Geophysical Investigations for Hydrogeological Characterization at the Kappelen Test Site (Switzerland)

Vertical electric soundings, 2D resistivity imaging and several logging measurements were performed at Kappelen test site to identify the various geolelectric facies that allowed determining the tabular and horizontal structure of the aquifer. The surface-based geoelectric methods allowed for a reliable characterization of the overall structure and the geometry of the aquifer, while geophysical logging methods allowed for inferring detailed hydrogeophysical characteristics, such as the electrical resistivity, total porosity, global and matrix density and hydraulic conductivity. The synoptic interpretation and integration of this broad and diverse database allows for constraining the key hydrological characteristics and hence forms the basis for the detailed hydraulic modelling of flow and transport process.

Journal and country rankings in instrumentation and ocean engineering

The purpose of this paper is to highlight scientific information resources that list journal and country rankings. These databases usually focus on the use of citation counts and number of publications to evaluate the interest, visibility and impact of research performance. The exposed resources are platforms that provide added value to authors improving their knowledge about research trends and also where to submit their papers.

Hand-in-hand advances in biomedical engineering and sensorimotor restoration.

BACKGROUND: Living in a multisensory world entails the continuous sensory processing of environmental information in order to enact appropriate motor routines. The interaction between our body and our brain is the crucial factor for achieving such sensorimotor integration ability. Several clinical conditions dramatically affect the constant body-brain exchange, but the latest developments in biomedical engineering provide promising solutions for overcoming this communication breakdown. NEW METHOD: The ultimate technological developments succeeded in transforming neuronal electrical activity into computational input for robotic devices, giving birth to the era of the so-called brain-machine interfaces. Combining rehabilitation robotics and experimental neuroscience the rise of brain-machine interfaces into clinical protocols provided the technological solution for bypassing the neural disconnection and restore sensorimotor function. RESULTS: Based on these advances, the recovery of sensorimotor functionality is progressively becoming a concrete reality. However, despite the success of several recent techniques, some open issues still need to be addressed. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHOD(S): Typical interventions for sensorimotor deficits include pharmaceutical treatments and manual/robotic assistance in passive movements. These procedures achieve symptoms relief but their applicability to more severe disconnection pathologies is limited (e.g. spinal cord injury or amputation). CONCLUSIONS: Here we review how state-of-the-art solutions in biomedical engineering are continuously increasing expectances in sensorimotor rehabilitation, as well as the current challenges especially with regards to the translation of the signals from brain-machine interfaces into sensory feedback and the incorporation of brain-machine interfaces into daily activities.

A Model for Improving the Quality of Student Internship Placements in Engineering Degrees

Work Internship Placements (WIP) is a new and transversal enterprise internships programme, which is focused on quality improvement, academic control and satisfaction of collaborating enterprises. This programme is addressed to the engineering students of the PolytechnicSchool at the University of Girona (UdG) in Spain. The fundamental WIP infrastructure combines a web-based intranet platform, that provides a complete set of WIP tools, with a protocol of procedures and tasks that are observed and followed at all internship stages by every participating agent, i.e. enterprises, students, coaching professors and administrative staff. Our new programme is centered on a broader, more holistic internship placement procedure than the traditional “career and academic goals” approach. The WIP programme has been found to be a valuable asset in addressing enterprise and student needs in the experiential project

A software to calculate soil hydraulic conductivity in internal drainage experiments (SHC, Version 2.00)

A software for the calculation of unsaturated soil hydraulic conductivity K(theta) is presented for commonly used methods found in the literature, based on field experiments in which a soil profile is submitted to water infiltration followed by internal drainage. The software is available at: dourado@esalq.usp.br.

Whole-cell bioprocessing of human fetal cells for tissue engineering of skin.

Current restrictions for human cell-based therapies have been related to technological limitations with regards to cellular proliferation capacity (simple culture conditions), maintenance of differentiated phenotype for primary human cell culture and transmission of communicable diseases. Cultured primary fetal cells from one organ donation could possibly meet the exigent and stringent technical aspects for development of therapeutic products. Master and working cell banks from one fetal organ donation (skin) can be developed in short periods of time and safety tests can be performed at all stages of cell banking. For therapeutic use, fetal cells can be used up to two thirds of their life-span in an out-scaling process and consistency for several biological properties includes protein concentration, gene expression and biological activity. As it is the intention that banked primary fetal cells can profit from the prospected treatment of hundreds of thousands of patients with only one organ donation, it is imperative to show consistency, tracability and safety of the process including donor tissue selection, cell banking, cell testing and growth of cells in out-scaling for the preparation of whole-cell tissue-engineering products.

Coculture of bladder urothelial and smooth muscle cells on small intestinal submucosa: potential applications for tissue engineering technology.

PURPOSE: Small intestinal submucosa is a xenogenic, acellular, collagen rich membrane with inherent growth factors that has previously been shown to promote in vivo bladder regeneration. We evaluate in vitro use of small intestinal submucosa to support the individual and combined growth of bladder urothelial cells and smooth muscle cells for potential use in tissue engineering techniques, and in vitro study of the cellular mechanisms involved in bladder regeneration. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Primary cultures of human bladder urothelial cells and smooth muscle cells were established using standard enzymatic digestion or explant techniques. Cultured cells were then seeded on small intestinal submucosa at a density of 1 x 105 cells per cm.2, incubated and harvested at 3, 7, 14 and 28 days. The 5 separate culture methods evaluated were urothelial cells seeded alone on the mucosal surface of small intestinal submucosa, smooth muscle cells seeded alone on the mucosal surface, layered coculture of smooth muscle cells seeded on the mucosal surface followed by urothelial cells 1 hour later, sandwich coculture of smooth muscle cells seeded on the serosal surface followed by seeding of urothelial cells on the mucosal surface 24 hours later, and mixed coculture of urothelial cells and smooth muscle cells mixed and seeded together on the mucosal surface. Following harvesting at the designated time points small intestinal submucosa cell constructs were formalin fixed and processed for routine histology including Masson trichrome staining. Specific cell growth characteristics were studied with particular attention to cell morphology, cell proliferation and layering, cell sorting, presence of a pseudostratified urothelium and matrix penetrance. To aid in the identification of smooth muscle cells and urothelial cells in the coculture groups, immunohistochemical analysis was performed with antibodies to alpha-smooth muscle actin and cytokeratins AE1/AE3. RESULTS: Progressive 3-dimensional growth of urothelial cells and smooth muscle cells occurred in vitro on small intestinal submucosa. When seeded alone urothelial cells and smooth muscle cells grew in several layers with minimal to no matrix penetration. In contrast, layered, mixed and sandwich coculture methods demonstrated significant enhancement of smooth muscle cell penetration of the membrane. The layered and sandwich coculture techniques resulted in organized cell sorting, formation of a well-defined pseudostratified urothelium and multilayered smooth muscle cells with enhanced matrix penetration. With the mixed coculture technique there was no evidence of cell sorting although matrix penetrance by the smooth muscle cells was evident. Immunohistochemical studies demonstrated that urothelial cells and smooth muscle cells maintain the expression of the phenotypic markers of differentiation alpha-smooth muscle actin and cytokeratins AE1/AE3. CONCLUSIONS: Small intestinal submucosa supports the 3-dimensional growth of human bladder cells in vitro. Successful combined growth of bladder cells on small intestinal submucosa with different seeding techniques has important future clinical implications with respect to tissue engineering technology. The results of our study demonstrate that there are important smooth muscle cell-epithelial cell interactions involved in determining the type of in vitro cell growth that occurs on small intestinal submucosa. Small intestinal submucosa is a valuable tool for in vitro study of the cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions that are involved in regeneration and various disease processes of the bladder.

Numerical modeling of the effect of variation of boundary conditions on vadose zone hydraulic properties

An accurate estimation of hydraulic fluxes in the vadose zone is essential for the prediction of water, nutrient and contaminant transport in natural systems. The objective of this study was to simulate the effect of variation of boundary conditions on the estimation of hydraulic properties (i.e. water content, effective unsaturated hydraulic conductivity and hydraulic flux) in a one-dimensional unsaturated flow model domain. Unsaturated one-dimensional vertical water flow was simulated in a pure phase clay loam profile and in clay loam interlayered with silt loam distributed according to the third iteration of the Cantor Bar fractal object Simulations were performed using the numerical model Hydrus 1D. The upper and lower pressure heads were varied around average values of -55 cm for the near-saturation range. This resulted in combinations for the upper and lower constant head boundary conditions, respectively, of -50 and -60 cm, -40 and -70 cm, -30 and -80 cm, -20 and -90 cm, and -10 and -100 cm. For the drier range the average head between the upper and lower boundary conditions was set to -550 cm, resulting in the combinations -500 and -600 cm, -400 and -700 cm, -300 and -800 cm, -200 and -900 cm, and -100 and -1,000 cm, for upper and lower boundary conditions, respectively. There was an increase in water contents, fluxes and hydraulic conductivities with the increase in head difference between boundary conditions. Variation in boundary conditions in the pure phase and interlayered one-dimensional profiles caused significant deviations in fluxes, water contents and hydraulic conductivities compared to the simplest case (a head difference between the upper and lower constant head boundaries of 10 cm in the wetter range and 100 cm in the drier range).

Determination of hydraulic properties of a tropical soil of Hawaii using column experiments and inverse modeling

A method for determining soil hydraulic properties of a weathered tropical soil (Oxisol) using a medium-sized column with undisturbed soil is presented. The method was used to determine fitting parameters of the water retention curve and hydraulic conductivity functions of a soil column in support of a pesticide leaching study. The soil column was extracted from a continuously-used research plot in Central Oahu (Hawaii, USA) and its internal structure was examined by computed tomography. The experiment was based on tension infiltration into the soil column with free outflow at the lower end. Water flow through the soil core was mathematically modeled using a computer code that numerically solves the one-dimensional Richards equation. Measured soil hydraulic parameters were used for direct simulation, and the retention and soil hydraulic parameters were estimated by inverse modeling. The inverse modeling produced very good agreement between model outputs and measured flux and pressure head data for the relatively homogeneous column. The moisture content at a given pressure from the retention curve measured directly in small soil samples was lower than that obtained through parameter optimization based on experiments using a medium-sized undisturbed soil column.

Hydraulic conductivity and water retention in leptosols-regosols and saprolite derived from sandstone, Brazil

Leptosols and Regosols are soils with a series of restrictions for use, mainly related to the effective depth, which have been poorly studied in Brazil. These soils, when derived from sedimentary rocks should be treated with particular care to avoid environmental damage such as aquifer contamination. The purpose of this study was to verify the behavior of hydraulic conductivity and water retention capacity in profiles of Leptosols and Regosols derived from sandstone of the Caturrita formation in Rio Grande do Sul state. The morphology, particle size distribution, porosity, soil density (Ds), saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks), basic water infiltration in the field (BI) and water retention were determined in soil and saprolite samples of six soil profiles. High Ds, low macroporosity and high microporosity were observed in the profiles, resulting in a low Ks and BI, even under conditions of sandy texture and a highly fractured saprolite layer. The variation coefficients of data of Ks and BI were high among the studied profiles and between replications of a same profile. Water retention of the studied soils was higher in Cr layers than in the A horizons and the volume of plant-available water greater and variable among A horizons and Cr layers.

Hydraulic conductivity and soil-sewage sludge interactions

One of the main problems faced by humanity is pollution caused by residues resulting from the production and use of goods, e.g, sewage sludge. Among the various alternatives for its disposal, the agricultural use seems promising. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the hydraulic conductivity and interaction of soil with sandy-silty texture, classified as Spodosols, from the Experimental Station Itapirema - IPA, in Goiana, state of Pernambuco, in mixtures with sewage sludge from the Mangueira Sewage Treatment Station, in the city of Recife, Pernambuco at rates of 25, 50 and 75 Mg ha-1. Tests were conducted to let water percolate the natural saturated soil and soil-sludge mixtures to characterize their physical, chemical, and microstructural properties as well as hydraulic conductivity. Statistical data analysis showed that the presence of sewage sludge in soils leads to an increase of the < 0.005 mm fraction, reduction in real specific weight and variation in optimum moisture content from 11.60 to 12.90 % and apparent specific dry weight from 17.10 and 17.50 kN m-3. In the sludge-soil mixture, the quartz grains were covered by sludge and filling of the empty soil macropores between grains. There were changes in the chemical characteristics of soil and effluent due to sewage sludge addition and a small decrease in hydraulic conductivity. The results indicate the possibility that soil acidity influenced the concentrations of the elements found in the leachate, showing higher levels at higher sludge doses. It can be concluded that the leaching degree of potentially toxic elements from the sewage sludge treatments does not harm the environment.