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The present study conducted a series of fire tests using a cone calorimeter to understand the effects of pure polymers and polymer mixtures on fire properties. An initial fuel mass of 50 g in a 10-cm-diameter pan was placed on the load cell. Polystyrene, polyethylene, polymethylmethacrylate, polystyrene-polyethylene mixture, and polystyrene-polymethylmethacrylate mixture was used as fuel. The fuel ignited using a pilot burner was allowed to burn freely. The fire properties of polymer mixtures, such as the mass loss rate, the effective heat of combustion, the CO yield rate, and the soot yield rate, did not depend on the mixture composition or fuel types, suggesting it is difficult to apply the statistically representative values of fire properties of the mixture. Therefore, quantitative measurements based on experiments and their database are necessary for reasonable fire analysis.

This study aims to identify the key design factors of a large-scale calorimeter and evaluate the accuracy of the simulation results using the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) program. The design specifications of a domestic large-scale calorimeter were analyzed to determine the modeling and input conditions for the simulation. The simulation results of temperature, mass flow rate, and oxygen concentration reduction inside the duct were compared with the experimental results for heptane pool fires with diameters of 1.1 m, 1.24 m, and 1.44 m, respectively. To validate the accuracy of the simulation results, the deviations, calculated using FDS for the heat release rate as the experimental value, were found to be 19.12%, 11.86%, and 0.22% for temperature, mass flow rate, and oxygen concentration, respectively. Ultimately, the results of the heat release rate inside the duct obtained by the oxygen consumption method with FDS were found to be consistent with the experimental value, within 2.58%. However, the deviation of oxygen concentration is reduced as the deviation of mass flow rate increases for a constant heat release rate. This implies that for more accurate analysis, the heat loss and shape factors in the duct should be considered.

The possible anticancer activity of combination (M + E + F) of metformin (M), efavirenz (E), and fluoxetine (F) was investigated in normal HDF cells and HCT116 human colon cancer cells. Metformin increased cellular FOXO3a, p-FOXO3a, AMPK, p-AMPK, and MnSOD levels in HDFs but not in HCT116 cells. Cellular ATP level was decreased only in HDFs by metformin. Metformin increased ROS level only in HCT116 cells. Transfection of si-FOXO3a into HCT116 reversed the metformin-induced cellular ROS induction, indicating that FOXO3a/MnSOD is the key regulator for cellular ROS level. Viability readout with M, E, and F alone decreased slightly, but the combination of three drugs dramatically decreased cell survival in HCT116, A549, and SK-Hep-1 cancer cells but not in HDF cells. ROS levels in HCT116 cells were massively increased by M + E + F combination, but not in HDF cells. Cell cycle analysis showed that of M + E + F combination caused cell death only in HCT116 cells. The combination of M + E + F reduced synergistically mitochondrial membrane potential and mitochondrial electron transport chain complex I and III activities in HCT116 cells when compared with individual treatments. Western blot analysis indicated that DNA damage, apoptosis, autophagy, and necroptosis-realated factors increased in M + E + F-treated HCT116 cells. Oral administration with M + E + F combination for 3 weeks caused dramatic reductions in tumor volume and weight in HCT116 xenograft model of nude mice when compared with untreated ones. Our results suggest that M + E + F have profound anticancer activity both

In this study, fundamental research was conducted to analyze the correlation between the main design factors of large-scale cone-calorimeters and the heat release rate. The specifications for designing cone-calorimeters of 1 MW or higher, which have been constructed in foreign research institutes, were investigated. In addition, the relationship between the total amount of smoke generated in the plume and the heat release rate determined via the oxygen consumption method was reviewed. The temperature variation inside the duct and the oxygen concentration could be decreased as the height and size of the hood increased. These results could have an important effect on the mass flow rate and oxygen consumption coefficient when calculating the heat release rate. To accurately determine the heat release rate of a large cone-calorimeter is determined, further research is necessary to analyze the design factors considering not only the blowing capacity but also the shape of the hood and height from the fire source.

This study was conducted to develop a preprocessing method that generates a computational geometry for a wildland fire simulation based on topographic data. The computational domain comprised an area of 2 km × 2 km with a height of 1.2 km, including the terrain geometry and atmosphere, in Palgongsan Natural Park near the Gatbawi district. BLENDER 2.92, an open-source 3D computer graphics software tool, was used to create the terrain surface and 3D solid objects based on the data of a digital elevation model, considering the spatial resolution of 90 m provided by the SRTM of the NASA. The level-set method of the FDS model was used to track the wildland fire spread, assuming that the speed of the wind from the east was 10 m/s. The calculated result of the fire spread was dependent on the grid size of the computational mesh and the voxel size of the 3D solid objects.

Coastal water quality is an important factor influencing public health and the quality of our nation’s beaches. In recent years, poor water quality has resulted in increased numbers of beach closures and corresponding negative impacts on tourism. This paper addresses some of the issues surrounding the management challenge of coastal water quality, in particular, beach water quality monitoring. For this effort, data on beach water quality monitoring activities conducted by states were assessed and synthesized. In total, 29 states were surveyed: 16 reported information for seawater; six reported for freshwater only; eight reported for both seawater and freshwater. Thresholds for advisories and closure vary nationally; however, all 29 states have established an online presence for their monitoring programs and display advisories and closures in real time, most often on spatial information (GIS) portals. Challenges in monitoring, prediction, and communication are assessed and discussed. Based on this assessment, the committee offers the following recommendations, as detailed in the text: • Standardization of water quality data and the distribution medium; • Enhanced public access to water quality monitoring data; • Consistent thresholds for swim advisories; • Water quality regulation reviews with stakeholder participation; • Enhanced predictive models incorporating rapid testing results; • Holistic water quality monitoring that includes indicators beyond fecal indicator bacteria; • Managing contaminants of emerging concern through identification, monitoring and control; and • Funding for water quality monitoring and reporting -- from federal, state, and local governments.

Pain and inflammation typically manifest in patients with arthritis. It is now widely known that

The US Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Environmental Laboratory (EL) and Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL) have completed several large scale hydrodynamic, sediment and water quality transport studies. These studies have been successfully executed utilizing the Geophysical Scale Transport Modeling System (GSMB), which is composed of multiple process models (Figure 1). Due to being directly and indirectly linked within the GSMB framework, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) accepted wave, hydrodynamic, sediment, and water quality transport models are both directly and indirectly linked within the GSMB framework.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most aggressive primary brain cancer and this is due to cancer cells being apoptosis-resistant and having increased cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and angiogenesis properties. Previous studies have indicated both STAT and Notch pathways being important for initiation and progression in GBM. In this work, we first studied the effects of STAT inhibitors on Notch signalling using small molecule STAT inhibitors. It was observed that STAT inhibitors surprisingly activated Notch signalling by inducing NICD and Notch target genes in GBM cells. Thus, we aimed to combine STAT inhibitor treatment with a Notch pathway inhibitor and study effects on GBM tumourigenesis. STAT5 inhibitor (Pimozide) and STAT3 inhibitor (S3I-201) were individually used in combination with γ-secretase inhibitor (DAPT), an inhibitor of Notch signalling, in a panel of GBM cells for cell proliferation and epithelial plasticity changes. Compared with single-agent treatments, combinatorial treatments with the STAT and Notch inhibitors significantly increased apoptosis in the treated cells, impairing cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. These findings suggest that concurrent blocking of STAT and Notch signalling pathways could provide added therapeutic benefit for the treatment of glioblastoma.

Purple corn extract (PCE) is a nutraceutical, an activator of AMPK, and it has antioxidants and anticancer properties. Therefore, PCE could be a candidate for alleviating cigarette smoke (CS)-induced oxidative DNA damage. This study examined whether PCE can have a protective effect on blood cells in an animal model of cigarette smoke (CS)-induced DNA damage. PCE was orally administered to CS-inhaled Spraque-Dawley (SD) rats, followed by the target cells being examined for markers of DNA damage. The study also sought to elucidate the mechanism of PCE action in the PCE treated animals. SD rat inhalation of CS was for once a day for 30 min, repeated for 7 days. PCE was administered orally before CS inhalation. Pretreatment of the animals with oral PCE kept the numbers of white blood cells (WBC) as well as neutrophils (NE), lymphocytes (LY), monocytes (Mo), eosinophils (EO), abd jasophils (BA) from increasing as those were increased in the CS-inhaling SD rats. The amount of phosphorylated γ-H2AX, a DNA damage marker, was assayed in the circulating blood cells collected from the animals and western blot analysis with anti-Foxo3a, p-Foxo3a, p-AMPK, MnSOD antibodies were performed on those cells. PCE protected the circulating blood cells from CS inhalation-induced DNA damage by 44% as assayed by increases in γ-H2AX. PCE also increased the nuclear localization of Foxo3a by 52% over control cells. Mechanistically, PCE appears to efficiently protect various blood cell types from CS-induced DNA damage through removal of ROS via activation of the AMPK/Foxo3a/MnSOD pathway.

Inappropriate posture during radiographic assessment may lead to misunderstanding of postoperative alignment after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). The EOS system assesses coronal and sagittal alignment simultaneously. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of flexion and/or rotation on alignment, and identify the patterns of knee posture with serial follow-up using the EOS system.One-hundred and fifteen patients of TKA and serial whole-body EOS were included. The hip-knee-ankle (HKA) angle in the coronal and sagittal planes, femoral component rotation ratio (FCR), tibial component rotation ratio (TCR), and fibular overlap ratio (FO) were measured immediately and at six months and one year postoperatively. Total and partial correlation, using flexion and rotation as a control variable was performed.The mean HKA values and flexion immediately post-operation were different compared with the values noted at six months and one year postoperatively (for all, P 0.05). The FCR and FO were correlated with the HKA angle during all periods (for both, P 0.05). The Pearson correlation coefficients of the HKA angle with rotation parameters decreased when flexion was controlled.Combined rotation and flexion of the knee joint has a greater effect on coronal alignment compared with isolated flexion or rotation and was more frequently observed during the early postoperative period. Therefore, surgeons should be made aware of the potential knee rotation and flexion errors after TKA.

The aim of this study is to investigate the gas temperature and velocity during sprinkler activation considering the fire growth scenario based on the thermal response model of the sprinkler. The fire source is assumed to have time square fire growth scenarios with a maximum heat release rate of 3 MW. Eight types of standard and fast-response sprinkler heads with an operating temperature range of 65–105 ℃ and a response time index range of 25–171 m1/2s1/2 were adopted. The temperature difference between the gas stream and the sensing element of the sprinkler head decreased as the fire growth slowed down, and the RTI value decreased. The overall gas temperature and velocity conditions predicted using the FDS model at sprinkler activation were in reasonable agreement with those of standard test conditions of the sprinkler head response. However, the sprinkler head could be activated at lower limits of gas temperature and velocity under the current test conditions for a slowly growing fire scenario.

The energy released by various burning material has a wide range of its magnitude and transient characteristics, the measurement of the heat release rate(HRR) has been considered as one of the most challenging issue among the parameters related to fire. This study compares the measured HRR calculated by the oxygen consumption (OC) method and the carbon dioxide generation (CDG) method using a laboratory-scale fire calorimeter. The feasibility of the CDG method is examined by analyzing the relative error. The relationship between the oxygen depletion factor and CO2 mass flow rate, which is a key parameter in HRR calculations, showed strong linearity at 6 % for the methane burner fire. The contribution of HRR by CO was less than 7% compared with the of HRR by CO2 in the CDG calculation method. The linearity of the OC and CDG methods with respect to HRR of the referenced methane burner in a quasi-steady state was less than 1%; this indicates that the CDG method can be utilized as a complementary method in heat release rate measurement.

Our Aim was to find the stochastic optimal solution for a boiler process in order to maximize steam generation while complying with pollutant emissions regulations. For a simulation base-model, support vector regression (SVR) is employed to present a general discrete-time dynamical system of a boiler, and a stochastic optimization was performed to take inherent process uncertainties into account. To generate a stochastic optimization problem, sample average approximation (SAA) based on Monte-Carlo sampling was introduced due to the properties of a SVR. Moreover, a gradient free-based particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique was applied to find the optimal parameters of SVR and investigate the stochastic optimal solution for the boiler process. The results show that the stochastic optimal solution provides almost 2% more steam generation under uncertainties: this indicates that the stochastic optimal solution provides more realistic results compared to the deterministic approach. The proposed methodology can be applied straightforwardly to black box models, or when the use of gradient-based optimization solvers is restricted.

Mobile Bay is a large estuary located in the southwest corner of Alabama, which connects to the Gulf of Mexico. Mobile Harbor contains the only port in the state that supports ocean-going vessels. Some of the larger vessels calling on the port experience transit delays and limited cargo capacity, so a study was conducted by the US Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District (CESAM), and the Alabama State Port Authority to investigate channel improvements. In 2017, the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) assisted CESAM in screening proposed deepening and widening alternatives in Mobile Bay by completing a Feasibility Level Ship Simulation (FLSS) study using the ERDC Ship/Tow Simulator. These lower-resolution databases from the FLSS study were used as a foundation to complete a more robust navigation study in 2020 to test the proposed modifications to Mobile Harbor. During this study, three main areas were focused on: a bend easing, a passing lane, and a turning basin. Testing of the proposed design was evaluated over the course of 2 weeks with eight pilots. Assessment of the proposed modifications was accomplished through analysis of ship simulations completed by experienced local pilots, discussions, track plots, run sheets, and final pilot surveys.

Jagged1 (JAG1) is a Notch ligand that contact-dependently activates Notch receptors and regulates cancer progression. The JAG1 intracellular domain (JICD1) is generated from JAG1, like formation of the NOTCH1 intracellular domain (NICD1); however, the role of JICD1 in tumorigenicity has not been comprehensively elucidated. Here we show that JICD1 induces astrocytes to acquire several cancer stem cell properties, including tumor formation, invasiveness, stemness, and resistance to anticancer therapy. The transcriptome, chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq), and proteomics analyses show that JICD1 increases SOX2 expression by forming a transcriptional complex with DDX17, SMAD3, and TGIF2. JICD1-driven tumorigenicity is directly regulated by SOX2. Our results demonstrate that, like NICD1, JICD1 acts as a transcriptional cofactor in formation of the DDX17/SMAD3/TGIF2 transcriptional complex, leading to oncogenic transformation.

The Environmental Laboratory (EL) and the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL) have jointly completed a number of large-scale hydrodynamic, sediment and water quality transport studies. EL and CHL have successfully executed these studies utilizing the Geophysical Scale Transport Modeling System (GSMB). The model framework of GSMB is composed of multiple process models as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1 shows that the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) accepted wave, hydrodynamic, sediment and water quality transport models are directly and indirectly linked within the GSMB framework. The components of GSMB are the two-dimensional (2D) deep-water wave action model (WAM) (Komen et al. 1994, Jensen et al. 2012), data from meteorological model (MET) (e.g., Saha et al. 2010 - http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/2010BAMS3001.1), shallow water wave models (STWAVE) (Smith et al. 1999), Coastal Modeling System wave (CMS-WAVE) (Lin et al. 2008), the large-scale, unstructured two-dimensional Advanced Circulation (2D ADCIRC) hydrodynamic model (http://www.adcirc.org), and the regional scale models, Curvilinear Hydrodynamics in three dimensions-Multi-Block (CH3D-MB) (Luong and Chapman 2009), which is the multi-block (MB) version of Curvilinear Hydrodynamics in three-dimensions-Waterways Experiments Station (CH3D-WES) (Chapman et al. 1996, Chapman et al. 2009), MB CH3D-SEDZLJ sediment transport model (Hayter et al. 2012), and CE-QUAL Management - ICM water quality model (Bunch et al. 2003, Cerco and Cole 1994). Task 1 of the DOER project, “Modeling Transport in Wetting/Drying and Vegetated Regions,” is to implement and test three-dimensional (3D) wetting and drying (W/D) within GSMB. This technical note describes the methods and results of Task 1. The original W/D routines were restricted to a single vertical layer or depth-averaged simulations. In order to retain the required 3D or multi-layer capability of MB-CH3D, a multi-block version with variable block layers was developed (Chapman and Luong 2009). This approach requires a combination of grid decomposition, MB, and Message Passing Interface (MPI) communication (Snir et al. 1998). The MB single layer W/D has demonstrated itself as an effective tool in hyper-tide environments, such as Cook Inlet, Alaska (Hayter et al. 2012). The code modifications, implementation, and testing of a fully 3D W/D are described in the following sections of this technical note.

Metformin increased cellular ROS levels in AsPC-1 pancreatic cancer cells, with minimal effect in HDF, human primary dermal fibroblasts. Metformin reduced cellular ATP levels in HDF, but not in AsPC-1 cells. Metformin increased AMPK, p-AMPK (Thr172), FOXO3a, p-FOXO3a (Ser413), and MnSOD levels in HDF, but not in AsPC-1 cells. p-AMPK and p-FOXO3a also translocated from the cytosol to the nucleus by metformin in HDF, but not in AsPC-1 cells. Transfection of si-FOXO3a in HDF increased ROS levels, while wt-FOXO3a-transfected AsPC-1 cells decreased ROS levels. Metformin combined with apigenin increased ROS levels dramatically and decreased cell viability in various cancer cells including AsPC-1 cells, with each drug used singly having a minimal effect. Metformin/apigenin combination synergistically decreased mitochondrial membrane potential in AsPC-1 cells but to a lesser extent in HDF cells. Metformin/apigenin combination in AsPC-1 cells increased DNA damage-, apoptosis-, autophagy- and necroptosis-related factors, but not in HDF cells. Oral administration with metformin/apigenin caused dramatic blocks tumor size in AsPC-1-xenografted nude mice. Our results suggest that metformin in cancer cells differentially regulates cellular ROS levels via AMPK-FOXO3a-MnSOD pathway and combination of metformin/apigenin exerts anticancer activity through DNA damage-induced apoptosis, autophagy and necroptosis by cancer cell-specific ROS amplification.

A process-based parametric closure model for estimating cross-shore sediment transport (CST) rate has been developed for simulating long-term shoreline evolution. The formulations of this ...