Infrastructure Engineering - Research Publications
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ItemThe carbon footprint of treating patients with septic shock in the intensive care unit(College of Intensive Care Medicine of Australia and New Zealand, 2018-12-01)OBJECTIVE: To use life cycle assessment to determine the environmental footprint of the care of patients with septic shock in the intensive care unit (ICU). DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Prospective, observational life cycle assessment examining the use of energy for heating, ventilation and air conditioning; lighting; machines; and all consumables and waste associated with treating ten patients with septic shock in the ICU at BarnesJewish Hospital, St. Louis, MO, United States (US-ICU) and ten patients at Footscray Hospital, Melbourne, Vic, Australia (Aus-ICU). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Environmental footprint, particularly greenhouse gas emissions. RESULTS: Energy use per patient averaged 272 kWh/day for the US-ICU and 143 kWh/day for the Aus-ICU. The average daily amount of single-use materials per patient was 3.4 kg (range, 1.0-6.3 kg) for the US-ICU and 3.4 kg (range, 1.2-8.7 kg) for the Aus-ICU. The average daily particularly greenhouse gas emissions arising from treating patients in the US-ICU was 178 kg carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e) emissions (range, 165-228 kg CO2-e), while for the Aus-ICU the carbon footprint was 88 kg CO2-e (range, 77-107 kg CO2-e). Energy accounted for 155 kg CO2-e in the US-ICU (87%) and 67 kg CO2-e in the Aus-ICU (76%). The daily treatment of one patient with septic shock in the US-ICU was equivalent to the total daily carbon footprint of 3.5 Americans' CO2-e emissions, and for the Aus-ICU, it was equivalent to the emissions of 1.5 Australians. CONCLUSION: The carbon footprints of the ICUs were dominated by the energy use for heating, ventilation and air conditioning; consumables were relatively less important, with limited effect of intensity of patient care. There is large opportunity for reducing the ICUs' carbon footprint by improving the energy efficiency of buildings and increasing the use of renewable energy sources.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableEditorial(Informa UK Limited, 2015-06-01)
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ItemA Novel Approach for 3D Modeling and Geovisualization of Easement Rights in Apartments(CMV Verlag, 2018-12-01)
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ItemA novel approach for 3D neighbourhood analysis(Copernicus GmbH, 2017-09-12)Abstract. Population growth and lack of land in urban areas have caused massive developments such as high rises and underground infrastructures. Land authorities in the international context recognizes 3D cadastres as a solution to efficiently manage these developments in complex cities. Although a 2D cadastre does not efficiently register these developments, it is currently being used in many jurisdictions for registering land and property information. Limitations in analysis and presentation are considered as examples of such limitations. 3D neighbourhood analysis by automatically finding 3D spaces has become an issue of major interest in recent years. Whereas the neighbourhood analysis has been in the focus of research, the idea of 3D neighbourhood analysis has rarely been addressed in 3 dimensional information systems (3D GIS) analysis. In this paper, a novel approach for 3D neighbourhood analysis has been proposed by recording spatial and descriptive information of the apartment units and easements. This approach uses the coordinates of the subject apartment unit to find the neighbour spaces. By considering a buffer around the edges of the unit, neighbour spaces are accurately detected. This method was implemented in ESRI ArcScene and three case studies were defined to test the efficiency of this approach. The results show that spaces are accurately detected in various complex scenarios. This approach can also be applied for other applications such as property management and disaster management in order to find the affected apartments around a defined space.
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ItemEstimating Annual Water Storage Variations Using Microwave-based Soil Moisture Retrievals( 2016-11-21)Abstract. Due to their shallow vertical support, remotely-sensed surface soil moisture retrievals are commonly regarded as being of limited value for water budget applications requiring the characterization of temporal variations in total terrestrial water storage (S). However, advances in our ability to estimate evapotranspiration remotely now allow for the direct evaluation of approaches for quantifying annual variations in S via water budget closure considerations. By applying an annual water budget analysis within a series of medium-scale (2,000–10,000 km2) basins within the United States, we demonstrate that, despite their clear theoretical limitations, surface soil moisture retrievals derived from passive microwave remote sensing contain significant information concerning relative inter-annual variations in S. This suggests the possibility of using (relatively) higher-resolution microwave remote sensing to enhance the spatial resolution of S estimates acquired from gravity remote sensing. However, challenging calibration issues regarding the relationship between S and surface soil moisture must be resolved before the approach can be used for absolute water budget closure.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableA predictive model for spatio-temporal variability in stream water quality( 2019-07-23)Abstract. Degraded water quality in rivers and streams can have large economic, societal and ecological impacts. Stream water quality can be highly variable both over space and time. To develop effective management strategies for riverine water quality, it is critical to be able to predict these spatio-temporal variabilities. However, our current capacity to model stream water quality is limited, particularly at large spatial scales across multiple catchments. This is due to a lack of understanding of the key controls that drive spatio-temporal variabilities of stream water quality. To address this, we developed a Bayesian hierarchical statistical model to analyse the spatio-temporal variability in stream water quality across the state of Victoria, Australia. The model was developed based on monthly water quality monitoring data collected at 102 sites over 21 years. The modelling focused on six key water quality constituents: total suspended solids (TSS), total phosphorus (TP), filterable reactive phosphorus (FRP), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), nitrate-nitrite (NOx), and electrical conductivity (EC). Among the six constituents, the models explained varying proportions of variation in water quality. EC was the most predictable constituent (88.6 % variability explained) and FRP had the lowest predictive performance (19.9 % variability explained). The models were validated for multiple sets of calibration/validation sites and showed robust performance. Temporal validation revealed a systematic change in the TSS model performance across most catchments since an extended drought period in the study region, highlighting potential shifts in TSS dynamics over the drought. Further improvements in model performance need to focus on: (1) alternative statistical model structures to improve fitting for the low concentration data, especially records below the detection limit; and (2) better representation of non-conservative constituents by accounting for important biogeochemical processes. We also recommend future improvements in water quality monitoring programs which can potentially enhance the model capacity, via: (1) improving the monitoring and assimilation of high-frequency water quality data; and (2) improving the availability of data to capture land use and management changes over time.
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ItemAntibiotic use and abuse: a threat to mitochondria and chloroplasts with impact on research, health, and environment.(Wiley, 2015-10)Recently, several studies have demonstrated that tetracyclines, the antibiotics most intensively used in livestock and that are also widely applied in biomedical research, interrupt mitochondrial proteostasis and physiology in animals ranging from round worms, fruit flies, and mice to human cell lines. Importantly, plant chloroplasts, like their mitochondria, are also under certain conditions vulnerable to these and other antibiotics that are leached into our environment. Together these endosymbiotic organelles are not only essential for cellular and organismal homeostasis stricto sensu, but also have an important role to play in the sustainability of our ecosystem as they maintain the delicate balance between autotrophs and heterotrophs, which fix and utilize energy, respectively. Therefore, stricter policies on antibiotic usage are absolutely required as their use in research confounds experimental outcomes, and their uncontrolled applications in medicine and agriculture pose a significant threat to a balanced ecosystem and the well-being of these endosymbionts that are essential to sustain health.
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ItemGrowth differentiation factor 15 is a myomitokine governing systemic energy homeostasis.(Rockefeller University Press, 2017-01-02)Reduced mitochondrial electron transport chain activity promotes longevity and improves energy homeostasis via cell-autonomous and -non-autonomous factors in multiple model systems. This mitohormetic effect is thought to involve the mitochondrial unfolded protein response (UPRmt), an adaptive stress-response pathway activated by mitochondrial proteotoxic stress. Using mice with skeletal muscle-specific deficiency of Crif1 (muscle-specific knockout [MKO]), an integral protein of the large mitoribosomal subunit (39S), we identified growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) as a UPRmt-associated cell-non-autonomous myomitokine that regulates systemic energy homeostasis. MKO mice were protected against obesity and sensitized to insulin, an effect associated with elevated GDF15 secretion after UPRmt activation. In ob/ob mice, administration of recombinant GDF15 decreased body weight and improved insulin sensitivity, which was attributed to elevated oxidative metabolism and lipid mobilization in the liver, muscle, and adipose tissue. Thus, GDF15 is a potent mitohormetic signal that safeguards against the onset of obesity and insulin resistance.
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ItemEliciting the mitochondrial unfolded protein response by nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide repletion reverses fatty liver disease in mice.(Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health), 2016-04)UNLABELLED: With no approved pharmacological treatment, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is now the most common cause of chronic liver disease in Western countries and its worldwide prevalence continues to increase along with the growing obesity epidemic. Here, we show that a high-fat high-sucrose (HFHS) diet, eliciting chronic hepatosteatosis resembling human fatty liver, lowers hepatic nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD(+) ) levels driving reductions in hepatic mitochondrial content, function, and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) levels, in conjunction with robust increases in hepatic weight, lipid content, and peroxidation in C57BL/6J mice. To assess the effect of NAD(+) repletion on the development of steatosis in mice, nicotinamide riboside, a precursor of NAD(+) biosynthesis, was added to the HFHS diet, either as a preventive strategy or as a therapeutic intervention. We demonstrate that NR prevents and reverts NAFLD by inducing a sirtuin (SIRT)1- and SIRT3-dependent mitochondrial unfolded protein response, triggering an adaptive mitohormetic pathway to increase hepatic β-oxidation and mitochondrial complex content and activity. The cell-autonomous beneficial component of NR treatment was revealed in liver-specific Sirt1 knockout mice (Sirt1(hep-/-) ), whereas apolipoprotein E-deficient mice (Apoe(-/-) ) challenged with a high-fat high-cholesterol diet affirmed the use of NR in other independent models of NAFLD. CONCLUSION: Our data warrant the future evaluation of NAD(+) boosting strategies to manage the development or progression of NAFLD.
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ItemReduced oxidative capacity in macrophages results in systemic insulin resistance.(Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2018-04-19)Oxidative functions of adipose tissue macrophages control the polarization of M1-like and M2-like phenotypes, but whether reduced macrophage oxidative function causes systemic insulin resistance in vivo is not clear. Here, we show that mice with reduced mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OxPhos) due to myeloid-specific deletion of CR6-interacting factor 1 (Crif1), an essential mitoribosomal factor involved in biogenesis of OxPhos subunits, have M1-like polarization of macrophages and systemic insulin resistance with adipose inflammation. Macrophage GDF15 expression is reduced in mice with impaired oxidative function, but induced upon stimulation with rosiglitazone and IL-4. GDF15 upregulates the oxidative function of macrophages, leading to M2-like polarization, and reverses insulin resistance in ob/ob mice and HFD-fed mice with myeloid-specific deletion of Crif1. Thus, reduced macrophage oxidative function controls systemic insulin resistance and adipose inflammation, which can be reversed with GDF15 and leads to improved oxidative function of macrophages.