Background
In early childhood, the allergen‐specific IgG repertoire is mainly directed to animal and vegetable food molecules and infrequently to airborne molecules. It is unknown whether this early ...pattern is maintained throughout childhood.
Objective
To investigate the evolution of IgG and IgE responses to a broad panel of allergenic molecules from birth to age 10 years.
Methods
We examined the sera collected between birth and age 10 years from participants in the German Multicentre Allergy Study, a birth cohort born in 1990. The IgE (cutoff ≥0.30 ISU) and IgG (cutoff ≥0.10 ISU) responses to 35 genuine allergenic molecules were measured with a multiplex microarray approach (ImmunoCAP ISAC™).
Results
IgE responses were mostly directed against a restricted group of airborne molecules, with a sequence and prevalence hierarchy (Phl p 1> Bet v 1> Fel d 1> Phl p 5> Der p 2> Der p 1) largely maintained over time. Conversely, the IgG repertoire was much broader, starting with animal foodborne, then spreading to vegetable foodborne and finally to airborne molecules. A strong and persistent IgG response to a given airborne molecule almost invariably preceded or accompanied an IgE response to that molecule.
Conclusions
The evolution of IgG and IgE responses throughout childhood differs widely at population level. IgG responses are mostly directed to animal food allergens, while IgE responses are dominated by airborne allergens. However, a strong IgG response almost invariably precedes or accompanies the appearance of IgE to the same molecule in specifically sensitized subjects.
Peter Bauer, a pioneer of development economics, is an incisive thinker whose work continues to influence fields from political science to history to anthropology. As Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen ...writes in the introduction to this book, "the originality, force, and extensive bearing of his writings have been quite astonishing." This collection of Bauer’s essays reveals the full power and range of his thought as well as the central concern that underlies so much of his diverse work: the impact of people’s conduct, their cultural institutions, and the policies of their governments on economic progress.
Aims/hypothesis
Epidemiological studies that have examined associations between long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution and type 2 diabetes mellitus in adults are inconsistent, and ...studies on insulin resistance are scarce. We aimed to assess the association between traffic-related air pollution and insulin resistance in children.
Methods
Fasting blood samples were collected from 397 10-year-old children in two prospective German birth cohort studies. Individual-level exposures to traffic-related air pollutants at the birth address were estimated by land use regression models. The association between air pollution and HOMA of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) was analysed using a linear model adjusted for several covariates including birthweight, pubertal status and BMI. Models were also further adjusted for second-hand smoke exposure at home. Sensitivity analyses that assessed the impact of relocating, study design and sex were performed.
Results
In all crude and adjusted models, levels of insulin resistance were greater in children with higher exposure to air pollution. Insulin resistance increased by 17.0% (95% CI 5.0, 30.3) and 18.7% (95% CI 2.9, 36.9) for every 2SDs increase in ambient NO
2
and particulate matter ≤10 μm in diameter, respectively. Proximity to the nearest major road increased insulin resistance by 7.2% (95% CI 0.8, 14.0) per 500 m.
Conclusions/interpretation
Traffic-related air pollution may increase the risk of insulin resistance. Given the ubiquitous nature of air pollution and the high incidence of insulin resistance in the general population, the associations examined here may have potentially important public health effects despite the small/moderate effect sizes observed.
•10kW solar powered EV charger with V2G for workplaces in Netherlands is analyzed.•Optimal tilt for PV panels to get maximum yield in Netherlands is 28°.•PV array can be 30% oversized than converter, ...resulting in only 3.2% energy loss.•Gaussian EV charging profile with low peak closely follows PV generation.•10kWh local storage reduced grid energy exchange by 25%.
This paper investigates the possibility of charging battery electric vehicles at workplace in Netherlands using solar energy. Data from the Dutch Meteorological Institute is used to determine the optimal orientation of PV panels for maximum energy yield in the Netherlands. The seasonal and diurnal variation in solar insolation is analyzed to determine the energy availability for EV charging and the necessity for grid connection. Due to relatively low solar insolation in Netherlands, it has been determined that the power rating of the PV array can be oversized by 30% with respect to power rating of the converter. Various dynamic EV charging profiles are compared with an aim to minimize the grid dependency and to maximize the usage of solar power to directly charge the EV. Two scenarios are considered – one where the EVs have to be charged only on weekdays and the second case where EV have to be charged all 7days/week. A priority mechanism is proposed to facilitate the charging of multiple EV from a single EV–PV charger. The feasibility of integrating a local storage to the EV–PV charger to make it grid independent is evaluated. The optimal storage size that reduces the grid dependency by 25% is evaluated.
•The microplasticity and macroplasticity behavior of additively manufactured Al-Mg-Sc-Zr alloys before and after aging were examined.•A combination of In-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction and ...full-field crystal plasticity modeling was employed.•The micromechanical behavior of both as-built and direct-aged specimens includes several sub-stages.•The predicted macro stress-strain curves, lattice strains, and dislocation densities from CPFFT modeling agree with In-situ measurements.•The plastic deformation pattern is more heterogeneous in the direct-aged specimen due to the presence of Al3(Sc, Zr) particles.
Understanding and controlling the performance of additively manufactured aluminum alloys containing scandium (Sc) and zirconium (Zr) elements heavily relies on knowledge of their microplasticity and macroplasticity behavior. However, this aspect has received very little attention. In this investigation, we examined the microplasticity and macroplasticity behavior of additively manufactured Al-Mg-Sc-Zr alloys before and after aging, using in-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction and full-field crystal plasticity modeling. Our study provides a quantitative assessment of the transitions from elasticity to microplasticity and then to macroplasticity and analyzes the development of the initial microstructure, particularly the dislocations. We constructed crystal plasticity fast-Fourier-transform models based on dislocation densities. The predicted evolutions of macroscopic stress-strain curves, lattice strains, and dislocation densities agree with in-situ measurements. The present findings provide deep insights into controlling the performance of AM Al-Mg-Sc-Zr alloys. Besides, the micromechanical model developed in this investigation paves the way for predicting the microplasticity and macroplasticity behavior of various metallic materials.
Tracer tests represent a well-established method for delineating key environmental processes in various media and engineered systems. Tracers like Rhodamine B and WT are frequently applied due to ...their strong fluorescence even at low concentrations.. However, due to a lack of ecotoxicological data, limit values for these tracers cannot be determined. This study fills this critical data gap by providing ecotoxicity data for Rhodamine B and WT using a battery of short-term standardized tests, including growth rate inhibition tests with algae (Raphidocelis subcapitata) and lethality tests using crustaceans (Daphnia magna) and zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos, and estimating EQS for surface water. For Rhodamine B, the effective and lethal concentration (EC50 and LC50) –causing 50% toxicity were in the range of 14–24 mg/L. For Rhodamine WT, no statistically significant effects were observed (p<0.05) at the tsted concentrations (up to 91, 100 and 200 mg/L for algae, crustaceans and fish embryos, respectively). Thus for all tested organisms, Rhodamine B was more toxic than Rhodamine WT (more than 14 times more toxic for R. subcapitata, 5.6 times for D. magna, 15 times for D. rerio embryos,based on EC10 and LC10 values). These results signify that read-across assessments using ecotoxicity data obtained with Rhodamine B is not advisable for estimating the ecotoxicity of Rhodamine WT. The annual-average quality standard (AA-QS) and maximum allowable concentration quality standard (MAC-QS) for Rhodamine B were found to be 14 and 140 µg/L, respectively. For Rhodamine WT, the corresponding values were estimated to >91 µg/L (AA-QS) and >910 µg/L (MAC-QS). Hence, concentrations below 140 µg/L or 910 µg/L for Rhodamine B and WT, respectively, are not expected to pose a risk to aquatic freshwater life in the case of intermittent discharges, e.g. tracer experiments released in streams.
This paper compares how a dc fault affects a multiterminal dc (MTdc) network depending on the HVDC transmission system topology. To this end, a six-step methodology is proposed for the selection of ...the necessary dc fault protection measures. The network consists of four voltage-source converters converters radially connected. The converters natural fault response to a dc fault for the different topologies is studied using dynamic simulation models. For clearing of the dc faults, four different dc breaker technologies are compared based on their fault interruption time, together with a current direction fault detection method. If necessary, the converters are reinforced with limiting reactors to decrease the peak value and rate of rise of the fault currents providing sufficient time for the breakers to isolate the fault without interrupting the MTdc network operation. The study shows that the symmetric monopolar topology is least affected by dc contingencies. Considering bipolar topologies, the bipolar with metallic return exhibits better fault response compared to the one with ground return. Topologies with ground or metallic return require full semiconductor or hybrid breakers with reactors to successfully isolate a dc fault.
While learning to fear stimuli that predict danger promotes survival, the inability to inhibit fear to inappropriate cues leads to a pernicious cycle of avoidance behaviors. Previous studies have ...revealed large inter-individual variations in fear responding with clinically anxious humans exhibiting a tendency to generalize learned fear to safe stimuli or situations. To shed light on the origin of these inter-individual variations, we subjected rats to a differential auditory fear conditioning paradigm in which one conditioned auditory stimulus (CS+) was paired to footshocks whereas a second (CS-) was not. We compared the behavior of rats that received pretraining excitotoxic lesions of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) to that of sham rats. Sham rats exhibit a continuum of anxious/fearful behaviors. At one end of the continuum were rats that displayed a poor ability to discriminate between the CS+ and CS-, high contextual freezing, and an anxiety-like trait in the elevated plus maze (EPM). At the other end were rats that display less fear generalization to the CS-, lower freezing to context, and a nonanxious trait in the EPM. Although BNST-lesioned rats acquired similarly high levels of conditioned fear to the CS+, they froze less than sham rats to the CS-. In fact, BNST-lesioned rats behaved like sham rats with high discriminative abilities in that they exhibited low contextual fear and a nonanxious phenotype in the EPM. Overall, this suggests that inter-individual variations in fear generalization and anxiety phenotype are determined by BNST influences on the amygdala and/or its targets.
Currently, Offshore Wind Farms (OWFs) are designed to achieve high turbine density so as to reduce costs. However, due to wake interferences, densely packing turbines reduces energy production. ...Having insight into optimized trade-offs between energy production, capital investment and operational costs would be valuable to OWFs designers. To obtain this insight, the design of OWFs should be formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem. How to best solve a Multi-Objective Wind Farm Layout Optimization Problem (MOWFLOP) is however still largely an open question. It is however known that evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are among the state-of-the-art for solving multi-objective optimization problems. This work studies the different features that an MO Evolutionary Algorithm (MOEA) should have and which Constraint-Handling Techniques (CHTs) are suitable for solving MOWFLOP. We also investigate the relation between problem dimensionality/complexity and the degrees of freedom offered by different turbine-placement grid resolutions. Finally, the influence of problem size on algorithm performance is studied. The performance of two variants of the recently introduced Multi-Objective Gene-pool Optimal Mixing Evolutionary Algorithm (MOGOMEA) is compared with a traditional and a novel version of the Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II). Five CHTs were used to assess which technique provides the best results. Results on a case study with different OWF areas demonstrate that one variant of MOGOMEA outperforms the NSGA-II for all tested problem sizes and CHTs.
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