Peak Volume Research Articles

Evaluating peak inspiratory pressures and tidal volume in premature neonates on NAVA ventilation.

Neurally adjusted ventilatory assist (NAVA) ventilation allows patients to determine their peak inspiratory pressure and tidal volume on a breath-by-breath basis. Apprehension exists about premature neonates’ ability to self-regulate breath size. This study describes peak pressure and tidal volume distribution of neonates on NAVA and non-invasive NAVA. This is a retrospective study of stored ventilator data with exploratory analysis. Summary statistics were calculated. Distributional assessment of peak pressure and tidal volume were evaluated, overall and per NAVA level. Over 1 million breaths were evaluated from 56 subjects. Mean peak pressure was 16.4 ± 6.4 in the NAVA group, and 15.8 ± 6.4 in the NIV-NAVA group (t test, p < 0.001). Mean tidal volume was 3.5 ± 2.7 ml/kg.Conclusion:In neonates on NAVA, most pressures and volumes were within or lower than recommended ranges with pressure-limited or volume-guarantee ventilation.What is known:• Limiting peak inspiratory pressures or tidal volumes are the main strategies to minimize ventilator-induced lung injury in neonates. Neurally adjusted ventilatory assist allows neonates to regulate their own peak inspiratory pressures and tidal volumes on a breath-to-breath basis using neural feedback.What is new:• When neonates chose the size of their breaths based on neural feedback, the majority of peak inspiratory pressures and tidal volumes were within or lower than the recommended peak inspiratory pressure or tidal volume ranges with pressure-limited or volume guarantee ventilation.

Quantification of Surface Roughness Using Laser Scanning with Application to the Frictional Resistance of Sand-Timber Pile Interfaces

Abstract Still commonly used today, timber piles represent a cost-effective deep foundation alternative for carrying structural loads or densifying liquefaction-susceptible soil deposits. However, the range in interface shear friction angles between common timber pile types and sand is unknown, and little data exist for wood specimens in the range of normal stresses typically encountered in the field. This study evaluates the use of laser-scanning techniques for the quantification of surface roughness and presents the results of interface shear tests conducted on untreated Southern Pine, treated Southern Pine, and untreated Douglas Fir. The surface roughness of the timber pile specimens was found to be anisotropic, with surface roughness approximately three to four times larger in the circumferential direction than the longitudinal direction, presenting implications for torsional and axial load transfer. The peak and constant volume effective interface friction angles and interface friction ratios were relatively insensitive to relative density for the range in relative densities investigated, whereas the interface response was sensitive to normal stress. The role of surface roughness and surface hardness on the interface response was determined to be statistically significant and confounded by the inverse relationship observed between hardness and roughness for the species of timber pile investigated.

Chest CT Evaluation of 11 Persistent Asymptomatic Patients with SARS-CoV-2 Infection.

In total, 11 asymptomatic carriers who underwent nasal or oropharyngeal swab tests for SARS-CoV-2 after being in close contact with patients who developed symptomatic 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were enrolled in this study. The chest multidetector computed tomography (CT) images of the enrolled patients were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. The findings of the first chest CT were normal in 3 (27.3%) patients, 2 of whom were aged below 15 years. The lesions of 2 (18.2%) patients involved 1 lobe with unifocal presence. Subpleural lesions were observed in 7 (63.6%) patients. Ground glass opacity (GGO) was the most common sign observed in 7 (63.6%) patients. Crazy-paving pattern and consolidation were detected in 2 (18.2%) and 4 (36.4%) patients, respectively. Based on deep learning and quantitative analysis, the mean volume of intrapulmonary lesions in the first CT image was 85.73 ± 84.46 cm3. In patients with positive findings on CT images, the average interval between positive real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assay and peak volume on CT images was 5.1 ± 3.1 days. In conclusion, typical CT findings can be detected in over 70% of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 carriers. The initial presentation is typically GGO along the subpleural regions and bronchi, which absorbs in approximately 5 days.

A portable and field optical emission spectrometry coupled with microplasma trap for high sensitivity analysis of arsenic and antimony simultaneously

In this work, a portable and reliable optical emission spectrometric (OES) instrument based on solid acid hydride generation (HG) and subsequent in situ dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) preconcentration was first developed for simultaneous and field analysis of ultratrace As and Sb in environmental water. In situ DBD fulfilled both gas phase enrichment (GPE) and excitation; effective enrichment made it possible to use a low-cost charge coupled device (CCD) as detector. To simplify field protocol, solid tablet made from sulfamic acid was first used to replace hydrochloric acid for co-generation of As and Sb hydrides. Moisture interference was eliminated by carrier gas sweeping without any desiccant. After calculating peak volume for emission data handling, detection limits (LODs) were 0.5 μg L−1 for As and 0.2 μg L−1 for Sb, respectively, with <3% relative standard deviations (RSDs) at 10 μg L−1; linear dynamic ranges (R2>0.995) were 2–200 μg L−1 for As and 1–200 μg L−1 for Sb, respectively. The results agreed with certified values of CRMs and recoveries were 87–97% vs. inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The running costs can be controlled within one dollar per use. This HG-in situ DBD trap-OES scheme, with demonstrated advantages in sensitivity, low-cost, power (<60 W), size (0.6 m × 0.5 m × 0.3 m), weight (15 kg), gas consumption (300 measurements per 4 L tank), and multi-element capability, was implemented in a miniature spectrometer for field analysis.

Bivariate flood distribution analysis under parametric copula framework: a case study for Kelantan River basin in Malaysia

Flood is becoming an intensive hydro-climatic issue at the Kelantan River basin in Malaysia. Univariate frequency analysis would be unreliable due to multidimensional behaviour of flood, which often demands multivariate flow exceedance probabilities. The joint distribution analysis of multiple interacting flood characteristics, i.e. flood peak, volume and duration, is very useful for understanding critical hydrologic behaviour at a river basin scale. In this paper, a copula-based methodology is incorporated for multivariate flood frequency analysis for the 50-year annual basis flood characteristics of Kelantan River basin at Guillemard bridge station in Malaysia. Investigation reveals that the Lognormal (2P), Johnson SB-4P and Gamma-3P are selected as marginal distributions for the flood peak flow, volume and duration series. Several bivariate families such as mono-parametric, bi-parametric (i.e. mixed version) and rotated version of Archimedean copulas and also the elliptical copula are introduced to cover a large dependence pattern of flood characteristics. The dependence parameter of bivariate copulas is estimated by the method of moments (MOM) based on the inversion of Kendall’s tau and maximum pseudo-likelihood estimator. To analytically validate and recognize most parsimonious copulas, GOF test and Cramer–von Mises distance statistics (Sn) with the parametric bootstrap method are employed. The Gaussian copula is identified as the most justifiable model for joint modelling of the flood peak–volume and peak–duration combination for MOM-based parameter estimation procedure. Similarly, the Frank copula is selected as the best-fitted structure for modelling peak–duration combination based on MPL estimators, but the MOM estimator recognized Gaussian copula as most suitable for peak–volume pair. Furthermore, the best-fitted copulas are used for obtaining the joint and conditional return periods of the flood characteristics.

Impact of Peak Material Volume of Polycrystalline CVD Diamond Coatings on Dry Friction Against Aluminum

For economic and environmental reasons, dry forming is of increasing interest due to the shortening of process chains, cost savings and reduction of environmental pollution. The aim of these investigations is to examine to what extent chemical vapor deposited (CVD) diamond coatings are suitable for dry forming of aluminum and to identify the surface topology requirements for a low friction coefficient and low wear. Nine different surface topologies of CVD diamond coatings were tested in an oscillating ball-on-plate tribometer test against aluminum balls with a Hertzian contact stress of 759 MPa and 99,900 cycles. It could be concluded that the peak material volume (Vmp) of the diamond coating is the most important factor for achieving a low abrasion of aluminum as well as a low friction coefficient against aluminum. The Vmp should be smaller than 0.04 ml/m2. Microcrystalline CVD diamond with a post-treated surface has great potential for dry forming of aluminum.

Reduced Order Modeling for fire sprinkler sprays

A Reduced Order Model (ROM) providing a highly detailed description of the sprinkler spray has been developed for engineering applications. The new ROM approach combines an elegantly parameterized analytical description of the dispersed spray with a tightly integrated high-fidelity description of the initial spray capable of producing a complete quantitative map of the entire sprinkler spray field from centerline to edge and ceiling to floor. The complex spray field is mapped using a sparsely sampled phase-space accounting for all drops produced by the sprinkler. The spray is mapped through fast two-dimensional trajectory calculations spanning this discretized phase-space to produce quantitative views of the spray in regions of interest or in its entirety. Spray patterns are easily extracted from this spray field according to attributes of interest. The ROM is demonstrated by comparing predicted and measured spray patterns generated below a commercial sprinkler. These spray patterns are quantified through spatial distributions of volume flux showing good agreement between measurements and ROM predictions (average error of 0.44 mm/min or 5% of peak volume flux). The speed and robustness of the ROM provide an unprecedented quantitative view of fire sprinkler spraying performance with sufficient accuracy for potential use in engineering design applications.

Multiscale characterization of the nucleation and 3D structure of Al3Sc phases using electron microscopy and synchrotron X-ray tomography

Scandium (Sc) has been long recognized as one of the most effective grain refining elements for Al alloys because of the Al3Sc phases formed in an Al melt containing Sc. However, there are still lack of comprehensive studies on the exact mechanism of how Al3Sc phases are nucleated in an Al melt and their true 3D structures. In this paper, we used scanning/transmission electron microscopy and synchrotron X-ray tomography to study the nucleation and true 3D structure of primary Al3Sc phases in an Al-2wt%Sc alloy. The multiscale characterization approach revealed that the micrometre α-Al2O3 particles present in the Al melt can facilitate the formation of stacking faults at the α-Al2O3-Al3Sc interface and therefore promote heterogenous nucleation of Al3Sc phases. SEM and tomography clearly revealed that individual primary Al3Sc phases were simple cubes with edge length of 10~35 μm; and majority of them were interconnected to form clusters with accumulative peak volume of ~10,000 μm3. At the interface between an Al matrix and an Al3Sc cube, the Al3Sc phases can also grow into nanometre size particle clusters due to the depletion of Sc.

A grid-based distributed hydrological model for coal mined-out area

Water-conducting cracks and mined-out area caused by coal mining change the regional hydrological processes. To address this issue, this research proposed a grid-based distributed hydrological model for coal mined-out area (GDHCMA), and validated the model in one representative coal mining watershed (Wujiayao watershed in China). The impact of coal mining on wet front depth was further analyzed based on the GDHCMA model. The results revealed that: (1) ground subsidence or cracks induced by coal mining accelerate the leakage of water flow into the mined-out area or replenish the groundwater reservoir, thereby reducing the flood peak flow; (2) The parameters of GDHCMA model was calibrated by the Shuffled Complex Evolution (SCE) global search algorithm and the model showed high accuracy before and after coal mining. During the pre-coal mining period, the calculated NSE (Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient) was above 0.9, and the error percentage of peak flow and flood volume was less than 15%; During the coal mining period, the main improvement is that the lower boundary conditions for the calculation of unsaturated soil infiltration are treated with free drainage boundaries. The calculated mean NSE is 0.95, the error percentages of flood peak and flood volume are less than 10%, and the peak time error is 0. (3) The leading factors affecting the downward depth of the wetting front are rainfall, soil type, the coal mined-out area etc. The above are of great practical significance for studying the mechanism of the coal mining on the water cycle.

Sea Level Rise Effect on Groundwater Rise and Stormwater Retention Pond Reliability

The coastal areas of Florida, United States, are exposed to increasing risk of flooding due to sea level rise as well as severe hurricanes. Florida regulations suggest constructing stormwater retention ponds as an option to retain excess runoff generated by the increased impervious area and to protect the environment by reducing pollutants from new developments. Groundwater level rise can significantly lower the soil storage capacity and infiltration at retention ponds, in turn, reducing the pond’s capacity to capture consecutive storms due to longer pond volume recovery time. Partial groundwater inundation can affect retention ponds’ ability to decrease peak flow rates and keep the post-development outflow lower than or equal to pre-development conditions. In this paper, the reliability and performance of a retention pond near Tampa Bay, Florida, was evaluated under sea level rise conditions. An integrated surface water and groundwater model was developed, and the groundwater table was projected for future conditions as a function of sea level rise. The results showed that sea level rise could increase the seasonal high water elevation of the retention pond up to 40 cm by mid-21st century. This increase lowered the reliability of the retention pond by about 45%. The pond failed to recover the designed treatment volume within required 72 h because of the high groundwater table, increasing the risk of pollutant discharge. Furthermore, the peak flow and volume of runoff significantly increased under sea level rise and associated groundwater table rise conditions. The study results suggest that it is imperative to consider future sea level rise conditions in stormwater design in low-lying coastal areas of Florida and around the world to prevent poor pond performance and increased risk of flooding in the future.

Inspiratory muscle training in young, race-fit Thoroughbred racehorses during a period of detraining.

Although inspiratory muscle training (IMT) is reported to improve inspiratory muscle strength in humans little has been reported for horses. We tested the hypothesis that IMT would maintain and/or improve inspiratory muscle strength variables measured in Thoroughbreds during detraining. Thoroughbreds from one training yard were placed into a control (Con, n = 3 males n = 7 females; median age 2.2±0.4 years) or treatment group (Tr, n = 5 males, n = 5 females; median age 2.1±0.3 years) as they entered a detraining period at the end of the racing/training season. The Tr group underwent eight weeks of IMT twice a day, five days per week using custom-made training masks with resistance valves and an incremental threshold of breath-loading protocol. An inspiratory muscle strength test to fatigue using an incremental threshold of breath-loading was performed in duplicate before (T0) and after four (T1) and eight weeks (T2) of IMT/no IMT using a custom-made testing mask and a commercial testing device. Inspiratory measurements included the total number of breaths achieved during the test, average load, peak power, peak volume, peak flow, energy and the mean peak inspiratory muscle strength index (IMSi). Data were analysed using a linear mixed effects model, P≤0.05 significant. There were no differences for inspiratory measurements between groups at T0. Compared to T0, the total number of breaths achieved (P = 0.02), load (P = 0.003) and IMSi (P = 0.01) at T2 had decreased for the Con group while the total number of breaths achieved (P<0.001), load (P = 0.03), volume (P = 0.004), flow (P = 0.006), energy (P = 0.01) and IMSi (P = 0.002) had increased for the Tr group. At T2 the total number of breaths achieved (P<0.0001), load (P<0.0001), volume (P = 0.02), energy (P = 0.03) and IMSi (P<0.0001) were greater for the Tr than Con group. In conclusion, our results support that IMT can maintain and/or increase aspects of inspiratory muscle strength for horses in a detraining programme.

Adsorption Mechanism and Kinetic Characterization of Bituminous Coal under High Temperatures and Pressures in the Linxing‐Shenfu Area

AbstractThe majority of coalbed methane (CBM) in coal reservoirs is in adsorption states in coal matrix pores. To reveal the adsorption behavior of bituminous coal under high‐temperature and high‐pressure conditions and to discuss the microscopic control mechanism affecting the adsorption characteristics, isothermal adsorption experiments under high‐temperature and high‐pressure conditions, low‐temperature liquid nitrogen adsorption‐desorption experiments and CO2 adsorption experiments were performed on coal samples. Results show that the adsorption capacity of coal is comprehensively controlled by the maximum vitrinite reflectance (Ro, max), as well as temperature and pressure conditions. As the vitrinite reflectance increases, the adsorption capacity of coal increases. At low pressures, the pressure has a significant effect on the positive effect of adsorption, but the effect of temperature is relatively weak. As the pressure increases, the effect of temperature on the negative effect of adsorption gradually becomes apparent, and the influence of pressure gradually decreases. Considering pore volumes of pores with diameters of 1.7–100 nm, the peak volume of pores with diameters 10–100 nm is higher than that from pores with diameters 1.7–10 nm, especially for pores with diameters of 40–60 nm, indicating that pores with diameters of 10–100 nm are the main contributors to the pore volume. The pore specific surface area shows multiple peaks, and the peak value appears for pore diameters of 2–3 nm, indicating that this pore diameter is the main contributor to the specific surface area. For pore diameters of 0.489–1.083 nm, the pore size distribution is bimodal, with peak values at 0.56–0.62 nm and 0.82–0.88 nm. The adsorption capability of the coal reservoir depends on the development degree of the supermicroporous specific surface area, because the supermicroporous pores are the main contributors to the specific pore area. Additionally, the adsorption space increases as the adsorption equilibrium pressure increases. Under the same pressure, as the maximum vitrinite reflectance increases, the adsorption space increases. In addition, the cumulative reduction in the surface free energy increases as the maximum vitrinite reflectance increases. Furthermore, as the pressure increases, the surface free energy of each pressure point gradually decreases, indicating that as the pressure increases, it is increasingly difficult to adsorb methane molecules.

Coupling of large volume injection with flow modulated two-dimensional gas chromatography

The coupling of large volume injection (LVI) with comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC × GC) can be a powerful technique in the analysis of trace-level complex samples. The coupling of LVI and GC × GC using a cost efficiently operable pneumatic modulator based on capillary flow technology has been examined. The aim was to optimize the LVI parameters in the case of samples with compounds covering a wide boiling range. For the optimization of LVI 25 microliters of a solution containing 27 target compounds modelling the composition and the boiling range of diesel oils was used. The injection parameters were evaluated for peak shapes, reproducibility and peak volumes relative to peak volumes obtained using cold splitless injection. For all GC × GC experiments a non-polar first column (Rxi-5ms) and a polar second column (HP-INNOWax) were applied. Through extensive method optimization solvent vent proved to be an unsuitable technique for the injection of compounds covering a wide boiling range: at lower vent times peaks split, while higher vent times caused severe losses of highly volatile compounds. Therefore, a split-splitless LVI method was optimized. Injection speed, split vent time, splitless vent time and vent flow during split vent have been optimized. The developed method is suitable for the coupling of LVI with flow modulated GC × GC. Using the optimized split-splitless LVI parameters no peak distortion of the target compounds was observed. The relative peak volumes were between 60–120% for all compounds (80–120% for 13 compounds).

Rainwater harvesting techniques as an adaptation strategy for flood mitigation

The development of adaptation and mitigation strategies to tackle anthropic and climate changes impacts is becoming a priority in drought-prone areas. This study examines the capabilities of indigenous rainwater harvesting techniques (RWHT) to be used as a viable solution for flood mitigation. The study analyses the hydraulic performance of the most used micro-catchment RWHT in sub-Saharan regions, in terms of flow peak reduction (FPR) and volume reduction (VR) at the field and basin scale. Parametrized hyetographs were built to replicate the extreme precipitations that strike Sahelian countries during rainy seasons. 2D hydrodynamic simulations showed that half-moons placed with a staggered configuration (S-HM) have the best performances in reducing runoff. At the field scale, S-HM showed a remarkable FPR of 77% and a VR of 70% in case of extreme rainfall. Instead at the basin scale, in which only 5% of the surface was treated, 13% and 8% respectively for FPR and VR were obtained. In addition, the reduction of the runoff coefficient (Rc) between the different configuration was analyzed. The study critically evaluates hydraulic performances of the different techniques and shows how pitting practices cannot guarantee high performance in case of extreme precipitations. These results will enrich the knowledge of the hydraulic behavior of RWHT; aspect marginally investigated in the scientific literature. Moreover, this study presents the first scientific application of HEC-RAS as a rainfall-runoff model. Despite some limitations, this model has the effective feature of using very high-resolution topography as input for hydraulic simulations. The results presented in this study should encourage stakeholders to upscale the use of RWHT in order to lessen the flood hazard and land degradation that oppresses arid and semi-arid areas.

Classification of olive leaves and pulp extracts by comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography of polyphenolic fingerprints

The development of a new comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatographic method is described, to obtain the profiles of polyphenolic compounds present in olive (Olea europaea L.) leaves and pulps from different genetic origin. Optimisation of the stationary phase nature, particle size, column length and internal diameter, as well as other separation conditions, was performed. Along the study, three stationary phases (C18, PFP and phenyl) in the first dimension (1D), and five (C18, amide, cyano, phenyl and PFP) in the second dimension (2D) were combined to obtain the maximal number of resolved peaks. The optimised method successfully characterised the presence of 26and 29 common polyphenols in olive leaves and pulp extracts, respectively. Peak volume ratios were used to develop linear discriminant analysis models able to distinguish olive leaves and pulp extracts among seven cultivars from several Spanish regions. The results demonstrate that polyphenolic profiles were characteristic of each cultivar.

Archimedean copula-based bivariate flood-frequency analysis on Sukkur, Pakistan

Floods are disastrous events in nature. In order to minimize the loss caused by these inevitable events, there is a need to estimate the risk of their occurrences. Several attempts have been made to study flood data in different parts of the world. In this paper, bivariate analysis of flood frequency using Archimedean copula is carried out on Sukkur Barrage, Indus River, Pakistan. The important characteristics of floods, namely peak flow and volume, are mutually dependent on each other. Copula-based technique to capture scale-free dependence structure is the most common technique meant for multivariate analysis of flood data. It is easy to construct and is a powerful technique for choice of marginal distributions. There are many types of Archimedean copulas selected for Archimedean copulas which have been tested on peak-flow and volume in the inflow data of Sukkur barrage, and in the light of graphical and statistical tests, Gumbel-Hougaard copula has been found to be the most appropriate one for the data under consideration. The Gumbel-Hougaard copula is used for obtaining primary and conditional return periods of flood characteristics. It also gives the Kendall return period for the multivariate analysis, which can be useful for risk based design of water resources project.

An Integrated Urban Flood Vulnerability Index for Sustainable Planning in Arid Zones of Developing Countries

Floods are among the most recurring and devastating natural hazards, impacting human lives and causing severe economic damage. Urbanization can increase the risk of flooding due to increased peak discharge and volume. Over arid urban areas of developing countries, flood disaster management is reactive, responding to prevailing disaster situations, mainly because of the lack of budget, equipment, facilities, and human resources. The approach required in a new city requires a different operative planning process, ruled by different kinds of specific indicators to be incorporated in the sustainable planning process. This study focuses on an approach to assess flood vulnerability as a planning tool using an integrated flood vulnerability index (FVI) with variables that are accessible in developing countries and arid urban areas. The research took place in the city of Mexicali, Baja, California. México. This index was determined by coupling the variables of three components: social, economic, and physical. The FVI reflects the status of an urban scale’s vulnerability. Variables were obtained from government data for the social and economic components, and a hydrological and hydraulic model approach as a physical component. The correlation of each variable to the flood was taken into account by using a general linear transformation. GIS was used as a tool for the development of spatial analysis. The results showed the spatial distribution of vulnerability at an urban district scale. It was found that 55% of the population is exposed to a vulnerability above the average value of the urban area. Integrating all the components will help decision-makers to implement strategies to improve the resilience of the area by attending the needs of the particular component that is more vulnerable.

The changing nature and projection of floods across Australia

Changes in peak magnitude, volume, frequency and duration of floods obtained from a peak-over-threshold sampling in 780 unregulated catchments show significant differences between northern and southern Australia over 1975–2012. Increases of the flood properties are mainly located in northern Australia, while decreases are mostly in southern Australia. These changes could be dominated by inter-annual and/or decadal variability of floods. The multidimensional behaviors of flood change across Australia can be described by three distinct groups (i.e. no changes, increases and decreases in all flood properties), showing strong geographic cohesion. The geographical consistency between the changing patterns of flood properties and spatial patterns of vapor transport anomalies during the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) positive phase could partly explain the geographic cohesion of flood changes. In a warmer future, the observed decreases in floods in southern Australia are projected to continue with high model agreement, while only magnitude and volume of floods in northern Australia are projected to increase but with high uncertainties. The diametric changes in flood magnitude between northern and southern Australia are projected to be more evident in extreme (i.e. 50-year) floods than small (i.e. 5- and 20-year) floods.

Addition of proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation to cardiorespiratory training in patients poststroke: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BackgroundIndividuals affected by stroke present with changes in cardiovascular and respiratory functions. Cardiorespiratory training (CRT) is one of the classic intervention guidelines for cardiorespiratory fitness. CRT in association with the proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) technique for respiratory muscles could improve the quality of life, cardiorespiratory function and gait parameters of patients after stroke.ObjectiveTo assess the effects of respiratory and trunk patterns of CRT associated with PNF on the quality of life, gait, oxygen consumption, respiratory muscle strength and thoracic volumes.Methods/designA blind, randomized clinical trial with allocation confidentiality will be performed. Forty patients will be randomized into four groups: CRT-lower limb (LL) plus PNF; CRT-LL and respiration; CRT-upper limb (UL) plus PNF; or CRT-UL and respiration. Individuals will be evaluated at three different times (pretreatment, after 20 days of treatment and 1 month after the end of treatment). The treatment protocol consists of respiratory exercises, 30 min of CRT (cycle ergometer) and then repetition of the respiratory exercises, performed three times a week over a period of 20 days. Primary outcome measures are quality of life, gait, balance, peak oxygen uptake and rib cage compartment volumes. As secondary outcomes, respiratory function and maximal inspiratory and expiratory pressures will be measured. DiscussionThe association of PNF with CRT may be a viable and accessible alternative to increase cardiorespiratory function in patients with stroke.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03171012. Registered on 6 June 2017.

Glacial Lake Inventory and Lake Outburst Flood/Debris Flow Hazard Assessment after the Gorkha Earthquake in the Bhote Koshi Basin

Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) evolve into debris flows by erosion and sediment entrainment while propagating down a valley, which highly increases peak discharge and volume and causes destructive damage downstream. This study focuses on GLOF hazard assessment in the Bhote Koshi Basin (BKB), where was highly developed glacial lakes and was intensely affected by the Gorkha earthquake. A new 2016 glacial lake inventory was established, and six unreported GLOF events were identified with geomorphic outburst evidence from GaoFen-1 satellite images and Google Earth. A new method was proposed to assess GLOF hazard, in which large numbers of landslides triggered by earthquake were considered to enter into outburst floods enlarge the discharge and volume of debris flow in the downstream. Four GLOF hazard classes were derived according to glacial lake outburst potential and a flow magnitude assessment matrix, in which 11 glacial lakes were identified to have very high hazard and 24 to have high hazard. The GLOF hazard in BKB increased after the earthquake due to landslide deposits, which increased by 216.03 × 106 m3, and provides abundant deposits for outburst floods to evolve into debris flows. We suggest that in regional GLOF hazard assessment, small glacial lakes should not be overlooked for landslide deposit entrainment along a flood route that would increase the peak discharge, especially in earthquake-affected areas where large numbers of landslides were triggered.