In the Mediterranean arc, vines for wine production are mainly grown without the support of irrigation. Under such conditions, site variables affecting the extent and seasonal timing of water deficits are the dominant environmental constraints for grape production. Moreover, water availability and vine water status are the factors most comprehensively determining fruit composition and, thus, wine quality. Therefore, monitoring the extent of water stress in vines might be a valuable tool for the optimisation of grape yield and quality. The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of using the reflectance based Water Index (WI) to estimate vine water status at the leaf and canopy levels. The study was conducted on Vitisvinifera cv. Chardonnay potted plants submitted to contra...
A new virus species designated as Grapevine leafroll associated virus-Pr (GLRaV-Pr), which is classified in a distinct phylogenetic group of the genus Ampelovirus (Closteroviridae), was recently characterized from Greek grapevine cultivars. Elimination studies of GLRaV-Pr were carried out in two grapevine cultivars, 'Mantilaria' and 'Prevezaniko', co-infected with Grapevine rupestris stem pitting associated virus (GRSPaV, Flexiviridae). Both viruses were detected by nested RT-PCR assays. Virus elimination was achieved by combining in vitro thermotherapy with meristem ( 0.2mm) or shoot tip culture ( 0.5cm). The survival and regeneration rate of meristems was very low. On the other hand, high survival rates were observed in the cultured shoot tips accompanied with high elimination rates for ...
Most prior climate change assessments for U.S. agriculture have focused on major world food crops such as wheat and maize. While useful from a national and global perspective, these results are not particularly relevant to the Northeastern U.S. agriculture economy, which is dominated by dairy milk production, and high-value horticultural crops such as apples (Malus domestica), grapes (vitisvinifera), sweet corn (Zea mays var. rugosa), cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata), and maple syrup (sugar maple, Acer saccharum). We used statistically downscaled climate projections generated by the HadCM3 atmosphere-ocean general circulation model, run with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change future emissions scenarios Alfi (higher) and B1 (lower), to evaluate several climate thresholds of direct relevance to agriculture in the region. A longer (frostfree) growing season could create new opportunities for farmers with enough capital to take ...
Xylem vessels in grapevines Vitis labrusca L. and Vitis riparia Michx. growing in New England contained air over winter and yet filled with xylem sap and recovered...Full Text Available
We prove the existence of defective secant varieties of three-factor and four-factor Segre-Veronese varieties embedded in certain multi-degree. These defective secant varieties were previously unknown and are of importance in the classification of defective secant varieties of Segre-Veronese varieties with three or more factors.
Separate effects of ammonium (NH{sub 4} {sup +}) and nitrate (NO{sub 3} {sup -}) on boreal forest understorey vegetation were investigated in an experiment where 12.5 and 50.0 kg nitrogen (N) ha{sup -1} year{sup -1} was added to 2 m{sup 2} sized plots during 4 years. The dwarf-shrubs dominating the plant community, Vaccinium myrtillus and V. vitis-idaea, took up little of the added N independent of the chemical form, and their growth did not respond to the N treatments. The grass Deschampsia flexuosa increased from the N additions and most so in response to NO{sub 3} {sup -}. Bryophytes took up predominately NH{sub 4} {sup +} and there was a negative correlation between moss N concentration and abundance. Plant pathogenic fungi increased from the N additions, but showed no differences in response to the two N forms. Because the relative contribution of NH{sub 4} {sup +} and NO{sub 3} {sup -} to the total N deposition on a regional scale can vary substantially, the ...
The publication gives the basic information needed by growers of syrup sugarcane. It includes descriptions of the sugarcane plant characteristics needed in syrup varieties, the best varieties, cultural requirements and practices, and the diseases and inse...
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Abstract Polymorphisms in the genomic DNA of eight varieties maintained by conventional bud propagation (via rhizomes) and by in vitro shoot tip cultures were detected by RAPD analysis of sugarcane varieties. The study estimated the genetic diversity induced after in vitro multiplication of these varieties. Higher (28.9%) and lower (12%) numbers of polymorphic bands were detected in plants propagated via rhizomes; the genetic similarity estimate varying from 0.63 to 0.80. Plants of SP90-3723 and SP91-1049, or RB85-5113 and SP90-3723, varieties involving greater genetic distances may be indicated as progenitors in breeding programmes. In vitro multiplication of RB86-7515, RB85-5113, RB83-5054 and SP86-42 varieties increases genetic variability, while in vitro multiplication of SP91-1049, SP...
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In this article, transhumanism is considered to be a quasi‐medical ideology that seeks to promote a variety of therapeutic and human‐enhancing aims. Moderate conceptions are distinguished...Full Text Available
The lipid composition of skin is important to a variety of functions served by this organ. Therefore, skin expresses multiple enzymes that synthesize and metabolize lipids. An important class of lipid...Full Text Available
Phytoestrogens are plant derived compounds found in a wide variety of foods, most notably soy. A litany of health benefits including a lowered risk of osteoporosis, heart disease, breast cancer,...Full Text Available
The currently available methods for the diagnosis of dry eye are still far from being perfect for a variety of reasons. This review attempts to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of both traditional...Full Text Available
The rice japonica variety Nipponbare and the indica variety 93-11, the genomic DNA sequences of which are known, were used to analyze the response of the panicles exserted from the caulis and from various effective tillers at four stages of panicle development to neck blast. Disease incidence in the necks (DIN), disease incidence in the rachis nodes (DIRN), lesion length in the necks (LLN), and number of conidia in the necks (NCN) were measured after inoculating the panicles in vitro of two rice varieties with Magnaporthe oryzae. Both Nipponbare and 93-11 were susceptible, DIN and DIRN of all panicles being 100% in both the varieties except DIRN in several panicles at stage 1 (the panicle fully exserted) in Nipponbare. Both LLN and NCN of panicles decreased as the panicles continued to dev...
The relative transport capabilities of the cells of the root periphery and cortex were investigated using a variety of experimental techniques. Brief (30 seconds to 1 minute) exposures with the penetrating...Full Text Available
A strain of Pseudomonas syringae was recently identified as the cause of a new foliar blight of impatiens. The bacterium was resistant to copper compounds, which are used on a variety...Full Text Available
... Waste Collection Systems Products and Equipment Find and compare a variety of waste collection systems products and equipment on the world's largest environmental industry portal. View product ...
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... with the symptoms of MS have MS. Diagnosis Physical examination and medical history are very important in diagnosing MS. Physical exams include a variety of tests to check ...
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
Aging is a biological process that affects most cells, organisms and species. Human aging is associated with increased susceptibility to a variety of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease,...Full Text Available
Production agriculture is associated with a variety of occupational illnesses and injuries. Agricultural workers are at higher risk of death or disabling injury than most other workers. Traumatic injury...Full Text Available
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BackgroundSeveral fractal and non-fractal parameters have been considered for the quantitative assessment of the vascular architecture, using a variety of test specimens and of computational...Full Text Available
(1).—Varieties of spinal injuries, the three groups of common usage: fractures, dislocations, fracture-dislocations. Shall not refer in detail to fractures of the spinous or transverse processes....Full Text Available
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Substances cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) by a variety of mechanisms. These include transmembrane diffusion, saturable transporters, adsorptive endocytosis, and the extracellular pathways. Here,...Full Text Available
Experience gained with a wide variety of missile injuries of the brain is presented. Clinical signs and intracranial pressure (ICP) studied in the early post-injury period have been correlated with...Full Text Available
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The bacterium Serratia marcescens produces a plethora of multicellular shapes of different colorations on solid substrates, allowing immediate visual detection of varieties. Such a...Full Text Available
The immune system plays a crucial role in maintaining health; however, accumulating evidence indicates that this system can be the target for immunotoxic effects caused by a variety of chemicals including...Full Text Available
Mar 1, 2011 ... thermal behavior and structural changes of composite sandwich panels with a honeycomb core subjected to a variety of environmental effects. ...
Hydrogen peroxide is a commonly used oxidizing agent with a variety of uses depending on its concentration. Ingestion of hydrogen peroxide is not an uncommon source of poisoning, and results in morbidity...Full Text Available
Measurements of the taste thresholds of blowflies for a wide variety of carbohydrates, presented individually and in combination, showed that the stimulating effects of the compounds are not always...Full Text Available
Flow cytometry (FCM) is widely used in health research and in treatment for a variety of tasks, such as in the diagnosis and monitoring of leukemia and lymphoma patients, providing the counts of helper-T...Full Text Available
Mutagenesis of Lupinus mutabilis was started at the UNA LM (Peru) to obtain mutants with low alkaloid content and early germination. Varieties SCG 25 and Lib 020 were irradiated with gamma radiation. The optimum dose for the SCG 25 variety was 15 Krad and for Lib 020 15 to 20 Krad. The relation between the plant height and radiation dose fits the quadratic polynomial model.
We discuss three distinct topics of independent interest; one in enumerative combinatorics, one in symmetric function theory, and one in algebraic geometry. The topic in enumerative combinatorics concerns a q-analog of a generalization of the Eulerian polynomials, the one in symmetric function theory deals with a refinement of the chromatic symmetric functions of Stanley, and the one in algebraic geometry deals with Tymoczko's representation of the symmetric group on the cohomology of the regular semisimple Hessenberg variety of type A. Our purpose is to explore some remarkable connections between these topics.
We construct two families of refinements of the (projectivized) support variety of a finite dimensional module $M$ for a finite group scheme $G$. For an arbitrary finite group scheme, we associate a family of {\\it non maximal rank varieties} $\\Gamma^j(G)_M$, $1\\leq j \\leq p-1$, to a $kG$-module $M$. For $G$ infinitesimal, we construct a finer family of locally closed subvarieties $V^{\\ul a}(G)_M$ of the variety of one parameter subgroups of $G$ for any partition $\\ul a$ of $\\dim M$. For an arbitrary finite group scheme $G$, a $kG$-module $M$ of constant rank, and a cohomology class $\\zeta$ in $\\HHH^1(G,M)$ we introduce the {\\it zero locus} $Z(\\zeta) \\subset \\Pi(G)$. We show that $Z(\\zeta)$ is a closed subvariety, and relate it to the non-maximal rank varieties. We also extend the construction of $Z(\\zeta)$ to an arbitrary extension class $\\zeta \\in \\Ext^n_G(M,N)$ whenever $M$ and $N$ ...
The difference of NH_4"+-N/NO_3"--N nutrition between hybrid and conventional rice varieties at the late growth stage was studied by using "1"5N-tracer technique. The results showed that the nitrate fertilizer utilization efficiency by the hybrid rice after anthesis was 7.8% higher than that by the ordinary rice variety, and the nitrate fertilizer recovery fraction by the former was 13.2% greater than that by the latter. The varietal difference in NO_3"--N uptake and utilization was almost twice as that in NH_4"+-N. It was also showed that "1"5N distribution in ear of the hybrid rice was about 20% greater than that of the conventional variety, but there were no obvious differences between NO_3"--N and NH_4"+-N. However, "1"5N distribution in the lower node leaves and root was found to be significant higher with NO_3"--N than that with NH_4"+-N in both rice varieties, particularly in the hybrid rice. ...
Background, aim and scope Treatment performance of constructed wetlands (CWs) is largely dependent on the characteristics of the wastewater. Although livestock wastewater is readily biodegradable in general, its variety in biodegradability can still be significant in practice. In addition, it is a common practice to periodically use disinfectants in livestock activities for health concerns. Obviously, the residual of the disinfectants in livestock wastewater may have serious inhibitory effect on the microbial activities during wastewater treatment. Thus, the main objective of this study was to examine the variety of livestock wastewater in biodegradability and its effect on the performance of a pilot scale tidal flow CWs (TFCWs) in organic matter and nitrogen removal. Furthermore, investig...
We prove a theorem relating torus-equivariant coherent sheaves on toric varieties to polyhedrally-constructible sheaves on a vector space. At the level of K-theory, the theorem recovers Morelli?s description of the K-theory of a smooth projective toric variety (Morelli in Adv. Math. 100(2):154?182, 1993). Specifically, let X be a proper toric variety of dimension n and let Formula Not Shown be the Lie algebra of the compact dual (real) torus Formula Not Shown . Then there is a corresponding conical Lagrangian ??T ? M ? and an equivalence of triangulated dg categories Formula Not Shown , where Formula Not Shown is the triangulated dg category of perfect complexes of torus-equivariant coherent sheaves on X and Sh cc (M ?;?) is the triangulated dg category of complex of sheaves on M ? with co...
Transposons are promising systems for somatic gene integration because they can not only integrate exogenous genes efficiently, but also be delivered to a variety of organs using a range of transfection...Full Text Available
Synthetic gene networks can be used to control gene expression and cellular phenotypes in a variety of applications. In many instances, however, such networks can behave unreliably due to gene expression...Full Text Available
The RNA-binding protein Hfq is recognized as an important regulatory factor in a variety of cellular processes, including stress resistance and pathogenesis. Hfq has been shown in several bacteria to...Full Text Available
Genetic defects in the dystrophin-associated protein complex (DAPC) are responsible for a variety of pathological conditions including muscular dystrophy, cardiomyopathy, and vasospasm. Conserved DAPC...Full Text Available
BackgroundThe variety of ways in which faces are categorized makes face recognition challenging for both synthetic and biological vision systems. Here we focus on two face processing...Full Text Available
The development of new methods for gene addition to mammalian genomes is necessary to overcome the limitations of conventional genetic engineering strategies. Although a variety of DNA-modifying enzymes...Full Text Available
Cilia are important cellular structures that have been implicated in a variety of signaling cascades. In this review, we discuss the current evidence for and against a link between cilia and both the...Full Text Available
ColV plasmids of extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC) encode a variety of fitness and virulence factors and have long been associated with septicemia and avian colibacillosis....Full Text Available
The motto of the U.S. Coast Guard, Semper Paratus (Always Ready), should resonate strongly with those of us in the health and safety business, because we must also be ready to deal with a variety of possible radiation accidents that could occur at any time.
Semiclassical analysis of heavy ion induced transfer reactions are discussed for the quasielastic region. Some unique aspects of these reactions are shown, the variety of features which can be understood semiclassically is demonstrated, and some open problems are indicated. 28 refs., 16 figs. (LEW)
I present results for the mass spectrum of excited baryons and pentaquarks using overlap fermions and Bayesian curve-fitting method; and magnetic moments and polarizabilities for a variety of hadrons in the background field method.
I present results for the mass spectrum of excited baryons and pentaquarks using overlap fermions and Bayesian curve-fitting method; and magnetic moments and polarizabilities for a variety of hadrons in the background field method.
An overview of the operations of Sandia`s Microelectronics Development Lab (MDL) is to develop radiation hardened IC, but techniques used for IC processing have been applied to a variety of related technologies such as micromechanics, smart sensors, and packaging.
We have demonstrated that the SSSE pulverization process can convert multicomponent plastic waste into a powder with very promising properties. A variety of mixed color plastic chips have been pulverized.
RasGRF1 is a Ras-guanine nucleotide exchange factor implicated in a variety of physiological processes including learning and memory and glucose homeostasis. To determine the role of RASGRF1 in aging,...Full Text Available
... 12, 2007 | Rate It Distribution and Variety of Equatorial Rain Forest , The http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/rainfo.html (3 votes) an in depth examination of ecological patterns in rainforests from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Added: Mar. 17, 2001 ...
1. The penicillinases formed by penicillinase-constitutive mutant strains from two closely related varieties (749 and 6346) of Bacillus licheniformis have been isolated, characterized...Full Text Available
The onset of parental behavior has profound and enduring effects on behavior and neurobiology across a variety of species. In some cases, mere exposure to a foster neonate (and a subsequent...Full Text Available
Hypoxia, or reduced oxygen, occurs in a variety of clinical and environmental situations. Hypoxic exposure is associated with decreased muscle mass and a concomitant reduction in exercise capacity,...Full Text Available
Ion-channels can be activated (gated) by a variety of stimuli including chemicals, voltage, mechanical force or temperature. Whereas molecular mechanisms of ion-channel gating by chemicals and...Full Text Available
Plasma exchange (PE) is currently being used to treat a variety of disorders involving immune complexes, such as polyarteritis nodosa. This procedure removes endogenous toxic components that accumulate...Full Text Available
Germline-specific granules of unknown function are found in a wide variety of organisms, including C. elegans, where they are called P granules. P granules are cytoplasmic bodies...Full Text Available
Aneurysms of saphenous vein grafts are rare but can result in complications such as myocardial infarction or death. Percutaneous treatment has included a variety of approaches, including covered stents....Full Text Available
Nowadays, percutaneous pulmonary valve implantation is a successful alternative to surgery for patients requiring treatment of pulmonary valve dysfunction. However, owing to the wide variety of implantation...Full Text Available
Organisms in the genus Mycobacterium cause a variety of human diseases. One member of the genus, M. ulcerans, causes a necrotizing skin disease called Buruli ulcer....Full Text Available
Nearly every drug may cause changes to ocular tissues through a variety of mechanisms. Medication overdoses, drug–drug interactions but also chronic administration of medications at...Full Text Available
Borrelia burgdorferi produces potent cell-activating molecules capable of stimulating polyclonal proliferation and immunoglobulin production by murine B lymphocytes and cytokine production by a variety...Full Text Available
The conformation of the self-complimentary DNA dodecamer d(br5CGbr5CGAATTbr5CGbr5CG) has been investigated in a variety of salt and solvent conditions by one and two-dimensional 1H NMR. In low salt...Full Text Available
Neonatal bacterial infection in rats alters the responses to a variety of subsequent challenges later in life. Here we explored the effects of neonatal bacterial infection on a subsequent drug...Full Text Available
BackgroundMutations that impair mitochondrial functioning are associated with a variety of metabolic and age-related disorders. A barrier to rigorous tests of the role of mitochondrial...Full Text Available
Aluminium (Al3+) toxicity is the primary factor limiting crop production on acidic soils worldwide. In addition to an application of lime for soil amelioration, Al3+ resistant plant varieties have been deployed to raise productivity on such hostile soils. This has been possible due to the exploita...
BackgroundThere are no drugs presently available to treat traumatic brain injury (TBI). A variety of single drugs have failed clinical trials suggesting a role for drug combinations....Full Text Available
Craniofacial injuries require a variety of different cell types to repopulate areas of bone, cartilage, tendon, and fat. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) provide a multipotent cell source for tissue...Full Text Available
The mechanism of chemotherapy-induced acceleration of ovarian aging is not fully understood. We used doxorubicin, a widely used cancer chemotherapeutic, in a variety of in vivo xenograft,...Full Text Available
Accurate and automated methods for measuring the thickness of human cerebral cortex could provide powerful tools for diagnosing and studying a variety of neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders....Full Text Available
Sirt1 (member of the sirtuin family) is a nicotinamide adenosine dinucleotide (NAD)-dependent deacetylase that removes acetyl groups from various proteins. Sirt1 performs a wide variety of functions...Full Text Available
Constraint-based lexical models of language processing assume that readers resolve temporary ambiguities by relying on a variety of cues, including particular knowledge of how verbs combine...Full Text Available
A variety of albumin polymers were prepared and tested for binding with hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg): synthetic polymers cross-linked by either glutaraldehyde or carbodiimide; heat-aggregated...Full Text Available
BackgroundGenome-scale metabolic reconstructions have been recognised as a valuable tool for a variety of applications ranging from metabolic engineering to evolutionary studies....Full Text Available
Unless relaxation of the stringent response is achieved, all nongrowing bacteria rapidly develop resistance to autolysis induced by a variety of agents, including all classes of cell wall synthesis...Full Text Available
The intramembrane aspartyl protease γ-secretase plays a fundamental role in several signaling pathways involved in cellular differentiation and has been linked with a variety of human diseases,...Full Text Available
Heat shock proteins (Hsp) are a family of stress-inducible molecular chaperones that play multiple roles in a wide variety of animals. However, the roles of Hsps in parasitic nematodes remain largely...Full Text Available
Hydrogen cyanide polymerizes readily under a variety of conditions and significant prebiotic roles have been suggested for these polymers due to the abundance of HCN in universe. However, the structures...Full Text Available
Animals in a variety of taxa discriminate between a greater quantity and a lesser quantity of the same object, an ability that is referred to as relative numerousness judgment. For example,...Full Text Available
The ETS proteins are a family of transcription factors (TFs) that regulate a variety of biological processes. We made genome-wide analyses to explore the classification of the ETS gene family. We identified...Full Text Available
γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA)-ergic transmission is critical for normal cortical function and is likely abnormal in a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders. We tested the in...Full Text Available
Random amplified polymorphic DNA fingerprinting was performed to assess the genetic diversity among rarely cultivated traditional indica rice (Oryza sativa ...Full Text Available
Acoustic lenses are employed in a variety of applications, from biomedical imaging and surgery to defense systems and damage detection in materials. Focused acoustic signals, for example, enable ultrasonic...Full Text Available
PsychoPy is a software library written in Python, using OpenGL to generate very precise visual stimuli on standard personal computers. It is designed to allow the construction of as wide a variety of...Full Text Available
Lumbar epidural anesthesia is useful in a variety of chronic benign pain syndromes, including lumbar radiculopathy, low back pain syndrome, spinal stenosis, and vertebral compression fractures. Given...Full Text Available
The objective of this study was to examine the ethanol yield potential of three barley varieties (Xena, Bold, and Fibar) in comparison to two benchmarks, corn and wheat. Very high gravity (VHG; 30%...Full Text Available
Antibodies to extractable nuclear antigens (ENA) are found in a variety of collagen vascular diseases. Determining the individual specificities of these antibodies is extremely useful in establishing...Full Text Available
BackgroundObesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. It is implicated in the development of a variety of chronic disease states and is associated with increased...Full Text Available
The glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) are a family of isoenzymes involved in the detoxication of a variety of electrophilic xenobiotics. The present investigation demonstrates that GST activity and...Full Text Available
A micro-mechanistic understanding of bone fracture thatencompasses how cracks interact with the underlying microstructure anddefines their local failure mode is lacking, despite extensive research nthe response of bone to a variety of factors like aging, loading, and/ordisease.
BackgroundThere is an ever increasing rate of data made available on genetic variation, transcriptomes and proteomes. Similarly, a growing variety of bioinformatic programs are becoming...Full Text Available
BackgroundDiet is considered an important factor for bone health, but is composed of a wide variety of foods containing complex combinations of nutrients. Therefore we investigated...Full Text Available
Metazoan life cycles can be complex in different ways. A number of diverse phenotypes and reproductive events can sequentially occur along the cycle, and at certain stages a variety of developmental...Full Text Available
Plants respond to a large variety of environmental signals, including changes in the gravity vector (gravistimulation). In Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) seedlings, gravistimulation...Full Text Available
Proteins that metabolize or bind the nucleotide second messenger cyclic diguanylate regulate a wide variety of important processes in bacteria. These processes include motility, biofilm formation, cell...Full Text Available
Curcumin is a natural product currently in human clinical trials for a variety of neoplastic, preneoplastic, and inflammatory conditions. We previously observed that, in cultured cells, curcumin exhibits...Full Text Available
Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) has been the subject of extensive investigation regarding its possible benefits on a variety of human diseases. In some animal studies, CLA has been shown to have a beneficial...Full Text Available
One of the central questions of molecular biology is the discovery of the semantics of DNA. This discovery relies in a critical way on a variety of expensive computations. In order to solve these computations, both parallel computers and special-purpose hardware play a major role.
Shilajit has been used traditionally in folk medicine for treatment of a variety of disorders, including syndromes involving excessive complement activation. Extracts of Shilajit contain significant...Full Text Available
Elemental mercury has been imbued with magical properties for millennia, and various cultures use elemental mercury in a variety of superstitious and cultural practices, raising health concerns for...Full Text Available
We study the statistical properties of a variety of diverse real-world networks. We present evidence of the occurrence of three classes of small-world networks: (a) scale-free networks,...Full Text Available
BackgroundMembers of the Sox gene family isolated from both vertebrates and invertebrates have been proved to participate in a wide variety of developmental processes, including...Full Text Available
Regulation of glucose isomerase synthesis was studied in Thermoanaerobacter strain B6A, which fermented a wide variety of carbohydrates including glucose, xylose, lactose, starch, and...Full Text Available
RNA is involved in a variety of chromatin modification events, ranging from large-scale structural rearrangements to subtle local affects. Here, we extend the evidence for RNA–chromatin interactions...Full Text Available
CART peptides are endogenous neurotransmitters that are involved in a variety of physiologic functions. Injection of CART 55-102 into the nucleus accumbens produces no effect, but when co-administered...Full Text Available
The treatment of brain disorders is one of the greatest challenges in drug delivery because of a variety of main barriers in effective drug transport and maintaining therapeutic concentrations in the...Full Text Available
Scoping studies have been used across a range of disciplines for a wide variety of purposes. However, their value is increasingly limited by a lack of definition and clarity of purpose. The UK's Service...Full Text Available
BackgroundMany commercial banana varieties lack sources of resistance to pests and diseases, as a consequence of sterility and narrow genetic background. Fertile wild relatives,...Full Text Available
Instrumentation, equipment, and space requirements are outlined which would satisfy a portion of the needs of the Wound Ballistics Program of research into the terminal behavior of missiles from a variety of antipersonnel munitions (fragments, flechettes,...
The expression of tripartite multidrug efflux pumps such as MexA-MexB-OprM in Pseudomonas aeruginosa contributes to intrinsic resistance to a wide variety of antimicrobials, including...Full Text Available
Albumin is a multifunctional transport protein that binds a wide variety of endogenous substances and drugs. Insulins with affinity for albumin were engineered by acylation of the epsilon-amino group...Full Text Available
Human arylamine N-acetyltransferase (NAT) activity is determined by two distinct genes, NAT1 and NAT2, and the classical acetylation polymorphism in NAT2 has been associated with a variety of disorders,...Full Text Available
Gas-fired combined cycle plant may be the norm when it comes to new plant but it comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. Samarinda uses aero-derivatives with the famous Rolls-Royce RB211 gas generator. (author)
Bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones are effective mapping and sequencing reagents for use with a wide variety of small and large genomes. This report describes the development of a physical...Full Text Available
...Investigating Biochar: from Source to Sink (Overview - Research) The Sustainable Agriculture Flagship is leading national collaborative research analysing the properties ...and potential of a variety of biochars to improve soil health and sequester carbon. The Sustainable Agriculture Flagship is leading national collaborative research ...analysing the properties and potential of a variety of biochars to improve soil health and sequester carbon. Biochar, sustainable agriculture, soil,...carbon, SAF, pyrolysis, fertiliser, biochar, soil types, greenhouse gas, herbicide, pesticide, bioenergy, soil science, carbon-rich solid, ...
Radishes (Raphanus sativus L.) are members of the cruciferous vegetable family that contain many classes of biologically active phytochemicals. This study determined the phytochemical composition of the sprouts and mature taproots of 8 radish varieties. Radish sprouts contained significantly greater concentrations of glucosinolates (3.8-fold) and isothiocyanates (8.2-fold) than the mature radish taproot and also contained significantly greater concentrations of phenolics (on average 6.9-fold). The anthocyanin concentrations of the mature radish taproot were significantly greater than in the sprouts of red, pink, and purple varieties. The primary anthocyanidins present in the red and pink radish varieties were pelargonidin and delphinidin, while the primary anthocyanidin in the purple radish variety was cyanidin. Radish sprouts were between 9- and 59-fold more potent than the corresponding mature taproot ...
Backgrounds and Aims The stem growth habit, determinate or indeterminate, of soybean, Glycine max, varieties affects various plant morphological and developmental traits. The objective of this study is to identify the effect of stem growth habit in soybean on the stomatal conductance of single leaves in relation to their leaf morphology in order to better understand the ecological and agronomic significance of this plant trait. Methods The stomatal conductance of leaves on the main stem was measured periodically under favourable field conditions to evaluate gmax, defined as the maximum stomatal conductance at full leaf expansion, for four varieties of soybean and their respective determinate or indeterminate near isogenic lines (NILs). Leaf morphological traits including stomatal density, ...
Cocoon sericin plays an important role in the reeling of silk and serves as a valuable biomaterial in the field of biomedicine, skincare, and food industries; however, knowledge about cocoon sericin proteins has been limited. For a comprehensive study on sericin, cocoons of eight varieties of silkworm of different geographic origin and with varied cocoon color were analyzed utilizing proteomics and bioinformatics approaches. The electrophoresis pattern demonstrated some common protein bands for all silkworm varieties and distinctive protein bands for some of those examined in the present study. The Ser2 protein, a new Ser3 protein, and four other novel sericin proteins were identified in cocoons for the first time. Products of both Ser1 and Ser3 genes appear to be ubiquitous in the cocoon ...
Mobile offshore drilling rigs are used to drill, complete and workover wellbores in marine environments. The fleet that exists today consists of a wide variety of vessels built to various specifications over the past three decades, and because they operate in harsh, corrosive environments, they wear out structurally and require periodic maintenance. Rig designs have evolved with changes in operating requirements and new technology and rigs are frequently modified and upgraded, depending upon market conditions, operator preferences and other factors. The construction and replacement costs of offshore rigs are often used for management planning, financial valuation and insurance analysis, and because of the wide variety of designs, specifications and upgrades, cost estimates vary widely. In ...
A variety of observations suggest that the Universe had a hot dense origin and that the pregalactic composition of the Universe was determined by nuclear reactions that occurred in the first few minutes. There is no unique hot Big Bang theory, but the simplest version produces a primeval chemical composition that is in good qualitative agreement with the abundances deduced from observation. Whether or not any Big Bang theory will provide quantitative agreement with observations depends on a variety of factors in elementary particle physics (number and masses of stable or long-lived particles, half-life of neutron, structure of grand unified theories) and from observational astronomy (present mean baryon density of the Universe, the Hubble constant and deceleration parameter). The influence of these factors on the abundances is discussed, as is the effect of departures from homogeneity and isotropy in the early Universe.
The next decade promises an observational revolution which will change cosmology forever. The precise measurement of the angular anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background should specify to a few percent all of the parameters of the cosmological model which effect astrophysics. The growth of structure will then be determined (but not yet observed) until gravitational collapse becomes highly non-linear and stars, galaxies and active galactic nuclei (AGN) form. These processes are hard to model with basic physics because they are complex and allow a rich variety of expression. Instead observations will determine when the first stars and quasars formed, and how and when galaxies assembled. If we can reconcile the numerous contradictions which characterize the subject today, cosmology will become a mature subject, founded on the agreement between detailed, inclusive and realistic models, which make precise predictions, and the wealth of new data which will come from ...
Only 15mol% of l-proline in ethanol proved to be a very efficient catalyst for the one-pot synthesis of a wide variety of highly substituted pyridines at room temperature. The methodology is mild, efficient, high yielding, and the products can be directly recrystallized from hot ethanol.
A total of 213 treated and 16 control monkeys comprising 12 experimental groups was evaluated for determination of the long-term (10 years) effects of various dosages of a variety of synthetic oral...Full Text Available
Gastrin and its carboxyl-terminal homolog cholecystokinin (CCK) exert a variety of biological actions in the brain and gastrointestinal tract that are mediated in part through one or more G protein-coupled...Full Text Available
A variety of stress situations may affect the activity and survival of plant-beneficial pseudomonads added to soil to control root diseases. This study focused on the roles of the sigma factor AlgU...Full Text Available
A new multipellet long-pulse plasma fueling system is in operation on JET. In the initial experimental phase, a variety of plasma density profile shapes have been produced with peak to average values ranging up to 2.5 and peak plasma density up to 1.2 )times) 10/sup 20/m/sup )minus/3). 7 refs., 4 figs
We study the relationship between tachyons in N=2 superconformal tensor product models and topology changing of the defining polynomial of corresponding algebraic varieties. We show that monomials which correspond to tachyons change the topology of the defining polynomial if they are added whereas those corresponding to massless and massive fields do not. (orig.).
We study the relationship between tachyons in N=2 superconformal tensor product models and topology changing of the defining polynomial of corresponding algebraic varieties. We show that monomials which correspond to tachyons change the topology of the defining polynomial if they are added whereas those corresponding to massless and massive fields do not. (orig.).
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).
A variety of forecasting approaches have been used in the energy area. Forecast simulations provide a common basis for comparing the relative precision of different forecasting methods. This paper presents a forecast simulation made using smoothing procedures for forecasting time series. The simulation design, statistical analysis, and conclusions are provided.
The heterogeneous solid catalyst, mercaptopropylsilica (MPS), has been prepared by a modified procedure in water and its structure confirmed by solid state carbon-13 CP-MAS NMR spectrum. This catalyst has been efficiently utilized for the synthesis of a wide variety of tri-, tetrasubstituted imidazoles and their bis-analogues at room temperature. The protocol was further explored for the synthesis of the drug trifenagrel.
The use of robots in powerplants is an option that can no longer be ignored. Robots can reduce worker exposure to harmful environments and minimize downtime. As a result, electric utilities are using them more than ever. As robots become more widely accepted, more are being developed to handle an expanding variety of applications. This report begins with an overview of the use of robotics in the electric-utility industry; following that are sections detailing applications for nuclear plants, fossil-fired stations, and transmission and distribution facilities.
The cathodic vacuum arc provides a means of producing large currents of positive ions of a wide variety of materials. These ions can be utilized to produce coatings with improved properties such as higher density and adhesion. The processing is particularly useful in reactive deposition of ceramic coatings having excellent stoichiometry. In this review, emerging aspects of the technology are emphasized.
A network of second-generation low-temperature gravitational radiation detectors is nearing completion. These detectors, sensitive to mechanical strains of order 10"-"1"8, are possible because of a variety of technical innovations that have been made in cryogenics, low-noise superconducting instrumentation, and vibration isolation techniques. Another five orders of magnitude improvement in energy sensitivity of resonant-mass detectors is possible before the linear amplifier quantum limit is encountered. 33 references, 3 figures, 1 table.
We describe a large-scale application of methods for finding plagiarism in research document collections. The methods are applied to a collection of 284,834 documents collected by arXiv.org over a 14 year period, covering a few different research disciplines. The methodology efficiently detects a variety of problematic author behaviors, and heuristics are developed to reduce the number of false positives. The methods are also efficient enough to implement as a real-time submission screen for a collection many times larger.
A large Bragg-curve spectrometer has been constructed and tested. The detector has a cylindrical geometry and operates with a homogeneous electric field. Energy resolutions of <0.8% and Z resolutions of Z/..delta..Z=80 have been achieved for eleastically scattered /sup 58/Ni ions. These results demonstrate the suitability of this large solid-angle detector for use in a wide variety of heavy-ion scattering experiments.
A large Bragg-curve spectrometer has been constructed and tested. The detector has a cylindrical geometry and operates with a homogeneous electric field. Energy resolutions of <0.8% and Z resolutions of Z/#DELTA#Z=80 have been achieved for eleastically scattered "5"8Ni ions. These results demonstrate the suitability of this large solid-angle detector for use in a wide variety of heavy-ion scattering experiments. (orig.).
Since 1985 the operating sections of the 1200 kV AC Ekibastuz-Urals transmission system were used for a variety of field studies on a wide range of technological problems associated to high voltage transmission lines. The tests performed confirmed correctness of the main engineering and design decision made at development stage and demonstrated that such transmission lines are reliable and efficient. 3 figs.
P2X1 receptors for ATP contribute to signalling in a variety of cell types and following stimulation undergo rapid desensitisation (within 1 s), and require ∼5 min to recover. In HEK293 cells...Full Text Available
In this paper, we show how to calculate analytically the one-loop helicity amplitudes for the process $q\\bar{q} rightarrow t\\bar{t}$ induced by KK gluon, using the spinor-helicity formalism. A minimal set of Feynman rules which are uniquely fixed by gauge invariance and the color representation of the KK gluon are derived and used in the calculation. Our results can be applied to a variety of models containing a massive color octet vector boson.
The change of the transport coefficient due to the fusion energy source is studied. The scale invariance property of the reduced set of equations is investigated in the presence of the self-heating term due to the fusion reaction. The pressure gradient as well as the fusion power are the free energy sources that dictate the turbulent transport. It is shown that the burning transport coefficient can have a form with much wider variety, and that the transport property could be different owing to the self-heating by the fusion reactions. (author)
We show that on any abelian scheme over a complex quasi-projective smooth variety, there is a Green current for the zero-section, which is axiomatically determined up to $\\partial$ and $\\bar\\partial$-exact differential forms. This current generalizes the Siegel functions defined on elliptic curves. We prove generalizations of classical properties of Siegel functions, like distribution relations, limit formulae and reciprocity laws.
The basic objective of this project was to consider a large class of matrix computations with particular emphasis on algorithms that can be implemented on arrays of processors. In particular, methods useful for sparse matrix computations were investigated. These computations arise in a variety of applications such as the solution of partial differential equations by multigrid methods and in the fitting of geodetic data. Some of the methods developed have already found their use on some of the newly developed architectures.
Metastable nuclear isomers are central to the study of nuclear structure and their energy storage capability has suggested a variety of applications. The feasibility of applications depends sensitively on the efficiency of any process that can deplete an isomer upon demand. This work surveys how State-of-the-art in nuclear level and transition data impacts the search for induced energy release from isomers using recent advances in experimental techniques.
The development of our understanding of the quantum states of nuclei is viewed from a historical perspective. The characteristics of nuclear energy levels are presented, and interpretations of these excitations in terms of simple vibrational and rotational modes are presented. The application of energy level schemes in a variety of fields is briefly summarized. (author). 18 refs., 7 figs.
It is shown that low-frequency elastic vibrations of near-surface planar defects cause high-frequency ultrasonic radiation in surrounding air. The frequency conversion mechanism is concerned with contact nonlinearity of the defect vibrations and provides efficient generation of air-coupled higher-order ultraharmonics, ultrasubharmonics, and combination frequencies. The nonlinear air-coupled ultrasonic emission is applied for location and high-resolution imaging of damage-induced defects in a variety of solid materials.
... There are common woodland birds in spring and turtle doves in spring and summer. Havergate Island This small island in the River ...for its breeding avocets and terns, which can be seen throughout the spring and summer. Access is by boat only and the trip ... Visit in spring to hear a symphony of birdsong, especially the nightingales which breed here, and to see bluebells and primroses ... Spring is also an excellent time to visit. Loch na Muilne Loch na Muilne is a fantastic place to see a variety ...
Clays and zeolites are among the most important of natural dusts by virtue of their occurrence through out the world on the earth`s surface and their important industrial uses. (The 1:1 layer silicates, including the serpentine and kaolin minerals, are not addressed in this chapter.) This chapter provides basic information on a variety of important aspects of each mineral, including crystal structure diagrams of each and references to more detailed discussions. 110 refs., 20 figs.
Focused ion beam (FIB) systems prove to be useful precision micromachining tools for a wide variety of applications. This micromachining technique includes scanning ion microscopy (SIM), micromachining by physical sputtering, and the ion-beam induced surface chemistry for etching and deposition. This technique is applied to image and modify IC's, to micromechanical applications, to modify the tip shape of tungsten emitters, and to prepare cross sections of selected regions for inspection in a transmission electron microscope (TEM). (orig.)
Four techniques for using LIDAR in Search and Rescue Operations will be discussed. The topic will include laser retroreflection, laser-induced fluorescence in the visible, laser-induced fluorescence during daylight hours, and laser-induced fluorescence in the uv. These techniques use high-repetition rate lasers at a variety of frequencies to induce either fluorescence in dye markers or retroreflection from plastic corner cubes on life preservers and other emergency markers.
Large, complex, high purity ceramic shapes are required by a variety of emerging technologies for their electrical insulation and high temperature strength properties coupled with their refractoriness and purity. Ceramic sealant bonding, using crystalline and vitreous sealant materials, has recently shown significant potential for joining technical ceramics to form the required shapes. Materials and techniques for joining technical ceramics including alumina, magnesia, zirconia and thoria are discussed. (orig.).
One of the drawbacks in improving the aroma properties of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) fruit is the complexity of this organoleptic trait, with a great variety of volatiles contributing...Full Text Available
The prototypic pituitary hormone prolactin (PRL) exerts a wide variety of bioregulatory effects in mammals and is also found in extrapituitary sites, including murine skin. Here, we show by reverse...Full Text Available
Mutation breeding in one of the cultigens TMV-5 in Sesamum is undertaken with 5 kr, 10 kr, 15 kr, 20 kr, 60 kr and 80 kr, dosages of gamma-rays. 60 kr and 80 kr dosages were found to be lethal from the complete failure of seed germination. The mutagen had a heterotic effect on the different characters and the promising variants obtained in this programme are proposed to be maintained by pureline breeding for their possible release as new varieties. (author).
The gastrin releasing peptide (GRP) receptor is becoming an increasingly attractive target for development of new radiolabeled peptides with diagnostic and therapeutic potential. The attractiveness of the GRP receptor as a target is based upon the functional expression of GRP receptors in several tumors of neuroendocrine origin including prostate, breast, and small cell lung cancer. This concise review outlines some of the efforts currently underway to develop new GRP receptor specific radiopharmaceuticals by employing a variety of radiometal chelation systems.
The soil water characteristic curve, h(theta), can be used to estimate a variety of parameters in unsaturated soils. One practical application of h(theta) is its use by DRAINMOD, a drainage model that has been widely used in shallow water table regions, to determine the water table depth¿drainage v...
Backgroundβ2-Adrenergic receptors (β2AR) play important regulatory roles in a variety of cells and organ systems and are important therapeutic...Full Text Available
This proceedings CD ROM contains 127 papers on developing and evaluating engineering approaches to wetlands and river restoration. The latest engineering developments are discussed, providing valuable insights to successful approaches for river restoration, wetlands restoration, watershed management, and constructed wetlands for stormwater and wastewater treatment. Potential solutions to a wide variety of ecosystem concerns in urban, suburban, and coastal environments are presented.
Numerous studies have documented the general toxicity of the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and a sizeable literature has accumulated concerning the toxic effects of PCBs on a variety of homeostatic systems. However, current information regarding the effects of PCBs on rhythmic endocrine function is quite limited. Thus, the present study was undertaken to determine whether circadian periodicity in pituitary-adrenal function is affected by exposure to PCBs.
The use of β-lactam antibiotics has led to the evolution and global spread of a variety of resistance mechanisms, including β-lactamases, a group of enzymes that degrade the β-lactam...Full Text Available
Loss-of-function mutations in the regulatory gene areA of Aspergillus nidulans prevent the utilization of a wide variety of nitrogen sources. The phenotypes of nit-2 mutants of Neurospora crassa suggest...Full Text Available
DescriptionThe objective of this project is to relate the processing quality of wheat to the composition of the developing and mature grain using material grown under a range of nutrient regimes including long term organic and fertilised systems from the Rothamsted Broadbalk experiment, variety trials and organically grown wheat. Preliminary studies have indicated substantial differences in the transcriptome profiles of wheat grown with artificial fertiliser and with organic fertiliser on Broadbalk and tru [continued...
The Advances in Library Administration and Organization Series provides a body of research literature that contributes to the base of organizational theory upon which library administrators rely. Its mix of contributions to the literature of library administration and organization is both diverse and eclectic. This volume of the series covers a variety of topics relating to the management of academic, public and school libraries
Adenosine regulates a wide variety of physiological processes via interaction with one or more G-protein-coupled receptors (A1R, A2AR, A2BR, and A3R)....Full Text Available
Delirium occurs in up to 65% of older hip fracture patients. Developing delirium in hospital has been associated with a variety of adverse outcomes. Trials have shown that multi-component preventive...Full Text Available
A time coincidence long baseline (250 km) cosmic ray detection system has been developed to search for bursts of high energy #gamma#-rays (E_0>= 10"1"3 eV) of extra-terrestrial origin. The system design incorporates the possibility of simultaneous observation over a variety of time scales between 1 #mu#s and 10 s. (Auth.).
This document is a reference guide to the Xyce Parallel Electronic Simulator, and is a companion document to the Xyce Users Guide. The focus of this document is (to the extent possible) exhaustively list device parameters, solver options, parser options, and other usage details of Xyce. This document is not intended to be a tutorial. Users who are new to circuit simulation are better served by the Xyce Users Guide. The Xyce Parallel Electronic Simulator has been written to support, in a rigorous manner, the simulation needs of the Sandia National Laboratories electrical designers. It is targeted specifically to run on large-scale parallel computing platforms but also runs well on a variety of architectures including single processor workstations. It also aims to support a variety of devices and models specific to Sandia needs. This document is intended to complement the Xyce Users Guide. It contains comprehensive, detailed information about a ...
The Senior Committee on Environmental, Safety, and Economic Aspects of Magnetic Fusion Energy (ESECOM) has assessed magnetic fusion energy's prospects for providing energy with economic, environmental, and safety characteristics that would be attractive compared with other energy sources (mainly fission) available in the year 2015 and beyond. ESECOM gives particular attention to the interaction of environmental, safety, and economic characteristics of a variety of magnetic fusion reactors, and compares them with a variety of fission cases. Eight fusion cases, two fusion-fission hybrid cases, and four fission cases are examined, using consistent economic and safety models. These models permit exploration of the environmental, safety, and economic potential of fusion concepts using a wide range of possible materials choices, power densities, power conversion schemes, and fuel cycles. The ESECOM analysis indicates that magnetic fusion ...
The effect of adriamycin in combination with radiation on the skin reactions of mouse feet has been examined under a variety of experimental conditions including: (a) hyperthermic treatment of the foot immediately following adriamycin administration, with the former given either just before or just after x irradiation, and (b) fractionated treatments of drug and radiation in a variety of sequences over an 18-day period. In the case of the most severe hyperthermic treatment, no increased radiation reactions were observed in the presence of adriamycin. However, in the case of the less severe hyperthermic treatment a small but significant increase in skin reactions was observed. In the study of fractionated drug and radiation treatments, an enhancement of reaction in those animals receiving combined modality treatment over those receiving radiation alone was seen in those groups where the initiation of drug treatment succeeded the initiation of ...
A study was carried out to identify optimal laminate/oil combinations for low pressure oil filled and high pressure pipe-type cables, and to establish taping criteria under factory conditions. Laminates from two sources were evaluated in conjunction with Sun XX high viscosity mineral oil and Cosden 015SH polybutene oil for high pressure type cables, and Dussek TC-2288N mineral oil, Shell P2 dedecylbenzene and Chevron DF-100 alkylbenzene for low pressure oil-filled cables. Swelling tests, infrared analysis, dissipation and dielectric measurements, impulse tests and a taping trial were performed. It was found that there is no appreciable difference in performance of both laminates when tested on model cables in a variety of oils. Both types exhibited superior aging characteristics vis-a-vis cellulose paper when tested with a variety of oils and at temperatures up to 105{degree}C. For pipe type cable, high viscosity polybutene is the most suitable ...
Field experiments were conducted in the south Texas and Texas High Plains area in 2005 and 2006 to evaluate peanut variety tolerance to carfentrazone-ethyl and pyraflufen-ethyl. Lactofen was used as the standard. Carfentrazone-ethyl at 0.03 and 0.04kgai/ha, pyraflufen-ethyl at 0.003 and 0.004kgai/ha, and lactofen at 0.22kgai/ha were applied 35 days after planting (DAP) in south Texas and 51-56 DAP in the High Plains area in weed-free plots. Peanut cultivars selected for evaluation were those normally used in each area. In south Texas, Tamrun 96, Tamrun OL 01, and Tamrun OL 02 were evaluated while in the High Plains area, Flavor Runner 458, GP-1, and Tamrun OL 02 were evaluated. No peanut cultivar by herbicide interaction was observed in south Texas but an interaction did occur in the High ...
We address four main areas in which graduate quantum mechanics education in the U.S. can be improved: course content; textbook; teaching methods; and assessment tools. We report on a three year longitudinal study at the Colorado School of Mines using innovations in all four of these areas. In particular, we have modified the content of the course to reflect progress in the field in the last 50 years, use modern textbooks that include such content, incorporate a variety of teaching techniques based on physics education research, and used a variety of assessment tools to study the effectiveness of these reforms. We present a new assessment tool, the Graduate Quantum Mechanics Conceptual Survey, and further testing of a previously developed assessment tool, the Quantum Mechanics Conceptual Survey (QMCS). We find that graduate students respond well to research-based techniques that have previously been tested mainly in introductory courses, and ...
CANDU steam generators and heat exchangers have been afflicted with a significant variety of degradation mechanisms. Until recently, detection and characterization of most of the varieties of flaws required usage of several different eddy current techniques. Tubes needed to be scanned multiple times to ensure they were inspected for all possible degradation mechanisms. The time required to deploy so many different types of techniques to inspect the steam generator tubes has had a significant impact on the inspection schedules. The X-Probe was designed with an array of eddy current coils capable of detecting, characterizing and sizing axial, circumferential and volumetric flaws. The X-Probe is a fast-scanning probe with scanning speed equivalent to speeds typically used for simple bobbin coil probes. With its capability of fulfilling most if not all of the functions of the other tube-testing eddy current probes, it can inspect each tube for all ...
CANDU steam generators and heat exchangers have been afflicted with a significant variety of degradation mechanisms. Until recently, detection and characterization of most of the varieties of flaws required usage of several different eddy current techniques. Tubes needed to be scanned multiple times to ensure they were inspected for all possible degradation mechanisms. The time required to deploy so many different types of techniques to inspect the steam generator tubes has had a significant impact on the inspection schedules. The X-Probe was designed with an array of eddy current coils capable of detecting, characterizing and sizing axial, circumferential and volumetric flaws. The X-Probe is a fast-scanning probe with scanning speed equivalent to speeds typically used for simple bobbin coil probes. With its capability of fulfilling most if not all of the functions of the other tube-testing eddy current probes, it can inspect each tube for all ...
This investigation was carried out during the two seasons of 1998/1999 and 1999/2000 at the experimental farm belonging to the plant research department, nuclear research center, atomic energy authority in Inshas to evaluate four lupin mutant lines (L_1, L_2, L_3 and L_4) along with their original mother varieties giza 1 and giza 2 under different levels and nitrogen fertilizer levels. The results indicated that seed yield/ plant and its effective components number and weight of pods/plant were significantly higher in all the mutant lines as compared to their parents either in the first or second seasons. Concerning the effect of irrigation intervals on yield and its components for developed mutants and their mother varieties as well as the results gave an evidence that the wider interval showed the lesser values for yield and most of yield components. Obtained data also revealed that yield attributes of lupin mutants and their parents were ...
As a three-year joint university-industry effort, development of a generalized boiling transition analysis method has been started in 2002 aiming at enhanced capabilities of subchannel analysis for a wide variety of BWR-type fuel bundle geometry from ordinary BWR to tight lattice fuel bundles. For this purpose, five dominant factors affecting boiling transition phenomena have been identified on which our efforts of experimentation and numerical analyses are focused. In this report, as the first-year achievement, we will describe a master plan of the development and contents for experimental approaches to construct thermal-hydraulic databases. The databases will be utilized for the developments of constitutive equations to describe the basic characteristics of the elementary processes. The planned experiments are divided into two groups. One is air-water experiments at atmospheric pressure, and the other is steam-water experiments up to 1 MPa. The former group of ...
As a three-year joint university-industry effort, development of a generalized boiling transition analysis method has been started in 2002 aiming at enhanced capabilities of subchannel analysis for a wide variety of BWR-type fuel bundle geometry from ordinary BWR to tight lattice fuel bundles. For this purpose, five dominant factors affecting boiling transition phenomena have been identified on which our efforts of experimentation and numerical analyses are focused. In this report, as the first-year achievement, we will describe a master plan of the development and contents for experimental approaches to construct thermal-hydraulic databases. The databases will be utilized for the developments of constitutive equations to describe the basic characteristics of the elementary processes. The planned experiments are divided into two groups. One is air-water experiments at atmospheric pressure, and the other is steam-water experiments up to 1 MPa. The former group of ...
Research was conducted at Pacific Northwest Laboratory to develop high photosensitivity adaptive optical elements utilizing ion implanted lanthanum-doped lead-zirconate-titanate (PLZT). One centimeter square samples were prepared by implanting ferroelectric and anti-ferroelectric PLZT with a variety of species or combinations of species. These included Ne, O, Ni, Ne/Cr, Ne/Al, Ne/Ni, Ne/O, and Ni/O, at a variety of energies and fluences. An indium-tin oxide (ITO) electrode coating was designed to give a balance of high conductivity and optical transmission at near uv to near ir wavelengths. Samples were characterized for photosensitivity; implanted layer thickness, index of refraction, and density; electrode (ITO) conductivity; and in some cases, residual stress curvature. Thin film anti-ferroelectric PLZT was deposited in a preliminary experiment. The structure was amorphous with x-ray diffraction showing the beginnings of a structure at ...
The DOE Working Group for an Assessment of Coal-Gasification Research Needs (COGARN - coal gasification advanced research needs) has reviewed and evaluated US programs dealing with coal gasification for a variety of applications. Cost evaluations and environmental-impact assessments formed important components of the deliberations. We have examined in some depth each of the following technologies: coal gasification for electricity generation in combined-cycle systems, coal gasification for the production of synthetic natural gas, coal gasifiers for direct electricity generation in fuel cells, and coal gasification for the production of synthesis gas as a first step in the manufacture of a wide variety of chemicals and fuels. Both catalytic and non-catalytic conversion processes were considered. In addition, we have constructed an orderly, long-range research agenda on coal science, pyrolysis, and partial combustion in order to support applied ...
The Savannah River Site (SRS) is currently developing a new facility, the Actinide Packaging and Storage Facility (APSF), to process and store legacy materials from the United States nuclear stockpile. A variety of materials, with a variety of properties, packaging and handling/storage requirements, will be processed and stored at the facility. Since these materials are hazardous and radioactive, automation will be used to minimize worker exposure. Other benefits derived from automation of the facility include increased throughput capacity and enhanced security. The diversity of materials and packaging geometries to be handled poses challenges to the automation of facility processes. In addition, the nature of the materials to be processed underscores the need for safety, reliability and serviceability. The application of automation in this facility must, therefore, be accomplished in a rational and disciplined manner to satisfy the strict ...
The ability to feed on vertebrate blood has evolved many times in various arthropod clades. Each time this trait evolves, novel solutions to the problem posed by vertebrate hemostasis are generated. Consequently, saliva of blood-feeding arthropods has proven to be a rich source of antihemostatic molecules. Vasodilators include nitrophorins (nitric oxide storage and transport heme proteins), a variety of peptides that mimic endogenous vasodilatory neuropeptides, and proteins that catabolize or sequester endogenous vasoconstrictors. A variety of platelet aggregation inhibitors antagonize platelet responses to wound-generated signals, including ADP, thrombin, and collagen. Anticoagulants disrupt elements of both the intrinsic and extrinsic pathways. Molecular approaches (termed 'sialomics') to characterize the full inventory of mRNAs transcribed in salivary glands have revealed a surprising level of complexity within a single species. Multiple ...
The /sup 252/Cf-source-driven neutron noise analysis method has been tested in a wide variety of experiments that have indicated the broad range of applicability of the method. The neutron multiplication factor k/sub eff/ has been satisfactorily detemined for a variety of materials including uranium metal, light water reactor fuel pins, fissile solutions, fuel plates in water, and interacting cylinders. For a uranyl nitrate solution tank which is typical of a fuel processing or reprocessing plant, the k/sub eff/ values were satisfactorily determined for values between 0.92 and 0.5 using a simple point kinetics interpretation of the experimental data. The short measurement times, in several cases as low as 1 min, have shown that the development of this method can lead to a practical subcriticality monitor for many in-plant applications. The further development of the method will require experiments oriented toward particular applications ...
The AlGaInP materials system has recently supported the development of a variety of visible diode laser devices at wavelengths ranging from yellow to red. Presently, the majority of published results are with materials prepared by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy (OMVPE). Many issues with such materials exist, including impurity doping, the role of crystal ordering, defect formation during epitaxial growth, and the proper quantum well heterostructure design required for best device results. This paper addresses these topics and reviews the present state of the art, and projects the anticipated results when the materials' problems have been solved.
The Belgian Malinois dog was introduced into the Department of Defense Military Working Dog Program in 1984. All dogs are purchased in Europe and have adapted well to the rigorous training requirements of the program. Most veterinary problems seen in this breed are related to kennel confinement and include traumatic dental disease, tail lesions, a variety of dermatologic conditions, and an inability to gain weight. Epilepsy is a breed problem and has been seen in this population, as has gastric dilatation/volvulus. Both elbow and hip dysplasia exist in the Malinois breed. PMID:1900116
Unmanned systems are often used to augment the ability of humans to perform challenging tasks. While the value of individual unmanned vehicles have been proven for a variety of tasks, it is less understood how multiple unmanned systems should be used together to accomplish larger missions such as site security. The purpose of this paper is to discuss efforts by researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to explore the utility and practicality of operating multiple unmanned systems for a site security mission. This paper reviews the technology developed for a multi-agent mission and summarizes the lessons-learned from a technology demonstration.
The objectives of the Upgraded Coal Interest Group (UCIG) are as follows: Review and update the status of various coal upgrading technologies and developments and critically assess the results. Perform engineering screening analyses on various coal upgrading approaches. Perform commercialization analyses that will promote the availability and use of upgraded coal products by quantifying the benefits of using them. Identify market opportunities for introduction of upgraded coals. Perform critical analyses on a variety of coals and technologies in areas important to users but not readily available. Perform critical experiments which will show the differences between technologies.
Summary DNA topoisomerases are the key enzymes involved in carrying out high precision DNA transactions inside the cells. However, they are detrimental to the cell when a wide variety of topoisomerase-targeted drugs generate cytotoxic lesions by trapping the enzymes in covalent complexes on the DNA. The discovery of unusual heterodimeric topoisomerase I in kinetoplastid family added a new twist in topoisomerase research related to evolution, functional conservation and their preferential sensitivity to Camptothecin. On the other hand, structural and mechanistic studies on kinetoplastid topoisomerase II delineate some distinguishing features that differentiate the parasitic enzyme from its prokaryotic and eukaryotic counterparts. This review summarizes the recent advances in research in kin...
The Department of Energy (DOE) currently operates four thermal treatment facilities that are permitted under regulations for hazardous waste combustors. As regulations become more stringent and public stakeholders become more influential, permitting these facilities is increasingly difficult. As they become more available, continuous emission monitors (CEMs) may offer the potential to assure regulators and the public of the safe operation of treatment facilities. The Mixed Waste Focus Area (MWFA) has participated in the development and testing of a variety of CEMs that could have application to DOE facilities.
Through the use of a variety of post-labeling techniques, the nucleotide sequence of a major species of leucine tRNA from bovine liver was determined to be pG-G-U-A-G-C-G-U-G-m-G-C-ac-C-G-A-G-C-G-G-D-C-psi-A-A-G-G-C-m-G-C-U-G-G-A-psim-...Full Text Available
These Appendices describe various technologies that may be applicable to the Mixed Waste Treatment Plant (MWTP) Chemical/Physical Treatment System (CPTS). These technologies were identified by the CPTS Technical Support Group (TSG) as potentially applicable to a variety of separation, volume reduction, and decontamination requirements. The purpose was to identify all available and developing technologies, and their characteristics, for subsequent evaluation for specific requirements identified for the CPTS. However, the technologies described herein are not necessarily all inclusive, nor are they necessarily all applicable.
Miscanthus is a potential feedstock for the production of biofuels. Lignocellulosic biomass is not soluble in conventional solvents, but Miscanthus and other lignocellulosic biomass have reasonable solubilities in some ionic liquids. The solubility of Miscanthus in a variety of hydrophilic ionic liquids was measured as a function of particle size, temperature and time for dissolution. In addition to temperature and time, the ionic liquid anion has a significant effect on solubility and rate of dissolution. The moisture content of Miscanthus lowers its solubility in certain ionic liquids. Chloride, acetate, and phosphate-based ionic liquids favor solubility. A tentative correlation for the solubility of Miscanthus is proposed in terms of Abraham solvation parameters obtained from quantum-ch...
Sialons are phases in the Si-Al-O-N and M-Si-Al-O-N systems where M includes Li, Mg, Ca, Sc, Y and the rare earth elements. They are comparable in variety with the mineral silicates and are built up of one-, two-, and three-dimensional arrangements of (Si,Al)(O,N)/sub 4/ tetrahedra in the same way that the structural units of the silicates are SiO/sub 4/ tetrahedra. These new materials include N-containing ceramics, glasses and glass-ceramics that are being explored for their thermal, chemical and physical properties.
Similarity searching finds application in a wide variety of domains including multilingual databases, computational biology, pattern recognition and text retrieval. Similarity is measured in terms of a distance function edit distance in general metric spaces, which is expensive to compute. Indexing techniques can be used reduce the number of distance computations. We present an analysis of various existing similarity indexing structures for the same. The performance obtained using the index structures studied was found to be unsatisfactory . We propose an indexing technique that combines the features of clustering with M tree(MTB) and the results indicate that this gives better performance.
Room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) has generated considerable interest over the past several years. Several materials have been used to induce RTP from a variety of compounds. However, there is still a need to test additional materials and experimental conditions for RTP so the maximum sensitivity and selectivity can be obtained. In this work, three solid surfaces and several experimental conditions were tested for RTP of nitrogen heterocycles and aromatic amines. Nitrogen heterocycles and aromatic amines are an important class of compounds as shown by work in areas such as environmental research and coal liquefaction research. 18 references.
This forum showcases the work of a variety of different heritage-based centers, organizations, and projects dedicated to research, education, and preservation of tangible and intangible forms of cultural heritage. The descriptions of these centers demonstrate the diversity of heritage work being done today. The centers and projects described in the forum vary in their contexts, missions, and outcomes. Highlighted in the forum are preservation organizations, university-based heritage centers, and a global collaborative cultural heritage project. Each organization in the forum provides information about their missions and goals, their approaches or methods to heritage work, and a brief description of some of their initiatives.
The Beyond the Standard Model Working Group discussed a variety of topics relating to exotic searches at current and future colliders, and the phenomenology of current models beyond the Standard Model. For example, various supersymmetric (SUSY) and extra dimensions search possibilities and constraints are presented. Fine-tuning implications of SUSY searches are derived. The implications of Higgs (non)-discovery are discussed, as well as the program HDECAY. The individual contributions are included seperately. Much of the enclosed work is original, although some is reviewed.
Two sources of negative ions are described. An rf source produces up to 14 ..mu..A beams of He/sup -/ by charge exchange in Rb vapor. The other Source of Negative Ions by Cesium Sputtering (SNICS) produces a wide variety of negative ion beams in the ..mu..A range. Two important features of SNICS are its simple, compact construction and its very good beam emittance (2 to 4..pi..mm mrad MeV/sup 1/2/). Both sources have lifetimes >200 hours and they are used extensively on the Wisconsin EN tandem.
Since 1976 the Austrian Research Centre Seibersdorf has the task to collect, treat and store radioactive waste (Radwaste) arising in Austria. Within the Department of Waste Management a variety of appropriate treatment systems are installed. For storing unconditioned and conditioned waste proper storage-halls are available. The collection of Radwaste is carried out using 100 l drums, for the conditioned waste the 200 l drum concept is used. The interim storage of conditioned waste is done at Seibersdorf until a final repository is built. The present plan foresees one to be in operation at the year 2012. (author).
Morocco is among the world's leading countries in terms of total indigenous oil shale resources. Following the 1973 oil crisis, Morocco has been determined to develop its oil shale energy resources. In the subsequent years following the crisis, a tremendous number and variety of studies and research efforts have resulted in an enormous amount of data, covering geological, hydrogeological, mining, physical and chemical aspects of the two main deposits, Timahdit and Tarfaya. This article represents a tentative analysis of oil shale development in Morocco and offers a few ideas on where it might be heading. 1 fig., 2 photos.
Steel is one of the most versatile materials known to mankind. It is used in a variety of applications. In many of these applications, it is exposed to the atmosphere, leading to rust formation, which weakens structures made using steel. Hence, protection is important. The popular methods to prevent corrosion are painting, galvanizing, electroplating etc. The widely used Chrome etching process is very effective in corrosion inhibition as well as in hardening the steel. But, Chromium and its compounds are highly placed among the toxic chemicals listed under pollution prevention initiatives of the EPA. Hence, it was decided to find alternatives to this process.
Indoor radon is a potential health hazard for the general public, especially in buildings with poor ventilation. A variety of dosemeters have been developed and used in surveys of radon concentration measurements. In this article the passive dosemeters which are based on solid state nuclear track detectors are reviewed. The principle of passive dosimetry and the factors affecting their performance are discussed. The characteristics of SSNTD materials in relation to their behaviour under different environmental conditions are tabulated and discussed. Results of radon surveys from selected studies are also presented. (Author).
Real-time neutron radiography (RTNR) is rapidly becoming a valuable tool for nondestructive testing and basic research with a wide variety of applications. The Phoenix Memorial Laboratory (PML) at the University of Michigan has developed an RTNR facility and has been using this facility to study several phenomena of interest to researchers in many areas. These phenomena include imaging of the internal fluid flow in gas turbine engine nozzles and coking and debris deposition in several gas turbine nozzles. This paper presents a summary of the technique and facilities involved in these applications.
Multiphase flow calculation software and computer-readable media carrying computer executable instructions for calculating liquid and gas phase mass flow rates of high void fraction multiphase flows. The multiphase flow calculation software employs various given, or experimentally determined, parameters in conjunction with a plurality of pressure differentials of a multiphase flow, preferably supplied by a differential pressure flowmeter or the like, to determine liquid and gas phase mass flow rates of the high void fraction multiphase flows. Embodiments of the multiphase flow calculation software are suitable for use in a variety of applications, including real-time management and control of an object system.
Building on the concepts of MIRD methods described by Webber, Watson and others at this Symposium on the Dosimetry of Administered Radionuclides, we will now consider how to apply these principles to several experimentally based open-quote macroclose quotes and multicellular models. Specifically, methods to calculate absorbed dose using different types of particulate emission (alpha, beta) with a variety of antibody carriers (IgG, F(ab')_2, Fab) for radioimmunotherapy (RIT) will be reviewed. Additionally, a discussion of direct measurement methods at the multicellular level will reveal the problems of tumor absorbed dose heterogeneity when applied to animal and clinical studies.
This work provides explicit characterizations and formulae for the minimal polynomials of a wide variety of structured $4\\times 4$ matrices. These include symmetric, Hamiltonian and orthogonal matrices. Applications such as the complete determination of the Jordan structure of skew-Hamiltonian matrices and the computation of the Cayley transform are given. Some new classes of matrices are uncovered, whose behaviour insofar as minimal polynomials are concerned, is remarkably similar to those of skew-Hamiltonian and Hamiltonian matrices. The main technique is the invocation of the associative algebra isomorphism between the tensor product of the quaternions with themselves and the algebra of real $4\\times 4$ matrices.
In an effort to improve the extrapolation of laboratory data to man and estimate risk of human reproductive toxicity associated with environmental exposure, the pharmacokinetic parameters of the testicular compartment are being studied. Of particular interest is the variety of enzyme systems capable of activating and detoxicating environmental chemicals and drugs. This report compares the metabolism of benzo(a)pyrene by the isolated perfused testis and testicular homogenates in vitro. The cell free in vitro system metabolized benzo(a)pyrene at a much greater rate than the perfused testis and produced a different spectrum of metabolites. Reliable laboratory prediction of biotransformation by the whole organ or intact animal is an essential aspect of reproductive toxicology.
This review begins with an historical account of biomaterials applications followed by a concise description of the phenomena taking place between the living tissues and non-living materials containing them. After describing the requirements for biodegradability and the mechanisms involved, a thorough literature survey of such polymers is presented. In the end a very short review of the work done in this area by the authors in recent years is given, including: the synthesis of a wide variety of biodegradable di-and tri-block copolymers, preparation of microparticles; stealth-and immuno-liposomes; dendrosomes and polymersomes; and some of their applications in drug and gene delivery.
The Marine Technology Society 1994 conference was held in Washington, D.C., September 7-9, 1994. Titled Challenges and Opportunities in the Marine Environment, the conference offered a wide variety of presentations. State-of-the-art technology, government policies and regulations, and environmental concerns were addressed. Offshore mining, coastal zone management, marine engineering, oceanographic research, educational issues, and global climate change were also well represented in the presentations. The conference proceedings are organized around the daily sessions and roughly 70% of the papers are included.
Recent developments in the physical model of 1 MeV to 100 TeV hadron and lepton interactions with nuclei and atoms are described. These include a new nuclear cross section library, a model for soft pion production, the cascade-exciton model, the dual parton model, deuteron-nucleus and neutrino-nucleus interaction models, detailed description of mu, pi and anti p absorption and a unified treatment of muon and charged hadron electromagnetic interactions with matter. New algorithms are implemented into the MARS13(98) Monte Carlo code and benchmarked against experimental data. The code capabilities to simulate cascades and generate a variety of results in complex media have been also enhanced.
Knowledge integration is the process of incorporating new information into a body of existing knowledge. It involves determining how new and existing knowledge interact and how existing knowledge should be modified to accommodate the new information. KI is a machine learning program that performs knowledge integration. Through actively investigating the interaction of new information with existing knowledge KI is capable of detecting and exploiting a variety of diverse learning opportunities during a single learning episode. Empirical evaluation suggests that KI provides significant assistance to knowledge engineers while integrating new information into a large knowledge base.
The Joint European Torus (JET) fusion machine is the only device capable of operation with tritium (as fuel) and Be (as plasma facing component), what makes it best suited to study ITER relevant issues. A large variety of activities are performed within the JET Fusion Technology Task Force. In this paper, some topics such as erosion/deposition and material transport, flakes characterization and detritiation techniques are highlighted. Recent results obtained using a pumping cryo-panel and on plasma facing component characterisation are given. Finally, issues that will be addressed in the forthcoming JET work-programme are presented, such as a beryllium main wall for JET and in-situ laser detritiation. (authors)
The nature and properties of inorganic /sup 211/At-species formed in aqueous solutions under alkaline, neutral, acidic and oxidative conditions are studied through extraction of At with a variety of organic solvents, followed by the determination of the chromatographic, re-extraction and interaction behaviour of the extracted activity. It is concluded from the Rsub(f) values (on SiO/sub 2/) and the different affinities for a large amount of additives, that the extracted activity - formerly denoted as At-zero - exists of AtX compounds that may form AtXLsub(u) complexes, depending on the kind of solvent (L) used.
The nature and properties of inorganic "2"1"1At-species formed in aqueous solutions under alkaline, neutral, acidic and oxidative conditions are studied through extraction of At with a variety of organic solvents, followed by the determination of the chromatographic, re-extraction and interaction behaviour of the extracted activity. It is concluded from the Rsub(f) values (on SiO_2) and the different affinities for a large amount fo additives, that the extracted activity - formerly denoted as At-zero - exists of AtX compounds that may form AtXLsub(u) complexes, depending on the kind of solvent (L) used. (orig.).
Lithium storage metals and alloys can be suitable high-capacity anode materials for lithium-ion batteries, when the morphology is specifically designed. Here, we compare three different Sn/SnSb multiphase anode materials in powder form, which have been prepared in aqueous and organic solution by chemical precipitation using NaBH{sub 4} or Zn as reductive agents. The obtained morphologies, chemical compositions, and the electrochemical performance will be comparatively discussed. The variety of synthesis parameters which have an effect on the morphology of the obtained anode materials will be particularly highlighted.
Purpose - The aim of the present study is to present in a systematic way the subject of industrial hazardous waste from the point-of-view of definitions in engineering, science and legislation. This analysis is necessary, as many different approaches and overlapping definitions are used for the classification of waste, leading to different results, a situation that often complicates the collection and interpretation of data on waste. Design/methodology/approach - The study is conducted by bringing together the extended experience of the authors and other experts in the field of environmental legislation and a wide variety of scientific and legislative sources as well as articles and research reports. The focus is the European Union, while several approaches from the international area are ...
Lumbar epidural anesthesia is useful in a variety of chronic benign pain syndromes, including lumbar radiculopathy, low back pain syndrome, spinal stenosis, and vertebral compression fractures. Given the increased number of epidural nerve blocks being performed, some have reported unexplained complications of a transient or permanent nature and with varying degrees of severity. However, no case has been reported of a broken epidural needle tip retained in the lumbar facet joint area. This represents the first reported case presentation of foraminal stenosis developing in a patient after a retained epidural needle tip. PMID:21286465
Software to aid the distribution and coordination of tasks between different processors was developed to distribute applications written in Fortran. This development led to the discovery of problems unique to Fortran and to interesting practical solutions. Two graphical applications were distributed to a variety of machines and machine pairs: CDC 7600-LSI/11, CRAY-LSI/11, VAX 11/780, and Apollo. These distributions pointed out several parameters such as the use of Fortran COMMON, communication parameters, and processing capabilities that can affect the successful distribution of applications.
As a part of the program at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in induction-linac free-electron laser (IFEL) research, the authors are conducting a variety of activities addressing the unique requirements imposed on IFEL wiggler systems. They are actively developing improved DC iron-core electromagnetic wiggler designs to attain higher peak fields, greater tunability, and lower random error levels. They are pursuing specialized control systems, such as magnetic-field and beam-position controllers, which can relax requirements on the wiggler itself. They are also pursuing basic studies to establish the effect of radiation on permanent magnets.
As a part of the program at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in induction-linac free-electron laser (IFEL) research, we are conducting a variety of activities addressing the unique requirements imposed on IFEL wiggler systems. We are actively developing improved dc iron-core electromagnetic wiggler designs to attain higher peak fields, greater tunability, and lower random error levels. We are pursuing specialized control systems, such as magnetic-field and beam-position controllers, which can relax requirements on the wiggler itself. We are also pursuing basic studies to establish the effect of radiation on permanent magnets.
A study is made of plant sensitivity to mutagens during the processing of seeds. An examination is made of problems concerned with modification mutability, the nature of plant restoration following irradiation. Particular attention is given to mutation changes. A presentation is made of several features of mutant changes initially selected by separate indicators. An examination is made of the possible study of mutant indicator genetics. General data on the forms and varieties produced by the mutagenesis method are given. The book is designed for breeding specialists and geneticists engaged in the study of mutagenesis. 439 references, 27 figures, 66 table.
If fourth family condensates are responsible for electroweak symmetry breaking then they may also break approximate global symmetries. Among the resulting pseudo-Goldstone bosons are those that can have diquark quantum numbers. We describe the variety of diquarks and their decay modes, and we find aspects that are particular to the fourth family framework. Spectacular signatures at the LHC appear and are explored for color sextet diquarks with 600 GeV mass. We consider a simple search strategy which avoids diquark reconstruction. We also consider 350 GeV mass diquarks that are accessible at the Tevatron.
The purpose of this project is to integrate a variety of geographic information systems capabilities and telecommunication technologies for potential use in geographic network and visualization applications. The specific technical goals of the project were to design, develop, and simulate the components of an audio/visual geographic communications system to aid future real-time monitoring, mapping and managing of transport vehicles. The system components of this feasibility study are collectively referred to as a Geographic Visualization and Communications System (GVCS). State-of-the-art techniques will be used and developed to allow both the vehicle operator and network manager to monitor the location and surrounding environment of a transport vehicle during shipment.
Let Y be a nonnegative random variable with mean?? and finite positive variance ? 2, and let Y s , defined on the same space as Y, have the Y size-biased distribution, characterized by Formula Not Shown Under a variety of conditions on Y and the coupling of Y and Y s , including combinations of boundedness and monotonicity, one sided concentration of measure inequalities such as Formula Not Shown hold for some explicit A and B. The theorem is applied to the number of bulbs switched on at the terminal time in the so called lightbulb process of Rao et?al. (Sankhy? 69:137?161, 2007).
This is the final report covering work performed on research into methods of attaining clean ferrous castings. In this program methods were developed to minimize the formation of inclusions in steel castings by using a variety of techniques which decreased the tendency for inclusions to form during melting, casting and solidification. In a second project, a reaction chamber was built to remove inclusions from molten steel using electromagnetic force. Finally, a thorough investigation of the causes of sand penetration defects in iron castings was completed, and a program developed which predicts the probability of penetration formation and indicates methods for avoiding it.
A variety of engineering and experimental applications require primary support structures which are self-centering. High mechanical strength, low-density, carbon fiber/epoxy matrix composite springs are used in unique planar, cylindrical, conical, and spherical configurations to self-center components. The sinusoidal and triangular-shaped composite springs are readily manufactured and assembled into component hardware. Design considerations, flexural strength properties, load bearing and centering data plus procedures for the manufacture of composite springs are presented.
When induced by bottom heating in a horizontal fluid layer which is characterized by forced motion or solute stratification, buoyancy-driven flows may assume a variety of forms. The flows, which are examples of mixed or double-diffusive convection, can strongly influence heat tranfer or the entrainment of stratified fluid. General aspects of each form of convection are reviewed, and emphasis is placed on mixed convection in a horizontal rectangular channel and on double-diffusive convection due to thermally driven mixed-layer development in a solutally stratified fluids. Flow conditions are described, and experimental and theoretical results are presented for related heat-transfer and entrainment parameters.
The role of robotics and remote handling equipment in future nuclear power plant maintenance activities is discussed in the context of artificial intelligence applications. Special requirements manipulators, control systems, and man-machine interfaces for nuclear applications are noted. Tasks might include inspection with cameras, eddy current probes, and leak detectors; the collection of material samples; radiation monitoring; and the disassembly, repair and reassembly of a variety of system components. A robot with vision and force sensing and an intelligent control system that can access a knowledge base is schematically described. Recent advances in image interpretation systems are also discussed.
The role of robotics and remote handling equipment in future nuclear power plant maintenance activities is discussed in the context of artificial intelligence applications. Special requirements manipulators, control systems, and man-machine interfaces for nuclear applications are noted. Tasks might include inspection with cameras, eddy current probes, and leak detectors; the collection of material samples; radiation monitoring; and the disassembly, repair and reassembly of a variety of system components. A robot with vision and force sensing and an intelligent control system that can access a knowledge base is schematically described. Recent advances in image interpretation systems are also discussed.
A variety of advanced controlled rolling techniques have been developed to improve toughness, strength and weldability of niobium-steels. To achieve optimum properties, control of prior stage rolling conditions and accelerated cooling are needed. In low carbon steel, the addition of niobium results in a greater increase in tensile strength than that of vanadium without a loss of toughness. At the same strength level, niobium-steel has less susceptibility to weld cracking and good toughness in the HAZ of its weldments than similar vanadium steels. Separation and formability of niobium steels are also discussed.
We study the all-optical time-control of the strong coupling between a single cascade three-level quantum emitter and a microcavity. We find that only specific arrival-times of the control pulses succeed in switching-off the Rabi oscillations. Depending on the arrival times of control pulses, a variety of exotic non-adiabatic cavity quantum electrodynamics effects can be observed. We show that only control pulses with specific arrival times are able to suddenly switch-off and -on first-order coherence of cavity photons, without affecting their strong coupling population dynamics. Such behavior may be understood as a manifestation of quantum complementarity.
We address the following question: When an affine cone over a smooth Fano threefold admits an effective action of the additive group? In this paper we deal with Fano threefolds of index 1 and Picard number 1. Our approach is based on a geometric criterion from our previous paper, which relates the existence of an additive group action on the cone over a smooth projective variety X with the existence of an open polar cylinder in X. Non-trivial families of Fano threefolds carrying a cylinder were found in loc. cit. Here we provide new such examples.
It is imperative to use a leak-proof container for counting liquid sample to prevent contamination of costly gamma detectors. A sealant that ensures no leak is reported. It is a vinyl adhesive sealant used for household purposes, marketed by Gloucester Co., Inc, Franklin, MA under the trade name of Phenoseal (translucent variety). This sealant was superior to other sealants studied because it cures quickly, peels off easily after counting, and contains no detectable radioactivity. This sealant has been thoroughly tested and successfully employed it in the routine analysis of environmental liquid samples. (author)
The HVDC link across the English Channel, which was brought into service in 1986, has several innovative features. Techniques used in its construction together with recent developments have consolidated the viability of HVDC links for a variety of applications. Outlines the main features of the scheme, including the benefits of interconnecting the British and French 400 kV AC power systems; integration of the UK converter system to the 400 kV AC grid; the DC submarine cables; convertor equipment (particularly the UK installation); and future HVDC developments. 6 refs.
The {sup 252}Cf-source-driven noise analysis method has been used in measurements for subcritical configurations of fissile systems for a variety of applications. Measurements of 25 fissile systems have been performed with a wide variety of materials and configurations. This method has been applied to measurements for (1) initial fuel loading of reactors, (2) quality assurance of reactor fuel elements, (3) fuel preparation facilities, (4) fuel processing facilities, (5) fuel storage facilities, (6) zero-power testing of reactors, and (7) verification of calculational methods for assemblies with the neutron k < l. These previous measurements, performed with a wide variety of multiplying systems, demonstrated the usefulness of the method. The high sensitivity of noise-measured parameters to small changes in fissile systems has been observed in several measurements. This high sensitivity has been evaluated using Monte Carlo ...
Bangladesh possesses many industrial sites, whereby wastes and effluents are directly discharged into the environment without any treatment. Agricultural areas are contaminated thereby and the food quality is impaired. Therefore, the aim of the present work was to develop simple and cost effective strategies to reduce soil-plant transfer of harmful substances. Three sites were selected in the vicinity of Dhaka city (Tongi pharmaceutical, Tejgaon industrial and Hazaribagh tannery area). Field and pot experiments were carried out with different varieties of field crops (rice, wheat and tomato) and different soil amendments (cowdung, city waste compost, oil cake, waterhyacinth, poultry litter, lime and red mud). At the site Tongi, pollutants mainly consists of organic compounds. The soil of Tejgaon is acidic (pH=5.7), contains high organic matter and elevated concentrations of Zn (685 mg/kg), Pb (136 mg/kg), and Cd (2.6 mg/kg). The Hazaribagh region is polluted by a ...
Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) followed by gamma-ray spectrometry was used to determine the concentrations of As, Ca, Co, Cr, Cu, Eu, Fe, K, La, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Pr, Sb, Se, Th, U, V and Z, in 82 leaf samples belonging to two cultivars of pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp). Pigeonpea, an easy cultivation legume species, probably originated from Africa and adapted to brazilian conditions, is a very promising and unconventional source of food, mainly to the grain production intended for human feeding, and that even can be used in flour products. It is an excellent proteic supplement for ruminants, due to its large potential of forage production and its high nutritive value, or in addition it can be used in the recuperation of exhausting soils either by means of its utilization as green manure or by taking free Nitrogen from the atmosphere to produce nitrates which can be utilized by the plants. However, in spite of the several possibilities and increasing utilization ...
One of the requirements for a federated information system is interoperability, the ability of one computer system to access and use the resources of another system. This feature is particularly important in biomedical research systems, which need to coordinate a variety of disparate types of data. In order to meet this need, the National Cancer Institute Center for Bioinformatics (NCICB) has created the cancer Common Ontologic Representation Environment (caCORE), an interoperability infrastructure based on Model Driven Architecture. The caCORE infrastructure provides a mechanism to create interoperable biomedical information systems. Systems built using the caCORE paradigm address both aspects of interoperability: the ability to access data (syntactic interoperability) and understand the ...
A web-based decision support tool, zone mapping application for precision farming (ZoneMAP, External Reference Not Shown ), has been developed to automatically determine the optimal number of management zones and delineate them using satellite imagery and field data provided by users. Application rates, such as of fertilizer, can be prescribed for each zone and downloaded in a variety of formats to ensure compatibility with GPS-enabled farming equipment. ZoneMAP is linked to Digital Northern Great Plains, a web-based application which hosts an archive of satellite imagery, as well as high resolution imagery from airborne sensors. Management zones created by ZoneMAP mapped natural variation of the soil organic matter and other nutrients relatively well and were consistent with zone maps cre...
Nanoparticle metal oxides offer a wide variety of potential applications in medicine due to the unprecedented advances in nanobiotechnology research. In this work, the effect of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles prepared by mechano-chemical method on the antibacterial activity of different antibiotics was evaluated using disk diffusion method against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The average size of ZnO nanoparticles was between 20 nm and 45 nm. Although ZnO nanoparticles (500 mg/disk) decreased the antibacterial activity of amoxicillin, penicillin G, and nitrofurantoin in S. aureus, the antibacterial activity of ciprofloxacin increased in the presence of ZnO nanoparticles in both test strains. A total of 27% and 22% increase in inhibition zone areas was observed for ciprofloxac...
The patient positioning and repositioning control in radiation therapy all along the treatment can be conducted using a variety of X-ray sources and imaging detector devices. The development of image guided radiation therapy techniques leads to more frequent use of this imaging control. In this article we summarize the current methods for measuring the dose delivered by X-ray imaging devices used in radiation therapy, as well as basic proposals to take account of these imaging doses for prescribing, recording and reporting radiation therapy treatment. (authors)
A technique has been developed to estimate the percent population having electric power access based on the presence of satellite detected nighttime lighting. A global survey was conducted for the year 2006 using nighttime lights collected by the U.S. Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) in combination with the U.S. Department of Energy Landscan population dataset. The survey includes results for 229 countries and more than 2000 subnational units. The results are compared to reported electrification rates for 87 countries compiled from a variety of sources by the International Energy Agency. The DMSP derived estimate of number of people worldwide who lack access to electricity is 1.62 billion, only slightly larger than the 1.58 billion estimated by the International Energy Agency.
The Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) modular stellarator is under construction at the Max-Planck-Institut fur Plasmaphysik in Greifswald, Germany. The W7-X magnet system contains 70 coils made up from helium cooled superconducting cables in aluminium alloy (EN AW-6063) jackets. Several hundred connections of the jacket to the cable joints are made by aluminium-to-aluminium welds. Due to geometrical and thermal boundary conditions these welds cannot be accomplished free from defects. Microscopic analyses of the welds show that a variety of small flaws such as cracks and pores develop during welding. The welds have thus to be dimensioned accordingly, and appropriate weld qualification, investigation and testing has to be done in order not to jeopardise the structural integrity and leak tightness. The ...
It is an object of the claimed invention to combine chemical treatment with microfiltration process to treat groundwater, leachate from contaminated soil washing, surface and run-off waters contaminated with toxic metals, radionuclides and trace amounts of organics from variety of sources. The process can also be used to treat effluents from industrial processes such as discharges associated with smelting, mining and refining operations. Influent contaminants amenable to treatment are from a few mg/L to hundreds of mg/L. By selecting appropriate precipitation, ion exchange and adsorption agents and conditions, efficiencies greater than 99.9 percent can be achieved for removal of contaminants. The filtered water for discharge can be targeted with either an order of magnitude greater or lower than contaminant levels for drinking water.
In this study, the influences of cultivar on the phenolic composition and antioxidant properties of 15 different basil varieties was determined. Cultivar had a statistically significant effect on total phenolic levels (p<0.001) and anthocyanin concentrations (p<0.001). Analysis of individual phenolic acid levels by high-performance liquid chromatography showed substantial variations in the phenolic acid profiles among cultivars. Rosmarinic (p<0.001), chicoric (p=0.002) and caffeic (p=0.001) acid concentrations were affected by cultivar, although caftaric acid levels (p=0.083) were not. Nine of the cultivars in this study contained chicoric acid in higher concentrations than rosmarinic acid. These are the first basil cultivars that have been identified in which rosmarinic acid is not the do...
Among the investigations conducted on the space shuttle flight STS 3 March 1982 was an experiment in which a 1-keV, 100-mA electron gun was pulsed at 3.25 and 4.87 kHz. The resultant waves were measured with a broadband plasma wave receiver. At the time of flight the experimental setup was unique in that the electron beam was square wave modulated and that the shuttle offered relatively long times for in situ measurements of the ionospheric plasma response to the VLF pulsing sequences. In addition to electromagnetic response at the pulsing frequencies the waves exhibited various spectral harmonics as well as the unexpected occurrence of satellite lines around those harmonics. Both phenomena occurred with a variety of different characteristics for different pulsing sequences.
Energy storage systems with extremely high specific energy (>400 Wh/kg) have been designed that use lightweight pressure vessels to contain the gases generated by reversible (unitized) regenerative fuel cells (URFCs).[1] URFC systems are being designed and developed for a variety of applications, including high altitude long endurance (HALE) solar rechargeable aircraft (SRA), zero emission vehicles (ZEVs), hybrid energy storage/propulsion systems for spacecraft, energy storage for remote (off-grid) power sources, and peak shaving for on-grid applications.[1-10] Energy storage for HALE SRA was the original application for this set of innovations, and a prototype solar powered aircraft (Pathfinder-Plus) recently set another altitude record for all propeller-driven aircraft on August 6, 1998, when it flew to 80,285 feet (24.47 km).[11
Beginning with an overview of renewable energy sources including biomass, hydroelectricity, geothermal, tidal, wind and solar power, this book explores the fundamentals of different renewable energy systems. The main focus is on technologies with high development potential such as solar thermal systems, photovoltaics and wind power. This text not only describes technological aspects, but also deals consciously with problems of the energy industry. In this way, the topics are treated in a holistic manner, bringing together maths, engineering, climate studies and economics, and enabling readers to gain a broad understanding of renewable energy technologies and their potential. The book also contains a free CD-ROM resource, which includes a variety of specialist simulation software and detailed figures from the book. (Author)
Understanding the similar properties of people involved in group search sessions has the potential to significantly improve collaborative search systems; such systems could be enhanced by information retrieval algorithms and user interface modifications that take advantage of important properties, for example by re-ordering search results using information from group members' combined user profiles. Understanding what makes group members similar can also assist with the identification of groups, which can be valuable for connecting users with others with whom they might undertake a collaborative search. In this workshop paper, we describe our current research efforts towards studying the properties of a variety of group types. We discuss properties of groups that may be relevant to designers of collaborative search systems, and propose ways in which understanding such properties could influence the design of interfaces and algorithms for collaborative Web search.
The Transuranic Waste Form Characterization and Data Base (Volume 1) provides a wide range of information from which a comprehensive data base can be established and from which standards and criteria can be developed for the present NRC waste management program. Supplementary information on each of the areas discussed in Volume 1 is presented in Appendices A through K (Volumes 2 and 3). The structure of the study (Volume 1) is outlined and appendices of Volumes 2 and 3 correlate with each main section of the report. The Executive Summary reviews the sources, quantities, characteristics and treatment of transuranic wastes in the United States. Due to the variety of potential treatment processes for transuranic wastes, the end products for long-term storage may have corresponding variations in quantities and characteristics.
The mammalian placenta consists of different trophoblast cell types that assist in the variety of functions required for the maintenance of pregnancy. In rodents, labyrinthine trophoblasts of the placenta are especially important, because they are capable of differentiating into fused labyrinthine cells, which form the feto-maternal exchange surface. Even though the molecular signals triggering labyrinthine trophoblast differentiation are poorly understood, transforming growth factor-b (TGF-b) has been shown to be present in the placental environment and alter trophoblast development. In this study, we investigated the effects of TGF-b on the differentiation of the labyrinthine trophoblast stem cell lines SM10 and HRP-1. RT-PCR analyses demonstrated that while the molecular expression of l...
Recent studies have shown that there is a wide variety of approaches to education and training of the Qualified Expert across the European Union. National education and training programmes show often large differences in content, duration, level, the introduction of practical work, etc. As they stand, such differences are a barrier to the mutual recognition of the Qualified Expert status and, in part, are contributing to a perceived shortage in expertise in radiation protection and safety. The overall aim of ENETRAP is to determine mechanisms that in the longer term will facilitate better integration of education and training activities (with a view to mutual recognition across the European Union) and to ensure the ongoing provision of the necessary competence and expertise at the level of the Qualified Expert. The ENETRAP project is a 6FP coordination action. It started in April 2005 and runs over a period of 24 months. (authors)
ObjectiveTo characterize global structural features of large-scale biomedical terminologies using currently emerging statistical approaches.DesignGiven rapid growth of terminologies, this research was designed to address scalability. We selected 16 terminologies covering a variety of domains from the UMLS Metathesaurus, a collection of terminological systems. Each was modeled as a network in which nodes were atomic concepts and links were relationships asserted by the source vocabulary. For comparison against each terminology we created three random networks of equivalent size and density.MeasurementsAverage node degree, node degree distribution, clustering coefficient, average path length.ResultsEight of 16 terminologies exhibited the small-world characteristics of a short average path le...
A water trap system based on a thermoelectric cooling device is employed to remove a major fraction of the water from air samples, prior to analysis of these samples for chemical composition, by a variety of analytical techniques where water vapor interferes with the measurement process. These analytical techniques include infrared spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, ion mobility spectrometry and gas chromatography. The thermoelectric system for trapping water present in air samples can substantially improve detection sensitivity in these analytical techniques when it is necessary to measure trace analytes with concentrations in the ppm (parts per million) or ppb (parts per billion) partial pressure range. The thermoelectric trap design is compact and amenable to use in a portable gas monitoring instrumentation.
The complex thermally stimulated luminescence (TSL) pattern of NaAlSi_3O_8 has been analyzed on transparent and opaque varieties of natural crystals and synthetic pure powder. The existence of seven additional peaks in the range 20 to 450 "0C following X-irradiation at room temperature (RT) is reported, also evaluated by the curve fitting method. The validity of the analysis is discussed in the light of detailed trap analysis of KAlSi_3O_8. An attempt has been made to probe the excistence of high temperature peaks beyond 450 "0C using UV stimulation at RT. All the TSL peaks analyzed follow a second-order kinetic process.
Pulses are rich in nutrients. The existence of anti-nutritional components and the length of time required for preparation have, however, limited their frequency of use compared to recommended intake levels. Anti-nutritional components in pulses can be largely removed by heat treatment. Additionally pre-treatment of pulses with heat and processing of seeds into flour could further enhance their use by decreasing processing and preparation times. In this study, trypsin inhibitor activity, functional properties, and microstructural characteristics of flours prepared from different varieties of lentil, chickpea, and pea as affected by roasting and boiling were evaluated. Both thermal treatments resulted in significant reduction (p<0.05) in trypsin inhibitor activity ranging from -95.6% to -37...
The discovery that the cosmic expansion is accelerating has been followed by an intense theoretical and experimental response in physics and astronomy. The discovery implies that our most basic notions about how gravity work are violated on cosmological distance scales. One simple fix is the introduction of a cosmological constant into the field equations for general relativity. However, the extremely small value of the cosmological constant, relative to theoretical expectations, has led theorists to explore a wide variety of alternative explanations that involve the introduction of an exotic negative-pressure fluid or a modification of general relativity. Here we briefly review the evidence for cosmic acceleration. We then survey some of the theoretical attempts to account for it, including the cosmological constant, quintessence and its variants, mass-varying neutrinos, and modifications of general relativity, such as scalar-tensor and $f(R)$ theories and ...
The Darrieus-type Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) presents a variety of unusual structural problems to designers. The level of understanding of these structural problems governs, to a large degree, the success or failure of today's rotor designs. A survey is presented of the technology available for rotor structural design with emphasis on the DOE research program now underway. Itemizations are included of the major structural issues unique to the VAWT along with discussion of available analysis techniques for each problem area. It is concluded that tools are available to at least approximately address the most important problems. However, experimental data for confirmation is rather limited in terms of volume and the range of rotor configurations tested.
The Authenticated Tracking and Monitoring System (ATMS) has been designed to address the need for global monitoring of the status and location of proliferation-sensitive items. Conceived to utilize the proposed Global Verification and Location System (GVLS) satellite link, ATMS could use the existing International Maritime Satellite commercial communication system until GVLS is operational. The ATMS concept uses sensor packs to monitor items and environmental conditions, collects a variety of events data through a sensor processing unit, and transmits the data to a satellite, which then sends data to ground stations. Authentication and encryption algorithms will be used to secure the data. A typical ATMS application would be to track and monitor the safety and security of a number of items in transit along a scheduled shipping route. This paper also discusses a possible proof-of-concept system demonstration.
Magnesium alloys are being increasingly utilized in a variety of fields as an alternative material to organic materials and aluminum alloys, owing to excellent properties. Those include low density, and excellent damping properties. When compared to organic materials, furthermore, Mg alloy excels at recyclability, heat radiation, and electromagnetic-shielding. Though most of magnesium alloy products are manufactured through die-casting and thixo-molding at present, the demand for the expanding of magnesium wrought alloy market is increasing. Taking full advantage of a drawing technique and applying it to the conventional extruded pipe, we have developed a new type of magnesium alloy pipe. The strength of the developed pipe is significantly higher than that of the conventional one, either extruded or die-casting. Some of the excellent properties were obtained from fundamental tests performed with the developed pipe. Both tensile properties and bending formability ...
The activity assay of a radiopharmaceutical administration to a patient is normally achieved via the use of a radionuclide calibrator. Because of the different geometries and elemental compositions between plastic syringes and glass vials, the calibration factors for syringes may well be significantly different from those for the glass containers. The magnitude of these differences depends on the energies of the emitted photons. For some radionuclides variations have been observed of 70 %, it is therefore important to recalibrate for syringes or use syringe calibration factors. Calibration factors and volume correction factors have been derived for the NPL secondary standard radionuclide calibrator, for a variety of commonly used syringes and needles, for the most commonly used medical radionuclide.
Reflectometric methods like polarised neutron reflectometry (PNR) and synchrotron Moessbauer reflectometry (SMR) are capable of investigating the plane-perpendicular and lateral magnetic structure of multilayers (MLs). Previously, a variety of domain formation and transformation phenomena was found and systematically studied in a Fe/Cr ML of strong antiferromagnetic coupling by PNR and SMR. Growth of the primary domains on passing the bulk-spin-flop transition was established. The domains were found to revert to their native state only in a field considerably higher than the apparent saturation field, a phenomenon referred to as the supersaturation domain memory effect (SDME). We present a comparative PNR study of two antiferromagnetically coupled Fe/Cr MLs with different magnetisation curves. We show that the distribution of the layer-layer coupling rather than the magnetic structure of the Cr spacer layer is responsible for the SDME.
This series of measurements with a mixed Pu-U nitrate solution (280 g Pu/liter, 180 g U/liter) in a 35.54-cm-diam cylindrical tank provides a wide variety of experimental data for subcritical configurations that can be used to verify calculational methods and nuclear data. The Pu contained 7.85 wt% {sup 240}Pu and the uranium was natural uranium. The measurements performed were: inverse count rate, prompt neutron decay constants, inverse kinetics, and frequency analysis by the {sup 252}Cf source driven method. These data are presented in sufficient detail that the results of the experiments can be calculated directly. For purposes of extrapolating to the delayed critical height the ratio of spectral densities was linear with height and thus provided the best estimate of critical height.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent cells that can differentiate into chondrocytes, osteoblasts, myocytes, adipocytes, and a variety of other cell types. Several studies have been directed toward using MSCs from patients with osteoarthritis (OA) for cartilage repair, not only because these are the ones that will require a source of autologous stem cells if biological repair of cartilage lesions is to be a therapeutic option, but also to further an understanding of stem cell differentiation. Previous studies have shown that a major drawback of current cartilage and intervertebral disc tissue repair is that human MSCs from OA patients express type X collagen (COL X). COL X, a marker of late-stage chondrocyte hypertrophy, is implicated in endochondral ossification. However, those st...
Carbon films have been made by a variety of techniques, including evaporation, sputtering, and laser or thermal pyrolysis of organic polymers. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) is often used as a carbon precursor, since low-temperature thermo-oxidative pretreatment produces a material which can be pyrolyzed without loss of shape. This is the basis for the production of carbon fibers with good mechanical properties. We report here the formation of very thin films of carbon (500 to 1500 A) by pyrolysis of spin-cast PAN. Using this technique, large, conductive films can be made which are sufficiently robust to allow intact lift-off and transfer of the films from one substrate to another. Such films are chemically inert, but can be photolithographically patterned and etched with an oxygen plasma.
Until a decade ago, only the differential bobbin type eddy current probe was considered necessary for reliable heat exchanger tube inspection. The introduction of different tube materials, manufacturing processes and a variety of service induced failures has greatly increased the demands of eddy current testing. Optimized probe designs enhanced by improved instrumentation can help satisfy some of these demands. Some of the more difficult inspection problems are detection of circumferential cracks, fretting wear under non-ferromagnetic support plates and shallow internal defects. Reliable detection and sizing of such defects is often made more difficult by the fact they frequently occur in defect prone regions such as under tubesheets or support plates and in transition regions of finned tubes. Probe designs effective in overcoming these difficulties exist. This paper describes a number of such probes and their performance.
Very large sparse linear least-squares problems arise in a variety of applications, such as geodetic network adjustments, photogrammetry, earthquake studies, and certain types of finite element analysis. Many of these problems are so large that it is impossible to solve them without using auxiliary storage devices. Some problems are so massive that the storage needed for their solution exceeds the virtual address space of the largest machines. A method for solving such problems on a typical (large) computer is described, and the results of some experiments illustrating the effectiveness of this approach are provided. The method includes an automatic partitioning scheme that is essential to the efficient management of the data on auxiliary files. 8 figures, 2 tables
Recognizing that a high percentage of transmission-line faults are single-phase to earth and temporary in nature, provides the impetus for considering single-pole switching as a means to enhance the reliability of EHV transmission systems. The effectiveness of single-pole switching schemes is largely determined by the speed with which the secondary arcs extinguish, and hence allow system restoration. Simulation techniques that enable better prediction of the faulted-system response are of obvious importance to the design and assessment of the various single-pole switching scheme applications. In this thesis, digital methods are developed to enable the faulted response of EHV systems to be simulated for a variety of different single-pole switching schemes. These include conventional single-pole switching, the hybrid method of autoreclosure, the neutral switched reactor, and the High Speed Grounding Switch implementations. The work is of importance to system ...
We focus on the problem of query rewriting for sponsored search. We base rewrites on a historical click graph that records the ads that have been clicked on in response to past user queries. Given a query q, we first consider Simrank as a way to identify queries similar to q, i.e., queries whose ads a user may be interested in. We argue that Simrank fails to properly identify query similarities in our application, and we present two enhanced version of Simrank: one that exploits weights on click graph edges and another that exploits ``evidence.'' We experimentally evaluate our new schemes against Simrank, using actual click graphs and queries form Yahoo!, and using a variety of metrics. Our results show that the enhanced methods can yield more and better query rewrites.
Over the last several years considerable concern has been expressed regarding the potential detrimental effects of radon and radon progeny on our health. The complex nature of the radon decay scheme, which involves the emission of a variety of radiations including several [alpha] particles, [beta] particles, and [gamma]-rays, does not lend itself to clear delineation of the biological effects of the [alpha] particles alone. Polonium-210, the terminal radionuclide of the radon decay series, is useful for this purpose because it has a relatively long shelf-life ([tau][sub 1/2] = 138 d), and it only emits a single 5.3 MeV [alpha] particle in its decay to stable [sup 206]Pb. Accordingly, it has been used extensively in radiobiological studies with incorporated radionuclides. The radionuclide [sup 210]Po is produced in a reactor from [sup 209]Bi. (Author).
A new two-body interaction recently derived for nuclei in the 0f1p shell by fitting two-body matrix elements to 494 energy levels in A=41-66 nuclei, is used to investigate the neutron-rich nuclei in the vicinity of the doubly closed nuclide {sup 48}Ca. This study is of fundamental interest in providing a test for the new effective interaction away from the stability line. Masses and binding energies are calculated for a variety of neutron-rich nuclei and compared with experimental data, where available. In addition level schemes for {sup 50-52}Ca, {sup 51-52}Sc and {sup 51-52}Ti have been calculated and are compared with available experimental data. In general a good correspondence between theory and experiment is found, but some systematic discrepancies are apparent. ((orig.)).
A new two-body interaction recently derived for nuclei in the 0f1p shell by fitting two-body matrix elements to 494 energy levels in A=41-66 nuclei, is used to investigate the neutron-rich nuclei in the vicinity of the doubly closed nuclide "4"8Ca. This study is of fundamental interest in providing a test for the new effective interaction away from the stability line. Masses and binding energies are calculated for a variety of neutron-rich nuclei and compared with experimental data, where available. In addition level schemes for "5"0"-"5"2Ca, "5"1"-"5"2Sc and "5"1"-"5"2Ti have been calculated and are compared with available experimental data. In general a good correspondence between theory and experiment is found, but some systematic discrepancies are apparent. ((orig.)).
Target materials for inertial fusion energy (IFE) power plant designs might be selected for a wide variety of reasons including wall absorption of driver energy, material opacity, cost and ease of fabrication. While each of these issues are of great importance, target materials should also be selected based upon their safety and environmental (S and E) characteristics. The present work focuses on the recycling, waste management and accident dose characteristics of potential target materials. If target materials are recycled so that the quantity is small, isotopic separation may be economically viable. Therefore, calculations have been completed for all stable isotopes for all elements from lithium to polonium. The results of these calculations are used to identify specific isotopes and elements that are most likely to be offensive as well as those most likely to be acceptable in terms of their S and E characteristics.
A total of 86 experimental fuel pins with various fuel, liner, and cladding candidate materials have been irradiated in the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) and the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) reactor as part of the SP-100 fuel pin irradiation testing program. Postirradiation examination results from these fuel pin are key in establishing performance correlations and demonstrating the lifetime and safety of the reactor fuel system. This paper provides a brief description of the in-reactor fuel pin tests and presents the most recent irradiation data on the performance of wrought rhenium (Re) liner material and high density UN fuel at goal burnup of 6 atom percent (at. %). It also provides an overview of the significant variety of other fuel/liner/cladding combinations which were irradiated as part of this program and which may be of interest to more advanced efforts.
The physical foundations of a variety of emerging technologies --- ranging from the applications of quantum entanglement in quantum information to the applications of nonequilibrium bulk and interface phenomena in microfluidics, biology, materials science, energy engineering, etc. --- require understanding thermodynamic entropy beyond the equilibrium realm of its traditional definition. This paper presents a rigorous logical scheme that provides a generalized definition of entropy free of the usual unnecessary assumptions which constrain the theory to the equilibrium domain. The scheme is based on carefully worded operative definitions for all the fundamental concepts employed, including those of system, property, state, isolated system, environment, process, separable system, system uncorrelated from its environment, and parameters of a system. The treatment considers also systems with movable internal walls and/or semipermeable walls, with chemical reactions ...
Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) with soft x-rays is uniquely suited to study the elec-tronic structure of a variety of materials, but is currently limited by low (fluorescence yield) count rates. This limitation is overcome with a new high-transmission spectrometer that allows to measure soft x-ray RIXS"maps." The S L2,3 RIXS map of CdS is discussed and compared with density functional calculations. The map allows the extraction of decay channel-specific"absorp-tion spectra," giving detailed insight into the wave functions of occupied and unoccupied elec-tronic states.
High energy consumption and the world population increase will lead to a shrinking use of fossil fuels. The combustion of Fossil fuel leads to the increase of carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere which leads to the probable increase of global warming. Therefore, concerns about carbon dioxide emissions may discourage widespread dependence on fossil fuels and encourage the development and use of renewable energy systems employing a variety of technologies Renewable energy systems have themselves an environmental impact. Land use and material employed are two areas that may have an adverse impact to the positive environmental picture of the renewable energy systems. The objective of this paper is to analyze these impacts with the use of a very powerful tool, the Life Cycle Assessment. (author)
Abstract Plant pathogenic bacteria of the genus Xanthomonas cause a variety of diseases in economically important monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous crop plants worldwide. Successful infection and bacterial multiplication in the host tissue often depend on the virulence factors secreted including adhesins, polysaccharides, LPS and degradative enzymes. One of the key pathogenicity factors is the type III secretion system, which injects effector proteins into the host cell cytosol to manipulate plant cellular processes such as basal defense to the benefit of the pathogen. The coordinated expression of bacterial virulence factors is orchestrated by quorum-sensing pathways, multiple two-component systems and transcriptional regulators such as Clp, Zur, FhrR, HrpX and HpaR. Furthermore, virule...
Real-time neutron radiography (RTNR) is now proving to be a valuable research tool in the study of hydrogenous fluid flow. One of the most significant advantages of neutron radiography is the ability to image hydrogenous substances (such as lubricants, coolants, and fuels) inside metallic materials such as aluminum and titanium engines. By using RTNR, one can then study dynamic events such as the movement of liquids inside these solids. The Phoenix Memorial Laboratory (PML) at the University of Michigan has recently developed and installed a facility dedicated to RTNR. The work at PML has shown that RTNR of dynamic events can provide information enabling the researcher to follow dynamic events that were previously impossible or impractical. This paper will show the variety of uses of RTNR presently being pursued at PML.
Real-time neutron radiography (RTNR) is now proving to be a valuable research tool in the study of hydrogenous fluid flow. One of the most significant advantages of neutron radiography is the ability to image hydrogenous substances (such as lubricants, coolants, and fuels) inside metallic materials such as aluminum and titanium engines. By using RTNR, one can then study dynamic events such as the movement of liquids inside these solids. The Phoenix Memorial Laboratory (PML) at the University of Michigan has recently developed and installed a facility dedicated to RTNR. The work at PML has shown that RTNR of dynamic events can provide information enabling the researcher to follow dynamic events that were previously impossible or impractical. This paper will show the variety of uses of RTNR presently being pursued at PML.
Moodle is an extended learning management system for developing learning units, including mathematically-based subjects. A wide variety of material can be developed in Moodle which contains facilities for forums, questionnaires, lessons, tasks, wikis, glossaries and chats. Therefore, the Moodle platform provides a meeting point for those working in a mathematics course. Mathematics requires special materials and activities: The material must include mathematical objects and the activities included in the virtual course must be able to do mathematical computations. WIRIS is a powerful software for educational environments. It has libraries for calculus, algebra, geometry and much more. In this article, examples showing the use of WIRIS in numerical methods and examples of using a new tool, ...
In this paper the availability and properties of radioisotopes for both radioimmunodiagnosis (RAID) and radioimmunotherapy (RAIT) are discussed. Examples are provided for radioisotopes available via direct production in nuclear reactors and accelerators or as daughters obtained from radionuclide generator systems whose parents are either reactor or accelerator produced. Important factors which must be considered for the use of a particular radioisotope include availability, the physical half-life and decay properties, and chemical versatility for protein attachment. Although both direct'' and indirect'' methods are available for attachment of radioisotopes to antibodies, this broad field of research is not reviewed in detail. Practical issues related to the availability and use of a variety of radionuclides are described. 47 refs., 5 tabs.
Phospholipase D (PLD) has been recognized as a regulator of cell proliferation and tumorigenesis, but little is known about the molecules regulating PLD expression. Thus, the identification of small molecules inhibiting PLD expression would be an important advance in PLD-mediated physiology. Quercetin, a ubiquitous bioactive flavonoid, is known to inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis in a variety of cancer cells. In the present study, we examined the effect of quercetin on the expression of PLD in U87 glioma cells. Quercetin significantly suppressed the expression of PLD1 at the transcriptional level. Moreover, quercetin abolished the protein expression of PLD1 in a time and dose-dependent manner, as well as inhibited PLD activity. Quercetin suppressed NFkB-induced PLD1 expression vi...
Summary Electronic textiles are a vanguard of an emerging generation of smart products. They consist of small electronic devices that are seamlessly embedded into clothing and technical textiles. E-textiles provide enhanced functions in a variety of unobtrusive and convenient ways. Like many high-tech products, e-textiles may evolve to become a mass market in the future. In this case, large amounts of difficult-to-recycle products will be discarded. That can result in new waste problems. This article examines the possible end-of-life implications of textile-integrated electronic waste. As a basis for assessment, the innovation trends of e-textiles are reviewed, and an overview of their material composition is provided. Next, scenarios are developed to estimate the magnitude of future e-tex...
Researchers have identified as effective and worthy of broader dissemination a variety of intervention strategies to promote physical activity among older adults. This paper reports results of a community-organizing approach to disseminating evidence-based interventions in a sustainable way: The Southeast Seattle Senior Physical Activity Network (SESPAN). SESPAN was implemented in Southeast Seattle, a group of multicultural neighborhoods extending 8?miles southeast of downtown Seattle, with a population of 56,469 in 2000, with 12% (7,041) aged 65 and older. The SESPAN organizing strategy involved networking to: (1) make connections between two or more community organizations to create new senior physical activity programs; and (2) build coalitions of community groups and organizations to a...
The recent acceleration of effort to elucidate and explore the coordination chemistry of technetium has been prompted mainly by the need for a new generation of radiotracers in nuclear medicine, preferentially for tomograhic studies. Current approaches and their limitations in designing "9"9"mTc complexes capable of penetrating cell membranes of the target organs, and remaining there sufficiently long, are reviewed. With the predominance of Tc(V) oxo compounds, especially for brain imaging agents, new N4 and N2S2 coordinate complexes have been developed by shifting from bidentate to tetradentate ligands with a variable side chain or other adjustable reactivity. The search for myocardial imaging agents has focused on a variety of mixed ligand complexes of Tc(III) and most promising [Tc(CNR)_6]"+ complexes of Tc(I). 64 refs. (author).
In mammals, primordial germ cells (PGCs) are generated in the extra-embryonic epiblast, and thereafter migrate into the developing gonads. Following the development of the gonads to the testes or ovaries, germ cells mature into sperms or eggs. In the present study, we report production and characterization of monoclonal antibodies (MAb) that recognize PGCs. Extracts from E12.5 mouse embryonic gonads were immunized as an antigen, and hybridomas were generated using the rat medial iliac lymph node method. The hybridoma supernatants were screened by immunohistochemical analyses of E12.5 mouse embryonic sections. The antibody, referred to herein as MAb 5B5, provided strong signals on PGCs. Moreover, immunofluorescence analyses using a variety of the tissue sections of mouse embryos revealed th...
Novel fluoroalkyl end-capped vinyltrimethoxysilane oligomeric nanoparticles were prepared by the hydrolysis of the corresponding oligomer under alkaline conditions. The size of fluorinated nanoparticles thus obtained is of submicrometer levels and is not sensitive to the refractive indices of a variety of solvents; however, the turbidity of the dispersed fluorinated nanoparticles is extremely sensitive to the refractive indices of these solvents. In particular, the solvents of which the refractive indices are from 1.378 to 1.408 were found to afford the transparent colorless dispersed particle solutions. More interestingly, the modified glass surface treated with fluorinated nanoparticles exhibited a completely superhydrophobic characteristic (a water contact angle: 180?) with a nonwetting...
The ability of the /sup 252/Cf-source-driven neutron noise analysis method to measure subcriticality has been demonstrated in a variety of experimental configurations of fissile materials. Calculations for an approximately 4-m-dia configuration of light water reactor (LWR) fuel elements indicated the feasibility of measuring the subcriticality of large, loosely coupled arrays of LWR fuel elements by this same method. These analysis suggested application to the initial loading of both pressurized and boiling water reactors, zero-power testing of reactors (such as shutdown margin measurements after initial loading), light water reactor refueling, and safe storage of LWR spent fuel. In the fuel storage application, direct measurement of subcriticality in the actual fuel storage facilities provides the parameter which is directly related to criticality safety.
Climex climate-matching and inferential-modelling was used to examine the naturalisation potential of genetically modified and non-transgenic Upland Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum variety hirsutum) in Australia north of latitude 22degreeS. The Climate-Match (CM) function was used to identify locations in north-east Australia where climate matches (CM Index>0.7) the experimental sites of Eastick [Eastick, R., 2002. The Potential Weediness of Transgenic Cotton in Northern Australia. Northern Territory Department of Business, Industry and Resource Development Technical Bulletin No. 305 (Internet resource: http://cotton.pi.csiro.au/Assets/PDFFiles/TB3051.pdf)] in north-west Australia. Most of Australia north of 22degreeS had climate matching one or more of the sites of Eastick (2002), locations wh...
For a soft-contact-lens (SCL) wearer, corneal health and comfort are strongly influenced by water transport through the polymeric materials used in lens fabrication. In particular, evaporative water loss at the anterior lens surface is a potential cause of contact-lens dehydration and of post-lens tear-film depletion, which in turn, may lead to discomfort, dryness syndrome, and/or lens adhesion.We present a solution-diffusion model for transport of water through soft-contact-lens materials to mimic evaporative dehydration from a contact lens during blinking and to access possible SCL adhesion to the corneal surface under a variety of environmental conditions (e.g., wind speed and relative humidity). To describe the water-transport process, we use an extended version of the Maxwell-Stefan m...
This paper addresses the problem of partitioning a local service region into nonoverlapping work areas in which pickups and deliveries are made throughout the day. For a fleet of homogeneous vehicles, a given set of customers, and expected demand for service, the objective is to find the least number of work areas or clusters that satisfy a variety of geometric and capacity constraints. Using rectangles as the basic shape, each cluster must have an aspect ratio that falls within certain bounds, as well as meet load and time requirements dictated by the capacity of a vehicle and the working hours in a day, respectively. The latter requirement presents a unique hurdle because travel times are a function of the actual routes followed by the drivers, and are not known, even in a probabilistic ...
The logic named Piccolo for a picture database computer and its implementation is presented. The logic is shown to have three major advantages. One advantage is that the computer design based on this logic can handle a universal variety of pictorial data structures. Another advantage is that a set of data generated by rules such as texture distribution rules is stored in the picture computer efficiently. The third advantage is that this logic can serve as the basis of a logic for parallel processing machines. For implementation of the logic, a new methodology named architecture engineering is introduced as an architecture/design oriented methodology. Implementation case studies show the usefulness of the methodolgy. Two implementations on an abstract machine that are also on a parallel LISP machine are reported. 19 references.
Basic information on photovoltaic conversion technology is provided for those unfamiliar with the field. Various types of photovoltaic products and systems currently available off-the-shelf are described. These include products without batteries, battery chargers, power packages, home electric systems, and partial systems. Procedures are given for designing a photovoltaic system from scratch. A few custom photovoltaic systems are described, and a list is compiled of photovoltaic firms which can provide custom systems. Guidance is offered for deciding whether or not to use photovoltaic products. A variety of installations are described and their performance is appraised by the owners. Information is given on various financial incentives available from state and federal governments. Sources of additional information on photovoltaics are listed. A matrix is provided indicating the sources of various types of photovoltaic products. The addresses of suppliers are ...
The 1993 Petroleum Hydrocarbons Conference was comprised of 3 days of technical presentations within the following topic areas: pollution prevention and cost control; development of remediation levels; free-phase and dissolved hydrocarbon contamination management; investigation and analysis of petroleum hydrocarbons; applications of computer modeling for remediation; design and implementation of bioventing; design and implementation of air sparging; soil vapor extraction as a remediation technique; and ground water remediation using natural bacteria. In addition, more than 100 leading companies in the ground water and petroleum industries participated in the Conference Exposition in which a variety of equipment and services for preventing, detecting and remediating ground water contaminated by petroleum hydrocarbons and other organic chemicals was showcased. Individual papers have been processed separately for inclusion in the appropriate data bases.
We have discovered a previously unidentified thermal explosion mode using the Los Alamos deflagration cylinder test (DFCT). The DFCT is a "pipe bomb"-style test similar to the detonation cylinder test (DTCT), which has been used for many years to calibrate detonation product equations of state. The shot is heated in an oven to a uniform test temperature. The pre-heated high explosive (HE) is triggered by a hot wire initiator on one end. The tube is back-illuminated by a bright light source, and its combustion-driven deformation and subsequent break-up are observed by a high-speed framing camera. Like the DTCT, the DFCT tube wall motion provides the primary diagnostic. A variety of reactive responses are possible, including quasi-steady deflagration and deflagration-to-detonation transition...
In a work studying the corrosion and tarnishing properties of a variety of copper alloys, the alloy Cu-A110-Sn5 was found to show an excellent corrosion resistance in neutral solutions, where copper and most conventional Cu alloys are covered by thick nonprotective surface layers. The passive films formed on this alloy were characterized with electrochemical and photoelectrochemical methods. The pH dependence of the passivation and of the photocurrent behavior of the Cu-A110-Sn5 alloy clearly indicates that the passivity of this alloy in neutral solutions is due to a formation of passive film enriched with aluminum oxide. At corrosion potential a strong increase in the corrosion resistance with time is due to a gradual enrichment of the surface with aluminum oxide. This can be seen in the photocurrent spectra which change from cooper-type to aluminum-type with time. At higher applied potentials the formation of an aluminum-type oxide film is strongly accelerated.
High-level expression of mitotic arrest defective protein 2 (MAD2), a central component of the spindle assembly checkpoint, has been observed in a variety of human malignancies. Aim of the present study was to observe the expression of MAD2 in human non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and explore its clinicopathologic significance and evaluate MAD2 expression as a prognostic marker. MAD2 transcript was found to be overexpressed in the great majority of lung cancers by semi-quantitative RT-PCR. A total of 358 NSCLCs were analyzed immunohistochemically on tissue microarrays. High-level MAD2 expression was observed in 26.3% (94 of 358 cases), and correlated with male sex (P=0.0002), tumor progression (pT status) (P=0.0009), visceral or parietal pleural invasion (P=0.0151), non-adenocarcinoma, ...
In Japan, the term mizumizushii is used to express beauty. This term mizumizushii is an adjective involving factors for a variety of `beauties full of the feeling of vitality' such as youthful, fresh, watery, dewy and the like. The exact choice of words depends on the circumstances. Mizumizushii-looking skin represents the skin that looks wet with the moisture contained in it and that has a good gloss. However, according to our research carried out using a Corneometer, almost no relationship was found between skin actually including a large amount of moisture in the stratum corneum and mizumizushii-looking skin. We elucidated the `apparently mizumizushii-looking skin,' and tried to develop makeup products having the function of making the skin look mizumizushii, which is to be one of the f...
Petroleum, known to be a source of a vast variety of organic compounds, is also a depository of valuable mineral components. Vanadium and nickel are the most important metal components of crude petroleum, with their concentrations reaching a few tenths of a percent. Their percentage increases 2- to 5-fold in the hydrocarbon products. The vanadium content in processed petroleum products is given. Therefore, the extraction of metals from petroleum is becoming an increasing important task. At present, there is no petroleum processing technology aimed solely at obtaining organic components. The occurrence of metals and other trace elements in petroleum and hydrocarbon products is discussed on the basis of available literature and experimental data. Techniques for isolating metals from petroleum and hydrocarbon products and their quantitative determination are considered.
A wide variety of phytochemicals present in our diet, including fruits, vegetables, and spices, have been shown to possess a broad range of health-beneficial properties. The cytoprotective and restorative effects of dietary phytochemicals are likely to result from the modulation of several distinct cellular signal transduction pathways. Many dietary phytochemicals that are synthesized as secondary metabolites function as toxins, that is, -phytoalexins,- and hence protect plants against insects and other damaging organisms and stresses. However, at the relatively low doses consumed by humans and other mammals, these same toxic plant-derived chemicals, as mild stressors, activate adaptive cellular response signaling, conferring stress resistance and other health benefits. This phenomenon has...
Point contact Josephson junctions can function as millimeter wave heterodyne mixers with conversion gain. The best results achieved thus far show a single sideband conversion gain of 1.3 and a mixer contribution to the system noise temperature of 54"0K. Both of these results are approximately 5 times better than the best published figures for cooled Schottky barrier diode mixers operated at the same frequency. The measured noise for a variety of junctions can be expressed as a universal function of the normalized rf frequency #OMEGA# = h#omega#/2eI/sub c/R. It is about a factor 2 larger than the calculated noise arising from the thermal noise in the junction shunt resistance, R. The noise calculation was done for the resistively shunted junction model using an analog junction simulator.
In 2002, an innovative neutron time-of-flight facility started operation at CERN: n_TOF. The main characteristics that make the new facility unique are the high instantaneous neutron flux, high resolution and wide energy range. Combined with state-of-the-art detectors and data acquisition system, these features have allowed to collect high accuracy neutron cross-section data on a variety of isotopes, many of which radioactive, of interest for Nuclear Astrophysics and for applications to advanced reactor technologies. A review of the most important results on capture and fission reactions obtained so far at n_TOF is presented, together with plans for new measurements related to nuclear industry.
Community ecologists are principally occupied with the proposition that natural assemblages of species exhibit orderliness and with identifying its causes. Plant-pollinator networks exhibit a variety of orderly properties, one of which is 'nestedness'. Nestedness has been attributed to various causes, but we propose a further influence arising from the phylogenetic structure of the biochemical constraints on the pollen diets of bees. We use an artificial assemblage as an opportunity to isolate the action of this mechanism. The properties of the network that we studied are consistent with the proposition that nestedness is caused by the phylogeny of diet range in bees, but the claim is preliminary and we propose that valuable progress in understanding plant-pollinator systems may be made through applying the techniques of chemical ecology at the community scale.
Since it was introduced in the early 1940's, mutation breeding has been tested on many crops as modern plant breeding. Until now, more than seven hundred varieties have been developed by means of induced mutation, and many of them officially released and approved for registration. Hundreds of papers report the results of mutation breeding, and the characteristics of induced mutation in different kinds of crops were discussed for review purposes (Blixt and Gottschalk 1975, Gottschalk and Wolff 1983). Considering the results already obtained, it can be concluded that the kinds of induced mutation and their utilization vary from crop to crop. This paper summarizes and discusses the mutation characteristics and kinds on the induced mutants of leguminous plants that have been released.
The Pulsed Lepton Source (PLS) project opens some exciting possibilities for muon and neutrino physics . The PLS would use the 0.25 4s proton pulses from the upgraded Proton Storage Ring (PSR) at LAMPF to create short, intense bursts of muons and neutrinos. The neutrino beam would be used for a few fundamentally important weak interaction physics experiments. The muon beams would find a wide variety of applications in both fundamental and applied'' muon physics areas. After a brief discussion of the physical layouts of the PSR and the proposed PLS in Sec. 2 and muon area in Sec. 3, we note some of the muon physics experiments and areas that could advantageously be addressed at the PLS in Secs. 4 and 5, and conclude in Sec. 6.
Details of the interaction of photons with tissue phantoms are elucidated using Monte Carlo simulations. In particular, photon sampling volumes and photon pathlengths are determined for a variety of scattering and absorption parameters. The Monte Carlo simulations are specifically designed to model light delivery and collection geometries relevant to clinical applications of optical biopsy techniques. The Monte Carlo simulations assume that light is delivered and collected by two, nearly-adjacent optical fibers and take into account the numerical aperture of the fibers as well as reflectance and refraction at interfaces between different media. To determine the validity of the Monte Carlo simulations for modeling the interactions between the photons and the tissue phantom in these geometries, the simulations were compared to measurements of aqueous suspensions of polystyrene microspheres in the wavelength range 450-750 nm.
Since the elucidation of the structure of double helical DNA, the construction of small molecules that recognize and react at specific DNA sites has been an area of considerable interest. In particular, the study of transition metal complexes that bind DNA with specificity has been a burgeoning field. This growth has been due in large part to the useful properties of metal complexes, which possess a wide array of photophysical properties and allow for the modular assembly of an ensemble of recognition elements. Here we review recent experiments in our laboratory aimed at the design and study of octahedral metal complexes that bind DNA non-covalently and target reactions to specific sites. Emphasis is placed both on the variety of methods employed to confer site-specificity and upon the many applications for these complexes. Particular attention is given to the family of complexes recently designed that target single base mismatches in duplex DNA through ...
Since the elucidation of the structure of double helical DNA, the construction of small molecules that recognize and react at specific DNA sites has been an area of considerable interest. In particular, the study of transition metal complexes that bind DNA with specificity has been a burgeoning field. This growth has been due in large part to the useful properties of metal complexes, which possess a wide array of photophysical attributes and allow for the modular assembly of an ensemble of recognition elements. Here we review recent experiments in our laboratory aimed at the design and study of octahedral metal complexes that bind DNA non-covalently and target reactions to specific sites. Emphasis is placed both on the variety of methods employed to confer site-specificity and upon the many applications for these complexes. Particular attention is given to the family of complexes recently designed that target single base mismatches in duplex DNA through ...
Research was performed to assess the feasibility of barrier membrane substances, for use within mining or associated high risk environments, in restricting the diffusion transport of radon gas quantities. Specific tests were conducted to determine permeability parameters of a variety of membrane materials with reference to radon flow capabilities. Tests were conducted both within laboratory and in-situ emanation environments where concentrations and diffusion flows of radon gas were known to exist. Equilibrium radon gas concentrations were monitored in initially radon-free chambers adjacent to gas sources, but separated by specified membrane substances. Membrane barrier effectiveness was demonstrated to result in reduced emanation concentrations of radon gas within the sampling chamber atmosphere. Minimum gas concentrations were evidenced where the barrier membrane material was shown to exhibit lowest radon permeability characteristics.
Nanocapsules coated by medicinal plants have many applications in drug manufacturing. Medicinal plants can be loaded on nanocapsules with polyesteric triblock copolymer poly ethylene glycol-poly butylene adipate-poly ethylene glycol (PEG-PBA-PEG) as shell and olive oil can be introduced as a core of nanocapsules by a method known as polymer deposition solvent evaporation method. In this research, first, certain amount of polymer, Matricaria recutita extract and olive oil were mixed with acetone and then, water was added to the solution using magnetic stirrer. After which the acetone was removed by vacuuming and finally nanocapsules were found by freezing-drier. The study showed the size of nanocapsules depends on variety of factors such as the ratio of polymer to oil and concentration of p...
Wave energy device teams have identified three varieties of air turbine as potentially applicable to wave energy devices. These are: conventional axial turbines; Wells, or self-rectifying, axial turbines and Francis turbines. This report examines the constructional requirements of these devices with regard to mechanical, environmental and manufacturing considerations. It is concluded that the major benefit of optimum material selection will be reduced manufacturing costs rather than enhanced turbine performance. A methodology of material selection has been established and candidate materials have been listed for the major components of each turbine type. Comparative costs for alternative materials are included, from which significant, potential economies have been identified. Recommendations are made aimed at achieving optimum material usage in the proposed turbines.
Constraint-based lexical models of language processing assume that readers resolve temporary ambiguities by relying on a variety of cues, including particular knowledge of how verbs combine with nouns. Previous experiments have demonstrated verb bias effects only in structurally complex sentences, and have been criticized on the grounds that such effects could be due to a rapid reanalysis stage in a two-stage modular processing system. In a self-paced reading experiment and an eyetracking experiment, we demonstrate verb bias effects in sentences with simple structures that should require no reanalysis, and thus provide evidence that the combinatorial properties of individual words influence the earliest stages of sentence comprehension. (Contains 4 figures and 12 tables.)
During the last fifteen years a variety of instruments and transducers, such as voltage plugs, power transducers, flow and pressure transducers, recorders and tensometers, have been developed for underground use in measuring the performance and technical parameters of prototype machines. The equipment, until recently, has been in a portable form and was found useful by the industry generally, in fault finding and trouble-shooting exercises and in commissioning procedures performed by small teams on a call-out basis. Over the last five years the test equipment has been adapted and the techniques modified to suit individual colliery-based operations with more permanent machine mounted and built-in transducers. At the moment these techniques operate within the framework of a statutory planned preventive maintenance scheme for each mine. This paper discusses the merits of changing from preventive maintenance to condition-based maintenance and the practical steps being ...
Effective localization of small magnets against a noisy, real world background can involve various methods to first identify the magnetic fields produced by the magnet of interest, then to filter out background noise, and then to analyze the available magnetic field data to localize the magnet. Here we discuss low cost techniques which allow localization of small magnets with field strengths in the milliGauss range against real world background fields in the range of hundreds of mG, which may be fluctuating by up to tens of mG. Such techniques allow magnet tracking to be used to localize catheters in place of more invasive and expensive methods, e.g. fluoroscopy, for a variety of applications, including drug infusion with peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs), laser ablation (TMR, PTMR) and introduction of pacemaker leads.
Ozone plays a critical role in both the chemistry and radiation balance of the troposphere. Understanding the factors controlling tropospheric ozone levels is critical to our understanding of a variety of issues in global chemistry and climate change. Chlorine atoms have the potential to contribute significantly to the ozone balance in the free troposphere. They can react directly with ozone or alternately, with organics and may actually lead to the formation of ozone in the presence of sufficient NO. Reactions of alkali halides in sea salt particles are a potential source of atomic chlorine, hence reactions of these alkali halides, especially those producing precursors to atomic chlorine, are of great interest. Finally, the mechanisms, intermediates and products of the Cl-biogenic reactions are unknown; these could serve as unique markers of chlorine atom chemistry in the troposphere, and hence are important to define.
The body of knowledge known as ''management'' has evolved incrementally over the past 100 years through a variety of innovators, including: Frederick Taylor, Max Weber, Mary Parker Follett, Chester Barnard, William Ouchi and Tom Peters. While the miracle of management - its structures, processes and techniques - has provided humankind with quantum advances in standard of living, there is an emerging theme in the literature to suggest that ''Management 1.0'' founded within the industrial age paradigm has reached the limits of its relevance. This paper proposes that it is time to consider a new conceptualization - ''Management 2.0'' - based on the global, information age paradigm in which modern businesses compete. This paper examines six forces which are currently redefining the future of m...
In this paper we prove the existence of isomorphisms between certain non-commutative algebras that are interesting from representation theoretic perspective and arise as quantizations of certain Poisson algebras. We show that quantizations of Kleinian resolutions obtained by three different constructions are isomorphic to each other. The constructions are via symplectic reflection algebras, quantum Hamiltonian reduction, and W-algebras. Next, we prove that parabolic W-algebras in type A are isomorphic to quantum Hamiltonian reductions associated to quivers of type A. Finally, we show that the symplectic reflection algebras for wreath-products of the symmetric group and a Kleinian group are isomorphic to certain quantum Hamiltonian reductions. Our results involving W-algebras are new, while for those dealing with symplectic reflection algebras we just give new proofs. A key ingredient in our proofs is the study of quantizations of symplectic resolutions of appropriate Poisson ...
This experimental research investigates mixed convection and heat transfer augmentation by gaseous forced jets in a large enclosure, at conditions simulating those of passive containment cooling systems for Gen III+ passively safe reactors. The experiment is designed to measure the key parameters governing heat transfer augmentation by forced jets, and to investigate the effects of geometric factors, including the jet diameter, jet injection orientation, interior structures, and enclosure aspect ratio. The tests cover a variety of injection modes leading to flow configurations of interest for mixing and stratification phenomena in containments under accident conditions. Correlations for heat transfer augmentation by forced jets are developed and compared with experimental data. The characteristic recirculation speed inside the enclosure is introduced and analyzed. Steady stratified temperature distributions are compared with model simulations of the BMIX++ code.
This experimental research investigates mixed convection and heat transfer augmentation by gaseous forced jets in a large enclosure, at conditions simulating those of passive containment cooling systems for Gen III+ passively safe reactors. The experiment is designed to measure the key parameters governing heat transfer augmentation by forced jets, and to investigate the effects of geometric factors, including the jet diameter, jet injection orientation, interior structures, and enclosure aspect ratio. The tests cover a variety of injection modes leading to flow configurations of interest for mixing and stratification phenomena in containments under accident conditions. Correlations for heat transfer augmentation by forced jets are developed and compared with experimental data. The characteristic recirculation speed inside the enclosure is introduced and analyzed. Steady stratified temperature distributions are compared with model simulations of the BMIX++ code.
This study examined whether elevated intravascular pressure stimulates asynchronous Ca2+ waves in cerebral arterial smooth muscle cells and if their generation contributes to myogenic tone development. The endothelium was removed from rat cerebral arteries, which were then mounted in an arteriograph, pressurized (20 100 mmHg) and examined under a variety of experimental conditions. Diameter and membrane potential (VM) were monitored using conventional techniques; Ca2+ wave generation and myosin light chain (MLC20)/MYPT1 (myosin phosphatase targeting subunit) phosphorylation were assessed by confocal microscopy and Western blot analysis, respectively. Elevating intravascular pressure increased the proportion of smooth muscle cells firing asynchronous Ca2+ waves as well as event frequency. C...
Abstract -Lactoglobulin (-LG) is a lipocalin, which is the major whey protein of cow's milk and the milk of other mammals. However, it is absent from human milk. The biological function of -LG is not clear, but its potential role in carrying fatty acids through the digestive tract has been suggested. -LG has been found in complexes with lipids such as butyric and oleic acids and has a high affinity for a wide variety of compounds. Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT), an important compound found in animals and plants, has various functions, including the regulation of mood, appetite, sleep, muscle contraction, and some cognitive functions such as memory and learning. In this study, the interaction of serotonin and one of its derivatives, arachidonyl serotonin (AA-5HT), with -LG was invest...
The effect of NaCl and Na_2SO_4 treatments on chlorophyll content, rate of "1"4C assimilation and products of photosynthesis in peanut (Arachish hypogaea L.) variety TMV-10 has been investigated. It was observed that chlorophyll content was affected mainly by NaCl, Na_2SO_4 treatment lowered the rate of photosynthetic "1"4CO_2 fixation. The analysis of labelled products revealed that the salts affect the carbon metabolism differently. The radioactivity was found to be accumulated in fractions of sugars and sugarphosphates in the leaves of NaCl treated plants. Na_2SO_4 treatment brought about considerable decline in labelling of sugars and an increase in labelling of amino acids and sugarphosphates. (orig.).
Soybean is one of the most economical and nutritious food packed with basic nutrients that combat diseases stemming from mal- and under-nutrition. Despite its rich nutritional profile, use of soybean in food has been limited because soybean proteins are often associated with compounds, which could exert a negative impact on the nutritional quality of the protein. Trypsin inhibitor (TI) is one of the important anti-nutritional factors that exert negative effect by causing growth inhibition. Soybean cultivar VLS-2 was irradiated with 250 Gy gamma rays in a gamma cell (200) with 60Co source installed at BARC to induce mutations for low trypsin inhibitor content. Three mutants with lower levels of TI content were identified and can be utilized for developing elite varieties of soybean. (author)
Increased levels of epidermal growth factor receptor have been reported in a variety of tumors, including pulmonary squamous cell carcinomas in man. The purpose of this study was to determine if increased levels of epidermal growth factor (EGFR) were present in lung tumors from Beagle dogs that had been exposed to "2"3"9PuO_2- Using immunohistochemical techniques, sections from 17 lung tumors were examined for the presence of EGFR. Seven of the tumors were strongly positive for EGFR; the remainder of the tumors and the normal lung sections were negative. The positive immunostaining could not be correlated with the histologic phenotype of the tumors. Work is in progress to determine the level of EGFR in preneoplastic, proliferative epithelial foci in the Iung. (author)
Background: The Internet has become a popular source of health information for patients with a variety of medical concerns; however, research examining patient interactions on the Internet has been limited. Purpose: Four questions were examined in a survey study of hysterectomy patients who visited http://www.hystersisters.com: (a) Do hysterectomy patients use the support Web site because they perceive their proximal sources of social support to be inadequate? (b) What kinds of support do patients receive from the Web site? (c) What attributes characterize the "Hystersisters" that are perceived to be most helpful? (d) How do informational sources vary depending on the nature of the patient concern? Methods: Women (N = 137) responded to questions about social support, Web site use, and perc...
Following the breakthrough for cast magnesium products, interest is now spreading to wrought applications - triggering a variety of technological questions. A major bottleneck in the manufacture of magnesium sections (profiles) by conventional hot extrusion is the low productivity, with extrusion speeds typically five to ten times lower than for comparable aluminium sections. This paper focuses on the use of hydrostatic extrusion as a means to overcome this problem. On the basis of an analytical model, it is clarified why and how process limits are affected by the process mechanics. Experimental work on the hydrostatic extrusion of the alloys M1A, ZM21 and AZ31 confirms that extrusion speed is indeed multiplied, whereas the resulting mechanical properties are similar to or better than those for conventional extrusions. (orig.)
The hydro cyclone is a piece of equipment for separating and/or classifying solids/liquids with a wide variety of applications in different industrial sectors. This article describes the construction and operation of a hydro cyclone to verify the influence of the main size parameters and variables on its concentrating behaviour. The industrial-sized model which was built does not correspond exactly to the engineering designs. During operation, there was a load loss, which did not exceed 30 kPa, as a results of the fact that the suspension flow was unable to circulate with the original dimensions. However, when, for various reasons, the lower diameter was reduced, it proved possible to achieve an efficiency rate of over 95% in the concentration circuit. (Author) 23 refs.
In this paper, we present an analytic framework for investigating expert mathematical learning as the process of building a network of mathematical resources by establishing relationships between different components and properties of mathematical ideas. We then use this framework to analyze the reasoning of ten mathematicians and mathematics graduate students that were asked to read and make sense of an unfamiliar, but accessible, mathematical proof in the domain of geometric topology. We find that experts are more likely to refer to definitions when questioning or explaining some aspect of the focal mathematical idea and more likely to refer to specific examples or instantiations when making sense of an unknown aspect of that idea. However, in general, they employ a variety of types of m...
Outcome from trauma, surgery, and a variety of other medical conditions has been shown to be positively affected by providing treatment at facilities experiencing a high volume of patients with those conditions. An electronic literature search was made to identify English-language articles available through March 2011, addressing the effect of patient treatment volume on outcome for patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage. Limited data were identified, with 16 citations included in the current review. Over 60% of hospitals fall into the lowest case-volume quartile. Outcome is influenced by patient volume, with better outcome occurring in high-volume centers treating >60 cases per year. Patients treated at low-volume hospitals are less likely to experience definitive treatment. Furthermore, t...
We study neutral and charged Higgs boson production in association with stop and sbottom squarks at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), within the so-called M-SUGRA scenario, i.e., the Supergravity (SUGRA) inspired Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). For low values of \\tan\\beta only the cases \\tilde{t}_1\\tilde{t}_1^* H, \\tilde{t}_1\\tilde{t}_1^* h and than 30 a variety of signals involving all Higgs bosons can be accessed, at high collider luminosity. The dependence of these reactions on the M-SUGRA parameters might further allow one to pin down the actual structure of the underlying Supersymmetric (SUSY) model.
Let us call a sequence of numbers heapable if they can be sequentially inserted to form a binary tree with the heap property, where each insertion subsequent to the first occurs at a leaf of the tree, i.e. below a previously placed number. In this paper we consider a variety of problems related to heapable sequences and subsequences that do not appear to have been studied previously. Our motivation for introducing these concepts is two-fold. First, such problems correspond to natural extensions of the well-known secretary problem for hiring an organization with a hierarchical structure. Second, from a purely combinatorial perspective, our problems are interesting variations on similar longest increasing subsequence problems, a problem paradigm that has led to many deep mathematical connections. We provide several basic results. We obtain an efficient algorithm for determining the heapability of a sequence, and also prove that the question of whether a sequence can ...
The design, construction and operation of a pilot plant are often important stages in the development of a project for the production of uranium concentrates. Since building and operating a pilot plant is very costly and may not always be required, it is important that such a plant be built only after several prerequisites have been met. The main purpose of this guidebook is to discuss the objectives of a pilot plant and its proper role in the overall project. Given the wide range of conditions under which a pilot plant may be designed and operated, it is not possible to provide specific details. Instead, this book discusses the rationale for a pilot plant and provides guidelines with suggested solutions for a variety of problems that may be encountered. This guidebook is part of a series of Technical Reports on uranium ore processing being prepared by the IAEA's Division of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Management. 42 refs, 7 figs, 3 tabs.
The function of selenium in an organism is mediated mostly by selenoproteins including glutathione peroxidase. Glutathione peroxidase is a potent anti-oxidative enzyme, scavenging a variety of peroxides. The green alga Scenedesmus quadricauda was used to investigate the relationship between the toxicity of selenium and the glutathione peroxidase activity. Selenium resistant strains SeIV and SeVI were synchronized and grown in high concentrations of Se (selenite or selenate). As a measure of selenium toxicity the EC50 values were determined. During growth of the untreated wild type, glutathione peroxidase activity increased slightly and then declined gradually until the end of the cell cycle. A similar pattern was observed in untreated resistant strains and when resistant strains were grown...
In this paper we demonstrate the capabilities of our ArcGIS-based software development that includes an adapted database system and a GIS tool for storage, combined analysis and visualization of leveling data and interferometric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) deformation measurements. Preprocessed remote sensing image data are stored with metadata that include all processing routines and parameters. This allows reproduction and traceability of all processing steps. Deformation monitoring is supported through data searching and selection based on a variety of criteria. A methods toolbox allows spatio-temporal analyses for points, lines and areas (e.g. subsidence basins) in a graphical manner.
It is known that the plant cuticle represents the first barrier that must be overcome by any chemical reaching the plant surface from the atmosphere before entering the plant. Because of the importance of the cuticle as a barrier to penetration of a wide variety of compounds, its morphology, chemistry, and permeability have been extensively studied. However, only limited information is available on the nature of functional chemical groups present and their interaction and role during the penetration process. The usefulness of in situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy studies in identifying functional groups present in isolated cuticles is described and their relationships to the structure of the cuticular membrane are discussed. Applications of infrared spectroscopy on the presence and role of phenolics in the cuticle structure and during the cuticle development, nitrogen oxide binding to isolated cuticles, and the interactions between selected chemical ...
Forced convective heat transfer in a cross-corrugated channel solar air heater has been studied experimentally using air as a working fluid. The channel was formed by two transversely positioned corrugated sheets and two flat thermally insulated side walls. One corrugated sheet was heated by a radiant heater, while the other was thermally insulated. The fluid velocity and temperature, and the wall temperature and the local heat flux across the heated corrugated sheet were measured for a variety of operating flow rates. Experimental results for the channel geometry have yielded the correlation Nu = 0.0743 (Re)[sup 0.76]. This heat-transfer coefficient is about 2.8 times that of a smooth flat channel. The experiments showed that local heat transfer rate was smaller on the valley of the corrugation than that on the peak. The ratio of the local heat transfer rates on the two locations was related to the Reynolds number.
The methods of superconducting device fabrication by lithography and multilevel processing usually require a number of processing steps with lithographic resolution and alignment adequate for the scale of the device be fabricated. As an alternative, the focused ion beam (FIB) microscope is increasingly being used directly to fabricate devices. A major advantage of using a FIB compared to other lithography methods is its flexibility and high resolution. It allows in-situ, milling (#propor to#5 nm at a beam current of 1 pA) to a variety of depths, and imaging (2 nm) of the sample. In this paper we describe our development of junction fabrication techniques using the FIB and their application in creating a range of potential sensor devices and quantum electronics applications. (copyright 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim) (orig.)
The antisymmetric many-body trial state which describes a system of interacting fermions is parametrized in terms of localized wave packets. The equations of motion are derived from the time-dependent quantum variational principle. The resulting fermionic molecular dynamics (FMD) equations include a wide range of semi-quantal to classical physics extending from deformed Hartree-Fock theory to newtonian molecular dynamics. Conservation laws are discussed in connection with the choice of the trial state. The model is applied to heavy-ion collisions with which its basic features are illustrated. The results show a great variety of phenomena including deeply inelastic collisions, fusion, incomplete fusion, fragmentation, neck emission, promptly emitted nucleons and evaporation. ((orig.)).
Particle accelerators are constructed and operated for a wide variety of applications. In particle physics - the branch of physics that studies the elementary constituents of matter and forces between them - high energy accelerators are used to look deep into the structure of matter. Medical particle accelerators are used for example in medicine to treat tumours [31], in imaging techniques such as Positron Emission Tomography (PET) [24], or for the radio-isotopes production. They also serve in many other industrial branches, e.g. geology, radiocarbon dating [39], molecular complex spectroscopy, lithography, food preservation etc. The eld of accelerator technology draws knowledge and expertise from a wide range of scientic disciplines and uses the latest technical knowledge. The incomplete list of covered disciplines includes mathematics, physics, electronics, computing, electromagnetic eld technology, microwave technology, cryogenics, vacuum technology, special ...
The Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) is a liquid-metal-cooled fast reactor, which is designed to test a variety of different structural and fuel materials. A safety analysis is performed for each experiment that is irradiated in FFTF. The FFTF final safety analysis report (FSAR) assumed that all driver fuel assemblies would maintain cladding integrity during normal operations and all design transients. Maintenance of cladding integrity retains three barriers to any fission gas release to the public and also prevents any potential contact between the fuel and coolant. Experiments are, in general, expected to meet the same criterion. Selected experiments can, however, be classified as run-to-cladding-breach experiments (RTCB). The purpose of this paper is to describe alternative acceptance criteria for RTCB experiments that they feel provide protection equivalent to the maintenance of cladding integrity.
Fuel Management at the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) involves more than just the usual ex-core and in-core management of standard fuel and non-fuel components between storage locations and within the core since it is primarily an irradiation test facility. This mission involves testing an ever increasing variety of fueled and non-fueled experiments, each having unique requirements on the reactor core as well as having its own individual impact on the reload design. This paper describes the fuel management process used by the Westinghouse Hanford Company Core Engineering group that has led to the successful reload design of nine operating cycles and the irradiation of over 120 tests.
The primary objective of batch data as trajectory alignment (or synchronization) is to standardize the data sampling per batch according to the evolution of the process, and secondarily to homogenize the samples per run. The use of an indicator variable performs both objectives well. Two examples from the pharmaceutical sector are discussed to illustrate the different ways to deal with uneven samples across batches and across variables in the same batch. Since trajectory alignment requires large time investment, a simple triage approach is proposed to assess the need to analyze the dynamics of a given process and hence perform alignment. The presented examples are representative of a broad variety of batch processes that are operated by recipe in the pharmaceutical sector. In our experienc...
Sesame varieties/genotypes showed a good response to radiation with gamma rays and treatments with EMS. In M_1 both gamma rays and EMS influenced germination, seedling height, survival of plants and pollen fertility/sterility, producing deleterious effects on these characters. Compared to black seeded genotypes, white seeded ones are more susceptible to radiation. Both gamma rays and EMS produced various types of morphological variations in M_2 generation. These were dwarf plant mutants, mottled and fleshy leaved mutants (sterile), fasciated stem, flower colour, altered phyllotaxy, early, uniculm, capsule size variations, multiple capsule/leaf axil, seed coat colour variations, indehiscent and semi-indehiscent type mutants. Moreover, studies on quantitative characters including seed yield revealed the induction of mutants in both positive and negative directions for such traits which made a good scope of selection of desirable mutants in M_2 generation. Mutants ...
Phytoremediation has been identified as a potentially environmentally friendly and cost effective technique for the treatment of contaminated soil. However, phytoremediation has an unknown mechanism. In this study, we focus on the effects of the cultivation of Italian ryegrass on the soil microbes collected at oil showings, which were expected to have a variety of crude oil degradable microorganisms. We evaluated the number of crude oil degradable microorganism, microbial activity, microflora using the PCR-DGGE method and the change in the concentration of crude oil in the soil. The results indicated that the microflora was affected by the cultivation of Itarian ryegrass, and that the microbial activity and the number of crude oil degradable microorganisms were also improved by the cultivation. Moreover, the concentration of crude oil in the rhizosphere soil decreased significantly when compared to the uncultivated soil. These results suggested that cultivation ...
The authors provide the intact criticality information that supports the disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from the US Department of Energy's (DOE's) Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) in the potential Monitored Geologic Repository at Yucca Mountain. FFTF is one of more than 250 forms of DOE-owned SNF. Because of the variety of the DOE SNF, the National Spent Nuclear Fuel Program has designated nine representative fuel groups for disposal criticality analyses based on fuel matrix, primary fissile isotope, and enrichment. The FFTF fuel is representative of the mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) group.
Ethnopharmacological relevance: For thousands of years, medicinal plants have played an important role throughout the world in treating and preventing a variety of diseases. Kani tribal people in Tirunelveli hills still depend on medicinal plants and most of them have a general knowledge of medicinal plants which are used for first aid remedies, to treat cough, cold, fever, headache, poisonous bites and some simple ailments. Aim of the study: The present study was initiated with an aim to identify traditional healers who are practicing herbal medicine among the Kani tribals in Tirunelveli hills of Western Ghats, India and quantitatively document their indigenous knowledge on the utilization of medicinal plants particularly most common ethnomedicinal plants. Methods: Field study was carried...
Metal machining facilities pose interesting design problems. This article provides an overview of key environmental control considerations and ways to deal with them. Machine shops offer a variety of environmental control challenges to mechanical engineers. Among the design problems that must be considered include: whether to provide space heating only or year-round air conditioning; temperature and relative humidity requirements; air cleanliness; exhaust air requirements; the type of HVAC system to be used; industrial waste and plumbing considerations; compressed air needs; and noise control. In addition, the designer must comply with worker health and safety and environmental protection regulations set forth by the National Institute of Safety and Health (NIOSH), OSHA, and EPA, as well as with any applicable state and local requirements.
'The overall objective of the basic research grant is to characterize the potential of common hydrocarbon contaminants in ecosystems to act as endocrine disruptors. The three major lines of research include (1) a biotechnology based screening system to identify potential hormone mimics and antagonists; (2) an animal screening system to identify biomarkers of endocrine effects. and (3) a literature review to identify compounds at a variety of DOE sites that need to be examined for endocrine disrupting effects. By relating results obtained from this research project to contamination problems at various DOE sites. CBR will provide data and information on endocrine disrupting contaminants to DOE for consideration in risk analyses for determining clean-up levels and priorities needed at the sites.'
Many oil-insulated electric power cables are limited by heat buildup caused in part by the low thermal conductivity of the oil. Circulation of the oil is known to reduce the cable temperature, but can lead to excessive pressure buildup on long cables when using conventional pumping methods. An alternate pumping method using distributed electric fields to avoid this pressure buildup is described. Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) pumping was studied both theoretically and experimentally for possible application in underground cable cooling. Theoretical studies included both analytical and finite-element analysis of the flow patterns driven by travelling electric fields. Experimentally, flow rates in a cable-pipe model were measured under a wide variety of operating conditions. Theory and experiment are in agreement for velocities below 10 cm/s, but higher velocities could not be reached in the experiment, due to increased electroconvection and, possibly, turbulence.
A ternary nickel-base alloy Ni-W-B has been developed for surface corrosion and wear resistance to replace chromium plating, which uses environmentally hazardous solutions. The deposition conditions used an alkaline bath and insoluble anodes. The as-deposited alloy typically contains 40 wt% W and 1 wt% B and has an amorphous or partially amorphous structure. These deposits compare favorably with hexavalent chromium deposits in throwing power, color uniformity, and reflectivity. The corrosion resistance of Ni-W-B alloy was compared with hexavalent chromium and electroless nickel deposits in a variety of acids, including hydrochloric, sulfuric, fluoroboric, and phosphoric. In all cases, best results were obtained with the Ni-W-B deposits.
This paper discusses the application of L1-regularized maximum entropy modeling or SL1-Max [9] to multiclass categorization problems. A new modification to the SL1-Max fast sequential learning algorithm is proposed to handle conditional distributions. Furthermore, unlike most previous studies, the present research goes beyond a single type of conditional distribution. It describes and compares a variety of modeling assumptions about the class distribution (independent or exclusive) and various types of joint or conditional distributions. It results in a new methodology for combining binary regularized classifiers to achieve multiclass categorization. In this context, Maximum Entropy can be considered as a generic and efficient regularized classification tool that matches or outperforms the state-of-the art represented by AdaBoost and SVMs.
By assuming that not only counter-ions but DNA molecules as well are thermally distributed according to a Boltzmann law, we propose a modified Poisson-Boltzmann equation, at the classical level, as a starting point to compute the effects of quantum fluctuations of the electric field on the interaction among DNA-cation complexes. The latter are modeled here as infinite one-dimensional wires (?-functions). Our goal is to single out such quantum-vacuum-driven interaction from the counterion-induced and water-related interactions. We obtain a universal, frustration-free Casimir-like (codimension 2) interaction that extensive numerical analysis show to be a good candidate to explain the formation and stability of DNA aggregates. Such Casimir energy is computed for a variety of configurations of...
Objectives1. We will use reduction of lysosomal stability as an indicator of cell injury induced by C-60 fullerenes and carbon nanotubes in the liver analogue or digestive gland (hepatopancreas) of marine mussels. Molluscan hepatopancreatic digestive cells are key to normal function and are a sensitive key interface with the environment. Reduction of lysosomal stability is mechanistically linked with impaired health of the whole animal. 2. We will also test the hepatopancreatic digestive cells for evide [continued...]DescriptionNanotechnology is a major innovative scientific and economic growth area, which may present a variety of hazards for environmental and human health. The surface properties and very small size of nanoparticles and nanotubes provides surfaces that may bind and transport toxic chemical pollutants, as well as possibly being toxic in their own right by generating reactive oxygen species (ROS). There is a wealth of evidence for the harmful effects ...
A systematic study of the effects of environmental factors on nylon 66 and Kevlar 29 strength degradation in parachute components is being conducted at Sandia National Laboratories. It includes: (1) accelerated aging studies in air, inert environments, humidity, ozone, and smog; (2) a 25-year surveillance program of parachutes in a variety of natural climatic environments; (3) moisture absorption as a function of humidity; (4) effects of surface coatings normally applied to parachutes; and (5) development of nondestructive evaluation techniques which can be used to map mechanical properties over the entire parachute surface. The accelerated aging and moisture absorption studies show that air, humidity, and smog contribute to degradation. Chemiluminescence, gas chromatographic pyrograms, and uv spectroscopy show promise as nondestructive evaluation techniques.
A fragmented fossil bone incised with the figure of a proboscidean was recently found at Vero Beach, Florida near the location where Late Pleistocene fauna and human bones were recovered from 1913 to 1916. This engraving may represent the oldest and only existing example of Terminal Pleistocene art depicting a proboscidean in the Americas. Because of the uniqueness, rarity, and potential antiquity of this specimen, caution demanded that a variety of tests be used in an attempt to verify its authenticity. The mineralized bone was identified as mammoth, mastodon, or giant sloth. Rare earth element analysis was consistent with the fossil bone being ancient and originating at or near the Old Vero site (8-IR-9). Forensic analysis suggests the markings on the bone are not recent. Optical microsc...
Digital libraries need more than just a retrieval based on keywords, which can be inefficient for some applications. Thus, a document retrieval based on content of the digitized image version of the document can be a more appropriated approach. This paper discusses the retrieval of document images by means of identifying a variety of elements present in the document's image body. We propose a new strategy to identify and combine features extracted from a document image. We also consider the task of constructing an optimized feature set to improve the retrieval performance and to validate our experiments on an assorted database. Experimental results show that the proposed segmentation together with a wisely feature combination increase the overall retrieval performance. Moreover the retrieved images demonstrate the generality and effectiveness of our approach for an efficient segmentation and classification of document images.
Abstract Flavin-containing reductases are involved in a wide variety of physiological reactions such as photosynthesis, nitric oxide synthesis, and detoxification of foreign compounds, including therapeutic drugs. Ferredoxin-NADP(H)-reductase (FNR) is the prototypical enzyme of this family. The fold of this protein is highly conserved and occurs as one domain of several multidomain enzymes such as the members of the diflavin reductase family. The enzymes of this family have emerged as fusion of a FNR and a flavodoxin. Although the active sites of these enzymes are very similar, different enzymes function in opposite directions, that is, some reduce oxidized nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP+) and some oxidize reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH). In t...
The National Food and Nutrient Analysis Program (NFNAP) was implemented in 1997 to update and improve the quality of food composition data maintained by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). NFNAP was designed to sample and analyze frequently consumed foods in the U.S. food supply using statistically rigorous sampling plans, established sample handling procedures, and qualified analytical laboratories. Methods for careful handling of food samples from acquisition to analysis were developed to ensure the integrity of the samples and subsequent generation of accurate nutrient values. The infrastructure of NFNAP, under which over 1500 foods have been sampled, mandates tested sample handling protocols for a wide variety of foods. The majority of these foods were categorized into ...
Butter-fly valves are advantageous over gate, globe, plug, and ball valves in a variety of installations, particularly in the large sizes. The purpose of this project development of linear flow rate control system for eccentric butter-fly valve (intelligent butter-fly valve system). The intelligent butter-fly valve system consist of a valve body, micro controller. The micro controller consist of torque control system, pressure censor, worm and worm gear and communication line etc. The characteristics of intelligent butter-fly valve system as follows: Linear flow rate control function. Digital remote control function. guard function. Self-checking function. (author)
With the ever increasing awareness of the toxicity of Pb, significant pressure has been put on the electronics industry to get the Pb out of solder. This work pertains to the development and characterization of an alloy which is Pb-free, yet retains the proven positive qualities of current Sn-Pb solders while enhancing the shortcomings of Sn-Pb solder. The solder studied is the Sn-4.7Ag-1.7Cu wt% alloy. By utilizing a variety of experimental techniques the alloy was characterized. The alloy has a melting temperature of 217{degrees}C and exhibits eutectic melting behavior. The solder was examined by subjecting to different annealing schedules and examining the microstructural stability. The effect of cooling rate on the microstructure of the solder was also examined. Overall, this solder alloy shows great promise as a viable alternative to Pb-bearing solders and, as such, an application for a patent has been filed.
The ability of a local strain of grape phylloxera to develop and reproduce on irradiated in vitro cultured rootstocks (Ru140, R99 and 3309C and one local variety 'Helwani' was determined. The results showed that there was great variation in developmental time and reproduction of phylloxera between irradiated and unirradiated in vitro cultured plants. Survival, number of eggs and mean developmental time were greatly reduced when phylloxera was reared on irradiated rootstocks. Based on the examined biological parameters of phylloxera, all tested rootstocks would be more resistant toward such destructive insect when they were irradiated. Thus, phylloxera resistance was enhanced when in vitro cultured plants were treated with low doses of gamma irradiation. (author)
Efforts are being made to determine a gamma radiation dose for mortality of third-instar larvae of Anastrepha fraterculus which infest mangos of the Haden variety of 400 g weight. Four radiation treatments were tested: 0.4 kGy, 0.6 kGy, 0.8 kGy and 1.0 kGy. Using as a criterium for mortality the interruption of the biological cycle between larva and pupa, the following results were achieved: 49.61%, 63.33%, 74.86% and 90.72%. The percentages obtained have been corrected using the Abbot formula. When the criterium was based on no adult emergence, 100% mortality was achieved for the four treatments. (author)
The nation's electric power system would be subject to induced surges in the event of a high altitude nuclear burst. The HEMP would be coupled to overhead power lines and cause severe overvoltage to components connected to the line. This paper discusses the design of pulsed power equipment needed to simulate this induced EMP. A facility is described which is capable of testing the vulnerability of components by applying appropriate voltage and current waveforms. The pulser can provide waveforms under a variety of test conditions to meet the requirements of different types of components. A 3-5 MV Marx pulser is described. It has the capability of generating a fast rising voltage followed by two distinct exponential decays. The testing of components, charged with their normal voltage is also described.
The effect of high lift airfoils on the cost effectiveness of HAWT and VAWT (horizontal and vertical axis wind turbine) machines is studied. The scope involved first studying modern two dimensional airfoils, and developing a generalized formulation for their performance in terms of lift, drag, and thickness at appropriate Reynolds numbers. Single element, multi-element, symmetrical, extra thick airfoils and jet flap airfoils were analyzed. The jet flap airfoils were considered to be unacceptable because of excessive power requirements. Then the effect of using the above airfoils on the rotors of a variety of wind turbines was made. Qualitative representation of the type of airfoils studied is given.
Curcumin, the yellow pigment from the rhizoma of Curcuma longa, is a widely studied phytochemical with a variety of biological activities. The ongoing research and clinical trials have proved that this natural phenolic compound has great and diverse pharmacological potencies. Beside its effective antioxidant, antiinflammatory, and antimicrobial/antiviral properties, curcumin is also considered as a cancer chemopreventive agent. While the antioxidant activity of curcumin is well documented, its interaction with DNA and RNA is not fully investigated. This study was designed to examine the interactions of curcumin with calf thymus DNA and yeast RNA in aqueous solution at physiological conditions, using constant DNA and RNA concentration (6.25?mM) and various curcumin/polynucleotide (phosphate...
Summation Copper-64 (T1/2?=?12.7 hours; ?+, 0.653?MeV [17.8 %]; ??, 0.579?MeV [38.4 %]) has decay characteristics that allow for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and targeted radiotherapy of cancer. The well-established coordination chemistry of copper allows for its reaction with a wide variety of chelator systems that can potentially be linked to peptides and other biologically relevant small molecules, antibodies, proteins, and nanoparticles. The 12.7-hours half-life of 64Cu provides the flexibility to image both smaller molecules and larger, slower clearing proteins and nanoparticles. In a practical sense, the radionuclide or the 64Cu-radiopharmaceuticals can be easily shipped for PET imaging studies at sites remote to the production facility. Due to the versatility of 64Cu, ...
This article reports research findings related to converging formats, media, practices, and ideas in the process of academics' interaction with electronic texts during a research project. The findings are part of the results of a study that explored interactions of scholars in literary and historical studies with electronic texts as primary materials. Electronic texts were perceived by the study participants as fluid entities because the electronic environment promotes seamless interactions with a variety of media and formats. Working with electronic texts combines some traditional information and research practices into new patterns of information behavior. The practice called "netchaining" combines aspects of networking with information-seeking practices to establish and shape online information chains, which link sources and people. Different forms of exploration of participants' research questions were enabled by interactions with electronic texts.
Cavity solar receivers are generally believed to have higher thermal efficiencies than external receivers due to reduced losses. A simple analytical model was presented by the author which indicated that the ability to heat the air inside the cavity often controls the convective loss from cavity receivers. Thus, if the receiver contains a large amount of inactive hot wall area, it can experience a large convective loss. Excellent experimental data from a variety of cavity configurations and orientations have recently become available. These data provided a means of testing and refining the analytical model. In this manuscript, a brief description of the refined model is presented. Emphasis is placed on using available experimental evidence to substantiate the hypothesized mechanisms and assumptions. Detailed comparisons are given between analytical predictions and experimental results. Excellent agreement is obtained, and the important mechanisms are more clearly ...
Abstract. Malaria vector control targeting the larval stages of mosquitoes was applied successfully against many species of Anopheles (Diptera: Culicidae) in malarious countries until the mid-20th Century. Since the introduction of DDT in the 1940s and the associated development of indoor residual spraying (IRS), which usually has a more powerful impact than larval control on vectorial capacity, the focus of malaria prevention programmes has shifted to the control of adult vectors. In the Afrotropical Region, where malaria is transmitted mainly by Anopheles funestus Giles and members of the Anopheles gambiae Giles complex, gaps in information on larval ecology and the ability of An. gambiae sensu lato to exploit a wide variety of larval habitats have discouraged efforts to develop and impl...
The GammeV experiment has constrained the couplings of chameleon scalar fields to matter and photons. Here we present a detailed calculation of the chameleon afterglow rate underlying these constraints. The dependence of GammeV constraints on various assumptions in the calculation is studied. We discuss GammeV-CHASE, a second-generation GammeV experiment, which will improve upon GammeV in several major ways. Using our calculation of the chameleon afterglow rate, we forecast model-independent constraints achievable by GammeV-CHASE. We then apply these constraints to a variety of chameleon models, including quartic chameleons and chameleon dark energy models. The new experiment will be able to probe a large region of parameter space that is beyond the reach of current tests, such as fifth force searches, constraints on the dimming of distant astrophysical objects, and bounds on the variation of the fine structure constant.
The steps in assembling the computational tools needed to simulate the explosive fracture of oil shale have been described. The resulting code, with its input data, then was used to simulate 3 explosive field experiments. The results of the calculations are in good agreement with what actually occurred in the field. Further detailed comparisons are in progress for these experiments and the others that have been conducted. The development of computer codes as tools to predict rock breakage makes a variety of studies possible. The properties of the explosive can be changed to see how the extent of rubbling is affected. Studies of spacing and delays for decked charges also are possible. The codes can be applied in situations, such as confined-volume blasting, at the frontiers of blasting technology. These areas are vital to the effective utilization of oil shale resources, especially with in situ techniques. 13 references.
Simultaneous exposures of rats and hamsters to inhaled radon daughters, with and without uranium ore dust, were performed daily for five months. Pulmonary pathology developing in 6 to 13 mo after cessation of daily exposures included interstitial fibrosis, emphysema, epithelial hyperplasia, squamous metaplasia, and malignant neoplasia. Rats showed a greater variety and more severe response to these uranium mine inhalation exposures than did hamsters. Inhalation of radon daughters with uranium ore dust displayed the site of greatest damage, including squamous carcinoma, from the nasopharynx to the lungs. Sixty percent of the rats exposed to radon daughters with ore dust developed primary pulmonary carcinomas, providing an appropriate short-term experimental animal model for investigation of respiratory tract carcinogenesis in uranium miners.
The interaction of thermal radiation with conduction and convection in thermally developing absorbing, emitting, nongray gas-particulate turbulent suspension flow through a circular tube is investigated. The contribution of thermal radiation is obtained through evaluation of the total hemispherical emittance of the particulate cloud and through evaluation of single band absorptances for molecular gases, modified to account for the interaction with the particles. The governing differential equation is derived as a (nonlinear) energy equation, coupled with integral equations to find the thermal radiation contributions. The energy equation is solved numerically by an implicit finite difference method with an iterative procedure. Qualitative results for Nusselt numbers are shown for a variety and range of parameters, such as optical thickness of particulates and single molecular gas bands, relative gas band position and band width, and temperature ratios (heated as ...
The interaction of thermal radiation with conduction and convection in thermally developing absorbing, emitting, non-gray gas particulate turbulent suspension flow through a circular tube is investigated. The contribution of thermal radiation is obtained through evaluation of the total hemispherical emittance of the particulate cloud and through evaluation of single band absorptances for molecular gases, modified to account for the interaction with the particles. The governing differential equation is derived as a (nonlinear) energy equation, coupled with integral equations to find the thermal radiation contributions. The energy equation is solved numerically by an implicit finite difference with its iterative procedure. Qualitative results for Nusselt numbers are shown for a variety and range of parameters, such as optical thickness of particulates and single molecular gas bands, relative gas band position and band width, and temperature ratios (heated as well as ...
A procedure for code Verification by the Method of Manufactured Solutions (MMS) is presented. Although the procedure requires a certain amount of creativity and skill, we show that MMS can be applied to a variety of engineering codes which numerically solve partial differential equations. This is illustrated by detailed examples from computational fluid dynamics. The strength of the MMS procedure is that it can identify any coding mistake that affects the order-of-accuracy of the numerical method. A set of examples which use a blind-test protocol demonstrates the kinds of coding mistakes that can (and cannot) be exposed via the MMS code Verification procedure. The principle advantage of the MMS procedure over traditional methods of code Verification is that code capabilities are tested in full generality. The procedure thus results in a high degree of confidence that all coding mistakes which prevent the equations from being solved correctly have been identified.
Testimony at an April 30, 1980 hearing addressed whether to reauthorize or amend the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1978, specifically section 306, to further implement state programs and institutionalize state management of coastal zones. The text of the reauthorization bill (S. 2622) is followed by the statements of eleven witnesses and additional articles, letters, and statements submitted for the record. Witnesses are present for the fishing and oil industries, state and national governments, and public interest groups. Among the points brought out in testimony were that uniform standards are unwise - given the variety of coastal regions; and that there is a need to balance protection and development policies. (DCK)
We conjecture that the end point of bulk closed string tachyon decay at any nonzero coupling is the annihilation of space-time by Witten's bubble of nothing, resulting in a topological phase of the theory. In support of this we present a variety of situations in which there is a correspondence between the existence of perturbative tachyons in one regime and the semiclassical annihilation of space-time. Our discussion will include many recently investigated scenarios in string theory including Scherk-Schwarz compactifications, Melvin magnetic backgrounds, and noncompact orbifolds. We use this conjecture to investigate a possible web of dualities relating the eleven-dimensional Fabinger-Horava background with nonsupersymmetric string theories. Along the way we point out where our conjecture resolves some of the puzzles associated with bulk closed string tachyon condensation.
Abstract Localized regions of enhanced emission from HCO+, NH3 and other species near Herbig-Haro objects (HHOs) have been interpreted as arising in a photochemistry stimulated by the HHO radiation on high-density quiescent clumps in molecular clouds. Static models of this process have been successful in accounting for the variety of molecular species arising ahead of the jet; however, recent observations show that the enhanced molecular emission is widespread along the jet as well as ahead. Hence, a realistic model must take into account the movement of the radiation field past the clump. It was previously unclear as to whether the short interaction time between the clump and the HHO in a moving source model would allow molecules such as HCO+ to reach high enough levels, and to survive fo...
The study was conducted during 2000 to determine the role of various chemical plant factors viz., total minerals, nitrogen, fat contents, carbohydrate, macro an micro nutrients in the leaves of five genotypes of sugarcane i.e., BF-162, SPSG-26, L-118, CP-43/33 and CP-72/2086 by correlating the infestation of top borer, Scirpophaga Nivella F. at tillering stage. None of the genotype was found completely resistant to the pest. CP-43/33 and BF-162 proved susceptible and resistant varieties, respectively. Total mineral, manganese and copper contents did not show significant correlation with the pest infestation, whereas nitrogen, potassium, calcium, magnesium and ferrous contents played a positive and significant role. Phosphorous, carbohydrates, fats and zinc contents played a significant and negative effect on the pest infestation at tillering stage. (author)
This paper describes the development and testing of a system to provide isolated power to the cathode-subsystem electronics of an x-ray tube. These components are located at the cathode potential of several hundred kilovolts, requiring a supply of power isolated from this high voltage. In this design a fiber-optically connected photonic power system (PPS) is used to recharge a lithium-ion battery pack, which will subsequently supply power to the cathode-subsystem electronics. The suitability of the commercially available JDSU PPS for this application is evaluated. The output of the ppe converter is characterized. The technical aspects of its use for charging a variety of Li-Ion batteries are discussed. Battery charge protection requirements and safety concerns are also addressed.
In an attempt to overcome inadequacies perceived in the approach to providing energy to village communities using the conventional Khadi and Village Industries Commission biogas plant as well as the Janata model, a biogas digester has been developed suitable for a farmer having only one hectare of land. The information on gas yields and other data from a variety of substrates in a laboratory digester are presented. The digester itself consists of a chamber underground into which the influent flows through a channel. Gas is collected in a dome which constitutes the upper part of the digestion chamber and is maintained under pressure by water. The dome can be made of any suitable material such as plastic, ferrocement and brick and mortar. The upper part of the chamber itself is exposed to sun light which enhances microbial growth. Water which surrounds the dome ensures a minimum of temperature variation. 3 references.
Objectives1. To create a strong, interdisciplinary evidence base about the relationships linking ecosystems, agrobiodiversity, wild biodiversity, and sustainable livelihoods, including the use of trade-off analysis (modeling the relationships between agricultural productivity, levels of biodiversity, and ecosystem resilience); crop evolutionary studies (wild relative/crop interactions) and socioeconomic, cultural, and nutritional studies of the contribution of biodiversity to different livelihoods asset [continued...]DescriptionAgriculture, ecosystems, and humans have co-evolved over millennia in the Andean-Amazonian region, creating the richest of all Vavilov centers of crop origin and diversity. The conservation of a wide range of domesticated crops and landraces (i.e., indigenous, ancestral varieties or cultivars that are distinct, uniform, and stable) and their co-evolution with crop wild relatives (CRW) has been essential for food security, adaptation to ...
Estimation of mixed Weibull distribution by maximum likelihood estimation and other methods is frequently difficult due to unstable estimates arising from limited data. Bayesian techniques can stabilize these estimates through the priors, but there is no closed-form conjugate family for the Weibull distribution. This paper reduces the number of numeric integrations required for using Bayesian estimation on mixed Weibull situations from five to two, thus making it a more feasible approach to the typical user. It also examines the robustness of the Bayesian estimates under a variety of different prior distributions. It is found that Bayesian estimation can improve accuracy over the MLE for situations with low mixture ratios so long as the prior on the weak subpopulation's characteristic life has an expected value less than or equal to the true characteristic life.
In conjunction with the constellation of lawsuits within the administrative court system, and based on modern environmental protection laws, emission control laws, and foremost, the atomic energy laws, we are confronted with a variety of constitutional and administrative problems. However, the fundamental questions of individual rights within the potentially incriminating environmental utilization or exploitation by individuals could be relatively clearly answered by observing the basic principles of our legal order. It is to be expected that the administrative courts will arrive at acceptable decisions reflecting the full protection of the law and the basic constitutional principles, and that these - once made - may serve as orientation in superior court actions.
Gold nanoparticles were synthesized by using banana peel extract (BPE) as a simple, non-toxic, eco-friendly 'green material'. The boiled, crushed, acetone precipitated, air-dried peel powder was used to reduce chloroauric acid. A variety of nanoparticles were formed when the reaction conditions were altered with respect to pH, BPE content, chloroauric acid concentration and temperature of incubation. The reaction mixtures displayed vivid colors and UV-vis spectra characteristic of gold nanoparticles. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) studies revealed that the average size of the nanoparticles under standard synthetic conditions was around 300nm. Scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) confirmed these results. A coffee ring phenomenon, led to the aggregation of th...
We have performed ab initio calculations on a wide range of small molecules, demonstrating the accuracy and flexibility of an alternative method for calculating the electronic structure of molecules, solids, and surfaces. It is based on the local-density approximation (LDA) for exchange and correlation and the nonlinear augmented-plane-wave method. Very accurate atomic forces are obtained directly. This allows for implementation of Car-Parrinello-like techniques to determine simultaneously the self-consistent electron wave functions and the equilibrium atomic positions within an iterative scheme. We find excellent agreement with the best existing LDA-based calculations and remarkable agreement with experiment for the equilibrium geometries, vibrational frequencies, and dipole moments of a wide variety of molecules, including strongly bound homopolar and polar molecules, hydrogen-bound and electron-deficient molecules, and weakly bound alkali and noble-metal dimers, ...
An artificial neural network (ANN), trained as an inverse of the controlled plant, to function as a power system stabilizer (PSS) is presented in this paper. In order to make the proposed ANN PSS work properly, it was trained over the full working range of the generating unit with a large variety of disturbances. Data used to train the ANN PSS consists of the control input and the synchronous machine response with an adaptive PSS (APSS) controlling the generator. During training, the ANN was required to memorize the reverse input/output mapping of the synchronous machine. After the training, the output of the synchronous machine was applied as the input of the ANN PSS and the output of the ANN PSS was used as the control signal. Simulation results show that the proposed ANN PSS can provide good damping of the power system over a wide operating range and significantly improve the system performance.
Canadian-based Anderson Group Company has developed an innovative round baler for harvesting a large variety of woody biomass. The baler was initially developed in 2005 in collaboration with the University Laval and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. The third generation BIOBALER{sup TM} is currently built, engineered and commercialized by Anderson. It can produce up to 40 bales/hr in short rotations woody crops such as willow and hybrid poplar. The unit can harvest brushes up to 125 mm in diameter. A standard tractor can pull the BIOBALER in fallow or abandoned land, under power transmission lines, and between planted trees. The patented BIOBALER includes a mulcher head attachment, a choice of long or short swivel tongue, a fixed chamber and an undercarriage frame.
A detailed assessment of the FFTF Primary Heat Transport System (PHTS) piping has led to the conclusion that the integrity of the piping is assured such that there is no realistic potential for a rupture. Nevertheless, consistent with the practice of showing design margins even for hypothetical events, a spectrum of postulated PHTS ruptures has been analyzed. The analyses showed that upstream of the reactor vessel inlet downcomer, rupture areas of any size including a double-ended rupture could be tolerated with no core coolant boiling. At the most limiting location, the reactor inlet nozzle, rupture areas of 75 in."2 and 55 in."2 could be tolerated for three-loop and two-loop operation, respectively. This paper will present the following: (1) the criterion with which consequences of postulated pipe ruptures are compared; (2) the general transient response of the FFTF to postulated ruptures; and (3) the acceptable rupture sizes for the FFTF primary loop for a ...
the Life table of local strain of grape phylloxera was determined to evaluate the relationship between indole acetic acid (IAA) and phylloxera on our local variety Helwani. The study was carried out by applying in vitro dual culture system. The results showed that there was a great variation in mean developmental time, female longevity, number of laid eggs and egg distribution between all IAA concentrations and plant ages. Based on the tested biological parameters of phylloxera, (Helwani) would be unsuitable host for such destructive insect as it became older and when 2mg/1 of IAA was applied to in vitro culture media. (author)
Proteinaceous aggregation occurs through self-assembly-- a process not entirely understood. In a recent article [1], an analytical theory for amyloid fibril growth via secondary rather than primary nucleation was presented. Remarkably, with only a single kinetic parameter, the authors were able to unify growth characteristics for a variety of experimental data. In essence, they seem to have uncovered the underlying allometric laws governing the evolution of filament elongation simply from two coupled non-linear ordinary differential equations (ODEs) stemming from a master equation. While this work adds significantly to our understanding of filament self-assembly, it required an approximate analytical solution representation. Here, we show that the same results are found by purely numerical means once a straightforward and reliable numerical solution to the set of ODEs has been established.
It is generally known that a number of metallic glasses have excellent corrosion resistance in a variety of chemically hostile environments. Consequently, the use of laser cladding to coat a massive crystalline material such as aluminium with a layer of a metallic glass has obvious advantages. In this paper, the authors will show that the formation of a predominantly amorphous layer of Zr_6_0Al_1_5NI_2_5 alloy by laser processing is possible, if the obstacles to amorphization are overcome. In addition, evidence of the excellent corrosion resistance of this alloy in a NaCl solution will be given. A comparative study of the corrosion behavior of this amorphous alloy with pure aluminium and Al-Cr alloy will be done, in order to complete previous studies of laser processed coatings of aluminum substrates.
Abstract Amicrobial pustulosis of the folds (APF) is a recently described entity characterized by relapsing pustular lesions predominantly involving the cutaneous flexures and scalp. This disease typically occurs in association with systemic lupus erythematosus and a variety of other autoimmune diseases. We here describe an APF-like pustular eruption predominantly affecting the scalp, face and trunk, occurring during long-term infliximab treatment for Crohn's disease. Immunohistochemical staining of skin biopsy specimens for myxovirus resistance protein A, a marker for type 1 interferon-inducible proteins, showed increased staining in the epidermis and dermal mononuclear inflammatory infiltrate. Our observation further extends the spectrum of cutaneous adverse reactions potentially related...
Orientation in the environment can draw on a variety of cognitive strategies. We asked 634 healthy volunteers to perform a comprehensive battery administered through an internet website (www.gettinglost.ca), testing different orientation strategies in virtual environments to determine the effect of age and gender upon these skills. Older participants (46-67years of age) performed worse than younger participants (18-30 or 31-45years of age) in all orientation skills assessed, including landmark recognition, integration of body-centered information, forming association between landmarks and body turns, and the formation and use of a cognitive map. Among all tests, however, the ability to form cognitive maps resulted to be the significant factor best at predicting the individuals' age group. ...
We have recently introduced several important improvements in the measurement of distillation curves for complex fluids. The modifications include a composition-explicit data channel for each distillate fraction (for both qualitative and quantitative analysis) and corrosivity assessment of each distillate fraction. The composition-explicit information is achieved with a new sampling approach that allows precise qualitative as well as quantitative analyses of each fraction, on the fly. We have applied the new method to a variety of fluids, including simple n-alkanes, rocket propellant, gasoline, jet fuels, and a hydrocarbon fluid made corrosive with dissolved hydrogen sulfide. In the current contribution, we present the application of the advanced distillation curve method to two samples of...
Action potentials from the brain control the activity of spinal neural networks to produce, by as yet unknown mechanisms, a variety of motor behaviors. Particularly lacking are details on how identified descending neurons integrate diverse sensory inputs to generate specific locomotor patterns. We have examined the operations of the principal neurons in an intriguing midbrain nucleus, the nucleus of the medial longitudinal fasciculus (nMLF), in the larval zebrafish. The nMLF is the most rostral grouping of neurons that projects from the brain well into the spinal cord of teleost fishes, yet there is little direct physiological data available regarding its function. We report here that a distinct set of large, individually-identifiable neurons in nMLF (the MeL and MeM neurons) are activated...
A classic sum rule by Das et al. is extended to seven of the low-energy constant K{sub i}, introduced by Urech, which parameterizes electromagnetic corrections at chiral order O(e{sup 2}p{sup 2}). Using the spurion formalism, a simple convolution representation is shown to hold and the structure in terms of the chiral renormalization scale, QCD renormalization scale and the QED gauge parameter is displayed. The role of the resonances is studied as providing rational interpolants to relevant QCD n-point functions in the Euclidean domain. A variety of asymptotic constraints must be implemented which have phenomenological consequences. A current assumption concerning the dominance of the lowest-lying resonances is shown clearly to fail in some cases. (author)
The Teachers` Academy for Mathematics and Science in Chicago (TAMS) is a freestanding institution founded in 1989 by scientists and a variety of other stakeholders, to advance the systemic reform of mathematics and science education in Chicago`s public schools. It focuses on the ``re-tooling`` of its elementary level teachers. The TAMS program, which has been funded in part by the DOE, contributes to strategic goals two through five of the Office of University and Science Education (OUSE). This evaluation of TAMS by the National Center for Improving Science Education is primarily a qualitative study that summarizes the history and current status of the organization and its programs. Data was obtained through extensive interviews, observations, and document review, using a framework of templates to guide data collection and analyses. The findings are organized around a series of lessons learned from the first three years of TAMS and conclusions about its current ...
The problem of passively tracking a moving signal source has importance in a variety of applications such as radar, sonar, seismology, and radio astronomy. In many applications, only limited information is available about the signal source. It will be assumed here that only the signals which are detected by the sensors and the velocity of the source signal are known. The objective of this document is to present a program which passively tracks a target using an array of sensors. This program is available in MATLAB, version 3.5. The algorithm which is implemented consists of three main parts: time delay estimation, passive localization, and data post processing. Each of these parts are discussed, and the mathematical foundation for their solution given. Following, this the organization of the program is presented, and an example of its usage is given.
In view of no satisfactory mathematical model is presently available for the dose-response curve of immunoradiometric assay, a three parameter model based on single binding site mass action law has been derived. A curve fitting method based on similar principle of linear robust regression was designed and a software was prepared for use on IBM personal computers. Experiments revealed that the model is applicable to a variety of IRMA systems as well as to time-resolved immunofluorometric assay of hAFP. When there was outlier(s) of the calibration curve, the average bias of unknown samples obtained with this method is significantly smaller than methods using four parameter logistic model or four parameter single site mass action model.
This paper describes a comprehensive MCM [machine condition monitoring] program and suggested system for implementation in hydroelectric generating units. The system addresses all the major subsystems which make up the generating unit. A modular design means that it could be applicable in a wide variety of situations. Different subsystems may be included or excluded from the monitoring system as required. It may be used at individual plants as a stand alone system or network wide. An advanced processing and diagnostic module is included, again for use as an integral part of the system or as a stand alone analysis tool. Examples of the system's proposed data analysis and diagnostic abilities are also described using vibration signals as would be provided by the bearing module. (Author)
This paper discusses a database of information collected and organized during the past eight years from 2,000 producing oil wells in the United States, all of which have been treated with special applications techniques developed to improve the effectiveness of MEOR technology. The database, believed to be the first of its kind, has been generated for the purpose of statistically evaluating the effectiveness and economics of the MEOR process in a wide variety of oil reservoir environments, and is a tool that can be used to improve the predictability of treatment response. The information in the database has also been evaluated to determine which, if any, reservoir characteristics are dominant factors in determining the applicability of MEOR.
Twenty-eight measurement while drilling tools are listed in this year's MWD Comparison Tables. Updated data on tools listed last year and data on five new tools provide a convenient guide for choosing MWD systems. Future MWD technologies include sonic tools and tools that make measurements ahead of the bit. For the seventh year, Petroleum Engineer International presents the Measurement While Drilling (MWD) Tables comparing a variety of available tools from many different vendors. The 1994 Tables include two additional companies and five new MWD tools not found in last year's Tables. However, the tables should serve only as a reference source. System specifications can change rapidly as tools are refined and new technologies develop. Operators and contractors should consult designated MWD marketing representatives before making a final tool selection.
The integrated-gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) process is an emerging technology that utilizes coal for power generation and production of chemical feedstocks. However, the process generates large amounts of solid waste, consisting of vitrified ash (slag) and some unconverted carbon. In previous projects, Praxis investigated the utilization of {open_quotes}as-generated{close_quotes} slags for a wide variety of applications in road construction, cement and concrete production, agricultural applications, and as a landfill material. From these studies, we found that it would be extremely difficult for {open_quotes}as-generated{close_quotes} slag to find large-scale acceptance in the marketplace even at no cost because the materials it could replace were abundantly available at very low cost. It was further determined that the unconverted carbon, or char, in the slag is detrimental to its utilization as sand or fine aggregate. It became apparent that a more ...
Biomass tensile and shear ultimate failure stresses were measured with the aim of identifying biomass 'weakest mode of failure' or 'natural fracture point' as a basis for future grinder designs. Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) ultimate stresses were determined for Alamo and Kanlow varieties over ranges in maturity and moisture content. Alamo had greater ultimate tensile stress than Kanlow (P=0.0091), with mean values of 97.8 and 89.7MPa, respectively. Alamo had greater ultimate shear stress than Kanlow (P=0.0091), with mean values of 20.5 and 17.9MPa, respectively. Shear was the 'weakest mode of failure'. Grinders that use knives, shear bars, and mechanical pinch points that apply opposed-sliding actions are expected to be more energy efficient. Mean ultimate tensile stress and shear stress were significantly different between switchgrass varieties. A survey of failure stresses for a range ...
Kong-Ming Wu (Corresponding author) The application of recombinant DNA technology has resulted in many insect-resistant varieties by genetic engineering (GE). Crops expressing Cry toxins derived from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) have been planted worldwide, and are an effective tool for pest control. However, one ecological concern regarding the potential effects of insect-resistant GE plants on non-target organisms (NTOs) has been continually debated. In the present study, we briefly summarize the data regarding the development and commercial use of transgenic Bt varieties, elaborate on the procedure and methods for assessing the non-target effects of insect-resistant GE plants, and synthetically analyze the related research results, mostly those published between 2005 and 2010. A mass of laboratory and field studies have shown that the currently available Bt crops have no direct detrimental effects on NTOs due to their narrow spectrum of ...
The wavefunction of a particle extends into the classically forbidden barrier region of the potential energy surface. The consequence of this partial delocalisation is the phenomenon of quantum tunnelling, an effect which enables a particle to penetrate a potential barrier of magnitude greater than the energy of the particle. The tunnelling probability is an exponential function of the particle mass. The effect is therefore an important contribution to the behaviour of light atoms, in particular the proton. The hydrogen bond has long been appreciated to be an essential component of many biological and chemical systems, and the proton transfer reaction in the hydrogen bond is fundamental to many of these processes. The proton behaviour in the hydrogen bonds of benzoic acid, acetylacetone and calix-4-arene has been studied. A variety of techniques, both experimental and computational, were adopted for the study of the three hydrogen bonded systems. The complementary ...
The number of reports concerning the chemical toxicology of metals which are released in the environment by natural as well as anthropogenic sources, have been increasing constantly. Lead, cadmium, and manganese have found a variety of uses in industry, craft, and agriculture owing to their physical and chemical properties. The environmental burden of heavy metals has been rising substantially by smelter emission in air and waste sewage in water. Further, organic compounds of lead and manganese used as antiknock substances in gasoline are emitted into the atmosphere by automobile exhaustion. Such environmental contamination of air, water, soil, and food is a serious threat to all living kinds. Although these metals are known to produce their toxic effects on a variety of body systems, much emphasis has been placed on their effects on the nervous system owing to apparent association of relatively low or ...
The novel optical, electronic, and/or magnetic properties of metal and semiconductor nanoparticles have resulted in extensive research on new methods for their preparation. An ideal preparation method would allow the particle size, size distribution, crystallinity, and particle shape to be easily controlled, and would be applicable to a wide variety of material systems. Numerous preparation methods have been reported, each with its inherent advantages and disadvantages; however, an ideal method has yet to emerge. The most widely applied methods for nanoparticle preparation include the sonochemical reduction of organometallic reagents,(1&2) the solvothermal method of Alivisatos,(3) reactions in microemulsions,(4-6) the polyol method (reduction by alcohols),(7-9) and the use of polymer and solgel materials as hosts.(10-13) In addition to these methods, there are a variety of methods that take advantage of the unique properties of a ...
Laser-assisted processing techniques for producing high-quality solar cell metallization patterns have been investigated, developed, and characterized. During the early stages, preliminary investigations were carried out on a variety of promising laser-assisted metallization schemes, and the best of these was selected for further development. A comprehensive literature search initially yielded information on state-of-the-art laser-assisted techniques for metal deposition such as laser chemical vapor deposition and laser photolysis of organometallics, as well as laser-enhanced electroplating. Initial experiments on laser-enhanced electroplating yielded very promising results with linewidths as narrow as 25 ..mu..m and local plating speeds as high as 12 ..mu..m/s being achieved. Metal deposition experiments were carried out utilizing laser-assisted pyrolysis of a variety of metal-bearing polymer films and metallo-organic inks spun onto silicon ...
Concern for the environment and cost reduction are driving forces for a broad effort in government and the private sector to develop new, more cost-effective technologies for characterizing, monitoring and remediating environmental sites. Secondary goals of the characterization, monitoring and remediation (CMR) activity are: minimize secondary waste generation, minimize site impact, protect water tables, and develop methods/strategies to apply new technologies. The Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) project in directional boring for CMR of waste sites with enhanced machinery from the underground utility installation industry was initiated in 1990. The project has tested a variety of prototype machinery and hardware built by the industrial partner, Charles Machine Works (CMW), and SNL at several sites (Savannah River Site (SRS), Hanford, SNL, Kirtland AFB (KAFB), CMW), successfully installed usable horizontal environmental test wells at SRS and SNL/KAFB, and ...
This paper extends the analytical procedure described in another paper in these proceedings to analyze a variety of compact and light-weight OSC-designed radioisotope-heated generators. Those generators employed General Purpose Heat Source (GPHS) modules and a converter containing sixteen AMTEC cells of OSC`s revised five-tube design with enhanced cell wall reflectivity described in a companion paper in these proceedings. OSC found that the performance of the generator is primarily a function of the thermal insulation between the outside of the generator`s 16 cells and the inside of its wall. After examining a variety of insulation options, it was found that the generator`s performance is optimized by employing a hybrid insulation system, in which the space between the cells is filled with fibrous Min-K insulation, and the generator walls are lined with tapered (i.e., graded-length) multifoil insulation. The OSC design results in a very compact ...
Coupled modeling of subsurface multiphase fluid and heat flow, solute transport and chemical reactions can be used for the assessment of acid mine drainage remediation, mineral deposition, waste disposal sites, hydrothermal convection, contaminant transport, and groundwater quality. Here they present a numerical simulation model, TOUGHREACT, which considers non-isothermal multi-component chemical transport in both liquid and gas phases. A wide range of subsurface thermo-physical-chemical processes is considered. The model can be applied to one-, two- or three-dimensional porous and fractured media with physical and chemical heterogeneity. The model can accommodate any number of chemical species present in liquid, gas and solid phases. A variety of equilibrium chemical reactions is considered, such as aqueous complexation, gas dissolution/exsolution, cation exchange, and surface complexation. Mineral dissolution/precipitation can proceed either subject to local ...
In processes of this invention aqueous waste solutions containing a variety of mixed waste contaminants are treated to remove the contaminants by a sequential addition of chemicals and adsorption/ion exchange powdered materials to remove the contaminants including lead, cadmium, uranium, cesium-137, strontium-85/90, trichloroethylene and benzene, and impurities including iron and calcium. Staged conditioning of the waste solution produces a polydisperse system of size enlarged complexes of the contaminants in three distinct configurations: water-soluble metal complexes, insoluble metal precipitation complexes, and contaminant-bearing particles of ion exchange and adsorbent materials. The volume of the waste is reduced by separation of the polydisperse system by cross-flow microfiltration, followed by low-temperature evaporation and/or filter pressing. The water produced as filtrate is discharged if it meets a specified target water quality, or else the filtrate is ...
In processes of this invention aqueous waste solutions containing a variety of mixed waste contaminants are treated to remove the contaminants by a sequential addition of chemicals and adsorption/ion exchange powdered materials to remove the contaminants including lead, cadmium, uranium, cesium-137, strontium-85/90, trichloroethylene and benzene, and impurities including iron and calcium. Staged conditioning of the waste solution produces a polydisperse system of size enlarged complexes of the contaminants in three distinct configurations: water-soluble metal complexes, insoluble metal precipitation complexes, and contaminant-bearing particles of ion exchange and adsorbent materials. The volume of the waste is reduced by separation of the polydisperse system by cross-flow microfiltration, followed by low-temperature evaporation and/or filter pressing. The water produced as filtrate is discharged if it meets a specified target water quality, or else the filtrate is ...
Short note. The World Health Organization (WHO) has taken aim at critics of irradiated food, claiming that the process has the potential to reduce the incidence of foodborne diseases such as salmonellosis, to cut postharvest food losses and to provide a wider variety of foods for consumers. 'The unwarranted rejection of this process, often based on lack of understanding of what food irradiation entails, may hamper its use in those countries which may benefit most', Dr. Jean-Paul Jardel, WHO's assistant director-general, argued following a recent international conference on the subject. Critics, including Canadians, has opposed food irradiation for years, claiming that more needs to be known about its effects. WHO said the 'vast majority' of the 54 national delegations at the conference supported use of the technology on foods ranging from grain and potatoes to poultry, tropical fruit and strawberries. WHO wants governments to educate the public on the benefits and ...
The oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of light alkanes is an alternative way for the production of olefins. A wide variety of catalytic systems has been investigated. Vanadium oxide based catalysts were described in the literature as effective catalysts for the ODH of propane. The catalytic activity and selectivity depend on the kind of support material, the kind of dopants and the formation of complex metal oxide phases. In recent papers it was claimed that both orthovanadate and/or pyrovanadate species are selective for the ODH of propane. Niobia based materials were investigated as catalysts for acidic and selective oxidation type reactions. In the ODH of propane niobia exhibited a high selectivity to propene but the conversion of propane was low. V{sub 2}O{sub 5}-Nb{sub 2}O{sub 5} catalysts proved to be catalytically active and selective and showed no formation of oxygenates. In the present study the influence of the niobia dopant of the catalytic properties of ...
Let $C$ be a curve of genus two. We denote by $SU_C(3)$ the moduli space of semi-stable vector bundles of rank 3 and trivial determinant over $C$, and by $J^d$ the variety of line bundles of degree $d$ on $C$. In particular, $J^1$ has a canonical theta divisor $\\Theta$. The space $SU_C(3)$ is a double cover of $P^8=|3\\Theta|$ branched along a sextic hypersurface, the Coble sextic. In the dual $\\check{P}^8=|3\\Theta|^*$, where $J^1$ is embedded, there is a unique cubic hypersurface singular along $J^1$, the Coble cubic. We prove that these two hypersurfaces are dual, inducing a non-abelian Torelli result. Moreover, by looking at some special linear sections of these hypersurfaces, we can observe and reinterpret some classical results of algebraic geometry in a context of vector bundles: the duality of the Segre-Igusa quartic with the Segre cubic, the symmetric configuration of 15 lines and 15 points, the Weddle quartic surface and the Kummer surface.
The {sup 252}Cf-source-driven noise analysis method has been used in measurements for subcritical configurations of fissile systems for a variety of applications including a dynamic measurement that was the first step in applying this method to monitor fuel in a future reprocessing plant These measurements showed that this method has potential to monitor many dynamic situations in processing plants such as in a continuous dissolver or batch dissolvers either to obtain the neutron multiplication factor k or to be used as a signature to verify that various processes are occurring in a repeatable or bounded way. This verification of normal operation would be by comparing noise analysis signatures for the process with reference signatures. Abnormal operation could be ascertained if the signature deviates by some specified amount from the reference signatures from normal operation. The deviations from normal could be specified by measurement or by Monte Carlo neutron ...
Step-scan Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in conjunction with impulse stress on polymer films has been used to monitor dynamic rheological responses in real time. A novel piezo-electrically-driven polymer microrheometer was employed to apply repetitive impulses to the polymer sample while time-domain spectra were recorded. Recent results include the study of both semi-crystalline polymers such as isotactic polypropylene (iPP) and elastomers such as Estane polyester/polyurethane copolymer and Kraton tri-block copolymer. The spectral changes of iPP are consistent with frequency-domain results. For iPP at room temperature, large differences in the response times of different absorption bands are not seen. However, the orientation response of the CH{sub 3} rocking mode is slightly slower than the responses of the backbone modes. To the authors` knowledge, this is the first reported successful step-scan FTIR time-domain dynamic polymer opto-rheology experiment. The advantages of the ...
A cylindrical coordinate mathematical model to calculate "2"2"2Rn flux and movement was developed considering "2"2"2Rn production, decay, and diffusion in a multilayered, porous, permeable matrix. Air movement, transporting radon through the media, satisfies Darcy's law and is influenced by the air (barometric) pressure applied at the surface. Two zones of porous material have been defined, one with a "2"2"2Rn production term (the uranium ore zone) and the other without this term to simulate shotcrete or concrete ground support. A provision is made to evaluate the effect of a pinhole in an otherwise impermeable sealant. Comparisons are made between field measurements and predicted values. Specific examples are given of "2"2"2Rn flux from a finite ore-body model versus steady and periodic changes in barometric pressure. Also examined are "2"2"2Rn losses through pinholes for cases of linearly varying and static barometric pressures. The results suggest factors to consider in uranium mine ...
Geographic information system (GIS) technology is now being used by wind energy developers who are required to consider and accommodate a wide variety of environmental and social considerations. This poster presentation discussed some of the new features available in current GIS technologies. High resolution imagery from satellites is being used to verify the accuracy of collected spatial data, as well as to investigate potential locations for meteorological towers, turbine sites, and roads. Slopes are easily calculated using GIS software tools, and digital elevation data can be used with high resolution aerial photography to determine routes for new roads and to establish available sites for crane pads. The GIS tools allow developers to consider protected ecological areas, wetlands and forests, and gives them the ability to better report project development considerations at public consultations. Wind resource grid outputs can also be projected using GIS software. ...
During searches for new optical Galactic supernova remnants (SNRs) in the high resolution, high sensitivity Anglo-Australian Observatory/United Kingdom Schmidt Telescope (AAO/UKST) HAlpha survey of the southern Galactic plane, we uncovered a variety of filamentary and more diffuse, extensive nebular structures in the vicinity of Wolf-Rayet (WR) star 48 (Theta Muscae), only some of which were previously recognised. We used the double-beam spectrograph of the Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatory (MSSSO) 2.3-m to obtain low and mid resolution spectra of selected new filaments and structures in this region. Despite spectral similarities between the optical spectra of WR star shells and SNRs, a careful assessment of the new spectral and morphological evidence from our deep HAlpha imagery suggests that the putative shell of Theta Mus is not a WR shell at all, as has been commonly accepted, but is rather part of a more complex area of large-scale overlapping ...
This presentation discussed common mechanisms for procuring wind energy in Canada. Mechanisms included renewable portfolio standards (RPSs); offsets; tax subsidies; financial subsidies; command and control mechanisms; and request for proposals (RFPs). A layered approach is required to avoid reliance on any single mechanism. RPSs require a certain minimum percentage of energy to come from renewable sources and aim to encourage the local development of renewable energy. RPSs are market-friendly and often result in the creation of tradable renewable energy credits (RECs) used for compliance purposes. RPSs work in parallel with cap and trade, baseline, and credit and carbon tax systems. RFPs target the lowest price offering, a practice which has often resulted in lower rates of return, high attrition, and a failure to attribute market prices to green attributes. It was concluded that RPSs work with a variety of policy frameworks and encourage the development of ...
The increased demand for renewable energy sources has led to large areas of former agricultural land being proposed for short rotation coppice (SRC) establishment. Concerns expressed over the potential impacts of tree roots on buried archaeological evidence led to a study into the rooting habit of SRC. Roots were exposed in trenches dug within a variety of willow and poplar clonal stands grown on brown earth, pelosol, ground-water gley and surface-water gley soils. Root depths and diameters were recorded in each of the 33 trenches. In total, over 18,000 roots were measured on 264 coppice stools. The rotation length, species and stool location within a block were all found to influence the maximum size of root produced. Soil type had some influence on the root number and depth, but the pattern of root distribution down the soil profile was similar for both species. (author)
The regular occurrence of large-scale earthquakes in Japan necessitates the use of earthquake disaster prevention systems that focus on gathering damage information on gas supply facilities immediately after an earthquake strikes and minimizing the damage. This paper discussed the development of an earthquake damage estimation system for city gas pipelines that can show damage information in real-time by using earthquake records obtained from densely deployed earthquake observation networks and the most advanced telecommunication and information technologies. The paper summarized the earthquake damage estimation system (EDES) and Toho Gas disaster prevention measures. Specific topics that were discussed included the Toho Gas supply method; earthquake countermeasures; construction of computer systems; normal and emergency operation of EDES; and verification of functions in actual earthquakes. It was concluded that when there is an emergency, the EDES functions as an online system using ...
We present a study of 66 barred, early-type (S0-Sb) disk galaxies, focused on the disk surface brightness profile outside the bar region and the nature of Freeman Type I and II profiles, their origins, and their possible relation to disk truncations. This paper discusses the data and their reduction, outlines our classification system, and presents $R$-band profiles and classifications for all galaxies in the sample. The profiles are derived from a variety of different sources, including the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (Data Release 5). For about half of the galaxies, we have profiles derived from more than one telescope; this allows us to check the stability and repeatability of our profile extraction and classification. The vast majority of the profiles are reliable down to levels of mu_R ~ 27 mag arcsec^-2; in exceptional cases, we can trace profiles down to mu_R > 28. We can typically follow disk profiles out to at least 1.5 times the traditional optical radius ...
Potassium atoms in selected high-lying np Rydberg states (80 #<=# n #<=# 400) are being used as a tool to examine electron-polar molecule collisions at ultra-low energies (#approx#80 #mu#eV - 1 meV). This energy regime has not been investigated previously and is of interest because the corresponding electron de Broglie wavelength is large, #approx#1300 - 330 Angstrom, and because the collision time is comparable to the period of molecular rotation. A variety of target molecules has been studied, including simple rotors such as HF, and more complex species such as NH_3, CH_3I, CH_2Br_2 and C_6H_5NO_2. These targets encompass a range of dipole moments and rotational behavior, but analysis of the data shows that in each case the cross section #sigma#(#epsilon#) for rotationally-inelastic electron-polar molecule scattering varies approximately as 1/#epsilon# where #epsilon# is the electron energy. Such threshold behavior is not predicted by the Born approximation ...
Laser desorption (LD) and thermal desorption (TD) mass spectra of the metallofullerenes found in arc-produced primary soots have been studied for a large variety of alkaline earth and lanthanide elements. The metallofullerene ratios found in the LD spectra indicate that two distinct groups are observed: Sc, Y, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Gd, Tb, Ho, Er, and Lu (group A) and Ca, Sr, Sm, Eu, and Yb (group B). The TD spectra of most of these same soots also separate into two groups that contain the same elements as groups A and B. Group A metallofullerenes show strong signals in both LD and TD spectra. Group B metallofullerenes are distinguished by their presence in the LD spectra but absence in the TD spectra. From the general ionic behavior of the elements of these groups, and recent studies of the endohedral oxidation states, we propose that the oxidation states are +3 for group A and +2 for group B. C[sub 70] metallofullerenes are anomalous in that they are absent in TD ...
A variety of special regulations exist in Costa Rica for registration and transport of hazardous substances; these set the requirements for entry into the country and the security of transport units. However, the regulations mentioned no specific rules for storing hazardous substances. Tax deposits have been the initial place where are stored the substances that enter the country.The creation of basic rules that would be regulating the storage of hazardous substances has taken place through the analysis of regulations and national and international laws governing hazardous substances. The regulatory domain that currently exists will be established with a field research in fiscal deposits in the metropolitan area. The storage and security measures that have been used by the personnel handling the substances will be identified to be putting the reality with that the hazardous substances have been handled in tax deposits. A rule base for the storage of hazardous ...
The present investigation was conducted at Ismaillia Research Station-Agricultural Research Center, Ismaillia Governorate, during the two successive seasons of 2000 and 2001. Two varieties of peanut (Arachis hypogaea L) namely Giza 4 and Giza 5 were treated with gamma ray doses; 10,15, 20, 25 Kr in order to induce genetic variability and to study the importance of the relative contribution of peanut yield components by employing some statistical procedures, i.e. simple correlation, multiple linear regression and stepwise regression analysis. The results showed that, there was significant positive correlation between seed yield/plant and no. of pods/plant, 100 seed weight, shelling percentage and pod yield/plant, and there was significant positive correlation between pod yield/plant and no of seed/plant,100 pod weight and 100 seed weight. The multiple linear regression analysis clearly showed that the relative contribution (R"2%) of the yield components, no. of ...
The operation of industrial facilities has generally resulted in contamination of the surrounding soils and ground water. A variety of methods have been proposed for the remediation of contaminated sites. This paper presents new process technology that is capable of performing treatment on ground water or soil washing leachates. The process is targeted to treat low levels of radioactivity, organics and heavy metals present in the aqueous solutions, to be easily transported and provide simple operation on-site and provide an effluent that meets the specified discharge quality. The purification process involves sequential chemical treatment and filtration. The paper will describe the development of the technology and review the current progress in its use to remediate contaminated sites at Chalk River. The application of the process technology has demonstrated that the ambitious goal of setting the effluent targets to meet the drinking water standards was realized. A ...
The operation of industrial facilities has generally resulted in contamination of the surrounding soils and ground water. A variety of methods have been proposed for the remediation of contaminated sites. This paper presents new process technology that is capable of performing treatment on ground water or soil washing leachates. The process is targeted to treat low levels of radioactivity, organics and heavy metals present in the aqueous solutions, to be easily transported and provide simple operation on-site and provide an effluent that meets the specified discharge quality. The purification process involves sequential chemical treatment and filtration. The paper will describe the development of the technology and review the current progress in its use to remediate contaminated sites at Chalk River. The application of the process technology has demonstrated that the ambitious goal of setting the effluent targets to meet the drinking water standards was realized. A ...
The {sup 252}Cf-source-driven noise analysis method is a versatile measurements tool that has been applied to measurements for initial loading of reactors, quality assurance of reactor fuel elements, fuel processing facilities, fuel reprocessing facilities, fuel storage facilities, zero-power testing of reactors, verification of calculational methods, process monitoring, characterization of storage vaults, and nuclear weapons identification. This method`s broad range of application is due to the wide variety of time- and frequency domain signatures, each with unique properties, obtained from the measurement. The following parameters are obtained from this measurement: average detector count rates, detector multiplicities, detector autocorrelations, cross-correlation between detectors, detector autopower spectral densities, cross-power spectral densities between detectors, coherences, and ratios of spectral densities. All of these measured parameters can also be ...
The diffuse background light in the Coma cluster is measured using isodensity tracings of B, G, V, and R photographic plates taken with the Palomar 1.2-m Schmidt telescope. The isodensity contours are calibrated using the star profile derived by Kormendy (1973). Between 4 and 14 arc min from the center, the surface brightness of the diffuse light decreases from approximately 26 to approximately 28 G magnitudes arc sec"-"2. The total magnitude in this annulus is G = 11.22, which is approximately 45 percent of the light in galaxies alone, or approximately 30 percent of the total. This does little to alleviate the ''missing mass'' problem. The isodensity contours and the equivalent profile of the diffuse light closely parallel the distribution of light in galaxies, implying no strong mass segregation. However, the background light appears to be bluer than the galaxies. This is consistent with the hypothesis that the background consists of stars tidally stripped from galaxies, which ...
A new model for short-range isoscalar current in the deuteron and NN system is developed and tested on a variety of isoscalar magnetic observables such as the deuteron magnetic moment, magnetic form factor, and the circular polarization of photons at n"#->#p radiative capture at thermal neutron energies. The model for electromagnetic two-nucleon current proposed in the paper is based on generation of an intermediate dibaryon in the short-range NN interaction. This intermediate dibaryon, in turn, is treated within the new model for intermediate and short-range NN interaction recently proposed by the present authors. The transition current model developed here satisfies the current conservation relation by the construction. Our calculations have demonstrated that the new current model, using only one parameter (with a clear physical meaning), is able to describe, in very good agreement with the experimental data, three basic deuteron observables of magnetic type, ...
Various pollution abatement measures available to combat oil spills were reviewed with emphasis on biodegradation. Microorganisms naturally found in soils and groundwater can efficiently degrade a variety of organic contaminants. For certain sites, local temperature allows the microorganisms to reduce the contaminant concentrations without human intervention. In April 1994, a diesel fuel leak was found at a telecommunication station located in a park. The leak had already contaminated the surrounding soil. The first step of the clean-up procedure was to excavate the contaminated soil, followed by an evaluation to determine the extent of the remaining contamination. It was concluded that by using natural attenuation the deforestation of the remaining affected area could be prevented. In this instance, the natural attenuation process is expected to take five years for completion. 4 refs., 1 tab., 1 fig.
The project was designed to quantify the impacts of longwall mine subsidence (LWMS) on the production and quality of agricultural vegetated environments. This project utilised a variety of traditional ground based sampling techniques including biomass harvests and estimates, leaf area index (LAI), pasture height, species composition and soil sampling along with proximal sensor data capture using a Crop Circle{trademark} and an EM38. Satellite imagery was collected using the Quickbird satellite and the high resolution imagery was used to monitor large areas of LWMS affected areas and adjacent un-mined land. Two landscapes were investigated using a whole of mine site technique including remote sensing, ground survey and traditional agricultural monitoring methods. The landscapes were at the Kestrel site in Emerald, QLD including a forage sorghum and an improved pasture and at Beltana in the Hunter Valley, NSW including an irrigated lucerne pasture and an unimproved ...
We are attempting to characterize and model the micromechanical response of highly-filled polymers. In this class of materials, the continuous plastic binder used to bond the highly-filled material dominates the observed viscoelastic response. As a result, realistic lifetime analysis of these materials will require a thorough understanding of the contribution of the plastic binder. Laboratory applications of these materials include plastic bonded explosives, propellants, a variety of specialized filled organic materials for stockpile systems, and highly filled epoxy dielectric materials for the National Ignition Facility. We have explored numerous techniques to characterize the local microstructure of plastic bonded explosives. However, insufficient funding was obtained to bring these technologies to maturity, nevertheless our present tool set is significantly better than 2 years ago. We have also made some progress in developing an appropriate micromechanical ...
Rhodopseudomonas viridis was grown in liquid culture at 30 degrees C anaerobically in light (generation time, 13 h) and under microaerophilic growth conditions in the dark (generation time, 24 h). The bacterium could be cloned at the same temperature anaerobically in light (1 week) and aerobically in the dark (3 to 4 weeks) if oxygen was limited to 0.1%. Oxygen could not be replaced by dimethyl sulfoxide, potassium nitrate, or sodium nitrite as a terminal electron acceptor. No growth was observed anaerobically in darkness or in the light when air was present. A variety of additional carbon sources were used to supplement the standard succinate medium, but enhanced stationary-phase cell density was observed only with glucose. Conditions for induction of the photosynthetic reaction center upon the change from microaerophilic to phototrophic growth conditions were investigated and optimized for a mutant functionally defective in phototrophic growth. R. viridis ...
The purpose of this report is to summarize the assumptions, dose factors, consumption rates, and methodology used to evaluate potential radiation doses to persons who may eat contaminated wildlife or contaminated plants collected from the Hanford Site. This report includes a description of the number and variety of wildlife and edible plants on the Hanford Site, methods for estimation of the quantities of these items consumed and conversion of intake of radionuclides to radiation doses, and example calculations of radiation doses from consumption of plants and wildlife. Edible plants on the publicly accessible margins of the shoreline of the Hanford Site and Wildlife that move offsite are potential sources of contaminated food for the general public. Calculations of potential radiation doses from consumption of agricultural plants and farm animal products are made routinely and reported annually for those produced offsite, using information about concentrations of ...
Macrofouling of cooling-water systems is one of the more significant and costly problems encountered in the nuclear power industry. Both marine and freshwater macroinvertebrates can be responsible for losses in plant availability because of plugged intakes and heat transfer equipment. There is a greater diversity of macrofouling organisms in marine waters than in fresh waters. Marine macrofouling organisms include barnacles, mollusks, bryozoans, and hydroids. Barnacles are crustaceans with feathery appendages, which allow them to attach to a variety of surfaces. They are a major cause of severe macrofouling because they can remain attached even after death. The major freshwater macrofouling organisms include the Asiatic Clam (Corbicula fluminea) and the newest freshwater macrofouler, the Zebra Mussel (Dreissena polymorpha). The introduction of the Zebra Mussel into the Great Lakes has created economic and ecological problems that will not easily be solved. The ...
For very low collision energies electron capture from excited hydrogen by multicharged ions is characterized by enormous cross sections, the predicted maximum being comparable to the geometric size of the Rydberg atom. The ion-atom merged-beams technique is being used to study these collisions for the variety of charge states and the wide range of energies (0.1 to 1000 eV/amu) accessible to the apparatus. A neutral D beam containing a Rydberg atom population proportional to 1/n"3 is produced by collisional electron detachment of 8 keV D"- in N_2 gas. An applied electric field results in the range (n=24--11) depending on the strength of the field applied. This beam is then merged with O"3"+ or O"5"+ ion beams at low relative collision velocities where the resultant beam-beam signal of D"+ due to electron loss is dominated by electron capture. From the sharp decrease in the observed beam-beam signal as the electric field increases it is inferred that the electron ...
Over the last four decades the Irish Sea has received controlled discharges of radioactive effluents from the Sellafield (Windscale) nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Cumbria, UK. Enhanced levels of a range of fission, activation and transuranic elements have been reported in a variety of environmental media. Most of the {sup 239,240}Pu and {sup 241}Am and about 10% of the {sup 137}Cs have been retained in a deposit of the fine sediment near the discharge point. The quantities of radionuclides discharged annually from Sellafield decreased by two orders of magnitude from the mid-1970s to 1990, but estimated critical group internal and external exposure decreased by less than one order of magnitude over this period. Redistribution of the contaminated marine sediment is potentially of major significance. In this paper, a review is presented of published work and recent our study relating to Sellafield waste long-lived radionuclides, especially transuranium elements, ...
The aim of this contract is to investigate, develop, and characterize laser-assisted processing techniques utilized to produce the fine-line, thin-metal grid structures that are required to fabricate high-efficiency solar cells. During the first quarter of this contract, a comprehensive literature search was carried out in the various state-of-the-art laser-assisted techniques for metal deposition, including laser chemical vapor deposition and laser photolysis of organometallics, as well as laser-enhanced electroplating. A compact system for the experiments involving laser-assisted photolysis of gas-phase compounds was designed and constructed. The work performed in the second quarter is detailed in this report. Metal deposition experiments have been carried out utilizing laser-assisted pyrolysis of a variety of metal-bearing polymer films and metallo-organic inks spun onto silicon substrates. Laser decomposition of spun-on silver neodecanoate ink obtained from ...
Laser-assisted processing techniques for producing high-quality solar cell metallization patterns are being investigated, developed, and characterized. A literature search was carried out on the various state-of-the-art laser-assisted techniques for metal deposition, including laser chemical vapor deposition and laser photolysis of organometallics, as well as laser-enhanced electroplating. The results of the literature survey are briefly summarized. Experiments were carried out on laser-enhanced electroplating. Deposition of metals by laser-assisted pyrolysis of a variety of metallo-organic inks and metal-bearing polymer solutions spun as films onto silicon wafers was carried out. A detailed study of the various models of localized surface temperature rise in silicon due to laser heating has been carried out. Progress is reported in fabricating laser-metallized solar cells with improved efficiencies. Cells fabricated are characterized. A preliminary economic ...
Kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) computer simulations are performed to determine the kinetics of SIA cluster 'clouds' in the vicinity of edge dislocations. The simulations include elastic interactions amongst SIA clusters, and between clusters and dislocations. Results of KMC simulations that describe the formation of 'SIA clouds' during neutron irradiation of bcc Fe and the corresponding evolution kinetics are presented, and the size and spatial distribution of SIA clusters in the cloud region are studied for a variety of neutron displacement damage dose levels. We then investigate the collective spatio-temporal dynamics of SIA clusters in the presence of internal elastic fields generated by static and mobile dislocations. The main features of the investigations are: (1) determination of the kinetics and spatial extent of defect clouds near static dislocations; (2) assessment of the influence of localized patches of SIA clouds on the pinning-depinning motion of ...
The promising use of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) in regenerative technologies accounts for necessity of detailed study of their physiology. Proliferation and differentiation of multipotent cells often involve changes in their metabolic state. In the present study, we analyzed the expression of ATP-sensitive potassium (K"A"T"P) channels in MSC and upon in vitro differentiation. K"A"T"P channels are present in many cells and regulate a variety of cellular functions by coupling cell metabolism with membrane potential. Kir6.1, Kir6.2 and SUR2A were expressed in undifferentiated MSC, whereas SUR2B and SUR1 were not detected on cDNA and protein level. Upon adipogenic differentiation Kir6.1 and SUR2A showed a significant reduction of the amount of mRNA by 84% and 95%, respectively, whereas Ki...
Inner ring structures are observed in about one quarter of all lenticular or spiral galaxies. Statistics of the relative frequencies of the pure ring (r) and broken ring (rs) varieties in the Second Reference Catalogue (RC2) among the different families (A, AB, B) of lenticular (L) and spiral (S) galaxies at different stages (T) along the revised Hubble sequence are presented; selection effects dependent on classification weight, apparent diameter and axis ratio are discussed. Comparisons of ring diameters D/sub r/ listed in the (First) Reference Catalogue (RC1) with independent measurements of 43 barred systems by Kormendy show good systematic agreement with a standard deviation sigma_1_2(D/sub r/) = 0'.10 and individual relative mean errors sigma(D/sub r/)/ < D/sub r/ > approx. = 5%. Axis ratios are also in good agreement with sigma_1_2(b/a) = 0.06. Comparisons of axis ratios of rings and parent galaxies show systematic trends dependent on stage T; in ...
Industrial facilities offer a wide variety of design challenges to engineers, including the mechanical engineers who design the HVAC, the process, exhaust, and other required mechanical systems; the mechanical contractors who install and maintain the systems (and who also may do design work); and the owners` engineers who are responsible for the day-to-day operation of their facilities. Along with the responsibility to see that all systems function as intended is the responsibility to ensure that all worker health concerns are addressed. These include heat stress avoidance and the proper control of harmful substances. The services of industrial hygienists may be required to ensure this. These may be independent consultants or the staff members of mechanical design firms. In addition, it is not unusual for major corporations that own manufacturing plants to have staff industrial hygienists. The accompanying sidebar presents a checklist of items to be considered when ...
Contrary to previous plans for the preparation of diagnostic systems for D-T break-even experiments in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR), it now appears that a limited Q#approx#1 demonstration can be carried out without constructing a close-fitting igloo radiation shield around the tokamak. In order to assess the impact of D-T operation of TFTR without an igloo shield, particularly with regard to hardening of diagonstic systems, we have mapped neutron and gamma fluxes inside the test cell and test cell basement, using a variety of radiation measurements. The measurements are sufficiently detailed to resolve massive hardware components, such as neutral beams and shielded diagnostic systems, and can be used to predict local fluxes. By comparing the measurements with transport code calculations for the case of a bare tokamak, we conclude that the models have substantially overestimated fluxes both inside and outside the TFTR shield walls. It may be possible to ...
Chinese herbs have been and still are widely used as important remedies in Oriental medicine. Over the recent years, a variety of biologically active constituents have been isolated from these sources and confirmed to have multifunctional activity in experimental studies. Honokiol is a small-molecule polyphenol isolated from the genus Magnolia. It is accompanied by other related polyphenols, including magnolol, with which it shares certain biological properties. Recently, honokiol and magnolol have been found to have anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, and anti-microbial properties in preclinical models, without appreciable toxicity. These findings have increased interest in bringing honokiol and magnolol to the clinic as novel therapeutic agents in dermatology. In this review, the findings concerning the major mechanisms of action of honokiol and magnolol are described. Knowledge of the multiple activities of honokiol and magnolol can assist with the ...
Alloy 800 was developed in 1949 by The International Nickel Company, Inc. The basic composition, nominally 32wt.%Ni, 20.5wt.%Cr and 46wt.%Fe, was designed to provide a stable, fully austenitic structure and to impart high strength combined with resistance to oxidation, carburization and corrosion in a wide variety of aggressive industrial environments at elevated temperatures. In the short span of twenty-five years, alloy 800 has earned a unique position in the family of heat- and corrosion-resistant materials. Established uses include a wide range of applications in the industrial heating field, in the petro-chemical industry, in domestic appliances and in food processing equipment. The good performance of alloy 800 in these applications has led to its use as boiler tube material both in fossil-fired plants and in HTGR and PWR nuclear power systems. Recently, it was specified for a PHW CANDU reactor and it is now being considered as heat exchanger tube material ...
This research focuses on the development and application of high order statistical analyses applied to measurements performed with subcritical fissile systems driven by an introduced neutron source. The signatures presented are derived from counting statistics of the introduced source and radiation detectors that observe the response of the fissile system. It is demonstrated that successively higher order counting statistics possess progressively higher sensitivity to reactivity. Consequently, these signatures are more sensitive to changes in the composition, fissile mass, and configuration of the fissile assembly. Furthermore, it is shown that these techniques are capable of distinguishing the response of the fissile system to the introduced source from its response to any internal or inherent sources. This ability combined with the enhanced sensitivity of higher order signatures indicates that these techniques will be of significant utility in a variety of ...
A novel multilevel hierarchical Kohonen Net (K-Map) for an intrusion detection system is presented. Each level of the hierarchical map is modeled as a simple winner-take-all K-Map. One significant advantage of this multilevel hierarchical K-Map is its computational efficiency. Unlike other statistical anomaly detection methods such as nearest neighbor approach, K-means clustering or probabilistic analysis that employ distance computation in the feature space to identify the outliers, our approach does not involve costly point-to-point computation in organizing the data into clusters. Another advantage is the reduced network size. We use the classification capability of the K-Map on selected dimensions of data set in detecting anomalies. Randomly selected subsets that contain both attacks and normal records from the KDD Cup 1999 benchmark data are used to train the hierarchical net. We use a confidence measure to label the clusters. Then we use the test set from the same KDD Cup 1999 ...
For the purpose of proposing it to ISO, the R and D were conducted of a new evaluation method of thermal properties of polymer materials. The FY 1999 results were summarized. In this fiscal year, the development of the ac Joule heating equipment was proceeded with based on the study at the technical committee, and the measuring device was installed. In the comparative measurement with conventional methods, study was proceeded with of the laser flash method, AC calorimetry method and specific heat measurement. In the technical survey, the developmental state of the ac method, especially, was examined as a testing method of thermal properties of polymer materials. It is in the stage of the basic research by keyword selection, and the search for literature is to be made in full scale. As to the needs in the industrial circle, as a result of the questionnaire survey made, it was found out that there were a wide variety of the needs for general-purpose/functional film ...
This paper reports on an experimental investigation of premixed methane/air combustion stabilized within a reticulated partially stabilized zirconia foam burner that was performed. A flame holder was used to extend the stability range to allow a stable flame to be maintained for a variety of flow rate and equivalence ratio combinations. The stability range, temperature distributions, and emissions were examined over a range of equivalence ratios and flow rates. The flame was found to be axisymmetric for all conditions in which the reactants were sufficiently well mixed and the flow distribution was sufficiently uniform. Burning speeds were measured that were well in excess of the laminar flame speed. The axial temperature distribution (measured around the burner annulus) in the postflame zone was found to be relatively insensitive to flow rate but dependent upon the burner core length. Very low concentrations of NO_x were found for fuel/air equivalence ratios of ...
One of the energy-saving devices used on gas cooking appliances to eliminate the standing pilot is a spark ignition system. For safety, an ignition system must start promptly and be active whenever flowing gas is not ignited. To minimize noise and nuisance shock hazard, ignition must occur quickly and the sparking must be stopped as soon as ignition occurs and remain off as long as the flame is present. To accomplish both of these requirements, ignition systems have been devised which use the electrical current rectification property of a flame to sense it. These systems spark whenever the gas valve is on and a flame is not present. The factors affecting the performance of a spark ignition system are numerous, complex, and transient. All of these properties make quantification of performance difficult. A system is described which can evaluate the overall performance of ignition systems over significant periods of time and varieties of operating conditions and ...
This paper reported on a study that evaluated the energy consumption of cotton gins used in Australia. The average electricity use is 52.3 kWh per bale. In practicality, the electricity consumption for different gins is correlated linearly with the bale numbers produced. The cost of electricity is therefore important in cotton ginning operations. The power factor in all the gins monitored in this study was greater than 0.85. The study showed that the use of gas dryers was highly influenced by the cotton moisture and regulated drying temperature. In general, electricity and gas consumption comprised 61 and 39 per cent of total energy use respectively. The study showed that 60.38 kg of carbon dioxide are emitted for ginning each bale of cotton. This paper described a newly developed method for monitoring the energy performance in cotton gins. Detailed monitoring and analysis carried out at 2 gin sites revealed that electricity consumption is not influenced much by changes in trash ...
Focus ion beam (FIB) technology is a commonly used tool for integrated circuit device modification, failure analysis, and a variety of other applications. However, limited reliability data of FIB altered circuit is available. This study describes the electromigration mechanism of FIB-altered Al(Cu-Si)/Ti-layered metal lines. The electromigration failures encountered resulted in Al voids at the anode end of FIB-deposited W and Al{sub 2}Cu precipitates at the cathode end. A higher frequency of Al extrusions was also observed on samples stressed at higher temperatures. These observations indicated that FIB-W was an effective blocking boundary for Al and Cu, and confirmed that Cu does electromigrate before Al. The electromigration mechanism of the FIB-altered line closely resembles the published results from two-level Al/W-line/stud interconnect studies. An activation energy of 0.66 eV, with a current exponent of 1.9 and a lognormal sigma of 0.55, was determined from ...
Passion fruit (Passiflora edulis f. flavicarpa L.) yellow variety is composed of 50-55g peel per 100g of fresh fruit which is discarded as waste during processing. Utilization of passion fruit peel for pectin extraction was studied. Passion fruit peel obtained after juice extraction was blanched in boiling water for 5min, dehydrated in a cross flow hot air drier at 60+-1degreeC to a moisture content of 4g/100g of dried peel. The dehydrated passion fruit peel was used for extraction experiments of pectin. The effect of pH, peel to extractant ratio, and number of extractions, extraction time and temperature on the yield and quality characteristics of pectin were investigated. The optimized conditions for extraction of pectin from passion fruit peel yielded 14.8g/100g of dried peel. Pectin ex...
A prototype electron applicator system providing circular and rectangular fields for use in intraoperative electron beam therapy with a Varian Clinac 18 linear accelerator has been fabricated. The dosimetric properties of this system for a variety of electron-beam energies, applicator sizes, and x-ray collimator settings was documented. Significant findings include: (a) surface dose values are in excess of 90% for electron energies of 12 MeV and above; (b) for the 18-MeV beam, the deepest depth where the central axis dose is 90% of its maximum value is in excess of 50 mm for circular applicators whose diameters are in excess of 5 cm; and (c) the treatment time to deliver 1000 rads ''given dose'' (at a given dose rate of 300 MU/min) is on the order of 3--4 min. Cross-field behavior is acceptable for the intended application and x-ray contamination is less than 4% for any applicator/electron energy combination. A system for irregular field blocking and TLD ...
Energy confinement in W7-AS has been analyzed in terms of dimensionally exact form free functions employing Bayesian probability theory. The confinement function was set up as a linear combination of dimensionally exact power law terms as already proposed very early by Connor and Taylor. Generation of this expansion basis is dictated by the basic plasma model which one assumes. Based upon data accumulated in W7-AS, which contains the energy content for a wide variety of variable settings, predictions for single variable scans are made. The scaling functions for density and power scans, respectively, are in quantitative agreement with data collected in W7-AS. The result of a single variable scan is therefore already hidden in the data obtained for arbitrary variable choices and can be extracted from the latter by a proper data analysis. Furthermore, the optimal model for the description of the global transport in W7-AS is identified as the collisional low beta ...
Because the number of neutrons and gamma rays and the energy spectrum of particles from spontaneous fission are well characterized for {sup 252}Cf, it can be used as a timed source of fission neutrons and gamma rays. The first such usage incorporated a {sup 252}Cf source into gas scintillators. This paper describes a timed source of neutrons and gamma rays made by depositing {sup 252}Cf on one electrode of a parallel plate ionization chamber that can then be used for determining detection-system characteristics. The emission time of neutrons from spontaneous fission has also been determined by recording the emission time of prompt gamma rays from a {sup 252}Cf source (not incorporated into a detector) adjacent to the surface of a solid or liquid scintillator. This well characterized source of neutrons can thus be used as a randomly pulsed source for a variety of applications. This paper illustrates the use of this type of source to determine the time resolution of ...
Alloy 800 has been proposed for use in the receiver tube panel arrays of advanced solar central receiver (SCR) designs. In this application the alloy will be exposed to a molten mixture of sodium and potassium nitrate salts at temperatures ranging up to approximately 600/sup 0/C While these salts are routinely used in a variety of applications including metal heat treating and process heat transfer, common industrial experience has been limited to maximum temperatures of 400/sup 0/C - 450/sup 0/C. There is, therefore, considerable interest in the compatibility of these salts with containment alloys at the higher temperatures associated with SCR designs. Additionally, the containment alloy may be subject to thermally induced fatigue damage resulting from intermittent cloud cover and diurnal cycling. Previous work has found that slower near-threshold fatigue crack growth rates (FCGR) in Alloy 800 result when it is tested in molten nitrate salt at 600/sup 0/C ...
Problems with the refractory liners of incinerator combustion chambers have accompanied incinerators from the very beginning. They increased during the past decade, owing to higher combustion temperatures required by law (17. BImSchV), the higher calorific values of the waste to be combusted, and the higher or changed pollutant concentrations in the waste materials. This caused the providers and the materials and the producers of incinerators to develop new refractory products and new design concepts, with a great variety of processes and cost levels. [German] Seit Beginn der Abfallverbrennung, insbesondere aber mit zunehmender Tendenz in den vergangenen 10 Jahren, wird ueber Probleme mit der Feuerfestauskleidung in den Brennkammern von Abfallverbrennungsanlagen geklagt. Als Gruende fuer die zunehmenden Korrosionsprobleme werden die hoeheren gesetzlich geforderten Verbrennungstemperaturen (17. BImSchV), die hoeheren Heizwerte der verbrannten Abfaelle und die ...
Gallstone is a common disease with a 10% prevalence in the United States and Western Europe. However, it is only symptomatic in 20-30% of patients, with biliary pain "colic" being the most common symptom. Complications of asymptomatic gallstone disease are generally rare, with an incidence of <1 %/yr. The most common complications of gallstone disease are acute cholecystitis, acute pancreatitis, ascending cholangitis, and gangrenous gallbladder. Less frequent complications include Mirizzi syndrome, cholecystocholedochal fistula, and gallstone ileus. Mirizzi syndrome and cholecystocholedochal fistula are two manifestations of the same process that starts with impaction of a gallstone in the gallbladder neck that results in obstruction of the bile duct, causing jaundice. The gallstone may erode into the bile duct, causing cholecystocholedochal fistula. Gallstone ileus refers to small bowel obstruction resulting from the impaction of one or more gallstones after they have migrated ...
This 4.5-year project consisted of routine analytical support to DOE`s direct liquefaction process development effort (the Base Program), and an extensive effort to develop, demonstate, and apply new analytical methods for the characterization of liquefaction process streams (the Participants Program). The objective of the Base Program was to support the on-going DOE direct coal liquefaction process development program. Feed, process, and product samples were used to assess process operations, product quality, and the effects of process variables, and to direct future testing. The primary objective of the Participants Program was to identify and demonstrate analytical methods for use in support of liquefaction process develpment, and in so doing, provide a bridge between process design, development, and operation and analytical chemistry. To achieve this direct coal liquefaction-derived materials. CONSOL made an evaluation of each analytical technique. During the performance of this ...
Therapeutic effect of p-aminobenzoic acid-N-xyloside Na (K-247) were studied. Eleven patients with a variety of solid tumors were treated with K-247 alone. K-247 was given orally 800 mg daily for 4 weeks. As for side effect of the drug, only mild gastritis was observed in a few patients. Partial response (over 25% reduction of tumor size) with a median duration of two months was observed in 3 patients. These cases were metastatic tumor of lung from the carcinoma of thyroid, metastatic tumors of lung from the carcinoma of kidney, and mediastinal tumor. In eight patients the response was classified as no change and in one patient there was progressive disease. Thus K-247 has some therapeutic activity in patients with solid tumor. Combination therapy of irradiation and administration of K-247 were also studied. In the twelve patients receiving the combination therapy, partial response was observed in 7 patients with complete response in 3 patients. In some patients it ...
A method for determining the reactivity of subcritical systems of fissile material, using neutron-noise power spectral density measurements in conjunction with a /sup 252/Cf source, has been tested in experiments with an aqueous solution containing uranium fluoride (4.95 wt% /sup 235/U). The kappasub(eff)-values obtained from the ratio of spectral densities G*/sub 12/G/sub 13//G/sub 11/G/sub 23/ agreed with those from break-frequency noise analysis and with bias-corrected transport theory calculations within the statistical uncertainty of the measurements. Corrections for the effects of spatial modes and source-detector locations appear to be well-understood, since measurements for a variety of source-detector positions resulted in essentially the same kappasub(eff)-values. Modal correction factors were such that ignoring them would result in higher values of kappasub(eff) than actually occur. The measurements have demonstrated the applicability of the /sup ...
A modulation transfer function (MTF) calibration method based on binary pseudo-random (BPR) gratings and arrays [Proc. SPIE 7077-7 (2007), Opt. Eng. 47, 073602 (2008)] has been proven to be an effective MTF calibration method for a number of interferometric microscopes and a scatterometer [Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A616, 172 (2010)]. Here we report on a further expansion of the application range of the method. We describe the MTF calibration of a 6 inch phase shifting Fizeau interferometer. Beyond providing a direct measurement of the interferometer's MTF, tests with a BPR array surface have revealed an asymmetry in the instrument's data processing algorithm that fundamentally limits its bandwidth. Moreover, the tests have illustrated the effects of the instrument's detrending and filtering procedures on power spectral density measurements. The details of the development of a BPR test sample suitable for calibration of scanning and transmission electron ...
A modulation transfer function (MTF) calibration method based on binary pseudo-random (BPR) gratings and arrays [Proc. SPIE 7077-7 (2007), Opt. Eng. 47(7), 073602-1-5 (2008)] has been proven to be an effective MTF calibration method for a number of interferometric microscopes and a scatterometer [Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 616, 172-82 (2010]. Here we report on a significant expansion of the application range of the method. We describe the MTF calibration of a 6 inch phase shifting Fizeau interferometer. Beyond providing a direct measurement of the interferometer's MTF, tests with a BPR array surface have revealed an asymmetry in the instrument's data processing algorithm that fundamentally limits its bandwidth. Moreover, the tests have illustrated the effects of the instrument's detrending and filtering procedures on power spectral density measurements. The details of the development of a BPR test sample suitable for calibration of scanning and transmission ...
Macroinvertebrate communities in Rietvlei nature reserve wetland area and their relationship with water quality were studied with the aim to evaluate their use as potential indicators of pollution. Sampling locations were selected to include outlets from swage effluent, agricultural and informal residential runoff. A large increase in nutrient concentrations was observed downstream from discharged treated sewage with an associated decrease in species richness. Bioassays performed included: Daphnia magna, Hydra attenuate, Lactuca sativa, Allium cepa and Pyxicephalus adspersus. The highest percentage of lethality response to a screen (100% concentration) of sampled wetland water by test specimens were observed at the point source input of the Hartbeespoort treated sewage plant. Data generated from the AUSRIVAS method and multitrophic level bioassays revealed the deterioration of the wetland possibly due to factors such as increasing urbanization, industrialization, agriculture runoff and ...
Heavy-duty trucks and buses are substantial contributors to the atmospheric oxides of nitrogen (NO_x) inventory, but prediction of their emissions in real use remains inchoate. Continuous emissions of NO_x were recorded from Chassis dynamometer testing of eight vehicles using a variety of transient cycles, including the Central Business District schedule. NO_x data were treated to account for sampling time lag and presented against instantaneous vehicle axle power. Data were repeatable from run to run and test schedule, but vehicle type and test cycle both influenced the instantaneous emissions rates. However, the resulting correlations may be used for mobile source NO_x contribution estimation when combined with vehicle activity data. The emissions data were also presented as NO_x/CO_2, which are valuable for comparison with remote sensing emissions data. The overall average ratio for all of the data considered was 0.0141, which corresponds to an emissions ...
The application of neural networks, alone or in conjunction with other advanced technologies (expert systems, fuzzy logic, and/or genetic algorithms), to some of the problems of complex engineering systems has the potential to enhance the safety, reliability, and operability of these systems. Typically, the measured variables from the systems are analog variables that must be sampled and normalized to expected peak values before they are introduced into neural networks. Often data must be processed to put it into a form more acceptable to the neural network (e.g., a fast Fourier transformation of the time-series data to produce a spectral plot of the data). Specific applications described include: (1) Diagnostics: State of the Plant (2) Hybrid System for Transient Identification, (3) Sensor Validation, (4) Plant-Wide Monitoring, (5) Monitoring of Performance and Efficiency, and (6) Analysis of Vibrations. Although specific examples described deal with nuclear power plants or their ...
The application of neural networks, alone or in conjunction with other advanced technologies (expert systems, fuzzy logic, and/or genetic algorithms), to some of the problems of complex engineering systems has the potential to enhance the safety, reliability, and operability of these systems. Typically, the measured variables from the systems are analog variables that must be sampled and normalized to expected peak values before they are introduced into neural networks. Often data must be processed to put it into a form more acceptable to the neural network (e.g., a fast Fourier transformation of the time-series data to produce a spectral plot of the data). Specific applications described include: (1) Diagnostics: State of the Plant (2) Hybrid System for Transient Identification, (3) Sensor Validation, (4) Plant-Wide Monitoring, (5) Monitoring of Performance and Efficiency, and (6) Analysis of Vibrations. Although specific examples described deal with nuclear power plants or their ...
T-history method, developed for measuring heat-of-fusion of phase change material (PCM) in sealed tubes, has the advantages of a simple experimental device and convenience with no sampling process. However, some improper assumptions in the original method, such as using a degree of supercooling as the end of latent heat period and neglecting sensible heat during phase change, can cause significant errors in determining the heat of fusion. We have improved this problem in order to predict better results. The present study shows that the modified T-history method is successfully applied to a variety of PCMs such as paraffin and lauric acid having no or a low degree of supercooling. Also it turned out that selected periods for sensible and latent heat do not significantly affect the accuracy of heat- of-fusion. As a result, the method can provide an appropriate means to assess a newly developed PCM by a cycle test even if a very accurate value cannot be obtained. ...
This paper provides a physically-based engineering model to estimate radiation hardening of 9%Cr-steels under both displacement damage (dpa) and helium. The model is essentially based on the dispersed barrier hardening theory and the dynamic re-solution of helium under displacement cascades but incorporating a number of assumptions and simplifications [Trinkaus, J. Nucl. Mater. 318 (2003) 234-340]. As a result, the kinetics of the damage accumulation kept fixed, its amplitude is fitted on one experimental condition. The model was rationalized on an experimental database that mainly consists of ?9%Cr-steels irradiated in the range of 50-600 deg. C up to 50 dpa and with a He-content up to 5000 appm. The test temperature effect is taken into account through a normalization procedure based on the change of the Young's modulus and the anelastic deformation that occurs at high temperature. Despite the large experimental scatter, inherent to the variety of the material ...
Lethal yellow (A{sup y}) is a mutation at the mouse agouti locus in chromosome 2 that causes a number of dominant pleiotropic effects, including a completely yellow coat color, obesity, an insulin-resistant type II diabetic condition, and an increased propensity to develop a variety of spontaneous and induced tumors. Additionally, homozygosity for A{sup y} results in preimplantation lethality, which terminates development by the blastocyst stage. The A{sup y} mutation is the result of a 170-kb deletion that removes all but the promoter and noncoding first exon of another gene called Raly, which lies in the same transcriptional orientation as agouti and maps 280 kb proximal to the 3{prime} end of the agouti gene. The authors present a model for the structure of the A{sub y} allele that can explain the dominant pleiotropic effects associated with this mutation, as well as the recessive lethality, which is unrelated to the agouti gene.
The Magnet Test Facility at Fermilab tests a variety of full-scale and model superconducting magnets for both R and D and production. As the design characteristics and test requirements of these magnets vary widely, the magnet test stand must accommodate a wide range of Data Acquisition (DAQ) and Control requirements. Such a system must provide several functions, which includes: quench detection, quench protection, power supply control, quench characterization, and slow DAQ of temperature, mechanical strain gauge, liquid helium level, etc. The system must also provide cryogenic valve control, process instrumentation monitoring, and process interlock logic associated with the test stand. A DAQ and Control system architecture that provides the functionality described above has been designed, fabricated, and put into operation. This system utilizes a modular approach that provides both extensibility and flexibility. As a result, the complexity of the hardware is ...