extremely low viscosity of the liquid and the absence of a first sharp diffraction peak, and indicate that liquid ZrO2 is an extremely fragile liquid.

Projected Changes in Temperature Extremes in China Using PRECIS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yujing Zhang

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Temperature extremes can cause disastrous impacts on ecological and social economic systems. China is very sensitive to climate change, as its warming rate exceeds that of the global mean level. This paper focused on the spatial and temporal changes of the temperature extremes characterized by the 95th percentile of maximum temperature (TX95, the 5th percentile of the minimum temperature (TN5, high-temperature days (HTD and low-temperature days (LTD. The daily maximum and minimum temperatures generated by PRECIS under different Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs are used in the research. The results show that: (1 Model simulation data can reproduce the spatial distribution features of the maximum temperature (Tmax and minimum temperature (Tmin as well as that of the extreme temperature indices; (2 By the end of the 21st century (2070–2099, both the Tmax and Tmin are warmer than the baseline level (1961–1990 in China and the eight sub-regions. However, there are regional differences in the asymmetrical warming features, as the Tmin warms more than the Tmax in the northern part of China and the Tibetan Plateau, while the Tmax warms more than the Tmin in the southern part of China; (3 The frequency of the warm extremes would become more usual, as the HTD characterized by the present-day threshold would increase by 106%, 196% and 346%, under RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, respectively, while the cold extremes characterized by the LTD would become less frequent by the end of the 21st century, decreasing by 75%, 90% and 98% under RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, respectively. The southern and eastern parts of the Tibetan Plateau respond sensitively to changes in both the hot and cold extremes, suggesting its higher likelihood to suffer from climate warming; (4 The intensity of the warm (cold extremes would increase (decrease significantly, characterized by the changes in the TX95 (TN5 by the end of the 21st century, and the magnitude of the

High dark matter densities and the formation of extreme dwarf galaxies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lake, G.

1990-01-01

The extreme dwarfs of the Local Group, GR 8, Draco, and Ursa Minor have high densities of dark matter. If the dark matter is dissipationless, then there is a simple relation between the redshift of turnaround z(turn) and its current mean density. Three alternatives for the dSphs are discussed. If the dark matter follows the light, then z(turn) is greater than 30. If a density profile is adopted so that the mean density becomes low enough to be barely consistent with the standard density fluctuation spectrum of cold dark matter, then the mass-to-light ratios are greater than 1000 solar mass/solar luminosity. The last alternative is dissipational dark matter. In this case, the additional collapse factor owing to dissipation allows a later epoch of formation. 39 refs

Tropical cyclones in the Bay of Bengal and extreme sea-level projections along the east coast of India in a future climate scenario

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Unnikrishnan, A.S.; RameshKumar, M.R.; Sindhu, B.

(2071– 2100), A2. The analysis showed an increase in the frequency of cyclones in the Bay of Bengal during the late monsoon (August and September) in the A2 scenario compared to the baseline scenario. Extreme sea-level projections along the east coast...

Extreme ultra-violet emission spectroscopy of highly charged gadolinium ions with an electron beam ion trap

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohashi, Hayato; Nakamura, Nobuyuki; Sakaue, Hiroyuki A

2013-01-01

We present extreme ultra-violet emission spectra of highly charged gadolinium ions obtained with an electron beam ion trap at electron energies of 0.53–1.51 keV. The electron energy dependence of the spectra in the 5.7–11.3 nm range is compared with calculation with the flexible atomic code. (paper)

Extremely high magnetoresistance and conductivity in the type-II Weyl semimetals WP2 and MoP2.

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Nitesh; Sun, Yan; Xu, Nan; Manna, Kaustuv; Yao, Mengyu; Süss, Vicky; Leermakers, Inge; Young, Olga; Förster, Tobias; Schmidt, Marcus; Borrmann, Horst; Yan, Binghai; Zeitler, Uli; Shi, Ming; Felser, Claudia; Shekhar, Chandra

2017-11-21

The peculiar band structure of semimetals exhibiting Dirac and Weyl crossings can lead to spectacular electronic properties such as large mobilities accompanied by extremely high magnetoresistance. In particular, two closely neighboring Weyl points of the same chirality are protected from annihilation by structural distortions or defects, thereby significantly reducing the scattering probability between them. Here we present the electronic properties of the transition metal diphosphides, WP 2 and MoP 2 , which are type-II Weyl semimetals with robust Weyl points by transport, angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy and first principles calculations. Our single crystals of WP 2 display an extremely low residual low-temperature resistivity of 3 nΩ cm accompanied by an enormous and highly anisotropic magnetoresistance above 200 million % at 63 T and 2.5 K. We observe a large suppression of charge carrier backscattering in WP 2 from transport measurements. These properties are likely a consequence of the novel Weyl fermions expressed in this compound.

CO2-Philic polymer membrane with extremely high separation performance

KAUST Repository

Yave, Wilfredo

2010-01-12

Polymeric membranes are attractive for CO2 separation and concentration from different gas streams because of their versatility and energy efficiency; they can compete with, and they may even replace, traditional absorption processes. Here we describe a simple and powerful method for developing nanostructured and CO2-philic polymer membranes for CO2 separation. A poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(butylene terephthalate) multiblock copolymer is used as membrane material. Smart additives such as polyethylene glycol dibutyl ether are incorporated as spacers or fillers for producing nanostructured materials. The addition of these specific additives produces CO2-philic membranes and increases the CO2 permeability (750 barrer) up to five-fold without the loss of selectivity. The membranes present outstanding performance for CO2 separation, and the measured CO2 flux is extremely high ( > 2 m3 m -2 h-1 bar-1) with selectivity over H2 and N2 of 10 and 40, respectively, making them attractive for CO 2 capture. © 2009 American Chemical Society.

CO2-Philic polymer membrane with extremely high separation performance

KAUST Repository

Yave, Wilfredo; Car, Anja; Funari, S.; Nunes, Suzana Pereira; Peinemann, Klaus-Viktor

2010-01-01

Polymeric membranes are attractive for CO2 separation and concentration from different gas streams because of their versatility and energy efficiency; they can compete with, and they may even replace, traditional absorption processes. Here we describe a simple and powerful method for developing nanostructured and CO2-philic polymer membranes for CO2 separation. A poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(butylene terephthalate) multiblock copolymer is used as membrane material. Smart additives such as polyethylene glycol dibutyl ether are incorporated as spacers or fillers for producing nanostructured materials. The addition of these specific additives produces CO2-philic membranes and increases the CO2 permeability (750 barrer) up to five-fold without the loss of selectivity. The membranes present outstanding performance for CO2 separation, and the measured CO2 flux is extremely high ( > 2 m3 m -2 h-1 bar-1) with selectivity over H2 and N2 of 10 and 40, respectively, making them attractive for CO 2 capture. © 2009 American Chemical Society.

THE HIGH-RESOLUTION EXTREME-ULTRAVIOLET SPECTRUM OF N{sub 2} BY ELECTRON IMPACT

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Heays, A. N. [Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden (Netherlands); Ajello, J. M.; Aguilar, A. [Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States); Lewis, B. R.; Gibson, S. T., E-mail: heays@strw.leidenuniv.nl [Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200 (Australia)

2014-04-01

We have analyzed high-resolution (FWHM = 0.2 Å) extreme-ultraviolet (EUV, 800-1350 Å) laboratory emission spectra of molecular nitrogen excited by an electron impact at 20 and 100 eV under (mostly) optically thin, single-scattering experimental conditions. A total of 491 emission features were observed from N{sub 2} electronic-vibrational transitions and atomic N I and N II multiplets and their emission cross sections were measured. Molecular emission was observed at vibrationally excited ground-state levels as high as v'' = 17, from the a {sup 1}Π {sub g} , b {sup 1}Π {sub u} , and b'{sup 1}Σ {sub u} {sup +} excited valence states and the Rydberg series c'{sub n} {sub +1} {sup 1}Σ {sub u} {sup +}, c{sub n} {sup 1}Π {sub u} , and o{sub n} {sup 1}Π {sub u} for n between 3 and 9. The frequently blended molecular emission bands were disentangled with the aid of a sophisticated and predictive quantum-mechanical model of excited states that includes the strong coupling between valence and Rydberg electronic states and the effects of predissociation. Improved model parameters describing electronic transition moments were obtained from the experiment and allowed for a reliable prediction of the vibrationally summed electronic emission cross section, including an extrapolation to unobserved emission bands and those that are optically thick in the experimental spectra. Vibrationally dependent electronic excitation functions were inferred from a comparison of emission features following 20 and 100 eV electron-impact collisional excitation. The electron-impact-induced fluorescence measurements are compared with Cassini Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph observations of emissions from Titan's upper atmosphere.

Extreme implanting in Si: A study of ion-induced damage at high temperature and high dose

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Holland, O.W.

1994-01-01

Ion-solid interactions near room temperature and below have been well studied in single-crystal Si. While this has led to a better understanding of the mechanisms responsible for nucleation and growth of lattice damage during irradiation, these studies have not, in general, been extended to high temperatures (e.g., >200 degrees C). This is the case despite the commercialization of ion beam technologies which utilize high-temperature processing, such as separation by implantation of oxygen (SIMOX). In this process, a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) material is produced by implanting a high dose of oxygen ions into a Si wafer to form a buried, stoichiometric oxide layer. Results will be presented of a study of damage accumulation during high-dose implantation of Si at elevated temperatures. In particular, O + -ions were used because of the potential impact of the results on the SIMOX technology. It will be shown that the nature of the damage accumulation at elevated temperatures is quite distinctive and portends the presence of a new mechanism, one which is only dominant under the extreme conditions encountered during ion beam synthesis (i.e., high temperature and high dose). This mechanism is discussed and shown to be quite general and not dependent on the chemical identity of the ions. Also, techniques for suppressing this mechanism by open-quotes defect engineeringclose quotes are discussed. Such techniques are technologically relevant because they offer the possibility of reducing the defect density of the SOI produced by SIMOX

Very high cycle fatigue crack initiation in electroplated Ni films under extreme stress gradients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baumert, E.K.; Pierron, O.N.

2012-01-01

A characterization technique based on kilohertz micro-resonators is presented to investigate the very high cycle fatigue behavior of 20 μm thick electroplated Ni films with a columnar microstructure (grain diameter less than 2 μm). The films exhibit superior fatigue resistance due to the extreme stress gradients at the surface. The effects of stress amplitude and environment on the formation of fatigue extrusions and micro-cracks are discussed based on scanning electron microscopy and the tracking of the specimens’ resonant frequency.

Changes in extremely hot days under stabilized 1.5 and 2.0 °C global warming scenarios as simulated by the HAPPI multi-model ensemble

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Wehner

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The half a degree additional warming, prognosis and projected impacts (HAPPI experimental protocol provides a multi-model database to compare the effects of stabilizing anthropogenic global warming of 1.5 °C over preindustrial levels to 2.0 °C over these levels. The HAPPI experiment is based upon large ensembles of global atmospheric models forced by sea surface temperature and sea ice concentrations plausible for these stabilization levels. This paper examines changes in extremes of high temperatures averaged over three consecutive days. Changes in this measure of extreme temperature are also compared to changes in hot season temperatures. We find that over land this measure of extreme high temperature increases from about 0.5 to 1.5 °C over present-day values in the 1.5 °C stabilization scenario, depending on location and model. We further find an additional 0.25 to 1.0 °C increase in extreme high temperatures over land in the 2.0 °C stabilization scenario. Results from the HAPPI models are consistent with similar results from the one available fully coupled climate model. However, a complicating factor in interpreting extreme temperature changes across the HAPPI models is their diversity of aerosol forcing changes.

Future Projection of Summer Extreme Precipitation from High Resolution Multi-RCMs over East Asia

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Gayoung; Park, Changyong; Cha, Dong-Hyun; Lee, Dong-Kyou; Suh, Myoung-Seok; Ahn, Joong-Bae; Min, Seung-Ki; Hong, Song-You; Kang, Hyun-Suk

2017-04-01

Recently, the frequency and intensity of natural hazards have been increasing due to human-induced climate change. Because most damages of natural hazards over East Asia have been related to extreme precipitation events, it is important to estimate future change in extreme precipitation characteristics caused by climate change. We investigate future changes in extremal values of summer precipitation simulated by five regional climate models participating in the CORDEX-East Asia project (i.e., HadGEM3-RA, RegCM4, MM5, WRF, and GRIMs) over East Asia. 100-year return value calculated from the generalized extreme value (GEV) parameters is analysed as an indicator of extreme intensity. In the future climate, the mean values as well as the extreme values of daily precipitation tend to increase over land region. The increase of 100-year return value can be significantly associated with the changes in the location (intensity) and scale (variability) GEV parameters for extreme precipitation. It is expected that the results of this study can be used as fruitful references when making the policy of disaster management. Acknowledgements The research was supported by the Ministry of Public Safety and Security of Korean government and Development program under grant MPSS-NH-2013-63 and the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning of Korea (NRF-2016M3C4A7952637) for its support and assistant in completion of the study.

Extreme waves at Filyos, southern Black Sea

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. Bilyay

2011-03-01

Full Text Available A wave measurement project was carried out for a new port planned in Filyos, in the Western Black Sea region of Turkey. The measurement at a depth of 12.5 m lasted for a period of two years and 7949 records were obtained. During the analysis, it was noticed that there were 209 records in which H/H_s ratio was higher than 2.0. These higher waves in a record are called extreme waves in this study. Although the purpose of wave measurement is not to investigate extreme waves, it is believed that studying these unexpected waves could be interesting. Therefore, detailed statistical and spectral analyses on the extreme waves were done for the records. The analyses results show that the distribution of surface profiles of the records containing extreme waves deviates from Gaussian distribution with the negative skewness changing between –0.01 and –0.4 and with the high kurtosis in the range of 3.1–4.2. Although the probability of occurrence of the extreme waves is over-predicted by the Rayleigh distribution, a higher ratio of H_s/η_rms indicates that the wave height distribution can be represented by Rayleigh. The average value of the slope of the frequency spectrum at the high frequency range is proportional to f^–9 which is much steeper than the typical wind-wave frequency power law, f^{–4, –5}. The directional spreading is measured with the parameter S_max and it is in the range of 5–70 for the extreme wave records. The wave and current interaction was also investigated and it was found that in most cases, extreme waves occur when the wave and the current are almost aligned. Furthermore, it is observed that extreme waves appear within a group of high waves.

Investigating NARCCAP Precipitation Extremes via Bivariate Extreme Value Theory (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Weller, G. B.; Cooley, D. S.; Sain, S. R.; Bukovsky, M. S.; Mearns, L. O.

2013-12-01

We introduce methodology from statistical extreme value theory to examine the ability of reanalysis-drive regional climate models to simulate past daily precipitation extremes. Going beyond a comparison of summary statistics such as 20-year return values, we study whether the most extreme precipitation events produced by climate model simulations exhibit correspondence to the most extreme events seen in observational records. The extent of this correspondence is formulated via the statistical concept of tail dependence. We examine several case studies of extreme precipitation events simulated by the six models of the North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP) driven by NCEP reanalysis. It is found that the NARCCAP models generally reproduce daily winter precipitation extremes along the Pacific coast quite well; in contrast, simulation of past daily summer precipitation extremes in a central US region is poor. Some differences in the strength of extremal correspondence are seen in the central region between models which employ spectral nudging and those which do not. We demonstrate how these techniques may be used to draw a link between extreme precipitation events and large-scale atmospheric drivers, as well as to downscale extreme precipitation simulated by a future run of a regional climate model. Specifically, we examine potential future changes in the nature of extreme precipitation along the Pacific coast produced by the pineapple express (PE) phenomenon. A link between extreme precipitation events and a "PE Index" derived from North Pacific sea-surface pressure fields is found. This link is used to study PE-influenced extreme precipitation produced by a future-scenario climate model run.

EPS-LASSO: Test for High-Dimensional Regression Under Extreme Phenotype Sampling of Continuous Traits.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Chao; Fang, Jian; Shen, Hui; Wang, Yu-Ping; Deng, Hong-Wen

2018-01-25

Extreme phenotype sampling (EPS) is a broadly-used design to identify candidate genetic factors contributing to the variation of quantitative traits. By enriching the signals in extreme phenotypic samples, EPS can boost the association power compared to random sampling. Most existing statistical methods for EPS examine the genetic factors individually, despite many quantitative traits have multiple genetic factors underlying their variation. It is desirable to model the joint effects of genetic factors, which may increase the power and identify novel quantitative trait loci under EPS. The joint analysis of genetic data in high-dimensional situations requires specialized techniques, e.g., the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO). Although there are extensive research and application related to LASSO, the statistical inference and testing for the sparse model under EPS remain unknown. We propose a novel sparse model (EPS-LASSO) with hypothesis test for high-dimensional regression under EPS based on a decorrelated score function. The comprehensive simulation shows EPS-LASSO outperforms existing methods with stable type I error and FDR control. EPS-LASSO can provide a consistent power for both low- and high-dimensional situations compared with the other methods dealing with high-dimensional situations. The power of EPS-LASSO is close to other low-dimensional methods when the causal effect sizes are small and is superior when the effects are large. Applying EPS-LASSO to a transcriptome-wide gene expression study for obesity reveals 10 significant body mass index associated genes. Our results indicate that EPS-LASSO is an effective method for EPS data analysis, which can account for correlated predictors. The source code is available at https://github.com/xu1912/EPSLASSO. hdeng2@tulane.edu. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author (2018). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please

Moving in extreme environments: what's extreme and who decides?

Science.gov (United States)

Cotter, James David; Tipton, Michael J

2014-01-01

, extreme loading, chronic unloading and high altitude. Ramifications include factors such as health and safety, productivity, enjoyment and autonomy, acute and chronic protection and optimising adaptation.

Complex Socio-Ecological Dynamics driven by extreme events in the Amazon

Science.gov (United States)

Pinho, P. F.

2015-12-01

Several years with extreme floods or droughts in the past decade have caused human suffering in remote communities of the Brazilian Amazon. Despite documented local knowledge and practices for coping with the high seasonal variability characteristic of the region's hydrology (e.g. 10m change in river levels between dry and flood seasons), and despite 'civil Defense' interventions by various levels of government, the more extreme years seem to have exceeded the coping capacity of the community. In this paper, we explore whether there is a real increase in variability, whether the community perceives that recent extreme events are outside the experience which shapes their responses to 'normal' levels of variability, and what science-based policy could contribute to greater local resilience. Hydrological analyses suggest that variability is indeed increasing, in line with expectations from future climate change. However, current measures of hydrological regimes do not predict years with social hardship very well. Interviewees in two regions are able to express their strategies for dealing with 'normal' variability very well, but also identify ways in which abnormal years exceed their ability to cope. Current Civil Defense arrangements struggle to deliver emergency assistance in a sufficiently timely and locally appropriate fashion. Combining these insights in the context of social-ecological change, we suggest how better integration of science, policy and local knowledge could improve resilience to future trends, and identify some contributions science could make into such an arrangement.

Intra-arterial Ultra-low-Dose CT Angiography of Lower Extremity in Diabetic Patients

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Özgen, Ali, E-mail: draliozgen@hotmail.com [Yeditepe University Hospital, Department of Radiology (Turkey); Sanioğlu, Soner [Yeditepe University Hospital, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery (Turkey); Bingöl, Uğur Anıl [Yeditepe University Hospital, Department of Plastic Surgery (Turkey)

2016-08-15

PurposeTo image lower extremity arteries by CT angiography using a very low-dose intra-arterial contrast medium in patients with high risk of developing contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN).Materials and MethodsThree cases with long-standing diabetes mellitus and signs of lower extremity atherosclerotic disease were evaluated by CT angiography using 0.1 ml/kg of the body weight of contrast medium given via 10-cm-long 4F introducer by puncturing the CFA. Images were evaluated by an interventional radiologist and a cardiovascular surgeon. Density values of the lower extremity arteries were also calculated. Findings in two cases were compared with digital subtraction angiography images performed for percutaneous revascularization. Blood creatinine levels were followed for possible CIN.ResultsIntra-arterial CT angiography images were considered diagnostic in all patients and optimal in one patient. No patient developed CIN after intra-arterial CT angiography, while one patient developed CIN after percutaneous intervention.ConclusionIntra-arterial CT angiography of lower extremity might be performed in selected patients with high risk of developing CIN. Our limited experience suggests that as low as of 0.1 ml/kg of the body weight of contrast medium may result in adequate diagnostic imaging.

Silicon-Carbide Power MOSFET Performance in High Efficiency Boost Power Processing Unit for Extreme Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Ikpe, Stanley A.; Lauenstein, Jean-Marie; Carr, Gregory A.; Hunter, Don; Ludwig, Lawrence L.; Wood, William; Del Castillo, Linda Y.; Fitzpatrick, Fred; Chen, Yuan

2016-01-01

Silicon-Carbide device technology has generated much interest in recent years. With superior thermal performance, power ratings and potential switching frequencies over its Silicon counterpart, Silicon-Carbide offers a greater possibility for high powered switching applications in extreme environment. In particular, Silicon-Carbide Metal-Oxide- Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors' (MOSFETs) maturing process technology has produced a plethora of commercially available power dense, low on-state resistance devices capable of switching at high frequencies. A novel hard-switched power processing unit (PPU) is implemented utilizing Silicon-Carbide power devices. Accelerated life data is captured and assessed in conjunction with a damage accumulation model of gate oxide and drain-source junction lifetime to evaluate potential system performance at high temperature environments.

High-Level Accumulation of Exogenous Small RNAs Not Affecting Endogenous Small RNA Biogenesis and Function in Plants

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

SHEN Wan-xia; Neil A Smith; ZHOU Chang-yong; WANG Ming-bo

2014-01-01

RNA silencing is a fundamental plant defence and gene control mechanism in plants that are directed by 20-24 nucleotide (nt) small interfering RNA (siRNA) and microRNA (miRNA). Infection of plants with viral pathogens or transformation of plants with RNA interference (RNAi) constructs is usually associated with high levels of exogenous siRNAs, but it is unclear if these siRNAs interfere with endogenous small RNA pathways and hence affect plant development. Here we provide evidence that viral satellite RNA (satRNA) infection does not affect siRNA and miRNA biogenesis or plant growth despite the extremely high level of satRNA-derived siRNAs. We generated transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana plants that no longer develop the speciifc yellowing symptoms generally associated with infection by Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) Y-satellite RNA (Y-Sat). We then used these plants to show that CMV Y-Sat infection did not cause any visible phenotypic changes in comparison to uninfected plants, despite the presence of high-level Y-Sat siRNAs. Furthermore, we showed that the accumulation of hairpin RNA (hpRNA)-derived siRNAs or miRNAs, and the level of siRNA-directed transgene silencing, are not signiifcantly affected by CMV Y-Sat infection. Taken together, our results suggest that the high levels of exogenous siRNAs associated with viral infection or RNAi-inducing transgenes do not saturate the endogenous RNA silencing machineries and have no signiifcant impact on normal plant development.

Beyond Extreme Ultra Violet (BEUV) Radiation from Spherically symmetrical High-Z plasmas

Science.gov (United States)

Yoshida, Kensuke; Fujioka, Shinsuke; Higashiguchi, Takeshi; Ugomori, Teruyuki; Tanaka, Nozomi; Kawasaki, Masato; Suzuki, Yuhei; Suzuki, Chihiro; Tomita, Kentaro; Hirose, Ryouichi; Eshima, Takeo; Ohashi, Hayato; Nishikino, Masaharu; Scally, Enda; Nshimura, Hiroaki; Azechi, Hiroshi; O'Sullivan, Gerard

2016-03-01

Photo-lithography is a key technology for volume manufacture of high performance and compact semiconductor devices. Smaller and more complex structures can be fabricated by using shorter wavelength light in the photolithography. One of the most critical issues in development of the next generation photo-lithography is to increase energy conversion efficiency (CE) from laser to shorter wavelength light. Experimental database of beyond extreme ultraviolet (BEUV) radiation was obtained by using spherically symmetrical high-Z plasmas generated with spherically allocated laser beams. Absolute energy and spectra of BEUV light emitted from Tb, Gd, and Mo plasmas were measured with a absolutely calibrated BEUV calorimeter and a transmission grating spectrometer. 1.0 x 1012 W/cm2 is the optimal laser intensity to produced efficient BEUV light source plasmas with Tb and Gd targets. Maximum CE is achieved at 0.8% that is two times higher than the published CEs obtained with planar targets.

Coastal Adaptation Planning for Sea Level Rise and Extremes: A Global Model for Adaptation Decision-making at the Local Level Given Uncertain Climate Projections

Science.gov (United States)

Turner, D.

2014-12-01

Understanding the potential economic and physical impacts of climate change on coastal resources involves evaluating a number of distinct adaptive responses. This paper presents a tool for such analysis, a spatially-disaggregated optimization model for adaptation to sea level rise (SLR) and storm surge, the Coastal Impact and Adaptation Model (CIAM). This decision-making framework fills a gap between very detailed studies of specific locations and overly aggregate global analyses. While CIAM is global in scope, the optimal adaptation strategy is determined at the local level, evaluating over 12,000 coastal segments as described in the DIVA database (Vafeidis et al. 2006). The decision to pursue a given adaptation measure depends on local socioeconomic factors like income, population, and land values and how they develop over time, relative to the magnitude of potential coastal impacts, based on geophysical attributes like inundation zones and storm surge. For example, the model's decision to protect or retreat considers the costs of constructing and maintaining coastal defenses versus those of relocating people and capital to minimize damages from land inundation and coastal storms. Uncertain storm surge events are modeled with a generalized extreme value distribution calibrated to data on local surge extremes. Adaptation is optimized for the near-term outlook, in an "act then learn then act" framework that is repeated over the model time horizon. This framework allows the adaptation strategy to be flexibly updated, reflecting the process of iterative risk management. CIAM provides new estimates of the economic costs of SLR; moreover, these detailed results can be compactly represented in a set of adaptation and damage functions for use in integrated assessment models. Alongside the optimal result, CIAM evaluates suboptimal cases and finds that global costs could increase by an order of magnitude, illustrating the importance of adaptive capacity and coastal policy.

AN EXTREMELY CARBON-RICH, EXTREMELY METAL-POOR STAR IN THE SEGUE 1 SYSTEM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Norris, John E.; Yong, David; Gilmore, Gerard; Wyse, Rosemary F. G.; Frebel, Anna

2010-01-01

We report the analysis of high-resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio, spectra of an extremely metal-poor, extremely C-rich red giant, Seg 1-7, in Segue 1-described in the literature alternatively as an unusually extended globular cluster or an ultra-faint dwarf galaxy. The radial velocity of Seg 1-7 coincides precisely with the systemic velocity of Segue 1, and its chemical abundance signature of [Fe/H] = -3.52, [C/Fe] = +2.3, [N/Fe] = +0.8, [Na/Fe] = +0.53, [Mg/Fe] = +0.94, [Al/Fe] = +0.23, and [Ba/Fe] < -1.0 is similar to that of the rare and enigmatic class of Galactic halo objects designated CEMP-no (carbon-rich, extremely metal-poor with no enhancement (over solar ratios) of heavy neutron-capture elements). This is the first star in a Milky Way 'satellite' that unambiguously lies on the metal-poor, C-rich branch of the Aoki et al. bimodal distribution of field halo stars in the ([C/Fe], [Fe/H])-plane. Available data permit us only to identify Seg 1-7 as a member of an ultra-faint dwarf galaxy or as debris from the Sgr dwarf spheroidal galaxy. In either case, this demonstrates that at extremely low abundance, [Fe/H ] <-3.0, star formation and associated chemical evolution proceeded similarly in the progenitors of both the field halo and satellite systems. By extension, this is consistent with other recent suggestions that the most metal-poor dwarf spheroidal and ultra-faint dwarf satellites were the building blocks of the Galaxy's outer halo.

The shouted voice: A pilot study of laryngeal physiology under extreme aerodynamic pressure.

Science.gov (United States)

Lagier, Aude; Legou, Thierry; Galant, Camille; Amy de La Bretèque, Benoit; Meynadier, Yohann; Giovanni, Antoine

2017-12-01

The objective was to study the behavior of the larynx during shouted voice production, when the larynx is exposed to extremely high subglottic pressure. The study involved electroglottographic, acoustic, and aerodynamic analyses of shouts produced at maximum effort by three male participants. Under a normal speaking voice, the voice sound pressure level (SPL) is proportional to the subglottic pressure. However, when the subglottic pressure reached high levels, the voice SPL reached a maximum value and then decreased as subglottic pressure increased further. Furthermore, the electroglottographic signal sometimes lost its periodicity during the shout, suggesting irregular vocal fold vibration.

Means and extremes: building variability into community-level climate change experiments.

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Ross M; Beardall, John; Beringer, Jason; Grace, Mike; Sardina, Paula

2013-06-01

Experimental studies assessing climatic effects on ecological communities have typically applied static warming treatments. Although these studies have been informative, they have usually failed to incorporate either current or predicted future, patterns of variability. Future climates are likely to include extreme events which have greater impacts on ecological systems than changes in means alone. Here, we review the studies which have used experiments to assess impacts of temperature on marine, freshwater and terrestrial communities, and classify them into a set of 'generations' based on how they incorporate variability. The majority of studies have failed to incorporate extreme events. In terrestrial ecosystems in particular, experimental treatments have reduced temperature variability, when most climate models predict increased variability. Marine studies have tended to not concentrate on changes in variability, likely in part because the thermal mass of oceans will moderate variation. In freshwaters, climate change experiments have a much shorter history than in the other ecosystems, and have tended to take a relatively simple approach. We propose a new 'generation' of climate change experiments using down-scaled climate models which incorporate predicted changes in climatic variability, and describe a process for generating data which can be applied as experimental climate change treatments. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

EAP high-level product architecture

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Guðlaugsson, Tómas Vignir; Mortensen, Niels Henrik; Sarban, Rahimullah

2013-01-01

EAP technology has the potential to be used in a wide range of applications. This poses the challenge to the EAP component manufacturers to develop components for a wide variety of products. Danfoss Polypower A/S is developing an EAP technology platform, which can form the basis for a variety...... of EAP technology products while keeping complexity under control. High level product architecture has been developed for the mechanical part of EAP transducers, as the foundation for platform development. A generic description of an EAP transducer forms the core of the high level product architecture...... the function of the EAP transducers to be changed, by basing the EAP transducers on a different combination of organ alternatives. A model providing an overview of the high level product architecture has been developed to support daily development and cooperation across development teams. The platform approach...

High Level Radioactive Waste Management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-01-01

The proceedings of the second annual international conference on High Level Radioactive Waste Management, held on April 28--May 3, 1991, Las Vegas, Nevada, provides information on the current technical issue related to international high level radioactive waste management activities and how they relate to society as a whole. Besides discussing such technical topics as the best form of the waste, the integrity of storage containers, design and construction of a repository, the broader social aspects of these issues are explored in papers on such subjects as conformance to regulations, transportation safety, and public education. By providing this wider perspective of high level radioactive waste management, it becomes apparent that the various disciplines involved in this field are interrelated and that they should work to integrate their waste management activities. Individual records are processed separately for the data bases

A single pH fluorescent probe for biosensing and imaging of extreme acidity and extreme alkalinity.

Science.gov (United States)

Chao, Jian-Bin; Wang, Hui-Juan; Zhang, Yong-Bin; Li, Zhi-Qing; Liu, Yu-Hong; Huo, Fang-Jun; Yin, Cai-Xia; Shi, Ya-Wei; Wang, Juan-Juan

2017-07-04

A simple tailor-made pH fluorescent probe 2-benzothiazole (N-ethylcarbazole-3-yl) hydrazone (Probe) is facilely synthesized by the condensation reaction of 2-hydrazinobenzothiazole with N-ethylcarbazole-3-formaldehyde, which is a useful fluorescent probe for monitoring extremely acidic and alkaline pH, quantitatively. The pH titrations indicate that Probe displays a remarkable emission enhancement with a pK a of 2.73 and responds linearly to minor pH fluctuations within the extremely acidic range of 2.21-3.30. Interestingly, Probe also exhibits strong pH-dependent characteristics with pK a 11.28 and linear response to extreme-alkalinity range of 10.41-12.43. In addition, Probe shows a large Stokes shift of 84 nm under extremely acidic and alkaline conditions, high selectivity, excellent sensitivity, good water-solubility and fine stability, all of which are favorable for intracellular pH imaging. The probe is further successfully applied to image extremely acidic and alkaline pH values fluctuations in E. coli cells. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Disposal of high level and intermediate level radioactive wastes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Flowers, R.H.

1991-01-01

The waste products from the nuclear industry are relatively small in volume. Apart from a few minor gaseous and liquid waste streams, containing readily dispersible elements of low radiotoxicity, all these products are processed into stable solid packages for disposal in underground repositories. Because the volumes are small, and because radioactive wastes are latecomers on the industrial scene, a whole new industry with a world-wide technological infrastructure has grown up alongside the nuclear power industry to carry out the waste processing and disposal to very high standards. Some of the technical approaches used, and the Regulatory controls which have been developed, will undoubtedly find application in the future to the management of non-radioactive toxic wastes. The repository site outlined would contain even high-level radioactive wastes and spent fuels being contained without significant radiation dose rates to the public. Water pathway dose rates are likely to be lowest for vitrified high-level wastes with spent PWR fuel and intermediate level wastes being somewhat higher. (author)

Cherenkov radiation effects on counting efficiency in extremely quenched liquid scintillation samples

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grau Carles, A.; Grau Malonda, A.; Rodriguez Barquero, L.

1993-01-01

The CIEMAT/NIST tracer method has successfully standardized nuclides with diverse quench values and decay schemes in liquid scintillation counting. However, the counting efficiency is computed inaccurately for extremely quenched samples. This article shows that when samples are extremely quenched, the counting efficiency in high-energy beta-ray nuclides depends principally on the Cherenkov effect. A new technique is described for quench determination, which makes the measurement of counting efficiency possible when scintillation counting approaches zero. A new efficiency computation model for pure beta-ray nuclides is also described. The results of the model are tested experimentally for 89 Sr, 90 Y, 36 Cl and 204 Tl nuclides with independence of the quench level. (orig.)

Pediatric Lower Extremity Lawn Mower Injuries and Reconstruction: Retrospective 10-Year Review at a Level 1 Trauma Center.

Science.gov (United States)

Branch, Leslie G; Crantford, John C; Thompson, James T; Tannan, Shruti C

2017-11-01

From 2004 to 2013, there were 9341 lawn mower injuries in children under 20 years old. The incidence of lawn mower injuries in children has not decreased since 1990 despite implementation of various different prevention strategies. In this report, the authors review the results of pediatric lawn mower-related lower-extremity injuries treated at a tertiary care referral center as well as review the overall literature. A retrospective review was performed at a level 1 trauma center over a 10-year period (2005-2015). Patients younger than 18 years who presented to the emergency room with lower extremity lawn mower injuries were included. Of the 27 patients with lower-extremity lawn mower injuries during this period, the mean age at injury was 5.5 years and Injury Severity Score was 7.2. Most (85%) patients were boys and the predominant type of mower causing injury was a riding lawn mower (96%). Injury occurred in patients who were bystanders in 78%, passengers in 11%, and operators in 11%. Mean length of stay was 12.2 days, and mean time to reconstruction was 7.9 days. Mean number of surgical procedures per patient was 4.1. Amputations occurred in 15 (56%) cases with the most common level of amputation being distal to the metatarsophalangeal joint (67%). Reconstructive procedures ranged from direct closure (41%) to free tissue transfer (7%). Major complications included infection (7%), wound dehiscence (11%), and delayed wound healing (15%). Mean follow up was 23.6 months and 100% of the patients were ambulatory after injury. The subgroup of patients with the most severe injuries, highest number of amputations, and need for overall surgical procedures were patients aged 2 to 5 years. A review of the literature also showed consistent findings. This study demonstrates the danger and morbidity that lawn mowers present to the pediatric population, particularly children aged 2 to 5 years. Every rung of the so-called reconstructive ladder is used in caring for these

Extreme ground motions and Yucca Mountain

Science.gov (United States)

Hanks, Thomas C.; Abrahamson, Norman A.; Baker, Jack W.; Boore, David M.; Board, Mark; Brune, James N.; Cornell, C. Allin; Whitney, John W.

2013-01-01

Yucca Mountain is the designated site of the underground repository for the United States' high-level radioactive waste (HLW), consisting of commercial and military spent nuclear fuel, HLW derived from reprocessing of uranium and plutonium, surplus plutonium, and other nuclear-weapons materials. Yucca Mountain straddles the western boundary of the Nevada Test Site, where the United States has tested nuclear devices since the 1950s, and is situated in an arid, remote, and thinly populated region of Nevada, ~100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Yucca Mountain was originally considered as a potential underground repository of HLW because of its thick units of unsaturated rocks, with the repository horizon being not only ~300 m above the water table but also ~300 m below the Yucca Mountain crest. The fundamental rationale for a geologic (underground) repository for HLW is to securely isolate these materials from the environment and its inhabitants to the greatest extent possible and for very long periods of time. Given the present climate conditions and what is known about the current hydrologic system and conditions around and in the mountain itself, one would anticipate that the rates of infiltration, corrosion, and transport would be very low—except for the possibility that repository integrity might be compromised by low-probability disruptive events, which include earthquakes, strong ground motion, and (or) a repository-piercing volcanic intrusion/eruption. Extreme ground motions (ExGM), as we use the phrase in this report, refer to the extremely large amplitudes of earthquake ground motion that arise at extremely low probabilities of exceedance (hazard). They first came to our attention when the 1998 probabilistic seismic hazard analysis for Yucca Mountain was extended to a hazard level of 10-8/yr (a 10-4/yr probability for a 104-year repository “lifetime”). The primary purpose of this report is to summarize the principal results of the ExGM research program

SPREAD: a high-resolution daily gridded precipitation dataset for Spain – an extreme events frequency and intensity overview

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. Serrano-Notivoli

2017-09-01

Full Text Available A high-resolution daily gridded precipitation dataset was built from raw data of 12 858 observatories covering a period from 1950 to 2012 in peninsular Spain and 1971 to 2012 in Balearic and Canary islands. The original data were quality-controlled and gaps were filled on each day and location independently. Using the serially complete dataset, a grid with a 5 × 5 km spatial resolution was constructed by estimating daily precipitation amounts and their corresponding uncertainty at each grid node. Daily precipitation estimations were compared to original observations to assess the quality of the gridded dataset. Four daily precipitation indices were computed to characterise the spatial distribution of daily precipitation and nine extreme precipitation indices were used to describe the frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation events. The Mediterranean coast and the Central Range showed the highest frequency and intensity of extreme events, while the number of wet days and dry and wet spells followed a north-west to south-east gradient in peninsular Spain, from high to low values in the number of wet days and wet spells and reverse in dry spells. The use of the total available data in Spain, the independent estimation of precipitation for each day and the high spatial resolution of the grid allowed for a precise spatial and temporal assessment of daily precipitation that is difficult to achieve when using other methods, pre-selected long-term stations or global gridded datasets. SPREAD dataset is publicly available at https://doi.org/10.20350/digitalCSIC/7393.

Taking water-based mud to extremes : new ultra-high temperature water-based mud development and applications in Europe

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Conn, L.; Cullum, D.; Ray, R.; Marinescu, P. [Mi SWACO, Calgary, AB (Canada)

2008-07-01

The design, development and field applications of an ultra-high temperature water-based mud used for drilling very deep and hot wells in continental Europe was described. Basin-centred gas production from unconventional tight sands represents a significant resources that may revive exploration and gas production. However, these accumulations lie deep down from normal-pressure reservoirs and the bottom hole static temperatures are greater than 200 degrees C. In addition, they host acid gases such as carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. As such, there are severe limitations on the design and choice of drilling fluids. This paper also described the extensive laboratory work that is needed to optimize the formulation of drilling fluids for high densities and extreme high temperatures. The lessons learned were described with reference to critical engineering guidelines for running a water-based system in such harsh conditions. The effectiveness of new fluids in delivering optimum drilling in extreme high temperature high pressure (HTHP) conditions were demonstrated using a unique software program that predicted the rheological behaviour, pressure losses, equivalent circulating density and equivalent static density. The new water-based system proved to be effective in drilling HTHP wells in areas where invert emulsion drilling fluid systems are not allowed.

Drivers of flood damage on event level

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kreibich, H.; Aerts, J. C. J. H.; Apel, H.

2016-01-01

example are the 2002 and 2013 floods in the Elbe and Danube catchments in Germany. The 2002 flood caused the highest economic damage (EUR 11600 million) due to a natural hazard event in Germany. Damage was so high due to extreme flood hazard triggered by extreme precipitation and a high number......-level mitigation measures, 3) more effective early warning and improved coordination of disaster response and 4) a more targeted maintenance of flood defence systems and their deliberate relocation. Thus, despite higher hydrological severity damage due to the 2013 flood was significantly lower than in 2002. In our...

Operational early warning platform for extreme meteorological events

Science.gov (United States)

Mühr, Bernhard; Kunz, Michael

2015-04-01

Operational early warning platform for extreme meteorological events Most natural disasters are related to extreme weather events (e.g. typhoons); weather conditions, however, are also highly relevant for humanitarian and disaster relief operations during and after other natural disaster like earthquakes. The internet service "Wettergefahren-Frühwarnung" (WF) provides various information on extreme weather events, especially when these events are associated with a high potential for large damage. The main focus of the platform is on Central Europe, but major events are also monitored worldwide on a daily routine. WF provides high-resolution forecast maps for many weather parameters which allow detailed and reliable predictions about weather conditions during the next days in the affected areas. The WF service became operational in February 2004 and is part of the Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology (CEDIM) since 2007. At the end of 2011, CEDIM embarked a new type of interdisciplinary disaster research termed as forensic disaster analysis (FDA) in near real time. In case of an imminent extreme weather event WF plays an important role in CEDIM's FDA group. It provides early and precise information which are always available and updated several times during a day and gives advice and assists with articles and reports on extreme events.

Is extreme climate or moderate climate more conducive to longevity in China?

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Yi; Rosenberg, Mark; Wang, Yingli

2018-02-01

Climate is closely related to human longevity. In China, there are many climate types. According to national population censuses from 1982 to 2000, most provinces with a high ratio of centenarians are located in western and northwestern China far from the sea; these areas are characterized by a dry, cold climate, very high altitude, very high daily temperature range, strong winds, and partial hypoxia. Meanwhile, provinces with a high ratio of nonagenarians from 1982 to 2000 are located in southern China near the sea. Previous studies have attributed the high ratio of centenarians in western and northwestern China to the extreme local climate. However, centenarians in these areas decreased greatly in 2010, whereas residents in southern China frequently reached 90 to 100 years old in 2010. This study aims to explain this strange phenomenon and find whether extreme climate in Tibetan plateau and northwestern China or moderate climate in southern China is more conducive to longevity. The study found that mortality rate in Tibetan plateau is much higher than southern China, then a population evolution experiment was proposed to compare longevity indicators between low mortality rate and high mortality rate and shows that longevity indicators will decrease in the near future and increase above their original levels after several decades when the mortality rate is decreased. Results of this study show individuals in northwestern China do not live as long as those in eastern and southern China. A moderate climate is more conducive to longevity than extreme climate in China. The longevity of a region should be judged by long-term longevity indicators.

The Extreme Right in Eastern Europe and Territorial Issues

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miroslav Mareš

2009-08-01

Full Text Available This article analyses and compares the different territorial conceptions of the extreme right in Eastern Europe and their political impact, with a view to explaining how important the historical legacy of the supposed territorial and border claims and injustices is for the identity of the extreme right (or their parts in contemporary Eastern Europe. It analyses the historical roots of the territorial claims of the extreme right in the area, the current situation regarding their territorial claims and disputes, and the impact of these territorial claims on domestic politics, on the politics of the extreme right at the European level and on regional security in this area.

Combined effects of extremely high frequency electromagnetic field and antibiotics on Enterococcus Hirae growth and survival

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohanyan, V.A.

2012-01-01

Combined effects of extremely high frequency electromagnetic field and antibiotics on Enterococcus hirae ATCC 9790 bacterial growth and survival were investigated using 51.8 GHz and 53 GHz frequencies in combination with two commonly used antibiotics: ampicillin and dalacin. Results revealed that, despite bacterial type and membrane structure and properties, the combined effect, especially with 53 GHz and dalacin, suppresses bacterial growth and decreases their survival

Base Oil-Extreme Pressure Additive Synergy in Lubricants

Science.gov (United States)

Extreme pressure (EP) additives are those containing reactive elements such as sulfur, phosphorus, and chlorine. In lubrication processes that occur under extremely severe conditions (e.g., high pressure and/or slow speed), these elements undergo chemical reactions generating new materials (tribofi...

[The action of low-intensity extremely high-freguency electromagnetic radiation on growth parameters for bacteria Enterococcus hirae].

Science.gov (United States)

Oganian, V; Sarkisian, A; Tadevosian, A; Torchunian, A

2008-01-01

It has been found that the exposure of Enterococcus hirae ATCC9790, grown under anaerobic conditions for 30 min or 1 h, to low-intensity (flux capacity 0.06 mW/sm2) coherent electromagnetic radiation (EMI) of extremely high-frequency 45 - 53 GHz), or millimeter waves causes a marked prolongation of the lag-growth phase and a decrease in their specific growth rate, the inhibitory effect increasing in the frequency range from 49 to 53 GHz. The effect enhanced as duration of expocure was encreased from 30 min to 1 h; however, further increase in exposure duration to 2 h did not cause an enhancement of the effect. It has been shown that the action of extremely high-frequency EMI on these bacteria does not depend on medium pH (pH 8.0 or pH 6.0). It is proposed that these bacteria have defensive or reparation mechanisms which compensate for the action of radiation; the occurrence of different mechanisms for pH regulation is not ruled out.

Heat transfer in high-level waste management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dickey, B.R.; Hogg, G.W.

1979-01-01

Heat transfer in the storage of high-level liquid wastes, calcining of radioactive wastes, and storage of solidified wastes are discussed. Processing and storage experience at the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant are summarized for defense high-level wastes; heat transfer in power reactor high-level waste processing and storage is also discussed

A trauma-like model of political extremism: psycho-political fault lines in Israel.

Science.gov (United States)

Laor, Nathaniel; Yanay-Shani, Alma; Wolmer, Leo; Khoury, Oula

2010-10-01

This study examines a trauma-like model of potentially violent political extremism among Jewish Israelis. We study the psychosocial characteristics of political extremists that may lie at the root of sociopolitical instability and assess personal (gender, stressful life events, Holocaust family background, and political activism) and psychological parameters (self- and political transcendence, perceived political threats, in/out-group identification ratio) that may predict readiness to engage in destructive political behavior. We examine the ideological zeal of various political groups, the relationship between the latter and perceived political threats, and the predictors of extreme political activism. Results showed that the extreme political poles displayed high level of ideological and morbid transcendence. Right extremists displayed higher perceived threats to physical existence and national identity. Left extremists scored highest on perceived moral integrity threat. Higher perceived threats to national identity and moral integrity, risk, and self-transcendence statistically explain morbid transcendence. When fear conjures up extremely skewed sociopolitical identifications across political boundaries, morbid transcendence may manifest itself in destructive political activity. © 2010 Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Disease.

Adventure and Extreme Sports.

Science.gov (United States)

Gomez, Andrew Thomas; Rao, Ashwin

2016-03-01

Adventure and extreme sports often involve unpredictable and inhospitable environments, high velocities, and stunts. These activities vary widely and include sports like BASE jumping, snowboarding, kayaking, and surfing. Increasing interest and participation in adventure and extreme sports warrants understanding by clinicians to facilitate prevention, identification, and treatment of injuries unique to each sport. This article covers alpine skiing and snowboarding, skateboarding, surfing, bungee jumping, BASE jumping, and whitewater sports with emphasis on epidemiology, demographics, general injury mechanisms, specific injuries, chronic injuries, fatality data, and prevention. Overall, most injuries are related to overuse, trauma, and environmental or microbial exposure. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Extreme Programming: Maestro Style

Science.gov (United States)

Norris, Jeffrey; Fox, Jason; Rabe, Kenneth; Shu, I-Hsiang; Powell, Mark

2009-01-01

"Extreme Programming: Maestro Style" is the name of a computer programming methodology that has evolved as a custom version of a methodology, called extreme programming that has been practiced in the software industry since the late 1990s. The name of this version reflects its origin in the work of the Maestro team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory that develops software for Mars exploration missions. Extreme programming is oriented toward agile development of software resting on values of simplicity, communication, testing, and aggressiveness. Extreme programming involves use of methods of rapidly building and disseminating institutional knowledge among members of a computer-programming team to give all the members a shared view that matches the view of the customers for whom the software system is to be developed. Extreme programming includes frequent planning by programmers in collaboration with customers, continually examining and rewriting code in striving for the simplest workable software designs, a system metaphor (basically, an abstraction of the system that provides easy-to-remember software-naming conventions and insight into the architecture of the system), programmers working in pairs, adherence to a set of coding standards, collaboration of customers and programmers, frequent verbal communication, frequent releases of software in small increments of development, repeated testing of the developmental software by both programmers and customers, and continuous interaction between the team and the customers. The environment in which the Maestro team works requires the team to quickly adapt to changing needs of its customers. In addition, the team cannot afford to accept unnecessary development risk. Extreme programming enables the Maestro team to remain agile and provide high-quality software and service to its customers. However, several factors in the Maestro environment have made it necessary to modify some of the conventional extreme

Mandelbrot's Extremism

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Beirlant, J.; Schoutens, W.; Segers, J.J.J.

2004-01-01

In the sixties Mandelbrot already showed that extreme price swings are more likely than some of us think or incorporate in our models.A modern toolbox for analyzing such rare events can be found in the field of extreme value theory.At the core of extreme value theory lies the modelling of maxima

E.X.T.R.E.M.E. project. Launch

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eyrolle, F.; Charmasson, S.; Masson, O.

2005-01-01

Due to the drastic decrease in artificial radioactivity levels from primary sources such as atmospheric fallout or industrial releases, radioactive storages constituted in the past within several environmental compartments act today as non negligible secondary sources. These delayed sources are particularly active during extreme weather or climatic events such as rainfalls or atmospheric deposits, floods, storms, etc...that may remove important mass, generate activity levels higher than the predicted ones from modeling based on mean transfer process, and produce in a couple of hours or days fluxes similar to those accrued over several month or years. Extreme aims at assessing the consequences on man and its environment of natural events that generate extreme radioactive stocks and/or fluxes within several environmental compartments (atmosphere, soils, rivers, coastal marine environment and deep sea areas). (authors)

Using Free Internet Videogames in Upper Extremity Motor Training for Children with Cerebral Palsy.

Science.gov (United States)

Sevick, Marisa; Eklund, Elizabeth; Mensch, Allison; Foreman, Matthew; Standeven, John; Engsberg, Jack

2016-06-07

Movement therapy is one type of upper extremity intervention for children with cerebral palsy (CP) to improve function. It requires high-intensity, repetitive and task-specific training. Tedium and lack of motivation are substantial barriers to completing the training. An approach to overcome these barriers is to couple the movement therapy with videogames. This investigation: (1) tested the feasibility of delivering a free Internet videogame upper extremity motor intervention to four children with CP (aged 8-17 years) with mild to moderate limitations to upper limb function; and (2) determined the level of intrinsic motivation during the intervention. The intervention used free Internet videogames in conjunction with the Microsoft Kinect motion sensor and the Flexible Action and Articulated Skeleton Toolkit software (FAAST) software. Results indicated that the intervention could be successfully delivered in the laboratory and the home, and pre- and post- impairment, function and performance assessments were possible. Results also indicated a high level of motivation among the participants. It was concluded that the use of inexpensive hardware and software in conjunction with free Internet videogames has the potential to be very motivating in helping to improve the upper extremity abilities of children with CP. Future work should include results from additional participants and from a control group in a randomized controlled trial to establish efficacy.

Using Free Internet Videogames in Upper Extremity Motor Training for Children with Cerebral Palsy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marisa Sevick

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Movement therapy is one type of upper extremity intervention for children with cerebral palsy (CP to improve function. It requires high-intensity, repetitive and task-specific training. Tedium and lack of motivation are substantial barriers to completing the training. An approach to overcome these barriers is to couple the movement therapy with videogames. This investigation: (1 tested the feasibility of delivering a free Internet videogame upper extremity motor intervention to four children with CP (aged 8–17 years with mild to moderate limitations to upper limb function; and (2 determined the level of intrinsic motivation during the intervention. The intervention used free Internet videogames in conjunction with the Microsoft Kinect motion sensor and the Flexible Action and Articulated Skeleton Toolkit software (FAAST software. Results indicated that the intervention could be successfully delivered in the laboratory and the home, and pre- and post- impairment, function and performance assessments were possible. Results also indicated a high level of motivation among the participants. It was concluded that the use of inexpensive hardware and software in conjunction with free Internet videogames has the potential to be very motivating in helping to improve the upper extremity abilities of children with CP. Future work should include results from additional participants and from a control group in a randomized controlled trial to establish efficacy.

Effects of Extreme Temperatures on Cause-Specific Cardiovascular Mortality in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xuying; Li, Guoxing; Liu, Liqun; Westerdahl, Dane; Jin, Xiaobin; Pan, Xiaochuan

2015-12-21

Limited evidence is available for the effects of extreme temperatures on cause-specific cardiovascular mortality in China. We collected data from Beijing and Shanghai, China, during 2007-2009, including the daily mortality of cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, ischemic heart disease and hypertensive disease, as well as air pollution concentrations and weather conditions. We used Poisson regression with a distributed lag non-linear model to examine the effects of extremely high and low ambient temperatures on cause-specific cardiovascular mortality. For all cause-specific cardiovascular mortality, Beijing had stronger cold and hot effects than those in Shanghai. The cold effects on cause-specific cardiovascular mortality reached the strongest at lag 0-27, while the hot effects reached the strongest at lag 0-14. The effects of extremely low and high temperatures differed by mortality types in the two cities. Hypertensive disease in Beijing was particularly susceptible to both extremely high and low temperatures; while for Shanghai, people with ischemic heart disease showed the greatest relative risk (RRs = 1.16, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.34) to extremely low temperature. People with hypertensive disease were particularly susceptible to extremely low and high temperatures in Beijing. People with ischemic heart disease in Shanghai showed greater susceptibility to extremely cold days.

Is prescribed lower extremity weight-bearing status after geriatric lower extremity trauma associated with increased mortality?

Science.gov (United States)

Gitajn, Ida Leah; Connelly, Daniel; Mascarenhas, Daniel; Breazeale, Stephen; Berger, Peter; Schoonover, Carrie; Martin, Brook; O'Toole, Robert V; Pensy, Raymond; Sciadini, Marcus

2018-02-01

Evaluate whether mortality after discharge is elevated in geriatric fracture patients whose lower extremity weight-bearing is restricted. Retrospective cohort study SETTING: Urban Level 1 trauma center PATIENTS/PARTICIPANTS: 1746 patients >65 years of age INTERVENTION: Post-operative lower extremity weight-bearing status MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Mortality, as determined by the Social Security Death Index RESULTS: Univariate analysis demonstrated that patients who were weight-bearing as tolerated on bilateral lower extremities (BLE) had significantly higher 5-year mortality compared to patients with restricted weight-bearing on one lower extremity and restricted weight-bearing on BLE (30%, 21% and 22% respectively, p bearing as tolerated on BLE, restricted weight-bearing on one lower extremity had a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.97 (95% confidence interval 0.78 to 1.20, p = 0.76) and restricted weight-bearing in BLE had a HR of 0.91 (95% confidence interval 0.60 to 1.36, p = 0.73). In geriatric patients, prescribed weight-bearing status did not have a statistically significant association with mortality after discharge, when controlling for age, sex, body mass index, medical comorbidities, Injury Severity Scale (ISS), mechanism of injury, nonoperative treatment and admission GCS. This remained true in when the analysis was restricted to operative injuries only. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Imaging of upper extremity stress fractures in the athlete.

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Mark W

2006-07-01

Although it is much less common than injuries in the lower extremities, an upper extremity stress injury can have a significant impact on an athlete. If an accurate and timely diagnosis is to be made, the clinician must have a high index of suspicion of a stress fracture in any athlete who is involved in a throwing, weightlifting, or upper extremity weight-bearing sport and presents with chronic pain in the upper extremity. Imaging should play an integral role in the work-up of these patients; if initial radiographs are unrevealing, further cross-sectional imaging should be strongly considered. Although a three-phase bone scan is highly sensitive in this regard, MRI has become the study of choice at most centers.

Public Perception of Extreme Cold Weather-Related Health Risk in a Cold Area of Northeast China.

Science.gov (United States)

Ban, Jie; Lan, Li; Yang, Chao; Wang, Jian; Chen, Chen; Huang, Ganlin; Li, Tiantian

2017-08-01

A need exists for public health strategies regarding extreme weather disasters, which in recent years have become more frequent. This study aimed to understand the public's perception of extreme cold and its related health risks, which may provide detailed information for public health preparedness during an extreme cold weather event. To evaluate public perceptions of cold-related health risk and to identify vulnerable groups, we collected responses from 891 participants in a face-to-face survey in Harbin, China. Public perception was measured by calculating the score for each perception question. Locals perceived that extreme cold weather and related health risks were serious, but thought they could not avoid these risks. The significant difference in perceived acceptance level between age groups suggested that the elderly are a "high health risk, low risk perception" group, meaning that they are relatively more vulnerable owing to their high susceptibility and low awareness of the health risks associated with extreme cold weather. The elderly should be a priority in risk communication and health protective interventions. This study demonstrated that introducing risk perception into the public health field can identify vulnerable groups with greater needs, which may improve the decision-making of public health intervention strategies. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:417-421).

A low cost, high precision extreme/harsh cold environment, autonomous sensor data gathering and transmission platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Chetty, S.; Field, L. A.

2014-12-01

SWIMS III, is a low cost, autonomous sensor data gathering platform developed specifically for extreme/harsh cold environments. Arctic ocean's continuing decrease of summer-time ice is related to rapidly diminishing multi-year ice due to the effects of climate change. Ice911 Research aims to develop environmentally inert materials that when deployed will increase the albedo, enabling the formation and/preservation of multi-year ice. SWIMS III's sophisticated autonomous sensors are designed to measure the albedo, weather, water temperature and other environmental parameters. This platform uses low cost, high accuracy/precision sensors, extreme environment command and data handling computer system using satellite and terrestrial wireless solution. The system also incorporates tilt sensors and sonar based ice thickness sensors. The system is light weight and can be deployed by hand by a single person. This presentation covers the technical, and design challenges in developing and deploying these platforms.

Simulation of Extreme Arctic Cyclones in IPCC AR5 Experiments

Science.gov (United States)

Vavrus, S. J.

2012-12-01

Although impending Arctic climate change is widely recognized, a wild card in its expression is how extreme weather events in this region will respond to greenhouse warming. Intense polar cyclones represent one type of high-latitude phenomena falling into this category, including very deep synoptic-scale cyclones and mesoscale polar lows. These systems inflict damage through high winds, heavy precipitation, and wave action along coastlines, and their impact is expected to expand in the future, when reduced sea ice cover allows enhanced wave energy. The loss of a buffering ice pack could greatly increase the rate of coastal erosion, which has already been increasing in the Arctic. These and related threats may amplify if extreme Arctic cyclones become more frequent and/or intense in a warming climate with much more open water to fuel them. This possibility has merit on the basis of GCM experiments, which project that greenhouse forcing causes lower mean sea level pressure (SLP) in the Arctic and a strengthening of the deepest storms over boreal high latitudes. In this study, the latest Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) climate model output is used to investigate the following questions: (1) What are the spatial and seasonal characteristics of extreme Arctic cyclones? (2) How well do GCMs simulate these phenomena? (3) Are Arctic cyclones already showing the expected response to greenhouse warming in climate models? To address these questions, a retrospective analysis is conducted of the transient 20th century simulations among the CMIP5 GCMs (spanning years 1850-2005). The results demonstrate that GCMs are able to reasonably represent extreme Arctic cyclones and that the simulated characteristics do not depend significantly on model resolution. Consistent with observational evidence, climate models generate these storms primarily during winter and within the climatological Aleutian and Icelandic Low regions. Occasionally the cyclones remain very intense

How extreme is enough to cause a threshold response of ecosystem

Science.gov (United States)

Niu, S.; Zhang, F.; Yang, Q.; Song, B.; Sun, J.

2017-12-01

Precipitation is a primary determinant of terrestrial ecosystem productivity over much of the globe. Recent studies have shown asymmetric or threshold responses of ecosystem productivity to precipitation gradient. However, it's not clear how extreme is enough to cause a threshold response of ecosystem. We conducted a global meta-analysis of precipitation experiments, a site level precipitation gradient experiment, and a remote sensing data mining on the relationship between precipitation extreme vs NDVI extreme. The meta-analysis shows that ANPP, BNPP, NEE, and other carbon cycle variables, showed similar response magnitudes to either precipitation increase or decrease when precipitation levels were normalized to the medium value of treatments (40%) across all the studies. Overall, the response ratios of these variables were linearly correlated with changes in precipitation amounts and soil water content. In the field gradient study with treatments of 1/12, 1/8. 1/4, 1/2, control, and 5/4 of ambient precipitation, the threshold of NPP, SR, NEE occurred when precipitation was reduced to the level of 1/8-1/12 of ambient precipitation. This means that only extreme drought can induce a threshold response of ecosystem. The regional remote sensing data showed that climate extremes with yearly low precipitation from 1982 to 2013 rarely cause extreme responses of vegetation, further suggesting that it is very difficult to detect threshold responses to natural climatic fluctuation. Our three studies together indicate that asymmetrical responses of vegetation to precipitation are likely detected, but only in very extreme precipitation events.

Investigating the influence of anthropogenic forcing on observed mean and extreme sea level pressure trends over the Mediterranean Region.

Science.gov (United States)

Barkhordarian, Armineh

2012-01-01

We investigate whether the observed mean sea level pressure (SLP) trends over the Mediterranean region in the period from 1975 to 2004 are significantly consistent with what 17 models projected as response of SLP to anthropogenic forcing (greenhouse gases and sulphate aerosols, GS). Obtained results indicate that the observed trends in mean SLP cannot be explained by natural (internal) variability. Externally forced changes are detectable in all seasons, except spring. The large-scale component (spatial mean) of the GS signal is detectable in all the 17 models in winter and in 12 of the 17 models in summer. However, the small-scale component (spatial anomalies about the spatial mean) of GS signal is only detectable in winter within 11 of the 17 models. We also show that GS signal has a detectable influence on observed decreasing (increasing) tendency in the frequencies of extremely low (high) SLP days in winter and that these changes cannot be explained by internal climate variability. While the detection of GS forcing is robust in winter and summer, there are striking inconsistencies in autumn, where analysis points to the presence of an external forcing, which is not GS forcing.

Statistical Model of Extreme Shear

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Kurt Schaldemose; Larsen, Gunner Chr.

2005-01-01

In order to continue cost-optimisation of modern large wind turbines, it is important to continuously increase the knowledge of wind field parameters relevant to design loads. This paper presents a general statistical model that offers site-specific prediction of the probability density function...... by a model that, on a statistically consistent basis, describes the most likely spatial shape of an extreme wind shear event. Predictions from the model have been compared with results from an extreme value data analysis, based on a large number of full-scale measurements recorded with a high sampling rate...

How extreme is extreme hourly precipitation?

Science.gov (United States)

Papalexiou, Simon Michael; Dialynas, Yannis G.; Pappas, Christoforos

2016-04-01

The importance of accurate representation of precipitation at fine time scales (e.g., hourly), directly associated with flash flood events, is crucial in hydrological design and prediction. The upper part of a probability distribution, known as the distribution tail, determines the behavior of extreme events. In general, and loosely speaking, tails can be categorized in two families: the subexponential and the hyperexponential family, with the first generating more intense and more frequent extremes compared to the latter. In past studies, the focus has been mainly on daily precipitation, with the Gamma distribution being the most popular model. Here, we investigate the behaviour of tails of hourly precipitation by comparing the upper part of empirical distributions of thousands of records with three general types of tails corresponding to the Pareto, Lognormal, and Weibull distributions. Specifically, we use thousands of hourly rainfall records from all over the USA. The analysis indicates that heavier-tailed distributions describe better the observed hourly rainfall extremes in comparison to lighter tails. Traditional representations of the marginal distribution of hourly rainfall may significantly deviate from observed behaviours of extremes, with direct implications on hydroclimatic variables modelling and engineering design.

Construal levels and moral judgment: Some complications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Han Gong

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Eyal, T., Liberman, N., and Trope, Y., (2008. Judging near and distant virtue and vice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 1204-1209, explored how psychological distance influences moral judgment and found that more extreme moral appraisals were given to distal behaviors rather than proximal behaviors. Contrary to Eyal et al., the current paper presents converging evidence showing that moral judgments become more extreme at lower-level construals compared to higher-level construals. In four experiments using two different priming techniques, we manipulated construal levels and assessed their effects on moral judgment. High-level consturals elicited less moral outrage toward transgressions and less positive ratings of virtuous behaviors than low-level construals. A replication study was also conducted to reconcile the inconsistencies between the current results and those of Eyal et al. Possible explanations for the different results between two studies are discussed.

Sensitivity of European wheat to extreme weather

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mäkinen, H; Kaseva, J; Trnka, M

2018-01-01

The frequency and intensity of extreme weather is increasing concomitant with changes in the global climate change. Although wheat is the most important food crop in Europe, there is currently no comprehensive empirical information available regarding the sensitivity of European wheat to extreme...... weather. In this study, we assessed the sensitivity of European wheat yields to extreme weather related to phenology (sowing, heading) in cultivar trials across Europe (latitudes 37.21° to 61.34° and longitudes −6.02° to 26.24°) during the period 1991–2014. All the observed agro-climatic extremes (≥31 °C...... wheat cultivars that responded positively (+10%) to drought after sowing, or frost during winter (−15 °C and −20 °C). Positive responses to extremes were often shown by cultivars associated with specific regions, such as good performance under high temperatures by southern-origin cultivars. Consequently...

STATISTICAL MODELLING OF FDC AND RETURN PERIODS TO CHARACTERISE QDF AND DESIGN THRESHOLD OF HYDROLOGICAL EXTREMES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Charles Onyutha

2012-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper, firstly, flow duration curves (FDCs for hydrological extremes were calibrated for a range of aggregation levels and seasons to provide compressed statistical information for water resources management at selected temporal scales and seasons. Secondly, instead of the common approach of using return periods, T (years for deriving discharge duration frequency (QDF relationships, the method of using exceedance frequencies, E (% was introduced so as to provide answer to important question like, what is the streamflow at a given aggregation level and selected E (%?. Thirdly, the concept of estimated design threshold (EDT was introduced and proposed for consideration in the risk analysis for design of water resources structures. This study was based on the long daily discharge record for the period 1950 – 2008 at station 1EF01 in Kenya, on the Nzoia river with watershed area of 12,676 km2 located in the North Eastern quadrant of Lake Victoria Nile Sub Basin. In the statistical modeling of FDCs and T (years, suitable extreme value distributions (EVD were selected and calibrated to fit nearly independent high flows and low flows. The FDCs and T-curves were used to determine the EDT. The FDCs were used to model the QDF relationships. To derive QDF relationships of hydrological extremes, for a given range of aggregation levels, extreme value analysis (EVA was carried out and suitable EVD selected. Next was the calibration of parameters of the EVD and analysis of relationship between the model parameters and aggregation levels. Finally, smooth mathematical relationships were derived using little but acceptable modifications to the model parameters. Such constructed QDF relationships can be used for various applications to estimate cumulative volumes of water available during droughts or floods at various aggregation levels or E (% of hydrological extremes. The EDT when obtained for a range of aggregation levels can also be used to

STATISTICAL MODELLING OF FDC AND RETURN PERIODS TO CHARACTERISE QDF AND DESIGN THRESHOLD OF HYDROLOGICAL EXTREMES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Charles Onyutha

2012-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper, firstly, flow duration curves (FDCs for hydrological extremes were calibrated for a range of aggregation levels and seasons to provide compressed statistical information for water resources management at selected temporal scales and seasons. Secondly, instead of the common approach of using return periods, T (years for deriving discharge duration frequency (QDF relationships, the method of using exceedance frequencies, E (% was introduced so as to provide answer to important question like, what is the streamflow at a given aggregation level and selected E (%? Thirdly, the concept of estimated design threshold (EDT was introduced and proposed for consideration in the risk analysis for design of water resources structures. This study was based on the long daily discharge record for the period 1950 - 2008 at station 1EF01 in Kenya, on the Nzoia river with watershed area of 12,676 km² located in the North Eastern quadrant of Lake Victoria Nile Sub Basin. In the statistical modelling of FDCs and T (years, suitable extreme value distributions (EVD were selected and calibrated to fit nearly independent high flows and low flows. The FDCs and T-curves were used to determine the EDT. The FDCs were used to model the QDF relationships. To derive QDF relationships of hydrological extremes, for a given range of aggregation levels, extreme value analysis (EVA was carried out and suitable EVD selected. Next was the calibration of parameters of the EVD and analysis of relationship between the model parameters and aggregation levels. Finally, smooth mathematical relationships were derived using little but acceptable modifications to the model parameters. Such constructed QDF relationships can be used for various applications to estimate cumulative volumes of water available during droughts or floods at various aggregation levels or E (% of hydrological extremes. The EDT when obtained for a range of aggregation levels can also be used to understand

Impacts of extreme weather events on highly eutrophic marine ecosystem (Rogoznica Lake, Adriatic coast)

Science.gov (United States)

Ciglenečki, I.; Janeković, I.; Marguš, M.; Bura-Nakić, E.; Carić, M.; Ljubešić, Z.; Batistić, M.; Hrustić, E.; Dupčić, I.; Garić, R.

2015-10-01

Rogoznica Lake is highly eutrophic marine system located on the Eastern Adriatic coast (43°32‧N, 15°58‧E). Because of the relatively small size (10,276 m2) and depth (15 m) it experiences strong natural and indirect anthropogenic influences. Dynamics within the lake is characterized by the extreme and highly variable environmental conditions (seasonal variations in salinity and temperature, water stratification and mixing, redox and euxinic conditions, concentrations of nutrients) which significantly influence the biology inside the lake. Due to the high phytoplankton activity, the upper part of the water column is well oxygenated, while hypoxia/anoxia usually occurs in the bottom layers. Anoxic part of the water column is characterized with high concentrations of sulfide (up to 5 mM) and nutrients (NH4+ up to 315 μM; PO43- up to 53 μM; SiO44- up to 680 μM) indicating the pronounced remineralization of the allochthonous organic matter, produced in the surface waters. The mixolimnion varies significantly within a season feeling effects of the Adriatic atmospheric and ocean dynamics (temperature, wind, heat fluxes, rainfall) which all affect the vertical stability and possibly induce vertical mixing and/or turnover. Seasonal vertical mixing usually occurs during the autumn/winter upon the breakdown of the stratification, injecting oxygen-rich water from the surface into the deeper layers. Depending on the intensity and duration of the vertical dynamics (slower diffusion and/or faster turnover of the water layers) anoxic conditions could developed within the whole water column. Extreme weather events such as abrupt change in the air temperature accompanied with a strong wind and consequently heat flux are found to be a key triggering mechanism for the fast turnover, introducing a large amount of nutrients and sulfur species from deeper parts to the surface. Increased concentration of nutrients, especially ammonium, phosphate, and silicates persisting for

Recovering method for high level radioactive material

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fukui, Toshiki

1998-01-01

Offgas filters such as of nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities and waste control facilities are burnt, and the burnt ash is melted by heating, and then the molten ashes are brought into contact with a molten metal having a low boiling point to transfer the high level radioactive materials in the molten ash to the molten metal. Then, only the molten metal is evaporated and solidified by drying, and residual high level radioactive materials are recovered. According to this method, the high level radioactive materials in the molten ashes are transferred to the molten metal and separated by the difference of the distribution rate of the molten ash and the molten metal. Subsequently, the molten metal to which the high level radioactive materials are transferred is heated to a temperature higher than the boiling point so that only the molten metal is evaporated and dried to be removed, and residual high level radioactive materials are recovered easily. On the other hand, the molten ash from which the high level radioactive material is removed can be discarded as ordinary industrial wastes as they are. (T.M.)

Risk factors for lower extremity injuries among male marathon runners.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Middelkoop, M; Kolkman, J; Van Ochten, J; Bierma-Zeinstra, S M A; Koes, B W

2008-12-01

The aim of this study is to identify risk factors for lower extremity injuries in male marathon runners. A random sample of 1500 recreational male marathon runners was drawn. Possible risk factors were obtained from a baseline questionnaire 1 month before the start of the marathon. Information on injuries sustained shortly before or during the marathon was obtained using a post-race questionnaire. Of the 694 male runners who responded to the baseline and post-race questionnaire, 28% suffered a self-reported running injury on the lower extremities in the month before or during the marathon run. More than six times race participation in the previous 12 months [odds ratio (OR) 1.66; confidence interval (CI) 1.08-2.56], a history of running injuries (OR 2.62; CI 1.82-3.78), high education level (OR 0.73; CI 0.51-1.04) and daily smoking (OR 0.23; CI 0.05-1.01) were associated with the occurrence of lower extremity injuries. Among the modifiable risk factor studies, a training distance training is a strong protective factor for knee injuries. Other training characteristics appear to have little or no effect on future injuries.

Clinical application of lower extremity CTA and lower extremity perfusion CT as a method of diagnostic for lower extremity atherosclerotic obliterans

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Moon, Il Bong; Dong, Kyung Rae [Dept. Radiological Technology, Gwangju Health University, Gwangju (Korea, Republic of); Goo, Eun Hoe [Dept. Radiological Science, Cheongju University, Cheongju (Korea, Republic of)

2016-11-15

The purpose of this study was to assess clinical application of lower extremity CTA and lower extremity perfusion CT as a method of diagnostic for lower extremity atherosclerotic obliterans. From January to July 2016, 30 patients (mean age, 68) were studied with lower extremity CTA and lower extremity perfusion CT. 128 channel multi-detector row CT scans were acquired with a CT scanner (SOMATOM Definition Flash, Siemens medical solution, Germany) of lower extremity perfusion CT and lower extremity CTA. Acquired images were reconstructed with 3D workstation (Leonardo, Siemens, Germany). Site of lower extremity arterial occlusive and stenosis lesions were detected superficial femoral artery 36.6%, popliteal artery 23.4%, external iliac artery 16.7%, common femoral artery 13.3%, peroneal artery 10%. The mean total DLP comparison of lower extremity perfusion CT and lower extremity CTA, 650 mGy-cm and 675 mGy-cm, respectively. Lower extremity perfusion CT and lower extremity CTA were realized that were never be two examination that were exactly the same legions. Future through the development of lower extremity perfusion CT soft ware programs suggest possible clinical applications.

High-level-waste immobilization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Crandall, J.L.

1982-01-01

Analysis of risks, environmental effects, process feasibility, and costs for disposal of immobilized high-level wastes in geologic repositories indicates that the disposal system safety has a low sensitivity to the choice of the waste disposal form

Thermodynamics of extremal rotating thin shells in an extremal BTZ spacetime and the extremal black hole entropy

Science.gov (United States)

Lemos, José P. S.; Minamitsuji, Masato; Zaslavskii, Oleg B.

2017-02-01

In a (2 +1 )-dimensional spacetime with a negative cosmological constant, the thermodynamics and the entropy of an extremal rotating thin shell, i.e., an extremal rotating ring, are investigated. The outer and inner regions with respect to the shell are taken to be the Bañados-Teitelbom-Zanelli (BTZ) spacetime and the vacuum ground state anti-de Sitter spacetime, respectively. By applying the first law of thermodynamics to the extremal thin shell, one shows that the entropy of the shell is an arbitrary well-behaved function of the gravitational area A+ alone, S =S (A+). When the thin shell approaches its own gravitational radius r+ and turns into an extremal rotating BTZ black hole, it is found that the entropy of the spacetime remains such a function of A+, both when the local temperature of the shell at the gravitational radius is zero and nonzero. It is thus vindicated by this analysis that extremal black holes, here extremal BTZ black holes, have different properties from the corresponding nonextremal black holes, which have a definite entropy, the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy S (A+)=A/+4G , where G is the gravitational constant. It is argued that for extremal black holes, in particular for extremal BTZ black holes, one should set 0 ≤S (A+)≤A/+4G;i.e., the extremal black hole entropy has values in between zero and the maximum Bekenstein-Hawking entropy A/+4 G . Thus, rather than having just two entropies for extremal black holes, as previous results have debated, namely, 0 and A/+4 G , it is shown here that extremal black holes, in particular extremal BTZ black holes, may have a continuous range of entropies, limited by precisely those two entropies. Surely, the entropy that a particular extremal black hole picks must depend on past processes, notably on how it was formed. A remarkable relation between the third law of thermodynamics and the impossibility for a massive body to reach the velocity of light is also found. In addition, in the procedure, it

Seasonal temperature extremes in Potsdam

Science.gov (United States)

Kundzewicz, Zbigniew; Huang, Shaochun

2010-12-01

The awareness of global warming is well established and results from the observations made on thousands of stations. This paper complements the large-scale results by examining a long time-series of high-quality temperature data from the Secular Meteorological Station in Potsdam, where observation records over the last 117 years, i.e., from January 1893 are available. Tendencies of change in seasonal temperature-related climate extremes are demonstrated. "Cold" extremes have become less frequent and less severe than in the past, while "warm" extremes have become more frequent and more severe. Moreover, the interval of the occurrence of frost has been decreasing, while the interval of the occurrence of hot days has been increasing. However, many changes are not statistically significant, since the variability of temperature indices at the Potsdam station has been very strong.

Extreme Energy Events Project: Construction of the detectors and installation in Italian High Schools

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abbrescia, M.; An, S.; Antolini, R.; Badala, A.; Baldini Ferroli, R.; Bencivenni, G.; Blanco, F.; Bressan, E.; Chiavassa, A.; Chiri, C.; Cifarelli, L.; Cindolo, F.; Coccia, E.; De Pasquale, S.; Di Giovanni, A.; D'Incecco, M.; Fabbri, F.L.; Frolov, V.; Garbini, M.; Gustavino, C.

2008-01-01

The EEE Project, conceived by its leader Antonino Zichichi, aims to detect Extreme Energy Events of cosmic rays with an array of muon telescopes distributed over the Italian territory. The Project involves Italian High Schools in order to introduce young people to Physics, also countervailing the recent crisis of university scientific classes inscriptions. The detectors for the EEE telescopes are Multigap Resistive Plate Chambers (MRPC) and have been constructed by teams of High School students who went in shift at the CERN laboratories. The mechanics and the electronics were developed by groups of researchers from CERN, the Italian Centro Fermi and INFN. The first group of schools of the EEE Project has inaugurated their telescopes recently. A status report of the Project and the preliminary results are presented

Extreme Energy Events Project: Construction of the detectors and installation in Italian High Schools

CERN Document Server

Abbrescia, M; An, S; Antolini, R; Badalà, A; Baldini Ferroli, R; Bencivenni, G; Blanco, F; Bressan, E; Chiavassa, A; Chiri, C; Cifarelli, L; Cindolo, F; Coccia, E; De Pasquale, S; Di Giovanni, A; D’Incecco, M; Fabbri, F L; Frolov, V; Garbini, M; Gustavino, C; Hatzifotiadou, D; Imponente, G; Kim, J; La Rocca, P; Librizzi, F; Maggiora, A; Menghetti, H; Miozzi, S; Moro, R; Panareo, M; Pappalardo, G S; Piragino, G; Riggi, F; Romano, F; Sartorelli, G; Sbarra, C; Selvi, M; Serci, S; Williams, C; Zuyeuski, R

2008-01-01

The EEE Project, conceived by its leader Antonino Zichichi, aims to detect Extreme Energy Events of cosmic rays with an array of muon telescopes distributed over the Italian territory. The Project involves Italian High Schools in order to introduce young people to Physics, also countervailing the recent crisis of university scientific classes inscriptions. The detectors for the EEE telescopes are Multigap Resistive Plate Chambers (MRPC) and have been constructed by teams of High School students who went in shift at the CERN laboratories. The mechanics and the electronics were developed by groups of researchers from CERN, the Italian Centro Fermi and INFN. The first group of schools of the EEE Project has inaugurated their telescopes recently. A status report of the Project and the preliminary results are presented.

Measures of serial extremal dependence and their estimation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Davis, Richard A.; Mikosch, Thomas Valentin; Zhao, Yuwei

2013-01-01

extremal dependence is typically characterized by clusters of exceedances of high thresholds in the series. We start by discussing the notion of extremal index of a univariate sequence, i.e. the reciprocal of the expected cluster size, which has attracted major attention in the extremal value literature...... has attracted attention for modeling and statistical purposes. We apply the extremogram to max-stable processes. Finally, we discuss estimation of the extremogram both in the time and frequency domains....

Effects of Extreme Temperatures on Cause-Specific Cardiovascular Mortality in China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xuying Wang

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Objective: Limited evidence is available for the effects of extreme temperatures on cause-specific cardiovascular mortality in China. Methods: We collected data from Beijing and Shanghai, China, during 2007–2009, including the daily mortality of cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, ischemic heart disease and hypertensive disease, as well as air pollution concentrations and weather conditions. We used Poisson regression with a distributed lag non-linear model to examine the effects of extremely high and low ambient temperatures on cause-specific cardiovascular mortality. Results: For all cause-specific cardiovascular mortality, Beijing had stronger cold and hot effects than those in Shanghai. The cold effects on cause-specific cardiovascular mortality reached the strongest at lag 0–27, while the hot effects reached the strongest at lag 0–14. The effects of extremely low and high temperatures differed by mortality types in the two cities. Hypertensive disease in Beijing was particularly susceptible to both extremely high and low temperatures; while for Shanghai, people with ischemic heart disease showed the greatest relative risk (RRs = 1.16, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.34 to extremely low temperature. Conclusion: People with hypertensive disease were particularly susceptible to extremely low and high temperatures in Beijing. People with ischemic heart disease in Shanghai showed greater susceptibility to extremely cold days.

Extreme value distributions

CERN Document Server

Ahsanullah, Mohammad

2016-01-01

The aim of the book is to give a through account of the basic theory of extreme value distributions. The book cover a wide range of materials available to date. The central ideas and results of extreme value distributions are presented. The book rwill be useful o applied statisticians as well statisticians interrested to work in the area of extreme value distributions.vmonograph presents the central ideas and results of extreme value distributions.The monograph gives self-contained of theory and applications of extreme value distributions.

Pathological characteristics of extremely severe acute radiation injury in a patient's legs and hands after a very uneven accidental exposure to an extremely high dose of 192Ir

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Qing; Li Guomin; Liu Shujun; Yang Yijing; Li Fumeng; Yang Junhua

1997-01-01

The pathological characteristics of an extremely high dose radiation in the legs and hands of a patient is reported. the patient was exposed to 192 Ir γ-rays for 9 hours and 20 minutes, the activity of which was 2.76 TBq. The amputations of the right thigh and left forearm had to be performed 8 days after the irradiation and the debridements and skin graftings were performed on the right hand and the inner side of left knee 55 days after the radiation. Microscopically, massive necrosis of cells of the epidermis, cutaneous appendages, hypodermics and skeletal muscles, and hemorrhage in the dermis, hypodermics and skeletal muscles were seen in the local irradiated parts of the right shank. But the arrector pili muscles in the dermis of the right shank remained. On the fingers and the palm of the left hand, vacuolar degeneration and massive necrosis of the cells of epidermis were present with extensive neutrophil infiltration. Cysts of large or small size were formed from the necrotic cells, separating epidermis from dermis. There were degeneration and necrosis of glandular epithelium cells of sweat glands. Hemorrhage was present in dermis and hypodermics. All the hematopoietic tissues in the bone marrow in the upper ends of the tibia and fibula and in the lower ends of the femur, the radius and the ulna disappeared. Acute radiation ulcers were present on the skin of the left knee and on the skin of the thumb, index finger and middle finger of the right hand. The extremely severe acute radiation injury caused by extremely high dose of 192 Ir led to the necrosis of the extensive soft tissues deep to skeletal muscles and the disappearance of the hematopoietic tissues in the bone marrow

New evolution on the high level radioactive waste disposal in Japan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koumoto, Harumi

2001-01-01

On nuclear power generation, spent fuel is formed and reaches to about 30 ton from a 1 million kW class large power plant. As some nations deal with the spent fuel itself to waste, Japan adopts a reprocessing and recycling route to recover uranium and plutonium reusable for nuclear fuels by reprocessing of the spent fuels. As waste liquid containing about one ton of cinder (fission product) formed by nuclear fission after its recovery, a glass solid solidifying this to a stable glassy state is called the high level radioactive wastes (HLW). As it has extremely high radioactivity which continues for long term in spite of its decay with elapsing time, safety security must be paid enough attention to its countermeasure. Therefore, as a result of long-term research and development in Japan as well as in many other nations, it is admitted to be the most preferable countermeasure to bury HLW into deep stratum to safely isolate from human life environment for its scientific and technical method. Here was introduced on a framework of its disposal business in Japan of which preparation rapidly advanced as a turning point of 2000 at a center of its technical and regulative advancement. (G.K.)

Predictability of summer extreme precipitation days over eastern China

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Juan; Wang, Bin

2017-08-01

Extreme precipitation events have severe impacts on human activity and natural environment, but prediction of extreme precipitation events remains a considerable challenge. The present study aims to explore the sources of predictability and to estimate the predictability of the summer extreme precipitation days (EPDs) over eastern China. Based on the region- and season-dependent variability of EPDs, all stations over eastern China are divided into two domains: South China (SC) and northern China (NC). Two domain-averaged EPDs indices during their local high EPDs seasons (May-June for SC and July-August for NC) are therefore defined. The simultaneous lower boundary anomalies associated with each EPDs index are examined, and we find: (a) the increased EPDs over SC are related to a rapid decaying El Nino and controlled by Philippine Sea anticyclone anomalies in May-June; (b) the increased EPDs over NC are accompanied by a developing La Nina and anomalous zonal sea level pressure contrast between the western North Pacific subtropical high and East Asian low in July-August. Tracking back the origins of these boundary anomalies, one or two physically meaningful predictors are detected for each regional EPDs index. The causative relationships between the predictors and the corresponding EPDs over each region are discussed using lead-lag correlation analyses. Using these selected predictors, a set of Physics-based Empirical models is derived. The 13-year (2001-2013) independent forecast shows significant temporal correlation skills of 0.60 and 0.74 for the EPDs index of SC and NC, respectively, providing an estimation of the predictability for summer EPDs over eastern China.

Extremely high efficient nanoreactor with Au@ZnO catalyst for photocatalysis

Science.gov (United States)

Su, Chung-Yi; Yang, Tung-Han; Gurylev, Vitaly; Huang, Sheng-Hsin; Wu, Jenn-Ming; Perng, Tsong-Pyng

2015-10-01

We fabricated a photocatalytic Au@ZnO@PC (polycarbonate) nanoreactor composed of monolayered Au nanoparticles chemisorbed on conformal ZnO nanochannel arrays within the PC membrane. A commercial PC membrane was used as the template for deposition of a ZnO shell into the pores by atomic layer deposition (ALD). Thioctic acid (TA) with sufficient steric stabilization was used as a molecular linker for functionalization of Au nanoparticles in a diameter of 10 nm. High coverage of Au nanoparticles anchored on the inner wall of ZnO nanochannels greatly improved the photocatalytic activity for degradation of Rhodamine B. The membrane nanoreactor achieved 63% degradation of Rhodamine B within only 26.88 ms of effective reaction time owing to its superior mass transfer efficiency based on Damköhler number analysis. Mass transfer limitation can be eliminated in the present study due to extremely large surface-to-volume ratio of the membrane nanoreactor.

Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments, Phase II

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Extreme environments abound in the solar system and include the radiation around Jupiter, high surface temperatures on Mercury and Venus, and hot, high pressure...

Aminostratigraphic correlations and paleotemperature implications, Pliocene-Pleistocene high-sea-level deposits, northwestern Alaska

Science.gov (United States)

Kaufman, Darrell S.; Brigham-Grette, Julie

Multiple periods of Late Pliocene and Pleistocene high sea level are recorded by surficial deposits along the coastal plains of northwestern Alaska. Analyses of the extent of amino acid epimerization in fossil molluscan shells from the Nome coastal plain of the northern Bering Sea coast, and from the Alaskan Arctic Coastal Plain of the Chukchi and Beaufort Sea coasts, allow recognition of at least five intervals of higher-than-present relative sea level. Three Late Pliocene transgressions are represented at Nome by the complex and protracted Beringian transgression, and on the Arctic Coastal Plain by the Colvillian, Bigbendian, and Fishcreekian transgressions. These were followed by a lengthy period of non-marine deposition during the Early Pleistocene when sea level did not reach above its present position. A Middle Pleistocene high-sea-level event is represented at Nome by the Anvilian transgression, and on the Arctic Coastal Plain by the Wainwrightian transgression. Anvilian deposits at the type locality are considerably younger than previously thought, perhaps as young as Oxygen-Isotope Stage 11 (˜410,000 BP). Finally, the last interglacial Pelukian transgression is represented discontinuously along the shores of northwestern Alaska. Amino acid epimerization data, together with previous paleomagnetic measurements, radiometric-age determinations, and paleontologic evidence provide geochronological constraints on the sequence of marine deposits. They form the basis of regional correlations and offer a means of evaluating the post-depositional thermal history of the high-sea-level deposits. Provisional correlations between marine units at Nome and the Artic Coastal Plain indicate that the temperature difference that separates the two sites today had existed by about 3.0 Ma. Since that time, the effective diagenetic temperature was lowered by about 3-4°C at both sites, and the mean annual temperature was lowered considerably more. This temperature decrease was

Novel all-extremity high-intensity interval training improves aerobic fitness, cardiac function and insulin resistance in healthy older adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Hwang, Chueh-Lung; Yoo, Jeung-Ki; Kim, Han-Kyul; Hwang, Moon-Hyon; Handberg, Eileen M; Petersen, John W; Christou, Demetra D

2016-09-01

Aging is associated with decreased aerobic fitness and cardiac remodeling leading to increased risk for cardiovascular disease. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) on the treadmill has been reported to be more effective in ameliorating these risk factors compared with moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) in patients with cardiometabolic disease. In older adults, however, weight-bearing activities are frequently limited due to musculoskeletal and balance problems. The purpose of this study was to examine the feasibility and safety of non-weight-bearing all-extremity HIIT in older adults. In addition, we tested the hypothesis that all-extremity HIIT will be more effective in improving aerobic fitness, cardiac function, and metabolic risk factors compared with all-extremity MICT. Fifty-one healthy sedentary older adults (age: 65±1years) were randomized to HIIT (n=17), MICT (n=18) or non-exercise control (CONT; n=16). HIIT (4×4min 90% of peak heart rate; HRpeak) and isocaloric MICT (70% of HRpeak) were performed on a non-weight-bearing all-extremity ergometer, 4×/week for 8weeks under supervision. All-extremity HIIT was feasible in older adults and resulted in no adverse events. Aerobic fitness (peak oxygen consumption; VO2peak) and ejection fraction (echocardiography) improved by 11% (PHIIT, while no changes were observed in MICT and CONT (P≥0.1). Greater improvements in ejection fraction were associated with greater improvements in VO2peak (r=0.57; PHIIT by 26% (P=0.016). Diastolic function, body composition, glucose and lipids were unaffected (P≥0.1). In conclusion, all-extremity HIIT is feasible and safe in older adults. HIIT, but not MICT, improved aerobic fitness, ejection fraction, and insulin resistance. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Novel All-Extremity High-Intensity Interval Training Improves Aerobic Fitness, Cardiac Function and Insulin Resistance in Healthy Older Adults

Science.gov (United States)

Hwang, Chueh-Lung; Yoo, Jeung-Ki; Kim, Han-Kyul; Hwang, Moon-Hyon; Handberg, Eileen M.; Petersen, John W.; Christou, Demetra D.

2016-01-01

Aging is associated with decreased aerobic fitness and cardiac remodeling leading to increased risk for cardiovascular disease. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) on the treadmill has been reported to be more effective in ameliorating these risk factors compared with moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) in patients with cardiometabolic disease. In older adults, however, weight-bearing activities are frequently limited due to musculoskeletal and balance problems. The purpose of this study was to examine the feasibility and safety of non-weight-bearing all-extremity HIIT in older adults. In addition, we tested the hypothesis that all-extremity HIIT will be more effective in improving aerobic fitness, cardiac function, and metabolic risk factors compared with all-extremity MICT. Fifty-one healthy sedentary older adults (age: 65±1 years) were randomized to HIIT (n=17), MICT (n=18) or non-exercise control (CONT; n=16). HIIT (4×4 minutes 90% of peak heart rate; HRpeak) and isocaloric MICT (70% of HRpeak) were performed on a non-weight-bearing all-extremity ergometer, 4x/week for 8 weeks under supervision. All-extremity HIIT was feasible in older adults and resulted in no adverse events. Aerobic fitness (peak oxygen consumption; VO2peak) and ejection fraction (echocardiography) improved by 11% (PHIIT, while no changes were observed in MICT and CONT (P≥0.1). Greater improvements in ejection fraction were associated with greater improvements in VO2peak (r=0.57; PHIIT by 26% (P=0.016). Diastolic function, body composition, glucose and lipids were unaffected (P≥0.1). In conclusion, all-extremity HIIT is feasible and safe in older adults. HIIT, but not MICT, improved aerobic fitness, ejection fraction, and insulin resistance. PMID:27346646

Cell wall metabolism and hexose allocation contribute to biomass accumulation in high yielding extreme segregants of a Saccharum interspecific F2 population.

Science.gov (United States)

Wai, Ching Man; Zhang, Jisen; Jones, Tyler C; Nagai, Chifumi; Ming, Ray

2017-10-11

Sugarcane is an emerging dual-purpose biofuel crop for energy and sugar production, owing to its rapid growth rate, high sucrose storage in the stems, and high lignocellulosic yield. It has the highest biomass production reaching 1.9 billion tonnes in 2014 worldwide. To improve sugarcane biomass accumulation, we developed an interspecific cross between Saccharum officinarum 'LA Purple' and Saccharum robustum 'MOL5829'. Selected F1 individuals were self-pollinated to generate a transgressive F2 population with a wide range of biomass yield. Leaf and stem internodes of fourteen high biomass and eight low biomass F2 extreme segregants were used for RNA-seq to decipher the molecular mechanism of rapid plant growth and dry weight accumulation. Gene Ontology terms involved in cell wall metabolism and carbohydrate catabolism were enriched among 3274 differentially expressed genes between high and low biomass groups. Up-regulation of cellulose metabolism, pectin degradation and lignin biosynthesis genes were observed in the high biomass group, in conjunction with higher transcript levels of callose metabolic genes and the cell wall loosening enzyme expansin. Furthermore, UDP-glucose biosynthesis and sucrose conversion genes were differentially expressed between the two groups. A positive correlation between stem glucose, but not sucrose, levels and dry weight was detected. We thus postulated that the high biomass sugarcane plants rapidly convert sucrose to UDP-glucose, which is the building block of cell wall polymers and callose, in order to maintain the rapid plant growth. The gene interaction of cell wall metabolism, hexose allocation and cell division contributes to biomass yield.

Investigating Extreme Lifestyles through Mangrove Transcriptomics

Science.gov (United States)

Dassanayake, Maheshi

2009-01-01

Mangroves represent phylogenetically diverse taxa in tropical coastal terrestrial habitats. They are extremophiles, evolutionarily adapted to tolerate flooding, anoxia, high temperatures, wind, and high and extremely variable salt conditions in typically resource-poor environments. The genetic basis for these adaptations is, however, virtually…

A High-Voltage Level Tolerant Transistor Circuit

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Annema, Anne J.; Geelen, Godefridus Johannes Gertrudis Maria

2001-01-01

A high-voltage level tolerant transistor circuit, comprising a plurality of cascoded transistors, including a first transistor (T1) operatively connected to a high-voltage level node (3) and a second transistor (T2) operatively connected to a low-voltage level node (2). The first transistor (T1)

Seasonal Cycle in German Daily Precipitation Extremes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Madlen Fischer

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The seasonal cycle of extreme precipitation in Germany is investigated by fitting statistical models to monthly maxima of daily precipitation sums for 2,865 rain gauges. The basis is a non-stationary generalized extreme value (GEV distribution variation of location and scale parameters. The negative log-likelihood serves as the forecast error for a cross validation to select adequate orders of the harmonic functions for each station. For nearly all gauges considered, the seasonal model is more appropriate to estimate return levels on a monthly scale than a stationary GEV used for individual months. The 100-year return-levels show the influence of cyclones in the western, and convective events in the eastern part of Germany. In addition to resolving the seasonality, we use a simulation study to show that annual return levels can be estimated more precisely from a monthly-resolved seasonal model than from a stationary model based on annual maxima.

Non-extremal Kerr black holes as particle accelerators

OpenAIRE

Gao, Sijie; Zhong, Changchun

2011-01-01

It has been shown that extremal Kerr black holes can be used as particle accelerators and arbitrarily high energy may be obtained near the event horizon. We study particle collisions near the event horizon (outer horizon) and Cauchy horizon (inner horizon) of a non-extremal Kerr black hole. Firstly, we provide a general proof showing that particles cannot collide with arbitrarily high energies at the outter horizon. Secondly, we show that ultraenergetic collisions can occur near the inner hor...

High incidence of rickets in extremely low birth weight infants with severe parenteral nutrition-associated cholestasis and bronchopulmonary dysplasia.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Soon Min; Namgung, Ran; Park, Min Soo; Eun, Ho Sun; Park, Kook In; Lee, Chul

2012-12-01

Risk factors for rickets of prematurity have not been re-examined since introduction of high mineral formula, particularly in ELBW infants. We analyzed the incidence and the risk factors of rickets in extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants. As a retrospective case-control study from 2004 to 2008, risk factors were analyzed in 24 patients with rickets versus 31 patients without. The frequency of rickets in ELBW infants was 24/55 (44%). Infants with rickets were diagnosed at 48.2 ± 16.1 days of age, and improved by 85.3 ± 25.3 days. By radiologic evaluation, 29% were grade 1 rickets, 58% grade 2 and 13% grade 3. In univariate analysis, infants with rickets had significantly higher incidence of patent ductus arteriosus, parenteral nutrition associated cholestasis (PNAC), severe PNAC and moderate/severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). In multiple regression analysis, after adjustment for gestation and birth weight, rickets significantly correlated with severe PNAC and with moderate/severe BPD. Serum peak alkaline phosphatase levels were significantly elevated in rickets (P rickets of prematurity remains high and the incidence of severe PNAC and moderate/severe BPD was significantly increased 18 and 3 times, respectively.

Extreme climate, not extreme weather: the summer of 1816 in Geneva, Switzerland

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. Auchmann

2012-02-01

Full Text Available We analyze weather and climate during the "Year without Summer" 1816 using sub-daily data from Geneva, Switzerland, representing one of the climatically most severely affected regions. The record includes twice daily measurements and observations of air temperature, pressure, cloud cover, wind speed, and wind direction as well as daily measurements of precipitation. Comparing 1816 to a contemporary reference period (1799–1821 reveals that the coldness of the summer of 1816 was most prominent in the afternoon, with a shift of the entire distribution function of temperature anomalies by 3–4 °C. Early morning temperature anomalies show a smaller change for the mean, a significant decrease in the variability, and no changes in negative extremes. Analyzing cloudy and cloud-free conditions separately suggests that an increase in the number of cloudy days was to a significant extent responsible for these features. A daily weather type classification based on pressure, pressure tendency, and wind direction shows extremely anomalous frequencies in summer 1816, with only one day (compared to 20 in an average summer classified as high-pressure situation but a tripling of low-pressure situations. The afternoon temperature anomalies expected from only a change in weather types was much stronger negative in summer 1816 than in any other year. For precipitation, our analysis shows that the 80% increase in summer precipitation compared to the reference period can be explained by 80% increase in the frequency of precipitation, while no change could be found neither in the average intensity of precipitation nor in the frequency distribution of extreme precipitation. In all, the analysis shows that the regional circulation and local cloud cover played a dominant role. It also shows that the summer of 1816 was an example of extreme climate, not extreme weather.

Extreme eigenvalues of sample covariance and correlation matrices

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Heiny, Johannes

This thesis is concerned with asymptotic properties of the eigenvalues of high-dimensional sample covariance and correlation matrices under an infinite fourth moment of the entries. In the first part, we study the joint distributional convergence of the largest eigenvalues of the sample covariance...... matrix of a p-dimensional heavy-tailed time series when p converges to infinity together with the sample size n. We generalize the growth rates of p existing in the literature. Assuming a regular variation condition with tail index ... eigenvalues are essentially determined by the extreme order statistics from an array of iid random variables. The asymptotic behavior of the extreme eigenvalues is then derived routinely from classical extreme value theory. The resulting approximations are strikingly simple considering the high dimension...

Sea Extremes: Integrated impact assessment in coastal climate adaptation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Carlo Sass; Knudsen, Per; Broge, Niels

2016-01-01

protection measures, topography, and infrastructure to provide a more complete picture of the water-related impact from climate change at an exposed coastal location. Results show that future sea extremes evaluated from extreme value statistics may, indeed, have a large impact. The integrated effects from......We investigate effects of sea level rise and a change in precipitation pattern on coastal flooding hazards. Historic and present in situ and satellite data of water and groundwater levels, precipitation, vertical ground motion, geology,and geotechnical soil properties are combined with flood...... research advances and projections for the future are updated....

Understanding the Impacts of Climate and Hydrologic Extremes on Diarrheal Diseases in Southwestern Amazon

Science.gov (United States)

Fonseca, P. A. M.

2015-12-01

Bacterial diarrheal diseases have a high incidence rate during and after flooding episodes. In the Brazilian Amazon, flood extreme events have become more frequent, leading to high incidence rates for infant diarrhea. In this study we aimed to find a statistical association between rainfall, river levels and diarrheal diseases in children under 5, in the river Acre basin, in the State of Acre (Brazil). We also aimed to identify the time-lag and annual season of extreme rainfall and flooding in different cities in the water basin. The results using Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Satellite rainfall data show robustness of these estimates against observational stations on-ground. The Pearson coefficient correlation results (highest 0.35) indicate a time-lag, up to 4 days in three of the cities in the water-basin. In addition, a correlation was also tested between monthly accumulated rainfall and the diarrheal incidence during the rainy season (DJF). Correlation results were higher, especially in Acrelândia (0.7) and Brasiléia and Epitaciolândia (0.5). The correlation between water level monthly averages and diarrheal diseases incidence was 0.3 and 0.5 in Brasiléia and Epitaciolândia. The time-lag evidence found in this paper is critical to inform stakeholders, local populations and civil defense authorities about the time available for preventive and adaptation measures between extreme rainfall and flooding events in vulnerable cities. This study was part of a pilot application in the state of Acre of the PULSE-Brazil project (http://www.pulse-brasil.org/tool/), an interface of climate, environmental and health data to support climate adaptation. The next step of this research is to expand the analysis to other climate variables on diarrheal diseases across the whole Brazilian Amazon Basin and estimate the relative risk (RR) of a child getting sick. A statistical model will estimate RR based on the observed values and seasonal forecasts (higher

Drivers of flood damage on event level

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kreibich, H.; Aerts, J. C. J. H.; Apel, H.

2016-01-01

Flood risk is dynamic and influenced by many processes related to hazard, exposure and vulnerability. Flood damage increased significantly over the past decades, however, resulting overall economic loss per event is an aggregated indicator and it is difficult to attribute causes to this increasing...... trend. Much has been learned about damaging processes during floods at the micro-scale, e.g. building level. However, little is known about the main factors determining the amount of flood damage on event level. Thus, we analyse and compare paired flood events, i.e. consecutive, similar damaging floods...... example are the 2002 and 2013 floods in the Elbe and Danube catchments in Germany. The 2002 flood caused the highest economic damage (EUR 11600 million) due to a natural hazard event in Germany. Damage was so high due to extreme flood hazard triggered by extreme precipitation and a high number...

EXTREME METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS AND METABOLIC PROFILE IN HIGH YIELDING HOLSTEINFRIESIAN DAIRY COWS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Z. GERGÁCZ

2008-10-01

Full Text Available The impact of two years (2002 and 2003 with different summer temperature extremes on variation in metabolic profile was analyzed in blood and urine samples taken from healthy, primiparous (n = 371 and multiparous (n = 795 high yielding Holstein-Friesian dairy cows. In this study main focus was lead on three most critical physiological phases, thus cows were assigned into three groups as follows: (1 dry cows for 10 days prior to calving; (2 cows 1-30 days after delivery, and (3 cows with more than 31 days post partum. Findings reveal clear response of the cows to heat in selected blood (hemoglobin, plasma aceto-acetic-acid, FFA, AST, glucose, urea and urine (pH, NABE and urea parameters. In the majority of cows, glucose and hemoglobin level, one of the most significant blood parameters, indicated symptoms of insufficient energy supply. Further metabolic indicators differed more or less from reference values depending on actual condition. Due to heat load dry matter intake has been decreased even by 10-15 per cent in primiparous cows. They were expected to increase body weight and size and simultaneously produce attain at large milk yields. In doing so that cows would have require large amount of nutrients. Out of parameters such as hemoglobin, glucose, FFA, AST and blood-urea differed from the reference values in most cases; however, this phenomenon seemed to be present in almost every case for hemoglobin and glucose. The lack of energy caused by heat stress can be contributed to the decrease of dry matter intake which has been indicated by the urea levels and pH both in blood and urine prevailing unfavorable and insufficient feeding practice. The results reconfirm the need to reconsider both the actual feeding practice (e.g. to increase of nutrient content in rations, reduce the intake of soluble proteins in rumen, pay attention of crude fiber in Total Mixed Rations (TMR, NDF and ADF, avoid overfeeding of inorganic buffers, to control moisture

Reoperations following combat-related upper-extremity amputations.

Science.gov (United States)

Tintle, Scott M; Baechler, Martin F; Nanos, George P; Forsberg, Jonathan A; Potter, Benjamin K

2012-08-15

Amputation revision rates following major upper-extremity amputations have not been previously reported in a large cohort of patients. We hypothesized that the revision rates following major upper-extremity amputation were higher than the existing literature would suggest, and that surgical treatment of complications and persistent symptoms would lead to improved outcomes. We performed a retrospective analysis of a consecutive series of ninety-six combat-wounded personnel who had sustained a total of 100 major upper-extremity amputations in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Prerevision and postrevision outcome measures, including prosthesis use and type, the presence of phantom and residual limb pain, pain medication use, and return to active military duty, were identified for all patients. All amputations resulted from high-energy trauma, with 87% occurring secondary to a blast injury. Forty-two residual limbs (42%) underwent a total of 103 repeat surgical interventions. As compared with patients with all other levels of amputation, those with a transradial amputation were 4.7 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.75 to 12.46) times more likely to have phantom limb pain and 2.8 (95% CI: 1.04 to 7.39) times more likely to require neuropathic pain medications. In the group of patients who underwent revision surgery, regular prosthesis use increased from 19% before the revision to 87% after it (p < 0.0001). In our cohort, revision amputation to address surgical complications and persistently symptomatic residual limbs improved the patient's overall acceptance of the prosthesis and led to outcomes equivalent to those following amputations that did not require revision.

Assessing the features of extreme smog in China and the differentiated treatment strategy

Science.gov (United States)

Deng, Lu; Zhang, Zhengjun

2018-01-01

Extreme smog can have potentially harmful effects on human health, the economy and daily life. However, the average (mean) values do not provide strategically useful information on the hazard analysis and control of extreme smog. This article investigates China's smog extremes by applying extreme value analysis to hourly PM2.5 data from 2014 to 2016 obtained from monitoring stations across China. By fitting a generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution to exceedances over a station-specific extreme smog level at each monitoring location, all study stations are grouped into eight different categories based on the estimated mean and shape parameter values of fitted GEV distributions. The extreme features characterized by the mean of the fitted extreme value distribution, the maximum frequency and the tail index of extreme smog at each location are analysed. These features can provide useful information for central/local government to conduct differentiated treatments in cities within different categories and conduct similar prevention goals and control strategies among those cities belonging to the same category in a range of areas. Furthermore, hazardous hours, breaking probability and the 1-year return level of each station are demonstrated by category, based on which the future control and reduction targets of extreme smog are proposed for the cities of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei as an example.

Convergence of Extreme Value Statistics in a Two-Layer Quasi-Geostrophic Atmospheric Model

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Vera Melinda Gálfi

2017-01-01

Full Text Available We search for the signature of universal properties of extreme events, theoretically predicted for Axiom A flows, in a chaotic and high-dimensional dynamical system. We study the convergence of GEV (Generalized Extreme Value and GP (Generalized Pareto shape parameter estimates to the theoretical value, which is expressed in terms of the partial information dimensions of the attractor. We consider a two-layer quasi-geostrophic atmospheric model of the mid-latitudes, adopt two levels of forcing, and analyse the extremes of different types of physical observables (local energy, zonally averaged energy, and globally averaged energy. We find good agreement in the shape parameter estimates with the theory only in the case of more intense forcing, corresponding to a strong chaotic behaviour, for some observables (the local energy at every latitude. Due to the limited (though very large data size and to the presence of serial correlations, it is difficult to obtain robust statistics of extremes in the case of the other observables. In the case of weak forcing, which leads to weaker chaotic conditions with regime behaviour, we find, unsurprisingly, worse agreement with the theory developed for Axiom A flows.

Probabilistic attribution of individual unprecedented extreme events

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Diffenbaugh, N. S.

2016-12-01

The last decade has seen a rapid increase in efforts to understand the influence of global warming on individual extreme climate events. Although trends in the distributions of climate observations have been thoroughly analyzed, rigorously quantifying the contribution of global-scale warming to individual events that are unprecedented in the observed record presents a particular challenge. This paper describes a method for leveraging observations and climate model ensembles to quantify the influence of historical global warming on the severity and probability of unprecedented events. This approach uses formal inferential techniques to quantify four metrics: (1) the contribution of the observed trend to the event magnitude, (2) the contribution of the observed trend to the event probability, (3) the probability of the observed trend in the current climate and a climate without human influence, and (4) the probability of the event magnitude in the current climate and a climate without human influence. Illustrative examples are presented, spanning a range of climate variables, timescales, and regions. These examples illustrate that global warming can influence the severity and probability of unprecedented extremes. In some cases - particularly high temperatures - this change is indicated by changes in the mean. However, changes in probability do not always arise from changes in the mean, suggesting that global warming can alter the frequency with which complex physical conditions co-occur. Because our framework is transparent and highly generalized, it can be readily applied to a range of climate events, regions, and levels of climate forcing.

Effects of Extreme Events on Arsenic Cycling in Salt Marshes

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Northrup, Kristy; Capooci, Margaret; Seyfferth, Angelia L.

2018-03-01

Extreme events such as storm surges, intense precipitation, and supermoons cause anomalous and large fluctuations in water level in tidal salt marshes, which impacts the sediment biogeochemistry that dictates arsenic (As) cycling. In addition to changes in water level, which impacts soil redox potential, these extreme events may also change salinity due to freshwater inputs from precipitation or saltwater inputs due to surge. It is currently unknown how As mobility in tidal salt marshes will be impacted by extreme events, as fluctuations in salinity and redox potential may act synergistically to mobilize As. To investigate impacts of extreme events on As cycling in tidal salt marshes, we conducted a combined laboratory and field investigation. We monitored pore water and soil samples before, during, and after two extreme events: a supermoon lunar eclipse followed by a storm surge and precipitation induced by Hurricane Joaquin in fall 2015 at the St. Jones Reserve in Dover, Delaware, a representative tidal salt marsh in the Mid-Atlantic United States. We also conducted soil incubations of marsh sediments in batch and in flow-through experiments in which redox potential and/or salinity were manipulated. Field investigations showed that pore water As was inversely proportional to redox potential. During the extreme events, a distinct pulse of As was observed in the pore water with maximum salinity. Combined field and laboratory investigations revealed that this As pulse is likely due to rapid changes in salinity. These results have implications for As mobility in the face of extreme weather variability.

Survey of upper extremity injuries among martial arts participants.

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Diesselhorst, Matthew M; Rayan, Ghazi M; Pasque, Charles B; Peyton Holder, R

2013-01-01

To survey participants at various experience levels of different martial arts (MA) about upper extremity injuries sustained during training and fighting. A 21-s question survey was designed and utilised. The survey was divided into four groups (Demographics, Injury Description, Injury Mechanism, and Miscellaneous information) to gain knowledge about upper extremity injuries sustained during martial arts participation. Chi-square testing was utilised to assess for significant associations. Males comprised 81% of respondents. Involvement in multiple forms of MA was the most prevalent (38%). The hand/wrist was the most common area injured (53%), followed by the shoulder/upper arm (27%) and the forearm/elbow (19%). Joint sprains/muscle strains were the most frequent injuries reported overall (47%), followed by abrasions/bruises (26%). Dislocations of the upper extremity were reported by 47% of participants while fractures occurred in 39%. Surgeries were required for 30% of participants. Females were less likely to require surgery and more likely to have shoulder and elbow injuries. Males were more likely to have hand injuries. Participants of Karate and Tae Kwon Do were more likely to have injuries to their hands, while participants of multiple forms were more likely to sustain injuries to their shoulders/upper arms and more likely to develop chronic upper extremity symptoms. With advanced level of training the likelihood of developing chronic upper extremity symptoms increases, and multiple surgeries were required. Hand protection was associated with a lower risk of hand injuries. Martial arts can be associated with substantial upper extremity injuries that may require surgery and extended time away from participation. Injuries may result in chronic upper extremity symptoms. Hand protection is important for reducing injuries to the hand and wrist.

Extremely Preterm Birth

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... Events Advocacy For Patients About ACOG Extremely Preterm Birth Home For Patients Search FAQs Extremely Preterm Birth ... Spanish FAQ173, June 2016 PDF Format Extremely Preterm Birth Pregnancy When is a baby considered “preterm” or “ ...

High-level waste processing and disposal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Crandall, J.L.; Krause, H.; Sombret, C.; Uematsu, K.

1984-01-01

The national high-level waste disposal plans for France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Japan, and the United States are covered. Three conclusions are reached. The first conclusion is that an excellent technology already exists for high-level waste disposal. With appropriate packaging, spent fuel seems to be an acceptable waste form. Borosilicate glass reprocessing waste forms are well understood, in production in France, and scheduled for production in the next few years in a number of other countries. For final disposal, a number of candidate geological repository sites have been identified and several demonstration sites opened. The second conclusion is that adequate financing and a legal basis for waste disposal are in place in most countries. Costs of high-level waste disposal will probably add about 5 to 10% to the costs of nuclear electric power. The third conclusion is less optimistic. Political problems remain formidable in highly conservative regulations, in qualifying a final disposal site, and in securing acceptable transport routes

Extremely low genetic diversity across mangrove taxa reflects past sea level changes and hints at poor future responses.

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Guo, Zixiao; Li, Xinnian; He, Ziwen; Yang, Yuchen; Wang, Wenqing; Zhong, Cairong; Greenberg, Anthony J; Wu, Chung-I; Duke, Norman C; Shi, Suhua

2018-04-01

The projected increases in sea levels are expected to affect coastal ecosystems. Tropical communities, anchored by mangrove trees and having experienced frequent past sea level changes, appear to be vibrant at present. However, any optimism about the resilience of these ecosystems is premature because the impact of past climate events may not be reflected in the current abundance. To assess the impact of historical sea level changes, we conducted an extensive genetic diversity survey on the Indo-Malayan coast, a hotspot with a large global mangrove distribution. A survey of 26 populations in six species reveals extremely low genome-wide nucleotide diversity and hence very small effective population sizes (N e ) in all populations. Whole-genome sequencing of three mangrove species further shows the decline in N e to be strongly associated with the speed of past changes in sea level. We also used a recent series of flooding events in Yalong Bay, southern China, to test the robustness of mangroves to sea level changes in relation to their genetic diversity. The events resulted in the death of half of the mangrove trees in this area. Significantly, less genetically diverse mangrove species suffered much greater destruction. The dieback was accompanied by a drastic reduction in local invertebrate biodiversity. We thus predict that tropical coastal communities will be seriously endangered as the global sea level rises. Well-planned coastal development near mangrove forests will be essential to avert this crisis. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Prediction of extreme floods in the Central Andes by means of Complex Networks

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Boers, Niklas; Bookhagen, Bodo; Barbosa, Henrique; Marwan, Norbert; Kurths, Jürgen; Marengo, Jose

2014-05-01

Based on a non-linear synchronisation measure and complex network theory, we present a novel framework for the prediction of extreme events of spatially embedded, interrelated time series. This method is general in the sense that it can be applied to any type of spatially sampled time series with significant interrelations, ranging from climate observables to biological or stock market data. In this presentation, we apply our method to extreme rainfall in South America and show how this leads to the prediction of more than 60% (90% during El Niño conditions) of extreme rainfall events in the eastern Central Andes of Bolivia and northern Argentina, with only 1% false alarms. From paleoclimatic to decadal time scales, the Central Andes continue to be subject to pronounced changes in climatic conditions. In particular, our and past work shows that frequency as well as magnitudes of extreme rainfall events have increased significantly during past decades, calling for a better understanding of the involved climatic mechanisms. Due to their large spatial extend and occurrence at high elevations, these extreme events often lead to severe floods and landslides with disastrous socioeconomic impacts. They regularly affect tens of thousands of people and produce estimated costs of the order of several hundred million USD. Alongside with the societal value of predicting natural hazards, our study provides insights into the responsible climatic features and suggests interactions between Rossby waves in polar regions and large scale (sub-)tropical moisture transport as a driver of subseasonal variability of the South American monsoon system. Predictable extreme events result from the propagation of extreme rainfall from the region of Buenos Aires towards the Central Andes given characteristic atmospheric conditions. Our results indicate that the role of frontal systems originating from Rossby waves in polar latitudes is much more dominant for controlling extreme rainfall in

Injuries in an Extreme Conditioning Program.

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Aune, Kyle T; Powers, Joseph M

2016-10-19

Extreme conditioning programs (ECPs) are fitness training regimens relying on aerobic, plyometric, and resistance training exercises, often with high levels of intensity for a short duration of time. These programs have grown rapidly in popularity in recent years, but science describing the safety profile of these programs is lacking. The rate of injury in the extreme conditioning program is greater than the injury rate of weightlifting and the majority of injuries occur to the shoulder and back. Cross-sectional study. Level 4. This is a retrospective survey of injuries reported by athletes participating in an ECP. An injury survey was sent to 1100 members of Iron Tribe Fitness, a gym franchise with 5 locations across Birmingham, Alabama, that employs exercises consistent with an ECP in this study. An injury was defined as a physical condition resulting from ECP participation that caused the athlete to either seek medical treatment, take time off from exercising, or make modifications to his or her technique to continue. A total of 247 athletes (22%) completed the survey. The majority (57%) of athletes were male (n = 139), and 94% of athletes were white (n = 227). The mean age of athletes was 38.9 years (±8.9 years). Athletes reported participation in the ECP for, on average, 3.6 hours per week (± 1.2 hours). Eighty-five athletes (34%) reported that they had sustained an injury while participating in the ECP. A total of 132 injuries were recorded, yielding an estimated incidence of 2.71 per 1000 hours. The shoulder or upper arm was the most commonly injured body site, accounting for 38 injuries (15% of athletes). Athletes with a previous shoulder injury were 8.1 times as likely to injure their shoulder in the ECP compared with athletes with healthy shoulders. The trunk, back, head, or neck (n = 29, 12%) and the leg or knee (n = 29, 12%) were the second most commonly injured sites. The injury incidence rate among athletes with study estimates the incidence of

High levels of Porphyromonas gingivalis-induced immunoglobulin G2 are associated with lower high-density lipoprotein levels in chronic periodontitis.