Science.gov (United States)

PMID:12391801

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... Thursday: South Brisbane Sailing Club, Orleigh Park Hill End Terrace, West End. Friday: Booroodabin Bowls Club, 126 Breakfast Creek Road, Newstead. Related Photos Six months on: Kerrin Quinn's Story (Emma Sykes - ABC Local) Map Fernvale 4306 Subscribe/RSS Subscribe to ABC Brisbane videos Subscribe to all ABC Local videos Topics: disasters-and-accidents, floods Locations: brisbane-4000, fernvale-4306 Print page ...

UK PubMed Central (United Kingdom)

ATP-binding cassette transporters (ABC transporters) utilize the energy of ATP hydrolysis to translocate an unusually diverse set of substrates across cellular membranes. ABCA4, also known as...Full Text Available

UK PubMed Central (United Kingdom)

The retina-specific ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter, ABCA4, is essential for transport of all-trans-retinal from the rod outer segment discs in the retina and is associated with...Full Text Available

UK PubMed Central (United Kingdom)

To successfully grow, neurons need to overcome the effects of hostile environments, such as the inhibitory action of myelin. We have evaluated the potential of exercise to overcome the intrinsic...Full Text Available

Science.gov (United States)

The GntR-like protein NorG has been shown to affect Staphylococcus aureus genes involved in the resistance to quinolones and ?-lactams, such as those encoding the NorB and AbcA transporters. To identify the target genes regulated by NorG, we carried out transcriptional profiling assays using S. aureus RN6390 and its isogenic norG::cat mutant. Our data showed that NorG positively affected the transcription of global regulators mgrA, arlS, and sarZ. The three putative drug efflux pump genes most positively affected by NorG were the NorB efflux pump (5.1-fold), the MmpL-like protein SACOL2566 (5.2-fold), and the BcrA-like drug transporter SACOL2525 (5.7-fold). The S. aureus predicted MmpL protein showed 53% homology with the MmpL lipid transporter of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and the putative SACOL2525 protein showed 87% homology with the bacitracin drug transporter BcrA of Staphylococcus hominis. Two pump genes most negatively affected by NorG were NorC (4-fold) ...

British Library Electronic Table of Contents (United Kingdom)

The purpose of this study was to compare cardiopulmonary fitness and endurance in 9-11-year-old children with DCD against a group of typically developing children in Taiwan. The Movement ABC test was used to evaluate the motor abilities of children. Forty-one participants (20 children with DCD and 21 children without DCD) were recruited for this study. The cardiopulmonary tests included the 800-m run test and the peak oxygen consumption (peak VO2) test using the Bruce treadmill protocol. No significant differences in age, body height, body weight, body mass index, and percentage of body fat between children with DCD and without DCD were found. However, there were significant differences in the cardiopulmonary endurance tests between children with DCD and without DCD. Children with DCD had ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) exhibits specific binding to the extracellular matrix (ECM) produced by cultured endothelial cells. Binding was saturable as a function both of time and of concentration of {sup 125}I-bFGF. Scatchard analysis of FGF binding revealed the presence of about 1.5 x 10{sup 12} binding sites/mm{sup 2} ECM with an apparent k{sub D} of 610 nM. FGF binds to heparan sulfate (HS) in ECM as evidenced by (i) inhibition of binding in the presence of heparin or HS at 0.1-1 {mu}g/mL, but not by chondroitin sulfate, keratan sulfate, or hyaluronic acid at 10 {mu}g/mL, (ii) lack of binding to ECM pretreated with heparitinase, but not with chondroitinase ABC, and (iii) rapid release of up to 90% of ECM-bound FGF by exposure to heparin, HS, or heparitinase, but not to chondroitin sulfate, keratan sulfate, hyaluronic acid, or chondroitinase ABC. Oligosaccharides derived from depolymerized heparin, and as small as the ...

UK PubMed Central (United Kingdom)

Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) has become the standard treatment modality for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Nonetheless, the clinical outcomes in patients with unresectable...Full Text Available

UK PubMed Central (United Kingdom)

Peripheral subunit binding domains (PSBDs) are integral parts of large multienzyme complexes involved in carbohydrate metabolism. PSBDs facilitate shuttling of prosthetic groups between different catalytic...Full Text Available

UK PubMed Central (United Kingdom)

The challenge to our profession today is to improve the quality of oral health while overcoming both extrinsic and intrinsic factors which may adversely affect our progress toward this goal. The combined...Full Text Available

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

The phase space of quantized systems that contain tachyons has been investigated. Interpretation difficulties and unexpected divergences are found when we consider the volume of Lorentz-invariant phase space. These problems can be overcome, however, at the expense of Lorentz invariance.

UK PubMed Central (United Kingdom)

Low membrane permeability is one of the major obstacles to the successful cryopreservation of zebrafish embryos. The aim of the present study was to explore if this could be overcome by yolk...Full Text Available

UK PubMed Central (United Kingdom)

Membrane protein structural biology is still a largely unconquered area, given that approximately 25% of all proteins are membrane proteins and yet less than 150 unique structures are available. Membrane...Full Text Available

UK PubMed Central (United Kingdom)

Major breakthroughs have recently been reported that can help overcome two inherent drawbacks of NMR: the lack of sensitivity and the limited memory of longitudinal magnetization. Dynamic nuclear polarization...Full Text Available

Science.gov (United States)

This book describes one approach to building and operating biogas systems. The biogas systems include raw material preparation, digesters, separate gas storage tanks, use of the gas to run engines, and the use of the sludge as fertilizer. Chapters included are: (1) "Introduction"; (2) "Biogas Systems are Small Factories"; (3) "The Raw Materials of Biogas Digestion"; (4) "The Daily Operation of a Biogas Factory"; (5) "The Once a Year Cleaning of the Digester"; (6) "Tanks and Pipes: Storing and Moving Biogas"; (7) "The Factory's Products: Biogas"; (8) "The Factory's Products: Biofertilizer"; (9) "The ABCs of Safety"; and (10) "Conclusion: Profiting from an Appropriate Technology." Many diagrams are provided throughout this handbook. New ideas, composting, bioinsecticides, ferrocement, facts and figures, sources and resources, feasibility studies, problem solving, and vocabulary are presented in the appendices. (YP)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

This presentation focuses on the steps taken by the Westinghouse Hanford Company to meet an accelerated schedule for configuration and implementation of the MULTI LIMS in a multiple laboratory environment. The Westinghouse Hanford Company purchased the MULTI LIMS Laboratory Information Management System in August, 1993. Hardware delivery began in October, 1993. Less than four months later, the initial configuration was released for use in two Westinghouse Hanford Company laboratories. Several major obstacles were overcome during implementation. These include information gathering for base table loading, user training, acceptance of the new system by users of a legacy system, and hardware configuration issues. In summary, steps needed to be taken to meet the accelerated implementation schedule of the MULTI LIMS at the Hanford Site. The obstacles faced were overcome through the in-depth knowledge and help of the vendor and the dedication and ...

UK PubMed Central (United Kingdom)

The covered self-expandable metallic stent (SEMS) has been developed to overcome the problem of tissue in­growth, However, stent migration is a well-known com­­plication of covered...Full Text Available

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... Reduce partner costs, save time, and overcome delays in data transmission. Data Exchanges States are currently submitting data to each other and to the EPA in the exchanges listed below. Data Exchanges are typically referred to by their acronyms, which are listed below. To find out more about EPA data exchanges, please follow the links to EPA Web sites. AQS - Air Quality Sub-system (...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Low pressure plasmas have some promising advantages for nitriding The separation of plasma generation from the workpiece overcomes several of the major drawbacks of conventional plasma nitriding and also allows independent control of ion flux and energy This opens the possibility of nitriding at lower temperatures so that the process can be extended to a wider range of materials and applications. Copyright (1999) Materials Australia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

The feasibility of using a thermoplastic-powder metallurgy technique for the fabrication of porous niobium rods was investigated. Some early problems were overcome to successfully extrude the polymer coated niobium powder into long lengths. The effects of certain process variables were investigated. Residual porosity and extrusion pressure were found to be regulated by the polymer fraction. The procedures for taking the extruded polystyrene--niobium rods through the heat treatments to the final, tin infiltrated stage are explained.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

For the sugar industry, a new system of multiple-effect evaporation consuming minimal steam has been designed by means of a mathematical model and its advantages and characteristics are analysed. A way is found to overcome difficulty in operation and instability of the amount of steam consumed. Statistical data obtained using the new system are compared with the old system and show an economic profit as well as confirming the validity of the model. (author)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

A method for the introduction of N-(/sup 3/H)acetyl groups into glycosaminoglycans is described. The procedure is based on (/sup 3/H)acetylation of N-unsubstituted hexosamine residues by treating the polysaccharides with (/sup 3/H)acetic anhydride. Preparations of heparin and heparin sulfate were found to contain significant numbers of N-unsubstituted hexosamine residues, as isolates. In contrast, such units could not be detected in chondroitin sulfate, dermatan sulfate, or hyaluronic acid. These polysaccharides were therefore subjected to partial N-deacetylation by reaction with hydrazine in the presence of hydrazine sulfate. After treatment with (/sup 3/H)acetic anhydride, the specific activities of the resulting labeled polysaccharide preparations ranged between 0.1 X 10/sup 6/ and 0.6 X 10/sup 6/ cpm /sup 3/H/..mu..g of uronic acid. The /sup 3/H-labeled polysaccharide preparations did not differ significantly from the corresponding unlabeled starting materials with regard to ...

Science.gov (United States)

BACKGROUND: Denys-Drash Syndrome (DDS) is an uncommon disorder that appears sporadically and in rare cases may be inherited as an autosomal dominant trait It manifests either at birth or within the first year of life and typically consists of the triad of congenital nephropathy, Wilms tumour and intersex disorder. CASE REPORT: A 10 year-old Caucasian girl was referred to the Dental Department, at Glasgow Royal Hospital for Sick Children by her Paediatric Nephrologist Consultant. The patient was being teased by her peers over her markedly discoloured teeth. The dental history revealed that the patient was a regular dental attendee from an early age. She was dentally anxious having only experienced dental treatment under general anaesthesia (GA) when she was 4 years old. Apparently her primary dentition also showed a generalised discolouration. TREATMENT: This consisted of multiple visits for diet analysis and tooth brushing instruction with the use of disclosing tablets. Plaque control ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

The first-order relativistic correction to the kinetic energy of an electron, the mass-velocity term, is not bounded from below. It can, therefore, not be used within a variational framework. To overcome this deficiency we developed a method to include the entire relativistic kinetic energy #sq root#(p"2c"2+m_0"2c"4)-m_0c"2 in a spline-augmented plane-wave band calculation. The first results for silver are quite promising, especially for d and p states: The analysis of the energies of the core states as well as of the valence band structure suggests that the energies of d bands are reproduced within 1 mRy. However, the combination of the relativistic kinetic energy with the Darwin term leads to energies which are too low for s-like valence states by 10 mRy. Therefore, the s and d valence band complex is spread out and the Fermi level is lowered by the same amount as the s states. We expect to overcome these deficiencies in future investigations ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

A newly developed discrete-time adaptive sliding mode power system stabilizer (PSS) is proposed in this paper. Because the proposed PSS is developed in the pure discrete-time domain it is able to maintain the stability with the rather slower smapling frequency compared to discretized conventional continuous-time sliding mode PSS. The proposed PSS has the three main superiorities to the conventional PSS. First, because the proposed PSS utilizes the sliding mode control method, it has the strong robustness to the variations of the system parameters. Hence, it can overcome the minor disturbances such as identification errors, modeling errors, etc. Second, the proposed PSS needs only input/output measurements as feedback signals. Hence, it does not need the measurements of the state variables as the conventional sliding mode PSS or PSS based on the linear quadratic control method does. Finally, because the proposed PSS have the adaptive property, it is able to ...

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We have studied the impact of overexpression of an intracellular signaling protein, integrin-linked kinase (ILK), on the survival and function of encapsulated islet tissue used for the treatment of type 1 diabetes. The dimensions of the encapsulated tissue can impact the stresses placed on the tissue and ILK overexpression shows the ability to extend function of dissociated cells as well as intact islets. These results suggest that lost cell-extracellular matrix interactions in cell encapsulation systems can lead to decreased insulin secretion and ILK signaling is a target to overcome this phenomenon. (communication)

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This paper explains how mine operators are taking a closer look at the power of explosives and how primary breakage affects other open-pit mining costs. Slurries have overcome most of the disadvantages attributed to them in their early years and may replace Anfo. Effective blasting is the key to an efficient, low-cost mining operation. Reviews are presented on research in crater studies, computer-aided design, the expanding gas theory, and high-speed motion picture cameras that show the importance of shock energy in fracturing the rock interfaces throughout the burden. The paper concludes with MSHA-approved courses in blasting offered throughout the US.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Procedures are described to mechanize partially harvesting, cleaning, and pretreatment of guayule achenes. Achenes are harvested with a vacuum insect net and cleaned by a series of screening, threshing, and forced air separations, then treated to overcome seed coat impermeability in a semiautomatic system that presoaks, treats with 0.5% sodium hypochlorite, and rinses. Achenes may be sown immediately or dried for storage. Procedures outlined involve commercially available equipment with a minimum of custom construction and are adaptable to small or large operations. (Refs. 11).

British Library Electronic Table of Contents (United Kingdom)

Hope is an essential dimension of life. Hope, according to Marcel?s thinking, is the act by which the temptation to despair is actively overcome. Hope comes alive when confronting life?s trials, darkness, illness and separation. Marcel differentiates ?I hope? from ?I hope that?. Hope as a central construct for nursing has been analysed, defined, and studied by the nursing theorist Jean Watson in her Theory of Human Caring, and Kaye Herth with her strategies (Herth Hope Index). These strategies are based on Marcel?s existential notion that human beings have an endless possibility of improving their own being.

British Library Electronic Table of Contents (United Kingdom)

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to describe the processes and procedures utilized by Jacksonville State University's Houston Cole Library to digitize an oral history collection and provide access to it through the Library's catalog, web presence, and the state-wide digital repository initiative, Alabama Mosaic (see www.alabamamosaic.org). Design/methodology/approach - The paper is based on the Library's experiences in acquiring, digitizing, creating metadata for and making accessible a collection of oral histories. Findings - The paper describes the obstacles overcome, issues encountered, procedures established, and ramifications of the project. Practical implications - Many institutions are currently digitizing unique collections as part of repository initiatives, both institutiona...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Financing space solar power generation programmes has several inherent difficulties. Such large-scale projects are usually easily defined with an expected economic return, construction time, useful service life and defined management structure. As yet, solar power satellites for power generation possess none of these as the idea exists conceptually and the technology still needs to be developed. Methods for overcoming these uncertainties and securing financial backing are described. Venture capital could finance a research/marketing firm. US Government support through a cost plus short-term monopoly to facilitate private debt financing could provide an answer. (UK)

British Library Electronic Table of Contents (United Kingdom)

Summary Although many antibiotics are available for the treatment of bacterial infections, the emergence and global spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a community-wide problem. To overcome this problem, we must explore alternative antimicrobials. This study investigated the antibacterial properties of quercetin, a flavonoid present in vegetables and fruits. Quercetin was tested against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria and was found to exert selective antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, including methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), and Staphylococcus epidermidis. Some clinical MRSA strains showed remarkable susceptibility to quercetin. In combination with antibiotics, such as oxacillin, ampicillin, vancomycin, gentamicin, and erythromycin, quercetin sho...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

The central aim of this thesis is to present a new kind of realism that is driven not from the traditional realism/anti-realism debate but from the practice of physicists. The usual debate focuses on discussions about the truth of theories and their fit with nature, while the real practices of the scientists are forgotten. The position I shall defend is called 'phenomenological realism': theories are merely tools to construct other theories and models, including phenomenological models; phenomenological models are the vehicles of representation. The realist doctrine was recently undermined by the argument from the pessimistic meta-induction, also known as the argument from scientific revolutions. I argue that phenomenological realism is a new kind of scientific realism which can overcome the problem generated by the argument from scientific revolutions, and which depend on the scientific practice. The realist tried to overcome ...

British Library Electronic Table of Contents (United Kingdom)

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...

Science.gov (United States)

Self-amplifying spontaneous radiation free-electron lasers, such as the LCLS or the European X-FEL, rely on the incoherent, spontaneous radiation as the seed for the amplifying process. Though this method overcomes the need for an external seed source one drawback is the incoherence of the effective seed signal. The FEL process allows for a natural growth of the coherence because the radiation phase information is spread out within the bunch due to slippage and diffraction of the radiation field. However, at short wavelengths this spreading is not sufficient to achieve complete coherence. In this presentation we report on the results of numerical simulations of the LCLS X-ray FEL. From the obtained radiation field distribution the coherence properties are extracted to help to characterize the FEL as a light source.

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

An artificial neural network can be used as an intelligent controller to control non-linear, dynamic system through learning. It can easily accommodate non-linearities and time dependencies. Most common multi-layer feed-forward neural networks have drawbacks of large number of neurons and hidden layers required to deal with complex problems and require large training time. To overcome these drawbacks, a generalized neuron based non-linear controller has been developed and illustrated as a power system stabilizer. Studies on a five-machine power system show that the proposed controller can significantly improve the dynamic performance and provide good damping of the power system over a wide operating range.

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Until a decade ago, only the differential bobbin type eddy current probe was considered necessary for reliable heat exchanger tube inspection. The introduction of different tube materials, manufacturing processes and a variety of service induced failures has greatly increased the demands of eddy current testing. Optimized probe designs enhanced by improved instrumentation can help satisfy some of these demands. Some of the more difficult inspection problems are detection of circumferential cracks, fretting wear under non-ferromagnetic support plates and shallow internal defects. Reliable detection and sizing of such defects is often made more difficult by the fact they frequently occur in defect prone regions such as under tubesheets or support plates and in transition regions of finned tubes. Probe designs effective in overcoming these difficulties exist. This paper describes a number of such probes and their performance.

British Library Electronic Table of Contents (United Kingdom)

Nowadays, different research teams are engaged on experimental and theoretical studies having as main aim the evaluation of seismic performance of sheathed cold-formed steel frame structures. Although a relatively large number of experimental and theoretical studies are available, the development of useful tools for the seismic design should be improved. As an attempt to overcome this lack, this paper aims to present a structural design procedure that allows, through the definition of three design nomographs, the screw spacing and all the shear walls components to be obtained on the basis of linear dynamic or nonlinear static seismic analysis. In addition, a procedure for the prediction of the whole pushover response curve of sheathed cold-formed steel shear walls, which can be advantageou...

Science.gov (United States)

Drawing upon the cultural risk perspective and writings on risk taking, this paper seeks to develop ideas relating to the effective use of school cyberspace. It is argued that some individuals respond to exaggerated, yet seductive, discourses of online risks by over-blocking, unreasonably restricting students' Internet activity. At the same time, there are sensible, even compelling, motivations for teachers as well as students to use the school Internet to engage in low-level risk taking, fostering excitement, identity construction and networked media literacy. Connecting these seductive pushes and pulls of risk it is ultimately maintained that the fostering of trust through open communication is key in overcoming over-blocking whilst allowing for greater educational gains, realised in part through certain types of low-level risk taking in school cyberspace.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) with soft x-rays is uniquely suited to study the elec-tronic structure of a variety of materials, but is currently limited by low (fluorescence yield) count rates. This limitation is overcome with a new high-transmission spectrometer that allows to measure soft x-ray RIXS"maps." The S L2,3 RIXS map of CdS is discussed and compared with density functional calculations. The map allows the extraction of decay channel-specific"absorp-tion spectra," giving detailed insight into the wave functions of occupied and unoccupied elec-tronic states.

British Library Electronic Table of Contents (United Kingdom)

On ships, tankers and similar vessels structural defects such as cracks and corrosion damage are typically repaired by welding. However, welding is unwanted hotwork on floating offshore units (FOUs) such as floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) and floating, storage and offloading (FSO) vessels because it requires shutdown of parts of the vessel thus resulting in expensive production delays. Bonded fibre composite material patch repairs can be used as an alternative to overcome the hazards of hotwork associated with welding. The patches are bonded over the defect and the integrity of the original structure is hence restored. The patch repair technology can also be utilised to provide upgrades, such as life extensions and higher design requirements. A recommended practice (RP)...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

This paper addresses known limitations and constraints in eddy current nondestructive testing. Incomplete appreciation for eddy current limitations is believed to have contributed to both under-utilization and misapplication of the technique. Neither situation need arise if known limitations are recognized. Some, such as the skin depth effect, are inherent to electromagnetic test methods and define the role of eddy current testing. Others can be overcome with available technology such as surface probes to find circumferential cracks in tubes and magnetic saturation of ferromagnetic alloys to eliminate permeability effects. The variables responsible for limitations in eddy current testing are discussed and where alternative approaches exist, these are presented. Areas with potential for further research and development are also identified.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Many existing proposals either lack sufficient concreteness to make carbon capture and geological sequestration (CCGS) operational or fail to focus on a comprehensive, long term framework for its regulation, thus failing to account adequately for the urgency of the issue, the need to develop immediate experience with large scale demonstration projects, or the financial and other incentives required to launch early demonstration projects. We aim to help fill this void by proposing a roadmap to commercial deployment of CCGS in the United States.This roadmap focuses on the legal and financial incentives necessary for rapid demonstration of geological sequestration in the absence of national restrictions on CO2 emissions. It weaves together existing federal programs and financing opportunities into a set of recommendations for achieving commercial viability of geological sequestration.

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

It is known that a high-power laser propagating through an underdense plasma can acquire a minimum spot size due to relativistic self-focusing. Beyond the focus, the nonlinear refraction starts weakening, and the spot size of the laser increases, showing periodic self-focusing/ defocusing behavior with the distance of propagation. To overcome the defocusing, we propose the introduction of a localized upward plasma density ramp. In the presence of an upward ramp of plasma density, the laser beam obtains a minimum spot size and maintains it with only a mild ripple. For suitable parameters of the laser and the plasma, we have deduced conditions for the self-focusing. This kind of plasma density ramp may be observed in a gas-jet plasma experiment and resembles a plasma lens.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nowadays, mixing is one of the most powerful tools for the process and products optimization in chemical process industries. The available technology can help in achieving almost any desired outcomes related to the process-side of the systems. This paper presents a practical methodology to improve existing agitation systems in order to overcome the constraints previously identified in the process. Well succeed real cases using this methodology in a petrochemical plant (Nitriflex S.A.) are presented. (author) 13 refs., 1 figs., 2 tabs.

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

This article reviews the principal evidences about aluminum neurotoxicity in vitro, and some evidences in brain tissues of Alzheimer patients; and also show some studies realized with human that suffer renal deficiencies, dealing whit the principal osteodystrophy. The problem of analyzing low aluminum concentration in human fluids is overcome with very sensitive analytical methods as electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAS) and voltammetric methods as Anodic Striping Voltammetry with complexing agents that easing adsorption over solid electrodes or mercury hanging drops. Is a vital question to know with accuracy the aluminum concentration in water used in hemodialysis or in fluids used in ambulatory peritoneal dialysis, as a first stage to prevent contamination by aluminum. So the prevention of contamination during sapling storage and analysis of biological fluids should be the first need and the sources of water used in renal dialysis keep be as clean ...

British Library Electronic Table of Contents (United Kingdom)

Studies addressed to a deep understanding of the structure/property relationship on the near infrared (NIR)-emissive erbium-quinolinolate complexes, which are of interest for low-cost photonic systems, are reviewed. The role of the 8-quinolinolate ligand (Q), which studies also as sensitizer to overcome the weak absorptivity of lanthanide ion, is discussed. Synthetic and structural aspects are reported to revise the old assumption that these complexes are analogous in structure to AlQ3 and to point out the specificity of the lanthanide coordination chemistry. In fact depending on reaction conditions, species with high coordination numbers and differing for nuclearity and stoichiometry have been isolated and fully characterized. In some instances it has been shown that coordinated water mol...

British Library Electronic Table of Contents (United Kingdom)

Variability in production is one of the largest factors that negatively impacts construction project performance. A common construction practice to protect production systems from variability is the use of buffers (Bf). Construction practitioners and researchers have proposed buffering approaches for different production situations, but these approaches have faced practical limitations in their application. A multiobjective analytic model (MAM) is proposed to develop a graphical solution for the design of Work-In-Process (WIP) Bf in order to overcome these practical limitations to Bf application, being demonstrated through the scheduling of repetitive building projects. Multiobjective analytic modeling is based on Simulation?Optimization (SO) modeling and Pareto Fronts concepts. Simulation...

CERN Document Server

In the paper we investigate a mathematical model describing the growth of tumor in the presence of immune response of a host organism. The dynamics of tumour and immune cells is based on the generic Michaelis-Menten kinetics describing interaction and competition between the tumour and the immune system. The appropriate phenomenological equation modeling cell-mediated immune surveillance against cancer is of the predator-prey form and within a given choice of parameters exhibits bistability. Under the influence of spontaneous weak fluctuations, the model may be analyzed in terms of a stochastic differential equation bearing the form of an overdamped Langevin-like dynamics in the external quasi-potential represented by a double well. We analyze properties of the system within the range of parameters for which the potential wells are of the same depth and when the additional perturbation describing a periodic treatment is insufficient to overcome the barrier height ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

The use of X-ray diffraction line profile analysis for the study of nanocrystalline powders is described. The fundamentals of the theory are presented in terms of crystallite/domain size, size distribution, lattice distortion, dislocations density and stacking faults. Line profile parameters and the methods of pattern fitting introduced to overcome the diffraction-line overlap problem are discussed. The approaches based of the integral breadth of the measured line profiles and the Fourier method are discussed. In addition, simplified approaches are also commented. Representative examples are selected to illustrate various cases of microstructure, such as nanomaterials with strain-free spherical nano crystallites, strain-free crystallites with anisotropic crystallite shape, anisotropic crystallites with microstrains and spherical crystallites with dislocation densities and crystallite size distributions. (author)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

In order to apply chemical-looping combustion to a practical power plant, carbon deposition on the solid particle is one of the key problems to be overcome. Six kinds of solid particles were examined to clarify the kinetic behavior of carbon deposition. The effects of the solid composition, feed gas composition, and reaction temperature on carbon deposition were investigated by thermogravimetrical reactor on the basis of NiO/YSZ particle. From the viewpoints of both reactivity and resistance against carbon deposition, the particle of NiO mixed with YSZ (i.e., yttria-stabilized zirconia) was found to be a good candidate for chemical-looping combustion. It has been observed that carbon deposition could be completely avoided with very low concentration of water vapor. By means of a proposed model, the condition that carbon deposition would be avoided was identified. 12 refs., 8 figs., 2 tabs.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Following the breakthrough for cast magnesium products, interest is now spreading to wrought applications - triggering a variety of technological questions. A major bottleneck in the manufacture of magnesium sections (profiles) by conventional hot extrusion is the low productivity, with extrusion speeds typically five to ten times lower than for comparable aluminium sections. This paper focuses on the use of hydrostatic extrusion as a means to overcome this problem. On the basis of an analytical model, it is clarified why and how process limits are affected by the process mechanics. Experimental work on the hydrostatic extrusion of the alloys M1A, ZM21 and AZ31 confirms that extrusion speed is indeed multiplied, whereas the resulting mechanical properties are similar to or better than those for conventional extrusions. (orig.)

British Library Electronic Table of Contents (United Kingdom)

Fault symptoms of running gearboxes must be detected as early as possible to avoid serious accidents. Diverse advanced methods are developed for this challenging task. However, for multiwavelet transforms, the fixed basis functions independent of the input dynamic response signals will possibly reduce the accuracy of fault diagnosis. Meanwhile, for multiwavelet denoising technique, the universal threshold denoising tends to overkill important but weak features in gear fault diagnosis. To overcome the shortcoming, a novel method incorporating customized (i.e., signal-based) multiwavelet lifting schemes with sliding window denoising is proposed in this paper. On the basis of Hermite spline interpolation, various vector prediction and update operators with the desirable properties of biorthog...

British Library Electronic Table of Contents (United Kingdom)

Measuring HPA axis activity is the standard approach to the study of stress and welfare in farm animals. Although the reference technique is the use of blood plasma to measure glucocorticoid hormones (cortisol or corticosterone), several alternative methods such as the measurement of corticosteroids in saliva, urine or faeces have been developed to overcome the stress induced by blood sampling itself. In chronic stress situations, as is frequently the case in studies about farm animal welfare, hormonal secretions are usually unchanged but dynamic testing allows the demonstration of functional changes at several levels of the system, including the sensitization of the adrenal cortex to ACTH and the resistance of the axis to feedback inhibition by corticosteroids (dexamethasone suppression t...

British Library Electronic Table of Contents (United Kingdom)

The ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) can overcome the mode mixing problem of the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and therefore provide more precise decomposition results. Wavelet neural network (WNN) possesses the advantages of both wavelet transform and artificial neural networks. This paper combines the merits of EEMD and WNN to propose an automated and effective fault diagnosis method of locomotive roller bearings. First, the vibration signals captured from the locomotive roller bearings are preprocessed by EEMD method and intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) are produced. Second, a kurtosis based method is presented and used to select the sensitive IMF. Third, time- and frequency-domain features are extracted from the sensitive IMF, its frequency spectrum and its envelope spe...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Radioiodinated carbohydrates such as 2-deoxy-2-iodo-D-glucose and 3-deoxy-3-iodo-D-glucose undergo facile chemical or in vivo deiodination which precludes their use as radiotracers of glucose metabolism in tissues. To overcome the problems resulting from in vivo deiodination, we explored the concept of stabilizing radioiodide on a model carbohydrate, (E)-C-3-iodovinyl-D-allose (10) as an iodovinyl moiety. This agent did not exhibit brain specificity but showed low in vivo deiodination which demonstrated for the first time that radioiodide can be stabilized on a carbohydrate. The goal of this study was to develop a deoxy-branched carbohydrate with radioiodide stabilized as a vinyliodide with the objective of achieving high brain uptake. 10 refs., 1 fig., 1 tab.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

When the transmission line is very long or the generator is operated at a power factor nearly equal to 1.0, the machine regulated by an automatic voltage regulator (AVR) cannot be operated stably due to poor dynamic stability. To overcome this difficulty, the so called power system stabilizer (PSS) is very useful, in that output power or rotor speed of the generator is used as a feedback signal. The primary obective of the PSS is to damp the swing of the generator as quickly as possible. A method is proposed for designing PSS which yields a given eigenvalue. In the second method, the use of a Heffron-Phillips model is discussed. Next, a detailed procedure for the proposed design method is presented. A generalized method of a PSS design based on Park's equation and matrix operation is proposed.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

In an attempt to overcome inadequacies perceived in the approach to providing energy to village communities using the conventional Khadi and Village Industries Commission biogas plant as well as the Janata model, a biogas digester has been developed suitable for a farmer having only one hectare of land. The information on gas yields and other data from a variety of substrates in a laboratory digester are presented. The digester itself consists of a chamber underground into which the influent flows through a channel. Gas is collected in a dome which constitutes the upper part of the digestion chamber and is maintained under pressure by water. The dome can be made of any suitable material such as plastic, ferrocement and brick and mortar. The upper part of the chamber itself is exposed to sun light which enhances microbial growth. Water which surrounds the dome ensures a minimum of temperature variation. 3 references.

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

This paper reports on hydroelectric pumped storage which is the only proven and most efficient technology available for energy storage. It is used by utilities to provide peak and intermediate power and to optimize overall system performance. Because of increased environmental and regulatory constraints, few acceptable sites, long schedules, and huge financial commitments, large conventional pumped storage plants, are now virtually impossible to build. As an alternative, small modular pumped storage, with project sizes ranging from 25 MW to 200 MW, was created to overcome the difficulties of conventional projects. The modular approach involves standardizing the elements of a pumped storage plant by utilizing specialized siting techniques and optimizing design, equipment, and construction. Compared with conventional pumped storage, the modular design can reduce cost and expedite schedule; reduce environmental concerns and permitting obstacles; and expand ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

It is generally known that a number of metallic glasses have excellent corrosion resistance in a variety of chemically hostile environments. Consequently, the use of laser cladding to coat a massive crystalline material such as aluminium with a layer of a metallic glass has obvious advantages. In this paper, the authors will show that the formation of a predominantly amorphous layer of Zr_6_0Al_1_5NI_2_5 alloy by laser processing is possible, if the obstacles to amorphization are overcome. In addition, evidence of the excellent corrosion resistance of this alloy in a NaCl solution will be given. A comparative study of the corrosion behavior of this amorphous alloy with pure aluminium and Al-Cr alloy will be done, in order to complete previous studies of laser processed coatings of aluminum substrates.

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fibre-reinforced-polymer-composite material has been suggested as a bearing material to overcome tribological problems witnessed during the testing of Ram assembly of the 540 MWe fuelling machine at RTD. After successful trials at B-Ram the composite material has been adapted for B-RAM, C-Ram and RDB head at fuelling machines being tested at RTD, Hall 7 and at Tarapur. Laboratory evaluations were also carried out at Tribology Lab RTD to study effect of radiation on the composite. Paper deals with the various aspects of life prediction of this material in term of wear and radiation damage. (author)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

The production of {alpha}-amylase by Bacillus licheniformis M27 in submerged fermentation was completely inhibited due to catabolic repression in medium containing 1% glucose. In contrast, the enzyme production in a solid state fermentation system was 19,550 units/ml extract even when the medium contained 15% glucose. The peak in enzyme titre was, however, shifted from 48 to 72 h. The ability of the solid state fermentation system to significantly overcome catabolic repression was not known earlier and is probably conferred by various physico-chemical factors and culture conditions specific to the system. (orig.).

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

In this paper, a neural networks (NN) based adaptive sliding mode controller (SMC) is introduced. The selection of SMC feedback gains is normally based on one operating point and thus the performance of the controller away from the design operating point is, of necessity, a compromise. The adaptive SMC is proposed to overcome the limitations imposed on the effectiveness of the SMC under different operating conditions. Neural networks are used for online prediction of the optimal SMC gains when the operating point changes. The proposed method has been applied to a power system stabilizer (PSS) of a single machine power system. Simulation results are included to demonstrate the performance of the proposed control scheme.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Restructuring of power system has changed the traditional planning objectives and introduced challenges in the field of Transmission Expansion Planning (TEP). Due to these changes, new approaches and criteria are needed for transmission planning in deregulated environment. Therefore, in this paper, a dynamic expansion methodology is presented using a multi-objective optimization framework. Investment cost, congestion cost and reliability are considered in the optimization as three objectives. To overcome the difficulties in solving the non-convex and mixed integer nature of the optimization problems, a Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA II) approach is used followed by a fuzzy decision making analysis to obtain the final optimal solution. The planning methodology has been demonstrated on the IEEE 24-bus test system and north-east of Iran national 400 kV transmission grid to show the feasibility and capabilities of the proposed algorithm in electricity ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Norway is a member of Annex 29, 'Ground-Source Heat Pump Systems Overcoming Technical and Market Barriers' (2004-2006), organized under the umbrella of the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the IEA Heat Pump Programme (HPP). The 7 participating countries are Austria (Operating Agent), Canada, Japan, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the USA. The Norwegian participation is financed by ENOVA SF, and SINTEF Energy Research is responsible for planning and carrying out the Norwegian activities. This report provides a status for ground-source heat pump (GSHP) systems in Norway with regard to state-of-the-art technology, installation examples, geological data, costs and market opportunities. A Norwegian Internet home page for ground-source heat pump systems (www.energy.sintef.no/prosjekt/Annex29) is also presented. GSHP systems in Norway are classified as direct systems (groundwater and soil/ground) and indirect closed-loop systems (vertical-rock and horizontal-soil/ground). ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

New furnaces were built based on fused silica with NiChrome heating elements custom-wound on alumina ceramic to self-compensate for induced magnetic fields during operation. During tests these furnaces failed due to thermal stresses caused by the high temperature cement used to hold the alumina ceramic in place. As a third solution pieces of boron nitride have been procured from which new furnace bodies will be machined during the third quarter. In order to increase the in-house capacity for machining ceramic parts a small lathe was ordered. The implementation of the LabView data acquisition software from National Instruments, Inc. took more time than anticipated and is still not completed. Major difficulties had to be overcome during the integration of the separate positive and negative high voltage supplies ({plus_minus}1000V). It became apparent that a custom-designed switch had to be installed to safeguard the data acquisition modules and the Apple Macintosh ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Phase contrast X-ray imaging has been studied intensively using X-rays from synchrotron radiation and micro-focus X-ray tubes. However, these studies have revealed the difficulty of this technique's application to practical medical imaging. We have created a phase contrast imaging technique using a molybdenum X-ray tube with a small focal spot size for mammography. We identified the radiographic conditions in phase contrast magnification mammography with a screen-film system, where edge effect due to phase contrast overcomes geometrical unsharpness caused by the 0.1 mm-focal spot of a molybdenum X-ray tube. The edge enhancement due to phase imaging was observed in an image of a plastic tube, and then geometrical configuration of the X-ray tube, the object and the screen-film system was determined for phase imaging of mammography. In order to investigate a potential for medical application of this method, we conducted evaluation of the images of the American Collage ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

The B-Factory which is constructed by National Laboratory for High Energy Physics is the device for elucidating the breakdown of symmetry of matter and antimatter by studying the behavior of B mesons which are generated in large quantity when the electrons and the positrons which are accelerated to light velocity level are collided. In order to maintain electron beam-positron beam bunch circling the ring at light velocity stably, the instability of the coupled bunch must be overcome. For this purpose, the ultrahigh speed beam position digital feedback control system was developed. This system is composed of the high speed input-output substrate using GaAs LSI, the feedback computation substrate using complementary metal oxide semiconductor and the memory mounted on it, and the real time operation device. The development of both substrates and their functions are explained. The real time data collection and the change of computation parameters for specific bunch in ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

An ASTER (advanced spaceborne thermal emission and reflection radiometer) is one of the image sensors. It is to be installed in an earth survey polar orbit platform satellite, EOS-AM1, which is to be launched in 1998, and it is going to start its operation. Data observed by the thermal infrared remote sensing of ASTER include the spectral emissivity, and the spectral emission reflectivity which is expressed by the function of temperature. It is required to overcome technical problems how to extract the spectral emissivity from the observed data. The spectral emissivity extracted from the remote sensing data by the MMD method, measured for samples collected in Cuprite area, Nevada, and/or measured at sampled points were compared to each other and discussed. The hemisphere spectral reflectivity, which is indirect spectral emissivity, agreed well with the direct spectral emissivity. Data suggesting the establishment of Kirchhoff`s law were obtained even for the ...

Science.gov (United States)

The use of the cervicograph with the incorporated action and alert lines in labour management in developing country obstetrics is now well established and patients in labour in Port Moresby have been thus managed since 1973. In this study the cerviograph was introduced in hospitals and health centres in Enga Province and the results analysed. Despite intensive tuition in its use, a large number of cervicographs were incorrectly constructed, especially in health centres, and its introduction made little difference to operative delivery or perinatal mortality rates. The proportion of patients crossing the action line was much higher than in Post Moresby but this difference was probably also largely due to the inaccuracy of many cervicographs. It is likely that these difficulties will not be overcome until many more nurses with intensive training in the use of the cervicograph are available and until more deliveries take place in health institutions to maintain ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Superconducting rf cavities are increasingly used in accelerators. Gradient is a parameter of particular importance for the ILC. Much progress in gradient has been made over the past decade, overcoming problems of multipacting, field emission, and breakdown triggered by surface impurities. However, the quenching limit of the surface magnetic field for niobium remains a hard limitation on cavity fields sustainable with this technology. Further exploration of materials and preparation may offer a path to surpassing the current limit. For this purpose, we have designed a resonant test cavity. One wall of the cavity is formed by a flat sample of superconducting material; the rest of the cavity is copper or niobium. The H field on the sample wall is 75% higher than on any other surface. Multipacting is avoided by use of a mode with no surface electric field. The cavity will be resonated through a coupling iris with high-power rf at superconducting temperature until the ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Multilayer mirrors for the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) are keyelements for numerous applications of coherent EUV sources such as newtabletop lasers and free-electron lasers. However the field ofapplications is limited by the radiation and thermal stability of themultilayers. Taking into account the growing power of EUV sources thestability of the optics becomes crucial. To overcome this problem it isnecessary to study the degradation of multilayers and try to increasetheir temporal and thermal stability. In this paper we report the resultsof detailed study of structural changes in Sc/Simultilayers when exposedto intense EUV laser pulses. Various types of surface damage such asmelting, boiling, shockwave creation and ablation were observed asirradiation fluencies increase. Cross-sectional TEM study revealed thatthe layer structure was completely destroyed in the upper part ofmultilayer, but still survived below. The layers adjacent tothe substrateremained intact even ...

Science.gov (United States)

This paper addresses the major issues beginning teachers face in their first postings to rural areas in Australia. The issues go beyond pedagogy. Beginning teachers need to understand social factors affecting rural communities so they can link lessons to the realities experienced by students. Geographic isolation affects the provision of education in terms of time taken to travel, cost, terrain, and technology. Rural communities have groups that are socially isolated from each other and from the staff in schools. In order to teach effectively, teachers need to be aware of the social context of the community in which they live and work. Teachers in rural areas suffer from professional isolation and often confront teaching situations for which they have had little formal preparation. Communities in remote places often move quickly to adopt technological means to overcome their isolation. Teachers in rural areas need to identify and promote the media skills of ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

There is renewed interest in the +6 oxidation state of iron, ferrate (VI) (FeVIO42-), because of its potential as a benign oxidant for organic synthesis, as a chemical in developing cleaner ('greener') technology for remediation processes, and as an alternative for environment-friendly battery cathodes. This interest has led many researchers to focus their attention on the synthesis of ferrate(VI). Of the three synthesis methods, electrochemical, wet chemical and thermal, electrochemical synthesis has received the most attention due to its ease and the high purity of the product. Moreover, electrochemical processes use an electron as a so-called clean chemical, thus avoiding the use of any harmful chemicals to oxidize iron to the +6 oxidation state. This paper reviews the development of electrochemical methods to synthesize ferrate(VI). The approaches chosen by different laboratories to overcome some of the difficulties associated with the electrochemical synthesis ...

Science.gov (United States)

A series of studies conducted to identify the factors that block and unblock problem solving is described. Through the construction of an isomorph of the classic "water jar" problems developed by A. S. Luchins (1942) as a dynamic graphic micro-world, several factors involved in producing blocked states were identified. Subjects included 10 individuals and 10 pairs of subjects. By comparing the behavior of individuals tackling the "missionaries and cannibals" problem to that of pairs of subjects solving this problem, a study identified means by which problem solvers operating in a social context are able to overcome blocks that discourage individuals. These studies point to the importance of "reflection" (evaluation of problem-solving results) for flexible problem solving. This research suggests that teaching students to analyze what they have done will help them develop flexibility in using a new approach when blocked. The results may also account for the ...

CERN Document Server

CDS Invenio is the web-based integrated digital library system developed at CERN. It is a suite of applications which provides the framework and tools for building and managing an autonomous digital library server. Within this framework, the goal of this project is to implement new ranking methods based on the bibliographic citation graph extracted from the CDS Invenio database. As a first step, we implemented the Citation Count as a baseline ranking method. The major disadvantage of this method is that all citations are treated equally, disregarding their importance and their publication date. To overcome this drawback, we consider two different approaches: a link-based approach which extends the PageRank model to the bibliographic citation graph and a time-dependent approach which takes into account time in the citation counts. In addition, we also combined these two approaches in a hybrid model based on a time-dependent PageRank. In the present document, we ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

The Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code (BPVC) of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) has introduced a risk based approach into Section XI that covers Rules for Inservice Inspection of Nuclear Power Plant Components. The risk based approach requires application of the probabilistic risk assessments (PRA). Because no industry consensus standard existed for PRAs, ASME has developed a standard to evaluate the quality level of an available PRA needed to support a given risk based application. The paper describes the PRA standard, Section XI application of PRAs, and plans for broader applications of PRAs to other ASME nuclear codes and standards. The paper addresses several specific topics of interest to Section XI. Important consideration are special methods (surrogate components) used to overcome the lack of PRA treatments of passive components in PRAs. The approach allows calculations of conditional core damage probabilities both for component failures ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

This patent discloses an oil-filled, multi-core, electric cable having three cores within a metal sheath suitable for underwater applications. Each core has a conductor surrounded by insulation and has substantially the same outer dimensions as the other cores. One conductor is made of copper and has a central oil duct. The other conductors are made of stranded aluminum wires in side-by-side and contacting relation and the ratio of the cross-sectional area of the metal of the copper conductor to the cross-sectional area of the metal of each aluminum conductor is the reciprocal of the ratio of the electrical conductivities thereof. One object of this invention is that of overcoming the drawbacks existing in the known oil-filled, multi-core cables, i.e. to provide cable which, in case of a rupture of the cable sheath, has fairly small leakages of insulating, fluid oil from the cable and at the same time permits a reduction in the weight of the cable for equal power ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Monodisperse noble metal nanoparticles are of tremendous interest for numerous applications, such as surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, catalysis or biosensing. However, preparation of monodisperse metal nanoparticles is still a challenging task, because typical preparation methods yield nanoparticle ensembles with broad shape and/or size distributions. To overcome this drawback, tailoring of metal nanoparticles with laser light has been developed, which is based on the pronounced shape- and size-dependent optical properties of metal nanoparticles. I will demonstrate that nanoparticle tailoring with ns-pulsed laser light is a suitable method to prepare nanoparticle ensembles with a narrow shape and/or size distribution. While irradiation with ns-pulsed laser light during nanoparticle growth permits a precise shape tailoring, post-grown irradiation allows a size tailoring. For example, the initial broad Gaussian size distribution of silver nanoparticles on quartz ...

CERN Document Server

Two headed motor proteins, such as kinesin and dynein, hidrolyze environmental ATP in order to propel unidirectionally along cytoskeletal filaments such as microtubules. In the case of kinesin, protein heads bind primarily on the alpha tubulin site of asymmetric alpha-beta 8nm-long tubulin dimers that constitute the microtubular protofilaments. Kinesin dimers overcome local binding forces up to 5pN and are known to move on protofilaments with ATP concentration-dependent speeds while hydrolizing on average one ATP molecule per 8nm step. The salient features of protein trajectories are the distinct abrupt usually 8nm-long steps from one tubulin dimer to the next interlaced with long quiescent binding periods at a tubulin site. Discrete walks of this type are characterized by substantially reduced variances compared to pure biased random walks, and as a result rule out flashing-type ratchet models as possible mechanisms for motor movement. On the other hand, simple ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dissimilar metal welds between ferritic low-alloy and austenitic stainless steels commonly occur in power plant application. In order to overcome some of the problems encountered here, a trimetallic configuration using an intermediate piece (such as Alloy 800) between the austenitic and ferritic steels has been suggested. This paper describes some features of the joints between modified 9Cr-1Mo steel and Alloy 800, produced with Inconel 82/182 filler material. The joints require heat-treatment after welding and the results have shown that a treatment at 760 C for 2 h would be optimal. Although most tensile failures occurred in the weld metal the welds were found to exhibit strength properties that are at least equal to those of Alloy 800, with a tensile elongation lying between those of the two base materials. Similarly, while the weld metals are slightly less tough than the two base materials, the weld metal toughness at 120 J is still quite adequate for the ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

A multivariate adaptive power system stabilizer is proposed. The advantages of using coordinated governor and excitation control are discussed, and the problems associated with constant parameter power system stabilizers (CPSS) are highlighted. The proposed multi-input multi-output (MIMO) power system stabilizer can coordinate the governor and excitation control and can overcome the problems associated with CPSS in power system stabilization. Selective multivariable state modelling, identification and control methods are investigated and the MIMO least squares technique with variable forgetting factor is used for system identification, guaranteeing good parameter tracking after a disturbance. Two multivariable self-tuning algorithms are investigated, the generalized minimum variance control and pole-shifting control algorithms. The multivariable self-searching pole-shifting algorithm is developed. Models of a single machine connected to an infinite bus through a ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) operates the Waste Treatment Centre (WTC) to treat and immobilize some of the low- level radioactive waste (LLRW) streams at the Chalk River Laboratories (CRL). The WTC at treats low- level radioactive liquid waste by removing the contaminants from the wastewater, concentrating them, and immobilizing them. The fundamental design concept for the WTC is to process the waste streams using forced circulation type liquid waste evaporation (LWE), to solidify the concentrates using thin film evaporator and to discharge the purified effluent into the Ottawa River following verification monitoring. The solidified product drums are stored in existing storage facilities in the CRL. The LWE was installed in the WTC to treat the LLRW. After about four (4) years of design, construction and cold commissioning, the active commissioning of the evaporator process using radioactive waste streams commenced in February 2000. The LWE has overcome ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

The growth of SrBi{sub 2}Ta{sub 2}O{sub 9} (SBT) films on top of Pt electrode substrates is an important issue for the fabrication of ferroelectric based memories. In a recent publication, SBT thin films grown using seeded and unseeded procedures were studied by PIXE and RBS. Difficulties and misfits found in the comparison of results from both techniques were, at that time, overcome by physical considerations. These, although not rendering interpretation impossible, left out the possibility of understanding the exact nature of the differences between the interface behavior in each case. In the present work it is shown that the reanalysis of the same data using the recently developed RBS-PIXE simultaneous and self-consistent calculation present in NDF leads to stronger conclusions on the solid state reaction occurring during the deposition stage for both types of samples. Allowing for the occurrence of solid state reactions between the deposited film and the Pt ...

Science.gov (United States)

A high-efficiency 3- or 4-junction solar cell is disclosed with a theoretical AM0 energy conversion efficiency of about 40%. The solar cell includes p-n junctions formed from indium gallium arsenide nitride (InGaAsN), gallium arsenide (GaAs) and indium gallium aluminum phosphide (InGaAlP) separated by n-p tunnel junctions. An optional germanium (Ge) p-n junction can be formed in the substrate upon which the other p-n junctions are grown. The bandgap energies for each p-n junction are tailored to provide substantially equal short-circuit currents for each p-n junction, thereby eliminating current bottlenecks and improving the overall energy conversion efficiency of the solar cell. Additionally, the use of an InGaAsN p-n junction overcomes super-bandgap energy losses that are present in conventional multi-junction solar cells. A method is also disclosed for fabricating the high-efficiency 3- or 4-junction solar cell by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Model-based approaches to pattern recognition and machine vision have been proposed to overcome the exorbitant training requirements of earlier computational paradigms. However, uncertainties in data were found to lead to a combinatorial explosion of the computational complexity. This issue is related here to the roles of a priori knowledge vs. adaptive learning. What is the a-priori knowledge representation that supports learning? I introduce Modeling Field Theory (MFT), a model-based neural network whose adaptive learning is based on a priori models. These models combine deterministic, fuzzy, and statistical aspects to account for a priori knowledge, its fuzzy nature, and data uncertainties. In the process of learning, a priori fuzzy concepts converge to crisp or probabilistic concepts. The MFT is a convergent dynamical system of only linear computational complexity. Fuzzy logic turns out to be essential for reducing the combinatorial complexity to linear one. I ...

CERN Document Server

Bit Plane Complexity Segmentation (BPCS) digital picture steganography is a technique to hide data inside an image file. BPCS achieves high embedding rates with low distortion based on the theory that noise-like regions in an image's bit-planes can be replaced with noise-like secret data without significant loss in image quality. . In this framework we will propose a collaborate approach for select frame for Hiding Data within MPEG Video Using Bit Plane Complexity Segmentation. This approach will invent high secure data hidden using select frame form MPEG Video and furthermore we will assign the well-built of the approach; during this review the author will answer the question why they used select frame steganography. In additional to the security issues we will use the digital video as a cover to the data hidden. The reason behind opt the video cover in this approach is the huge amount of single frames image per sec which in turn overcome the problem of the data ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Numerous studies have demonstrated the advantages of hydrogen as a fuel for Otto Cycle engines due to high thermal efficiency and low exhaust pollutant levels. Characteristic of hydrogen engine operation using premixed intake charge formation is a problem of pre-ignition resulting in an intake manifold backfire. Additional problems include high NO production when using certain equivalence ratios and power output degradation due to low fuel energy/volume density. Techniques for direct and port fuel injection are discussed as means for overcoming these problems. Emphasis is placed on the need for total engine control, integrating control of fuel injection, ignition timing, intake air throttling, and vehicle subsystems within a central electronic unit. An electronically actuated fuel injection valve and a prototype electronic control system are developed. These are applied in port and direct injection system geometries, and evaluated in engine testing. System ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

A Digital X-ray imaging system using Compton backscattering has been developed to obtain a cross-sectional profile and mass loss of corroded lap-splices of aging aircraft from density variation. A slit-type camera was designed to focus on a small scattering volume inside the material, from which the backscattered photons are collected by a collimated scintillator detector for interpretation of material characteristics. The cross section of the lap-joint is scanned by moving the scattering volume through the thickness direction of the specimen. The mass loss of each layer has been estimated from a Compton backscatter A-scan to obtain the thickness of each layer including the aluminum sheet, the corrosion layer and the sealant. Quantitative information such as location and width of planar corrosion in the lap splices of fuselages is obtained by deconvolution using a nonlinear least-square error minimization method(BFGS method): A simple reconstruction model is also introduced to ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rapid corrosion of PWR steam generator carbon steel support structures and consequential denting of steam generator tubes led to considerable investigation of the mechanism of corrosion and for palliatives. The basic mechanism is now fairly well understood. Chloride present in the boiler feedwater from condenser leakage is concentrated in the support plate crevice as a result of the superheat present. This leads to the formation of a low pH acid ferrous chloride environment either through the hydrolysis of a weak base chloride such as MgCl_2 or the combined action of a neutral chloride with an oxidizing agent. Rapid attack of the carbon steel ensues with the Fe_3O_4 corrosion product forming at the metal/oxide interface. This oxide has a volume approximately twice that of the steel consumed and thus eventually fills the crevice between the tube and the support plate. Oxide growth continues leading to compression of the Alloy 600 primary tube and to distortion and eventual fracturing of ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

The Loose Parts Monitoring System (LPMS) provides information on the location of a loosened or detached metal impacted onto the inner surface of a primary pressure boundary and on a mass or energy of the impact signal. For the conventional system, it is popular to employ the group delay among the sensors installed within 3 ft range from the impact source in a collection zone as stated in the Reg. Guide 1.133. However, there exist inherent errors for the estimation of the true location of the impact since it is highly dependent on the plant personnel's decision to determine the arrival time differences of the generated wave group among the neighbouring sensors. To overcome this problem in this study, the two-dimensional approach has been proposed and applied to effectively estimate the arrival time differences of the impact signal by using continuous wavelet transform which is one of the linear time-frequency analysis methods. The experiment has been implemented on ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

For IGCC, the primary investment is too high due to the demand of high gasification efficiency. For PFBCC, the thermal efficiency is too low due to the relatively low turbine inlet temperature and the hot working medium of the gas turbine is not easy to clean. A new scheme is proposed for coal fired combined cycle to overcome the main drawbacks of IGCC and PFBCC. The research targets are developing a new cycle construction of coal fired combined cycle to raise the efficiency and reduce the primary investment. Actually, the new scheme is a synthesis of some existing proposals. It adopts partial gasification to reduce the primary investment of the gasification equipment. The un-gasified surplus solid is then fed to a pressurized fluidized bed boiler, but adopting Curtiss Wright type external combustion to lower the ash content in the working medium. The gas fuel from the partial gasifier is combusted in a top combustor to further increase the working medium ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

A unified physically based ion implantation damage model has been developed which successfully predicts both the impurity profiles and the damage profiles for a wide range of implant conditions for arsenic, phosphorus, BF_2, and boron implants into single-crystal silicon. In addition, the amorphous layer thicknesses predicted by this new damage model are also in excellent agreement with experimental measurements. This damage model is based on the physics of point defects in silicon, and explicitly simulates the defect production, diffusion, and their interactions which include interstitial-vacancy recombination, clustering of same type of defects, defect-impurity complex formation, emission of mobile defects from clusters, and surface effects for the first time. New computationally efficient algorithms have been developed to overcome the barrier of the excessive computational requirements. In addition, the new model has been incorporated in the UT-MARLOWE ion ...

Science.gov (United States)

The main purpose of this paper is to explore a numerical algorithm for determining the contact stress when a circular crowned roller is compressed between two plates. To start with, the deformation curve on a plate surface will be derived by using the contact mechanical model. Then, the contact stress distribution along the roller which occurs on the plate surface is divided into three parts: from the center of contact to the edge, the edge and apart from the contact line. The first part is calculated by the elastic contact theorem for the contact subjected to nominal stress between non-crowned parts of roller and plates, the second part is obtained by the classical Hertzian contact solution for the contact between crowned parts of roller and plates, and the third part is simulated as exponential decay. In order to overcome the defect of the half space theorem, in which a plate with infinite thickness is assumed initially, a weighting method is introduced to find ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

On-power refuelling is an integral feature of PHWR units. The most notable aspect of refuelling system of 540 MWe PHWR (TAPP-3 and 4) is that the FM Head is based on rack and pinion mechanism for B-ram and C-ram of Ram assembly. Latch ram used during plug operations, is assembled in between B-ram and C-ram and is moved by a ballscrew driven by oil hydraulic motors. This unique design has been employed for the first time in a PHWR unit. In comparison, B-ram is ballscrew driven and C-ram is moved by heavy water hydraulic force in FM Heads of 220 MWe PHWR units. Over the years, a number of design improvements have been carried out in the 220 MWe Fuelling Machines to meet the challenge of increasing demands of higher refuelling rates. However, in 540 MWe unit, the average refuelling rate for an equilibrium core is nearly twice that of 220 MWe units. Apart from other assemblies in FM Head, the performance of Ram assembly plays a key role in meeting this demand. The experience of ballscrew ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

We wanted to evaluate the usefulness of a new type of a complex expandable nitinol stent that was designed to reduce the stent's propensity to migration during the treatment of malignant gastroduodenal obstructions. Two types of expandable nitinol stent were constructed by weaving a single thread of 0.2mm nitinol wire in a tubular configuration: an uncovered stent 18mm in diameter and a covered stent 16mm in diameter. Both ends of the covered stent were fabricated by coaxially inserting the covered stent into the tubular uncovered stent and then attaching the two stents together with using nylon monofilament. Under fluoroscopic guidance, the stent was placed in 29 consecutive patients (20 men and 9 women, mean age: 65 years) who were suffering with malignant gastric outlet obstruction (n=20), duodenal obstruction (n=6) or combined obstruction (n=3). Clinical improvement was assessed by comparing the food intake capacity before and after the procedure. The complications were ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cooling of residential California buildings contributes significantly to electrical consumption and peak power demand mainly due to very poor load factors in milder climates. Thermal mass can be utilized to reduce the peak-power demand, downsize the cooling systems, and/or switch to low-energy cooling sources. Large thermal storage devices have been used in the past to overcome the shortcomings of alternative cooling sources, or to avoid high demand charges. The manufacturing of phase change material (PCM) implemented in gypsum board, plaster or other wall-covering material, would permit the thermal storage to become part of the building structure. PCMs have two important advantages as storage media: they can offer an order-of-magnitude increase in thermal storage capacity, and their discharge is almost isothermal. This allows the storage of high amounts of energy without significantly changing the temperature of the room envelope. As heat storage takes place ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

In order to overcome the inherent disadvantages of Ti-V-based hydrogen storage alloys, such as poor activation behavior and low high-rate dischargeability, the novel composites Ti{sub 0.17}Zr{sub 0.08}V{sub 0.35}Cr{sub 0.1}Ni{sub 0.3}-x wt.% La{sub 0.7}Mg{sub 0.3}Ni{sub 2.75}Co{sub 0.75} (x = 0, 5, 10 and 20) were successfully synthesized by ball milling method in the present study. And the structure and overall electrochemical properties of as-prepared composites are investigated systemically. The electrochemical studies show that the maximum discharge capacity of the composite electrodes displays no variation with the increase of La{sub 0.7}Mg{sub 0.3}Ni{sub 2.75}Co{sub 0.75} content, whereas the high-rate dischargeability (HRD) and the activation behavior are distinctly improved with increasing x. The electrochemical hydrogen kinetics of composite electrodes is also studied by means of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), linear polarization (LP), ...

Science.gov (United States)

The field of stem cell research was revolutionized with the advent of induced pluripotent stem cells. By reprogramming somatic cells to pluripotent stem cells, most ethical concerns associated with the use of embryonic stem cells are overcome, such that many hopes from the stem cell field now seem a step closer to reality. Several methods and cell sources have been described to create induced pluripotent stem cells and we discuss their characteristics in terms of feasibility and efficiency. From these cells, cardiac progenitors and cardiomyocytes can be derived by several protocols and most recent advances as well as remaining limitations are being discussed. However in the short time period this technology has been around, evidence emerges that induced pluripotent stem cells may be more prone to genetic defects and maintain an epigenetic memory and thus may not be entirely the same as embryonic stem cells. Despite the lack of a complete fundamental understanding ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nitrogen has been added to stainless steels to improve mechanical strength and corrosion resistance. High nitrogen steel production is limited by high gas pressure requirements and low nitrogen solubility in the melt. One way to overcome this limitation is the addition of nitrogen in solid state because of its higher solubility in austenite. However, gas and salt bath nitriding have been done at temperatures around 550 C, where nitrogen solubility in the steel is still very low. High temperature nitriding has been, thus proposed to increase nitrogen contents in the steel but the presence of oxide layers on top of the steel is a barrier to nitrogen intake. In this paper a modified plasma nitriding process is proposed. The first step of this process is a hydrogen plasma sputtering for oxide removal, exposing active steel surface improving nitrogen pickup. This is followed by a nitriding step where high nitrogen contents are introduced in the outermost layer of the ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ti and its alloys (Ti-6Al-4V) have been used in different engineering applications due to their several outstanding properties. Nevertheless, their use in practical applications is limited in many cases due to their poor tribological property. Researches are ongoing on surface modification of Ti based materials by different plasma and ion based techniques to overcome this problem. However, the conventional plasma nitriding techniques have several problems such as formation of an arc, increased possibility of surface contamination due to a comparatively higher operating pressure, production of a very thin nitrided layer after a long processing time, etc. In this present work, the possibility of a new low-pressure plasma nitriding process using a Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) based saddle field fast atom beam source on a Ti-6Al-4V alloy sample is investigated. Plasma nitriding was carried out at 900 deg. C and at a pressure 0.1 Pa for 8 h by using ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fusion energy is one of only a few truly long-term energy options. Since its inception in the 1950s, the vision of the fusion energy research program has been to develop a viable means of harnessing the virtually unlimited energy stored in the nuclei of light atoms--the primary fuel deuterium is present as one part in 6,500 of all hydrogen. This vision grew out of the recognition that the immense power radiated by the sun is fueled by nuclear fusion in its hot core. Such high temperatures are a prerequisite for driving significant fusion reactions. The fascinating fourth state of matter at high temperatures is known as plasma. It is only in this fourth state of matter that the nuclei of two light atoms can fuse, releasing the excess energy that was needed to separately bind each of the original two nuclei. Because the nuclei of atoms carry a net positive electric charge, they repel each other. Hydrogenic nuclei, such as deuterium and tritium, must be heated to approximately 100 million ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

The first Russian reprocessing facility, known as RT-1 (located at PA-Mayak in Ural region) was started on the radiochemical plant base in 1977. Nowadays RT-1 is the sole operating reprocessing plant in Russia. The main features of RT-1 is its broad spectrum of reprocessing spent nuclear fuels (SNF). The following spent fuel types are reprocessed: -) SNF from PWR reactors (WWER-440) and FB reactor (BN-600); -) SNF of transport ship reactors; -) production reactors SNF; -) research reactor spent nuclear fuel. The world-known technological processes are used at RT-1, but there are the following distinctive features. First, the universality of the three technological lines which allows not only the reprocessing of various SNF kinds, but also to implement the combined reprocessing of some types of them. Secondly, extraction of neptunium during SNF reprocessing which is used to implement its separate storage and for radioisotope production. Thirdly, target enrichment of recycled uranium is ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

In steel production lines such as pickling lines, cold rolling mills and coil processing lines, the needs for on-line continuous measurement of surface quality and property of products and on-line inspection of surface defects have become strong. This is because user requirements for the surface quality of various products have become severer than before and besides, expectations are running high on the side of manufacturers for higher speeds of production lines and higher quality by the adoption of automatic inspection. As for the measurement of surface quality, continuous measurements along the full length of a steel strip are required in order to overcome problems derived from off-line, batch measurements that cannot satisfy user's demands for quality assurance. As for surface defects detection, various kinds of methods have been practically applied to production lines. However, it is the matter of fact that performances of these methods are not ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

A Siemens Mevatron KV2 accelerator installed at the Royal Adelaide Hospital employs cylindrical solid-walled electron cones for some electron collimation. The cones being used at present result in treatment fields that do not always conform with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Standards (particularly at high energies). The aim of this project was to simulate the existing cones using Monte Carlo methods in order to evaluate potential cone modifications required to overcome the field irregularities. Simulations were performed using the EGS4 (Electron Gamma Shower version 4, distribution II) Monte Carlo code installed on a DEC Alpha workstation at the University of South Australia. To rigorously simulate the existing electron cones it was necessary to also simulate various components within the treatment head of the linear accelerator. Results of simulations for existing cones were found to be consistent with experimental data. (obtained from Royal ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Power source requirements for the military were presented to provide guidelines for research and development planning. Power sources that contain a high amount of energy and are small, light and durable are a common request from military users. Safety, reliability and low temperature performance are also important factors in the selection of power sources, as are cost and energy efficiency. Issues concerning advanced batteries were reviewed with reference to high energy density cathode materials. Various thermoelectric and renewable energy materials were discussed, with reference to recovery and conversion of waste heat. It was suggested that photovoltaic devices could help revolutionize military logistics by modifying energy re-supply requirements. Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) were considered in relation to the high price of the ceramic materials required for operation. It was noted that the development of SOFC anodes capable of generating hydrogen from liquid fuels such as methanol ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

A process model is presented and used for identifying options for controlling the cupola furnace process and for investigating natural gas substitutes. Fuel substitution will affect temperature curves (i.e. tapping temperatures and melting capacity), outlet temperatures and gas mass flow out of the preheating zone. The contribution presents several process variations to overcome these problems and compares them with the natural gas process. [German] Mit dem Prozessmodell werden zunaechst Moeglichkeiten der Steuerung von Abstichtemperatur und Schmelzleistung, insbesondere unter Beruecksichtigung der Schrottqualitaet (spezifische Oberflaeche a{sub G}), untersucht. Es wird gezeigt, dass das Prozessmodell die Ergebnisse aus der Praxis wiedergibt. Daran anschliessend wird mit dem Prozessmodell die Substitution von Erdgas durch minderwertige Gase untersucht (Brennstoffsubstitution, Ressourcenschonung). Durch die Brennstoffsubstitution veraendern sich die ...

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

The blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signal response to neural stimulation is influenced by many factors that are unrelated to the stimulus. These factors are physiological, such as the resting venous cerebral blood volume (CBV(v)) and vessel size, as well as experimental, such as pulse sequence and static magnetic field strength (B(0)). Thus, it is difficult to compare task-induced fMRI signals across subjects, field strengths, and pulse sequences. This problem can be overcome by normalizing the neural activity-induced BOLD fMRI response by a global hypercapnia-induced BOLD signal. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the BOLD normalization approach, gradient-echo BOLD fMRI at 1.5, 4, and 7 T and spin-echo BOLD fMRI at 4 T were performed in human subjects. For neural stimulation, subjects performed sequential finger movements at 2 Hz, while for global stimulation, subjects breathed a 5% CO(2) gas mixture. Under ...

Science.gov (United States)

Inhibition of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway is an appealing method for decreasing the immunoresistance and augmenting T cell-mediated immunotherapy. A major impediment to this strategy is the impact of conventional PI3K/mTOR pathway inhibitors on T cell function. In particular, rapamycin, is a well-known immunosuppressant that can decrease the activity of the PI3K/mTOR pathway in tumor cells, but also has a profound inhibitory effect on T cells. Here we show that Honokiol, a natural dietary product isolated from an extract of seed cones from Magnolia grandiflora, can decrease PI3K/mTOR pathway-mediated immunoresistance of glioma, breast and prostate cancer cell lines, without affecting critical proinflammatory T cell functions. Specifically, we show that at doses sufficient to down-regulate levels of phospho-S6 and the negative immune regulator B7-H1 in tumor cells, Honokiol does not significantly impair T cell proliferation or ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Purpose: Previous data suggest that the PKC? catalytic V5 (PKC?-V5) heptapeptide (HEPT) (FEQFLDI) binds HSP27 and blocks HSP27-mediated radio- or chemoresistance. Here we investigated further the in vivo function of the PKC?-V5 HEPT. Methods and Materials: Labeling of HEPT with Cy5.5 or fluorescein isothiocyanate was performed to evaluate in vitro or in vivo distribution of HEPT. A clonogenic survival assay, flow cytometry, and Western blotting of cleaved caspase-3 were performed to determine in vitro sensitization effects of HEPT plus ionizing radiation (IR) versus IR alone or those of HEPT plus cisplatin(Cis) versus Cis alone. A nude mouse xenografting system was also applied to detect in vivo sensitizing effects of HEPT. Results: HEPT efficiently bound to HSP27 and showed sensitization after combined treatment with IR versus treatment with Cis alone in NCI-H1299 lung carcinoma cells, with higher HSP27 expression, which was similar to that of combined treatment with IR or with Cis ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Some magnetron sputtering systems experience rapid oscillations in the current and voltage of the plasma discharge after several hours when equipped with certain targets. These oscillations often lead to the plasma becoming extinguished, a condition known as ''flame-out.'' This article details the study of two 90% W--10% Ti magnetron targets which differed in density. The higher density targets sometimes experienced flame-out after approximately 3 h of sputtering. The less dense material could be sputtered for the entire 15 h life of the target. Scanning electron microscopy pictures and atomic composition depth profiles were obtained using Auger electron spectroscopy. In addition, a Colutron-based ion source with a high vacuum system was used to measure ion-induced secondary electron emission coefficients as a function of energy, ion specie, and gas coverage. Analysis of the sample from the group that suffers flame-out showed large regions of pure titanium in the interior of the sample ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

A new eddy current array probe has been implemented as a straightforward and promising technique for detection of outer diameter (OD) surface-breaking cracks on the extrados of feeder bends. The design is based on previous work performed at AECL, which had demonstrated that eddy current probes with laterally displaced transmit-receive coils can overcome some of the limitations of inspecting ferritic steel components for surface-breaking cracks. The Feeder Integrity Joint Program-CANDU Owners Group Inc. (FIJP-COG) Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) Team members commissioned AECL to work in collaboration with the probe manufacturer ZETEC, to develop a field usable eddy current array probe. The objective was to acquire a technique with the following capabilities: fast scanning non-contact inspection technique for surface breaking discontinuities; full inspection of the bend extrados OD surface in a single scan; ability to inspect first and second bends with similar ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

The current work continues a project completed in 1999 by ReMaxCo Technologies in which a novel, microwave based, VLS Silicon Carbide Fibrils concept was verified. This project continues the process development of a pilot scale commercial reactor. Success will lead to sufficient quantities of fibrils to expand work by ORNL and others on heat exchanger tube development. A semicontinuous, microwave heated, vacuum reactor was designed, fabricated and tested in these experiments. Cylindrical aluminum oxide reaction boats are coated, on the inner surface, with a catalyst and placed into the reactor under a light vacuum. A series of reaction boats are then moved, one at a time, through the reactor. Each boat is first preheated with resistance heaters to 850 C to 900 C. Each reaction boat is then moved, in turn, to the microwave heated section. The catalyst is heated to the required temperature of 1200 C to 1300 C while a mixture of MTS (methyl trichlorosilane) and hydrogen are introduced ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

New Brunswick has appreciable fossil-fuel reserve potential, particularly in oil shales and to a lesser extent in high-sulfur coal. Each of these resources on their own, however, has problems which could restrict their development. To offset these problems it is proposed that coal and oil shale resources can be used together to overcome these difficulties and effect an attractive, economically viable, energy recovery system. One way is o use coal/oil shale blends, rather than the more conventional coal/limestone mixtures, as feed to fluid-bed combustors for steam generation. The sulfur from the coal is fixed on the spent shale, with the shale combustibles contributing to thermal output. Similarly, oil shale can be used in place of limestone as a combustion scrubber medium to clean emissions from existing conventional coal-fired plants. Several scenarios for the co-use of high-sulfur coal and oil shale are proposed in this report. All involve recovery of energy from ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shut Down System - 2 (SDS - 2) of TAPP-3 and 4 works on the principle of rapid injection of gadolinium nitrate poison solution into bulk moderator in calandria using high pressure helium to shut down the reactor. This is a new system, in the context of Indian PHWRs, designed, engineered, commissioned and being operated in TAPP-3 and 4. The system design incorporates passive features such as floating polyethylene ball with ball-ball seat arrangement and locked open isolation ball valves with key interlock arrangement. This arrangement eliminates active valves downstream of poison tanks during SDS - 2 actuation. A series parallel arrangement of fast acting pilot controlled air operated valves, which keep the high pressure helium isolated from poison tanks in poised state, are the only active components. During commissioning and initial period of operation of TAPP-4, problems were encountered and were resolved by suitable modifications and the same were incorporated in TAPP-3. Measurement ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

To overcome the limitations of conventional bobbin style eddy-current probes, it has become common practice to perform some portion of a steam generator tube inspection program with array coil probes. Typically, eight surface-riding pancake coils are utilized in a probe head, either as eight independent coils (8 x 1) or in a parallel combination of four serially connected coils (4 x 4). The advantages of the array coils are improved sensitivity to intergranular attack (IGA), reduced interference from tube denting, and improved sensitivity to circumferential cracking. The current status of commercially available probes is such that several weaknesses in array coils have limited the widespread application of this technology. Task S 301-6 was conceived to address each of the weaknesses in order to produce a more reliable and cost-effective probe. The emphasis was on reliability, since the cost associated with downtime for a probe change far exceeds the price of a ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Like other Central European countries, Poland faces the twin challenges of improving environmental quality while also fostering sustainable economic development. In this study we examine the costs of different standards for air pollution control, and the cost savings from using incentive-based policy instruments in lieu of more rigid command-and-control policies. The comparisons are based on the results of a simulation model of energy use and air pollution control for the Polish economy over 1990-2015. The model simulates least-cost energy supply decisions under different environmental policy assumptions, the corresponding emissions, and the cost of achieving the specified policy objectives. The model results suggest that incentive-based policies will have efficiency gains over command policies that are at least worthy of consideration and may be quite substantial. The size of the gains in practice depends in part on how much flexibility is built into the command approach, e.g., ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

This paper presents a real-time wavelet-Fuzzy combined approach for digital relaying. The algorithm for fault classification employs wavelet multi resolution analysis (MRA) to overcome the difficulties associated with conventional voltage and current based measurements due to effect of factors such as fault inception angle, fault impedance and fault distance. The proposed algorithm for fault location, different from conventional algorithms that are based on deterministic computations on a well-defined model to be protected, employs wavelet transform together with fuzzy logic. The wavelet transform captures the dynamic characteristics of the non-stationary transient fault signals using wavelet MRA coefficients. The fuzzy logic is employed to incorporate expert evaluation through fuzzy inference system (FIS) so as to extract important features from wavelet MRA coefficients for obtaining coherent conclusions regarding fault location. Computer simulations using MATLAB ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

There is an increasing interest in using novel methods to generate electrical energy using wind and solar energy sources. Unfortunately, such energy sources are intermittent, and, therefore, conventional sources must still be available to meet demand during critical periods. In addition, renewable energy technologies are still expensive in general, although extensive research programs are being conducted to overcome this disadvantage. Hence, reliability, economic assessment and environmental impacts are three objectives to be satisfied simultaneously when designing either an autonomous or a grid-connected hybrid power generation system. The installation of any of these two systems should, undoubtedly, be preceded by an assessment of the available resources at the candidate site. In addition, many other factors are to be studied, including economics of transmission lines, site constraints, distances etc. In this thesis, the subjective judgments of various experts, ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

CT of the gastrointestinal tract is commonly performed after administration of a high-density diluted iodinated oral contrast material. However, because if inadequate mixing of the contrast material with the gastrointestinal contents, pseudotumor and poor mucosal visualization are frequently shown on abdominal CT. To overcome these problem, 10% corn oil emulsion (COE) is tested as an alternative oral contrast agent in 40 patients. We analyse patients tolerance, gastric mucosal visualization and discrimination of pancreas from the duodenal C-loop to 10% COE in 40 patients compared with those obtained from 35 patients, who was received high-density diluted iodinated oral contrast agent (gastrografin). The results are as follows : 1. Patients' tolerance to 10% COE is similar to that to conventional oral contrast agent. 2. Image of the gastric mucosa from patients receiving 10% COE is superior to that receiving oral contrast agent. 3. The discrimination ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Presently, high wind potentials in remote areas may not be utilized for electricity production due to limited grid transmission capacity and/or difficulties in matching the electricity production with the demand. The overall project objective is to help overcome these bottlenecks, i.e. to identify and analyze methods and technologies for making it viable to utilize more of the wind potential in remote areas. The suggestion is to develop a power control concept for wind turbines which will even out the power fluctuations and make it possible to increase the wind energy penetration. The main options are to combine wind power with a pumped hydro power storage or with an AC/DC converter and battery storage. The AC/DC converter can either be an `add-on` type or it can be designed as an integrated part of a variable speed wind turbine. The idea is that combining wind power with the power control concept will make wind power more firm and possible to connect to weaker ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Parallel imaging and echo sharing techniques have markedly reduced the acquisition times for MRI of large volumes. Dynamic 2 and 3-dimensional data sets of the chest with high temporal resolution (up to 10 images/s with single slice and 2 volume/s) allow an analysis of respiratory motion of the lungs and tumors. Time-resolved 2D series in preselected planes can be used to observe respiratory motion during free breathing or after respiratory commands, e.g. to exclude chest wall invasion by a tumor or for diagnosing impairment of respiratory mechanics. Time-resolved 3D-series (4D-MRI) allow monitoring of the spatial displacement of the lungs and tumors as a whole volume. Present limitations such as an overestimation of tumor size and an underestimation of displacement due to a limited temporal resolution are expected to be overcome with further technical developments. However, 4D-MRI already appears to be the appropriate tool to select patients for motion-adapted ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Most countries have taken the vitrification route for managing High Level Waste (HLW). Depending on composition of site-specific HLW, suitable glass forming oxides are added to it in a melting furnace designed for converting the mixture to a matrix of borosilicate glass. After thorough homogenization, the product is poured into stainless steel canisters as an inert solidified form. Canisters are seal welded and 2-3 such containers are then packed and sealed in another bigger container for providing an additional engineered barrier. This product form is considered safe for long-term storage. The concurrent vitrification technologies employ either induction-heated metallic melters or joule-heated direct resistance-heated ceramic melters. In India, both technologies have been adopted. While older facilities in Trombay and Tarapur employ metallic melters, a retrofitted facility at Tarapur and the new plant at Kalpakkam are based on ceramic melter operations. Compared to the ceramic ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Background and purpose: the recent RTOG guidelines for future clinical developments in gynecologic malignancies included the investigation of dose escalation in the paraaortic (PO) region which is, however, very difficult to target due to the presence of critical organs such as kidneys, liver, spinal cord, and digestive structures. The aim of this study was to investigate intensity-modulated radiotherapy's (IMRT) possibilities of either increasing, in a safe way, the dose to 50-60 Gy in case of macroscopic disease or decreasing the dose to organs at risk (OR) when treatment is given in an adjuvant setting. Material and methods: the dosimetric charts of 14 patients irradiated to the PO region at the department of radiation oncology, university hospital of Liege, Belgium, in 2000 were analyzed in order to compare six-field conformal external-beam radio-therapy (CEBR) and five-beam IMRT approaches. Both CEBR and IMRT investigations were planned to theoretically deliver 60 Gy to ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

This paper proposes an integrated method for using experimental data and CFD modeling to develop engineering correlations for atrium smoke management. Part I focused on the experimental program and validation of a CFD model of the experimental facility. Part II describes the extension of this model to a parametric study of balcony spill plumes. Smoke management in buildings during fire events often uses mechanical ventilation systems to maintain smoke layer elevation above a safe evacuation path. Design of these systems requires accurate correlations for the smoke production or mass flow rate of the buoyant fire plume. One design issue is the mass flow rate of fire plumes which spill out from a fire compartment, under a balcony and up through an atrium or other large volume. Current engineering correlations for these balcony spill plumes (BSPs) are based on a combination of one-tenth scale test data and theoretical analysis. The suitability of these correlations for real-scale designs ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

This thesis deals with the evaluation of Solar Grade Silicon (SoG-Si) purified by different techniques, and also the fabrication and characterization of high efficiency and advanced bifacial solar cells. In the beginning of Chapter 1, various SoG-Si production methods relevant for this work are qualitatively described. The three feedstock materials used in this work are from the Fluidized Bed Reactor (FBR) process, metallurgical feedstock-I and feedstock-II process. In metallurgical feedstock-I, the lifetime of the minority charge carriers in multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) samples at the grain boundaries are found to be higher than the grains themselves possibly due to lower resistivities in the grain boundaries. The efficiency of the best solar cell obtained using the mc-Si metallurgical feedstock-I is 16.1%. It has been identified that the fast light induced degradation, whose magnitude is lower than that of a reference cell suggests the formation of a B-metal complex in the SoG-Si ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

This paper outlines conceptual framework for safeguards remote sensing, and suggests a strategy for overcoming the challenges to full exploitation of all types of optical satellite imagery. Since the introduction of commercial open-source high-resolution satellite imagery in 1999, it has become an important tool for verification of declarations, baseline mapping, detection and monitoring of changes and investigation of undeclared activities. Its use is still relatively restricted, but there is a growing demand for wider satellite reconnaissance support, and the Satellite Image Analysis Unit (SIAU) has recently been expanded in response. For a number of reasons, IAEA safeguards use of satellite imagery is largely based on visual interpretation by experienced image analysts of high-resolution monochromatic imagery to monitor and characterize buildings and structures on safeguards sites. The very wide range of remote sensing capabilities could be more fully exploited. ...