A Case Study on the Deformation of Metro Foundation Pit in Silt Stratum in North China

Geological conditions of urban subway foundation pits are controllable factors in determining the deformation of pits. In this paper, the monitoring data and statistical data of a subway deep foundation pit in North China are presented and compared with those of Tianjin subway. The deformation characteristics of the proposed pit, open excavated with triple-layer steel supports, are introduced in detail. Based on the aforementioned information, the energy conservation equation of the mobilized strength design (MSD) method in which the compression deformation energy of internal support is considered is applied to predict the maximum lateral movement. The maximum lateral movement turns out to be 22.2 mm according to the improved MSD method, which is very close to the measured value.

No Effects of Intra-Articular Injections of Sodium Hyaluronate, Corticosteroids, Platelet-Rich Plasma on Temporomandibular Joint Osteoarthritis: a Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Background Intra-articular injections of corticosteroids (CCS), hyaluronic acid (HA), and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) have often been used for temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis (TMJ OA). However, there is no guideline for the choice of pharmacological injections. The aim of this network meta-analysis (NMA) is to compare the efficacy of different intra-articular injectable treatments on TMJ OA. Methods Studies were identified from PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Central with date up to December 2020. Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) included were the studies of patients with TMJ OA who had intra-articular treatment with CCS, HA, PRP, placebo and follow-up assessing TMJ function in target outcome variables. The primary outcome was temporomandibular joint pain (VAS). The secondary outcomes were maximal mouth opening (mm), and lateral movement to the affected side (mm). Results Nine RCTs involving 316 patients were included. For primary pain outcome, no significance was detected when CCS, HA and PRP were compared with placebo by both short- (3-6 months) and long-term (>12 months) follow-up. In addition, these injectables did not significantly outperform placebo by evaluating secondary functional outcomes (maximal mouth opening and lateral movement) with the same follow-up. Subgroup analyses showed that the effect of CCS on subgroups with more than 70% women was statistically less effective compared with placebo. Conclusion Evidence suggested that intra-articular pharmacological injections of CCS, HA, and PRP had no effect on improving TMJ pain and functional outcomes compared with placebo injection. Trial registration This study is registered with PROSPERO, number CRD42021270914.

Turtling the salamander: tail movements mitigate need for kinematic limb changes during walking in tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum) with restricted lateral movement

Lateral undulation and trunk flexibility offer performance benefits to maneuverability, stability, and stride length (via speed and distance traveled). These benefits make them key characteristics of the locomotion of tetrapods with sprawling posture, with the exception of turtles. Despite their bony carapace preventing lateral undulations, turtles are able to improve their locomotor performance by increasing stride length via greater limb protraction. The goal of this study was to quantify the effect of reduced lateral flexibility in a generalized sprawling tetrapod, the tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum). We had two potential predictions: (1) either salamanders completely compensate by changing their limb kinematics, or (2) their performance (i.e., speed) will suffer due to the reduced lateral flexibility. This reduction was performed by artificially limiting trunk flexibility by attaching a 2-piece shell around the body between the pectoral and pelvic girdles. Adult tiger salamanders (n = 3, SVL = 9 cm-14.5 cm) walked on a 1 m trackway under three different conditions: unrestricted, flexible shell (Tygon tubing), and rigid shell (PVC tubing). Trials were filmed in a single, dorsal view, and kinematics of entire midline and specific body regions (head, trunk, tail), as well as the fore and hindlimbs, were calculated. Tygon individuals had significantly higher curvature than both PVC and unrestricted individuals for the body, but this trend was primarily driven by changes in tail movements. PVC individuals had significantly lower curvature in the trunk region compared to unrestricted individuals or Tygon; however, there was no difference between unrestricted and Tygon individuals suggesting the shells performed as expected. PVC and Tygon individuals had significantly higher curvature in the tails compared to unrestricted individuals. There were no significant differences for any limb kinematic variables among treatments including average, minimum, maximum angles. Thus, salamanders respond to decreased lateral movement in their trunk by increasing movements in their tail, without changes in limb kinematics. These results suggest that tail undulations may be a more critical component to sprawling-postured tetrapod locomotion than previously recognized.

Giovanni Pastrone’s Cabiria, Gesture, Modernism

Giovanni Pastrone’s epic Cabiria—not least because of its most famous technical innovation, the tracking or “Cabiria shot”—is a film preoccupied by gesture. In Cabiria the stylizations of human movement are central to the film’s establishment of a modernist vision of Italy in the context of an increasing technological interest in the analysis of human movement. Where modernism across all genres attends to gesture, from Edgar Degas’s dancers to the gait of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Cabiria does so with a modernist technology of the gaze that is now able to represent gesture in “real time.” Cabiria—which introduced both the lateral movement of the camera and the gesture later adopted by Benito Mussolini as the fascist salute—explores how such gestures situate the historical subject, and the historical crowd, in relationship to structures of political power.

Axial and Nonaxial Migration of Red Blood Cells in a Microtube

Human red blood cells (RBCs) are subjected to high viscous shear stress, especially during microcirculation, resulting in stable deformed shapes such as parachute or slipper shape. Those unique deformed RBC shapes, accompanied with axial or nonaxial migration, cannot be fully described according to traditional knowledge about lateral movement of deformable spherical particles. Although several experimental and numerical studies have investigated RBC behavior in microchannels with similar diameters as RBCs, the detailed mechanical characteristics of RBC lateral movement—in particular, regarding the relationship between stable deformed shapes, equilibrium radial RBC position, and membrane load—has not yet been fully described. Thus, we numerically investigated the behavior of single RBCs with radii of 4 μm in a circular microchannel with diameters of 15 μm. Flow was assumed to be almost inertialess. The problem was characterized by the capillary number, which is the ratio between fluid viscous force and membrane elastic force. The power (or energy dissipation) associated with membrane deformations was introduced to quantify the state of membrane loads. Simulations were performed with different capillary numbers, viscosity ratios of the internal to external fluids of RBCs, and initial RBC centroid positions. Our numerical results demonstrated that axial or nonaxial migration of RBC depended on the stable deformed RBC shapes, and the equilibrium radial position of the RBC centroid correlated well with energy expenditure associated with membrane deformations.

Assessment of Productivity and Crop Diversification Pattern in Punjab Agriculture

This study examines the structure of agriculture productivity and crop diversification across different zones in Punjab, India during 1966–1967 to 2017–2018. The composite entropy index shows that almost all zones are specialised in few crops but some of them are relatively less or some are more. Hence, we found zones are experiencing a lateral movement toward crop specialisation and crop diversification is not happening. Further, results reveals that accessibility of market and roadhave a positive influenced the level of crop diversification are accessibility of market, roads have found a positive influenced on crop diversification. Whereas more use of fertiliser, intensity of irrigation and rainfall have leads to concentration rather than crop diversification. Similarly, study also analysed the factors that are responsible of variation in productivity by regional factors such as better road, fertiliser, urbanisation, literacy and cropping intensity. As the analysis indicates that there is need to emphasise on agro-climatic regional preparation by clearly identifying the existing resource endowments and constraints of the agro-climatically homogeneous regions. JEL: C23,Q10, Q19