ASSESSMENT OF FLOOD INFLUENCE CRITERIA IN THE LAM RIVER BASIN USING A COMBINED DELPHI-AHP METHOD

Flood is represented as one of the most destructive natural hazards to humankind. Assessing and predicting floods hazard is necessary to offer appropriate solutions for flood mitigation and sustainable environmental management. It is only possible when the main criteria that contributed to creating the flood hazard are pointed out. The purpose of the current research was to choose and attribute scores to all various flood-causing factors in the Lam river basin. Firstly, the Delphi method was applied to the expertbased survey to choose six key parameters that led to the floods, including rainfall, slope, relative slope length, drainage density, land cover, and soil. Then, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach is employed as an effective tool to obtain a better understanding of all the factors or indicator contributions in the flood process based on weight given to each of six flood influencing elements. The consistency analyses revealed that the findings were coherent and consistent with a previous study. It is also interesting to notice that rainfall and slope are the most prominent flood occurrence criteria with 45% and 25.5%, respectively. However, the influence of other factors (drainage density, relative slope length, land cover, and soil) is not visible. These parameters are assigned to the small weights and do not have a significant influence on the flood phenomenon. The study results provide baseline information, which needs to be taken into account to mitigate and control floods.

Contracting cosmologies and the swampland

We consider the cosmology obtained using scalar fields with a negative potential energy, such as employed to obtain an Ekpyrotic phase of contraction. Applying the covariant entropy bound to the tower of states dictated by the distance conjecture, we find that the relative slope of the potential |V′|/|V| is bounded from below by a constant of the order one in Planck units. This is consistent with the requirement to obtain slow Ekpyrotic contraction. We also derive a refined condition on the potential which holds near local minima of a negative potential.

The Role Of Relative Slope Length In Flood Hazard Mapping Using Ahp And Gis (Case Study: Lam River Basin, Vietnam)

In addition to the five main factors affecting the formation of floods including slope, rainfall, drainage density, soil, and land cover, the relative slope length factor has also been considered to be one of the fundamental causes that contribute to flood hazard. The paper analyzes the theoretical basis for choosing the relative slope length criterion when zoning flood hazard in Lam river basin. The important role of this factor was evaluated by the results of the flood risk zoning map established by the method of integrating AHP and GIS technology in two cases: using 5 flood influence criteria and using 6 flood influence criteria. Flood hazard zoning maps for 2 cases were tested with 3 historic floods occurring on Oct 2010, Oct 2013 and Oct 2016. The results showed that the map established with six influence factors is more detailed and accurate than the one created with five factors affecting flood hazard because of the similarity with the reality of that map. The results of the study are applicable to other river basins which their geographical features are similar to characteristics the Lam river basin.

An ecological study of NHS funded elective hip arthroplasties in England from 2003/04 to 2012/13

Objectives To examine the impact of NHS-funded private provision on NHS provision, access and inequalities. Design Ecological study using routinely collected NHS inpatient data. Setting England. Participants All individuals undergoing an NHS-funded elective hip arthroplasty in England from 2003/2004 to 2012/2013. Main outcome measures Annual crude and standardised rates of hip arthroplasties per 100,000 population performed by NHS and private providers between 2004/2005 and 2012/2013. Results Age standardised rates of hip arthroplasty increased from 116.4 (95% CI 115.4–117.4) to 148.7 (147.6–149.8) per 100,000 between 2004/2005 and 2012/2013. Provision shifted from NHS providers to private providers from 2007/2008; NHS provision decreased 8.6% and private provision increased 188% between 2007/2008 and 2012/2013. There is evidence of risk selection; private sector hip arthroplasties on NHS patients from the most affluent areas increased 228% from 10.8 (10.2–11.5) to 35.4 (34.3–36.5) per 100,000 compared to an increase of 186% from 8.8 (8.1–9.4) to 25.2 (24.1–26.4) per 100,000 among patients from the least affluent areas between 2007/2008 and 2012/2013. There was no statistically significant (p > 0.05) widening in any measure of inequality (absolute, relative difference and slope and relative slope of index inequality) in hip arthroplasty rates between 2004/2005 and 2012/2013. Conclusion Private provision substituted for NHS provision and did not add to overall provision favouring patients living in the most affluent area. Continuing the trend towards private provision and reducing NHS provision is likely to result in risk selection and widening inequalities in provision of elective hip arthroplasty in England.

External anions and volume-sensitive anion current in guinea-pig ventricular myocytes

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of anion replacement on volume-sensitive anion current in guinea-pig ventricular myocytes. Myocytes in the conventional whole-cell voltage-clamp configuration were superfused and dialysed with Na+-, K+-, and Ca2+-free solution, and exposed to external 75 mM Cl- solution of one-half normal osmolality. Prolonged exposures to hyposmotic solution promoted the development of outwardly-rectifying currents that were inactivated at high positive potentials and reversed in a Cl--dependent manner (50 mV per decade pipette Cl- concentration). Replacement of external Cl- by iodide and aspartate affected the reversal potential (Erev) and slope conductance of the volume-sensitive current. Relative permeabilities calculated from changes in Erev were 1.49 ± 0.09, 1.00, and 0.29 ± 0.04 for iodide, Cl-, and aspartate, respectively; relative slope conductances between Erev and Erev + 40 mV were 1.21 ± 0.09, 1.00, and 0.43 ± 0.07, respectively. Replacement of Cl- also affected the time dependence of the volume-sensitive current; replacement by iodide reversibly enhanced the decay of outward current at positive potentials, whereas replacement by aspartate reduced it. These results are compared with earlier findings on non-cardiac time- and voltage-dependent anion current activated by hyposmotic solution.Key words: hyposmotic solution, Cl- current, iodide, aspartate, permeability, conductance.