A contamination event in a water distribution system can result in adverse health impacts to individuals consuming contaminated water from the system. Assessing impacts to such consumers requires accounting for the timing of exposures of individuals to tap-water contaminants that have time-varying concentrations. Here we present a probabilistic model for the timing of ingestion of tap water that we developed for use in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Threat Ensemble Vulnerability Assessment and Sensor Placement Tool, which is designed to perform consequence assessments for contamination events in water distribution systems. We also present a statistical analysis of the timing of ingestion activity using data collected by the American Time Use Survey. The results of the analysis provide the basis for our model, which accounts for individual variability in ingestion timing and provides a series of potential ingestion times for ...
Tarapur Atomic Power Station unit-4 is first 540 MWe pressurized heavy water reactor. Heavy water is used as the coolant and moderator. With reactor operation tritium is formed by absorption of neutron by Deuterium atoms. Experience in the 220 MWe indicates that tritium is main contributor to the internal dose of radiation workers. Study on Tritium build up in Primary Heat Transport (PHT) and Moderator (MOD) system was carried out at the initial stage of the operation of the unit-3 and 4. This paper brings out tritium activity buildup in the PHT and MOD systems and its comparison with 220 MWe reactors. This paper helps in estimation of the internal dose contribution to the radiation workers at TAPS 3 and 4. (author)
Tarapur Atomic Power Station unit-4 is first 540 MWe pressurized heavy water reactor. Heavy water is used as the coolant and moderator. With reactor operation tritium is formed by absorption of neutron by deuterium atoms. Experience in the 220 MWe indicates that tritium is main contributor to the internal dose of radiation workers. Study on tritium build up in Primary Heat Transport (PHT) and Moderator (MOD) system was carried out at the initial stage of the operation of the unit-4. This paper brings out tritium activity buildup in the PHT and MOD systems and its comparison with 220 MWe reactors. This paper helps in estimation of the internal dose contribution to the radiation workers at TAPS 3 and 4. (author)
The paper describes uptake of gaseous lodine-131 on silver impregnated organic resin, Amberlite IR-120, available at the Secondary Steam Generator (S.S.G.) Opening at T.A.P.S. in comparison with activated charcoal. The experiments are conducted in dry and wet conditions by soaking the impregnated resin and activated charcoal in distilled water for wet condition. The paper also describes the iodine sampler specially designed and fabricated for these experiments.
Shell model calculations are reported for the properties of normal parity states of /sup 7/Li, /sup 8/Li and /sup 9/Li. Fits to new experimental data are displayed, some ambiguities resolved, and structure information provided for help in further investigations.
Corrosion characteristics of Al and Cu thin films have been studied in cyclic fog tests using tap water fog and fog created with 0.1% NaCl solution in tap water. Likewise, their corrosion features have been analyzed in continuous immersion testing in the laboratory in distilled water, tap water, in 0.1% NaCl and 3.5% NaCl solutions in distilled water. The corrosion potentials and the corrosion currents of these thin films change and reach steady state values after some time. However, steady state is not realized in 3.5% NaCl solutions. The corrosion current density data have been used to calculate lifetime of 1 {mu}m thick thin films of Al and Cu in the various tests, and assuming that the fog test data would hold under normal exposure conditions, life spans for these thin film sensor elements in actual exterior exposure have also been calculated. According to estimates, an Al-TF of ...
To determined precisely a possible connection between the amount of copper in tap-water and the risk of early childhood liver disease, it was attempted through an epidemiological survey, to determine the extent of excessive concentrations of copper in the tap-water of households with copper pipes. Water samples from 956 households were tested for copper, and the state of health of the infants in these households was documented. Infants who had been fed using water with a copper concentration of 0.8 mg/l or more received a paediatric examination with a blood serum analysis to rule out any liver damage. A copper level greater than 0.8 mg/l was found in only 2% of the households examined. Eight infants were examined by a paediatrician and their serum was analysed. These infants had either been breast-fed to the 12th week or had received more than 200 ml of tap water per day during first 12 months. None of ...
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
Abstract This study was undertaken over a 10-month period under environmental conditions within the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, to evaluate the causes of variation in the technological and thermal properties of raw natural rubber (NR) from different clones of Hevea brasiliensis (GT 1, PR 255, FX 3864, and RRIM 600). These clones were chosen to represent good clones available in Brazil. The technological properties of raw NR were evaluated in terms of their dry rubber content (DRC), Wallace plasticity, plasticity retention index (PRI), and Mooney viscosity. The thermal performance was evaluated with the thermogravimetry (TG)/differential thermogravimetry (DTG) technique. There were significant variations (p < 0.01 and p < 0.05) between clones and tappings for all technological properties,...
We obtain and investigate the regular eigenfunctions of simple differential operators xr dr+1/dxr+1, r = 1, 2, ..., with the eigenvalues equal to 1. With the help of these eigenfunctions, we construct a non-unitary analogue of a boson displacement operator which will be acting on the vacuum. In this way, we generate collective quantum states of the Fock space which are normalized and equipped with the resolution of unity with the positive weight functions that we obtain explicitly. These states are thus coherent states in the sense of Klauder. They span the truncated Fock space without first r lowest-lying basis states: |0), |1), ..., |r - 1). These states are squeezed, sub-Poissonian in nature and reminiscent of photon-added states in Agarwal and Tara (1991 Phys. Rev. A 43 492).
This report provides overall state and national information on the quantity, availability, and costs of current and potential feedstocks for ethanol production in the United States. It characterizes end uses and physical characteristics of feedstocks, and presents relevant information that affects the economic and technical feasibility of ethanol production from these feedstocks. The data can help researchers focus ethanol conversion research efforts on feedstocks that are compatible with the resource base.
Our studies on K#beta#/K#alpha# X-ray intensity ratios of some of the technologically important 3d-transition metal compounds have been reviewed. Comparison of the experimental results with single-configuration Dirac-Fock calculations provided important information on the valence states of the transition metals in various compounds, which can be helpful in understanding the nature of bonding in the compounds. (author)
Corrosion resistance of Cu-W system condensates in tap water was studies. It is shown that with an increase in W concentration in the condensates of the Cu-W system their corrosion in tap water enhances. In the material designated for power supply facilities the optimal tungsten content is up to 6%. Owing to formation of oxide film on the surface of the samples corrosion is stabilitized 40 h after the test start.
This three-part article describes the early years of one of the mother-baby-children groups of the Project for Mothers, Infants, and Young Children of September 11, 2001. The goal of the group was to help prevent the effects of trauma and loss from disrupting the relationships among the mothers, their infants, and growing children. View I by Anni Bergman describes the mothers' states of minds as the group began, when they felt that their worlds had collapsed under them. View II by Sally Moskowitz focuses on the clinical experience of working in the group, transference and countertransference themes, helping the mothers and children with their mourning process, and helping the mothers' relationships to each other, their babies, older children, family, and friends. The evolution of a casual,...
In this study we investigated cultural, familial, and individual beliefs that influenced international students? perceptions of therapy and help-seeking behaviors. Included were changes in perception or behavior before and after the students came to the US, and factors that influenced help-seeking behaviors. Six international students from East Asian countries where English is a foreign language, including Taiwan, Mainland China, Japan, and South Korea, were interviewed. We used semi-structured interviews and participant observations for collecting data. The findings indicated changes after students came to the US. Further discussions focus on encouraging and discouraging factors relative to seeing therapists, and culturally sensitive interventions for family therapy clinicians.
An estimated 265 million tons of hazardous waste are generated annually in the United States. Traditional waste disposal methods are inadequate, and many are no longer environmentally acceptable. Still, the waste increases along with demands for clean, environmentally safe methods for dealing with it. Faced with these demands, many hazardous waste generators are turning for help to co-processing,'' technology that goes beyond a no-impact solution to one of net positive impact, both environmentally and economically. This paper describes co-processing.
On June 19, 1998, after the first annual outage, Wolsung Unit 2 was shutdown at a controlled rate due to the continuous instability of Liquid Zone Control level. Investigation revealed that the Liquid Zone Control level instability was caused by water condensed inside the helium lines, generated from the moistened helium flow, especially, inside the helium balance header feed and bleed valve lines. It was found that improper installation of the diaphragm type isolation valves and the drain valve tap could easily contain the water inside the lines and be destined to form water traps causing the balance header pressure oscillation. After the lines were dried, Liquid Zone Control level instability was almost vanished, and approached the allowable equilibrium state. As the reactor power was increased, however, the zone level instability increased again. In order to compensate for the excessive, the Bulk Power Control Gain (Kp) was reduced to ...
An energy saving self-powered industrial dehumidifier for use in a building having a tap water conduit leading from a source of supply to utilization points is described comprising: a dehumidifying apparatus positioned in a stream of air to be dehumidified in the building. The dehumidifying apparatus comprising conduit means for diverting at least a portion of a relatively continuously moving stream of tap water from the tap water conduit through a heat exchanger positioned in a stream of air and returning the diverted portion to the tap water stream upstream of the utilization points. Water vapor in the stream of air will condense onto the heat exchanger when the tap water has a temperature below a dew point temperature of the air stream, thereby dehumidifying the air stream.
The disruption of primary innate immune function of the epidermal layer of the skin accounts for the susceptibility of individuals using bleaching agents to localized or systemic infections. This subverted innate immunity in these people may lead to other pathological conditions. The resultant effects of skin bleaching and phagocytes activation in response to infections have not been studied in Nigerians using bleaching agents. The present study therefore assessed the levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), albumin, total antioxidant potential (TAP), total plasma peroxides (TPP), oxidative stress index (OSI) and malonaldehyde (MDA) in the users bleaching agents. Thirty (30) people who had used bleaching agents for average of 4.9 + 1.2 years participated in this study. They were recruited from various schools and markets within the city of Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Thirty apparently healthy staffs of University College Hospital Ibadan, Ibaadan, ...
A newly carbon-doped Lithium titanate (Li4Ti5O12/C) spinel-type composite material was routinely prepared by a simple solid-state reaction method using carbonization of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) as carbon source in an inert atmosphere. Impedance measurement shows that the resistance of the composite electrode is substantially lower than that of the pure one. Electrochemical performances of the prepared materials were investigated. Results indicate that the composite materials obtained with 10wt.% PAN shows relatively higher specific capacity, better cycling and higher rate performance. The first discharge specific capacity of 158mAhg^-^1, 138mAhg^-^1, and 121mAhg^-^1 were obtained at 0.2C rate, 1/3C rate, and 3C rate at room temperature, respectively. And it was also found that tap density o...
Transient experiments in a Temporal Analysis of Products (TAP) Reactor were performed to elucidate the role of surface oyxgen species in the oxidation of benzene to phenol on ZSM-5 type zeolites with nitrous oxide as a selective oxidant. It was shown by puls experiments with nitrous oxide that the mean lifetime of the generated surface oxygen species is between 0.2s at 500 C and about 4.2 s at 400 C. Afterwards the surface oxygen species desorb as molecular oxygen into the gas phase where total oxidation will take place if hydrocarbons are present. Dual puls experiments consisting of a nitrous oxide puls followed by a benzene puls allowed studying the reactivity of the surface oxygen species formed during the first puls. The observation of the phenol formation was impeded due to the strong sorption of phenol. Multipulse experiments were necessary to reach a pseudo steady state phenol yield. (orig.)
Phospholamban (PLB) is a 52-amino acid integral membrane protein that helps to regulate the flow of Ca2+ ions in cardiac muscle cells. Recent structural studies on the PLB pentamer...Full Text Available
EPA's Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative was established to assist states, site planners and other community stakeholders to work together to assess, cleanup and sustainably reuse brownfields sites. EPA has developed a series of guides to help these parties effectively...
Doubly-excited 2s{sup -1}2p{sup -1}3pnp autoionizing resonance series of Ne atom as well as autoionizing resonances in the 2s region of Na and Mg atoms have been studied with monochromatized synchrotron radiation. Use of charge-separated photoion-yield method allowed us to detect these weak resonances in a clarified way in the yield curves of doubly-charged ions. The observed resonance states have been interpreted with the help of MCDF calculations, and the decay processes of these resonance states are discussed briefly.
Doubly-excited 2s-12p-13pnp autoionizing resonance series of Ne atom as well as autoionizing resonances in the 2s region of Na and Mg atoms have been studied with monochromatized synchrotron radiation. Use of charge-separated photoion-yield method allowed us to detect these weak resonances in a clarified way in the yield curves of doubly-charged ions. The observed resonance states have been interpreted with the help of MCDF calculations, and the decay processes of these resonance states are discussed briefly.
Results of monitoring milk and tap water in New York City are presented. The New York City sample is a monthly composite of pasteurized milk purchased daily at retail stores. The monthly "9"0Sr to calcium ratios for New York City since the inception of the sampling program in 1954 are presented. Samples of New York City tap water are taken daily, so that by the end of the month, approximately 100 liters have been collected. The available cesium-137 data expressed as the "1"3"7Cs to "9"0Sr ratio are also given.
Jun 23, 2010 ... Recently, NASA CIO Linda Cureton tapped Chris Kemp as the Agency's new Chief Technology Officer for IT. In this new capacity, he will work ...
... increasing its economic results, tapping mew financial sources and augmenting its income, but also a basic task in financial and tax management. ...
The SCDAP computer code, which is being developed under the sponsorship of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, models the progression of light water reactor core damage including core heatup, core disruption and debris formation, debris heatup, and debris melting. SCDAP is being used to help identify and understand the phenomena that control core behavior during a severe accident, to help quantify uncertainties in risk assessment analysis, and to support planning and interpretation of severe fuel damage experiments and data. Comparisons between SCDAP calculations and the experimental data showed good agreement. Calculated and measured bundle temperatures for SFD-ST were within 200 K for the entire bundle and within 20 K for maximum cladding temperatures. For ESSI-2, calculated and measured maximum cladding temperatures were within 50 K, and the extensive liquefaction and relocation that was calculated was in ...
We study spontaneously generated entanglement (SGE) between two identical multilevel atoms in free space via vacuum-induced radiative coupling. We show that the SGE in two-atom systems may initially increase with time but eventually vanishes in the time scale determined by the excited state lifetime and radiative coupling strength between the two atoms. We demonstrate that a steady-state SGE can be established by incoherently pumping the excited states of the two-atom system. We have shown that an appropriate rate of incoherent pump can help producing optimal SGE. The multilevel systems offer us more chanel to establish entanglement. The system under consideration could be realized in a tight trap or atoms/ions doped in a solid substrate.
We report on the fouling of Focused Ion Beam (FIB)-fabricated silicon oxide nanopores after exposure to tap water for two weeks. Pore clogging was monitored by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) on both bare silicon oxide and chemically functionalized nanopores. While fouling occurred on hydrophilic silicon oxide pore walls, the hydrophobic nature of alkane chains prevented clogging on the chemically functionalized pore walls. These results have implications for nanopore sensing platform design.
Personal monitoring and dose assessment of all radiation workers is an essential regulatory requirement as per radiation safety procedures of AERB and operating stations. The occupational workers of TAPS 1 and 2 and TAPS 3 and 4 are monitored for internal contamination due to high energy gamma emitters by whole body counting
We propose genuine ($k$, $m$)-threshold controlling schemes for controlled teleportation via multi-particle entangled states, where the teleportation of a quantum state from a sender (Alice) to a receiver (Bob) is under the control of $m$ supervisors such that $k$ ($k\\leq m$) or more of these supervisors can help Bob recover the transferred state. By construction, anyone of our quantum channels is a genuine multipartite entangled state of which any two parts are inseparable. Their properties are compared and contrasted with those of the well-known Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger, W, and linear cluster states, and also several other genuine multipartite entangled states recently introduced in literature. We show that our schemes are secure against both Bob's dishonesty and supervisors' treacheries. For the latter case, the game theory is ...
The construction and use of a portable, microprocessor controlled anodic stripping voltameter for on-site simultaneous metal analysis of copper, lead and cadmium in tap water is discussed. The instrumental system is comprised of a programmable controller which permits keying in analytical parameters such as sparge time and plating time: a rotating cell for efficient oxygen removal and amalgam formation; and, data handling via a minicomputer or analog pen recorder. Plating and stripping potentials are controlled by a digital potentiostat; stripping is done using a staircase waveform with measurement of the current after a one msec delay. In this way charging current effects are minimized. Results of tap water analysis showed 3 +- 1 ..mu..g/L lead, 22 +- 0.3 ..mu..g/L copper, and less than 0.2 ..mu..g/L cadmium for a Berkeley, California tap water, and 1-1000 ..mu..g/L Cu, 1 -2 ..mu..g/L Pb for ten samples of Seattle, ...
...Find leading Geography, Geology & Environmental Sciences books and other products at wiley.com, the online home of John Wiley & ... 350681+Geography%2C+Geology+%26+Environmental+Sciences Wiley::Geography, Geology & Environmental Sciences WILEY KNOWLEDGE FOR GENERATIONS United States Change ...Home Subjects About Wiley CART | MY ACCOUNT | CONTACT US | HELP Home / Geography, Geology & Environmental Sciences BROWSE SUBJECTS IN Geography, Geology &...Politics Environmental Ethics Environmental Management, Policy & Planning Environmental Science Environmental Studies Geography Geology & Geophysics Oceanography & Paleoceanography View only Textbooks and ...
Two avowable quantum communication schemes are proposed. One is an avowable teleportation protocol based on the quantum cryptography. In this protocol one teleports a set of one-particle states based on the availability of an honest arbitrator, the keys and the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen pairs shared by the communication parties and the arbitrator. The key point is that the fact of the teleportation can neither be disavowed by the sender nor be denied by the receiver. Another is an avowable quantum secure direct communication scheme. A one-way Hash function chosen by the communication parties helps the receiver to validate the truth of the information and to avoid disavowing for the sender.
Two avowable quantum communication schemes are proposed. One is an avowable teleportation protocol based on the quantum cryptography. In this protocol one teleports a set of one-particle states based on the availability of an honest arbitrator, the keys and the Einstein Podolsky Rosen pairs shared by the communication parties and the arbitrator. The key point is that the fact of the teleportation can neither be disavowed by the sender nor be denied by the receiver. Another is an avowable quantum secure direct communication scheme. A one-way Hash function chosen by the communication parties helps the receiver to validate the truth of the information and to avoid disavowing for the sender.
...Sadri, Ahmad; Barlaz, Morton A.; Hater, Gary R. Sadri, Ahmad Effect of biosolids on refuse decomposition and phosphorus cycling Sadri et al., 10.1177/0734242X09343597 Waste Management & Research SAGE Website Help Contact Us Home Advanced ... Article Effect of biosolids on refuse decomposition and phosphorus cycling Ahmad Sadri1*, Morton A. Barlaz2, and Gary R. Hater3 1 Department of Environmental Services, City and County of Honolulu 2 North Carolina State University 3 Waste Management Inc., *...
The lateral natural frequency and vibration response analyses of the Large Scale Breeder Reactor (LSBR) primary pump were performed as part of the total dynamic analysis effort to obtain the fabrication release. The special features of pump modeling are outlined in this paper. The analysis clearly demonstrates the method of increasing the system natural frequency by reducing the generalized mass without significantly changing the generalized stiffness of the structure. Also, a method of computing the maximum relative and absolute steady state responses and associated phase angles at given locations is provided. This type of information is very helpful in generating response versus frequency and phase angle versus frequency plots.
Construction of high voltage transmission lines in a difficult hilly terrain within the limited time frame calls for the adoption of modern management tools for controlling the progress. The activity on node network system for such works, in which parallel and overlapping activities are involved is highly useful and is being used in Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board. This network system has helped the Board to provide an effective and efficient mode of progress reporting at all levels of functioning. A remarkable example is the control of construction of 190 km - 200 kV dc transmission line within four years and six months.
A theoretical study of an exciton confined in a quantum ring is presented. The quantum ring is described as a two-dimensional circular quantum dot with a repulsive core, which is modelled with the help of two Gaussian functions. We have applied the variational method and investigated the evolution of the low-energy exciton spectrum with the change of the confinement potential. The calculations have been performed for the recently produced self-assembled ring-shaped InGaAs quantum dots. We have shown that the repulsive core strongly increases the radiative transition probability from the exciton ground state at the expense of the decreasing probability of the transitions from the excited states. This effect results from the orthogonality properties of the exciton wavefunctions, which are specific to the quantum-ring confinement potential. We have studied the characteristic features of the exciton spectrum, which can be used ...
The purpose of the study is to analyze the economic impacts that are likely to result from promulgation of the proposed best practicable control technology (BPT), best available technology economically achievable (BAT) and Best Conventional Technology (BCT) effluent limitations and standards on placer mining in the United States. The results of the economic impact analysis will help establish pollution control regulations that are economically achievable. The analysis examines how each of four alternative pollution control technologies affects the financial viability of placer mines in the United States. The impacts examined include reduced profitability, production cutbacks, mine closures, and employment and earning losses, as well as impacts to the local economies.
The performance of bunch-feedback systems based on two-tap FIR filters is discussed, particularly for transverse cases. Since they are the simplest type of FIR digital filters, the two-tap FIR filters should be suited to systems that require a very fast processing speed. However, in these feedback systems, a bunch must turn along a ring several times from the position-measurement to feedback kicking. Within these turns, irregular phase-jumps in the betatron motion can occur, due to several causes, such as the wake forces and beam-beam force. The discussion given in this paper is focussed on the effect of beam-beam collisions on these feedback systems. Based on linear theory and simulation studies, it has been found that these feedback systems can work with good performance, even under the influence of a strong beam-beam force. (author)
Analysis of Sr-90 in milk and tap water has been conducted in New York City since 1954. The milk sample analyzed is a monthly composite of pasteurized milk purchased daily at retail stores. The monthly Sr-90 to calcium ratios for New York City since the inception of the sampling progam in 1954 through 1981 are tabulated. Samples of New York City tap water are taken daily so that by the end of the month, approximately 100 liters have been collected. Data on Sr-90 since the inception of the program are presented. The available Cs-137 data expressed as the Cs-137 to Sr-90 ratio are given. A graphical presentation of the New York City Sr-90 data is also shown.
This system provides data logging facility for axial profile and dynamic profile experiments during low power physics experiments. The data from Cobalt Self Powered Neutron Detectors (SPNDs) are logged via hardware consisting of PC plug-in cards and data of vanadium SPNDs are logged from the Flux Mapping System (FMS) network (multicast data). The data along with programmable details of the experiment is transferred to an Access Database. The system provides online displays and extensive reports from the Access Database as per the requirement from Reactor Physicists. This paper briefly describes the evolvement of requirements (from the experience of operation of TAPS 4 to TAPS 3), software architecture and design. (author)
Using the Laser-Fluorescence technique, an investigation was made, adopting the standard mix method, on trace uranium concentrations in hot spring water and geothermal water from Lishan region, and in tap water from some major cities in Shanxi province. Totally 40 samples from 27 sites were investigated. Measurement showed that the tap water contains around 10"-"6 g/L of uranium, whose concentrations in both hot spring water and geothermal water are 10"-"5 g/L. Most of samples are at normal radioactive background level, some higher contents were determined in a few samples
Feasibility of mushy state forming of magnesium alloys making use of resistance heating was examined. Magnesium alloys, AZ31, AZ61 and AZ91, were taken up as experimental materials and cylindrical billets with a diameter of 15 mm and a height of 20 mm were used for both resistance heating and forming experiments. Input heat control was applied to the billet heating and insertion of thin discs of austenitic stainless steel with a low thermal conductivity between the billet and copper electrodes was attempted in order to improve the efficiency of the billet heating. Results were summarized as follows. (1) Resistance heating by input heat control was successful to heat the billets to their respective mushy state. (2) Insertion of the discs was very helpful in heating the billets and realized the heating in a couple of seconds. (3) The force applied to the electrodes to ensure the electrical contacts being too small, sparks ...
Total antioxidant performance (TAP) measures antioxidant capacities in both hydrophilic and lipophilic compartments of serum and interactions known to exist between them. Our objective was to assess...Full Text Available
Motivation: Since database retrieval is a fundamental operation, the measurement of retrieval efficacy is critical to progress in bioinformatics. This article points out some issues with...Full Text Available
A retrospective study is presented of 83 athletes with tendo Achillis pain (TAP) treated conservatively over a 12-year period from 1976 to 1988. Local steroid injections did not contribute to an earlier...Full Text Available
Sucrose uptake by discs of mature sugar beet root tissue incubated in [14C]-sucrose exhibited nonsaturating kinetics over the concentration range of 1 to 500 millimolar. Uptake was inhibited...Full Text Available
Rats were exposed to lead (Pb) before or after weaning. For preweaning exposures, nursing dams received 0.2% Pb acetate(1090 ppm Pb) in drinking water. Offspring treated after weaning consumed the same concentration. Tapwater served as the control fluid. Pre-post treatments were distributed among four experimental groups of 10 rats each: tap water-tap water, Pb-tap water, tap water-Pb, Pb-Pb. Operant behavior training began on Postnatal Day 58. Animals performed on a multiple reinforcement schedule of food presentation consisting of fixed-interval, fixed-ratio, and time out components.Statistical analyses of experimental sessions 4 to 11 (Postnatal Days 72 to 79) revealed that postweaning exposure significantly lengthened the median interval (interresponse time) between consecutive responses on both the interval and ratio schedules. Preweaning exposure alone tended to produce a shortening of the median ...
In an attempt to obtain basic data for evaluation of exposure doses in Niigata Prefecture, the concentrations of tritium in atmospheric water, precipitation, river water, and tap water were measured. Samples of atmospheric water, river water, and tap water were collected once for 2 weeks; and precipitation collected for one week was used as sample. The concentration of atmospheric tritium depended on the concentration of tritium in moisture and the content of water in atmosphere. Tritium levels were high in May, November and March, and low in September. Regarding tritium concentrations, there was a good correlation between atmospheric water and precipitation. Tritium concentrations in both of them varied from sample to sample. The concentrations of tritium in river and tap water tended to be high during spring and low during summer and winter, although the variations were not so great as those in atmospheric water or ...
The corrosion resistance of steel-reinforced mortar specimens made from alinite cement was investigated using ordinary Portland cement (OPC) specimens as reference. The specimens were prepared and exposed in three different environments: continuous exposure in tap water, interrupted exposure in tap water, and interrupted exposure in 3.5% NaCl solution. The steel weight loss and the half cell potential were measured vs. exposure time, up to the age of 12 months. Pore solution extraction and analysis and porosity determination were also performed. In continuous exposure in tap water, alinite cement provided adequate protection against corrosion. In interrupted exposure in tap water, a higher corrosion was observed for alinite cement compared to OPC. In the case of interrupted exposure in 3.5% NaCl solution, the simultaneous action of free chlorides and oxygen resulted in the depassivation of steel ...
In-situ methods are well known as powerful tools in studying catalyst formation processes, their solid state properties under working conditions and the interaction with the feed, intermediates and products to reveal reaction mechanisms. This paper gives a short overview on results of intense studies using in-situ techniques to reveal VPO catalyst generation processes, interaction of educts, intermediates and products with VPO catalyst surfaces and mechanistic insights. Catalytic data of the ammoxidation of toluene on different VPOs complete these findings. The precursor-catalyst transformation processes were preferently investigated by in-situ XRD, in-situ Raman and in-situ ESR spectroscopy. The interaction of aromatic molecules and intermediates, resp., and VPO solid surfaces was followed by in-situ ESR and in-situ FTIR spectroscopy. Mechanistic information was mainly obtained using in-situ FTIR spectroscopy and the temporal-analysis-of-products ...
A total of 272 tap water samples were collected from 68 homes throughout the city of Tehran. Analysis for cadmium, zinc, lead, copper, arsenic, iron and manganese showed some accumulation of these metals in household piping overnight. However, the concentration of all metals was in the parts per billion (ug/l) range and well below international standards. Heavy metals in Tehran's drinking water therefore, do not pose a significant acute health hazard. 19 references, 2 tables.
The paper presents results of measurements of the natural radioactivity of tap water where samples were taken in front of, and behind the ceramic filter commonly used in houses for the purification of tap water. Altogether, 289 samples were taken, processed and measured during 1985-1986 in Kuwait. Results reveal the fact that ceramic filters reduce substantially the natural radioactivity in water (the 'gross' alpha activity reduced by the factor 2.18 #+-# 18%; the 'gross' beta by 1.53 #+-# 1.6%. (author).
The European Union (EU) market integration is leading to increasingly monopolistic electricity market infrastructures, which has opened a debate on the regulation of these so-called power exchanges. In this paper, we start by stating that there are two types of power exchanges in Europe, i.e. 'merchant' and 'cost-of-service regulated' power exchanges. We then discuss how regulation can be used to better align their incentives with the main power exchange tasks. We conclude that adopting the cost-of-service regulated model for all power exchanges in Europe could be counterproductive in the current context, but that regulation can help ensure that the benefits of the EU market integration materialize. Promising regulatory actions include tempering the reinforced market power of power exchanges, and quality-of-service regulation for the ongoing cooperation among power exchanges to organize trade across borders. - Research highlights: #-># ...
The economies of East Asia are predominantly export based and, therefore, place special emphasis on the security of the sea lines of communication (SLOCs). Due to economic globalization, the United States shares these concerns. Cooperative measures by the concerned parties could reduce the potential for disruption by maritime conflicts. Primary threats against the SLOCs are disputes over the resources under the seas, disputes over some small island groups, disputes between particular parties (China-Taiwan and North-South Korea), or illegal activities like smuggling, piracy, or terrorism. This paper provides an overview on these threats, issue by issue, to identify common elements and needed cooperation. Cooperation on other topics such as search and rescue, fisheries protection, and oil spill response may help support improved relations to prevent maritime conflicts. Many technologies can help support maritime cooperation, ...
The decays of charmed mesons into two body nonleptonic final states are investigated. Weak interaction amplitudes of interest in these decays are extracted from lattice four-point correlation functions using a effective weak Hamiltonian including effects to order G{sub f} in the weak interactions yet containing effects to all orders in the strong interactions. The lattice calculation allows a quantitative examination of non-spectator processes in charm decays helping to elucidate the role of effects such as color coherence, final state interactions and the importance of the so called weak annihilation process. For D {yields} K{pi}, we find that the non-spectator weak annihilation diagram is not small, and we interpret this as evidence for large final state interactions. Moreover, there is indications of a resonance in the isospin {1/2} channel to which the weak annihilation process contributes ...
Reserve appreciation, also called reserve growth, is the increase in the estimated ultimate recovery (the sum of year end reserves and cumulative production) from fields subsequent to discovery from extensions, infield drilling, improved recovery of in-place resources, new pools, and intrapool completions. In recent years, reserve appreciation has become a major component of total U.S. annual natural gas reserve additions. Over the past 15 years, reserve appreciation has accounted for more than 80 percent of all annual natural gas reserve additions in the U.S. lower 48 states (Figure 1). The rise of natural gas reserve appreciation basically came with the judgment that reservoirs were much more geologically complex than generally thought, and they hold substantial quantities of natural gas in conventionally movable states that are not recovered by typical well spacing and vertical completion practices. Considerable evidence indicates that many ...
A meeting was held on October 15, 16, 17, 1990 to discuss the state of tritium safety and environmental effects. The meeting was organized with the help of the International Energy Agency planning committee consisting of K. Steinmetz, Y. Seki, G. Nardella, and G. Vivian. Representative of tritium production facilities and heavy water reactor power production were also involved. The meeting was organized to address seven topics in tritium safety that were thought to require further work. The topics were: (1) materials science, (2) environmental models, (3) environmental model validation, (4) tritiated organic compounds, (5) human dosimetry, (6) tritium sampling and measurement, and (7) long-term environmental databases.
... 300710+Ceramic+Transactions+Series 2120%28Series+Code%29+Ceramic+Transactions+Series Wiley::Ceramic Transactions Series WILEY KNOWLEDGE FOR GENERATIONS United States Change Location Home ...CART | MY ACCOUNT | CONTACT US | HELP Home / Engineering & Materials Science / Materials Science / Ceramic Transactions Series Related Subjects Soft Matter Organic Electronics Structural Materials, ... Ceramics Structural Materials, Composites Structural Materials or Construction Materials Corrosion Electronics Materials Related Series Ceramic Engineering and Science Proceedings Wiley Series in Materials ...for Electronic and Optoelectric Applications Ceramic Transactions (CTs) books contain papers presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Ceramic Society, ...
In this report, research and development results on the bituminization of radioactive wastes are closely reviewed, especially those regarding waste treatment technologies, waste solidifying procedures and the characteristics of asphalt and solidified forms. A new concept of the bituminization method is suggested in this report which can improve the characteristics of solidified forms. Stable solid forms with high leach resistance, high thermal resistance and good compression strength were produced by the suggested bituminization method, in which spent polyethylene from agricultural farms was added. This report can help further research and development of improved bituminized forms of radioactive wastes that will maintain long term stabilities in disposal sites. (author). 59 refs., 19 tabs., 18 figs
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.
Oil shales of the US represent a tremendous store of potential oil. Most of the deposits are relatively unknown and warrant additional investigation. The summary presented cannot hope to cover all of the deposits. Information about them is usually available only locally. However, the 3 best known deposits - the Green River formation, the Devonian black shales, and the retort member of the Phosphoria formation - represent well over 2 trillion bbl (300 x 10/sup 12/ ton) of potential oil in place. This is an oil resource large enough to supplement quite adequately the US petroleum supply, to extend the time available for realigning our energy supply mixes, and to help reach a satisfactory solution to our current energy dilemma. The concentrated resource in the Green River formation is obviously the next most feasible source of oil. If it cannot be developed, all the other deposits will have to wait until it can be. 100 references.
Ockham?s razor is the principle that, all other things being equal, scientists ought to prefer simpler theories. In recent years, philosophers have argued that simpler theories make better predictions, possess theoretical virtues like explanatory power, and have other pragmatic virtues like computational tractability. However, such arguments fail to explain how and why a preference for simplicity can help one find true theories in scientific inquiry, unless one already assumes that the truth is simple. One new solution to that problem is the Ockham efficiency theorem (Kelly 2002, Minds Mach 14:485?505, 2004, Philos Sci 74:561?573, 2007a, b, Theor Comp Sci 383:270?289, c, d; Kelly and Glymour 2004), which states that scientists who heed Ockham?s razor retract their opinions less often and s...
A new protocol technology is just starting to emerge from the laboratory environment. Its stated purpose is to provide an additional means in which networks, and the services that reside on them, can be protected from adversarial compromise. This report has a two-fold objective. First is to provide the reader with an overview of this emerging Dynamic Defenses technology using Dynamic Network Address Translation (Dynat). This ''structure overview'' is concentrated in the body of the report, and describes the important attributes of the technology. The second objective is to provide a framework that can be used to help in the classification and assessment of the different types of dynamic defense technologies along with some related capabilities and limitations. This information is primarily contained in the appendices.
A compact proton accelerator for medical applications is being developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The accelerator architecture is based on the dielectric wall accelerator (DWA) concept. One critical area to consider is the switch region. Electric field simulations and thermal calculations of the switch area were performed to help determine the operating limits of rmed SiC switches. Different geometries were considered for the field simulation including the shape of the thin Indium solder meniscus between the electrodes and SiC. Electric field simulations were also utilized to demonstrate how the field stress could be reduced. Both transient and steady steady-state thermal simulations were analyzed to find the average power capability of the switches.
Changing water demands induced through climate change and a growing biofuel energy sector throughout the western States are expected to increase pressures on the present allocation mechanisms for an increasingly scarce resource, raising uncertainty about the sustainability of irrigated agriculture in the West. In this paper, we first present the policy motivation for examining continued producer adoption of water conserving irrigation production systems as a foundation for providing a sustainable future for western irrigated agriculture. Second, we summarize the historical transitions that help to define the adjustment path to increased sustainability for the sector. While western irrigated agriculture is on a path toward greater sustainability, evidence suggests that the sustainability go...
Analyses were performed of the safety-related performance of the reactor protection system (RPS) at U.S. Westinghouse and General Electric commercial reactors during the period 1984 through 1995. RPS operational data from these reactors were collected from the Nuclear Plant Reliability Data System (NPRDS) and Licensee Event Reports (LER). The common-cause failure (CCF) modeling in the fault trees developed for these studies and the analysis and use of common-cause failure data were sophisticated, state-of-the-art efforts. The overall CCF effort helped to test and expand the limits of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's CCF methodology.
Many Department of Energy facilities across the United States are seriously contaminated with radioactive and other hazardous wastes. Decades of focus on weapons production and inadequate attention to long-term solutions for dealing with those wastes have resulted in tremendous problems. The Department of Energy recognizes the seriousness of those problems and is addressing them. In some cases existing management systems are being used to accomplish the new mission of environmental cleanup, and in other cases new systems have been created to help carry out that mission. Widespread criticism of those efforts to data are evidence that the management systems being used may not be appropriate for the job. In particular, it appears that some management systems aren`t producing desired results because they are not well aligned with the people and tasks for whom they are intended, and these issues are discussed in this report.
This paper presents an application of the state of the art and new trends for risk management of safety-related control and monitoring systems, currently applied in the industry. These techniques not only enable to manage safety and reliability issues but they also help in the control of quality and economic factors affected by the availability and maintenance of the system. The method includes an unambiguous definition of the system in terms of functions and a systematic analysis of hazardous situations, undesired events and possible malfunctions. It also includes the identification and quantification of the risk associated to the system. The required risk reduction is specified in terms of safety integrity levels. The safety integrity level results in requirements, preventive measures, possible improvements and recommendations to assure the satisfactory management of the risk.
An appropriate mathematical model can help researchers to simulate, evaluate, and control a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack system. Because a PEMFC is a nonlinear and strongly coupled system, many assumptions and approximations are considered during modeling. Therefore, some differences are found between model results and the real performance of PEMFCs. To increase the precision of the models so that they can describe better the actual performance, optimization of PEMFC model parameters is essential. In this paper, an artificial bee swarm optimization algorithm, called ABSO, is proposed for optimizing the parameters of a steady-state PEMFC stack model suitable for electrical engineering applications. For studying the usefulness of the proposed algorithm, ABSO-based results...
The short review of complete tree level calculations for three particle final states production at the future e"+e"-, #gamma#e and #gamma##gamma# colliders is presented. The results obtained with the help of CompHEP system for total cross sections and other characteristics of processes in the energy range 0.1-2 TeV are summarized and their comparison with the results of different approaches is discussed. In particular we are interested in the processes of W, Z and H boson production. The reactions under consideration are especially interesting in connection with probing of new couplings, searching for new particle signals and as an important backgrounds to these experiments. The main subjects described are basic reactions rates (sections 2,3), Higgs production in #gamma#e collisions (section 4), the possibilities of testing some four vector bosons interaction vertices and Higgs-fermion coupling (section 5), the process of excited neutrino ...
The International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles (INPRO) was launched in the year 2000, based on a resolution by the IAEA General Conference (GC(44)/RES/21). INPRO intends to help to ensure that nuclear energy is available in the 21st century in a sustainable manner, and seeks to bring together all interested Member States, both technology holders and technology users, to consider, jointly, actions to achieve desired innovations. INPRO is taking care of the specific needs of developing countries. This IAEA publication is part of Phase 1 of INPRO. It intends to provide an overview on history, present situation and future perspectives of nuclear fuel cycle technologies. While this overview focuses on technical issues, nevertheless, the aspects of economics, environment, and safety and proliferation resistance are important background issues for this study. After a brief description about the INPRO project and an evaluation ...
In this paper, the state-of-the-art ultrasonic and magnetic measuring techniques developed at Kawasaki Steel and used in the production process of steel sheets are described. Representative examples shown here are as follows: (1) Magnetic flux leakage testing system for the detection of nonmetallic inclusions, (2) Nondestructive orientation measurement for secondary re-crystallized grains in grain-oriented electrical steel by ultrasonic interferometry, (3) Immersion testing method for the detection of nonmetallic inclusions, (4) Surface wave probe for the detection of surface flaws in rolls used in rolling mills. Developments of these techniques and their applications to actual steel sheets production processes have contributed to advance in technologies for quality assurance and control. With the help of these techniques, steel sheet products with advanced and uniform properties are being continuously produced to meet customers' ...
Full text: The US commercial nuclear industry has just completed an outstanding decade of plant performance. Safety levels and electric production are at unprecedented high levels and continue to exceed even high industry goals. Nuclear energy continues to keep the highest priority on performance improvement programs and highly trained/qualified people that maintain its record setting safety and reliability of operations. While the industry has maintained a consistently high level of performance, the advent of deregulation and the consolidation of NPP ownership, as well as the current climate of concern about both rising energy costs and availability of power, has raised the standard for nuclear energy's level of competitiveness in today's market place. The resulting challenge is how to more effectively manage risk and improve performance even further in a generally high performing organization. Newer technology and more training by themselves are not the answer. Rather, the answer ...
An atlas series about the offshore northern Gulf of Mexico will group gas and oil reservoirs into subregional plays and will display reservoir data on a computerized geographical information system. The atlas series will provide critically compiled reservoir engineering data to help the private sector explore and develop hydrocarbons and to help the public sector analyze the hydrocarbon endowment in this basin. In this report, we cover aspects of the play-analysis procedure and provide specific examples of lower Miocene plays from the upper Texas coast and Federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Play analysis emphasizes using broad classes of structural style, depositional style and environments, and defining attributes to group reservoirs into plays. To date, we have identified 4 Oligocene and 25 Miocene plays in Texas State offshore waters and 115 plays in the Federal OCS. Texas State offshore plays ...
Concentrations of tritium in environmental waters (precipitation, rivers, lakes, tap water) have been determined using electrolytic enrichment and liquid scintillation counting. In waters of big rivers (the Vistula and the Odra rivers), lakes and tap water the annual average concentrations were similar to each other being from 1.4 to 1.9 Bq x dm"-"3. These concentrations were similar to those in the precipitation in which they ranged from 1.7 to 2.2 Bq x dm"-"3. The lowest tritium concentrations were found in waters of the Seashore Region rivers (average for 1994-1999 was 1.1 Bq x dm"-"3). The tritium concentrations in surface waters and in precipitation are still higher than that of natural level. The data obtained show that tritium concentration in the water of rivers might depend on the size of drainage area. The observed seasonal variations of tritium concentration in the precipitation collected in Warsaw and at the Mount Sniezka indicate ...
Experiments were performed to measure the transfer of trichloroethylene (TCE), a volatile organic compound (VOC), from tap water in showers to indoor air. In these experiments, the loss of TCE from tap water in the shower is based on the difference between influent and effluent concentrations.We have developed and previously published a three-compartment model, which we use to simulate the 24-h concentration history of VOCs in the shower, bathroom, and remaining household volumes resulting from the use of contaminated tap water. An important input to this model is the transfer efficiency of the VOC from water to air. The experiments reveal that the transfer efficiency of TCE from shower water to air has an arithmetic mean value of 51 percent and an arithmetic standard deviation of 9 percent. Analysis of the results shows that there is no statistically significant difference between the transfer efficiency measured with hot ...
This paper addresses the quantification of human exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOC's) as a result of mass transfer from tap water to indoor air. A three-compartment model is developed and used to simulate the 24-h concentration profile within the shower, bathroom, and remaining household volumes of a dwelling. Mass transfers from water to air are derived from measured data for radon and adjusted to account for the difference in mass-transfer properties for VOC's. A preliminary data base for household parameters is used to calculate a range of concentrations and human exposures in U.S. dwellings. The model is used to estimate exposure factors for seven compounds-chloroform, ethylene dibromide, dibromo-chloropropane, methylchloroform, perchloroethylene, trichloroethylene, and carbon tetrachloride. The calculated ratio of indoor-air exposure to tap water concentration is compared to measured values for one of the compounds, chloroform. A ...
This paper elucidates morphological characteristics, reproduction forms and ecological characteristics of Plectus sp. and Rhabditis sp. which are most frequently detected nematodes separated from tap water. The paper also discussed experimentally establishment of cultivating conditions for these nematodes, and behavior and reproduction characteristics of nematodes under widely ranging conditions of temperatures, bacteria concentrations and pH. Plectus sp. grows in hermaphroditic individuals, while Rhabditis sp. grows only in female. An LE culture medium can cultivate nematodes that appear in tap water, and is suitable for subculture of nematodes. Conditions of temperatures from 20{degree}C to 25{degree}C, pH and inoculated concentration of bacteria at 10{sup 8} cell {center_dot} ml{sup -1} are suitable for reproduction of Plectus sp. and Rhabditis sp. Plectus sp. and Rhabditis sp. prefer mild temperatures for reproduction, cannot reproduce ...
The goal of this paper is to explore how compliance with the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (CAAA), especially Title IV and emission trading under it, will affect the current relationship between state and federal regulation. It is difficult, with the limited experience we have had under Title IV, to be definitive about or to be a very strong advocate of too many policy positions. What may be most helpful at this point is to identify where the difficult issues in state/federal relations might arise; and then to explore ways in which tensions might be either avoided or resolved. One anticipated conclusion is that a traditional regulatory mindset could be very destructive if applied to this new area of oversight without due sensitivity to what Congress is trying to achieve in Title IV. That concern pervaded the early legislative debates; and it persists today. Title IV presents some unique challenges to ...
The very low-pressure expansion tank of the title invention is connected to the water in the central heating installation via a connecting pipe with a pump and valves on one side, and on the other side the tank is connected via a connecting pipe with valve to the tap water mains, so that the supply of water can be regulated automatically. Within the expansion tank contact with the outside air is not possible because of an air/water separating floater. By means of recording and control (also remote) of the contents of the expansion tank, the installation pressure and the quantity of supplied water from the expansion tank and the tap water mains, failures and water damage are prevented. 4 figs.
Exposure control at the operating Nuclear Power Station is a major concern. The challenging task of meeting the International standards in the field of radiation protection is the calibration of the radiation monitoring instruments and interpretation of personnel and area monitoring results. Correct interpretation is based on accurate calibration of radiation measuring instruments. The reliability and accuracy of the measurements are also partly based on the procedures applied in calibration. Inadequate calibration can cause large errors in dose estimation in complete dose rate range and energy range. Semiautomatic calibration facility established at TAPS 3 and 4 for radiation monitoring instruments. Objective of calibration facility is (a) Ensure instruments are working properly (b) calibration adjustment and (c) in case without calibration adjustment to reveal the error involved. The calibration facility and calibration techniques established at ...
Inputs on radiological conditions forms the basis of implementation of effective exposure control to plant personnel in nuclear power station. Radiation monitoring system provides this input to the plant operator as well as to health physics group. Several design modifications have been incorporated in the Radiation Monitoring System at Tarapur Atomic Power Station (TAPS 3 and 4) over the similar systems at Kakrapar Atomic Power Station (KAPS) and Kaiga Generating Station (KGS). The radiological monitoring systems installed at TAPS unit 3 and 4 includes on line Radiation Data Acquisition System (RADAS), Emergency sampling system, effluent monitoring system and environmental monitoring system. The design changes and the versatile use of these systems are presented in this paper. (author)
...com: The Art of Application Performance Testing : Help for Programmers and Quality Assurance (9780596520663): Ian Molyneaux: Books Amazon.com:...The Art of Application Performance Testing : Help for Programmers and Quality Assurance (9780596520663): Ian Molyneaux: Books Ian Molyneaux,The ...Art of Application Performance Testing : Help for Programmers and Quality Assurance,O'Reilly Media,0596520662,LA9780596520663,Computer Books: General,Application software,Computer software,...com: The Art of Application Performance Testing : Help for Programmers and Quality Assurance (9780596520663): Ian Molyneaux: Books ...
Based on the view that major changes in the social and economic context in the United States require major policy changes related to early childhood education, this paper examines the factors supporting public policy changes and how advocates for change in early childhood education might incorporate effective strategies. The paper is presented in two parts. Part 1 reviews the research on state policy settings and the factors that tend to support policy change. This part focuses attention on the ways that state policymakers appear to learn from what is going on elsewhere and incorporate new ideas into their policy agendas. Several strategic implications for advocates of policy change are presented, such as brainstorming a list of potential obstacles to the introduction of a policy innovation or shaping the debate so the public will support change. Part 2 of the paper takes these general strategic implications and considers ...
Thermogalvanic corrosion of St3 steel in a temperature range from 25 to 50{degrees}C with a 3.84{degrees}C/cm gradient was studied in a neutral media flow. It is shown that the thermogalvanic effect on the pitting corrosion of water-cooled heat exchangers is decisive but dual. Depending on the composition of the cooling medium, thermogalvanic corrosion may either enhance (0.5 M NaCl) or inhibit (tap water) pitting corrosion.
This article describes the Monsanto's Indian Orchard plant gas-fired, combined-cycle cogeneration facility in Springfield, Massachusetts. The topics of the article include project configuration, the thermodynamic cycle, fuel selection, electrical distribution system, plant control, and air pollution control of NO[sub X], SO[sub 2], CO, particulates, non-methane hydrocarbons, opacity and ammonia.
Optimum analytical conditions of the aluminium ion were established by flow injection analysis. Eriochrome Cyanine R(ECR) dye reacts with the aluminium ion at pH 6.0 form a complex that exhibits maximum absorption at 535 nm. Reaction condition including the mixing and the reaction coil length, the concentration and the pH of the buffer solution, temperature, and injection loop volume were optimized to introduce this reaction into flow injection analysis. The results were as follows. A mixing coil length of 0.5 m and a reaction coil length of 4.0 m, the pH 6.0 and 1M of acetate buffer solution, the ECR concentration of 0.56 mM, the reaction temperature of 40 .deg. C, the injection loop volume of 300 #mu#L were chosen as optimum conditions. Under these conditions the detection limit of the aluminium ion was less than 0.05 mg/L and the repeatability was better than 1%. A sampling frequency of 24 times for an hour was achieved. Interfering ions such as F"-, HPO_4"2"-, Fe"2"+, Fe"3"+, ...
... April 29, 2011, 8:25 AM PDT | By Andrew Nusca Ottawa taps Itron for 210,000 smart water meters The City of Ottawa has chosen smart grid firm Itron ...to deploy smart water meters and related infrastructure in town. April 29, 2011, 7:18 AM PDT | By Andrew ...
Despite successful reduction of the general lead exposure, this heavy metal is still a matter of public concern due to the fact that associations with intellectual impairment or delayed puberty are found to correlate with very low lead blood concentrations. Lead in tap water is still an important contribution to lead exposure which may cause health risk for infants. Therefore, lead pipes should be completely sanitated by exchange against pipes made from more healthy materials. (orig.)
The Flux Mapping System (FMS) of 540 MWe PHWR is a system, which is first of its kind used in Indian PHWRs. It is used to compute a detailed flux/power distribution of the reactor core using modal synthesis method .The paper brings out the high availability features of FMS and the software design philosophy. The paper emphasizes on framework based reusable architectural design, which simplifies and speeds up the development of data acquisition systems. (author)
Molecular simulation aims at simulating particles in interaction, describing a physico-chemical system. When considering Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling in this context, we often meet the same problem of statistical efficiency as with Molecular Dynamics for the simulation of complex molecules (polymers for example). The search for a correct sampling of the space of possible configurations with respect to the Boltzmann-Gibbs distribution is directly related to the statistical efficiency of such algorithms (i.e. the ability of rapidly providing uncorrelated states covering all the configuration space). We investigated how to improve this efficiency with the help of Artificial Evolution (AE). AE algorithms form a class of stochastic optimization algorithms inspired by Darwinian evolution. Efficiency measures that can be turned into efficiency criteria have been first searched before identifying parameters that could be optimized. Relative ...
Radiochemical results ("2"3"4U, "2"3"8U, "2"2"6Ra and "2"2"8Ra activities; "2"3"4U/"2"3"8U, "2"2"8Ra/"2"2"6Ra and "2"2"6Ra/"2"3"8U activity ratios) are reported for 31 drinking water samples collected from 8 wells, 12 hot mineral springs, 5 cold springs, and 6 tap water samples. Activities of the Ra isotopes were measured by gamma spectrometry using a low background and high efficiency well type germanium detector. The U isotopes were counted in an alpha spectrometer. The results show that "2"3"8U activity varies between 4.46 and about 308 mBq l"-"1 in wells, 0.59 and 17.88 mBq l"-"1 in hot springs, 2.19 and 3.21 mBq l"-"1 in cold springs, and between 2.5 and 15.70 mBq l"-"1 in tap water samples. "2"3"4U/"2"3"8U activity ratio is generally higher than 1 which is the equilibrium activity ratio value in closed systems. It varies in the ranges 0.79-2.11 in wells, 0.97-7.39 in hot springs, 2.53-8.30 in cold springs, and 1.14-3.35 in ...
High temperature thermochemistry of thoria-urania fuel for Advanced Heavy Water Reactor was investigated. Oxygen potential development within the matrix and distribution behaviors of the fission products (fps) in different phases were worked out with the help of thermodynamic and transport properties of the fps as well as fission generated oxygen and the detailed balance of the elements. Some of the necessary data for different properties were generated in this laboratory while others were taken from literatures. Noting the behavior of poor transports of gases and volatile species in the thoria rich fuel (thoria-3 mol% urania), the evaluation shows that the fuel will generally bear higher oxygen potential right from early stage of burnup, and Mo will play vital role to buffer the potential through the formation of its oxygen rich chemical states. The problems related to the poor transport and larger retention of fission gases (Xe) and volatiles ...
The Coastal Zone Sector of the Canadian Climate Impact and Adaptation Research Network (C-CIARN) was established to address concerns regarding climate change in coastal areas. Coastal zones are sensitive to increases in air, sea and ground temperatures as well as to variations in sea level, precipitation, ice thickness, and storm intensity. This report presents the results of a workshop which focused on how coastal communities will be affected by climate induced water level changes, particularly sea-level rise on ocean coasts and decreasing lake levels in the Great Lakes. The workshop addressed issues such as the effects of changing water levels on coastal infrastructure, utilities, community development, and the implications of changing water levels to human safety, cultural resources, tourism, and insurance. The workshop reviewed the current state of understanding on water level fluctuations resulting from climate change. It also identified information and ...
In pursuing its mission of helping U.S. independent oil and gas producers make timely, informed technology decisions, the Petroleum Technology Transfer Council (PTTC) functions as a cohesive national organization that implements industry's directives through active regional programs. The role of the national headquarters (HQ) organization includes planning and managing the PTTC program, conducting nation-wide technology transfer activities, and implementing a comprehensive communications effort. PTTC relies on 10 Regional Lead Organizations (RLOs) as its main program delivery mechanism to industry. Through its regions, PTTC connects with independent oil and gas producers--through technology workshops, resources centers, websites, newsletters, and other outreach efforts. The organization effectively combines federal, state, and industry funding to achieve important goals for all of these sectors. This integrated funding base, combined ...
The #gamma#-ray spectrum emitted after thermal neutron capture in "8"7Sr was studied at the ILL high flux reactor with pair- and intrinsic Ge-spectrometers. 661 transitions were assigned to the reaction "8"7Sr(n,#gamma#)"8"8Sr and 205 of them were placed into a "8"8Sr level scheme of 47 levels. This represents 88% of the observed intensity. The level energies were determined with a precision of better than 22 ppm; the neutron binding energy was determined as 11 112.69 (22) keV. To aid the analysis high resolution particle spectra of the reaction "8"7Sr(d,p)"8"8Sr were measured at 20 MeV deuteron energy with the Munich Q3D spectrometer. 85 states were observed with this reaction. The data helped to establish newly found levels and to differentiate between primary and secondary transitions in the (n,#gamma#) data. The observed level densities and primary transition strengths are compared with statistical model predictions and non-statistical ...
Rapid growth in economic development, coupled with the absence of an electric grid in large areas of the rural countryside, have created a need for new energy sources both in urban centers and rural areas in China. Environmental pollution from the increased use of coal-fired steam turbines to meet this capacity expansion is a concern. There is a growing interest in China to develop renewable-energy resources and technologies to meet energy demands and help mitigate pollution problems. In February 1995, Secretary Hazel O`Leary of the U.S. Department of Energy signed an Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Protocol Agreement with the Chinese State Science and Technology Commission in Beijing, China. Under this agreement, projects using photovoltaics for rural electrification are being conducted in Gansu Province in western China and Inner Mongolia in northern China, providing the basis for much wider deployment and use of photovoltaics for ...
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 ...
Ecopa, the European Consensus Platform on 3R-Alternatives, is an international not-for-profit organization that wants to stimulate the development of 3R-alternatives, increase awareness among the public, scientists and regulatory bodies, and help their implementation into the different national legislations. This is done by networking and bringing together National Consensus Platforms on 3R-alternatives. Consensus means that all parties concerned are represented, namely, animal welfare, industry, academia, and governmental institutions. Actually, 14 Member State Platforms exist. Fully complying with the criteria, set by ecopa, are the platforms of Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Under development are the platforms of Denmark, Norway, and Poland. To reach its goals, ecopa uses conventional scientific tools such as workshops and meetings but it ...
Recent developments in solid-state radio frequency (RF) power technologies allow for the practical consideration of RF heated plasmas for space propulsion. These technologies permit the use of any electrical power source, de-couple the power and propellant sources, and allow for the effcient use of both the propellant mass and power. Effcient use of the propellant is obtained by expelling the rocket exhaust at the highest possible velocity, which can be orders of magnitude higher than those achieved in chemical rockets. Handling the hot plasma exhaust requires the use of magnetic nozzles, and the basic physics of ion detachment from the magnetic eld is discussed. The plasma can be generated by RF using helicon waves to heat electrons. Further direct heating of the ions helps to reduce the line radiation losses, and the magnetic geometry is tailored to allow ion cyclotron resonance heating. RF eld and ion trajectory calculations are presented to ...
This project employs multi-disciplinary teams to accelerate development of the Community Climate System Model (CCSM), based at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). A consortium of eight Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratories collaborate with NCAR and the NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO). The laboratories are Argonne (ANL), Brookhaven (BNL) Los Alamos (LANL), Lawrence Berkeley (LBNL), Lawrence Livermore (LLNL), Oak Ridge (ORNL), Pacific Northwest (PNNL) and Sandia (SNL). The work plan focuses on scalablity for petascale computation and extensibility to a more comprehensive earth system model. Our stated goal is to support the DOE mission in climate change research by helping ... To determine the range of possible climate changes over the 21st century and beyond through simulations using a more accurate climate system model that includes the full range of human and natural climate feedbacks with ...
This report examines the use of probabilistic methods in dealing with the problem of potential earthquake-induced liquefaction of foundation soils at an example dam site located in the central United States, near the New Madrid earthquake zone. The example dam is assumed to be a 1-mile long rolled-filled embankment founded on a 100-ft deep deposit of interbedded alluvial gravels, sands, silts, and clays. The study is seen as an opportunity to examine probabilistic concepts and procedures in the framework of an example engineering project. In this context, the main practical value of a probabilistic approach is that it permits more informed decision making about further data acquisition, additional engineering analysis, and if necessary, remedial action. The specific aim of the study is to show how probabilistic procedures complement and help to reinterpret the results of deterministic (earthquake-induced) liquefaction analysis. The procedures ...
This paper reports on the superiority of zeolites over amorphous solids which is well documented for solid acid catalysts of industrial use. Crystalline supports, likewise, open attractive perspectives for catalysis by metals, alloys, and ligated metal clusters. Size and location of clusters can be controlled by careful design of the preparation conditions. Pore dimensions control the access of reactants to active sites and escape paths for products. Cage dimensions determine which transition states can be attained; window apertures are functional in isolating metal clusters from each other, thus preventing ther coalescence and growth. The ship-in-a-bottle method permits deisgn of fairly large active complexes entrapped in zeolite cages. Orientation of non-spherical molecules in a zeolite proe helps to direct their collision with a metal particle to the head on mode; however, isolated Pt atoms hidden in niches of the pore walls can attack ...
Prepared to make housing project managers, maintenance engineering staff, and designers and architects of HUD - assisted and HUD - insured housing projects and mobile home parks aware of their responsibilities under the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act, this handbook provides technical guidance for the reduction of gas leaks and the handling of gas leak incidents in residential areas. The hazards of natural gas, concern over gas safety in residential areas, applicable codes and standards, and sources of information and help are reviewed, along with maintenance and engineering considerations relating to gas pipe failures, the detection of gas leaks, appliance servicing, and pipe installation, repair, and replacement. Housing management considerations are also examined, with attention to recordkeeping and reporting, emergency contingency planning, tenant education, staff qualifications and training, and the development and use of a maintenance and operations manual. ...
In the case of injuries of the ankle joint, an imaging technique is expected to reveal the state of the bones, ligaments, and articular cartilage. Irrespective of novel imaging techniques, a plain radiography will be made in order to obtain a first picture of the injury. Examples are given, showing that further orientation along the Lauge-Hansen classification scheme of this type of injury helps to completely ascertain the damage to the Articulatio talocruralis. Further examinations applying specific methods such as arthrography will detect possible, isolated syndesmosis ruptures; lesions of the ligaments can also be directly detected by CT or MRT. The articular cartilage and its lesions can be visualized by a combination of CT and arthrography, but are better shown by the completely non-invasive MRT. This latter method also gives insight into pathological processes with the bone. It allows to detect necrotic bone regions and their ...
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was approved in 1992 to respond to the worl-wide concern about the warming of the planet. The primary target was the stabilization of the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, in an attempt to reduce to the minimum the degradation of the environment caused by humans. By virtue of the Convention, the Parts2 are committed to reach their objectives in the reduction of the emissions. A Conference of the Parts was stablished to promote the effective application of the Convention. The third Conference of the Parts, celebrated in Kyoto (Japan, 1997) approved, by consensus, the denominated Kyoto Protocol, in which 39 developed countries and countries with economies in transition were committed to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases between years 2008 and 2012 in a 5.2 global percent with respect to the 1990 levels. Three {sup f}lexibility mechanisms{sup w}ere stablished to help the ...
This report describes the result of work completed during February, 1982 to October 1983. The aim of the work was to develop a low NO(x) emission range top burner. Discussed is the development of a flame insert modification to an existing burner which reduces NO(x) emission by 45 percent and NO2 emission by 25 percent. This relatively simple burner add-on device appears to be an economically viable low NO(x) burner. It was developed in cooperation with a major range manufacturer. The levels of NO(x) (NO2) reduction achieved should significantly reduce the impact of a gas range to indoor quality. The report also discusses the results of a literature search that preceeded the burner development. The search helped to direct the burner development by reviewing the state-of-the-art of low NO(x) burner design and covered factors which affect the indoor impact of range emissions such as air infiltration and ventilation trends, air quality standards, ...
The United States Government (USG) first developed nuclear forensics-related capabilities to analyze radiological and nuclear materials, including underground nuclear test debris and interdicted materials. Nuclear forensics is not a new mission for Department of Defense (DoD). The department's existing nuclear forensics capability is the result of programs that span six (6) decades and includes activities to assess foreign nuclear weapons testing activities, monitor and verify nuclear arms control treaties, and to support intelligence and law enforcement activities. Today, nuclear forensics must support not only weapons programs and nuclear smuggling incidents, but also the scientific analysis and subsequent attribution of terrorists' use of radiological or nuclear materials/devices. Nuclear forensics can help divulge the source of origin of nuclear materials, the type of design for an interdicted or detonated device, as well as the pathway of ...
Solid state nuclear track detectors (SSNTD) record radiation in the form of tracks. In the case of high track density, however, it is not always possible to distinguish each track separately. The track density might then be underestimated unless the loss of track number due to overlapping is compensated. An elaborated 'erosion' or curve fitting process is applied usually, for the separation of the overlapping tracks, to automatic track counting systems. This paper shows a much simpler correction method which was developed by the analogy of the correction equation for the dead time of GM counters. From a set of about 10 data obtained from high track density detectors, the equation for SSNTD can be determined by a least square fitting. Once the equation is found, true track density could be derived easily without any help of complex image processing or calculation, such as the erosion or curve fitting. This method also provides ...
The aim of this paper is offering a critical review of Calibration-Free Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (CF-LIBS), the approach of multi-elemental quantitative analysis of LIBS spectra, based on the measurement of line intensities and plasma properties (plasma electron density and temperature) and on the assumption of a Boltzmann population of excited levels, which does not require the use of calibration curves or matrix-matched standards. The first part of this review focuses on the applications of the CF-LIBS method. Quantitative results reported in the literature, obtained in the analysis of various materials and in a wide range of experimental conditions, are summarized, with a special emphasis on the departure from nominal composition values. The second part is a discussion of the simplifying assumptions which lie at the basis of the CF-LIBS algorithm (stoichiometric ablation and complete atomization, thermal equilibrium, homogeneous plasma, thin radiation, detection of all ...
The aim of this paper is offering a critical review of Calibration-Free Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (CF-LIBS), the approach of multi-elemental quantitative analysis of LIBS spectra, based on the measurement of line intensities and plasma properties (plasma electron density and temperature) and on the assumption of a Boltzmann population of excited levels, which does not require the use of calibration curves or matrix-matched standards. The first part of this review focuses on the applications of the CF-LIBS method. Quantitative results reported in the literature, obtained in the analysis of various materials and in a wide range of experimental conditions, are summarized, with a special emphasis on the departure from nominal composition values. The second part is a discussion of the simplifying assumptions which lie at the basis of the CF-LIBS algorithm (stoichiometric ablation and complete atomization, thermal equilibrium, homogeneous plasma, thin radiation, detection of all ...
Many Pacific Basin countries rely on oil for electricity production. Alternative fuel sources such as coal, which is available in the Pacific Basin, can help mitigate adverse impacts of sudden price increases or supply disruptions. Coal combustion produces solid and potentially hazardous wastes of concern to environmental regulators and utility managers. This paper identifies issues associated with managing coal combustion wastes in the Pacific Basin, using the state of Hawaii as a case study. Hawaii is typical of many Pacific Basin locations in that it depends on oil, has limited sites, for waste management operations, and is subject to domestic and international waste management regulations. The paper discusses coal-fired utility wastes, environmental impacts of coal combustion waste disposal, and regulatory requirements that impact coal waste management. From this baseline, potential on- and off-island options for coal waste management are ...
The windmill industry in Denmark is currently confronted with making a choice between competing technologies so that the role of the stimulus of state subsidies for research has lately increased in importance. The Ministry of Energy, it is claimed, must be aware of this as possibilities for making use of research results are dictated by the market and competition. The industry is not sympathetic to the idea of state research contracts with specified goals for which manufacturers must produce a technical solution. Consultancy firms should work towards solving general problems which could help the industry as a whole. Wind turbines which are cheap to produce and operate are of more interest to industry than those which are technologically advanced or of a lighter construction. It is not thought to be advantageous to concentrate the allocation of subsidies on one key project chosen by the Ministry itself, such as the current ...
The windmill industry in Denmark is currently confronted with making a choice between competing technologies so that the role of the stimulus of state subsidies for research has lately increased in importance. The Ministry of Energy, it is claimed, must be aware of this as possibilities for making use of research results are dictated by the market and competition. The industry is not sympathetic to the idea of state research contracts with specified goals for which manufacturers must produce a technical solution. Consultancy firms should work towards solving general problems which could help the industry as a whole. Wind turbines which are cheap to produce and operate are of more interest to industry than those which are technologically advanced or of a lighter construction. It is not thought to be advantageous to concentrate the allocation of subsidies on one key project chosen by the Ministry itself, such as the current ...
Protection of wetlands became a national issue in 1988 when President George Bush pledged no net loss of wetlands in the US under his [open quotes]environmental presidency.[close quotes] As wetlands became a national issue, the job of protecting them became an obligation for many groups, including hydro-power developers. Now, when a site selected for development includes an area that may be classified as a wetland, the developer quickly discovers the importance of recognizing and protecting these natural habitats. Federal legislation severely limits development of wetland, and most states increase the restrictions with their own wetlands regulations. The difficulty of defining wetlands complicates federal and state enforcement. Land that appears to be dry may in fact be classified as a wetland. So, even if a site appears dry, potential hydro developers must confirm whether or not any jurisdictional wetlands are present. Regulated lands include ...
The environment - external or internal degrees of freedom coupled to the object of interest - can, in effect, monitor some of its observables. As a result, the eigenstates of these observables decohere and behave like classical states. Continuous destruction of superpositions leads to the effective environment-induced superselection (einselection), which is beginning to be recognized as a key step in the transition from quantum to classical. We investigate it here in the context of quantum chaos. I show that the evolution of a chaotic macroscopic system is not just difficult to predict (requiring accuracy exponentially increasing with time) but quickly ceases to be deterministic in principle as a result of the Heisenberg uncertainty (which limits the available resolution). This happens after a time t{sub {Dirac_h}} which is only logarithmic in the Planck constant. For example, various components of the solar system are chaotic, with the Lyapunov timescales ranging ...
The next great issue on the Russian landscape will be management of its foreign debt. In the near future the United States will be called upon to lead an international program of debt restructuring to assist Russia in overcoming the burden of its debt trap. With debt service obligations equal to 50{percent} of 1999 revenues, Russia has virtually no chance of sustaining a program of economic recovery without debt relief (Hardt, 1999). With some form of debt restructuring a foregone conclusion, Russia, the United States, and world community have a vital stake in searching for creative ways to transform the inevitability of debt restructuring into something of value and constructive to Russia and the problems it faces. This was the rationale behind debt-for-nature swaps which emerged in the early 1980s in Latin American and Eastern Europe as a means of relieving developing nations of their crippling foreign debt. Debt-for-nature swaps served both ...
This paper aims to highlight ways in which basic research findings in the field of childhood and adolescent depression can help to inform and refine preventive intervention efforts. We selectively review...Full Text Available
BackgroundThis study examines the prevalence and nature of bereavement help-seeking among the population who experienced an "expected" death in the five years before their survey...Full Text Available
For users and manufacturers affected by unwanted electrostatic discharges, the publication of standards concerning the control of such discharges is a great improvement and helps to prevent unwanted electrostatic discharges in potentially explosive atmospheres as well as around electrostatically sensitive devices. There are, for instance, handbook-like documents giving recommendations to help set up effective electrostatic suppressing measures and programs. Another group of standards focuses on certain products and processes and is, thus, more specific. A third group deals with test methods and specifications to help manufacturers develop products that are safe. It also helps in comparisons with other products and thus meets the customer's real needs. To assist manufacturers and customers ...
12 kind of environmental samples such as soil, underground water, seawater, etc. around the Nuclear Power Plants(NPP) and surface seawater around the Korea peninsula were sampled, For the samples of rain, pine-needle, air, seawater, underground water, chinese cabbage, grain of rice and milk sampled around NPP, and surface seawater and rain sampled all around country, tritium concentration was measured, The tritium concentration in the tap water and the gamma activity in the domestic and imported beef that were sampled at ward in the large city in Korea(Seoul, Pusan, Taegu, Taejun, Inchun, Kwangju) were analyzed for the meat and drinking waters. As the results of analyzing, tritium concentration in rain and tap water were very low all around country, but a little higher around the NPP than general surrounding. At the Wolsung NPP, tritium concentration was descend according to distance from the stack. Tritium activity of surface seawater around ...
Tarapur Atomic Power Station Unit-3 and 4 (TAPS -3 and 4) are the 540 MWe reactors. Unit-4 attained first criticality on 06th March 2005 and operated for about 230 effective full power days (EFPD). Unit-3 attained first criticality on 21st May 2006 and operated for about 20 EFPD. With the reactor operation radiation field increases on the Primary Heat Transport system equipments, Moderator system equipments and auxiliary system equipments due to deposition of fission products and activation products in different reactor systems. These dose rates significantly contributes to the external exposure and stations collective dose during reactor operation, refueling operation and maintenance activities. A study was undertaken at TAPS 3 and 4 to identify the system equipments showing the significant dose rates and identify the radionuclides present in the primary heat transport system, Moderator systems, cover gas system and other auxiliary system for ...
Service water, 100 l each, was collected at an intake of a water treatment plant and at a tap after water was left running for five minutes. The carriers of strontium and cesium were added to water immediately after sampling, and the sample was vigorously stirred and filtered. Then it was passed through a cation exchange column at a rate of 80 ml/min. Strontium and cesium were eluted with hydrochloric acid from the cation exchange column, and separated. After the radiochemical separation, the mounted precipitates were counted for activity using low background beta counters normally for 60 min. Net sample counting rates were corrected for counter efficiency, recovery, self absorption and decay to obtain the content of strontium-90 and cesium-137 radioactivity per sample aliquot. From the results, concentrations of these nuclides in the original sample were calculated. The maximum values obtained were 0.29 pCi/l of Sr-90 in Kyoto in August, 1981, and 0.02 pCi/l of ...
Low-temperature #gamma# radiolysis and photolysis of crystalline 2,4,6-triazido-3,5-dichloropyridine (TAP) were studied by means of the ESR technique. It was found that the long-term irradiation of TAP at 77 K leads to the appearance of characteristic signals of quintet 2,6-dinitreno-4-azido-3,5-dichloropyridine and 2,4-dinitreno-6-azido-3,5-dichloropyridine; the radiation-chemical yield was 0.035 and 0.012 molecule/100 eV, respectively. The photolysis of crystalline 2,4,6-triazido-3,5-dichloropyridine proceeded less effectively, producing only quintet 2,6 dinitrene with a quantum yield of #approx#4.5 x 10"-"4. The study showed that the generation of high-spin nitrenes via radiolysis of crystalline azides is much superior to the photochemical technique in efficiency and may be of practical importance for the preparation of magnetically active organic materials
As part of the national survey to evaluate natural radioactivity in the environment, concentration levels of natural uranium and "2"2"6Ra have been analyzed in over 300 drinking water samples taken from different locations in Argentina. "2"2"6Ra was determined by "2"2"2Rn emanation and liquid scintillation counting, and natural uranium by a fluorimetric procedure. Values ranging from 0.03 to 24 #mu#g.l"-"1 of natural uranium and from 0.06 to 50 #mu#g.l"-"1, were measured on drinking water samples taken from tap water systems and private wells, respectively. Concentrations up to 15 mBq.l"-"1 and to 22 mBq.l"-"1 of "2"2"6Ra were found in drinking water samples taken from tap water systems and private wells, respectively. These values are compared with the reference values accepted for drinking water. Based on the water intake rate, the age distribution and the measured concentrations, an annual collective effective dose of 1.9 man Sv and an ...
Location of transmission line faults are traditionally estimated by measuring the apparent impedance from a line terminal to the fault and converting the reactive component of the impedance to line length. None of the methods proposed to date address adequately the problems of fault location on distribution systems that have single or multiphase laterals and/or tapped loads. The research for this dissertation resulted in the development of a technique that estimates the location of a shunt fault on a radial distribution system that has several single and/or multiphase laterals. The technique takes into account load taps and non-homogeneity of the system, and has been tested for its ability to handle single-phase-to-ground, two-phase-to-ground, phase-to-phase and balanced three-phase faults. Computer simulations indicate that the technique is more accurate than the reactive component method. Results from a prototype of the technique was tested ...
Exposure control at the operating Nuclear Power Station is a major concern. TAPS Unit-4 is the first Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor of 540 MWe electrical capacity. This unit was made critical on March 6, 2005. In-depth review of radiation safety was done to identify the impact of design modification on dose rates at various locations and on the equipment's. Problems encountered in controlling the dose rates in 220 MWe electrical are eliminated by appropriate design modifications. Due to higher capacity of the unit there are design changes in major systems such as reactor core, primer heat transport system, moderator system, reactor regulation and protection systems. Reactor operations and maintenance activities during shut down contributes to exposure of the employees. Based on the experience gained in the operation of 220 MWe, design modifications incorporated in TAPS unit-4 and dose rate measurements carried out at 90 % full power, through ...
A laboratory stream consisting of two stream sections interrupted by two pools was filled with a mixture of tap water and organically enriched water from rivers nearby. Bottom sediment material, Potamogeton pectinatus, macro-invertebrate organisms, as well as the mosquito fish, Aplocheilichthys johnstonii were collected from rivers around Johannesburg and introduced into the laboratory stream. After initial acclimatization, the distribution of the isotope "3"2P through this laboratory stream was followed. Absorption of this isotope by benthic algae, Potamogeton pectinatus, several macro-invertebrate organisms as well as Aplocheilichthys johnstonii was recorded.
With a computerized curve fitting method the trapping parameters of TLD-100 chips were calculated after #alpha#-, #beta#- and #gamma#-irradiation. The absorption of radiation produces an additional glow peak at 250 deg C, and the dominant one arises at 280 deg C. After the analysis of the glow curves only a little LET-dependence of the trap depths and that of the half widths was detected. The charge densities after irradiation before heating of the taps responsible for the high temperature glow peaks (T>240 deg C) show a LET-dependence. (author).
Sustainability of irrigated agriculture in arid and semi arid lands depends, mainly on the level of soil salinity and the quality of irrigation water. Remotely sensed data can provide information about the extent of vegetated irrigated areas. Al-Hassa oasis, Saudi Arabia is probably the largest oasis in the world depends mostly on tapped ground water to irrigate mainly date palm groves for its economic survival. This study tried to investigate the extent of soil salinity and the quality of irrigation water and the relationship with vegetation growth, employing NDVI derived from Landsat satellite imagery.
The retention of radio-Eu, Go, Cs and Sr, at the tracer level, on raw fibers produced from hemp, linen and Jute plants was investigated. The study was conducted from different media including: sea and tap waters, sodium chloride and nitric acid solutions of different Ph. The percentage retention and elution, on prolonged contact, varied from one element to another depending on conditions. Extraction chromatography columns, using these fibers as supporting material were also experimented. Results were discussed together with possible applications. 7 tabs.
The cupola furnace is used to melt scrap steel, pig iron, foundry returns, and alloying additives to a prescribed tapping chemistry and temperature for iron casting applications. The melting process within the cupola is highly complex and not well quantified. The American Foundrymen's Society is developing a mathematical model to aid in the understanding of these processes. This model is reaching maturity, and has been successful in estimating a number of melting parameters. This paper details the results of efforts to verify the model in a controlled system, equipped wit the appropriate sensors, for model verification. The work was performed on a research-scale cupola furnace located at the Department of Energy's Albany Research Center.
Network reconfiguration is an operation problem, which entails altering the topological structure of the distribution feeders by rearranging the status of switches in order to obtain an optimal configuration in order to minimise the system losses. This paper presents a new reconfiguration algorithm that enhances voltage stability and improves the voltage profile besides minimising losses without incurring any additional cost for installation of capacitors, tap changing transformers and related switching equipment in the distribution system. Test results on a 69 node distribution system reveal the superiority of this algorithm.
This probabilistic analysis of WIPP TRUDOCK crane failure is based on two sources of failure data. The source for operator errors is the report by Swain and Guttman, NUREG/CR-1278-F, August 1983. The source for crane cable hook breaks was initially made by WIPP/WID-96- 2196, Rev. O by using relatively old (1970s) U.S. Navy data (NUREG-0612). However, a helpful analysis by R.K. Deremer of PLG guided the authors to values that were more realistic and more conservative, with the recommendation that the crane cable/hook failure rate should be 2.5 x 10-6 per demand. This value was adopted and used. Based on these choices a mean failure rate of 9.70 x 10-3(1/yr) was calculated. However, a mean rate by itself does not reveal the level of confidence to be associated with this number. Guidance to making confidence calculations came from the report by Swain and Guttman, who stated that failure data could be described by lognormal distributions. This is ...
An abundance of waste corn, a key food of many wildlife species, has helped make possible the widespread success of wildlife management in the United States over the past half century. We found waste corn post harvest in Nebraska declined by 47% from 1978 to 1998 due primarily to improvements in combine headers resulting in a marked decline in ear loss. The reduction in waste coincided with major declines in fat storage by sandhill cranes and white-fronted geese during spring migration. Sandhill cranes, northern pintails, white-fronted geese, and lesser snow geese avoided soybeans while staging in spring in the Rainwater Basin Area and Central Platte River Valley. These findings and other literature suggest soybeans are a marginal food for wildlife particularly during periods of high energy requirements. Soybean acreage has increased by 600% in the United States since 1950 and now comprises nearly one-quarter of the ...
The shortage of fresh water is increasing at alarming levels, even in temperate zones. Desalination of brackish and seawater is being considered as a solution to growing water demands. Seawater desalination can be accomplished through reverse osmosis, vapor compression, vapor absorption and thermally driven systems. The most suitable process for large-scale desalination plants is successive brine evaporation-condensation with intermediate heat recovery. However, higher process efficiency could be achieved. The use of low temperature heat sources in seawater desalination requires an efficient method of evaporation and condensation at relatively low vapor pressures. This could be achieved in a humidification-dehumidification process using circulated air to enhance evaporation of water. Simulation models, however, neglect either the heat of evaporation or the changes in air and water properties within humidification and condensation towers. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to ...
Atterberg limits, free swell, and hydraulic conductivity tests were conducted to assess how wet-dry cycling affects the plasticity and swell of bentonite, and the hydraulic conductivity of geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs) hydrated with deionized (DI) water (pH 6.5), tap water (pH 6.8), and 0.0125-M CaCl{sub 2} solution (pH 6.2). The plasticity of bentonite hydrated with DI water increased during each wetting cycle, whereas the plasticity of bentonite hydrated with tap water and CaCl{sub 2} decreased during each wetting cycle. Wet-dry cycling in DI water and tap water had little effect on swelling of the bentonite, even after seven wet-dry cycles. However, swelling decreased dramatically after two wetting cycles with CaCl{sub 2} solution. Hydraulic conductivity of GCL specimens remained low during the first four wetting cycles ({approximately}1 x 10{sup {minus}9} cm/s). However, within five to eight cycles, the hydraulic ...
The world's fleet of nuclear power plants is, on average, more than 20 years old. Even though the design life of a nuclear power plant is typically 30-40 years, it is quite feasible that many plants will be able to operate in excess of their design lives, provided that nuclear power plant engineers demonstrate by analysis, trending, equipment and system upgrades, increased vigilance, testing and ageing management that the plant will operate safely. In the operation of nuclear power plants, safety should be always the prime consideration. Plant operators and regulators must always ensure that plant safety is maintained, and where possible enhanced, during a plant's operating lifetime. Nuclear power plant life management (PLiM) has gained increased attention over the past decade, and effective ageing management of systems, structures and components (SSCs) is a key element in PLiM for the safe and reliable long term operation of nuclear power plants. A PLiM programme is an effective tool ...
The United States Department of Energy (U.S. DOE) has recently implemented a series of strategic initiatives to address long-term radiological surveillance needs at former U.S. nuclear test sites in the Marshall Islands. The plan is to engage local atoll communities in developing shared responsibilities for implementing radiation protection monitoring programs for resettled and resettling populations in the northern Marshall Islands. Using the pooled resources of the U.S. DOE and local atoll governments, individual radiological surveillance programs have been developed in whole body counting and plutonium urinalysis in order to accurately assess radiation doses resulting from the ingestion and uptake of fallout radionuclides contained in locally grown foods. Permanent whole body counting facilities have been established at three separate locations in the Marshall Islands including Rongelap Atoll (Figure 1). These facilities are operated and maintained by ...
5.2 Network Security. The features listed below can be used to help safeguard UNIX ...... The LaRCSCAN non-intrusive network security scanner package, ...
... exercises and biotechnology labs and didactic material. It includes sessions on computer and media ... computers, and learn how IPT activities and materials can help meet their curriculum objects ...
Jul 21, 1998 ... Additional roof surface temperatures were taken with a handheld "heat spy," an infrared thermometer to help calibrate the ATLAS thermal ...
Jun 16, 2011 ... The research is part of a team effort to help the hardwood sawmill industry automate with computer vision systems, and computer-aided or ...
... less humans have to do to operate a robot. ... Robots can help human operators with the increase ... important mission outlined by the UUV master plan. ...
star formation. To either side of the center, a small bar of dust and gas is helping to fuel the new stars. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the...
The company reports that with the help of outside companies, they completed all major fixes including high-voltage transmission lines to neighborhood ...
material may survive intact and mix back into interstellar gas clouds, helping to fuel the next generation of stars. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.,...
... of electronic systems (satellite terminals, radio and ... helps organizations investigate the stochastic nature of ... cycle time, maximum queue lengths, and ...
The Model for the Assessment of Psychosocial Problems (MAPP) can help family medicine residents effectively assess patients with psychosocial problems. Following a patient-centred clinical method, MAPP...Full Text Available
Efficiency and Renewable Energy EERE Home | Programs & Offices | Consumer Information Chemicals Search Search Help Chemicals EERE » Industrial Technologies Program » Chemicals...
Chaperones (stress proteins) are essential proteins to help the formation and maintenance of the proper conformation of other proteins and to promote cell survival after a large variety of environmental...Full Text Available
and Renewable Energy EERE Home | Programs & Offices | Consumer Information Geothermal Technologies Program Search Search Help Geothermal Technologies Program HOME ABOUT...
... 2. Help women become accepted by providing job-related training, creating flexible work groups with good climates, and encourage supervisors to ...
Background:People with severe and persistent mental illness need help in most aspects of their lives, as the disability associated with these diseases can be debilitating....Full Text Available
and Renewable Energy EERE Home | Programs & Offices | Consumer Information Geothermal Technologies Program Search Search Help Geothermal Technologies Program HOME ABOUT...
... education. It has fostered development of materials and techniques with the success of all, rather ... with Foundation staff to produce exemplary materials and models to help the nation attain its ...
respectively. This is a NASA and GSFC requirement to help ensure our computer and network security on center. In the near future, ftp access, with the exception of anonymous ftp of...
... very difficult to help get better and to rehabilitate and sometimes even need surgery. 00:04:21 ... step of treatment, from our standpoint, is to rehabilitate, to strengthen the shoulder. And the real key ...
Malformations of the cerebral cortex are recognized as a common cause of developmental delay, neurological deficits, mental retardation and epilepsy. Currently, the diagnosis of cerebral cortical...Full Text Available
Feb 13, 2005 ... Part 8 of a non-mathematical historical review of elementary quantum theory, to help explain processes in the Sun and in stars; part of an ...
To help confirm correct functioning of an epithermal neutron sonde, we measured tightly bonded water content of selected Nevada Test Site (NTS) drill holes. Tuff and alluvium samples were dried overnight at 105/sup 0/C. The samples were then heated for 45 min in a split tube furnace at 700/sup 0/C. The water that came off due to this heating was collected and the amount recorded. The error in this procedure is +- 0.59 wt %. Total water can be calculated for samples from analyses of free and tightly bonded water contents. The maximum error in this calculation is equivalent to the error in determining the more tightly bonded water. Average total water content values have been assigned to geologic units. These values, in weight fraction, are alluvium 0.14 +- .05 and tuff 0.19 +- .04. Further division of the tuff gives values of Rainier Mesa 0.15 +- .01, Paintbrush 0.18 +- .03, Tunnel Beds 0.20 +- .04, and Grouse Canyon 0.29 +- .02. Statistically significant ...
Technology roadmaps serve as pathways to the future. They call attention to future needs for research and development; provide a structure for organizing technology forecasts and programs; and help communicate technological needs and expectations among end users and the research and development (R and D) community. Critical Technology roadmaps, of which the Robotics and Intelligent Machines (RIM) Roadmap is one example, focus on enabling or cross-cutting technologies that address the needs of multiple US Department of Energy (DOE) offices. Critical Technology roadmaps must be responsive to mission needs of the offices; must clearly indicate how the science and technology can improve DOE capabilities; and must describe an aggressive vision for the future of the technology itself. The RIM Roadmap defines a DOE research and development path for the period beginning today, and continuing through the year 2020. Its purpose is to identify, select and develop objectives ...
Amoco Trinidad Oil Company produces 60,000 bbl/d of oil from the Trinidadian offshore. The oil is pipelined ashore where it is processed and returned offshore to a buoy mooring for transport up Trinidad's east coast. Amoco Trinidad has developed comprehensive oil spill contingency plans, starting from computer models of spill scenarios. The models used initially assumed that the oils would emulsify quickly and the spills would become highly viscous and persistent, reaching the shoreline in 15-24 h. Such behavior would render ineffective the use of dispersants as a spill countermeasure. Studies showed a poor potential capability of physical recovery systems for spills off the Trinidad east coast due to high sea states, strong winds, and other factors. These results led to questioning of the spill model's assumptions, and laboratory tests were conducted to study the actual behavior of the crude oils. It was found that the oil was difficult to emulsify and highly ...
The isostructural #gamma#-#alpha# phase transition of Ce which occurs at 8 kbar has been studied by means of fully self-consistent (non-muffin-tin potential) linearized-augmented-plane-wave energy band calculations carried out for five different values of the lattice constant. In contradiction to the 4f electron promotional model of the transition, the results yield essentially one 4f electron to be occupied in each phase but with the 4f wave function somewhat less localized, and therefore more bandlike, in the ''collapsed'' #alpha# phase. A singly occupied 4f state is shown to be consistent with the available experimental data. These results strongly support the picture of a 4f localized bold-arrow-left-right itinerant transition at the #gamma#-#alpha# transition and conflict with the promotional model in which some fraction of 4f electrons are transferred to the sd conduction bands. The weaker bonding of the 4f electrons, compared to that of the 6s-5d valence ...
The subject document reports the results of an in-depth investigation of the fiscal year 1993 cost of the city of Springfield, Massachusetts, integrated municipal solid waste management (IMSWM) system, the energy consumed to operate the system, and the environmental performance requirements for each of the system`s waste-processing and disposal facilities. The document reports actual data from records kept by participants. Every effort was made to minimize the use of assumptions, and no attempt is made to interpret the data reported. Analytical approaches are documented so that interested analysts may perform manipulation or further analysis of the data. As such, the report is a reference document for Municipal Solid Waste management professionals who are interested in the actual costs and energy consumption, for a 1-year period, of an operating IMSWM system. The report is organized into two main parts. The first part is the executive summary and case study portion of the report. The ...
The US Department of Energy (DOE) is preparing to perform significant remediation activities of the sites for which it is responsible. To accomplish this, it is preparing a corporate global plan focused on activities over the next decade. Significant in these planned activities is the transportation of the waste arising from the remediation. The costs of this transportation are expected to be large. To support the initial assessment of the plan, a cost estimating model was developed, peer-reviewed against other available packaging and transportation cost data, and applied to a significant number of shipping campaigns of radioactive waste. This cost estimating model, known as the Ten-year Plan Transportation Cost Model (TEPTRAM), can be used to model radioactive material shipments between DOE sites or from DOE sites to non-DOE destinations. The model considers the costs for (a) recovering and processing of the wastes, (b)packaging the wastes for transport, and (c) the carriage of the ...
In 2009 the European Space Agency satellite mission GOCE (Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer) was launched. Its objectives are the precise and detailed determination of the Earth's gravity field and geoid. Its core instrument, a three axis gravitational gradiometer, measures the gravity gradient components V xx , V yy , V zz and V xz (second-order derivatives of the gravity potential V) with high precision and V xy , V yz with low precision, all in the instrument reference frame. The long wavelength gravity field is recovered from the orbit, measured by GPS (Global Positioning System). Characteristic elements of the mission are precise star tracking, a Sun-synchronous and very low (260 km) orbit, angular control by magnetic torquing and an extremely stiff and thermally stable instrument environment. GOCE is complementary to GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment), another satellite gravity mission, launched in 2002. While ...
The status of Monte Carlo system for the simulation of Bremsstrahlung in arbitrary decays and for the decay itself of #tau# -lepton is reviewed. During the last #tau# -lepton conference in 2010 several developments of the last two years have been presented: (i) For the TAUOLA Monte Carlo generator of #tau# -lepton decays, automated and simultaneous use of many versions of form-factors for the calculation of optional weights for fits was developed and checked to work in Belle and BaBar software environment. On-going work on alternative parameterizations of hadronic decays is presented too. (ii) The TAUOLA universal interface based on HepMC (the C++ event record) is now public. A similar interface for PHOTOS is now also public. (iii) Extension of PHOTOS Monte Carlo for QED Bremsstrahlung in decays featuring kernels based on complete first order matrix element are gradually becoming widely available thanks to properties of the new, HepMC based interface. (iv) Tests of the programs ...
Recycling and disposal of spent sodium-sulfur (Na/S) batteries are important issues that must be addressed as part of the commercialization process of Na/S battery-powered electric vehicles. The use of Na/S batteries in electric vehicles will result in significant environmental benefits, and the disposal of spent batteries should not detract from those benefits. In the United States, waste disposal is regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Understanding these regulations will help in selecting recycling and disposal processes for Na/S batteries that are environmentally acceptable and cost effective. Treatment processes for spent Na/S battery wastes are in the beginning stages of development, so a final evaluation of the impact of RCRA regulations on these treatment processes is not possible. The objectives of tills report on battery recycling and disposal are as follows: Provide an overview of RCRA regulations and ...
Strong perpendicular anisotropy systems consisting of Co/Pt multilayer stacks that are antiferromagnetically coupled via thin Ru or NiO layers have been used as model systems to study the competition between local interlayer exchange and long-range dipolar interactions [1,2]. Magnetic Force Microscopy (MFM) studies of such systems reveal complex magnetic configurations with a mix of antiferromagnetic (AF) and ferromagnetic (FM) phases. However, MFM allows detecting surface stray fields only and can interact strongly with the magnetic structure of the sample, thus altering the original domain configuration of interest [3,4]. In the current study they combine magnetometry and state-of-the-art soft X-ray transmission microscopy (MXTM) to investigate the external field driven FM phase evolution originating from the domain boundaries in such antiferromagnetically coupled perpendicular anisotropy films. MXTM allows directly imaging the perpendicular component of the ...
Purpose - The service-dominant (S-D) logic views supply chains as value co-creation networks. These networks promote knowledge growth amongst network members via resource deployment and coordination. The exchange of knowledge and utilization of operant resources among the network members leads to co-created service offerings and value proposals for the end-users, with the ultimate goal of transforming end-user experiences to perceptions of superior value-in-use. The purpose of this paper is to develop an illustration of the value co-creation concept and use this illustration as guide to examine the research gaps that are yet to be tapped in the area where supply chain networks and S-D logic intersects. Design/methodology/approach - The literature on S-D logic is reviewed and research gaps ...
During the normal operation of a Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), radioactive releases into the atmosphere will be in small quantities. During major accidental situations, though the probability is extremely small, there may be significant release of radioactivity to the environment through the stack or at ground level. To study the external radiation exposure, if any, to the members of public due to releases during the normal operation of a nuclear power plant (NPP) and also to meet the requirement of emergency preparedness for the NPP site, continuous recording and analysis of environmental dose rate data is essential. This paper presents analysis of the gamma dose rates recorded by the Environmental Dose Logging Systems (EDLS) installed around the site during the last six years in the Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ) of Tarapur Atomic Power Station (TAPS). (author)
A fusion reactor (such as NET/ITER) which breeds its own tritium fuel requires tritium recovery, purification and separation from the other isotopes. Cyclic adsorption processes are strong candidates for several of the processes involved: amongst other advantages, they promise a low tritium inventory. A good adsorbent for such processes must have high adsorption capacity, high selectivity and very low tritium retention after each cycle. Pure zeolite powder is shown to have an excellent combination of these three properties. However, in practice problems can arise from tritium which is not removed by reactivation. In this paper we show that tritium retention in zeolites can be caused either by water retained in the zeolite structure, which can be removed by ore rigorous activation, or by water tapped on binders in commercial pellets. (orig.).
This paper consists the radiation streaming analysis of Horizontal Flux Unit (HFU) penetrations in Calandria Vault of 540 MWe PHWR. There are total 7 HFU penetrations on west wall of calandria vault. As these penetrations are in accessible area, a detailed analysis has been carried out to find the neutron and gamma dose rates around these penetrations when reactor is operating. Analysis has been carried out Using the computer code MCNP and DOT-III. Based on the predictions at HFU penetrations, shielding arrangement was recommended. Neutron and gamma dose rate higher than estimated were observed at TAPS-4. This was because of installed shield not being similar to recommended one due to site conditions. Subsequently semi-empirical calculations using measured data were carried out by MCNP to further augment the existing shield taking into consideration the space limitations at site. (author)
A sample of 30 manganese-exposed foundry workers from two Swedish plants were examined with a partly computerized psychological test battery, comprised of 10 performance tests. Performance of the manganese-exposed workers was compared to that of a matched control group of 60 workers. Matching criteria were age, geographical area, type of work, and the results on a test of verbal comprehension. Performance of the exposed workers was inferior to that of the control group on tests of simple reaction time, digit span, and finger tapping. No correlations were found between performance and the present manganese exposure levels or the number of years employed in manganese work. The results seem to indicate that the present exposure standards for manganese, in Sweden 2.5 mg/m3 and in most other countries 5 mg/m3, are not sufficient to protect workers from negative effects on performance capacity.
BARC has organized an international round robin analysis program to carry out the ultimate load capacity assessment of BARC containment (BARCOM) test model. The test model located in BARC facilities Tarapur, is a 1:4 scale representation of 540 MWe pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR) pre-stressed concrete inner containment structure of Tarapur Atomic Power Station (TAPS) unit 3 and 4. The features of the BARCOM test model and the constitutive data for the pre-test analysis along with the comparison of the results submitted by various participants are described in this pre-test report of the round robin analysis of BARCOM test model
Combined gas and steam turbine processes based on direct coal firing show a high thermal efficiency. At RWTH Aachen, University of Technology, an experimental test furnace has been built to investigate the pressurized pulverized coal combustion (PPCC). The PPCC-facility has been constructed as a slag tap furnace. Particles hitting the walls at temperatures above the melting point cause slagging depositions and create a film flowing down the reactor walls. As a part of the PPCC-program different mathematical models have been developed and implemented into the CFD-code FLUENT to predict the behavior of slag films at the furnace walls. Numerical strategies and the mathematical models used are described in detail. 12 refs., 9 figs.
Remote, offshore gas reserves have long been a challenging deepwater petroleum resource to tap. Natural gas in many offshore regions is plentiful, but lacks access to the market because of the logistical challenges and costs. Most large offshore gas discoveries are capped, and gas associated with oil production is re-injected into the reservoir or is flared. A more attractive option is to convert the gas into a liquid product on a floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel. However, some conventional process technologies are not well suited for operation on floating vessels that are highly space and weight constrained and may challenge vessel stability during inclement weather. Microchannel process technology units under development offer intensified processes that are suit...
The perceptual center (P-center) is fundamental to the timing of heterogeneous event sequences, including music and speech. Unfortunately, there is currently no comprehensive and reliable model of P-centers in acoustic events, so P-centers must instead be measured empirically. This study reviews existing measurement methods and evaluates two methods in detail?the rhythm adjustment method and a new method based on the phase correction response (PCR) in a synchronous tapping task. The two methods yielded consistent P-center estimates and showed no evidence of P-center context dependence. The PCR method appears promising because it is accurate and efficient and does not require explicit perceptual judgments. As a secondary result, the magnitude of the PCR is shown to vary systematically with ...
The largest outbreak of cryptosporidiosis reported in the United Kingdom, involving 575 confirmed cases (of which 474 met an agreed case definition), occurred in the county of Devon during August and September of 1995. The descriptive epidemiology supports the hypothesis that the outbreak was associated with the consumption of cold tap water in the area served by a particular water treatment works. Cryptosporidium oocysts were detected in treated water samples at the time of the outbreak. Although the epidemiological analysis provided strong circumstantial evidence of a waterborne outbreak, the data were not recorded in a manner that made them admissible in criminal proceedings taken by the Drinking Water Inspectorate against the water company involved. The need to carry out an analytical study in conjunction with the identification and characterisation of the pathogen in the drinking water and the practicalities of agreeing criteria for lifting a 'boil water' ...
The geothermal resources of the Green River basin were investigated. Oil-well bottom-hole temperatures, thermal logs of wells, and heat flow data have been interpreted within a framework of geologic and hydrologic constraints. Basic thermal data, which includes the background thermal gradient and the highest recorded temperature and corresponding depth is tabulated. It was concluded that large areas are underlain by water at temperatures greater than 120/sup 0/F. Although much of this water is too deep to be economically tapped solely for geothermal use, oil and gas wells presently provide access to this significant geothermal resource. Isolated areas with high temperature gradients exist. These areas - many revealed by hot springs - represent geothermal systems which might presently be developed economically. 34 refs., 11 figs., 8 tabs. (ACR)
The economic benefits of supplemental fuel injections depend, in part, on the coke replacement ratio. An assessment of the accuracy with which blast furnace coke rate may be measured and a determination of the key drivers of coke rate uncertainty are offered, to provide guidance for experiments in high-rate gas injection. Using statistical analysis tools, an expression for the measurement error associated with the various terms of blast furnace carbon balance is developed. Coke rate calculations based on the material balance are most sensitive to coke carbon content and to proper tracking of hot metal tapping schedule.
In Tarapur Atomic Power Station unit-3 and 4, which is 540 MWe pressurized heavy water reactor, tritium is produced in primary heat transport system and moderator system. Tritium is a major contributor to the internal dose. Internal dose contributes about 30% of the collective dose. Internal dose monitoring and its control are important to control the collective dose. Estimation of internal dose is done by analysis of bioassay samples of radiation workers. In a month, about 7000 bioassay samples are analysed for the internal dose assessment during normal operation, and about 12000 during the biennial shut down of the reactor. To enhance the sample preparation and counting performance, minimize the entry errors and reduce the processing time, barcode based label generation system was developed for the internal dose monitoring. This paper discusses about the use of barcode system in the internal dose monitoring at TAPS 3 and 4. (author)
Some models anticipate that liberalized agricultural trade will lead to increased crop diversity, while other models make the opposite claim. These positions were explored in southwestern British Columbia, Canada where, between 1992 and 1998, government subsidies and other measures designed to protect horticultural farmers were lifted, exposing these farmers to foreign competition. Public hearings on the future of agriculture provided an opportunity to tap the knowledge and experience of people affected by this transition. Analysis of transcripts from these hearings, which was confirmed by industry data, shows that trade liberalization has led to the loss of the local fruit and vegetable processing industry. Stakeholders saw the loss as a major factor affecting the choice of crops grown lo...
Solar cells consisting of polymer layers sandwiched between a transparent electrode on glass and a metal top electrode are studied using dynamic time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) in dual-beam mode. Because depth profiling of polymers and polymer-metal stacks is a relatively new field the craters were thoroughly investigated by environmental SEM (ESEM), interferometry, surface profilometry and tapping mode AFM. A huge increase in crater bottom roughness was observed when starting from the aluminum top layer going in depth, resulting in a loss of depth resolution. It is shown that layer-to-layer diffusion and contaminants at buried interfaces can be extracted from the depth profiles when taking into account the loss of depth resolution.
This paper describes research and development presently being conducted on oil-fired space and tap water heating systems by the Advanced Combustion Technology Group, CCRL/ERL/CANMET, in Ottawa, Canada. The presentation will focus on R&D activities at CCRL in support of the Canadian Oil Heat Association (COHA) and of the energy policy initiatives of Natural Resources Canada. Progress will be reported on activities to develop suitable oil-fired integrated systems to satisfy the low energy demands of new homes. The utilization of fuzzy logic-based control heating systems including fan coils for a complete range of old and new North American housing will be discussed. Additional activities to be discussed in the presentation will relate to the development of appropriate seasonal efficiency standards for complex integrated space/water heating systems, as well as an evaluation of alternative sidewall venting technologies and their implications for seasonal energy ...
Tarapur Atomic Power Station, Unit 3 and 4 is located on the West Coast of the Arabian Sea near the existing Tarapur Atomic Power Station Unit 1 and 2. The nearest railway station is Boisar at a distance of 12 km from the site, which is on the main Western Railway Mumbai-Delhi route. The site is well connected by road and is about 30 Km from Mumbai-Ahmedabad National Highway-NH-8. The paper describes the land acquisition and rehabilitisation of the affected families, importance of project in the western grid, how it works, working principles of PHWR, principle of operation, major components/equipment, important systems, safety features, and waste management
The ammoxidation of propane over VSb{sub y}O{sub x} catalysts (y=1, 2, 5) was investigated with respect to the role of different oxygen species in the selective and non selective reaction steps using transient experiments in the Temporal Analysis of Products (TAP) reactor. Only lattice oxygen is involved in the oxidation reactions. Using isotopic labelled oxygen it is shown that two different active sites exist on the surface. On site A, which can be reoxidized faster by gas phase oxygen compared to site B, mainly CO is formed. On site B CO{sub 2} and acrolein as well as NO and N{sub 2}O in the presence of ammonia in the feed gas are formed and reoxidation mainly occurs with bulk lattice oxygen. (orig.)
A study on the distribution of "1"3"7Cs in coastal waters up to a distance of 15 km was undertaken for a decade (1995-2004) and observed that the activity has reduced by 15-20 fold. Statistical and trend analysis was carried out to resolve the contribution of different facilities at a distance of 5 km (north and south) from the discharge point by log normal probability analysis and found that at 5 km south, the median value of "1"3"7Cs due to TAPS and FRP discharges were 3.7 mBq/l and 1.50 mBq/l respectively. The observed levels of "1"3"7Cs are of no consequences from the point of view of dose to members of the public. (author)
Philosophical semantics requires an ontology that includes negative as well as positive states of affairs as truth-makers and truth-breakers. Theories that try to do without negative states of affairs while interpreting propositional truth as positive correspondence with existent states of affairs are inherently inadequate and incomplete. A semantics and ontology of negative states of affairs can also do justice to positive states of affairs, since the iterated negative state of affairs that a negative state of affairs exists describes a positive state of affairs, but the iterated positive state of affairs that a positive state of affairs exists never describes a negative state of affairs. Negative states of affairs are not only essential ...
Ulrich in the forward to the Zenger and Folkman (2002) book, ''The Extraordinary Leader'', wrote about the importance of character in leadership stating, ''Everything about great leaders radiates from character. Character improves the probability of exhibiting strong interpersonal skill. Some of this perceived character is innate . . . but more is driven by the leader's self-awareness and interactions with others'' (p. ix). The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between leadership effectiveness and character using leader-managers of knowledge workers as the subject sample. Findings indicated that character, particularly those factors associated with honesty, setting the example, and valuing and strengthening others, were what set the most effective leader-managers apart from their peers. Technical competence and self-efficacy were found to be common characteristics ...
DescriptionProgramme background Nanotechnology is the design and manufacture of substances typically between one and several hundred billionths of a metre in size. In this size range the properties of substances can change quite radically, offering potentially large socio-economic, health and environmental benefits. For example, nanofuel additives could help reduce emissions and particles from diesel engines. Nanoparticles may also be able to help remove persistent pollutants in soils and groundwaters. Th [continued...
Tarapur Atomic Power Station Unit-4 is first 540 MWe pressurized heavy water reactor in India. It achieved criticality on 06th March 2005 and then operated at full power i.e 500 MWe. Radiation workers during the normal operation and reactor shutdown are exposed to radiation field. The control of dose rates and the collective dose of the radiation workers is most important for the best performance of the reactor. Experience gained during the operation of the 220 MWe reactors has shown that the Moderator system, primary heat transport system, annulus gas system and moderator cover gas system are the main systems contributing to the dose rate and collective dose. In order to identify the radio nuclides contributing to the radiation field, study was undertaken at TAPS Unit-4. Various samples from the Moderator, primary heat transport system, annulus gas system and moderator cover gas system were collected and analysed for the spectrometric analysis. This paper ...
There are 110 million people in Sichuan Province, China. Although most of the people in cities of Sichuan use river water, which contains low levels of radon, as potable water, people in countryside and in some communities of big cities still use well water as domestic consumption. This paper reports the radon concentrations in well water investigated in four cities, i.e. Chengdu, Chongqing, Leshan and Leijiang in Sichuan Province. Of the 80 wells investigated, the radon concentrations range from 3.5 to 181.6 KBqm"-"3. Of the four cities, Chongqing has the highest well water radon concentration with the average 49.6 #+-# 54.1 KBqm"-"3 and the greatest variation. The investigation in four cities showed that the radon concentrations in well water are much higher than that in tap-water. In Chongqing where there are complex geological structures, mainly granite stratum, for example, the average radon concentration in well water is 112 times higher than that in the ...
A novel continuous powder introduction microwave-induced plasma atomic emission spectrometry method (CPI-MIP-AES) has been developed for trace determination of metals in ground and tap water samples after preconcentration on activated carbon. The experimental setup consisted of integrated rectangular cavity TE_1_0_1 and vertically positioned plasma torch. The technical arrangement of the sample introduction system has been designed based on the fluidized bed concept. The satisfactory signal stability required for sequential analysis was attained owing to the vertical plasma configuration, as well as the plasma gas flow rate compatibility with sample introduction flow rate. The elements of interest (Cd, Cu, Cr, Fe, Mn, Pb, Zn) were preconcentrated in a batch procedure at pH 8-8.5 after addition of activated carbon and then, after filtering and drying of the activated carbon suspension, introduced to the MIP by the CPI system. An enrichment factor of about 1000-fold ...
The results of experiments received on the plasma focus (PF) device with energy stored equal 4 kJ are represented. Photos of the current plasma sheath (CPS), pre-pinch, sphere-like plasma formations are produced with help of the electron-optical converter contained a gated micro-channel plate (MCP) and the CCD-camera imaging system in the visible region. The redial velocity of the CPS is about 107 cm/s. Neon plasma electron density measured with help of the interferograms in the visible region and the spectra in the soft X-ray region is equals to 3?1018 cm-3. Electron temperature is equal to about 200 eV. Discharge integral photos were obtained with help of the soft X-ray pinhole camera. Pictures with 2 ?s resolution of the plasma luminescence above PF anode region were made by CCD-camera.
Parents who contacted 1 of 15 children?s mental health agencies in Ontario, Canada reported on where and why they were seeking mental health services for their 4- to 17-year-old children. Parents contacted?an average of four agencies (?1.7; range?=?1?14) in the previous year. Approximately one-half of parents were looking for either multiple types of treatment, or help for different problems, across agencies. The complex pattern of help-seeking evidenced in our study likely increases the burden on the mental health care system and on families, and may reduce the likelihood that families will connect with the most appropriate treatment.
Following the Hungerford Massacre the British Government imposed additional strict firearms legislation in 1988 that involved several classes of arms being placed into the prohibited category. By way of compensation a scheme was introduced to allow the unrestricted possession and transfer of the newly prohibited arms, other firearms and "prohibited weapons", if de-activated to a standard acceptable to the Secretary of State. Approved standards for firearm de-activation were drawn up in 1989. The inspection of the de-activated arms was devolved to the two Gun Barrel Proof Houses at London and Birmingham, as otherwise the task of inspecting the thousands of guns involved would have overloaded the firearms section at the Huntingdon Forensic Science Service Laboratory, who were already dealing with criminal firearms cases submitted by 41 of the 43 police forces throughout England and Wales, as well as providing technical assistance to the Home Office and Government ...
Because of past military operations, lack of upkeep and looting there are now enormous radioactive waste problems in Iraq. These waste problems include destroyed nuclear facilities, uncharacterized radioactive wastes, liquid radioactive waste in underground tanks, wastes related to the production of yellow cake, sealed radioactive sources, activated metals and contaminated metals that must be constantly guarded. Iraq currently lacks the trained personnel, regulatory and physical infrastructure to safely and securely manage these facilities and wastes. In 2005 the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) agreed to organize an international cooperative program to assist Iraq with these issues. Soon after, the Iraq Nuclear Facility Dismantlement and Disposal Program (the NDs Program) was initiated by the U.S. Department of State (DOS) to support the IAEA and assist the Government of Iraq (GOI) in eliminating the threats from poorly controlled radioactive materials. ...
The main purpose of this report is to document the benchmarking results and verification of the RESRAD-OFFSITE code as part of the quality assurance requirements of the RESRAD development program. This documentation will enable the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its contractors, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and its licensees and other stakeholders to use the quality-assured version of the code to perform dose analysis in a risk-informed and technically defensible manner to demonstrate compliance with the NRC's License Termination Rule, Title 10, Part 20, Subpart E, of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR Part 20, Subpart E); DOE's 10 CFR Part 834, Order 5400.5, ''Radiation Protection of the Public and the Environment''; and other Federal and State regulatory requirements as appropriate. The other purpose of this report is to document the differences and similarities between the RESRAD ...
A Z-plasty is a critical and reliable technique that is useful for scar revisions and correction of free margin distortion. A Z-plasty can help lengthen a contracted scar, change the direction of a...Full Text Available
Patient decision support systems have a promising role in the delivery of health care. However, the best approach for further development of these systems is a matter of speculation. To help chart a...Full Text Available
Overview Package  Class Use Tree Deprecated Index Help  PREV CLASS  NEXT CLASS FRAMES   NO FRAMES SUMMARY:  INNER | FIELD | CONSTR | METHOD DETAIL:  FIELD | CONSTR | METHOD gov.nih.nci.dc.database Class SearchCriteria java.lang.Object |
This presentation from the 2006 PTEC Conference presents education research on topics in thermodynamics. Student responses to conceptual thermodynamics questions, and the conceptions they reveal, are presented. Tutorial materials developed to help students gain a better understanding of the topic are also presented.
The disulfide-reduced form of bovine ribonuclease A (RNAse A), with the Cys thiols irreversibly blocked, was characterized by small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS). To help resolve the conflicting...Full Text Available
... M. Taylor, T. Kurt Kyser. (2009) Feather isotope analysis discriminates age-classes of Western, Least, and Semipalmated sandpipers when plumage ... ...
Adhesive tape is often used to help athletes recover from ligament sprains of the ankle or to prevent further injury. The choice of taping technique or material is often decided by personal preference,...Full Text Available
Quality reporting tools, integrated with ambulatory electronic health records, can help clinicians and administrators understand performance, manage populations, and improve quality. Report Central...Full Text Available
especially since your attack several years ago. I was wondering, in the wake of WikiLeaks, what the Estonians can help the U.S. with in terms of developing an - as...
Jul 17, 2008 ... The first version uses a red-green-blue filter; the second, an infrared-green- blue. Videos credit: Donald J. Lindler, Sigma Space Corporation/GSFC; ... The video will help us connect a varying point of planetary light ...
Israel has faced the challenge presented by epidemic poliomyelitis by using different immunization strategies. In the 1950s, inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) helped to reduce the total burden of...Full Text Available
Preventing tobacco use in youths may be an easier task than helping adults break the habit of smoking and overcome its ill effects. Using experimental procedures based on social work techniques,...Full Text Available
Feb 24, 2000 ... NASA computer experts have been using a supercomputer to improve the NASA/ DeBakey miniature heart assist pump, leading to on-going human ...
The European Union's proposed multinational market in carbon dioxide emissions faces many design challenges. Helpful lessons could be learnt from the US experience of trading nitrogen oxide allowances. 2 figs.
Mitochondrial heat shock protein 70 (mtHSP70) is found to play a primary role in cellular defense against physiological stress like exposure to environmental contaminants and helpful in the maintenance...Full Text Available
BackgroundModeling of a complex biological process can explain the results of experimental studies and help predict its characteristics. Among such processes is transcription in...Full Text Available
Metallic O-ring or Helicoflex seals can prevent relaxation and provide greater resilience than composite seals, helping to keep joints leaktight. Their characteristics and applications in the nuclear industry are outlined. (Author).
The lifetime of technical constructions is determined by many factors. Technical, operational and technological aspects all help to define the term 'lifetime'. Examples from practical operation of steam turbines are considered for a discussion of 'lifetime', and methods of analysis are described. (TK/AK).
BackgroundImproving the understanding of childhood malarial anaemia may help in the design of appropriate management strategies.MethodsA...Full Text Available
The computational fluid dynamics methods for the limited flow rate and the small dimensions of an intracranial artery stenosis may help demonstrate the stroke mechanism in intracranial atherosclerosis....Full Text Available
Understanding foreign speech is difficult, in part because of unusual mappings between sounds and words. It is known that listeners in their native language can use lexical knowledge (about how words...Full Text Available
Trypanothione reductase (TryR) is a key enzyme involved in the oxidative stress management of the Trypanosoma and Leishmania parasites, which helps to maintain an intracellular reducing environment...Full Text Available
BackgroundThiazolidinediones (TZDs) activate peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) and are used clinically to help restore peripheral insulin sensitivity...Full Text Available
BackgroundSupplementation of nutritional deficiencies helps to improve immune function and resistance to infections in malnourished subjects. However, the suggested benefits of dietary...Full Text Available
The most commonly studied laboratory rodents possess a specialized form of fat called brown adipose tissue (BAT) that generates heat to help maintain body temperature in cold environments. In...Full Text Available
A case of multifocal Langerhans cell histiocytosis in a two-year-old child is presented where fine needle aspiration was helpful in achieving a rapid and accurate diagnosis in an appropriate clinical...Full Text Available
BackgroundThis study investigated the knowledge of depression and preference for professional help, medications and treatment methods among Australians of Chinese-speaking background,...Full Text Available
Definition of the T-lymphocyte responses to dengue viruses should aid in the development of safe and effective vaccines and help to explain the pathophysiology of dengue hemorrhagic fever and dengue...Full Text Available
... a priority for each of us in the Division of Materials Research. We especially regard the timely ... to stakeholders why our investment in materials research is essential. We request your help in DMR ...
... Search Help? Coping with Test Pain, Discomfort, and Anxiety Introduction | Be Prepared | Know Your Tests | Relax | Conclusion ... though they may feel some embarrassment, discomfort, or anxiety at the outset. If undergoing medical tests makes ...
The goal of community-based services for frail older patients is to help them achieve the greatest degree of functional ability and independence. The services available include case management, geriatric...Full Text Available
child becomes unresponsive, stops breathing, or turns blue: Shout for help. Give infant CPR. Call 911 after one minute of CPR. If you can SEE the object blocking the airway, try...
subject to a learning curve which should help to lessen the user's time at KSC. An MMSE Payload Handling Fixture has ...... (F4.I ASSlUN IASILlM.ny.CTC I ...
Brownfields redevelopment contributes to the revitalization of communities across the U.S. Reuse of these abandoned, contaminated sites spurs economic growth, builds community pride, protects public health, and helps maintain our nation's "greenfields," often at a relatively low ...
home when you are sick helps everyone you care about Questions & Answers Flu Vaccine: Q&A Vaccine Dosage & Administration Vaccine Supply for 2011-12 Season Vaccine Supply and...
home when you are sick helps everyone you care about Questions & Answers Flu Vaccine: Q&A Vaccine Dosage & Administration Vaccine Supply for 2011-12 Season Vaccine Supply and...
home when you are sick helps everyone you care about Questions & Answers Flu Vaccine: Q&A Vaccine Dosage & Administration Vaccine Supply for 2011-12 Season Vaccine Supply and...
Patients do considerable information work. Technologies that help patients manage health information so they can play active roles in their health-care, such as personal health records, provide...Full Text Available
ObjectiveThis study was conducted to evaluate a computer-imaging program called HAAIR (Help with Adjustment to Alopecia by Image Recovery) that was developed to provide...Full Text Available
BackgroundImproving nutrition knowledge among children may help them to make healthier food choices. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness and acceptability of a...Full Text Available
...8Eligibility Criteria: Emotional/Behavioral Disorders Guidance for Paragraph...at-risk for emotional/behavioral disorders and their parents to help...Evaluation Team for Emotional/behavioral Disorders: Psychologist,...
The Schmidt decomposition is an important tool in the study of quantum systems especially for the quantification of the entanglement of pure states. However, the Schmidt decomposition is only unique for bipartite pure states, and {\\it some} multipartite pure states. Here a generalized Schmidt decomposition is given for a class of mixed quantum states. It is shown that it shares some desirable properties with its pure-state counterpart, but lacks some properties which make the pure-state decomposition so important. Experimental methods for the identification of this class of mixed states are provided and some examples are discussed which show the utility of this description.
Nuclear forensics aims at identifying origin and intended use of nuclear material using information inherent to the nuclear material.The information gathered in nuclear forensics include isotopic composition, elemental composition, impurities and age of the material, macroscopic appearance and microstructure. The information so collected helps to solve criminal cases and put the individuals involved in nuclear trafficking in jails. The information also helps to improve safeguards and physical protection measures at place of theft or diversion to prevent future thefts or diversions.
A pair of bundles is placed in a shuttle tube, which is enclosed by a carriage tube kept inside the Shuttle Transfer Station (STS). It takes about 90 minutes for the spent fuel bundles to travel from the reactor channel to Transfer Magazine (TM). Subsequently, the dry transfer operation takes about 4 minutes. An emergency air cooling flow rate of 600 m3/hr is supplied to cool the spent fuel bundles after they reach the STS, following lapse of 4 minutes of spent fuel dry transfer, in case the bundles are not submerged in the light water in STS. A thermal and hydraulic safety analysis has been done to estimate the maximum sheath temperature, if the spent fuel bundles are stuck at a location of 30 mm below the normal location aligned to the TM port. This position of the spent fuel will have least cooling from the emergency cooling airflow. At the same time, the shuttle tube carrying the spent fuel bundle is just above the water. From the analysis it has been concluded that peak clad ...
The RESF is utilized for storage of spent fuel under emergency conditions as well as for testing of FM heads. It receives cooling supply from the PHT Pressurizing pumps and after removal of decay heat from the spent fuel it goes to the D2O Storage Tank. The geometry of the RESF system is such that it can not sustain the thermosyphon loop during SBO, due to high frictional forces. To achieve the sustained thermosyphon, modifications in the design were suggested viz., removal of the steam trap and the relief valve above it and replacement by a solenoid valve (SV-16). In the event of SBO, SV-16 will open on 'RESF channel temperature high' signal and connect to FT D2O tank. The tank, being at atmospheric pressure and at lower elevation, will provide higher cooling flow rate through the RESF channel. D2O is periodically removed from the FT D2O tank by operating a Class-II pump intermittently. The analysis was done for the modified RESF system configuration to estimate the flow rate through ...
The search for alternative energy supplies continues since the oil crisis of 1973. One energy vector is dihydrogen, H_2. Of the group VI hydrides, water has been the focus of most studies in harnessing solar energy and generating H_2. Two basic photochemical strategies have been employed: molecular photocatalytic systems, and semiconductor based photocatalytic systems. The results have not met with the euphoric expectations of the mid-1970's because of the difficulties encountered in H_2O splitting (E"0 S"2 "-/S = + 0.51 eV, NHE) is another vehicle tapped as a potential source of H_2. Heterogeneous photocatalysis utilizing semiconductor particulates and sunlight as the photon source has been successful with interesting quantum efficiencies. To this end, novel photocatalytic devices have been developed; one of these uses two coupled semiconductors to achieve vectorial displacement of the photogenerated reducing and oxidizing equivalents. An important area in which ...
This paper consists of shielding analysis of steel balls and water filled end shields of Indian Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs). The material composition inside lattice tube is entirely different neutronically as compared with the composition of end-shield. Due to variation of material composition in radial and axial directions and complex geometry, it is necessary to carry out 3-D analysis for reasonable prediction of neutron flux and gamma dose rates. In the present paper, shielding analysis of end-shield for 540 MWe PHWR has been carried out during reactor operating and shutdown conditions using Monte-Carlo code MCNP. Furthermore materials on the periphery and central portion of end shield are different. Therefore the analysis was carried out separately for annular portion and central portion of end shield. The dominating streaming paths through end shields were studied. Predictions compare well with the measurements at TAPS-4 reactor. (author)
At Tarapur Atomic Power Station 3 and 4, 540 MWe Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors, core being large in size requires a continuous in core monitoring for local flux disturbances. Nearly 200 Self Powered Neutron Detectors (SPNDs) of the Straight Individually Replaceable (SIR) type are distributed in the reactor core. For purpose of reactor regulation and protection, cobalt SPNDs that have a prompt response for changes in power is used for in-core flux mapping, vanadium SPNDs that provide accurate measure of neutron flux, even though having slow response is used In core SPNDs are placed in Vertical Flux Units (VFU) and Horizontal Flux Units (HFUs). These SPNDs were to be replaced at regular intervals to meet the design intent. Cobalt SPNDs have dose rates of the order of 1000 Gy/h and the Mineral Insulated (MI) cables of Vanadium SPNDs have dose rates of the order of 100 Gy/h. So far 3 Cobalt SPNDs were removed from HFUs and are being stored in lead shielding inside spent fuel storage ...
After confirming that residual chlorine in tap water, which is regarded as one of the major cause of pitting corrosion, can be decomposed/removed by the irradiation of UV light, effect of dechlorinated water obtained based on this principle on the prevention of pitting corrosion, generation and growth, of the copper tubing was investigated by a corrosion test simulated the actual system in high buildings. (1) Low pressure type mercury lamp easily decompose/remove the residual chlorine. (2) If the dechlorinated water is supplied from the initial stage of copper tube usage, potential of the copper tube remains at the level of 100 mV/SCE and the generation of pitting corrosion is not observed. (3) Even when pitting corrosion is already found, switching to dechlorinated water in the midway reduces the potential of the copper tube down to 50 - 70 mV level, at the same time completely restricting the growth of the pitting corrosion. (15 figs, 9 refs)
A new method for the preconcentration and determination of trace amounts of lead at the {mu}g/L level in natural waters has been established based on the formation of the thenoyltrifluoroacetone (TTA) complex with dibenzo-18-crown-6 (DB18C6) by means of synergistic extraction and back-extraction combined with atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). The effect of various factors (synergism with TTA and DB18C6, shaking time, preconcentration factor, composition of the extracted species, and foreign ions etc.) on the extraction and back-extraction of lead has been investigated in detail. The lead-TTA chelate in o-dichlorobenzene forms a stable adduct with DB18C6 as Pb(TTA){sub 2} DB18C6. The stability constant ({beta}) of the adduct determined by curve fitting method was log {beta} = 4.2. The amount of lead in natural waters such as tap water (Kanazawa University) and Kakehashi river (Komatsu City) determined by the present method was found to be 0.64 {+-} 0.02 {mu}g/L ...
In the present study a partial replacement of aggregate with two different ratios of waste rubber (5%, 10%) with the addition of a constant ratio of rice husk ash (RHA), 5% was carried out. The hardened cement mortar used the optimum water of consistency. The specimens were molded into 1 inch cubic moulds .The specimens were first cured for 24 hours, at 100% relative humidity and then cured under tap water for 3, 7 and 28 days followed by irradiation at different doses of gamma irradiation namely 5 and 10 kGy. The physico-chemical and mechanical properties such as compressive strength, total porosity and bulk density were studied for the three types of specimens. The results showed that the values of the compressive strength, bulk density and chemically combined water of the blended cement mortar paste (OPC-RHA) increase ,while blended cement mortar paste with 5% RHA and 5, 10% waste rubber decrease. The results were confirmed by scanning electron microscopy and ...
This paper presents a Benders decomposition approach to determine the optimal day-ahead power scheduling in a pool-organized power system, taking into account dispatch, network and security constraints. The study model considers the daily market and the technical constraints resolution as two different and consecutive processes. The daily market is solved in a first stage subject to economical criteria exclusively and then, the constraints solution algorithm is applied to this initial dispatch through the redispatching method. The Benders partitioning algorithm is applied to this constraints solution process to obtain an optimal secure power scheduling. The constraints solution includes a full AC network and security model to incorporate voltages magnitudes as they are a critical factor in some real power systems. The algorithm determines the active power committed to each generator so as to minimize the energy redispatch cost subject to dispatch, network and security constraints. The ...
In the present study, models of key chemical processes governing the compositions of the tapped metal from the cupola on the basis of physico-chemical fundamentals have been developed. As evident from the literature survey, the investigations conducted in the past have focused their attention on one phenomenon at a time; for example, a particular chemical reaction, measurement of gas composition or the temperature distribution inside a cupola. Notwithstanding the importance of these studies and their contribution toward the understanding of cupola operation, mathematical models of key chemical processes and their interdependence must be investigated to obtain a complete insight into the various interlinked phenomena occurring inside a cupola. For example, the oxidation of the metallic charge leads to the formation of iron oxide which influences the final content of elements such as silicon, manganese and carbon. The processes considered in this study are oxidation ...
Despite successful reduction of the general lead exposure, this heavy metal is still a matter of public concern due to the fact that associations with intellectual impairment or delayed puberty are found to correlate with very low lead blood concentrations. Lead in tap water is still an important contribution to lead exposure which may cause health risk for infants. Therefore, lead pipes should be completely sanitated by exchange against pipes made from more healthy materials. (orig.) [German] Trotz erfolgreicher Reduktion der allgemeinen Belastung ist Blei auch heute noch umweltmedizinisch relevant, weil es moeglicherweise bei niedrigeren als bisher angenommenen Belastungen gesundheitlich nachteilige Wirkungen, insbesondere waehrend der fruehkindlichen Entwicklung des Nervensystems, ausloest. Insbesondere Blei aus bleiernen Trinkwasserleitungen ist eine Belastung, die fuer Saeuglinge und Kleinkinder nach wie vor ein gesundheitliches Risiko darstellen kann. Solche ...
For the inventory of water tritium concentration in the Manche department, it is the complementarity that animated the work opened during year 2001. To answer to a commune sensitivity such water quality, particularly drinking water at tap, the A.C.R.O. laboratory brought its know how to make and its technical means in the area of tritium analysis and the general council brought its know how to make and its logistics means in matter of sanitary control. This collaboration has allowed to supply an indication on the tritium content of the distribution waters of thirty of the most important cities of the department. Then, it allowed to inform on the radiological situation (in relation with the tritium presence) of coast waters and principal rivers waters. More than 160 controls have been realised between the months of march 2001 and february 2002. Only the tritium under the shape of tritiated water has been measured. The measures have been made by liquid scintillation ...
Tarapur Atomic Power Station 3 and 4 is a 540 MWe Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor. It uses 37 - element natural Uranium dioxide (UO_2) fuel pellets encapsulated inside the cylindrical sheath and are welded to the end plate at each end. During an postulated accident in which part of the fuel bundle are exposed to very high temperature (no means of heat removal) and other are at lower temperature (coolant temperature) possibility of failure of end plate weld due of thermal stresses developed by these relative temperature cannot be ruled out. In this report an attempt is made to study behaviour of fuel bundle under different temperature loading. Modelling of 37 element fuel bundle was done in ANSYS FEM. System was analysed for various sets of temperature loading. The system was analysed for plasticity and creep as material nonlinearity. The total strain, creep strain and stress increase as the temperature increases in upper portion of fuel bundle and decrease with increase in temperature ...
Private transfers of capital from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to developing countries are intended to complement private transfers from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) by tapping the emerging capital markets in the Middle East. Developing countries will be able to diversify their borrowing and gain additional financing. The long-term investment of oil-producing countries will benefit and the pressures on the banking institutions to recycle funds will lessen. Middle East capital markets include international loans and international bonds. The history of the Kuwaiti dinar (KD) bond market, with its advantages for both investors and borrowers, illustrates the successful development of a capital market. Financial intermediation needs to be improved, however, if the Middle East is to become efficient enough to compete with the Euromarkets. Efficiency will require different measures and should reflect ...
The present work was carried out to illuminate the relation between high cholesterol diet and incidence of prostate caner. Also, in this study, the effect of DHEA, selenium or oxygen therapy were tested in order to show to what extent they are valid to ameliorate the deleterious effects of prostate cancer. The obtained results revealed that prostate cancer caused a significant (p<0.01) elevation of TAP, PAP, PSA, total cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL-cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol and prostate COX-2, whereas, testosterone, free testosterone, DHEA-S, FT_4 and FT_3 were decreased significantly as compared with the corresponding levels in control rats in both normal and high cholesterol diet. Supplementation of DHEA, selenium or oxygen therapy ameliorated all variables recorded herein but, their values did not revert to normal. Any how, the results of this investigation showed that the above mentioned antioxidants possess potential benefits in lessening number of ...
A sensitive and rapid automated method has been developed for the selective analysis of acid extractable sulfide in environmental samples by combining gas dialysis separation techniques with methylene blue detection procedures. Acid extractable sulfide is separated from the sample matrix by the gas dialysis membrane and subsequently trapped in a dilute sodium hydroxide receiving stream. This stream is reacted with N,N-dimethyl-p-phenylenediamine and ferric chloride to produce methylene blue which is then quantitated colorimetrically at 660 nm. For standards and nonturbid environmental samples, there is good agreement between the results obtained by this procedure and the standard methylene blue method. The effect of interferences on the accurate determination of sulfide by both methods was also examined and it was found that cupric ions significantly interfered with sulfide estimation. To obtain adequate sulfide recoveries in tap water and environmental samples ...
The merits of single stage absorption heat pumps coupled to simple distillation for effluent treatment are discussed. An experimental integrated absorption heat pump effluent purification system (IAHPEPS) was built and operated with water-lithium bromide as a working mixture. This unit has been used to raise the temperature and hence, the vapour pressure of the impure water contained in one vessel, to the point where pure water vapour will distil from impure effluent solution (tap water or brine) and condense in a second vessel used to collect pure water. Pure effluent production rates of between 0.5 and 4.3 kg h{sup -1} were obtained. The actual coefficient of performance (COP{sub A}) and the heat pump effectiveness varied from 1.1 to 1.4 and 0.58 to 0.72, respectively. The results from the small scale systems indicate the likely results from industrial scale units which could be operated with low quality heat such as waste heat, solar or geothermal resources. ...
Selenium (Se), zinc (Zn), magnesium (Mg), molybdenum (Mo) and vanadium (V) in 28 types of Egyptian common foodstuffs as well as drinking and irrigation water samples were determined using neutron activation analysis (NAA) and atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). The samples were collected from 74 sites over 13 governorates as well as the Nile river, wells and tap water in the regions of the Nile Delta, Sinai, the east and west desert, and north and south Egypt. These trace elements were chosen according to international references, which show the close relationship of their deficiencies to immunity-related diseases. Calculation values of daily uptake per capita were made with the results of analysis. The results, as calculated per 100 g dry weight, showed that some Egyptian foods are rich in Se including such fish (0.94 #mu#g), sesame (0.88 #mu#g), beef meat (0.48 #mu#g), instant tea (0.42 #mu#g), mushroom (0.34 #mu#g) and eggs (0.3 #mu#g), whereas the vegetables ...
The absence of high-temperature electronics is an obstacle to the development of untapped energy resources (deep oil, gas and geothermal). US natural gas consumption is projected to grow from 22 trillion cubic feet per year (tcf) in 1999 to 34 tcf in 2020. Cumulatively this is 607 tcf of consumption by 2020, while recoverable reserves using current technology are 177 tcf. A significant portion of this shortfall may be met by tapping deep gas reservoirs. Tapping these reservoirs represents a significant technical challenge. At these depths, temperatures and pressures are very high and may require penetrating very hard rock. Logistics of supporting 6.1 km (20,000 ft) drill strings and the drilling processes are complex and expensive. At these depths up to 50% of the total drilling cost may be in the last 10% of the well depth. Thus, as wells go deeper it is increasingly important that drillers are able to monitor conditions down-hole such as ...
Executive summaryForewordPublic awareness of solid-state chemistry, or more broadly solid-state science and technology rapidly grew along with the transistor revolution and the development of the integrated circuit. We are now at the half-way point in the solid state century [Scientific American The Solid-State Century 1997;8(1) [special issue
We report the first experimental generation and characterization of a six-photon Dicke state and demonstrate its remarkable versatility by projecting out four- and five-photon Dicke states, in addition to four-photon GHZ- and W-states. These multipartite states are studied by developing experimentally favorable characterization tools. Furthermore, we show that Dicke states have interesting applications in multiparty quantum networking protocols such as open-destination teleportation, telecloning and quantum secret sharing.
Reporting of the first nuclear trafficking incidents began in the early 1990's. The incidents were handled on a national level, using the resources and expertise available in the respective states. However, it soon became evident that fighting this illicit movement of nuclear material across borders would require international cooperation and a systematic and methodological approach. To this end, the G-8 states encouraged the creation of a dedicated group of experts. The Nuclear Smuggling International Technical Working Group (ITWG) was created in the mid 1990's under the auspices of the G-8, following the 1995 Ottawa summit and the 1996 nuclear security summit held in Moscow. The group reports regularly to the Nuclear Safety and Security Group (NSSG) of the G-8. The ITWG has been working towards a sustainable mechanism to help resolve the international problem surrounding combating the illicit trafficking of nuclear ...
The results of the thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) study of the FEBEX bentonite performed during FEBEX II are presented. The laboratory test program continued in part with the works carried out during FEBEX I, particularly in activities related to tests aimed to the calibration of the models, the acquisition of parameters by back-analysis and the improvement of the knowledge on the behaviour of expansive clays. But the program has also included tests on new areas: investigations about the influence of the microstructure changes in bentonite, of temperature and of the solute concentration on the behaviour of clay. Besides, several tests were proposed in order to understand the unexpected behaviour observed in the mock-up test, towards the end of year 2. Temperature effects on water retention curves in confined and unconfined conditions were determined, and swelling pressure, hydraulic conductivity and swelling and consolidation strains as a function of temperature were successfully ...
By August 2007, there were 438 nuclear power plants (NPPs) in operation worldwide, with a total capacity of 371.7 GW(e). Further, 31 units, totaling 24.1 GW(e), were under construction. During 2006 nuclear power produced 2659.7 billion kWh of electricity, which was 15.2% of the world's total. The vast majority of these plants use water-cooled reactors. Based on information provided by its Member States, the IAEA projects that nuclear power will grow significantly, producing between 2760 and 2810 billion kWh annually by 2010, between 3120 and 3840 billion kWh annually by 2020, and between 3325 and 5040 billion kWh annually by 2030. There are several reasons for these rising expectations for nuclear power: - Nuclear power's lengthening experience and good performance: The industry now has more than 12 000 reactor years of experience, and the global average nuclear plant availability during 2006 reached 83%; - Growing energy needs: All forecasts project increases in ...
By August 2007, there were 438 nuclear power plants (NPPs) in operation worldwide, with a total capacity of 371.7 GW(e). Further, 31 units, totaling 24.1 GW(e), were under construction. During 2006 nuclear power produced 2659.7 billion kWh of electricity, which was 15.2% of the world's total. The vast majority of these plants use water-cooled reactors. Based on information provided by its Member States, the IAEA projects that nuclear power will grow significantly, producing between 2760 and 2810 billion kWh annually by 2010, between 3120 and 3840 billion kWh annually by 2020, and between 3325 and 5040 billion kWh annually by 2030. There are several reasons for these rising expectations for nuclear power: - Nuclear power's lengthening experience and good performance: The industry now has more than 12 000 reactor years of experience, and the global average nuclear plant availability during 2006 reached 83%; - Growing energy needs: All forecasts project increases in ...
By August 2007, there were 438 nuclear power plants (NPPs) in operation worldwide, with a total capacity of 371.7 GW(e). Further, 31 units, totaling 24.1 GW(e), were under construction. During 2006 nuclear power produced 2659.7 billion kWh of electricity, which was 15.2% of the world's total. The vast majority of these plants use water-cooled reactors. Based on information provided by its Member States, the IAEA projects that nuclear power will grow significantly, producing between 2760 and 2810 billion kWh annually by 2010, between 3120 and 3840 billion kWh annually by 2020, and between 3325 and 5040 billion kWh annually by 2030. There are several reasons for these rising expectations for nuclear power: - Nuclear power's lengthening experience and good performance: The industry now has more than 12 000 reactor years of experience, and the global average nuclear plant availability during 2006 reached 83%; - Growing energy needs: All forecasts project increases in ...
We present a simple protocol to purify a coherent-state superposition that has undergone a linear lossy channel. The scheme constitutes only a single beam splitter and a homodyne detector, and thus is experimentally feasible. In practice, a superposition of coherent states is transformed into a classical mixture of coherent states by linear loss, which is usually the dominant decoherence mechanism in optical systems. We also address the possibility of producing a larger amplitude superposition state from decohered states, and show that in most cases the decoherence of the states are amplified along with the amplitude.
The Meteorological Service of Canada has made weather datasets available in real-time on the Internet, for use by those with an interest in solar applications. Ensemble weather models can be used to produce medium range forecasts of weather events and to predict the likely available kilowatt-hours (kWhrs) of solar energy. As such, solar sites can maximize their harvest and use of solar energy. This presentation highlighted several different types of renewable energy forecasts obtained from weather models, including forecasts of expected kWhrs from solar panels and wind turbines, daily forecasts of expected solar heated water volumes and forecasts of water collection potential from impending precipitation events. The value of renewable energy forecasts in helping the solar energy sector monitor daily energy loads as well as daily and weekly solar energy supply was emphasized. It was suggested that renewable energy forecasts could raise public awareness of the ...
ObjectivesThe main objectives of this project are: 1. To determine whether nest-drifting behaviour allows helpers to maximise their indirect fitness in the paper wasp Polistes canadensis. Specifically, I will test a) whether nest-drifters apportion helping effort in relation to the productivity benefits of different nests (hypothesis 1a), and b) whether nest-drifters can adjust their investment in response to changes in the productivity payoffs of different nests (hypothesis 1b). 2. To determine [continued...]DescriptionDarwin's theory of natural selection predicts that organisms should act selfishly in order to pass on as many of their genes to the next generation as possible. The evolution of social behaviour is a paradox because it requires that some individuals forgo reproduction in order to help raise the offspring of others. Explaining the evolution of helping behaviour in animal societies has been a major focus for ...
The purpose of this paper is: (1) conduct HELP model variations in weather data, profile characteristics, and hydraulic conductivities for major rock units; (2) compare and contrast the results of simulations; (3) obtain an estimation of leakage through the landfill from the surface to the aquifer; and (4) evaluate contaminant transport to the aquifer utilizing leakage estimation. The conclusions of this paper are: (1) the HELP model is useful to assess landfill design alternatives or the performance of a pre-existing landfill; (2) model results using site-specific data incorporated into the Weather Generator (Trail 4), varied significantly from generalized runs (Trials 1-3), consequently, models that lack site-specific data should be used cautiously; and (3) data from this study suggest that there will not be significant downward percolation of leachate from the surface of the landfill cap to the aquifer-leachate transport rates have been ...
Without stable hardware any program will fail. The frustration and expense of supporting bad hardware can drain an organization, delay progress, and frustrate everyone involved. At Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), we have created a testing method that helps our group, SLAC Computer Services (SCS), weed out potentially bad hardware and purchase the best hardware at the best possible cost. Commodity hardware changes often, so new evaluations happen periodically each time we purchase systems and minor re-evaluations happen for revised systems for our clusters, about twice a year. This general framework helps SCS perform correct, efficient evaluations. This article outlines SCS's computer testing methods and our system acceptance criteria. We expanded the basic ideas to other evaluations such as storage, and we think the methods outlined in this article has helped us choose hardware that is much more stable ...
In this work, a feasible and simple method of assembling a micro MEMS-based ?PEMFC (about 0.35 ml in volume and 0.65 g in weight) with the help of a spiral micrometer was proposed. The micrometer provided a constant pressure between the two flow field plates and MEA in assembling for a short term while a special epoxy resin was applied to seal the cell and provide long term pressure between the above components after removing the micrometer. Tests showed that the as-assembled cell had a reasonable performance, which was proved by the linear polarization and EIS experiments. The long term behavior of the ?PEMFC was stable in general except for some fluctuation along time. We concluded that this fluctuation was due to a combined effect of heat produced and water management, which the as-assembled ?PEMFC has its own ability to adjust. More importantly, this experiment demonstrated the full feasibility and great promise of assembling ?FCs with the ...
This article identifies the key role of the sugar industry in the rural development of developing countries. The Indian sugar industry, already second largest among the country`s processing industries, shows even greater potential, according to the Plan Documents (shown in a table). The potential of waste heat in sugar processing plants, which produce white crystal sugar using the double sulphitation clarification process, is estimated at 5757.9 KJ/kg of sugar. Efficient waste heat recovery (WHR) systems could help arrest the trend of increasing production costs. This would help the sugar industry not only in India, but in many other countries as well. The innovative methods suggested and discussed briefly in this article include dehydration of prepared cane, bagasse drying, and juice heating using waste heat. These methods can reduce the cost of energy in sugar production by at least 10% and improve efficiency and productivity.
There are some indications from recent determinations of the strong coupling constant alpha_s and the gluon condensate that the Operator Product Expansion may not be accurate enough to describe non-perturbative effects in hadronic tau decays. This breakdown of the Operator Product Expansion is usually referred to as being due to"Duality Violations." With the help of a physically motivated model, we investigate these duality violations. Based on this model, we argue how they may introduce a non-negligible systematic error in the current analysis, which employs finite-energy sum rules with pinched weights. In particular, this systematic effect might affect the precision determination of alpha_s from tau decays. With a view to a possible future application to real data, we present an alternative method for determining the OPE coefficients that might help estimating, and possibly even reducing, this systematic error.
The application of multi-objective genetic algorithms for green building design in two phases were presented in order to better help designers in the decision-making process. The purpose is to minimize two conflicting criteria: the life-cycle cost and the life-cycle environmental impact. Environmental impact criteria examined include energy and non-energy natural resources, global warming, and acidification. Variables focus on building envelope-related parameters. The application of multi-objective genetic algorithms is divided into two phases. The first phase intends to help designers in understanding the trade-off relationship between the two conflicting criteria. The second phase intends to refine the performance region that is of the designer's interest. The results after the two-phase application of the multi objective genetic algorithm were then presented. 13 refs., 4 tabs., 3 figs.
Purpose - This paper seeks to study how the democratization of the diffusion of research through the internet could have helped non-traditional fields of research. Design/methodology/approach - The specific case the authors approach is heterodox economics as its pre-prints are disseminated through NEP, the e-mail alert service of RePEc. Findings - Comparing heterodox and mainstream papers, the authors find that the heterodox are quite systematically more downloaded, and particularly so when considering downloads per subscriber. Research limitations/implications - The authors conclude that the internet definitely helps heterodox research, also because other researchers get exposed to it. But there is still room for more participation by heterodox researchers. Originality/value - The paper s...
Fetal MRI examines non-invasively the unborn fetus. Ultrafast MRI sequences effectively suppress fetal motion. Multiple case reports and studies have shown that fetal MRI is particularly helpful in the evaluation of the central nervous system. The high contrast-to-noise ratio, the high spatial resolution, the multiplanar capabilities, the large field of view and the simultaneous visualisation of fetal and maternal structures have proven to be advantageous. Fetal MRI is particularly helpful in the evaluation of the normal and pathological development of the brain. Despite the fact that no side effects have been reported or are to be expected, the use of MRI during pregnancy is still limited to the second and third trimester of pregnancy. Magnetic resonance imaging contrast media are not to be used as it passes the placenta. Ultrasound remains the primary screening modality for fetal pathology; fetal MRI can serve as an adjunct or second-line ...
Greening is a useful mitigation strategy for planners mainly from a visual perspective. For high-density urban living environment such as Hong Kong, urban greening helps cooling the air and providing shade; it also helps lowering building energy consumption by providing a better outdoor boundary condition. Many researchers have also suggested that greening may be employed as a strategy for combating the ill effects of urban Heat Island (UHI). Working towards a set of better greening guidelines for urban planners, the current paper first provides a comprehensive review of planning with urban greening. It then describes parametric studies that have been conducted to investigate the preferred location, amount, and types of vegetation for urban planning. The parametric studies employed the num...
Abstract A complete study of an exploding bridgewire detonator (EBW), an LX-07 hemispherical booster and a PBX 9502 outer shell are described. Breakout times from all three are listed in terms of first impact on the booster, i.e., code times. Lucite windows are also used to obtain particle velocities at the edges of each explosive, and these are converted into explosive pressures. The key to modeling is the use of the profile of the aluminum detonator can as it impacts the booster, i.e., we need to know the curvature of the end of the booster can. Modeling even with coarse zoning shows that (i) using reactive flow in the booster is better than programmed burn, (ii) creating the flyer curvature helps, and (iii) creating the time differences of flyer impact helps even more.
The compositions of the Earth's crust and mantle, and those of the Moon and Mars, are relatively well known both isotopically and elementally. The same is true of our knowledge of the asteroid belt composition, based on meteorite analyses. Remote measurements of Venus, the Jovian atmosphere, and the outer planet moons, have provided some estimates of their compositions. The Sun constitutes a large majority, > 99%, of all the matter in the solar system. The elemental composition of the photosphere, the visible 'surface' of the Sun, is constrained by absorption lines produced by particles above the surface. Abundances for many elements are reported to the {+-}10 or 20% accuracy level. However, the abundances of other important elements, such as neon, cannot be determined in this way due to a relative lack of atomic states at low excitation energies. Additionally and most importantly, the isotopic composition of the Sun cannot be ...
Correlations between structural aspects of solid materials and their behavior as catalysts are relatively recent. This 20-chapter book focuses on understanding of solid-state mechanisms in heterogeneous catalysis and relationship between catalytic behavior and solid state structure, emphasizing catalysis with oxides, sulfides, and zeolites.
A scheme is presented for the generation of entangled states for two cavity mirrors. In the scheme each mirror initially in a vacuum state interacts with a weak coherent field, resulting in a photon-number dependent kick. The detection of a photon leaking from the cavities collapses the two mirrors to an entangled state.
The present article studies the electret state of polymers when moving through an alternating-current corona discharge plasma and investigates means for the determination of the transition of the polymeric material from the initial state of the electret when the corona-displaying voltage is increased.
Algebraic properties of the analytical model, describing electro-magnetic weak interaction with the two-level system with two-fold degenerate state are considered. The expressions for the coherent states and Green function of the system are obtained.
... the effective lifetime of the excited states against spontaneous radiation is only a fe- times the natural lifetime and collisional destruction by ...
We propose a method for the creation of arbitrary superposition of N atomic states using generalized stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) techniques with laser fields coupling each one of N lower states to a single upper state in a Formula Not Shown -level atomic system. Formula Not Shown dark states that are composed of N lower states span a dark subspace. In the adiabatic limit, the dark and bright subspaces are decoupled, thus the nonadiabatic interaction within this dark subspace dominates the evolution of the system. Different from general methods to create our required coherent superposition state, in a reverse way, here we consider the required state as the starting point of evolution dynamics, and utilize laser fields to drive it into a single lower state step by step. Time ...
... main in this state only for 10-8 secs., after which they decay to the meta- stable state (fluorescent level) because of spontaneous radiation or other ...
This poster, submitted for the CU Energy Initiative/NREL Symposium on October 3, discusses the impacts of renewable fuel and electricity standards on state economies.
Gastric acid hypersecretory states are a group of disorders characterized by basal hypersecretion of gastric acid and historically include a number of disorders associated with hypergastrinemia,...Full Text Available
OBJECTIVETo evaluate trends in costs of ambulatory care related to female pelvic floor disorders (PFD) in the United States.STUDY DESIGNFull Text Available
With iWork '09: The Missing Manual, you'll quickly learn everything you need to know about Apple's incredible productivity programs, including the Pages word-processor, the Numbers spreadsheet, and the Keynote presentation program that Al Gore and Steve Jobs made famous. This book gives you crystal-clear and jargon-free explanations of iWork's capabilities, advantages, and limitations to help you produce stunning documents and cinema-quality digital presentations in no time.
Recent developments in cross-linked polyethylene cables mean they can be used at higher voltages and are starting to replace some oil-filled cables. Their good thermal and electrical properties, easy installation and minimal maintenance have helped their growth. A group at Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd., Japan is studying the performance of these cables. (author).
The investigation of important wear processes in the railway technique, especially the differentiation of the parameters influencing the wear process, requires extensive test programmes and thus high resolving methods to determine the wear. Radiometric methods enable considerably greater measuring accuracy with the help of the activation of materials than an observation of measurement or measuring changes. (orig./LH).
The paper describes the different methods, used in the MAGIC experiment, to unfold experimental energy distributions of cosmic ray particles ({gamma}-rays). Questions and problems related to the unfolding are discussed. Various procedures are proposed which can help to make the unfolding robust and reliable. The different methods and procedures are implemented in the MAGIC software and are used in most of the analyses.
This book provides the information required to design and prepare construction drawings, and to install, inspect, test, and commission buried piping. Both pressure and gravity piping are covered, including water, steam, gases, and sewers. Directed primarily toward underground industrial piping systems, this is a succinct, well-organized compilation of practical knowledge. Checklists, examples, tables, charts, nomographs, short cuts, and helpful hints gained through years of experience complete this timely and useful ''how to'' book.
Ventricular septal defect after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a complication associated with poor outcome in the absence of intervention. We report a case of successful TEE guided transcatheter closure of a post myocardial infarction (MI) ventricular septal defect (VSD) with an Amplatzer occluder in a 79 years old male with cardiogenic shock.
This paper addresses the background and the continuously evolving topics of hardening and electronic components. Typical radiation environments from 1960 are described. Examples of a civilian satellite and of future particle physics colliders help illustrate hardening problems. Effects in components, limits of shielding, and three methods of providing components are described. The authors conclude by focusing on both future trends of radiation environments and anticipated progress in electronics. (authors). 10 refs., 9 figs., 4 tabs.
Overview Package  Class Use Tree Deprecated Index Help  PREV CLASS  NEXT CLASS FRAMES   NO FRAMES SUMMARY:  INNER | FIELD | CONSTR | METHOD DETAIL:  FIELD | CONSTR | METHOD gov.nih.nci.dc.builder Interface SAXFilter All Superinterfaces: org.xml.sax.XMLFilter,
Overview Package  Class Use Tree Deprecated Index Help  PREV CLASS  NEXT CLASS FRAMES   NO FRAMES SUMMARY:  INNER | FIELD | CONSTR | METHOD DETAIL:  FIELD | CONSTR | METHOD gov.nih.nci.dc.bean Class ImageIDParseBean java.lang.Object | +--java.util.Dictionary
The need is substantiated for using remote control of technological processes on blowout dangerous beds. A method is proposed for this control based on recording with the help of AGZ apparatus for gas release into the roadway. Distinguishing features are indicated for the change in methane concentration in the roadway with normal occurrence of the process and in the case of blowout of coal and gas.
A series of questions and answers addresses issues related to developing synthetic fuels, including the potential supplies, regulatory road blocks, and development incentives to promote the role of the private sector. Chevron's efforts in the area of synfuels are aimed at shale oil tar sands and coal conversion. The status of these research and development projects and the projected recoverable reserves from each are summarized. (DCK)
Refractive indices of some mixed compound semiconductors below the bandgap are presented on the basis of some fundamental parameters and the effect of lattice mismatch on the refractive index step is also studied. The results help to design a variety of opto-electronic devices for the use in optical fiber communication and heterostructure lasers. The calculated values agree well with available experimental values thus justifying the approach. (author).
Single-event burnout (SEB) sensitivity was tested for power MOSFET devices, JTMCS081 and JTMCS062, which were made in Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, using californium-252 simulation source. SEB voltage threshold was found for devices under test (DUT). It is helpful for engineers to choose devices used in satellites. (authors)
Here the authors try to dissolve some commonly held misconceptions about the operation of eddy current probes used for inspecting heat exchanger tubes. With the help of computer model results, the authors demonstrate that, for optimized operation, absolute/differential probes should be operated with coil current flowing in phase with another. This month's feature should be of interest to researchers as well as for NDT field personnel.
... Wanting to help a charity is commendable but the main focus of generosity should be the people in front of you, not your choice of spiritual overlord - especially so if the group is being funded with money from taxpayers. Recommend? (44) Report abuse | Link ...
DescriptionM291272: Annex A: Project specification Introduction Lowland grassland habitats host a wide range of rare, scarce and declining flowering plants, some of which are afforded protection under UK and EU legislation, as well as qualifying for Red Data lists and Biodiversity Action Plan priority lists. Other scarce species while not qualifying for the above designations are still of conservation significance and should help inform our priorities for lowland grassland habitat management. At prese [continued...
This quality assurance plan (QAP) is designed ensure that the methodologies and the data used for environmental cleanup and treatment studies at the Nevada Test Site are both usable and defensible. The QAP serves two purposes in this regard: (1) to guide the preparation of procedures for carrying out the tasks of the Basic Environmental compliance and Monitoring program (BECAMP); and (2) to help management track the progress of those tasks.
This comprehensive guide offers several tried and true steps to help you successfully manage the complex process of developing free software. Topics include project management, developer motivation, technical infrastructure to support collaboration, and project promotion. Producing Open Source Software is ideal for developers starting their own free software projects, or people who simply want to participate in the process.
The US DOE`s Photovoltaics program has helped photovoltaic technologies evolve from materials and concepts in the laboratories to competitive products rolling off automated assembly lines. This document is divided into the following sections: 1992 PV program accomplishments, expanding markets for photovoltaic systems, developing today`s systems with utilities and industry, working with industry to advance the technology, cooperative research to improve materials and devices, selected achievements in cooperative R and D, and PV program services. Figs, tabs.
The effect of nuclear scattering on the suprathermal fusion probability of recoiling d-t nuclei under the impact of fusion products, a 14.1-MeV neutron and a 3.5 MeV alpha particle, in thick pellets is investigated with the help of the Boltzmann-Fokker-Planck equation. Although the suprathermal fusion from alpha-particle recoils is quite small, the one originating from neutron recoils is considerable.
The primary of this thesis is the derivation of nonisothermal equations for isotropic viscoelastic materials with the help of the thermodynamics. Because the description of all phenomena would be too ambitious for one thesis, the area of investigation has...
The authors study the nonuniformity of a-Si:H films obtained by the method of vacuum condensation, with the help of x-ray small-angle scattering (SLS) and transmission electron microscopy. Films of hydrogenated amorphous silicon are greatest interest, because the electronic properties of this material can be controlled by doping. As a result of the compensation of the ruptured bonds, and possibly, effects of melting, the properties of such films are analogous to those of singlecrystalline silicon. XLS enables a quantitative determination of the prameters of the regions of low electron density (RLD) in such objects.
Middleware deployed to help TCP performance over links with large ... Boeing Connex (Ku-Band); INMARSAT Swift 64; TrackNet" 2.0 (Ku-Band); G2.5/G3/G4. General ... Incremental deployment may be difficult; High Link budgets; Link Delay ...
... I worked on the Young City Farmers course in 2008, where I was voted the best-spoken bus driver and teacher the participants had ever had!! I am a representative of the University for widening participation and outreach, for my enthusiasm, communication and personal skills. I look forward to meeting you, welcoming you to the College and helping with your learning and progression. Sam Parkes Hi I'm ...
A range of lessons have been identified from previous attempts to implement long term radioactive waste management policy in the UK and internationally. Many of these relate to the way the decision-making process is undertaken and the fact that there needs to be an open, transparent process that enables continuous stakeholder involvement. Nirex believes that using the SEA and EIA frameworks will help to incorporate the lessons learned into the future decision-making process relating to long-term radioactive waste management.
Interchangeable technology from Flexicon Liquid Filling, a business division of Watson-Marlow Pumps Group, has helped family-run diagnostic reagent manufacturer, Hart Biologicals Ltd, to accommodate business growth with the recent upgrade to a tabletop bottle filling and capping machine. A peristaltic dispensing pump is crucial for succes
Norad commissioned Econ Poeyry to map teaching and research activities and capacity related to clean energy in selected Ethiopian universities. The mapping identified challenges and opportunities with the aim of facilitating future intervention by the Ethiopian Government and donors to help improve the energy sector development of the country. The report covered the government-owned universities of Bahir Dar, Mekelle, Jimma, Arba Minch and Addis Ababa. The mapping was based on a questionnaire and on interviews at each university. (Author)
The structural changes attendant on intermartensitic transformation in a Ni-Mg-Ga shape memory alloy are considered using magneto-optical visualization with the help of ferrite-garnet monocrystalline films. It is established that on the intermartensitic transformation the complete reorganization of martensite macrostructure fails. Martensite crystals resulted from the basic transformation change somewhat their sizes on intermartensitic transition. The existence of large-scale labyrinth magnetic domain structure is revealed
Measurement-While-Drilling (MWD) sensors can supply much of the critical downhole information needed in a systems approach to improving drilling efficiency. The author looks at some areas where MWD information has helped to improve drilling efficiency. To date, most use of MWD has been for directional survey, pressure prediction, and formation evaluation. As MWD systems become more reliable and cost effective, their applications will expand.
Primary Ewing's sarcoma of the skull is a very rare entity. We report MRI findings in a case of Ewing's sarcoma of the greater wing of sphenoid in a 4-year-old patient. Magnetic resonance imaging showed markedly heterogenous signal intensity with areas of haemorrhage and necrosis. It also demonstrated the exact extent of tumour due to its multiplanar capabilities and was, therefore, helpful in planning surgery. Copyright (2002) Blackwell Science Pty Ltd
These are some interesting sites that will help you to understand networking and how it can benefit you. These sites contain sound so you may want to wear headphones if you are in a classroom. Learn how the internet began and the basics of the www. Learn why a network is useful. Jans network contains the important concepts of networking, Work through section 7 to learn about different types of connections, transmissions, media, and configurations. Then take the quiz at the end to see how ...
This article investigates the societal conditions that might help the establishment of peer-to-peer modes of production. First, the context within which such a new model is emerging - the neoliberal knowledge-based-societies - is described, and its shortcomings unveiled; and second, a robust argument is provided for the moral legitimation of an alternative societal vision, including two structural policies that are likely to facilitate the establishment and further development of peer-to-peer practices.
The reconstruction of coronal and Sagittal Image of Brain C. T. is helpful to diagnosis of Brain. Three Dimensional Reconstruction software package allows to display three dimensional Image clerived from a series of Horizontal, Sagittal and Coronal Brain C. T. images. It useful in determine approach of operation, to define portals of deep radiation therapy.
We retrospectively studied the computed tomography scans of the orbit in 75 patients in order to identify the presence of incidental calcifications (scleral and trochlear apparatus calcifications.). These imaging findings should integrate the vast list of differential diagnosis of orbital calcifications, as they may help radiologists to distinguish these calcifications from orbital foreign bodies. (author)
A new study identifies and ranks the 10 security gaps responsible for most outsider attacks on college computer networks. The list is intended to help campus system administrators establish priorities as they work to increase security. One network security expert urges that institutions utilize multiple security layers. (DB)
Examines the potential of the World Bank scheme, outlined in its 1980 Education Sector Policy Paper, for helping Bangladesh achieve universal basic education. Considers such issues as formal vs. nonformal schooling, costs, and teacher training. Part of a theme issue on the World Bank Paper and Third World educational development. (SJL)
... For example, moving from incentives for deepwater drilling for dirty oil to real support for renewables, and from hidden subsidies for nuclear power to transforming the UK to a thriving low carbon economy. Thanks once again to those who came along. There will be more opportunities to campaign with us soon, to help get the support we need to move the UK beyond oil. GoBeyondOilCampaigningCamden1 Comments(...
The paper considered the vibration signals of rotating equipment as cyclo stationary signals through analyzing the features of this kind of signals. Based on the analytic method of cyclic spectrum density, the paper pointed out that the impact frequency could be extracted effectively with the help of scanning cyclic frequency domain. The validity of the method of cyclic spectrum density is proved by simulating signals and the method is applied to the diagnosis of rolling bearings. (authors)
FastBit is a software package designed to meet the searching and filtering needs of data intensive sciences. In these applications, scientists are trying to find nuggets of information from petabytes of raw data. FastBit has been demonstrated to be an order of magnitude faster than comparable technologies. In this brief report, we highlight how we work with a visualization team, a network security team and a DNA sequencing center to find the nuggets in their data.
...Explore - The Lab - Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Gateway to Science Radio TV Shop News Sport Local Children Science Environment more Topics help Science Home News in Science Features Explore TV & Radio Dr Karl Play Podcasts DNA - The discovery of the double helix structure of DNA completely changed biology and opened up the new field of genetics. The 'backbone of life' has given us the human genome, stem cell research, ...
DescriptionDespite the growing recognition of the important part fruit and vegetables can play in helping prevent a number of diseases, health and nutrition experts are concerned about the low consumption of fruits and vegetables in the UK. The principal aim of this project is to improve consumer dietary consumption of fruit and vegetables by developing novel snack foods based on the fruit and vegetable materials using extrusion processing.
The creation of a methodology about the Ecobalance of the main plastic materials manufactured in Europe is very helpful for many questions relating with these matters. This methodology is necessary for the EC and most of its members. It is important that these analysis have available, precise and up-to-date information. In order that these dates are well-known, the european industry of plastics recognised and started an ambitious project two years ago and now we can see the first results.
Summaries of the highlights of programs in the Earth Sciences Division are presented under four headings; Geosciences, Geothermal Energy Development, Nuclear Waste Isolation, and Marine Sciences. Utilizing both basic and applied research in a wide spectrum of topics, these programs are providing results that will be of value in helping to secure the nation's energy future. Separate abstracts have been prepared for each project for inclusion in the Energy Data Base. (DMC)
Within this paper the potentialities of using networked embedded systems will be discussed. New embedded hardware with network connectivity allows remote administration and software updates of solar thermal system controllers via internet. System self analysis helps to minimize breakdown times by sending email and SMS to request maintenance staff. (orig.)
... Cholesterol High Blood Glucose High Blood Pressure Overweight Physical Activity Small Steps for Your Health Smoking Age, ... blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol, and high blood glucose. Physical Activity Staying active helps manage your blood glucose, ...
... However blaming vitamin supplements on deaths, or mortality is silly, as the studies are not exactly kosher. Vitamin C in 2,000mg is good for allergies, and niacin (b3) in 10,0000mg is good for depression. This is all examples on how vitamin supplements can help. I call it a security blanket, as food these days is not so good due vitamin and mineral damage due to light, or storage. By the time we eat the apple from the supermarket, there is minimal vitamin and ...
Equations are compiled for thermal balance in which for simplification, no consideration is made for heat conductivity along the axis of the cable and dependence of losses, heat capacitance and heat conductivity on temperature. Equations are modeled on a transistor analog calculator 42 TA. The solution to the task on the computer produced values of maximum temperature on the cable and coordinates of the point of maximum overheating. Using the analog model, one can study other parameters of the thermal mode.
With the help of the symmetry at the P point, we have determined the relations between the force constants and the moduli of elasticity for A-15 compounds. Based on these relations, a semi-experimental method for the study of the lattice dynamic behaviors of A-15 compounds is developed. Numerical calculations of the phonon spectrum of Nb/sub 3/Sn and its temperature dependence have been made, and they are in good agreement with the experimental data.
imaging of the solar corona began in 1960 via a primitive pinhole camera on a ... IR wavelengths. Such data help us to study in detail the pre-eruptive ...... Schematic picture of flare loops, CME, and the current sheet between ..... As part of NASA's Living With a Star (LWS) program the planned Sentinel mission ...
Surveillance of a population, such as a weapon stockpile, is needed to discover manufacturing defects as well as deterioration as the population ages. This article considers the risks of sampling rates for surveillance from three perspectives: detection probability of defects in a proportion of a population with pass/fail data, detection of a trend in a defective proportion of the population with pass/fail data, and detection of a trend with quantitative degradation measurements. Understanding of these risks will help the decision maker choose a sampling rate to protect against such problems of a specified size at a tolerable risk.
(B204) The meeting will bring together observers and theorists in a highly interactive format, to further connect the local and cosmological star formation communities. Forward looking talks, aimed at the other communities, will survey terminology, achievements, problems and aspirations. Discussion will focus on the definition of the key questions, how the different communities can help each other, and preparations for the incorporation of realistic star formation into cosmological simulations.
Resistive analogous meters for spatial and time characteristics in ocean agitation are most often used in practical oceanography in coastal zones but are based on bridge circuits determined to have shortcomings in their linearity range. This shortcoming is eliminated in the circuit of an instrument developed in an oceanographic laboratory (IMIO, Vana). Principle and block circuits are indicated, and static calibration curves are presented as are the correlative functions in the frequency spectrums obtained with the help of sea agitation recorded at a fixed point and at a depth of 6 meters.
The behavior of air flows in complex heat exchanger passages is reviewed with a focus on the heat transfer effects of boundary-layer development, turbulence, spanwise and streamwise vortices, and wake management. Each of these flow features is discussed for the plain, wavy, and interrupted passages found in contemporary compact heat exchanger designs. Results from the literature are used to help explain the role of these mechanisms in heat transfer enhancement strategies.
This paper discusses the characteristics and needed improvements/enhancements required for the expansion of the grid-tied residential power systems market. The purpose of the paper is to help establish a common understanding, between the technical community and the customers of the technology, of value and costs and what is required in the longer term for reaching the full potential of this application.
MicroRNAs are short (∼22 nucleotides) noncoding RNAs that regulate the stability and translation of mRNA targets. A number of computational algorithms have been developed to help predict which...Full Text Available
The state vector evolution in the interaction of initial measured pure state with collective quantum system or the field with a very large number of degrees of freedom N is analysed in a nonperturbative QED formalism. As the example the measurement of the electron final state scattered on nucleus or neutrino is considered.In the nonperturbative field theory the complete manifold of the system states is nonseparable i.e. is described by tensor product of infinitely many independent Hilbert spaces. The interaction of this system with the measured state can result in the final states which belong to different Hilbert spaces which corresponds to different values of some classical observables,i.e. spontaneous symmetry breaking occurs. Interference terms (IT) between such states in the measurement of any Hermitian observable are infinitely small ...
Ensyn is a profitable commercial company which derives its revenues from the conversion of wood residues into liquid biofuel and chemicals. The technology, Rapid Thermal Processing (RTP{sup (TM)})is based on extremely fast ``cracking`` of biomass which results in light liquid yields exceeding 70% by weight, from wood. Whether producing chemicals or liquid biofuel, the RTP plant is configured identically and operated essentially in the same mode. Chemicals production simply allows economical production to occur at a lower plant capacity, as low as 2 tonnes/day, than is feasible for a dedicated fuel plant (typically greater than 100 tonnes/day). Ensyn has developed the commercialisation of RTP{sup TM} from bench to industrial scale in 10 years. A variety of crative funding initiatives in the early years allowed for capital to be raised for R and D without the loss of intellectual property (IP). The transition years of technology demonstration, prior to full commercialisation, were funded ...
We have used polished stainless steel as a mirror substrate to provide focusing of soft x-rays in grazing incidence reflection. The substrate is bent to an elliptical shape with large curvature and high stresses in the substrate require a strong elastic material. Conventional material choices of silicon or of glass will not withstand the stress required. The use of steel allows the substrates to be polished and installed flat, using screws in tapped holes. The ultra-high-vacuum bender mechanism is motorized and computer controlled. These mirrors are used to deliver focused beams of soft x-rays onto the surface of a sample for experiments at the Advanced Light Source (ALS). They provide an illumination field that can be as small as the mirror demagnification allows, for localized study, and can be enlarged, under computer control,for survey measurements over areas of the surface up to several millimeters. The critical issue of the quality of the steel surface, ...
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy, is conducting a study to determine the natural geochemistry of the Snake River Plain aquifer system at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL), Idaho. As part of this study, a group of geochemical reactions that partially control the natural chemistry of ground water at the INEL were identified. Mineralogy of the aquifer matrix was determined using X-ray diffraction and thin-section analysis and theoretical stabilities of the minerals were used to identify potential solid-phase reactants and products of the reactions. The reactants and products that have an important contribution to the natural geochemistry include labradorite, olivine, pyroxene, smectite, calcite, ferric oxyhydroxide, and several silica phases. To further identify the reactions, analyses of 22 representative water samples from sites tapping the Snake River Plain aquifer system were used to determine the ...
Spherical {beta}-Ni(OH){sub 2} was modified by a low-cost method of normal ball milling (NBM), and the physical properties of both ball-milled and un-milled Ni(OH){sub 2} were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, specific surface area, particle size distribution and X-ray diffraction. It was found that NBM could obviously increase the surface area, decrease the particle and crystallite size, and reduce the crystallinity of {beta}-Ni(OH){sub 2}, which were advantageous to the improvement of the electrochemical activity of Ni(OH){sub 2}. NBM also lowered the packing density and flowability of Ni(OH){sub 2}, as revealed by the measurements of tapping density and angle of repose. Electrochemical performances of pasted nickel electrodes with an addition of ball-milled Ni(OH){sub 2} to spherical Ni(OH){sub 2} as the active material were investigated, and were compared with those of the pure spherical Ni(OH){sub 2} electrodes. Charge/discharge tests showed ...
Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 1 (NPR-1) in California and Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 3 (NPR-3) in Wyoming continued to be operated at their maximum efficient rates of production during FY 1983. The Government-owned portion of Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 2 in California continued to be leased to private operators as it has been for over 50 years, with the Government receiving a royalty share of production from the leases. All of the Government's share of crude oil produced at the Petroleum Reserves during FY 1983 was sold to the Department of Defense, while natural gas and natural gas liquids were sold competitively on the open market. FY 1983 revenues from the three Naval Petroleum Reserves totaled over $1.5 billion in general receipts and Windfall Profit Taxes. Program expenditures totaled approximately $220 million. The drilling of new wells continued to be an important factor in maintaining the production of NPR-1 and NPR-3 at maximum efficient rates, and it is expected that ...
Gadolinium nitrate has been employed in Indian nuclear reactors for the first time as soluble neutron poison in the heavy water moderators of the 540 MWe PHWRs TAPS 3 and 4, as a fast acting secondary shut down system (SDS-2); and also for reactivity shim. For this purpose, the moderator purification system is currently equipped with special ion-exchange columns/schemes, developed by present authors. However, for gadolinium removal from moderator in the post SDS-2 scenario, the two stage ion-exchange - cation bed operation followed by mixed bed operation - results in low pH conditions persisting in the moderator for a few hours, which gives rise to certain operational problems. The present paper describes a mixed bed ion-exchange scheme employing macro-porous strong acid cation and macro-porous weak base anion resins, which has been developed to eliminate acidic conditions and gives a better pH control. The cation to anion capacity ratio in the mixed bed was ...
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 ...
Nitric acid leaching from the weak base anion (WBA) exchanger had been evaluated and based on this a 5% mixture of nitric acid loaded weak base anion exchanger with fresh weak base anion exchanger (NLWBA) at the bottom of the ion exchange column has been devised to maintain an outlet pH in the range of 5.0 to 5.5 during Gd removal from the moderator system of TAPP - 3 and 4. A three layered bed had been constituted wherein strong acid cation (SAC) exchanger is placed as the top layer while a mixed bed of SAC and WBA or pure WBA is used as the middle layer and the 5% NLWBA was used as the bottom most layer. This bed configuration would result in an iso-pH regime in the moderator system during the Gd removal along with quantitative removal of Gd. Two three-layer bed columns were prepared at TAPS - 3 and 4 in July 07. The resin was loaded in batches and after preparing the column, the column was deuterated with heavy water (> 99.75 % w/w) at a steady flow rate of ...
The Steam Generator (SG) serves as an interface between primary and secondary cycle in Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR). Failure of steam generator tubes result in leaking of active heavy water in the secondary closed loop. In Tarapur Atomic Power Station-3 and 4 (TAPS- 3 and 4), Scintillator detectors are provided to detect on line heavy water leakages in SG and moderator heat exchangers by monitoring Nitrogen-16 (16N) and Oxygen-19 (19O) activities. Efficacy of detection of these activities at designed detector position on SG blow down line in presence of background radiation field is analysed theoretically. The count rate of 19O and 16N estimated at the detector position inside Reactor Building (RB) shows that detectors only respond to very high leak rates due to presence of high ambient radiation level even though sensitivity is appreciably good. For detector position in RB in the accessible areas and out side the RE containment, the travel time for the ...
The commercial solid phase microextraction (SPME) fibers are not stable enough in organic solvent and tend to swell and strip off from the silica fiber in the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) mobile phase, and therefore the application of SPME coupled online with HPLC is limited. In this study, an SPME fiber coated with single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), prepared by means of electrophoretic deposition, was coupled on line to HPLC for the determination of four endocrine-disrupting compounds, i.e. bisphenol A (BPA), estrone (E(1)), 17?-ethynylestradiol (EE(2)) and octylphenol (OP), in aqueous samples. The results showed that the SWCNTs coating on the prepared fiber did not swell and strip off from the platinum fiber throughout the experiment, thus indicating a high resistance to the HPLC mobile phase, the mixture of water and acetonitrile. The SWCNTs fiber had similar (for OP) or higher (for BPA, EE(2) and E(1)) extraction efficiencies than the commonly used ...
Four 10 MW, highly-stabilized power supply modules have been installed at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, FL, to energize water-cooled, resistive, high-field research magnets. The power supply modules achieve a long term current stability if 10 ppM over a 12 h period with a short term ripple and noise variation of <10 ppM over a time period of one cycle. The power supply modules can operate independently, feeding four separate magnets, or two, three or four modules can operate in parallel. Each power supply module consists of a 12.5 kV vacuum circuit breaker, two three-winding, step-down transformers, a 24-pulse rectifier with interphase reactors, and a passive and an active filter. Two different transformer tap settings allow rated dc supply output voltages of 400 and 500 V. The rated current of a supply module is 17 kA and each supply module has a one-hour overload capability of 20 kA. The isolated output terminals of each power ...
Small circular and noncircular channels are representative of flow passages in compact evaporators and condensers. This paper describes results of an experimental study on heat transfer to the flow boiling of refrigerant- 12 in a small circular tube of diameter = 2.46 mm. The objective of the study was to assess the effect of channel size on the heat transfer coefficient and to obtain additional insights relative to the heat transfer mechanisms. The flow channel was made of brass and had an overall length of 0.9 m. The channel wall was electrically heated, and temperatures were measured on the channel wall and in the bulk fluid stream. Voltage taps were located at the same axial locations as the stream thermocouples to allow testing over an exit quality range of 0.21 to 0.94 and a large range of mass flux (63 to 832 kg/m{sup 2}s) and heat flux (2.5 to 59 kW/m{sup 2}). Saturation pressure was nearly constant, averaging 0.82 MPa for most of the testing; a few test ...
The Steam Generator (SG) serves as an interface between primary and secondary cycle in Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR). Failure of steam generator tubes result in leaking of active heavy water in the secondary closed loop. In Tarapur Atomic Power Station-3 and 4 (TAPS- 3 and 4), Scintillator detectors are provided to detect on line heavy water leakages in SG and moderator heat exchangers by monitoring Nitrogen-16 ("1"6N) and Oxygen-19 ("1"90) activities. Efficacy of detection of these activities at designed detector position on SG blow down line in presence of background radiation field is analysed theoretically. The count rate of "1"9O and "1"6N estimated at the detector position inside Reactor Building (RB) shows that detectors only respond to very high leak rates due to presence of high background even though sensitivity is appreciably good. For detector position out side the RB containment, the travel time for the feed water becomes very long resulting ...
Commercially-available nuclear fixturing systems typically include a square lattice of tapped and bushed holes with precision locating and clamping elements that can be rigidly attached to the lattice using dowel pins or expanding mandrels. Currently, human expertise is required to synthesize a suitable arrangements of these elements to hold a given part. Besides being time consuming, if the set of alternatives is not systematically explored, the designer may fail to find an acceptable fixture or may settle upon a suboptimal fixture. We consider a class of modular fixtures that prevent a part from translating or rotting in the plane using four point contacts on the part`s boundary. These fixtures are based on three round locators, each centered on a lattice point, and one translating clamp. We present an algorithm that accepts a polygonal part shape as input and synthesizes the set of all fixture designs that achieve form closure for the given part. The algorithm ...
The nucleon decay of subbarrier single-particle states with large angular momentum and parity opposite to that of the shell in soft spherical nuclei is considered. It is shown that the reduced probabilities of the nucleon decay into the ground state (0{sup +}) and into the first excited (2{sup +}) state of the daughter nucleus have qualitatively different energy dependences. (orig.).
The nucleon decay of subbarrier single-particle states with large angular momentum and parity opposite to that of the shell in soft spherical nuclei is considered. It is shown that the reduced probabilities of the nucleon decay into the ground state (0"+) and into the first excited (2"+) state of the daughter nucleus have qualitatively different energy dependences. (orig.).
Nucleon decay of underbarrier one-quasiparticle states with large angular momentum in soft spherical nuclei is considered. It is shown that energy dependences of differential probabilities of nucleon decay to the ground (0"+) and first excited (2"+) states of daughter nucleus differ qualitatively from each other due to strong interaction between quasiparticles and low-lying quadrupole states.
This study provides information on energy resource development and the efforts of State and local communities in the Rocky Mountain, Appalachian, and coastal regions to deal with the related social and economic impacts. It also provides information on the range of options and resources generally available to States and local communities from local, State, industry, and Federal sources to plan for and mitigate the adverse effects of energy development. Onsite visits and interviews with State, local, and Federal officials and private industry involved in mitigating socioeconomic impacts were made.
A measuring-basis encrypted quantum key distribution scheme is proposed by using twelve nonorthogonal states in a four-state system and the measuring-basis encryption technique. In this scheme, two bits of classical information can be encoded on one four-state particle and the transmitted particles can be fully used.
An effort to determine the effect of restructuring on prices finds that, on average, prices for industrial customers in restructured states were lower, relative to predicted prices, than prices for industrial customers in non-restructured states. This preliminary analysis also finds that these price changes are explained primarily by high pre-restructuring prices, not whether or not a state restructured. (author)
A 5.76 MeV alpha-particle group has been observed in Am and Bk sources separated from a CERN W target. The data are interpreted due to the production of long-lived isomeric states in /sup 236/Am and /sup 236/Bk which decay to /sup 236/Pu. The possibility of high spin states as well as of shape isomeric states is raised.
Tensor network states are used to approximate ground states of local Hamiltonians on a lattice in D spatial dimensions. Different types of tensor network states can be seen to generate different geometries. Matrix product states (MPS) in D=1 dimensions, as well as projected entangled pair states (PEPS) in D>1 dimensions, reproduce the D-dimensional physical geometry of the lattice model; in contrast, the multi-scale entanglement renormalization ansatz (MERA) generates a (D+1)-dimensional holographic geometry. Here we focus on homogeneous tensor networks, where all the tensors in the network are copies of the same tensor, and argue that certain structural properties of the resulting many-body states are preconditioned by the geometry of the tensor network and are therefore largely independent of the choice of variational parameters. Indeed, the asymptotic ...
Double-crystal high-resolution x-ray fluorescence spectrometry was applied to the state analysis of sulfur in coal and related fly ash. For total sulfur, a proportional relationship exists between fluorescence intensities and the analytical values obtained by the oxygen-combustion method. Two oxidation states of sulfur were identified by a least square curve fitting method, by assuming that the spectrum profile is identical for each sulfur state but the intensity and position are different. The chemical state of sulfur in coal and remaining in fly ash is discussed.
The (p,n) cross section on "8"8Sr was measured for proton energies between 5.75 and 11 MeV. Overall resolution was sufficient to separate the "8"8Y ground state (J/sup #pi#/ = 4"-), the first excited state (J/sup #pi#/ = 5"-) at 0.232 MeV, and the second excited state (J/sup #pi#/ = 1"+) at 0.393 MeV. A Legendre polynomial fit was made to the angular distributions and the resulting integrated cross sections are shown. 1 figure.
The wide-angle spectra of the 134-MeV (p,n) reaction on "4"8Ca, "5"4Fe, "8"8Sr, and "2"0"8Pb are each dominated by the excitation of a single state at low excitation energy. These excitations correspond to the ''0h#omega#'' stretched states and are seen to be fragmented much less than ''1h#omega#'' stretched states in medium- and heavy-mass nuclei. The normalization factors required for comparison with distorted-wave impulse-approximation calculations are >0.50 and indicate that these are the purest particle-hole states known in these nuclei.
In the case of inelastic scattering of alpha particles to the 3"+ state, the averaged angular distributions show a characteristic shape, corresponding to the excitation of such an unnatural parity state by alpha particles in the compound nucleus process. The modified Hauser-Feshbach cross-section calculations give a good description of the averaged distributions for the alpha particle scattering to the 3"+ state and the compound nucleus parameters could be extracted. The calculations of the compounds nucleus contributions to the other states in the case of 24 MeV alpha particle scattering from "2"8Si show that this contribution is not negligible and in the case of the scattering to the 4"+ state seems to be dominant. (Z.M.).
Full text: The IRSN has been organizing enquiries with the French population about risk and risk perception for a long time. In 2002, a collaboration between the IRSN in France and the SCK.CEN in Belgium has been set-up to simultaneously (November 2002) organise this poll in both countries. In each country, a representative sample of the population (over 1000 participants per country) has been consulted by Computer Aided Personal Interviews of about 30 minutes with the professional help of commercial companies: BVA in France and Research International in Belgium. The enquiry yields a broad spectrum of interesting data; here only the results relevant for the emergency context will be presented. One should be aware that these data were collected in a 'normal' period; important differences in behaviour may occur given a serious crisis. A first finding is that more than half of the respondents are convinced that an accident as severe as the Chernobyl disaster may ...
The mean-field pictures based on the standard time-dependent variational approach have widely been used in the study of nonlinear many-boson systems such as the Bose-Hubbard model. The mean-field schemes relevant to Gutzwiller-like trial states $|F>$, number-preserving states $|\\xi >$ and Glauber-like trial states $|Z>$ are compared to evidence the specific properties of such schemes. After deriving the Hamiltonian picture relevant to $|Z>$ from that based on $|F>$, the latter is shown to exhibit a Poisson algebra equipped with a Weyl-Heisenberg subalgebra which preludes to the $|Z>$-based picture. Then states $|Z>$ are shown to be a superposition of $\\cal N$-boson states $|\\xi>$ and the similarities/differences of the $|Z>$-based and $|\\xi>$-based pictures are discussed. Finally, after proving that the simple, symmetric state ...
The excitation cross sections by electron impact from the Cd II ground state to the laser upper state 5s_2 _2D/sub 5/2/ (Beutler state) and the laser lower state 5p _2P/sub 3/2/ (resonance state) have been measured by using a crossed-beam method of electrons and Cd"+ ions and a photon-counting method. The electron-energy region investigated was from the threshold energy (5.8 eV) for the excitation of the 5p _2P/sub 3/2/ state to 20 eV. It has been shown that the excitation cross section for the ionic Beutler state 5s_2 _2D/sub 5/2/ is of the order of 10"-_1_5 cm_2 and has a sharp peak near the threshold energy for the excitation. The excitation cross section for the resonance state 5p _2P/sub 3/2/ has also been of the order of 10"-_1_5 cm_2 and has a relatively broad maximum.
The grant in question, DE-FG03-94ER75954, was awarded to Insights El Paso Science Museum to build key exhibits. These exhibits helped the Museum fulfill its mission to ``promote curiosity and stimulate interest by exploratory, entertaining, exciting, and participatory learning in a broad range of scientific disciplines to persons of all ages regionally and internationally.`` There are several current Board of Directors members who also were Board members during the grant period and who helped construct some of the exhibits. Through speaking with them and reviewing minutes of Board meetings during 1994, it has been determined that seven of the ten proposed exhibits were constructed, with an eighth exhibit constructed as an alternative. Photos of seven of the exhibits and preliminary sketches of some are attached. Following is a list of the constructed exhibits: Hot or Cold, Give and Take, Conduction, Convection, Sources of Energy, Wind ...
The waterjet technique enables precise tissue dissection without thermal damage and with preservation of vessels in general surgery. In neurosurgery, these qualities could help to avoid damage of intact brain parenchyma in tumour resections. The present study reports our first results with this technique in brain metastases. Ten patients with intracranial metastases underwent surgery with the aid of the waterjet. Resection was performed in combination with conventional neurosurgical methods. The follow-up consisted of neurological examination and MRI studies. Intraoperatively, the device was easy to handle. No complications due to the device were observed. Vessels were preserved at pressures below 20 bars. Six of the tumours consisted of soft tissue which was poorly demarcated from the surrounding brain. In these tumours, the waterjet was very helpful. It enabled tumour debulking by aspiration and - more important - precise separation of tumour ...
For the evaluation of diseases of salivary origin, ultrasound and/or sialography is recommended instead of MRI. In cases of salivary tumor, ultrasound may be helpful in delineating superficial tumors. For small tumors no further imaging is needed. When dealing with a large tumor or a tumor in the deep lobe of the parotid gland, MRI is the preferred imaging method. Not only does MRI provide a large variety of soft tissue signal differences, but also the multiplanar facilities are helpful in delineating the extent of the tumor, whether located in the submandibular, sublingual, or parotid gland. Skull base invasion is often well seen by MRI. Subtle changes may be missed and in those cases CT is recommended to exclude or prove destruction of the skull base. For the evaluation of patients presenting with a recurrent pleomorphic adenoma, MRI is recommended in all patients. MRI delineates the extent and number of recurrent tumors better than palpation ...
ObjectivesThe key testing-grounds for theories concerning the origin of helping are primitively eusocial taxa in which the option of independent reproduction still exists. Co-foundress associations of Polistes paper wasps are the best studied primitively eusocial system, yet it remains unclear why many foundresses choose to become helpers. Especially paradoxical are populations of P. dominulus, in which >30% of helpers are unrelated to the dominant egg-layer in the group. The proposed research will use [continued...]DescriptionThe evolution of sociality is one of the major transitions in evolutionary biology. The key testing-grounds for theories concerning the origin of helping are primitively eusocial taxa in which the option of independent reproduction still exists. Social groups of Polistes paper wasps comprise groups of females in which one 'dominant' female lays most or all of the eggs while the others ( 'helpers') forage to feed the ...
Deregulation of utilities will require providers of electric power to put the issue of competition at the top of their strategic planning agenda. The companies that will flourish in this new competitive environment are those that have strongly committed customers and potential to grow. {open_quotes}Commitment{close_quotes} is the complex psychological bond between a customer and a brand (or choice); it is critical to measure because it is the foundation of loyalty and brand equity. The Conversion Model is an established, validated strategic research tool that measures customer commitment and potential to change. It was designed to help marketers devise strategies to strengthen the commitment of current customers and to acquire new customers. The Model helps companies protect and grow their businesss by first quantifying the commitment of current customers and the potential to convert competitors` customers. Further, the Model provides managers ...
This handbook provides guidance in the application of quality assurance to measurement activities. It is intended to help those persons making measurements in applying quality assurance to their work activities by showing how laboratory practices and quality assurance requirements are integrated to provide control within those activities. The use of the guidance found in this handbook should help provide consistency in the interpretation of quality assurance requirements across all types of measurement laboratories. This handbook also can assist quality assurance personnel in understanding the relationships between laboratory practices and quality assurance requirements. The handbook is composed of three chapters and several appendices. Basic guidance is provided by the three chapters. In Chapter 1, the role of quality assurance in obtaining quality data and the importance of such data are discussed. Chapter 2 presents the elements of ...
Nine infants (six boys, three girls) with anorectal anomalies were examined in the immediate newborn period, prior to corrective surgery, with MRI. Three high, one intermediate and five low anomalies were found at MRI - one patient with a `low` lesion was subsequently found at surgery 2 months later to have a high anorectal anomaly. This infant had passed meconium per urethram soon after the MRI study, prompting the need for a protective colostomy and stressing the importance of a thorough clinical examination of babies with anorectal malformations. The MRI results and findings at surgery were in agreement in all other patients (n=8). Hydronephrosis was evident in two and renal agenesis in one patient. Sacrococcygeal hypoplasia was found in two and two hemivertebrae in one infant. No spinal cord lesion was identified. One fistula was evident on MRI but four were later found at surgery. Uniformly hyperintense T1 signal meconium was seen in all nine newborns, allowing for easy ...
Stanley Fish in his new book ["Save the World on Your Own Time" (New York: Oxford UP,2008)] says that composition studies presents "the clearest example" of what is desperately wrong in the academy, because in writing classrooms, he says, "more often than not anthologies of provocative readings take center stage and the actual teaching of writing is shunted to the sidelines." Fish's thesis in this book is that academics have one job only: to teach the material of their disciplines, the disciplinary methods, and objects of study. Arguing against those academics who claim that their work as teachers will foster social justice, Fish characterizes them as making a much larger claim: that their work will "save the world." In this essay, Bizzell summarizes two of the ways in which she believes composition studies can indeed contribute to making the world a better place. One: by properly teaching writing, educators help students develop abilities that will ...
The concept of nanocrystal conversion chemistry, which involves the use of pre-formed nanoparticles as templates for chemical transformation into derivative solids, has emerged as a powerful approach for designing the synthesis of complex nanocrystalline solids. The general strategy exploits established synthetic capabilities in simple nanocrystal systems and uses these nanocrystals as templates that help to define the composition, crystal structure, and morphology of product nanocrystals. This article highlights key examples of 'conversion chemistry' approaches to the synthesis of nanocrystalline solids using a variety of techniques, including galvanic replacement, diffusion, oxidation, and ion exchange. The discussion is organized according to classes of solids, highlighting the diverse target systems that are accessible using similar chemical concepts: metals, oxides, chalcogenides, phosphides, alloys, intermetallic compounds, sulfides, and nitrides. - Graphical ...
Use of hydrogen in large scale applications is more usual than public is mentioning normally. Nevertheless reserve against hydrogen can be observed up to highest level decision-makers. Possibly a main reason can be found and eliminated by fixing: Some spectacular accidents happened in the past and found great interest. The publication of impressive accidents and the follow up of the events course was very carefully. The research in finding causalities in former decisions and follow up was not in the interest of some people or institutions. Important facts are even not noticed by insiders, but would have been very important for future decision makings and public acceptance of new applications. It will be demonstrated in three historical examples. Much more examples would be available and each one could help to find new applications for a saver and effective use of hydrogen in power supply. Awaking from new reserves could be avoided. Additional a safer handling would ...
National efforts to improve the quality and safety of health care present challenges for medical education and training. Today's doctors need to be skilled communicators who know how to identify, prevent and manage adverse events and near misses, how to use evidence and information, how to work safely in a team, how to practise ethically, and how to be workplace teachers and learners. These competencies (knowledge, skills and attitudes) are set out in the National Patient Safety Education Framework (NPSF) of the Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care. The NPSF is designed to help medical schools, vocational colleges, health organisations and private practitioners develop curricula to enable health professionals to work safely. The NPSF describes what doctors (depending on their level of knowledge and experience) can do to demonstrate competencies in a range of quality and safety activities. Medical schools, vocational colleges, health ...
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories` Zephyr System provides a showcase for the ways in which emerging technologies can help streamline procurement processes and improve the coordination between participants in engineering projects by allowing collaboration in ways that have not been possible before. The project also shows the success of a highly pragmatic approach that was initiated by the end user community, and that intentionally covered standard situations, rather than aiming at also automating the exceptions. By helping push purchasing responsibilities down to the end user, thereby greatly reducing the involvement of the purchasing department in operational activities, it was possible to streamline the process significantly resulting in time savings of up to 90%, major cost reductions, and improved quality. Left with less day-to- day purchasing operations, the purchasing department has more time for strategic tasks such as selecting ...
Citizens Gas and Coke Utility operates three coke oven batteries, producing both foundry coke and blast furnace coke, under the trade name Indianapolis Coke. Active participation in the regulation negotiation process by the Vice President of Indianapolis Coke allowed the company to accurately anticipate the environmental regulations, long before they were set in law. Several improvements were put into motion that helps them meet the new environmental regulations. Better trained operators with new job positions dedicated solely to environmental compliance, an extensive environmental training program, and two innovations, a portable oven door milling and cleaning machine and three new computer applications are the result of team efforts. The focus of this paper is development of the computer applications designed to enhance three areas of environmental compliance. The three areas addressed by the applications are documentation and information deployment, problem ...
The LHCb Muon detector system is made of several (1368) Multi Wire Proportional Chambers (MWPCs). Those chambers differ in size, readout and constructing materials and are built in various countries: their assembly takes place in different sites and foresee many steps. To ensure the production quality and keep track of panels/chambers production an on-line database has been set up. This web based tool allows an easy sharing of the information: the database update is made possible trough a web interface. The update is easy and reliable. The interface helps the information sharing in different sites and helps optimizing the production rate by allowing feedback on production needs and quality between sites contributing to the production chain. The planning is made using the information on the material availability. Quality tests and crosschecks are made easier, as well as the overall production monitoring. The tool has been developed using mySQL, ...
The authors described a method for determination of tissue renin activity with heterologous substrate. The preparation of the substrate was performed at several stages: salting with amonium sulfate; dialisis of the precipitate till complete separation of amonium sulfate molecules; distruction of angiotensinases by interchangeble souring and alcalization of the medium; lyophylization of the pure substrate. The obtained renin-substrate was preserved in ampules and its usage had a series of advantages--duration, economic, a possibility for standartization of the determination, etc., which were described in details in the article. The described in details also the quantitative determination of the renin activity in the tissues (renal and cerebral) with the help of the obtained substrate as the moments, modiied by the authors, were indicated. PMID:436712
The Wind2H2 system is fully functional and continues to gather performance data. In this report, specifications of the Wind2H2 equipment (electrolyzers, compressor, hydrogen storage tanks, and the hydrogen fueled generator) are summarized. System operational experience and lessons learned are discussed. Valuable operational experience is shared through running, testing, daily operations, and troubleshooting the Wind2H2 system and equipment errors are being logged to help evaluate the reliability of the system.
White dwarf evolution, particularly in the early phases, is not very strongly constrained by observation. Fortunately, white dwarfs undergo nonradial pulsation in three distinct regions of the H-R diagram. These pulsations provide accurate masses, surface compositional structure and rotation velocities, and help constrain other important physical properties. We demonstrate the application of the tools of stellar seismology to white dwarf evolution using the hot white dwarf star PG 1159-035 and the cool DAV (or ZZ Ceti) stars as examples. From pulsation studies, significant challenges to the theory of white dwarf evolution emerge. 44 refs.
Globalization and technological innovation are creating dynamic networks or chains of interconnected players, often known as value delivery networks or supply chains, in which a firm, whether manufacturing or service, holds the key to creating and delivering value in the form of offerings to the customers. This idea of value creation and exchange is the foundation stone of relationship marketing and it is considered successful when closeness is said to have been established in the relationship which subsequently leads toward the achievement of objectives. In order to study and understand the creation of value through relationship closeness in a value delivery network particularly at the backward end, a literature review is conducted. A framework is further developed with the help of Interp...
In view of the interest in the use of gamma irradiation to extend the storage life of pre-packaged foods a report is made on the effects of gamma radiation on the migration of Irganox 1076 and Irganox 1010, antioxidants present in food packaging plastics, into synthetic triglyceride fatty-food simulant HB307 and iso-octane. The extent of migration was assayed by h.p.l.c. techniques. Migration into HB307 and iso-octane decreased steadily as irradiation progressed suggesting that gamma irradiation of packaging materials helps to prevent the contamination of food by antioxidants in the packaging. (U.K.).
During the design process, designers have to define the structure of their product while considering its functional definition. This design phase remains little assisted for designers. In addition, as numerous options can be considered for the end of life of a product (reuse, remanufacturing, recycling,) it becomes more difficult to obtain a compromise concerning the final structure of the product. In this paper, we will show how the use of virtual reality helps designers to transform the functional definition of the product into the design of its structure, during the conceptual design phase. The developed example will concern the design of a bathroom scale.
The problems associated with treating tachoyons in quantum field theory are discussed, and the quantization proposed by Arons and Sudarshan is chosen as the most satisfactory of the presently available methods, although it is unable to describe interactions in its present form. In order to help determine whether suitable S-matrices can ever be found, a perturbation-type expansion for the S-matrix is considered. It is shown that if the first order term is any polynomial in the tachyon field and its conjugate, then the reinterpreted, or physical, S-matrix will violate unitarity. An example shows that the inclusion of derivatives of the field is also expected to produce non-unitary physical S-matrices. The indications are that a correct interesting theory of tachyons must be non-local.
A basic problem in gravitational physics is the resolution of spacetime singularities where general relativity breaks down. The simplest such singularities are conical singularities arising from orbifold identifications of flat space, and the most challenging are spacelike singularities inside black holes (and in cosmology). Topology changing processes also require evolution through classically singular spacetimes. I briefly review how a phase of closed string tachyon condensate replaces, and helps to resolve, basic singularities of each of these types. Finally I discuss some interesting features of singularities arising in the small volume limit of compact negatively curved spaces and the emerging zoology of spacelike singularities.
The long term goal is to determine the ecological importance of specific toxic metals (copper and zinc) in harbors, through an understanding of their chemistry and biological effects at the base of marine food chains. This work provides information on potential problems with Zn and Cu, which may help to foresee problems in the future. Anthropogenic inputs of both metals are increasing; they are derived from diverse sources and are a simple function of population growth in coastal regions.
Much as it is accepted for pollution control reasons air pollution abatement still is the subject of heated debates. Pollutant emissions can considerably be reduced with the help of electric power supplies. In order not to prejudice electric power users tariffs have to be adapted to the prices of other energy sources available on the market. There is a general need for energy conservation, resource conservation and the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. Thermal insulation is among the remedial measures. Fundamental air pollution abatement measures will have to be avoiding smog warnings which are known to considerably interfere with both economic and private activities.
The Outreach Program was designed to solicit creative ideas from academia, research institutions, private enterprises, and the general public and is intended to be helpful in defining promising technical areas and program paths for more detailed study. To the Outreach Program, a number of power system concepts were proposed. In conclusion, there are a number of advanced concepts for space power and propulsion sources that deserve study if we want to expand our ability to not only explore space, but to utilize it. Advanced nuclear concepts and power beaming concepts are two areas worthy of detailed assessments.
The central nervous system is involved in 10-20% of cases in Lyme disease. The neurological symptoms, time course of the disease and imaging findings are multifaceted. We report two patients with cervical radiculitis. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed strong enhancement of the cervical nerve roots on contrast-enhanced T1-weighted images. These imaging patterns of borrelia-associated radiculitis have not been reported before. Knowledge of these imaging features may help to diagnose neuroborreliosis, which presents with non-specific symptoms. (orig.)
A new lens was installed in the laser; the laser power was lowered and solar cells were made at different power levels. The concentration of the silver neodecanoate solution was changed to reduce linewidth. A cell fabrication run was completed using low-resistivity float-zone silicon. Experiments were initiated to investigate the use of titanium organometallic film, which not only forms an AR coating with a 400/sup 0/C hard bake, but may also help in bypassing front-metal evaporation because of high-reactivity of Ti with silicon. Progress in these areas is discussed.
The Remote Teaching Assistant (RTA) software currently under development at UC Davis allows students and Teaching Assistants (TA`s) to interact through multimedia communication via the Internet. To resolve the problem of TA unavailability and limited knowledge, an Expert Teaching Assistant (ETA) module is being developed. When TA`s are not on-line, students in need of help consult ETA. The focus of this research is the development and integration of ETA with RTA, the establishment of an architecture suitable for use with education (the domain) in any sub-domain (course), and the creation of a mechanism usable by non-technical personnel to maintain knowledge bases.
Why pay for energy when there`s a free stockpile of it right under your feet? With the help of a geothermal heat pump system, one can extract that energy from the ground and put it to good use, lowering heating and cooling costs. From private homes to public schools and fast-food restaurants, an increasing number of establishments are turning to geothermal heat pump systems for space conditioning. Experts say 1998 is already proving to be the best year yet for the technology, and they foresee an even more promising future. Some examples of geothermal energy use are given.
We consider light waves propagating clockwise and other light waves propagating counterclockwise around a closed path in a plane (theoretically with the help of stationary mirrors). The time difference between the two light propagating path orientations constitutes the Sagnac effect. The general relativistic expression for the Sagnac effect is discussed. It is shown that a gravitational wave incident to the light beams at an arbitrary angle will not induce a Sagnac effect so long as the wave length of the weak gravitational wave is long on the length scale of the closed light beam paths. The gravitational wave induced Sagnac effect is thereby null.
Recent industry advances in formation evaluation measurement-while-drilling (FEMWD) have been achieved in well log data acquisition quality and in geosteering drilling applications. This paper presents new technology as applied by Baker Hughes INTEQ which includes: geosteering techniques which help navigate through horizontally drilled reservoirs including improved quality dual propagation resistivity, neutron-porosity and formation-density measurements; predictive modeling of tool responses in reservoir geosteering applications; environmental computer modeling which aids interpretation, including tool eccentering; and new measurement enhancements.
SO/sub 2/ concentrations in the Stuttgart air have been measured continuously since 1965. The two measuring points were located at the bottom of the Stuttgart city basin and 900 m east on the side of one of the surrounding hills. Long-term curves of pollutant loads have been established in consideration of meteorological parameters, as well as curves showing the average daily, weekly, and yearly pollution. The information thus gained may help to plan air pollution abatement measures in city planning.
This book presents in simple terms the basis of molecular genetics and how it is used to obtain an understanding of the human genome. The author's central focus is the transistion of genetics from statistics to experimental manipulations, and he offers analogies that help readers visualize the genome, thereby avoiding conventional scientific presentations. He illustrates how genetics is used in scientific laboratories, in courtrooms, and in hospitals. Little is presented about the complex social and ethical issues raised by the Human Genome project.
"Building on arguments made by Grasmuck and Pessar (1991), Hardy-Fanta (1993), and Hondagneu-Sotelo (1994), among others, this article makes the case for a gendered understanding of immigrant political socialization. Looking at recent Latin American immigrants to New York City, the article argues that immigrant Latino men are more likely to favor continuity in patterns of socialization and organization, and immigrant Latinas are more likely to favor change. This finding helps bridge theoretical and empirical literatures in immigration studies, applying the logic of gender-differentiated decisionmaking to the area of immigrant political socialization and behavior." PMID:12293595
With the help of heat balance equation and high temperature thermodynamic function, the calibration relation of jet temperature with discharge power, gas flow rate was obtained for nitrogen thermal plasma. It was shown that the results were agreed with the principle of similarity. The jet temperature was a function of Peff/f, instead of a general two variables function of Peff and f, which were effective discharge power and working gas flow rate, respectively. A related discussion has been given; it will be referable to thermal plasma applications. (authors)
Computer simulations of agricultural finance and management may be helpful to students preparing for agricultural careers. Simulations would provide problem definition and problem solving in realistic interactions with complex and ambiguous situations similar to those encountered in farming. The paper describes a major financial problem for farmers, explores the implications of that problem for students, and outlines a computer-based simulation model which would give students experience in dealing with the problem. Data sources for simulations, potentials of interactive exercises among students, and advantages of using real data with existing ambiguities are described. The board game "AGRICULTURE" is discussed as a prototype for simulation. (LFL)
We report the cranial CT and MRI findings in three children with Lyme disease (neuroborreliosis). The neuroimaging findings in children have been rarely reported. We found cranial MRI far superior to cranial CT. Ring-enhancing lesions have been described in acute disseminating encephalomyelitis and multiple sclerosis but not in neuroborreliosis. Although other infectious and inflammatory diseases cannot be excluded, Lyme disease should be included in the differential diagnosis and put forward as being the most likely diagnosis in the appropriate clinical setting. Gadopentetate dimeglumine is helpful in assessing the response to antibiotic treatment. (orig.)
A complete preparation guide for the entry-level networking CCNA certification. If you're planning to advance your career by taking the all-important Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA), this is the study guide you need! Seven minibooks cover all the concepts and topics on which you'll be tested, covering the latest version of the exam. Each part of the exam is covered thoroughly in its own section, so you can readily find the information you want to study. Plenty of review questions help you prepare, and the companion CD-ROM includes the highly rated Dummies Test Engine so you can test y
We present a case of cerebral aspergillosis in an immunocompetent patient. The MRI signal characteristics were compared with the histologic findings. Irregular low-signal zones were demonstrated between the wall of the abscess and the central necrosis on T2-weighted images; the pathology specimen revealed concentrated iron in these transitional zones but no hemosiderin. Iron is an essential element for the growth of fungal hyphae. The low-signal zones may represent the areas where there was active proliferation of aspergillus, and the unique location of the low signal may be a helpful imaging characteristic for the diagnosis of an aspergillus abscess. (orig.)
The emergence of bacterial antibiotic resistance is a growing problem, yet the variables that influence the rate of emergence of resistance are not well understood. In a microfluidic device designed to mimic naturally occurring bacterial niches, resistance of Escherichia coli to the antibiotic ciprofloxacin developed within 10 hours. Resistance emerged with as few as 100 bacteria in the initial inoculation. Whole-genome sequencing of the resistant organisms revealed that four functional single-nucleotide polymorphisms attained fixation. Knowledge about the rapid emergence of antibiotic resistance in the heterogeneous conditions within the mammalian body may be helpful in understanding the emergence of drug resistance during cancer chemotherapy. PMID:21940899
Ensuring security of e-government applications and infrastructures is crucial to maintain trust among stakeholders to store, process and exchange information over the e-government systems. Due to dynamic and continuous threats on e-government information security, policy makers need to perform evaluation on existing information security strategy as to deliver trusted e-government services. This paper presents an information security evaluation framework based on new fuzzy multi criteria decision making (MCDM) to help policy makers conduct comprehensive assessment of e-government security strategy.