BackgroundThe Gene Ontology (GO) is a well known controlled vocabulary describing the biological process, molecular function and cellular...Full Text Available
PurposeThe purpose was to determine whether semantic set size, a measure of the number of semantic neighbors, influenced word learning, and whether the influence...Full Text Available
We survey a new area of parameter-free similarity distance measures useful in data-mining, pattern recognition, learning and automatic semantics extraction. Given a family of distances on a set of objects, a distance is universal up to a certain precision for that family if it minorizes every distance in the family between every two objects in the set, up to the stated precision (we do not require the universal distance to be an element of the family). We consider similarity distances for two types of objects: literal objects that as such contain all of their meaning, like genomes or books, and names for objects. meaning, like genomes or books, and names for objects. The latter may have literal embodyments like the first type, but may also be abstract like ``red'' or ``christianity.'' For the first type we consider a family of computable distance measures corresponding to parameters expressing ...
There are various interesting semantics' (extensions) designed for argumentation frameworks. They enable to assign a meaning, e.g., to odd-length cycles. Our main motivation is to transfer semantics' proposed by Baroni, Giacomin and Guida for argumetation frameworks with odd-length cycles to logic programs with odd-length cycles through default negation. The developed construction is even stronger. For a given logic program an argumentation framework is defined. The construction enables to transfer each semantics of the resulting argumentation framework to a semantics of the given logic program. Weak points of the construction are discussed and some future continuations of this approach are outlined.
In this paper we dealt with the comparison and linking between lexical resources with domain knowledge provided by ontologies. It is one of the issues for the combination of the Semantic Web Ontologies and Text Mining. We investigated the relations between the linguistics oriented and domain-specific semantics, by associating the GO biological process concepts to the FrameNet semantic frames. The result shows the gaps between the linguistics-oriented and domain-specific semantics on the classification of events and the grouping of target words. The result provides valuable information for the improvement of domain ontologies supporting for text mining systems. And also, it will result in benefits to language understanding technology.
The task of similarity search in multimedia databases is usually accomplished by range or k nearest neighbor queries. However, the expressing power of these "single-example" queries fails when the user's delicate query intent is not available as a single example. Recently, the well-known skyline operator was reused in metric similarity search as a "multi-example" query type. When applied on a multi-dimensional database (i.e., on a multi-attribute table), the traditional skyline operator selects all database objects that are not dominated by other objects. The metric skyline query adopts the skyline operator such that the multiple attributes are represented by distances (similarities) to multiple query examples. Hence, we can view the metric skyline as a set of representative database objects which are as similar to all the examples as possible and, simultaneously, are semantically ...
One of the central questions of molecular biology is the discovery of the semantics of DNA. This discovery relies in a critical way on a variety of expensive computations. In order to solve these computations, both parallel computers and special-purpose hardware play a major role.
Background: We consider cells as biological systems that process information by means of molecular codes. Many studies analyze cellular information processing exclusively in syntactic terms (e.g., by measuring Shannon entropy of sets of macromolecules), and abstract completely from semantic aspects that are related to the meaning of molecular information. Methods: This mini-review focusses on semantic aspects of molecular information, particularly on codes that organize the semantic dimension of molecular information. First, a general conceptual framework for describing molecular information is proposed. Second, some examples of molecular codes are presented. Third, a mathematical approach that makes the identification of molecular codes in reaction networks possible, is developed. Results...
We describe a clustering method for labeled link network (semantic graph) that can be used to group important nodes (highly connected nodes) with their relevant link's labels by using PARAFAC tensor decomposition. In this kind of network, the adjacency matrix can not be used to fully describe all information about the network structure. We have to expand the matrix into 3-way adjacency tensor, so that not only the information about to which nodes a node connects to but by which link's labels is also included. And by applying PARAFAC decomposition on this tensor, we get two lists, nodes and link's labels with scores attached to each node and labels, for each decomposition group. So clustering process to get the important nodes along with their relevant labels can be done simply by sorting the lists in decreasing order. To test the method, we construct labeled link network by using blog's dataset, where the blogs are the nodes and labeled links are the shared words ...
Philosophical semantics requires an ontology that includes negative as well as positive states of affairs as truth-makers and truth-breakers. Theories that try to do without negative states of affairs while interpreting propositional truth as positive correspondence with existent states of affairs are inherently inadequate and incomplete. A semantics and ontology of negative states of affairs can also do justice to positive states of affairs, since the iterated negative state of affairs that a negative state of affairs exists describes a positive state of affairs, but the iterated positive state of affairs that a positive state of affairs exists never describes a negative state of affairs. Negative states of affairs are not only essential to semantics, but to a complete description of the ...
Abstract Simon Saunders and David Wallace have proposed an attractive semantics for interpreting linguistic communities embedded in an Everettian multiverse. It provides a charitable interpretation of our ordinary talk about the future, and allows us to retain a principle of bivalence for propositions and to retain the law of excluded middle in the logic of propositions about the future. But difficulties arise when it comes to providing an appropriate account of the metaphysics of macroscopic objects and events. I evaluate various metaphysical frameworks which might be combined with the Saunders-Wallace semantics. I conclude that the most appropriate metaphysics to underwrite the semantics renders Everettian quantum mechanics a theory of non-overlapping worlds.
Difficulty in recalling the names of people is very common in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease and in mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, it is not known whether the difficulty in naming people in MCI reflects problems associated with lexical access or with semantic access. The aims of the present study were to investigate semantic and phonological access to proper names by use of a Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) task in individuals with multidomain amnestic MCI, individuals with amnestic MCI, and healthy controls, as well as to study the relationships between TOT production and performance in a free recall verbal memory test. In the individuals with multidomain amnestic MCI, the main process affected was phonological access; failures in phonological access were related to deficits i...
Computers understand very little of the meaning of human language. This profoundly limits our ability to give instructions to computers, the ability of computers to explain their actions to us, and the ability of computers to analyse and process text. Vector space models (VSMs) of semantics are beginning to address these limits. This paper surveys the use of VSMs for semantic processing of text. We organize the literature on VSMs according to the structure of the matrix in a VSM. There are currently three broad classes of VSMs, based on term-document, word-context, and pair-pattern matrices, yielding three classes of applications. We survey a broad range of applications in these three categories and we take a detailed look at a specific open source project in each category. Our goal in this survey is to show the breadth of applications of VSMs for semantics, to provide a new perspective on VSMs for those who are already ...
During the last years, large-scale simulations of realistic physical environments which support the interaction of multiple participants over the Internet have become increasingly available and economically significant, most notably in the computer gaming industry. Such systems, commonly called networked virtual environments (NVEs), are usually based on a client-server architecture where for performance reasons and bandwidth restrictions, the simulation is partially deferred to the clients. This inevitable architectural choice renders the simulation vulnerable to attacks against the semantic integrity of the simulation: malicious clients may attempt to compromise the physical and logical laws governing the simulation, or to alter the causality of events a posteriori. In this paper, we initiate the systematic study of semantic integrity in NVEs from a security point of view. We argue that naive policies to enforce semantic ...
This study illustrates the way to perform protocols, collect samples, and conduct laboratory analyses in order to characterize the physical properties of wood used in the industrial sector of the Valle de Aburra metropalitan area and the gains obtained by characterizing the properties of the most frequently used woods. In this investigation some of the most important sampling parameters are presented, such as taking samples in piles or accumulations of waste, handling of these samples in the laboratory and others of great importance such as the ignition point. the proposed methodology is based upon some of the international astm coal norms, for the similarity it has with wood and for the lack of information on sampling this type in wood
As organizations merge or collaborate closely, an important question is how their existing software assets should be handled. If these previously separate organizations are in the same business domain - they might even have been competitors - it is likely that they have developed similar software systems. To rationalize, these existing software assets should be integrated, in the sense that similar features should be implemented only once. The integration can be achieved in different ways. Success of it involves properly managing challenges such as making as well founded decisions as early as possible, maintaining commitment within the organization, managing the complexities of distributed teams, and synchronizing the integration efforts with concurrent evolution of the existing systems.Th...
One of the requirements for a federated information system is interoperability, the ability of one computer system to access and use the resources of another system. This feature is particularly...Full Text Available
Despite allowing for the unprecedented visualization of brain functional activity, modern neurobiological techniques have not yet been able to provide satisfactory answers to important questions about...Full Text Available
The effect of feedback and materials on perceptual learning was examined in normal hearing listeners exposed to cochlear implant simulations. Generalization was most robust when feedback paired...Full Text Available
The problems in computer vision range from edge detection and segmentation at the lowest level to the problem of cognition at the highest level. This correspondence describes the organization and operation of a semantic network array processor (SNAP) as applicable to high level computer vision problems. The architecture consists of an array of identical cells each containing a content addressable memory, microprogram control, and a communication unit. The applications discussed in this paper are the two general techniques, discrete relaxation and dynamic programming. While the discrete relaxation is discussed with reference to scene labeling and edge interpretation, the dynamic programming is tuned for stereo.
One of the requirements for a federated information system is interoperability, the ability of one computer system to access and use the resources of another system. This feature is particularly important in biomedical research systems, which need to coordinate a variety of disparate types of data. In order to meet this need, the National Cancer Institute Center for Bioinformatics (NCICB) has created the cancer Common Ontologic Representation Environment (caCORE), an interoperability infrastructure based on Model Driven Architecture. The caCORE infrastructure provides a mechanism to create interoperable biomedical information systems. Systems built using the caCORE paradigm address both aspects of interoperability: the ability to access data (syntactic interoperability) and understand the data once retrieved (semantic interoperability). This infrastructure consists of an integrated set of three major components: a controlled terminology service (Enterprise ...
This paper describes the National Research Council (NRC) Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD) system, as applied to the English Lexical Sample (ELS) task in Senseval-3. The NRC system approaches WSD as a classical supervised machine learning problem, using familiar tools such as the Weka machine learning software and Brill's rule-based part-of-speech tagger. Head words are represented as feature vectors with several hundred features. Approximately half of the features are syntactic and the other half are semantic. The main novelty in the system is the method for generating the semantic features, based on word \\hbox{co-occurrence} probabilities. The probabilities are estimated using the Waterloo MultiText System with a corpus of about one terabyte of unlabeled text, collected by a web crawler.
This article presents an unsupervised algorithm for semantic annotation of morphological descriptions of whole organisms. The algorithm is able to annotate plain text descriptions with high accuracy at the clause level by exploiting the corpus itself. In other words, the algorithm does not need lexicons, syntactic parsers, training examples, or annotation templates. The evaluation on two real-life description collections in botany and paleontology shows that the algorithm has the following desirable features: (a) reduces/eliminates manual labor required to compile dictionaries and prepare source documents; (b) improves annotation coverage: the algorithm annotates what appears in documents and is not limited by predefined and often incomplete templates; (c) learns clean and reusable concept...
A device is presented with handle containing hinges and work support arm, a flexible pin with supports and extra weights. The flexible pin is equipped with cantilevered sergments and weights. The bracket hinges on the handle are perpendicular to the axis of the flexible pin. To reduce handle vibration during drilling hard rock, the handle and brackets are joined to allow relative movement on the surface perpendicular to the hinges of the work support arm. The handle is joined to the work support arm parallel to the sides and the work support arm has holes to accomodate this. Elastic bushings are located between the lateral sides of the work support arm where it is joined to the handle.
An extension of data mining, text mining involves the extraction of information and knowledge from unstructured text. This constantly evolving field is increasingly used by major corporations, such as Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. Featuring contributions from leading researchers in the field, this book provides a detailed overview of text mining theory, applications, and visualization. The theory section discusses text mining, information retrieval, latent semantic analysis, pagerank, latent Dirichlet allocation, and probabilistic relational models. In the section on text mining applications,
Identity is a part of self-consciousness, which is also expressed as ''being in the world'' which one in turn shows to others as the Self. The assessment of the Self in a population of patients with Alzheimer's disease, according to a multidimensional definition (physical, social, spiritual), showed that the social self was impaired, and the severity of impairment of the self was correlated to apathy and lack of semantic autobiographical memory. It also appears that ipseity is selectively affected by the disease.
... Author: Radev, Dragomir R. Subjects: natural language processing DeweyClass: 764 Resource type: document Natural Language Processing Research Group Research Group based in the Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield. Conducts research into natural language analysis topics including data mining/information extraction, dialogue, and semantics. Author: Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield Subjects: natural language processing DeweyClass: 764 Resource ...
A report on the Canadian Nuclear Society Conference on robotics and remote handling in the nuclear industry, September 1984. Remote handling in reactor operations, particularly in the Candu reactors is discussed, and the costs and benefits of use of remote handling equipment are considered. Steam generator inspection and repair is an area in which practical application of robotic technology has made a major advance. (U.K.).
As a part of the compatibility analysis of DUPIC fuel in CANDU reactors, the radiation physics calculations have been performed for the CANDU primary shielding system, thermal shield, radiation damage, transportation cask and storage. At first, the primary shield system was assessed for the DUPIC fuel core, which has shown that the dose rates and heat deposition rates through the primary shield of the DUPIC fuel core are not much different from those of natural uranium core because the power levels on the core periphery are similar for both cores. Secondly, the radiation effects on the critical components and the themal shields were assessed when the DUPIC fuel is loaded in CANDU reactors. Compared with the displacement per atom (DPA) of the critical component for natural uranium core, that for the DUPIC fuel core was increased by -30% for the innermost groove and the weld points and by -10% for the corner of the calandria subshells and annular plates in the ...
Safety and environmental assessments have been made of conceptual fusion power plant designs employing silicon carbide composites (SiC/SiC) as the first wall and blanket structure material. These have used similar analysis methods to earlier studies of designs based on vanadium alloy or low-activation martensitic steel, allowing direct comparisons. The very low short-term activation of silicon carbide results in an almost insignificant level of decay heat in postulated loss of coolant accidents, and a lower {gamma}-dose rate on the timescale of relevance to handling for maintenance operations. However on the longer time-scale, of interest in possible recycling operations, decommissioning and waste management, SiC/SiC appears to perform no better than vanadium alloy or low-activation martensitic steel, due in part to the activation of impurities in a realistic composition. Furthermore, its increased neutron transparency may result in higher ...
Scientists have just taken a big step toward understanding the cause of Lou Gehrig's disease, one of the most devastating nerve degenerative diseases. A large team of researchers, led by Robert Brown Jr. of Harvards's Massachusetts General Hospital and Robert Horvitz, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, report in the 4 March Nature that they've identified the gene that causes a hereditary form of the condition, which also goes by the name amyothophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). While most ALS cases - approximately 90% - are apparently sporadic' and not caused by an inherited gene defect, all the patients have such similar symptons that researchers are hopeful that what they learn about hereditary ALS will also apply to the sporadic form, possibly leading to new therapeutic strategies that will help both. It's a very important finding,' says neurobiologist ...
An actuating mechanism of a mine combine is proposed. It includes a rotating platform in a vertical plane on which by hinges with the possibility of rotation parallel to the plane of the platform there are handles with cutting drums and a mechanism for extension of the handle which has hydraulic cylinders. With a decrease in load on the hinges of the handles from bending forces, on the platform between the front edge of the platform and the site of attachment of the handle hinges there are openings. Each handle has a support projection which is placed in this opening with the possibility of movement. A clamp plank is installed on it which covers the opening. The distance from the center of the projection support to the axis of the corresponding hinge is greater than the height of embedding of this hinge into the platform.
This guide describes an acceptable method of complying with the Commission's regulations with regard to the quality assurance requirements for the packaging, shipping, receiving, storage, and handling of items for water-cooled nuclear power plants.
This plan describes the Quality Assurance Program which will be applied to spent fuel handling and packaging tests conducted at the Area 25 E-MAD facility, Nevada Test Site (NTS).
The purpose of the present study was to determine whether exposure to exogenous physiological concentrations of caffeine influence contractility, Ca2+handling, and fatigue development...Full Text Available
... a way to model a munition's terminal effects in a ... following attributes are handled in a stochastic fashion ... be improved by managing a queue of buffers ...
This is a continuation of research that started in July 2007 at the Deep River Science Academy. The research was related to the effects of endplate thickness and misalignment of fuel bundles in the fuel channel on pressure losses of reactor coolant. Based on this research, a new approach to refueling of the CANDU reactor has been developed. It greatly simplifies fuel handling equipment and increases its reliability. It also reduces required staffing, as well as operating and maintenance costs associated with fuel handling. (author)
Radioactive waste shipping and receiving facilities presently planned for commercial and defence high level nuclear waste will handle waste packages at frequencies far in excess of those in common practice today. If current limits for radiation levels at the cask surface and current handling methods are used, high cumulative personnel exposure to ionizing radiation is projected to occur. To reduce these exposure levels, alternate handling methods are being developed and demonstrated. The production nature of cask receiving operations suggests commercial robotics be incorporated into a remote handling system to reduce predicted worker exposure to acceptable levels while maintaining or increasing throughput. The first phase of cask handling system development culminated in a proof-of-principle test demonstrating the feasibility of performing cask receiving and unloading operations in ...
Radioactive waste shipping and receiving facilities presently planned for commercial and defense high-level nuclear waste will handle waste packages at frequencies far in excess of those in common practice today. If current limits for radiation levels at the cask surface and current handling methods are used, high cumulative personnel exposure to ionizing radiation is projected to occur. To reduce these exposure levels, alternate handling methods are being developed and demonstrated. The production nature of cask receiving operations, suggests commercial robotics be incorporated into a remote handling system to reduce predicted worker exposure to acceptable levels while maintaining or increasing throughput. The first phase of cask handling system development culminated in a proof-of-principle test demonstrating the feasibility of performing cask receiving and unloading operations in ...
Radioactive waste shipping and receiving facilities presently planned for commercial and defense nuclear waste will handle waste packages at frequencies far in excess of those in common practice today. Unacceptable personnel exposure to ionizing radiation is projected to occur if current limits for radiation levels at the cask surface and current handling methods are used. To reduce these exposure levels, alternate handling methods are being developed and demonstrated. The production nature of cask receiving operations suggests commercial robotics be incorporated into a remote handling system to reduce predicted worker exposure to acceptable levels, while maintaining or increasing throughput. The first phase of cask handling system development culminated in a proof-of-principle test demonstrating the feasibility of performing cask receiving and unloading operations in a remote and ...
Many hoarding rodents use burrows not only for dwelling and protection from natural enemies, but also for food storage. However, little is known how burrows used by scatter-hoarding animals influence their foraging behaviors. In addition, handling time for a given food item has a fundamental impact on hoarding strategies of these hoarding animals: food items with longer handling time are more likely to be hoarded due to increasing predation risk because the animals spend more time outside their burrows if they consumed such food. By providing with two types of artificial burrows (aboveground vs. underground) and two types of food items (i.e. seeds) with contrasting handling times, we investigated how burrow condition and handling time co-influence hoarding strategies of a key scatter-hoard...
One of the requirements for a federated information system is interoperability, the ability of one computer system to access and use the resources of another system. This feature is particularly important in biomedical research systems, which need to coordinate a variety of disparate types of data. In order to meet this need, the National Cancer Institute Center for Bioinformatics (NCICB) has created the cancer Common Ontologic Representation Environment (caCORE), an interoperability infrastructure based on Model Driven Architecture. The caCORE infrastructure provides a mechanism to create interoperable biomedical information systems. Systems built using the caCORE paradigm address both aspects of interoperability: the ability to access data (syntactic interoperability) and understand the ...
Abstract Over the last 7 years, the AIMTech Research Group in the University of Leeds has used cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) to inform a range of research activities in the fields of information behavior and information systems. In this article, we identify certain openings and theoretical challenges in the field of information behavior, which sparked our initial interest in CHAT: context, technology, and the link between practice and policy. We demonstrate the relevance of CHAT in studying information behavior and addressing the identified openings and argue that by providing a framework and hierarchy of activity-action-operation and semantic tools, CHAT is able to overcome many of the uncertainties concerning information behavior research. In particular, CHAT provides resear...
Bedwyr is a generalization of logic programming that allows model checking directly on syntactic expressions possibly containing bindings. This system, written in OCaml, is a direct implementation of two recent advances in the theory of proof search. The first is centered on the fact that both finite success and finite failure can be captured in the sequent calculus by incorporating inference rules for {\\em definitions} that allow {\\em fixed points} to be explored. As a result, proof search in such a sequent calculus can capture simple model checking problems as well as may and must behavior in operational semantics. The second is that higher-order abstract syntax is directly supported using term-level $\\lambda$-binders and the quantifier known as $\
We outline a neo-Meinongian framework labeled as Modal Meinongian Metaphysics (MMM) to account for the ontology and semantics of fictional discourse. Several competing accounts of fictional objects are originated by the fact that our talking of them mirrors incoherent intuitions: mainstream theories of fiction privilege some such intuitions, but are forced to account for others via complicated paraphrases of the relevant sentences. An ideal theory should resort to as few paraphrases as possible. In Sect.?1, we make this explicit via two methodological principles, called the Minimal Revision and the Acceptability Constraint. In Sect.?2, we introduce the standard distinction between internal and external fictional discourse. In Sects.?3?5, we discuss the approaches of (traditional) Meinongia...
Episodic memory can be regarded as part of a more general system, unique to humans, for mental time travel, and the construction of future episodes. This allows more detailed planning than is afforded by the more general mechanisms of instinct, learning, and semantic memory. To be useful, episodic memory need not provide a complete or even a faithful record of past events, and may even be part of a process whereby we construct fictional accounts. The properties of language are aptly designed for the communication and sharing of episodes, and for the telling of stories; these properties include symbolic representation of the elements of real-world events, time markers, and combinatorial rules. Language and mental time travel probably co-evolved during the Pleistocene, when brain size increased dramatically. PMID:18641975
This paper describes the Knowledge Encapsulation Framework (KEF), a suite of tools to enable knowledge inputs (relevant, domain-specific facts) to modeling and simulation projects, as well as other domains that require effective collaborative workspaces for knowledge-based task. This framework can be used to capture evidence (e.g., trusted material such as journal articles and government reports), discover new evidence (covering both trusted and social media), enable discussions surrounding domain-specific topics and provide automatically generated semantic annotations for improved corpus investigation. The current KEF implementation is presented within a wiki environment, providing a simple but powerful collaborative space for team members to review, annotate, discuss and align evidence with their modeling frameworks. The novelty in this approach lies in the combination of automatically tagged and user-vetted resources, which increases user trust in the ...
Computer vision imposes unique requirements on the representation and manipulation of image data and knowledge. At a vision system's lowest level are sensors that represent an image with purely numeric image arrays, while at the highest level are semantic world models that provide the final interpretation of the scene. In between are thousands of intermediate descriptions, many of which must be repeatedly accessed and processed during interpretation. In this article, the authors describe a representation and management system for use at the intermediate (symbolic) level of vision. Based on database management methodology, the intermediate symbolic representation (ISR) mediates access to intermediate-level vision data and forms an active interface to the higher-level inference processes that construct an image's interpretation. The system supports important types of data and operations and can be adapted to the changing needs of ongoing research. ...
This article analyses the process of preparing the proposal for a new Finnish National Waste Plan (NWP 2007-2016). The focus of this study is on the use of the alternative concepts of waste prevention or material efficiency and on the shift in discourse from the former to the latter concept. The strengths and weaknesses of these competing concepts were analysed using criteria such as synergy, semantic aspects, legal context and applicability to monitoring. The discourse presented by different stakeholder groups was analysed. The implications of choosing either of the concepts were illustrated. The author concludes that waste prevention can be promoted just as well, or even better from the perspective of improving material efficiency. The concept must be complemented by policy instruments w...
The languages of the world exhibit a range of formal phenomena (e.g. accenting, syntactic reordering and morphological marking) that are commonly linked to the information-structural notion of focus. Crucially, there does not seem to be a one-to-one mapping between particular formal features (focus marking devices) and focus, neither from a cross-linguistic perspective, nor within individual languages. This raises the question of what is actually being expressed if we say that a constituent is focused in a particular language, and whether, or to what extent, the same semantic or pragmatic content is formally expressed by focus-marking across languages. This special issue addresses the question of focus and its grammatical realization from a number of theoretical and empirical perspectives....
Extracting mining subsidence land from remote sensing (RS) images is one of important research contents for environment monitoring in mining area. The accuracy of traditional extracting models based on spectral features is low. In order to extract subsidence land from RS images with high accuracy, some domain knowledge should be imported and new models should be proposed. This paper, in terms of the disadvantage of traditional extracting models, imports domain knowledge from practice and experience, converts semantic knowledge into digital information, and proposes a new model for the specific task. By selecting the Luan mining area as a study area, this new model is tested based on GIS and related knowledge. The result shows that the proposed method is more precise than traditional methods and can satisfy the demands of land subsidence monitoring in mining area. 10 refs., 4 figs., 1 tab.
In order to alleviate the inefficiencies caused by the interaction of the logic and functional sides, integrated languages may take advantage of \\emph{demand} information -- i.e. knowing in advance which computations are needed and, to which extent, in a particular context. This work studies \\emph{demand analysis} -- which is closely related to \\emph{backwards strictness analysis} -- in a semantic framework of \\emph{partial predicates}, which in turn are constructive realizations of ideals in a domain. This will allow us to give a concise, unified presentation of demand analysis, to relate it to other analyses based on abstract interpretation or strictness logics, some hints for the implementation, and, more important, to prove the soundness of our analysis based on \\emph{demand equations}. There are also some innovative results. One of them is that a set constraint-based analysis has been derived in a stepwise manner using ideas taken from the area of program ...
Frame Analysis has come to play an increasingly stronger role in the study of social movements in Sociology and Political Science. While significant steps have been made in providing a theory of frames and framing, a systematic characterization of the frame concept is still largely lacking and there are no rec-ognized criteria and methods that can be used to identify and marshal frame evi-dence reliably and in a time and cost effective manner. Consequently, current Frame Analysis work is still too reliant on manual annotation and subjective inter-pretation. The goal of this paper is to present an approach to the representation, acquisition and analysis of frame evidence which leverages Content Analysis, In-formation Extraction and Semantic Search methods to provide a systematic treat-ment of a Frame Analysis and automate frame annotation.
A real-time neutron radiography imaging system has been installed at the Texas A and M University Nuclear Science Center. The system employs a scintillating screen viewed by a low-light TV camera with a front surface mirror placed at 45deg to the neutron beam. The key components of the system are the neutron camera and the image capture and processing unit. The neutron camera uses an NE 426 scintillating screen (ZnS), front surface mirror, remote focus and zoom lens, intensified relay optics (IRO) and monochrome CCD television camera. The image capture and processing unit consists of an IBM PC AT-compatible computer, arithmetic frame grabber, frame processor and high-resolution color monitor. The neutron camera is similar to others using a silicon intensified target (SIT) television camera to provide a TV image of the low-level light from a NE 426 screen. The IRO and CCD camera are used in place of the SIT camera. The computer digitizes the TV image (512x512x8 bit) ...
A real-time neutron radiography imaging system has been installed at the Texas A and M University Nuclear Science Center. The system employs a scintillating screen viewed by a low-light TV camera with a front surface mirror placed at 45deg to the neutron beam. The key components of the system are the neutron camera and the image capture and processing unit. The neutron camera uses an NE 426 scintillating screen (ZnS), front surface mirror, remote focus and zoom lens, intensified relay optics (IRO) and monochrome CCD television camera. The image capture and processing unit consists of an IBM PC AT-compatible computer, arithmetic frame grabber, frame processor and high-resolution color monitor. The neutron camera is similar to others using a silicon intensified target (SIT) television camera to provide a TV image of the low-level light from a NE 426 screen. The IRO and CCD camera are used in place of the SIT camera. The computer digitizes the TV image (512x512x8 bit) ...
Processing certain raw materials containing natural radioactive isotopes (e.g. U-238, Th-232 or K- 40) into products such as glas, abrasives, grinding materials or electrodes used for gasshielded tungsten-arc welding also leads to certain concentrations of industrial waste containing natural radioactive materials. Such industrial waste does not necessarily contain natural radioactive substances in concentrations exceeding the highest possible levels but nevertheless in significantly measurable quantities. This, however, frequently leads to confusion bordering on irritation by entities processing such substances as well as the general public, since they tend to believe natural radioactive substances in unobjectable concentration to cause similar or identical - health - consequences as man made radioactive substances in detrimental concentration. Radioactive materials may be incorporated intentionally or unintentionally into the product as main or additional ...
Processing certain raw materials containing natural radioactive isotopes (e.g. U-238, Th-232 or K- 40) into products such as glas, abrasives, grinding materials or electrodes used for gasshielded tungsten-arc welding also leads to certain concentrations of industrial waste containing natural radioactive materials. Such industrial waste does not necessarily contain natural radioactive substances in concentrations exceeding the highest possible levels but nevertheless in significantly measurable quantities. This, however, frequently leads to confusion bordering on irritation by entities processing such substances as well as the general public, since they tend to believe natural radioactive substances in unobjectable concentration to cause similar or identical - health - consequences as man made radioactive substances in detrimental concentration. Radioactive materials may be incorporated intentionally or unintentionally into the product as main or additional ...
The gotten concentrations of radon-222 in the installations of the IEN had been determined using the active and passive methods. The active method consisted on the use of the alpha spectrometry with a portable equipment Tracerlab Instruments WLM- Plus. In the determination for the passive method, one used detectors of nuclear strokes of type LEXAN. The raised values had been gotten in the wastes deposit and its annexes, room of the press and laboratory of wastes handling. It was observed, in this sector, an instantaneous measure of alpha spectrometry, concentrations around 1000 Bq.m-3, which had over all to the function of storage, the sector, a great volume of natural radioactive materials, especially of radium-226. This determination was carried through in an extreme situation of ventilation zero, where the gates had been kept closed during the execution of the same one. It was observed, however, a considerable fall, with values ten times inferior, after to ...
As the jump from 2D to 3D, seismic exploration lives a new revolution with the use of converted PS waves. Indeed PS converted waves are proving their potential as a tool for imaging through gas; lithology discrimination; structural confirmation; and more. Nevertheless, processing converted shear data and in particular determining accurate P and S velocity models for depth imaging of these data is still a challenging problem, especially when the subsurface is anisotropic. To solve this velocity model determination problem we propose to use reflection travel time tomography. In a first step, we derive a new approximation of the exact phase velocity equation of the SV wave in anisotropic (TI) media. This new approximation is valid for non-weak anisotropy and is mathematically simpler to handle than the exact equation. Then, starting from an isotropic reflection tomography tool developed at Lt-'P, we extend the isotropic bending ray tracing method to the ...
A Lurgi baseline study was requested by the DOE/GRI Operating Committee of the Joint Coal Gasification Program for the purpose of updating the economics of earlier Lurgi coal gasification plant studies for the production of substitute natural gas (SNG) based on commercially advanced technologies. The current study incorporates the recent experience with large size Lurgi plants in an effort to improve capital and operating costs of earlier plant designs. The present coal gasification study is based on a mine mouth plant producing 250 billion Btu (HHV) per day of SNG using the Lurgi dry bottom coal gasification technology. A Western subbituminous coal was designated as the plant food, obtained from the Rosebud seam at Colstrip, Montana. This study presents the detailed description of an integrated facility which utilizes coal, air, and water to produce 250 billion Btu (HHV) per day of SNG. The plant consists of coal handling and preparation, twenty-six Lurgi dry ...
The objective of this study is to develop a method to aid in the selection of an overburden handling system in surface coal mining. The selection procedure consists of three major parts. The first part is aimed at rating the equipment's potential to perform the environmental protection related activities and then integrating this rating into the system selection process. The second part is an engineering analysis of the design of pit layouts and the operation of alternative overburden handling systems. The third part consists of a cost and sensitivity analysis of alternative systems on different mining situations. Specifically, the work includes: (1) a Delphi study to determine the magnitude of the environmental impacts and to quantify the relationship between mining practices and environmental remedies, (2) a scoring model to set up an index of the relative capability of equipment to do the environmental protection related jobs, (3) ...
There are two major distinct activities involved with reprocessing of nuclear fuel. They are: a) Mechanical handling of the fuel in the head end plants; and b) chemical dissolution and separation of unused fuel, useful by-products and waste products. Plants and facilities associated with the former include significant remote handling equipment that is designed for handling of fuel for normal production processes. These equipment are selected and designed to meet the design throughput of the plant taking into consideration ease of their operation and maintenance in conjunction with statutory regulations on safety and operator dose uptake. Nevertheless, during the life of the plant, there are instances when special equipment is called for to access part of the plant and undertake tasks such as inspection, maintenance and modification to improve the existing process. BNFL has much experience in the design and application of ...
An improved lockout assembly for locking a circuit breaker in a selected off or on position is provided. The lockout assembly includes a lock block and a lock pin. The lock block has a hollow interior which fits over the free end of a switch handle of the circuit breaker. The lock block includes at least one hole that is placed in registration with a hole in the free end of the switch handle. A lock tab on the lock block serves to align and register the respective holes on the lock block and switch handle. A lock pin is inserted through the registered holes and serves to connect the lock block to the switch handle. Once the lock block and the switch handle are connected, the position of the switch handle is prevented from being changed by the lock tab bumping up against a stationary housing portion of the circuit breaker. When the lock pin installed, an ...
This document presents a detailed schedule for the implementation of the strategy for managing defense remote-handled (RH) transuranic (TRU) waste. The baseline management strategy was defined in the Defense Remote-Handled Transuranic Waste Cost/Schedule Optimization Study and is summarized in this document. Also included are revised RH TRU waste inventory projections, current site management plans, a list of key decision points and milestones, and a discussion of uncertainties associated with management of RH TRU waste. The plans are summarized in a detailed schedule diagram and in an RH TRU waste work off diagram. 9 refs., 5 figs., 4 tabs.
In order to improve the working conditions for the operators of drilling rigs, the work area for handling of pipes and tubes is arranged on a main deck convered by a drill deck, which has openings closable by hatch cover panels. The derrick is enclosed in a cover, from which tunnels extend out over the drill deck and comprises lifting means for handling of pipes and tubes between the decks. The tunnels are connected to the cover of the derrick by raised enclosures permitting the swinging of pipes from a horizontal position in the tunnel to a vertical position in the derrick, and vice versa. There is a door, at least at one of the enclosures, permitting handling of especially long objects. Basically, the handling of pipes and tubes can be performed within areas fully protected from the weather.
D-11. The Contractor shall pack and mark all hardware deliverable under this ... Handling, and Transportation, and/or MIL-STD-2073-1 and MIL-STD 2073-2, ...
Approximately 65% of PSI structures report some type of ligand(s) that is bound in the crystal structure. Here, a description is given of how such ligands are handled and analyzed at the JCSG and a...Full Text Available
We present interactive computer programs for the analysis of nucleic acid sequences. In order to handle these programs, minimum computer experience is sufficient. The nucleotide sequence of the human...Full Text Available
The National Food and Nutrient Analysis Program (NFNAP) was implemented in 1997 to update and improve the quality of food composition data maintained by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). NFNAP was designed to sample and analyze frequently consumed foods in the U.S. food supply using statistically rigorous sampling plans, established sample handling procedures, and qualified analytical laboratories. Methods for careful handling of food samples from acquisition to analysis were developed to ensure the integrity of the samples and subsequent generation of accurate nutrient values. The infrastructure of NFNAP, under which over 1500 foods have been sampled, mandates tested sample handling protocols for a wide variety of foods. The majority of these foods were categorized into ...
This book discusses the procedures applied for the clinical nuclear medicine laboratory. The procedures are presented as proven guidelines. The chapters are included on quality assurance, radionuclide handling, and radiation safety.
allowed an initial assessment of ADS-33 handling quality requirements for an aircraft of this ...... then executing 180 or 360 degree turns in an attempt to ...
Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Whirlpool Galaxy Deep Field Credit & Copyright: Jon Christensen Explanation: Follow the handle...
on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. M51: Cosmic Whirlpool Credit & Copyright: Tony and Daphne Hallas Explanation: Follow the handle of the Big...
Sep 19, 2005 ... within a sealed tube to control the environment to which a sample mounts are better suited to handling the very small crystal is exposed. ...
such as public utilities, waste disposal sites, large energy dependent facilities including factories, institutions ( ...provides immediate identification of PCB wastes, informs company officials of any special handling or disposal techniques ...provides immediate identification of PCB wastes, informs company officials of any special handling or disposal techniques
This Radioactive and Mixed Waste Management Plan for the Hazardous Waste Handling Facility at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory is written to meet the requirements for an annual report of radioactive and mixed waste management activities outlined in DOE Order 5820.2A. Radioactive and mixed waste management activities during FY 1994 listed here include principal regulatory and environmental issues and the degree to which planned activities were accomplished.
This book contains the proceedings of the International Topical Meeting on Remote Systems and Robotics in Hostile Environments. It is organized under the following sessions: Worldwide Applications Overview; Operating Mobile Systems; Sensors and Control Systems; Space Applications; Reactor Operations and Surveillance; Remote Equipment for Hazardous Operations; Future Mobile System; Mining and Construction Operations; Special Applications; Hot Cell Applications; Processing; Reactor Operations and Maintenance; Decontamination and Waste Handling; Remote Handling Development and Demonstration.
The periodic mode is analyzed together with two conventional boundary handling modes for particle swarm. By providing an infinite space that comprises periodic copies of original search space, it avoids possible disorganizing of particle swarm that is induced by the undesired mutations at the boundary. The results on benchmark functions show that particle swarm with periodic mode is capable of improving the search performance significantly, by compared with that of conventional modes and other algorithms.
This paper describes a method for preparing the sample handling and inlet system of a mass spectrometer for analysis of a subsequent sample following analysis of a previous sample comprising the flushing of the system interior with supercritical CO{sub 2} and venting the interior. The method eliminates the effect of system ``memory`` on the subsequent analysis, especially following persistent samples such as xenon and krypton.
A lock out assembly for a circuit breaker which consists of a generally step-shaped unitary base with an aperture in the small portion of the step-shaped base and a roughly S shaped retaining pin which loops through the large portion of the step-shaped base. The lock out assembly is adapted to fit over a circuit breaker with the handle switch projecting through the aperture, and the retaining pin projecting into an opening of the handle switch, preventing removal.
The Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) reactor characterization by the Hanford Engineering Development Laboratory (HEDL) includes extensive neutronic measurements during startup and initial operation. To aid in the handling and counting of the thousands of passive dosimeters used as part of this effort, an automated dosimetry specimen handling, positioning, and counting system was designed and developed by Westinghouse Hanford for the Department of Energy.
An outline of the instrumentation and control systems associated with fuelling machines is given. The control systems such as hydraulic system, oil hydraulic system, electric control system and the remote control systems have been discussed in detail. The difference between RAPP and MAPP fuel handling control systems has been explained. A computer based system for the Narora fuel handling control system is also discussed. (S.K.K.).
The objective of the ''Waste Handling Building Conceptual Study'' is to develop proposed design requirements for the repository Waste Handling System in sufficient detail to allow the surface facility design to proceed to the License Application effort if the proposed requirements are approved by DOE. Proposed requirements were developed to further refine waste handling facility performance characteristics and design constraints with an emphasis on supporting modular construction, minimizing fuel inventory, and optimizing facility maintainability and dry handling operations. To meet this objective, this study attempts to provide an alternative design to the Site Recommendation design that is flexible, simple, reliable, and can be constructed in phases. The design concept will be input to the ''Modular Design/Construction and Operation Options ...
The main problems arising in decommissioning nuclear-powered submarines (NPS) relate to choosing a concept of handling reactor compartments followed by handling technology development. Reactor compartments (RC) are characterized with extremely space-saving or integral layout of large-size power equipment and systems, restricted access for dismantling, high radiation dose rates in a number of bays of RC. The above RC features pose a problem to find optimum option of RC utilization which on the one hand would be the most cost efficient, and the safest as possible on the other, i.e. dose commitments of personnel involved should be minimum, and effect on population and environment should be negligible. The main radiation factors specifying safety in RC handling at any decommissioning stage are as follows: (1) total radioactivity integrated in reactor facility (RF); (2) distribution of this radioactivity through RF equipment and ...
This paper describes the FACT system for knowledge discovery from text. It discovers associations - patterns of co-occurrence - amongst keywords labeling the items in a collection of textual documents. In addition, FACT is able to use background knowledge about the keywords labeling the documents in its discovery process. FACT takes a query-centered view of knowledge discovery, in which a discovery request is viewed as a query over the implicit set of possible results supported by a collection of documents, and where background knowledge is used to specify constraints on the desired results of this query process. Execution of a knowledge-discovery query is structured so that these back-ground-knowledge constraints can be exploited in the search for possible results. Finally, rather than requiring a user to specify an explicit query expression in the knowledge-discovery query language, FACT presents the user with a simple-to-use graphical interface to the query language, with the ...
We examined fat phobia, defined as a pathological fear of fatness, by constructing the Fat Phobia Scale, determining its reliability and validity, examining correlates of fat phobia, and using a treatment approach designed to decrease fat phobia. Study 1 describes the development of the Fat Phobia Scale, a 50-item, modified 5-point semantic differential scale. Subjects (974 females and 117 males) completed the scale; factor analysis yielded six factors. Respondents who are average weight, female, younger, have more than a high school education, or are nonmedical professionals are more likely to have fat phobic attitudes. Study 2 examines fat phobic attitudes of women (N = 40) who had negative feelings about their bodies. Subjects completed the Fat Phobia Scale before and after a treatment approach designed to reduce their feelings of responsibility for fatness. Total scores on the Fat Phobia Scale and scores on all six factors decreased significantly, indicating a ...
Analysis of the use of information sources by family physicians is important for both practical and theoretical reasons. First, analysis of the ways in which family physicians handle information may...Full Text Available
BackgroundIn prognostic studies model instability and missing data can be troubling factors. Proposed methods for handling these situations are bootstrapping (B) and Multiple imputation...Full Text Available
The astronomical number of letters handled by the Post Office makes automatic sorting technology essential. Key roles are played by the postcode system and an ink-jet printer that has been developed to use phosphorescent inks.
The Brain Database is an information tool designed to aid in the integration of clinical and research results in neuroanatomy and regional biochemistry. It can handle a wide range of data types including...Full Text Available
VACUTAINER PPT plasma preparation tubes were evaluated to determine the effects of various handling and shipping conditions on plasma human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) load determinations. Plasmas...Full Text Available
...same sort of handle ? religious that we have on global warming or energy policy or ...other words my claim is that we need to study religion the way we study global warming and all the other really serious phenomena on this planet ...
Mar 2, 2011 ... CCT's software is capable of simultaneously handling incoming ... has been using CCTK to automate its remote control rocket cryogenic fueling systems. ... seismic, infrared, and proximity sensor data with auto-tracking ...
With the exception of some minerals, the specific activity of natural radioactive material is below 370 Bq/g, their handling thus not being subject to authorization or the duty of reporting according to section 4 para. 2 of the Radiological Protection Ordinance. Moreover, there is required no handling license for prospecting, mining and processing of radioactive minerals; they are subject to the procedures for the plans of operation of the mining laws of the Federal States. License-free handling of natural radioactive material may result in the production of radioactive waste, the disposal of which must be authorized according to sect. 47 of the Radiological Protection Ordinance if the specific activity exceeds the free amounts of column 4 in Table IV of Appendix IV by a factor of 10"-"4/g. This inconsistency is discussed by means of the following examples: (1) fly ash and slag from coal power plants, (2) flue dust from ...
Organophosphates and carbamates (OPs/CMs) are known for their acetylcholinesterase inhibiting character. A cross-sectional study of pesticide handling practices and self-perceived symptoms of acute...Full Text Available
... the provisions of NASA Handbook (NHB) 6000.1, Requirements for Packaging, Handling, and Transportation, and/or MIL-STD-2073-1 and MIL-STD-2073-2, ...
Outpatient practice after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is gaining momentum due to constantly optimizing results. Furthermore, the availability of limited beds to handle the large volume...Full Text Available
Policies and regulations in the current health care environment have impacted the manner in which patient data - especially protected health information (PHI) - are handled in the clinical and...Full Text Available
Optimal sample handling techniques for tissue preparation and storage, RNA extraction and quantification, and target gene detection are crucial for reliable gene expression analysis. Methods...Full Text Available
The Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF)is a 400 MW (th) sodium-cooled fast flux test reactor located on the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State. The FFTF is operated by the Westinghouse Hanford Company for the United States Department of Energy. The FFTF is a three loop plant designed primarily for the purpose of testing full-scale core components in an environment prototypic of future liquid metal reactors. The plant design emphasizes features to enhance this test capability, especially in the area of the core, reactor vessel, and refueling system. Eight special test positions are provided in the vessel head to permit contact instrumented experiments to be installed and irradiated. These test positions effectively divide the core into three sectors. Each sector requires its own In-Vessel Handling Machine (IVHM) to access all the core positions. Since the core and the in-vessel refueling components are submerged under sodium, all handling ...
During the operation of the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF), radioactive gases, primarily xenon and krypton, will be produced which will require processing and storing. Two systems have been installed in the FFTF for handling these gases: (1) one to handle, primarily, the reactor cover gas system, and (2) a second to handle the cells and cover gas systems, other than the reactor, whose atmosphere may become contaminated. The system that processes the reactor cover gas, which is argon, is called the Radioactive Argon Processing System (RAPS). The effluent argon from RAPS will normally be sufficiently decontaminated to allow its reuse as the reactor cover gas. If the radioactive level in the RAPS becomes too high, the exhaust stream will be diverted to the Cell Atmosphere Processing System (CAPS), a system which can function as a backup to RAPS. The design and operation of the RAPS and CAPS systems are described and certain ...
A nucleic acid extraction system that can handle small numbers of specimens with a short test turnaround time and short hands-on time is desirable for emergent testing. We performed a comparative validation...Full Text Available
BackgroundThe search for cluster structure in microarray datasets is a base problem for the so-called "-omic sciences". A difficult problem in clustering is how to handle data with...Full Text Available
subject to a learning curve which should help to lessen the user's time at KSC. An MMSE Payload Handling Fixture has ...... (F4.I ASSlUN IASILlM.ny.CTC I ...
Secretariat of the Basel Convention United Nations Office at Geneva ...such as public utilities, waste disposal sites, large energy dependent facilities including factories, institutions (hospitals, ...it provides immediate identification of PCB wastes, informs company officials of any special handling or disposal techniques
Recent health care policies and regulations have impacted the manner in which patient data – especially protected health information (PHI) – are handled in both the clinical...Full Text Available
To estimate the waste management needs of a fusion power reactor, a scheme for handling radioactive waste from a fusion plant has been devised. The handling scheme proceeds with radioactive waste, primarily from blanket replacement, being stored on-site; waste in cooled and shielded casks is then isolated off-site; finally, the materials are recycled. Using activities and component lifetimes supplied by designers, several conceptual fusion power reactors have been analyzed and their waste streams compared to fission reactors with regard to total activity, specific activity, and lifetimes of activity.
To estimate the waste management needs of a fusion power reactor, a scheme for handling radioactive waste from a fusion plant has been devised. The handling scheme proceeds with radioactive waste, primarily from blanket replacement, being stored on-site; waste in cooled and shielded casks is then isolated off-site; finally, the materials are recycled. Using activities and component lifetimes supplied by designers, several conceptual fusion power reactors have been analyzed and their waste streams compared to fission reactors with regard to total activity, specific activity, and lifetimes of activity.
A review of the literature was undertaken to determine the potential for development of instrumentation for on-board remote sensing of coal quality. This review report acts as an inventory of commercially available techniques being tested or under development, particularly in the areas of the cutting horizon measurement methods associated with longwall mining equipment and coal/waste monitoring techniques in coal handling systems. While technology is available which can discriminate rocks from coal on a conveyor belt, the literature indicates that this hardware has yet to be adapted to continuous surface mining machines. 23 refs., 18 figs.
As a direct result of its interest in the use of robotics within active plants, British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. (BNFL) has adopted a positive attitude toward both national and European initiatives in this area. During the early operation of the Sellafield reprocessing plant, the process vessels and cell voids were monitored using simple pole and camera combinations. In 1985, BNFL embarked on the provision of a series of machines intended to satisfy the advancing needs for inspection while increasing the level of expertise within the company in this important area. DIMAN 1, DIMAN 2, RODMAN, REPMAN, and RAFFMAN remote handling and robotic machines are described.
The product of several advanced physical coal cleaning processes is a dry, ultrafine coal (DUC), in the order of 10 microns mean mass diameter. To utilize this fuel commercially, cost-effective, environmentally safe systems must be provided for the storage, transport, and handling of this finely divided form of fuel. The objective of the project described herein is the development of total logistics systems for DUC, including experimental verification of key features. The systems to be developed will provide for safe, economic, and environmentally protective storage and delivery of DUC for residential, commercial, and industrial uses. 20 figs.
Based on the High Temperature Sodium Facility (HTSF) experience and the extensive design efforts for FFTF, procedures are in place for the unloading of the tank cars and for the fill of the FFTF reactor. Special precautions have been taken to provide safe handling and to accommodate contingencies in operation. These contingencies include special protective suits allowing personnel to enter and correct conditions arising from fill operations in the course of moving 7.71 x 10/sup 5/ kg (1.7 x 10/sup 6/ lbs) of sodium from the tank cars into the reactor vessel and its loop system.
The Fast Flux Test Facility near Richland, Washington, utilizes computer control for reactor refueling and other related core component handling and processing tasks. The computer controlled tasks described in this paper include core component transfers within the reactor vessel, core component transfers into and out of the reactor vessel, remote duct measurements of irradiated core components, remote duct cutting, and finally, transferring irradiated components out of the reactor containment building for off-site shipments or to long term storage. 3 refs., 16 figs.
There have been many recent explosive advances in both IR and Raman spectroscopy which have developed in response to industrial problems of increasing complexity. Probably the biggest factor in these advances has been computerization, which has contributed not only to substantial improvements in data handling but to enormous gains in sensitivities of analyses as well. In this paper numerous examples of Raman and IR applications in industry are given using many of these recent advances, including in-situ techniques, microprobe analyses, unusual combinations of instruments - i.e., hyphenated methods - and new sample handling techniques. The bright future of FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy is also briefly discussed.
Darwin was struck by the many similarities between humans and other primates and believed that these similarities were the product of common ancestry. He would be even more impressed by the similarities...Full Text Available
It is argued that colloidal fractals are self-similar because all computed fractal dimensions of a given fractal have the same value. However, in a mathematical sense the self-similar character of a set implies not only that all fractal dimensions agree in value but also the existence of a set of similarities that generates the fractal. In this paper we report some results from two-dimensional aggregation experiments at the air-liquid interface and show that, with the appropriate selection for the similarities, the colloidal fractal aggregates can be considered as self-similar in a more mathematically rigorous form. (author)
BackgroundGender is a critically important moderator of psychopathology. However, gender similarities and differences in body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) have received...Full Text Available
H{sub 2}Gen, with the support of the Department of Energy, successfully designed, built and field-tested two steam methane reformers with 578 kg/day capacity, which has now become a standard commercial product serving customers in the specialty metals and PV manufacturing businesses. We demonstrated that this reformer/PSA system, when combined with compression, storage and dispensing (CSD) equipment could produce hydrogen that is already cost-competitive with gasoline per mile driven in a conventional (non-hybrid) vehicle. We further showed that mass producing this 578 kg/day system in quantities of just 100 units would reduce hydrogen cost per mile approximately 13% below the cost of untaxed gasoline per mile used in a hybrid electric vehicle. If mass produced in quantities of 500 units, hydrogen cost per mile in a FCEV would be 20% below the cost of untaxed gasoline in an HEV in the 2015-2020 time period using EIA fuel cost projections for natural gas and untaxed gasoline, and 45% ...
This document describes the development testing phase associated with the OTA Shear activity and defines the controls to be in place throughout the testing. The purpose of the OTA Shear Program was to provide equipment that is needed for the processing of 40 foot long, sodium wetted, irradiated core components previously used in the FFTF reactor to monitor fuel and materials tests. There are currently 15 of these OTA test stalks located in the Test Assembly Conditioning Station (TACS) inerted vault. These need to be dispositioned for a shutdown mission to eliminate this highly activated, high dose inventory prior to turnover to the ERC since they must be handled by remote operations. These would also need to be dispositioned for a restart mission to free up the vault they currently reside in. The waste handling and cleaning equipment in the J33M Cell was designed and built for the handling of reactor components up to the ...
At Tarapur Atomic Power Station 3 and 4, 540 MWe Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors, core being large in size requires a continuous in core monitoring for local flux disturbances. Nearly 200 Self Powered Neutron Detectors (SPNDs) of the Straight Individually Replaceable (SIR) type are distributed in the reactor core. For purpose of reactor regulation and protection, cobalt SPNDs that have a prompt response for changes in power is used for in-core flux mapping, vanadium SPNDs that provide accurate measure of neutron flux, even though having slow response is used In core SPNDs are placed in Vertical Flux Units (VFU) and Horizontal Flux Units (HFUs). These SPNDs were to be replaced at regular intervals to meet the design intent. Cobalt SPNDs have dose rates of the order of 1000 Gy/h and the Mineral Insulated (MI) cables of Vanadium SPNDs have dose rates of the order of 100 Gy/h. So far 3 Cobalt SPNDs were removed from HFUs and are being stored in lead shielding inside spent fuel storage ...
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is developing a treatment process for remote-handled (RH) liquid transuranic mixed waste governed by the concept of minimizing the volume of waste requiring disposal. This task is to be accomplished by decontaminating the bulk components so the process effluent can be disposed with less risk and expense. Practical processes have been demonstrated on the laboratory scale for removing cesium 137 and strontium 90 isotopes from the waste, generating a concentrated waste volume, and rendering the bulk of the waste nearly radiation free for downstream processing. The process is projected to give decontamination factors of 10{sup 4} for cesium and 10{sup 3} for strontium. Because of the extent of decontamination, downstream processing will be contact handled. The transuranic, radioactive fraction of the mixed waste stream will be solidified using a thin-film evaporator and/or microwave solidification system. ...
The relative roles of glomerular filtration, tubular reabsorption and tubular secretion in lead handling were evaluated using renal clearance technique, stop-flow analysis, and renal lead accumulation. In addition, the effect of altering acid-base status on renal handling of Pb was determined. Clearance of ultrafilterable lead was measured in anesthetized dogs during infusion of "2"0"3Pb with small doses of carrier Pb(0.5 to 50 #mu#g/kg/h). Filterable lead concentration was estimated by in vitro ultrafiltration of non-anticoagulated plasma. Fractional excretion of Pb was calculated using creatinine clearance to estimate glomerular filtration rate. Dogs in acute metabolic acidosis had the lowest fractional excretion of ultrafilterable Pb (< 0.1); those in alkalosis had high fractional Pb excretion (0.75 to 2.5) while normal dogs were intermediate (0.1 to .4). The fractional excretion of Pb during metabolic alkalosis varied with the dose of Pb ...
The adaption of the Muster-VAwS (model ordinance on the handling of water endangering substances in plants and specialized facilities) in the ordinances of the different German states, means that the legislator has laid down concrete - technical and organizational - requirements concerning the handling of water-endangering substances for all plants. The present example of the systematic stocktaking of all environmentally relevant substances in the context of the operation of the pumped storage plants of Schluchseewerk AG, Freiburg, an the application of the model operating instructions for hydropower plants shall serve to illustrate two important aspects for the implementation of this extensive ordinance. (orig.) [Deutsch] Durch Umsetzung der Muster-VAwS (Muster-Verordnung ueber Anlagen zum Umgang mit wassergefaehrdenden Stoffen und Fachbetriebe) in entsprechende Laenderverordnungen wurden durch den Gesetzgeber konkrete Anforderungen, technisch ...
Users of pesticides may have waste or surplus quantities or spills for disposal. One alternative is to deactivate the pesticide at the handling site by using a straightforward chemical reaction. This option can be practical for those who use relatively small quantities of a large variety of pesticides, for example, greenhouse workers, small farmers, and agricultural researchers. This paper describes practical on-site methods for the disposal of spills or small waste quantities of five commonly used pesticides, Diazinon, Chlorpyrifos, Iprodione, 2,4-D, and Captan. These have been tested in the laboratory for the rate of disappearance of the pesticide, the degree of conversion to nontoxic products, the nature and identity of the products, the practicality of the method, and the ease of reproducibility. Methods selected were shown to be safe for the operator, reliable, and reproducible. Greater than 99% of the starting material had to be reacted under reasonable ...
An analysis is made of the basic principles and methods of construction of integrated optical circuits (IOC) for data processing, which are optical waveguide processors in the integrated form. A classification is provided of IOC in accordance with the nature of the input connections to optical components and in accordance with their intended function. An analysis is made of the current status of research and development of analog IOC for handling analog and digital signals, IOC for computing technology, and switching IOC. A detailed analysis is made of IOC with different functions in data processing: spectrum analyzers and correlators, analog-digital converters, circuits for identification of data sets and for encoding of signals, threshold and multistable circuits, logic and arithmetic units, and switching arrays. Descriptions are given of IOC for optically controlled data handling: bistable purely optical logic circuits, multivibrators, ...
The Real-Time Specification for Java (RTSJ) is silent on multiprocessor issues. It attempts not to preclude multiprocessor implementations but provides no direct support. Many areas of the RTSJ leave an implementation considerable freedom on how it provides the defined functionality. One such area is the asynchronous event handling (AEH) model. Events are fired and associated handlers are scheduled for execution in response; handlers have defined scheduling parameters and deadlines. The primary goal of the AEH model is to support a lightweight real-time concurrency model. Hence handlers, in general, do not have dedicated threads. Rather, the implementation is responsible for ensuring that all handlers meet their deadlines. Typically real-time threads are assigned to execute handlers by the...
Liquid radioactive waste treatment method of using evaporator was widely used from Kori 1 to Uljin 3 and 4, but a liquid radioactive waste treatment equipment that uses an ion exchange method instead of an evaporator was adopted aiming to minimize amount of radioactive waste and radiation exposure. However, the same equipment was introduced and applied for the first time in Korea and had experienced difficulties in securing credibility for the equipment and handling of liquid radioactive waste with inadequate data about performance and experience in operation and maintenance. In this study, examination, application and effect analysis was performed on the optimization measure for handling liquid radioactive waste of Yonggwang Nuclear Power Unit 5 and 6(YGN 5 and 6) that applies an ion exchange method
Conversion of Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory radioactive sodium-bearing waste into a single solid waste form by evaporation was demonstrated in both flask-scale and pilot-scale agitated thin film evaporator tests. A sodium-bearing waste simulant was adjusted to represent an evaporator feed in which the acid from the distillate is concentrated, neutralized, and recycled back through the evaporator. The advantage to this flowsheet is that a single remote-handled transuranic waste form is produced in the evaporator bottoms without the generation of any low-level mixed secondary waste. However, use of a recycle flowsheet in sodium-bearing waste evaporation results in a 50% increase in remote-handled transuranic volume in comparison to a non-recycle flowsheet.
WELLOG is a system of programs developed at the Earth Science Laboratory to be used to digitize well logs and perform some analysis and plotting of the data. Multiple logs can be plotted side by side for correlation analysis and up to three logs can be plotted in a cross plot. Data entry and editing functions are also provided by the programs. This system of well log interpretation programs is presently operating on the University of Utah UNIVAC 1108 computer. Digitizing of well logs is accomplished by an old model CALMA (off-line) digitizer. Those parts of WELLOG that handle the digitized data tapes are extremely machine dependent. The parts of WELLOG that produce the plots and handle the data beyond the digitized data tape are more portable.
In this paper, we propose a method based on the Laplacian in the frequency domain for video text detection. Unlike many other approaches which assume that text is horizontally-oriented, our method is able to handle text of arbitrary orientation. The input image is first filtered with Fourier-Laplacian. K-means clustering is then used to identify candidate text regions based on the maximum difference. The skeleton of each connected component helps to separate the different text strings from each other. Finally, text string straightness and edge density are used for false positive elimination. Experimental results show that the proposed method is able to handle graphics text and scene text of both horizontal and nonhorizontal orientation. PMID:20733217
This is the 1st revision of the INIS/ETDE Joint Thesaurus. It contains 20 953 valid descriptors and 8 600 forbidden terms. It was last updated in December 2003. The Joint Thesaurus contains the controlled terminology for indexing all information within the subject scope of both INIS (International Nuclear Information System) and ETDE (Energy Technology Data Exchange) information systems. The terminology is intended for use in subject description for input or retrieval of information in those systems. The thesaurus is a terminological control device used in translating from the natural language of documents, indexers or users into a more constrained system language It is also a controlled and dynamic vocabulary of semantically and generically related terms which covers a specific domain of knowledge. The domain of knowledge covered by this Thesaurus includes physics (in particular, plasma physics, atomic and molecular physics, and especially nuclear and high-energy ...
The Internet is becoming the preferred method for disseminating scientific data from a variety of disciplines. This can result in information overload on the part of the scientists, who are unable to query all of the relevant sources, even if they knew where to find them, what they contained, how to interact with them, and how to interpret the results. A related issue is keeping up with current trends in information technology often taxes the end-user's expertise and time. Thus instead of benefiting from this information rich environment, scientists become experts on a small number of sources and technologies, use them almost exclusively, and develop a resistance to innovations that can enhance their productivity. Enabling information based scientific advances, in domains such as functional genomics, requires fully utilizing all available information and the latest technologies. In order to address this problem we are developing a end-user centric, domain-sensitive ...
Szmidt and Kacprzyk (Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 3070:388?393, 2004a) introduced a similarity measure, which takes into account not only a pure distance between intuitionistic fuzzy sets but also examines if the compared values are more similar or more dissimilar to each other. By analyzing this similarity measure, we find it somewhat inconvenient in some cases, and thus we develop a new similarity measure between intuitionistic fuzzy sets. Then we apply the developed similarity measure for consensus analysis in group decision making based on intuitionistic fuzzy preference relations, and finally further extend it to the interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy set theory.
It has been predicted that geometrically similar animals would swim at the same speed with stroke frequency scaling with mass−1/3. In the present study, morphological and behavioural...Full Text Available
Image registrations that are based on similarity measures simply adjust the parameters of an appropriate spatial transformation model until the similarity measure reaches an optimum. The numerous similarity measures that have been proposed in the past are differently sensitive to imaging modality, image content and differences in the image content, selection of the floating and target image, partial image overlap, etc. In this paper, we evaluate and compare 12 similarity measures for the rigid registration. To study the impact of different imaging modalities on the behavior of similarity measures, we have used 16 CT/MR and 6 PET/MR image pairs with known 'gold standard' registrations. The results for the PET/MR registration and for the registration of CT to both rectified and unrectified MR images indicate that mutual information, normalized mutual information and ...
A monolithic micromachined waveguide device or devices with low-loss, high-power handling, and near-optical frequency ranges is set forth. The waveguide and integrated devices are capable of transmitting near-optical frequencies due to optical-quality sidewall roughness. The device or devices are fabricated in parallel, may be mass produced using a LIGA manufacturing process, and may include a passive component such as a diplexer and/or an active capping layer capable of particularized signal processing of the waveforms propagated by the waveguide.
Current European and the US experiences in waste management are reviewed in the perspective of sustainable development. This publication questions the validity of the current approach taken by the Germany at ``closing the loop`` based on the example of packaging and packaging waste. The product item focus of current German legislation is compared with Danish and US approaches that are based on an integrated policy which covers the whole of waste generation and handling and is not product/item oriented. 1 fig., 2 tabs.
This article describes the state-of-the-art HVAC system at the Philadelphia Marriott Hotel. Thermal comfort and indoor air quality are emphasized. The system uses a hybrid gas absorption/electric centrifugal chilled water plant, variable flow pumping, water-side economizers to provide free cooling, central air handling units with air-side economizers and flow monitoring equipment.
Various diagnostics techniques for condition monitoring and life prediction of fluid power components and system are discussed. Though some of the techniques are very promising but may not be accepted because of increase in the instrumentation, it is planned to implement these techniques on various circuits of Fluid Power Lab for further improving and developing these for direct implementation in various fluid power circuits of power reactors. (author). 6 figs.
High and ultra-high strength steels for pipelines are produced by properly handling the steel microstructure. The metallurgical principles involved in the microstructure control are presented, with emphasis on TMCP processing, that comprises conventional controlled rolling followed by accelerated cooling. (author)
Provided the user interface is well designed, extended relational algebra can be a powerful tool for handling scientific data. Its utility is greatly enhanced by the addition of attribute algebra to allow mathematical manipulation of field values. The paper reports on a development which, motivated by practical requirements, integrates features such as functions, vector data types, iteration, and conditional-attribute values into a relational data-base management system.
The use of robots in powerplants is an option that can no longer be ignored. Robots can reduce worker exposure to harmful environments and minimize downtime. As a result, electric utilities are using them more than ever. As robots become more widely accepted, more are being developed to handle an expanding variety of applications. This report begins with an overview of the use of robotics in the electric-utility industry; following that are sections detailing applications for nuclear plants, fossil-fired stations, and transmission and distribution facilities.
... MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTES (MANAGEMENT AND HANDLING) RULES, 2000 Plastic Bag ban in Dhaka City, Bangladesh Private Sector Participation in Municipal Solid Waste Management SKAT 2000 TECHNICAL GUIDELINES ON MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT Hazardous Waste Management Unit, Environmental Pollution Control Division, Central Environmental Authority, Sri Lanka 2004 Subregional ...
The alumina industry is facing worldwide a growing disposal problem. Red mud creates increasingly technical, economic and environmental problems. Available solutions are reviewed and an old idea using a new approach with pressurized disc or drum filters for red mud is herewith presented and submitted for consideration as a potential and prospective solution to the problem.
This standard describes requirements and provides guidelines for the control of activities to be exercised during procurement of items and services which affect the quality of nuclear power plants. These requirements and guidelines apply to procurement activities for items and services such as designing, purchasing, fabricating, handling, shipping, storage, cleaning, constructing, erecting, installing, inspecting, testing, maintaining, repairing, initial fueling, refueling, and modifying.
Requirements and guidelines are provided for the control of activities to be exercised during procurement of items and services which affect the quality of nuclear facilities. These requirements and guidelines apply to procurement activities for items and services such as designing, purchasing, fabricating, handling, shipping, storing, cleaning, constructing, erecting, installing, inspecting, texting, maintaining and modifying.
Papers are presented under the following topics: machine control and automation; rock drilling; cutting and fragmentation; rock characterization, remote sensing and interface detection; artificial intelligence and mine monitoring systems; computer applications; mechanical excavators; material handling; surface and underground mining; innovative mining systems; new developments in mechanical miners; ground hazard detection and control; ground support; and extraterrestrial mining.
Papers are presented under the session headings: research in mechanical fragmentation; rock characterization, remote sensing and interface detection; monitoring, data transmission and communications; tunnel boring machines; minewide monitoring and expert systems for ground control; machine guidance; shaft and raise boring; automation of drilling equipment; machine automation and control; new developments in mechanical miners; materials handling; innovative mining systems; general minewide monitoring and expert systems; ground support; human factors; and extraterrestrial mining.
Overloaded transmission lines are only part of the problem. The ability of the network to carry power is also limited by the supply of reactive power and by frequency stability. Reactive power problems must be corrected in minutes, frequency stability problems in seconds. There is no way that market forces can handle these problems. Reactive power must be supplied to all long transmission and distribution lines to compensate for the loss of reactive volt-amperes - and resulting voltage drop - in the reactance along the line`s length. 7 figs.
A decision must be made regarding whether the United State`s stockpile of neptunium should be discarded into the waste stream or kept for the production of Pu-238. Although the cost of long term storage is not inconsequential, to dispose of the material means the closing of our option to maintain control over our Pu-238 stockpile. Within the Fuels and Materials Examination Facility at Hanford there exists a remotely operated facility that can be converted for neptunium storage. This paper describes the facility and the anticipated handling requirements.
Elastic depth imaging of both P-wave and S-wave prestack seismic reflection data is formulated as a degraded form of Kirchhoff migration known as Wavepath Migration (WM). Applications to the SEG/EAGE salt model show that the method is sufficiently versatile anti relaitively inexpensive. It handles S-wave data with at least the same accuracy as Pwave data when local mode conversions are removed. WM also provides an understanding of multi-mode illumination.
Following the management buy out (MBO) at British Coal`s Hatfield Colliery, a member of the Solicitors involved looks at some of the issues to be considered in coal industry MBO`s. British Coal should be notified, a business plan will be needed for handling venture capital and other issues, and warranties need negotiating.
Breast cancer represents today more than 30% of all cancers and is responsible for about 20% of deaths due to cancer. The potentialities of mammography have increased in recent years through improvements in equipment and methodologies. In this paper the conventional mammography using film and image intensifiers is compared with digital mammography. Digital mammography presents clear advantages in storage and handling of information. Also its higher sensitivity will lead to an earlier detection of anomalies and a decrease in the number of invasive exams and surgeries
In 1996 Jespers and Wang classified finite semigroups whose integral semigroup ring has finitely many units. In a recent paper, Iwaki-Juriaans-Souza Filho continued this line of research by partially classifying the finite semigroups whose rational semigroup algebra %over a field of characteristic zero, contains a ${\\mathbb{Z}}$-order with hyperbolic unit group. In this paper we complete this classification by handling the case in which the semigroup is semi-simple.
On handling nitric solutions in the glove box nitrous gases are formed that are sucked off via a heated activated charcoal filter and a catalyst cartridge containing e.g. the FG 590 H catalist (Degussa). By the activated charcoal the nitrous gases are reduced to N/sub 2/ and CO gas; the catalyst will oxidize CO to CO/sub 2/. The CO/sub 2/ obtained is discharged through an exhaust air filter in the glove box.
The optimization of ethylene furnace operations using cfd-based simulations has been addressed. The optimization problems have been cast into various formulations: the Multidisciplinary feasible (MDF) approach, the All-At-Once (AAO) approach and the Individual discipline feasible (IDF) approach. These approaches mainly differ in their handling of the state equations as constraints, and hence some of the formulations place restrictions on the methods used to solve the state equations.
The issues of the geothermal resource at Brady's Hot Springs are dealt with: the prospective supply of feedstocks to the ethanol plant, the markets for the spent grain by-products of the plant, the storage, handling and transshipment requirements for the feedstocks and by-products from a rail siding facility at Fernley, the probable market for fuel ethanol in the region, and an assessment of the economic viability of the entire undertaking.
The paper describes a way to control methane that is almost self-sufficient. The Methane Buster extracts methane from longwall mines. The machinery can run virtually unattended and is fuelled by a small proportion of the methane that it extracts. The most popular model is the size of a car and weighs 3000 lbs. With pump inlet sizes varying from 6 to 24 ins. The pumps can handle up to 30,000 CFM. 3 photos.
The Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) bottom-loading transfer cask (BLTC) system is designed to provide ex-vessel fuel transfers of irradiated reactor components between the reactor containment building and the LMFBR shipping cask in the reactor service building. This system is being procured from National Lead Industries, Wilmington, Delaware, under management of Aerojet Manufacturing Company.
The report gives results of a study of sintering and leaching mechanisms of fly ash/spent sodium sorbent mixtures from a dry injection flue gas desulfurization (FGD) process. It includes an estimate of the economics of pelletizing and sintering to handle the fly ash and spent sor...
This paper describes New York State Electric and Gas Corporation`s concept for a comprehensive, centrally located data system for management of their continuous emission monitoring systems (CEMS) data. The topics of the paper include the power system`s mix of generating units; data reporting requirements; data base management; nitrogen oxides compliance tracking; sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide and flow monitoring; and allowance tracking.
This thesaurus contains the vocabulary used to index the Biomass Database maintained by the IEA Biomass Conversion Technical Information Service. The database, which is used to produce Biomass Abstracts, contains indexed and abstracted references to the published literature relating to biomass energy including cultivations, harvesting, materials handling, conversion techniques, environmental aspects and economics.
Large-scale decommissioning of Russian nuclear-powered submarines (NPS) and their utilization prospects gave rise to numerous complicated scientific and technical, as well as economic, problems. Problems of handling of radioactive equipment from the reactor compartments (RC) are among the vital ones, arousing a growing concern with the public. Without solution of the problems the processes of NPS utilization can not be considered completed. It involves potential hazard, for the environment both from NPS being paid up (temporal on-float storage) with unloaded spent nuclear fuel (SNF), and RC, cut from submarine hull, containing highly radioactive equipment and materials but no SNF. Diverse variations of the concept of reactor compartment handling of NPS subject to, utilization are possible, but, in principle, there are essentially two variants: (1) RC utilization directly in the course of NPS utilization, envisaging removal of radioactive ...
Resistance to the extended-spectrum cephalosporins can occur in Salmonella species via the production of extended-spectrum and AmpC β-lactamases. We describe human infections...Full Text Available
A description of LOOP covers the single point mooring (SPM) system; the offshore pipelines connecting each SPM to the pumping platform; the offshore platform complex, a pumping platform and a control platform; the onshore pipelines; and the Clovelly Dome storage terminal.
This paper demonstrates how maglev technology solves the classic problem of integrating two airports in a metropolitan area. So far, this has never been attempted because the mode of transportation that could handle this challenge effectively had not been invented yet. This also means that maglev technology is no longer 'the solution in search of a problem'. (orig.)
Total and net energies used harvesting 30-cm billets at 8 t/h were 1 and 0.3 kW x h/t, respectively. Harvested crop had 4% leaves, a 70% mass fraction of billets 30-40 cm long, and a 49/sup 0/ angle of repose. A self-unloading forage wagon with beaters and controls metered billets at 1.5 t/h to feed a juice-expression mill.
Similarity searching finds application in a wide variety of domains including multilingual databases, computational biology, pattern recognition and text retrieval. Similarity is measured in terms of a distance function edit distance in general metric spaces, which is expensive to compute. Indexing techniques can be used reduce the number of distance computations. We present an analysis of various existing similarity indexing structures for the same. The performance obtained using the index structures studied was found to be unsatisfactory . We propose an indexing technique that combines the features of clustering with M tree(MTB) and the results indicate that this gives better performance.
runs are necessary, provision shall be made for expansion joints, motion of the units, or similar compensation to ensure that no excessive strains are ...
As part of the demonstration testing of the Purge Water Management System (PWMS) technology at the Savannah River Site (SRS), four wells were equipped with PWMS units in 1997 and a series of sampling events were conducted at each during 1997-1998. Three of the wells were located in A/M Area while the fourth was located at the Old Radioactive Waste Burial Ground in the General Separations Area.The PWMS is a ''closed-loop'', non-contact, system used to collect and return purge water to the originating aquifer after a sampling event without having significantly altered the water quality. One of the primary concerns as to its applicability at SRS, and elsewhere, is whether the PWMS might resample groundwater that is returned to the aquifer during the previous sampling event. The purpose of the present investigation was to compare groundwater chemical analysis data collected at the four test wells using the PWMS vs. historical data collected using the ...
The high spatial resolution of state-of-the-art commercial satellite imagery provides a good basis for recognising and monitoring even small-scale structural changes within nuclear facilities and for planning of routine and/or challenge inspections of nuclear sites. Despite the advantages of the improved spatial resolution some problems exist that may make the interpretation of the changes more difficult: Firstly, the results of the change analysis can be very complex and unclear at a glance. Secondly, shadow formation and off-nadir images due to different sensor and solar conditions at the acquisition times can cause false signals or overlap real changes. In view to the fast-growing amount of data from different sensor types there are then some requirements of an effective change detection procedure for safeguards purposes: i. The techniques involved should possess a certain amount of robustness in terms of small misregistration errors, different atmospheric conditions at the ...
This is the second revision of the ETDE/INIS Joint Thesaurus, including all updates up to September 2006. It contains 21 147 valid descriptors and 9 114 forbidden terms. The Joint Thesaurus contains the controlled terminology for indexing all information within the subject scopes of the International Nuclear Information System (INIS) and the Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDE). The terminology is intended for use in subject descriptions for input or retrieval of information in these systems. The thesaurus is a terminological control device used in translating from the natural language of documents, indexers or users into a more constrained system language It is also a controlled and dynamic vocabulary of semantically and generically related terms which covers a specific domain of knowledge. The basic terminology in this thesaurus goes back to the 1969 edition of the EURATOM Thesaurus. The structure subsequently given to that terminology was the result of a ...
Fission track analysis (FTA) technique for the determination of "2"3"9Pu excreted through urine has been standardized using blank samples, tracer and "2"3"9Pu spikes. Double stage anion exchange separation protocol has been applied and an average radiochemical recovery of "2"3"9Pu of 18% was obtained. An average track registration efficiency of 11 tracks per #mu#Bq of "2"3"9Pu, irradiated to 0.35x10"1"7 neutron fluence was established. Reagent blank urine samples from 11 controlled subjects were analyzed by FTA and an average of 149#+-#14 tracks was obtained. Minimum detectable activity of 34 #mu#Bq L"-"1 of urine sample was obtained and will be useful for monitoring chronic exposure cases handling MOX fuel.
The ALICE heavy-ion particle physics experiment is currently being built at CERN near Geneva. It will use a PC cluster of 900 dual-processor machines for the last stages of the data readout process and a network of 400 microcomputers for the configuration and control of the cluster nodes. One of the most important objectives to be achieved in such experiments is to guarantee the utilized devices are running correctly during the experiment life-time. A second aspect is the extremely high availability and reliability requirements of the applications being run, the so called high level trigger (HLT). The SysMES framework is a scalable, decentralized, fault tolerant, dynamic, rule based tool set for the monitoring of networks of target systems and applications. The management algorithms consist of the following steps: system and application monitoring, recognition of undesirable states, event (message) generation, local event handling on the target, event forwarding to ...
Material related to routine as well as sensitive aspects of parent/day care center relationships is presented in this training module, one of a series providing staff development information for programs operated for dependents of military personnel. The module offers a brief discussion of ways caregivers can help parents feel at ease about leaving their children in child care and presents a set of multiple-choice skill-building exercises for effectively working with parents. Exercises focus on various topics, including how parents can be approached when their child may have a health problem, when child abuse or neglect is suspected, and when parental cooperation is needed to stop a child's undesirable or disruptive behavior. Exercises are also devoted to the questions of whether or not caregivers should act as advisors to parents or tell parents about their child's behavior at the center. Concluding exercises indicate how caregivers can handle parent requests for ...
A variety of special regulations exist in Costa Rica for registration and transport of hazardous substances; these set the requirements for entry into the country and the security of transport units. However, the regulations mentioned no specific rules for storing hazardous substances. Tax deposits have been the initial place where are stored the substances that enter the country.The creation of basic rules that would be regulating the storage of hazardous substances has taken place through the analysis of regulations and national and international laws governing hazardous substances. The regulatory domain that currently exists will be established with a field research in fiscal deposits in the metropolitan area. The storage and security measures that have been used by the personnel handling the substances will be identified to be putting the reality with that the hazardous substances have been handled in tax deposits. A rule base for the ...
The US Department of Energy is currently constructing the Waste Isolation Pilot near Carlsbad, New Mexico. The full-scale pilot plant will demonstrate the feasibility of the safe disposal of defense-related nuclear waste in a bedded salt formation at a depth of 2160 feet below the surface. WIPP will provide for the permanent storage of 25,000 cu ft of remote-handled (RH) transuranic waste and 6,000,000 cu ft of contact-handled (CH) transuranic waste. This paper covers the major mechanical/structural design considerations for the waste hoist and its hoist tower structure. The design of the hoist system and safety features incorporates state-of-the-art technology developed in the hoist and mining industry to ensure safe operation for transporting nuclear waste underground. Also included are design specifications for VOC-10 monitoring system.
This work describes a combinatorial model for estimating the reliability of the embedded digital system by means of multi-state function. This model includes a coverage model for fault-handling techniques implemented in digital systems. The fault-handling techniques make it difficult for many types of components in digital system to be treated as binary state, good or bad. The multi-state function provides a complete analysis of multi-state systems as which the digital systems can be regarded. Through adaptation of software operational profile flow to multi-state function, the HW/SW interaction is also considered for estimation of the reliability of digital system. Using this model, we evaluate the reliability of one board controller in a digital system, Interposing Logic System (ILS), which is installed in YGN nuclear power units 3 and 4. Since the proposed model is a generalized combinatorial model, the simplification of this model becomes ...
The improvement in the functions of the viscous flow calculation method VEGA-SHIP around a ship and the expansion of application range were described as the numerical flow simulation in ship and ocean engineering and at the same time application examples to the ocean engineering by the general-purpose flow simulation code FLOW-3D handling the non-steady flow with a free surface were introduced as the numerical simulation regarding such products as a water gate and a dam. In the VEGA-SHIP, water surface was handled as a fixed wall so that wave could not be calculated. Therefore, an algorithm for calculating wave on the water surface was added to the VEGA-SHIP and a calculation method simultaneously considering the creation of wave around the ship and viscosity was developed. The FLOW-3D was used to calculate the phenomenon where inside liquid moved greatly due to the oscillation of a tank and hit against and damaged the tank ceiling in the tank, ...
Under the auspices of the DOE and private industry, considerable progress has been made in: preparation of coal-water fuels; combustion of low-ash coal-based fuel forms; processes to provide deeply-cleaned coal. Developments in advanced beneficiation of coal to meet stringent requirements for low ash and low sulfur can be anticipated to further complicate the problem areas associated with this product. This is attributable to the beneficiated coal being procured in very fine particles with high surface areas, modified surface characteristics, reduced particle size distribution range, and high inherent moisture. Experience in the storage, handling, and transport of highly beneficiated coal has been limited. This is understandable, as quantities of such product are only now becoming available in meaningful quantities. During this reporting period the authors have: developed a suite of empirical tests covering water retention, rewetting, mull stability, angle of ...
The design of a gaging head for a portable radionuclide X-ray fluorescence analyzer is described. The gaging head is designed as a construction unit system which enables the application of lateral reflexion geometry as well as of coaxial geometry. It is designed so that adjustment from one geometry to the other is labour and time saving. The selection of characteristic radiation is performed by a couple of Ross' differential filters. These filters are prepared by a novel technique developed by our laboratory. The filter exchange is effected by the longitudinal move of the couple of filters encapsulated in a holder. The shift of the filters is controlled by means of a triggering mechanism situated in the body of the gaging head handle. This design makes is possible to handle the gaging head during measurements with one hand. A simple interchange of the absorption filter for the transmissive filter allows the operator to avoid any unwanted shift ...
The LHC magnet tests operation team developed various innovative techniques, particularly since early 2004, to complete the superconductor magnet tests by Feb. 2007. Overall and cryogenic priority handling, rapid on-bench thermal cycling, rule-based goodness evaluation on round-the-clock basis, multiple, mashed web systems are some of these techniques applied with rigour for successful tests completion in time. This paper highlights these operation empowerment tools which had a pivotal role for success. A priority handling method was put in place to enable maximum throughput from twelve test benches, having many different constraints. For the cryogenics infrastructure, it implied judicious allocation of limited resources to the benches. Rapid On-Bench Thermal Cycle was a key strategy to accelerate magnets tests throughput, saving time and simplifying logistics. First level magnet appraisal was developed for 24 hr decision making so as to ...
The study presented in this thesis is a contribution toward improving the reliability of Metallized Polypropylene Film (MPPF) capacitors achieved by a better design. A temperature distribution in the roll is assumed with the aim of optimizing its thermal performance. It appears that the heating of long capacitor is higher than that of equivalent flat capacitor subjected to the same electric stresses. Standard accelerated aging tests (temperature and voltage) of MPPF capacitors have been performed with the aim to evaluate the dielectric performance and thus the capacitor lifetime. The statistical approach showed that the failure mode may be represented by two parameter Weibull distribution and the experimental approach proved that long capacitor deteriorates faster than a plate-shaped having the same features. Although capacitors with long geometry seem to have a poor pulse handling performance, we found that the quality of the, end-edge contact is strongly ...
The criterion the study is based on in evaluating environmental risks is the possibility of harmful changes in air, water and soils rather than the harmful environmental impacts these changes are caused by. The two significant criteria, i.e. the evaluated environmental hazards potentials or 'value parameters', and the evaluated damage-to-the-environment probabilities or 'safety parameters', reveal the respective environmental risks or 'risk factors'. These risk factors are classified by 23 environmental risk parameters for differentiation between low-risk and high-aid for pollution abatement measures provided that one fixes acceptance limits for the environmental parameters. As a rule the environmental risks of technical facilities which handle hazardous materials can be evaluated appropriately and the results can be compared. (orig./HSCH).
This paper evaluates activities from 1981 to 1985 of the Donetskgormash association which develops and manufactures equipment for coal mining. The association has manufactured 1,410 hoists, 274 blowers and 26 bucket wheel excavators. Sixteen experimental units of new mining equipment have been developed, among others the RPM 3600-42.5/90 bucket wheel excavator (with a capacity of 3,600 m/sup 3//h for coal handling in storage yards of large power plants), the bucket wheel system used in the EhR 630-10.5/0.5 excavator and the PZ 1600-17/20 materials handling system. Among 20 equipment types manufactured from 1981 to 1985, 4 types were manufactured in the USSR for the first time (e.g. the MPP shaft sinking system and the VOD-50 mine blower). Use of new types of equipment manufactured by the association economized about 46 million rubles in coal mines. From 1986 to 1990 production of mining equipment in the association should increase by 133%; ...
This report describes accomplishment of simulations of Pyrochemical Process Operation by using virtual engineering models. The pyrochemical process using molten salt electrorefining would introduce new technologies for new fuels of particle oxide, particle nitride and metallic fuels. This system is a batch treatment system of reprocessing and re-fabrication, which transports products of solid form from a process to next process. As a results, this system needs automated transport system for process operations by robotics. In this study, a simulation code system has been prepared, which provides virtual engineering environment to evaluate the pyrochemical process operation of a batch treatment system using handling robots. And the simulation study has been conducted to evaluate the required system functions, which are the function of handling robots, the interactions between robot and process equipment, and the time schedule of process, in the ...
The Coal Quality Engineering Analysis (CQEA) program developed by the New York State Electric and Gas Company (NYSEC) calculates the as-burned cost of burning a specific coal in a specific generation unit. These costs include: maintenance costs for coal and ash handling equipment; ash disposal costs; cost of oil (if required for flame stability and/or derating because of pulverizer capacity limitation); flue gas desulfurization costs; cost of replacement power caused by pulverizer, precipitator fly ash collection and bottom ash capacity limitation; boiler losses due to moisture, hydrogen, dry gas and unburned carbon; power for coal and ash handling equipment; power for coal pulverizers; cost of using excess air to prevent slagging of coal with low ash softening temperatures; and effect of heat rate on coal tonnage required for a desired generation. The use of CQEA to identify areas in which plant operations may be improved is discussed. 7 ...
The objective of this task was to obtain powder property data on candidate glass former materials, sufficient to guide conceptual design and estimate the cost of glass former handling facilities as requested under Part B1 of BNFL Technical and Development Support. Twenty-nine glass forming materials were selected and obtained from vendors for the characterization of their physical properties, durability in caustic solution, and powder flow characteristics. A glass former was selected based on the characterization for each of the ten oxide classes required for Envelope A, B, and C mixtures. Three blends (A, B, and C) were prepared based on formulations provided by Vitreous State Laboratory and evaluated with the same methods employed for the glass formers. The properties obtained are presented in a series of attached Tables. It was determined that five of the ten glass formers, (kyanite, iron oxide, titania, zircon, and zinc oxide) have the potential to cause some ...
The Savannah River Site (SRS) is currently developing a new facility, the Actinide Packaging and Storage Facility (APSF), to process and store legacy materials from the United States nuclear stockpile. A variety of materials, with a variety of properties, packaging and handling/storage requirements, will be processed and stored at the facility. Since these materials are hazardous and radioactive, automation will be used to minimize worker exposure. Other benefits derived from automation of the facility include increased throughput capacity and enhanced security. The diversity of materials and packaging geometries to be handled poses challenges to the automation of facility processes. In addition, the nature of the materials to be processed underscores the need for safety, reliability and serviceability. The application of automation in this facility must, therefore, be accomplished in a rational and disciplined manner to satisfy the strict ...
This report describes the work performed during FY 1995 by Pacific Northwest Laboratory in developing and optimizing analysis techniques for identifying organics present in Hanford waste tanks. The main focus was to provide a means for rapidly obtaining the most useful information concerning the organics present in tank waste, with minimal sample handling and with minimal waste generation. One major focus has been to optimize analytical methods for organic speciation. Select methods, such as atmospheric pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry, were developed to increase the speciation capabilities, while minimizing sample handling. A capillary electrophoresis method was developed to improve separation capabilities while minimizing additional waste generation. In addition, considerable emphasis has been placed on developing a rapid screening tool, based on Raman and ...
The Fuel Handling(F/H) System in existing CANDU 6 nuclear power plants was designed in the early 1960`s, utilizing the technology available at that time. The design for the F/H control system has been proven to be excellent in meeting the functional requirements through more than 20 CANDU units in service or under construction. The significant advance in electrical and electronic engineering area in a few decades motivates the design changes to reduce costs for engineering, construction and operation as well as to improve performance, reliability and safety based on the latest technology. This report outlines the current design of the F/H system, especially for the F/H control system, introduces some topics in research and development projects being carried out by AECL or other institutes, and presents several potential design improvement items for the better CANDU system with brief explanation about implementation. 29 figs., 2 tabs., 27 refs. (Author).
Concerning high performance composite solid propellant BAMO and BAMO-based copolymers, synthetic method and properties of them were studied. Comparison graph of theoretical specific impulse for various propellants were shown, by that, reason why highest specific impulse BAMO was selected as direction of the study. As the orientation of synthesis, those were indicated that radicals at both ends should be hydroxyl so as urethane bonding was available, that liquid at normal temperature was required for easy handling, and that glass transition temperature is required to be low enough. Synthesis was conducted by ring-opening polymerization of ring ether detail procedures of which were explained. Measurements of properties was performed for thermochemical properties, thermal decomposition, combution heat, and friction sensitivity test to confirm safety. As the result, those were understood that thermal decomposition was divided into two phases, rapid exothermal ...
The Waste Management Project manages and integrates (non-TWRS) waste management activities at the site. Activities include management of Hanford wastes as well as waste transferred to Hanford from other DOE, Department of Defense, or other facilities. This work includes handling, treatment, storage, and disposal of radioactive, nonradioactive, hazardous, and mixed solid and liquid wastes. Major Waste Management Projects are the Solid Waste Project, Liquid Effluents Project, and Analytical Services. Existing facilities (e.g., grout vaults and canyons) shall be evaluated for reuse for these purposes to the maximum extent possible.
Forced vibration experiment has been conducted for the reactor building of Sendai Unit 1 nuclear power plant. The beam vibrational behaviors of the outer shielding building and the internal concrete structure have been observed by using a 50 tf vibration for low frequency region, and a 10 tf vibration for high frequency region, respectively. The outline of the experimental methods, the data handling system and the major results of experiment are described. The experimental results were simulated by an analytical model. The proper vibrational frequency and the vibration modes obtained by the analysis were compared with those obtained by the experiment. By these comparisons, the adequacy of the analytical method employed for the design was confirmed.
This study investigates spent fuel cask handling experience at existing nuclear facilities to determine appropriate cask decontamination and maintenance operations at the potential Yucca Mountain repository. These operations are categorized as either routine or nonroutine. Routine cask decontamination and maintenance tasks are performed in the cask preparation area at the repository. Casks are taken offline to a separate cask maintenance area for major nonroutine tasks. The study develops conceptual designs of the cask preparation area and cask maintenance area. The functions, layouts, and major features of these areas are also described.
As there are many efforts devoted in order to manage the cancer, here the researcher handle one of these efforts that play a major part in treating the cancer internationally, it is a brachytherapy system. Brachytherapy was carried out mostly with radium sources, but recently some artificial sources are incorporated in this mode of treatment such as Cs-137, Ir-192, Au-198, P-32, Sr-90 and I-125. The research cover history of brachytherapy and radioactive sources used in, techniques of implementation, radiation protection and methods of brachytherapy dose calculation, as well as brachytherapy in radiation and isotopes centre in Khartoum.
Enhanced recovery by chemical flooding using surfactant and/or polymers simultaneously implies the following: (1) a fundamental knowledge of the physical chemistry of micellar systems and interfaces; (2) the proper formulation of mathematic models handling the basic mechanisms of oil recovery; and (3) the use of field-scale pilot units to test the validity of the models and to acquire technical knowledge. Efforts have been made by the French in these directions, and the main results are described. Special attention is paid to the search for new products and the improvement of manufacturing processes. 10 references.
The primary purpose of the Waste Management Program Plan is to provide an annual report of how Waste Management's operations are conducted, what facilities are being used to manage wastes, what forces are acting to change current waste management systems, and what plans are in store for the coming fiscal year. In addition, this document projects activities for several years beyond the coming fiscal year in order to adequately plan for safe handling, storage, and disposal of radioactive wastes generated at the Savannah River Site and for developing technology for improved management of wastes. In this document, work descriptions and milestone schedules are current as of December 1991.
Repair and maintenance for equipment used in the Belchatow brown coal mine and organizational models of repair services in the mine are discussed. Maintenance of earthmoving equipment, spreaders, bucket wheel excavators, loaders and other coal handling equipment, belt conveyors and drive systems for belt conveyors is discussed. Repair shops in the mine also manufacture about 35% of spare parts and elements for equipment used in the mine. Reliability of mining equipment, repairs and repair capacity of the shops are discussed. Organizational models of repair services, equipment used by these services and repair personnel are described. Effects of repair services on operation of the mine are evaluated.
The theme of the conference was recent developments in airborne remote sensing and their applications. The proceedings contain the papers presented at 14 general sessions and 13 interactive sessions covering airborne platforms, sensor systems, airborne/spaceborne synergy, atmospheric and oceanic measurements, land cover/land use, emergency response and reconnaissance, data handling, forestry, agriculture, water resources, geospatial reference, system calibration, environmental monitoring and planning, and information product advancements. Two papers are abstracted separately.
The symposium covers papers under different sections namely, (i) Core physics and Fuel management, (ii) Commissioning of facilities and systems, (iii) Operational experience and Human resource development, (iv) Fuel handling, Maintenance management and Surveillance, (v) Instrumentation and Control and Power supply systems, (vi) Analysis, modifications and developments for enhancing operational safety, (vii) Chemistry control and Effluent management, (viii) Radiation and industrial safety and (ix) Steam generators, Turbo-generators and other auxiliaries. Papers relevant to INIS are indexed separately. (author)
Drell-Yan pair production is investigated. We reexamine a model where the quark momentum fraction is defined as the ratio of the corresponding light-cone components of the quark and parent nucleon in a naive parton-model approach. It is shown that the results differ from the standard parton model. This is due to unphysical solutions for the momentum fractions within the naive approach which are not present in the standard parton model. In a calculation employing full quark kinematics, i.e., including primordial quark transverse momentum, these solutions also appear. A prescription is given to handle these solutions in order to avoid incorrect results. The impact of these solutions in the full kinematical approach is demonstrated and compared to the modified result.
This document establishes the minimum training requirements for the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) personnel who are responsible for management of dangerous waste. The training plan outlines training requirements for handling of solid dangerous waste during generator accumulation and liquid dangerous waste during treatment and storage operations. The implementation of this training plan will ensure the PFP facility compliance with the training plan requirements of Dangerous Waste Regulation. Chapter 173-303-330. Washington Administrative Code (WAC). The requirements for such compliance is described in Section 11.0 of WHC-CM-7-5 Environmental Compliance Manual.
The purpose of the Ocean FUSRAP Program, which began in March 1981, is to assess the technical, environmental, and institutional feasibility of disposing, in the ocean and on the ocean floor, of FUSRAP waste which contains traces of natural radioactive materials. The initial planning has focused on the Middlesex, New Jersey, Sampling Plant site and surrounding properties, which contain on the order of 100,000 metric tons of material. The Belgian Congo uranium ore and other uranium ores used by the United States were handled at the sampling plant site and have since been removed.
nsive neutron-absorbing bricks from commercially available CaB/sub 6/ powder. The bricks are 2 x 3 x 5 in., and are strong enough to withstand normal handling. They last indefinitely; the ones described are now 7 years old, used and stored under normal room temperatures and humidities. The procedure is to make a thick, dry mud with the powder and water, followed by compression in a mold at pressures of about 1 ton/in./sup 2/ or more. The bricks are then baked for 2 hours or longer at a temperature of about 750 deg C. (auth)
In order to improve the handling capability of red mud, it is mixed with fine-grain coal material such as brown coal or lignite in dust form, in a ratio by weight of between 0.5-10:1. The liquid present in the red mud is bound by the very fine coal admixed therewith so that the resulting mixture can be stored in a silo and even pneumatically conveyed, and the oily properties of the red mud are removed by the treatment. The mixture is particularly suitable for use in connection with the hydrogenating liquefaction of coal in which the red mud is used as a catalyst.
Many analytical chemistry methods normally used at the Savannah River site require repetitive procedures and handling of radioactive and other hazardous solutions. Robotics is being investigated as a method of reducing personnel fatigue and radiation exposure and also increasing product quality. Several applications of various commercially available robot systems are discussed involving cold (nonradioactive) and hot (radioactive) sample preparations and glovebox waste removal. Problems encountered in robot programming, parts fixturing, design of special robot hands and other support equipment, glovebox operation, and operator-system interaction are discussed. A typical robot system cost analysis for one application is given.
A 2D matrix allows a fairly rapid verification of irradiation parameters transferred on computer processing equipment without expanding the dosimetry means to implement. Associated to 'Multicheck and Verisoft' software it will handle some of the regulatory recommendations of the A.F.S.S.A.P.S. for quality control of accelerators and ensure the traceability of testing carried out. (N.C.)
This plan outlines the procedures and operations used at LLNL's Site 300 for the management of the hazardous waste generated. This waste consists primarily of depleted uranium (a by-product of U-235 enrichment), beryllium, small quantities of analytical chemicals, industrial type waste such as solvents, cleaning acids, photographic chemicals, etc., and explosives. This plan details the operations generating this waste, the proper handling of this material and the procedures used to treat or dispose of the hazardous waste. A considerable amount of information found in this plan was extracted from the Site 300 Safety and Operational Manual written by Site 300 Facility personnel and the Hazards Control Department.
This paper describes the safety system and training for personnel on board the floating production storage and offloading (FPSO II) currently working in the Cadlao Field, offshore Palawan in the Philippine Islands. (See Figure 1). The crude oil being produced has wellstream hydrogen sulfide concentrations up to 6000 PPM. Concentrations of hydrogen sulfide at 700 PPM or higher can be immediately dangerous to life and every effort must be made to ensure personnel safety.
The document represents a guide for the external decontamination of persons accidentally radio contaminated due to the use, production or transport of radioactive materials. The general conditions, from the medical point of view, to be kept in mind, in the event of accidental overexposures as decontamination treatment and the handling of samples are detailed throughout report. The external contamination without injury in skin or with wound its considered. The distribution of measures and responsibilities for the therapy of the irradiated patients with radioactive materials are enumerated. The preparations of decontaminate solutions are detailed in this work. Moreover, forms for the reception, physical evaluation of the patient and external contamination are presented. (author)
This book discusses the progress and problems of current interest in gaseous dielectrics and their use, with special emphasis on insulation in high-voltage transmission lines and substations. Topics covered include: basic physics of gaseous dielectrics; basic mechanisms; gas decomposition, reactions and toxicity; diagnostics and field probes; gases and mixtures for GIS transformers and circuit breakers; gaseous media for discharge chemistry and etching/corona; gas engineering for pulsed power and switching; gas breakdown under steep-fronted voltages; new developments in gas-insulated equipment and gas handling; gas/insulator interface/flashover; and quality control in testing gas-insulated equipment. Contains approximately 85 papers.
Division of Remote Handling and Robotics (DRHR) at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) has been working on design and development of Reactivity Control Mechanisms for Nuclear Research Reactors (Dhruva, KAMINI and recently Critical Facility of Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR)) as well as Power Reactors in India (Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors of 220 MWe at Narora and recently India's first 540 MWe PHWR Unit -1 and 2 at Tarapur). This paper gives a brief account of evolution of reactivity control mechanisms for nuclear research and power reactors in India. (author)
Biomass can provide a substantial energy source. Liquids are preferred for use as transportation fuels because of their high energy density and handling ease and safety. Liquid fuel production from biomass can be accomplished by any of several different processes including hydrolysis and fermentation of the carbohydrates to alcohol fuels, thermal gasification and synthesis of alcohol or hydrocarbon fuels, direct extraction of biologically produced hydrocarbons such as seed oils or algae lipids, or direct thermochemical conversion of the biomass to liquids and catalytic upgrading to hydrocarbon fuels. This report discusses direct thermochemical conversion to achieve biomass liquefaction and the requirements for wastewater treatment inherent in such processing. 21 refs.
As part of the start up of Los Alamos National Laboratory's new tritium-handling facility, the efficiency of a catalytic oxidation tritium decontamination system was investigated using deuterated methane. The tests were performed during the start up of the facility to confirm the operability of the system before introducing tritium and to provide a baseline for comparison. Techniques and instruments normally used for atmospheric tracer experiments using deuterated methane were applied virtually without modification. The sensitivity of this method allowed preliminary checks at the sub-ppm (v/v) level.
The notion of hardened systems can be found in several applications (nuclear power plants, alarm systems, research installations..). Their development correspond to the functional necessity to take into account a specific radiative environment. The starting point of each hardening study is the definition of the radiative environmental constraints representative of the application. In addition to these external constraints, the specific functional characteristics of each system are considered: control or interface systems in nuclear industry, in-board control systems, remote handling systems, etc. This paper summarizes the methodology followed according to the experience gained in previous studies and anticipating the future needs. (J.S.). 6 refs., 5 figs.
In the experimental fast Reactor JOYO, gripper of Fuel Handling Machine and Ex-Vessel Transfer Machine that the sodium adhered is being washed with alcohol. This radioactive alcohol waste that was used to the washing is stored to the tank. If it is able to separate the alcohol and sodium in the alcohol waste it becomes possible to dispose of the alcohol waste. Japan Nuclear Institute and Fuji Electric Systems CO., LTD. Developed the device that adds carbonic acid gas to the alcohol waste and cause the sodium in the alcohol waste separated as carbonate and remove this carbonate by using the thin film evaporator. (author)
Remote-controlled handling systems are required for work to be done in the decommissioning and dismantling of nuclear facilities. These systems are equipped with electronic devices suitable for use in working environments affected by ionizing radiation. The publication explains the step-wise progress achieved for improving the radiation resistance of electronic devices with the example of a four-quadrant controlling device for the motors of a manipulator. The radiation resistance of the device could be enhanced to radiation energies of 5.500 Gy. This means that a manipulator vehicle equipped with this controlling device can take up to approx. 15 kGy all in all, taking into account its own shielding properties. (DG).
Computer software for risks assessment of transportation of important freight has been developed. It incorporates models of transport accidents, including terrorist attacks. These models use, among the others, unput data of cartographic character. Geographical information system technology and electronic maps of an area are involved as an instrument for handling this kind of data. Fuzzy set theory methods as well as standard methods of probability theory have been used for quantitative risk assessment. Fuzzy algebraic operations and their computer realisation are discussed. One preliminary example of risk assessment is described. (authors)
The goal of this research program has been to add to our understanding of the breakup of molten fuel jets penetrating reactor coolant. Easily handled working fluids are used to simulate fuel jet breakup, so that detailed observations may be obtained from a relatively large number of experiments. The tools used for observing this behavior are high speed notion picture photography, Flash X-radiography, and X-ray cine. Jet breakup lengths are determined from motion pictures; the mechanisms by which the jets are fragmented may be inferred from radiographs.
Robotics technology is successfully being transitioned from space to terrestrial applications. It is being modified and enhanced to help in the US DOE's Environmental Restoration and Waste Management Program. Some examples of these applications, ranging from large multijointed manipulators to autonomously navigated remote vehicles, are outlined in this article. They include the following: underground storage tank technology demonstration; light-duty utility arm system; remotely controlled material-handling system; remotely operated excavator; self-guided transfer vehicle. 10 figs.
The role of robotics and remote handling equipment in future nuclear power plant maintenance activities is discussed in the context of artificial intelligence applications. Special requirements manipulators, control systems, and man-machine interfaces for nuclear applications are noted. Tasks might include inspection with cameras, eddy current probes, and leak detectors; the collection of material samples; radiation monitoring; and the disassembly, repair and reassembly of a variety of system components. A robot with vision and force sensing and an intelligent control system that can access a knowledge base is schematically described. Recent advances in image interpretation systems are also discussed.
The role of robotics and remote handling equipment in future nuclear power plant maintenance activities is discussed in the context of artificial intelligence applications. Special requirements manipulators, control systems, and man-machine interfaces for nuclear applications are noted. Tasks might include inspection with cameras, eddy current probes, and leak detectors; the collection of material samples; radiation monitoring; and the disassembly, repair and reassembly of a variety of system components. A robot with vision and force sensing and an intelligent control system that can access a knowledge base is schematically described. Recent advances in image interpretation systems are also discussed.
The Fuels Material Examination Facility/Fuel Assembly Area is proposed to be used for fabrication of mixed oxide fuel to support the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) tritium/medical isotope mission. The plutonium isotope mix for the new mission is different than that analyzed in the FMEF safety analysis report. A reanalysis was performed of three representative accidents for the revised plutonium mix to determine the impact on the safety analysis. Current versions computer codes and meterology data files were used for the analysis. The revised accidents were a criticality, an explosion in a glovebox, and a tornado. The analysis concluded that risk guidelines were met with the revised plutonium mix.
The first biogas plant using the Plauen method has been operated without failures in the Saxon Vogtland since May 1987. This large scale anaerob treatment plant which is the first one in Germany handles besides agricultural recidual substance both municipal and industrial organic residues. The results show clearly that fermentation is a real alternative to composting, combusting and deponing. (orig.)
During one year more than 40,000 items of information on radiation exposure of personnel involved in the handling of radiation sources and more than 5,000,000 items on irradiation of other people are collected in the authors' laboratory. Considerable progress in assessment of mean annual gonad dose of genetically sifnificant dose was attained by means of an algorithm for a personal computer. This simple and inexpensive system has led to a higher accuracy in the application of protective measures. (author).
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.
The primary function of the Waste Handling Shaft (WHS) at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is to permit the transfer of radioactive waste from the surface waste handling building to the underground storage area. It also serves as an intake shaft for small volumes of air during normal storage operations and as an emergency escape route. Part of the construction was the placement of a concrete liner and steel reinforced key in 1984. During a routine shaft inspection in May 1990, some degradation of the WHS concrete liner was observed between the depths of 800 and 900 feet below the ground surface. Detailed investigations of the liner had been carried out by Sandia National Laboratories and by Westinghouse Electric Corporation Waste Isolation Division (WID) through Lankard Materials Laboratory. Observations, reports, and data support the conclusion that the concrete degradation, resulting from attack by chemically aggressive brine, is a ...
Main results are summarised for a project carried out with the aim of increasing the knowledge of relations between handling characeristics and properties such as moisture content, particle size and shape etc. Handling characteristics that were studied: angle of repose, friction between fuel and different surfaces, the fuel`s tendency to bridge across openings, and its freezing characteristics. Some forty solid biomass fuels were studied, mainly wood fuels, with particle sized from 1 to 200 mm. New methods were developed for measurement of bridging across openings and freezing characeristics. The angle of repose varied between 25 and 55 deg. The particle shape had a significant influence, a high ratio of length/thickness gave a high angle of repose. When the fuel moisture content was increased the angle of repose first increased, then decreased, and finally increased again. The particle size had no influence. The friction depended more on the ...
Biogerontology is sometimes viewed as similar to other forms of biomedical research in that it seeks to understand and treat a pathological process. Yet the prospect of treating ageing is extraordinary...Full Text Available
15 to 75% of the gun barrel diameter. Similarly, model masses typically vary from 0.01 to 100 .... taining acceptable levels of gun barrel erosion. The ...
High resolution of NMR spectroscopic data of biosamples are a rich source of information on the metabolic response to physiological variation or pathological events. There are many advantages...Full Text Available
The properties of the ideal gas of classical (nonquantum) tachyons are considered. Starting from the definition of thermodynamic functions for this system, it may be found that tachyons and bradyons gases are similar. (AA).
A method of increasing information content for content-based image retrieval (CBIR) systems includes the steps of providing a CBIR database, the database having an index for a plurality of stored digital images using a plurality of feature vectors, the feature vectors corresponding to distinct descriptive characteristics of the images. A visual similarity parameter value is calculated based on a degree of visual similarity between features vectors of an incoming image being considered for entry into the database and feature vectors associated with a most similar of the stored images. Based on said visual similarity parameter value it is determined whether to store or how long to store the feature vectors associated with the incoming image in the database.
metric temperatures has been prepared showing the surface water temper- ... occasion, gray levels show different densities for similar water temper- ...
Lichen striatus begins similarly to lichen planus, with small bumps (papules), but over a period of days expands to form a long streak or band of affected ...
The in vitro activity of teicoplanin, a new antibiotic related to vancomycin, was determined against 456 gram-positive cocci. The activity of teicoplanin in comparison with that of vancomycin was similar...Full Text Available
Purpose of reviewThe economic burden due to the sequela of sarcopenia (muscle wasting in the elderly) are staggering and rank similarly to the costs...Full Text Available
Three patients are described with foveal lesions resembling minute holes following trauma. The similarity of the lesions to foveomacular retinitis and solar retinopathy suggests that all these conditions...Full Text Available
With the increased costs of maintaining boilers and chillers entrepreneurs around the country have offered magnetic and similar devices to facilities as viable alternatives to their maintenance program. This report gives a brief history of some of the pre...
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.
BackgroundThe National Cancer Institute has concluded that exposure to smoking in movies causes adolescent smoking and there are similar results for young adults.Full Text Available
... assets, particularly against ballistic missiles with weapons of mass ... more con- ventional missile and gun weapon systems. ... Similarly, space-based ...
Declarative data quality has been an active research topic. The fundamental principle behind a declarative approach to data quality is the use of declarative statements to realize data quality primitives on top of any relational data source. A primary advantage of such an approach is the ease of use and integration with existing applications. Several similarity predicates have been proposed in the past for common quality primitives (approximate selections, joins, etc.) and have been fully expressed using declarative SQL statements. In this thesis, new similarity predicates are proposed along with their declarative realization, based on notions of probabilistic information retrieval. Then, full declarative specifications of previously proposed similarity predicates in the literature are presented, grouped into classes according to their primary characteristics. Finally, a thorough performance and accuracy study comparing a ...
... end-to-end TCP connection from the hybrid terminal ... peculiar to self-similar stochastic processes, ... Queue First (MDQF) schemes are employed at the ...
believe the system is similar to the face-on spiral and companion known as M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy. Tomorrow's picture: Sleeping Beauty < Archive | Index | Search | Calendar |...
to be similar to the system of face-on spiral and small companion known as M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy. Tomorrow's picture: Beta Pic < | Archive | Index | Search | Calendar | RSS |...
... pursued for a similar space-based system, ... determine the most capable and opportunistic weapon ... Haim Baruch, Battle Management, AIAA, 2000, p ...
Chinese and Chumash traditional medical approaches are similar in terms of disease causation, use of acupuncture or healing touch, plants, spiritual and philosophical approaches. This article provides...Full Text Available
feature similar to the face detection in Intel's OpenCV library, implement it in Matlab code, and test the performance of the new ROI detector against the ...
The basic studies of this report, had been done with a wind tunnel. Model similarity with typical atmospheric situations - such as an urban heat island - had to exist. Sufficient heat is needed to generate turbulent convection at the ground. By omitting the Boussinesq-approximation proper similarity parameters could be found to present the results in a dimensionless form. Also the effect of a cross circulation was investigated as well as the question at which conditions the convection is no longer able to overcome the longitudinal momentum of the wind. (KW).
The potential market for irradiated chicken breasts was investigated using a mail survey and a retail trial. Results from the mail survey suggested a significantly higher level of acceptability of irradiated chicken than did the retail trial. A subsequent market experiment involving actual purchases showed levels of acceptability similar to that of the mail survey when similar information about food irradiation was provided.
The current study investigated relations among ethnic similarity in caregiver-therapist pairs of youth participating in Multisystemic Therapy, therapist adherence, and youth long-term behavioral and criminal outcomes. Participants were 1,979 youth and families treated by 429 therapists across provider organizations in 45 sites. Relations were found, independently, and in the presence of ethnic similarity, between adherence and reductions in youth externalizing and internalizing behavior problems 1-year posttreatment and youth criminal charges 4 years posttreatment. Relations between ethnic similarity and outcomes were found only for reductions in youth externalizing behavior problems and not when adherence was included in the model. Adherence ratings were higher, however, in ethnically similar caregiver-therapist pairs, and evidence was found that this increased adherence predicted slightly better ...
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) has developed draft documentation to present the proposed Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) remote-handled (RH-) transuranic (TRU) waste characterization program to its regulators, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the New Mexico Environment Department. Compliance with Title 40, Code of Federal Regulations, Parts 191 and 194; the WIPP Land Withdrawal Act (PL 102-579); and the WIPP Hazardous Waste Facility Permit, as well as the Certificates of Compliance for the 72-B and 10-160B Casks, requires that specific waste parameter limits be imposed on DOE sites disposing of TRU waste at WIPP. The DOE-CBFO must control the sites' compliance with the limits by specifying allowable characterization methods. As with the established WIPP contact handled TRU waste characterization program, the DOE-CBFO has proposed a Remote-Handled TRU Waste Acceptance ...
The Savannah River Site (SRS) is a key installation for the production and research of nuclear materials for national defense and peace time applications and has been operating a full nuclear fuel cycle since the early 1950s. Wastes generated include high level radioactive, transuranic, low level radioactive, hazardous, mixed, sanitary, and aqueous wastes. Much progress has been made during the last several years to reduce these wastes including management systems, characterization, and technology programs. The reduction of wastes generated and the proper handling of the wastes have always been a part of the Site's operation. This paper summarizes the current status and future plans with respect to waste reduction to waste reduction and reviews some specific examples of successful activities.
The Savannah River Site (SRS) is a key installation for the production and research of nuclear materials for national defense and peace time applications and has been operating a full nuclear fuel cycle since the early 1950s. Wastes generated include high level radioactive, transuranic, low level radioactive, hazardous, mixed, sanitary, and aqueous wastes. Much progress has been made during the last several years to reduce these wastes including management systems, characterization, and technology programs. The reduction of wastes generated and the proper handling of the wastes have always been a part of the Site`s operation. This paper summarizes the current status and future plans with respect to waste reduction to waste reduction and reviews some specific examples of successful activities.
This ACDR was performed following completed of the Conceptual Design Report in July 1992; the work encompassed August 1992 to January 1994. Mission of the WRAP Module 2A facility is to receive, process, package, certify, and ship for permanent burial at the Hanford site disposal facilities the Category 1 and 3 contact handled low-level radioactive mixed wastes that are currently in retrievable storage at Hanford and are forecast to be generated over the next 30 years by Hanford, and waste to be shipped to Hanford from about DOE sites. This volume provides an introduction to the ACDR process and the scope of the task along with a project summary of the facility, treatment technologies, cost, and schedule. Major areas of departure from the CDR are highlighted. Descriptions of the facility layout and operations are included.
Forced vibration experiment has been conducted for the reactor building of Sendai Unit 1 nuclear power plant. The beam vibrational behaviors of the outer shielding building and the internal concrete structure have been observed by using a 50 tf vibration for low frequency region, and a 10 tf vibration for high frequency region, respectively. The outline of the experimental methods, the data handling system and the major results of experiment are described. The experimental results were simulated by an analytical model. The proper vibrational frequency and the vibration modes obtained by the analysis were compared with those obtained by the experiment. By these comparison, the adequacy of the analytical method employed for the design was confirmed. (Aoki, K.).
Studies on the effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF)on human health have been conducted for more than 20 years. None have categorically established or eliminated any connection between EMF and adverse health effects. Nonetheless, 96% of the risk managers working in the utility sector view EMF as an over-riding concern. Public concern over EMF has erupted into legal, as well as regulatory, actions. To date, some utilities have had lawsuits brought against them by customers who claim they developed cancer as a result of nearby high-voltage transmission lines. What`s more, a small handfull of cities have adopted ordinances that specifically limit where and how utilities handle the placement of their transmission lines.
The NIS-6 group at Los Alamos National Laboratory pioneered the development of Tomographic Gamma Scanning and continue to improve its utility in real measurement situations. Building on this experience we report the development of a state of the art TGS system suitable for industrial applications. The image reconstruction and visualization software has been integrated into the familiar Canberra NDA2000 software suite which also handles all other aspects of the data acquisition and management. In this paper we describe the salient design and performance parameters of the system. The application of gamma-ray tomography to safeguards for improved assay accuracy and knowledge confirmation is discussed. In particular we compare and contrast the relative merits of this TGS and a traditional Segmented Gamma Scanner and illustrate how the 3-D visualization of the TGS image can provide valuable additional information.
Objective: To evaluate the feasibility and clinical application of two stents insertion via single tract for treatment of hepatic hilar cholangiocarcinoma. Methods: Eighteen patients with hepatic hilar cholangiocarcinoma who had left and right bile duct obstruction were treated with stents insertion via right bile duct puncturing routeway. These two stents were implanted between right and left bile duct, and between right bile duct and common bile duct. Results: Eighteen patients obtained successful two stents placement by right bile duct puncturing tract and succeeded with internal drainage for all biliary tree jaundice subsided distinctly. Conclusions: The technique of two stents insertion via single tract could predigest interventional drainage procedure of high bile duct obstruction, reduce operation trauma, shorten handling time and possess promising application value
As competition in the service industry grows, delivering high-quality service to meet customers' needs and expectations becomes paramount. In order to achieve a thorough understanding of customers, companies are increasingly adopting Customer Relationship Management (CRM) initiatives. However, CRM does not have the process vision necessary to cope with complex and cross-functional processes. This problem is better handled by Business Process Management (BPM) initiatives, which, by their turn, struggle to built-in customer intelligence in their systems. Based upon systems theory, we discuss the roles of CRM and BPM in an integrated approach to deliver customer fulfillment. As the evolution of service-oriented approaches requires us to consider both customer interactions and experiences as k...
Scanning electron microscope (SEM) is necessary to demonstrate presence or absence of pit membranes in possible perforations or the type of pit membrane remnants in perforations in vessel element end-walls of angiosperms, but it was unconfirmed and questionable whether pit membrane absence in pits was affected by the processing and handling before SEM observations. To solve this question, the secondary xylem of four woody species from primitive angiosperms, Illicium henryi Diels. (Illiciaceae), Schisandra rubriflora (Franch.) Rehd. et Wils. (Schisandraceae), Tetracentron sinensis Oliv. and Trochodendron aralioides Sieb. & Zucc. (Trochodendraceae) was chosen and the following techniques were used: (1) fresh materials were examined in low-vacuum with ESEM. (2) Air-dried materials were examin...
Background The 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) infected over 8000 people and killed 774. Transmission of SARS occurred through direct and indirect contact and large droplet nuclei. The World Health Organization recommended the use of household disinfectants, which have not been previously tested against SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV), to disinfect potentially contaminated environmental surfaces. There is a need for a surrogate test system given the limited availability of the SARS-CoV for testing and biosafety requirements necessary to safely handle it. In this study, the antiviral activity of standard household products was assayed against murine hepatitis virus (MHV), as a potential surrogate for SARS-CoV. Methods A surface test method, which involves drying an amo...
Technology transfer is an integral part of Framatome's general approach to its Chinese partners for the Daya Bay, Ling Ao, and Qinshan phase 2 nuclear power plant projects. It has been the subject of major operations covering all activities relevant to project management, design and engineering, manufacturing, and maintenance know-how. This presentation is more particularly devoted to nuclear island maintenance knowledge, which has been extensively transferred by Framatome to the Daya Bay plant owner over a period of four years, through a program including the constitution of mixed Franco-Chinese teams to handle plant maintenance, shadow training of Chinese specialists in the maintenance work performed by Framatome or its subcontractors in France, and theoretical training sessions on equipment mockups in China and France. (author)
The Chernobylsk-1 reactor, operational in september 1977 has been stopped in november 1996; the Chernobylsk-2 reactor started in november 1978 is out of order since 1991 following a fire. The Chernobylsk-3 reactor began in 1981. During the last three years it occurs several maintenance operations that stop it. In june 2000, the Ukrainian authorities decided to stop it definitively on the 15. of december (2000). This file handles the subject. it is divided in four chapters: the first one gives the general context of the plant shutdown, the second chapter studies the supporting projects to stop definitively the nuclear plant, the third chapter treats the question of the sarcophagus, and the fourth and final chapter studies the consequences of the accident and the contaminated territories. (N.C.)
A diffuse-reflectance capability for the Fourier transform infrared spectrometer at the Y-12 Plant Laboratory has been implemented. A sample cell with a 25 to 400/sup 0/C temperature-controlled sample stage and an ultrahigh-vacuum-to-atmospheric pressure gas-handling capability has been developed. Absorbance of light from the spectrometer beam, resulting from the beam being scattered from a powder sample, can be measured. This capability of detecting molecular species on and in powders is to be used to study chemisorption on actinide and rare-earth metals, alloys, and compounds. Cell design is described along with experiments demonstrating its performance in detecting moisture absorption on uranium oxide, moisture and carbon dioxide absorption on the lithium hydride/hydroxide system, and carbon dioxide absorption on potassium borohydride. 13 figures.
When Congress passed the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA), it created a number of new reporting requirements for companies that handle toxic chemicals and products containing toxic chemicals. Section 313 of EPCRA requires that certain manufacturers report annual releases to the environment of listed toxic chemicals and chemical categories. Because these manufacturers must know the toxic chemical composition of the products they use to be able to calculate releases accurately, EPA requires some suppliers of mixtures or trade name products containing one or more of the listed section 313 toxic chemicals to notify their customers. The pamphlet explains which suppliers must notify their customers, who must be notified, what form the notice must take, and when it must be sent.
A simple method is presented for the separation of lead-203 from copper-backed thallium cyclotron targets. The procedure involves cation-exchange chromatography in hydrochloric acid and hydrochloric acid-acetone mixtures. Further purification involves anion-exchange chromatography in nitric acid-hydrobromic acid mixtures. A cation-exchange column containing 3.0 g of resin can handle as much as 15 g of thallium and 160 mg of copper. An anion-exchange column containing 3.0 g of resin can separate lead from up to 200 mg of thallium and 10 mg of copper. Separations are extremely sharp and less than 0.1 ..mu..g of thallium and less than 0.1 ..mu..g of copper remain in the lead-203 fraction.
A simple method is presented for the separation of lead-203 from copper-backed thallium cyclotron targets. The procedure involves cation-exchange chromatography in hydrochloric acid and hydrochloric acid-acetone mixtures. Further purification involves anion-exchange chromatography in nitric acid-hydrobromic acid mixtures. A cation-exchange column containing 3.0 g of resin can handle as much as 15 g of thallium and 160 mg of copper. An anion-exchange column containing 3.0 g of resin can separate lead from up to 200 mg of thallium and 10 mg of copper. Separations are extremely sharp and less than 0.1 #mu#g of thallium and less than 0.1 #mu#g of copper remain in the lead-203 fraction. (author).
This paper addresses the unique related aspects of the LMFBR concept which are of significance to containment design and structural analysis. Topics covered include: Primary boundary integrity assurance; Effects of sodium spills on integrity of structures; Provisions being considered for containment of melted cores; Fuel handling accidents. Specific reference is made to the FFTF and the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Project designs and methods of treatment of the above problems. In particular, the part played by tests, such as those carried out on a simulated FFTF model, and the planned structural reliability and related programs are considered. Where practicable, these topics are addressed in a manner which places FFTF and CRBR in context with other LMFBR's and point to a possible direction for future American LMFBR designs. (Auth.).
This paper will adress the unique safety related aspects of the LMFBR concept which are of significance to containment design and structural analyses. Topics to be covered will include: primary boundary integrity assurance; effects of sodium spills on integrity of structures; provisions being considered for containment of melted cores; and fuel handling accidents. Specific reference will be made to the FFTF and the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Project designs and methods of treatment of the above problems. In particular, the part played by tests, such as those carried out on a simulated FFTF model, and the planned structural reliability and related programs will be considered. Where practicable, these topics will be addressed in a manner which places FFTF and CRBR in context with other LMFBR's, and will point to a possible direction for future American LMFBR designs.
The goal of this three-year project was to improve the production systems in use by steel foundries in the United States. Improvements in the production systems result in less rework, less scrap, and less material handling, all of which would significantly reduce the energy demands of the process. Furthermore, these improvements would allow the companies to be more competitive, more responsive to customers' needs, deliver products with less lead time and require less capital. The ultimate result is a stronger domestic steel casting industry, which uses less energy. A major portion of this research involved the deployment of student researchers at steel foundries, to study their production systems and collect data.
This study was developed as part of the project ?Studies for Environmental and Cultural Sustainability of the Fulni-? Medical System: Office on handling medicinal plants?. The Fulni-? people are located in Pernambuco State, Northeastern Brazil. One of the components of this project was an ethnobotanical diagnosis of the indigenous land, where a phytosociological survey was performed in an area of Caatinga vegetation, located at Ouricuri settlement. Based on these ethnobotanical data, we calculated a conservation priority index aiming to rank species that should receive immediate attention from the Fulni-? people. We identified 44 woody plants, 50% of which have a medicinal use. Among these, six plants were considered highly vulnerable and in need of immediate conservationist attention, in ...
Pilot-plant irradiation began in Hungary in 1969 with the construction of a high-activity multi-purpose /sup 60/Co facility. Technologies for radiation sterilization, food handling, plastics irradiation as well as chemical dosimetry, semiconductor instrumental dosimetry, computer-based construction and control methods have been developed. Our chlorobenzene dose-meter system is used in Hungary and abroad; as a result of an IAEA-organized dosimetric intercomparison the system was adopted as a reference system. The institute has developed into a basic institute for the reconstruction and re-load of old ..gamma..-facilities as well as it serves for the planning, construction and launching of new ones in Hungary.
We report on the implementation of an interface between the SANC generator framework for Drell-Yan hard processes, which includes next-to-leading order electroweak (NLO EW) corrections, and the Herwig++ and Pythia8 QCD parton shower Monte Carlos. A special aspect of this implementation is that the initial-state shower evolution in both shower generators has been augmented to handle the case of an incoming photon-in-a-proton, diagrams for which appear at the NLO EW level. The difference between shower algorithms leads to residual differences in the relative corrections of 2-3% in the p_T(mu) distributions at p_T(mu)>~50 GeV (where the NLO EW correction itself is of order 10%).
The point-splitting regularization technique for composite operators is discussed in connection with anomaly calculation. We present a pedagogical and self-contained review of the topic with an emphasis on the technical details. We also develop simple algebraic tools to handle the path ordered exponential insertions used within the covariant and non-covariant version of the point-splitting method. The method is then applied to the calculation of the chiral, vector, trace, translation and Lorentz anomalies within diverse versions of the point-splitting regularization and a connection between the results is described. As an alternative to the standard approach we use the idea of deformed point-split transformation and corresponding Ward-Takahashi identities rather than an application of the equation of motion, which seems to save the complexity of the calculations.
The logic named Piccolo for a picture database computer and its implementation is presented. The logic is shown to have three major advantages. One advantage is that the computer design based on this logic can handle a universal variety of pictorial data structures. Another advantage is that a set of data generated by rules such as texture distribution rules is stored in the picture computer efficiently. The third advantage is that this logic can serve as the basis of a logic for parallel processing machines. For implementation of the logic, a new methodology named architecture engineering is introduced as an architecture/design oriented methodology. Implementation case studies show the usefulness of the methodolgy. Two implementations on an abstract machine that are also on a parallel LISP machine are reported. 19 references.
One of the most important aspects of security organization is to establish a framework to identify security significant points where policies and procedures are declared. The (information) security infrastructure comprises entities, processes, and technology. All are participants in handling information, which is the item that needs to be protected. Privacy and security information technology is a critical and unmet need in the management of personal information. This paper proposes concepts and technologies for management of personal information. Two different types of information can be distinguished: personal information and nonpersonal information. Personal information can be either personal identifiable information (PII), or nonidentifiable information (NII). Security, policy, and technical requirements can be based on this distinction. At the conceptual level, PII is defined and formalized by propositions over infons (discrete pieces of information) that ...
Advances in nuclear reactor technology and the use of gas-cooled fast reactors require the development of new materials that can operate at the higher temperatures expected in these systems. These include refractory alloys base on Nb, Zr, Ta, Mo, W, and Re; ceramics and composites such as those based on silicon carbide (SiCf-SiC); carbon-carbon composites; and advanced coatings. Besides the ability to handle higher expected temperatures, effective heat transfer between reactor componets is necessary for improved efficiency. Improving thermal conductivity of the materials used in nuclear fuels and other temperature critical components can lower the center-line fuel temperature and thereby enhance durability and reduce the risk of premature failure.
Because the state of a free-floating space robot model is uncertain and sudden changes in the model parameters might undermine the stability of the system, this paper proposes a control strategy based on a variable structure neural integrated controller. This scheme does not need a precise space robot model, making use of the radial basis function neural network ability approach to learn about an uncertain model. The network weights are adjusted online in real-time. During the early period of the control phase and parameter changes, the variable structure controller compensates for the uncertain model which the neural network could not learn well. It also creates global asymptotic stability for the whole closed-loop system. Simulation results show that the controller can handle bad changea...
Level set method based segmentation provides an efficient tool for topological and geometrical shape handling. Conventional level set surfaces are only $C^0$ continuous since the level set evolution involves linear interpolation to compute derivatives. Bajaj et al. present a higher order method to evaluate level set surfaces that are $C^2$ continuous, but are slow due to high computational burden. In this paper, we provide a higher order GPU based solver for fast and efficient segmentation of large volumetric images. We also extend the higher order method to multi-domain segmentation. Our streaming solver is efficient in memory usage.
Energy International is developing a technology that will create a staged formulation with the first coal form (Mulled Coal) that can be stored, transported, and pumped. Just prior to combustion, the Mulled Coal (MC) would be modified to provide the properties needed for proper atomization. This concept is an alternative to the expensive and energy intensive thermal drying processing of fine coal wet cakes. The material is suitable for both direct feed use in conventional and fluid bed combustors as well as on-site conversion to combustible slurries. By maintaining the coal form relatively close to the feed wet cake, only minor processing with low additive levels and low energy blending needed at the point of production. Its conversion to slurry or other use-feed form is made near the time of use and thus the requirements for stability, climatic control, and other storage, transport, and handling requirements are much less severe.
A method of modeling freeze-thaw cycles of naturally deposited snowpacks is presented. The model involves the Stefan condition as an independent governing equation on the exterior moving boundary to calculate snowpack thinning, flow of water through a variably saturated layered porous medium as described by the Richards equation, and heat conduction with a phase change. The heat conduction problem was treated in two ways. Local heat conduction between a snow grain and its surrounding water film was treated by using a simple energy balance. Global heat conduction with a phase change (the Stefan problem) was introduced to calculate the space-time temperature distribution. In order to handle multiple interior moving boundaries, a specific form of the enthalpy formulation was used for heat conduction with a phase change. Changing material properties were considered according to the calculated meltwater refreezing. 48 refs., 11 figs., 2 tabs.
A study, based on a literature review was made to examine currently recommended meteorological measurement programs and diffusion prediction methods for nuclear power plants to determine their adequacy for plants located in coastal zones. Although procedures for handling the near-worst case (stable, light-wind situation) were judged adequately conservative, deficiencies in guidelines and procedures were found with respect to the following: failure to consider the role of coastal internal boundary layers; specifications for tower locations and instrument heights; methods of classifying atmospheric stability; methods of allowing credit for plume meander, and models specified for diffusion calculations. Recommendations were made for changes in the guidelines applicable to these topics. Areas in which additional research is needed were identified.
Mass and charge distributions of products from fission of sup(242m)Am induced by thermal neutrons have been investigated by means of the semiconductor spectrometry of ..gamma.. radiation from a mixture of non-separated fragment nuclei. Specimens of the fissible material have been irradiated in the vertical experimental channel of the research reactor then the measurements have been performed with calibrated semiconductor detectors. Three experiments with substantially different irradiation times have been performed to expand the nomenclature of the investigated fission products. The spectra of ..gamma.. radiation from the mixture of fission products, and time dependences of the counting rates at the total absorption peaks have been handled with computers. The obtained yields are compared with data of previous investigations performed with different experimental methods, as well as with the calculated one.
In January of 1977 the Paraho Development Company under contract with the United States Navy began a semi-works project to produce and refine up to 100,000 barrels of crude shale oil. Although the primary objective of the project was to produce specification turbine and diesel transportation fuels for field testing by the military field testing, the full-scale refinery run also produced a substantial quantity of hydrotreated shale oil residue. In 1978 the Electric Power Research Institute, recognizing the utilization potential of this material as a fuel for utility combustion turbines, obtained 4300 barrels of the residual shale oil product for future field testing. This report describes the processes involved in producing, handling, and storing the residual shale oil test material. The report also includes detailed chemical and physical analyses of the test material. In addition, guidelines which can be applied to future work with this type of synthetic fuel are ...
Electronic structure calculations frequently invoke periodic boundary conditions to solve for electrostatic potentials. For systems that are electronically charged, or contain dipole (or higher) moments, this artifice introduces spurious potentials due to the interactions between the system and multipole moments of its periodic images in aperiodic directions. I describe a method to properly handle the multipole moments of the electron density in electronic structure calculations using periodic boundary conditions. The density for which an electrostatic potential is to be evaluated is divided into two pieces. A local density is constructed that matches the desired moments of the full density, and its potential computed treating this density as isolated. With the density of this local moment countercharge removed from the full density, the remainder density lacks the troublesome moments and its electrostatic potential can be evaluated accurately using periodic ...
Vignon, M. (2011) Inference in morphological taxonomy using collinear data and small sample sizes: Monogenean sclerites (Platyhelminthes) as a case study. -Zoologica Scripta, 40, 306-316. Taxonomists and evolutionary biologists frequently use a combination of morphological measurements to distinguish between species and investigate local adaptation. However, the entire set of characters often displays various degrees of collinearity. This paper discusses the effect of using collinear data in morphological taxonomy and ways to handle multicollinearity in a classification context, with special consideration for small sample size. In addition, I propose a robust and easy-to-use combination of dimension reduction using partial least squares (PLS) with traditional discriminant methods for morph...
Hydrogenation residue is the product left over when petroleum residue feedstocks (or coal) are treated by, e.g. the Veba Combi Cracking (VCC) process. Many tests in semitechnical and full-sized coke ovens were carried out with hydrogenation residue (HR) as an additive in coking coal blends for the production of blast furnace coke or foundry coke. The results of the investigations reported in this paper demonstrate that HR is a very promising alternative for enlarging the coking coal basis compared to other processes or the use of other additives. The application of HR on an industrial scale did not indicate any negative impact on the handling of the hydrogenation residue or on the operation of the coke oven battery.
Studies continued on organic tracers for use as hydrologic tracers as part of the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization project. This subject report for the quarter 01/01/93 through 03/31/93 discusses the following issues: project organization and responsibilities; quality assurance program; design control; procurement document control; instructions, procedures, and drawings; document control; control of purchased items and services; identification and control of items; control of processes; inspection; test control; control of measuring and test equipment; handling, storage, and shipping; inspection, test, and operating status; control of nonconforming items and conditions; corrective action; quality assurance records; audits; software quality assurance; and scientific investigation.
This report is a description of the West Valley Demonstration Project`s radioactive waste storage facility, the Chemical Process Cell (CPC). This facility is currently being used to temporarily store vitrified waste in stainless steel canisters. These canisters are stacked two-high in a seismically designed rack system within the cell. Approximately 300 canisters will be produced during the Project`s vitrification campaign which began in June 1996. Following the completion of waste vitrification and solidification, these canisters will be transferred via rail or truck to a federal repository (when available) for permanent storage. All operations in the CPC are conducted remotely using various handling systems and equipment. Areas adjacent to or surrounding the cell provide capabilities for viewing, ventilation, and equipment/component access.
Through the dedicated collaborative efforts of many individuals interested in supporting local education, computer laboratories were established at two urban high schools. The purchasing and implementation of the project was handled by the Alliance for Education, a local non-profit education advocate. Funds were supplied by the Air Force as part of a 3-year research activity utilizing artificial intelligence technology to tutor 9th grade students. NCR (now AT7T Global Information Solutions) corporate leaders provided the computers and network equipment at a considerable savings to the project. Each lab is a state-of-the-art facility with air-conditioning, carpeting, special computer tables, computer projection screens, and on-site technical support. Student and teacher enthusiasm toward the project has been gratifying and quantitative results are currently being evaluated for both attitude, skills, and state proficiency tests.
A well-known diffuse interface model consists of the Navier-Stokes equations nonlinearly coupled with a convective Cahn-Hilliard type equation. This system describes the evolution of an incompressible isothermal mixture of binary-fluids and it has been investigated by many authors. Here we consider a variant of this model where the standard Cahn-Hilliard equation is replaced by its nonlocal version. More precisely, the gradient term in the free energy functional is replaced by a spatial con- volution operator acting on the order parameter phi. Therefore the coupling with the Navier-Stokes equations is difficult to handle even in two spatial dimensions because of the lack of regularity of phi. We establish the global existence of a weak solution.
ATLAS Experiment is an international collaboration where more than 37 countries, 172 institutes and laboratories, 2900 physicists, engineers, and computer scientists plus 700 students participate. The management of this teamwork involves several aspects such as institute contribution, employment records, members' appointment, authors' list, preparation and publication of papers and speakers nomination. Previously, most of the information was accessible by a limited group of people and the system used was not designed to handle new requirements easily. Moreover, developers had to face problems such as different terminology, diverse data modeling, heterogeneous databases and unlike users needs. Besides that, the maintenance has to be an easy task considering the long lifetime experiment and professionals turnover. The Glance system, a generic mechanism for accessing any database, acts as an intermediate layer isolating the user from the particularities of each ...
The nucleation and propagation of hydrofractures by injection of over pressured fluids in an elastic and isotropic medium are studied experimentally. Non-Newtonian fluids are injected inside a gelatine whose mechanical properties are assumed isotropic at the experimental strain rates. Linear elastic theory predicts that plastic deformation associated to breakage of gelatin bonds is limited to a small zone ahead of the tip of the propagating fracture and that propagation will be maintained while the fluid pressure exceeds the normal stress to the fracture walls (Ch\\'avez-\\'Alvarez,2008) (i.e., the minimum compressive stress), resulting in a single mode I fracture geometry. However, we observed the propagation of fractures type II and III as well as nucleation of secondary fractures, with oblique to perpendicular trajectories with respect to the initial fracture. In the Video (http://hdl.handle.net/1813/14122) experimental evidence shows that the fracture shape ...
Reactive chemical transport models developed over the past decade have generally relied on the assumption that local thermodynamic equilibrium is achieved at all times between aqueous species in a given system. Consequently, homogeneous aqueous systems characterized by a number of kinetically slow reactions, particularly problems involving organic species, cannot be satisfactorily modeled. In this study, we present a prototype computer model, KINETRAN, which is designed to handle kinetically-controlled homogeneous reactions in the aqueous phase, along with the transport of the various species involved, through geologic media. 31 refs., 53 figs., 10 tabs.
Fires and explosions have been identified as major potential hazards for Oil and Gas Floating Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) installations and pose risk to personnel, assets, and the environment. Current fire and explosion assessment (FEA) tools require physical effect modeling software and follows standards from API, ISO, and engineering practices. However, the tools are not specific to any particular system such as an FPSO, and do not provide comprehensive guidance for safety engineers to perform FEA. This paper discusses the development of a screening and comparison tool for FEA on FPSOs and the incorporation of an expert system into the tool. The results are computerized using MS Excel/VBA to provide a structured and comprehensive assessment on each equipment and module handling ...
The loss of seal of the H9 channel in vacuum, freeing the entire cross section of the front part, leads to a fast leak that progresses rapidly. The effect of depressurizing the reflector can leads to shutdown of the shutdown rod pumps. The source changer associated with the channel fills completely before the valve closes. All of the leak water remains contained within the source changer containment. After the valves open, cooling of the fuel element is handled by natural convection, requiring a reversal of the flow between the plates. This changeover, which takes place at a relatively low pressure level, could lead to local boiling in the fuel element. Consequently, irreversible transformations cannot be excluded as possibilities for the fuel element and even for the control rod. Subsequently, the can is refilled with heavy water with establishment of the usual pressure levels.
A major deficiency of current photon calculation methods that are based on the concept of primary and scatter separation is their inability to handle the condition of electronic disequilibrium. This deficiency is examined and it is shown that the limitation is not inherent in the algorithms themselves but is, at least in part, in the data which the algorithms use. A new concept of primary and scatter separation is developed to cover the condition of electronic disequilibrium. This new concept requires little change to the existing algorithms and only additional data are required, which are generated using Monte Carlo calculation methods. The new concept is tested using programs in the Theratronics Theraplan treatment-planning system, and two calculation examples illustrate the ability to model electron transport and also the improvement over the existing algorithms. Close analogy of the extended concept with the convolution/superposition method of dose calculation ...
Due to the ever-increasing demand for electric power in India, the production of steam (non-coking) coal will continuously increase. Since most Indian coals contain high ash-forming minerals which result in the increased costs of transportation, boiler maintenance and refuse handling, the use of pre-combustion washing becomes a viable concept. However, many professionals in the Indian mining industry have debated on which of the many benefication techniques is the most appropriate for the pre-combustion cleaning. Through the comprehensive study presented herein, it is found that heavy media separation is more suitable than the jig process for most of the Indian coals. A discussion and flowsheet for the state-of-the-art plant design called the High Capacity Processor (HCP) using advanced coal cleaning techniques are presented.
Degradation of blast furnace coke during handling and transport can produce up to 5% of -10 mm size and so reduce the +80 mm component to less than 2-4%. In shatter tests the action is one of crushing, creating smaller pieces out of a large piece and so, in effect, increasing uniformity and strength. Different size cokes differ in strength and physico-chemical properties, and are also affected by the quenching method (wet or dry) used. The most important parameter as far as blast furnace coke is concerned, in the interests of uniform size and sustained strength, is the M10 index, showing the yield of -10 mm fines, as it is these which detract from furnace performance. (9 refs.)
The introduction of tolerance to radiation (''radiation-hardness'') into large electronic systems is one of the major tasks to which this Handbook will be put. The practices recommended here for inculcating radiation-tolerance in equipment require advanced physical modeling techniques, precise engineering procedures, and firm assurance procedures. The degree to which these procedures should be used in an equipment project can be measured by the severity of the raw radiation environment, the desired reliability of the system, and the requirement of that project for radiation-sensitive technologies. The balance of device/circuit design versus shielding will depend on whether the radiation is highly penetrating -- as in isotope handling or military environments -- or readily attenuated, as in space. In this chapter the authors have attempted to summarize the essential features of the radiation hardening of large assemblies of equipment and how effective control of ...
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) provides mechanisms for reliable data communications. Although it works well in wired networks, it fails to offer satisfactory performance in lossy and wireless environments. And in the multi-hop wireless infrastructure, packet delivery suffers high cumulative loss rate if traveling over multiple wireless hops. The Selective acknowledgment (SACK) is one header option that might be used to combat segment corruptions in air channels. In this paper, an alternative set of flow control mechanisms is proposed to handle high packet loss rate in a wireless medium. Using a measurement-based mechanism, sustainable segment delivery is achievable through a novel size-reduction method. Multiple segment retransmission mechanisms are introduced to reduce successive tim...
This paper discusses the application of L1-regularized maximum entropy modeling or SL1-Max [9] to multiclass categorization problems. A new modification to the SL1-Max fast sequential learning algorithm is proposed to handle conditional distributions. Furthermore, unlike most previous studies, the present research goes beyond a single type of conditional distribution. It describes and compares a variety of modeling assumptions about the class distribution (independent or exclusive) and various types of joint or conditional distributions. It results in a new methodology for combining binary regularized classifiers to achieve multiclass categorization. In this context, Maximum Entropy can be considered as a generic and efficient regularized classification tool that matches or outperforms the state-of-the art represented by AdaBoost and SVMs.
Dislocation priming measurements were performed in the kHz range in ASARCO copper. The samples and irradiation facilities are constructed so as to allow successive irradiation of samples both with electrons and gamma rays. The gamma rays were produced by stopping 2.8-MeV electrons in a gold target. The change of the type of irradiation could be achieved without any handling of the sample. Thus it is possible to detect rather small differences between the two types of irradiation. Recovery experiments at 400 deg K after 75 deg K irradiation and pinning rates during irradiation at 400 deg K and 75 deg K were made. (GE)
A new interest in magnesium alloys has arisen since light-weight constructions have become more and more attractive. Products that are currently available are mostly cast, forged, and extruded. A cost-effective production of sheet metals will render new perspectives in the design of light-weight constructions. The development of new casting technologies like thin slab casting or strip casting with an in-line rolling process is expected to result in a shorter processing time featuring a high potential of saving energy, time, and cost. Particular attention is paid to the casting process parameters such as casting speed and solidification speed. This article deals with some aspects of a magnesium-adapted single-belt caster. Results of casting experiments and material examination are shown as well as some advices given concerning safety and handling of liquid magnesium. (orig.)
A pipeless batch plant is a batch processing production system using mobile vessels. The plant performances depend on both hardware of equipment and software of operation. So the plant includes many design factors such as number of vessels, stations and AGVS, layout of stations, vessel moving rules, job scheduling and so on. In this paper, the characteristics of pipeless batch plant design are considered to handle the problem by the systems engineering approach. Then, a practical design method known as design-by-analysis is applied to solve such a complex design problem. Based on this concept, a design support system composed of modeling, simulation and evaluation subsystems is developed. This system enables rational decision making through performance evaluation for proposed design of a pipeless batch plant. The usefulness of the system is illustrated by industrial examples. 12 refs., 8 figs., 6 tabs.
The present paper describes the development of a radon standard source for use in establishing the traceability of radon concentration measurements in air. Previously, radon generated by bubbling air through a radium salt solution was widely used for calibration of radon measurement equipment; however, the handling of a solid-phase radon source is easier. In the present study, the radioactivity of radon released in a vapor phase was determined from the difference between the radioactivity of the radium and the residual radon progenies in the source. A germanium detector, calibrated using gamma reference sources, was used for these radioactivity measurements. Under equilibrium conditions the radioactivity of the radon released from the radium source was found to be 988 Bq. The source was sealed in a stainless-steel container having a nominal capacity of 6 l to produce a radon standard source of density of 167.5 [Bq/l].
To investigate the 2D/1D fusion core analysis method, a 1D neutron transport problem solver, PEACH-ID, is developed. It is a code of method of characteristics (MOC), both the usual fiat-source step characteristics (SC) scheme and linear source (LS) approximation scheme are adopted for tracking calculation along the neutron flying trajectory. Exponential function interpolation table and fission source extrapolation are adopted as two major methods to accelerate the computational process. Numerical results demonstrate that PEACH-1D is accurate and efficient, and the proposed LS scheme is able to handle quite larger mesh division and deserves much more application in the MOC codes. (authors)
We present the recent results of our research on the high power ultra-fast silicon RF switches. This switch is composed of a group of PIN diodes on a high purity silicon wafer. The wafer is inserted into a cylindrical waveguide under TE{sub 01} mode, performing switching by injecting carriers into the bulk silicon. Our current design uses a CMOS compatible process and the device was fabricated at SNF (Stanford Nanofabrication Facility). 300 ns switching time has been observed, while the switching speed can be improved further with 3-D device structure and faster driving circuit. Power handling capacity of the switch is at the level of 10 MW. The switch was designed for active X-band RF pulse compression systems--especially for NLC, but it is also possible to be modified for other applications and other frequencies.
The Reliability Data Management System (RDMS) for safety systems of PHWR type plants has been developed and utilized in the reliability analysis of the special safety systems of Wolsong Unit 1 with plant overhaul period lengthened. The RDMS is developed for the periodic efficient reliability analysis of the safety systems of Wolsong Unit 1. In addition, this system provides the function of analyzing the effects on safety system unavailability if the test period of a test procedure changes as well as the function of optimizing the test periods of safety-related test procedures. The RDMS can be utilized in handling the requests of the regulatory institute actively with regard to the reliability validation of safety systems.
The report gives background design data for a specific copper smelter. The data is sufficiently detailed to allow air pollution control system engineering studies to be conducted. These studies will be concerned primarily with lean SO/sub 2/ streams that currently are not being captured. Physical layout of the smelter and the surrounding area is presented, along with existing control equipment. Ductwork that would be considered for future system tie-in is defined. Emissions from operating equipment, gas flow rates, temperatures, sulfur balance, and a process flow sheet are included. Utilities, stack dimensions, footing requirements, and solid waste handling are defined. Available area for new control equipment, gas characteristic variation, and potential new control equipment installation problems are discussed. Portions of this document are not fully legible. (GRA)
The report gives background design data for a specific copper smelter. The data is sufficiently detailed to allow air pollution control system engineering studies to be conducted. These studies will be concerned primarily with lean SO/sub 2/ streams that currently are not being captured. Physical layout of the smelter and the surrounding area is presented, along with existing control equipment. Ductwork that would be considered for future system tie-in is defined. Emissions from operating equipment, gas flow rates, temperatures, sulfur balance, and a process flow sheet are included. Utilities, stack dimensions, footing requirements, and solid waste handling are defined. Available area for new control equipment, gas characteristic variation, and potential new control equipment installation problems are discussed. (GRA)
Multi-criteria group decision making (MCGDM) aims to support preference-based decision over the available alternatives that are characterized by multiple criteria in a group. To increase the level of overall satisfaction for the final decision across the group and deal with uncertainty in decision process, a fuzzy MCGDM process (FMP) model is established in this study. This FMP model can also aggregate both subjective and objective information under multi-level hierarchies of criteria and evaluators. Based on the FMP model, a fuzzy MCGDM decision support system (called Decider) is developed, which can handle information expressed in linguistic terms, boolean values, as well as numeric values to assess and rank a set of alternatives within a group of decision makers. Real applications indic...
We analyse the issues involved in the management and mining of astrophysical data. The traditional approach to data management in the astrophysical field is not able to keep up with the increasing size of the data gathered by modern detectors. An essential role in the astrophysical research will be assumed by automatic tools for information extraction from large datasets, i.e. data mining techniques, such as clustering and classification algorithms. This asks for an approach to data management based on data warehousing, emphasizing the efficiency and simplicity of data access; efficiency is obtained using multidimensional access methods and simplicity is achieved by properly handling metadata. Clustering and classification techniques, on large datasets, pose additional requirements: computational and memory scalability with respect to the data size, interpretability and objectivity of clustering or classification results. In this study we address some possible ...
The Department of Energy (DOE) policy requires that all DOE activities be conducted in a manner that protects the safety of the public and provides a safe and healthful workplace for employees. DOE has also prescribed that all personnel be protected in any explosives operation undertaken. The level of safety provided shall be at least equivalent to that of the best industrial practice. The risk of death or serious injury shall be limited to the lowest practicable minimum. DOE and contractors shall continually review their explosives operations with the aim of achieving further refinements and improvements in safety practices and protective features. This manual describes the Department's explosive safety requirements applicable to operations involving the development, testing, handling, and processing of explosives or assemblies containing explosives. It is intended to reflect the state-of-the-art in explosives safety. In addition, it is essential that ...
A state-of-the-art review and assessment of storage effects on crude oil and product quality was undertaken through a literature search by computer accessing several data base sources. Pertinent citations from that literature search are tabulated for the years 1980 to the present. This 1990 revision supplements earlier reviews by Brinkman and others which covered stability publications through 1979 and an update in 1983 by Goetzinger and others that covered the period 1952--1982. For purposes of organization, citations are listed in the current revision chronologically starting with the earliest 1980 publications. The citations have also been divided according to primary subject matter. Consequently 11 sections appear including: alternate fuels, gasoline, distillate fuel, jet fuel, residual fuel, crude oil, biodegradation, analyses, reaction mechanisms, containment, and handling and storage. Each section contains a brief narrative followed by all the citations for ...
In equipment industries, the equipments handling industrial water and pure water are numerous. In power generation including nuclear power generation, water serves as a working medium. Review is made on the experiences in the corrosion of iron and nickel base alloys in high temperature, high pressure water and the results of researches derived from them. Under high temperature and high pressure, carbon steel, low alloy steel, stainless steel and high nickel alloy cause corrosion even in pure water. But in the case of serious corrosion, chlorine, oxygen, alkali and others in water take part. The following matters are described: corrosion by steam; stress corrosion cracking in pure water; corrosion by impurities in high temperature, high pressure pure water, i.e. chlorine ions, dissolved oxygen, and alkali; corrosion under radiation. (J.P.N.).
Whereas in part 1 and 2 the detailed observation equations of terrestrial type for an integrated geodetic model are presented this paper will outline how the theory is transferred in an operational program. The main lines of functions of the FORTRAN IV program are discussed. Since the input specifications as well as the data requirements are described in detail and illustrated by example of input and output part 3 can serve as an user-guide for OPERA. OPERA is an acronym for operational adjustment. Besides the integrated determination of 3D-geocentric coordinates and the gravity disturbing potential the program can handle all cases of traditional geodesy (in total 13 variants of solution are provided) equivalent also with adjustments in ellipsoidal coordinates B, L or H, as well as constrained adjustments, pure prediction of the gravity disturbing field, etc.
Computer software for risk assessment of transportation of important freight has been developed. It incorporates models of transport accidents, including terrorist attacks. These models use, among the others, input data of cartographic character. Geographic information system technology and electronic maps of a geographic area are involved as an instrument for handling this kind of data. Fuzzy set theory methods as well as standard methods of probability theory have been used for quantitative risk assessment. Fuzzy algebraic operations and their computer realization are discussed. Risk assessment for one particular route of railway transportation is given as an example. (author)
The present emphasis on inherent safety for LMR designs has resulted in a need to represent the various reactivity feedback mechanisms as accurately as possible. The dominant negative reactivity feedback has been found to result from radial expansion of the core for most postulated ATWS events. For this reason, a more detailed model for calculating the reactivity feedback from radial core expansion has been recently developed for use with the SASSYS/SAS4A Code System. The purpose of this summary is to present an extension to the model so that it is more suitable for handling a core restraint design as used in FFTF, and to compare the SASSYS/SAS4A results using this model to the empirical correlation presently being used to account for radial core expansion reactivity feedback to FFTF.
A total of 48 papers were presented, and covered the following topics: the current situation in Pakistan with respect to development and utilization of coal resources; the policies that have been responsible for the development and utilization of coal resources in Pakistan; coal development and utilization in other developing nations e.g. Indonesia, Greece, Philippines, China, Thailand and Haiti; and technological developments in coal exploration; extraction, handling, transport and utilization which could accelerate future development of Pakistan's coal resources. Specific subjects covered include the use of coal in the cement industry of Pakistan; the production of briquettes for domestic use, development and training of personnel for the coal industry; and sources of finance for coal development projects. Particular emphasis is given throughout the conference to the Lakhra coal mine/power plant project which aims to develop and effectively utilize the ...
Anti-reflective coatings made with Teflon AF2400 had the highest damage thresholds recorded for physical vapor deposited coatings at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory damage facility. Physical vapor deposited layers of Teflon AF2400, a perfluorinated amorphous polymer, maintained the bulk optical properties of a high transmittance from 200 nm to 1600 nm, and a low refractive index. In addition, the refractive index can be intentionally reduced by control of two common deposition parameters, deposition rate and substrate temperature. Scanning electron microscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance observations indicated that morphological changes caused the variations in the refractive index rather than compositional changes. The coatings adhered to fused silica and silicon wafers under normal laboratory handling conditions.
The facilities in the Institute for Nuclear Research at Pitesti allow the testing, handling and examination of nuclear fuel and irradiated materials. The most important facilities are the TRIGA Steady State Research and Material Test Reactor and the Post-Irradiation Examination Laboratory (PIEL). The purpose of this work is to determine by post-irradiation examination, the behavior of CANDU fuel, irradiated in 14 MW TRIGA reactor. The fuel was irradiated in power ramp conditions. The results of post-irradiation examination are: - Visual inspection and photography of the outer appearance of sheath; - Profilometry (diameter, bending, ovality) and length measuring; - Determination of axial and radial distribution of the fusion products activity by gamma scanning and tomography; - Microstructural characterization by metallographic and ceramographic analyzes; - Mechanical properties determination. The data obtained from the post-irradiation examination are used to ...
The prototype Bragg Curve Counter (BCC) has been tested by {alpha}-source ({sup 241}Am) with a continuous gas flow system (P-10: 90% Ar+10% CH{sub 4}, at 300Torr). Two types of the Frisch grid were prepared for the BCC. One was made of expanded metal meshes, which consist of 175 meshes/inch{sup 2} with a 100{mu}m{sup t} nickel sheet. The other was made of a 1mm pitch wire with {phi} 50 {mu}m of the tungsten. The shape of Bragg peak signal was compared each other. It was found that the energy spectrum obtained by the wire grid is a little sharper than that obtained by the meshes grid. However the meshes grid is superior than the wire grid so far as handling and durability are concerned. (author).
Microbonding of the CMS Tracker Inner Barrel (TIB) and Tracker Inner Disks (TID) modules was shared among six different Italian Institutes. The organization devised and the infrastructure deployed to handle this task is illustrated. Microbonding specifications and procedures for the different types of TIB and TID modules are given. The tooling specially designed and developed for these types of modules is described. Experience of production is presented. Attained production rates are given. An analysis of the microbonding quality achieved is presented, based on bond strengths measured in sample bond pull tests as well as on rates of bonding failures. Italian Bonding Centers routinely performed well above minimum specifications and a very low global introduced failure rate, at the strip level, of only $\\sim$0.015 \\% is observed.
Summary Large body size hinders locomotor performance in ways that may lead to trade-offs in predator foraging ability that limit the net predatory benefit of larger size. For example, size-related improvements in handling prey may come at the expense of pursuing prey and thus negate any enhancement in overall predatory performance due to increasing size. This hypothesis was tested with longitudinal data from repeated observations of 94 individually known wolves (Canis lupus) hunting elk (Cervus elaphus) in Yellowstone National Park, USA. Wolf size was estimated from an individually based sex-specific growth model derived from body mass measurements of 304 wolves. Larger size granted individual wolves a net predatory advantage despite substantial variation in its effect on the performance ...
Kawasaki Steel started the construction of an automatic steel strip coil transportation system in the 1980's. Presently, most of the in-plant transportation of hot-rolled or cold-rolled coils are automated. For establishing the automatic transportation, there were developed various technologies, such as, the optimum handling technology using artificial intelligence, the technology of preventing additional piling of coils on existing coils by using an ultrasonic wave and a laser beam. Through the improvements of these technologies, a full-automated transportation system has been achieved and the system has contributed substantially toward product quality assurance and cost reduction. This paper gives the changes in the automation technology of coil transportation in the automation of No. 3 finishing hot rolling mill, now having the latest automatic system, in Chiba Works. (author)
The overall aim is to develope programme modules for a Danish integrated computer system for projecting buildings and to ensure that Danish programmes are compatible with international systems. The programmes to be integrated here were AutoCAD and SCRIBE-Models and the simulation programme tsbi3 for the calculation of indoor climate conditions, power demand and energy consumption in buildings. For the calculation of humidity and temperature conditions in constructions a certain amount of integration is carried out with the MATCH programme (Moisture And Temperature calculations for Constructions of Hygroscopic materials). The activities embodied in the pilot projects are described in this working report in addition to individual computer programmes and prototypes, and examples and diagrams are presented. The programmes described deal with handling design elements in relation to AutoCAD designs, and the formatting of a building`s data from AutoCAD to tsbi3 format. ...
In the analysis of power systems security, recently a new concern related to possible malicious attacks caught much attention. Coordination among different transmission system operators (TSO) in an interconnected power system to counteract such attacks has become an important problem. This paper presents a general framework for describing the physical, cyber and decision-making aspects of the problem and their interrelations; within this framework, an analytic tool for the assessment of information impacts in handling on-line security after a malicious attack is proposed and discussed. The model is based on the socially rational multi-agent systems and the equilibrium of a fictitious play is considered to analyze the impacts of various levels of information available to the interconnected system operators on the outcomes of the decision-making process under attack. A 34-buses test system, with 3 systems interconnected by tie-lines, is presented to illustrate the ...
The assessment and control of fetal exposure to radiation in the workplace is an issue that is complicated by both biological and political/social ramifications. As a result of the dramatic increase in the number of women employed as radiation workers during the past 10 years, many facilities using radioactive materials have instituted fetal protection programs with special requirements for female radiation workers. It is necessary, however, to ensure that any fetal protection program be developed in such a way as to be nondiscriminatory. A study has been initiated whose purpose is to balance the political/social and the biological ramifications associated with occupational protection of the developing embryo/fetus. Several considerations are involved in properly balancing these factors. These considerations include appropriate methods of declaring the pregnancy, training workers, controlling the dose to the embryo/fetus, measuring and calculating the dose to the embryo/fetus, and ...
Dryout predictions using a multi-flood model for the annular two-phase flow regime are compared against dryout data obtained for BWR condition. The multifluid model treats two-phase flow as composed of distinct fluid regions (fluids) and individual conservation equations are applied to each fluid. Dryout is assumed to occur when flow rate of one of the liquid films becomes zero. The factor is extended to cover dryout data for very short boiling lengths. The present study involves wide ranges in geometries, heat flux distributions, and fluid concentrations. The accuracy of dryout power prediction is found to be as good as that of empirical correlations. It is confirmed that within a single analytical framework, the model can handle various classes of dryout analyses whereas the existing equilibrium models cannot.
During FY1997, the JMTR was operated for 3 complete cycles (120th, 121st and 122nd cycles) and was utilized for the research and development programs on the technology of LWRs and fusion reactor, as well as for fundamental research of fuels and materials, and for radioisotope productions. The improvement of evaluation technique in a local neutron spectrum for irradiation utilization and development of capsule having the vertical migration, the reinstrumentation and loading mechanism have been carried out. Development of a new oxygen potential sensor for oxide fuel pellets has been done as an elemental technology of irradiation for high burn-up fuels. As for post irradiation examination, the techniques for measuring of crack length using an alternating current potential drop method and machining of miniaturized specimen by the remote handling have been developed. A research on the blanket materials and components for thermonuclear fusion reactor were also ...
The handling of physical-nuclear techniques for the analysis of archaeological pieces it was carried out by first time in 1956 by the doctors Oppenheimer and Dodsom (in the United States); who wrote about the wide utilities of the neutron activation analysis (NAA), this technique requires of a nuclear reactor that could be considered like one a factory of thermal neutrons necessary to carry out this analysis. The first experiments in that were applied the NAA were on ceramic coming from the Mediterranean, in those that the relationships of the elements of sodium and manganese were determined to know their elementary composition and to identify the origin of their manufacture. Later on other study techniques were applied in archaeological materials, as the X-ray fluorescence, Moessbauer spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, PIXE analysis (particle induced x-ray emission), among other, this last is the matter that we will present in this work. (Author)
An analytical model is proposed for the design and simulation of in-situ fracture of deep oil sand formations. This model is based on the finite element variational principle in conjunction with special empirical modules to characterize in-situ oil sands behavior. A computer code by the name of SANFRAC was developed to handle the dynamic fracture of formations induced by explosives. Simulation of hydraulic fracture processes can be treated by the same code as special cases using the quasi-static analysis. Numerical case studies by the SANFRAC code indicate that extensive horizontal fracture can be achieved by dynamic loads with proper fracture starters configured at the injection well. The unique advantage of the dynamic fracturing technique over the hydraulic fracture methods is also demonstrated by these studies.
A robust adaptive Power System Stabilizer algorithm using a Generalized Multivariable Pole Shifting (GMPS) technique is presented in this paper. The algorithm handles systems with equal or unequal numbers of inputs and outputs, therefore both shaft speed as well as the generator power are used to derive the stabilizing control. The technique also provides a simple scheme of on-line self-searching pole shifting factor to meet the excitation control limits. The application of the proposed stabilizer to a simulated generator excitation control under a wide range of operating and disturbance conditions demonstrates that the new control strategy is superior to conventional Power System Stabilizer (PSS) and the widely accepted Minimum Variance Self-Tuning Controller (MVSTC).
The 5-th International conference 'Nuclear and Radiation Physics' was held in Almaty (Kazakhstan) 26-29 September 2005. Besides basic problems of nuclear and solid state physics the conference paid considerable attention to applied topics important for industry and science in Kazakhstan; they include fuel and construction materials for nuclear power production, new technologies and materials for their production, materials for hydrogen power production, handling and utilization of radioactive waste, analytical methods for combating with illicit trafficking of nuclear and radioactive materials, technologies for reduction and assessment of environmental risk from radiation-hazardous materials and sites, production and application of isotopes, application of nuclear technologies in medicine and industry. On the conference more than 300 papers were presented by participants from 20 countries.
We present ANAPPRES V1.0, the first version of a computerized expert system capable of analyzing constant- and variable-flowrate interference tests, in which there is one active well and an arbitrary number of observation wells, in liquid-saturated homogeneous reservoirs. ANAPPRES successfully couples mathematical models, optimization techniques, heuristic knowledge and computerized graphics, a combination not often found in published expert systems. Its main advantages are that it is user friendly, requires essentially no experience on the part of the analyst, eliminates subjectivity associated with earlier techniques of analysis, can handle complex cases and large data sets, completes the analysis of even the most complex cases (including plotting the results) in one run, and is significantly faster than a human expert.
The six-axes industrial robot MANUTEC r15 UW was modified to work underwater and successfully tested down to the simulated water depth of 1100 m. Next step in the program was to use this robot as a handling tool for inspection tasks at the welding seam of an underwater structure conducted with CCD-cameras and distance sensors. This was also to demonstrate the possibility to assist and later on to replace divers from this work. Additional research was focussed on the stiffness and rigidity of the robot during the precise guiding of tools and workpieces under current water conditions up to a flow velocity of 1.1 m/s. Present work is concentrated on the application of this subsea robot on a maintenance task at the Brazilian underwater template OCTOS-1000. For this experiments the robot is integrated in a large mock-up which simulates a quarter section of this template. (orig.)
ObjectivesThe development of novel formulations of nanoparticles in the nanotechnology industry and their increasing importance and use in industry means there is certainty of human environmental exposures in both the workplace and the general environment. The pulmonary route of exposure to airborne nanoparticles is a major one, as nanoparticles are handled in industry, escape from workplaces and products containing nanoparticles undergo attrition in the environment. There is a substantial problem for ris [continued...]DescriptionNanoparticles are extremely small particles, each individual particlel being less than one ten millionth of a metre in size. We are exposed to nanoparticles in busy streets as they are present in traffic exhaust produced from combustion of fuel and such nanoparticles are considered to be important in causing the harmful effects associated with exposure to air pollution. There are other situations where nanoparticles are found in the air, ...
This paper presents a patient specific deformable heart model that involves the known electrical and mechanical properties of the cardiac cells and tissue. The whole heart model comprises ten Tusscher's ventricular and Nygren's atrial cell models, the anatomical and electrophysiological model descriptions of the atria (introduced by Harrild et al.) and ventricle (given by Winslow et al.), and the mechanical model of the periodical cardiac contraction and resting phenomena proposed by Moireau et al. During the propagation of the depolarization wave, the kinetic, compositional and rotational anisotropy is handled by the tissue, organ and torso model. The applied patient specific parameters were determined by an evolutionary computation method. An intensive parameter reduction was performed u...
Event generators that handle neutrino-nucleon interaction have been developed for the FLUKA code [1]. In earlier FLUKA versions only quasi-elastic (QEL) interactions were included, and the code relied on external event generators for the resonance (RES) and deep inelastic scattering (DIS). The new DIS+RES event generator is fully integrated in FLUKA and uses the same hadronization routines as those used for simulating hadron-nucleon interactions. Nuclear effects in neutrino-nucleus interactions are simulated within the same framework as in the FLUKA hadron-nucleus interaction model (PEANUT), thus profiting from its detailed physics modelling and longstanding benchmarking. The generators are available in the standard FLUKA distribution. They are presently under development and several improvements are planned to be implemented. The physics relevant to the neutrino-nucleon interactions and the results of comparisons with experimental data are discussed.
This paper proposes a framework based completely on Java technology. The advantages brought about by the use of Java in network management answer some critical problems existing in current systems. With this work we address several factors concerning interoperability and security in heterogeneous network environments. Specifically, we present a manager application and a multithreaded agent engine that make use of a lightweight communication mechanism for message exchange. A MIB parser is introduced to accelerate handling of incoming management requests, and the RSA public-key cryptosystem is implemented to provide both encryption and authentication features. Results, measured in terms of response time, compare favourably with other published work and standard management frameworks.
To test the assumption underlying every morphometric twin study that the brains of monozygotic twins are almost identical. Methods: High resolution MRI of the neurocranium of 26 monozygotic twin pairs were acquired and the volumes of 36 cerebral structures were measured. The same twins served as control group after rear-ranging them into non-related pairs of same sex and matching them for age, body height and body weight. Results: For most of the examined structures the correlations within the twins were significant (R = 0,97-0,59). Except for total forebrain volume the controls showed no significant similarity. Conclusions: For almost every measured cerebral structure the assumption, that significant similarities exist between healthy monozygotic twins is correct. Therefore discordant monozygotic twins represent an excellent sample when investigating cerebral correlates of neurologic and psychiatric disorders. (orig.)
Abstract: Thorough evaluation has made the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List the most widely used and accepted authority on the conservation status of biodiversity. Although the system used to determine risk of extinction is rigorously and objectively applied, the list of threatening processes affecting a species is far more subjectively determined and has not had adequate review. I reviewed the threats listed in the IUCN Red List for randomly selected groups within the three most threatened orders of mammals: Artiodactyla, Carnivora, and Primates. These groups are taxonomically related and often ecologically similar, so I expected they would suffer relatively similar threats. Hominoid primates and all other terrestrial fauna faced similar threats, except for b...
ABSTRACT. The morphology, morphogenesis, and phylogeny of Diophrys parappendiculata n. sp., a large marine ciliate isolated from the coastal waters of Daya Bay, southern China, were investigated. This new species is characterized by a combination of its large size, appendiculata-pattern of ciliature, and bipartite adoral zone of membranelles. The main stages of morphogenesis during binary fission were also recorded and described. Comparisons of morphological characteristics with similar congeners support the validity of the new species. The small subunit rRNA gene sequence of D. parappendiculata is 96.3-99.94% similar to those of four other congeners; it differs in four nucleotides from that of Diophrys appendiculata (i.e. structural similarity was 99.94%). Phylogenetic analysis indicates ...
BackgroundThe thymus plays a critical role in the development and maturation of T-cells. Humans have a single thoracic thymus and presence of a second thymus is considered an anomaly....Full Text Available
We recently discovered that human activity possesses a complex temporal organization characterized by scale-invariant/self-similar fluctuations from seconds to ~4 hour—statistical properties...Full Text Available
BackgroundSensitization to house dust mite allergens is strongly correlated with asthma. Der p 7 elicits strong IgE antibody and T-cell responses in mite allergic...Full Text Available
Trace gas molecules absorb specific wavelengths of incoming solar ... These data(with information collected from similar experiments carried on balloons, rockets, ... The ATMOS sensor instrumentis a state-of-the-art version of a 19th century ...
The DataAccessBean is similar to the Data Access Object (DAO) interface in that the DataAccessBean interface is meant to encapsulate the implementation details of the DynamicJavaBean that accesses persistent storage devices such as RDBMS, flat text file databases, etc.
Recent clinical trials demonstrate that combined oral dosing with estrogen and progestin increases the incidence of breast cancer in post-menopausal women. Similarly, in a rat model system of...Full Text Available
Superconductivity in A-15 compounds is examined in terms of electron pairing induced by exchange of acoustic plasmons. The electronic band structure of Nb_3Sn, V_3Si, and similar materials favor transition temperatures of Tsub(c)approximately20 K. (Auth.).
Many simulation studies in biomedicine are based on a similar sequence of processing steps, starting from images and running through geometric model generation, assignment of tissue properties, numerical...Full Text Available
Every cook knows that microwaves and metal don't mix. But scientists at the National Institute of Standards have devised a way to make them compatible. If it all pans out, hospitals may be able to sterilize medical instruments and waste in a device similar to a conventional microwave oven.
An antigen-antibody system of polystyrene tubes coated with immunoglobulin antibody was used for quantitating immunoglobulins. A similar radioimmunoassay method was adapted for a viral antigen-antibody...Full Text Available
A novel soft commutated direct current (DC) motor is introduced. The current of the commutated coil is intentionally drained before the brush disconnects the coil. This prevents the spark generation that normally occurs in conventional DC motors. A similar principle can be applied for DC generators.
A Smith-Purcell oscillator with a thick electron beam is analyzed in its exponential gain regime. A threshold current less than 1[A] is found for a 1 mm wavelength; this threshold is much lower than that of a similar oscillator operating in a linear gain regime.
The Bureau of Mines and ASARCO Inc. entered a cooperative agreement to determine the feasibility of producing copper matte in an electric furnace from blends of copper concentrate similar to those currently smelted in a gas-fired reverberatory system at A...
SummaryThe structure and function of myosin crossbridges in asynchronous insect flight muscle (IFM) have been elucidated in situ using multiple approaches. These...Full Text Available
The United States Virgin Islands (USVI) is facing a diabetes epidemic similar to the one on the U.S. mainland, yet little is known regarding the cultural context relevant to self-management...Full Text Available
We have used restriction endonuclease analysis (REA) of genomic DNA to classify porcine Pasteurella multocida isolates with similar capsular and somatic serotypes, and to monitor the distribution of...Full Text Available
Copy number variants (CNVs) are an important component of genomic variation in humans and other mammals. Similar de novo deletions and duplications, or copy number changes (CNCs), are now known to be...Full Text Available
Apolipoprotein (apo) A-IV is a polymorphic, intestinally derived apolipoprotein that is genetically linked to and similar in structure to apoA-I, the major apolipoprotein in high density lipoproteins...Full Text Available
The reasons for referral to hospital of 147 babies subsequently included in the DHSS study of postneonatal infant mortality were analysed and compared with those of 104 control infants. Although similar...Full Text Available
Profile of aid statistics to Pakistan. Shows the amount of aid received, the major donors and the form in which the majority of the aid is given. Especially useful when compared to the aid profile of similar countries. Shows that ODA accounts for about 1.5% of Pakistani GDP and that it is distributed over various sectors.
Vulnerability to abused drugs is influenced by multiple genes unique to each drug as well as to risk genes for polydrug abuse. If several inbred mouse strains respond to different drugs similarly,...Full Text Available
Two bacteriolytic enzymes secreted by Achromobacter lyticus M497-1 were purified and identified as being very similar (considering their amino acid composition and N-terminal sequence) to alpha- and...Full Text Available
Cytoadherence or sequestration is essential for the pathogenesis of the most virulent human malaria species, Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum). Similar to leukocyte-endothelium...Full Text Available
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenously encoded small noncoding RNAs, derived by processing of short RNA hairpins, that can inhibit the translation of mRNAs bearing partially complementary target sequences....Full Text Available
Equipped with terahertz sensors, the Aura mission will see far more ... We introduce you to a few amazing individuals, all sharing the dubious title of rocket scientist . And a ..... similar thing happens with incoming light. Astronomers call it the ...
Multimodality imaging with PET/CT and SPECT/CT has become commonplace in clinical practice and in preclinical and basic medical research. Do other combinations of imaging modalities have a similar...Full Text Available
The possibility of using lead or lead-bismuth mixed oxides as positive materials in organic electrolyte lithium cells with a working voltage similar to those of conventional systems (1.5 V) has been considered. Performances and main characteristics of this new class of lithium batteries are described.
A histidine kinase protein (Cph1) with sequence homology and spectral characteristics very similar to those of the plant phytochrome has been recently identified in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis...Full Text Available
The three main subspecies of the Culex pipiens complex—pipiens, fatigans and molestus—have similar “normal” levels of susceptibility to insecticides....Full Text Available
Following an earlier article on developments to enhance the reliability of supertension oil filled cables and accessories, changes are described in design and installation of complete cable systems which have similarly improved operating performance.
Simian retroperitoneal fibromatosis (RF) is a vascular fibroproliferative neoplasm which has many morphological and histological similarities to human Kaposi's sarcoma (KS). Like epidemic KS in AIDS...Full Text Available
Hereditary hypouricemia may result from mutations in the renal tubular uric acid transporter URAT1. Whether mutation of other uric acid transporters produces a similar phenotype is unknown. We studied...Full Text Available
Protection from extinction of conditioned fear has been demonstrated when a conditioned inhibitor of fear is presented during extinction treatment. The present study assessed if similar results...Full Text Available
Increasing salinity has the potential to affect freshwater organisms. Yet sub-lethal effects of salinity on macroinvertebrates are poorly understood. Growth and development of Ischnura heterosticta (Odonata: Coenagrionidae) was experimentally shown to be faster in 5-20 mS/cm than 0.1-1 mS/cm, while in 35 mS/cm all individuals died. In 30 mS/cm about half died and growth was similar to the 0.1 mS/cm treatment. The salinity-growth relationship cannot be explained indirectly, that is salinity affecting the survival of their prey. Tissue content and concentration of Ca, Mg, Na and K in emerged adults showed no evidence of deficiencies at low salinity. Heart beat rate was similar across treatments, except at 35 mS/cm, where it was slower. Respiration and feeding were similar at 0.1, 10 and 30 mS/cm. While there are similarities in I. heterosticta and other species' salinity response, there are differences ...
The results of an experimental study of axial and crossflow velocity in a 7-pin wire wrapped bundle similar for FFTF fuel bundles are reported. The results are compared with the forced crossflow model of the COBRA-III C computer program. (JWR)
A prevailing theory proposes that the brain's two visual pathways, the ventral and dorsal, lead to differing visual processing and world representations for conscious perception than those for action....Full Text Available
A brief discussion is given of the application of control monitoring and automation techniques to coal mining in the United Kingdom, especially of the use of microprocessors, for the purpose of enhancing safety and productivity. Lighting systems for the coal mine is similarly discussed.
The past decade has seen the development of eddy current probes for inspection of the mildly ferro-magnetic alloy Monel 400. Due to the rapid advances in permanent magnet technology similar probes have been upgraded to magnetically saturate, and hence ins...
Modern text retrieval systems often provide a similarity search utility, that allows the user to find efficiently a fixed number k of documents in the data set that are most similar to a given query (here a query is either a simple sequence of keywords or the identifier of a full document found in previous searches that is considered of interest). We consider the case of a textual database made of semi-structured documents. Each field, in turns, is modelled with a specific vector space. The problem is more complex when we also allow each such vector space to have an associated user-defined dynamic weight that influences its contribution to the overall dynamic aggregated and weighted similarity. This dynamic problem has been tackled in a recent paper by Singitham et al. in in VLDB 2004. Their proposed solution, which we take as baseline, is a variant of the cluster-pruning technique that has the potential for scaling to very ...
Analysis of gestation length in an obstetric population of indigenous African women revealed a mean pregnancy duration of 274.8 days, which is similar to values recorded in women of African descent...Full Text Available
The Calorie (kcal) of present U.S. food labels is similar to the original French definition of 1825. The original published source (now available on the internet) defined the Calorie as the quantity...Full Text Available
BackgroundThere is an ever increasing rate of data made available on genetic variation, transcriptomes and proteomes. Similarly, a growing variety of bioinformatic programs are becoming...Full Text Available
A previous report that 22 Vul is a zeta Aur--type eclipsing binary is supported by our discovery of evidence for an accretion shock cone in 22 Vul similar to those found in zeta Aurigae and 32 Cygni.
We calculate mass spectrum of CHS model deformed by an exactly marginal operator, and find that there are tachyons which are not localized in the target space. Similar deformation is discussed in another CFT which corresponds to separated NS5-branes. A condensation of the tachyons is briefly argued.
A century ago, Cajal noted striking similarities between the neural circuits that underlie vision in vertebrates and flies. Over the past few decades, structural and functional studies have...Full Text Available
In this work we study the validity of the so-called curse of dimensionality for indexing of databases for similarity search. We perform an asymptotic analysis, with a test model based on a sequence of metric spaces $(\\Omega_d)$ from which we pick datasets $X_d$ in an i.i.d. fashion. We call the subscript $d$ the dimension of the space $\\Omega_d$ (e.g. for $\\mathbb{R}^d$ the dimension is just the usual one) and we allow the size of the dataset $n=n_d$ to be such that $d$ is superlogarithmic but subpolynomial in $n$. We study the asymptotic performance of pivot-based indexing schemes where the number of pivots is $o(n/d)$. We pick the relatively simple cost model of similarity search where we count each distance calculation as a single computation and disregard the rest. We demonstrate that if the spaces $\\Omega_d$ exhibit the (fairly common) concentration of measure phenomenon the performance of similarity search using ...
The results of clinical trials conducted in Europe and North America have been incorporated into treatment strategies for breast cancer in Japan. Despite the use of similar treatment regimens, why has...Full Text Available
A strain from human diarrhea originally identified as Campylobacter mucosalis (NCTC 12408) was examined by using 64 phenotypic characters. The similarity of this strain to 297 isolates of Campylobacter,...Full Text Available
Computer-assisted analysis revealed a striking sequence similarity between the putative 24-kDa protein (p24) encoded by open reading frame (ORF) 5 of beet yellows closterovirus and the coat protein...Full Text Available
DOE is supporting the development of several conversion processes that are currently in the pilot plant stage. Each of these processes is described briefly and information given as to contractor, contract, funding, site and current progress. Several support projects are treated similarly. (LTN)
We present a method to make phantoms of coronary arteries for intravascular optical coherence tomography (IV-OCT). The phantoms provide a calibrated OCT response similar to the layered structure of...Full Text Available
Wistar rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes (STZ-diabetic rats), which is similar to human insulin-dependent diabetic mellitus (IDDM), were employed to investigate...Full Text Available
We present the results of an automated analysis of the morphometry of the pulmonary airway trees of the Sprague Dawley rat. Our work is motivated by a need to inform lower-dimensional mathematical...Full Text Available
believe the system is similar to the face-on spiral and companion known as M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy. Tomorrow's picture: plates known < | Archive | Index | Search | Calendar |...
Accurate segmentation of tissue microarrays is a challenging topic because of some of the similarities exhibited by normal tissue and tumor regions. Processing speed is another consideration...Full Text Available
Recent studies have indicated that the DNA replication machinery is coupled to silencing of mating-type loci in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and a similar silencing mechanism...Full Text Available
The full-length gene encoding the histone deacetylase (HDAC)-like amidohydrolase (HDAH) from Bordetella or Alcaligenes (Bordetella/Alcaligenes) strain...Full Text Available
BackgroundWith the explosion in data generated using microarray technology by different investigators working on similar experiments, it is of interest to combine results across...Full Text Available
Several materials, lenses, dry bearings and cables were exposed to a tritiated moisture environment to study the behavior of tritium contamination on candidate materials for ITER remote handling equipment. To optimize the tritium removal procedure, decontamination experiments using a gas purge with three different moisture concentrations were also performed. The surface tritium concentrations of CeO{sub 2} containing alkaline barium glass (NB), CeO{sub 2} containing lead glass (LX) and synthetic quartz (Quartz) after the exposure experiments were 7.80, 10.94 and 0.67 Bq/cm{sup 2}, respectively. It was found that the tritium concentration was influenced by the compositions of the materials. The concentrations of tritium on type 831 (solid lubrication material: graphite) and type 237 (solid lubrication material: tungsten disulfate) dry bearings after the exposure experiments were 89.80 and 31.78 Bq/cm{sup 2}, respectively. The tritium concentration in an electric ...
Several materials, lenses, dry bearings and cables were exposed to a tritiated moisture environment to study the behavior of tritium contamination on candidate materials for ITER remote handling equipment. To optimize the tritium removal procedure, decontamination experiments using a gas purge with three different moisture concentrations were also performed. The surface tritium concentrations of CeO_2 containing alkaline barium glass (NB), CeO_2 containing lead glass (LX) and synthetic quartz (Quartz) after the exposure experiments were 7.80, 10.94 and 0.67 Bq/cm"2, respectively. It was found that the tritium concentration was influenced by the compositions of the materials. The concentrations of tritium on type 831 (solid lubrication material: graphite) and type 237 (solid lubrication material: tungsten disulfate) dry bearings after the exposure experiments were 89.80 and 31.78 Bq/cm"2, respectively. The tritium concentration in an electric cable tested was 5014 ...
The report presents an integrated software system developed at the Norwegian Electric Power Research Institute (EFI), for production scheduling, maintenance handling, network security analysis, inflow forecasting, and load forecasting. The integrated software is being developed with focus on hydro-dominated power supply systems. In specific terms it is expected that application of the software will improve the operational decisions, and make the planning process more effective. The optimal scheduling of hydro resources poses severe computational problems in system operations planning. This necessitates problem decomposition. In the EFI approach, planning is split into three main levels: long-term, mid-term and short-term planning. The long-term planning aims at evaluating the seasonal and pluriannual handling of regional storages in view of firm power supply obligations, inflow statistics, main hydraulic and electric transit limitations, and ...
This report documents a one-dimensional numerical model, SAMFT1D, developed to simulate single-phase and multiphase fluid flow and solute transport in variably saturated porous media. The formulation of the governing equations and the numerical procedures used in the code for single-phase and multiphase flow and transport are presented. The code is constructed to handle single-phase as well as two or three-phase flow conditions using two integrated sets of computational modules. The fully implicit scheme is used in the code for both single-phase and multiphase flow simulations. Either the Crank-Nicholson scheme or the fully implicit scheme may be used in the transport simulation. The single-phase modules employ the Galerkin and upstream weighted residual finite element techniques to model flow and transport of water (aqueous phase) containing dissolved single-species contaminants concurrently or sequentially, and include the treatment of various boundary conditions ...
The first essential before embarking on the radiation-hardening of electrical insulation - mostly magnet coils - in any beam line application is to obtain a reliable estimate of the dose to the components. These are examples ( switchyards at SLAC and LAMPF) where the degree of hardness specified was much higher than was required. Although experience shows that the cost premium for substantial radiation - hardening is of the order of 10%, it has also become clear that well - designed beam line have negligible losses: hardening is required only in the vicinity of targets, collimators or other beam - intercepting devices. Where the beam is deliberately scraped, local shielding will minimize the associated radiation in the surroundings. Electron machines have their own special problems due to synchrotron radiation, so certainly coils and other electrical equipment should be kept away from the beam bend - plane. Because proton beams interact with thick targets in the meson factories, ...
The activity concentrations of potassium, uranium and thorium in minerals and soil samples from a mining site in Ibadan, Southwestern Nigeria were measured using gamma ray spectroscopy method. Effective dose per annum has been calculated from the activity concentrations of dominant gamma-emitting natural radionuclides, potassium, uranium and thorium. Samples collected include minerals (beryl, quartz and feldspar), soil samples from the mining pits, heaps and undisturbed land around the mining site. The activity concentrations of "4"0K, "2"3"8U and "2"3"2Th, respectively in Bq kg-1 in the mineral samples were as follows: 1985 #+-# 16, 4.8 #+-# 0.9 and 11.8 #+-# 5.8 for beryl sample, 115.1 #+-# 27.9, 5.0 #+-# 1.3 and 6.3 #+-# 5.0 for feldspar samples and 1421 #+-# 122, <4.8 and 20.1 #+-# 3.5 for quartz samples. For the soil samples, the mean activity concentrations of "4"0K, "2"3"8U and "2"3"2Th, respectively, were 314.2 #+-# 5.7, 27.7 #+-# 2.6 and 11.5 #+-# 5.9 Bq kg-1 for soil ...
The Anisotropic Analytical Algorithm (AAA) is a new pencil beam convolution/superposition algorithm proposed by Varian for photon dose calculations. The configuration of AAA depends on linear accelerator design and specifications. The purpose of this study was to investigate the accuracy of AAA for an Elekta SL25 linear accelerator for small fields and intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatments in inhomogeneous media. The accuracy of AAA was evaluated in two studies. First, AAA was compared both with Monte Carlo (MC) and the measurements in an inhomogeneous phantom simulating lung equivalent tissues and bone ribs. The algorithm was tested under lateral electronic disequilibrium conditions, using small fields (2x2 cm"2). Good agreement was generally achieved for depth dose and profiles, with deviations generally below 3% in lung inhomogeneities and below 5% at interfaces. However, the effects of attenuation and scattering close to the bone ribs were not fully taken into ...
Purpose: To evaluate the initial and mid-term results of a new self-expanding low strut profile nitinol stent for treatment of atherosclerotic lesions stenoses and occlusions in the superficial femoral artery (SFA). Materials and Methods: In 8 patients (4 male, 4 female, mean age 74.8 {+-} 8.8 years) with SFA lesions and non-satisfying results after PTA treatment alone, 10 self-expanding nitinol Xpert stents were deployed via a 4 F sheath. Stent characteristics and handling were graded by the interventionalist. Fontaine classification, duplex flow measurements and ankle brachial index (ABI) at rest and stress were taken prior and one day after stent placement. Patients were followed 3, 6 and 12 months after the procedure obtaining the same parameters at each appointment. Results: Initial stent treatment was successful in all patients. Stent handling and positioning were rated very good and safe. All patients improved clinically by at least one ...
Apricot fruits usually harvested relatively mature but hard enough to withstand-post harvest handling through the marketing chain. These fruits have considerably lower edible quality than tree-ripened fruit. Fruit quality can be improved by delaying harvest least until physiological maturation is completed on the tree (Bonghi et al. 1999) Apricots containing 11% soluble solids concentration, or higher are in high demand by consumers, as fruit have developed considerable taste, aroma and handling for long distance markets. (Kader, 1999). These fruit will be highly perishable, so rapid cold storage to the lowest safe temperature and supplementary treatments (Mc Donald et al, 1999) such as irradiation with the recommend doses (Sillano et al, 1994) or pre-storage heat treatments will be necessary to retard ripening (mainly softening) during 1-2 weeks post harvest life necessary for distribution to distant markets (Mc Donald et al 1999). Therefore, ...
The Nuclear Assurance Corporation (NAC) owns and operates four NAC-1 truck casks. These casks are used to ship spent reactor fuel assemblies and radioactive reactor-core components. The casks have been loaded or unloaded at a total of fifteen nuclear facilities in the United States. In addition, NAC has used another large, overweight-truck cask to ship radioactive reactor core components from a reactor to a waste burial site. There are many individual differences in the cask handling facilities at each of the reactor stations, nuclear research facilities and the storage and burial sites serviced. Various types of auxiliary lifting and handling devices for on-site cask operations have been required. The quality assurance requirements for the equipment used in interfacing casks with nuclear power plant facilities have become more stringent. This paper presents details on the type of special equipment being employed, the quality assurance ...
US Department of Energy methods used for characterization of contact-handled transuranic (CH-TRU) waste prior to shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) are described and listed by contractor site. The methods described are part of the certification process. All CH-TRU waste must be assayed for determination of fissile material content and decay heat values prior to shipment and prior to storage on-site. Both nondestructive assay (NDA) and destructive assay methods are discussed, and new NDA developments such as passive-action neutron (PAN) crate counter improvements and neutron imaging are detailed. Specifically addressed are assay method physics; applicability to CH-TRU wastes; calibration standards and implementation; operator training requirements and practices; assay procedures; assay precision, bias, and limit of detection; and assay limitation. While PAN is a new technique and does not yet have established American Society for Testing and ...
US Department of Energy methods used for characterization of contact-handled transuranic (CH-TRU) waste prior to shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) are described and listed by contractor site. The methods described are part of the certification process. All CH-TRU waste must be assayed for determination of fissile material content and decay heat values prior to shipment and prior to storage on-site. Both nondestructive assay (NDA) and destructive assay methods are discussed, and new NDA developments such as passive-action neutron (PAN) crate counter improvements and neutron imaging are detailed. Specifically addressed are assay method physics; applicability to CH-TRU wastes; calibration standards and implementation; operator training requirements and practices; assay procedures; assay precision, bias, and limit of detection; and assay limitation. While PAN is a new technique and does not yet have established American Society for Testing and ...
The aim of this work is to compile an inventory of the main characteristics (chemical, morphological, mineralogical and grain size parameters) of the bulk cargo materials and of the material emitted during different port operations for possible use as tracers of the fugitive PM emission sources. For all cases, the tracer characteristics determined for each bulk material were also identified in the corresponding PM material emitted. This inventory could assist the harbour authorities to identify the origin of high PM events recorded by air quality monitoring networks in harbour areas, and could also help modellers to predict the impact of harbour activities on ambient PM levels. The harbour of Tarragona (north-east Spain) was selected for this study given the high volume of solids in bulk handled. To this end, 12 handling operations of selected materials (clinker, phosphate, pyrite ash, Mn mineral, fine Si-Mn, coke (coal), bituminous coal, ...
Steam generators (SG) are among the most critical components of pressurized water Nuclear Power Plants (NPP). SG tubes must provide a reliable pressure boundary between the primary and secondary cooling water. It is because that any leakage from tube defects could result in the release of radioactivity to the environment. Thus degradations of steam generators tubes should be monitored and inspected periodically under nuclear regulatory. In-service inspections of SG tubes are carried out using eddy current test (ECT) and the defected tubes are usually plugged. Because the radioactivity in the internal of SG chambers limits free access of human worker, remote manipulators are required. In South Korea, Manipulators such as the Zetec SM series and the Westinghouse ROSA series have been used. Such manipulators are rigidly mounted to manways or tube sheets of SG. Confusions for the inspected tubes may occur from deflection of the manipulators. To reduce the deflections of the manipulators ...
The study of the dynamics of lubricants and mechanical components encased in metal enclosures is important to many industries. Of particular importance is the flow characteristics of oils or similar lubricants within the metal enclosure during operation of the device. The purpose of this summary is to report on the design and successful application of a real-time neutron radiography system to study the lubrication and design of the piston and seal of a gas spring. In addition, the application of this technique to a wider range of similar problems using the pulse capability of the TRIGA reactor is described.
The study of the dynamics of lubricants and mechanical components encased in metal enclosures is important to many industries. Of particular importance is the flow characteristics of oils or similar lubricants within the metal enclosure during operation of the device. The purpose of this summary is to report on the design and successful application of a real-time neutron radiography system to study the lubrication and design of the piston and seal of a gas spring. In addition, the application of this technique to a wider range of similar problems using the pulse capability of the TRIGA reactor is described.
The results of an investigation into the behavior of adhesively bonded doubler splices of two composite material sandwich panels are presented. The splices are studied from three approaches: analytical; numerical (finite elements); and experimental. Several parameters that characterize the splice are developed to determine their influence upon joint strength. These parameters are: doubler overlap length; core stiffness; laminate bending stiffness; the size of the gap between the spliced sandwich panels; and room and elevated temperatures. Similarities and contrasts between these splices and the physically similar single and double lap joints are discussed. The results of this investigation suggest several possible approaches to improving the strength of the sandwich splices.
This article presents the text of a lecture delivered by American Educational Research Association President Carol D. Lee at the 29th Annual Charles H. Thompson Lecture-Colloquium Series which was held on November 5, 2008. In her lecture, Lee discussed several points of similarities between W. E. B. Du Bois and President Barack Obama. These similarities in background, education, and in their ideas on politics and power are historically connected with implications for educating Black people though race consciousness.
we report an ultrafast synchrotron x-ray phase contrast imaging study of the primary breakup mechanism of a coaxial air-assisted water jet. We demonstrate that there exist great similarities in the phenomenology of primary breakup with that of the secondary breakup. Especially, a membrane-mediated breakup mechanism dominates the breakup process for a wide range of air speeds. This finding reveals the intrinsic connections of these two breakup regimes and has deep implications on the unified theoretical approach in treating the breakup mechanism of high speed liquid jet.
Pollen from four temperate-latitude taxa were treated with UV radiation in a portion of the UV-B (280-320 nm) waveband during in vitro germination. Inhibition of germination was noted in this pollen compared to samples treated identically except for the exclusion of the UV-B portion of the spectrum. Levels similar to maximum solar UV-B found in temperate-latitude areas failed to inhibit pollen germination significantly, while levels similar to maximum solar UV-B found in equatorial alpine locations caused partial inhibition of germination in three of the four taxa examined.
Measurements of the humeral cortical thickness demonstrate that generalised osteoporosis in female Bantu commences in the fifth decade and gradually increases until, in the ninth decade, all subjects are osteoporotic. The combined cortical thickness (CCT) of the humerus in young adults is very similar to that found previously in a white London population and the loss of cortex with age is very similar. It is concluded that the known low incidence of femoral neck fracture in Bantu is not due to a lower incidence of generalised osteoporosis but to environmental factors. The chief environmental factor postulated is the greater amount of physical work performed by the Bantu. A more careful mode of walking is suggested as a subsidiary cause. (orig.).
To evaluate the effect of porosity on superplasticity behavior, it is essential to use materials of similar initial grain sizes. This can be achieved by HIPing, which provides an effective way of reducing initial porosity while avoiding appreciable grain growth; various levels of porosity can be achieved for similar grain sizes. This note is concerned with the influence of porosity on superplasticity tensile deformation of a fine grained high-purity alumina doped with copper oxide and containing a grain growth inhibitor. Specimens were prepared by slip casting to net-shape and sintering; some presintered specimens were HIPed to reduce porosity. The subsequent superplasticity behavior is related to porosity in the material.
A complex network approach on a rough fracture is developed. In this manner, some hidden metric spaces (similarity measurements) between apertures profiles are set up and a general evolutionary network in two directions (in parallel and perpendicular to the shear direction) is constructed. Also, an algorithm (COmplex Networks on Apertures: CONA) is proposed in which evolving of a network is accomplished using preferential detachments and attachments of edges (based on a competition and game manner) while the number of nodes is fixed. Also, evolving of clustering coefficients and number of edges display similar patterns as well as are appeared in shear stress, hydraulic conductivity and dilation changes, which can be engaged to estimate shear strength distribution of asperities.
This paper reports on Run SB-CL-05, a test similar to Semiscale Run S-UT-8. The test results show that the core was uncovered briefly during the accident and that the rods overheated at certain core locations. Liquid holdup on the upflow side of the steam-generator tubes was observed. After the loop seal cleared, the core refilled and the rods cooled. These behaviors were similar to those observed in the Semiscale run. The Large-Scale Test Facility (LSTF) Run SB-CL-06 is a counterpart test to Semiscale Run S-LH-01. The comparison of the results of both tests shows similar phenomena. The similarity of phenomena in these two facilities build confidence that these results can be expected to occur in a PWR. Similar holdup has now been observed in the 6 tubes of Semiscale and in the 141 tubes of LSTF. It is now more believable that holdup may occur in a full-scale steam generator with ...
This report summarizes work performed on this project from October 2004 through March 2005. In previous work, a surfactant modified zeolite (SMZ) was shown to be an effective system for removing BTEX contaminants from produced water. Additional work on this project demonstrated that a compost-based biofilter could biodegrade the BTEX contaminants found in the SMZ regeneration waste gas stream. However, it was also determined that the BTEX concentrations in the waste gas stream varied significantly during the regeneration period and the initial BTEX concentrations were too high for the biofilter to handle effectively. A series of experiments were conducted to determine the feasibility of using a passive adsorption column placed upstream of the biofilter to attenuate the peak gas-phase VOC concentrations delivered to the biofilter during the SMZ regeneration process. In preparation for the field test of the SMZ/VPB treatment system in New Mexico, a pilot-scale SMZ ...
The waterjet technique enables precise tissue dissection without thermal damage and with preservation of vessels in general surgery. In neurosurgery, these qualities could help to avoid damage of intact brain parenchyma in tumour resections. The present study reports our first results with this technique in brain metastases. Ten patients with intracranial metastases underwent surgery with the aid of the waterjet. Resection was performed in combination with conventional neurosurgical methods. The follow-up consisted of neurological examination and MRI studies. Intraoperatively, the device was easy to handle. No complications due to the device were observed. Vessels were preserved at pressures below 20 bars. Six of the tumours consisted of soft tissue which was poorly demarcated from the surrounding brain. In these tumours, the waterjet was very helpful. It enabled tumour debulking by aspiration and - more important - precise separation of tumour and brain ...
In developing severe accident management strategies, an engineering decision would be made based on the available data and information that are vague, imprecise and uncertain by nature. These sorts of vagueness and uncertainty are due to lack of knowledge for the severe accident sequences of interest. The fuzzy set theory offers a possibility of handling these sorts of data and information. In this paper, the possibility to apply the decision-making method based on fuzzy set theory to the evaluation of the accident management strategies at a nuclear power plant is scrutinized. The fuzzy decision-making method uses linguistic variables and fuzzy numbers to represent the decision-maker's subjective assessments for the decision alternatives according to the decision criteria. The fuzzy mean operator is used to aggregate the decision-maker's subjective assessments, while the total integral value method is used to rank the decision alternatives. As a ...
Control of thermal expansion is often necessary in the design and selection of electronic packages. In some instances, it is desirable to have a coefficient of thermal expansion intermediate between values readily attainable with single or two phase materials. The addition of a third phase in the form of fillers, whiskers, or fibers can be used to attain intermediate expansions. To help design the thermal expansion of multiphase materials for specific applications, a closed form model has been developed that accurately predicts the effective elastic properties of isotropic filled materials and transversely isotropic lamina. Properties of filled matrix materials are used as inputs to the lamina model to obtain the composite elastic properties as a function of the volume fraction of each phase. Hybrid composites with two or more fiber types are easily handled with this model. This paper reports that results for glass, quartz, and Kevlar fibers with beta-eucryptite ...
This paper describes the graphical simulation of a traffic environment. The environment includes streets leading to an intersection, the intersection, vehicle traffic, and signal lights in the intersection controlled by different methods. The simulation allows for the study of parameters affecting traffic environments and the study of different control strategies for traffic signal lights, including conventional, fuzzy, and adaptive control methods. Realistic traffic environments are simulated including a cross intersection, with one or more lanes of traffic in each direction, with and without turn lanes. Vehicle traffic patterns are a mixture of cars going straight and making right or left turns. The free velocities of vehicles follow a normal distribution with a mean of the ``posted`` speed limit. Actual velocities depend on such factors as the proximity and velocity of surrounding traffic, approaches to intersections, and human response time. The simulation proves the be a useful ...
Silica and bridged polysilsesquioxane aerogels are low-density materials that are attractive for applications such as thermal insulation, porous separation media or catalyst supports, adsorbents, and cometary dust capture agents. However, aerogels are notoriously weak and brittle making it difficult to handle and machine monoliths into desired forms. This complication prevents the development of many applications that would otherwise benefit from the use of the low-density materials. Here, we will describe our efforts to chemically modify and mechanically enhance silica-based aerogels using chemical vapor techniques without sacrificing their characteristic low densities. Monolithic silica and organic-bridged polysilsesquioxane aerogels were prepared by sol-gel polymerization of the respective methoxysilane monomers followed by supercritical carbon dioxide drying of the gels. Then the gels were reactively modified with silylating agents to demonstrate the viability ...
Studies are made on coal in terms of its effective utilization, coal cleaning, fluidization and production of new fuel, and issues globally raised. Coal is abundant in reserves and high in supply stability and economic efficiency. However, it is much in CO2 emission per calorific value. To control as much CO2 emission as possible, effective utilization such as increasing of power generation efficiency has been proceeded with. In addition to ultra supercritical pressure and fluidized bed combustion, cited are coal gasification combined cycle power generation and high temperature type fuel cell. Coal has 5-20% ash and impurities like sulfur/nitrogen. Coal should be used clean by pollution abatement measures such as dust collecting, desulfurization and denitrification. Japan is at a world top level of these technologies. Coal is solid, and therefore, is more difficult to handle than liquid fuel. To use it easily, coal is liquefied into slurry such as COM and CWM, and ...
Recent developments in solid-state radio frequency (RF) power technologies allow for the practical consideration of RF heated plasmas for space propulsion. These technologies permit the use of any electrical power source, de-couple the power and propellant sources, and allow for the effcient use of both the propellant mass and power. Effcient use of the propellant is obtained by expelling the rocket exhaust at the highest possible velocity, which can be orders of magnitude higher than those achieved in chemical rockets. Handling the hot plasma exhaust requires the use of magnetic nozzles, and the basic physics of ion detachment from the magnetic eld is discussed. The plasma can be generated by RF using helicon waves to heat electrons. Further direct heating of the ions helps to reduce the line radiation losses, and the magnetic geometry is tailored to allow ion cyclotron resonance heating. RF eld and ion trajectory calculations are presented to give a reasonably ...
The 3001 Storage Canal is located under portions of Buildings 3001 and 3019 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and has a capacity of approximately 62,000 gallons of water. The term canal has historically been used to identify this structure, however, the canal is an in-ground reinforced concrete structure satisfying the regulatory definition of a tank. From 1943 through 1963, the canal in Building 3001 was designed to be an integral part of the system for handling irradiated fuel from the Oak Ridge Graphite Reactor. Because one of the main initial purposes of the reactor was to produce plutonium for the chemical processing pilot plant in Building 3019, the canal was designed to be the connecting link between the reactor and the pilot plant. During the war years, natural uranium slugs were irradiated in the reactor and then pushed out of the graphite matrix into the system of diversion plates and chutes which directed the fuel into the deep pit of the canal. ...
This study describes the mechanical compatibility of the direct use of spent pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel in Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU) reactors (DUPIC) fuel, when it is loaded into a CANDU reactor. The mechanical compatibility can be assessed for the fuel management, primary heat transport system, fuel channel, and the fuel handling system in the reactor core by both the experimental and analytic methods. Because the physical dimensions of the DUPIC fuel bundle adopt the CANDU flexible (CANFLEX) fuel bundle design which has already been demonstrated for a commercial use in CANDU reactors, the experimental compatibility analyses focused on the generation of material property data and the irradiation tests of the DUPIC fuel, which are used for the computational analysis. The intermediate results of the mechanical compatibility analysis have shown that the integrity of the DUPIC fuel is mostly maintained under the high power and high burnup conditions ...
In support of technology development to utilize coal for efficient, affordable, and environmentally clean power generation, the Power Systems Development Facility (PSDF) located in Wilsonville, Alabama, routinely demonstrates gasification technologies using various types of coals. The PSDF is an engineering scale demonstration of key features of advanced coal-fired power systems, including a KBR (formerly Kellogg Brown & Root) Transport Gasifier, a hot gas particulate control device, advanced syngas cleanup systems, and high-pressure solids handling systems. This report summarizes the results gasification operation with Illinois Basin bituminous coal in PSDF test campaign TC17. The test campaign was completed from October 25, 2004, to November 18, 2004. System startup and initial operation was accomplished with Powder River Basin (PRB) subbituminous coal, and then the system was transitioned to Illinois Basin coal operation. The major objective for this test ...
Current advanced CMOS source/drain engineering involves the use of amorphizing implants with 3D geometry. Upon annealing, the induced transient enhanced diffusion (TED) can only be accurately predicted if the amorphized region is correctly modeled, as well as the formation and evolution of extended defects, particularly 3 1 1's and dislocation loops. In addition to the extended defects, already modeled in the atomistic kinetic Monte-Carlo simulator DADOS, we have developed a physically based modeling approach for the implant-induced damage build-up, amorphization and recrystallization, suitable to handle device-size process simulation. It is based on amorphous pockets (3D, irregular shape agglomerates of an arbitrary number of interstitials and vacancies, plus trapped impurities) with a size-dependent activation energy for recombination. The model is able to reproduce experimental aspects like the crystal-amorphous transition temperature and the super ...
Current advanced CMOS source/drain engineering involves the use of amorphizing implants with 3D geometry. Upon annealing, the induced transient enhanced diffusion (TED) can only be accurately predicted if the amorphized region is correctly modeled, as well as the formation and evolution of extended defects, particularly 3 1 1's and dislocation loops. In addition to the extended defects, already modeled in the atomistic kinetic Monte-Carlo simulator DADOS, we have developed a physically based modeling approach for the implant-induced damage build-up, amorphization and recrystallization, suitable to handle device-size process simulation. It is based on amorphous pockets (3D, irregular shape agglomerates of an arbitrary number of interstitials and vacancies, plus trapped impurities) with a size-dependent activation energy for recombination. The model is able to reproduce experimental aspects like the crystal-amorphous transition temperature and the super linear ...
This report is organized in a fashion that is intended to explain the legal duties imposed on officials responsible for hazardous waste at each stage of its existence. Section 2 describes federal hazardous waste laws, explaining the legal meaning of hazardous waste and the protective measures that are required to be taken by its generators, transporters, and storers. In addition, penalties for violation of the standards are summarized, and a special discussion is presented of so-called imminent hazard provisions for handling hazardous waste that immediately threatens public health and safety. Although the focus of Sec. 2 is on RCRA, which is the principal federal law regulating hazardous waste, other federal statutes are discussed as appropriate. Section 3 covers state regulation of hazardous waste. First, Sec. 3 explains the system of state enforcement of the federal RCRA requirements on hazardous waste within their borders. Second, Sec. 3 discusses two peculiar ...
Demands for electric power system, which include not only minimization of generation cost but also protection of environmental condition and maintenance of transmission security, have been diversified The priority of these objectives may change according to load change, weather, and other conditions. Since these objectives are usually in a trade-off relationship and generally non-commensurable, it is difficult to handle by conventional optimization of a single objective function. This report describes multi-objective scheduling of thermal power system. The adaptability of three performance indicies, such as economic efficiency, NO{sub x} emission, and transmission security, to operators are defined by membership functions in fuzzy set theory. coordinated solution in which the adaptability of operators is maximized can be obtained by maximizing the fuzzy decision-making function composed of the adaptability index for each objective. Because this coordinated solution ...
Use of hydrogen in large scale applications is more usual than public is mentioning normally. Nevertheless reserve against hydrogen can be observed up to highest level decision-makers. Possibly a main reason can be found and eliminated by fixing: Some spectacular accidents happened in the past and found great interest. The publication of impressive accidents and the follow up of the events course was very carefully. The research in finding causalities in former decisions and follow up was not in the interest of some people or institutions. Important facts are even not noticed by insiders, but would have been very important for future decision makings and public acceptance of new applications. It will be demonstrated in three historical examples. Much more examples would be available and each one could help to find new applications for a saver and effective use of hydrogen in power supply. Awaking from new reserves could be avoided. Additional a safer handling would ...
The construction and use of a portable, microprocessor controlled anodic stripping voltameter for on-site simultaneous metal analysis of copper, lead and cadmium in tap water is discussed. The instrumental system is comprised of a programmable controller which permits keying in analytical parameters such as sparge time and plating time: a rotating cell for efficient oxygen removal and amalgam formation; and, data handling via a minicomputer or analog pen recorder. Plating and stripping potentials are controlled by a digital potentiostat; stripping is done using a staircase waveform with measurement of the current after a one msec delay. In this way charging current effects are minimized. Results of tap water analysis showed 3 +- 1 ..mu..g/L lead, 22 +- 0.3 ..mu..g/L copper, and less than 0.2 ..mu..g/L cadmium for a Berkeley, California tap water, and 1-1000 ..mu..g/L Cu, 1 -2 ..mu..g/L Pb for ten samples of Seattle, Washington tap water. Recommendations are given ...
This paper presents a summary of the first phase of the EPA project, which encompasses surveys of residues from industrial sources in Alexandria. Studies to date indicate that wastes from various industries can be recovered economically. Wastes such as tin cans, glass, wastepaper, and food residues from processing of fruits, starch, and beer are examples of reusable industrial wastes in Egypt. The results of experimental studies for reuse of residues from oil refining, starch and yeast processing, and steel pickling are presented. Spent clay from edible oil refining is currently discarded, causing both handling and disposal problems. This clay contains as much as 40% oil; 90% can be recovered by extraction. The recovered oil can be successfully used in soap production, and the spent clay can be reused in oil bleaching. Other examples include starch and yeast wastes, which can be used for animal feed, and spent pickling liquor, which can be used as a coagulant aid ...
During the phases of separation, treatment, conditioning and storage of radioactive waste, destructive and nondestructive methods for their characterization are needed. In order to satisfy this necessity, in the frame of the National Program of Research and Development, the 'Laboratory for characterization of spent nuclear fuel and high/medium level radioactive waste- LABORAD' was created. The purpose of the project was to accredit the analysis methods available in the laboratory, and also to develop new methods for the characterization of the radioactive waste. A special attention was paid to the high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel characterization that require special facilities for handling. These facilities (e.g. hot cells, remote handlers, transport container) are already available in our institute. Experimental results and performances obtained during validation of the methods are presented in this paper. The laboratory (LABORAD) is notified ...
A field study (1993-96) assessed the benefits of applying unusually high rates of coal fly ash from power plants as a soil amendment to enhance water retention of soils without adversely affecting growth and marketability of the turf species, centipedegrass (Eremochloa ophiuroides (Munro) Hack.) A Latin Square plot design was employed that included 0 (control, no fly ash applied), 280, 560 and 1120 MgHa {sup -1} application rates of unweathered precipitator fly ash. The fly ash was spread evenly over each plot area, rototilled, and allowed to weather under natural conditions for 8 months before seeding. High levels of soluble salts, indicated by the electrical conductivity of soil extracts, in tandem with an apparent phytotoxic effect from boron, apparently inhibited initial plant establishment as shown by substantially lower germination counts in treated soil. However, plant height and rooting depth were not adversely affected, as were the dry matter yields throughout the study ...
The purpose of this paper is to assess a new local air coolers model in ISAAC 2.0, as ISAAC 1.0 could model local air coolers only at two locations. In the new model, local air coolers up to twelve locations could be handled. Large LOCA and loss of feed water sequences were selected for the model comparison. Two cases were analyzed with ISAAC 2.0: one with 6 local air coolers in one of the fueling machine room and in the steam generator room, respectively, and the other with 3 local air coolers at both fueling machine room and 6 local air coolers in the steam generator room. The study assumes that the safety systems such as emergency core cooling system, shield cooling system and moderator cooling system are unavailable. According to the ISAAC 2.0 results, the new local air coolers model showed almost no difference between two cases. Also it was found that as the location of LACs increased, the new model worked properly and the effect of LACs was consistent ...
Fermilab's Advanced Computer Program (ACP) has been developing highly cost effective, yet practical, parallel computers for high energy physics since 1984. The ACP's latest developments are proceeding in two directions. A Second Generation ACP Multiprocessor System for experiments will include $3500 RISC processors each with performance over 15 VAX MIPS. To support such high performance, the new system allows parallel I/O, parallel interprocess communication, and parallel host processes. The ACP Multi-Array Processor, has been developed for theoretical physics. Each $4000 node is a FORTRAN or C programmable pipelined 20 MFlops (peak), 10 MByte single board computer. These are plugged into a 16 port crossbar switch crate which handles both inter and intra crate communication. The crates are connected in a hypercube. Site oriented applications like lattice gauge theory are supported by system software called CANOPY, which makes the hardware ...
The authors apply the nonlinear WENO (Weighted Essentially Nonoscillatory) scheme to the spatial discretization of the Boltzmann Transport Equation modeling linear particle transport. The method is a finite volume scheme which ensures not only conservation, but also provides for a more natural handling of boundary conditions, material properties and source terms, as well as an easier parallel implementation and post processing. It is nonlinear in the sense that the stencil depends on the solution at each time step or iteration level. By biasing the gradient calculation towards the stencil with smaller derivatives, the scheme eliminates the Gibb's phenomenon with oscillations of size O(1) and reduces them to O(h{sup r}), where h is the mesh size and r is the order of accuracy. The current implementation is three-dimensional, generalized for unequally spaced meshes, fully parallelized, and up to fifth order accurate (WENO5) in space. For unsteady problems, ...
This report describes in detail the First Generation Duct Injection Model developed for the analysis of the fundamental processes of flue gas desulfurization by sorbent injection. The model is a two- and three-dimensional, multiphase reacting flow analyzer using computational fluid dynamics methods. The gaseous phase is solved in an Eulerian frame while the droplets or particles are tracked in a Lagrangian frame. The model has an associated preprocessor which allow easy problem set up by the use without in-depth knowledge of computational fluid dynamics. The aerodynamics of the First Generation Duct Injection Model have been successfully validated with a number of test cases for which experimental data are available. Data from the Meredosia pilot plant humidification tests have been used to validate the gas and droplet dynamics of the model with good agreement. Comparison of SO{sub 2} removal results using the present model (with one injector) and the one-dimensional model previously ...
The object of this Regulation is to provide for those matters that may be, or that are required to be, the subject of regulations under the Explosives Act 2003, The Regulation deals with the following maters: a) a register of authorised and prohibited explosives (Part. 2), b) the classification of explosives (Part. 3), c) matters related to licences under the Explosives Act 2003, including the types of licences, requirements for obtaining licences, certain prescribed licence conditions and certain exemptions from the requirement to have a licences (Part. 4), d) specific control measures relating to the handling of explosives (Part. 5), e) matters of a savings, transitional or administrative nature (Part. 1 and 6). This Regulation refers to the following documents: a) AS 2187, Explosives-storage, transport and use, as published by Standards Australia and in force from time to time, b) the Australian Code for the Transport of Explosives by Road and Rail, as published ...
This paper reported on a study that evaluated the energy consumption of cotton gins used in Australia. The average electricity use is 52.3 kWh per bale. In practicality, the electricity consumption for different gins is correlated linearly with the bale numbers produced. The cost of electricity is therefore important in cotton ginning operations. The power factor in all the gins monitored in this study was greater than 0.85. The study showed that the use of gas dryers was highly influenced by the cotton moisture and regulated drying temperature. In general, electricity and gas consumption comprised 61 and 39 per cent of total energy use respectively. The study showed that 60.38 kg of carbon dioxide are emitted for ginning each bale of cotton. This paper described a newly developed method for monitoring the energy performance in cotton gins. Detailed monitoring and analysis carried out at 2 gin sites revealed that electricity consumption is not influenced much by changes in trash ...
The DYMAC Communications System is part of a nuclear safeguards system called DYMAC - short for DYnamic Materials ACcountability - that gathers accountability information at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL) Plutonium Processing Facility. The communications system handles transmissions between data-entry terminals and nondestructive assay (NDA) instruments located in the facility, and a computer located in an adjacent building. System design emphasizes reliability rather than high speed to ensure the integrity of data transmissions. This manual is directed toward the person responsible for maintaining the DYMAC Communication System. It describes the components that make up the communications network, explains how they operate, and gives detailed information about all of the connections. Many of the system components are commercially available; some have been modified at LASL for DYMAC purposes; others were designed and fabricated at LASL. This manual ...
The Department of Energy (DOE) policy requires that all activities be conducted in a manner that protects the safety of the public and provides a safe and healthful workplace for employees. DOE has also prescribed that all personnel be protected in any explosives operation undertaken. The level of safety provided shall be at least equivalent to that of the best industrial practice. The risk of death or serious injury shall be limited to the lowest practicable minimum. DOE and contractors shall continually review their explosives operations with the aim of achieving further refinements and improvements in safety practices and protective features. This manual describes the Department's explosive safety requirements applicable to operations involving the development, testing, handling, and processing of explosives or assemblies containing explosives. It is intended to reflect the state-of-the-art in explosives safety. In addition, it is essential that ...
The newly developed techniques by the Hot Laboratory (JMTR HL) have provided for us the key information on behavior of specimens due to mechanical / physical / chemical / synergistic effects of radiation, stress and water for fission and fusion reactor environment. These techniques are focused on several topics as follows; (1) miniaturized specimen test for the development of fusion reactor materials, (2) slow strain rate tensile testing (SSRT) and crack propagation measuring tests for the study of Irradiation Assisted Stress Corrosion Cracking (IASCC) of core internals of LWR, (3) handling technique on specimens including tritium for the research and development of tritium breeders and neutron multiplier as fusion blanket materials, (4) joining method using the Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) welding technique for re-assembling of capsule and re-fabrication of specimen and (5) nondestructive evaluation using ultrasonic wave and infrared thermography for the quantitative ...
GAO's review of the H-Coal and Exxon projects showed inadequacies in DOE's contracting practices and a failure by DOE to properly plan, manage, and monitor, especially the H-Coal project. The initial Government-industry H-Coal agreements regarding the level of investment by private sponsors and the ceilings imposed on sharing in cost growth were imbalanced. Larger investments by private sponsors and sharing of cost growth provides an incentive to private sponsors to control costs and helps to assure that each party is fully committed to the success of the project. DOE started the H-Coal project prematurely before sufficiently detailed designs were available and without adequate project planning for functions such as construction scheduling, materials handling, inventory systems, and quality control. DOE staffing was inadequate at both projects to effectively monitor progress and contribute to timely decisions. Its contracts for the H-Coal plants ...
Power system operating conditions vary with system configurations and loading conditions. Coefficients in nominal system model change in a complex manner with different operating point and so does system dynamic behavior. With the aid of unstructured and structured uncertainty descriptions, the worst system variations can be estimated and formulated into two different uncertainty models in frequency domain; multiplicative unstructured uncertainty in the form of transfer function and structured uncertainty with the parametric uncertainty description. The uncertainty descriptions are then incorporated into system nominal model to perform H{sub {infinity}} and {mu} based robust power system stabilizer (PSS) design. Both approaches to the PSS design enable the power system to remain stable over a wide range of system operating conditions but the different performance can be observed due to the inheritance of the ways to handle the system uncertainty. 8 refs, 8 figs, 1 ...
Ethylen and, recently, butadiene can be epoxidized directly with oxygen and for the epoxidation of propylene, the use of heterogeneous transition metals and organic peroxides (Halcon-Process) is the major player. But, beside from those notable exceptions, all other epoxidations, including large ones like the epoxidation of plant oils as PVC-stabilizers (about 200.000 t/year), are carried out with peroxy acids. Because mcpba is far to expensive for most applications, short chain peracids like peracetic acid are used. Being much less stable than mcpba and thus risky handled in large amounts and high concentrations, these peroxy acids were preferably prepared in-situ. However, conventional in-situ formation of peracids has the serious drawback, that a strong acid is necessary to catalyze peroxy acid formation from the carboxylic acid and hydrogen peroxide. The presence of a strong acid in the reaction mixture often results in decreased selectivity because of the ...
The Synthesis Gas From Manure (SGFM) pilot plant was constructed at Texas Tech University to evaluate the gasification of cattle feedlot manure. A study of gas yield and composition as a function of operating conditions was performed. This report presents the results of a comparison of feedstocks other than manure in the pilot plant. Oak sawdust was the superior feedstock tested in terms of both gas yield and operability. Corn stover and mesquite were comparable and presented some handling problems. Cotton gin trash was unacceptable due to low-temperature ash fusion in the reactor. The gas yield from oak sawdust varied from 0.8 to 1.7 1/gm DAF feed at average temperatures of 650 to 770/sup 0/C. The gas contained approximately 15% hydrogen and 40% carbon monoxide by volume. It also contained 5 to 8% methane and 2 to 5% ethylene. All of these results were obtained using steam and air as the gasifying medium.
One purpose of this article is to alert state utility commissions involved in restructuring electric utilities to pay special attention to proposals that would fragment the utility's billing and metering (B and M) operations. Such fragmentation would essentially foreclose an important future option for handling all levels of retail deregulation. A fusing of B and M could become the linchpin for transitioning retail electricity from its present cost-based fixed rates to a market-based pricing regime fully exploiting the high economic efficiencies that are characteristic of most commodity pricing regimes. Realizing such economic efficiencies requires self enforcing economic discipline that makes and keeps retail pricing of electricity responsive to: imbalances in supply and demand (S and D), tensions between potential customers and competing suppliers, the need to meet a return-on-investment (ROI) objective, and the relative quality of product demanded. In ...
An air conditioner intakes open-air from an open-air intake port to remove sands and sea salt particles by air filters. Then, natural and artificial radioactive particles of less than 1 {mu}m are removed by high performance particulate filters. After controlling the temperature by an air heater or an air cooler, air is sent to each of chambers in a facility under pressure elevation by a blower. In this case, glass fibers are used as the filter material for the high performance particulate filter, which has a performance of more than 99.97% for the particles of 0.3 {mu}m grain size. Since this can sufficiently remove the natural radioactive materials intruded from the outside, a detection limit value in each of the chambers of the facility can be set 10{sup -13} to 10{sup -14} {mu}ci/cm{sup 3} in respect of radiation control. Accordingly, radiation control can be conducted smoothly and appropriately. (I.N.).
The AFGD process as demonstrated by Pure Air at the Bailly Station offers a reliable and cost-effective means of achieving a high degree of SO{sub 2} emissions reduction when burning high-sulfur coals. Many innovative features have been successfully incorporated in this process, and it is ready for widespread commercial use. The system uses a single-loop cocurrent scrubbing process with in-situ oxidation to produce wallboard-grade gypsum instead of wet sludge. A novel wastewater evaporation system minimizes effluents. The advanced scrubbing process uses a common absorber to serve multiple boilers, thereby saving on capital through economies of scale. Major results of the project are: (1) SO{sub 2} removal of over 94 percent was achieved over the three-year demonstration period, with a system availability exceeding 99.5 percent; (2) a large, single absorber handled the combined flue gas of boilers generating 528 MWe of power, and no spares were required; (3) direct ...
Activation has been used for many kinds of useful applications, such as use of the radioisotopes for diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and wear (or corrosion) investigation for using thin layer activation (TLA) technique, etc. But activation also has severe problems for the post-processing of the samples; such as time-loss, inconvenience of sample handling, personal radiation safety, etc. For in-vitro experiments, we observed death of tumor cells by proton irradiation. The use of large activated container material can cause erroneous results in this case. To solve these problems, we studied why the samples were activated and how the level of the activation could be reduced. In proton beam irradiation experiments, the target materials could be defined as the container and sample itself. We could easily reduce activation of container material comparing to activation of sample itself. Therefore, we tried to find less activated container material by irradiating proton ...
A technique for delivering genes carried by recombinant retroviruses into specific cell types could have numerous applications in oncology, developmental biology, and gene therapy. As a first step toward this remote goal the authors designed a procedure allowing in vitro cell targeting by retroviruses. Biotinylated antibodies against the viral envelope protein on one side, and against specific cell membrane markers on the other side, were bridged by streptavidin and used to link the virus to the host. The method was successfully used to infect human cells with ecotropic murine retroviruses by means of major histocompatibility complex class I and class II antigens and appears easily adaptable to other cell, membrane markers. Moreover, the sequential protocol they design, although allowing infection of human cells, requires less stringent safety constraints than would handling of amphotropic virus stocks.
This paper describes the derivation of a new equation that can be used to model the permeability behavior of a fractured, sorptive-elastic media, such as coal, under variable stress conditions commonly used during measurement of permeability data in the laboratory. The model is derived for cubic geometry under biaxial or hydrostatic confining pressures. The model is also designed to handle changes in permeability caused by adsorption and desorption of gases from the matrix blocks. The model equations can be used to calculate permeability changes caused by the production of methane from coal as well as the injection of gases, such as carbon dioxide, for sequestration in coal. Sensitivity analysis of the model found that each of the input variables can have a significant impact on the outcome of the permeability forecast as a function of changing pore pressure; thus, accurate input data are essential. The permeability model can also be used as a tool to determine ...
The purpose of the trip was to visit Nobel Chemicals in Sweden and to confer with the Department of Transportation personnel in Sweden and in England on the technical and regulatory problems in the bulk shipping of the high explosives RDX and HMX. It is customary in the United States (US) to add isopropyl alcohol to the bulk shipment of water-wet high explosives RDX and HMX. The explosives are packed in cloth bags which are placed in plastic-lined fiber drums. The addition of alcohol presumably prevents mildewing of cloth bags and freezing of the wet explosives in cold weather. In Europe, however, these explosives are shipped in polyethylene-lined fiber drums with not less than 15% water only, even in cold weather. Water-wet frozen explosives have not proved to be any more sensitive than its unfrozen counterpart and no mildew problem has been encountered. It looks promising that the US Department of Transportation regulations can be changed to permit the bulk shipment of these ...
Overhead persistent surveillance systems are becoming more capable at acquiring wide-field image sequences for long time-spans. The need to exploit this data is becoming ever greater. The ability to track a single vehicle of interest or to track all the observable vehicles, which may number in the thousands, over large, cluttered regions while they persist in the imagery is very desirable. Typically, this imagery has many thousands of pixels on a side and is characterized by lower resolutions (e.g. {approx}0.5 meters/pixel to {approx}2.0 meters/pixel) and lower frame rates (e.g. {approx} sub-Hz to several Hz). We describe our ultra-scale capable implementation of a multiple-vehicle tracking algorithm for overhead persistent surveillance imagery. This work builds upon an earlier report, where now the algorithm has been modified for improved performance and has been substantially improved to handle much larger datasets in a much shorter time.