Biofouling
Biofouling or biological fouling is the accumulation of microorganisms, algae, or animals on wetted surfaces. Such accumulation is referred to as epibiosis when the host surface is another organism and the relationship is not parasitic. Antifouling is the ability of designed materials and coatings to remove or prevent biofouling by any number of organisms on wetted surfaces. Since biofouling can occur anywhere water is present, biofouling poses risks to a wide variety of objects such as medical devices and membranes, as well as to entire industries, such as paper manufacturing, food processing, underwater construction, desalination plants; the buildup of biofouling on marine vessels poses a significant problem. In some instances, the hull structure and propulsion systems can be damaged; the accumulation of biofoulers on hulls can increase both the hydrodynamic volume of a vessel and the hydrodynamic friction, leading to increased drag of up to 60%. The drag increase has been seen to decrease speeds by up to 10%, which can require up to a 40% increase in fuel to compensate.
With fuel comprising up to half of marine transport costs, antifouling methods are estimated to save the shipping industry around $60 billion per year. Increased fuel use due to biofouling contributes to adverse environmental effects and is predicted to increase emissions of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide between 38 and 72% by 2020. A variety of antifouling methods have been implemented to combat biofouling. Scientists have begun researching antifouling methods inspired by living organisms; this type of design imitation is known as biomimicry. The variety among biofouling organisms is diverse, extends far beyond the attachment of barnacles and seaweeds. According to some estimates, over 1,700 species comprising over 4,000 organisms are responsible for biofouling. Biofouling is divided into microfouling — biofilm formation and bacterial adhesion — and macrofouling — attachment of larger organisms. Due to the distinct chemistry and biology that determine what prevents them from settling, organisms are classified as hard- or soft-fouling types.
Calcareous fouling organisms include barnacles, encrusting bryozoans, mollusks and other tube worms, zebra mussels. Examples of non-calcareous fouling organisms are seaweed, hydroids and biofilm "slime". Together, these organisms form a fouling community. Marine fouling is described as following four stages of ecosystem development; the chemistry of biofilm formation describes the initial steps prior to colonization. Within the first minute the van der Waals interaction causes the submerged surface to be covered with a conditioning film of organic polymers. In the next 24 hours, this layer allows the process of bacterial adhesion to occur, with both diatoms and bacteria attaching, initiating the formation of a biofilm. By the end of the first week, the rich nutrients and ease of attachment into the biofilm allow secondary colonizers of spores of macroalgae and protozoans to attach themselves. Within 2 to 3 weeks, the tertiary colonizers- the macrofoulers- have attached; these include tunicates and sessile Cnidarians.
Governments and industry spend more than US$5.7 billion annually to prevent and control marine biofouling. Biofouling occurs everywhere but is most significant economically to the shipping industries, since fouling on a ship's hull increases drag, reducing the overall hydrodynamic performance of the vessel, increases the fuel consumption. Biofouling is found in all circumstances where water-based liquids are in contact with other materials. Industrially important impacts are on the maintenance of mariculture, membrane systems and cooling water cycles of large industrial equipment and power stations. Biofouling can occur in oil pipelines carrying oils with entrained water those carrying used oils, cutting oils, oils rendered water-soluble through emulsification, hydraulic oils. Other mechanisms impacted by biofouling include microelectrochemical drug delivery devices and pulp industry machines, underwater instruments, fire protection system piping, sprinkler system nozzles. In groundwater wells, biofouling buildup can limit recovery flow rates, as is the case in the exterior and interior of ocean-laying pipes where fouling is removed with a tube cleaning process.
Besides interfering with mechanisms, biofouling occurs on the surfaces of living marine organisms, when it is known as epibiosis. Medical devices include fan-cooled heat sinks, to cool their electronic components. While these systems sometimes include HEPA filters to collect microbes, some pathogens do pass through these filters, collect inside the device and are blown out and infect other patients. Devices used in operating rooms include fans, so as to minimize the chance of transmission. Medical equipment, high-end computers, swimming pools, drinking-water systems and other products that utilize liquid lines run the risk of biofouling as biological growth occurs inside them; the focus of attention has been the severe impact due to biofouling on the speed of marine vessels. In some instances the hull structure and propulsion systems can become damaged. Over time, the accumulation of biofoulers on hulls increases both the hydrodynamic volume of a vessel and the frictional effects leading to increased drag of up to 60% The additional drag can decrease speeds up to 10%, which can require up to a 40% increase in fuel to compensate.
With fuel typical
Refraction
In physics refraction is the change in direction of a wave passing from one medium to another or from a gradual change in the medium. Refraction of light is the most observed phenomenon, but other waves such as sound waves and water waves experience refraction. How much a wave is refracted is determined by the change in wave speed and the initial direction of wave propagation relative to the direction of change in speed. For light, refraction follows Snell's law, which states that, for a given pair of media, the ratio of the sines of the angle of incidence θ1 and angle of refraction θ2 is equal to the ratio of phase velocities in the two media, or equivalently, to the indices of refraction of the two media. Sin θ 1 sin θ 2 = v 1 v 2 = n 2 n 1 Optical prisms and lenses utilize refraction to redirect light, as does the human eye; the refractive index of materials varies with the wavelength of light, thus the angle of the refraction varies correspondingly. This is called dispersion and causes prisms and rainbows to divide white light into its constituent spectral colors.
Consider a wave going from one material to another where its speed is slower as in the figure. If it reaches the interface between the materials at an angle one side of the wave will reach the second material first, therefore slow down earlier. With one side of the wave going slower the whole wave will pivot towards that side; this is why a wave will bend away from the surface or toward the normal when going into a slower material. In the opposite case of a wave reaching a material where the speed is higher, one side of the wave will speed up and the wave will pivot away from that side. Another way of understanding the same thing is to consider the change in wavelength at the interface; when the wave goes from one material to another where the wave has a different speed v, the frequency f of the wave will stay the same, but the distance between wavefronts or wavelength λ=v/f will change. If the speed is decreased, such as in the figure to the right, the wavelength will decrease. With an angle between the wave fronts and the interface and change in distance between the wave fronts the angle must change over the interface to keep the wave fronts intact.
From these considerations the relationship between the angle of incidence θ1, angle of transmission θ2 and the wave speeds v1 and v2 in the two materials can be derived. This is the law of refraction or Snell's law and can be written as sin θ 1 sin θ 2 = v 1 v 2; the phenomenon of refraction can in a more fundamental way be derived from the 2 or 3-dimensional wave equation. The boundary condition at the interface will require the tangential component of the wave vector to be identical on the two sides of the interface. Since the magnitude of the wave vector depend on the wave speed this requires a change in direction of the wave vector; the relevant wave speed in the discussion above is the phase velocity of the wave. This is close to the group velocity which can be seen as the truer speed of a wave, but when they differ it is important to use the phase velocity in all calculations relating to refraction. A wave traveling perpendicular to a boundary, i.e. having its wavefronts parallel to the boundary, will not change direction if the speed of the wave changes.
Refraction of light can be seen in many places in our everyday life. It makes objects under a water surface appear closer than they are, it is what optical lenses are based on, allowing for instruments such as glasses, binoculars and the human eye. Refraction is responsible for some natural optical phenomena including rainbows and mirages. For light, the refractive index n of a material is more used than the wave phase speed v in the material, they are, directly related through the speed of light in vacuum c as n = c v. In optics, the law of refraction is written as n 1 sin θ 1 = n 2 sin θ 2. Refraction occurs when light goes through a water surface since water has a refractive index of 1.33 and air has a refractive index of about 1. Looking at a straight object, such as a pencil in the figure here, placed at a slant in the water, the object appears to bend at the water's surface; this is due to the bending of light rays. Once the rays reach the eye, the eye traces them back as straight lines.
The lines of sight intersect at a higher position than. This causes the pencil to appear higher and the water to appear shallower than it is; the depth that the water appears to be when viewed from above is known as the apparent depth. This is an important consideration for spearfishing from the surface because it will make the target fish appear to be in a different place, the fisher must aim lower to catch the fish. Conversely
Gene silencing
Gene silencing is the regulation of gene expression in a cell to prevent the expression of a certain gene. Gene silencing can occur during either transcription or translation and is used in research. In particular, methods used to silence genes are being used to produce therapeutics to combat cancer and diseases, such as infectious diseases and neurodegenerative disorders. Gene silencing is considered the same as gene knockdown; when genes are silenced, their expression is reduced. In contrast, when genes are knocked out, they are erased from the organism's genome and, have no expression. Gene silencing is considered a gene knockdown mechanism since the methods used to silence genes, such as RNAi, CRISPR, or siRNA reduce the expression of a gene by at least 70% but do not eliminate it. Methods using gene silencing are considered better than gene knockouts since they allow researchers to study essential genes that are required for the animal models to survive and cannot be removed. In addition, they provide a more complete view on the development of diseases since diseases are associated with genes that have a reduced expression.
Genomic Imprinting Paramutation Transposon silencing Transgene silencing Position effect RNA-directed DNA methylation RNA interference RNA silencing Nonsense mediated decay Transvection Meiotic silencing of unpaired DNA Antisense oligonucleotides were discovered in 1978 by Paul Zamecnik and Mary Stephenson. Oligonucleotides, which are short nucleic acid fragments, bind to complementary target mRNA molecules when added to the cell; these molecules can be composed of single-stranded DNA or RNA and are 13–25 nucleotides long. The antisense oligonucleotides can affect gene expression in two ways: by using an RNase H-dependent mechanism or by using a steric blocking mechanism. RNase H-dependent oligonucleotides cause the target mRNA molecules to be degraded, while steric-blocker oligonucleotides prevent translation of the mRNA molecule; the majority of antisense drugs function through the RNase H-dependent mechanism, in which RNase H hydrolyzes the RNA strand of the DNA/RNA heteroduplex. This mechanism is thought to be more efficient, resulting in an 80% to 95% decrease in the protein and mRNA expression.
Ribozymes are catalytic RNA molecules used to inhibit gene expression. These molecules work by cleaving mRNA molecules silencing the genes that produced them. Sidney Altman and Thomas Cech first discovered catalytic RNA molecules, RNase P and group II intron ribozymes, in 1989 and won the Nobel Prize for their discovery. Several types of ribozyme motifs exist, including hammerhead, hepatitis delta virus, group I, group II, RNase P ribozymes. Hammerhead and hepatitis delta virus ribozyme motifs are found in viruses or viroid RNAs; these motifs are able to self-cleave a specific phosphodiester bond on an mRNA molecule. Lower eukaryotes and a few bacteria contain group group II ribozymes; these motifs can self-splice by joining together phosphodiester bonds. The last ribozyme motif, the RNase P ribozyme, is found in Escherichia coli and is known for its ability to cleave the phosphodiester bonds of several tRNA precursors when joined to a protein cofactor; the general catalytic mechanism used by ribozymes is similar to the mechanism used by protein ribonucleases.
These catalytic RNA molecules bind to a specific site and attack the neighboring phosphate in the RNA backbone with their 2' oxygen, which acts as a nucleophile, resulting in the formation of cleaved products with a 2'3'-cyclic phosphate and a 5' hydroxyl terminal end. This catalytic mechanism has been used by scientists to perform sequence-specific cleavage of target mRNA molecules. In addition, attempts are being made to use ribozymes to produce gene silencing therapeutics, which would silence genes that are responsible for causing diseases. RNA interference is a natural process used by cells to regulate gene expression, it was discovered in 1998 by Andrew Fire and Craig Mello, who won the Nobel Prize for their discovery in 2006. The process to silence genes first begins with the entrance of a double-stranded RNA molecule into the cell, which triggers the RNAi pathway; the double-stranded molecule is cut into small double-stranded fragments by an enzyme called Dicer. These small fragments, which include small interfering RNAs and microRNA, are 21–23 nucleotides in length.
The fragments integrate into a multi-subunit protein called the RNA-induced silencing complex, which contains Argonaute proteins that are essential components of the RNAi pathway. One strand of the molecule, called the "guide" strand, binds to RISC, while the other strand, known as the "passenger" strand is degraded; the guide or antisense strand of the fragment that remains bound to RISC directs the sequence-specific silencing of the target mRNA molecule. The genes can be silenced by siRNA molecules that cause the endonucleatic cleavage of the target mRNA molecules or by miRNA molecules that suppress translation of the mRNA molecule. With the cleavage or translational repression of the mRNA molecules, the genes that form them are inactive. RNAi is thought to have evolved as a cellular defense mechanism against invaders, such as RNA viruses, or to combat the proliferation of transposons within a cell's DNA. Both RNA viruses and transposons can exist as double-stranded RNA and lead to the activation of RNAi.
SiRNAs are being used to suppress specific gene expression and to assess the function of genes. Companies utilizing this approach include Alnylam, Arrowhead and Persomics, among others. Three prime untranslated regions (3'UTRs
Erosion
In earth science, erosion is the action of surface processes that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, transports it to another location. This natural process is caused by the dynamic activity of erosive agents, that is, ice, air, plants and humans. In accordance with these agents, erosion is sometimes divided into water erosion, glacial erosion, snow erosion, wind erosion, zoogenic erosion, anthropogenic erosion; the particulate breakdown of rock or soil into clastic sediment is referred to as physical or mechanical erosion. Eroded sediment or solutes may be transported just a few millimetres, or for thousands of kilometres. Natural rates of erosion are controlled by the action of geological weathering geomorphic drivers, such as rainfall; the rates at which such processes act control. Physical erosion proceeds fastest on steeply sloping surfaces, rates may be sensitive to some climatically-controlled properties including amounts of water supplied, wind speed, wave fetch, or atmospheric temperature.
Feedbacks are possible between rates of erosion and the amount of eroded material, carried by, for example, a river or glacier. Processes of erosion that produce sediment or solutes from a place contrast with those of deposition, which control the arrival and emplacement of material at a new location. While erosion is a natural process, human activities have increased by 10-40 times the rate at which erosion is occurring globally. At well-known agriculture sites such as the Appalachian Mountains, intensive farming practices have caused erosion up to 100x the speed of the natural rate of erosion in the region. Excessive erosion causes both "on-site" and "off-site" problems. On-site impacts include decreases in agricultural productivity and ecological collapse, both because of loss of the nutrient-rich upper soil layers. In some cases, the eventual end result is desertification. Off-site effects include sedimentation of waterways and eutrophication of water bodies, as well as sediment-related damage to roads and houses.
Water and wind erosion are the two primary causes of land degradation. Intensive agriculture, roads, anthropogenic climate change and urban sprawl are amongst the most significant human activities in regard to their effect on stimulating erosion. However, there are many prevention and remediation practices that can curtail or limit erosion of vulnerable soils. Rainfall, the surface runoff which may result from rainfall, produces four main types of soil erosion: splash erosion, sheet erosion, rill erosion, gully erosion. Splash erosion is seen as the first and least severe stage in the soil erosion process, followed by sheet erosion rill erosion and gully erosion. In splash erosion, the impact of a falling raindrop creates a small crater in the soil, ejecting soil particles; the distance these soil particles travel can be as much as 0.6 m vertically and 1.5 m horizontally on level ground. If the soil is saturated, or if the rainfall rate is greater than the rate at which water can infiltrate into the soil, surface runoff occurs.
If the runoff has sufficient flow energy, it will transport loosened soil particles down the slope. Sheet erosion is the transport of loosened soil particles by overland flow. Rill erosion refers to the development of small, ephemeral concentrated flow paths which function as both sediment source and sediment delivery systems for erosion on hillslopes. Where water erosion rates on disturbed upland areas are greatest, rills are active. Flow depths in rills are of the order of a few centimetres or less and along-channel slopes may be quite steep; this means that rills exhibit hydraulic physics different from water flowing through the deeper, wider channels of streams and rivers. Gully erosion occurs when runoff water accumulates and flows in narrow channels during or after heavy rains or melting snow, removing soil to a considerable depth. Valley or stream erosion occurs with continued water flow along a linear feature; the erosion is both downward, deepening the valley, headward, extending the valley into the hillside, creating head cuts and steep banks.
In the earliest stage of stream erosion, the erosive activity is dominantly vertical, the valleys have a typical V cross-section and the stream gradient is steep. When some base level is reached, the erosive activity switches to lateral erosion, which widens the valley floor and creates a narrow floodplain; the stream gradient becomes nearly flat, lateral deposition of sediments becomes important as the stream meanders across the valley floor. In all stages of stream erosion, by far the most erosion occurs during times of flood when more and faster-moving water is available to carry a larger sediment load. In such processes, it is not the water alone
Wrinkle
A wrinkle known as a rhytide, is a fold, ridge or crease in the skin or on fabric. Skin wrinkles appear as a result of aging processes such as glycation, habitual sleeping positions, loss of body mass, or temporarily, as the result of prolonged immersion in water. Age wrinkling in the skin is promoted by habitual facial expressions, sun damage, poor hydration, various other factors. Development of facial wrinkles is a kind of fibrosis of the skin. Misrepair-accumulation aging theory suggests that wrinkles develop from incorrect repairs of injured elastic fibers and collagen fibers. Repeated extensions and compressions of the skin cause repeated injuries of extracellular fibers in derma. During the repairing process, some of the broken elastic fibers and collagen fibers are not regenerated and restored but replaced by altered fibers; when an elastic fiber is broken in an extended state, it may be replaced by a “long” collagen fiber. Accumulation of “long” collagen fibers makes part of the skin looser and stiffer, as a consequence, a big fold of skin appears.
When a “long” collagen is broken in a compressed state, it may be replaced by a “short” collagen fiber. The “shorter” collagen fibers will restrict the extension of "longer" fibers, make the “long” fibers in a folding state permanently. A small fold, namely a permanent wrinkle appears. Sleep wrinkles are created and reinforced when the face is compressed against a pillow or bed surface in side or stomach sleeping positions during sleep, they appear in predictable locations due to the underlying superficial musculoaponeurotic system, are distinct from wrinkles of facial expression. As with wrinkles of facial expression, sleep wrinkles can deepen and become permanent over time, unless the habitual sleeping positions which cause the wrinkles are altered; the wrinkles that occur in skin after prolonged exposure to water are sometimes referred to as pruney fingers or water aging. This is a temporary skin condition where the skin on the palms of feet becomes wrinkly; this wrinkling response may have imparted an evolutionary benefit by providing improved traction in wet conditions, a better grasp of wet objects.
However, a 2014 study attempting to reproduce these results was unable to demonstrate any improvement of handling wet objects with wrinkled fingertips. Furthermore, the same study found no connection between fingertip touch sensation. Prior to a 1935 study, the common explanation was based on water absorption in the keratin-laden epithelial skin when immersed in water, causing the skin to expand and resulting in a larger surface area, forcing it to wrinkle; the tips of the fingers and toes are the first to wrinkle because of a thicker layer of keratin and an absence of hairs which secrete the protective oil called sebum. In the 1935 study, however and Pickering were studying patients with palsy of the median nerve when they discovered that skin wrinkling did not occur in the areas of the patients' skin innervated by the damaged nerve; this suggested that the nervous system plays an essential role in wrinkling, so the phenomenon could not be explained by water absorption. Recent research shows.
Water initiates the wrinkling process by altering the balance of electrolytes in the skin as it diffuses into the hands and soles via their many sweat ducts. This could alter the stability of the membranes of the many neurons that synapse on the many blood vessels underneath skin, causing them to fire more rapidly. Increased neuronal firing causes blood vessels to constrict, decreasing the amount of fluid underneath the skin; this decrease in fluid would cause a decrease in tension. This insight resulted in bedside tests for nerve vasoconstriction. Wrinkling is scored with immersion of the hands for 30 minutes in water or EMLA cream with measurements steps of 5 minutes, counting the number of visible wrinkles in time. Not all healthy persons have finger wrinkling after immersion, so it would be safe to say that sympathetic function is preserved if finger wrinkling after immersion in water is observed, but if the fingers emerge smooth it cannot be assumed that there is a lesion to the autonomic supply or to the peripheral nerves of the hand.
Examples of wrinkles can be found in various animal species that grow loose, excess skin when they are young. Several breeds of dog, such as the Pug and the Shar Pei, have been bred to exaggerate this trait. In dogs bred for fighting, this is the result of selection for loose skin, which confers a protective advantage. Wrinkles are associated with neoteny, as they are a trait associated with juvenile animals. Current evidence suggests that tretinoin decreases cohesiveness of follicular epithelial cells, although the exact mode of action is unknown. Additionally, tretinoin stimulates mitotic activity and increased turnover of follicular epithelial cells. Tretinoin is better known by the brand name Retin-A. Topical glycosaminoglycans supplements can help to provide temporary restoration of enzyme balance to slow or prevent matrix breakdown and consequent onset of wrinkle formation. Glycosaminoglycans are produced by the body to maintain structural integrity in tissues and to maintain fluid balance.
Hyaluronic acid is a type of GAG that promotes collagen synthesis and hydration. GAGs serve as a natural moisturizer and lubricant between epidermal cells to inhibit the production of matrix metalloproteinases. Dermal fillers are injectable products used to correct wrinkles, other depressions in the skin, they are a kind of soft tissue designed to enable injection into the skin for purposes of improving t
Climate change
Climate change occurs when changes in Earth's climate system result in new weather patterns that last for at least a few decades, maybe for millions of years. The climate system is comprised of five interacting parts, the atmosphere, cryosphere and lithosphere; the climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun, with a tiny amount from earth's interior. The climate system gives off energy to outer space; the balance of incoming and outgoing energy, the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth's energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth's energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling; as this energy moves through Earth's climate system, it creates Earth's weather and long-term averages of weather are called "climate". Changes in the long term average are called "climate change"; such changes can be the result of "internal variability", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter Earth's energy budget.
Examples include cyclical ocean patterns such as the well-known El Nino Southern Oscillation and less familiar Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate change can result from "external forcing", when events outside of the climate system's five parts nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar volcanism. Human activities can change earth's climate, are presently driving climate change through global warming. There is no general agreement in scientific, media or policy documents as to the precise term to be used to refer to anthropogenic forced change; the field of climatology incorporates many disparate fields of research. For ancient periods of climate change, researchers rely on evidence preserved in climate proxies, such as ice cores, ancient tree rings, geologic records of changes in sea level, glacial geology. Physical evidence of current climate change covers many independent lines of evidence, a few of which are temperature records, the disappearance of ice, extreme weather events.
The most general definition of climate change is a change in the statistical properties of the climate system when considered over long periods of time, regardless of cause. Accordingly, fluctuations over periods shorter than a few decades, such as El Niño, do not represent climate change; the term "climate change" is used to refer to anthropogenic climate change. Anthropogenic climate change is caused by human activity, as opposed to changes in climate that may have resulted as part of Earth's natural processes. In this sense in the context of environmental policy, the term climate change has become synonymous with anthropogenic global warming. Within scientific journals, global warming refers to surface temperature increases while climate change includes global warming and everything else that increasing greenhouse gas levels affect. A related term, "climatic change", was proposed by the World Meteorological Organization in 1966 to encompass all forms of climatic variability on time-scales longer than 10 years, but regardless of cause.
During the 1970s, the term climate change replaced climatic change to focus on anthropogenic causes, as it became clear that human activities had a potential to drastically alter the climate. Climate change was incorporated in the title of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Climate change is now used as both a technical description of the process, as well as a noun used to describe the problem. Prior to the 18th century, scientists had not suspected that prehistoric climates were different from the modern period. By the late 18th century, geologists found evidence of a succession of geological ages with changes in climate. In the years since, a great deal of scientific progress has been made understanding the workings of the climate system. On the broadest scale, the rate at which energy is received from the Sun and the rate at which it is lost to space determine the equilibrium temperature and climate of Earth; this energy is distributed around the globe by winds, ocean currents, other mechanisms to affect the climates of different regions.
Factors that can shape climate are called climate forcings or "forcing mechanisms". These include processes such as variations in solar radiation, variations in the Earth's orbit, variations in the albedo or reflectivity of the continents and oceans, mountain-building and continental drift and changes in greenhouse gas concentrations. There are a variety of climate change feedbacks that can either amplify or diminish the initial forcing; some parts of the climate system, such as the oceans and ice caps, respond more in reaction to climate forcings, while others respond more quickly. There are key threshold factors which when exceeded can produce rapid change. Forcing mechanisms can be either "internal" or "external". Internal forcing mechanisms are natural processes within the climate system itself. External forcing mechanisms can be either natural. Whether the initial forcing mechanism is internal or external, the response of the climate system might be fast, slow (e.g. thermal exp
Skin
Skin is the soft outer tissue covering of vertebrates with three main functions: protection and sensation. Other animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have different developmental origin and chemical composition; the adjective cutaneous means "of the skin". In mammals, the skin is an organ of the integumentary system made up of multiple layers of ectodermal tissue, guards the underlying muscles, bones and internal organs. Skin of a different nature exists in amphibians and birds. All mammals have some hair on their skin marine mammals like whales and porpoises which appear to be hairless; the skin is the first line of defense from external factors. For example, the skin plays a key role in protecting the body against pathogens and excessive water loss, its other functions are insulation, temperature regulation and the production of vitamin D folates. Damaged skin may heal by forming scar tissue; this is sometimes depigmented. The thickness of skin varies from location to location on an organism.
In humans for example, the skin located under the eyes and around the eyelids is the thinnest skin in the body at 0.5 mm thick, is one of the first areas to show signs of aging such as "crows feet" and wrinkles. The skin on the palms and the soles of the feet is the thickest skin on the body; the speed and quality of wound healing in skin is promoted by the reception of estrogen. Fur is dense hair. Fur augments the insulation the skin provides but can serve as a secondary sexual characteristic or as camouflage. On some animals, the skin is hard and thick, can be processed to create leather. Reptiles and fish have hard protective scales on their skin for protection, birds have hard feathers, all made of tough β-keratins. Amphibian skin is not a strong barrier regarding the passage of chemicals via skin and is subject to osmosis and diffusive forces. For example, a frog sitting in an anesthetic solution would be sedated as the chemical diffuses through its skin. Amphibian skin plays key roles in everyday survival and their ability to exploit a wide range of habitats and ecological conditions.
Mammalian skin is composed of two primary layers: the epidermis, which provides waterproofing and serves as a barrier to infection. It forms a protective barrier over the body's surface, responsible for keeping water in the body and preventing pathogens from entering, is a stratified squamous epithelium, composed of proliferating basal and differentiated suprabasal keratinocytes. Keratinocytes are the major cells, constituting 95% of the epidermis, while Merkel cells and Langerhans cells are present; the epidermis can be further subdivided into the following strata or layers: Stratum corneum Stratum lucidum Stratum granulosum Stratum spinosum Stratum germinativum Keratinocytes in the stratum basale proliferate through mitosis and the daughter cells move up the strata changing shape and composition as they undergo multiple stages of cell differentiation to become anucleated. During that process, keratinocytes will become organized, forming cellular junctions between each other and secreting keratin proteins and lipids which contribute to the formation of an extracellular matrix and provide mechanical strength to the skin.
Keratinocytes from the stratum corneum are shed from the surface. The epidermis contains no blood vessels, cells in the deepest layers are nourished by diffusion from blood capillaries extending to the upper layers of the dermis; the epidermis and dermis are separated by a thin sheet of fibers called the basement membrane, made through the action of both tissues. The basement membrane controls the traffic of the cells and molecules between the dermis and epidermis but serves, through the binding of a variety of cytokines and growth factors, as a reservoir for their controlled release during physiological remodeling or repair processes; the dermis is the layer of skin beneath the epidermis that consists of connective tissue and cushions the body from stress and strain. The dermis provides tensile strength and elasticity to the skin through an extracellular matrix composed of collagen fibrils and elastic fibers, embedded in hyaluronan and proteoglycans. Skin proteoglycans are varied and have specific locations.
For example, hyaluronan and decorin are present throughout the dermis and epidermis extracellular matrix, whereas biglycan and perlecan are only found in the epidermis. It harbors many mechanoreceptors that provide the sense of touch and heat through nociceptors and thermoreceptors, it contains the hair follicles, sweat glands, sebaceous glands, apocrine glands, lymphatic vessels and blood vessels. The blood vessels in the dermis provide nourishment and waste removal from its own cells as well as for the epidermis; the dermis is connected to the epidermis through a basement membrane and is structurally divided into two areas: a superficial area adjacent to the epidermis, called the papillary region, a deep thicker area known as the reticular region. The papillary region is composed of loose areolar connective tissue; this is named for its fingerlike projections called papillae. The papillae provide the dermis with a "bumpy" surface that interdigitates with the epidermis, strengthening the connection between the tw
![{\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}{\text{Intensity }}(\mathrm {W} /\mathrm {cm} ^{2})&={\frac {{\text{average power }}(\mathrm {W} )}{{\text{focal spot area }}(\mathrm {cm} ^{2})}}\\[5pt]{\text{Peak intensity }}(\mathrm {W} /\mathrm {cm} ^{2})&={\frac {{\text{peak power }}(\mathrm {W} )}{{\text{focal spot area }}(\mathrm {cm} ^{2})}}\\[5pt]{\text{Fluence }}(\mathrm {J} /\mathrm {cm} ^{2})&={\frac {{\text{laser pulse energy }}(\mathrm {J} )}{{\text{focal spot area }}(\mathrm {cm} ^{2})}}\end{aligned}}}](https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/3b7e4c62ec211d7bd57810456b26a49d5f470cb4)
