Flood Risk Analysis Based on Information Diffusion Theory

Due to the fact that the flood data series of small drainage basins is relatively short, available data are often not sufficient for flood risk analysis. This presents the problem of risk analysis using very small data samples. One method that can be applied is to regard the available small samples as fuzzy information and optimize them using information diffusion technology to yield analytical results with greater reliability. In this article a risk analysis method based on information diffusion theory is applied to create a new flood risk analysis model. Application of the model is illustrated taking the Jinhuajiang and Qujiang drainage basins as examples. This is a new attempt at applying information diffusion theory in flood risk analysis. Computations based on this analytical flood risk model can yield an estimated flood damage value that is relatively accurate. This study indicates that the aforementioned model exhibits fairly stable analytical results, even when using a small set of sample data. The results also indicate that information diffusion technology is highly capable of extracting useful information and therefore improves system recognition accuracy. This method can be easily applied and the analytical results produced are easy to understand. Results are accurate enough to act as a guide in disaster situations.     

An Algorithm for Calculation of n-Dimensional Nonlinear Dependencies – Behaviour Tests on Rats

The evaluation of the data obtained during the behaviour tests always leads to the problem of multiple correlation, very often with non-linear dependencies on the target. All mathematical and statistical procedures that have been used so far are based on the assumption of an equation for the desired correlation for which parameters and related statistical equivalents are determined eventually. The MODAK system applied here (MODAK = algorithms of modelling for the calculation of multi-dimensional non-linear mathematical models) breaks down a complex correlation into individual dependencies in a mathematical and statistical way and selects suitable equations for each of them independently and determines the corresponding parameters. The numerical example evaluates data of behaviour tests on rats. First results obtained on the correlations of various behaviour tests indicate both the possibility of selecting suitable tests independent of each other and a better interpretation of the observed patterns of behaviour taking into account the interrelations between the tests. In addition, MODAK is a method which can be applied as a matter of course in a general way to all cases which call for the reduction and analysis of data occurring in process and system analysis and in the evaluation of test results requiring statistical modelling. So far, MODAK applications range from engineering sciences to medicine.     

Characterization of Aspergillus niger catalase

Aspergillus niger catalase has been characterized by a variety of physical techniques including gel filtration, sedimentation rate and equilibrium methods and photon correlation spectroscopy. The catalase has a sedimentation coefficient (S₂₀⁰) of 14.2 ± 0.08 S and diffusion coefficient (D₂₀⁰) of 4.14 ± 0.35 × 10⁻⁷ cm² s⁻¹. The average molecular weight of the catalase from all available data including current sedimentation equilibrium measurements and two previous literature values is 345 000. The frictional ratio of the molecule assuming a hydration parameter similar to that of bovine liver catalase (.3 g H₂O g⁻¹) is 1.103, suggesting that Aspergillus niger catalase has an asymmetric structure with an axial ratio of approximately 3 (the Stokes radius is 5.83 ± 0.49 nm). The titration curve and amino acid analysis indicate that in the native conformation only 23% of the ionizable amino acid residues are titratable between pH 3 and 10.5. Denaturation with sodium n-dodecylsulphate increases the number of titratable groups to 46%. The ratio of anionic to cationic amino acid residues in Aspergillus niger catalase is 2.46 and the isoelectric point is 6.5. The optimum pH for catalytic activity is approximately 7.     

Depolarized fluorescence photobleaching recovery

The effects of the fact that the laser sources typically used in fluorescence photobleaching recovery (FPR) experiments in the most commonly employed in-line microscope imaging geometries, are highly linearly polarized, are examined in some detail. The implications of the results, in particular for the interpretation of FPR data in complex cell membrane systems in terms of laterally mobile and immobile sub-populations of the labelled molecular species of concern, are discussed. Methods of experimentally eliminating the potentially major rotational diffusion-based artifacts, different from those appropriate to three-dimensional (solution or suspension) systems which require other than in-line geometries, are delineated.Abbreviations FPR fluorescence photobleaching recovery - FRAP fluorescence recovery after photobleaching - 2- and 3-D two- and three-dimensional     

Chain length and pressure dependence of lipid translational diffusion

The translational diffusion of pyrene, pyrene butyric acid and pyrene decanoic acid has been determined in phosphatidylcholine bilayers of different chain length and under pressure up to 200 bars. In the liquid crystalline phase and at a given temperature the diffusion decreases with increasing chain length. At a constant reduced temperature, T _red (about 10 K above the transition temperature), long chain lipids exhibit the fastest diffusion which is in disagreement with hydrodynamic models but favours free volume models for diffusion in lipid bilayers. The volume of activation, V _act, calculated from the decrease of the diffusion coefficient with pressure, ln D/P, depends on lipid chain length. V _act decreases with decreasing lipid chain length at a given temperature, T=65°C, and increases at the reduced temperature. These results are again in agreement with the dependence of the diffusion on lipid chain length and therefore with the free volume model.Abbreviations DLPC Dilauroylphosphatidylcholine - DMPC Dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine - DPPC Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine - DSPC Distearoylphosphatidylcholine - LUV Large unilamellar vesicles - SUV Small unilamellar vesicles - Tris Tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethan     

Rapid lateral diffusion of lectin-labelled glycoconjugates in the human colonic adenocarcinoma cell line HT29

The lateral diffusion of lectin-labelled glycoconjugates was studied in the human colon carcinoma cell line HT29 using fluorescence photobleaching techniques. HT29 cells were grown in either Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium with glucose (25 mM; DMEM-Glu) or with galactose (25 mM; DMEM-Gal). Cell cultivation in the DMEM-Gal medium was assumed to promote a transformation of the cells to become small-intestinal-like with characteristic microvilli and associated enzymes. The diffusion of glycoconjugates labelled with fluoresceinated Triticum vulgaris agglutinin (Wheat germ agglutinin; WGA), Ricinus communis agglutinin-I (RCA-I), Concanavalia ensiformis agglutinin (ConA), Ulex europaeus agglutinin-I (UEA-I) and Arachis hypogaea agglutinin (PNA) was in all cases rapid, with a diffusion constant (D) ranging between 0.4 and 0.8×10^-8 cm² s^-1. As a comparison the diffusion of the fluorescent synthetic lipid analog diI-C₁₄ was characterized by D=0.8 – 1.0 × 10^–8 cm² s^-1. The diffusion of lectin-labelled surface components could not be related to the presence of microvilli on HT29 cells grown in DMEM-Gal, which ought to yield an apparently lower diffusion rate. The results indicate either that surface glycoconjugates in HT29 cells are dominated by glycolipid, or that the labelled glycoproteins are more or less free to diffuse in the plane of the membrane.     

Bounding fluid viscosity and translational diffusion in a fluid lipid bilayer

Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching was used to investigate the translational diffusion of a fluorescent derivative of a membrane-spanning lipid in L phase multibilayers of 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoylphosphatidylcholine prepared in water and in glycerol. The translational diffusion coefficient in hydrated bilayers (D _w) ranged between 2 and 5x10^–8 cm²/s and in glycerinated bilayers (D _g) the range was between 3 and 24×10^–10 cm²/s between 10° and 40°C. These results are discussed in terms of models for diffusion in membranes.     

Deme formation in scale insects: a test with the pinyon needle scale and a review of other evidence

ABSTRACT. 1. Deme formation is the transformation of a generalist population into one which is adapted to its local conditions. This adaptation has been inferred from many things but should be inferred from higher survival or fecundity of scale insects on their natal tree compared to that of immigrant scales on the same tree.
2. Transfers of the scale insect Matsucoccus acalyptus Herbert within and between infested host trees ( Pinus monophylla (Torr. & Frem.) resulted in significant differences in scale survivorship among recipient trees. Survival on individual trees was correlated across years, indicating stable differences in tree susceptibility to scale.
3. A significant natal tree colonized tree interaction was observed for late stage scale survival in one experiment but the interaction was not caused by superior survivorship of scales transferred back to the natal tree. Hence, we found no evidence of deme formation in M.acalyptus.
4. Previous studies have concluded that deme formation occurs in the black pineleaf scale based on a significant natal tree by colonized tree interaction in scale survival. We question this conclusion because the experimental design employed did not include transfers back onto the natal tree. Other indirect evidence for deme formation in scale insects is critically discussed.     

Topography and functions of sulfhydryl groups of the human erythrocyte glucose transport mechanism

Summary Membrane-impermeant and -permeant maleimides were applied to characterize the location and function of the sulfhydryl (SH) groups essential for the facilitated diffusion mediated by the human erythrocyte glucose transport protein. Three such classes have been identified. Type I SH is accessible to membrane-impermeant reagents at the outer (exofacial) surface of the intact erythrocyte. Alkylation of this class inhibits glucose transport; D-glucose and cytochalasin B protect against the alkylation. Type II SH is located at the inner (endofacial) surface of the membrane and is accessible to the membrane-impermeant reagent glutathione maleimide only after lysis of the erythrocyte. D-glucose enhances, while cytochalasin B reduces, the alkylation of Type II SH by maleimides. Reaction of Types I and II SH with an impermeant maleimide increases the half-saturation concentration for binding of D-glucose to erythrocyte membranes. By contrast, inactivation of Type III SH markedly decreases the half-saturation concentration for the binding of D-glucose and other transported sugars. Type III SH is inactivated by the relatively lipid-soluble reagents N-ethylmaleimide (NEM) and dipyridyl disulfide, but not by the impermeant glutathione maleimide. Type III SH is thus located in a hydrophobic membrane domain. A kinetic model constructed to explain these observations indicates that Type III SH is required for the translocation event in a hydrophobic membrane domain which leads to the dissociation of glucose bound to transport sites at the membrane surfaces.