This paper presents a wind model, which has been developed for studies of the dynamic interaction between wind farms and the power system to which they are connected. The wind model is based on a ...power spectral description of the turbulence, which includes the coherence between wind speeds at different wind turbines in a wind farm, together with the effect of rotational sampling of the wind turbine blades in the rotors of the individual wind turbines. Both the spatial variations of the turbulence and the shadows behind the wind turbine towers are included in the model for rotational sampling. The model is verified using measured wind speeds and power fluctuations from wind turbines.
A minimally invasive biopsy technique was evaluated for udder tissue collection in dairy cows with Escherichia coli mastitis. Meanwhile, the effect of taking repeated liver and udder biopsies on the ...systemic and local acute phase response (APR) of the dairy cows was investigated during the disease. The cows were divided into a biopsy group (B) (n = 16) and a no-biopsy group (NB) (n = 16) and were sampled in the acute disease stage and in the recovery stage. The cows’ pre-disease period served as a control period for establishing baseline values for the investigated parameters. A total of 32 Holstein-Friesian cows were inoculated with 20 to 40 colony-forming units (cfu) of E. coli in one front quarter at 0 hour. Liver biopsies were collected at −144, 12, 24 and 192 h, and udder biopsies were collected at 24 and 192 h post E. coli inoculation (PI) using a minimally invasive biopsy technique. Effects of combined biopsying were investigated by recording production traits, clinical response, and measuring inflammatory milk and blood parameters: E. coli, somatic cell count, milk amyloid A (MAA) levels, white blood cell count, polymorphonuclear neutrophilic leukocyte numbers and serum amyloid A levels at several time points. E. coli inoculation changed all production parameters and the clinical and inflammatory response in all cows except one that was not infected. Combined biopsying had no constant or transient effect on the daily feed intake, the clinical responsiveness or the blood parameters, but affected the daily milk yield and some milk parameters transiently, that is, the presence of blood in milk, increased E. coli counts and MAA levels during the acute disease stage. Combined biopsying had no effect on the parameters in the recovery stage apart from the presence of blood in the milk. In conclusion, although, a minimally invasive biopsy technique was used, tissue damages could not be avoided when biopsying and they transiently affected the inflammatory parameters in the mammary gland. Nevertheless, we believe combined biopsying of liver and udder is as an acceptable approach to study the systemic and local APR in dairy cows during E. coli mastitis, if the timing of biopsying and other types of sampling is planned accordingly.
Summary
Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) accumulate in animal manure when it is stored anaerobically, and they quickly decompose when the manure is applied to soil. In this study the influence of VFAs on ...the immobilization of N and mineralization of C in soil was investigated by incubating mixtures of acetate, propionate and butyrate in soils containing varying amounts of clay. The oxidation of VFAs (300 μg C g−1 soil) caused a significant increase in pH (0.6–2.2 pH units), with the largest increase in the most coarse‐textured soil. The maximum net immobilization of N resulting from decomposition of the VFAs was 33–77 mg N g−1C and was maximal after 1–5 weeks of decomposition. After this time immobilized N was remineralized, and after 12 weeks the VFAs caused no net immobilization of N in the two most sandy soils. Despite this, the concentration of N in the microbial biomass was still greater in the soil amended with VFAs than in the control. After 12 weeks, the mineralization of C from the decomposition of the VFAs was equivalent to 60–113% of the applied C. It seems that mineralization of native soil C and N was stimulated by adding VFAs, except in the most clayey soil. This stimulation was presumably caused by the increase in the soil's pH as the VFAs oxidized.
We report measurements of Υ meson production in p + p, d + Au, and Au+Au collisions using the STAR detector at RHIC. We compare the Υ yield to the measured cross section in p + p collisions in order ...to quantify any modifications of the yield in cold nuclear matter using d + Au data and in hot nuclear matter using Au+Au data separated into three centrality classes. Our p + p measurement is based on three times the statistics of our previous result. We obtain a nuclear modification factor for Upsilon (1S + 2S + 3S) in the rapidity range |y| < 1 in d + Au collisions of RdAu = 0.79 ± 0.24(stat.) ± 0.03(syst.) ± 0.10(p + p syst.). A comparison with models including shadowing and initial state parton energy loss indicates the presence of additional cold-nuclear matter suppression. Similarly, in the top 10% most-central Au + Au collisions, we measure a nuclear modification factor of R AA = 0.49 ±0.1(stat.) ±0.02(syst.) ±0.06(p + p syst.), which is a larger suppression factor than that seen in cold nuclear matter. Our results are consistent with complete suppression of excited-state Upsilon mesons in Au + Au collisions. The additional suppression in Au + Au is consistent with the level expected in model calculations that include the presence of a hot, deconfined Quark–Gluon Plasma. However, understanding the suppression seen in d + Au is still needed before any definitive statements about the nature of the suppression in Au + Au can be made.
Treatment with interferon-β (IFN-β) induces the expression of hundreds of genes in blood mononuclear cells, and the expression of several genes has been proposed as a marker of the effect of ...treatment with IFN-β. However, to date no molecules have been identified that are stably induced by treatment with IFN-β. We use DNA microarrays to study gene expression in 10 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients who began de novo treatment with IFN-β. After the first injection of IFN-β, the expression of 74 out of 3428 genes changed at least two-fold and statistically significantly (after Bonferroni correction). In contrast, we observed no persisting effects of IFN-β on gene expression. Among the most strongly induced genes was MXA, which has been used in previous biomarker studies in MS. In addition, the study identified the induction of LGALS9 and TCIR1G, involved in negative regulation of T helper type I immunity and T-cell activation, as novel effects of IFN-β therapy in MS.
Conventional cake filtration theory is used in this paper to analyse membrane filtration data on activated sludge published by Benitez
et al. (1995). In contrast they used boundary layer modelling ...for handling the data. Firstly the conventional cake filtration theory is shown to be equivalent to the boundary layer model in principle but more complete in its description. Secondly the data analysis is performed and a systematic deviation, which cannot be explained, seems to be involved in the data used. The data are corrected for this and reanalysed according to conventional cake filtration theory. The activated sludge is shown to be highly compressible.
•Robust detrended fluctuation analysis (r-DFAn) is developed herein.•r-DFAn determines statistically significant scaling regimes with optimum crossovers.•r-DFAn is used to analyse very high ...resolution hydrological and meteorological data.•Fractal behaviour of the high resolution data is inferred.
In order to determine objectively the fractal behaviour of a time series, and to facilitate potential future attempts to assess model performance by incorporating fractal behaviour, a multi-order robust detrended fluctuation analysis (r-DFAn) procedure is developed herein. The r-DFAn procedure allows for robust and automated quantification of mono-fractal behaviour. The fractal behaviour is quantified with three parts: a global scaling exponent, crossovers, and local scaling exponents. The robustness of the r-DFAn procedure is established by the systematic use of robust regression, piecewise linear regression, Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and Multiple Comparison Procedure to determine statistically significant scaling exponents and optimum crossover locations. The MATLAB code implementing the r-DFAn procedure has also been open sourced to enable reproducible results.
r-DFAn will be illustrated on a synthetic signal after which is used to analyse high-resolution hydrologic data; although the r-DFAn procedure is not limited to hydrological or geophysical time series. The hydrological data are 4year-long datasets (January 2012 to January 2016) of 1-min groundwater level, river stage, groundwater and river temperature, and 15-min precipitation and air temperature, at Wallingford, UK. The datasets are analysed in both time and fractal domains. The study area is a shallow riparian aquifer in hydraulic connection to River Thames, which traverses the site. The unusually high resolution datasets, along with the responsive nature of the aquifer, enable detailed examination of the various data and their interconnections in both time- and fractal-domains.
A model that predicts nitrogen loading is developed and applied on an agricultural catchment draining to a Danish Fjord. Increases in nitrogen loadings of the Danish coastal waters have been recorded ...and the transformation in the Danish agricultural sector is established to be the main cause. The development in Danish agriculture in the last 40 years has resulted in significant changes in the agricultural production structure which are of major significance to the water quality. Therefore, there is a need for methods which can relate the consequences of changes in the agricultural production structure to the nitrogen loadings of coastal waters. In this study riverine nitrogen loads are modelled by combining spatially distributed data for: (1) non-point source nitrogen leaching; (2) point source nitrogen emissions; (3) soils; and (4) elevation data of the terrain and of the ground water head, with a nitrate decay process. The decay process is expressed as a first-order decay with respect to distance, having two different decay constants according to different flow velocities. N-leaching was partitioned into a component with high velocity (mainly tile drainage) and a component with low velocity (mainly baseflow) based on soil type/flow-path correlations. The nitrogen loading model was implemented into GIS to calculate nitrogen loads for sub-catchments in the Vejle Fjord catchment, Denmark. The two nitrate decay-coefficients were estimated by a trial and error method. Discrepancies between model calculated and measured N-loads vary from −16 to 17%. A source apportionment of the agricultural contribution to the riverine nitrogen loading revealed that livestock production is responsible for about 60% of the total non-point source loading while part time farming contributes with approximately 23% of the total non-point source load. The remainder of the N-loadings originates from plant production and background sources.
Reversible phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of key proteins on tyrosine residues are important parts of intracellular signaling triggered by hormones and other agents. Recent knock-out studies ...in mice have identified PTP1B as a potential target for the treatment of diabetes and obesity. As a consequence, a number of academic and industrial groups are aggressively pursuing the development of selective PTP1B inhibitors. In addition, other protein−tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) appear to be critically involved in major diseases such as cancer and autoimmunity. Given the diversity of PTPs and their potential as drug targets in different diseases, we have taken a broad approach to develop active site-directed selective inhibitors of specific members of this family of enzymes. Using a high throughput screening, we have previously identified 2-(oxalylamino)benzoic acid 3a as a relatively weak but classical competitive inhibitor of several PTPs. On the basis of our early studies, indicating that 3a might be used as a starting point for the synthesis of selective PTP inhibitors, we now present our efforts in expansion of this concept and provide here a number of new chemical scaffolds for the development of inhibitors of different members of the PTP family. Although the core structure of these inhibitors is charged, good oral bioavailability has been observed in rat for some compounds. Furthermore, we have observed enhancement of 2-deoxy-glucose accumulation in C2C12 cells with prodrug analogues.
Objective: To identify psychopathological predictors for suicide in a population of major depressed Diagnostic Statistical Manual‐III (DSM‐III) in‐patients.
Method: A total of 210 previous ...participants in multicentre antidepressant drug trials, carried out in a randomized double‐blind design, were followed prospectively through a maximum of 10 years. Patients with a drug or alcohol abuse were excluded. The association between suicide and the pretreatment psychopathological profile was analysed using survival statistics.
Results: The suicide rate for non‐melancholic depressed patients was significantly higher than for melancholic depressed patients. Comorbid personality disorder was independently associated with an increased suicide rate relative hazard 3.41(CI: 1.15–10.10).
Conclusion: The study indicates that the non‐melancholic aspect of depression, and especially comorbid personality disorder, is associated with an increased suicidal vulnerability.
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