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When a more viscous fluid displaces a less viscous one in porous media, viscous pressure drop stabilizes the displacement front against capillary pressure fluctuation. For this favorable viscous ratio conditions, previous studies focused on the front instability under slow flow conditions but did not address competing effects of wettability and flow rate. Here we study how this competition controls displacement patterns. We propose a theoretical model that describes the crossover from fingering to stable flow as a function of invading fluid contact angle θ and capillary number Ca. The phase diagram predicted by the model shows that decreasing θ stabilizes the displacement for θ≥45° and the critical contact angle θc increases with Ca. The boundary between corner flow and cooperative filling for θ < 45° is also described. This work extends the classic phase diagram and has potential applications in predicting CO2 capillary trapping and manipulating wettability to enhance gas/oil displacement efficiency.

Extreme weather, fires, and land use and climate change are significantly reshaping interactions within watersheds throughout the world. Although hydrological–biogeochemical interactions within watersheds can impact many services valued by society, uncertainty associated with predicting hydrologydriven biogeochemical watershed dynamics remains high. With an aim to reduce this uncertainty, an approximately 300-km2 mountainous headwater observatory has been developed at the East River, CO, watershed of the Upper Colorado River Basin. The site is being used as a testbed for the Department of Energy supported Watershed Function Project and collaborative efforts. Building on insights gained from research at the “sister” Rifle, CO, site, coordinated studies are underway at the East River site to gain a predictive understanding of how the mountainous watershed retains and releases water, nutrients, carbon, and metals. In particular, the project is exploring how early snowmelt, drought, and other disturbances influence hydrological–biogeochemical watershed dynamics at seasonal to decadal timescales. A system-of-systems perspective and a scale-adaptive simulation approach, involving the combined use of archetypal watershed subsystem “intensive sites” are being tested at the site to inform aggregated watershed predictions of downgradient exports. Complementing intensive site hydrological, geochemical, geophysical, microbiological, geological, and vegetation datasets are long-term, distributed measurement stations and specialized experimental and observational campaigns. Several recent research advances provide insights about the intensive sites as well as aggregated watershed behavior. The East River “community testbed” is currently hosting scientists from more than 30 institutions to advance mountainous watershed methods and understanding.

Ryo Takahashi, Sakiko Isojima, Masayu Umemura, Yoko Miura, Nao Oguro, Syo Ishii, Shinya Seki, Takahiro Tokunaga, Hiroyuki Tsukamoto, Hidekazu Furuya, Ryo Yanai, Tsuyoshi KasamaDivision of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Showa University School of Medicine,Tokyo, Japan Abstract: Anticyclic citrullinated protein antibody (ACPA) is known as an important indicator for diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Our aim was to examine the relationship between the serum ACPA titer at baseline and responsiveness to biological agents (antagonists of either tumor necrosis factor or interleukin 6) in patients with RA. ACPA was measured using second-generation chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassay. Disease activity was assessed using disease activity scores 28. Fifty-seven RA patients with biological agents were enrolled, and the median ACPA titer at baseline was 110.0 U/mL. The median ACPA titer was 23.3 U/mL and 183.0 U/mL in the good and moderate response groups, respectively, which were significantly lower than in the no response group (404.0 U/mL). In addition, 69.2% and 26.9% of patients with low (

Hidekazu Furuya,1 Tsuyoshi Kasama,1 Takeo Isozaki,1,2 Masayu Umemura,1 Kumiko Otsuka,1 Sakiko Isojima,1 Hiroyuki Tsukamoto,1 TakehiroTokunaga,1 Ryo Yanai,1 Ryo Takahashi11Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Showa University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan; 2Department of Rheumatology,University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USAAbstract: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a significant cause of work disability and job loss. The resulting economic burden experienced by patients has received considerable research attention. This research assesses the effect of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antagonists (infliximab, etanercept) on the ability of RA patients living in Japan to work and participate in society. A total of 42 patients with active RA were enrolled and given biological therapy for 12 months (mo). Of these patients, 14 were employed full-time, 6 were employed part-time, and 22 were not employed. Twenty-six patients were given infliximab, and sixteen were given etanercept. The amount of domestic labor performed before the biologics served as a baseline and was assigned a value of 0%. After treatment with biologics, the productivity was evaluated using the visual analog scale (VAS; −100 to +100 mm). The administration of TNF antagonists to RA patients who exhibited an insufficient response to medical treatment significantly improved the Disease Activity Score 28 (DAS 28) after both 6 mo and 12 mo (P < 0.0001). A significant correlation was found between the improvement in their DAS 28 and improvements in their work situation (Productivity VAS) (P < 0.05). Of particular interest is the significant correlation between the values of baseline mHAQ and the percent changes of Productivity VAS that was observed after 6 mo and 12 mo (P < 0.05). Our findings indicate that medical treatment of RA with TNF antagonists improves the patients' ability to perform their jobs and housekeeping. Because loss of productivity is an important contributor to the indirect costs of RA, our findings are relevant for the pharmacoeconomic assessment of treatments.Keywords: rheumatoid arthritis, infliximab, etanercept, productivity, DAS28, mHAQ

We synthesize ferromagnetic Co nanowire, and Co/Pd multisegment nanowires encapsulated inside multi-walled carbon nanotubes CNTs (MWCNTs) by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) were used to characterize the microstructures and elemental analyses of the nanowires. Quantitative magnetization measurements of Co nanowires encapsulated inside MWCNTs were experimentally established by TEM off-axis electron holography at room temperature. The MWCNTs grew up to 100-110 nm in diameter and 1.5-1.7 [micro]m in length. The typical bright-field TEM images revealed both Co nanowire and Co/Pd multisegment nanowires encapsulated inside vertically aligned MWCNTs on the same substrate. The composition of metal encapsulated inside MWCNTs were characterized by EDS. Experimental results revealed that the Co nanowire encapsulated inside MWCNT was always presented as the face-centered-cubic (fcc) Co structure. The component of magnetic induction was then measured to be 1.2 [+ or -] 0.1 T based on TEM off-axis electron holography results, which is lower than the expected saturation magnetization of fcc Co bulk of 1.7 T. The partial oxidation of the ferromagnetic metal during the process and the magnetization direction may play an important role in the determination of the quality of the remanent states. The ferromagnetic metal nanowires encapsulated inside CNTs demonstrate very high potential in providing the required magnetic properties, low dimensionality, and small volume for future nanoscale devices. Index Terms--Carbon nanotubes, holography, magnetic materials, spintronics.