BACKGROUNDProtocadherin-PC (PCDH-PC) expression is upregulated in apoptosis-resistant sublines of the LNCaP human prostate cancer (CaP) cell line. Here, we assess...Full Text Available
Abstract Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which infects not only B cells, but also T cells and natural killer (NK) cells, is associated with multiple lymphoid malignancies. Recently, the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib was reported to induce apoptosis of EBV-transformed B cells. We evaluated the killing effect of this proteasome inhibitor on EBV-associated T lymphoma cells and NK lymphoma cells. First, we found that bortezomib treatment decreased the viability of multiple T and NK cell lines. No significant difference was observed between EBV-positive and EBV-negative cell lines. The decreased viability in response to bortezomib treatment was abrogated by a pan-caspase inhibitor. The induction of apoptosis was confirmed by flow cytometric assessment of annexin V staining. Additionally, cleavage o...
PCD (programmed cell death) in plants presents important morphological and biochemical differences compared with apoptosis in animal cells. This raises the question of whether PCD arose independently...Full Text Available
The p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75"N"T"R) is a death receptor which belongs to the tumor necrosis factor receptor super-family of membrane proteins. This study shows that p75"N"T"R retarded cell cycle progression by induced accumulation of cells in G0/G1 and a reduction in the S phase of the cell cycle. The rescue of tumor cells from cell cycle progression by a death domain deleted (#DELTA#DD) dominant-negative antagonist of p75"N"T"R showed that the death domain transduced anti-proliferative activity in a ligand-independent manner. Conversely, addition of NGF ligand rescued retardation of cell cycle progression with commensurate changes in components of the cyclin/cdk holoenzyme complex. In the absence of ligand, p75"N"T"R-dependent cell cycle arrest facilitated an increase in apoptotic nuclear fragmentation of the prostate cancer cells. Apoptosis of p75"N"T"R expressing cells occurred via the intrinsic mitochondrial pathway leading to a ...
Purpose/Objective: The role of programmed cell death (apoptosis) as a cellular response to cancer therapy such as radiation or chemotherapy is the subject of much study, and manipulation of the apoptotic response in tumor cells may be valuable in the treatment of a variety of cancers. Both p53 dependent and independent apoptotic pathways have been identified; p53 is mutated in at least 50 % of human cancers and a majority of radiation resistant tumors contain p53 mutations. This study is designed to examine the induction of programmed cell death in a human colon carcinoma cell line that possesses two mutated p53 alleles. Ionizing radiation alone, or in combination with the chemotherapeutic drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), were used to elicit the apoptotic response. This study will focus on whether these treatments can induce a significant apoptotic response in cells that have mutated p53 alleles. Materials and Methods: HT-29 cells were assessed for ...
Pro-inflammatory cytokines may directly influence the viability and metabolic function of colonic epithelial cells (CEC) as an early event in the development of inflammatory bowel disease. We report here that TNF-alpha+IFN-gamma induced a synergistic, concentration-dependent decline in butyrate oxidation, an essential energy supply, in HT-29 and DLD-1 cells. TNF-alpha+IFN-gamma induced a parallel profound decline in cell viability in HT-29 cells, but not in DLD-1 cells, where impairment of butyrate oxidation seemed to precede later occurrence of cell damage. TNF-alpha+INF-gamma induced CEC damage was independent on NO formation and involved the IFN-gamma signalling pathway as well as induction of apoptosis. If cytokines have similar effects in vivo, these may lead to energy deficiency and thus contribute to CEC damage and disturbance of the epithelial integrity.
PurposeTo analyze the expression of apoptosis and cell proliferation molecules in pterygium tissues of Chinese patients.MethodsThirty-three pterygia...Full Text Available
The role of apoptosis or programmed cell death in the regulation of development and maintenance of homeostasis in multicellular organisms is well established. During the last decade, naturally...Full Text Available
Cell death after irradiation occurs by apoptosis in certain cell populations in tissues. The phenomenon also occurs after high linear energy transfer (LET) irradiation, and the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) is 3 to 4 (with respect to low-LET radiation and apoptosis in intestinal crypts) for neutrons with energies of 14 MeV and up to 600 MeV. It is thought that p53 plays a role in the phenomenon, as radiation-induced apoptosis is not observed in p53-null animals. (orig.).
We previously reported that acetaminophen (APAP) caused apoptosis of C6 glioma cells. Therefore, we hypothesized that the level of p53, which usually stimulates apoptosis, might be increased...Full Text Available
BackgroundThe objective of this study was to gain insight into the molecular mechanism of induced cell death (apoptosis) by PYRROLO [1,2-b][1,2,5]BENZOTHIADIAZEPINES...Full Text Available
BackgroundSevere sepsis and septic shock are major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In experimental sepsis there is prominent apoptosis of various cell types, and genetic...Full Text Available
Fatalities caused by parasitic infections often occur as a result of tissue injury that results from a form of host-cell death known as apoptosis. However, instead of being pathogenic, parasite-induced...Full Text Available
BackgroundApoptosis is a major mode of hematological tumor death after radiation. Early detection of apoptosis may be beneficial for cancer adaptive treatment. 99mTc-HYNIC-annexinV...Full Text Available
Besides differentiation and apoptosis, cell migration is a basic process in brain development in which neural cells migrate several centimeters within the developing brain before reaching their proper positions and forming the right connections. For identifying signaling events that control neural migration and are therefore potential targets of chemicals to disturb normal brain development, we developed a human neurosphere-based migration assay based on normal human neural progenitor (NHNP) cells, in which the distance is measured that cells wander over time. Applying this assay, we investigated the role of the extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) in the regulation of NHNP cell migration. Exposure to model substances like ethanol or phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) revealed a correlation between ERK1/2 activation and cell migration. The participation of phospho-(P-) ERK1/2 was confirmed by exposure of the cells to the MEK inhibitor PD98059, ...
Intervertebral disc (IVD) cell apoptosis has been suggested to play an important role in promoting the degeneration process. It has been demonstrated that IVD cell apoptosis occurs through either death receptor, mitochondrial or endoplasmic reticulum (ER) pathway. Our study aimed to explore the relationship among these three pathways and grade of IVD degeneration (IVDD). IVDs were collected from patients with lumbar fracture, vertebral tumor, disc herniation or spondylolisthesis. IVDs were distinguished by MRI and histomorphological examination, cell apoptosis was detected by TUNEL staining. Biomarkers of these three apoptosis pathways were detected by RT-PCR and Western blot. Furthermore, the correlation between apoptosis pathways biomarkers and disc pathology were analyzed. Nucleus pulpo...
Apoptosis, or programmed cell death (PCD), is a fundamental process that protects organismal integrity. In earlier work, we demonstrated that over-expression of either of two anti-apoptotic members of the BCL-2 family (BCL-2 or BCL-X L could elevate the frequency of radiation-induced mutations at the autosomal TK1 locus in human TK6 lymphoblasts that express wild-type TP53. Ectopic expression of BCL-X L also elevated the frequencies of double-strand break-induced gene conversion. The purpose of this study is to determine if BCL-2 family proteins promote radiation mutagenesis indirectly through their suppression of PCD, or whether the 'pro-mutagenic' function of these proteins can be separated from their anti-apoptotic function. We developed stable transfectants of TK6 cells that express a mutated form of BCL-X L with a single amino acid substitution in the BH1 domain that is known to interfere with the ability to suppress PCD (BCL-X L gly159ala). We also developed ...
Survival curves were constructed from dose-incidence curves for apoptosis in the crypts of mouse small intestine, using the number of apoptotic cells after high doses (N{sub M}) as maximum cell population size. The mean lethal doses (D{sub 0}) for the dose range 0-0.5 Gy were calculated for each time of day. A circadian rhythm in both D{sub 0} and N{sub M} values was detected, indicating that both the number and sensitivity of radiation-induced apoptosis were changing throughout the day. (author).
Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) content is increased in many types of tumor cells. We have investigated the mechanism by which resveratrol, a stilbene that is pro-apoptotic in many tumor cell lines, causes apoptosis in human head and neck squamous cell carcinoma UMSCC-22B cells by a mechanism involving cellular COX-2. UMSCC-22B cells treated with resveratrol for 24 h, with or without selected inhibitors, were examined: (1) for the presence of nuclear activated ERK1/2, p53 and COX-2, (2) for evidence of apoptosis, and (3) by chromatin immunoprecipitation to demonstrate p53 binding to the p21 promoter. Stilbene-induced apoptosis was concentration-dependent, and associated with ERK1/2 activation, serine-15 p53 phosphorylation and nuclear accumulation of these proteins. These effects were blocked by ...
Abstract: The ability of melatonin as a potent antioxidant was used as a rationale for testing its antiapoptotic ability in normal cells. Recently, melatonin was shown to possess proapoptotic action by increasing reactive oxygen species in certain cancer cells. The modification of radiation-induced apoptosis by melatonin and the expression of apoptosis-associated upstream regulators were studied in normal mice splenocytes and Jurkat T leukemia cells. C57BL/6 mice were exposed to a single whole body X-ray radiation dose of 2 Gy with or without 250 mg/kg melatonin pretreatment. The Jurkat cells were divided into four groups of control, 1 mm melatonin alone, 4 Gy irradiation-only and melatonin pretreatment before irradiation. The highest level of apoptosis in the normal splenic white pulp was...
Mammary glands are special tissue characterized by proliferation of the epithelium, during puberty and pregnancy and by programmed cell death, during involution. In this study, apoptosis was identified by TUNEL staining and then related to cell proliferation, as determined by Ki-67 staining. The apoptotic index was at its highest at 8 days of involution, whereas the proliferation index was at its highest during lactation. Caspase-3 was immunolocalised only in mast cells and along the basal membrane in the mammary tissue at -10 days from lambing, 150 days of lactation and at 8 days of involution. This finding could indicate that caspase-3 is not involved in sheep mammary gland apoptosis, but that other proteins - such as apoptosis inducing factor (AIF) - can trigger apoptosis, through the m...
Budding yeasts are highly suitable for aging studies, because the number of bud scars (stage) proportionally correlates with age. Its maximum stages are known ...Full Text Available
BackgroundThe permeabilization of mitochondrial membranes is a decisive event in apoptosis or necrosis culminating in cell death. One fundamental mechanism by which...Full Text Available
Despite intensive efforts, the intracellular signaling pathways that mediate apoptosis remain unclear. The human B lymphoma cell line, B104, possesses characteristics that make it an attractive model...Full Text Available
PNAS-4, a novel pro-apoptotic gene activated during the early response to DNA damage, can inhibit proliferation via apoptosis when overexpressed in some tumor cells. Recent studies have indicated that honokiol can induce apoptosis, inhibit angiogenesis, and suppress tumor growth. In the present study, we investigated whether mouse PNAS-4 (mPNAS-4) could augment the apoptosis of tumor cells induced by honokiol in vitro, and whether the antiangiogenic activity of honokiol and induction of apoptosis by mPNAS-4 could work cooperatively to improve the antitumor efficacy in vivo. In vitro, mPNAS-4 inhibited proliferation of murine colorectal carcinoma CT26 and Lewis lung carcinoma LL2 cells through induction of apoptosis, and significantly augmented the apoptosis of CT26 and LL2 cells induced by honokiol. Compared with treatment with mPNAS-4 or honokiol alone, in vivo ...
PurposeCurcumin (Cur) has been reported to induce apoptosis in human renal carcinoma Caki cells. Dimethoxycurcumin (DMC), one of several synthetic Cur analogues, has been reported...Full Text Available
Apoptosis and Proliferation During DicWoroacetic Acid (DCA) Induced Hepatocellular Carcinogenesis in the F344 Male Rat Chlorine, introduced into public drinking \\\\'ater supplies for disinfection, can react with organic compounds in surface waters to form toxic by-prod...
We investigated possible mechanism(s) where honokiol induces apoptosis in human hepatocellular carcinoma SMMC-7721 cells. MTT assay showed that honokiol has strong inhibition on SMMC-7721 cells in a dose-dependent manner. SMMC-7721 cells after honokiol treatment display morphological characteristics such as cell shrinkage, detachment from the culture plate, formation of apoptotic bodies, change to a round shape, and marked nuclear condensation and fragmentation after 32258 staining. Cell apoptosis was measured by Annexin-V/PI staining and alternatively, by the subG0/G1 percentage of the cell cycle analysis followed by FACS. An obvious loss of ??(m) and a quick burst of ROS was detected when honokiol reached 4?g/ml, which was coincident with the high apoptosis percentage in our previous research. Up-regulation of Bax and down-regulation of Bcl-2 were observed, suggesting that honokiol-induced apoptosis ...
Lung cancer is still difficult to treat by current chemotherapeutic procedures. We recently found that MVL, an anti-HIV lectin from blue-green algae Microcystis viridis, also has antitumor activity. The objective of this study was to investigate apoptosis-inducing activity of recombinant MVL (R-MVL) and proteomic changes in A549 cells, and to identify the molecular pathways responsible for the anti-cancer action of R-MVL. We found that R-MVL induces A549 cells apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner by using MTT assay, fluorescent microscope (FM) and flow cytometry (FCM), and the IC50 was calculated to be 24.12??g/ml. Subsequently, 7 altered proteins in R-MVL-treated A549 cells were identified, including upregulated aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 and ?-actin, and five downregulated proteins: heat s...
During organogenesis, net growth of tissues is determined by a balance between proliferation, hypertrophy, and apoptotic death. Human fetal bladder outflow obstruction is a major cause of end-stage...Full Text Available
Earlier we have shown that exogenous expression of HIPPI, a molecular partner of Huntingtin interacting protein HIP-1, induces apoptosis and increases expression of caspases-1, -8 and -10 in HeLa and...Full Text Available
BackgroundNFκB signaling is of paramount importance in the regulation of apoptosis, proliferation, and inflammatory responses during human development and homeostasis, as...Full Text Available
SummaryThe Hippo tumor-suppressor pathway controls tissue growth in Drosophila and mammals by regulating cell proliferation and apoptosis. The Hippo pathway includes...Full Text Available
Recent studies suggest that TJ-41, a herbal drug, possesses chemotherapeutic effects. Accordingly, this study was undertaken to investigate the anticarcinogenic effects of TJ-41 on human breast cancer...Full Text Available
The level of bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) profoundly influences essential cell behaviors such as proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, and migration. The spatial and temporal pattern...Full Text Available
In mice and humans the circadian rhythm of many biochemical reactions, physiology, and behavior is generated by a transcriptional-translation feedback loop (TTFL) made up of the so-called core clock...Full Text Available
Menin, which is encoded by the multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) gene, is a tumor suppressor and transcriptional regulator. Menin controls proliferation and apoptosis of cells, especially pancreatic...Full Text Available
BackgroundWe have previously reported that low concentrations of cigarette smoke extract induce DNA damage without leading to apoptosis or necrosis in human bronchial epithelial...Full Text Available
Bone remodeling is necessary to avoid microdamage accumulation, which could lead to whole-bone failure. Previous studies have shown that this bone-repair mechanism is triggered by osteocyte apoptosis....Full Text Available
Multiglycosides of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook f (GTW), a Chinese herb-derived medicine used as a remedy for rheumatoid arthritis, are considered to be a reversible anti-fertility drug...Full Text Available
We describe the lethal, recessive accelerated-cell-death11 Arabidopsis mutant (acd11). Cell death in acd11 exhibits characteristics of animal apoptosis...Full Text Available
BackgroundWith the increasing interest with botulinum toxin – A (BTX-A) application in the lower urinary tract, we investigated the BTX-A effects on the canine prostate and...Full Text Available
In addition to regulating acid secretion, the gastric antral hormone gastrin regulates several important cellular processes in the gastric epithelium including proliferation, apoptosis, migration, invasion,...Full Text Available
BackgroundHuman Papillomavirus (HPV) E2 plays several important roles in the viral cycle, including the transcriptional regulation of the oncogenes E6 and E7, the regulation of the...Full Text Available
PurposeThis study was undertaken to determine the neuroprotective effect of granulocyte stimulating factor (G-CSF) on neonatal hypoxic-ischemic brain injury. Materials...Full Text Available
Exteriorized phosphatidylserine (PS) residues in apoptotic cells trigger rapid phagocytosis by macrophage scavenger receptor pathways. Mimicking apoptosis with liposomes containing PS may represent...Full Text Available
The role of cytochrome c (Cyt c) in caspase activation has largely been established from mammalian cell-culture studies, but much remains to be learned about its physiological...Full Text Available
Alveolar enlargement, which is characteristic of bronchopulmonary dysplasia, congenital matrix disorders, and cigarette smoke-induced emphysema, is thought to result from enhanced inflammation and ensuing...Full Text Available
Cellular cholesterol homeostasis is controlled by sterol-regulated proteolysis of membrane-bound transcription factors called sterol-regulatory element binding proteins (SREBPs). CPP32, a cysteine protease,...Full Text Available
Medulloblastoma and neuroblastoma belong to a group of neoplasms designated as primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNETs). Secreted Protein, Acidic and Rich in Cysteine (SPARC) is a matrix-associated...Full Text Available
Zipper-interacting protein kinase (ZIPK) is a member of the death-associated protein kinase family associated with apoptosis in nonmuscle cells where it phosphorylates myosin regulatory light chain...Full Text Available
Aims: In this study we investigated whether attenuation of endoplasmic reticulum stress (ER stress) could protect HepG2 cells from free fatty acid (FFA)-induced apoptosis. Main methods: Human liver cell line HepG2 cells were exposed to Sodium Palmitate (Pa) or Sodium Oleate (Ol). Apoptosis and ER stress of HepG2 cells were analyzed with flow cytometry, real-time RT-PCR and Western Blotting. An expression plasmid encoding for the ER chaperone immunoglobulin heavy chain-binding protein (Bip) was transfected into HepG2 cells to attenuate ER stress. Small interfering RNA siCHOP was used to knockdown the expression of C/EBP Homologous Protein (CHOP) in HepG2. Key findings: Pa led to cytotoxicity and apoptosis in HepG2 cells in a dose-dependent pattern and also induced ER stress indicated by inc...
One of the main obstacles encountered when trying to culture human seminoma (SE) cells in vitro is massive degeneration of the tumour cells. We investigated whether dissociation of tumour tissue, to...Full Text Available
BackgroundCystic ovarian disease is an important cause of infertility that affects bovine, ovine, caprine and porcine species and even human beings. Alterations in the ovarian micro-environment...Full Text Available
Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory process leading to enhanced cellular proliferation, apoptosis, and vasa vasorum (VV) neovascularization. While both diabetes mellitus (DM) and hypercholesterolemia...Full Text Available
Adipocyte death has been reported in both obese humans and rodents. However, its role in metabolic disorders, including insulin resistance, hepatic steatosis, and inflammation associated with obesity...Full Text Available
A novel single-chain immunotoxin was constructed by combining a CD33-specific single chain Fv (scFv) antibody fragment with an engineered variant of Pseudomonas exotoxin A (ETA). The variant toxin carries the KDEL peptide at its C-terminus, a cellular peptide mediating improved retrograde transport to the endoplasmic reticulum. The purified recombinant fusion protein induced potent apoptosis of the human myeloid cell lines U937, HL-60 and THP-1. Up to 98% of U937 cells were eliminated after treatment for 72 h with a single dose of 500 ng/ml (c. 7 nmol/l). Killing was antigen-specific and occurred by apoptosis. A control protein, consisting of a CD19-specific scFv antibody fragment fused to the ETA-KDEL toxin, failed to induce death of the CD19-negative cell lines U937, HL-60 and THP-1. The CD33-ETA toxin also mediated apoptosis of fresh patient-derived acute myeloid leukaemia cells from bone marrow and peripheral blood. The ...
Multicellular tumor spheroids (MCTS) are three dimensional cell culture systems induced by suspension culture. MCTS are widely used in cancer research because of their similarity to solid tumors. CaSki cells are derived from a metastatic cervical cancer containing human papillomavirus 16 (HPV16). Cell death of CaSki cells in MCTS has been previously reported, and our model is used to better characterize the mechanisms of cell death of HPV16-positive keratinocytes. In this study, we found that apoptosis of CaSki cells was induced by suspension culture along with the formation of MCTS after 24 h of incubation. In suspended CaSki cells, monoclonal antibodies blocking E-cadherin function inhibited MCTS formation and suppressed suspension-induced apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. Western blot for E-cadherin detected upregulation of the authentic 120 kDa band from MCTS of CaSki cells as well as a shorter 100 kDa band. Addition of EGF, whose ...
Apoptosis is a pattern of cell death involving nuclear pycnosis, cytoplasmic condensation, and karyorrhexis. Apoptosis induced by continuous irradiation with gamma rays (externally given by a 137Cs source) or with beta rays (from tritiated water injected ip) was quantified in the crypts of two portions of mouse bowel, the small intestine and descending colon. The time-course change in the incidence of apoptosis after each type of radiation could be explained on the basis of the innate circadian rhythm of the cells susceptible to apoptotic death and of the excretion of tritiated water (HTO) from the body. For 6-h continuous gamma irradiation at various dose rates (0.6-480 mGy/h) and for 6 h after injection of HTO of various radioactivities (0.15-150 GBq per kg body wt), the relationships between dose and incidence of apoptosis were obtained. Survival curves were then constructed from the curves for dose ...
In the use of doxorubicin and radiation for treatment of human malignant tumors in vivo, the relationship between treatment-induced apoptosis and Ki-67 labeling index was investigated. Four human tumor xenografts (ependymoblastoma, NNE; primitive neuroectodermal tumor, YKP; small cell lung carcinoma, GLS; glioblastoma, KYG) were transplanted under the skin of thigh of the nude mice (BALB/cA JcL-nu). The mice were given a single radiation dose of 1 Gy, or doxorubicin alone intraperitoneally at a dose of 8 mg/kg. After treatment, sections of tumor specimens were prepared from paraffin-embedded tissues. Hematoxylin and eosin staining, TUNEL staining, and immunohistochemical analysis of Ki-67 were performed. In NNE, apoptotic cells appeared most frequently after treatment compared with all other tumors, and the incidence of apoptosis in the radiation-treated group was much higher than in the doxorubicintreated group. As the incidence of ...
Multicellular tumor spheroids (MCTS) are three dimensional cell culture systems induced by suspension culture. MCTS are widely used in cancer research because of their similarity to solid tumors. CaSki cells are derived from a metastatic cervical cancer containing human papillomavirus 16 (HPV16). Cell death of CaSki cells in MCTS has been previously reported, and our model is used to better characterize the mechanisms of cell death of HPV16-positive keratinocytes. In this study, we found that apoptosis of CaSki cells was induced by suspension culture along with the formation of MCTS after 24?h of incubation. In suspended CaSki cells, monoclonal antibodies blocking E-cadherin function inhibited MCTS formation and suppressed suspension-induced apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. Western bl...
Morusin is a pure compound isolated from root bark of Morusaustralis (Moraceae). In this study, we demonstrated that morusin significantly inhibited the growth and clonogenicity of human colorectal cancer HT-29 cells. Apoptosis induced by morusin was characterized by accumulation of cells at the sub-G_1 phase, fragmentation of DNA, and condensation of chromatin. Morusin also inhibited the phosphorylation of IKK-#alpha#, IKK-#beta# and I#kappa#B-#alpha#, increased expression of I#kappa#B-#alpha#, and suppressed nuclear translocation of NF-#kappa#B and its DNA binding activity. Dephosphorylation of NF-#kappa#B upstream regulators PI3K, Akt and PDK1 was also displayed. In addition, activation of caspase-8, change of mitochondrial membrane potential, release of cytochrome c and Smac/DIABLO, and activation of caspase-9 and -3 were observed at the early time point. Downregulation in the expression of Ku70 and XIAP was exhibited afterward. Caspase-8 or wide-ranging ...
Abstract Capillary permeability is a tightly regulated feature of microcirculation in all organ beds. In sepsis, this feature is fundamentally altered. We have previously reported elevated levels of angiopoietin-2 in patients with septic shock, and have investigated tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-related and weak inducer of apoptosis (TWEAK), which mediates both angiogenesis and inflammation, in those patients. Enzyme-linked immunoassay was used to measure serum TWEAK levels in 20 patients with septic shock, all of whom were treated by direct hemoperfusion with a polymyxin B-immobilized fiber column (DHP-PMX), and in 20 non-septic controls. The TWEAK levels were higher in patients with septic shock (192.8--230.5-pg/mL) than in controls (84.1--28.7-pg/mL, P-=-0.043). Between 11 survivors and 1...
Background and purpose: The aims of this study were to investigate the anti-cancer activity of SZ-685C, an anthracycline analogue isolated from marine-derived mangrove endophytic fungi, and to explore the molecular mechanisms underlying such activity. Experimental approach: The effect of SZ-685C on the viability of cancer cell lines was investigated using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. SZ-685C-induced apoptosis was assessed by Annexin V-fluorescein isothiocyanate/propidium iodide staining, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labelling assay and analysis of caspase activation. The effect of SZ-685C on the Akt/FOXO pathway was studied using Western blotting analysis, and the in vivo anti-tumour efficacy was examined in ...
Colon cancer is one of the leading causes of death and a major public health problem in western countries. We examined the isoflavone content of 70% ethanol extract of soy germ (SG) and its apoptotic effect in HT-29 colon cancer cells. Our results showed that the major isoflavones of the SG extract were daidzein and genistein, and it effectively induced apoptosis in HT-29 cancer cells. In addition, nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kB) expression was reduced in cells treated with the SG extract, which reduced cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression. These combined effects ultimately resulted in apoptosis via caspase-3 activation. In addition, daidzein and genistein, the major isoflavones of SG extract, also exerted the apoptotic effect against HT-29 cancer cells. Thes...
Colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in the world and about half of the patients with colorectal cancer require adjuvant therapy after surgical resection. Therefore, the eradication of cancer cells via chemotherapy constitutes a viable approach to treating patients with colorectal cancer. In this study, the effects of bufalin isolated from a traditional Chinese medicine were evaluated and characterized in HT-29 and Caco-2 human colon cancer cells. Contrary to its well-documented apoptosis-promoting activity in other cancer cells, bufalin did not cause caspase-dependent cell death in colon cancer cells, as indicated by the absence of significant early apoptosis as well as poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase and caspase-3 cleavage. Instead, bufalin activated an autophagy...
Previous studies using in vitro cell culture systems have shown the role of the dynamin-related GTPase Opa1 in apoptosis prevention and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) maintenance. However, it remains to...Full Text Available
The Myc oncoprotein is a potent inducer of cell growth, cell cycle progression, and apoptosis. While many direct Myc target genes have been identified, the molecular determinants of Myc’s transcriptional...Full Text Available
BackgroundCannabinoids represent unique compounds for treating tumors, including astrocytomas. Whether CB1 and CB2 receptors mediate this therapeutic effect...Full Text Available
BackgroundCoiled-coil domain containing 115 (Ccdc115) or coiled coil protein-1 (ccp1) was previously identified as a downstream gene of Fibroblast Growth Factor 2 (FGF2) highly expressed...Full Text Available
The initiation and progression of several forms of retinal degenerations involve excessive, repetitive, and/or sustained oxidative stress that, in turn, mediate photoreceptor cell damage and...Full Text Available
Long-term heat acclimation (AC, 30d/34°C) is a phenotypic adaptation leading to increased thermotolerance during heat stress (HS, 2 h 41°C). AC also renders protection against...Full Text Available
The effect of the non-selective, 1-aminoindan-1,5-dicarboxylic acid (AIDA), and selective (3,4-dihydro-2H-pyrano[2,3-b]quinolin-7-yl)-(cis-4- methoxycyclohexyl) methanone (JNJ16259685),...Full Text Available
IL-4-induced Stat6 signaling is active in a variety of cell types and plays a role in cell proliferation/growth and resistance to apoptosis. Using EMSA, we identified differential IL-4/Stat6 activities in colorectal cancer cell lines, HT-29 being active Stat6"h"i"g"h phenotype and Caco-2 being defective Stat6"n"u"l"l phenotype, respectively. Active Stat6"h"i"g"h HT-29 cells exhibited resistance to apoptosis by flowcytometry and aggressive metastasis by Transwell assay compared with defective Stat6"n"u"l"l Caco-2 cells. Comparing one another using RT-PCR, Stat6"h"i"g"h HT-29 cells expressed more mRNA of anti-apoptotic and pro-metastatic genes Survivin, MDM2, and TMPRSS4, while Stat6"n"u"l"l Caco-2 cells expressed more mRNA of pro-apoptotic and anti-metastatic genes BAX, CAV1, and P53, respectively. This is the first study describing correlations of IL-4/Stat6 activities with apoptosis and metastasis in colon cancer. These ...
The prototypic pituitary hormone prolactin (PRL) exerts a wide variety of bioregulatory effects in mammals and is also found in extrapituitary sites, including murine skin. Here, we show by reverse...Full Text Available
APP is a transmembrane precursor of beta-amyloid. In dominantly inherited familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD), point mutations V6421, V642F and V642G have been discovered in APP695. Here we show that...Full Text Available
The present study was designed to assess the radioprotective effects of amifostine on ovarian follicles. Three week-old female mice with or without pretreatment of amifostine were irradiated with 6.42 Gy of #gamma# -ray. Ovaries were collected 0 and 6h after irradiation. DNA fragmentation pattern and expression of genes and activity of proteins related with apoptosis were investigated by means of RT-PCR and Western blot. Proliferation of granulosa cells was reduced and incidence rate of follicular atresia was increased in ovarian follicles in #gamma# -ray irradiated mice compared to those in control or amifostine-treated group. DNA fragmentation was increased in time-dependent manner in granulosa cells of all irradiated groups. However, no difference between amifostine pre-treated group and irradiated groups was found and the expression of p53 as tumor suppressor gene and Bax as one of pro-apoptotic Bcl-2 family was increased in irradiated mice ovaries. PARP as DNA ...
The occupational chemical 4-vinylcyclohexene diepoxide (VCD) selectively destroys ovarian small pre-antral follicles in rats and mice via apoptosis. Detoxification of VCD can occur through glutathione...Full Text Available
Human Fas/Apo-1 is a cell-surface protein that mediates apoptosis upon ligation with Fas ligand. The gene lies on the long arm of chromosome 10, consists of nine exons, and spans more than 26 kb of...Full Text Available
During apoptosis, the pro-apoptotic Bcl-2 family proteins BAK and BAX form large oligomeric pores in the mitochondrial outer membrane. Apoptotic factors, including cytochrome c, are...Full Text Available
BackgroundUpon CD95/Fas ligation, the initiator caspase-8 is known to activate effector caspases leading to apoptosis. In the presence of zVAD-fmk, a broad-spectrum caspase inhibitor,...Full Text Available
Bovine leukemia virus (BLV), a retrovirus related to human T-cell leukemia virus types 1 and 2, can induce persistent nonneoplastic expansion of the CD5+ B-cell population, termed...Full Text Available
Angiotensin II (Ang II) is a key proapoptotic factor in fibrotic tissue diseases. However, the mechanism of Ang-II-induced cell death in endothelial cells has not been previously elucidated....Full Text Available
To investigate the growth inhibitory effects, and the underlying mechanism of human colon cancer cell (HT-29) death, induced by a new synthetic bile derivative (HS-1200). Human colon cancer cells (HT-29), in exponential growth phase, were treated with various concentrations of a new synthetic bile acid derivative (HS-1200). The growth inhibitory effects on HT-19 cells were examined using a trypan blue exclusion assay. The extent of apoptosis was determined using agarose gel electrophoresis, TUNEL assays and Hoechst staining. The apoptotic cell death was also confirmed by Western blotting of PARP, caspase-3 and DNA fragmentation factor (DFF) analysis. To investigate the involvement of mitochondria, we employed immunofluorescent staining of cytochrome c and mitochondrial membrane potential analyses. The dose required for the half maximal inhibition (IC_5_0) of the HT-29 cell growth was 100 #approx# 150 #mu# M of HS-1200. Several changes, associated with the ...
The tumor suppressor p53 is often inactivated in breast cancer cells because the overexpression of its repressors (e.g., MDM2 and MDMX). Restoration of p53 activity by small molecules through counteracting...Full Text Available
Nuclear medicine and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are widely used in cardiac diagnostics. Both techniques have been carefully evaluated and are equivalent for the assessment of regional and global wall motion as well as the evaluation of ejection fraction and cardiac volumes, though MRI is herein currently seen as gold standard. For evaluation of myocardial perfusion, extensive data exist for nuclear imaging, that, next to high diagnostic accuracy for evaluation of coronary artery disease, show incremental prognostic information and allow for independent risk stratification. Because of rapid technical advance, myocardial perfusion imaging has also become feasible with cardiac MRI. Results of recent studies are promising, but the data are few compared to perfusion scintigraphy. For viability assessment in patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy, positron emission tomography (PET) with FDG is currently seen as gold standard. However, single photon emission computed ...
The structural properties of brain extracellular space (ECS) are summarised by the tortuosity (λ) and the volume fraction (α). To determine if these two parameters were independent,...Full Text Available
Synthetic polypeptide antigens of L amino acids, although bearing repeating sequences, are thymus-dependent (L-TD), whereas the same polymers composed of D amino acids are thymus-independent (D-TI),...Full Text Available
A high-throughput assay for enzyme activity has been developed that is reaction independent. In this assay, a small-molecule yeast three-hybrid system is used to link enzyme catalysis to transcription...Full Text Available
disciplinary methods were used to independently determine the aerodynamic loads, the thermal response, and strardural performance of the hydrogen cooled ...
Achieving device independence for software applications is required for all but a small number of critical real time applications. Device independence is achieved by establishing protocols and building protocol interpreters for the specific devices. Data structures containing pointers to functions provide a flexible architecture for implementing protocol translation. 3 refs., 5 figs.
Cell death in general can be a physiological process of cell number regulation in tissue, or it can be the result of exo or endogenous injuries, such a low-dose of radiation. Chicken B cell population in the bursa of Fabricius are very susceptible to PCD. Our present studies concern the development of radiation damage of chicken defence mechanisms. In 6 experiments pathogen free chicken were irradiated by gamma rays with the total doses of 0.25, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 Gy. The induction of apoptosis was checked by Flow-cyto-meter 12 h after irradiation in bursa cell suspension. There is some increase in the number of induced apoptotic cells 12 h after irradiation at the dose 0.5-.4.0 Gy. There were no significant changes in the proportion of proliferating lymphocytes (G2 M), but cellularity decreased significantly at dose 2.0 and 4.0 Gy/12 h after irradiation. (author)
BACKGROUND Accumulating evidence suggests that various epigenetic aberrations play definite roles in the pathogenesis of endometriosis. We investigated the histone acetylation status in endometriosis and the application of the histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACIs) for the treatment of endometriosis. METHODS The levels of acetylated histones in the endometriotic cyst stromal cells (ECSCs) and normal endometrial stromal cells (NESCs) were evaluated. The effects of the HDACIs on cell proliferation, the cell cycle, apoptosis of ECSCs and NESCs, and the expression of genes related to these cellular events were investigated. The effects of HDACIs on histone acetylation in chromatin of the promoter region of the cell cycle regulatory genes in ECSCs were also investigated. RESULTS The acetylated histone levels were significantly lower in ECSCs than in NESCs (P endometriosis and that HDACIs reactivated epigenetically silenced genes, resulting in the suppression of cell ...
Evolutionary theory holds that aging is a consequence of the declining force of natural selection with age. We discuss here the evidence that among the causes of aging in complex multicellular organisms, such as mammals, is the antagonistically pleiotropic effects of the cellular responses that protect the organism from cancer. Cancer is relatively rare in young mammals, owing in large measure to the activity of tumor suppressor mechanisms. These mechanisms either protect the genome from damage and/or mutations, or they elicit cellular responses--apoptosis or senescence--that eliminate or prevent the proliferation of somatic cells at risk for neoplastic transformation.We focus here on the senescence response, reviewing its causes, regulation and effects. In addition, we describe recent data that support the idea that both senescence and apoptosis may indeed be the double-edged swords predicted by the evolutionary hypothesis of antagonistic ...
Pyrrolo[2,1-c][1,4]benzodiazepine (PBD) chemicals are antitumor antibiotics inhibiting nucleic acid synthesis. An indole carboxylate-PBD hybrid with six-carbon spacer structure (IN6CPBD) has been previously demonstrated to induce melanoma cell apoptosis and reduce metastasis in mouse lungs. This study aimed at investigating the efficacy of the other hybrid compound with four-carbon spacer (IN4CPBD) and elucidating its anti-metastatic mechanism. Human melanoma A375 cells with IN4CPBD treatment underwent cytotoxicity and apoptosis-associated assays. Transwell migration assay, Western blotting, and ELISA were used for mechanistic study. IN4CPBD exhibited potent melanoma cytotoxicity through interrupting G1/S cell cycle progression, increasing DNA fragmentation and hypodipoidic DNA contents, a...
Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-@b) has a crucial role in the differentiation of ectodermal cells to neural or epidermal precursors. TGF-@b and bone morphogenetic protein molecules (BMPs) are involved in many developmental processes, including cell proliferation and differentiation, apoptosis, mitotic arrest and intercellular interactions during morphogenesis. Additionally, the failure of central thymic tolerance mechanisms, leading to T cells with a skewed autoreactive response, is being described as a contributor in inflammatory processes in autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis. Since TGF-@b and BMP proteins are crucial for the development of the neural system and the thymus, as well as for the differentiation of T cells, it is essential to further investigate their role i...
INTRODUCTION:Postprandial lipemia is characterized by an increased concentration of circulating lipids after fat intake and is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease....Full Text Available
In response to stress, cells start transcriptional and transcription-independent programs that can lead to adaptation or death. Here, we show that multiple inducers of autophagy, including nutrient...Full Text Available
... and one near-main-sequence star, which will stringently constrain calculations of single-star evolution at high metallicity. Independent of SIM Lite observations ...
In establishing a chronic haemodialysis unit in Brunei the difficulties encountered were less insuperable than had been expected. Quite unsophisticated patients successfully dialysed unattended in...Full Text Available
... 1768 1475 360 to 3400 ... The TSC provided an independent assessment of SA based on ... Complexity of Situation Degree of complication (number of ...
Entanglement swapping allows to establish entanglement between independent particles that never have interacted nor share a common past. This feature makes it an integral constituent of quantum repeaters and a promising tool for future tests of the foundations of quantum physics. Here, we demonstrate entanglement swapping with time-synchronized independent sources with a fidelity high enough to violate a Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) inequality by more than four standard deviations. The fact that both entangled photon pairs are created by fully independent laser sources, which are only electronically connected, ensures that this technique is suitable for future long-distance entanglement swapping and quantum-repeater experiments.
AIM: To search the independent factors determining gastric juice acidity and to investigate the acidity of gastric juices in various benign and malignant upper gastrointestinal diseases.METHODS:...Full Text Available
Eukaryotes may influence pollutant degradation processes in groundwater ecosystems by activities such as predation on bacteria and recycling of nutrients. Culture-independent community profiling and...Full Text Available
density is slightly higher, its electrical conductivity is much higher, and it is slightly ... Sea water has characteristic properties (e.g. density) that are independent of ...
Prolonged disability is best understood as an illness that exists independently of the initiating disease. The disabled individual goes through predictable stages of disability before resolution occurs....Full Text Available
gently constrain calculations of single-star evolution at high metallicity. Independent of SIM Lite observa- tions, we also propose to establish 4) how to ...
Introduction The progressive growth of malignancies is accompanied by a decline in the immune response through mechanisms which are poorly understood. Apoptosis and induction of inflammation by tumor released cytokines as tumor escape mechanisms have been proposed to play an important role in colorectal carcinogenesis. Methods Expression of Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-?) was analyzed in colorectal cancer specimen and the cancer cell line HT-29 by immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR. TNF-? expression on protein and mRNA level were correlated with clinical characteristics and impact on survival. TNFR-1 was co-labelled with TNF-? and CD8+ cytotoxic T cells in immunofluorescence double staining experiments. Results: 94% (n?=?98/104) of the patients with CRC expressed TNF-?. High TNF-? express...
Abstract The Hippo pathway is an evolutionally conserved protein kinase cascade involved in regulating organ size in vivo and cell contact inhibition in vitro by governing cell proliferation and apoptosis. Deregulation of the Hippo pathway is linked to cancer development. Its first core kinase Warts was identified in Drosophila more than 15 years ago, but it gained much attention when other core components of the pathway were identified 8 years later. Major discoveries of the pathway were made during past several years. The core kinase components Hippo, Salvador, Warts, and Mats in the fly and Mst1/2, WW45, Lats1/2, and Mob1 in mammals phosphorylate and inactivate downstream transcriptional co-activators Yorkie in the fly, Yes-associated protein (YAP) and transcriptional co-activator with ...
DFNA5 was first identified as a gene causing autosomal dominant hearing loss (HL). Different mutations have been found, all exerting a highly specific gain-of-function effect, in which skipping of exon 8 causes the HL. Later reports revealed the involvement of the gene in different types of cancer. Epigenetic silencing of DFNA5 in a large percentage of gastric, colorectal and breast tumors and p53-dependent transcriptional activity have been reported, concluding that DFNA5 acts as a tumor suppressor gene in different frequent types of cancer. Despite these data, the molecular function of DFNA5 has not been investigated properly. Previous transfection studies with mutant DFNA5 in yeast and in mammalian cells showed a toxic effect of the mutant protein, which was not seen after transfection ...
Abstract Septins are highly conserved cytoskeletal GTP-binding proteins implicated in numerous cellular processes from apoptosis to vesicle trafficking. Septins have been associated with leukemia and solid tumor malignancies, including breast, ovarian, and prostate. We previously reported that high SEPT9_i1 expression in human mammary epithelial cell lines (HMECs) led to malignant cellular phenotypes such as increased cell proliferation, invasiveness, motility, and genomic instability. Our goal here was to better understand how SEPT9_i1 expression might contribute to genomic instability and malignant progression. First, we confirmed that even transient expression of SEPT9_i1 was sufficient to increase aneuploidy in HMECs. We then analyzed SEPT9_i1 by immunoprecipitation and immunofluoresce...
To address the functions of FGFR2 and FGFR3 signaling during mandibular skeletogenesis, we over-expressed in the developing chick mandible, replication-competent retroviruses carrying truncated FGFR2c or FGFR3c that function as dominant negative receptors (RCAS-dnFGFR2 and RCAS-dnFGFR3). Injection of RCAS-dnFGFR3 between HH15 and 20 led to reduced proliferation, increased apoptosis, and decreased differentiation of chondroblasts in Meckel's cartilage. These changes resulted in the formation of a hypoplastic mandibular process and truncated Meckel's cartilage. This treatment also affected the proliferation and survival of osteoprogenitor cells in osteogenic condensations, leading to the absence of five mandibular bones on the injected side. Injection of RCAS-dnFGFR2 between HH15 and 20 or R...
Phospholipase D (PLD) has been recognized as a regulator of cell proliferation and tumorigenesis, but little is known about the molecules regulating PLD expression. Thus, the identification of small molecules inhibiting PLD expression would be an important advance in PLD-mediated physiology. Quercetin, a ubiquitous bioactive flavonoid, is known to inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis in a variety of cancer cells. In the present study, we examined the effect of quercetin on the expression of PLD in U87 glioma cells. Quercetin significantly suppressed the expression of PLD1 at the transcriptional level. Moreover, quercetin abolished the protein expression of PLD1 in a time and dose-dependent manner, as well as inhibited PLD activity. Quercetin suppressed NFkB-induced PLD1 expression vi...
The present study was aimed at investigating effects of nickel (NiCl2) on secretion of testosterone (T), cell viability, ultrastructure and apoptosis in mouse Leydig cells. Testosterone release was measured after 48h of culture with 15.67, 31.25, 62.5, 125, 250, 500 and 1000mmol/L NiCl2 or without NiCl2 using radioimmunoassay. Cell viability was assessed by a MTT (metabolic activity assay). Quantification of apoptotic cells was performed using TUNEL assay and the ultrastructural changes were analyzed using transmission electron microscopy. The viability was decreased after addition of >=250mmol/L NiCl2. A concentration-dependent depression of T production was observed. The percentage of apoptotic cells was significantly increased only after addition of 125, 250 and 1000mmol/L NiCl2. After ...
Male infertility, characterized by hypogonadism, decreased semen quality or ejaculatory dysfunction, accounts for approximately 20% of infertility cases. Obesity and metabolic dysfunction have been identified, among other causal factors, to contribute to male infertility. In the context of the Western world's `obesity epidemic', this article discusses three main biological mechanisms linking obesity to impaired male reproductive function: hypogonadism, testicular heat stress/hypoxia-induced apoptosis and endocrine disruption by `obesogens'. Among these, obesity-induced hypogonadism is undoubtedly the most clinically significant and is easily assessed. Rapidly expanding areas of research in this area include leptin modulation of kisspeptins and hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular hormone path...
Abstract Background: G proteins are ubiquitously expressed signal transduction proteins playing a key role in multiple signal transduction pathways. The Gas subunit has been considered as an apoptosis factor. In this study the role of GNAS T393C genotypes of the GNAS gene encoding Gas was analyzed for its influence on the development and progression of prostate cancer. Methods: Genotyping of the GNAS T393C polymorphism in 196 prostate cancer patients and 200 healthy controls was performed by DNA extraction followed by PCR and restriction analysis. Results: We observed no evidence of effects related to GNAS T393C genotype as demonstrated by a comparison of the genotype distribution in prostate cancer patients and healthy controls, the genotype distribution dependent on grade of the primary ...
The clinical use of "1"8F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography in monitoring anticancer treatment is expanding. At the same time a number of radiotracers aiming to image different aspects of tumour biology such as proliferation and apoptosis are being developed. However, the factors determining changes of radiotracer uptake parameters in response to treatment are not well understood. In many cases, cellularity may be the primary determinant of changes of FDG uptake and may confound the interpretation of metabolic changes. Early imaging assessments have in some cases showed transient increases of uptake parameters, commonly termed 'flares', which are likely to be unaffected by cellularity and directly reflect pharmacodynamics at a cellular level. In this review a number of settings where molecular imaging 'flares' have been described are discussed. Such changes may often be clinically informative and warrant careful study as potential predictive ...
ObjectivesTo assess the influence of epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) on the efficacy of ionizing radiation on prostate cancer cells because of the increased use of dietary interventions, especially by patients with prostate cancer. Radiotherapy is used to treat localized prostate cancer. Some people consume green tea (EGCG) as a chemopreventive agent against prostate cancer. Green tea can act as an antioxidant and induce superoxide dismutase enzymes, which could scavenge the free oxygen radicals generated by radiotherapy. MethodsProstate cancer cell line DU145 cells were treated with EGCG or radiotherapy, or both. Cell death was assessed using trypan blue cell counting, and apoptosis was confirmed by assessing poly (adenosine phosphate ribose) polymerase cleavage. The antioxidant potenti...
...comAbstract: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), once thought to be a rare tumor in North America, is a rapidly increasing type of cancer in recent years in the United States. Current treatment modalities to halt the disease progression are only marginally effective. The mainstay treatment ...In addition, NM was shown to down-regulate urokinase plasminogen activator (by fibrin zymography) and up-regulate tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (by reverse zymography) in another HCC cell line, Sk-Hep-1. MMP-2 and MMP-9 activities were further modulated by cytokines, inducers and inhibitors, including NM. In ... Our results suggest that NM is an excellent candidate for therapeutic use in the treatment HCC by inhibiting critical parameters in cancer development and progression, such as proliferation, invasion and metastasis, and by inducing apoptosis. Last update: 2 September 2011 JavaScript seems ...
In this article, we report anticancer activity of 14 anthracenedione derivatives separated from the secondary metabolites of the mangrove endophytic fungi Halorosellinia sp. (No. 1403) and Guignardia sp. (No. 4382). Some of them inhibited potently the growth of KB and KBv200 cells, among which compound 6 displayed strong cytotoxicity with IC(50) values of 3.17 and 3.21 microM to KB and KBv200 cells, respectively. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the mechanism involved in the apoptosis induced by compound 6 is probably related to mitochondrial dysfunction. Additionally, the structure-activity relationships of these compounds are discussed. PMID:20479985
Glioblastoma multiforme is the most aggressive form of human brain tumor, which has no effective cure. Previously, we have demonstrated that overexpression of the C-terminal fragment of the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERTC27) inhibits the growth and tumorigenicity of human cervical cancer HeLa cells. In this study, the therapeutic effect and molecular mechanisms of hTERTC27-mediated cancer gene therapy were further explored in vivo in established human glioblastoma xenografts in nude mice. We showed that intratumoral injection of adeno-associated virus carrying hTERTC27 (rAAV-hTERTC27) is highly effective in reducing the growth of the subcutaneously transplanted glioblastoma tumors. Histological analyses showed that rAAV-hTERTC27 treatment leads to profound necrosis, apoptosi...
A range of 6-substituted imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines were synthesized using a multicomponent coupling reaction. Most of these compounds were found to exhibit excellent activity against the colon cancer cell lines HT-29 and Caco-2, whilst not showing significant toxicity against white blood cells. Our studies have shown that the proteolytic phase of apoptosis was initiated 2 h after treatment with these imidazo-[1,2-a]pyridines. The data suggests that the imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine-induced cell death in HT-29 and Caco-2 cells is mediated via pathway(s) that include the release of cytochrome c from the mitochondria to the cytosol and the activation of caspase 3 and caspase 8.
This article examines the developing market for independent power projects in Canada. The topics of the article include bidding in Ontario, the Quebec market, powering British Columbia, and market forces at work in Canada. Discussed are current projects in all stages of completion from bidding to production and includes gas-fired cogeneration, gas-fired combined-cycle electricity generation and cogeneration, wood-waste fired plants, repowering of existing utility plants, and hydroelectric power plants.
A Software for the Neutron Scattering time-of-flight Spectrometer with 64 independent coded inputs is preset. It performs data acquirement and management. The work platform of the software is the Windows 98 and programmed with Visual Basic 6.0. It supports 64 x 1024 channel analyzer computer system. The friendly interface, convenient operation and high reliability are advantages of the Software
The time-dependent probability distribution of neutrons, precursors and detectrons in a space-independent, low-power, multiplying assembly with a source is developed in the multigroup approximation as forward and backward Kolmogorov equations. The relationship between these as adjoint equations is made explicit in a tensor notation and the equations developed in the generating-function formalism. (author).
Distinguishing between effects of natural and anthropogenic environmental factors on ecosystems is a fundamental problem in environmental science. In river systems the longitudinal gradient of environmental factors is one of the most relevant sources of dissimilarity between communities that could be confounded with anthropogenic disturbances. To test the hypothesis that in macroinvertebrate communities the distribution of species' sensitivity to organic toxicants is independent of natural longitudinal factors, but depends on contamination with organic toxicants, we analysed the relationship between community sensitivity SPEARorganic (average community sensitivity to organic toxicants) and natural and anthropogenic environmental factors in a large-scale river system, from alpine streams to a lowland river. The results show that SPEARorganic is largely independent of natural longitudinal factors, but strongly dependent on contamination with ...
Radiation-induced enteritis is a well-recognized sequel of therapeutic irradiation. Therefore we examined the radioprotective properties of Punica granatum peel extract (PPE) on the oxidative damage in the ileum. Rats were exposed to a single whole-body X-ray irradiation of 800 cGy. Irradiated rats were pretreated orally with saline or PPE (50 mg/kg/day) for 10 days before irradiation and the following 10 days, while control rats received saline or PPE but no irradiation. Then plasma and ileum samples were obtained. Irradiation caused a decrease in glutathione and total antioxidant capacity, which was accompanied by increases in malondialdehyde levels, myeloperoxidase activity, collagen content of the tissue with a concomitant increase 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (an index of oxidative DNA damage). Similarly, pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-?, IL-1? and IL-6) and lactate dehydrogenase were elevated in irradiated groups as compared to control. PPE treatment reversed all these ...
The COOH-terminus of telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) has been shown to participatein the nuclear translocation of TERT. Here, we constructed plasmids expressing the COOH-terminal M(r) 27,000 polypeptide of hTERT (hTERTC27) withthe telomerase RNA-binding domains and the reverse transcriptase domains deleted. We showed that ectopic overexpression of this polypeptide caused a defect in telomere maintenance in hTERT-positive HeLa cells, which led to senescence-like growth arrest and apoptosis. The hTERTC27 appears to work by inducing telomere dysfunction, exemplified by significantly increased anaphase chromosome end-to-end fusion events in transfected cells. Significantly, it had no effect on the cellular telomerase enzymatic activity or telomere length. The in vivo effect was further demonstrated as HeLa cells stably expressing hTERTC27 have significantly lower growth rate and reduced tumorigenicity in nude mice xenografts. Results from this study revealed ...
Influenza virus infection during pregnancy has been implicated as one of cause of premature delivery, abortion and stillbirth. We have reported that cultured human fetal membrane chorion cells undergoing apoptosis by influenza virus infection secrete unidentified heat-stable monocyte differentiation-inducing (MDI) factors. In this study, cellular, biological and immunochemical characteristics of MDI factors were investigated using human monocytic leukemia THP-1 cells by nitroblue tetrazolium reduction and cell adhesion assays. The treatment of THP-1 cells with culture supernatants from the influenza virus-infected chorion cells induced the nitroblue tetrazolium reduction ability, which was inhibited by the addition of superoxide dismutase and diphenyleneiodonium chloride, an inhibitor for reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase. The phenomenon was also observed in human peripheral blood monocytes and histiocytic leukemia U937 cells, but not in ...
Glioblastoma multiforme is the most aggressive form of human brain tumor, which has no effective cure. Previously, we have demonstrated that overexpression of the C-terminal fragment of the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERTC27) inhibits the growth and tumorigenicity of human cervical cancer HeLa cells. In this study, the therapeutic effect and molecular mechanisms of hTERTC27-mediated cancer gene therapy were further explored in vivo in established human glioblastoma xenografts in nude mice. We showed that intratumoral injection of adeno-associated virus carrying hTERTC27 (rAAV-hTERTC27) is highly effective in reducing the growth of the subcutaneously transplanted glioblastoma tumors. Histological analyses showed that rAAV-hTERTC27 treatment leads to profound necrosis, apoptosis, infiltration of polymorphonuclear neutrophils and reduced microvessel density in the tumor samples. To study the molecular mechanism of rAAV-hTERTC27-mediated antitumor ...
A stochastic wind simulation for VAWTs (VSTOC) has been developed which yields turbulent wind-velocity fluctuations for rotationally sampled points. This allows three-component wind-velocity fluctuations to be simulated at specified nodal points on the wind-turbine rotor. A first-order convection scheme is used which accounts for the decrease in streamwise velocity as the flow passes through the wind-turbine rotor. The VSTOC simulation is independent of the particular analytical technique used to predict the aerodynamic and performance characteristics of the turbine. The VSTOC subroutine may be used simply as a subroutine in a particular VAWT prediction code or it may be used as a subroutine in an independent processor. The independent processor is used to interact with a version of the VAWT prediction code which is segmented into deterministic and stochastic modules. Using VSTOC in this fashion is very efficient with ...
This paper introduces the application of independent component analysis mixture modelling (ICAMM) in non-destructive testing (NDT). The application consists of discriminating patterns for material quality control from homogeneous and defective materials inspected by impact-echo testing. This problem is modelled as a mixture of independent component analysis (ICA) models, representing a class of defective or homogeneous material by an ICA model whose parameters are learned from the impact-echo signal spectrum. These parameters define a kind of particular signature for the different defects. The proposed procedure is intended to exploit to the maximum the information obtained with the cost efficiency of only a single impact. To illustrate this capability, four levels of classification detail...
Background: High satisfaction rates have been reported after autologous breast reconstruction. Yet, most mastectomy patients receive implant reconstructions (ImBR). Independent and active decision makers have shown mainly to choose for autologous reconstructions, such as the Deep inferior epigastric perforator (DIEP) flap (DiepBR). To further explore the decision making to opt for either ImBR or DiepBR, we investigated patient knowledge, informational resources used, effect of plastic surgeons' advice, coping style and personal independence. Methods: A total of 153 women, who were planned for DiepBR or ImBR preoperatively, completed a study-specific and standardised validated psychological questionnaire. Analyses were aimed at information-seeking behaviour, personal independence and coping...
BackgroundAntioxidant vitamins are often described as having “independent” associations with risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality. We aimed...Full Text Available
BackgroundThe cachexia-anorexia syndrome impacts on patients' physical independence and quality of life. New treatments are required and need to be evaluated using acceptable and...Full Text Available
The network of coupled neurons in the pre-Bötzinger complex (pBC) of the medulla generates a bursting rhythm, which underlies the inspiratory phase of respiration. In some of these neurons,...Full Text Available
Previous studies have shown that salicylates and protein-calorie malnutrition independently compromise maturation and growth of infants. In the present study, pregnant rats were fed normal-and low-protein...Full Text Available
SUMMARYThe cytolytic activity of natural killer (NK) cells is regulated by inhibitory receptors that detect the absence of self molecules on target cells. Structural studies of...Full Text Available
The demand for cogeneration plants is growing worldwide. For the combination of electricity generation and heat extraction in power stations facilitates an excellent fuel exploitation and makes the operator of the plant independent from external energy suppliers. (orig.)
BackgroundMicrovascular injury plays a key role in normal tissue radiation responses. Statins, in addition to their lipid-lowering effects, have vasculoprotective...Full Text Available
[1] Independent data from the Gulf of Mexico are used to develop and test the hypothesis that the same sequence of physical and ecological events each year allows the toxic dinoflagellate Karenia...Full Text Available
Abnormal fat metabolism plays an important role in the pathogenesis of obesity-related type 2 diabetes mellitus. This study examined whether free fatty acid levels (FFAs), like insulin levels, oscillate...Full Text Available
Mapping the restriction fragments of the Brucella melitensis 16M genome with a new restriction endonuclease, PacI, which cut the DNA into only eight fragments, indicated that this species contains two...Full Text Available
We show that the recently constructed complete and ''minimal'' third-order meson-baryon effective chiral Lagrangian can be further reduced from 84 to 78 independent operators. (orig.)
Neutral endopeptidase 24.11 (NEP, CD10) is a cell-surface enzyme expressed by prostatic epithelial cells that cleaves and inactivates neuropeptides implicated in the growth of androgen-independent prostate...Full Text Available
BackgroundThe widespread use of nutritional supplements among athletes is poorly understood. The prevalence of supplement intake and users' knowledge have been researched independently...Full Text Available
Comprised of seven persons with extensive experience in the issues of nuclear waste, the Independent Review Committee (IRC) provides independent and objective review of Defense Transuranic Waste Program (DTWP) activities managed by the Joint Integration Office (JIO), formerly the Defense Transuranic Waste Lead Organization (TLO). The Committee is ensured a broad, interdisciplinary perspective since its membership includes representatives from the fields of nuclear engineering, nuclear waste transportation, industrial quality control, systems and environmental engineering and state and local government. The scope of IRC activities includes overall review of specific TLO plans, projects and activities, and technical review of particular research and development projects. The Committee makes specific suggestions and recommendations based upon expertise in the field of TRU Waste Management. The IRC operates as a consulting group, under an ...
Peptic ulcer bleeding is a common disease and recurrent bleeding is an independent risk factor of mortality. Infusion with proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) prevents recurrent bleeding after successful...Full Text Available
Convolutive mixtures of signals, which are common in acoustic environments, can be difficult to separate into their component sources. Here we present a uniform probabilistic framework to separate...Full Text Available
IL-4 and IL-13 are up-regulated during in vivo responses to many nematode parasites, but increasing evidence suggests that increases in IL-13 can also occur independently of...Full Text Available
The purpose of this project was to build a long-range, parallel hybrid gas/electric vehicle capable of driving beyond the communter capabilities of series hybrid vehicles. It was envisioned that since the gas engine would be able to independently propel t...
BackgroundSpecies with heteromorphic sex chromosomes face the challenge of large-scale imbalance in gene dose. Microarray-based studies in several independent male heterogametic...Full Text Available
It is shown that a relativistic point kinematics with one independent dilation of (scalar) proper time for each spatial freedom degree would give a really rigorous physical significance to the ordinary logical resolution of the clock paradox between systems in relative motion.
BackgroundExcessive television (TV) viewing might play an important role in the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The aim of this study was to examine the independent...Full Text Available
Mice lacking acyl-CoA:diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 (DGAT1), an enzyme that catalyzes the terminal step in triacylglycerol synthesis, have enhanced insulin sensitivity and are protected from...Full Text Available
B lymphocytes can function independently as efficient APCs. However, our previous studies demonstrate that both dendritic cells and macrophages are necessary to propagate immune responses initiated...Full Text Available
Normal reproductive functioning may require secretion of LH independently of FSH. Variation in GnRH pulse frequency and inhibin negative feedback are mechanisms for differential gonadotropin regulation;...Full Text Available
We sequenced 16S rRNA genes from the vaginal swab contents of a postmenopausal woman with asymptomatic bacterial vaginosis (BV). Sequences from Atopobium vaginae were the most commonly...Full Text Available
As requested by the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics) and the Director DARPA, the Defense Science Board task force performed a one-time independent evaluation of the technology investment for the Defense Advanced Research...
The scattering of a charged scalar field on Coulomb potential on de Sitter space-time is studied using the solution of the free Klein-Gordon equation. We find that the scattering amplitude is independent of the choice of the picture and in addition the total energy is conserved in the scattering process.
The goal of community-based services for frail older patients is to help them achieve the greatest degree of functional ability and independence. The services available include case management, geriatric...Full Text Available
BackgroundEchocardiography is widely used in the management of patients with cardiogenic shock (CS). Left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) has been shown to be an independent predictor...Full Text Available
Recently, CID755673 was reported to act as a highly selective inhibitor of protein kinase D (PKD). In the course of experiments using CID755673, we noticed that it exerted unexpected stimulatory...Full Text Available
Published rates of comorbidity between pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have been higher than would be expected if they were independent conditions,...Full Text Available
Several independent studies of bacterial degradation of nitrate ester explosives have demonstrated the involvement of flavin-dependent oxidoreductases related to the old yellow enzyme (OYE) of yeast....Full Text Available
Section 204 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA 2007) requires EPA to assess and report to Congress on the impacts to date and likely future impacts of the increased use of biofuels as required by the Clean Air Act, section 211(0). Environmental issues (...
Background:Erectile dysfunction in type-2 diabetes may be an independent marker for coronary artery disease. Present study was undertaken to investigate whether type-2 diabetic...Full Text Available
We used tryptophan auxotrophs of the dicot Arabidopsis thaliana (wall cress) to determine whether tryptophan has the capacity to serve as a precursor to the auxin, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). Quantitative...Full Text Available
The validation parameters for pharmaceutical analyses were examined for the accelerator mass spectrometry measurement of 14C/C ratio, independent of chemical separation procedures....Full Text Available
Decreased cognitive performance reduces independence and quality of life for aging individuals. Healthy brain aging does not involve significant neuronal loss, but little is known about the...Full Text Available
In the cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120, open reading frames (ORFs) alr3026, alr3027, and all3028 encode a tripartite ATP-independent...Full Text Available
...retardation, behavioral disorders or...blood. (3) Health protection goals...protecting your health. You are strongly...an independent analysis. The two...impairment of health. One of...although most cases of lead-induced...in the form of behavioral...
IAQ Tools for Schools Program Leaders in Improving Indoor Air Quality in Schools Baldwin Union Free School District, Baldwin, NY El Paso Independent School District, El Paso,...
Nitrite is to be used to inhibit pitting corrosion during Extended Sludge Processing (ESP) at the Savannah River Plant. The required nitrite concentrations are expressed as a function of the slurries' nitrate ion concentration and temperature. In the most dilute slurries, the nitrite inhibitor requirement is independent of the nitrate ion concentration and depends only on the temperature of the waste. The nitrate-independent concentration ensures that there is sufficient inhibitor, in sludge slurries whose nitrate has been depleted by radiolysis, to prevent pitting corrosion induced by other corrosive anions (e.g., sulfate and chloride). The threshold nitrate concentration at which the nitrite level is expressed as a function only of temperature is 0.02 M.
Nitrite is to be used to inhibit pitting corrosion during Extended Sludge Processing (ESP) at the Savannah River Plant. The required nitrite concentrations are expressed as a function of the slurries` nitrate ion concentration and temperature. In the most dilute slurries, the nitrite inhibitor requirement is independent of the nitrate ion concentration and depends only on the temperature of the waste. The nitrate-independent concentration ensures that there is sufficient inhibitor, in sludge slurries whose nitrate has been depleted by radiolysis, to prevent pitting corrosion induced by other corrosive anions (e.g., sulfate and chloride). The threshold nitrate concentration at which the nitrite level is expressed as a function only of temperature is 0.02 M.
Experimental differential cross sections for 104 MeV #alpha#-particle scattering have been analysed using a method recently proposed for model-independent analyses. Reliable values of isoscalar (0"+ -3"1"-) octupole transition rates in _5_0Ti, _5_2Cr and _2_0_8Pb are presented and compared with electromagnetic rates. (author).
Access for independents to retail gas markets was a central concern in European policy reform efforts in the 1990s. Upstream oil and gas companies reacted with strategic intentions of forward integration. By late 2004, forward integration was still weak, however. An important explanation of the gap between announced strategic re-orientation and actual strategy implementation lies in the political failure of EU member states to dismantle market barriers to entry for independents. Variations between companies in downstream strategy implementation are explained by variations in business opportunities and internal company factors.
This report presents the results of the 2003 Radiological Environmental Monitoring Program conducted in accordance with 10 CFR 72.44 for the Fort St. Vrain Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation. A description of the facility and the monitoring program is provided. The results of monitoring the predominant radiation exposure pathway, direct radiation exposure, indicate the facility operation has not contributed to any increase in the estimated maximum potential dose commitment to the general public.
This report presents the results of the 2001 Radiological Environmental Monitoring Program conducted in accordance with 10 CFR 72.44 for the Fort St. Vrain Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation. A description of the facility and the monitoring program is provided. The results of monitoring the predominant radiation exposure pathway, direct and scattered radiation exposure, indicate the facility operation has not contributed to any increase in the estimated maximum potential dose commitment to the general public.
Nerve growth factor (NGF), a survival factor for neurons enforces pain by sensitizing nociceptors. Also in the pancreas, NGF was associated with pain and it can stimulate the proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells. Hepatic stellate cells (HSC) respond to NGF with apoptosis. Transforming growth factor (TGF)-b, one of the strongest pro-fibrogenic activators of pancreatic stellate cells (PSC) induced NGF and its two receptors in an immortalized human cell line (ihPSC) and primary rat PSC (prPSC) as determined by RT-PCR, western blot, and immunofluorescence. In contrast to HSC, PSC expressed both NGF receptors, although p75NTR expression was weak in prPSC. In contrast to ihPSC TGF-b activated both Smad signaling cascades in prPSC. NGF secretion was diminished by the activin-like kinase (ALK)...
In a previous study, to identify genes of importance for hepatocellular carcinogenesis, and especially for processes involved in malignant transformation, the authors investigated differences in gene expression between adenomas and carcinomas by DNA microarray. In the present study, the authors investigated AW434047, one of the sequences that was upregulated in carcinomas. The investigation led to the identification of a novel gene, which the authors named hepatocyte malignant transforming factor (HMTF), of unknown function whose expression was increased in hepatocellular carcinomas. Northern blot and in situ hybridization also demonstrated high levels of HMTF in rat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell lines, lymphocytes in the spleen, colon mucosal epithelia, spermatocytes, and granule cells of the hippocampus. Reduction of HMTF by RNA interference (RNAi) in N1 cells, an HCC cell line, caused suppression of cell proliferation, invasion, and migration. Suppression of proliferation ...
Abstract in english Cell death is preceded by severe disruption of inorganic ion homeostasis. Seconds to minutes after an injury, calcium, protons, sodium, potassium and chloride are exchanged between the cell and its environment. Simultaneously, ions are shifted between membrane compartments inside the cell, whereby mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum play a crucial role. Depending of the type and severity of injury, two mutually exclusive metastable states can be reached, which predict (more) the final outcome. Cells characterized by large increases in cytosolic [Ca2+], [Na+]; and [Mg2+] swell and die by necrosis; alternatively, cells characterized by high [H+]and low [K+], with normal [Na+] and normal to moderate [Ca2+] increases die by apoptosis. The levels of these ions represent central determinants in signaling events leading to cell death. Their movements are explained mechanistically by specific modulation of membrane transport proteins including ...
Summary.? It is widely believed that hepatocellular cancer (HCC), especially HBV associated HCC, is highly resistant to chemotherapy. To investigate the molecular influence of HBx protein on multidrug resistance (MDR) in HCC and the potential role of the NF-?B pathway in this process. We established HBx-expressing cells by liposome-mediated transfection of the HBx into the HepG2 cell line. We found that HBx expression in HCC cells induces drug resistance against multiple drugs, a significantly lower apoptosis ratio in HepG2-HBx and HepG2.2.15 cells, compared with HepG2 and HepG2-3.1 cells (P?HCC cells were downregulated by IMD-0354 treatment, which is the NF-?B pathway inhibitor. Taken together, these results suggest that HBx protein might be one of the causes for the occurrence of MDR in HCC, and the NF-?B pathway might be involved in this change. PMID:21914061
Abstract Sam68 (Src-associated protein in mitosis 68-kDa) is a multifunctional protein, known to govern cellular signal transduction, transcription, RNA metabolism, proliferation, apoptosis, and HIV-1 replication. Although intrinsic mechanisms that modulate Sam68 function are beginning to emerge, the regulatory events contributing to its expression remain elusive. We previously reported that heat shock protein-22 (Hsp22) antagonizes Sam68 function in rev-response element (RRE)-mediated gene expression. We now demonstrate that Sam68 levels correlate inversely with Hsp22 in a variety of cells, including U87, Jurkat, 293T, and U-937. In U87 glioblastoma cells, which contained high levels of Hsp22 than other cell lines tested, Hsp22 knockdown dramatically increased both Sam68 mRNA and protein,...
This study was carried out to evaluate the biochemical and morphological effects of ionizing radiation on ovary. Immature mice (ICR, 3 week-old) were irradiated at a dose of LD{sub 80(30)} at KAERI. The ovaries were collected after 6 hours, 12 hours, 1 day, and 2 days post irradiation. To analyze the morphological changes, histological staining with hematoxylin-eosin, immuno- histochemical preparation using in situ 3'-end labeling was performed. DNA fragmentation analysis and flowcytometric evaluation of DNA extracted from whole ovary were performed. As a result of DNA fragmentation analysis, DNA fragments with 185, 370, and 555 base pairs were clearly shown at 6 hours post irradiation. The percentage of A{sub 0} cell cycle was significantly increased in the irradiated group than control. In situ 3'-end labeled follicles were increased at 6 hours post irradiation. The radiation-induced follicular atresia was taken place via an apoptotic degeneration. And this ...
This report concerns investigations in the title conducted by 8 groups of National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS) during the period of 1998-2000. The groups are for investigation of: Effects of p53 tumor suppressor gene in radiation-induced leukemia, Role of atm-gene in dose rate effect of ionizing radiation, Function of DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit (DNA-PK{sub cs}), Functional complementation of radiation-sensitive mutant M10 cell line by human XRCC4 cDNA expression, Role of radiation-induced apoptosis in digital defects in embryonic mice, Functional analysis of S-phase specific novel nuclear protein NP95 by gene targeting, Role of chemokine in T cell development and lymphomagenesis, and establishment of production techniques of gene-modified mice using embryonic stem cells for genetic analysis of radiation-sensitive genes. The groups describe summaries of their studies and published original articles are also given. (N.I.)
Abstract Polycystic kidney diseases (PKD) are inherited disorders characterized by fluid-filled cysts primarily in the kidneys. We previously reported differences between the expression of Cux1, p21, and p27 in the cpk and Pkd1 null mouse models of PKD. Embryonic lethality of Pkd1 null mice limits its study to early stages of kidney development. Therefore, we examined mice with a collecting duct specific deletion in the Pkd1 gene. Cux1 was ectopically expressed in the cyst lining epithelial cells of newborn, P7 and P15 Pkd1CD mice. Cux1 expression correlated with cell proliferation in early stages of cystogenesis, however, as the disease progressed, fewer cyst lining cells showed increased cell proliferation. Rather, Cux1 expression in late stage cystogenesis was associated with increased ...
To identify radio-protective agent candidate among medicinal plants and to elucidate the mechanism of action of the candidate material by using modern biochemical and molecular biological methods, we screened radio-protective activity among 48 medicinal plants. Seven samples showed above 20% protective activities against oxidative cell damage: Euryale ferox, Glycyrrhiza uralensis, Salvia miltiorrhiza, Eucomia ulmoides, Paeonia suffruticosa, Spirodela polyrrhiza, and Nelumbo nucifera. We also screened for oxidative stress sensitizing activity among other 51 medicinal plants. Among those samples, 11 samples showed good sensitizing effect; Melia azedarach, Agastache rugosa, Catalpa ovata, Prunus persica, Sinomenium acutum, Pulsatilla koreana, Oldenlandia diffusa, Anthriscus sylvestris, Schizandra chinensis, Gleditsia sinensis, and Cridium officinale. We also reported the radio-protective effect of DTT. The treatment of DTT increased cell survival after gamma-irradiation, decreased in the ...
We reported the radio-protective effect of DTT. The treatment of DTT increased cell survival after gamma-irradiation, decreased in the frequencies of micronucleus, and reduction in DNA fragmentation and apoptotic cells. Induction of apoptosis after UV-C irradiation was revealed by the changes in the relative cell death, increase in the relative amount of apoptotic cells, and the induction of DNA fragmentation. About 100 medicinal plants were purchased and methanol extract samples were prepared. Radio-protective and radio-sensitizing activities of these samples were screened. Seven samples showed above 20% radio-protective activities: Salvia miltiorrhiza, Areca catechu, Cornus officinalis, Alpiniae officinari rhizoma, Meliae fructus, Alpiniae katsumadaii semen, Betulae cortex. Acanthopanax sessiliflous showed the highest radio-sensitizing effect and 10 other samples revealed moderate activities: Melia japonica, Agastache rugosa, Platycodon gradiflorum, Broussonetia ...
The maintenance of a balance between cell gain and cell loss is essential for proper liver function. The exact role of aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) in regulating cell proliferation and apoptosis of liver cells remains unclear, since ligand-dependent activation of AhR has been shown to induce cell cycle arrest, proliferation, differentiation or apoptosis, depending on the cellular model used. AhR can directly interact with retinoblastoma protein in hepatic cells, forming protein complexes that can efficiently block cell cycle progression by inducing G1 arrest, or to induce the expression of inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinases, such as p271. On the other hand, it has been suggested that AhR could play a stimulatory role in cell proliferation, either directly or by mediating a release from contact inhibition. It is now generally accepted that progenitor cells exist in the liver, are activated in various liver diseases and can form a ...
In pursuing its mission of helping U.S. independent oil and gas producers make timely, informed technology decisions, the Petroleum Technology Transfer Council (PTTC) functions as a cohesive national organization that implements industry's directives through active regional programs. The role of the national headquarters (HQ) organization includes planning and managing the PTTC program, conducting nation-wide technology transfer activities, and implementing a comprehensive communications effort. PTTC relies on 10 Regional Lead Organizations (RLOs) as its main program delivery mechanism to industry. Through its regions, PTTC connects with independent oil and gas producers--through technology workshops, resources centers, websites, newsletters, and other outreach efforts. The organization effectively combines federal, state, and industry funding to achieve important goals for all of these sectors. This integrated funding base, combined ...
We consider a general, neutral, dynamical model of biodiversity. Individuals have i.i.d. lifetime durations, which are not necessarily exponentially distributed, and each individual gives birth independently at constant rate \\lambda. We assume that types are clonally inherited. We consider two classes of speciation models in this setting. In the immigration model, new individuals of an entirely new species singly enter the population at constant rate \\mu (e.g., from the mainland into the island). In the mutation model, each individual independently experiences point mutations in its germ line, at constant rate \\theta. We are interested in the species abundance distribution, i.e., in the numbers, denoted I_n(k) in the immigration model and A_n(k) in the mutation model, of species represented by k individuals, k=1,2,...,n, when there are n individuals in the total population. In the immigration model, we prove that the numbers (I_t(k);k\\ge 1) ...
Independent power producers (IPPs) have had open access to existing power systems ever since the electric power industry was restructured and deregulated. IPPs are small-scale, distributed, and independently operated. Introducing an IPP to the power system can be beneficial to the existing power system because it can increase the security margin or reduce production cost and environmental pollution. The disadvantage is that some IPPs are not subject to dispatch control, consequently, they may reduce the network security. Often IPPs use co-generation, small-scale hydro, even fuel cells or other types of renewable energy sources. An evaluation of IPPs impact on an existing utility power system was determined in a modified IEEE 14 bus system. The total generating cost, environmental impact, transmission line margin, voltage profile, network congestion, security and other power quality measures were evaluated. It was concluded that on balance, an ...
We suggest and describe the use of a binary pseudo-random (BPR) grating as a standard test surface for measurement of the modulation transfer function (MTF) of interferometric microscopes. Knowledge of the MTF of a microscope is absolutely necessary to convert the measured height distribution of a surface undergoing metrology into an accurate power spectral density (PSD) distribution. For an'ideal' microscope with an MTF function independent of spatial frequency out to the Nyquist frequency of the detector array with zero response at higher spatial frequencies, a BPR grating would produce a flat 1D PSD spectrum, independent of spatial frequency. For a'real' instrument, the MTF is found as the square root of the ratio of the PSD spectrum measured with the BPR grating to the'ideal,' spatial frequency independent, PSD spectrum. We present the results from a measurement of the MTF ...
Using a noneikonal expression for the two-body scattering amplitude, consistent with the proton-nucleon scattering data, the cross-section of the 1.04 GeV-proton elastic scattering on {sup 40}Ca is calculated by the Glauber-Sitenko theoretical scheme in the framework of the coherent density fluctuation model (CDFM) as well as of the independent-particle model (IPM). It is shown that the use of the noneikonal amplitude in the CDFM calculations improves the agreement with the experimental data especially at larger scattering angles in contrast to the case of the independent-particle model. To that end a decisive role play the zero-motion flucton correlations taken into account in the CDFM. (orig.).
Using a noneikonal expression for the two-body scattering amplitude, consistent with the proton-nucleon scattering data, the cross-section of the 1.04 GeV-proton elastic scattering on "4"0Ca is calculated by the Glauber-Sitenko theoretical scheme in the framework of the coherent density fluctuation model (CDFM) as well as of the independent-particle model (IPM). It is shown that the use of the noneikonal amplitude in the CDFM calculations improves the agreement with the experimental data especially at larger scattering angles in contrast to the case of the independent-particle model. To that end a decisive role play the zero-motion flucton correlations taken into account in the CDFM. (orig.).
In a forthcoming paper we describe a new approach to rapidity gap survival (RGS) in the production of high-mass systems (H = dijet, Higgs, etc.) in exclusive double-gap diffractive pp scattering, pp -> p + H + p. It is based on the idea that hard and soft interactions are approximately independent (QCD factorization), and allows us to calculate the RGS probability in a model-independent way in terms of the gluon generalized parton distributions (GPDs) in the colliding protons and the pp elastic scattering amplitude. Here we focus on the transverse momentum dependence of the cross section. By measuring the ''diffraction pattern'', one can perform detailed tests of the interplay of hard and soft interactions, and even extract information about the gluon GPD in the proton from the data.
Background.There are no suitably powered epidemiological studies of `transient azotaemia' (TA). The objective of this study was to describe the epidemiology of TA and its independent association with hospital mortality. We hypothesized that TA would be associated with an independent increase in the risk of death. Methods.We retrospectively studied all patients admitted to a university-affiliated hospital in Australia between January 2000 and December 2002. Patients were excluded if they were <15 years old, were on chronic dialysis, had kidney transplant or if their length of hospital stay was <24 hours. We defined TA as rapidly recovering acute kidney injury (AKI) (return to no-AKI risk, injury, failure, loss, end stage (RIFLE) class within 72 hours of onset). We performed descriptive and ...
The penetrance of Lebers hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) in families with primary mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations is very complex. Matrilineal and nuclear genetic background, as well as environmental factors, have been reported to be involved in different affected pedigrees. Here we describe two large Chinese families that show a striking difference in the penetrance of LHON, in which 53.3% and 15.0% of members were affected (Pin vivo mitochondrial oxidative metabolism as described in a previous study. Evolutionary analysis failed to indicate any putatively pathogenic mutation that cosegregated with G11778A in these two pedigrees. Our results suggest that the variable penetrance of LHON in the two Chinese families is independent of both their mtDNA haplotype background and a seconda...
In this work, we address the problem of road interpretation for driver assistance based on an early cognitive vision system. The structure of a road and the relevant traf?c are interpreted in terms of ego-motion estimation of the car, independently moving objects on the road, lane markers and large scale maps of the road. We make use of temporal and spatial disambiguation mechanisms to increase the reliability of visually extracted 2D and 3D information. This information is then used to interpret the layout of the road by using lane markers that are detected via Bayesian reasoning. We also estimate the ego-motion of the car which is used to create large scale maps of the road and also to detect independently moving objects. Sample results for the presented algorithms are shown on a stereo image sequence, that has been collected from a structured road.
We use the semi-classical approximation in perturbative scalar quantum electrodynamics to calculate the quantum correction to the Larmor radiation formula to first order in Planck's constant in the non-relativistic approximation, choosing the initial state of the charged particle to be a momentum eigenstate. We calculate this correction in two cases: in the first case the charged particle is accelerated by a time-dependent but space-independent vector potential whereas in the second case it is accelerated by a time-independent vector potential which is a function of one spatial coordinate. We find that the corrections in these two cases are different even for a charged particle with the same classical motion. The correction in each case turns out to be non-local in time in contrast to the classical approximation.
A new controlled-clearance pressure balance is under development with the aim of improving the hydraulic high-pressure standard up to 1 GPa. This pressure balance consists of three parts: (i) a pressure generation device up to 1 GPa, (ii) a weight-loading unit which can load/unload weights automatically and independently, (iii) a controlled-clearance piston-cylinder which is designed to allow the jacket pressure to be applied independently. Some adjustments were made for loading heavy weights on/off the piston safely, keeping them in balance, then generating the pressure stably. Stability of the generated pressure was checked for several piston-cylinders, and it was found that pressure fluctuation was less than a few parts per million. The jacket pressure coefficient of a 500 MPa controlled-clearance piston-cylinder was precisely evaluated as a function of both the system pressure and the jacket pressure.
A central composite design was employed to optimize the extraction of pectin with citric acid. The independent variables were citric acid concentration (0.086-2.91% w/v) and extraction time (17-102min). The combined effect of these variables on the degree of esterification was investigated. Results have shown that the generated regression models adequately explained the data variation and significantly represented the actual relationship between the independent variables and the responses. Besides that, the citric acid concentration was the most important factor to affect the degree of esterification, as it exerted a significant influence on the dependent variable. Lower citric acid concentration increased the pectin degree of esterification. The surface response showed the relationships b...
Background:- Children with oppositional defiant disorder/conduct disorder (ODD/CD) have shown deficits in -cool- abstract-cognitive, and -hot- reward-related executive function (EF) tasks. However, it is currently unclear to what extent ODD/CD is associated with neuropsychological deficits, independently of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Methods:- Fifty-nine adolescents with a history of early-onset oppositional problems, 28 with pure ODD/CD symptoms and 31 with ADHD with or without ODD/CD, and 34 healthy controls were administered a task battery measuring motor response inhibition, sustained attention, cognitive flexibility and reward-related decision-making. Findings were analysed using dimensional and group analyses. Results:- In group analyses both groups with and wit...
Independent component analysis (ICA), an efficient higher order statistics (HOS) based blind source separation technique, has been successfully applied in various fields. In this paper, we provide an overview of the applications of ICA in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication systems, and introduce some of the important issues surrounding them. First, we present an ICA based blind equalization scheme for MIMO orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, with linear precoding for ambiguity elimination. Second, we discuss three peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) reduction schemes, which do not introduce any spectral overhead. Third, we investigate the application of ICA to blind compensation for inphase/quadrature (I/Q) imbalance in MIMO OFDM systems. Fin...
Abstract Background: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a highly prevalent condition, is independently associated with increased risks of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) and metabolic syndrome. It is unclear, however, if the severity of OSA has any impact on glycemic control among patients with T2D. We therefore aimed to determine the independent association between OSA severity and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) in patients with T2D. Methods: This was an observational cross-sectional study of 52 consecutive patients attending the diabetes obesity clinic between January 2008 to February 2010 with risk factors for sleep apnea and who underwent polysomnography study. Clinical, demographic, and lifestyle data were recorded using a questionnaire. Results: Prevalence of OSA in this clini...
The chemostat theory on two species competition has shown that the dilution rate where transition of dominance occurs - transition-dilution rate - is independent of limiting-nutrient concentration. However, we obtained the experimental data indicating that the transition-dilution rate changed with variations in limiting-ammonium concentrations, using the chemostat mixed-culture of the cyanobacterium Microcystis novacekii and the green alga Scenedesmus quadricauda. The transition-dilution rate was dependent on the concentration of limiting ammonium in the influx culture medium. We tried to simulate the experimental results. Though the dilution rate has been considered independent of nutrient concentration, we introduce the effective dilution rate that depends on nutrient concentration (ammo...
To test whether the dose addition and independent action models can predict the combined toxicity of the mixtures of phenol and aniline derivatives, six phenolic and two aniline derivatives were selected as the test components. The inhibition toxicity of the derivatives and their mixtures to Vibrio qinghaiensis sp.-Q67 indicated that all dose?response relationships could be effectively described by the Weibull function with correlation coefficients greater than 0.99. The combined toxicity of two equivalent-effect concentration ratio mixtures and eight uniform design concentration ratio mixtures could be predicted successfully by the dose addition model within 95% confidence intervals. However, it was also well predicted by the independent action model, especially at lower concentrations.
Although computer simulation has played a central role in the study of nucleation and growth since the earliest molecular dynamics simulations almost 50 years ago, confusion surrounding the effect of finite size on such simulations have limited their applicability. Modeling solidification in molten tantalum on the BlueGene/L computer, we report here on the first atomistic simulation of solidification that verifies independence from finite size effects during the entire nucleation and growth process, up to the onset of coarsening. We show that finite size scaling theory explains the observed maximal grain sizes for systems up to about 8,000,000 atoms. For larger simulations, a cross-over from finite size scaling to more physical size-independent behavior is observed.
A model is presented for describing the Amputee Independent Prosthesis Properties (AIPP) of complete assemblies of trans-tibial prosthetic components distal to the socket. This new AIPP model includes features of both lumped parameter and roll-over models and describes prosthesis properties that are of importance in stance phase, including prosthetic foot geometry, normal stiffness, shear stiffness, and damping (energy dissipation). Methods are described for measuring the parameters of the AIPP model using a custom test-rig, commercial load-cell, and a motion capture system. Example data are presented for five pylon angles reflecting the shank angles seen in normal gait. Through the inclusion of measured AIPP in future in-vivo studies comparing different prostheses more generic information, as opposed to product specific claims, will become more widely available to inform future designs, prescription, and alignment procedures. PMID:21831379
This paper focuses on a factorial-based design strategy. The approach provides an efficient and statistically reliable means for assessing the influence of multivariable effects. It is applied to the detection and evaluation of damage in impacted composite sandwich panels. The experimental results obtained from this test strategy are utilized to form an empirical response function. The resulting polynomial relates damage area to residual compression strength at values of independent variables for which testing did not occur. The response function also identifies nonlinear interaction effects of key variabes that cannot be easily ascertained by traditional single-variable test strategies. Independent variables evaluated include core thickness, number of face sheet plys and impact energy. The methodology presented allows the designer to predict with more confidence the damage tolerance of a composite material component, and the analyst to more ...
Experiments based on a 23 central composite full factorial design were carried out in 200-ml stainless-steel containers to study the pretreatment, with dilute sulfuric acid, of a sugarcane bagasse sample obtained from a local sugar?alcohol mill. The independent variables selected for study were temperature, varied from 112.5?C to 157.5?C, residence time, varied from 5.0 to 35.0 min, and sulfuric acid concentration, varied from 0.0% to 3.0% (w/v). Bagasse loading of 15% (w/w) was used in all experiments. Statistical analysis of the experimental results showed that all three independent variables significantly influenced the response variables, namely the bagasse solubilization, efficiency of xylose recovery in the hemicellulosic hydrolysate, efficiency of cellulose enzymatic saccharificatio...
Acetaminophen (APAP) overdose, which causes liver injury in animals and humans, activates c-jun N-terminal kinase (JNK). Although it was shown that the JNK inhibitor SP600125 effectively reduced...Full Text Available
A Bianchi type-IX cosmological model has been found as a solution of Einstien's vacuum field equations with a cosmological constant. The solution represents a rotating generalziation fo the de Sitter universe. This universe shows a transition to exponential expansion and the vorticity begins to decay exponentially at the grand-unified-theory time. The point of time for this transition is independent of the magnitude of the vorticity. During the Guth inflationary era the vorticity decays by a factor of the order 10 US.
A Bianchi type-IX cosmological model has been found as a solution of Einstien's vacuum field equations with a cosmological constant. The solution represents a rotating generalziation fo the de Sitter universe. This universe shows a transition to exponential expansion and the vorticity begins to decay exponentially at the grand-unified-theory time. The point of time for this transition is independent of the magnitude of the vorticity. During the Guth inflationary era the vorticity decays by a factor of the order 10"-"1"4"2.
Plasma is the component of blood from which lead is free to cross cell membranes and cause organ toxicity. Plasma lead levels, however, are extremely low and difficult to measure. Urinary lead originates...Full Text Available
The petroleum and petroleum products increase offer a real development opportunity to the alternative fuels. In the context of the french energy accounting increase, the energy independence notion incites the government to promote these new fuels. If the LPG seems declining because of the accident risks fear, the fuel cell is not for today. Near these two sectors what is the future of the biofuels and the natural gas vehicle or the electric cars? (A.L.B.)
The petroleum and petroleum products increase offer a real development opportunity to the alternative fuels. In the context of the french energy accounting increase, the energy independence notion incites the government to promote these new fuels. If the LPG seems declining because of the accident risks fear, the fuel cell is not for today. Near these two sectors what is the future of the biofuels and the natural gas vehicle or the electric cars? (A.L.B.)
The protein “amplified in osteosarcoma-9” (OS-9) has been shown previously to interact with the prolyl hydroxylases PHD2 and PHD3. These enzymes initiate oxygen-dependent degradation...Full Text Available
DescriptionThis project has two independent aims: (1) to investigate the use of struvite as an alternative to chemical P fertilisers and (2) to develop an oligonucleotide microarray to monitor the P status of the potato crop. The UK horticultural and agricultural industries rely on large inputs of phosphate (P) fertilisers to maintain crop yields and quality. However, the use of non-renewable, chemical P fertilisers is unsustainable, and the alternatives to chemical P-fertilisers must be identified as an [continued...
Transverse form factors have been extracted for the low-lying neutron hole (particle) states of /sup 207/Pb from inelastic-electron-scattering data. A systematic, multipolarity-and momentum-transfer-independent quenching of approx.55% in the transverse amplitude is observed when compared with single particle predictions for both electric and magnetic transitions. The magnitude of the observed effect is not readily explained by our present theoretical understanding of this nucleus.
It is shown that a cosmic gamma-ray telescope made of a multilayer silicon tracker and a imaging CsI calorimeter, is capable of identifying cosmic ray nuclei. The telescope charge resolution is estimated around 4% independently of charge. Simulation methods are used to determine the telescope properties for nuclei detection.
An explicite PN solution of the multi-dimensional homogeneous neutron transport equation is given by expanding the angular flux into a series of geometry-independent spherical harmonics operators. An algorithm is developed for representing the spherical harmonic operators in orthogonal curvilinear coordinates. The general formulae are applied to two-dimensional spherical geometry; detailed P3 formulae are given. (orig.).
A summary of the cost data reviewed as well as conclusions and recommendations are presented. Cost and programmatic aspects of Rockwell's SPS CR-2 reference configuration were based on the results of several contracts with NASA and independent company-sponsored activities by the Space Operations and Satellite Systems Division of Rockwell International.
The histone chaperone Asf1 and the chromatin remodeler SWI/SNF have been separately implicated in derepression of the DNA damage response (DDR) genes in yeast cells treated with genotoxins that cause...Full Text Available
1. The induction of long-term potentiation (LTP) was investigated in the rat dentate gyrus in the presence of ryanodine, an agent which is known to selectively bind to the ryanodine receptor (RyR) Ca2+...Full Text Available
The average angle of repose and the packing density of random planar heaps of hard disks falling ballistically onto a sticky base line, where the first layer of disks is quenched in random positions, are computed for heaps with a small fixed number of gaps in the base layer. The results we find appear to be almost independent of the size of the heap and they agree with those obtained from computer simulations of large systems.
A renormalization procedure is proposed which applies to lattice Feynman integrals containing zero-mass propagators and is analogous to the BPHZL renormalization procedure for continuum Feynman integrals. The renormalized diagrams are infrared convergent for non-exceptional external momenta, if the vertices of the theory satisfy a general infrared constraint. Under the same conditions as in the massive case, the continuum limit of the renormalized theory exists and is independent of the details of the lattice action.
ABSTRACT-Here we identify release of annexin A2 into the culture medium in response to low dose X-ray radiation exposure and establish functional linkages to an established paracrine factor-mediated anchorage-independent growth response. Using a standard bicameral coculture model, we observe that annexin A2 levels associated with non-irradiated neighboring cells seeded in the lower chamber (annexin A2 silenced [shRNA] JB6 cells) are increased upon coculture with irradiated (10-50 cGy) JB6 cells seeded in the upper chamber, relative to coculture with sham exposed JB6 cells seeded in the upper chamber, suggesting that annexin A2 released into the medium is capable of communicating in a paracrine fashion. Using a previously established coculture model, we observed that the paracrine factor-mediated anchorage-independent growth response to low dose X-ray radiation is markedly reduced when irradiated annexin A2 silenced (shRNA) JB6 cells are used, ...
Reduction of wavefunction which transforms as scalar field imaginary mass system has been derived in terms of irreducible representation of proper, orthochronous, inhomogeneous Lorentz group and it has been shown that only transformation properties of wavefunction are needed in the derivation while the reality condition and wave equations only restrict the number of independent representations. The properties of energy and momentum of tachyons have been analysed and it has been shown that the tachyons are unidirectional in space. (author).
We discuss the use of active control to reduce mirror position fluctuations at the quantum level. We have shown in a recent experiment that it is possible to reduce the thermal noise of a mirror by measuring and controlling its motion with an optomechanical sensor based on a high-finesse optical cavity. This approach can be extended to lock the mirror motion at the quantum level, and to suppress the quantum effects of radiation pressure in interferometric measurements such as gravitational-wave detectors. The sensitivity improvement is furthermore independent of losses in the interferometer.
The quantitative imaging of a phase object using 16 keV x-rays is reported. The theoretical basis of the techniques is presented along with its implementation using a synchrotron x-ray source. It is found that the phase image is in quantitative agreement with independent measurements of the object. 13 refs., 5 figs.
Background: Anxiety disorders are known to be common in the general population. Previous studies with adults with intellectual disabilities (IDs) report a prevalence of general anxiety disorder ranging from less than 2% to 17.4%. Little is known about associated factors in this population. This study investigates point prevalence of anxiety disorders and determines the factors independently associated with them. Methods: Information was collected with 1023 adults with IDs who participated in a large-scale, population-based study. All had a comprehensive physical and mental health assessment. The point prevalence of anxiety disorders according to different diagnostic criteria was determined, as were independently associated factors by using logistic regression analysis. Results: Three point eight per cent (95% CI = 2.7-5.2%) of the cohort had an anxiety disorder at the time of assessment. Generalised anxiety disorder was the most common (1.7%), ...
We present a modification of the closed-loop state space model for AO control which allows delays that are a non-integer multiple of the system frame rate. We derive the new forms of the Predictive Fourier Control Kalman filters for arbitrary delays and show that they are linear combinations of the whole-frame delay terms. This structure of the controller is independent of the delay. System stability margins and residual error variance both transition gracefully between integer-frame delays.
Histone H3 mRNAs were found in polyA(+) fractions of total RNA prepared from alfalfa plants, calli and somatic embryos. The sequence analysis of cDNAs revealed the presence of a polyA tail on independent...Full Text Available
We study by means of Quantum Monte Carlo simulations based on the Worm Algorithm the low temperature (down to T = 0.05 K) properties of parahydrogen clusters comprising up to 40 molecules. Three different intermolecular interactions are employed: the Silvera-Goldman, the Buck and the Lennard-Jones potential. Despite important discrepancies observed in the numerical estimates of energy and superfluid fraction, the mechanism by which clusters melt at low T is independent of the particular choice of the potential, whose only effect is to alter the temperature scale.
We obtain a simple derivation of the optimal quantum state estimation of a two-level system using the no-signaling principle. In particular, we show that the no-signaling principle determines the unique form of the guessing probability, independently to a given figure of merit such as the fidelity or the information gain. This proves that optimal measurements for a two-level quantum system is the same for almost all figures of merit.
Analytical expression of the dependence of freezing temperature of electrolyte (CdCl_2, CdSO_4, BeSO_4) aqueous solutions on their composition was found. Three different methods were suggested were suggested for calculation of water activity in multicomponent solution. It was established that sublinear extrapolation of freezing temperature of salt aqueous solutions was possible not up to -5 deg C, but up to -15 deg C, independently of their composition. 6 refs.; 2 figs.
ObjectivesObjectives Not AvailableDescriptionOne significant research challenge posed by the growing number of older people in the population concerns the mobility-related problems which increase with age, inhibit independence, and can be a prime cause of admission to expensive institutional settings. The scope for engineering advances, particularly in the field of rehabilitation and assistive technology, is immense. The challenge is to produce aids, devices and products that are attractive to older people themselves, since without such [continued...
Low pressure plasmas have some promising advantages for nitriding The separation of plasma generation from the workpiece overcomes several of the major drawbacks of conventional plasma nitriding and also allows independent control of ion flux and energy This opens the possibility of nitriding at lower temperatures so that the process can be extended to a wider range of materials and applications. Copyright (1999) Materials Australia
This paper investigates the calculation of availability for parallel transmission lines (two or more) in the same tower or on the same right of way. As in many studies, the development of mathematical models is an important step. The models are justified using historical data and known characteristics of power system elements. A statistical method was used to generalize the failure rate and repair rate from real operating data. Application of the new model (which combines common-mode, simultaneous independent, and dependent outages) is discussed.
The capacity of bones to adjust their mass and architecture to withstand the loads of everyday activity derives from the ability of their resident cells to respond appropriately to the strains engendered....Full Text Available
The Variable Dynamic Testbed Vehicle (VDTV) is presently being developed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). It is being designed to have a steer-by-wire front steering system and an independent rear steering system. These steering systems enable the VDTV to emulate the directional control characteristics of a broad range of passenger vehicles.
Nearly all chemical processes fractionate 17O and 18O in a mass-dependent way relative to 16O, a major exception being the formation of ozone from diatomic oxygen in...Full Text Available
NH4+ inhibition kinetics for CH4 oxidation were examined at near-atmospheric CH4 concentrations in three upland forest soils. Whether NH4+-independent...Full Text Available
We discuss the consequence of local duality for elastic scattering, and derive a model-independent equation between structure functions at x ? 1 and elastic electromagnetic form factors. Then the electromagnetic form factors of proton are discussed using the quark-hadron duality theory. We also debate the form factor of proton in a bound state. It may be an effective approach to study the form factor of proton in media.
The interaction between core and envelope in stars with central helium burning is investigated. If core and envelope are treated as independent systems, feedback terms arise. All feedback terms are discussed in detail. The approximative treatment of feedback terms in the earlier papers of Lauterborn, Refsdal, and Weigert is found to be fully justified. The problem of secular instabilities in models with central helium burning is rediscussed. (auth)
The ankle plantar flexor muscles, gastrocnemius (Gas) and soleus (Sol), have been shown to play important roles in providing body support and forward propulsion during human walking. However, there...Full Text Available
... Research Center, Washington DC May 23 BBC NEws: US used Nuclear Weapons in Afghanistan Jalalabad: New reference levels based on recent samples show uranium levels 45 times normal. New bioassay studies identify uranium internal contamination in Spin Gar (Tora Bora) area and the City ...
The NSP5 protein is required for viroplasm formation during rotavirus infection and is hyperphosphorylated into 32- to 35-kDa isoforms. Earlier studies reported that NSP5 is not hyperphosphorylated...Full Text Available
Spain was a scientifically backward country in the early 19th-century. Thecauses were various political events, the War of Independence, and the reign ofFernando VII. The introduction of contemporary physics into textbooks wastherefore a slow process. An analysis of the contents of 19th-century Spanishtextbooks is here presented, centred on imponderable fluids, the concept ofenergy, the mechanical theory of heat, and the kinetic theory of gases.
The results of Independent Energy's Financial Rankings survey for 1992 as well as the second half of 1992 showed increased activity in almost every category. In stronger showing was evident in all categories except corporate finance and revenue bonds. The total amount of project finance equity and debt, corporate finance and revenue bonds reported in 1992 was nearly $16 billion - up 45% from what was reported in 1991.
Gamma interferon plays an important role in regulating the functional properties of mononuclear phagocytes. In the present study, the role of activated protein kinases in the mechanism of action of...Full Text Available
The problem on change of deuterium abundance in the process of galactic evolution (star evolution, supernova explosions, nucleosynthesis in supermassive objects) is considered. It is shown that the observable deuterium quantity in the interstellar medium must correspond to its cosmological abundance. This conclusion is independent of the rate of accretion of intergalactic gas by Galaxy. The effect of hypothetical pregalactic active objects on cosmological deuterium is small. It is poind out that observations of interstellar deuterium in absorbtion at lambda=91.6 cm are significant.
Threshold pump intensity values leading to irreversible damage to colored laser elements based on elastic polymers were measured. The damage to colored elastomers is connected with absorbing microinclusions but is independent of molecular absorption. It is shown that damage to the elastomers has a pronounced threshold character in contrast to the microdamage accumulation effect in glassy polymers. The damage threshold for elastomers is 1.5 times higher, which is connected with the absence of microstresses (characteristics for organic glasses) in the specimens. 13 references.
As the last step of urinary acidification, the inner medullary collecting duct (IMCD) is thought to secrete protons into the tubular lumens by means of a H(+)-translocating adenosinetriphosphatase (H(+)-ATPase). However, recent studies have also shown the existence of Na(+)-H+ exchange activity in IMCD cells. Although the physiological function of the antiporter in IMCD cells is unknown, activation of Na(+)-H+ exchange in other cell-culture systems has been suggested to be closely associated with the process of cell growth. Thus presence of Na(+)-H+ exchange may relate to the growth phase of these cells. To examine intracellular pH (pHi) regulation in growing IMCD cells, we studied proton transport by Na(+)-dependent and Na(+)-independent mechanisms by microfluorimetry using the pHi-sensitive dye 2',7'-bis(carboxyethyl)-5,6-carboxyfluorescein acetoxymethyl ester (BCECF/AM). Actively growing cells, defined by (3H)thymidine incorporations, ...
An electron accelerator unit is described for electron beam therapy, comprising: a source of an electron beam; means for finally directing at least a portion of the beam to a therapy site, the directing means being mechanically independent of, and electrically isolated from, the source, and having a target area; and means for aligning the source with the directing means, the aligning means comprising means for projecting at least one beam of light from the source toward the target area.
An electron accelerator unit is described for electron beam therapy, comprising: a source of an electron beam; means for finally directing at least a portion of the beam to a therapy site, the directing means being mechanically independent of, and electrically isolated from, the source, and having a target area; and means for aligning the source with the directing means, the aligning means comprising means for projecting at least one beam of light from the source toward the target area.
Neutrophils from people with poorly controlled diabetes present a primed phenotype and secrete excessive superoxide. Phospholipase A2 (PLA2)-derived arachidonic acid (AA)...Full Text Available
We sequenced 16S rRNA genes from the vaginal swab contents of a postmenopausal woman with asymptomatic bacterial vaginosis (BV). Sequences from Atopobium vaginae were the most commonly detected. In a survey of 35 other postmenopausal women, this organism was detected in 44% with BV but not in any subjects deemed healthy. PMID:15071062
Previous independent investigations of the serotyping of Haemophilus parasuis strains have led to the designation of serovars A to D, 1 to 7, Jena 6 to Jena 12, and ND1 to ND5. Heat-stable antigen preparations...Full Text Available
We have cloned and characterized a 77-kDa oestrogen receptor (ER) from an oestrogen-independent subclone of the MCF-7 human breast cancer cell line. This receptor contains an in-frame, tandem duplication...Full Text Available
We discuss three distinct topics of independent interest; one in enumerative combinatorics, one in symmetric function theory, and one in algebraic geometry. The topic in enumerative combinatorics concerns a q-analog of a generalization of the Eulerian polynomials, the one in symmetric function theory deals with a refinement of the chromatic symmetric functions of Stanley, and the one in algebraic geometry deals with Tymoczko's representation of the symmetric group on the cohomology of the regular semisimple Hessenberg variety of type A. Our purpose is to explore some remarkable connections between these topics.
Independent calculations of the antiproton-to-proton ratio by Gaisser and Maurer and by Badhwar et al. have produced conflicting results which obscure the interpretation of recent measurements of cosmic ray antiprotons. A detailed reexamination of these calculations has been performed and these differences have been resolved. We find that the first calculation was essentially correct and the reported fluxes of antiprotons are significantly higher than expected for secondary antiprotons in conventional models of cosmic ray propagation, as indicated by other recent calculations.
This book presents the current knowledge about the effects of electromagnetic fields on living matter. The three-part format covers dielectric permittivity and electrical conductivity of biological materials; effects of direct current and low frequency fields; and effects of radio frequency (including microwave) fields. The parts are designed to be consulted independently or in sequence, depending upon the needs of the reader. Useful appendixes on measurement units and safety standards are also included.
The 3-dimensional (3D) extension C5G7 MOX benchmark problems were solved by CHAPLET-3D code which is based on the idea of dynamic linkage of the multi-plane method of characteristics solutions. The benchmark results are quite accurate in comparison with the reference solutions, independently of the axial solver incorporated in the CHAPLET-3D code. (author)
We propose the exact boundary S matrix for breathers of the N=2 supersymmetric sine-Gordon model. We argue that this S matrix has three independent parameters, in agreement with a recently-proposed action. We also show, contrary to a previous claim, that the ``universal'' supersymmetric boundary S matrix commutes with two supersymmetry charges. General N=2 supersymmetric boundary integrable models are expected to have boundary S matrices with a similar structure.
BackgroundOmega-3 fatty acid (n-3 FA) blood levels and intakes have been inversely associated with risk for sudden cardiac death, but their relationship with all-cause...Full Text Available
A numerical method for the calculation of unsteady, inviscid turbomachine flow in the transonic velocity range is described. The calculation of complete stages is possible. If the flow layer geometry is given, the flow field can be determined by independe...
The correlation between baryon number and strangeness elucidates the nature of strongly interacting matter. This diagnostic can be extracted theoretically from lattice QCD calculations and experimentally from event-by-event fluctuations. The analysis of present lattice results above the critical temperature severely limits the presence of q{bar q} bound states, thus supporting a picture of independent (quasi)quarks. Details may be found in [1].
(1) Most ancillary services needed for real-time control of the transmission grid and to meet operating criteria can be competitively supplied and competitively procured. (2) The independent service operator (ISO) must directly control the generators and loads, which supply ancillary services. (3) Comparability of access to ancillary services is achievable through the ISO-based competitive market structure.
Arsenic trioxide (As2O3), used to treat promyelocytic leukemia, triggers cell death via unknown mechanisms. To further our understanding of As2O3-induced...Full Text Available
The MiniBooNE Collaboration reports first results of a search for {upsilon}{sub e} appearance in a {upsilon}{sub {mu}} beam. With two largely independent analyses, we observe no significant excess of events above background for reconstructed neutrino energies above 475 MeV. The data are consistent with no oscillations within a two neutrino appearance-only oscillation model.
On the basis of a conceptual line developed in a previuos publication a phenomenological model for the description of rescattering of mesons and antibaryons in a heavy nucleus is presented. Together with the previous work, this treatment allows one to set up a model-independent routine that can be used in different physical situations. The approximations and the reliability of the approach are thoroughly discussed.
Background and purpose:Theoretically, three α1-adrenoceptor subtypes can interact at the signalling level to alter vascular contraction or at the molecular level...Full Text Available
Full text: The general population is daily exposed to chronic, low doses of ionizing radiation (IR) from both natural and artificial sources. The biological consequences of acute, high dose IR exposure can be readily determined; however, the nature and significance of low dose, low dose-rate IR effects are still the subject of debate. Confounding the issue, are the phenomena collectively referred to as the Radiation-induced Bystander Effect (RIBE). The RIBE describes a collection of in vitro observations that suggest the presence of a soluble, transmissible factor(s) released from irradiated cells that can induce a biological response in un-irradiated cells. The induction, nature and magnitude of the RIBE varies between cell culture systems, radiation sources and end-points measured. Efforts to confirm the presence of the RIBE in vivo have been confined to in vivo-like culture systems and limited work with tumour and bone-marrow transplantation models. Validation of the RIBE in vivo ...
Abstract in english BACKGROUND: Severe pathogenic infection triggers excessive release of cytokines as part of the massive inflammatory response associated with septic shock. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the protective effect of caffeic acid phenethye ester (CAPE) against lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced endotoxemia, hepatic and neuronal damage and the associated systemic inflammatory response (SIR). METHODS: Fifty male Wister rats were divided into: control, LPS, and CAPE+LPS groups. Plasma c (more) oncentrations of various cytokines, including TNF-?, IL-1?, IL-1?, IL-6, IL-4, IL-10, and sICAM-1 were evaluated. In addition, the histopathological changes in the hepatic and neural cells were assessed. RESULTS: The LPS group showed high inflammatory cytokines and sICAM-1 levels reflecting the presence of SIR. Hepatocyte necrosis, apoptosis, extensive hemorrhage and inflammatory cellular infiltration together with brain astrocytes swelling, early neuron injury and ...
Neuronal cell death induced by oxidative stress is correlated with numerous neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), and stroke. The causes of sporadic forms of age-related neurodegenerative diseases are still unknown. Recently, a correlation between paraquat exposure and neurodegenerative diseases has been observed. Paraquat, a nonselective herbicide, was once widely used in North America and is still routinely used in Taiwan. We have used differentiated Human Neuroblastoma (SHSY-5Y) cells as an in vitro model to study the mechanism of cell death induced by paraquat. We observed that paraquat-induced oxidative stress in differentiated SHSY-5Y cells as indicated by an increase in the production of cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS). Furthermore, apoptosis was evident as indicated by cellular and nuclear morphology and DNA fragmentation. Interestingly, pretreatment of SHSY-5Y cells with water-soluble Coenzyme ...
Purpose: To analyze p53, bcl-2, c-myc, and cyclooxygenase-2 protein expression changes and examine their relationship with various antioxidant enzymes in esophageal carcinoma patients. Methods and Materials: Patients in Group 1 underwent transhiatal esophagectomy and those in Group 2 were administered chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery after 4 weeks of neoadjuvant therapy. Results: The relationship analysis among the various protein markers and antioxidant enzymes showed an inverse correlation between bcl-2 and superoxide dismutase/catalase in tumor tissues, irrespective of the treatment arm followed. An important positive association was observed between bcl-2 and reduced glutathione levels in the tumor tissue of patients receiving neoadjuvant therapy. Another apoptosis-modulating marker, c-myc, in the tumor tissue of Group 2 patients showed similar pattern levels (high and low) as that of superoxide dismutase/catalase. The association of cyclooxygenase-2 and ...
We studied the effect of extracellular Ca"2"+ concentration ([Ca"2"+]_e) on adipocyte differentiation. Preadipocytes exposed to continuous [Ca"2"+]_e higher than 2.5 mmol/l accumulated little or no cytoplasmic lipid compared to controls in 1.8 mmol/l [Ca"2"+]_e. Differentiation was monitored by Oil Red O staining of cytoplasmic lipid and triglyceride assay of accumulated lipid, by RT-PCR analysis of adipogenic markers, and by the activity of glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPDH). Elevated [Ca"2"+]_e inhibited expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor #gamma#, CCAAT/enhancer binding protein #alpha#, and steroid regulatory binding element protein. High [Ca"2"+]_e significantly inhibited differentiation marker expression including adipocyte fatty acid binding protein, and GPDH. The decrease in Pref-1 expression that accompanied differentiation also was prevented by high [Ca"2"+]_e. Treatment of 3T3-L1 cells with high [Ca"2"+]_e did not significantly affect cell number ...
Cdc7 kinase plays an essential role in firing of replication origins by phosphorylating components of the replication complexes. Cdc7 kinase has also been implicated in S phase checkpoint signaling downstream of the ATR and Chk1 kinases. Inactivation of Cdc7 in yeast results in arrest of cell growth with 1C DNA content after completion of the ongoing DNA replication. In contrast, conditional inactivation of Cdc7 in undifferentiated mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells leads to growth arrest with rapid cessation of DNA synthesis, suggesting requirement of Cdc7 functions for continuation of ongoing DNA synthesis. Furthermore, loss of Cdc7 function induces recombinational repair (nuclear Rad51 foci) and G2/M checkpoint responses (inhibition of Cdc2 kinase). Eventually, p53 becomes highly activated and the cells undergo massive p53-dependent apoptosis. Thus, defective origin activation in mammalian cells can generate DNA replication checkpoint signals. Efficient removal of ...
A study of mine-waste contamination effects on Methow River habitat on the eastern slopes of the north Cascade Mountains in Washington state, U.S.A., revealed impacts at ecosystem, community, population, individual, tissue, and cellular levels. Ore deposits in the area were mined for gold, silver, copper and zinc until the early 1950's, but the mines are now inactive. An above-and-below-mine approach was used to compare potentially impacted to control sites. The concentrations of eleven trace elements (i.e., Al, As, B, Ba, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Pb, Se, and Zn) in Methow River sediments downstream from the abandoned mine sites were higher than background levels. Exposed trout and caddisfly larvae in the Methow River showed reduced growth compared to controls. Samples of liver from juvenile trout and small intestine from exposed caddisfly larvae were examined for evidence of metal accumulation, cytopathological change, and chemical toxicity. Morphological changes that are ...
There is a renewed interest in straight wing vertical axis wind turbines (SW-VAWT) which are usually installed on the roofs of high buildings in cities, urban areas and high mountain areas for independent electric power supply. SW-VAWTs have the advantages of simple design and low cost, as well as wind direction independence compared to the horizontal system. However, when SW-VAWTs are installed in cold regions, ice, snow and other attachments can affect its performance. In this study, clay was attached to the leading edge of the blade surface to determine how the performance of SW-VAWTs are affected by the mechanism of icing. Wind tunnel tests were used to study the rotational performance and power performance of the turbine blades. Icing prevention was also investigated. The attachment of clay on the leading edge of blade surface made the rotational performance of the SW-VAWT worse. The attachment of clay on the leading edge of blade surface ...
ObjectivesThe key testing-grounds for theories concerning the origin of helping are primitively eusocial taxa in which the option of independent reproduction still exists. Co-foundress associations of Polistes paper wasps are the best studied primitively eusocial system, yet it remains unclear why many foundresses choose to become helpers. Especially paradoxical are populations of P. dominulus, in which >30% of helpers are unrelated to the dominant egg-layer in the group. The proposed research will use [continued...]DescriptionThe evolution of sociality is one of the major transitions in evolutionary biology. The key testing-grounds for theories concerning the origin of helping are primitively eusocial taxa in which the option of independent reproduction still exists. Social groups of Polistes paper wasps comprise groups of females in which one 'dominant' female lays most or all of the eggs while the others ( 'helpers') forage to feed the ...
This is an independent reanalysis of a randomised, placebo-controlled parallel-group study on the efficacy and tolerability of a special butterbur root extract (Petadolex) for the prophylaxis of migraine. The original protocol and analysis had a number of major shortcomings. In order to follow regulatory requirements, an independent reanalysis of the original data was performed. Following a 4-week baseline phase, 33 patients were randomised to treatment with two capsules 25 mg butterbur twice a day and 27 to placebo. The mean attack frequency per month decreased from 3.4 at baseline to 1.8 after 3 months (p = 0.0024) in the verum group and from 2.9 to 2.6 in the placebo group (n.s.). The responder rate (improvement of migraine frequency > or =50%) was 45% in the verum group and 15% in the placebo group. Butterbur was well tolerated. This small trial indicates that butterbur may be effective in the prophylaxis of migraine. PMID:14752215
The fading of irradiated and natural blue-colored pearls was investigated in this experiment. Thirty natural blue-colored pearls and sixty irradiated blue-colored pearls were used. Some of them were placed at a light position of RT. Another pearls were placed at a dark position of 50"0C. The irradiated pearls placed at a light position of RT didn't show remarkable fading in their color in 294 days. But the natural blue-colored pearls showed a little recovery from 4% to 8% in reflection factors in 223 days at RT. The irradiated pearls placed at a dark position of 50"0C showed the recovery from 9% to 14% in 264 days independently of irradiation times. The natural blue-colored pearls also showed the bleaching from 5% to 10% in reflection factor in 86 days at 50"0C. Both irradiated and natural blue-colored pearls hardly showed their remarkable changes in their chromaticities independently of temperatures. (author).
This paper describes high speed rolling and gauge control in cold tandem mill for ultra-thin gauge strip at the Chiba Works of Kawasaki Steel Corporation. To improve the plate-out property of rolling oil, cationic polymeric coagulant was prepared. Rolling oil with cohesion independent of inorganic inclusions or phosphatide was developed, to improve the lubrication for cold rolling, remarkably. In addition, a low-cost Ti-enhanced work roll having high wear resistance and excellent grindability was developed. Rolling can be conducted at the optimal rolling roughness and operation can be performed at the highest rolling speed independent of the rolling treatment amount. Rolling speed at 2800 m/min was confirmed by developing the rolling oil with excellent lubrication and the work roll having high wear resistance. For the improvement of strip thickness accuracy at the steady state rolling, use of the backup roll as roller bearing was more effective ...
A stochastic-convective reactive (SCR) transport method is developed for one-dimensional steady transport in physically heterogeneous media with nonlinear degradation. The method is free of perturbation amplitude limitations and circumvents the difficulty of scale dependence of phenomenological parameters by avoiding volume-averaged specifications of diffusive/dispersive fluxes. The transport system is conceptualized as an ensemble of independent convective-reactive streamlines, each characterized by a randomized convective velocity (or travel time). Dispersive effects are treated as a component of the randomness in the streamline velocity ensemble, so no explicit expression for hydrodynamic dispersive flux is written in the streamline transport equation. The expected value of the transport over the stream tube ensemble is obtained as an average of solutions to the reactive convection equation according to the stream tube (travel time) probability distribution ...
We investigated the effect of irradiation on the kinetic characteristics of amino acid and glucose transport, and the effect on the activity of the cell membrane-bound enzyme 5'-nucleotidase and on the receptor-mediated stimulation of cyclic adenosine monophosphate synthesis by prostaglandin E1. Irradiation inhibited the sodium-dependent amino acid transport by a reduced binding of the amino acid to the transport unit. The transport of glucose, which appeared to be a sodium-independent process, was temporarily stimulated by increased maximal velocity of the transport. No effect was found on the binding to the transport unit. Irradiation increased the 5'-nucleotidase activity and decreased the prostaglandin E1-stimulated cyclic adenosine monophosphate synthesis 48 h after exposure to 20 Gy. It is concluded that irradiation decreases sodium-dependent transport by impairment of the transport unit, does not impair a ...
Diffusion during He/sup +/, Ne/sup +/, and Xe/sup +/ irradiations of trace amounts of Au in melt-spun amorphous Pd/sub 78/Cu/sub 6/Si/sub 16/ has been experimentally investigated. Diffusion constants were measured by following the changes in ion-implanted Au profiles with Rutherford-backscattering spectrometry. Heat treatments and simultaneous irradiations were performed as a function of temperature (533--588 K), ion flux, and ion mass. Total integrated fluences being very small, ion-beam-mixing effects are negligible. More than an order of magnitude enhancement in the diffusion was observed because of irradiations. This enhancement saturates at higher fluxes, the level being independent of ion mass, i.e., independent of collision-cascade parameters. Except at higher temperatures, where the enhancement decreases, the temperature dependence of the diffusion-saturation level is similar to that of the diffusion without irradiation. The data ...
Diffusion during He"+, Ne"+, and Xe"+ irradiations of trace amounts of Au in melt-spun amorphous Pd/sub 78/Cu_6Si/sub 16/ has been experimentally investigated. Diffusion constants were measured by following the changes in ion-implanted Au profiles with Rutherford-backscattering spectrometry. Heat treatments and simultaneous irradiations were performed as a function of temperature (533--588 K), ion flux, and ion mass. Total integrated fluences being very small, ion-beam-mixing effects are negligible. More than an order of magnitude enhancement in the diffusion was observed because of irradiations. This enhancement saturates at higher fluxes, the level being independent of ion mass, i.e., independent of collision-cascade parameters. Except at higher temperatures, where the enhancement decreases, the temperature dependence of the diffusion-saturation level is similar to that of the diffusion without irradiation. The data suggest that vacancylike ...
We compare experimental data for temperature dependence of the magnetic order parameter and the magnetic excitations (spin waves) in materials with a quenched orbital moment and a well-defined spin quantum number. It is observed that the thermal decrease of the two quantities proceeds according to the same analytical function of the type y(T)=1-cT"#epsilon# with an identical exponent #epsilon#. This power function applies not only asymptotically for T->0 but holds over a wide temperature range. The exponent #epsilon# is universal, i.e. independent of spin order type and lattice symmetry and depends only on the dimensionality of the relevant interactions and on whether the spin quantum number is integer or half-integer. The different T"#epsilon# functions are identified as representations of stable universality classes. The fact that order parameter and magnetic excitations follow the same T"#epsilon# function shows that the two quantities belong to the same ...
We present the complete next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections to the top quark associated with $\\gamma$ production induced by model-independent $tq\\gamma$ and $tqg$ flavor-changing neutral-current (FCNC) couplings at hadron colliders, respectively. We also consider the mixing effects between the $tq\\gamma$ and $tqg$ FCNC couplings for this process. Our results show that, for the $tq\\gamma$ couplings, the NLO QCD corrections can enhance the total cross sections by about 50% and 40% at the Tevatron and LHC, respectively. Including the contributions from the $tq\\gamma$, $tqg$ FCNC couplings and their mixing effects, the NLO QCD corrections can enhance the total cross sections by about 50% for the $tu\\gamma$ and $tug$ FCNC couplings, and by about the 80% for the $tc\\gamma$ and $tcg$ FCNC couplings at the LHC, respectively. Moreover, the NLO corrections reduce the dependence of the total cross section on the renormalization and factorization scale ...
The specific objectives of the work were defined by the Environmental Evaluation Group (EEG) as follows: (1) assess the stability of panel 1 during the proposed operation of waste emplacement; (2) estimate the amount of time before room closure would be expected to transfer rock loads to the waste packages. The work consisted of (1) an analysis of geotechnical data and a review of the Department of Energy`s (DOE) plans for waste emplacement in panel 1, (2) an evaluation of ground conditions based on data analysis and observations of changes in ground conditions since the first evaluation in 1993 (USBM 1993), and (3) preparation of a report and presentation of the results to EEG staff. Excluded from this study are radiological safety issues and policies. The study is based on data provided by DOE and Westinghouse Electric Corporation (operator of the site) and conversations with DOE and Westinghouse personnel. MTI cannot independently verify the accuracy of the data ...
The supply of electronic instrumentation and controlling (I and C) equipments in Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station depends on importation up to now, however, reliable supply of spare parts is presently threatened by many factors. Consequently, Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station tries to localize these equipments. According to a survey, China has possessed the ability to undertake the research, development and production of the I and C system in nuclear power independently. We propose that localization should firstly starts with the production of replacement board and parts for analogical I and C system, gradually leads to the substitution of system cabinet units, and finally realize the independent research, development and production of advanced digital main control system. A series of prominent problems of producing nuclear grade I and C equipments are focused on the designing, manufacturing, testing and reliability evaluation. In this paper, ...
To address the potential threat that suspect/counterfeit parts could pose to DOE workers and the public, the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oversight initiated a number of activities beginning in mid-1995. Oversight placed increased emphasis on the field`s quality assurance-suspect/counterfeit parts programs during safety management evaluations, in keeping with the Office of Environment, Safety and Health (EH) oversight responsibilities, which include oversight of the Department`s quality assurance (QA) programs. In addition, Oversight reviewed relevant policy documents and occurrence reports to determine the nature and magnitude of the problem within the Department. The results of that review, contained in an Office of Oversight report, Independent Oversight Analysis of Suspect/Counterfeit Parts Within the Department of Energy (November 1995), indicate a lack of consistency and comprehensiveness in the Department`s QA-suspect/counterfeit parts ...
The use of computer codes based on Monte Carlo methods to perform criticality calculations has become common-place. Although results frequently published in the literature report calculated k_e_f_f values to four decimal places, people who use the codes in their everyday work say that they only believe the first two decimal places of any result. The lack of confidence in the computed k_e_f_f values may be due to the tendency of the reported standard deviation to underestimate errors associated with the Monte Carlo process. The standard deviation as reported by the codes is the standard deviation of the mean of the k_e_f_f values for individual generations in the computer simulation, not the standard deviation of the computed k_e_f_f value compared with the physical system. A more subtle problem with the standard deviation of the mean as reported by the codes is that all the k_e_f_f values from the separate generations are not statistically independent since the ...
Sequence stratigraphic interpretation of paralic successions is complicated by the complex interfingering of marine and continental strata. The successions may also include terrestrial extensions of marine parasequences and completely independent lacustrine parasequence analogues. Failure in recognizing the possible interbedding of these two independent parasequence types may lead to construction of sequence stratigraphic schemes based on incompatible data sets. We have studied a Lower Jurassic paralic section from the Baltic island of Bornholm. The Hettangian-Sinemurian Sose Bugt Member (Ronne Formation) of Bornholm includes lacustrine, fluvial and restricted marine, estuarine deposits reflecting the basin-margin position. Biostatigraphic resolution is poor and a sequence stratigraphic interpretation of the paralic succession is far from straightforward. A multidisciplinary approach including facies analysis, recognition and lateral tracting ...
The inverse susceptibilities of the monopnictides and monochalcogenides of the light rare earths plotted vs. temperature flatten off at high temperatures. This behaviour is well explained by van Vleck paramagnetism of the excited states of the multiplet. For almost all actinide pnictides and chalcogenides a similar flattening-off is observed. Since spin orbit coupling is much stronger than in the light rare earth compounds an analogous interpretation is not possible. Susceptibility curves for uranium compounds can be fitted by adding a temperature dependent enhanced Pauli paramagnetism to the Curie-Weiss term (modified Curie-Weiss law). The high temperature susceptibility behaviour of neptunium compounds is very similar to uranium compounds i.e. an appreciable deviation from the Curie-Weiss law is only visible for the chalcogenides. The plutonium chalcogenides show a temperature independent paramagnetism, which can be explained either by a model of mixed valency, ...
A system and method for generating global asynchronous signals in a computing structure. Particularly, a global interrupt and barrier network is implemented that implements logic for generating global interrupt and barrier signals for controlling global asynchronous operations performed by processing elements at selected processing nodes of a computing structure in accordance with a processing algorithm; and includes the physical interconnecting of the processing nodes for communicating the global interrupt and barrier signals to the elements via low-latency paths. The global asynchronous signals respectively initiate interrupt and barrier operations at the processing nodes at times selected for optimizing performance of the processing algorithms. In one embodiment, the global interrupt and barrier network is implemented in a scalable, massively parallel supercomputing device structure comprising a plurality of processing nodes interconnected by multiple ...
The fading of irradiated and natural blue-colored pearls was investigated in this experiment. Thirty natural blue-colored pearls and sixty irradiated blue-colored pearls were used. Some of them were placed at a light position of RT. Another pearls were placed at a dark position of 50/sup 0/C. The irradiated pearls placed at a light position of RT didn't show remarkable fading in their color in 294 days. But the natural blue-colored pearls showed a little recovery from 4% to 8% in reflection factors in 223 days at RT. The irradiated pearls placed at a dark position of 50/sup 0/C showed the recovery from 9% to 14% in 264 days independently of irradiation times. The natural blue-colored pearls also showed the bleaching from 5% to 10% in reflection factor in 86 days at 50/sup 0/C. Both irradiated and natural blue-colored pearls hardly showed their remarkable changes in their chromaticities independently of temperatures.
A 200 ft. tall stack, consisting of a concrete chimney with an independent acid proof brick liner built in the 1950`s, serving the Separations facility at the Savannah River Site (SRS), was evaluated for the performance category 3 (PC3) level of Natural Phenomena Hazards (NPH) effects. The inelastic energy absorption capacity of the concrete chimney was considered in the evaluation of the earthquake resistance, in particular, to compute the F{sub {mu}} factor. The calculated value of F{sub {mu}} exceeded 3.0, while the seismic demand for the PC3 level, using an F{sub {mu}} value of 1.5, was found to be less than the capacity of the concrete chimney. The capacity formulation of ACI 307 was modified to incorporate the effect of an after design opening on the tension side. There are considerable uncertainties in determining the earthquake resistance of the independent brick liner. The critical liner section, located at the bottom of the breeching ...
Since 1995, OECD started to examine the current situation of government regulation in each member country and discussed to recommend quality improvement of regulation to member countries. The conference on reformation of regulation in power industry was held in October and December 1998. In USA, enhancing competition in supplying electricity was recommended by eliminating differentiation in use of power network, transmission network and incidental facilities. The retail competition is also an important reformation. The reformation in Netherlands can be seen as following EU guide for revealing problems of the existing regulation in the power industry and for opening up a power market. The Dutch government passed the power act for opening up a market to the public between 1999 and 2007. In Japan, the entry of independent power provider (IPP) has been softened. With the opening of bid system in 1999, bids will be equally given to both power providers and ...
It is proposed to extract, independently of any nuclear model, the "4"0Ca matter density from an analysis of the elastic scattering of "1"6"6 MeV alpha particles. The scattering is described using an optical potential whose real part is evaluated by folding the matter density with a nucleon-alpha interaction. Following the procedure proposed by Sick (Nucl. Phys. A; 218: 509 (1974)) and Phys. Lett.; 44B; 62 (1975)) for the analysis of electron scattering data, the density is represented by a sum of gaussians whose amplitudes are deduced in fitting, via a chi"2 minimization, the experimental cross section data. This method determines the envelope of densities for different parameters of gaussians: width, spacing. The envelope of the moments of these densities are presented and the root-mean-square radius is extracted. It is concluded that only the nuclear surface is well studied by the alpha particle scattering. (author).
SNAP25 occurs on chromosome 20p12.2, which has been linked to schizophrenia in some samples, and recently linked to latent classes of psychotic illness in our sample. SNAP25 is crucial to synaptic functioning, may be involved in axonal growth and dendritic sprouting, and its expression may be decreased in schizophrenia. We genotyped 18 haplotype-tagging SNPs in SNAP25 in a sample of 270 Irish high-density families. Single marker and haplotype analyses were performed in FBAT and PDT. We adjusted for multiple testing by computing q values. Association was followed up in an independent sample of 657 cases and 411 controls. We tested for allelic effects on the clinical phenotype by using the method of sequential addition and 5 factor-derived scores of the OPCRIT. Nine of 18 SNPs had P values Irish family sample. Although we failed to replicate this in an independent sample, this gene should be further tested in other samples. PMID:19806613
The use of a non-dedicated GPS receiver system for attitude determination was assessed in airborne mode through a test conducted at Sandia National Laboratories. Four independent NovAtel GPSCard{trademark} receivers were installed in Sandia`s Twin Engine Otter with two antennas mounted on the fuselage and two on the wing tips at separations of 6 to 18 m. A strapdown INS was also on board the aircraft in order to provide an independent attitude reference at rates between 4 and 10 Hz. During the multi-day test, GPS measurements were recorded between 1 and 10 Hz. Carrier phase measurements were post-processed using a double difference approach developed at The University of Calgary in which integer ambiguities were resolved in seconds using the known antenna separations as constraints. The tracking capability of the system is demonstrated under dynamics consisting of roll and pitch angles up to 45 and 12 degrees, respectively. Comparisons between ...
This report presents a comparison of the characteristics of some prominent examples of independent government corporations and agencies with respect to the Department of Energy's (DOE) uranium enrichment enterprise. The six examples studied were: the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA); the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA); the Synthetic Fuels Corporation (SYNFUELS); the Consolidated Rail Corporation (CONRAIL); the British Telecommunications Corporation (British TELECOM); and the Communications Satellite Organization (COMSAT), in order of decreasing levels of government ownership and control. They range from BPA, which is organized as an agency within DOE, to COMSAT, which is privately owned and free from almost all regulations common to government agencies. Differences in the degree of government involvement in these corporations and in many other characteristics serve to illustrate that there are no accepted standards for defining the characteristics of ...
The cellular transport systems and the transport kinetics of ["1"2"3I]IMT uptake into non-malignant extracranial cells were characterized for the first time. Human fibroblasts were chosen as non-malignant extracranial cells as they are found ubiquitous in the body. ["1"2"3I]IMT is exclusively transported into fibroblasts via the sodium independent system L. An apparent Michaelis constant K_m=116.2#+-#18.9 #mu#M and a maximum transport velocity V_m_a_x=191.6#+-#13.9 pmol * (10"6 cells)"-"1 * min"-"1 were calculated for the sodium-independent transport. These results were compared with those determined in two malignantly transformed extracranial cell lines, the human Ewing's sarcoma cell lines VH-64 and CADO-ES-1.
A mathematical model of 137Cs migration in forest ecosystem is presented, which describes the behaviour of this radionuclide in the forest litter-soil system, trees, understory and forest animals. The model's parameters for different types of forest ecosystems are estimated and model's adequacy is tested through the use of independent experimental data. The sensitivity of the model's output variables is analyzed to variations in the most significant parameters. The differences in the seasonal and mean annual dynamics of 137Cs concentration in muscles of roe deers and mooses are shown to be defined by specific features of the diets of these animals and variations in 137Cs content in the main diet components. PMID:11402557
The 1.04 GeV-proton elastic scattering from /sup 40/Ca is studied in the framework of the coherent density fluctuation model (CDFM). The calculations are carried out in the Glauber theoretical scheme with three different charge densities. It is shown that: i) the account of the flucton correlations leads to results considerably different from those obtained in the independent particle Glauber approach (IPGA); ii) in contrast to the case of IPGA the use of a more realistic density improves the agreement of CDPM-results with the experimental data.
The 1.04 GeV-proton elastic scattering from "4"0Ca is studied in the framework of the coherent density fluctuation model (CDFM). The calculations are carried out in the Glauber theoretical scheme with three different charge densities. It is shown that: i) the account of the flucton correlations leads to results considerably different from those obtained in the independent particle Glauber approach (IPGA); ii) in contrast to the case of IPGA the use of a more realistic density improves the agreement of CDPM-results with the experimental data. (orig.).
Although not Pakistan`s first independent power project, the 586 MW Uch plant is certainly one of the country`s most important. It is the first gas-fired combined cycle plant to be developed under Pakistan`s Private Power Policy, and uses low heating value natural gas previously thought worthless. The project also features some innovative financing arrangements, and with construction now at an advanced stage, it promises to kick-start the development of private power in Pakistan. (Author)
The Atomic Energy commission of Syria (AECS) is nominated by Syrian legislation as the regulatory authority in respect of radiation protection and safety and security of radioactive sources. In addition AECS is providing a wide range of Technical Services (TS) through its various departments. In this paper, the cooperation and coordination between the regulatory authority and the providers of technical services in Syria are described. The adjustment of the regulatory programme as to make maximal use of the available technical resources is presented. It was shown that this relationship does not jeopardize the effective independency of the regulatory authority which is maintained by keeping the regulatory decisions based on pure regulatory considerations. (author)
We describe a class of organic molecular magnets based on zwitterionic molecules (betaine derivatives) possessing donor, p bridge, and acceptor groups. Using extensive electronic structure calculations we show the electronic ground-state in these systems is magnetic. In addition, we show that the large energy differences computed for the various magnetic states indicate a high Neel temperature. The quantum mechanical nature of the magnetic properties originates from the conjugated p bridge (only p electrons) in cooperation with the molecular donor-acceptor character. The exchange interactions between electron spin are strong, local, and independent on the length of the p bridge.
The present study investigates the effect of the shear rate-dependent thermal conductivity of non-Newtonian fluids on the heat transfer enhancement in a pipe flow. The constant heat flux as thermal boundary condition was adopted in the thermally developed region. The present analytical results show the heat transfer enhancement over those of a shear rate-independent thermal conductivity fluid. The heat transfer coefficient ratio (h/h{sub 0}) linearly increase with the non-dimensional average velocity difference which is the product of the shear rate-dependence of the thermal conductivity and wall-shear rate.
The cross-coupled interferometer is a new design for interferometric gravitational wave detectors. Similar to the baseline gravitational wave detectors proposed for Advanced LIGO, it uses long-arm cavities in which the signal is generated. The signal fields are then extracted from the arm cavities with an additional cavity behind the long-arm cavities. The tuning of this signal extraction cavity and the parallel tuning of the signal recycling mirror can be used to optimize the peak frequency and the bandwidth of the detector independently. If we replace the signal recycling mirror by a small cavity, it is possible to amplify signals in two different frequency bands.
Background Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained atrial arrhythmia and it is independently associated with an increased morbidity and mortality. As a result of the high prevalence of AF, the economic and clinical impact of the disease is substantial. This study describes the economic and clinical impact of AF in the Netherlands. Methods Epidemiological data on AF in the Netherlands were projected on population estimates of the Netherlands in 2009 and combined with data on the cost of AF and its interventions. Results Overall prevalence of AF in the Netherlands is 5.5% in the population over 55?years, corresponding to about 250,000 AF patients. The prevalence increases with age, and the mean age of AF patients is 69.3?years. Incidence of AF in the Netherlands varies with age...
This paper gives a general description of functions, usages and system configurations of the instruments and their major units or components of the radiation monitoring system, as well as the status and technical gap between domestic and foreign technologies. And then the paper also puts forward an idea on product R and D, i.e. combination of independent R and D and innovation, assimilation and re-innovation of foreign advanced technology at present situation in order to keep pace with the rapid development of nuclear power in China and achieve the goal of localization of nuclear power equipment. (authors)
The proposed Sudbury Neutrino Observatory is based on a Cherenkov detector which has a total of 1000 tonne of heavy water and 1800 tonne of light water for its sensitive volume. The detector is optimized for the measurement of extra-terrestrial low energy electron neutrinos and electron antineutrinos spectra as well as the total neutrino flux independent of neutrino flavours. It will delineate the Standard Solar Model and neutrino propagation aspects of the solar neutrino problem, provide detailed information on the dynamics of stellar collapse and measure neutrino masses and oscillation parameters with high sensitivity.
Independent drilling contractors own all offshore drilling rigs, which they lease to oil and gas companies for use in their pursuit of their exploration and development plans. Oil and gas companies' demand for these rigs can vary quickly and dramatically in response to changes in the world market for oil and natural gas. As a result, drilling contractors often try to manage excess capacity by idling rigs (known in the industry as "stacking" a rig), reactivating them when demand recovers. This paper examines these decisions over the course of a price cycle in 1998-2000 to investigate the role of firm and rig heterogeneity in determining drillers' decisions about idling and reactivating capacity.
This paper presents a systematic study on the stability of a two-dimensional vibration isolation floating raft system with a time-delayed feedback control. Based on the generalized Sturm criterion, the critical control gain for the delay-independent stability region and critical time delays for the stability switches are derived. The critical conditions can provide a theoretical guidance of chaotification design for line spectra reduction. Numerical simulations verify the correctness of the approach. Bifurcation analyses reveal that chaotification is more likely to occur in unstable region defined by these critical conditions, and the stiffness of the floating raft and mass ratio are the sensitive parameters to reduce critical control gain.
During solvent extraction of At"-, [At(H_2O)_2]"+, AtCl, AtCl_2"- as well as of astatine compounds with higher oxidation states like AtO_n"-, the astatine species are changed into astatine of the oxidation state zero at the phase boundary independent on the organic solvent used. At(O) probably reacts with components of the organic phase or with decomposition products formed by chemical reactions or by radiolysis. The extraction coefficients of the astatine species depend on the experimental conditions applied, the redox potential, and on complex forming reactions or associations, resp., occuring in the aqueous phase. (author).
A compact and energy independent solar-powered refrigeration unit was to be developed to store and transport small quantities of high-quality commodities needing refrigeration. This unit comprises the following matched components: thermo-electrical refrigerator unit, solar generator and transport equipment. The solar generator is a specially developed panel with 36 cells. This unit may best be used in human medicine, veterinary medicine, environmental protection analysis, laboratories and leisure time activities. (BWI)
Sirio is a computerized application to manage the hydroelectric system in a short time. This management is implemented as a real time tool in the Control Department. SIRIO has many modules, independent and integrated to operate and perform the data acquisition, optimization, planning simulation and planning optimization. This article presents the SIRIO System and its applications to the Iberdrola system in Tajo river.
This article presents a decentralized control scheme for the complex problem of simultaneous position and internal force control in cooperative multiple manipulator systems. The proposed controller is composed of a sliding mode control term and a force robustifying term to simultaneously control the payloads position/orientation as well as the internal forces induced in the system. This is accomplished independently of the manipulators dynamics. Unlike most controllers that do not require prior knowledge of the manipulators dynamics, the suggested controller does not use fuzzy logic inferencing and is computationally inexpensive. Using a Lyapunov stability approach, the controller is proven to be robust in the face of varying systems dynamics. The payloads position/orientation and the inte...
Secondary deuterium in the atmosphere are produced in interactions by primary cosmic rays. The shape of their energy spectrum depends on the primary cosmic ray spectrum incident at the top of the atmosphere. At high energies, the spectral shape depends on the primary spectrum of helium and heavy nuclei. However, at very low energies, specially below the geomagnetic cut-off, the spectral shape depends on the evaporation and recoil processes and hence almost independent of the spectral shape of the primary radiation. It is undertaken a calculation of the secondary deuterium spectrum at small atmospheric depths at various latitudes and the results will be presented.
In this paper, power system stabilizer design for multi-machine power systems is translated into an equivalent problem of decentralized controller design for Multi-Output Multi-Input (MIMO) control systems. Subject to a condition based on the structured singular values, each stabilizer can be designed independently. Within this general framework, the conventional stabilizer design methodology based on the concept of synchronous and damping torques is used to decide the design details of each stabilizer. The suggested design method is applied to a model of a practical 10 machine power system. (author)
By using a model independent Monte Carlo approach, we study the possible structure of charged and neutral lepton mass matrices, under the assumption of an U(2) horizontal symmetry (additional to the usual Standard Model ones) involving the light fermion generations. We assume the most general Majorana mass matrix for neutrinos. We update the results of our previous similar study, by inserting in the analysis the recent KamLAND data, that contributed to find a final solution to the Solar neutrino problem. The introduction of the new experimental data reduce the allowed regions in the nine dimensional space parameters, and show that our procedure gives stable solutions.
Several commercially available capacitors were evaluated at the liquid nitrogen temperature (77 K). Our primary interest was their performance under a bias voltage when used as DC link capacitors in cryogenic power electronics. In general, the performance of polymer capacitors and certain ceramic capacitors is almost independent of the temperature, DC bias, and frequency. On the other hand, ceramic capacitors based on high dielectric constant materials showed a strong dependence on the boundary conditions. Aluminum electrolytic capacitors showed a dramatic decrease of capacitance at 77 K, possibly due to the electrolyte being frozen and therefore losing its conductivity.
The removal of Reactive Black 5 dye in an aqueous solution by electrocoagulation (EC) as well as addition of flocculant was investigated. The effect of operational parameters, i.e. current density, treatment time, solution conductivity and polymer dosage, was investigated. Two models, namely the artificial neural network (ANN) and the response surface method (RSM), were used to model the effect of independent variables on percentage of dye removal. The findings of this work showed that current density, treatment time and dosage of polymer had the most significant effect on percentage of dye removal (p0.8). PMID:21411950
Long crack fatigue threshold ({delta} K{sub th}) and crack closure behaviour of two thermomechanically processed microalloyed (MA) ferrite-pearlite steels are reported. {delta} K{sub th} and crack closure were measured using a dynamic compliance measurement technique. Crack closure was observed at low load ratios (R < 0.5) and the fatigue thresholds decreased with increasing load ratio. In both steels, the closure-free intrinsic threshold ({delta} K{sub eff} {sub th}) was found to be independent of the load ratio. (orig.)
The proton momentum distributions of (39)K,(40)Ca and (48)Ca are calculated from the model-independent charge distributions obtained from analyses of electron elastic scattering and muonic atoms, and also from the charge distributions calculated from the single-particle potential method in the framework of the flucton model. The sensitivities of the momentum distribution to different regions of the charge distribution are determined. The analysis is extended to the neutron distributions using the single-particle potential method, and the differences between the proton and neutron momentum distributions are examined. The resulting momentum distribution in the case of (40)Ca is used for analyzing the quasielastic electron scattering.
Wind Powering America program launched the New England Wind Forum (NEWF) in 2005 to provide a single comprehensive source of up-to-date, Web-based information on a broad array of wind energy issues pertaining to New England. The NEWF newsletter provides New England stakeholders with updates on wind energy development in the region. In addition to regional updates, Issue #5 offers an interview with Angus King, former governor of Maine and co-founder of Independence Wind.
The paramagnetic susceptibility of single crystals of dysprosium-yttirum alloys is measured in the basal plane and along the hexagonal axis. It is shown that the susceptibility of the alloys obeys the Curie-Weiss law, the effective magnetic moments allong the different directions being the same and the paramagnetic Curie temperatures being different. The difference between the paramagnetic Curie temperatures in the basal plane and along the hexagonal axis is independent of the dysprosium concentration in the alloy. As a comparison with the theoretical models of magnetic anisotropy shows, this is an indication that the magnetic anisotropy of dysprosium - yttrium alloys is of a single-ion nature.
The constants, applied in the phenomenological approaches for describing the nuclear reactions with the high transmitted pulse, are obtained within the frames of the multiquark flucton microscopic model. The constants values prove to be universal for all the nuclei and independent on the collision energy and flucton properties (excluding its mass), i.e. the peculiar scaling is manifested in the reaction cross sections. The theoretically obtained values of these constants are in good agreement with the phenomenological values, derived from the (p, p'X) reaction cross sections on the nuclei for X=d, t, "3He
A simple model is outlined to describe the collision of cast phenol-formaldehyde resin spheres such as the balls used in the parlor game of pocket billiards, based in part on the famous analysis of elastic collisions developed by Heinrich Hertz over 100 years ago. The analysis treats the normal and tangential components of the initial sphere's velocity independently as it collides with a stationary identical second sphere. The collective effects of these and other parameters on the trajectory of the second sphere are provided in the conclusions.
Objective: The aim of this study was to obtain an overview of the methodological quality of studies on the measurement properties of neck pain and disability questionnaires and to describe how well various aspects of the design and statistical analyses of studies on measurement properties are performed. Methods: A systematic review was performed of published studies on the measurement properties of neck pain and disability questionnaires. Two reviewers independently rated the quality of the studies using the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) checklist. This checklist was developed in an international Delphi consensus study. Results: A total of 47 articles were included on the measurement properties of 8 different questionnaires. The meth...
The Meteorological Information System (MIS) comprising the meteorological instruments, the computers, and the software for data processing and recording, is part of the KfK safety and control system. In 1982 is was equipped with an independent data processing system. The report explains the arrangement and the operation of the sensors and thw two process computers. For selected meteorological situations the ability of the system is demonstrated, i.e., the presentation of the vertical profiles of wind, temperature and turbulence in the lower atmospheric boundary layer as well as the calculation and graphical representation of the transport and dispersion into the KfK environment of radioactive pollutants being released by the nuclear installations of the KfK into the atmosphere.
We give a general local central limit theorem for the sum of two independent random variables, one of which satisfies a central limit theorem while the other satisfies a local central limit theorem with the same order variance. We apply this result to various quantities arising in stochastic geometry, including: size of the largest component for percolation on a box; number of components, number of edges, or number of isolated points, for random geometric graphs; covered volume for germ-grain coverage models; number of accepted points for finite-input random sequential adsorption; sum of nearest-neighbour distances for a random sample from a continuous multidimensional distribution.
The aim of this textbook is to present a relatively simple treatise of the theoretical principles and working methods of photochemistry, key photochemical reactions and important practical applications to enable the reader (a basic knowledge of chemistry is assumed) to work independently is this field. In accordance with the broad scale of this subject, which cuts across numerous disciplines, the topics treated range from photochemical, photophysical and spectroscopical fundamentals, through associated work procedures and methods of evaluation and the various types of reactions to photochemical processes in nature and applied technology. The photochemical properties and reactions of organic and inorganic compounds (preferably coordination compounds) are discussed in each chapter.
The overall purpose of this research was to evaluate the independent and interactive effects of elevated levels of CO{sub 2} and O{sub 3} on tree leaf litter quality and decomposition. This research was conducted at the Aspen FACE (Free Air CO{sub 2} Enrichment) facility near Rhinelander, Wisconsin. This research comprised one facet of a larger project assessing how CO{sub 2} and O{sub 3} pollutants will alter carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling in north temperate forest ecosystems.
In the context of the shock-initiation problem, we study analytically the first effects of chemistry, treating a small chemical heat release as a perturbation on an inert flow. Specifically, we study the initial transient in plane-shock initiation in a dilute explosive, where the chemical energy is small relative to the mechanical-thermal energy. The vehicle for the study is the mathematical analog for reactive flow. The solution resembles a double refraction: to first order, the pressure or density is a superposition of two forward-going waves, both originating at the rear boundary, and carrying the same function, but running at different velocities. Surprisingly, this first-order solution is independent of the sensitivity of the reaction rate to the state, which appears only at second order.
Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is frequently used for relief of chronic benign pain resistant to conservative therapies. Clinical practice suggests, at least in patients with failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS), the possibility that SCS significantly improves motor performances. We present here the case of a 41-years-old female patient with FBSS, who showed a clear improvement in muscle strength after SCS, persisting at 6-months follow-up. We speculate that the electrical stimulation of posterior columns could potentiate the caudal, segmental spinal reflexes resulting in a facilitation of motoneurons activation. PMID:16175150
This report aims at presenting a view upon uncertainty analysis of phenomenological models with an emphasis on the identification and documentation of various types of uncertainties and assumptions in the modelling of the phenomena. In an uncertainty analysis, it is essential to include and document all unclear issues, in order to obtain a maximal coverage of unresolved issues. This holds independently on their nature or type of the issues. The classification of uncertainties is needed in the decomposition of the problem and it helps in the identification of means for uncertainty reduction. Further, an enhanced documentation serves to evaluate the applicability of the results to various risk-informed applications. (au)
In this paper an attempt is made to forecast load using fuzzy neural network (FNN) for an integrated power system. Here, the proposed system uses a two stage FNN for a short term peak and average load forecasting (STPALF). The first stage FNN deals with the load forecasting and the second stage algorithm can be worked independently for network security. This technique is used to forecast load accurately on week days as well as holidays, weekends and some special occasions considering historical data of load and weather information and also take necessary control action for network security.
A classical linear group GJ between the graded ring S= d=0^~Sd, where Sd is the character group of the symmetric group Sd, and the inverse limit J with respect to n of rings of symmetric polynomials in n variables. As a consequence, we complete the description of relations between generators for O(n)-invariants as well as the description of relations for invariants of mixed representations of quivers. We also obtain an independent proof of the result that the ideal of free relations for GL(n)-invariants is zero, which was proved by Donkin in [S. Donkin, Invariant functions on matrices, Math. Proc. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 113 (1993) 23-43].
The claim that focus evokes a set of alternatives is a central issue in several accounts of the effects of focus on interpretation. This article presents two empirical studies that examine whether this property of focus is independent of contextual conditions. The syntactic operation at issue is object-fronting in German, Spanish, Greek, and Hungarian licensed by contexts involving focus on the object constituent. This operation evokes the intuition that the fronted referent excludes some or all relevant alternatives. The presented experiments deal with the question whether this interpretative property obligatorily accompanies the operation at issue or not. The empirical findings show that in German, Spanish, and Greek this intuition depends on properties of the context and is sensitive to...
We show that a stationary IDp process (i.e., an infinitely divisible stationary process without Gaussian part) can be written as the independent sum of four stationary IDp processes, each of them belonging to a different class characterized by its L\\'{e}vy measure. The ergodic properties of each class are, respectively, nonergodicity, weak mixing, mixing of all order and Bernoullicity. To obtain these results, we use the representation of an IDp process as an integral with respect to a Poisson measure, which, more generally, has led us to study basic ergodic properties of these objects.
We consider the adiabatic demagnetization in the rotating reference frame (ADRF) of a system of dipolar coupled nuclear spins $s=1/2$ in the external magnetic field. The demagnetization starts with the offset of the external magnetic field (in frequency units) from the Larmor frequency being several times greater than the local dipolar field. For different subsystem sizes, we have found from numerical simulations the temperatures at which subsystems of a one-dimensional nine-spin chain and a plane nine-spin cluster become entangled. These temperatures are of the order of microkelvins and are almost independent of the subsystem size. There is a weak dependence of the temperature on the space dimension of the system.
The paper presents an integrated approach to the problem of electron temperature diagnostics of the plasma in a reversed field pinch. Three different methods, sampling different portions of the electron distribution function, are adopted, namely Thomson scattering, soft X-ray spectroscopy by pulse-height analysis and filtered soft X-ray intensity ratio. A careful analysis of the different sources of systematic errors is performed and a novel statistical approach is adopted to mutually validate the three independent measurements. A satisfactory agreement is obtained over a large range of experimental conditions, indicating that in the plasma core the energy distribution function is well represented by a maxwellian. (author)
We discuss elastic electron-deuteron (ed) scattering beyond the Born approximation. The reaction amplitude contains six generalized form factors, but only three linearly independent combinations of them (generalized charge, quadrupole, and magnetic form factors) contribute to the reaction cross section in second-order perturbation theory. We examine the two-photon exchange and find that it includes two types of diagrams, where two virtual photons are interacting with the same nucleon and where the photons are interacting with different nucleons. It is shown that the two-photon-exchange amplitude is strongly connected with the deuteron wave function at short distances.
The symmetry properties of the Coulomb potential allow for a dynamical spin-1/2 description of any fixed n level of a hydrogenlike atom in a time-dependent sufficiently weak electric and/or magnetic field. An explicit expression for the time dependence of the l,m amplitudes pertaining to a general n level is derived. The derivation follows on purely algebraic operations. Based on the derivation, we give analytical n-independent solutions to established and proposed schemes for driving the atom into a high angular-momentum state.
The distributions of the effective numbers of 6q-fluctons in the energy, momentum and distance to the center of mass of nucleus are studied. Many characteristics of these distributions are shown to be universal, i.e. independent of the flucton size. The saturation of the flucton density in A > 80 nuclei and other peculiarities are found, which define different behavior of the effective numbers of fluctons and deuterons. This fact provides an explanation of the known underestimate by a factor of 1.5-6 of the cross sections of hard inclusive (p, p'd) process on nuclei calculated in the quasi-elastic approximation.
Based on QCD conformal partial wave expansion to leading order conformal spin accuracy, we present the light-cone distribution amplitudes (DAs) of {sigma} and {lambda} baryons up to twist 6. It is concluded that fourteen independent DAs are needed to describe the valence three-quark states of the baryons at small transverse separations. The nonperturbative parameters relevant to the DAs are determined within the framework of QCD sum rule method. With the obtained DAs, a simple investigation on the electromagnetic form factors of these baryons are given. The magnetic moments of the baryons are estimated by fitting the magnetic form factor with the dipole formula.
Discrete Euclidian Spaces (DESs) are the beginning of a journey without return towards the discretization of mathematics. Important mathematical concepts- such as the idea of number or the systems of numeration, whose formal definition is currently independent of Euclidean spaces -have in the Isodimensional Discrete Mathematics (IDM) their roots in the DESs. This mathematics, which arises largely from the discretization of traditional mathematics, presents its foundations and concepts differently from the orthodox way, so at first glance it may seem that the IDM could be an exotic tool, or perhaps just "a simple curiosity." However, the IDM dis-crete approaches have a great theoretical repercussion on traditional mathematics.
The global neutronic activity fields of a nuclear core can be reconstructed using data assimilation. Indeed, data assimilation allows to combine both measurements from instruments and information from a model, to evaluate the best possible neutronic activity within the core. We present and apply a specific procedure which evaluates the influence of measures by adding or removing instruments in a given measurement network (possibly empty). The study of various network configurations for the instruments in the nuclear core establishes that the influence of the instruments depends both on the independent instrumentation location and on the chosen network.
A methods is presented for an accurate numerical determination of eigenvalues of real symmetric para-p diagonal matrices. The method takes advantage of the band structure to break up the matrix into p x p blocks and performing algebraic operations including inversions on these blocks only, no matter what the size of the matrix is. The eigenvalues are determined independently one at a time. Thus any error in the determination of one eigenvalue does not affect the other eigenvalues. The method is ideally suited for the Schroedinger eigenvalue problem of the anharmonic potentials. (author).
Cross sections for the elastic and inelastic scattering of /sup 16/O on /sup 58/Ni, /sup 88/Sr, /sup 40/Ca, and /sup 48/Ca have been calculated in a coupled-channels treatment, including the low-lying 2/sup +/ and 3/sup /minus// states of both projectile and target. Real, energy-independent ion-ion potentials and form factors were used, and fusion was simulated by ingoing wave boundary conditions in all channels. The agreement with the measured scattering data is qualitatively as good as obtained in previous optical-model calculations.
Cross sections for the elastic and inelastic scattering of "1"6O on "5"8Ni, "8"8Sr, "4"0Ca, and "4"8Ca have been calculated in a coupled-channels treatment, including the low-lying 2"+ and 3"- states of both projectile and target. Real, energy-independent ion-ion potentials and form factors were used, and fusion was simulated by ingoing wave boundary conditions in all channels. The agreement with the measured scattering data is qualitatively as good as obtained in previous optical-model calculations.
The velocity distribution of electrons ejected close to the forward direction by 0.8-2 MeV/A ions traversing various solid targets, including a Au monocrystal, is measured in coincidence with emerging charge-selected ions. The velocity spectrum is observed to be independent of outgoing projectile velocity and charge state for polycrystalline targets. Measurements on the Au crystal under channeling conditions show dependences on final charge state, and are tentatively explained by assuming that the main contribution to the production yield comes from the non-channeled fraction of the ions. A simple model for the creation of the forward-ejected electrons is proposed, which accounts for most of the experimental findings.
An independent chemical compatibility review of various wrapping and absorbent/padding materials was conducted to evaluate resistance to chemicals and constituents present in liquid waste from the Hanford underground tanks. These materials will be used to wrap long-length contaminated equipment when such equipment is removed from the tanks and prepared for transportation and subsequent disposal or storage. The materials studied were Cooley L18KU, Herculite, and Elephant Mat. The study concludes that these materials are appropriate for use in this application.
A radioactively contaminated marine sediment core stemming from Irish Sea has been characterized by radiometric and mass spectrometric techniques as for "2"3"7Np, "2"4"1Am, "2"3"9Pu, "2"4"0Pu, "2"4"1Pu, "1"3"7Cs and "1"5"4Eu. The data obtained with independent methods in the framework of a QA/QC program as compared with the source term discharges, as well as with those reported in literature, are in good agreement. (author)
Selected samples of waste microbial biomass originating from various industrial fermentation processes and biological treatment plants have been screened for biosorbent properties in conjunction with uranium and thorium in aqueous solutions. Biosorption isotherms have been used for the evaluation of biosorptive uptake capacity of the biomass which was also compared to an activated carbon and the ion exchange resin currently used in uranium production processes. Determined uranium and thorium biosorption isotherms were independent of the initial U or Th solution concentration. Solution pH affected the exhibited uptake. 24 refs.
The crystal and molecular structures of the anti-acquired immunodeficiency syndrome agent 3'-azido-3'-deoxythymidine (AZT) have been determined by x-ray diffraction. There are two crystallographically independent AZT molecules in the crystal asymmetric unit; they have similar conformation and differ primarily in the glycosyl torsion angle. Comparisons with a hydrated thymidylate structure indicate that the azido group does not significantly affect the gross conformational preference of the molecule. The comparisons also suggest possible functional roles for the azido group in enzyme binding.
I formulate a model in which money coexists with equity shares on a risky aggregate endowment. Agents can use equity as a means of payment, so shocks to equity prices translate into aggregate liquidity shocks that disrupt the mechanism of exchange. I characterize a family of optimal monetary policies and find that the resulting equity prices are independent of monetary considerations. I also study a perturbation of the family of optimal policies that targets a positive constant nominal interest rate and find that in this case the real equity return includes a liquidity return that depends on monetary considerations.
For the purpose of optimizing the process of co-implantation of MeV Si ions to reduce boron transient enhanced diffusion and boron-enhanced diffusion in Si, multiple MeV implantations and annealing at different temperatures have been performed. A slight improvement on the suppression of B diffusion is observed by adding a low temperature annealing step after the MeV implantation. No differences in B diffusion are observed when the Si doses are increased from 1 x 10{sup 15} to 1 x 10{sup 16} cm{sup -2}. This dose independent behavior is speculated to be a quasi-steady state of vacancy cluster evaporation.
For the purpose of optimizing the process of co-implantation of MeV Si ions to reduce boron transient enhanced diffusion and boron-enhanced diffusion in Si, multiple MeV implantations and annealing at different temperatures have been performed. A slight improvement on the suppression of B diffusion is observed by adding a low temperature annealing step after the MeV implantation. No differences in B diffusion are observed when the Si doses are increased from 1 x 10"1"5 to 1 x 10"1"6 cm"-"2. This dose independent behavior is speculated to be a quasi-steady state of vacancy cluster evaporation.
The present Annual Report of Activities of the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (ARN), prepared regularly from the creation as independent institution, describes across tree parts and seven annexes the activities developed by the organism during 2007. The main topic are: the organization and the activity of the ARN; the regulatory standards; the licensing and inspection of nuclear power plants and critical facilities; the emergency systems; the occupational surveillance; the environmental monitoring; improved organizational. Also, this publication have annexes with the following content: regulatory documents; inspections to medical, industrial and training installations; regulatory guides; measurement and evaluation of the drinking water of Ezeiza.
Age is a key parameter when deducing the history of plutonium material, i.e. the plutonium produced in the nuclear reactors. This is of vital importance, when a smuggled plutonium sample has been seized and the origin has to be determined. A methodology is described which allows accurately to determine the age of plutonium material by thermal ionisation mass spectrometry using independent parent/daughter relations. This has been demonstrated for Reference Materials of known ages as well as for real samples. The already established method using gamma spectrometry is compared to this. (orig.)
Activity concentrations of some anthropogenic radionuclides (90Sr, 137Cs, 238Pu, 239+240Pu and 241Am) have been measured in the surface of marine sediments along the Saudi coast of the Arabian (Persian) Gulf. The samples were collected at different locations and water depths. The spatial distribution of the concentrations of the measured radionuclides showed a heterogeneous pattern and is independent of location or water depth. The obtained results are discussed and some conclusions are drawn.
We present an application that automatically writes the Helas library corresponding to the Feynman rules of any Lagrangian, renormalizable or not, in quantum field theory. The code, written in Python, takes the Universal FeynRules Output as an input and produces the complete set of routines (wave-functions and amplitudes) that are needed for the computation of Feynman diagrams at leading as well as at higher orders. The representation is language independent and outputs in Fortran, C++, Python are currently available. A few key sample applications implemented in the MadGraph5 framework are presented.
The addition of a thermionic rf gun [1] and a photocathode rf gun will allow the Advanced Photon Source (APS) linear accelerator (linac) [2] [3] to become a free-electron laser (FEL) driver [4]. As the FEL project progresses, the existing high-charge DC thermionic gun will no longer be critical to APS operation and could be used to generate high-energy or low-energy electrons to drive a slow-positron source. We investigated possibilities to create a useful low-energy source that could operate semi-independently and would have a low neutron background.
A fast production scheduling algorithm suitable for generation expansion studies is described in this paper. It can handle several independent rivers, thermal plants, pumped storage plants, import, export, and internal non-firm markets. Inflows and load are deterministic and a one-reservoir limit is imposed on each river. The scheduling problem is formulated as a generalized network problem which is efficiently solved by an adaption of the simplex method. The algorithm is part of a program developed by Hydro-Quebec to conduct preliminary evaluations of alternative expansion plans. The program and the scheduling algorithm are presented.
A fast production scheduling algorithm suitable for generation expansion studies is described in this paper. It can handle several independent rivers, thermal plants, pumped storage plants, import, export, and internal non-firm markets. Inflows and load are deterministic and a one-reservoir limit is imposed on each river. The scheduling problem is formulated as a generalized network problem which is efficiently solved by an adaption of the simplex method. The algorithm is part of a program developed by Hydro-Quebec to conduct preliminary evaluations of alternative expansion plans. The program and the scheduling algorithm are presented.
A discussion of the Sasol I, II, and III coal liquefaction plants of the Republic of South Africa was presented. The technology, capacity, and economics of these projects were included in the discussion. These plants utilize the Fischer-Tropsch process of indirect coal liquefaction and produce a barrel of synthetic crude for about $55 (or about $20 above current market prices). Outlines of the differences in indirect coal liquefaction and newer direct methods were presented. It was determined that the South African dedication to coal liquefaction was made more for the political aspects of energy independence than economics.
The 3-D neutronics code COREDAX has been developed based on AFEN (Analytic Function Expansion Nodal) method for x-y-z geometry and for hex-z geometry. In this study, the COREDAX code, as a regulatory review tool independent of the designer's, was applied to the SMART reactor core that was designed by KAERI (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute). For nuclear cross section generation, the HELIOS lattice code was used in this study. The preliminary results for steady state in various conditions are presented in this paper
The purpose of the New Mexico Environmental Evaluation Group (EEG) is to conduct an independent technical evaluation of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Project to ensure the protection of the public health and safety and the environment. The WIPP Project, located in southeastern New Mexico, is being constructed as a repository for the disposal of transuranic (TRU) radioactive wastes generated by the national defense programs. The EEG was established in 1978 with funds provided by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to the State of New Mexico. Public Law 100-456, the National Defense Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 1989, Section 1433, assigned EEG to the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and continued the original contract DE-AC04-79AL10752 through DOE contract DE-AC04-89AL58309. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1994, Public Law 103-160, continues the authorization. EEG performs independent technical ...
When exposure-calibrated ionization chambers are used to calibrate megavoltage X-ray and electron beam therapy machines, the calibration factor can be divided into a chamber-dependent and a chamber-independent component. Until recently, only the chamber-independent part, which has been derived theoretically, has been used; the chamber-dependent component has been ignored. Recent experimental and theoretical considerations, however, have indicated that the dependent component must be taken into account and can affect the calibration by as much as 4%. The calibration can change due to (i) the thickness of the chamber wall, (ii) the chamber wall composition, i.e. whether the chamber is constructed of air-equivalent material, or tissue- or water-equivalent material, and (iii) the size of the chamber changing the displacement factor. Theoretical and experimental evidence indicates that the third factor varies from approximately 4.5% for "6"0Co ...
Some properties of the universe are fixed by physics derived from mathematical symmetries, others may have been selected from an ensemble of possibilities. Some successes and failures of anthropic reasoning in this context are reviewed in the light of recent developments in astrobiology, cosmology and unification physics. Specific issues raised include our spacetime location (including the reason for the present age of the universe), the timescale of biological evolution, the tuning of global cosmological parameters, the origin of the Large Numbers of astrophysics, and the parameters of the Standard Model. Out of the twenty parameters of the Standard Model,the basic behavior and structures of the world (nucleons, nuclei,atoms, molecules, planets, stars, galaxies) depend mainly on five of them: $m_e,m_u,m_d,\\alpha,\\alpha_G$, three of which are independent in the context of Grand Unified Theories (that is, not related by any known symmetry). These parameters also ...
As the Electric Power Industry is actively preparing for a restructured future where retail wheeling is practiced ideally and efficiently in a competitive market-based environment, concerns may arise legitimately on how system reliability and integrity can be ensured in an environment where markets have an enhanced role. As these concerns may be justified, at least for a transition period, this paper presents a proposal which outlines how the generally accepted requisite capacity, energy, and ancillary services standards may be satisfied through market reliance and minimal coordination by a Reliability Monitoring and Ancillary Services Managing Entity or Independent System Operator. A Strawman detailing one -- and by no means the only -- future scenario inspired by the recent NEPOOL restructuring discussions in New England is presented to demonstrate that market-based competition and flexibility are compatible with a reliable Power System.
Two refrains heard in the current retail wheeling debate are that a restructuring of the electric utility industry is inevitable and that its consequences are unpredictable. Notwithstanding the benefits of open competition, there are specific disadvantages of unlimited retail wheeling for some existing independent facilities and especially for hydropower plants. A capital-intensive industry, hydropower is not well-postured to compete effectively in the short-term, against new technologies and fuel sources available in the current marketplace. Hydropower is flat out non-competitive on a price basis with available new capacity. Unless hydro is afforded the same government supports offered to other renewable energy sources, only municipal plants with access to subsidized financing rates and pumped storage plants are going to be built.
Iron deficiency (ID) is associated with increased levels of norepinephrine (NE) in plasma and urine. They investigated the effect of 5-7 days exposure to three different environmental temperatures (10/sup 0/C, 24/sup 0/C, 30/sup 0/C) on urinary catecholamine levels to test the hypothesis that increased thermogenic activity is causal to this increased excretion in iron deficiency. Catecholamines were analyzed from acidified urine by HPLC-EC. The mean Hb in ID animals was 3.1 +/- .5 versus controls of 12.8 +/- 9. These data demonstrate that contrary to previous reports NE excretion is not normalized at a thermoneutral temperature and suggests a basic abnormality in peripheral SNS activity and NE metabolism in iron deficiency that is independent of environmental drive from thermogenesis.
This paper overviews the curricula of nuclear medicine (NM) undergraduate training in 34 Central and Eastern European (CEE) and 37 European Union (EU) medical faculties. The data show enormous variation in the number of hours devoted to nuclear medicine, varying between 1-2 to 40 hours and highly differentiated concepts/ideas of nuclear medicine training in particular countries. In most EU countries this teaching is integrated with that of radiology or clinical modules, also with training in clinical physiology. In many CEE countries teaching and testing of NM are independent, although integration with other teaching modules is frequent. The paper discusses the differences in particular approaches to nuclear medicine teaching. (author)
High-pressure, lean, premixed methane/air flames are investigated experimentally to determine turbulent flame speeds (s{sub T}). The results are based on the statistical analysis of single-shot OH-PLIF images. The influences of pressure (p = 5 - 14.4 bars) and equivalence ratio ( {phi} 0.43 - 0.56) on the turbulent flame speed are discussed. The analysis reveals that s{sub T} is independent of pressure and it depends strongly on equivalence ratio. The turbulent flame speed at {phi} = 0.56 is about 3 times higher than at {phi} = 0.43 because of the higher integral reaction rate caused by the higher fuel concentration and therefore higher adiabatic flame temperature. (author)
We have carried out transverse-field ( Formula Not Shown ) Formula Not Shown SR experiments in Formula Not Shown for temperatures from 300 down to 2.2K. The muon-decay asymmetry can be fit to a stretched exponential relaxation function: Formula Not Shown . The exponent Formula Not Shown for Formula Not Shown , but drops continuously below this temperature (being Formula Not Shown for Formula Not Shown and reaching Formula Not Shown near 2K). The characteristic relaxation rate Formula Not Shown grows six-fold in the experimental temperature range (from Formula Not Shown for Formula Not Shown to Formula Not Shown for Formula Not Shown ). Independently of theoretical models, the behavior of these parameters is consistent with strong magnetic disorder. Although the magnetic susceptibility of F...
Quark Gluon Plasma transport coefficients for heavy quarks and quark-antiquark pairs are computed through an extension of the results obtained for a hot QED plasma by describing the heavy-quark propagation in the eikonal approximation and by weighting the gauge field configurations with the Hard Thermal Loop effective action. It is shown that such a model allows to correctly reproduce, at leading logarithmic accuracy, the results obtained by other independent approaches. The results are then inserted into a relativistic Langevin equation allowing to follow the evolution of the heavy-quark momentum spectra. Our numerical findings are also compared with the ones obtained in a strongly-coupled scenario, namely with the transport coefficients predicted (though with some limitations and ambiguities) by the AdS/CFT correspondence.
The Education for All-Fast Track Initiative (FTI) grew out of the "New Focus on Education for All" communique of the G-8 when Canada hosted the summit in 2002 at Kananaskis. As Canada prepares again to host the G-8, and Korea assumes leadership of the newly-empowered G-20, it is a valuable moment to revisit and re-think the current global education architecture. By adopting some of the recommendations from the recent independent evaluation of the FTI and borrowing some lessons from global partnerships in other sectors, the FTI could set a new course toward the achievement of universal basic education. The FTI should broaden and strengthen the role of diverse stakeholders from developing countries and civil society in its governance structure in order to fully harness the energies of these stakeholders in resource mobilization and effective implementation. (Contains 9 endnotes.)
Chest computed tomography (CT) was valuable in detecting extrinsic tracheal compression by mediastinal masses in two pediatric patients. This prompted an independent evaluation by CT of 14 children with masses involving the middle mediastinum and possible intrathoracic tracheal narrowing. Computer programs permit precise calculation of tracheal cross-sectional areas. Any apparent decrease in tracheal area may be compared with CT-derived data in normal children. Chest CT not only demonstrates the presence of extrinsic airway compression in pediatric patients with mediastinal masses, but also is capable of precisely measuring the extent of this narrowing. This method identifies children at potential risk for respiratory compromise and may aid in subsequent therapy.
Time-odd parton distribution functions in a Drell-Yan process are here studied by examining the evolution of the internal statistical properties of the interacting hadrons. Time-odd functions are shown to be a signature of the irreversible process in which a hadronic state characterized by long range correlation properties (hadronic phase) decays to produce a cloud of independent partons (partonic phase) because of initial/final state interactions. The relevant considered variable is the rate of increase of the entropy of the hadronic system. This quantity is shown to be roughly equal to the decay rate of the hadronic state. Conditions for getting a leading twist time-odd effect are established on this basis. Last, the relevant case of a large entropy increase associated with transverse-dominated initial/final state interactions is analyzed.
The need for alternative energy increases steadily???especially due to the climate change and the limited availability of fossil fuels. Geothermal power uses the intrinsic heat which is stored in the accessible part of the Earth???s crust. Its importance among the renewable energy resources originates from the almost unlimited energy supply of the Earth and its independence from external influences such as seasonal or even daily climatic variability. Nevertheless, there are risks which have to be assessed. From a mathematical point of view there are four building blocks of the characterization of deep geothermal systems: seismic exploration, gravimetry, modeling transport processes, and modeling the stress field. In particular, local depletion poses a significant risk during the industrial...
The light curves produced by all-sky monitors, such as the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer All-Sky Monitor and the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT), generally have non-uniform error bars. In searching for periodic modulation in this type of data using power spectra it can be important to use appropriate weighting of data points to achieve the best sensitivity. It was recently demonstrated that for Swift BAT data a simple weighting scheme can actually sometimes reduce the sensitivity of the power spectrum depending on source brightness. Instead, a modified weighting scheme, based on the Cochran semi-weighted mean, gives improved results independent of source brightness. We investigate the benefits of weighting power spectra in period searches using simulated GLAST LAT observations of {gamma}-ray binaries.
Tensor network states are used to approximate ground states of local Hamiltonians on a lattice in D spatial dimensions. Different types of tensor network states can be seen to generate different geometries. Matrix product states (MPS) in D=1 dimensions, as well as projected entangled pair states (PEPS) in D>1 dimensions, reproduce the D-dimensional physical geometry of the lattice model; in contrast, the multi-scale entanglement renormalization ansatz (MERA) generates a (D+1)-dimensional holographic geometry. Here we focus on homogeneous tensor networks, where all the tensors in the network are copies of the same tensor, and argue that certain structural properties of the resulting many-body states are preconditioned by the geometry of the tensor network and are therefore largely independent of the choice of variational parameters. Indeed, the asymptotic decay of correlations in homogeneous MPS and MERA for D=1 systems is seen to be determined by the structure ...
In previous work, on cooling from 300 K to 10 K the elastic moduli for both #alpha#- and #delta#-Pu dropped 30%. This large change may reflect effects of 5f-electron localization. In this work, the elastic moduli at ambient temperature of several Pu-Ga alloys were measured using resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS). The strong temperature dependence of the bulk and shear modulus and the temperature independence of Poisson's ratio was confirmed and the upper temperature limit for #alpha#-Pu was extended to 360 K. Measurements of the time dependence of the shear moduli of Pu and Pu-2.36 at.% Ga were determined with high precision as a function of time and temperature. Using a model for time dependence of point defects, we determined the exponential time constant at ambient temperature for such variations. The low temperature results are consistent with Fluss .
The Systems Analysis Programs for Hands-on Integrated Reliability Evaluations (SAPHIRE) refers to a set of several microcomputer programs that were developed to create and analyze probabilistic risk assessments (PRAs), primarily for nuclear power plants. The Fault Tree, Event Tree, and Piping and Instrumentation Diagram (FEP) editors allow the user to graphically build and edit fault trees, and event trees, and piping and instrumentation diagrams (P and IDs). The software is designed to enable the independent use of the graphical-based editors found in the Integrated Reliability and Risk Assessment System (IRRAS). FEP is comprised of three separate editors (Fault Tree, Event Tree, and Piping and Instrumentation Diagram) and a utility module. This reference manual provides a screen-by-screen guide of the entire FEP System.
In this work, a mixed cationic--anionic [i.e. cetyltrimethylammonium bromide-sodium octyl sulphate] surfactant system was used to synthesize the magnetite particles. The loading content of iron ions (Fe{sup 3+} and Fe{sup 2+}) into the surfactant system was varied to study its effect on the formation of magnetite, magnetic and morphological properties of the magnetite particles encapsulated by the surfactant vesicles. It has been verified that the vesicle-encapsulated magnetite particles with sizes from 100 to 200 nm were formed, which were almost independent of the loading content of iron ions. However, the morphological structure of the magnetite particles was dependent on the loading content of iron ions and there existed an optimal loading content for a full packing of the surfactant vesicles with the magnetite particles.
In this work, a mixed cationic--anionic [i.e. cetyltrimethylammonium bromide-sodium octyl sulphate] surfactant system was used to synthesize the magnetite particles. The loading content of iron ions (Fe"3"+ and Fe"2"+) into the surfactant system was varied to study its effect on the formation of magnetite, magnetic and morphological properties of the magnetite particles encapsulated by the surfactant vesicles. It has been verified that the vesicle-encapsulated magnetite particles with sizes from 100 to 200 nm were formed, which were almost independent of the loading content of iron ions. However, the morphological structure of the magnetite particles was dependent on the loading content of iron ions and there existed an optimal loading content for a full packing of the surfactant vesicles with the magnetite particles.
This paper presents the isothermal characteristics of methanol onto two specimens of activated carbons namely Maxsorb III and Tsurumi activated charcoal. Dubinin Raduskevich (D-R) equation is used to correlate the adsorption isotherms and to form the pressure-temperature-concentration diagram for both of the assorted pairs. Experimental results show that the maximum adsorption capacity of Maxsorb III/methanol pair is 1.76 times that of activated charcoal/methanol pair. Employing a time-independent mathematical model, the performance of adsorption cooling cycle using Maxsorb III/methanol and activated charcoal/methanol pairs has been studied and compared with that of three other types of carbon based adsorbent/methanol pairs. Theoretical calculations show the superiority of Maxsorb III/methanol pair for both of air-conditioning and ice-making applications. (author)
A major goal in optomechanics is to observe and control quantum behavior in a system consisting of a mechanical resonator coupled to an optical cavity. Work towards this goal has focused on increasing the strength of the coupling between the mechanical and optical degrees of freedom; however, the form of this coupling is crucial in determining which phenomena can be observed in such a system. Here we demonstrate that avoided crossings in the spectrum of an optical cavity containing a flexible dielectric membrane allow us to realize several different forms of the optomechanical coupling. These include cavity detunings that are (to lowest order) linear, quadratic, or quartic in the membrane's displacement, and a cavity finesse that is linear in (or independent of) the membrane's displacement. All these couplings are realized in a single device with extremely low optical loss and can be tuned over a wide range in situ; in particular, we find that the quadratic ...
In order to reduce the total number of experiments for achieving the highest removal of methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solutions using yellow passion fruit peel (Passiflora edullis, F. flavicarpa) and mandarin peel (Citrus reticulata) as biosorbents two independent sets of full 23 factorial designs with two central points (10 experiments) were experimented. In order to continue the optimization of the system a new full 22 factorial design with two central points (six experiments) and a central composite surface analysis (13 experiments, divided into four cube points, five centre points, and four axial points) were employed for yellow passion fruit peel (PFP) and mandarin peel (MP), respectively. Using these statistical tools, the best conditions for MB removal from aqueous solution were ...
Spin-polarized angle-resolved sulfur L_2_,_3VV Auger-electron spectra have been recorded for the c(2x2)S/Fe(001) system. The data show the modulation of the sulfur Auger spin polarization as a function of emission angle, which represents an observation of spin-polarized Auger-electron diffraction (SPAED), a potentially powerful tool for the study of local magnetic structure at surfaces, interfaces, and thin films. Theoretical modeling of the SPAED data indicates a large decrease in the magnetization of the top iron layer, suggesting a magnetic poisoning induced by the sulfur overlayer. These findings are independently supported by the observation of a large decrease of secondary electron spin polarization upon sulfur adsorption.
Summary 1. In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, bison Bison bison and elk Cervus canadensis nelsoni act as hosts for Brucella abortus. The presence of B. abortus within wildlife populations is an important conservation issue because of the risk of brucellosis transmission from wildlife to cattle. 2. We investigated conditions facilitating contact between bison (40-60% seroprevalence) and elk on a shared winter range in the Madison headwaters area of Yellowstone National Park. We evaluated the effects of snow pack, season, elk and bison population sizes, and wolf Canis lupus predation risk on the degree of spatial overlap between bison and elk from 1991 to 2006. 3. Sixty-eight per cent of 10 093 independent elk observations occurred within the known bison wintering range, 29% occurred with...
Abstract A large remaining source of uncertainty in global model predictions of future climate is how ecosystem carbon (C) cycle feedbacks to climate change. We conducted a field manipulative experiment of warming and nitrogen (N) addition in a temperate steppe in northern China during two contrasting hydrological growing seasons in 2006 [wet with total precipitation 11.2% above the long-term mean (348 mm)] and 2007 (dry with total precipitation 46.7% below the long-term mean). Irrespective of strong intra- and interannual variations in ecosystem C fluxes, responses of ecosystem C fluxes to warming and N addition did not change between the two growing seasons, suggesting independence of warming and N responses of net ecosystem C exchange (NEE) upon hydrological variations in the temperate ...
In this paper, we introduce a new recursive neural network model able to process directed acyclic graphs with labelled edges. The model uses a state transition function which considers the edge labels and is independent both from the number and the order of the children of each node. The computational capabilities of the new recursive architecture are assessed. Moreover, in order to test the proposed architecture on a practical challenging application, the problem of object detection in images is also addressed. In fact, the localization of target objects is a preliminary step in any recognition system. The proposed technique is general and can be applied in different detection systems, since it does not exploit any a priori knowledge on the particular problem. Some experiments on face detection, carried out on scenes acquired by an indoor camera, are reported, showing very promising results. PMID:16181770
A general analytical form of the round trip phase shift in grating feedback diode lasers is proposed. Using the new form, it is obvious that the round trip phase shift can be independent of rotation angle in first order approximation when only one restriction condition is met. We call this the quasi synchronous tuning (QST) condition. In the QST region, a considerably large mode hopping free tuning range can be obtained. An adjustment structure with only one freedom is needed to accurately find and locate the quasi synchronous pivot, which is not strictly confined on the grating surface and its extension. It means that the external cavity diode lasers design can be easier and the laser can be more stable and reliable. PMID:21946988
The present thesis is concerned with the local quantum physics of relativistic particles and fields in three space-time dimensions, whose statistics is to be described by a representation of the braid group -- so-called plektons or, if the representation is Abelian, anyons. In particular the issue of the existence of free anyonic fields is addressed. In our context, these are operators affiliated with the 'local' field algebras and creating only single particle vectors from the vacuum. (Localizability here refers to regions extending to infinity in some spacelike direction.) Under a mild regularity condition for these fields, we can derive commutation relations which are not compatible with braid group statistics. Further, model-independent results concerning the PCT operator and the connection of spin and statistics are obtained. Assuming the observable algebra to satisfy the Bisognano-Wichmann theorem, a PCT theorem for plektons is derived. For anyons it is shown ...
We present a proposal for a combined ICARUS & NOE general purpose detector, to be installed in Hall B of the Gran Sasso Laboratory.The main scientific goal is the one of elucidating in a comprehensive way the pattern of neutrino $9 masses and mixings, following both (1) the S-KAM results and (2) the predictions on atmospheric neutrinos of the large solution of the Solar Neutrinos deficit. To achieve these goals, the experimental method is based upon the $9 complementary and simultaneous detection of CERN beam (CNGS) and cosmic ray (CR) events. This is made possible because of the complete isotropy of the detection technique. For the currently allowed values of the S-KAM results, both $9 CNGS and cosmic ray data will give independent measurements and provide a precise $(sin^{2}2\\theta; \\Delta m^{2})$ determination rather than a wide band of allowed values. Since we can observe and unambiguously identify $9 $\
Effect of different factors on survival of patients with Ewing sarcoma (20 people), primary bone reticulosarcoma (43) and myeloma (10) of pelvic bones, has been studied. Independently of the method of treatment, the rate of 3-year survival from reticulosarcoma start constituted (31.5+-7.1)%, Ewing sarcoma - (33.0+-10.8)%, myeloma - (36.0+-15.9)%. Index of 5-year survival in case of reticulosarcoma constituted (20.9+-6.4)%, Ewing sarcoma - (23.6+-11.0)%, myeloma - (36.0+-15.9)%. Improvement of delayed results after prophylactic therapy courses is pointed out. Degree of pelvic bone affection is of a very important prognostic value.
Mimivirus is the prototype of a new family (the Mimiviridae) of nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDVs), which already include the Poxviridae, Iridoviridae, Phycodnaviridae and Asfarviridae. Mimivirus specifically replicates in cells from the genus Acanthamoeba. Proteomic analysis of purified mimivirus particles revealed the presence of many subunits of the DNA-directed RNA polymerase II complex. A fully functional pre-transcriptional complex appears to be loaded in the virions, allowing mimivirus to initiate transcription within the host cytoplasm immediately upon infection independently of the host nuclear apparatus. To fully understand this process, a systematic study of mimivirus proteins that are predicted (by bioinformatics) or suspected (by proteomic analysis) to be involved in...
Abstract It is well established that ageing handicaps the ability of prey to escape predators, yet surprisingly little is known about how ageing affects the ability of predators to catch prey. Research into long-lived predators has assumed that adults have uniform impacts on prey regardless of age. Here we use longitudinal data from repeated observations of individually-known wolves (Canis lupus) hunting elk (Cervus elaphus) in Yellowstone National Park to demonstrate that adult predatory performance declines with age and that an increasing ratio of senescent individuals in the wolf population depresses the rate of prey offtake. Because this ratio fluctuates independently of population size, predatory senescence may cause wolf populations of equal size but different age structure to have d...
Although previous research suggests that preamputation pain is a risk factor for pain after amputation, little is known about the association between acute postsurgical pain and chronic amputation-related pain. The current prospective study examined the associations of preamputation pain and acute postamputation pain with chronic amputation-related pain. The sample consisted of patients with lower limb amputation (N = 57) who provided both preamputation and postamputation data during a 2-year study period. Preamputation pain intensity and duration were assessed before amputation; acute phantom limb pain (PLP) and residual limb pain (RLP) intensity were assessed on postsurgical days 4 and 5. Acute PLP intensity was the only significant independent predictor of chronic PLP intensity at 6 and...
We study 1-loop effects for massless Dirac fields in two spatial dimensions, coupled to homogeneous electromagnetic backgrounds, both at zero and at finite temperature and density. In the case of a purely magnetic field, we analyze the relationship between the invariance of the theory under large gauge transformations, the appearance of Chern-Simons terms and of different Berry's phases. In the case of a purely electric background field, we show that the effective Lagrangian is independent of the chemical potential and of the temperature. More interesting: we show that the minimal conductivity, as predicted by the quantum field theory, is the right multiple of the conductivity quantum and is, thus, consistent with the value measured for graphene, with no extra factor of pi in the denominator.
Pinealectomy completely prevented gonadal regression as well as reduction in body weight and white adipose tissue content of the gonadal and retroperitoneal fat deposits in male meadow voles transferred from long to short day lengths. Pineal influences on pelage characteristics depended on which parameter was assessed. For instance, the increase in guard hair length observed in short-day control voles was blocked by pinealectomy; however, a similar increase in underhair length was unaffected by removal of the pineal gland. Photoperiod-dependent changes in fat deposition, testicular activity, and guard hair length presumably rely on altered pineal secretory activity to transduce the effects of day length on the neuroendocrine axis; however, mechanisms independent of pineal activity may be capable of mediating photoperiodic control of underhair growth. PMID:2979644
Wild and tissue cultured plants of Portulaca grandiflora Hook. have shown to be able to decolorize a sulfonated diazo dye Navy Blue HE2R (NBHE2R) up to 98% in 40h. A significant induction in the activities of lignin peroxidase, tyrosinase and DCIP reductase was observed in the roots during dye decolorization. The wild plants and tissue cultures could independently decolorize and degrade NBHE2R into metabolites viz. N-benzylacetamide and 6-diazenyl-4-hydroxynaphthalene-2-sulfonic acid. A dye mixture and a textile effluent were also decolorized efficiently by P. grandiflora. The phytotoxicity study revealed reduction in the toxicity due to metabolites formed after dye degradation.
Photocurrent and capacitance measurements of semiconductor passive films formed on metals and alloys can be used to study the electronic properties and reveal indirect information about structure and composition. The current work used these techniques to investigate the electronic properties of the passive films formed on three austenitic stainless steels, types 304L, 316L and 254SMO, in borate. Evidence was found for the existence of a large number of localised mid bandgap states, consistent with amorphous oxides. However, the flat-band potentials of the austenitic stainless steel passive films were found to be independent of both composition and measuring frequency. The most credible explanation for the bandgap values determined from photocurrent measurements is that the passive films are formed as dual layers, iron oxide outer layer and chromium oxide inner layer. This model does not need to evoke the potential dependent bandgaps used by previous authors.
Photocurrent and capacitance measurements of semiconductor passive films formed on metals and alloys can be used to study the electronic properties and reveal indirect information about structure and composition. The current work used these techniques to investigate the electronic properties of the passive films formed on three austenitic stainless steels, types 304L, 316L and 254SMO, in borate. Evidence was found for the existence of a large number of localised mid bandgap states, consistent with amorphous oxides. However, the flat-band potentials of the austenitic stainless steel passive films were found to be independent of both composition and measuring frequency. The most credible explanation for the bandgap values determined from photocurrent measurements is that the passive films are formed as dual layers, iron oxide outer layer and chromium oxide inner layer. This model does not need to evoke the potential dependent bandgaps used by previous authors.
Abstract Phase-separation dynamics are investigated by SALS in aqueous MC solutions in the presence of 5% NaCl, promoted by a quench temperature. The observed scattering peak indicates that the phase separation occurs by the SD mechanism, leading to a bicontinuous structure. A semilog plot of I(q) against time in the early stage of SD gives a straight line, but the position of qmax varies; also, a Cahn-Hilliard plot indicates that diffusive processes dominate and the data can be described by linear CHC theory. Dapp shows a kinetic dependency on the quench temperature. The spinodal temperature of the sample is 41-C. In the late stages, S(q,t) collapses into a universally time-independent curve.
We present a synchrotron x-ray diffraction study of melting in stacks of two-dimensional crystalline arrays of the membrane protein bacteriorhodopsin. Two distinct regimes have been found as a function of the intermembrane distance d . In the {open_quotes}coupled{close_quotes} regime for d{lt}250 {Angstrom} the temperature (T{sub m}) of the melting transition decreases with increasing d , demonstrating the effect of the repulsive membrane interactions on the intramembrane protein ordering. For d{gt}250 {Angstrom} a {open_quotes}decoupled{close_quotes} regime is found with higher T{sup *}{sub m} independent of d . Below T{sup *}{sub m} a solid-liquid-solid reentrant behavior is observed as d is increased. {copyright} {ital 1999} {ital The American Physical Society}
Two experiments used the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) to examine the affective dimension of pain in patients whose pain was secondary to malignancy. In experiment I, segregating groups of cancer patients on the basis of extreme scores (high versus low) on the MPQ failed to produce segregation on independent measures of affect and infirmity. This outcome contrasts with earlier work with chronic benign pain patients. Experiment II compared cancer pain patients matched with benign pain patients on intensity of pain report on the affective dimension of the MPQ. Cancer pain patients reported a reliably higher affective loading to their pain. These data suggest that cancer pain patients employ different criteria than benign pain patients in selecting affective pain descriptors. Possible explanations for this difference are discussed. PMID:7070825
The authors examine the overheating of a chemical detonation wave, which results in hybrid detonation processes, for example, photochemical or electrochemical detonation, depending on the source. The schemes for obtaining the overheated detonation are shown. Analysis has shown that: normal stationary overheated detonation waves are possible when the overheating power density is constant, just as when the specific energy of overheating is constant; the use of the ''gas'' equation of state for describing overheated detonation in condensed explosives yields wave parameters which are too high; and the assumption that the chemical energy released in the explosive is independent of the overheating energy also leads to wave parameters which are too high, and the overestimation increases as the overheating is intensified.
We present a unified description of the imaginary part of the dynamical magnetic susceptibility #chi#"'"'(#omega#.T) and measurements of the static susceptibility #chi#(T) and electrical resistivity #rho#(T) in the uranium intermetallics UCu_5_-_xPd_x (x = 1.1.5). For temperatures T and excitation energies #omega# in the range 12 K < #omega#, T < 150 K, our analysis demonstrates that the dynamics of isolated uranium ions are responsible for the observed temperature and frequency scaling, although interion interactions may become important at lower temperatures and frequencies. We derive a strict criterion for single-ion scaling in the form of a universal scaling function, providing a model-independent description of the compiled experimental data. (orig.).
This essay aims to summarize the main physical features arising from a new supersymmetric theory of gravitation. Based on preliminary discussions about classical field theory, cosmology, algebra and group theory, and taking formal results and theoretical considerations in comparison with several contributions from great authors, present work deals with gravity inside the limits of a meta-field theory, that is, a non-quantized but consistent representation of supergravity, the supersymmetry between gravitons and gravitinos. The introduction of meta-fields furnishes an independent framework for the study of gravity despite of constraints of quantization, treating the supersymmetric partners as deterministic actors of gravitation and not simply probabilistic entities. I explain my belief that gravitational field, by its own nature, is not quantizable in the same foot as the other fields, what does not means that we can not understand gravity by similar formal veins. ...
A novel approach to fault diagnosis is proposed using multiscale morphology analysis to extract impulsive features from the signals with strong background noise. Multiscale morphology is applied to one-dimensional signal by defining both the length and height scales of structuring elements (SEs). A local-peak-value based adaptive algorithm is also introduced. The new approach makes the selection of SEs more transparent and is independent of empirical rules. Both simulated impulsive and vibration signals of two defective roller bearings are employed to validate the proposed algorithm. The roller bearing faults presented in the validation include both inner and outer race faults. The test results show that the multiscale morphology analysis is effective and robust to extract morphological features.
Background Experimental and clinical studies have identified a crucial role of microcirculation impairment in severe infections. We hypothesized that mottling, a sign of microcirculation alterations, was correlated to survival during septic shock. Methods We conducted a prospective observational study in a tertiary teaching hospital. All consecutive patients with septic shock were included during a 7-month period. After initial resuscitation, we recorded hemodynamic parameters and analyzed their predictive value on mortality. The mottling score (from 0 to 5), based on mottling area extension from the knees to the periphery, was very reproducible, with an excellent agreement between independent observers [kappa?=?0.87, 95% CI (0.72?0.97)]. Results Sixty patients were included. The SOFA scor...
In this paper we describe a modelling project to improve a nuclear waste management program in charge of the creation of a new system for the permanent disposal of nuclear waste. SADT (Structural Analysis and Design Technique) is used in order to provide a work-flow description of the functions to be performed by the waste management program. This description is then translated into a number of Coloured Petri Nets (CPN or CP-nets) corresponding to different program functions where additional behavioural inscriptions provide basis for simulation. Each of these CP-nets is simulated to produce timed event charts that are useful for understanding the behaviour of the program functions under different scenarios. Then all the CPN models are linked together to form a single stand-alone application that is useful for validating the interaction and cooperation between the different program functions. A technique for linking executable CPN models is developed for supporting large modelling ...
The history of the North German Mission Society (established 1836 in Hamburg) and its activity on the West African coast (from 1847 onwards among the Ewe, in what is now Ghana and Togo where it was and still is known as the 'Bremen Mission') mirrors neatly the various phases of the idea of 'mission': its composite motivation (Enlightenment, humanism and Pietism); the rejection of a narrow denominationalism (though the management of the mission was from 1850 onwards in the hands of the society's Bremen branch which belonged to the Reformed tradition); the entanglement of mission and overseas trade; the ambivalent attitude towards imperialism; the shaping of the missionary process as a profoundly educational one; the growing independence of the African church when the German missionaries wer...
Systematically review risks of an infant being born with low birth weight (LBW), preterm birth (PTB) or small for gestational age (SGA) among married and unmarried women. Medline, Embase, CINAHL, and bibliographies of identified articles were searched for English language studies. Studies reporting birth outcomes of married and unmarried (single and cohabitant) were included. Two reviewers independently collected data and assessed the quality of the studies for biases in sample selection, exposure assessment, confounder, analytical, outcome assessments, and attrition. Meta-analyses were performed using random effect model for both unadjusted and adjusted data and odds ratio (OR), and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. Twenty-one studies of low to moderate risk of bias were inclu...
The 50th anniversary of Mary Lyon?s 1961 Nature paper, proposing random inactivation in early embryonic life of one of the two X chromosomes in the cells of mammalian females, provides an opportunity to remember and celebrate the work of those involved. While the hypothesis was initially put forward by Lyon based on findings in the mouse, it was founded on earlier studies, notably the work of Susumu Ohno; it was also suggested independently by Beutler and colleagues using experimental evidence from a human X-linked disorder, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, and has proved to be of as great importance for human and medical genetics as it has for general mammalian genetics. Alongside the hypothesis itself, previous cytological studies of mouse and human chromosomes, and the obse...
An intact basement membrane (BM) is essential for the proper function, differentiation and morphology of many epithelial cells. The disruption or loss of this BM occurs during normal development as well as in the disease state. To examine the importance of BM during mammary gland development in vivo, we generated transgenic mice that inappropriately express autoactivating isoforms of the matrix metalloproteinase stromelysin-1. The mammary glands from these mice are both functionally and morphologically altered throughout development. We have now documented a dramatic incidence of breast tumors in several independent lines of these mice. These data suggest that overexpression of stromelysin-1 and disruption of the BM may be a key step in the multi-step process of breast cancer.
We report the lasing characteristics of gain-guided AlGaInP/AlGaAs visible vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser diodes. At room temperature, continuous-wave operation is achieved over the wavelength range of 657--685 nm with the minimum threshold current at 670 nm. Devices with a 10-[mu]m diameter have threshold currents as low as 1.25 mA at room temperature (297 K) and 0.8 mA at 250 K. In addition, a single predetermined linear polarization state is found, independent of the lasing mode order and operating temperature.
During helium beam fuelling experiments in JET, distinctive anisotropic features have been observed in the velocity distribution function describing both fast and thermal alpha particle populations. During the initial fuelling phase the central helium ion temperature observed perpendicular to the magnetic field is higher than the central electron temperature, while the central helium ion temperature observed parallel to the magnetic field is lower than or equal to the central electron temperature. In order to verify temperature measurements of both perpendicular and parallel lines of sight, other independent methods of deducing the ion temperature are investigated: deuterium ion temperature, deuterium density, comparison with neutron rates and profiles (influence of a possible metastable population of helium). 6 refs., 7 figs.
Culture-independent microbiological technologies that interrogate complex microbial populations without prior axenic culture, coupled with high-throughput DNA sequencing, have revolutionized the scale, speed and economics of microbial ecological studies. Their application to the medical realm has led to a highly productive merger of clinical, experimental and environmental microbiology. The functional roles played by members of the human microbiota are being actively explored through experimental manipulation of animal model systems and studies of human populations. In concert, these studies have appreciably expanded our understanding of the composition and dynamics of human-associated microbial communities (microbiota). Of note, several human diseases have been linked to alterations in th...
This paper presents three non-linear asymptotic observers corresponding to three examples of engineering interest: a chemical reactor, a non-holonomic car, and an inertial navigation system. For each example, the design is based on physical symmetries. This motivates the theoretical development of invariant observers, i.e, symmetry-preserving observers. We consider an observer to consist in a copy of the system equation and a correction term, and we give a constructive method (based on the Cartan moving-frame method) to find all the symmetry-preserving correction terms. They rely on an invariant frame (a classical notion) and on an invariant output-error, a less standard notion precisely defined here. For each example, the convergence analysis relies also on symmetries consideration with a key use of invariant state-errors. For the non-holonomic car and the inertial navigation system, the invariant state-errors is shown to obey an autonomous differential equation ...
Background Identifying susceptibility genes for endophenotypes by studying analogous behaviors across species is an important strategy for understanding the pathophysiology underlying psychiatric disorders. This approach provides novel biological pathways plus validated animal models critical for selective drug development. One such endophenotype is avoidance behavior. Methods In the present study, novel automated registration methods for longitudinal behavioral assessment in home cages are used to screen a panel of recently generated mouse chromosome substitution strains that are very powerful in quantitative trait loci (QTL) detection of complex traits. In this way, we identified chromosomes regulating avoidance behavior (increased sheltering preference) independent of motor activity lev...
The effect of varying pD(11-13,7) on the reaction of hydrogen with (Co/sup 11/(CN)/sub 5/)/sup 3/- in deuterium oxide has been studied by using infrared spectroscopy to determine the ratio of (Co/sup 111/(CN)/sub 5/X)/sup 3/- (X=H,D) in the solids precipitated from the steady state under hydrogen. The results show that the uptake of hydrogen does not liberate a free proton and that the rate of (Co/sup 111/(CN)/sub 5/H)/sup 3/- -D/sub 2/,0 exchange increases with pD but becomes pD independent at pD 7 greater than 13,5.
The magnetic properties of the superconductive materials HoBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub z/ and YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub z/ have been measured and compared. Both had superconductive transition temperatures T/sub c/ in low magnetic fields near 90 K and exhibited nearly complete magnetic-flux exclusion. The susceptibility of the Ho-based materials followed a Curie-Weiss law both above and below T/sub c/. These results give clear experimental evidence for a nearly complete decoupling of the magnetic and superconductive layers, demonstrating that the superconductivity is highly anisotropic.
A 1 MWe power plant using waste wood fuel is to be installed at a US Marine Corps base, which will supply all wood from a landfill site. The core energy conversion technology is a down-draft gasifier supplying approximately 150 Btu/scf gas to both spark ignition and diesel dual-fuel engine-generator sets. Features of the plant design include: (1) grinding wood fuel from a wide range of waste resources, (2) specialized screening for fines removal, (3) complete tar and other waste product control without landfill disposal, and (4) use of process heat for bulk fuel drying, gasifier air pre-heating, and wastewater evaporation.
Spindle cell sarcomas consist of tumors with different biological features, of which distant metastasis is the most ominous sign for a poor prognosis. However, metastasis is difficult to predict on the basis of current histopathological analyses. We have identified actin filament-associated protein 1-like 1 (AFAP1L1) as a candidate for a metastasis-predicting marker from the gene expression profiles of 65 spindle cell sarcomas. A multivariate analysis determined that AFAP1L1 was an independent factor for predicting the occurrence of distant metastasis (P=0.0001), which was further confirmed in another set of 41 tumors by a quantitative mRNA expression analysis. Immunohistochemical staining using paraffin-embedded tumor tissues revealed that the metastasis-free rate was significantly better...
Summary The presence of human heterophilic antibodies against horse immunoglobulins (HHA-HI) was determined by ELISA in sera from healthy volunteers and from patients who received equine antivenom for therapy of snake bite envenoming. These patients were selected from two independent clinical studies: one in Colombia in which patients received antivenom constituted by whole IgG (n=25); and the other in Brazil where an antivenom constituted by F(abprime)2 fragments was administered (n=31). Results show that healthy volunteers have antibodies, mainly of the IgG class, able to react with whole equine IgG. Additionally, patients have IgG antibodies that react both with whole equine IgG and F(abprime)2 fragments. In both clinical studies, no significant differences were observed in the HHA-HI t...
At present, the mostly used and developed mechanism is hardware virtualization which provides a common platform to run multiple operating systems and applications in independent partitions. More precisely, it is all about resource virtualization as the term hardware virtualization is emphasized. In this paper, the aim is to find out the advantages and limitations of current virtualization techniques, analyze their cost and performance and also depict which forthcoming hardware virtualization techniques will able to provide efficient solutions for multiprocessor operating systems. This is done by making a methodical literature survey and statistical analysis of the benchmark reports provided by SPEC (Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation) and TPC (Transaction processing Performance Council). Finally, this paper presents the current aspects of hardware virtualization which will help the IT managers of the large organizations to take effective decision while ...
Permian coal and Triassic mudstone from the Ordos Basin were pyrolyzed in a closed system using a gold tube technique. Carbon and hydrogen isotopes of the gases generated from pyrolysis were compared to Mesozoic gases in the basin to interpret the origin, maturity and any mixing of gases. Maturation trends for thermogenic methane from both coal and lacustrine kerogens in our experiment were found to be independent of heating rate, allowing their use for determination of gas provenance. Gases from a tectonically stable area like the Shanbei slope are derived mainly from Yanchang lacustrine kerogen, and gases in tectonically active areas consist of mixtures of coal-derived gases and oil-associated methane from deeply buried formations, as well as oil-associated gases and biogenic gases from ...
Fault symptoms of running gearboxes must be detected as early as possible to avoid serious accidents. Diverse advanced methods are developed for this challenging task. However, for multiwavelet transforms, the fixed basis functions independent of the input dynamic response signals will possibly reduce the accuracy of fault diagnosis. Meanwhile, for multiwavelet denoising technique, the universal threshold denoising tends to overkill important but weak features in gear fault diagnosis. To overcome the shortcoming, a novel method incorporating customized (i.e., signal-based) multiwavelet lifting schemes with sliding window denoising is proposed in this paper. On the basis of Hermite spline interpolation, various vector prediction and update operators with the desirable properties of biorthog...
Fuel elements used in the ORR whole-core LEU fuel demonstration have been gamma-scanned to determine axial distributions of UZLa and TXCs fission product activities. This data has been analyzed to determine cycle-averaged fuel element powers, residual STVU masses, and burnups of discharged fuel elements. Methods used to analyze the data are discussed and results are presented for the LEU fuel elements. Measured and calculates fuel element powers agree to within 5%, residual STVU masses to within 2%, and burnups to within 3%. These results are somewhat preliminary and await improved burnup calculations and independent calibration data to be based on the destructive analyses of a number of irradiated fuel elements. 4 refs., 7 figs., 3 tabs.
Objective: To reduce mental health symptoms and high-risk behaviors and increase social support and service utilization among street-living youth, the authors conducted a pilot study to assess the feasibility of the social enterprise intervention (SEI) at a homeless youth agency. Method: Convenience sampling was used to recruit 16 street-living youth from the agency. SEI participants received 7 months of vocational and small business training and service referrals. A comparison sample of 12 agency youth was used. Results: Findings from independent sample t tests demonstrate that SEI participants displayed significant improvements at 9 months in life satisfaction, family contact, peer support, and depressive symptoms. Conclusions: Preliminary findings suggest that the SEI was feasible within the agency setting and associated with higher mental health and social outcomes. (Contains 3 figures and 3 tables.)
Thirteen summaries of exploratory development work carried out under a grant to the Naval Postgraduate School Research Foundation are included. This research was carried out in the areas of electrical engineering (slot lines; phase lock loops), aeronautics (aircraft survivability; composite materials for structures), material sciences (relation between high temperature compressive behavior and microstructure), mechanical engineering (fatigue life of ferrocement hull structures; flow fields), economics (hazardous employment incentives for DoD personnel), operations research (missile allocation modeling; combat dynamics; shipboard tank designs), oceanography breakwater construction effects on ecology), and physics (evaluation of an underwater acoustic parametric source).
The nuclear complex in Tarapur, Maharashtra is a multi facility nuclear site comprising of power reactors and research facilities. Each facility has independent liquid effluent discharge line to Arabian Sea. Experimental studies were conducted to evaluate dilution factors in the aquatic environment using liquid effluent releases as tracer from one of the facilities. 3H and 137Cs radioisotopes present in the routine releases were used as simulated tracer nuclides. The dilution factors(D.F) observed for tritium were in the range of 20-20000 in a distance range of 10 m to 1500 m respectively and for 137Cs the D.F. were in the range of 50 to 900 over a distance range of 10-200 m. The paper describes the analytical methodology and sampling scenarios and the results of dilution factors obtained for Tarapur aquatic environment. (author)
Volatile fatty acids (VFA), produced in the rumen by microbial fermentation, are the main energy source for ruminants. The VFA profile, particularly the nonglucogenic (acetate, Ac; butyrate, Bu) to glucogenic (propionate, Pr) VFA ratio (NGR), is associated with effects on methane production, milk composition, and energy balance. The aim of this study was to evaluate extant rumen VFA stoichiometry models for their ability to predict in vivo VFA molar proportions. The models were evaluated using an independent data set consisting of 101 treatments from 24 peer-reviewed publications with lactating Holstein cows. All publications contained a full diet description, rumen pH, and rumen VFA molar proportions. Stoichiometric models were evaluated based on root mean squared prediction error (RMSPE)...
In this paper we propose an entropy measure for interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets, which generalizes three entropy measures defined independently by Szmidt, Wang and Huang, for intuitionistic fuzzy sets. We also give an approach to construct similarity measures using entropy measures for interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets. In particular, the proposed entropy measure for interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets can yield a similarity measure. Several illustrative examples are given to demonstrate the practicality and effectiveness of the proposed formulas. We apply the similarity measure to solve problems on pattern recognitions, multi-criteria fuzzy decision making and medical diagnosis.
During the recrystallization by solid-phase-epitaxial (SPE) growth of supersaturated silicon alloys, a high concentration of interstitials is trapped. These are released by subsequent heating causing a transient (greatly enhanced) diffusion of the substitutional dopant by an interstitialcy mechanism. The enhancement may be as much as five orders of magnitude over tracer values, and shows an activation energy of only 1.8 +- 0.2 eV. Following the transient, the interstitials condense into loops, allowing an independent estimate to be made of their concentration. From these observations, we propose that during ion implantation, a fraction of the implanted dopants can acquire their natural valency, and retain it as the crystallization interface passes. For group V dopants this creates the trapped interstitials, giving transient enhanced diffusion when they are released by subsequent annealing.
During the recrystallization by solid-phase-expitaxial (SPE) growth of supersaturated silicon alloys, a high concentration of interstitials is trapped. These are released by subsequent heating causing a transient (greatly enhanced) diffusion of the substitutional dopant by an interstitialcy mechanism. The enhancement may be as much as five orders of magnitude over tracer values, and shows an activation energy of only 1.8 +/- 0.2 eV. Following the transient, the interstitials condense into loops, allowing an independent estimate to be made of their concentration. From these observations, it is proposed that during ion implantation, a fraction of the implanted dopants can acquire their natural valency, and retain it as the crystallization interface passes. For group V dopants this creates the trapped interstitials, giving transient enhanced diffusion when they are released by subsequent annealing. 12 references, 6 figures.
Using ultra-high-frequency data extracted from the order flows of 23 stocks traded on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, we study the empirical regularities of order placement in the opening call auction, cool period and continuous auction. The distributions of relative logarithmic prices against reference prices in the three time periods are qualitatively the same with quantitative discrepancies. The order placement behavior is asymmetric between buyers and sellers and between the inside-the-book orders and outside-the-book orders. In addition, the conditional distributions of relative prices in the continuous auction are independent of the bid-ask spread and volatility. These findings are crucial to build an empirical behavioral microscopic model based on order flows for Chinese stocks.
A sensitivity study that used the particle tracking code PARMELA was performed on the Advanced Free-Electron Laser (AFEL). The tolerances on the alignment of the beam-line elements and the magnetic-field strengths were examined. Two base-line configurations were determined at the beginning of the study. The electron beam was then matched into the wiggler. The optimized beam-line parameters were varied independently and their sensitivities were judged with the criterion that the free-electron laser (FEL) effective-detuning parameter should not fluctuate more than 10%. The results of this study set the specifications for the alignment, for the sensitivity of the steering magnets, and for the accuracy of the magnetic field in the quadrupoles and dipoles. 5 figs., 3 figs., 3 tabs.
The phase transformations and properties of a precipitation-hardened Ni-Cr-based alloy are investigated as a function of C, B, Nb, and Cr contents. It is found that the primary role of Nb consists in the formation of an independent phase, delta-Ni3Nb, a part of a gamma/gamma-prime-delta eutectoid (for high C and B concentrations) and in stimulating the gamma-sigma reaction consecutively with the gamma double prime-delta reaction (for low C and B concentrations). In both cases, the long-term strength characteristics of the Nb-alloyed system are relatively low. The substitution of boron for carbon contributes to a reduction in the number of nucleation sites for topologically close-packed phases and to the formation of more stable (with respect to excess compounds) M3B2 and MB2 borides. The high-boron material exhibits better properties and phase stability under mechanical and thermal loading. 13 references.
Breath analysis could offer a non-invasive means of intravenous drug monitoring if robust correlations between drug concentrations in breath and blood can be established. In this study, propofol blood and breath concentrations were determined in an animal model under varying physiological conditions. Propofol concentrations in breath were determined by means of two independently calibrated analytical methods: continuous, real-time proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) and discontinuous solid-phase micro-extraction coupled with gas chromatography mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS). Blood concentrations were determined by means of SPME-GC-MS. Effects of changes in pulmonary blood flow resulting in a decreased cardiac output (CO) and effects of dobutamine administration resulting in...
The structure and catalytic properties of 2 wt.-% Pd/SiO/sub 2/ catalysts promoted with 2 wt.-% MgO and 0.2-5 wt.-% iron have been investigated. Catalysts were characterized by TPR, hydrogen chemisorption, and Moessbauer spectroscopy and their catalytic performance in methanol formation was also measured. At 16 at.-% iron a sharp maximum was observed in the activity which can be interpreted as being due to simultaneous promotion with iron and MgO. Independent mechanisms of promotion were found for the two modifiers: iron influenced the metallic component by forming bimetallic PdFe particles while MgO changed the properties of silica in a favourable way. 6 figs., 29 refs., 1 tab.
The energy, angular momentum, and distance (measured from the center of mass of the nucleus) distributions of the effective number of 6q-fluctons are investigated and it is shown that many of the characteristics of these distributions are universal, i.e., independent of the flucton size. ''Saturation'' of the flucton density in nuclei with mass A approx > 80 and certain other features that determine the difference between the behaviors of the effective numbers of fluctons and deuterons are reported. This is used to explain the well known underestimation (by a factor of 1.5--6) of the cross section for the hard inclusive (p, p'd) process on nuclei calculated in the quasielastic formalism. See S. G. Kadmenskii and V. I. Furman, Alpha decay and elated nuclear reactions (in Russian), Energoatomizdat, Moscow, 1985.
The energy, angular momentum, and distance (measured from the center of mass of the nucleus) distributions of the effective number of 6/ital q/-fluctons are investigated and it is shown that many of the characteristics of these distributions are universal, i.e., independent of the flucton size. ''Saturation'' of the flucton density in nuclei with mass /ital A//approx gt/80 and certain other features that determine the difference between the behaviors of the effective numbers of fluctons and deuterons are reported. This is used to explain the well known underestimation (by a factor of 1.5--6) of the cross section for the hard inclusive (/ital p/, /ital p/'/ital d/) process on nuclei calculated in the quasielastic formalism. See S. G. Kadmenskii and V. I. Furman, /ital Alpha/ /ital decay/ /ital and elated/ /ital nuclear/ /reactions/ (in Russian), Energoatomizdat, Moscow, 1985.
An interesting line of research is the investigation of the laws of random variables known as Dirichlet means. However, there is not much information on interrelationships between different Dirichlet means. Here, we introduce two distributional operations, one of which consists of multiplying a mean functional by an independent beta random variable, the other being an operation involving an exponential change of measure. These operations identify relationships between different means and their densities. This allows one to use the often considerable analytic work on obtaining results for one Dirichlet mean to obtain results for an entire family of otherwise seemingly unrelated Dirichlet means. Additionally, it allows one to obtain explicit densities for the related class of random variables that have generalized gamma convolution distributions and the finite-dimensional distribution of their associated L\\'{e}vy processes. The importance of this latter statement is ...
The economy of medicinal plant production is burdened considerably by the energy costs of drying. To substitute fossil energy, a solar heated dryer was developed, taking a plastic film greenhouse as superstructure to lower the initial costs. The solar air heaters, being incorporated into the roof, consist of a black absorber tissue, which is placed between the transparent cover of the greenhouse and an insulating air-bubble foil. To obtain a modular design, the system is structured along the ridge into segments of 2 m width. Each segment forms an independent solar air heater/batch dryer unit and is operated by a fan with a power consumption of 500 W. A prototype was tested in Yugoslavia, drying mint, sage and hops. (author).
A one-dimensional thermal model is derived to describe the temperature field around a vertical borehole heat exchanger (BHEx) for a geothermal heat pump. The inlet and outlet pipe flows are modeled as one, and an effective heat capacity is added to model the heat storage in the fluid and pipes. Parameter estimation techniques are then used to estimate various parameters associated with the model, including the thermal conductivity of the soil and of the grout which fills the borehole and surrounds the u-tube. The model is validated using test data from an experimental rig containing sand with known thermal conductivity. The estimates of the sand thermal conductivity derived from the model are found to be in good agreement with independent measurements.
A one-dimensional thermal model is derived to describe the temperature field around a vertical borehole heat exchanger (BHEX) for a geothermal heat pump. The inlet and outlet pipe flows are modeled as one, and an effective heat capacity is added to model the heat storage in the fluid and pipes. Parameter estimation techniques are then used to estimate various parameters associated with the model, including the thermal conductivity of the soil and the grout that fills the borehole and surrounds the U-tube. The model is validated using test data from an experimental rig containing sand with known thermal conductivity. The estimates of the sand's thermal conductivity derived from the model are found to be in good agreement with independent measurements.
Background Photopolymerizable poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogels offer a platform to deliver cells in vivo and support three-dimensional cell culture but should be designed to degrade in sync with neotissue development and endure the physiologic environment. Questions/purposes We asked whether (1) incorporation of degradation into PEG hydrogels facilitates tissue development comprised of essential cartilage macromolecules; (2) with early loading before pericellular matrix formation, the duration of load affects matrix production; and (3) dynamic loading in general influences macroscopic tissue development. Methods Primary bovine chondrocytes were encapsulated in hydrogels (n?=?3 for each condition). The independent variables were hydrogel degradation (nondegrading PEG and degrading olig...
One of the major challenges facing the proposed high-energy linear e^+e^ colliders is the preservation of the extremely small vertical emittance from the damping rings to the interaction point (IP). This emittance must be transported through bunch compression sections, the main linac and finally through the beam delivery system to the IP. Historically, the beam dynamics issues of each subsystem have been studied quasi-independently, with the beam conditions and tolerances being specified at the boundaries. As part of the recent International Linear Collider Technical Review Committee, new simulation tools have been developed to simulate the beam transport through the integrated system, including static and dynamic errors, stabilization systems, and tuning algorithms.
The subject of cosmic ray antiproton production is reexamined by considering other choices for the nature of the Majorana fermion chi other than the photino considered in a previous article. The calculations are extended to include cosmic-ray positrons and cosmic gamma rays as annihilation products. Taking chi to be a generic higgsino or simply a heavy Majorana neutrino with standard couplings to the Z-zero boson allows the previous interpretation of the cosmic antiproton data to be maintained. In this case also, the annihilation cross section can be calculated independently of unknown particle physics parameters. Whereas the relic density of photinos with the choice of parameters in the previous paper turned out to be only a few percent of the closure density, the corresponding value for Omega in the generic higgsino or Majorana case is about 0.2, in excellent agreement with the value associated with galaxies and one which is sufficient to give the halo mass. 52 ...
The relative merits and difficlties of the primary and secondry origin hypotheses for the observed cosmic-ray antiprotons, including the new low-energy measurement of Buffington, et al are discussed. We conclude that the cosmic-ray antiproton data may be evidence for antimatter galaxies and baryon symmetric cosmology. The present bar P data are consistent with a primary extragalactic component having /p /equiv 1+/- 3.2/0.7x10 to the -4 independent of energy. We propose that the primary extragalactic cosmic ray antiprotons are most likely from active galaxies and that expected disintegration of bar alpha/alpha ban alpha/alpha. We further predict a value for ban alpha/alpha /equiv 10 to the -5, within range of future cosmic ray detectors.
The GammeV experiment has constrained the couplings of chameleon scalar fields to matter and photons. Here we present a detailed calculation of the chameleon afterglow rate underlying these constraints. The dependence of GammeV constraints on various assumptions in the calculation is studied. We discuss GammeV-CHASE, a second-generation GammeV experiment, which will improve upon GammeV in several major ways. Using our calculation of the chameleon afterglow rate, we forecast model-independent constraints achievable by GammeV-CHASE. We then apply these constraints to a variety of chameleon models, including quartic chameleons and chameleon dark energy models. The new experiment will be able to probe a large region of parameter space that is beyond the reach of current tests, such as fifth force searches, constraints on the dimming of distant astrophysical objects, and bounds on the variation of the fine structure constant.
This paper describes the study of particles' dispersion in an isotropic turbulent flow. The particle's motion and the turbulent flow characteristics are calculated independently. While the particles' displacement is computed by the author's code, the flow is simulated with a commercial code : PowerFLOW. The particles and the flow are coupled through the relative velocity component of the aerodynamic force. When the simulated flow is turbulent, a turbulence regeneration model is used in order to get the flow instantaneous velocity. Validation of the method is done by comparing the particles' dispersion obtained with experimental results from literature and with the results calculated by FLUENT. Good accordance is found between numerical studies and experimental results. However, comparison between results of PowerFLOW coupled to the author's code and results from FLUENT shows differences when the particle's path goes through the turbulent boundary layer. (author)
It is uncertain if downregulation of ?-adrenoceptor signaling pathway is promoted by an enhanced adrenergic tone at an early stage of cardiac disease, or it develops secondary to detrimental local myocardial changes in advanced heart failure. We examined the integrity of ?-adrenoceptor signaling pathway upon chronic infusion of isoproterenol, a ?-adrenoceptor agonist, at a dose producing no structural left ventricular (LV) remodeling and systolic dysfunction. Subcutaneous isoproterenol infusion (400??g?kg?1?h?1 over 16?days) to guinea pigs using osmotic minipumps produced no change in cardiac weights, LV internal dimensions, myocyte cross-sectional area, extent of interstitial fibrosis, and basal contractile function. Isolated, perfused heart preparations from isoproterenol-treated guinea ...
With the introduction of competition and diversification into retail utility services, rate-making methods are being rethought. Rates that are strictly cost-based may be too slow in responding to changes within the utility industry. And the advent of independent power production as a significant source of energy calls for greater flexibility in pricing of wholesale utility services as well. Various deregulation or reregulation plans have been formulated, including both price cap and price floor proposals. Some regulatory authorities have embraced market-based pricing over cost-based methods as the best solution to pricing problems. This article addresses Federal Energy Regulatory Commission response to market-based rates.
In the dehydrodesulfurization of ethanethiol at 400/sup 0/C, the activities of sodium X, Y, and A zeolites decreased in the order given as did the activities of nickel, cobalt, zinc, cadmium, copper, silver, lead, manganese, barium, calcium, sodium, and iron Y zeolite catalysts. A volcano-shape order was observed between the catalytic activity and the electronegativity of the metal ions. The changes in the activity of hydrogen Y zeolite catalyst in ethanethiol dehydrodesulfurization and cumene dealkylation by calcination agreed with the decrease in the Broensted acidity but were independent of Lewis acidity. For hydrodesulfurization of thiophene, the activities of nickel, cobalt, copper, and silver Y zeolite catalysts decreased in the order given and were greater than for a commercial hydrodesulfurization catalyst; reduced and presulfided catalysts showed selective hydrodesulfurization activity. Addition of 5% of nickel or molybdenum oxides to cobalt or nickel Y ...
We present an update of the most stringent experimental bounds on the trilinear R-parity violating couplings. We then analyse bounds on the R-parity violating couplings at the unification scale by renormalising the weak scale bounds. We derive unification scale upper bounds upon the couplings which are broadly independent of the fermion mass texture assumed. The R-parity violating couplings are factors of two to five more severely bounded at the unification scale than at the electroweak scale. In the presence of quark mixing, a few of the bounds are orders of magnitude stronger than their weak scale counterparts due to new R-parity violating operators being induced in the renormalisation between high and low scales. These induced bounds are fermion mass texture dependent. New bounds upon the weak scale couplings are obtained by the requirement of perturbativity between the weak and unification scales. A comprehensive set of the latest limits is included.
Australia?s nationally consistent framework for gene technology regulation is underpinned by the Gene Technology Act 2000, administered by an independent decision-maker, the Gene Technology Regulator. The object of the Act is ?to protect the health and safety of people, and to protect the environment, by identifying risks posed by or as a result of gene technology, and by managing those risks through regulating certain dealings with genetically modified organisms?. Marketing and trade impacts are outside the scope of assessments required by the Act. Since 2001, seven licences have been issued for the commercial cultivation of genetically modified (GM) cotton with insect resistance and/or herbicide tolerance. Licences have also been issued for 32 GM cotton field trials with a broader range ...
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Pollution Prevention (EM-77) created is successful internally competed program to fund innovative projects based on projected returns. This is called the Return-on-Investment (ROI) program. EM-77 conducted a successful ROI pilot, developed and implemented sound management practices, and successfully transferred the program to several Operations Offices. Over the past 4 years sites have completed 262 ROI projects (costing $18.8 million) with claimed first-year savings of $88 million and claimed life cycle savings exceeding $300 million. EM-77 requested that Oak Ridge National Laboratory perform an independent evaluation of the site-led, DOE-HQ-funded pollution prevention (P2) ROI program to assist the Department in determining whether claimed savings are real.
Looking at all the indeterminate factors as a whole and regarding activity durations as independent random variables, the traditional stochastic network planning models ignore the inevitable relationship and dependence among activity durations when more than one activity is possibly affected by the same indeterminate factors. On this basis of analysis of indeterminate effect factors of durations, the effect factors-based stochastic network planning (EFBSNP) model is proposed, which emphasizes on the effects of not only logistic and organizational relationships, but also the dependent relationships, due to indeterminate factors among activity durations on the project period. By virtue of indeterminate factor analysis the model extracts and describes the quantitatively indeterminate effect f...
The aim of the study was to assess the usefulness of artificial neural networks (ANN) application in evaluation of scintimammography in the context of clinical data in the diagnosis of breast cancer. The results produced by ANN were compared with the diagnosis of two independent observers, nuclear medicine specialists. Material and methods: The clinical data and the numerical values derived from scintimammograms of 103 patients were the material for the study. The reference method was the result of histopathology study (core biopsy and /or FNB). Results: The overall sensitivity of physician diagnosis was 78% with specificity of 72%. The ANN produced 71% sensitivity and specificity of 73%. The physicians and ANN results were not significantly different (p=0.4619). Conclusions: Artificial neutral networks are useful tool in clinical diagnosis of breast cancer. (authors)
The authors report an effort to determine the basis for the altered migration of seven inherited albumin variants detected by one-dimensional electrophoresis in population surveys involving tribal Amerindians and Japanese children. An amino acid substitution has thus far been determined for four of the variants. The randomness in the albumin polypeptide of these and the other sixteen independently ascertained amino acid substitutions of albumin and proalbumin thus far established was analyzed; the clustering of eight of these at two positions in the six-amino acid propeptide sequence seems noteworthy. By comparison with other proteins studied by electrophoresis, albumin exhibits average variability. It is a paradox that individuals who, for genetic reasons, lack albumin exhibit no obvious ill effects; yet, electrophoretic variants of albumin are no more numerous than are variants of proteins, the absence of which results in severe disease.
The concentration decay curves for the adsorption of phenol on organobentonite were obtained in an agitated tank batch adsorber. The experimental adsorption rate data were interpreted with diffusional models as well as first-order, second-order and Langmuir kinetic models. The surface diffusion model adjusted the data quite well, revealing that the overall rate of adsorption was controlled by surface diffusion. Furthermore, the surface diffusion coefficient increased raising the mass of phenol adsorbed at equilibrium and was independent of the particle diameter in the range 0.042-0.0126cm. It was demonstrated that the overall rate of adsorption was essentially not affected by the external mass transfer. The second-order and the Langmuir kinetic models fitted the experimental data quite well; however, the kinetic constants of both models varied without any physical meaning while increasing the particle size and the mass of phenol adsorbed at equilibrium. ...
A novel adaptive stabilizer, called an Adaptive Governor Power System Stabilizer (AGPSS), which operated on the governor turbine system, was described. There has been extensive research on adaptive excitation control of generators in power systems with the goal of achieving better dynamic performance. AGPSS tracks the frequency and damping of oscillations in a power system, and adjusts to ensure that there is always sufficient damping in the system. There is no interaction between stabilizers on different generating units, and each one acts independently, consuming oscillation energy locally. These stabilizers are easy to design and this facilitates their use in multimachine systems. Results obtained by nonlinear simulation of a single-machine and a three-machine power system were discussed, illustrating the effectiveness of the stabilizers in supplying damping and improving stability. It was pointed out that the operation of AGPSS does not conflict with that of ...
The /sup 252/Cf-source-driven noise analysis method determines the subcriticality of a system containing fissionable material from the ratio of cross power spectral densities between the detectors that detect particles from the fission process and between these detectors and an ionization chamber containing a spontaneously fissioning neutron source which provides neutrons to induce fission in the system. This method has two advantages: (1) a calibration is not required and thus subcriticality can be determined from measurements only on the subcritical system of interest, and (2) the subcriticality is independent of the type of detector or its efficiency. These properties of this technique are illustrated by measurements.
This paper applies White's (1982, Econometrica 50, 1-25) information matrix (IM) test for correct model specification to proportional hazards models of univariate and multivariate censored survival data. Several alternative estimators of the test statistic are presented and their size performance examined. White also suggested an estimator of the parameter covariance matrix that was robust to certain forms of model misspecification. This has been subsequently proposed by others (e.g., Royall, 1986, International Statistical Review 54, 221-226) and applied by Huster, Brookmeyer, and Self (1989, Biometrics 45, 145-156) as part of an independence working model (IWM) approach to multivariate censored survival data. We illustrate how the IM test can be used for both univariate data and as part of the IWM approach to multivariate data. PMID:8117901
In [W. Ye, F. Wu, H.W. Yang, Phys. Lett. B 647 (2007) 118] prescission protons and ? particles of high-isospin 206Pb were shown to be almost independent of the dissipation strength Formula Not Shown . Subsequently, in [P.N. Nadtochy, et al., Phys. Lett. B 685 (2010) 258] prescission light charged particles (LCPs) were shown to have approximately the same sensitivity as neutrons to Formula Not Shown for 206Pb and 204Hg nuclei. In this Letter we point out that the reason for the apparent contradictory conclusions is that the authors in the latter did not compute the changes in the absolute yields of prescission LCPs multiplicities with increasing Formula Not Shown and compare them with typical experimental uncertainties. It is shown that the expected changes are very small in the case of ne...
Network tomography aims at inferring internal network characteristics based on measurements at the edge of the network. In loss tomography, in particular, the characteristic of interest is the loss rate of individual links. There is a significant body of work dedicated to this problem using multicast and/or unicast end-to-end probes. Independently, recent advances in network coding have shown that there are several advantages from allowing intermediate nodes to process and combine, in addition to just forward, packets. In this paper, we pose the problem of loss tomography in networks that have network coding capabilities. We design a framework for estimating link loss rates, which leverages network coding capabilities and we show that it improves several aspects of tomography, including the identifiability of links, the tradeoff between estimation accuracy and bandwidth efficiency, and the complexity of probe path selection. We discuss the cases of inferring: the ...
The purpose of this project was to build a long-range, parallel hybrid gas/electric vehicle capable of driving beyond the communter capabilities of series hybrid vehicles. It was envisioned that since the gas engine would be able to independently propel the car when needed and that the electric motor would be capable of doing the same, then you have a very desirable situation where this car can operate much more cheaply on electricity for the short distance runs under approximately 60 miles and also be able to propel the vehicle via the gas engine on the long-distance trips. During the time the car would be operating in the gas engine mode, it would be also recharging the 16 deep cycle batteries via the electric motor now being used as a generator. Then, even on long-distance trips, the electric motor could be used, after having been fully or partially recharged, to even further reduce cost per mile.