κ-Opioid Signaling in the Lateral Hypothalamic Area Modulates Nicotine-Induced Negative Energy Balance

Several studies have reported that nicotine, the main bioactive component of tobacco, exerts a marked negative energy balance. Apart from its anorectic action, nicotine also modulates energy expenditure, by regulating brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis and white adipose tissue (WAT) browning. These effects are mainly controlled at the central level by modulation of hypothalamic neuropeptide systems and energy sensors, such as AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). In this study, we aimed to investigate the kappa opioid receptor (κOR)/dynorphin signaling in the modulation of nicotine’s effects on energy balance. We found that body weight loss after nicotine treatment is associated with a down-regulation of the κOR endogenous ligand dynorphin precursor and with a marked reduction in κOR signaling and the p70 S6 kinase/ribosomal protein S6 (S6K/rpS6) pathway in the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA). The inhibition of these pathways by nicotine was completely blunted in κOR deficient mice, after central pharmacological blockade of κOR, and in rodents where κOR was genetically knocked down specifically in the LHA. Moreover, κOR-mediated nicotine effects on body weight do not depend on orexin. These data unravel a new central regulatory pathway modulating nicotine’s effects on energy balance.     

Emergency egress for the elderly in care home fire situations

Practitioners are continuing to develop egress modelling software for the design of the built environment. These models require data about human behaviour and factors for calibration, validation and verification. This study aims to address the specific data and knowledge gap: emergency egress of the elderly. Such data are difficult to collect given privacy and consent concerns, with strong relationships generally being required between residences and researchers. Through the observation of nine fire drills at six Canadian long-term care (LTC) and retirement homes, specific evacuation actions and behaviour were observed for 37 staff members and information about the evacuation of 56 residents was collected. These drills demonstrated that emergency egress in LTC and retirement homes is highly staff dependent with 72% of residents recorded requiring full assistance at all stages of movement in evacuation, and that the type of announced/unannounced drill and level of resident care will affect the type of data collected. The development of travel speed and pre-movement is discussed subject to limitation with qualitative behavioural insights of residents that were observed. This study provides valuable methodological discussion on how to conduct behavioural studies in similar highly restricted research environments. Specific attention is given to understanding the considerations that must be made when using fire drills as data sources, and the impact that these can have on using such data for modelling. This study may inform the initial setup and programming of evacuation models from an actions and behavioural perspectives of staff members and residents.     

Engineering egress data considering pedestrians with reduced mobility

To quantify the evacuation process, evacuation practitioners use engineering egress data describing the occupant movement characteristics. These data are typically based to young and fit populations. However, the movement abilities of occupants who might be involved in evacuations are becoming more variable—with the building populations of today typically including increasing numbers of individuals: with impairments or who are otherwise elderly or generally less mobile. Thus, there will be an increasing proportion of building occupants with reduced ability to egress. For safe evacuation, there is therefore a need to provide valid engineering egress data considering pedestrians with disabilities. Gwynne and Boyce recently compiled a series of data sets related to the evacuation process to support practitioner activities in the chapter Engineering Data in the SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering. This paper supplements these data sets by providing information on and presenting data obtained from additional research related to the premovement and horizontal movement of participants with physical‐, cognitive‐, or age‐related disabilities. The aim is to provide an overview of currently available data sets related to, and key factors affecting the egress performance of, mixed ability populations which could be used to guide fire safety engineering decisions in the context of building design.     

Apparent power-law distributions in animal movements can arise from intraspecific interactions

Lévy flights have gained prominence for analysis of animal movement. In a Lévy flight, step-lengths are drawn from a heavy-tailed distribution such as a power law (PL), and a large number of empirical demonstrations have been published. Others, however, have suggested that animal movement is ill fit by PL distributions or contend a state-switching process better explains apparent Lévy flight movement patterns. We used a mix of direct behavioural observations and GPS tracking to understand step-length patterns in females of two related butterflies. We initially found movement in one species (Euphydryas editha taylori) was best fit by a bounded PL, evidence of a Lévy flight, while the other (Euphydryas phaeton) was best fit by an exponential distribution. Subsequent analyses introduced additional candidate models and used behavioural observations to sort steps based on intraspecific interactions (interactions were rare in E. phaeton but common in E. e. taylori). These analyses showed a mixed-exponential is favoured over the bounded PL for E. e. taylori and that when step-lengths were sorted into states based on the influence of harassing conspecific males, both states were best fit by simple exponential distributions. The direct behavioural observations allowed us to infer the underlying behavioural mechanism is a state-switching process driven by intraspecific interactions rather than a Lévy flight.     

大位移井钻柱振动规律研究与应用

在大位移井钻井工程中钻柱受着各种振动，当各种振动共振时，钻柱承受着非常大的动载，很容易受损，同时，钻柱的振动影响着井壁的稳定，严重威胁着井下的作业安全。以大位移井近井底的钻柱为研究对象，分析了钻柱振动行为所遵循的规律。采用线性分析法，获得了大位移井钻柱横向振动和扭转振动的频谱方程。同时获得了钻柱各种共振频率的分布。经分析表明：大位移井钻柱的横向振动和扭转振动的共振频率与实际钻井转速非常接近，应合理选择转速以减小钻柱共振的发生。文章的分析研究为大位移井钻柱动态行为的研究提供了理论依据。     

一种弯曲抽油杆打捞工具

为安全、快速、有效地解决顶部极度弯曲、径向变形尺寸很大的落井抽油杆打捞难题,研制了一种在套管内打捞弯曲抽油杆的工具。该工具把以往从落物顶端引入打捞改为从落物侧面引入打捞,使复杂的井下故障处理简单化,从而缩短修井周期,减少修井费用,及时恢复油井生产。该项技术先后在江苏油田6口油井上应用,成功率100%,验证了工具的独特性和可靠性。     

摩擦换向抽油机悬点运动分析计算

摩擦换向抽油机采用开关磁阻电动机或变频调速电动机,其特点是可以频繁双向旋转,带动摩擦轮正反转,实现光杆的上行下行。该抽油机运动特点与游梁式抽油机运动特点有较大区别,文章分析了摩擦换向抽油机的运动特点,给出了该机悬点位移、速度、加速度的计算方法。     

停棒子系统与控制棒组操作范围监测试验

本文叙述了反应堆保护系统停棒与汽轮机降功率子系统的系统功能、保护参数和秦山核电站控制棒组插入监测器的设计与参数选择,确定了控制棒提升上极限值和在不同工况下棒插入低位、低-低位整定值,并在热态零功率条件下加以验证。试验证明参数选择是合理的,为功率运行阶段提供了数据。     

底部两层框架-抗震墙砖房抗震能力的分析方法与设计控制

提出了底部两层框架 -抗震墙砖房框剪层和砖混层的极限受剪承载力、侧移刚度、极限剪力系数计算公式 ,并基于设置不同数量抗震墙的底部两层框架 -抗震墙砖房的实例计算和弹塑性时程分析 ,给出了结构砖混过渡层与相邻框剪层的极限剪力系数比和侧移刚度比的合理取值及薄弱楼层位置判别和破坏状态评定的方法和原则。     

铁路桥梁横向振动模拟及适应快速行车结构型式的研究

针对铁路提速后出现的上承式简支钢板梁桥跨中横向振幅过大的问题,以羊楼司桥(L=32m单跨上承式简支钢板梁桥)为例进行实桥检测和数值模拟,建立车辆、线路、桥梁三者的联合模型,考虑轮轨接触力,应用MSC/DYTRAN大型结构分析程序进行车线桥动力相互作用的仿真分析。研究揭示我国用量最多的C62型货车以70∽80km/h的速度空载通过时,该跨度的钢板梁桥发生横向谐振的机理。此外,用该方法对32m跨长的组合梁结构进行桥梁动力特性及列车走行性分析,表明该结构满足提速货车和高速电动旅客列车走行的要求。研究结果对我国高速铁路桥梁建设和既有桥梁的改造具有积极意义。