Thornthwaite moisture index and depth of suction change under current and future climate‒An Australian study

Climate change is one of the major global challenges and it can have a significant influence on the behaviour and resilience of geotechnical structures.The changes in moisture content in soil lead to effective stress changes and can be accompanied by significant volume changes in reactive/expansive soils.The volume change leads to ground movement and can exert additional stresses on structures founded on or within a shallow depth of such soils.Climate change is likely to amplify the ground movement potential and the associated problems are likely to worsen.The effect of atmospheric boundary interaction on soil behaviour has often been correlated to Thornthwaite moisture index(TMI).In this study,the long-term weather data and anticipated future projections for various emission scenarios were used to generate a series of TMI maps for Australia.The changes in TMI were then correlated to the depth of suction change(H s),an important input in ground movement calculation.Under all climate scenarios considered,reductions in TMI and increases in H s values were observed.A hypothetical design scenario of a footing on expansive soil under current and future climate is discussed.It is observed that a design that might be considered adequate under the current climate scenario,may fail under future scenarios and accommodations should be made in the design for such events.

CFD study of turbulent jet impingement on curved surface

The heat transfer and flow characteristics of air jet impingement on a curved surface are investigated with computational fluid dynamics(CFD)approach.The first applied model is a one-equation SGS model for large eddy simulation(LES)and the second one is the SST-SAS hybrid RANS-LES.These models are utilized to study the flow physics in impinging process on a curved surface for different jet-to-surface(h/B)distances at two Reynolds numbers namely,2960 and 4740 based on the jet exit velocity(U_e)and the hydraulic diameter(2B).The predictions are compared with the experimental data in the literature and also the results from RANS k-εmodel.Comparisons show that both models can produce relatively good results.However,one-equation model(OEM)produced more accurate results especially at impingement region at lower jet-to-surface distances.In terms of heat transfer,the OEM also predicted better at different jet-to-surface spacings.It is also observed that both models show similar performance at higher h/B ratios.

Hydro-geochemical evaluation of groundwater with studies on water quality index and suitability for drinking in Sagardari,Jashore

Sagardari union is facing groundwater crisis because of contaminations from agriculture and urban sewage,which bring a considerable change in water quality.In view of this,hydro-chemical analyses were undertaken on 35 groundwater samples and the following hydro-geochemical parameters,pH,total dissolved solids(TDS),total hardness(TH),electrical conductivity(EC),cations and anions,were analyzed.From the analytical results,it is found that pH value was lower than WHO drinking water standard and the middledownstream portions of the investigation region show higher EC.The piper plot indicates that the groundwater in Sagardari falls in the categories of NaClHCO3 hydro-chemical facies.Higher TH in groundwater was detected,but still in an acceptable range.In addition,salinity and arsenic ratio are higher and moderately higher,respectively.The spatial distribution of Groundwater Quality Index(GWQI)was determined by geo-statistical modelling of Sagardari union.The study provides information and supports the administration which to make better groundwater utilization and quality control in the Sagardari union.

The link between intracellular calcium signaling and exosomal PD-L1 in cancer progression and immunotherapy

Exosomes are small membrane vesicles containing microRNA,RNA,DNA fragments,and proteins that are transferred from donor cells to recipient cells.Tumor cells release exo-somes to reprogram the factors associated with the tumor microenvironment(TME)causing tu-mor metastasis and immune escape.Emerging evidence revealed that cancer cell-derived exosomes carry immune inhibitory molecule program death ligand 1(PD-L1)that binds with re-ceptor program death protein 1(PD-1)and promote tumor progression by escaping immune response.Currently,some FDA-approved monoclonal antibodies are clinicallyused for cancer treatment by blocking PD-1/PD-L1 interaction.Despite notable treatment outcomes,some pa-tients show poor drug response.Exosomal PD-L1 plays a vital role in lowering the treatment response,showing resistance to PD-1/PD-L1 blockage therapy through recapitulating the ef-fect of cell surface PD-L1.To enhance therapeutic response,inhibition of exosomal PD-L1 is required.Calcium signaling is the central regulator of tumorigenesis and can regulate exosome biogenesis and secretion by modulating Rab GTPase family and membrane fusion factors.Im-mune checkpoints are also connected with calcium signaling and calcium channel blockers like amlodipine,nifedipine,lercanidipine,diltiazem,and verapamil were also reported to suppress cellular PD-L1 expression.Therefore,to enhance the PD-1/PD-L1 blockage therapy response,the reduction of exosomal PD-L1 secretion from cancer cells is in our therapeutic consider-ation.In this review,we proposed a therapeutic strategy by targeting calcium signaling to inhibit the expression of PD-L1-containing exosome levels that could reduce the anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy resistance and increase the patient's drug response rate.

Behaviour of self-centring shear walls——A state of the art review

The application of unbonded post-tensioning (PT) in structural walls has led to the development of advanced self-centring (rocking) shear wall systems that has significant advantages, including accelerated construction due to the incorporation of prefabricated elements and segmental construction for different materials (e.g., concrete, masonry, and timber), reduced residual drifts, and little damage upon extreme seismic and wind loads. Concrete, masonry, and timber are often used for the construction of unbonded PT structural wall systems. Despite extensive research since the 1980s, there are no well-established design guidelines available on the shear wall configuration with the required energy dissipation system, joint’s locations and acceptance criteria for shear sliding, confinement, seismic performance factors, PT loss, PT force range and residual drifts of shear walls subjected to lateral loads. In this research a comprehensive state-of-the-art literature review was performed on self-centring shear wall system. An extensive study was carried out to collect a database of 100 concrete, masonry, and self-centring shear wall tests from the literature. The established database was then used to review shear walls’ configurations, material, and components to benchmark requirements applicable for design purposes. The behaviour of concrete, masonry and timber shear walls were compared and critically analysed. The general behaviour, force-displacement performance of the walls, ductility, and seismic response factors, were critically reviewed and analysed for different self-centring wall systems to understand the effect of different parameters including configurations of the walls, material used for construction of the wall (concrete, masonry, timber) and axial stress ratio. The outcome of this research can be used to better understand the behaviour of self-centring wall system in order to develop design guidelines for such walls.

Capturing transition and non-transition flows with a new shear stress transport model

A new Shear Stress Transport(SST)k-ω model is devised to integrate salient features of both the non-transitional SST k-ω model and correlation-based γ-Re_(θ) transition model.An exceptionally simplified approach is applied to extend the New SST(NSST)model capabilities toward transition/non-transition predictions.Bradshaw’s stress-intensity factor R_(b)=|-uv|/k can be parameterized with the wall-distance dependent Reynolds number Re_(y)=√ky/v;however,as the Re_(y)is replaced by a“flow-structure-adaptive”parameter R_(μ)=v_(T)/v,the resulting R_(b)is capable of capturing various transition phenomena naturally.The prospective stress-intensity parameter R_(b)=R_(b)(Re_(y),R_(μ))is incorporated in the constitutive relations for eddy-viscosity v_(T) and production term P_(k).The proposed formulation is intrinsically plausible,having a dramatic impact on the prediction of bypass,separation-induced and natural transitions together with non-transitional flows.An extra viscous-production term P_(k)^(lim) is added with the k-equation to ensure proper generation of k at the viscous sublayer when computing separation-induced transition over a Low-Reynolds Number(LRN)airfoil.Results demonstrate that the NSST k-ω model maintains an excellent consistency with both SST k-ω and γ-Re_(θ) models.

Self-centring segmental retaining walls—A new construction system for retaining walls

This paper reports on an experimental study on a new self-centring retaining wall system.Four post-tensioned segmental retaining walls(PSRWs)were experimentally tested.Each of the walls was constructed using seven T-shaped concrete segments with a dry stack.The walls were tested under incrementally increasing cyclic lateral load.The effect of the wall height,levels of post-tensioning(PT)force,and bonded versus unbonded condition of PT reinforcement on the structural behavior of the PSRWs was investigated.The results showed that such PSRWs are structurally adequate for water retaining structures.According to the results,increasing the wall height decreases initial strength but increases the deformation capacity of the wall.The larger deformation capacity and ductility of PSRW make it a suitable structural system for fluctuating loads or deformation,e.g.,seawall.It was also found that increasing the PT force increases the wall’s stiffness;however,reduces its ductility.The residual drift and the extent of damage of the unbonded PSRWs were significantly smaller than those of the bonded ones.Results suggest that this newly developed self-centring retaining wall can be a suitable structural system to retain lateral loads.Due to its unique deformation capacity and self-centring behavior,it can potentially be used for seawall application.

Vaccine efficacy and SARS-CoV-2 control in California and U.S.during the session 2020e2026:A modeling study

Background:Besides maintaining health precautions,vaccination has been the only prevention from SARS-CoV-2,though no clinically proved 100%effective vaccine has been developed till date.At this stage,to withhold the debris of this pandemic-experts need to know the impact of the vaccine efficacy rates,the threshold level of vaccine effectiveness and how long this pandemic may extent with vaccines that have different efficacy rates.In this article,a mathematical model study has been done on the importance of vaccination and vaccine efficiency rate during an ongoing pandemic.Methods:We simulated a five compartment mathematical model to analyze the pandemic scenario in both California,and whole U.S.We considered four vaccines,Pfizer(95%),Moderna(94%),AstraZeneca(79%),and Johnson&Johnson(72%),which are being used rigorously to control the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic,in addition with two special cases:a vaccine with 100%efficacy rate and no vaccine under use.SARS-CoV-2 related data of California,and U.S.were used in this study.Findings:Both the infection and death rates are very high in California.Our model suggests that the pandemic situation in California will be under control in the last quartile of the year 2023 if vaccination program is continued with the Pfizer vaccine.During this time,six waves may happen from the beginning of the immunization where the case fatality and recovery rates will be 1.697%and 98.30%,respectively.However,according to the considered model,this period might be extended to the mid of 2024 when vaccines with lower efficacy rates are used.On the other hand,the daily cases and deaths in the U.S.will be under control at the end of 2026 with multiple waves.Although the number of susceptible people will fall down to none in the beginning of 2027,there is less chance to stop the vaccination program if vaccinated with a vaccine other than a 100%effective vaccine or Pfizer,and at that case vaccination program must run till the mid of 2028.According to this study,the unconfirmed-infectious and infected cases will be under control at the end of 2027 and at the mid of 2028,respectively.Interpretation:The more effective a vaccine is,the less people suffer from this malign infection.Vaccines which are less than 90%effective do not have notable contribution to control the pandemic besides hard immunity.Furthermore,specific groups of people are getting prioritized initially,mass vaccination and quick responses are required to control the spread of this disease.