Residential balconies with road traffic noise : a combined source image and radiosity model

Several significant studies have been made in recent decades toward understanding road traffic noise and its effects on residential balconies. These previous studies have used a variety of techniques such as theoretical models, scale models and measurements on real balconies. The studies have considered either road traffic noise levels within the balcony space or inside an adjacent habitable room or both. Previous theoretical models have used, for example, simplified specular reflection calculations, boundary element methods (BEM), adaptations of CoRTN or the use of Sabine Theory. This paper presents an alternative theoretical model to predict the effects of road traffic noise spatially within the balcony space. The model includes a specular reflection component by calculating up to 10 orders of source images. To account for diffusion effects, a two compartment radiosity component is utilised. The first radiosity compartment is the urban street, represented as a street with building facades on either side. The second radiosity compartment is the balcony space. The model is designed to calculate the predicted road traffic noise levels within the balcony space and is capable of establishing the effect of changing street and balcony geometries. Screening attenuation algorithms are included to determine the effects of solid balcony parapets and balcony ceiling shields.

Direct repression of MYB by ZEB1 suppresses proliferation and epithelial gene expression during epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition of breast cancer cells

Introduction Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) promotes cell migration and is important in metastasis. Cellular proliferation is often downregulated during EMT, and the reverse transition (MET) in metastases appears to be required for restoration of proliferation in secondary tumors. We studied the interplay between EMT and proliferation control by MYB in breast cancer cells. Methods MYB, ZEB1, and CDH1 expression levels were manipulated by lentiviral small-hairpin RNA (shRNA)-mediated knockdown/overexpression, and verified with Western blotting, immunocytochemistry, and qRT-PCR. Proliferation was assessed with bromodeoxyuridine pulse labeling and flow cytometry, and sulforhodamine B assays. EMT was induced with epidermal growth factor for 9 days or by exposure to hypoxia (1% oxygen) for up to 5 days, and assessed with qRT-PCR, cell morphology, and colony morphology. Protein expression in human breast cancers was assessed with immunohistochemistry. ZEB1-MYB promoter binding and repression were determined with Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Assay and a luciferase reporter assay, respectively. Student paired t tests, Mann–Whitney, and repeated measures two-way ANOVA tests determined statistical significance (P < 0.05). Results Parental PMC42-ET cells displayed higher expression of ZEB1 and lower expression of MYB than did the PMC42-LA epithelial variant. Knockdown of ZEB1 in PMC42-ET and MDA-MB-231 cells caused increased expression of MYB and a transition to a more epithelial phenotype, which in PMC42-ET cells was coupled with increased proliferation. Indeed, we observed an inverse relation between MYB and ZEB1 expression in two in vitro EMT cell models, in matched human breast tumors and lymph node metastases, and in human breast cancer cell lines. Knockdown of MYB in PMC42-LA cells (MYBsh-LA) led to morphologic changes and protein expression consistent with an EMT. ZEB1 expression was raised in MYBsh-LA cells and significantly repressed in MYB-overexpressing MDA-MB-231 cells, which also showed reduced random migration and a shift from mesenchymal to epithelial colony morphology in two dimensional monolayer cultures. Finally, we detected binding of ZEB1 to MYB promoter in PMC42-ET cells, and ZEB1 overexpression repressed MYB promoter activity. Conclusions This work identifies ZEB1 as a transcriptional repressor of MYB and suggests a reciprocal MYB-ZEB1 repressive relation, providing a mechanism through which proliferation and the epithelial phenotype may be coordinately modulated in breast cancer cells.

Input from the amygdala to the rat nucleus accumbens : its relationship with tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity and identified neurons.

Both tyrosine hydroxylase-positive fibres from the mesolimbic dopamine system and amygdala projection fibres from the basolateral nucleus are known to terminate heavily in the nucleus accumbens. Caudal amygdala fibres travelling dorsally via the stria terminalis project densely to the nucleus accumbens shell, especially in the dopamine rich septal hook. The amygdala has been associated with the recognition of emotionally relevant stimuli while the mesolimbic dopamine system is implicated with reward mechanisms. There is behavioural and electrophysiological evidence that the amygdala input to the nucleus accumbens is modulated by the mesolimbic dopamine input, but it is not known how these pathways interact anatomically within the nucleus accumbens. Using a variety of neuroanatomical techniques including anterograde and retrograde tracing, immunocytochemistry and intracellular filling, we have demonstrated convergence of these inputs on to medium-sized spiny neurons. The terminals of the basolateral amygdala projection make asymmetrical synapses predominantly on the heads of spines which also receive on their necks or adjacent dendrites, symmetrical synaptic input from the mesolimbic dopamine system. Some of these neurons have also been identified as projection neurons, possibly to the ventral pallidum. We have shown a synaptic level how dopamine is positioned to modulate excitatory limbic input in the nucleus accumbens.

The epithelial to mesenchymal transition and metastatic progression in carcinoma

Many data have emerged in support of the concept that the promotion of a migratory phenotype in epithelial cells is the result of an EMT, which leads to the loss of differentiation and to the acquisition of several mesenchymal features. Such an event is likely to occur during the metastatic conversion enabling the metastatic cell to invade the connective tissue and disseminate. Even though it cannot be excluded that some cancer cells might constitutively express a metastatic phenotype, the EMT implicated in the tumor progression process would rather be transient, induced in certain cells of the primary tumor by different factors, and reversed when the cells settle down in secondary organs (as schematically represented in Figure 1). However, it is clear that the phenotype that would emerge from the EMT occurring during tumor progression would also be modulated by the genetic background of the cells and must be to some extent different than the ones observed in normal physiological processes, and must also vary from one tumor to another.

Frizzled-7 receptor ectodomain expression in a colon cancer cell line induces morphological change and attenuates tumor growth

Frizzled (FZD) receptors have a conserved N-terminal extracellular cysteine-rich domain that interacts with Wnts and co-expression of the receptor ectodomain can antagonize FZD-mediated signalling. Using the ectodomain as an antagonist we have modulated endogenous FZD7 signalling in the moderately differentiated colon adenocarcinoma cell line, SK-CO-1. Unlike the parental cell line, which grows as tightly associated adherent cell clusters, the FZD7 ectodomain expressing cells display a spread out morphology and grow as a monolayer in tissue culture. This transition in morphology was associated with decreased levels of plasma membrane-associated E-cadherin and β-catenin, localized increased levels of vimentin and redistribution of α6 integrin to cellular processes in the FZD7 ectodomain expressing cells. The morphological and phenotype changes induced by FZD7 ectodomain expression in SK-CO-1 cells is thus consistent with the cells undergoing an epithelial-to-mesenchymal-like transition. Furthermore, initiation of tumor formation in a xenograft tumor growth assay was attenuated in the FZD7 ectodomain expressing cells. Our results indicate a pivotal role for endogenous FZD7 in morphology transitions that are associated with colon tumor initiation and progression.

Urban knowledge and innovation spaces : concepts, conditions, and contexts

Innovation is one of the key determinants of growth in the globalised knowledge economy, and ‘urban knowledge and innovation spaces’ form the spatial foci for sustained innovation. This paper aims to explore concepts, conditions and contexts that substantiate the development of these spaces of innovation. The paper seeks to identify the foundational elements of knowledge- based urban development to outline the concept of urban knowledge and innovation spaces, and justify its meaning, unique characteristics and growing influence in the contemporary cities. It rationalises the relevance of the three underlying conditions—namely policy, place, and people— to better understand their contribution in the development of such spaces. This paper sheds light over the varied contexts shaping each urban knowledge and innovation space uniquely. The paper reveals the interplay between design and policies that is required for the creation of spaces of innovation that are economically strong, socially connected, spatially stimulating, and environmentally sustainable.

Partitioning the variation in stream fish assemblages within a spatio-temporal hierarchy

This paper describes the relative influence of: (i) landscape scale environmental and hydrological factors; (ii) local scale environmental conditions including recent flow history, and; (iii) spatial effects (proximity of sites to one another) on the spatial and temporal variation in local freshwater fish assemblages in the Mary River, south-eastern Queensland, Australia. Using canonical correspondence analysis, each of the three sets of variables explained similar amounts of variation in fish assemblages (ranging from 44 to 52%). Variation in fish assemblages was partitioned into eight unique components: pure environmental, pure spatial, pure temporal, spatially structured environmental variation, temporally structured environmental variation, spatially structured temporal variation, the combined spatial/temporal component of environmental variation and unexplained variation. The total variation explained by these components was 65%. The combined spatial/temporal/environmental component explained the largest component (30%) of the total variation in fish assemblages, whereas pure environmental (6%), temporal (9%) and spatial (2%) effects were relatively unimportant. The high degree of intercorrelation between the three different groups of explanatory variables indicates that our understanding of the importance to fish assemblages of hydrological variation (often highlighted as the major structuring force in river systems) is dependent on the environmental context in which this role is examined.

Water Quality Indices from Unbalanced Spatio-Temporal Monitoring Designs

This chapter investigates a variety of water quality assessment tools for reservoirs with balanced/unbalanced monitoring designs and focuses on providing informative water quality assessments to ensure decision-makers are able to make risk-informed management decisions about reservoir health. In particular, two water quality assessment methods are described: non-compliance (probability of the number of times the indicator exceeds the recommended guideline) and amplitude (degree of departure from the guideline). Strengths and weaknesses of current and alternative water quality methods will be discussed. The proposed methodology is particularly applicable to unbalanced designs with/without missing values and reflects the general conditions and is not swayed too heavily by the occasional extreme value (very high or very low quality). To investigate the issues in greater detail, we use as a case study, a reservoir within South-East Queensland (SEQ), Australia. The purpose here is to obtain an annual score that reflected the overall water quality, temporally, spatially and across water quality indicators for each reservoir.

Spatial prediction on a river network

This article develops methods for spatially predicting daily change of dissolved oxygen (Dochange) at both sampled locations (134 freshwater sites in 2002 and 2003) and other locations of interest throughout a river network in South East Queensland, Australia. In order to deal with the relative sparseness of the monitoring locations in comparison to the number of locations where one might want to make predictions, we make a classification of the river and stream locations. We then implement optimal spatial prediction (ordinary and constrained kriging) from geostatistics. Because of their directed-tree structure, rivers and streams offer special challenges. A complete approach to spatial prediction on a river network is given, with special attention paid to environmental exceedances. The methodology is used to produce a map of Dochange predictions for 2003. Dochange is one of the variables measured as part of the Ecosystem Health Monitoring Program conducted within the Moreton Bay Waterways and Catchments Partnership.

Path information effects in visual and proprioceptive spatial learning

Objects in an environment are often encountered sequentially during spatial learning, forming a path along which object locations are experienced. The present study investigated the effect of spatial information conveyed through the path in visual and proprioceptive learning of a room-sized spatial layout, exploring whether different modalities differentially depend on the integrity of the path. Learning object locations along a coherent path was compared with learning them in a spatially random manner. Path integrity had little effect on visual learning, whereas learning with the coherent path produced better memory performance than random order learning for proprioceptive learning. These results suggest that path information has differential effects in visual and proprioceptive spatial learning, perhaps due to a difference in the way one establishes a reference frame for representing relative locations of objects.

Hydrodynamic theory of liquid slippage on a solid substrate near a moving contact line

In this Letter a hydrodynamic theory of liquid slippage on a solid substrate near a moving contact line is proposed. A family of spatially varying slip lengths in the Navier slip law recovers the results of past formulations for slip in continuum theories and molecular dynamics simulations and is consistent with well-established experimental observations of complete wetting. This formulation gives a general approach for continuum hydrodynamic theories. New fluid flow behaviors are also predicted yet to be seen in experiment. © 2013 American Physical Society.

Assessing the role of spatial correlations during collective cell spreading

Spreading cell fronts are essential features of development, repair and disease processes. Many mathematical models used to describe the motion of cell fronts, such as Fisher’s equation, invoke a mean–field assumption which implies that there is no spatial structure, such as cell clustering, present. Here, we examine the presence of spatial structure using a combination of in vitro circular barrier assays, discrete random walk simulations and pair correlation functions. In particular, we analyse discrete simulation data using pair correlation functions to show that spatial structure can form in a spreading population of cells either through sufficiently strong cell–to–cell adhesion or sufficiently rapid cell proliferation. We analyse images from a circular barrier assay describing the spreading of a population of MM127 melanoma cells using the same pair correlation functions. Our results indicate that the spreading melanoma cell populations remain very close to spatially uniform, suggesting that the strength of cell–to–cell adhesion and the rate of cell proliferation are both sufficiently small so as not to induce any spatial patterning in the spreading populations.

Open-air direct current plasma jet : scaling up, uniformity, and cellular control

Atmospheric-pressure plasma jets are commonly used in many fields from medicine to nanotechnology, yet the issue of scaling the discharges up to larger areas without compromising the plasma uniformity remains a major challenge. In this paper, we demonstrate a homogenous cold air plasmaglow with a large cross-section generated by a direct current power supply. There is no risk of glow-to-arc transitions, and the plasmaglow appears uniform regardless of the gap between the nozzle and the surface being processed. Detailed studies show that both the position of the quartz tube and the gas flow rate can be used to control the plasma properties. Further investigation indicates that the residual charges trapped on the inner surface of the quartz tube may be responsible for the generation of the air plasma plume with a large cross-section. The spatially resolved optical emission spectroscopy reveals that the air plasma plume is uniform as it propagates out of the nozzle. The remarkable improvement of the plasma uniformity is used to improve the bio-compatibility of a glass coverslip over a reasonably large area. This improvement is demonstrated by a much more uniform and effective attachment and proliferation of human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK 293) cells on the plasma-treated surface.

Inductively coupled Ar/CH₄/H₂plasmas for low-temperature deposition of ordered carbon nanostructures

The study of inductively coupled Ar/CH 4/H 2 plasmas in the plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of self-assembled carbon nanostructures (CN) was presented. A spatially averaged (global) discharge model was developed to study the densities and fluxes of the radical neutrals and charged species, the effective electron temperature, and methane conversion factors under various conditions. It was found that the deposited cation fluxes in the PECVD of CNs generally exceed those of the radical neutrals. The agreement with the optical emission spectroscopy (OES) and quadrupole mass spectrometry (QMS) was also derived through numerical results.

Deterministic control of plasma-assembled self-organized Ge/Si quantum dot arrays

Self-assembly of size-uniform and spatially ordered quantum dot (QD) arrays is one of the major challenges in the development of the new generation of semiconducting nanoelectronic and photonic devices. Assembly of Ge QD (in the ∼5-20 nm size range) arrays from randomly generated position and size-nonuniform nanodot patterns on plasma-exposed Si (100) surfaces is studied using hybrid multiscale numerical simulations. It is shown, by properly manipulating the incoming ion/neutral flux from the plasma and the surface temperature, the uniformity of the nanodot size within the array can be improved by 34%-53%, with the best improvement achieved at low surface temperatures and high external incoming fluxes, which are intrinsic to plasma-aided processes. Using a plasma-based process also leads to an improvement (∼22% at 700 K surface temperature and 0.1 MLs incoming flux from the plasma) of the spatial order of a randomly sampled nanodot ensemble, which self-organizes to position the dots equidistantly to their neighbors within the array. Remarkable improvements in QD ordering and size uniformity can be achieved at high growth rates (a few nms) and a surface temperature as low as 600 K, which broadens the range of suitable substrates to temperature-sensitive ultrathin nanofilms and polymers. The results of this study are generic, can also be applied to nonplasma-based techniques, and as such contributes to the development of deterministic strategies of nanoassembly of self-ordered arrays of size-uniform QDs, in the size range where nanodot ordering cannot be achieved by presently available pattern delineation techniques.