Application of a Three-dimensional Wind Driven Circulation Model to Assess the Locations of New Drinking Water Intakes in Lake Ontario

A 3D transport model is used to perform a comparative analysis of several potential drinking water intakes located along the northwest shore of Lake Ontario between Toronto and Oshawa. The model is specifically used to assess each intake under both long- and short-term transport of a potential pollutant release from the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station and potential and actual pollutant releases from local land sources respectively. A model based on a 500 m grid resolution is calibrated using data collected in the aftermath of the 1992 tritium spill at the Pickering Nuclear Generation Station and subsequently used to simulate long-term transport. A model based on a 100 m grid resolution is verified using drogue studies and used to simulate short-term transport events. Both models are used to assess pollutant levels at each of nine potential intake locations under different wind scenarios and pollutant releases. Field data for the study included water quality and flow measurements from local sewers and rivers, and estimates of pollutant levels from the local waste water treatment plants. This paper describes the model setup for both the long-term and short-term transport models, calibration using field data, long-term transport modeling, short-term transport modeling, and the comprehensive analysis approach used to evaluate the nine potential intake locations proposed. Results indicated that four intakes in particular outperformed other intake locations by maintaining bottom pollutant levels within governmental standards and warning times that exceeded 20 hours.     

Disambiguation of partial cognates

Partial cognates are pairs of words in two languages that have the same meaning in some, but not all contexts. Detecting the actual meaning of a partial cognate in context can be useful for Machine Translation tools and for Computer-Assisted Language Learning tools. We propose a supervised and a semi-supervised method to disambiguate partial cognates between two languages: French and English. The methods use only automatically-labeled data; therefore they can be applied to other pairs of languages as well. The aim of our work is to automatically detect the meaning of a French partial cognate word in a specific context.

A Lack of GD3 Synthase Leads to Impaired Renal Expression of Connexins and Pannexin1 in St8sia1 Knockout Mice

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of altered ganglioside composition on the expression of Cx37, Cx40, Cx43, Cx45, and Panx1 in different kidney regions of St8sia1 gene knockout mice (St8sia1 KO) lacking the GD3 synthase enzyme. Experiments were performed in twelve male 6-month-old mice: four wild-type (C57BL/6-type, WT) and eight St8sia1 KO mice. After euthanasia, kidney tissue was harvested, embedded in paraffin wax, and processed for immunohistochemistry. The expression of connexins and Panx1 was determined in different regions of the kidney: cortex (CTX.), outer stripe of outer medulla (O.S.), inner stripe of outer medulla (IN.S.), and inner medulla (IN.MED.). We determined significantly lower expression of Cx37, Cx40, Cx45, and Panx1 in different parts of the kidneys of St8sia1 KO mice compared with WT. The most consistent decrease was found in the O.S. where all markers (Cx 37, 40, 45 and Panx1) were disrupted in St8si1 KO mice. In the CTX. region, we observed decrease in the expression of Cx37, Cx45, and Panx1, while reduced expression of Cx37 and Panx1 was more specific to IN.S. The results of the present study suggest that deficiency of GD3 synthase in St8sia1 KO mice leads to disruption of renal Cx expression, which is probably related to alteration of ganglioside composition.     

Morphological and Biological Evaluations of Human Periodontal Ligament Fibroblasts in Contact with Different Bovine Bone Grafts Treated with Low-Temperature Deproteinisation Protocol

Several types of deproteinised bovine bone mineral (DBBM) are available on the market, and each one is obtained with a thermic and chemical process that can differ, achieving different results. Currently, several protocols using low temperature are suggested to reduce the possible particle crystallisation during the production process. This study aimed to evaluate the biomorphological reaction of periodontal fibroblast cultures in contact with different DBBM particles treated with a low-temperature protocol (Thermagen^®) and without exposure to sodium hydroxide (NaOH). Morphological evaluation was performed using light, confocal laser, and scanning electron microscopy, and the biological reaction in terms of proliferation was performed using an XTT proliferation assay at 24 h (T1), 72 h (T2), and 7 days (T3). The morphological analysis highlighted how the presence of the materials stimulated a change in the morphology of the cells into a polygonal shape, surface reactions with the thickening of the membrane, and expression of actin. In particular, the morphological changes were appreciable from T1, with a progressive increase in the considered morphological characteristics at T2 and T3 follow-ups. The proliferation assay showed a statistical significance between the different experimental materials and the negative control in T2 and T3 follow-ups. The post hoc analysis did not reveal any differences between the materials. In conclusion, the grafts obtained with the low-temperature extractions protocol and not exposed to NaOH solution showed positive morphological reactions with no differences in the sizes of particles.     

Using frames to disambiguate prepositions

In natural language processing (NLP), disambiguation is the procedure used to solve name conflicts of polysemic concepts (different meanings); in fact, phrase disambiguation is a problem not totally solved in NLP. Several disambiguation types exist; for instance, noun disambiguation (bank is a word with several meanings) or when a word is both used as a noun and as a preposition. Work herein reported describes an algorithm and its implementation to disambiguate prepositions in Spanish phrases; some of them are: a {to} (Translation to English are in bold for explanation purposes; they give only one of the senses of the Spanish word, which usually have multiple meanings.), ante {before}, bajo {under}, cabe {fits}, desde {from}, contra {against}, en {in}, por {by}, según {according to}, sin {without}, entre {between}, so {under}, con {with}, hacia {towards}, sobre {about}, hasta {until}, de {of}, tras {after}, para {for}. This tool will be used in a text analyzer (being built) that converts a text document to its corresponding ontology representation, with the goal of allowing another program to use the information to answer non trivial questions (**).     

Thermo-Mechanical Stress in High-Frequency Vacuum Electron Devices

Analysis of the thermo-mechanical performance of high-frequency vacuum electron devices is essential to the advancement of RF sources towards high-power generation. Operation in an ultra-high vacuum environment, space restricting magnetic focusing, and limited material options are just some of the constraints that complicate thermal management in a high-power VED. An analytical method for evaluating temperature, stress, and deformation distribution in thin vacuum-to-cooling walls is presented, accounting for anisotropic material properties. Thin plate geometry is used and analytical expressions are developed for thermo-mechanical analysis that includes the microstructure effects of grain orientations. The method presented evaluates the maximum allowable heat flux that can be used to establish the power-handling limitation of high-frequency VEDs prior to full-scale design, accelerating time-to-manufacture.     

Ultraprecise 3D Printed Graphene Aerogel Microlattices on Tape for Micro Sensors and E-Skin

3D printed graphene aerogels hold promise for flexible sensing fields due to their flexibility, low density, conductivity, and piezo-resistivity. However, low printing accuracy/fidelity and stochastic porous networks have hindered both sensing performance and device miniaturization. Here, printable graphene oxide (GO) inks are formulated through modulating oxygen functional groups, which allows printing of self-standing 3D graphene oxide aerogel microlattice (GOAL) with an ultra-high printing resolution of 70 µm. The reduced GOAL (RGOAL) is then stuck onto the adhesive tape as a facile and large-scale strategy to adapt their functionalities into target applications. Benefiting from the printing resolution of 70 µm, RGOAL tape shows better performance and data readability when used as micro sensors and robot e-skin. By adjusting the molecular structure of GO, the research realizes regulation of rheological properties of GO hydrogel and the 3D printing of lightweight and ultra-precision RGOAL, improves the sensing accuracy of graphene aerogel electronic devices and realizes the device miniaturization, expanding the application of graphene aerogel devices to a broader field such as micro robots, which is beyond the reach of previous reports.     

Remote‐Loaded Platelet Vesicles for Disease‐Targeted Delivery of Therapeutics

The recent emergence of biomimetic nanotechnology has facilitated the development of next‐generation nanodelivery systems capable of enhanced biointerfacing. In particular, the direct use of natural cell membranes can enable multivalent targeting functionalities. Herein, this study reports on the remote loading of small molecule therapeutics into cholesterol‐enriched platelet membrane‐derived vesicles for disease‐targeted delivery. Using this approach, high loading yields for two model drugs, doxorubicin and vancomycin, are achieved. Leveraging the surface markers found on platelet membranes, the resultant nanoformulations demonstrate natural affinity toward both breast cancer cells and methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus. In vivo, this translates to improved disease targeting, increasing the potency of the encapsulated drug payloads compared with free drugs and the corresponding nontargeted nanoformulations. Overall, this work demonstrates that the remote loading of drugs into functional platelet membrane‐derived vesicles is a facile means of fabricating targeted nanoformulations, an approach that can be easily generalized to other cell types in the future.