A new hybrid equilibrium optimized SysFor based geospatial data mining for tropical storm-induced flash flood susceptible mapping.

Flash flood is one of the most dangerous hydrologic and natural phenomena and is considered as the top ranking of such events among various natural disasters due to their fast onset characteristics and the proportion of individual fatalities. Mapping the probability of flash flood events remains challenges because of its complexity and rapid onset of precipitation. Thus, this study aims to propose a state-of-the-art data mining approach based on a hybrid equilibrium optimized SysFor, namely, the HE-SysFor model, for spatial prediction of flash floods. A tropical storm region located in the Northwest areas of Vietnam is selected as a case study. For this purpose, 1866 flash-flooded locations and ten indicators were used. The results show that the proposed HE-SysFor model yielded the highest predictive performance (total accuracy = 93.8%, Kappa index = 0.875, F1-score = 0.939, and AUC = 0.975) and produced the better performance than those of the C4.5 decision tree (C4.5), the radial basis function-based support vector machine (SVM-RBF), the logistic regression (LReg), and deep learning neural network (DeepLNN) models in both the training and the testing phases. Among the ten indicators, elevation, slope, and land cover are the most important. It is concluded that the proposed model provides an alternative tool and may help for effectively monitoring flash floods in tropical areas and robust policies for decision making in mitigating the flash flood impacts.

Transient Characteristics of a Fluidic Device for Circulatory Jet Flow.

In this paper, we report on the design, simulation, and experimental analysis of a miniaturized device that can generate multiple circulated jet flows. The device is actuated by a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) diaphragm. The flows in the device were studied using three-dimensional transient numerical simulation with the programmable open source OpenFOAM and was comparable to the experimental result. Each flow is verified by two hotwires mounted at two positions inside each consisting chamber. The experiment confirmed that the flow was successfully created, and it demonstrated good agreement with the simulation. In addition, a prospective application of the device as an angular rate sensor is also demonstrated. The device is robust, is minimal in size, and can contribute to the development of multi-axis fluidic inertial sensors, fluidic amplifiers, gas mixing, coupling, and analysis.

Macrophage recruitment follows the pattern of inducible nitric oxide synthase expression in a model for carpal tunnel syndrome.

Chronic nerve compression (CNC) induces a permeability change in neural vasculature. As recent evidence has shown that an alteration in reactive oxidative species (ROS) is related to neural degradation and regeneration, we evaluated whether inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) plays a role in a rat model for CNC. Semi-quantitative analysis of iNOS mRNA and protein were performed with in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry, respectively, at 3, 5, and 9 months post-operatively. At 3 months, iNOS mRNA was up-regulated in the perineurium of the proximal nerve with detectable changes in compressed and distal nerve segments. This expression continued to increase in the perineurium of 5-month proximal and compressed nerve segments with distal nerve demonstrating only a slight up-regulation of iNOS mRNA. At 9 months, iNOS mRNA expression was observed in both compressed and distal nerve. iNOS protein expression followed the same pattern of iNOS mRNA. As the perineurium is the blood-nerve barrier, the data suggests that these changes maybe mediated at the level of the perineurium. As macrophages release iNOS, we also evaluated whether macrophage recruitment followed the same pattern as iNOS expression. The results of ED-1 immunostaining for macrophages indicate that macrophages were localized to the outer one-third of cross sections during early time points. At later time points, macrophages were distributed diffusely throughout the nerve sections. Contrary to Wallerian degeneration, which elicits a relatively immediate signal for macrophage recruitment, CNC provides a slow, sustained stimulus for macrophage recruitment, which may be responsible for the up-regulation of iNOS gene expression.

Optimization of Schwann cell adhesion in response to shear stress in an in vitro model for peripheral nerve tissue engineering.

The design of nerve guidance channels (NGCs) is evolving to produce a favorable environment for neural regeneration. We created an in vitro model to evaluate the interactions between three centrally important components of this altered host environment: (1). Schwann cells, (2). substrate, and (3). sustained mechanical stimulus in the form of shear stress with laminar fluid flow. Preconfluent Schwann cells were plated on slides coated either with laminin, poly-D-lysine, type IV collagen, or fibronectin. These slides were placed into custom-designed, parallel-plate, flow chambers and were administered laminar fluid flow at a rate of 15 mL/min for 2 h. Schwann cell adhesion assays demonstrated that laminin (mean, 86.1%; SEM, 4.47%) and fibronectin (mean, 81.7%; SEM, 3.24%) were statistically superior to collagen type IV (mean, 57.7%; SEM, 3.96%) and poly-D-lysine (mean, 58.0%; SEM, 4.97%) (p < 0.001). Fibronectin (mean, 12.20%; SEM, 0.374%) induced statistically greater Schwann cell proliferation than did laminin (mean, 8.14%; SEM, 0.682%) (p < 0.001). Therefore, we recommend that fibronectin should be used as an important component of NGCs with further in vivo studies. As mechanical stress is an integral part of the host environment, our study is the first to incorporate this factor into an in vitro model for peripheral nerve tissue engineering.