Cytokine Storm Syndrome in Covid-19 Patients: Characteristics and Diagnosis

Cytokine storm syndrome (CSS) is a critical condition induced by a cascade of cytokine activation, characterized by overwhelming systemic inflammation, hyperferritinaemia, haemodynamic instability and multiple organ failure. At the end of 2019, the disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in Wuhan, China, and rapidly developed into a global pandemic. There is a dramatic increase of inflammatory cytokines in patients with COVID-19, suggesting the existence of cytokine storm in some critical illness patients. Here, we summarize the p

Authoring esteem: Writing about vicarious and personal life story chapters boosts state self-esteem

Constructing personal life stories carries benefits for psychological adjustment. We examined whether writing about the life stories of parents (i.e., vicarious life stories) hold similar advantages. In Study 1, we adapted an established experimental paradigm to an online format. Participants wrote either about personal life story chapters or about famous persons (control condition) and completed pre- and post-measures of state self-esteem. We found the predicted interaction as self-esteem increased in the chapter but not in the control condition. In Studies 2 and 3, we added the critical condition of writing about vicarious chapters. Study 2 did not find the predicted interaction. Instead, all three conditions increased in self-esteem. Study 3, which used a new neutral control task (writing about historical events), showed that the two chapter conditions, but not the control condition, increased in self-esteem. This suggests that authoring life stories for both oneself and close others momentarily boosts self-esteem.

ON THE STABILITY OF FAST FERRY IN DAMAGE SCENARIOS

The ro-ro ships are characterized by a large garage compartment extending from stern to bow. Damage conditions, heavy weather and large floodable spaces could create serious accidents, with the loss of life and goods at sea, both for conventional ferries and fast ferries. The occurred accidents showed the need of a more accurate approach to the damaged ship stability in waves, also in head sea and following sea conditions, because of the great movements of water on the car deck. With this aim a tool for analysing the ship response in wave with damaged compartments has been developed and applied on a typical fast ferry. The ship dynamic is simulated in time domain, including non-linear effects, taking into account critical scenarios on the damaged ship. The applications regard ship grounding, assuming head sea, modelled by regular wave. In addition to that, also the particularly critical condition of a transversal wind heeling moment has been applied to compute non symmetrical behaviour. Moreover the stability problems arising from the presence of trapped water in the garage compartment are investigated assuming the same environmental scenarios.

Axial Shuffling on Pebble Bed Reactor using PRAKTIK 3D-HTR

With moving fuel, the pebble bed reactor (PBR) provides flexibility in the fuel management process due to the capability of online fuel refueling. This capability allows the reactor to operate at any given time without the need to shut down for refueling. The complexity of the depletion and burnup analysis requires the problem to be solved with sophisticated and robust computer codes that can handle the fuel shuffling. Since the fuel refueling is conducted from top to bottom, the shuffling and fuel movement in the axial direction should be modeled with acceptable accuracy. The purpose of the simulation is to obtain the equilibrium or even a critical condition of the reactor. The model used is based on the simplified pebble bed reactor with 200 MWt of thermal reactor power, 3 meters of core diameter, and 10 meters of core height. To model the axial shuffling on the reactor, a neutronic computer code called PRAKTIK 3D-HTR is used. The code utilizes the diffusion method in a three-dimensional cylindrical geometry to model the neutronic phenomena in the reactor. Moreover, PRAKTIK 3D-HTR is equipped with the burnup calculation and depletion analysis to be able to handle fuel movement. Finally, the axial shuffling mechanism is implemented using the once-through-then-out (OTTO) method. Implementing this method to the reactor, an equilibrium condition can be obtained. In this condition, the reactor condition in terms of criticality and flux shape is relatively constant. The critical condition can also be searched using PRAKTIK 3D-HTR to obtain the condition when the multiplication factor is equal to unity. The criticality search is conducted by changing the fuel movement speed. If the multiplication factor is less than 1, then the shuffling speed needs to be increased. Otherwise, if it is more than 1, the shuffling speed will be decreased.

Structural Assessment of RCC Elevated Service Reservoir For Different Capacity

Elevated service reservoir is one of the maximum important infrastructures that is utilized by society. Our every day existence relies upon at the water supply, that is procured through an elevated service reservoir. Therefore, the safety of the service reservoir is of utmost importance. Most of the damage on elevated service reservoirs is caused by an earthquake, as the horizontal forces acting on the structure make the service reservoir vulnerable. Our predominantly study is based on extracting the dynamic forces mainly to determine critical condition of the structure. In this paper, different capacities of elevated service reservoir are taken and the design and analysis are done according to Indian standards. Dynamic analysis of the service reservoir is done and parameters such as time period, hydrodynamic pressure, base shear, base moment are compared with different capacities. Hence, the capabilities of the structure are substantially necessary to examine within the sub-continent region.

The effect of flood on slope stability along downstream riverbank of MuaraBangkahulu River, Bengkulu City, Indonesia

The flood which occurred due to the rainfall intensity in Bengkulu City of Indonesia could inundate the downstream area of MuaraBangkahulu River, especially TanjungAgung Sub-District. In 2019, a huge flood had occurred in Bengkulu City and triggered the environmental effect to riverbank in TanjungAgung. This environmental effect is a massive slope failure on downstream riverbank in TanjungAgung. This study is therefore conducted to analyze the slope stability in the area during the normal and the critical conditions. A slope stability analysis using finite element method is performed. First, the maximum discharge of MuaraBangkahulu River is estimated. Furthermore, slope stability analyses are conducted by considering the normal condition and the increase of river water level due to the maximum discharge (the critical condition). Mapping of factor of safety for riverbank slope and soil deformation is conducted. The results showed that slope along downstream riverbank of MuaraBangkahulu could undergo slope failure under both normal and critical condition. The results also showed that the factor of safety decreases due to the increase of river water level. The results of this study could be used by local government to consider slope countermeasure in the study area