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Sample records for demonstrated significantly reduced

  1. Sucralfate significantly reduces ciprofloxacin concentrations in serum.

    OpenAIRE

    Garrelts, J C; Godley, P J; Peterie, J D; Gerlach, E H; Yakshe, C C

    1990-01-01

    The effect of sucralfate on the bioavailability of ciprofloxacin was evaluated in eight healthy subjects utilizing a randomized, crossover design. The area under the concentration-time curve from 0 to 12 h was reduced from 8.8 to 1.1 micrograms.h/ml by sucralfate (P less than 0.005). Similarly, the maximum concentration of ciprofloxacin in serum was reduced from 2.0 to 0.2 micrograms/ml (P less than 0.005). We conclude that concurrent ingestion of sucralfate significantly reduces the concentr...

  2. Can persuasive and demonstrative messages to visitors reduce littering in river beaches?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cingolani, Ana M; Barberá, Iván; Renison, Daniel; Barri, Fernando R

    2016-12-01

    Littering of public areas is a significant problem worldwide. Here we evaluate the success of persuasive and demonstrative messages at reducing littering in highly visited river beaches in Argentina. We made an intervention at the beaches which consisted of a personalized verbal request asking visitors to take their litter to the waste cans (persuasive message) while they were exposed to the example of picking up the litter already left on the beach (demonstrative message). We conducted 102 observations distributed over 29 dates, two years and four beaches. Each observation consisted of three or four rounds: before the presence of visitors we cleaned the beaches, during the stay of visitors we made the intervention (once or twice) in two out of the four beaches, and early next morning we estimated the amount of litter left per beach. Litter weight ranged from 0 to 53gvisitor -1 day -1 . Littering per visitor was reduced an average of 35% due to the intervention (p=0.049). We also found differences among beaches (p=0.001), and an increase in littering with crowding (p=0.005). We show for the first time that the personalized request combined with the example of picking up litter is effective in reducing littering in a Latin American country. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  3. Nano-CL-20/HMX Cocrystal Explosive for Significantly Reduced Mechanical Sensitivity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chongwei An

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Spray drying method was used to prepare cocrystals of hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane (CL-20 and cyclotetramethylene tetranitramine (HMX. Raw materials and cocrystals were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, Raman spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Impact and friction sensitivity of cocrystals were tested and analyzed. Results show that, after preparation by spray drying method, microparticles were spherical in shape and 0.5–5 µm in size. Particles formed aggregates of numerous tiny plate-like cocrystals, whereas CL-20/HMX cocrystals had thicknesses of below 100 nm. Cocrystals were formed by C–H⋯O bonding between –NO2 (CL-20 and –CH2– (HMX. Nanococrystal explosives exhibited drop height of 47.3 cm, and friction demonstrated explosion probability of 64%. Compared with raw HMX, cocrystals displayed significantly reduced mechanical sensitivity.

  4. A chimpanzee recognizes synthetic speech with significantly reduced acoustic cues to phonetic content.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heimbauer, Lisa A; Beran, Michael J; Owren, Michael J

    2011-07-26

    A long-standing debate concerns whether humans are specialized for speech perception, which some researchers argue is demonstrated by the ability to understand synthetic speech with significantly reduced acoustic cues to phonetic content. We tested a chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) that recognizes 128 spoken words, asking whether she could understand such speech. Three experiments presented 48 individual words, with the animal selecting a corresponding visuographic symbol from among four alternatives. Experiment 1 tested spectrally reduced, noise-vocoded (NV) synthesis, originally developed to simulate input received by human cochlear-implant users. Experiment 2 tested "impossibly unspeechlike" sine-wave (SW) synthesis, which reduces speech to just three moving tones. Although receiving only intermittent and noncontingent reward, the chimpanzee performed well above chance level, including when hearing synthetic versions for the first time. Recognition of SW words was least accurate but improved in experiment 3 when natural words in the same session were rewarded. The chimpanzee was more accurate with NV than SW versions, as were 32 human participants hearing these items. The chimpanzee's ability to spontaneously recognize acoustically reduced synthetic words suggests that experience rather than specialization is critical for speech-perception capabilities that some have suggested are uniquely human. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Demonstration of Hadoop-GIS: A Spatial Data Warehousing System Over MapReduce.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aji, Ablimit; Sun, Xiling; Vo, Hoang; Liu, Qioaling; Lee, Rubao; Zhang, Xiaodong; Saltz, Joel; Wang, Fusheng

    2013-11-01

    The proliferation of GPS-enabled devices, and the rapid improvement of scientific instruments have resulted in massive amounts of spatial data in the last decade. Support of high performance spatial queries on large volumes data has become increasingly important in numerous fields, which requires a scalable and efficient spatial data warehousing solution as existing approaches exhibit scalability limitations and efficiency bottlenecks for large scale spatial applications. In this demonstration, we present Hadoop-GIS - a scalable and high performance spatial query system over MapReduce. Hadoop-GIS provides an efficient spatial query engine to process spatial queries, data and space based partitioning, and query pipelines that parallelize queries implicitly on MapReduce. Hadoop-GIS also provides an expressive, SQL-like spatial query language for workload specification. We will demonstrate how spatial queries are expressed in spatially extended SQL queries, and submitted through a command line/web interface for execution. Parallel to our system demonstration, we explain the system architecture and details on how queries are translated to MapReduce operators, optimized, and executed on Hadoop. In addition, we will showcase how the system can be used to support two representative real world use cases: large scale pathology analytical imaging, and geo-spatial data warehousing.

  6. Pharmacological kynurenine 3-monooxygenase enzyme inhibition significantly reduces neuropathic pain in a rat model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rojewska, Ewelina; Piotrowska, Anna; Makuch, Wioletta; Przewlocka, Barbara; Mika, Joanna

    2016-03-01

    Recent studies have highlighted the involvement of the kynurenine pathway in the pathology of neurodegenerative diseases, but the role of this system in neuropathic pain requires further extensive research. Therefore, the aim of our study was to examine the role of kynurenine 3-monooxygenase (Kmo), an enzyme that is important in this pathway, in a rat model of neuropathy after chronic constriction injury (CCI) to the sciatic nerve. For the first time, we demonstrated that the injury-induced increase in the Kmo mRNA levels in the spinal cord and the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) was reduced by chronic administration of the microglial inhibitor minocycline and that this effect paralleled a decrease in the intensity of neuropathy. Further, minocycline administration alleviated the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced upregulation of Kmo mRNA expression in microglial cell cultures. Moreover, we demonstrated that not only indirect inhibition of Kmo using minocycline but also direct inhibition using Kmo inhibitors (Ro61-6048 and JM6) decreased neuropathic pain intensity on the third and the seventh days after CCI. Chronic Ro61-6048 administration diminished the protein levels of IBA-1, IL-6, IL-1beta and NOS2 in the spinal cord and/or the DRG. Both Kmo inhibitors potentiated the analgesic properties of morphine. In summary, our data suggest that in neuropathic pain model, inhibiting Kmo function significantly reduces pain symptoms and enhances the effectiveness of morphine. The results of our studies show that the kynurenine pathway is an important mediator of neuropathic pain pathology and indicate that Kmo represents a novel pharmacological target for the treatment of neuropathy. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Interaction between FOXO1A-209 Genotype and Tea Drinking is Significantly Associated with Reduced Mortality at Advanced Ages

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zeng, Yi; Chen, Huashuai; Ni, Ting

    2016-01-01

    Based on the genotypic/phenotypic data from Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) and Cox proportional hazard model, the present study demonstrates that interactions between carrying FOXO1A-209 genotypes and tea drinking are significantly associated with lower risk of mortality...... at advanced ages. Such significant association is replicated in two independent Han Chinese CLHLS cohorts (p =0.028-0.048 in the discovery and replication cohorts, and p =0.003-0.016 in the combined dataset). We found the associations between tea drinking and reduced mortality are much stronger among carriers...... of the FOXO1A-209 genotype compared to non-carriers, and drinking tea is associated with a reversal of the negative effects of carrying FOXO1A-209 minor alleles, that is, from a substantially increased mortality risk to substantially reduced mortality risk at advanced ages. The impacts are considerably...

  8. The significance of reduced respiratory chain enzyme activities: clinical, biochemical and radiological associations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mordekar, S R; Guthrie, P; Bonham, J R; Olpin, S E; Hargreaves, I; Baxter, P S

    2006-03-01

    Mitochondrial diseases are an important group of neurometabolic disorders in children with varied clinical presentations and diagnosis that can be difficult to confirm. To report the significance of reduced respiratory chain enzyme (RCE) activity in muscle biopsy samples from children. Retrospective odds ratio was used to compare clinical and biochemical features, DNA studies, neuroimaging, and muscle biopsies in 18 children with and 48 without reduced RCE activity. Children with reduced RCE activity were significantly more likely to have consanguineous parents, to present with acute encephalopathy and lactic acidaemia and/or within the first year of life; to have an axonal neuropathy, CSF lactate >4 mmol/l; and/or to have signal change in the basal ganglia. There were positive associations with a maternal family history of possible mitochondrial cytopathy; a presentation with failure to thrive and lactic acidaemia, ragged red fibres, reduced fibroblast fatty acid oxidation and with an abnormal allopurinol loading test. There was no association with ophthalmic abnormalities, deafness, epilepsy or myopathy. The association of these clinical, biochemical and radiological features with reduced RCE activity suggests a possible causative link.

  9. Reduced frontal and occipital lobe asymmetry on the CT-scans of schizophrenic patients. Its specificity and clinical significance

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Falkai, P.; Schneider, T.; Greve, B.; Klieser, E.; Bogerts, B.

    1995-01-01

    Frontal and occipital lobe widths were determined in the computed tomographic (CT) scans of 135 schizophrenic patients, 158 neuro psychiatrically healthy and 102 psychiatric control subjects, including patients with affective psychosis, neurosis and schizoaffective psychosis. Most healthy right-handed subjects demonstrate a relative enlargement of the right frontal as well as left occipital lobe compared to the opposite hemisphere. These normal frontal and occipital lobe asymmetries were selectively reduced in schizophrenics (f.: 5%, p < .0005; o.: 3%, p < .05), irrespective of the pathophysiological subgroup. Schizophrenic neuroleptic non-responders revealed a significant reduction of frontal lobe asymmetry (3%, p < .05), while no correlation between BPRS-sub scores and disturbed cerebral laterality could be detected. In sum the present study demonstrates the disturbed cerebral lateralisation in schizophrenic patients supporting the hypothesis of interrupted early brain development in schizophrenia. (author)

  10. Reduced-gravity Environment Hardware Demonstrations of a Prototype Miniaturized Flow Cytometer and Companion Microfluidic Mixing Technology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bae, Candice; Sharpe, Julia Z.; Bishara, Andrew M.; Nelson, Emily S.; Weaver, Aaron S.; Brown, Daniel; McKay, Terri L.; Griffin, DeVon; Chan, Eugene Y.

    2014-01-01

    Until recently, astronaut blood samples were collected in-flight, transported to earth on the Space Shuttle, and analyzed in terrestrial laboratories. If humans are to travel beyond low Earth orbit, a transition towards space-ready, point-of-care (POC) testing is required. Such testing needs to be comprehensive, easy to perform in a reduced-gravity environment, and unaffected by the stresses of launch and spaceflight. Countless POC devices have been developed to mimic laboratory scale counterparts, but most have narrow applications and few have demonstrable use in an in-flight, reduced-gravity environment. In fact, demonstrations of biomedical diagnostics in reduced gravity are limited altogether, making component choice and certain logistical challenges difficult to approach when seeking to test new technology. To help fill the void, we are presenting a modular method for the construction and operation of a prototype blood diagnostic device and its associated parabolic flight test rig that meet the standards for flight-testing onboard a parabolic flight, reduced-gravity aircraft. The method first focuses on rig assembly for in-flight, reduced-gravity testing of a flow cytometer and a companion microfluidic mixing chip. Components are adaptable to other designs and some custom components, such as a microvolume sample loader and the micromixer may be of particular interest. The method then shifts focus to flight preparation, by offering guidelines and suggestions to prepare for a successful flight test with regard to user training, development of a standard operating procedure (SOP), and other issues. Finally, in-flight experimental procedures specific to our demonstrations are described. PMID:25490614

  11. Four-phonon scattering significantly reduces intrinsic thermal conductivity of solids

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feng, Tianli; Lindsay, Lucas; Ruan, Xiulin

    2017-10-01

    For decades, the three-phonon scattering process has been considered to govern thermal transport in solids, while the role of higher-order four-phonon scattering has been persistently unclear and so ignored. However, recent quantitative calculations of three-phonon scattering have often shown a significant overestimation of thermal conductivity as compared to experimental values. In this Rapid Communication we show that four-phonon scattering is generally important in solids and can remedy such discrepancies. For silicon and diamond, the predicted thermal conductivity is reduced by 30% at 1000 K after including four-phonon scattering, bringing predictions in excellent agreement with measurements. For the projected ultrahigh-thermal conductivity material, zinc-blende BAs, a competitor of diamond as a heat sink material, four-phonon scattering is found to be strikingly strong as three-phonon processes have an extremely limited phase space for scattering. The four-phonon scattering reduces the predicted thermal conductivity from 2200 to 1400 W/m K at room temperature. The reduction at 1000 K is 60%. We also find that optical phonon scattering rates are largely affected, being important in applications such as phonon bottlenecks in equilibrating electronic excitations. Recognizing that four-phonon scattering is expensive to calculate, in the end we provide some guidelines on how to quickly assess the significance of four-phonon scattering, based on energy surface anharmonicity and the scattering phase space. Our work clears the decades-long fundamental question of the significance of higher-order scattering, and points out ways to improve thermoelectrics, thermal barrier coatings, nuclear materials, and radiative heat transfer.

  12. Technology demonstration for reducing mercury emissions from small-scale gold refining facilities.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Habegger, L. J.; Fernandez, L. E.; Engle, M.; Bailey, J. L.; Peterson, D. P.; MacDonell, M. M.; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

    2008-06-30

    coagulation and collection of the mercury aerosols in exhaust ducts, which is dependent on the hood and collector configuration, was also evaluated. Prototype demonstration tests verified the theoretical basis for mercury aerosol capture that can be used to optimize the baffle plate design, flow rates, and hood exhaust ducts and plenum to achieve 80% or higher removal efficiencies. Results indicated that installation configuration significantly influences a system's capture efficiency. Configurations that retained existing inlet ducts resulted in system efficiencies of more than 80%, whereas installation configurations without inlet ducts significantly reduced capture efficiency. As an alternative to increasing the volume of inlet ducts, the number of baffle plates in the system baffle assembly could be doubled to increase efficiency. Recommended installation and operation procedures were developed on the basis of these results. A water-based mercury capture system developed in Indonesia for installation in smaller shops was also tested and shown to be effective for certain applications. The cost of construction and installation of the baffle plate prototype was approximately US$400. These costs were reported as acceptable by local gold shop owners and government regulators, and were significantly lower than the cost of an alternate charcoal/copper mesh mercury filter available in the region, which costs about US$10,000. A sampling procedure that consists of a particle filter combined with a vapor analyzer was demonstrated as an effective procedure for analyzing both the aerosol and vapor components of the mercury concentrations. Two key findings for enhancing higher mercury collection were identified. First, the aerosol/vapor mercury emissions must be given sufficient time for the mercury particles to coagulate to a size that can be readily captured by the baffle plates. An interval of at least 6 seconds of transit time between the point of evaporation and contact with

  13. Four High-Visibility Enforcement Demonstration Waves in Connecticut and New York Reduce Hand-Held Phone Use

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-07-01

    The National Highway Traffic : Safety Administration initiated : distracted driving demonstration : programs in two communities : to test whether a high-visibility : enforcement (HVE) model could : reduce two specific instances : of distracted drivin...

  14. Implementation of standardized follow-up care significantly reduces peritonitis in children on chronic peritoneal dialysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neu, Alicia M; Richardson, Troy; Lawlor, John; Stuart, Jayne; Newland, Jason; McAfee, Nancy; Warady, Bradley A

    2016-06-01

    The Standardizing Care to improve Outcomes in Pediatric End stage renal disease (SCOPE) Collaborative aims to reduce peritonitis rates in pediatric chronic peritoneal dialysis patients by increasing implementation of standardized care practices. To assess this, monthly care bundle compliance and annualized monthly peritonitis rates were evaluated from 24 SCOPE centers that were participating at collaborative launch and that provided peritonitis rates for the 13 months prior to launch. Changes in bundle compliance were assessed using either a logistic regression model or a generalized linear mixed model. Changes in average annualized peritonitis rates over time were illustrated using the latter model. In the first 36 months of the collaborative, 644 patients with 7977 follow-up encounters were included. The likelihood of compliance with follow-up care practices increased significantly (odds ratio 1.15, 95% confidence interval 1.10, 1.19). Mean monthly peritonitis rates significantly decreased from 0.63 episodes per patient year (95% confidence interval 0.43, 0.92) prelaunch to 0.42 (95% confidence interval 0.31, 0.57) at 36 months postlaunch. A sensitivity analysis confirmed that as mean follow-up compliance increased, peritonitis rates decreased, reaching statistical significance at 80% at which point the prelaunch rate was 42% higher than the rate in the months following achievement of 80% compliance. In its first 3 years, the SCOPE Collaborative has increased the implementation of standardized follow-up care and demonstrated a significant reduction in average monthly peritonitis rates. Copyright © 2016 International Society of Nephrology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Male circumcision significantly reduces prevalence and load of genital anaerobic bacteria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Cindy M; Hungate, Bruce A; Tobian, Aaron A R; Serwadda, David; Ravel, Jacques; Lester, Richard; Kigozi, Godfrey; Aziz, Maliha; Galiwango, Ronald M; Nalugoda, Fred; Contente-Cuomo, Tania L; Wawer, Maria J; Keim, Paul; Gray, Ronald H; Price, Lance B

    2013-04-16

    Male circumcision reduces female-to-male HIV transmission. Hypothesized mechanisms for this protective effect include decreased HIV target cell recruitment and activation due to changes in the penis microbiome. We compared the coronal sulcus microbiota of men from a group of uncircumcised controls (n = 77) and from a circumcised intervention group (n = 79) at enrollment and year 1 follow-up in a randomized circumcision trial in Rakai, Uganda. We characterized microbiota using16S rRNA gene-based quantitative PCR (qPCR) and pyrosequencing, log response ratio (LRR), Bayesian classification, nonmetric multidimensional scaling (nMDS), and permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PerMANOVA). At baseline, men in both study arms had comparable coronal sulcus microbiota; however, by year 1, circumcision decreased the total bacterial load and reduced microbiota biodiversity. Specifically, the prevalence and absolute abundance of 12 anaerobic bacterial taxa decreased significantly in the circumcised men. While aerobic bacterial taxa also increased postcircumcision, these gains were minor. The reduction in anaerobes may partly account for the effects of circumcision on reduced HIV acquisition. The bacterial changes identified in this study may play an important role in the HIV risk reduction conferred by male circumcision. Decreasing the load of specific anaerobes could reduce HIV target cell recruitment to the foreskin. Understanding the mechanisms that underlie the benefits of male circumcision could help to identify new intervention strategies for decreasing HIV transmission, applicable to populations with high HIV prevalence where male circumcision is culturally less acceptable.

  16. Quilting after mastectomy significantly reduces seroma formation

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    reduce or prevent seroma formation among mastectomy patients ... of this prospective study is to evaluate the effect of surgical quilting ... Seroma was more common in smokers (p=0.003) and was not decreased by the .... explain its aetiology.

  17. Cerebral Embolic Protection During Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement Significantly Reduces Death and Stroke Compared With Unprotected Procedures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seeger, Julia; Gonska, Birgid; Otto, Markus; Rottbauer, Wolfgang; Wöhrle, Jochen

    2017-11-27

    The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of cerebral embolic protection on stroke-free survival in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Imaging data on cerebral embolic protection devices have demonstrated a significant reduction in number and volume of cerebral lesions. A total of 802 consecutive patients were enrolled. The Sentinel cerebral embolic protection device (Claret Medical Inc., Santa Rosa, California) was used in 34.9% (n = 280) of consecutive patients. In 65.1% (n = 522) of patients TAVR was performed in the identical setting except without cerebral embolic protection. Neurological follow-up was done within 7 days post-procedure. The primary endpoint was a composite of all-cause mortality or all-stroke according to Valve Academic Research Consortium-2 criteria within 7 days. Propensity score matching was performed to account for possible confounders. Both filters of the device were successfully positioned in 280 of 305 (91.8%) consecutive patients. With use of cerebral embolic protection rate of disabling and nondisabling stroke was significantly reduced from 4.6% to 1.4% (p = 0.03; odds ratio: 0.29, 95% confidence interval: 0.10 to 0.93) in the propensity-matched population (n = 560). The primary endpoint occurred significantly less frequently, with 2.1% (n = 6 of 280) in the protected group compared with 6.8% (n = 19 of 280) in the control group (p = 0.01; odds ratio: 0.30; 95% confidence interval: 0.12 to 0.77). In multivariable analysis Society of Thoracic Surgeons score for mortality (p = 0.02) and TAVR without protection (p = 0.02) were independent predictors for the primary endpoint. In patients undergoing TAVR use of a cerebral embolic protection device demonstrated a significant higher rate of stroke-free survival compared with unprotected TAVR. Copyright © 2017 American College of Cardiology Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  18. Fusion Power Demonstration III

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, J.D.

    1985-07-01

    This is the third in the series of reports covering the Fusion Power Demonstration (FPD) design study. This volume considers the FPD-III configuration that incorporates an octopole end plug. As compared with the quadrupole end-plugged designs of FPD-I and FPD-II, this octopole configuration reduces the number of end cell magnets and shortens the minimum ignition length of the central cell. The end-cell plasma length is also reduced, which in turn reduces the size and cost of the end cell magnets and shielding. As a contiuation in the series of documents covering the FPD, this report does not stand alone as a design description of FPD-III. Design details of FPD-III subsystems that do not differ significantly from those of the FPD-II configuration are not duplicated in this report

  19. Space Internet-Embedded Web Technologies Demonstration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Foltz, David A.

    2001-01-01

    The NASA Glenn Research Center recently demonstrated the ability to securely command and control space-based assets by using the Internet and standard Internet Protocols (IP). This is a significant accomplishment because future NASA missions will benefit by using Internet standards-based protocols. The benefits include reduced mission costs and increased mission efficiency. The Internet-Based Space Command and Control System Architecture demonstrated at the NASA Inspection 2000 event proved that this communications architecture is viable for future NASA missions.

  20. Defibrillator charging before rhythm analysis significantly reduces hands-off time during resuscitation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, L. K.; Folkestad, L.; Brabrand, M.

    2013-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Our objective was to reduce hands-off time during cardiopulmonary resuscitation as increased hands-off time leads to higher mortality. METHODS: The European Resuscitation Council (ERC) 2005 and ERC 2010 guidelines were compared with an alternative sequence (ALT). Pulseless ventricular...... physicians were included. All had prior experience in advanced life support. Chest compressions were shorter interrupted using ALT (mean, 6.7 vs 13.0 seconds). Analyzing data for ventricular tachycardia scenarios only, hands-off time was shorter using ALT (mean, 7.1 vs 18.2 seconds). In ERC 2010 vs ALT, 12...... physicians were included. Two physicians had not prior experience in advanced life support. Hands-off time was reduced using ALT (mean, 3.9 vs 5.6 seconds). Looking solely at ventricular tachycardia scenarios, hands-off time was shortened using ALT (mean, 4.5 vs 7.6 seconds). No significant reduction...

  1. β-CIT SPECT demonstrates reduced availability of serotonin transporters in patients with fatal familial insomnia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kloeppel, S.; Kovacs, G.G.; Pirker, W.; Bruecke, T.; Almer, G.

    2002-01-01

    Fatal familial insomnia (FFI) is a rare hereditary human prion disease with unique clinical features including progressive sleep impairment and autonomic dysfunction. The serotonergic system is considered to be involved in the regulation of the sleep-wake cycle. In this study we demonstrate a reduced availability of serotonin transporters of 57 % and 73 % respectively in a thalamus-hypothalamus region of two FFI patients examined with β-CIT SPECT as compared to age-expected control values. (author)

  2. Sodium-Reduced Meat and Poultry Products Contain a Significant Amount of Potassium from Food Additives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parpia, Arti Sharma; Goldstein, Marc B; Arcand, JoAnne; Cho, France; L'Abbé, Mary R; Darling, Pauline B

    2018-05-01

    counterparts (mean difference [95% CI]: 486 [334-638]; Padditives appearing on the product label ingredient list, did not significantly differ between the two groups. Potassium additives are frequently added to sodium-reduced MPPs in amounts that significantly contribute to the potassium load for patients with impaired renal handling of potassium caused by chronic kidney disease and certain medications. Patients requiring potassium restriction should be counseled to be cautious regarding the potassium content of sodium-reduced MPPs and encouraged to make food choices accordingly. Copyright © 2018 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Smoking cessation programmes in radon affected areas: can they make a significant contribution to reducing radon-induced lung cancers?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Denman, A.R.; Groves-Kirkby, C.J.; Timson, K.; Shield, G.; Rogers, S.; Phillips, P.S.

    2008-01-01

    Domestic radon levels in parts of the UK are sufficiently high to increase the risk of lung cancer in the occupants. Public health campaigns in Northamptonshire, a designated radon affected area with 6.3% of homes having average radon levels over the UK action level of 200 Bq m -3 , have encouraged householders to test for radon and then to carry out remediation in their homes, but have been only partially successful. Only 40% of Northamptonshire houses have been tested, and only 15% of householders finding raised levels proceed to remediate. Of those who did remediate, only 9% smoked, compared to a countywide average of 28.8%. This is unfortunate, since radon and smoking combine to place the individual at higher risk by a factor of around 4, and suggests that current strategies to reduce domestic radon exposure are not reaching those most at risk. During 2004-5, the NHS Stop Smoking Services in Northamptonshire assisted 2,808 smokers to quit to the 4-week stage, with some 30% of 4-week quitters remaining quitters at 1 year. We consider whether smoking cessation campaigns make significant contributions to radon risk reduction on their own, by assessing individual occupants' risk of developing lung cancer from knowledge of their age, gender, and smoking habits, together with he radon level in their house. The results demonstrate that smoking cessation programmes have significant added value in radon affected areas, and contribute a greater health benefit than reducing radon levels in the smokers' homes, whilst they remain smokers. Additionally, results are presented from a questionnaire-based survey of quitters, addressing their reasons for seeking help in quitting smoking, and whether knowledge of radon risks influenced this decision. The impact of these findings on future public health campaigns to reduce the impact of radon and smoking are discussed. (author)

  4. Intensity-modulated radiotherapy significantly reduces xerostomia compared with conventional radiotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Braam, Petra M.; Terhaard, Chris H.J. M.D.; Roesink, Judith M.; Raaijmakers, Cornelis P.J.

    2006-01-01

    Purpose: Xerostomia is a severe complication after radiotherapy for oropharyngeal cancer, as the salivary glands are in close proximity with the primary tumor. Intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) offers theoretical advantages for normal tissue sparing. A Phase II study was conducted to determine the value of IMRT for salivary output preservation compared with conventional radiotherapy (CRT). Methods and Materials: A total of 56 patients with oropharyngeal cancer were prospectively evaluated. Of these, 30 patients were treated with IMRT and 26 with CRT. Stimulated parotid salivary flow was measured before, 6 weeks, and 6 months after treatment. A complication was defined as a stimulated parotid flow rate <25% of the preradiotherapy flow rate. Results: The mean dose to the parotid glands was 48.1 Gy (SD 14 Gy) for CRT and 33.7 Gy (SD 10 Gy) for IMRT (p < 0.005). The mean parotid flow ratio 6 weeks and 6 months after treatment was respectively 41% and 64% for IMRT and respectively 11% and 18% for CRT. As a result, 6 weeks after treatment, the number of parotid flow complications was significantly lower after IMRT (55%) than after CRT (87%) (p = 0.002). The number of complications 6 months after treatment was 56% for IMRT and 81% for CRT (p = 0.04). Conclusions: IMRT significantly reduces the number of parotid flow complications for patients with oropharyngeal cancer

  5. Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact: Kalina Geothermal Demonstration Project Steamboat Springs, Nevada

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    N/A

    1999-02-22

    The Department of Energy (DOE) has prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) to provide the DOE and other public agency decision makers with the environmental documentation required to take informed discretionary action on the proposed Kalina Geothermal Demonstration project. The EA assesses the potential environmental impacts and cumulative impacts, possible ways to minimize effects associated with partial funding of the proposed project, and discusses alternatives to DOE actions. The DOE will use this EA as a basis for their decision to provide financial assistance to Exergy, Inc. (Exergy), the project applicant. Based on the analysis in the EA, DOE has determined that the proposed action is not a major Federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human or physical environment, within the meaning of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969. Therefore, the preparation of an environmental impact statement is not required and DOE is issuing this Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI).

  6. A Rosa canina - Urtica dioica - Harpagophytum procumbens/zeyheri Combination Significantly Reduces Gonarthritis Symptoms in a Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Double-Blind Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moré, Margret; Gruenwald, Joerg; Pohl, Ute; Uebelhack, Ralf

    2017-12-01

    The special formulation MA212 (Rosaxan) is composed of rosehip ( Rosa canina L.) puree/juice concentrate, nettle ( Urtica dioica L.) leaf extract, and devil's claw ( Harpagophytum procumbens DC. ex Meisn. or Harpagophytum zeyheri Decne.) root extract and also supplies vitamin D. It is a food for special medical purposes ([EU] No 609/2013) for the dietary management of pain in patients with gonarthritis.This 12-week randomized, placebo-controlled double-blind parallel-design study aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of MA212 versus placebo in patients with gonarthritis.A 3D-HPLC-fingerprint (3-dimensional high pressure liquid chromatography fingerprint) of MA212 demonstrated the presence of its herbal ingredients. Ninety-two randomized patients consumed 40 mL of MA212 (n = 46) or placebo (n = 44) daily. The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC), quality-of-life scores at 0, 6, and 12 weeks, and analgesic consumption were documented. Statistically, the initial WOMAC subscores/scores did not differ between groups. During the study, their means significantly improved in both groups. The mean pre-post change of the WOMAC pain score (primary endpoint) was 29.87 in the MA212 group and 10.23 in the placebo group. The group difference demonstrated a significant superiority in favor of MA212 (p U  < 0.001; p t  < 0.001). Group comparisons of all WOMAC subscores/scores at 6 and 12 weeks reached same significances. Compared to placebo, both physical and mental quality of life significantly improved with MA212. There was a trend towards reduced analgesics consumption with MA212, compared to placebo. In the final efficacy evaluation, physicians (p Chi  < 0.001) and patients (p Chi  < 0.001) rated MA212 superior to placebo. MA212 was well tolerated.This study demonstrates excellent efficacy for MA212 in gonarthritis patients. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

  7. Modest hypoxia significantly reduces triglyceride content and lipid droplet size in 3T3-L1 adipocytes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hashimoto, Takeshi, E-mail: thashimo@fc.ritsumei.ac.jp [Faculty of Sport and Health Science, Ritsumeikan University, 1-1-1 Nojihigashi, Kusatsu, Shiga 525-8577 (Japan); Yokokawa, Takumi; Endo, Yuriko [Faculty of Sport and Health Science, Ritsumeikan University, 1-1-1 Nojihigashi, Kusatsu, Shiga 525-8577 (Japan); Iwanaka, Nobumasa [Ritsumeikan Global Innovation Research Organization, Ritsumeikan University, 1-1-1 Nojihigashi, Kusatsu, Shiga 525-8577 (Japan); Higashida, Kazuhiko [Faculty of Sport and Health Science, Ritsumeikan University, 1-1-1 Nojihigashi, Kusatsu, Shiga 525-8577 (Japan); Faculty of Sport Science, Waseda University, 2-579-15 Mikajima, Tokorozawa, Saitama 359-1192 (Japan); Taguchi, Sadayoshi [Faculty of Sport and Health Science, Ritsumeikan University, 1-1-1 Nojihigashi, Kusatsu, Shiga 525-8577 (Japan)

    2013-10-11

    Highlights: •Long-term hypoxia decreased the size of LDs and lipid storage in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. •Long-term hypoxia increased basal lipolysis in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. •Hypoxia decreased lipid-associated proteins in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. •Hypoxia decreased basal glucose uptake and lipogenic proteins in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. •Hypoxia-mediated lipogenesis may be an attractive therapeutic target against obesity. -- Abstract: Background: A previous study has demonstrated that endurance training under hypoxia results in a greater reduction in body fat mass compared to exercise under normoxia. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie this hypoxia-mediated reduction in fat mass remain uncertain. Here, we examine the effects of modest hypoxia on adipocyte function. Methods: Differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes were incubated at 5% O{sub 2} for 1 week (long-term hypoxia, HL) or one day (short-term hypoxia, HS) and compared with a normoxia control (NC). Results: HL, but not HS, resulted in a significant reduction in lipid droplet size and triglyceride content (by 50%) compared to NC (p < 0.01). As estimated by glycerol release, isoproterenol-induced lipolysis was significantly lowered by hypoxia, whereas the release of free fatty acids under the basal condition was prominently enhanced with HL compared to NC or HS (p < 0.01). Lipolysis-associated proteins, such as perilipin 1 and hormone-sensitive lipase, were unchanged, whereas adipose triglyceride lipase and its activator protein CGI-58 were decreased with HL in comparison to NC. Interestingly, such lipogenic proteins as fatty acid synthase, lipin-1, and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma were decreased. Furthermore, the uptake of glucose, the major precursor of 3-glycerol phosphate for triglyceride synthesis, was significantly reduced in HL compared to NC or HS (p < 0.01). Conclusion: We conclude that hypoxia has a direct impact on reducing the triglyceride content and lipid droplet size via

  8. Modest hypoxia significantly reduces triglyceride content and lipid droplet size in 3T3-L1 adipocytes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hashimoto, Takeshi; Yokokawa, Takumi; Endo, Yuriko; Iwanaka, Nobumasa; Higashida, Kazuhiko; Taguchi, Sadayoshi

    2013-01-01

    Highlights: •Long-term hypoxia decreased the size of LDs and lipid storage in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. •Long-term hypoxia increased basal lipolysis in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. •Hypoxia decreased lipid-associated proteins in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. •Hypoxia decreased basal glucose uptake and lipogenic proteins in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. •Hypoxia-mediated lipogenesis may be an attractive therapeutic target against obesity. -- Abstract: Background: A previous study has demonstrated that endurance training under hypoxia results in a greater reduction in body fat mass compared to exercise under normoxia. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie this hypoxia-mediated reduction in fat mass remain uncertain. Here, we examine the effects of modest hypoxia on adipocyte function. Methods: Differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes were incubated at 5% O 2 for 1 week (long-term hypoxia, HL) or one day (short-term hypoxia, HS) and compared with a normoxia control (NC). Results: HL, but not HS, resulted in a significant reduction in lipid droplet size and triglyceride content (by 50%) compared to NC (p < 0.01). As estimated by glycerol release, isoproterenol-induced lipolysis was significantly lowered by hypoxia, whereas the release of free fatty acids under the basal condition was prominently enhanced with HL compared to NC or HS (p < 0.01). Lipolysis-associated proteins, such as perilipin 1 and hormone-sensitive lipase, were unchanged, whereas adipose triglyceride lipase and its activator protein CGI-58 were decreased with HL in comparison to NC. Interestingly, such lipogenic proteins as fatty acid synthase, lipin-1, and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma were decreased. Furthermore, the uptake of glucose, the major precursor of 3-glycerol phosphate for triglyceride synthesis, was significantly reduced in HL compared to NC or HS (p < 0.01). Conclusion: We conclude that hypoxia has a direct impact on reducing the triglyceride content and lipid droplet size via

  9. Optical trapping of nanoparticles with significantly reduced laser powers by using counter-propagating beams (Presentation Recording)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Chenglong; LeBrun, Thomas W.

    2015-08-01

    Gold nanoparticles (GNP) have wide applications ranging from nanoscale heating to cancer therapy and biological sensing. Optical trapping of GNPs as small as 18 nm has been successfully achieved with laser power as high as 855 mW, but such high powers can damage trapped particles (particularly biological systems) as well heat the fluid, thereby destabilizing the trap. In this article, we show that counter propagating beams (CPB) can successfully trap GNP with laser powers reduced by a factor of 50 compared to that with a single beam. The trapping position of a GNP inside a counter-propagating trap can be easily modulated by either changing the relative power or position of the two beams. Furthermore, we find that under our conditions while a single-beam most stably traps a single particle, the counter-propagating beam can more easily trap multiple particles. This (CPB) trap is compatible with the feedback control system we recently demonstrated to increase the trapping lifetimes of nanoparticles by more than an order of magnitude. Thus, we believe that the future development of advanced trapping techniques combining counter-propagating traps together with control systems should significantly extend the capabilities of optical manipulation of nanoparticles for prototyping and testing 3D nanodevices and bio-sensing.

  10. MRI estimation of total renal volume demonstrates significant association with healthy donor weight

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cohen, Emil I.; Kelly, Sarah A.; Edye, Michael; Mitty, Harold A.; Bromberg, Jonathan S.

    2009-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this study was to correlate total renal volume (TRV) calculations, obtained through the voxel-count method and ellipsoid formula with various physical characteristics. Materials and methods: MRI reports and physical examination from 210 healthy kidney donors (420 kidneys), on whom renal volumes were obtained using the voxel-count method, were retrospectively reviewed. These values along with ones obtained through a more traditional method (ellipsoid formula) were correlated with subject height, body weight, body mass index (BMI), and age. Results: TRV correlated strongly with body weight (r = 0.7) and to a lesser degree with height, age, or BMI (r = 0.5, -0.2, 0.3, respectively). The left kidney volume was greater than the right, on average (p < 0.001). The ellipsoid formula method over-estimated renal volume by 17% on average which was significant (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Body weight was the physical characteristic which demonstrated the strongest correlation with renal volume in healthy subjects. Given this finding, a formula was derived for estimating the TRV for a given patient based on the his or her weight: TRV = 2.96 x weight (kg) + 113 ± 64.

  11. ClusterSignificance: A bioconductor package facilitating statistical analysis of class cluster separations in dimensionality reduced data

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Serviss, Jason T.; Gådin, Jesper R.; Eriksson, Per

    2017-01-01

    , e.g. genes in a specific pathway, alone can separate samples into these established classes. Despite this, the evaluation of class separations is often subjective and performed via visualization. Here we present the ClusterSignificance package; a set of tools designed to assess the statistical...... significance of class separations downstream of dimensionality reduction algorithms. In addition, we demonstrate the design and utility of the ClusterSignificance package and utilize it to determine the importance of long non-coding RNA expression in the identity of multiple hematological malignancies....

  12. Incidence and prognostic significance of postoperative complications demonstrated on CT after brain tumor removal

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fukamachi, Akira; Koizumi, Hidehito; Kimura, Ryoichi; Nukui, Hideaki; Kunimine, Hideo

    1987-06-01

    We surveyed the computed tomographic (CT) findings in 273 patients who had undergone 301 craniotomies for brain tumors to determine the incidence and clinical outcome of the postoperative complications demonstrated on CT. The frequencies of medium-sized or large postoperative lesions were as follows: intracerebral hemorrhage, 11% of 301 operations; subdural fluid collection, 8%; brain edema, 6%; extradural hemorrhage, 4%; cerebral infarction, 3%; ventricular enlargement, 3%; intraventricular hemorrhage, 2%; chronic subdural hematoma, 1%; porencephalic cyst, 0.7%; tension pneumocephalus, 0.7%. In association with these complications, poor outcomes (deaths) developed with the following frequencies: intracerebral hemorrhage including an association with other types of hemorrhage, 4% (deaths, 2%) of 301 operations; cerebral infarction, 1% (deaths, 0.7%); brain edema, 0.7% (deaths, 0.7%); simple intraventricular hemorrhage, 0.3% (no deaths); tension pneumocephalus, 0.3% (no deaths). From these results, we conclude that medium-sized or large intracerebral hemorrhage, massive cerebral infarction and edema have a grave clinical significance in the postoperative course of patients with brain tumors.

  13. Residential Energy Efficiency Demonstration: Hawaii and Guam Energy Improvement Technology Demonstration Project

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Earle, L. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Sparn, B. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Rutter, A. [Sustainability Solutions LLC (Guam); Briggs, D. [Naval Base Guam, Santa Rita (Guam)

    2014-03-01

    In order to meet its energy goals, the Department of Defense (DOD) has partnered with the Department of Energy (DOE) to rapidly demonstrate and deploy cost-effective renewable energy and energy-efficiency technologies. The scope of this project was to demonstrate tools and technologies to reduce energy use in military housing, with particular emphasis on measuring and reducing loads related to consumer electronics (commonly referred to as 'plug loads'), hot water, and whole-house cooling.

  14. The significance of sensory appeal for reduced meat consumption.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tucker, Corrina A

    2014-10-01

    Reducing meat (over-)consumption as a way to help address environmental deterioration will require a range of strategies, and any such strategies will benefit from understanding how individuals might respond to various meat consumption practices. To investigate how New Zealanders perceive such a range of practices, in this instance in vitro meat, eating nose-to-tail, entomophagy and reducing meat consumption, focus groups involving a total of 69 participants were held around the country. While it is the damaging environmental implications of intensive farming practices and the projected continuation of increasing global consumer demand for meat products that has propelled this research, when asked to consider variations on the conventional meat-centric diet common to many New Zealanders, it was the sensory appeal of the areas considered that was deemed most problematic. While an ecological rationale for considering these 'meat' alternatives was recognised and considered important by most, transforming this value into action looks far less promising given the recurrent sensory objections to consuming different protein-based foods or of reducing meat consumption. This article considers the responses of focus group participants in relation to each of the dietary practices outlined, and offers suggestions on ways to encourage a more environmentally viable diet. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Incidence and prognostic significance of postoperative complications demonstrated on CT after brain tumor removal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fukamachi, Akira; Koizumi, Hidehito; Kimura, Ryoichi; Nukui, Hideaki; Kunimine, Hideo.

    1987-01-01

    We surveyed the computed tomographic (CT) findings in 273 patients who had undergone 301 craniotomies for brain tumors to determine the incidence and clinical outcome of the postoperative complications demonstrated on CT. The frequencies of medium-sized or large postoperative lesions were as follows: intracerebral hemorrhage, 11 % of 301 operations; subdural fluid collection, 8 %; brain edema, 6 %; extradural hemorrhage, 4 %; cerebral infarction, 3 %; ventricular enlargement, 3 %; intraventricular hemorrhage, 2 %; chronic subdural hematoma, 1 %; porencephalic cyst, 0.7 %; tension pneumocephalus, 0.7 %. In association with these complications, poor outcomes (deaths) developed with the following frequencies: intracerebral hemorrhage including an association with other types of hemorrhage, 4 % (deaths, 2 %) of 301 operations; cerebral infarction, 1 % (deaths, 0.7 %); brain edema, 0.7 % (deaths, 0.7 %); simple intraventricular hemorrhage, 0.3 % (no deaths); tension pneumocephalus, 0.3 % (no deaths). From these results, we conclude that medium-sized or large intracerebral hemorrhage, massive cerebral infarction and edema have a grave clinical significance in the postoperative course of patients with brain tumors. (author)

  16. Human IgG lacking effector functions demonstrate lower FcRn-binding and reduced transplacental transport.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stapleton, Nigel M; Armstrong-Fisher, Sylvia S; Andersen, Jan Terje; van der Schoot, C Ellen; Porter, Charlene; Page, Kenneth R; Falconer, Donald; de Haas, Masja; Williamson, Lorna M; Clark, Michael R; Vidarsson, Gestur; Armour, Kathryn L

    2018-03-01

    We have previously generated human IgG1 antibodies that were engineered for reduced binding to the classical Fcγ receptors (FcγRI-III) and C1q, thereby eliminating their destructive effector functions (constant region G1Δnab). In their potential use as blocking agents, favorable binding to the neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) is important to preserve the long half-life typical of IgG. An ability to cross the placenta, which is also mediated, at least in part, by FcRn is desirable in some indications, such as feto-maternal alloimmune disorders. Here, we show that G1Δnab mutants retain pH-dependent binding to human FcRn but that the amino acid alterations reduce the affinity of the IgG1:FcRn interaction by 2.0-fold and 1.6-fold for the two antibodies investigated. The transport of the modified G1Δnab mutants across monolayers of human cell lines expressing FcRn was approximately 75% of the wild-type, except that no difference was observed with human umbilical vein endothelial cells. G1Δnab mutation also reduced transport in an ex vivo placenta model. In conclusion, we demonstrate that, although the G1Δnab mutations are away from the FcRn-binding site, they have long-distance effects, modulating FcRn binding and transcellular transport. Our findings have implications for the design of therapeutic human IgG with tailored effector functions. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  17. Education & Collection Facility GSHP Demonstration Project

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Joplin, Jeff [Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Denver, CO (United States)

    2015-03-28

    The Denver Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS) designed and implemented an innovative ground source heat pump (GSHP) system for heating and cooling its new Education and Collection Facility (ECF) building addition. The project goal was to successfully design and install an open-loop GSHP system that utilized water circulating within an underground municipal recycled (non-potable) water system as the heat sink/source as a demonstration project. The expected results were to significantly reduce traditional GSHP installation costs while increasing system efficiency, reduce building energy consumption, require significantly less area and capital to install, and be economically implemented wherever access to a recycled water system is available. The project added to the understanding of GSHP technology by implementing the first GSHP system in the United States utilizing a municipal recycled water system as a heat sink/source. The use of this fluid through a GSHP system has not been previously documented. This use application presents a new opportunity for local municipalities to develop and expand the use of underground municipal recycled (non-potable) water systems. The installation costs for this type of technology in the building structure would be a cost savings over traditional GSHP costs, provided the local municipal infrastructure was developed. Additionally, the GSHP system functions as a viable method of heat sink/source as the thermal characteristics of the fluid are generally consistent throughout the year and are efficiently exchanged through the GSHP system and its components. The use of the recycled water system reduces the area required for bore or loop fields; therefore, presenting an application for building structures that have little to no available land use or access. This GSHP application demonstrates the viability of underground municipal recycled (non-potable) water systems as technically achievable, environmentally supportive, and an efficient

  18. Combined functional CT/FDG-PET: demonstrates reduced hepatic phosphorylation of glucose in advanced colorectal cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miles, K.A.; Keith, C.J.; Griffiths, M.R.; Fuentes, M.; Bunce, I.

    2002-01-01

    Full text: This study describes a technique to quantify hepatic glucose phosphorylation using combined data from functional CT and FDG-PET and assesses the differences in phosphorylation between patients with either early or advanced colorectal cancer. Functional CT and FDG-PET were utilised to obtain measurements of perfusion and glucose uptake respectively within the livers of a series of 35 patients with colorectal cancer. Patients with PET evidence of extrahepatic tumour were considered to have advanced disease. The net influx constant (Ki) for FDG was determined from the liver SUV. CT measurements of hepatic perfusion were incorporated into FDG kinetic analysis to determine hepatic glucose phosphorylation fraction. SUV and Ki were significantly lower in the 12 patients with advanced disease (p=0.015 and p=0.013 respectively) whereas portal and total hepatic perfusion were increased (p=0.013 and p=0.008 respectively). Combining the PET and CT data yielded phosphorylation fractions of 1.14% and 0.74% for early and advanced disease respectively (p=0.002). Hepatic glucose phosphorylation can be determined by combining functional CT measurements of perfusion with PET measurements of FDG and is significantly reduced in patients with more advanced malignancy. Reduced hepatic glucose phosphorylation may be an important mechanism in the development of cancer cachexia. Copyright (2002) The Australian and New Zealand Society of Nuclear Medicine Inc

  19. Combined functional CT/FDG-PET: demonstrates reduced hepatic phosphorylation of glucose in advanced colorectal cancer

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Miles, K A [Southernex Imaging Group, QLD (Australia); Queensland University of Technology, QLD (Australia); Keith, C J [Southernex Imaging Group, QLD (Australia); Wesley Research Institute, QLD (Australia); Griffiths, M R [Queensland University of Technology, QLD (Australia); Fuentes, M [Southernex Imaging Group, QLD (Australia); Bunce, I [Wesley Research Institute, QLD (Australia)

    2002-07-01

    Full text: This study describes a technique to quantify hepatic glucose phosphorylation using combined data from functional CT and FDG-PET and assesses the differences in phosphorylation between patients with either early or advanced colorectal cancer. Functional CT and FDG-PET were utilised to obtain measurements of perfusion and glucose uptake respectively within the livers of a series of 35 patients with colorectal cancer. Patients with PET evidence of extrahepatic tumour were considered to have advanced disease. The net influx constant (Ki) for FDG was determined from the liver SUV. CT measurements of hepatic perfusion were incorporated into FDG kinetic analysis to determine hepatic glucose phosphorylation fraction. SUV and Ki were significantly lower in the 12 patients with advanced disease (p=0.015 and p=0.013 respectively) whereas portal and total hepatic perfusion were increased (p=0.013 and p=0.008 respectively). Combining the PET and CT data yielded phosphorylation fractions of 1.14% and 0.74% for early and advanced disease respectively (p=0.002). Hepatic glucose phosphorylation can be determined by combining functional CT measurements of perfusion with PET measurements of FDG and is significantly reduced in patients with more advanced malignancy. Reduced hepatic glucose phosphorylation may be an important mechanism in the development of cancer cachexia. Copyright (2002) The Australian and New Zealand Society of Nuclear Medicine Inc.

  20. FINDING SOLUTIONS AT THE WEST VALLEY DEMONSTRATION PROJECT

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Drake, John L.; Gramling, James M.; Houston, Helene M.

    2003-01-01

    -c ell viewing, and various types of handling, retrieval, and dismantlement tasks. The primary focus of the LSDDP of Hot Cells is on demonstrating technologies capable of reducing cost and schedule baselines for work scopes involving in-situ characterization (including nondestructive examination to access in-cell areas), size-reducing equipment and piping, contamination control, and decontaminating surfaces (including equipment surfaces). Demonstrations of technologies that can streamline these tasks are scheduled for the WVDP site. Demonstrations scheduled for the Hanford RCP site focus on work scope activities involving remote-inspection and viewing. Each demonstration conducted will be assessed using evaluation criteria established by the participating sites to determine if selected technologies represent a significant improvement over current baseline technologies being used to perform work. If proven to be effective, each of the commercially available technologies demonstrated has th e potential to be quickly deployed at other sites, resulting in improved worker safety, reduced cleanup costs, and accelerated schedule completion for many of the most challenging cleanup efforts now underway throughout the DOE Complex

  1. A pilot weight reduction program over one year significantly reduced DNA strand breaks in obese subjects

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karl-Heinz Wagner

    2015-05-01

    Conclusion: A sustainable lifestyle change under supervision including physical activity and diet quality over a period of one year was not only responsible to reduce body weight and BMI but also led to significant reduction in all parameters of the comet assay. These results underline the importance of body weight reduction and highlight the positive changes in DNA stability.

  2. Reduced bone mineral density is not associated with significantly reduced bone quality in men and women practicing long-term calorie restriction with adequate nutrition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Villareal, Dennis T; Kotyk, John J; Armamento-Villareal, Reina C; Kenguva, Venkata; Seaman, Pamela; Shahar, Allon; Wald, Michael J; Kleerekoper, Michael; Fontana, Luigi

    2011-02-01

    Calorie restriction (CR) reduces bone quantity but not bone quality in rodents. Nothing is known regarding the long-term effects of CR with adequate intake of vitamin and minerals on bone quantity and quality in middle-aged lean individuals. In this study, we evaluated body composition, bone mineral density (BMD), and serum markers of bone turnover and inflammation in 32 volunteers who had been eating a CR diet (approximately 35% less calories than controls) for an average of 6.8 ± 5.2 years (mean age 52.7 ± 10.3 years) and 32 age- and sex-matched sedentary controls eating Western diets (WD). In a subgroup of 10 CR and 10 WD volunteers, we also measured trabecular bone (TB) microarchitecture of the distal radius using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging. We found that the CR volunteers had significantly lower body mass index than the WD volunteers (18.9 ± 1.2 vs. 26.5 ± 2.2 kg m(-2) ; P = 0.0001). BMD of the lumbar spine (0.870 ± 0.11 vs. 1.138 ± 0.12 g cm(-2) , P = 0.0001) and hip (0.806 ± 0.12 vs. 1.047 ± 0.12 g cm(-2) , P = 0.0001) was also lower in the CR than in the WD group. Serum C-terminal telopeptide and bone-specific alkaline phosphatase concentration were similar between groups, while serum C-reactive protein (0.19 ± 0.26 vs. 1.46 ± 1.56 mg L(-1) , P = 0.0001) was lower in the CR group. Trabecular bone microarchitecture parameters such as the erosion index (0.916 ± 0.087 vs. 0.877 ± 0.088; P = 0.739) and surface-to-curve ratio (10.3 ± 1.4 vs. 12.1 ± 2.1, P = 0.440) were not significantly different between groups. These findings suggest that markedly reduced BMD is not associated with significantly reduced bone quality in middle-aged men and women practicing long-term calorie restriction with adequate nutrition.

  3. Caterpillar MorElectric DOE Idle Reduction Demonstration Program

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    John Bernardi

    2007-09-30

    This project titled 'Demonstration of the New MorElectric{trademark} Technology as an Idle Reduction Solution' is one of four demonstration projects awarded by the US Department of Energy in 2002. The goal of these demonstration and evaluation projects was to gather objective in-use information on the performance of available idle reduction technologies by characterizing the cost; fuel, maintenance, and engine life savings; payback; and user impressions of various systems and techniques. In brief, the Caterpillar Inc. project involved applying electrically driven accessories for cab comfort during engine-off stops and for reducing fuel consumption during on-highway operation. Caterpillar had equipped and operated five new trucks with the technology in conjunction with International Truck and Engine Corporation and COX Transfer. The most significant result of the project was a demonstrated average idle reduction of 13.8% for the 5 truck MEI fleet over the control fleet. It should be noted that the control fleet trucks were also equipped with an idle reduction device that would start and stop the main engine automatically in order to maintain cab temperature. The control fleet idle usage would have been reduced by 3858 hours over the 2 year period with the MEI system installed, or approximately 2315 gallons of fuel less (calculations assume a fuel consumption of 0.6 gallons per hour for the 13 liter engine at idle). The fuel saved will be significantly larger for higher displacement engines without idle reduction equipment such as the engine auto start/stop device used by COX Transfer. It is common for engines to consume 1.0 gallons per hour which would increase the fuel savings to approximately 1260 gallons per truck per year of typical idling (1800 hours idle/yr).

  4. Mindfulness significantly reduces self-reported levels of anxiety and depression

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Würtzen, Hanne; Dalton, Susanne Oksbjerg; Elsass, Peter

    2013-01-01

    INTRODUCTION: As the incidence of and survival from breast cancer continue to raise, interventions to reduce anxiety and depression before, during and after treatment are needed. Previous studies have reported positive effects of a structured 8-week group mindfulness-based stress reduction program...

  5. Reduced content of chloroatranol and atranol in oak moss absolute significantly reduces the elicitation potential of this fragrance material.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Andersen, Flemming; Andersen, Kirsten H; Bernois, Armand; Brault, Christophe; Bruze, Magnus; Eudes, Hervé; Gadras, Catherine; Signoret, Anne-Cécile J; Mose, Kristian F; Müller, Boris P; Toulemonde, Bernard; Andersen, Klaus Ejner

    2015-02-01

    Oak moss absolute, an extract from the lichen Evernia prunastri, is a valued perfume ingredient but contains extreme allergens. To compare the elicitation properties of two preparations of oak moss absolute: 'classic oak moss', the historically used preparation, and 'new oak moss', with reduced contents of the major allergens atranol and chloroatranol. The two preparations were compared in randomized double-blinded repeated open application tests and serial dilution patch tests in 30 oak moss-sensitive volunteers and 30 non-allergic control subjects. In both test models, new oak moss elicited significantly less allergic contact dermatitis in oak moss-sensitive subjects than classic oak moss. The control subjects did not react to either of the preparations. New oak moss is still a fragrance allergen, but elicits less allergic contact dermatitis in previously oak moss-sensitized individuals, suggesting that new oak moss is less allergenic to non-sensitized individuals. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  6. Next-generation nozzle check valve significantly reduces operating costs

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Roorda, O. [SMX International, Toronto, ON (Canada)

    2009-01-15

    Check valves perform an important function in preventing reverse flow and protecting plant and mechanical equipment. However, the variety of different types of valves and extreme differences in performance even within one type can change maintenance requirements and life cycle costs, amounting to millions of dollars over the typical 15-year design life of piping components. A next-generation non-slam nozzle check valve which prevents return flow has greatly reduced operating costs by protecting the mechanical equipment in a piping system. This article described the check valve varieties such as the swing check valve, a dual-plate check valve, and nozzle check valves. Advancements in optimized design of a non-slam nozzle check valve were also discussed, with particular reference to computer flow modelling such as computational fluid dynamics; computer stress modelling such as finite element analysis; and flow testing (using rapid prototype development and flow loop testing), both to improve dynamic performance and reduce hydraulic losses. The benefits of maximized dynamic performance and minimized pressure loss from the new designed valve were also outlined. It was concluded that this latest non-slam nozzle check valve design has potential applications in natural gas, liquefied natural gas, and oil pipelines, including subsea applications, as well as refineries, and petrochemical plants among others, and is suitable for horizontal and vertical installation. The result of this next-generation nozzle check valve design is not only superior performance, and effective protection of mechanical equipment but also minimized life cycle costs. 1 fig.

  7. Intriguing model significantly reduces boarding of psychiatric patients, need for inpatient hospitalization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-01-01

    As new approaches to the care of psychiatric emergencies emerge, one solution is gaining particular traction. Under the Alameda model, which has been put into practice in Alameda County, CA, patients who are brought to regional EDs with emergency psychiatric issues are quickly transferred to a designated emergency psychiatric facility as soon as they are medically stabilized. This alleviates boarding problems in area EDs while also quickly connecting patients with specialized care. With data in hand on the model's effectiveness, developers believe the approach could alleviate boarding problems in other communities as well. The model is funded by through a billing code established by California's Medicaid program for crisis stabilization services. Currently, only 22% of the patients brought to the emergency psychiatric facility ultimately need to be hospitalized; the other 78% are able to go home or to an alternative situation. In a 30-day study of the model, involving five community hospitals in Alameda County, CA, researchers found that ED boarding times were as much as 80% lower than comparable ED averages, and that patients were stabilized at least 75% of the time, significantly reducing the need for inpatient hospitalization.

  8. Reducing rotor weight

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cheney, M.C. [PS Enterprises, Inc., Glastonbury, CT (United States)

    1997-12-31

    The cost of energy for renewables has gained greater significance in recent years due to the drop in price in some competing energy sources, particularly natural gas. In pursuit of lower manufacturing costs for wind turbine systems, work was conducted to explore an innovative rotor designed to reduce weight and cost over conventional rotor systems. Trade-off studies were conducted to measure the influence of number of blades, stiffness, and manufacturing method on COE. The study showed that increasing number of blades at constant solidity significantly reduced rotor weight and that manufacturing the blades using pultrusion technology produced the lowest cost per pound. Under contracts with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the California Energy Commission, a 400 kW (33m diameter) turbine was designed employing this technology. The project included tests of an 80 kW (15.5m diameter) dynamically scaled rotor which demonstrated the viability of the design.

  9. Significant association between sulfate-reducing bacteria and uranium-reducing microbial communities as revealed by a combined massively parallel sequencing-indicator species approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cardenas, Erick; Wu, Wei-Min; Leigh, Mary Beth; Carley, Jack; Carroll, Sue; Gentry, Terry; Luo, Jian; Watson, David; Gu, Baohua; Ginder-Vogel, Matthew; Kitanidis, Peter K; Jardine, Philip M; Zhou, Jizhong; Criddle, Craig S; Marsh, Terence L; Tiedje, James M

    2010-10-01

    Massively parallel sequencing has provided a more affordable and high-throughput method to study microbial communities, although it has mostly been used in an exploratory fashion. We combined pyrosequencing with a strict indicator species statistical analysis to test if bacteria specifically responded to ethanol injection that successfully promoted dissimilatory uranium(VI) reduction in the subsurface of a uranium contamination plume at the Oak Ridge Field Research Center in Tennessee. Remediation was achieved with a hydraulic flow control consisting of an inner loop, where ethanol was injected, and an outer loop for flow-field protection. This strategy reduced uranium concentrations in groundwater to levels below 0.126 μM and created geochemical gradients in electron donors from the inner-loop injection well toward the outer loop and downgradient flow path. Our analysis with 15 sediment samples from the entire test area found significant indicator species that showed a high degree of adaptation to the three different hydrochemical-created conditions. Castellaniella and Rhodanobacter characterized areas with low pH, heavy metals, and low bioactivity, while sulfate-, Fe(III)-, and U(VI)-reducing bacteria (Desulfovibrio, Anaeromyxobacter, and Desulfosporosinus) were indicators of areas where U(VI) reduction occurred. The abundance of these bacteria, as well as the Fe(III) and U(VI) reducer Geobacter, correlated with the hydraulic connectivity to the substrate injection site, suggesting that the selected populations were a direct response to electron donor addition by the groundwater flow path. A false-discovery-rate approach was implemented to discard false-positive results by chance, given the large amount of data compared.

  10. Lime and Phosphate Amendment Can Significantly Reduce Uptake of Cd and Pb by Field-Grown Rice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rongbo Xiao

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Agricultural soils are suffering from increasing heavy metal pollution, among which, paddy soil polluted by heavy metals is frequently reported and has elicited great public concern. In this study, we carried out field experiments on paddy soil around a Pb-Zn mine to study amelioration effects of four soil amendments on uptake of Cd and Pb by rice, and to make recommendations for paddy soil heavy metal remediation, particularly for combined pollution of Cd and Pb. The results showed that all the four treatments can significantly reduce the Cd and Pb content in the late rice grain compared with the early rice, among which, the combination amendment of lime and phosphate had the best remediation effects where rice grain Cd content was reduced by 85% and 61%, respectively, for the late rice and the early rice, and by 30% in the late rice grain for Pb. The high reduction effects under the Ca + P treatment might be attributed to increase of soil pH from 5.5 to 6.7. We also found that influence of the Ca + P treatment on rice production was insignificant, while the available Cd and Pb content in soil was reduced by 16.5% and 11.7%, respectively.

  11. Simultaneous bilateral stereotactic procedure for deep brain stimulation implants: a significant step for reducing operation time.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fonoff, Erich Talamoni; Azevedo, Angelo; Angelos, Jairo Silva Dos; Martinez, Raquel Chacon Ruiz; Navarro, Jessie; Reis, Paul Rodrigo; Sepulveda, Miguel Ernesto San Martin; Cury, Rubens Gisbert; Ghilardi, Maria Gabriela Dos Santos; Teixeira, Manoel Jacobsen; Lopez, William Omar Contreras

    2016-07-01

    OBJECT Currently, bilateral procedures involve 2 sequential implants in each of the hemispheres. The present report demonstrates the feasibility of simultaneous bilateral procedures during the implantation of deep brain stimulation (DBS) leads. METHODS Fifty-seven patients with movement disorders underwent bilateral DBS implantation in the same study period. The authors compared the time required for the surgical implantation of deep brain electrodes in 2 randomly assigned groups. One group of 28 patients underwent traditional sequential electrode implantation, and the other 29 patients underwent simultaneous bilateral implantation. Clinical outcomes of the patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) who had undergone DBS implantation of the subthalamic nucleus using either of the 2 techniques were compared. RESULTS Overall, a reduction of 38.51% in total operating time for the simultaneous bilateral group (136.4 ± 20.93 minutes) as compared with that for the traditional consecutive approach (220.3 ± 27.58 minutes) was observed. Regarding clinical outcomes in the PD patients who underwent subthalamic nucleus DBS implantation, comparing the preoperative off-medication condition with the off-medication/on-stimulation condition 1 year after the surgery in both procedure groups, there was a mean 47.8% ± 9.5% improvement in the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale Part III (UPDRS-III) score in the simultaneous group, while the sequential group experienced 47.5% ± 15.8% improvement (p = 0.96). Moreover, a marked reduction in the levodopa-equivalent dose from preoperatively to postoperatively was similar in these 2 groups. The simultaneous bilateral procedure presented major advantages over the traditional sequential approach, with a shorter total operating time. CONCLUSIONS A simultaneous stereotactic approach significantly reduces the operation time in bilateral DBS procedures, resulting in decreased microrecording time, contributing to the optimization of functional

  12. Incorporation of catalytic dehydrogenation into fischer-tropsch synthesis to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huffman, Gerald P.

    2012-11-13

    A new method of producing liquid transportation fuels from coal and other hydrocarbons that significantly reduces carbon dioxide emissions by combining Fischer-Tropsch synthesis with catalytic dehydrogenation is claimed. Catalytic dehydrogenation (CDH) of the gaseous products (C1-C4) of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) can produce large quantities of hydrogen while converting the carbon to multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT). Incorporation of CDH into a FTS-CDH plant converting coal to liquid fuels can eliminate all or most of the CO.sub.2 emissions from the water-gas shift (WGS) reaction that is currently used to elevate the H.sub.2 level of coal-derived syngas for FTS. Additionally, the FTS-CDH process saves large amounts of water used by the WGS reaction and produces a valuable by-product, MWCNT.

  13. Oxidation of naturally reduced uranium in aquifer sediments by dissolved oxygen and its potential significance to uranium plume persistence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davis, J. A.; Smith, R. L.; Bohlke, J. K.; Jemison, N.; Xiang, H.; Repert, D. A.; Yuan, X.; Williams, K. H.

    2015-12-01

    The occurrence of naturally reduced zones is common in alluvial aquifers in the western U.S.A. due to the burial of woody debris in flood plains. Such reduced zones are usually heterogeneously dispersed in these aquifers and characterized by high concentrations of organic carbon, reduced mineral phases, and reduced forms of metals, including uranium(IV). The persistence of high concentrations of dissolved uranium(VI) at uranium-contaminated aquifers on the Colorado Plateau has been attributed to slow oxidation of insoluble uranium(IV) mineral phases found in association with these reducing zones, although there is little understanding of the relative importance of various potential oxidants. Four field experiments were conducted within an alluvial aquifer adjacent to the Colorado River near Rifle, CO, wherein groundwater associated with the naturally reduced zones was pumped into a gas-impermeable tank, mixed with a conservative tracer (Br-), bubbled with a gas phase composed of 97% O2 and 3% CO2, and then returned to the subsurface in the same well from which it was withdrawn. Within minutes of re-injection of the oxygenated groundwater, dissolved uranium(VI) concentrations increased from less than 1 μM to greater than 2.5 μM, demonstrating that oxygen can be an important oxidant for uranium in such field systems if supplied to the naturally reduced zones. Dissolved Fe(II) concentrations decreased to the detection limit, but increases in sulfate could not be detected due to high background concentrations. Changes in nitrogen species concentrations were variable. The results contrast with other laboratory and field results in which oxygen was introduced to systems containing high concentrations of mackinawite (FeS), rather than the more crystalline iron sulfides found in aged, naturally reduced zones. The flux of oxygen to the naturally reduced zones in the alluvial aquifers occurs mainly through interactions between groundwater and gas phases at the water table

  14. A genome-wide association study demonstrates significant genetic variation for fracture risk in Thoroughbred racehorses

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-01-01

    Background Thoroughbred racehorses are subject to non-traumatic distal limb bone fractures that occur during racing and exercise. Susceptibility to fracture may be due to underlying disturbances in bone metabolism which have a genetic cause. Fracture risk has been shown to be heritable in several species but this study is the first genetic analysis of fracture risk in the horse. Results Fracture cases (n = 269) were horses that sustained catastrophic distal limb fractures while racing on UK racecourses, necessitating euthanasia. Control horses (n = 253) were over 4 years of age, were racing during the same time period as the cases, and had no history of fracture at the time the study was carried out. The horses sampled were bred for both flat and National Hunt (NH) jump racing. 43,417 SNPs were employed to perform a genome-wide association analysis and to estimate the proportion of genetic variance attributable to the SNPs on each chromosome using restricted maximum likelihood (REML). Significant genetic variation associated with fracture risk was found on chromosomes 9, 18, 22 and 31. Three SNPs on chromosome 18 (62.05 Mb – 62.15 Mb) and one SNP on chromosome 1 (14.17 Mb) reached genome-wide significance (p fracture than cases, p = 1 × 10-4), while a second haplotype increases fracture risk (cases at 3.39 times higher risk of fracture than controls, p = 0.042). Conclusions Fracture risk in the Thoroughbred horse is a complex condition with an underlying genetic basis. Multiple genomic regions contribute to susceptibility to fracture risk. This suggests there is the potential to develop SNP-based estimators for genetic risk of fracture in the Thoroughbred racehorse, using methods pioneered in livestock genetics such as genomic selection. This information would be useful to racehorse breeders and owners, enabling them to reduce the risk of injury in their horses. PMID:24559379

  15. Induction-heating MOCVD reactor with significantly improved heating efficiency and reduced harmful magnetic coupling

    KAUST Repository

    Li, Kuang-Hui; Alotaibi, Hamad S.; Sun, Haiding; Lin, Ronghui; Guo, Wenzhe; Torres-Castanedo, Carlos G.; Liu, Kaikai; Galan, Sergio V.; Li, Xiaohang

    2018-01-01

    In a conventional induction-heating III-nitride metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) reactor, the induction coil is outside the chamber. Therefore, the magnetic field does not couple with the susceptor well, leading to compromised heating efficiency and harmful coupling with the gas inlet and thus possible overheating. Hence, the gas inlet has to be at a minimum distance away from the susceptor. Because of the elongated flow path, premature reactions can be more severe, particularly between Al- and B-containing precursors and NH3. Here, we propose a structure that can significantly improve the heating efficiency and allow the gas inlet to be closer to the susceptor. Specifically, the induction coil is designed to surround the vertical cylinder of a T-shaped susceptor comprising the cylinder and a top horizontal plate holding the wafer substrate within the reactor. Therefore, the cylinder coupled most magnetic field to serve as the thermal source for the plate. Furthermore, the plate can block and thus significantly reduce the uncoupled magnetic field above the susceptor, thereby allowing the gas inlet to be closer. The results show approximately 140% and 2.6 times increase in the heating and susceptor coupling efficiencies, respectively, as well as a 90% reduction in the harmful magnetic flux on the gas inlet.

  16. Induction-heating MOCVD reactor with significantly improved heating efficiency and reduced harmful magnetic coupling

    KAUST Repository

    Li, Kuang-Hui

    2018-02-23

    In a conventional induction-heating III-nitride metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) reactor, the induction coil is outside the chamber. Therefore, the magnetic field does not couple with the susceptor well, leading to compromised heating efficiency and harmful coupling with the gas inlet and thus possible overheating. Hence, the gas inlet has to be at a minimum distance away from the susceptor. Because of the elongated flow path, premature reactions can be more severe, particularly between Al- and B-containing precursors and NH3. Here, we propose a structure that can significantly improve the heating efficiency and allow the gas inlet to be closer to the susceptor. Specifically, the induction coil is designed to surround the vertical cylinder of a T-shaped susceptor comprising the cylinder and a top horizontal plate holding the wafer substrate within the reactor. Therefore, the cylinder coupled most magnetic field to serve as the thermal source for the plate. Furthermore, the plate can block and thus significantly reduce the uncoupled magnetic field above the susceptor, thereby allowing the gas inlet to be closer. The results show approximately 140% and 2.6 times increase in the heating and susceptor coupling efficiencies, respectively, as well as a 90% reduction in the harmful magnetic flux on the gas inlet.

  17. BILLIARDS: A Demonstration Mission for Hundred-Meter Class Near Earth Asteroid Disruption

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marcus, Matthew; Sloane, Joshua; Ortiz, Oliver; Barbee, Brent W.

    2015-01-01

    Currently, no planetary defense demonstration mission has ever been flown. While Nuclear Explosive Devices (NEDs) have significantly more energy than a kinetic impactor launched directly from Earth, they present safety and political complications, and therefore may only be used when absolutely necessary. The Baseline Instrumented Lithology Lander, Inspector, and Asteroid Redirection Demonstration System (BILLIARDS) is a demonstration mission for planetary defense, which is capable of delivering comparable energy to the lower range of NED capabilities in the form of a safer kinetic impactor. A small asteroid (disrupt the larger asteroid. To reduce the cost and complexity, an asteroid pair which has a natural close approach is selected.

  18. A Recombinant Multi-Stage Vaccine against Paratuberculosis Significantly Reduces Bacterial Level in Tissues without Interference in Diagnostics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jungersen, Gregers; Thakur, Aneesh; Aagaard, C.

    , PPDj-specific IFN-γ responses or positive PPDa or PPDb skin tests developed in vaccinees. Antibodies and cell-mediated immune responses were developed against FET11 antigens, however. At necropsy 8 or 12 months of age, relative Map burden was determined in a number of gut tissues by quantitative IS900...... PCR and revealed significantly reduced levels of Map and reduced histopathology. Diagnostic tests for antibody responses and cell-mediated immune responses, used as surrogates of infection, corroborated the observed vaccine efficacy: Five of seven non‐vaccinated calves seroconverted in ID Screen......-γ assay responses from 40 to 52 weeks compared to non-vaccinated calves. These results indicate the FET11 vaccine can be used to accelerate eradication of paratuberculosis while surveillance or test-and-manage control programs for tuberculosis and Johne’s disease remain in place. Funded by EMIDA ERA...

  19. Hypoxis hemerocallidea Significantly Reduced Hyperglycaemia and Hyperglycaemic-Induced Oxidative Stress in the Liver and Kidney Tissues of Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Male Wistar Rats

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oluwafemi O. Oguntibeju

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Background. Hypoxis hemerocallidea is a native plant that grows in the Southern African regions and is well known for its beneficial medicinal effects in the treatment of diabetes, cancer, and high blood pressure. Aim. This study evaluated the effects of Hypoxis hemerocallidea on oxidative stress biomarkers, hepatic injury, and other selected biomarkers in the liver and kidneys of healthy nondiabetic and streptozotocin- (STZ- induced diabetic male Wistar rats. Materials and Methods. Rats were injected intraperitoneally with 50 mg/kg of STZ to induce diabetes. The plant extract-Hypoxis hemerocallidea (200 mg/kg or 800 mg/kg aqueous solution was administered (daily orally for 6 weeks. Antioxidant activities were analysed using a Multiskan Spectrum plate reader while other serum biomarkers were measured using the RANDOX chemistry analyser. Results. Both dosages (200 mg/kg and 800 mg/kg of Hypoxis hemerocallidea significantly reduced the blood glucose levels in STZ-induced diabetic groups. Activities of liver enzymes were increased in the diabetic control and in the diabetic group treated with 800 mg/kg, whereas the 200 mg/kg dosage ameliorated hepatic injury. In the hepatic tissue, the oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP, catalase, and total glutathione were reduced in the diabetic control group. However treatment with both doses improved the antioxidant status. The FRAP and the catalase activities in the kidney were elevated in the STZ-induced diabetic group treated with 800 mg/kg of the extract possibly due to compensatory responses. Conclusion. Hypoxis hemerocallidea demonstrated antihyperglycemic and antioxidant effects especially in the liver tissue.

  20. Significant Association between Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria and Uranium-Reducing Microbial Communities as Revealed by a Combined Massively Parallel Sequencing-Indicator Species Approach▿ †

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cardenas, Erick; Wu, Wei-Min; Leigh, Mary Beth; Carley, Jack; Carroll, Sue; Gentry, Terry; Luo, Jian; Watson, David; Gu, Baohua; Ginder-Vogel, Matthew; Kitanidis, Peter K.; Jardine, Philip M.; Zhou, Jizhong; Criddle, Craig S.; Marsh, Terence L.; Tiedje, James M.

    2010-01-01

    Massively parallel sequencing has provided a more affordable and high-throughput method to study microbial communities, although it has mostly been used in an exploratory fashion. We combined pyrosequencing with a strict indicator species statistical analysis to test if bacteria specifically responded to ethanol injection that successfully promoted dissimilatory uranium(VI) reduction in the subsurface of a uranium contamination plume at the Oak Ridge Field Research Center in Tennessee. Remediation was achieved with a hydraulic flow control consisting of an inner loop, where ethanol was injected, and an outer loop for flow-field protection. This strategy reduced uranium concentrations in groundwater to levels below 0.126 μM and created geochemical gradients in electron donors from the inner-loop injection well toward the outer loop and downgradient flow path. Our analysis with 15 sediment samples from the entire test area found significant indicator species that showed a high degree of adaptation to the three different hydrochemical-created conditions. Castellaniella and Rhodanobacter characterized areas with low pH, heavy metals, and low bioactivity, while sulfate-, Fe(III)-, and U(VI)-reducing bacteria (Desulfovibrio, Anaeromyxobacter, and Desulfosporosinus) were indicators of areas where U(VI) reduction occurred. The abundance of these bacteria, as well as the Fe(III) and U(VI) reducer Geobacter, correlated with the hydraulic connectivity to the substrate injection site, suggesting that the selected populations were a direct response to electron donor addition by the groundwater flow path. A false-discovery-rate approach was implemented to discard false-positive results by chance, given the large amount of data compared. PMID:20729318

  1. Pegasus project. DLC coating and low viscosity oil reduce energy losses significantly

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Doerwald, Dave; Jacobs, Ruud [Hauzer Techno Coating (Netherlands). Tribological Coatings

    2012-03-15

    Pegasus, the flying horse from Greek mythology, is a suitable name for the research project initiated by a German automotive OEM with participation of Hauzer Techno Coating and several automotive suppliers. It will enable future automotive vehicles to reduce fuel consumption without losing power. The project described in this article focuses on the rear differential, because reducing friction here can contribute considerably to efficiency improvement of the whole vehicle. Surfaces, coating and oil viscosity have been investigated and interesting conclusions have been reached. (orig.)

  2. Increasing the statistical significance of entanglement detection in experiments

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jungnitsch, Bastian; Niekamp, Soenke; Kleinmann, Matthias; Guehne, Otfried [Institut fuer Quantenoptik und Quanteninformation, Innsbruck (Austria); Lu, He; Gao, Wei-Bo; Chen, Zeng-Bing [Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei (China); Chen, Yu-Ao; Pan, Jian-Wei [Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei (China); Physikalisches Institut, Universitaet Heidelberg (Germany)

    2010-07-01

    Entanglement is often verified by a violation of an inequality like a Bell inequality or an entanglement witness. Considerable effort has been devoted to the optimization of such inequalities in order to obtain a high violation. We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that such an optimization does not necessarily lead to a better entanglement test, if the statistical error is taken into account. Theoretically, we show for different error models that reducing the violation of an inequality can improve the significance. We show this to be the case for an error model in which the variance of an observable is interpreted as its error and for the standard error model in photonic experiments. Specifically, we demonstrate that the Mermin inequality yields a Bell test which is statistically more significant than the Ardehali inequality in the case of a photonic four-qubit state that is close to a GHZ state. Experimentally, we observe this phenomenon in a four-photon experiment, testing the above inequalities for different levels of noise.

  3. Reducing Plug Loads in Office Spaces: Hawaii and Guam Energy Improvement Technology Demonstration Project

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sheppy, M. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Metzger, I. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Cutler, D. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Holland, G. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Hanada, A. [Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Washington, DC (United States)

    2014-01-01

    As part of its overall strategy to meet its energy goals, the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) partnered with the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to rapidly demonstrate and deploy cost-effective renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. This project was one of several demonstrations of new or underutilized commercial energy technologies. The common goal was to demonstrate and measure the performance and economic benefit of the system while monitoring any ancillary impacts to related standards of service and operation and maintenance (O&M) practices. In short, demonstrations at naval facilities simultaneously evaluate the benefits and compatibility of the technology with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) mission, and with NAVFAC's design, construction, operations, and maintenance practices, in particular. This project demonstrated the performance of commercially available advanced power strips (APSs) for plug load energy reductions in building A4 at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPHH), Hawaii.

  4. Significantly reduced c-axis thermal diffusivity of graphene-based papers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Meng; Xie, Yangsu; Liu, Jing; Zhang, Jingchao; Wang, Xinwei

    2018-06-01

    Owing to their very high thermal conductivity as well as large surface-to-volume ratio, graphene-based films/papers have been proposed as promising candidates of lightweight thermal interface materials and lateral heat spreaders. In this work, we study the cross-plane (c-axis) thermal conductivity (k c ) and diffusivity (α c ) of two typical graphene-based papers, which are partially reduced graphene paper (PRGP) and graphene oxide paper (GOP), and compare their thermal properties with highly-reduced graphene paper and graphite. The determined α c of PRGP varies from (1.02 ± 0.09) × 10‑7 m2 s‑1 at 295 K to (2.31 ± 0.18) × 10‑7 m2 s‑1 at 12 K. This low α c is mainly attributed to the strong phonon scattering at the grain boundaries and defect centers due to the small grain sizes and high-level defects. For GOP, α c varies from (1.52 ± 0.05) × 10‑7 m2 s‑1 at 295 K to (2.28 ± 0.08) × 10‑7 m2 s‑1 at 12.5 K. The cross-plane thermal transport of GOP is attributed to the high density of functional groups between carbon layers which provide weak thermal transport tunnels across the layers in the absence of direct energy coupling among layers. This work sheds light on the understanding and optimizing of nanostructure of graphene-based paper-like materials for desired thermal performance.

  5. MULTIPLE IMAGING TECHNIQUES DEMONSTRATE THE MANIPULATION OF SURFACES TO REDUCE BACTERIAL CONTAMINATION

    Science.gov (United States)

    Surface imaging techniques were combined to determine appropriate manipulation of technologically important surfaces for commercial applications. Stainless steel surfaces were engineered to reduce bacterial contamination, biofilm formation, and corrosion during product processing...

  6. Reducing Eating Disorder Onset in a Very High Risk Sample with Significant Comorbid Depression: A Randomized Controlled Trial

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taylor, C. Barr; Kass, Andrea E.; Trockel, Mickey; Cunning, Darby; Weisman, Hannah; Bailey, Jakki; Sinton, Meghan; Aspen, Vandana; Schecthman, Kenneth; Jacobi, Corinna; Wilfley, Denise E.

    2015-01-01

    Objective Eating disorders (EDs) are serious problems among college-age women and may be preventable. An indicated on-line eating disorder (ED) intervention, designed to reduce ED and comorbid pathology, was evaluated. Method 206 women (M age = 20 ± 1.8 years; 51% White/Caucasian, 11% African American, 10% Hispanic, 21% Asian/Asian American, 7% other) at very high risk for ED onset (i.e., with high weight/shape concerns plus a history of being teased, current or lifetime depression, and/or non-clinical levels of compensatory behaviors) were randomized to a 10-week, Internet-based, cognitive-behavioral intervention or wait-list control. Assessments included the Eating Disorder Examination (EDE to assess ED onset), EDE-Questionnaire, Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Disorders, and Beck Depression Inventory-II. Results ED attitudes and behaviors improved more in the intervention than control group (p = 0.02, d = 0.31); although ED onset rate was 27% lower, this difference was not significant (p = 0.28, NNT = 15). In the subgroup with highest shape concerns, ED onset rate was significantly lower in the intervention than control group (20% versus 42%, p = 0.025, NNT = 5). For the 27 individuals with depression at baseline, depressive symptomatology improved more in the intervention than control group (p = 0.016, d = 0.96); although ED onset rate was lower in the intervention than control group, this difference was not significant (25% versus 57%, NNT = 4). Conclusions An inexpensive, easily disseminated intervention might reduce ED onset among those at highest risk. Low adoption rates need to be addressed in future research. PMID:26795936

  7. Reducing eating disorder onset in a very high risk sample with significant comorbid depression: A randomized controlled trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taylor, C Barr; Kass, Andrea E; Trockel, Mickey; Cunning, Darby; Weisman, Hannah; Bailey, Jakki; Sinton, Meghan; Aspen, Vandana; Schecthman, Kenneth; Jacobi, Corinna; Wilfley, Denise E

    2016-05-01

    Eating disorders (EDs) are serious problems among college-age women and may be preventable. An indicated online eating disorder (ED) intervention, designed to reduce ED and comorbid pathology, was evaluated. 206 women (M age = 20 ± 1.8 years; 51% White/Caucasian, 11% African American, 10% Hispanic, 21% Asian/Asian American, 7% other) at very high risk for ED onset (i.e., with high weight/shape concerns plus a history of being teased, current or lifetime depression, and/or nonclinical levels of compensatory behaviors) were randomized to a 10-week, Internet-based, cognitive-behavioral intervention or waitlist control. Assessments included the Eating Disorder Examination (EDE, to assess ED onset), EDE-Questionnaire, Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Disorders, and Beck Depression Inventory-II. ED attitudes and behaviors improved more in the intervention than control group (p = .02, d = 0.31); although ED onset rate was 27% lower, this difference was not significant (p = .28, NNT = 15). In the subgroup with highest shape concerns, ED onset rate was significantly lower in the intervention than control group (20% vs. 42%, p = .025, NNT = 5). For the 27 individuals with depression at baseline, depressive symptomatology improved more in the intervention than control group (p = .016, d = 0.96); although ED onset rate was lower in the intervention than control group, this difference was not significant (25% vs. 57%, NNT = 4). An inexpensive, easily disseminated intervention might reduce ED onset among those at highest risk. Low adoption rates need to be addressed in future research. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  8. A clip-based protocol for breast boost radiotherapy provides clear target visualisation and demonstrates significant volume reduction over time

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lewis, Lorraine [Department of Radiation Oncology, Northern Sydney Cancer Centre, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales (Australia); Cox, Jennifer [Department of Radiation Oncology, Northern Sydney Cancer Centre, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales (Australia); Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales (Australia); Morgia, Marita [Department of Radiation Oncology, Northern Sydney Cancer Centre, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales (Australia); Atyeo, John [Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales (Australia); Lamoury, Gillian [Department of Radiation Oncology, Northern Sydney Cancer Centre, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales (Australia)

    2015-09-15

    The clinical target volume (CTV) for early stage breast cancer is difficult to clearly identify on planning computed tomography (CT) scans. Surgical clips inserted around the tumour bed should help to identify the CTV, particularly if the seroma has been reabsorbed, and enable tracking of CTV changes over time. A surgical clip-based CTV delineation protocol was introduced. CTV visibility and its post-operative shrinkage pattern were assessed. The subjects were 27 early stage breast cancer patients receiving post-operative radiotherapy alone and 15 receiving post-operative chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy. The radiotherapy alone (RT/alone) group received a CT scan at median 25 days post-operatively (CT1rt) and another at 40 Gy, median 68 days (CT2rt). The chemotherapy/RT group (chemo/RT) received a CT scan at median 18 days post-operatively (CT1ch), a planning CT scan at median 126 days (CT2ch), and another at 40 Gy (CT3ch). There was no significant difference (P = 0.08) between the initial mean CTV for each cohort. The RT/alone cohort showed significant CTV volume reduction of 38.4% (P = 0.01) at 40 Gy. The Chemo/RT cohort had significantly reduced volumes between CT1ch: median 54 cm{sup 3} (4–118) and CT2ch: median 16 cm{sup 3}, (2–99), (P = 0.01), but no significant volume reduction thereafter. Surgical clips enable localisation of the post-surgical seroma for radiotherapy targeting. Most seroma shrinkage occurs early, enabling CT treatment planning to take place at 7 weeks, which is within the 9 weeks recommended to limit disease recurrence.

  9. A clip-based protocol for breast boost radiotherapy provides clear target visualisation and demonstrates significant volume reduction over time

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lewis, Lorraine; Cox, Jennifer; Morgia, Marita; Atyeo, John; Lamoury, Gillian

    2015-01-01

    The clinical target volume (CTV) for early stage breast cancer is difficult to clearly identify on planning computed tomography (CT) scans. Surgical clips inserted around the tumour bed should help to identify the CTV, particularly if the seroma has been reabsorbed, and enable tracking of CTV changes over time. A surgical clip-based CTV delineation protocol was introduced. CTV visibility and its post-operative shrinkage pattern were assessed. The subjects were 27 early stage breast cancer patients receiving post-operative radiotherapy alone and 15 receiving post-operative chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy. The radiotherapy alone (RT/alone) group received a CT scan at median 25 days post-operatively (CT1rt) and another at 40 Gy, median 68 days (CT2rt). The chemotherapy/RT group (chemo/RT) received a CT scan at median 18 days post-operatively (CT1ch), a planning CT scan at median 126 days (CT2ch), and another at 40 Gy (CT3ch). There was no significant difference (P = 0.08) between the initial mean CTV for each cohort. The RT/alone cohort showed significant CTV volume reduction of 38.4% (P = 0.01) at 40 Gy. The Chemo/RT cohort had significantly reduced volumes between CT1ch: median 54 cm 3 (4–118) and CT2ch: median 16 cm 3 , (2–99), (P = 0.01), but no significant volume reduction thereafter. Surgical clips enable localisation of the post-surgical seroma for radiotherapy targeting. Most seroma shrinkage occurs early, enabling CT treatment planning to take place at 7 weeks, which is within the 9 weeks recommended to limit disease recurrence

  10. Increasing the statistical significance of entanglement detection in experiments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jungnitsch, Bastian; Niekamp, Sönke; Kleinmann, Matthias; Gühne, Otfried; Lu, He; Gao, Wei-Bo; Chen, Yu-Ao; Chen, Zeng-Bing; Pan, Jian-Wei

    2010-05-28

    Entanglement is often verified by a violation of an inequality like a Bell inequality or an entanglement witness. Considerable effort has been devoted to the optimization of such inequalities in order to obtain a high violation. We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that such an optimization does not necessarily lead to a better entanglement test, if the statistical error is taken into account. Theoretically, we show for different error models that reducing the violation of an inequality can improve the significance. Experimentally, we observe this phenomenon in a four-photon experiment, testing the Mermin and Ardehali inequality for different levels of noise. Furthermore, we provide a way to develop entanglement tests with high statistical significance.

  11. PA positioning significantly reduces testicular dose during sacroiliac joint radiography

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mekis, Nejc [Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ljubljana (Slovenia); Mc Entee, Mark F., E-mail: mark.mcentee@ucd.i [School of Medicine and Medical Science, University College Dublin 4 (Ireland); Stegnar, Peter [Jozef Stefan International Postgraduate School, Ljubljana (Slovenia)

    2010-11-15

    Radiation dose to the testes in the antero-posterior (AP) and postero-anterior (PA) projection of the sacroiliac joint (SIJ) was measured with and without a scrotal shield. Entrance surface dose, the dose received by the testicles and the dose area product (DAP) was used. DAP measurements revealed the dose received by the phantom in the PA position is 12.6% lower than the AP (p {<=} 0.009) with no statistically significant reduction in image quality (p {<=} 0.483). The dose received by the testes in the PA projection in SIJ imaging is 93.1% lower than the AP projection when not using protection (p {<=} 0.020) and 94.9% lower with protection (p {<=} 0.019). The dose received by the testicles was not changed by the use of a scrotal shield in the AP position (p {<=} 0.559); but was lowered by its use in the PA (p {<=} 0.058). Use of the PA projection in SIJ imaging significantly lowers, the dose received by the testes compared to the AP projection without significant loss of image quality.

  12. Demonstrating the benefits of fuel cells: further significant progress towards commercialisation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Anon,

    1995-01-01

    The fourteenth Fuel Cell Seminar held in San Diego, California in 1994 is reported. The phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC) is the closest to widespread commercialization. PAFC cogeneration plants have to be shown to compare favourable in reliability with current mature natural gas-fuelled engine and turbine technologies. Although highly efficient, further development is necessary to produce cost effective generators. Progress is being made on proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stationary power plants, too, which may prove to be cost effective. In view of its lower operating temperature, at below 100[sup o]C compared with about 200[sup o]C for the PAFC, the principal use of the PEMFC has been identified as powering vehicles. Fuel cells have significant environmental advantages but further capital cost reductions are necessary if they are to compete with established technologies. (UK)

  13. Kaolinitic clay-based grouting demonstration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McCloskey, A.L.; Barry, C.J.; Wilmoth, R.

    1997-01-01

    An innovative Kaolinitic Clay-Based Grouting Demonstration was performed under the Mine Waste Technology Program (MWTP), funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and jointly administered by the EPA and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The objective of the technology was to demonstrate the effectiveness of kaolinitic clay-based grouting in reducing/eliminating infiltration of surface and shallow groundwater through fractured bedrock into underground mine workings. In 1993, the Mike Horse Mine was selected as a demonstration site for the field implementation and evaluation of the grouting technology. The mine portal discharge ranged between 114 to 454 liters per minute (30 to 120 gpm) of water containing iron, zinc, manganese, and cadmium at levels exceeding the National Drinking Water Maximum Contaminant Levels. The grout formulation was designed by the developer Morrison Knudsen Corporation/Spetstamponazhgeologia (MK/STG), in May 1994. Grout injection was performed by Hayward Baker, Inc. under the directive of MSE Technology Applications, Inc. (MSE-TA) during fall of 1994. The grout was injected into directionally-drilled grout holes to form a grout curtain at the project site. Post grout observations suggest the grout was successful in reducing the infiltration of the surface and shallow groundwater from entering the underground mine workings. The proceeding paper describes the demonstration and technology used to form the subsurface barrier in the fracture system

  14. Reduced muscarinic receptors in the cingulate cortex in mild Alzheimer's disease demonstrated with 123I iodo-dexetamide SPECT

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rowe, C.C.; Barnden, L.R.; Nicholas, C.; Nowakowski, K.; Boundy, K.

    2000-01-01

    Full text: Parietal hypoperfusion/hypometabolism is a feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In early AD this may be preceded by changes in the posterior cingulate cortex, part of the cortico-limbic circuit with connections to the medial temporal lobes. Because cholinergic function is affected in early AD, we aimed to investigate the binding of the muscarinic receptor label, I-123 iodo-dexetamide (IDEX). We recruited 11 mild (MiniMental State Examination 27-24) and 11 moderate (MMSE 23-16) Alzheimer's patients and 10 age and sex-matched normal subjects. SPECT was performed six hours after injection of 185 MBq IDEX. Sections were reconstructed with attenuation correction using an iterative algorithm (OSEM). Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM 99) was used to analyse the data. Because there is very little IDEX uptake in the cerebellum and thalamus it was necessary to edit them from the SPM PET template. Facial and scalp activity was also edited. Global scaling relative to the basal ganglia was used. Significant areas of decreased IDEX binding were found in the mild Alzheimer's group in the cingulate cortex with pvoxel = .08 and pcluster < 0.001, (particularly the posterior cingulate), left parietotemporal junction (pcluster = 0.01) and posteromedial left temporal lobe (pcluster = 0.03). In moderate AD extensive areas of decreased binding were found in the posterior cingulate, parietal and temporal lobes. The difference between the group-means at the posterior cingulate was 14% (mild AD) and 22% (moderate AD). Hypoperfusion, hypometabolism and now reduced cholinergic receptors have been demonstrated in the posterior cingulate in mild AD. Greater attention to this area may enhance the diagnostic value of functional imaging in early AD. Copyright (2000) The Australian and New Zealand Society of Nuclear Medicine Inc

  15. Preconceptual design of the gas-phase decontamination demonstration cart

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Munday, E.B.

    1993-12-01

    Removal of uranium deposits from the interior surfaces of gaseous diffusion equipment will be a major portion of the overall multibillion dollar effort to decontaminate and decommission the gaseous diffusion plants. Long-term low-temperature (LTLT) gas-phase decontamination is being developed at the K-25 Site as an in situ decontamination process that is expected to significantly lower the decontamination costs, reduce worker exposure to radioactive materials, and reduce safeguard concerns. This report documents the preconceptual design of the process equipment that is necessary to conduct a full-scale demonstration of the LTLT method in accordance with the process steps listed above. The process equipment and method proposed in this report are not intended to represent a full-scale production campaign design and operation, since the gas evacuation, gas charging, and off-gas handling systems that would be cost effective in a production campaign are not cost effective for a first-time demonstration. However, the design presented here is expected to be applicable to special decontamination projects beyond the demonstration, which could include the Deposit Recovery Program. The equipment will therefore be sized to a 200 ft size 1 converter (plus a substantial conservative design margin), which is the largest item of interest for gas phase decontamination in the Deposit Recovery Program. The decontamination equipment will allow recovery of the UF 6 , which is generated from the reaction of ClF 3 with the uranium deposits, by use of NaF traps

  16. PA positioning significantly reduces testicular dose during sacroiliac joint radiography

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mekis, Nejc; Mc Entee, Mark F.; Stegnar, Peter

    2010-01-01

    Radiation dose to the testes in the antero-posterior (AP) and postero-anterior (PA) projection of the sacroiliac joint (SIJ) was measured with and without a scrotal shield. Entrance surface dose, the dose received by the testicles and the dose area product (DAP) was used. DAP measurements revealed the dose received by the phantom in the PA position is 12.6% lower than the AP (p ≤ 0.009) with no statistically significant reduction in image quality (p ≤ 0.483). The dose received by the testes in the PA projection in SIJ imaging is 93.1% lower than the AP projection when not using protection (p ≤ 0.020) and 94.9% lower with protection (p ≤ 0.019). The dose received by the testicles was not changed by the use of a scrotal shield in the AP position (p ≤ 0.559); but was lowered by its use in the PA (p ≤ 0.058). Use of the PA projection in SIJ imaging significantly lowers, the dose received by the testes compared to the AP projection without significant loss of image quality.

  17. Pediatric hospital discharge interventions to reduce subsequent utilization: a systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Auger, Katherine A; Kenyon, Chén C; Feudtner, Chris; Davis, Matthew M

    2014-04-01

    Reducing avoidable readmission and posthospitalization emergency department (ED) utilization has become a focus of quality-of-care measures and initiatives. For pediatric patients, no systematic efforts have assessed the evidence for interventions to reduce these events. We sought to synthesize existing evidence on pediatric discharge practices and interventions to reduce hospital readmission and posthospitalization ED utilization. PubMed and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature. Studies available in English involving pediatric inpatient discharge interventions with at least 1 outcome of interest were included. We utilized a modified Cochrane Good Practice data extraction tool and assessed study quality with the Downs and Black tool. Our search identified a total of 1296 studies, 14 of which met full inclusion criteria. All included studies examined multifaceted discharge interventions initiated in the inpatient setting. Overall, 2 studies demonstrated statistically significant reductions in both readmissions and subsequent ED visits, 4 studies demonstrated statistically significant reductions in either readmissions or ED visits, and 2 studies found statistically significant increases in subsequent utilization. Several studies were not sufficiently powered to detect changes in either subsequent utilization outcome measure. Interventions that demonstrated reductions in subsequent utilization targeted children with specific chronic conditions, providing enhanced inpatient feedback and education reinforced with postdischarge support. Interventions seeking to reduce subsequent utilization should identify an individual or team to assume responsibility for the inpatient-to-outpatient transition and offer ongoing support to the family via telephone or home visitation following discharge. © 2013 Society of Hospital Medicine.

  18. Secure Interoperable Open Smart Grid Demonstration Project

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Magee, Thoman [Consolidated Edison Company Of New York, Inc., NY (United States)

    2014-12-28

    The Consolidated Edison, Inc., of New York (Con Edison) Secure Interoperable Open Smart Grid Demonstration Project (SGDP), sponsored by the United States (US) Department of Energy (DOE), demonstrated that the reliability, efficiency, and flexibility of the grid can be improved through a combination of enhanced monitoring and control capabilities using systems and resources that interoperate within a secure services framework. The project demonstrated the capability to shift, balance, and reduce load where and when needed in response to system contingencies or emergencies by leveraging controllable field assets. The range of field assets includes curtailable customer loads, distributed generation (DG), battery storage, electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, building management systems (BMS), home area networks (HANs), high-voltage monitoring, and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). The SGDP enables the seamless integration and control of these field assets through a common, cyber-secure, interoperable control platform, which integrates a number of existing legacy control and data systems, as well as new smart grid (SG) systems and applications. By integrating advanced technologies for monitoring and control, the SGDP helps target and reduce peak load growth, improves the reliability and efficiency of Con Edison’s grid, and increases the ability to accommodate the growing use of distributed resources. Con Edison is dedicated to lowering costs, improving reliability and customer service, and reducing its impact on the environment for its customers. These objectives also align with the policy objectives of New York State as a whole. To help meet these objectives, Con Edison’s long-term vision for the distribution grid relies on the successful integration and control of a growing penetration of distributed resources, including demand response (DR) resources, battery storage units, and DG. For example, Con Edison is expecting significant long-term growth of DG

  19. Demonstration of Cosmic Microwave Background Delensing Using the Cosmic Infrared Background.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Larsen, Patricia; Challinor, Anthony; Sherwin, Blake D; Mak, Daisy

    2016-10-07

    Delensing is an increasingly important technique to reverse the gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and thus reveal primordial signals the lensing may obscure. We present a first demonstration of delensing on Planck temperature maps using the cosmic infrared background (CIB). Reversing the lensing deflections in Planck CMB temperature maps using a linear combination of the 545 and 857 GHz maps as a lensing tracer, we find that the lensing effects in the temperature power spectrum are reduced in a manner consistent with theoretical expectations. In particular, the characteristic sharpening of the acoustic peaks of the temperature power spectrum resulting from successful delensing is detected at a significance of 16σ, with an amplitude of A_{delens}=1.12±0.07 relative to the expected value of unity. This first demonstration on data of CIB delensing, and of delensing techniques in general, is significant because lensing removal will soon be essential for achieving high-precision constraints on inflationary B-mode polarization.

  20. Exploration Medical System Demonstration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rubin, D. A.; Watkins, S. D.

    2014-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Exploration class missions will present significant new challenges and hazards to the health of the astronauts. Regardless of the intended destination, beyond low Earth orbit a greater degree of crew autonomy will be required to diagnose medical conditions, develop treatment plans, and implement procedures due to limited communications with ground-based personnel. SCOPE: The Exploration Medical System Demonstration (EMSD) project will act as a test bed on the International Space Station (ISS) to demonstrate to crew and ground personnel that an end-to-end medical system can assist clinician and non-clinician crew members in optimizing medical care delivery and data management during an exploration mission. Challenges facing exploration mission medical care include limited resources, inability to evacuate to Earth during many mission phases, and potential rendering of medical care by non-clinicians. This system demonstrates the integration of medical devices and informatics tools for managing evidence and decision making and can be designed to assist crewmembers in nominal, non-emergent situations and in emergent situations when they may be suffering from performance decrements due to environmental, physiological or other factors. PROJECT OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the EMSD project are to: a. Reduce or eliminate the time required of an on-orbit crew and ground personnel to access, transfer, and manipulate medical data. b. Demonstrate that the on-orbit crew has the ability to access medical data/information via an intuitive and crew-friendly solution to aid in the treatment of a medical condition. c. Develop a common data management framework that can be ubiquitously used to automate repetitive data collection, management, and communications tasks for all activities pertaining to crew health and life sciences. d. Ensure crew access to medical data during periods of restricted ground communication. e. Develop a common data management framework that

  1. Demonstrating diamond wire cutting of the TFTR

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rule, K.; Perry, E.; Larson, S.; Viola, M.

    2000-01-01

    The Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) ceased operation in April 1997 and decommissioning commenced in October 1999. The deuterium-tritium fusion experiments resulted in contaminating the vacuum vessel with tritium and activating the materials with 14 Mev neutrons. The total tritium content within the vessel is in excess of 7,000 Curies while dose rates approach 50 mRem/hr. These radiological hazards along with the size of the Tokamak (100 cubic meters) present a unique and challenging task for dismantling. Plasma arc cutting is the current baseline technology for the dismantlement of fission reactors. This technology is typically used because of its faster cutting times. Alternatively, an innovative approach for dismantlement of the TFTR is the use of diamond wire cutting technology. Recent improvements in diamond wire technology have allowed the cutting of carbon steel components such as pipe, plate, and tube bundles in heat exchangers. Some expected benefits of this technology include: significantly reduction in airborne contaminates, reduced personnel exposure, a reduced risk of spread of tritium contamination, and reduced overall costs as compared to using plasma arc cutting. This paper will provide detailed results of the diamond wire cutting demonstration that was completed in September of 1999, on a mock-up of this complex reactor. The results will identify cost, safety, industrial and engineering parameters, and the related performance of each situation

  2. Demonstrating diamond wire cutting of the TFTR

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rule, K.; Perry, E.; Larson, S.; Viola, M. [and others

    2000-02-24

    The Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) ceased operation in April 1997 and decommissioning commenced in October 1999. The deuterium-tritium fusion experiments resulted in contaminating the vacuum vessel with tritium and activating the materials with 14 Mev neutrons. The total tritium content within the vessel is in excess of 7,000 Curies while dose rates approach 50 mRem/hr. These radiological hazards along with the size of the Tokamak (100 cubic meters) present a unique and challenging task for dismantling. Plasma arc cutting is the current baseline technology for the dismantlement of fission reactors. This technology is typically used because of its faster cutting times. Alternatively, an innovative approach for dismantlement of the TFTR is the use of diamond wire cutting technology. Recent improvements in diamond wire technology have allowed the cutting of carbon steel components such as pipe, plate, and tube bundles in heat exchangers. Some expected benefits of this technology include: significantly reduction in airborne contaminates, reduced personnel exposure, a reduced risk of spread of tritium contamination, and reduced overall costs as compared to using plasma arc cutting. This paper will provide detailed results of the diamond wire cutting demonstration that was completed in September of 1999, on a mock-up of this complex reactor. The results will identify cost, safety, industrial and engineering parameters, and the related performance of each situation.

  3. HIV Interventions to Reduce HIV/AIDS Stigma: A Systematic Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Banks, Bahby; Jonas, Dan; Miles, Margaret Shandor; Smith, Giselle Corbie

    2011-01-01

    We reviewed the literature to determine the effectiveness of HIV-related interventions in reducing HIV/AIDS stigma. Studies selected had randomized controlled trial (RCT), pretest–posttest with a non-randomized control group, or pretest–posttest one group study designs in which HIV-related interventions were being evaluated, and in which HIV/AIDS stigma was one of the outcomes being measured. A checklist was used to extract data from accepted studies, assess their internal validity, and overall quality. Data were extracted from 19 studies, and 14 of these studies demonstrated effectiveness in reducing HIV/ AIDS stigma. Only 2 of these 14 effective studies were considered good studies, based on quality, the extent to which the intervention focused on reducing HIV/AIDS stigma, and the statistics reported to demonstrate effectiveness. Future studies to reduce HIV/AIDS stigma could improve by designing interventions that pay greater attention to internal validity, use validated HIV/AIDS stigma instruments, and achieve both statistical and public health significance. PMID:21088989

  4. Exploration Medical System Demonstration Project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chin, D. A.; McGrath, T. L.; Reyna, B.; Watkins, S. D.

    2011-01-01

    A near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) mission will present significant new challenges including hazards to crew health created by exploring a beyond low earth orbit destination, traversing the terrain of asteroid surfaces, and the effects of variable gravity environments. Limited communications with ground-based personnel for diagnosis and consultation of medical events require increased crew autonomy when diagnosing conditions, creating treatment plans, and executing procedures. Scope: The Exploration Medical System Demonstration (EMSD) project will be a test bed on the International Space Station (ISS) to show an end-to-end medical system assisting the Crew Medical Officers (CMO) in optimizing medical care delivery and medical data management during a mission. NEA medical care challenges include resource and resupply constraints limiting the extent to which medical conditions can be treated, inability to evacuate to Earth during many mission phases, and rendering of medical care by a non-clinician. The system demonstrates the integration of medical technologies and medical informatics tools for managing evidence and decision making. Project Objectives: The objectives of the EMSD project are to: a) Reduce and possibly eliminate the time required for a crewmember and ground personnel to manage medical data from one application to another. b) Demonstrate crewmember's ability to access medical data/information via a software solution to assist/aid in the treatment of a medical condition. c) Develop a common data management architecture that can be ubiquitously used to automate repetitive data collection, management, and communications tasks for all crew health and life sciences activities. d) Develop a common data management architecture that allows for scalability, extensibility, and interoperability of data sources and data users. e) Lower total cost of ownership for development and sustainment of peripheral hardware and software that use EMSD for data management f) Provide

  5. The Bruton Tyrosine Kinase (BTK) Inhibitor Acalabrutinib Demonstrates Potent On-Target Effects and Efficacy in Two Mouse Models of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Herman, Sarah E M; Montraveta, Arnau; Niemann, Carsten U

    2017-01-01

    into the drinking water.Results: Utilizing biochemical assays, we demonstrate that acalabrutinib is a highly selective BTK inhibitor as compared with ibrutinib. In the human CLL NSG xenograft model, treatment with acalabrutinib demonstrated on-target effects, including decreased phosphorylation of PLCγ2, ERK......). In two complementary mouse models of CLL, acalabrutinib significantly reduced tumor burden and increased survival compared with vehicle treatment. Overall, acalabrutinib showed increased BTK selectivity compared with ibrutinib while demonstrating significant antitumor efficacy in vivo on par...... with ibrutinib. Clin Cancer Res; 23(11); 2831-41. ©2016 AACR....

  6. Using lytic bacteriophages to eliminate or significantly reduce contamination of food by foodborne bacterial pathogens.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sulakvelidze, Alexander

    2013-10-01

    Bacteriophages (also called 'phages') are viruses that kill bacteria. They are arguably the oldest (3 billion years old, by some estimates) and most ubiquitous (total number estimated to be 10(30) -10(32) ) known organisms on Earth. Phages play a key role in maintaining microbial balance in every ecosystem where bacteria exist, and they are part of the normal microflora of all fresh, unprocessed foods. Interest in various practical applications of bacteriophages has been gaining momentum recently, with perhaps the most attention focused on using them to improve food safety. That approach, called 'phage biocontrol', typically includes three main types of applications: (i) using phages to treat domesticated livestock in order to reduce their intestinal colonization with, and shedding of, specific bacterial pathogens; (ii) treatments for decontaminating inanimate surfaces in food-processing facilities and other food establishments, so that foods processed on those surfaces are not cross-contaminated with the targeted pathogens; and (iii) post-harvest treatments involving direct applications of phages onto the harvested foods. This mini-review primarily focuses on the last type of intervention, which has been gaining the most momentum recently. Indeed, the results of recent studies dealing with improving food safety, and several recent regulatory approvals of various commercial phage preparations developed for post-harvest food safety applications, strongly support the idea that lytic phages may provide a safe, environmentally-friendly, and effective approach for significantly reducing contamination of various foods with foodborne bacterial pathogens. However, some important technical and nontechnical problems may need to be addressed before phage biocontrol protocols can become an integral part of routine food safety intervention strategies implemented by food industries in the USA. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry.

  7. From meatless Mondays to meatless Sundays: motivations for meat reduction among vegetarians and semi-vegetarians who mildly or significantly reduce their meat intake.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Backer, Charlotte J S; Hudders, Liselot

    2014-01-01

    This study explores vegetarians' and semi-vegetarians' motives for reducing their meat intake. Participants are categorized as vegetarians (remove all meat from their diet); semi-vegetarians (significantly reduce meat intake: at least three days a week); or light semi-vegetarians (mildly reduce meat intake: once or twice a week). Most differences appear between vegetarians and both groups of semi-vegetarians. Animal-rights and ecological concerns, together with taste preferences, predict vegetarianism, while an increase in health motives increases the odds of being semi-vegetarian. Even within each group, subgroups with different motives appear, and it is recommended that future researchers pay more attention to these differences.

  8. Oxotremorine treatment reduces repetitive behaviors in BTBR T+ tf/J mice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dionisio A. Amodeo

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Repetitive behaviors with restricted interests is one of the core criteria for the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD. Current pharmacotherapies that target the dopaminergic or serotonergic systems have limited effectiveness in treating repetitive behaviors. Previous research has demonstrated that administration of muscarinic cholinergic receptor (mAChR antagonists can exacerbate motor stereotypies while mAChR agonists reduce stereotypies. The present study determined whether the mAChR agonist, oxotremorine affected repetitive behaviors in the BTBR T+ tf/J (BTBR mouse model of autism. To test the effects of oxotremorine on repetitive behaviors, marble burying and grooming behavior were measured in BTBR mice and compared to that in C57BL/6J (B6 mice. The effects of oxotremorine on locomotor activity was also measured. Thirty minutes before each test, mice received an intraperitoneal injection of saline, 0.001 mg or 0.01 mg of oxotremorine methiodide. Saline- treated BTBR mice exhibited increased marble burying and self-grooming behavior compared to that of saline-treated B6 mice. Oxotremorine significantly reduced marble burying and self-grooming behavior in BTBR mice, but had no significant effect in B6 mice. In addition, oxotremorine did not affect locomotor activity in BTBR mice, but significantly reduced locomotor activity in B6 mice at the 0.01 mg dose. These findings demonstrate that activation of mAChRs reduces repetitive behavior in the BTBR mouse and suggest that treatment with a mAChR agonist may be effective in reducing repetitive behaviors in ASD.

  9. Walking with a four wheeled walker (rollator) significantly reduces EMG lower-limb muscle activity in healthy subjects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suica, Zorica; Romkes, Jacqueline; Tal, Amir; Maguire, Clare

    2016-01-01

    To investigate the immediate effect of four-wheeled- walker(rollator)walking on lower-limb muscle activity and trunk-sway in healthy subjects. In this cross-sectional design electromyographic (EMG) data was collected in six lower-limb muscle groups and trunk-sway was measured as peak-to-peak angular displacement of the centre-of-mass (level L2/3) in the sagittal and frontal-planes using the SwayStar balance system. 19 subjects walked at self-selected speed firstly without a rollator then in randomised order 1. with rollator 2. with rollator with increased weight-bearing. Rollator-walking caused statistically significant reductions in EMG activity in lower-limb muscle groups and effect-sizes were medium to large. Increased weight-bearing increased the effect. Trunk-sway in the sagittal and frontal-planes showed no statistically significant difference between conditions. Rollator-walking reduces lower-limb muscle activity but trunk-sway remains unchanged as stability is likely gained through forces generated by the upper-limbs. Short-term stability is gained but the long-term effect is unclear and requires investigation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Metallothionein treatment reduces proinflammatory cytokines IL-6 and TNF-alpha and apoptotic cell death during experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Penkowa, M; Hidalgo, J

    2001-01-01

    cytokines and apoptosis during EAE could contribute to the reported diminution of clinical symptoms and mortality in EAE-immunized rats receiving Zn-MT-II treatment. Our results demonstrate that MT-II reduces the CNS expression of proinflammatory cytokines and the number of apoptotic neurons during EAE......, which is characterized by significant inflammation and neuroglial damage. We have recently shown that the exogenous administration of the antioxidant protein zinc-metallothionein-II (Zn-MT-II) significantly decreased the clinical symptoms, mortality, and leukocyte infiltration of the CNS during EAE....... However, it is not known how EAE progression is regulated nor how cytokine production and cell death can be reduced. We herewith demonstrate that treatment with Zn-MT-II significantly decreased the CNS expression of IL-6 and TNF-alpha during EAE. Zn-MT-II treatment could also significantly reduce...

  11. Potent corticosteroid cream (mometasone furoate) significantly reduces acute radiation dermatitis: results from a double-blind, randomized study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bostroem, Aasa; Lindman, Henrik; Swartling, Carl; Berne, Berit; Bergh, Jonas

    2001-01-01

    Purpose: Radiation-induced dermatitis is a very common side effect of radiation therapy, and may necessitate interruption of the therapy. There is a substantial lack of evidence-based treatments for this condition. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of mometasone furoate cream (MMF) on radiation dermatitis in a prospective, double-blind, randomized study. Material and methods: The study comprised 49 patients with node-negative breast cancer. They were operated on with sector resection and scheduled for postoperative radiotherapy using photons with identical radiation qualities and dosage to the breast parenchyma. The patients were randomized to receive either MMF or emollient cream. The cream was applied on the irradiated skin twice a week from the start of radiotherapy until the 12th fraction (24 Gy) and thereafter once daily until 3 weeks after completion of radiation. Both groups additionally received non-blinded emollient cream daily. The intensity of the acute radiation dermatitis was evaluated on a weekly basis regarding erythema and pigmentation, using a reflectance spectrophotometer together with visual scoring of the skin reactions. Results: MMF in combination with emollient cream treatment significantly decreased acute radiation dermatitis (P=0.0033) compared with emollient cream alone. There was no significant difference in pigmentation between the two groups. Conclusions: Adding MMF, a potent topical corticosteroid, to an emollient cream is statistically significantly more effective than emollient cream alone in reducing acute radiation dermatitis

  12. Groundwater Monitoring and Engineered Geothermal Systems: The Newberry EGS Demonstration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grasso, K.; Cladouhos, T. T.; Garrison, G.

    2013-12-01

    Engineered Geothermal Systems (EGS) represent the next generation of geothermal energy development. Stimulation of multiple zones within a single geothermal reservoir could significantly reduce the cost of geothermal energy production. Newberry Volcano in central Oregon represents an ideal location for EGS research and development. As such, the goals of the Newberry EGS Demonstration, operated by AltaRock Energy, Inc., include stimulation of a multiple-zone EGS reservoir, testing of single-well tracers and a demonstration of EGS reservoir viability through flow-back and circulation tests. A shallow, local aquifer supplied the approximately 41,630 m3 (11 million gals) of water used during stimulation of NWG 55-29, a deep geothermal well on the western flank of Newberry Volcano. Protection of the local aquifer is of primary importance to both the Newberry EGS Demonstration and the public. As part of the Demonstration, AltaRock Energy, Inc. has developed and implemented a groundwater monitoring plan to characterize the geochemistry of the local aquifer before, during and after stimulation. Background geochemical conditions were established prior to stimulation of NWG 55-29, which was completed in 2012. Nine sites were chosen for groundwater monitoring. These include the water supply well used during stimulation of NWG 55-29, three monitoring wells, three domestic water wells and two hot seeps located in the Newberry Caldera. Together, these nine monitoring sites represent up-, down- and cross-gradient locations. Groundwater samples are analyzed for 25 chemical constituents, stable isotopes, and geothermal tracers used during stimulation. In addition, water level data is collected at three monitoring sites in order to better characterize the effects of stimulation on the shallow aquifer. To date, no significant geochemical changes and no geothermal tracers have been detected in groundwater samples from these monitoring sites. The Newberry EGS Demonstration groundwater

  13. Oxytocin reduces amygdala activity, increases social interactions, and reduces anxiety-like behavior irrespective of NMDAR antagonism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sobota, Rosanna; Mihara, Takuma; Forrest, Alexandra; Featherstone, Robert E; Siegel, Steven J

    2015-08-01

    Standard dopamine therapies for schizophrenia are not efficacious for negative symptoms of the disease, including asociality. This reduced social behavior may be due to glutamatergic dysfunction within the amygdala, leading to increased fear and social anxiety. Several studies have demonstrated the prosocial effects of oxytocin in schizophrenia patients. Therefore, this study evaluates the effect of subchronic oxytocin on EEG activity in amygdala of mice during performance of the three-chamber social choice and open field tests following acute ketamine as a model of glutamatergic dysfunction. Oxytocin did not restore social deficits introduced by ketamine but did significantly increase sociality in comparison to the control group. Ketamine had no effect on time spent in the center during the open field trials, whereas oxytocin increased overall center time across all groups, suggesting a reduction in anxiety. Amygdala activity was consistent across all drug groups during social and nonsocial behavioral trials. However, oxytocin reduced overall amygdala EEG power during the two behavioral tasks. Alternatively, ketamine did not significantly affect EEG power throughout the tasks. Decreased EEG power in the amygdala, as caused by oxytocin, may be related to both reduced anxiety and increased social behaviors. Data suggest that separate prosocial and social anxiety pathways may mediate social preference. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

  14. Environmental program with operational cases to reduce risk to the marine environment significantly

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cline, J.T.; Forde, R.

    1991-01-01

    In this paper Amoco Norway Oil Company's environmental program is detailed, followed by example operational programs and achievements aimed to minimize environmental risks to the marine environment at Valhall platform. With a corporate goal to be a leader in protecting the environment, the appropriate strategies and policies that form the basis of the environmental management system are incorporated in the quality assurance programs. Also, included in the program are necessary organizational structures, responsibilities of environmental affairs and line organization personnel, compliance procedures and a waste task force obliged to implement operations improvements. An internal environmental audit system has been initiated, in addition to corporate level audits, which, when communicated to the line organization closes the environmental management loop through experience feed back. Environmental projects underway are significantly decreasing the extent and/or risk of pollution from offshore activities. The cradle to grave responsibility is assumed with waste separated offshore and onshore followed by disposal in audited sites. A $5 MM program is underway to control produced oily solids and reduce oil in produced water aiming to less than 20 ppm. When oil-based mud is used in deeper hole sections, drill solids disposed at sea average less than 60 g oil/kg dry cuttings using appropriate shaker screens, and a washing/centrifuge system to remove fines. Certain oily liquid wastes are being injected down hole whereas previously they were burned using a mud burner. Finally, a program is underway with a goal to eliminate sea discharge of oil on cuttings through injection disposal of oily wastes, drilling with alternative muds such as a cationic water base mud, and/or proper onshore disposal of oily wastes

  15. Salt decontamination demonstration test results

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Snell, E.B.; Heng, C.J.

    1983-06-01

    The Salt Decontamination Demonstration confirmed that the precipitation process could be used for large-scale decontamination of radioactive waste sale solution. Although a number of refinements are necessary to safely process the long-term requirement of 5 million gallons of waste salt solution per year, there were no observations to suggest that any fundamentals of the process require re-evaluation. Major accomplishments were: (1) 518,000 gallons of decontaminated filtrate were produced from 427,000 gallons of waste salt solution from tank 24H. The demonstration goal was to produce a minimum of 200,000 gallons of decontaminated salt solution; (2) cesium activity in the filtrate was reduced by a factor of 43,000 below the cesium activity in the tank 24 solution. This decontamination factor (DF) exceeded the demonstration goal of a DF greater than 10,000; (3) average strontium-90 activity in the filtrate was reduced by a factor of 26 to less than 10 3 d/m/ml versus a goal of less than 10 4 d/m/ml; and (4) the concentrated precipitate was washed to a final sodium ion concentration of 0.15 M, well below the 0.225 M upper limit for DWPF feed. These accomplishments were achieved on schedule and without incident. Total radiation exposure to personnel was less than 350 mrem and resulted primarily from sampling precipitate slurry inside tank 48. 3 references, 6 figures, 2 tables

  16. Plug-In Hybrid Urban Delivery Truck Technology Demonstration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Miyasato, Matt [South Coast Air Quality Management District Building Corporation, Diamond Bar, CA (United States); Impllitti, Joseph [South Coast Air Quality Management District Building Corporation, Diamond Bar, CA (United States); Pascal, Amar [South Coast Air Quality Management District Building Corporation, Diamond Bar, CA (United States)

    2015-07-31

    The I-710 and CA-60 highways are key transportation corridors in the Southern California region that are heavily used on a daily basis by heavy duty drayage trucks that transport the cargo from the ports to the inland transportation terminals. These terminals, which include store/warehouses, inland-railways, are anywhere from 5 to 50 miles in distance from the ports. The concentrated operation of these drayage vehicles in these corridors has had and will continue to have a significant impact on the air quality in this region whereby significantly impacting the quality of life in the communities surrounding these corridors. To reduce these negative impacts it is critical that zero and near-zero emission technologies be developed and deployed in the region. A potential local market size of up to 46,000 trucks exists in the South Coast Air Basin, based on near- dock drayage trucks and trucks operating on the I-710 freeway. The South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), California Air Resources Board (CARB) and Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) — the agencies responsible for preparing the State Implementation Plan required under the federal Clean Air Act — have stated that to attain federal air quality standards the region will need to transition to broad use of zero and near zero emission energy sources in cars, trucks and other equipment (Southern California Association of Governments et al, 2011). SCAQMD partnered with Volvo Trucks to develop, build and demonstrate a prototype Class 8 heavy-duty plug-in hybrid drayage truck with significantly reduced emissions and fuel use. Volvo’s approach leveraged the group’s global knowledge and experience in designing and deploying electromobility products. The proprietary hybrid driveline selected for this proof of concept was integrated with multiple enhancements to the complete vehicle in order to maximize the emission and energy impact of electrification. A detailed review of all

  17. Thyroid function appears to be significantly reduced in Space-borne MDS mice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saverio Ambesi-Impiombato, Francesco; Curcio, Francesco; Fontanini, Elisabetta; Perrella, Giuseppina; Spelat, Renza; Zambito, Anna Maria; Damaskopoulou, Eleni; Peverini, Manola; Albi, Elisabetta

    It is known that prolonged space flights induced changes in human cardiovascular, muscu-loskeletal and nervous systems whose function is regulated by the thyroid gland but, until now, no data were reported about thyroid damage during space missions. We have demonstrated in vitro that, during space missions (Italian Soyuz Mission "ENEIDE" in 2005, Shuttle STS-120 "ESPERIA" in 2007), thyroid in vitro cultured cells did not respond to thyroid stimulating hor-mone (TSH) treatment; they appeared healthy and alive, despite their being in a pro-apopotic state characterised by a variation of sphingomyelin metabolism and consequent increase in ce-ramide content. The insensitivity to TSH was largely due to a rearrangement of specific cell membrane microdomains, acting as platforms for TSH-receptor (TEXUS-44 mission in 2008). To study if these effects were present also in vivo, as part of the Mouse Drawer System (MDS) Tissue Sharing Program, we performed experiments in mice maintained onboard the Interna-tional Space Station during the long-duration (90 days) exploration mission STS-129. After return to earth, the thyroids isolated from the 3 animals were in part immediately frozen to study the morphological modification in space and in part immediately used to study the effect of TSH treatment. For this purpose small fragments of tissue were treated with 10-7 or 10-8 M TSH for 1 hour by using untreated fragments as controls. Then the fragments were fixed with absolute ethanol for 10 min at room temperature and centrifuged for 20 min. at 3000 x g. The supernatants were used for cAMP analysis whereas the pellet were used for protein amount determination and for immunoblotting analysis of TSH-receptor, sphingomyelinase and sphingomyelin-synthase. The results showed a modification of the thyroid structure and also the values of cAMP production after treatment with 10-7 M TSH for 1 hour were significantly lower than those obtained in Earth's gravity. The treatment with TSH

  18. Technology for reducing aircraft engine pollution

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rudey, R. A.; Kempke, E. E., Jr.

    1975-01-01

    Programs have been initiated by NASA to develop and demonstrate advanced technology for reducing aircraft gas turbine and piston engine pollutant emissions. These programs encompass engines currently in use for a wide variety of aircraft from widebody-jets to general aviation. Emission goals for these programs are consistent with the established EPA standards. Full-scale engine demonstrations of the most promising pollutant reduction techniques are planned within the next three years. Preliminary tests of advanced technology gas turbine engine combustors indicate that significant reductions in all major pollutant emissions should be attainable in present generation aircraft engines without adverse effects on fuel consumption. Fundamental-type programs are yielding results which indicate that future generation gas turbine aircraft engines may be able to utilize extremely low pollutant emission combustion systems.

  19. Significance testing in ridge regression for genetic data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    De Iorio Maria

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Technological developments have increased the feasibility of large scale genetic association studies. Densely typed genetic markers are obtained using SNP arrays, next-generation sequencing technologies and imputation. However, SNPs typed using these methods can be highly correlated due to linkage disequilibrium among them, and standard multiple regression techniques fail with these data sets due to their high dimensionality and correlation structure. There has been increasing interest in using penalised regression in the analysis of high dimensional data. Ridge regression is one such penalised regression technique which does not perform variable selection, instead estimating a regression coefficient for each predictor variable. It is therefore desirable to obtain an estimate of the significance of each ridge regression coefficient. Results We develop and evaluate a test of significance for ridge regression coefficients. Using simulation studies, we demonstrate that the performance of the test is comparable to that of a permutation test, with the advantage of a much-reduced computational cost. We introduce the p-value trace, a plot of the negative logarithm of the p-values of ridge regression coefficients with increasing shrinkage parameter, which enables the visualisation of the change in p-value of the regression coefficients with increasing penalisation. We apply the proposed method to a lung cancer case-control data set from EPIC, the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. Conclusions The proposed test is a useful alternative to a permutation test for the estimation of the significance of ridge regression coefficients, at a much-reduced computational cost. The p-value trace is an informative graphical tool for evaluating the results of a test of significance of ridge regression coefficients as the shrinkage parameter increases, and the proposed test makes its production computationally feasible.

  20. Lipid Replacement Therapy Drink Containing a Glycophospholipid Formulation Rapidly and Significantly Reduces Fatigue While Improving Energy and Mental Clarity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robert Settineri

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available Background: Fatigue is the most common complaint of patients seeking general medical care and is often treated with stimulants. It is also important in various physical activities of relatively healthy men and women, such as sports performance. Recent clinical trials using patients with chronic fatigue have shown the benefit of Lipid Replacement Therapy in restoring mitochondrial electron transport function and reducing moderate to severe chronic fatigue. Methods: Lipid Replacement Therapy was administered for the first time as an all-natural functional food drink (60 ml containing polyunsaturated glycophospholipids but devoid of stimulants or herbs to reduce fatigue. This preliminary study used the Piper Fatigue Survey instrument as well as a supplemental questionnaire to assess the effects of the glycophospholipid drink on fatigue and the acceptability of the test drink in adult men and women. A volunteer group of 29 subjects of mean age 56.2±4.5 years with various fatigue levels were randomly recruited in a clinical health fair setting to participate in an afternoon open label trial on the effects of the test drink. Results: Using the Piper Fatigue instrument overall fatigue among participants was reduced within the 3-hour seminar by a mean of 39.6% (p<0.0001. All of the subcategories of fatigue showed significant reductions. Some subjects responded within 15 minutes, and the majority responded within one hour with increased energy and activity and perceived improvements in cognitive function, mental clarity and focus. The test drink was determined to be quite acceptable in terms of taste and appearance. There were no adverse events from the energy drink during the study.Functional Foods in Health and Disease 2011; 8:245-254Conclusions: The Lipid Replacement Therapy functional food drink appeared to be a safe, acceptable and potentially useful new method to reduce fatigue, sustain energy and improve perceptions of mental function.

  1. Listening to music reduces eye movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schäfer, Thomas; Fachner, Jörg

    2015-02-01

    Listening to music can change the way that people visually experience the environment, probably as a result of an inwardly directed shift of attention. We investigated whether this attentional shift can be demonstrated by reduced eye movement activity, and if so, whether that reduction depends on absorption. Participants listened to their preferred music, to unknown neutral music, or to no music while viewing a visual stimulus (a picture or a film clip). Preference and absorption were significantly higher for the preferred music than for the unknown music. Participants exhibited longer fixations, fewer saccades, and more blinks when they listened to music than when they sat in silence. However, no differences emerged between the preferred music condition and the neutral music condition. Thus, music significantly reduces eye movement activity, but an attentional shift from the outer to the inner world (i.e., to the emotions and memories evoked by the music) emerged as only one potential explanation. Other explanations, such as a shift of attention from visual to auditory input, are discussed.

  2. Milliken Station Demonstration Project FDG retrofit update

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Alder, R.C.; Jackson, C.E.; O`Dea, D.T. [and others

    1994-12-31

    The Milliken Clean Coal Demonstration Project is one of the nine Clean Coal Projects selected for funding in Round 4 of the U.S. DOE`s Clean Coal Demonstration Program. The project`s sponsor is New York State Electric and Gas Corporation (NYSEG). Project team members include CONSOL Inc., Saarberg-Holter-Umwelttechnik (SHU), NALCO/FuelTech, Stebbins Engineering and Manufacturing Co., DHR Technologies, and CE Air Preheater. Gilbert/Commonwealth is the Architect/Engineer and Construction Manager for the flue gas desulfurization (FGD) retrofit. The project will provide full-scale demonstration of a combination of innovative emission-reducing technologies and plant upgraded for the control of sulfur dioxide (SO{sub 2}) and nitrogen oxides (NO{sub x}) emissions from a coal-fired steam generator without a significant loss of station efficiency. The overall project goals are the following: 98% SO{sub 2} removal efficiency using limestone while burning high sulfur coal; up to 70% NO{sub x} reduction using the NOXOUT selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR) technology in conjunction with combustion modifications; minimization of solid waste by producing marketable by-products including commercial grade gypsum, calcium chloride, and fly ash; zero wastewater discharge; maintenance of station efficiency by using a high efficiency heat-pipe air heater system and a low-power-consuming scrubber system. The demonstration project is being conducted at NYSEG`s Milliken Station, located in Lansing, New York. Milliken Station has two 150-MWe pulverized coal-fired units built in the 1950s by Combustion Engineering. The SHU FGD process and the combustion modifications are being installed on both units, but the NOXOUT process, Plant Economic Optimization Advisor (PEOA), and the high-efficiency air heater system will be installed on only one unit.

  3. Evolution of the Fusion Power Demonstration tandem mirror reactor configuration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    O'Toole, J.A.; Lousteau, D.C.

    1985-01-01

    This paper gives a presentation of the evolution of configurations proposed for tandem mirror Fusion Power Demonstration (FPD) machines. The FPD study was undertaken to scope the mission as well as the technical and design requirements of the next tandem mirror device. Three configurations, entitled FPD I, II, and III were studied. During this process new systems were conceived and integrated into the design, resulting in a significantly changed overall machine configuration. The machine can be divided into two areas. A new center cell configuration, minimizing magnetic field ripple and thus maximizing center cell fusion power, features a semicontinuous solenoid. A new end cell has evolved which maintains the required thermal barrier in a significantly reduced axial length. The reduced end cell effective length leads to a shorter central cell length being required to obtain minimum ignition conditions. Introduced is the concept of an electron mantle stabilized octopole arrangement. The engineering features of the new end cell and maintenance concepts developed are influenced to a great extent by the octopole-based design. The new ideas introduced during the FPD study have brought forth a new perspective of the size, design, and maintenance of tandem mirror reactors, making them more attractive as commercial power sources

  4. Soil nitrate reducing processes - drivers, mechanisms for spatial variation, and significance for nitrous oxide production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giles, Madeline; Morley, Nicholas; Baggs, Elizabeth M; Daniell, Tim J

    2012-01-01

    The microbial processes of denitrification and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) are two important nitrate reducing mechanisms in soil, which are responsible for the loss of nitrate ([Formula: see text]) and production of the potent greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide (N(2)O). A number of factors are known to control these processes, including O(2) concentrations and moisture content, N, C, pH, and the size and community structure of nitrate reducing organisms responsible for the processes. There is an increasing understanding associated with many of these controls on flux through the nitrogen cycle in soil systems. However, there remains uncertainty about how the nitrate reducing communities are linked to environmental variables and the flux of products from these processes. The high spatial variability of environmental controls and microbial communities across small sub centimeter areas of soil may prove to be critical in determining why an understanding of the links between biotic and abiotic controls has proved elusive. This spatial effect is often overlooked as a driver of nitrate reducing processes. An increased knowledge of the effects of spatial heterogeneity in soil on nitrate reduction processes will be fundamental in understanding the drivers, location, and potential for N(2)O production from soils.

  5. Significantly reduced hypoxemic events in morbidly obese patients undergoing gastrointestinal endoscopy: Predictors and practice effect

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Basavana Gouda Goudra

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Providing anesthesia for gastrointestinal (GI endoscopy procedures in morbidly obese patients is a challenge for a variety of reasons. The negative impact of obesity on the respiratory system combined with a need to share the upper airway and necessity to preserve the spontaneous ventilation, together add to difficulties. Materials and Methods: This retrospective cohort study included patients with a body mass index (BMI >40 kg/m 2 that underwent out-patient GI endoscopy between September 2010 and February 2011. Patient data was analyzed for procedure, airway management technique as well as hypoxemic and cardiovascular events. Results: A total of 119 patients met the inclusion criteria. Our innovative airway management technique resulted in a lower rate of intraoperative hypoxemic events compared with any published data available. Frequency of desaturation episodes showed statistically significant relation to previous history of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA. These desaturation episodes were found to be statistically independent of increasing BMI of patients. Conclusion: Pre-operative history of OSA irrespective of associated BMI values can be potentially used as a predictor of intra-procedural desaturation. With suitable modification of anesthesia technique, it is possible to reduce the incidence of adverse respiratory events in morbidly obese patients undergoing GI endoscopy procedures, thereby avoiding the need for endotracheal intubation.

  6. Significantly reduced hypoxemic events in morbidly obese patients undergoing gastrointestinal endoscopy: Predictors and practice effect.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goudra, Basavana Gouda; Singh, Preet Mohinder; Penugonda, Lakshmi C; Speck, Rebecca M; Sinha, Ashish C

    2014-01-01

    Providing anesthesia for gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy procedures in morbidly obese patients is a challenge for a variety of reasons. The negative impact of obesity on the respiratory system combined with a need to share the upper airway and necessity to preserve the spontaneous ventilation, together add to difficulties. This retrospective cohort study included patients with a body mass index (BMI) >40 kg/m(2) that underwent out-patient GI endoscopy between September 2010 and February 2011. Patient data was analyzed for procedure, airway management technique as well as hypoxemic and cardiovascular events. A total of 119 patients met the inclusion criteria. Our innovative airway management technique resulted in a lower rate of intraoperative hypoxemic events compared with any published data available. Frequency of desaturation episodes showed statistically significant relation to previous history of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). These desaturation episodes were found to be statistically independent of increasing BMI of patients. Pre-operative history of OSA irrespective of associated BMI values can be potentially used as a predictor of intra-procedural desaturation. With suitable modification of anesthesia technique, it is possible to reduce the incidence of adverse respiratory events in morbidly obese patients undergoing GI endoscopy procedures, thereby avoiding the need for endotracheal intubation.

  7. Dermal application of nitric oxide releasing acidified nitrite-containing liniments significantly reduces blood pressure in humans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Opländer, Christian; Volkmar, Christine M; Paunel-Görgülü, Adnana; Fritsch, Thomas; van Faassen, Ernst E; Mürtz, Manfred; Grieb, Gerrit; Bozkurt, Ahmet; Hemmrich, Karsten; Windolf, Joachim; Suschek, Christoph V

    2012-02-15

    Vascular ischemic diseases, hypertension, and other systemic hemodynamic and vascular disorders may be the result of impaired bioavailability of nitric oxide (NO). NO but also its active derivates like nitrite or nitroso compounds are important effector and signal molecules with vasodilating properties. Our previous findings point to a therapeutical potential of cutaneous administration of NO in the treatment of systemic hemodynamic disorders. Unfortunately, no reliable data are available on the mechanisms, kinetics and biological responses of dermal application of nitric oxide in humans in vivo. The aim of the study was to close this gap and to explore the therapeutical potential of dermal nitric oxide application. We characterized with human skin in vitro and in vivo the capacity of NO, applied in a NO-releasing acidified form of nitrite-containing liniments, to penetrate the epidermis and to influence local as well as systemic hemodynamic parameters. We found that dermal application of NO led to a very rapid and significant transepidermal translocation of NO into the underlying tissue. Depending on the size of treated skin area, this translocation manifests itself through a significant systemic increase of the NO derivates nitrite and nitroso compounds, respectively. In parallel, this translocation was accompanied by an increased systemic vasodilatation and blood flow as well as reduced blood pressure. We here give evidence that in humans dermal application of NO has a therapeutic potential for systemic hemodynamic disorders that might arise from local or systemic insufficient availability of NO or its bio-active NO derivates, respectively. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. Demonstration of Enhanced Radiation Drive in Hohlraums Made from a Mixture of High-Z Wall Materials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schein, Jochen; Jones, Ogden; Rosen, Mordecai; Dewald, Eduard; Glenzer, Siegfried; Gunther, Janelle; Hammel, Bruce; Landen, Otto; Suter, Laurence; Wallace, Russell

    2007-01-01

    We present results from experiments, numerical simulations and analytic modeling, demonstrating enhanced hohlraum performance. Care in the fabrication and handling of hohlraums with walls consisting of high-Z mixtures (cocktails) has led to our demonstration, for the first time, of a significant increase in radiation temperature compared to a pure Au hohlraum that is in agreement with predictions and is ascribable to reduced wall losses. The data suggest that a National Ignition Facility ignition hohlraum made of a U:Au:Dy cocktail should have ∼17% reduction in wall losses compared to a similar gold hohlraum

  9. Demonstration of Passive Fuel Cell Thermal Management Technology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burke, Kenneth A.; Jakupca, Ian; Colozza, Anthony; Wynne, Robert; Miller, Michael; Meyer, Al; Smith, William

    2012-01-01

    The NASA Glenn Research Center is developing advanced passive thermal management technology to reduce the mass and improve the reliability of space fuel cell systems for the NASA Exploration program. The passive thermal management system relies on heat conduction within highly thermally conductive cooling plates to move the heat from the central portion of the cell stack out to the edges of the fuel cell stack. Using the passive approach eliminates the need for a coolant pump and other cooling loop components within the fuel cell system which reduces mass and improves overall system reliability. Previous development demonstrated the performance of suitable highly thermally conductive cooling plates and integrated heat exchanger technology to collect the heat from the cooling plates (Ref. 1). The next step in the development of this passive thermal approach was the demonstration of the control of the heat removal process and the demonstration of the passive thermal control technology in actual fuel cell stacks. Tests were run with a simulated fuel cell stack passive thermal management system outfitted with passive cooling plates, an integrated heat exchanger and two types of cooling flow control valves. The tests were run to demonstrate the controllability of the passive thermal control approach. Finally, successful demonstrations of passive thermal control technology were conducted with fuel cell stacks from two fuel cell stack vendors.

  10. Therapeutic Touch Has Significant Effects on Mouse Breast Cancer Metastasis and Immune Responses but Not Primary Tumor Size.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gronowicz, Gloria; Secor, Eric R; Flynn, John R; Jellison, Evan R; Kuhn, Liisa T

    2015-01-01

    Evidence-based integrative medicine therapies have been introduced to promote wellness and offset side-effects from cancer treatment. Energy medicine is an integrative medicine technique using the human biofield to promote well-being. The biofield therapy chosen for study was Therapeutic Touch (TT). Breast cancer tumors were initiated in mice by injection of metastatic 66cl4 mammary carcinoma cells. The control group received only vehicle. TT or mock treatments were performed twice a week for 10 minutes. Two experienced TT practitioners alternated treatments. At 26 days, metastasis to popliteal lymph nodes was determined by clonogenic assay. Changes in immune function were measured by analysis of serum cytokines and by fluorescent activated cells sorting (FACS) of immune cells from the spleen and lymph nodes. No significant differences were found in body weight gain or tumor size. Metastasis was significantly reduced in the TT-treated mice compared to mock-treated mice. Cancer significantly elevated eleven cytokines. TT significantly reduced IL-1-a, MIG, IL-1b, and MIP-2 to control/vehicle levels. FACS demonstrated that TT significantly reduced specific splenic lymphocyte subsets and macrophages were significantly elevated with cancer. Human biofield therapy had no significant effect on primary tumor but produced significant effects on metastasis and immune responses in a mouse breast cancer model.

  11. Soil nitrate reducing processes drivers, mechanisms for spatial variation, and significance for nitrous oxide production

    OpenAIRE

    Giles, M.; Morley, N.; Baggs, E.M.; Daniell, T.J.

    2012-01-01

    The microbial processes of denitrification and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium\\ud (DNRA) are two important nitrate reducing mechanisms in soil, which are responsible for\\ud the loss of nitrate (NO−\\ud 3 ) and production of the potent greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide (N2O).\\ud A number of factors are known to control these processes, including O2 concentrations and\\ud moisture content, N, C, pH, and the size and community structure of nitrate reducing organisms\\ud responsible for the ...

  12. Cooled Ceramic Matrix Composite Propulsion Structures Demonstrated

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaskowiak, Martha H.; Dickens, Kevin W.

    2005-01-01

    NASA's Next Generation Launch Technology (NGLT) Program has successfully demonstrated cooled ceramic matrix composite (CMC) technology in a scramjet engine test. This demonstration represented the world s largest cooled nonmetallic matrix composite panel fabricated for a scramjet engine and the first cooled nonmetallic composite to be tested in a scramjet facility. Lightweight, high-temperature, actively cooled structures have been identified as a key technology for enabling reliable and low-cost space access. Tradeoff studies have shown this to be the case for a variety of launch platforms, including rockets and hypersonic cruise vehicles. Actively cooled carbon and CMC structures may meet high-performance goals at significantly lower weight, while improving safety by operating with a higher margin between the design temperature and material upper-use temperature. Studies have shown that using actively cooled CMCs can reduce the weight of the cooled flow-path component from 4.5 to 1.6 lb/sq ft and the weight of the propulsion system s cooled surface area by more than 50 percent. This weight savings enables advanced concepts, increased payload, and increased range. The ability of the cooled CMC flow-path components to operate over 1000 F hotter than the state-of-the-art metallic concept adds system design flexibility to space-access vehicle concepts. Other potential system-level benefits include smaller fuel pumps, lower part count, lower cost, and increased operating margin.

  13. In Situ Gaseous Reduction Pilot Demonstration - Final Report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thornton, E.C.; Phelan, J.M.; Giblin, J.T.; Olsen, K.B.; Miller, R.D.; Gilmore, T.J.

    1999-01-01

    The demonstration of the IGRS approach conducted at SWMU 143 on the White Sands Missile Range has provided information needed to complete a technical performance assessment and cost analysis of the technology. At least 70% of the Cr(VI) present in contaminated sediment at the site was reduced, thus verifying the effectiveness of the approach. Most of the treatment occurred in a zone located from approximately4 to 10 ft below ground surface, which appears to be a higher permeability interval. A deeper zone from approximately10 to 16 ft that contains lower levels of contamination was essentially unaffected. The deeper zone is somewhat finer grained and has a higher clay content and is, thus, less permeable. It appears that most of the treatment gas was channeled through the higher, more-permeable zone and the lower zone was bypassed. Treatment of the lower zone could probably be accomplished, however, if a second injection well were installed and screened across the zone so that treatment gas could be forced into this interval. The amount of H 2 S consumed during the test exceeded the amount predicted by the laboratory treatability study. In addition, the levels of H 2 S observed at the extraction wells were relatively low, even though a significant level of treatment was observed at the site. It is inferred that interfering reactions or slower reaction kinetics are the likely source of consumption of extra H 2 S observed in the field. Future laboratory work will be undertaken to investigate the nature of these chemical reactions and the reaction rates associated with the gaseous reduction of Cr(VI) in soils. Elucidation of these effects may reveal methods for improving the effectiveness of the technology and reducing unit costs. A life-cycle cost model was developed for the technology based on demonstration information (Hogan 1998). This model suggests that the technology should compare favorably with excavation from a cost basis for larger sites, especially when

  14. Prenatal prochloraz treatment significantly increases pregnancy length and reduces offspring weight but does not affect social-olfactory memory in rats

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dmytriyeva, Oksana; Klementiev, Boris; Berezin, Vladimir

    2013-01-01

    Metabolites of the commonly used imidazole fungicide prochloraz are androgen receptor antagonists. They have been shown to block androgen-driven development and compromise reproductive function. We tested the effect of prochloraz on cognitive behavior following exposure to this fungicide during...... the perinatal period. Pregnant Wistar rats were administered a 200mg/kg dose of prochloraz on gestational day (GD) 7, GD11, and GD15. The social recognition test (SRT) was performed on 7-week-old male rat offspring. We found an increase in pregnancy length and a significantly reduced pup weight on PND15 and PND...

  15. An optical method for reducing green fluorescence from urine during fluorescence-guided cystoscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindvold, Lars R.; Hermann, Gregers G.

    2016-12-01

    Photodynamic diagnosis (PDD) of bladder tumour tissue significantly improves endoscopic diagnosis and treatment of bladder cancer in rigid cystoscopes in the operating theatre and thus reduces tumour recurrence. PDD comprises the use of blue light, which unfortunately excites green fluorescence from urine. As this green fluorescence confounds the desired red fluorescence of the PDD, methods for avoiding this situation particularly in cystoscopy using flexible cystoscopes are desirable. In this paper we demonstrate how a tailor made high power LED light source at 525 nm can be used for fluorescence assisted tumour detection using both a flexible and rigid cystoscope used in the outpatient department (OPD) and operating room (OR) respectively. It is demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo how this light source can significantly reduce the green fluorescence problem with urine. At the same time this light source also is useful for exciting autofluorescence in healthy bladder mucosa. This autofluorescence then provides a contrast to the sensitized fluorescence (PDD) of tumours in the bladder.

  16. Hypothermia reduces sulphur mustard toxicity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mi Lei; Gong Wenrong; Nelson, Peggy; Martin, Leanne; Sawyer, Thomas W.

    2003-01-01

    The effect of temperature on the development of sulphur mustard (HD)-induced toxicity was investigated in first passage cultures of human skin keratinocytes and on hairless guinea pig skin. When cells exposed to HD were incubated at 37 deg. C, a concentration-dependent decline in viability was observed that was maximal by 2 days. In contrast, no significant HD-induced toxicity was evident up to 4 days posttreatment when the cells were incubated at 25 deg. C. However, these protective effects were lost by 24 h when the cells were switched back to 37 deg. C. The protective effects of hypothermia were also demonstrated when apoptotic endpoints were examined. The HD concentration-dependent induction of fragmented DNA (as quantitated using soluble DNA and the TUNEL reaction), morphology, and p53 expression were all significantly depressed when cell cultures were incubated at 25 deg. C compared to 37 deg. C. When animals were exposed to HD vapour for 2, 4, and 6 min and left at room temperature, lesions were produced whose severity was dependent on exposure time and that were maximal by 72 h posttreatment. Moderate cooling (5-10 deg. C) of HD exposure sites posttreatment (4-6 h) significantly reduced the severity of the resultant lesions. However, in contrast to the in vitro results, these effects were permanent. It appears that the early and noninvasive act of cooling HD-exposed skin may provide a facile means of reducing the severity of HD-induced cutaneous lesions

  17. BL-7010 demonstrates specific binding to gliadin and reduces gluten-associated pathology in a chronic mouse model of gliadin sensitivity.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Justin L McCarville

    Full Text Available Celiac disease (CD is an autoimmune disorder in individuals that carry DQ2 or DQ8 MHC class II haplotypes, triggered by the ingestion of gluten. There is no current treatment other than a gluten-free diet (GFD. We have previously shown that the BL-7010 copolymer poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate-co-styrene sulfonate (P(HEMA-co-SS binds with higher efficiency to gliadin than to other proteins present in the small intestine, ameliorating gliadin-induced pathology in the HLA-HCD4/DQ8 model of gluten sensitivity. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficiency of two batches of BL-7010 to interact with gliadin, essential vitamins and digestive enzymes not previously tested, and to assess the ability of the copolymer to reduce gluten-associated pathology using the NOD-DQ8 mouse model, which exhibits more significant small intestinal damage when challenged with gluten than HCD4/DQ8 mice. In addition, the safety and systemic exposure of BL-7010 was evaluated in vivo (in rats and in vitro (genetic toxicity studies. In vitro binding data showed that BL-7010 interacted with high affinity with gliadin and that BL-7010 had no interaction with the tested vitamins and digestive enzymes. BL-7010 was effective at preventing gluten-induced decreases in villus-to-crypt ratios, intraepithelial lymphocytosis and alterations in paracellular permeability and putative anion transporter-1 mRNA expression in the small intestine. In rats, BL-7010 was well-tolerated and safe following 14 days of daily repeated administration of 3000 mg/kg. BL-7010 did not exhibit any mutagenic effect in the genetic toxicity studies. Using complementary animal models and chronic gluten exposure the results demonstrate that administration of BL-7010 is effective and safe and that it is able to decrease pathology associated with gliadin sensitization warranting the progression to Phase I trials in humans.

  18. Loop Group Parakeet Virtual Cable Concept Demonstrator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dowsett, T.; McNeill, T. C.; Reynolds, A. B.; Blair, W. D.

    2002-07-01

    The Parakeet Virtual Cable (PVC) concept demonstrator uses the Ethernet Local Area Network (LAN) laid for the Battle Command Support System (BCSS) to connect the Parakeet DVT(DA) (voice terminal) to the Parakeet multiplexer. This currently requires pairs of PVC interface units to be installed for each DVT(DA) . To reduce the cost of a PVC installation, the concept of a Loop Group Parakeet Virtual Cable (LGPVC) was proposed. This device was designed to replace the up to 30 PVC boxes and the multiplexer at the multiplexer side of a PVC installation. While the demonstrator is largely complete, testing has revealed an incomplete understanding of how to emulate the proprietary handshaking occurring between the circuit switch and the multiplexer. The LGPVC concept cannot yet be demonstrated.

  19. Impact of Music in Reducing Patient Anxiety During Pediatric Ultrasound.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kesselman, Andrew; Bergen, Michael; Stefanov, Dimitre; Goldfisher, Rachelle; Amodio, John

    2016-03-31

    The use of noninvasive ultrasound examinations can potentially result in significant anxiety in the pediatric population. The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of music during pediatric ultrasound examinations to reduce anxiety measured by heart rate. A total of 44 patients were recruited; 21 controls and 23 experimental. Each participant was randomized to either music or no music (control) after parental consent was obtained. Pulse oximeters were used to monitor heart rate at 15 second intervals for a total of 1 minute, with mean values calculated prior to entering the procedure room, during the middle of the procedure, and after the procedure was completed. The total scan time was determined from the initial image acquisition until the last image recorded by the ultrasound technologist. At the completion of each procedure, the ultrasound technologist scored the ease of performance for the scan on a subjective scale of 1-10 based on prior experience. When utilizing music during pediatric ultrasounds examinations, our study demonstrated significantly decreased heart rate variability from pre-procedural to post-procedural periods. There was no statistical significant difference in total scan time or ultrasound technologist scoring between the two groups. This study demonstrates that music is an inexpensive and effective means of reducing anxiety during pediatric ultrasound as indicated by heart rate.

  20. Impact of music in reducing patient anxiety during pediatric ultrasound

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrew Kesselman

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The use of noninvasive ultrasound examinations can potentially result in significant anxiety in the pediatric population. The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of music during pediatric ultrasound examinations to reduce anxiety measured by heart rate. A total of 44 patients were recruited; 21 controls and 23 experimental. Each participant was randomized to either music or no music (control after parental consent was obtained. Pulse oximeters were used to monitor heart rate at 15 second intervals for a total of 1 minute, with mean values calculated prior to entering the procedure room, during the middle of the procedure, and after the procedure was completed. The total scan time was determined from the initial image acquisition until the last image recorded by the ultrasound technologist. At the completion of each procedure, the ultrasound technologist scored the ease of performance for the scan on a subjective scale of 1-10 based on prior experience. When utilizing music during pediatric ultrasounds examinations, our study demonstrated significantly decreased heart rate variability from pre-procedural to post-procedural periods. There was no statistical significant difference in total scan time or ultrasound technologist scoring between the two groups. This study demonstrates that music is an inexpensive and effective means of reducing anxiety during pediatric ultrasound as indicated by heart rate.

  1. Reducing dysfunctional beliefs about sleep does not significantly improve insomnia in cognitive behavioral therapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okajima, Isa; Nakajima, Shun; Ochi, Moeko; Inoue, Yuichi

    2014-01-01

    The present study examined to examine whether improvement of insomnia is mediated by a reduction in sleep-related dysfunctional beliefs through cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. In total, 64 patients with chronic insomnia received cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia consisting of 6 biweekly individual treatment sessions of 50 minutes in length. Participants were asked to complete the Athens Insomnia Scale and the Dysfunctional Beliefs and Attitudes about Sleep scale both at the baseline and at the end of treatment. The results showed that although cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia greatly reduced individuals' scores on both scales, the decrease in dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep with treatment did not seem to mediate improvement in insomnia. The findings suggest that sleep-related dysfunctional beliefs endorsed by patients with chronic insomnia may be attenuated by cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, but changes in such beliefs are not likely to play a crucial role in reducing the severity of insomnia.

  2. Affordable Flight Demonstration of the GTX Air-Breathing SSTO Vehicle Concept

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krivanek, Thomas M.; Roche, Joseph M.; Riehl, John P.; Kosareo, Daniel N.

    2003-01-01

    The rocket based combined cycle (RBCC) powered single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) reusable launch vehicle has the potential to significantly reduce the total cost per pound for orbital payload missions. To validate overall system performance, a flight demonstration must be performed. This paper presents an overview of the first phase of a flight demonstration program for the GTX SSTO vehicle concept. Phase 1 will validate the propulsion performance of the vehicle configuration over the supersonic and hypersonic air- breathing portions of the trajectory. The focus and goal of Phase 1 is to demonstrate the integration and performance of the propulsion system flowpath with the vehicle aerodynamics over the air-breathing trajectory. This demonstrator vehicle will have dual mode ramjetkcramjets, which include the inlet, combustor, and nozzle with geometrically scaled aerodynamic surface outer mold lines (OML) defining the forebody, boundary layer diverter, wings, and tail. The primary objective of this study is to demon- strate propulsion system performance and operability including the ram to scram transition, as well as to validate vehicle aerodynamics and propulsion airframe integration. To minimize overall risk and develop ment cost the effort will incorporate proven materials, use existing turbomachinery in the propellant delivery systems, launch from an existing unmanned remote launch facility, and use basic vehicle recovery techniques to minimize control and landing requirements. A second phase would demonstrate propulsion performance across all critical portions of a space launch trajectory (lift off through transition to all-rocket) integrated with flight-like vehicle systems.

  3. Actinide Separation Demonstration Facility, Tarapur

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vishwaraj, I.

    2017-01-01

    Partitioning of minor actinide from high level waste could have a substantial impact in lowering the radio toxicity associated with high level waste as well as it will reduce the burden on geological repository. In Indian context, the partitioned minor actinide could be routed into the fast breeder reactor systems scheduled for commissioning in the near period. The technological breakthrough in solvent development has catalyzed the partitioning programme in India, leading to the setting up and hot commissioning of the Actinide Separation Demonstration Facility (ASDF) at BARC, Tarapur. The engineering scale Actinide Separation Demonstration Facility (ASDF) has been retrofitted in an available radiological hot cell situated adjacent to the Advanced Vitrification Facility (AVS). This location advantage ensures an uninterrupted supply of high-level waste and facilitates the vitrification of the high-level waste after separation of minor actinides

  4. Solar energy parking canopy demonstration project

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cylwik, Joe [City of Big Bear Lake, Big Bear, CA (United States); David, Lawrence [City of Big Bear Lake, Big Bear, CA (United States)

    2015-09-24

    The goal of this pilot/demonstration program is to measure the viability of using solar photovoltaic (PV) technology at three locations in a mountain community environment given the harsh weather conditions. An additional goal is to reduce long-term operational costs, minimize green house gas emissions, lower the dependency on energy produced from fossil fuels, and improve the working environment and health of city employees and residents.

  5. Studying the effectiveness of activated carbon R95 respirators in reducing the inhalation of combustion by-products in Hanoi, Vietnam: a demonstration study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wertheim Heiman FL

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Urban air pollution is an increasing health problem, particularly in Asia, where the combustion of fossil fuels has increased rapidly as a result of industrialization and socio-economic development. The adverse health impacts of urban air pollution are well established, but less is known about effective intervention strategies. In this demonstration study we set out to establish methods to assess whether wearing an R95 activated carbon respirator could reduce intake of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH in street workers in Hanoi, Vietnam. Methods In this demonstration study we performed a cross-over study in which non-smoking participants that worked at least 4 hours per day on the street in Hanoi were randomly allocated to specific respirator wearing sequences for a duration of 2 weeks. Urines were collected after each period, i.e. twice per week, at the end of the working day to measure hydroxy PAHs (OH-PAH using gas chromatography/high resolution mass spectrometry. The primary endpoint was the urinary concentration of 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHP. Results Forty-four participants (54.5% male, median age 40 years were enrolled with the majority being motorbike taxi drivers (38.6% or street vendors (34.1%. The baseline creatinine corrected urinary level for 1-OHP was much higher than other international comparisons: 1020 ng/g creatinine (IQR: 604–1551. Wearing a R95 mask had no significant effect on 1-OHP levels: estimated multiplicative effect 1.0 (95% CI: 0.92-1.09 or other OH-PAHs, except 1-hydroxynaphthalene (1-OHN: 0.86 (95% CI: 0.11-0.96. Conclusions High levels of urine OH-PAHs were found in Hanoi street workers. No effect was seen on urine OH-PAH levels by wearing R95 particulate respirators in an area of high urban air pollution, except for 1-OHN. A lack of effect may be de to gaseous phase PAHs that were not filtered efficiently by the respirator. The high levels of urinary OH-PAHs found, urges for effective

  6. Prototype scale demonstration of CECE detritiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sadhankar Ramesh; Cobanoglu, Macit

    2004-01-01

    AECL has developed and demonstrated the Combined Electrolysis and Catalytic Exchange (CECE) Process for detritiation of heavy water. Although CECE has been the subject of pilot-scale demonstrations by various organizations, AECL is the first to demonstrate this technology in an industrial prototype plant. AECL designed, built and operated a CECE demonstration facility under CAN/CSA N286 Quality Assurance Program. The facility was licensed by the Canadian nuclear regulator. This was a two-fold demonstration of the CECE technology - for upgrading (removal of light water) and for detritiation of heavy water. In 1998 June, AECL began operating the facility in upgrading mode. The design feed rate ranged up to 25 Mg/a for 95 mol% D 2 O feed water. After 18 months of operation in upgrading mode, the facility was reconfigured and operated for an additional 9 months from 2000 August in detritiation mode. Design capacity for detritiation was 5 Mg/a with a detritiation factor (DF) of 100. However, significantly higher DFs, up to 56 000, were demonstrated. Highlights of the detritiation demonstration were: Proven robustness of AECL's proprietary wetproofed catalyst for Liquid Phase Catalytic Exchange; Demonstration of a trickle-bed-recombiner for stoichiometric combination of deuterium and oxygen; Demonstration of electrolysis of highly tritiated heavy water; High process availability and controllability was demonstrated by a long interrupted run; Low emissions; Demonstration of high DF - up to 56 000 - a significant advantage of the CECE process over other approaches to detritiation; Validation of AECL's simulation code for the CECE process over a range of DFs from 100 to 50 000. Apart from the technology, AECL has expertise in all aspects of setting up a new detritiation facility including design, engineering, safety assessment, licensing support, project management and training. AECL is also the engineering and design contractor for a tritium removal facility that is under

  7. Sustained attention training reduces spatial bias in Parkinson's disease: a pilot case series.

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeGutis, Joseph; Grosso, Mallory; VanVleet, Thomas; Esterman, Michael; Pistorino, Laura; Cronin-Golomb, Alice

    2016-01-01

    Individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) commonly demonstrate lateralized spatial biases, which affect daily functioning. Those with PD with initial motor symptoms on the left body side (LPD) have reduced leftward attention, whereas PD with initial motor symptoms on the right side (RPD) may display reduced rightward attention. We investigated whether a sustained attention training program could help reduce these spatial biases. Four non-demented individuals with PD (2 LPD, 2 RPD) performed a visual search task before and after 1 month of computer training. Before training, all participants showed a significant spatial bias and after training, all participants' spatial bias was eliminated.

  8. Significant change of local atomic configurations at surface of reduced activation Eurofer steels induced by hydrogenation treatments

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Greculeasa, S.G.; Palade, P.; Schinteie, G. [National Institute for Materials Physics, P.O. Box MG-7, 77125, Bucharest-Magurele (Romania); Kuncser, A.; Stanciu, A. [National Institute for Materials Physics, P.O. Box MG-7, 77125, Bucharest-Magurele (Romania); University of Bucharest, Faculty of Physics, 77125, Bucharest-Magurele (Romania); Lungu, G.A. [National Institute for Materials Physics, P.O. Box MG-7, 77125, Bucharest-Magurele (Romania); Porosnicu, C.; Lungu, C.P. [National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, 77125, Bucharest-Magurele (Romania); Kuncser, V., E-mail: kuncser@infim.ro [National Institute for Materials Physics, P.O. Box MG-7, 77125, Bucharest-Magurele (Romania)

    2017-04-30

    Highlights: • Engineering of Eurofer slab properties by hydrogenation treatments. • Hydrogenation modifies significantly the local atomic configurations at the surface. • Hydrogenation increases the expulsion of the Cr atoms toward the very surface. • Approaching binomial atomic distribution by hydrogenation in the next surface 100 nm. - Abstract: Reduced-activation steels such as Eurofer alloys are candidates for supporting plasma facing components in tokamak-like nuclear fusion reactors. In order to investigate the impact of hydrogen/deuterium insertion in their crystalline lattice, annealing treatments in hydrogen atmosphere have been applied on Eurofer slabs. The resulting samples have been analyzed with respect to local structure and atomic configuration both before and after successive annealing treatments, by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy (CEMS). The corroborated data point out for a bcc type structure of the non-hydrogenated alloy, with an average alloy composition approaching Fe{sub 0.9}Cr{sub 0.1} along a depth of about 100 nm. EDS elemental maps do not indicate surface inhomogeneities in concentration whereas the Mössbauer spectra prove significant deviations from a homogeneous alloying. The hydrogenation increases the expulsion of the Cr atoms toward the surface layer and decreases their oxidation, with considerable influence on the surface properties of the steel. The hydrogenation treatment is therefore proposed as a potential alternative for a convenient engineering of the surface of different Fe-Cr based alloys.

  9. Soil nitrate reducing processes – drivers, mechanisms for spatial variation, and significance for nitrous oxide production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giles, Madeline; Morley, Nicholas; Baggs, Elizabeth M.; Daniell, Tim J.

    2012-01-01

    The microbial processes of denitrification and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) are two important nitrate reducing mechanisms in soil, which are responsible for the loss of nitrate (NO3−) and production of the potent greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide (N2O). A number of factors are known to control these processes, including O2 concentrations and moisture content, N, C, pH, and the size and community structure of nitrate reducing organisms responsible for the processes. There is an increasing understanding associated with many of these controls on flux through the nitrogen cycle in soil systems. However, there remains uncertainty about how the nitrate reducing communities are linked to environmental variables and the flux of products from these processes. The high spatial variability of environmental controls and microbial communities across small sub centimeter areas of soil may prove to be critical in determining why an understanding of the links between biotic and abiotic controls has proved elusive. This spatial effect is often overlooked as a driver of nitrate reducing processes. An increased knowledge of the effects of spatial heterogeneity in soil on nitrate reduction processes will be fundamental in understanding the drivers, location, and potential for N2O production from soils. PMID:23264770

  10. Soil nitrate reducing processes – drivers, mechanisms for spatial variation and significance for nitrous oxide production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Madeline Eleanore Giles

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available The microbial processes of denitrification and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA are two important nitrate reducing mechanisms in soil, which are responsible for the loss of nitrate (NO3-¬ and production of the potent greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide (N2O. A number of factors are known to control these processes, including O2 concentrations and moisture content, N, C, pH and the size and community structure of nitrate reducing organisms responsible for the processes. There is an increasing understanding associated with many of these controls on flux through the nitrogen cycle in soil systems. However, there remains uncertainty about how the nitrate reducing communities are linked to environmental variables and the flux of products from these processes. The high spatial variability of environmental controls and microbial communities across small sub cm areas of soil may prove to be critical in determining why an understanding of the links between biotic and abiotic controls has proved elusive. This spatial effect is often overlooked as a driver of nitrate reducing processes. An increased knowledge of the effects of spatial heterogeneity in soil on nitrate reduction processes will be fundamental in understanding the drivers, location and potential for N2O production from soils.

  11. Strategic Energy Planning for Renewable Energy Demonstration Center

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ross, Becky [Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, Indio, CA (United States); Crandell, George [Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, Indio, CA (United States)

    2014-04-10

    The focus of this project is to support the addition of renewable energy technologies to the existing CBMI resource recovery park, known as the Cabazon Resource Recovery Park (CRRP) in Mecca, California. The concept approved for this project was to determine if the resources and the needs existed for the addition of a Renewable Energy Demonstration Center (REDC) at the CRRP. The REDC concept is envisioned to support the need of startup renewable companies for a demonstration site that reduces their development costs.

  12. Environmental assessment for the Waste Water Treatment Facility at the West Valley Demonstration Project and finding of no significant impact

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1992-12-31

    The possible environmental impacts from the construction and operation of a waste water treatment facility for the West Valley Demonstration Project are presented. The West Valley Project is a demonstration project on the solidification of high-level radioactive wastes. The need for the facility is the result of a rise in the work force needed for the project which rendered the existing sewage treatment plant incapable of meeting the nonradioactive waste water treatment needs.

  13. Environmental assessment for the Waste Water Treatment Facility at the West Valley Demonstration Project and finding of no significant impact

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1992-01-01

    The possible environmental impacts from the construction and operation of a waste water treatment facility for the West Valley Demonstration Project are presented. The West Valley Project is a demonstration project on the solidification of high-level radioactive wastes. The need for the facility is the result of a rise in the work force needed for the project which rendered the existing sewage treatment plant incapable of meeting the nonradioactive waste water treatment needs

  14. Hydrothermal synthesis of magnetic reduced graphene oxide sheets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shen, Jianfeng; Shi, Min; Ma, Hongwei; Yan, Bo; Li, Na; Ye, Mingxin

    2011-01-01

    Graphical abstract: An environmental friendly and efficient route for preparation of magnetic reduced graphene oxide composite with a one-step hydrothermal method was demonstrated. The reducing process was accompanied by generation of magnetic nanoparticles. Highlights: → A one-step hydrothermal method for preparation of MN-CCG was demonstrated. → Glucose was used as the 'green' reducing agent. → The reducing process was accompanied by generation of magnetic nanoparticles. → The prepared MN-CCG is highly water suspendable and sensitive to magnetic field. -- Abstract: We demonstrated an environmental friendly and efficient route for preparation of magnetic reduced graphene oxide composite (MN-CCG). Glucose was used as the reducing agent in this one-step hydrothermal method. The reducing process was accompanied by generation of magnetic nanoparticles. The structure and composition of the nanocomposite was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermal gravimetric analysis, atomic force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. It was found that the prepared MN-CCG is highly water suspendable and sensitive to magnetic field.

  15. Dynamic Susceptibility Contrast Perfusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging Demonstrates Reduced Periventricular Cerebral Blood Flow in Dogs with Ventriculomegaly

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Martin J. Schmidt

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available The nature of ventriculomegaly in dogs is still a matter of debate. Signs of increased intraventricular pressure and atrophy of the cerebral white matter have been found in dogs with ventriculomegaly, which would imply increased intraventricular pressure and, therefore, a pathological condition, i.e., to some extent. Reduced periventricular blood flow was found in people with high elevated intraventricular pressure. The aim of this study was to compare periventricular brain perfusion in dogs with and without ventriculomegaly using perfusion weighted-magnetic-resonance-imaging to clarify as to whether ventriculomegaly might be associated with an increase in intraventricular pressure. Perfusion was measured in 32 Cavalier King Charles spaniels (CKCS with ventriculomegaly, 10 CKCSs were examined as a control group. Cerebral blood flow (CBF was measured using free-hand regions of interest (ROI in five brain regions: periventricular white matter, caudate nucleus, parietal cortex, hippocampus, and thalamus. CBF was significantly lower in the periventricular white matter of the dogs with ventriculomegaly (p = 0.0029 but not in the other ROIs. Reduction of periventricular CBF might imply increase of intraventricular pressure in ventriculomegaly.

  16. In Situ Gaseous Reduction Pilot Demonstration - Final Report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Thornton, E.C.; Phelan, J.M.; Giblin, J.T.; Olsen, K.B.; Miller, R.D.; Gilmore, T.J.

    1999-02-23

    The demonstration of the IGRS approach conducted at SWMU 143 on the White Sands Missile Range has provided information needed to complete a technical performance assessment and cost analysis of the technology. At least 70% of the Cr(VI) present in contaminated sediment at the site was reduced, thus verifying the effectiveness of the approach. Most of the treatment occurred in a zone located from {approximately}4 to 10 ft below ground surface, which appears to be a higher permeability interval. A deeper zone from {approximately}10 to 16 ft that contains lower levels of contamination was essentially unaffected. The deeper zone is somewhat finer grained and has a higher clay content and is, thus, less permeable. It appears that most of the treatment gas was channeled through the higher, more-permeable zone and the lower zone was bypassed. Treatment of the lower zone could probably be accomplished, however, if a second injection well were installed and screened across the zone so that treatment gas could be forced into this interval. The amount of H{sub 2}S consumed during the test exceeded the amount predicted by the laboratory treatability study. In addition, the levels of H{sub 2}S observed at the extraction wells were relatively low, even though a significant level of treatment was observed at the site. It is inferred that interfering reactions or slower reaction kinetics are the likely source of consumption of extra H{sub 2}S observed in the field. Future laboratory work will be undertaken to investigate the nature of these chemical reactions and the reaction rates associated with the gaseous reduction of Cr(VI) in soils. Elucidation of these effects may reveal methods for improving the effectiveness of the technology and reducing unit costs. A life-cycle cost model was developed for the technology based on demonstration information (Hogan 1998). This model suggests that the technology should compare favorably with excavation from a cost basis for larger sites

  17. Reducing the Effect of Stereotype Threat: The Role of Coaction Contexts and Regulatory Fit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wen, Fangfang; Zuo, Bin; Wu, Yang; Dong, Xuanhao; Wang, Wei

    2016-01-01

    Two experiments examined the effects of competition and cooperation contexts, as well as regulatory fit, on reducing the negative influence of stereotype threat. Experiment 1 demonstrated that in high stereotype threat conditions, participants in the cooperation context scored significantly higher on a math test than those in the competition…

  18. Coal demonstration plants. Quarterly report, April-June 1979

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    None

    1980-04-01

    The objective of the US DOE demonstration program is to demonstrate and verify second-generation technologies and validate the economic, environmental and productive capacity of a near commercial-size plant by integrating and operating a modular unit using commercial size equipment. These facilities are the final stage in the RD and D process aimed at accelerating and reducing the risks of industrial process implementation. Under the DOE program, contracts for the design, construction, and operation of the demonstration plants are awarded through competitive procedures and are cost shared with the industrial partner. The conceptual design phase is funded by the government, with the detailed design, procurement, construction, and operation phases being co-funded between industry and the government. The government share of the cost involved for a demonstration plant depends on the plant size, location, and the desirability and risk of the process to be demonstrated. The various plants and programs are discussed: Description and status, funding, history, flowsheet and progress during the current quarter. (LTN)

  19. On-Farm Demonstrations with a Set of Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs Proved Cost-Effective in Reducing Pre-Harvest Aflatoxin Contamination in Groundnut

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vijayaraju Parimi

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Aflatoxin contamination in groundnut is an important qualitative issue posing a threat to food safety. In our present study, we have demonstrated the efficacy of certain good agricultural practices (GAPs in groundnut, such as farmyard manure (5 t/ha, gypsum (500 kg/ha, a protective irrigation at 90 days after sowing (DAS, drying of pods on tarpaulins after harvest in farmers’ fields. During 2013–2015, 89 on-farm demonstrations were conducted advocating GAPs, and compared with farmers’ practices (FP plots. Farmers’ awareness of GAPs, and knowledge on important aspects of groundnut cultivation, were also assessed during our experimentation in the selected villages under study. Pre-harvest kernel infection by Aspergillus flavus, aflatoxin contamination, and pod yields were compared in GAPs plots, vis-à-vis FP plots. The cost of cultivation in both the plots was calculated and compared, based on farmer’s opinion surveys. Results indicate kernel infections and aflatoxins were significantly lower, with 13–58% and 62–94% reduction, respectively, in GAPs plots over FP. Further, a net gain of around $23 per acre was realized through adoption of GAPs by farmers besides quality improvement of groundnuts. Based on our results, it can be concluded that on-farm demonstrations were the best educative tool to convince the farmers about the cost-effectiveness, and adoptability of aflatoxin management technologies.

  20. Proposed success demonstration criteria for the Department of Energy's waste reduction efforts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Suffern, J.S.

    1990-01-01

    Seven proposed criteria for demonstration of success in waste reduction have been developed: reduced amount of hazardous waste, reduced waste management cost, improved regulatory compliance, reduced health risk, increased production efficiency, reduced accident risk, and improved public relations. A detailed description of each of the criteria is presented along with a discussion for each of the mechanisms for measurement, required commitments, strengths, and weaknesses. 2 refs

  1. Motivation for a near term gun launch to space demonstration and a variable induction power supply concept to minimize initial demonstration costs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Palmer, M.R.

    1993-01-01

    The history of the Gun Launch to Space (GLTS) concept is briefly reviewed along with recent progress and motivations for a near term launch demonstration. A current multiplying reconfigurable inductor design is developed which could couple to an existing battery system to power a GLTS railgun demonstration at the 300 megajoule muzzle energy level. The design is developed using proven approaches and performance levels and appears capable of reducing the power supply cost for an initial GLTS demonstration below that of a simple battery charged inductor system. Possible uses are (1) launching of space weapons; (2) launching of communication satellites; (3) and launching of satellites for space disposal of radioactive wastes

  2. Finding the faithless: perceived atheist prevalence reduces anti-atheist prejudice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gervais, Will M

    2011-04-01

    Although prejudice is typically positively related to relative outgroup size, four studies found converging evidence that perceived atheist prevalence reduces anti-atheist prejudice. Study 1 demonstrated that anti-atheist prejudice among religious believers is reduced in countries in which atheists are especially prevalent. Study 2 demonstrated that perceived atheist prevalence is negatively associated with anti-atheist prejudice. Study 3 demonstrated a causal relationship: Reminders of atheist prevalence reduced explicit distrust of atheists. These results appeared distinct from intergroup contact effects. Study 4 demonstrated that prevalence information decreased implicit atheist distrust. The latter two experiments provide the first evidence that mere prevalence information can reduce prejudice against any outgroup. These findings offer insights about anti-atheist prejudice, a poorly understood phenomenon. Furthermore, they suggest both novel directions for future prejudice research and potential interventions that could reduce a variety of prejudices.

  3. Unravelling the immune signature of Plasmodium falciparum transmission-reducing immunity

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stone, Will J R; Campo, Joseph J; Ouédraogo, André Lin

    2018-01-01

    Infection with Plasmodium can elicit antibodies that inhibit parasite survival in the mosquito, when they are ingested in an infectious blood meal. Here, we determine the transmission-reducing activity (TRA) of naturally acquired antibodies from 648 malaria-exposed individuals using lab-based mos......Infection with Plasmodium can elicit antibodies that inhibit parasite survival in the mosquito, when they are ingested in an infectious blood meal. Here, we determine the transmission-reducing activity (TRA) of naturally acquired antibodies from 648 malaria-exposed individuals using lab......-based mosquito-feeding assays. Transmission inhibition is significantly associated with antibody responses to Pfs48/45, Pfs230, and to 43 novel gametocyte proteins assessed by protein microarray. In field-based mosquito-feeding assays the likelihood and rate of mosquito infection are significantly lower...... high-level, complement-independent TRA. Our analysis demonstrates that host antibody responses to gametocyte proteins are associated with reduced malaria transmission efficiency from humans to mosquitoes....

  4. Fusion Power Demonstrations I and II

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Doggett, J.N.

    1985-01-01

    In this report we present a summary of the first phase of the Fusion Power Demonstration (FPD) design study. During this first phase, we investigated two configurations, performed detailed studies of major components, and identified and examined critical issues. In addition to these design specific studies, we also assembled a mirror-systems computer code to help optimize future device designs. The two configurations that we have studied are based on the MARS magnet configuration and are labeled FPD-I and FPD-II. The FPD-I configuration employs the same magnet set used in the FY83 FPD study, whereas the FPD-II magnets are a new, much smaller set chosen to help reduce the capital cost of the system. As part of the FPD study, we also identified and explored issues critical to the construction of an Engineering Test Reactor (ETR). These issues involve subsystems or components, which because of their cost or state of technology can have a significant impact on our ability to meet FPD's mission requirements on the assumed schedule. General Dynamics and Grumman Aerospace studied two of these systems, the high-field choke coil and the halo pump/direct converter, in great detail and their findings are presented in this report

  5. Command and Control of Space Assets Through Internet-Based Technologies Demonstrated

    Science.gov (United States)

    Foltz, David A.

    2002-01-01

    The NASA Glenn Research Center successfully demonstrated a transmission-control-protocol/ Internet-protocol- (TCP/IP) based approach to the command and control of onorbit assets over a secure network. This is a significant accomplishment because future NASA missions will benefit by using Internet-standards-based protocols. Benefits of this Internet-based space command and control system architecture include reduced mission costs and increased mission efficiency. The demonstration proved that this communications architecture is viable for future NASA missions. This demonstration was a significant feat involving multiple NASA organizations and industry. Phillip Paulsen, from Glenn's Project Development and Integration Office, served as the overall project lead, and David Foltz, from Glenn's Satellite Networks and Architectures Branch, provided the hybrid networking support for the required Internet connections. The goal was to build a network that would emulate a connection between a space experiment on the International Space Station and a researcher accessing the experiment from anywhere on the Internet, as shown. The experiment was interfaced to a wireless 802.11 network inside the demonstration area. The wireless link provided connectivity to the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) Internet Link Terminal (TILT) satellite uplink terminal located 300 ft away in a parking lot on top of a panel van. TILT provided a crucial link in this demonstration. Leslie Ambrose, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, provided the TILT/TDRSS support. The TILT unit transmitted the signal to TDRS 6 and was received at the White Sands Second TDRSS Ground Station. This station provided the gateway to the Internet. Coordination also took place at the White Sands station to install a Veridian Firewall and automated security incident measurement (ASIM) system to the Second TDRSS Ground Station Internet gateway. The firewall provides a trusted network for the simulated space

  6. Human IgG lacking effector functions demonstrate lower FcRn-binding and reduced transplacental transport

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Stapleton, Nigel M.; Armstrong-Fisher, Sylvia S.; Andersen, Jan Terje; van der Schoot, C. Ellen; Porter, Charlene; Page, Kenneth R.; Falconer, Donald; de Haas, Masja; Williamson, Lorna M.; Clark, Michael R.; Vidarsson, Gestur; Armour, Kathryn L.

    2018-01-01

    We have previously generated human IgG1 antibodies that were engineered for reduced binding to the classical Fcγ receptors (FcγRI-III) and C1q, thereby eliminating their destructive effector functions (constant region G1Δnab). In their potential use as blocking agents, favorable binding to the

  7. Reducing variability in the output of pattern classifiers using histogram shaping

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gupta, Shalini; Kan, Chih-Wen; Markey, Mia K.

    2010-01-01

    Purpose: The authors present a novel technique based on histogram shaping to reduce the variability in the output and (sensitivity, specificity) pairs of pattern classifiers with identical ROC curves, but differently distributed outputs. Methods: The authors identify different sources of variability in the output of linear pattern classifiers with identical ROC curves, which also result in classifiers with differently distributed outputs. They theoretically develop a novel technique based on the matching of the histograms of these differently distributed pattern classifier outputs to reduce the variability in their (sensitivity, specificity) pairs at fixed decision thresholds, and to reduce the variability in their actual output values. They empirically demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed technique by means of analyses on the simulated data and real world mammography data. Results: For the simulated data, with three different known sources of variability, and for the real world mammography data with unknown sources of variability, the proposed classifier output calibration technique significantly reduced the variability in the classifiers' (sensitivity, specificity) pairs at fixed decision thresholds. Furthermore, for classifiers with monotonically or approximately monotonically related output variables, the histogram shaping technique also significantly reduced the variability in their actual output values. Conclusions: Classifier output calibration based on histogram shaping can be successfully employed to reduce the variability in the output values and (sensitivity, specificity) pairs of pattern classifiers with identical ROC curves, but differently distributed outputs.

  8. Prenatal prochloraz treatment significantly increases pregnancy length and reduces offspring weight but does not affect social-olfactory memory in rats.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dmytriyeva, Oksana; Klementiev, Boris; Berezin, Vladimir; Bock, Elisabeth

    2013-07-01

    Metabolites of the commonly used imidazole fungicide prochloraz are androgen receptor antagonists. They have been shown to block androgen-driven development and compromise reproductive function. We tested the effect of prochloraz on cognitive behavior following exposure to this fungicide during the perinatal period. Pregnant Wistar rats were administered a 200 mg/kg dose of prochloraz on gestational day (GD) 7, GD11, and GD15. The social recognition test (SRT) was performed on 7-week-old male rat offspring. We found an increase in pregnancy length and a significantly reduced pup weight on PND15 and PND40 but no effect of prenatal prochloraz exposure on social investigation or acquisition of social-olfactory memory. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

  9. Scintigraphic demonstration of a metastasizing hepato-cellular carcinoma

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Heintz, P; Gratz, K F; Schwarzrock, R; Schober, O; Neuhaus, P; Creutzig, H

    1986-01-01

    Adenomas and hepato cellular carcinomas cannot be differentiated by nuclear medicine: both exhibit masked radiodrug trapping at reduced perfusion. Two patients revealed specific accumulation in extrahepatic foci unknown before; hence, the diagnosis of a metastasizing hepatocellular carcinoma had to be verified. One case is demonstrated in full detail. (orig./SHA).

  10. Computational toxicology: Its essential role in reducing drug attrition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Naven, R T; Louise-May, S

    2015-12-01

    Predictive toxicology plays a critical role in reducing the failure rate of new drugs in pharmaceutical research and development. Despite recent gains in our understanding of drug-induced toxicity, however, it is urgent that the utility and limitations of our current predictive tools be determined in order to identify gaps in our understanding of mechanistic and chemical toxicology. Using recently published computational regression analyses of in vitro and in vivo toxicology data, it will be demonstrated that significant gaps remain in early safety screening paradigms. More strategic analyses of these data sets will allow for a better understanding of their domain of applicability and help identify those compounds that cause significant in vivo toxicity but which are currently mis-predicted by in silico and in vitro models. These 'outliers' and falsely predicted compounds are metaphorical lighthouses that shine light on existing toxicological knowledge gaps, and it is essential that these compounds are investigated if attrition is to be reduced significantly in the future. As such, the modern computational toxicologist is more productively engaged in understanding these gaps and driving investigative toxicology towards addressing them. © The Author(s) 2015.

  11. Use of insecticide-treated house screens to reduce infestations of dengue virus vectors, Mexico.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manrique-Saide, Pablo; Che-Mendoza, Azael; Barrera-Perez, Mario; Guillermo-May, Guillermo; Herrera-Bojorquez, Josue; Dzul-Manzanilla, Felipe; Gutierrez-Castro, Cipriano; Lenhart, Audrey; Vazquez-Prokopec, Gonzalo; Sommerfeld, Johannes; McCall, Philip J; Kroeger, Axel; Arredondo-Jimenez, Juan I

    2015-02-01

    Dengue prevention efforts rely on control of virus vectors. We investigated use of insecticide-treated screens permanently affixed to windows and doors in Mexico and found that the screens significantly reduced infestations of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in treated houses. Our findings demonstrate the value of this method for dengue virus vector control.

  12. Technological significances to reduce the material problems. Feasibility of heat flux reduction

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamazaki, Seiichiro; Shimada, Michiya.

    1994-01-01

    For a divertor plate in a fusion power reactor, a high temperature coolant must be used for heat removal to keep thermal efficiency high. It makes the temperature and thermal stress of wall materials higher than the design limits. Issues of the coolant itself, e.g. burnout of high temperature water, will also become a serious problem. Sputtering erosion of the surface material will be a great concern of its lifetime. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the heat and particle loads to the divertor plate technologically. The feasibility of some technological methods of heat reduction, such as separatrix sweeping, is discussed. As one of the most promising ideas, the methods of radiative cooling of the divertor plasma are summarized based on the recent results of large tokamaks. The feasibility of remote radiative cooling and gas divertor is discussed. The ideas are considered in recent design studies of tokamak power reactors and experimental reactors. By way of example, conceptual designs of divertor plate for the steady state tokamak power reactor are described. (author)

  13. Reducing sequence risk using trend following and the CAPE ratio

    OpenAIRE

    Clare, A.; Thomas, S.; Smith, P. N.; Seaton, J.

    2017-01-01

    The risk of experiencing bad investment outcomes at the wrong time, or sequence risk, is a poorly understood, but crucial aspect of the risk faced by investors, in particular those in the decumulation phase of their savings journey, typically over the period of retirement financed by a defined contributions pension scheme. Using US equity return data from 1872-2014 we show how this risk can be significantly reduced by applying trend-following investment strategies. We also demonstrate that kn...

  14. DEMONSTRATION OF AN ADVANCED INTEGRATED CONTROL SYSTEM FOR SIMULTANEOUS EMISSIONS REDUCTION

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Suzanne Shea; Randhir Sehgal; Ilga Celmins; Andrew Maxson

    2002-02-01

    The primary objective of the project titled ''Demonstration of an Advanced Integrated Control System for Simultaneous Emissions Reduction'' was to demonstrate at proof-of-concept scale the use of an online software package, the ''Plant Environmental and Cost Optimization System'' (PECOS), to optimize the operation of coal-fired power plants by economically controlling all emissions simultaneously. It combines physical models, neural networks, and fuzzy logic control to provide both optimal least-cost boiler setpoints to the boiler operators in the control room, as well as optimal coal blending recommendations designed to reduce fuel costs and fuel-related derates. The goal of the project was to demonstrate that use of PECOS would enable coal-fired power plants to make more economic use of U.S. coals while reducing emissions.

  15. Five-year results from a prospective multicentre study of percutaneous pulmonary valve implantation demonstrate sustained removal of significant pulmonary regurgitation, improved right ventricular outflow tract obstruction and improved quality of life

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hager, Alfred; Schubert, Stephan; Ewert, Peter

    2017-01-01

    . The EQ-5D quality of life utility index and visual analogue scale scores were both significantly improved six months post PPVI and remained so at five years. CONCLUSIONS: Five-year results following PPVI demonstrate resolved moderate or severe pulmonary regurgitation, improved right ventricular outflow...

  16. Pilot-scale demonstration of phytofiltration for treatment of arsenic in New Mexico drinking water.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elless, Mark P; Poynton, Charissa Y; Willms, Cari A; Doyle, Mike P; Lopez, Alisa C; Sokkary, Dale A; Ferguson, Bruce W; Blaylock, Michael J

    2005-10-01

    Arsenic contamination of drinking water poses serious health risks to millions of people worldwide. To reduce such risks, the United States Environmental Protection Agency recently lowered the Maximum Contaminant Level for arsenic in drinking water from 50 to 10 microgL(-1). The majority of water systems requiring compliance are small systems that serve less than 10,000 people. Current technologies used to clean arsenic-contaminated water have significant drawbacks, particularly for small treatment systems. In this pilot-scale demonstration, we investigated the use of arsenic-hyperaccumulating ferns to remove arsenic from drinking water using a continuous flow phytofiltration system. Over the course of a 3-month demonstration period, the system consistently produced water having an arsenic concentration less than the detection limit of 2 microgL(-1), at flow rates as high as 1900 L day(-1) for a total treated water volume of approximately 60,000 L. Our results demonstrate that phytofiltration provides the basis for a solar-powered hydroponic technique to enable small-scale cleanup of arsenic-contaminated drinking water.

  17. The Evolution of Polymer Composition during PHA Accumulation: The Significance of Reducing Equivalents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liliana Montano-Herrera

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a systematic investigation into monomer development during mixed culture Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA accumulation involving concurrent active biomass growth and polymer storage. A series of mixed culture PHA accumulation experiments, using several different substrate-feeding strategies, was carried out. The feedstock comprised volatile fatty acids, which were applied as single carbon sources, as mixtures, or in series, using a fed-batch feed-on-demand controlled bioprocess. A dynamic trend in active biomass growth as well as polymer composition was observed. The observations were consistent over replicate accumulations. Metabolic flux analysis (MFA was used to investigate metabolic activity through time. It was concluded that carbon flux, and consequently copolymer composition, could be linked with how reducing equivalents are generated.

  18. Commercial Demonstration of Wood Recovery, Recycling, and Value Adding Technologies

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Auburn Machinery, Inc.

    2004-07-15

    This commercial demonstration project demonstrated the technical feasibility of converting low-value, underutilized and waste stream solid wood fiber material into higher valued products. With a growing need to increase product/production yield and reduce waste in most sawmills, few recovery operations and practically no data existed to support the viability of recovery operations. Prior to our efforts, most all in the forest products industry believed that recovery was difficult, extremely labor intensive, not cost effective, and that recovered products had low value and were difficult to sell. This project provided an opportunity for many within the industry to see through demonstration that converting waste stream material into higher valued products does in fact offer a solution. Our work, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, throughout the project aimed to demonstrate a reasonable approach to reducing the millions of recoverable solid wood fiber tons that are annually treated as and converted into low value chips, mulch and fuel. Consequently sawmills continue to suffer from reduced availability of forest resources, higher raw material costs, growing waste disposal problems, increased global competition, and more pressure to operate in an Environmentally Friendly manner. It is our belief (based upon the experience of this project) that the successful mainstreaming of the recovery concept would assist in alleviating this burden as well as provide for a realistically achievable economic benefit to those who would seriously pursue the concept and tap into the rapidly growing ''GREEN'' building marketplace. Ultimately, with participation and aggressive pursuit of the recovery concept, the public would benefit in that: (1) Landfill/disposal waste volume could be reduced adding greater life to existing municipal landfill sites thereby minimizing the need to prematurely license and open added facilities. Also, there would be a cost

  19. Thrombolysis significantly reduces transient myocardial ischaemia following first acute myocardial infarction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mickley, H; Pless, P; Nielsen, J R

    1992-01-01

    In order to investigate whether thrombolysis affects residual myocardial ischaemia, we prospectively performed a predischarge maximal exercise test and early out-of-hospital ambulatory ST segment monitoring in 123 consecutive men surviving a first acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Seventy......-four patients fulfilled our criteria for thrombolysis, but only the last 35 patients included received thrombolytic therapy. As thrombolysis was not available in our Department at the start of the study, the first 39 patients included were conservatively treated (controls). No significant differences...... in baseline clinical characteristics were found between the two groups. In-hospital atrial fibrillation and digoxin therapy was more prevalent in controls (P less than 0.05). During exercise, thrombolysed patients reached a higher maximal work capacity compared with controls: 160 +/- 41 vs 139 +/- 34 W (P...

  20. Test plan for the retrieval demonstration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Valentich, D.J.

    1993-05-01

    This test plan describes a simulated buried waste retrieval demonstration that will be performed at the Caterpillar, Inc., Edwards Training Center located near Peoria, Illinois. The purpose of the demonstration is to determine the effectiveness of using readily available excavation equipment to retrieve, size, and handle various simulated waste forms that are similar in size, structure, and composition to those expected to be found in US Department of Energy contaminated waste pits and trenches. The objectives of this demonstration are to: meet and maintain daily production goals of 80 yd 3 /day; minimize spillage and dust generation through careful and deliberate operations; document and evaluate methods for manipulating, sizing, and/or working around large objects; and document and evaluate requirements for operator augmentation and remote operation for hot test pit excavation operations. Four conditions comprising the range of environments to be evaluated include excavation of random material from below grade; stacked boxes and barrels from below grade; random materials from at grade; and stacked boxes and barrels from at grade. Results of the retrieval demonstration will reduce unknowns in the body of knowledge about retrieval equipment and procedural options for removal of buried transuranic (TRU) waste at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. It is anticipated that DOE will factor this information into a remedial investigation/feasibility plan leading to a final record of decision for disposition of buried TRU waste

  1. Flambeau River Biofuels Demonstration Plant

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Byrne, Robert J. [Flambeau River Biofuels, Inc., Park Falls, WI (United States)

    2012-07-30

    Flambeau River BioFuels, Inc. (FRB) proposed to construct a demonstration biomass-to-liquids (BTL) biorefinery in Park Falls, Wisconsin. The biorefinery was to be co-located at the existing pulp and paper mill, Flambeau River Papers, and when in full operation would both generate renewable energy – making Flambeau River Papers the first pulp and paper mill in North America to be nearly fossil fuel free – and produce liquid fuels from abundant and renewable lignocellulosic biomass. The biorefinery would serve to validate the thermochemical pathway and economic models for BTL production using forest residuals and wood waste, providing a basis for proliferating BTL conversion technologies throughout the United States. It was a project goal to create a compelling new business model for the pulp and paper industry, and support the nation’s goal for increasing renewable fuels production and reducing its dependence on foreign oil. FRB planned to replicate this facility at other paper mills after this first demonstration scale plant was operational and had proven technical and economic feasibility.

  2. Nature of Reduced Carbon in Martian Meteorites

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gibson, Everett K., Jr.; McKay, D. S.; Thomas-Keprta, K. L.; Clemett, S. J.; White, L. M.

    2012-01-01

    Martian meteorites provide important information on the nature of reduced carbon components present on Mars throughout its history. The first in situ analyses for carbon on the surface of Mars by the Viking landers yielded disappointing results. With the recognition of Martian meteorites on Earth, investigations have shown carbon-bearing phases exist on Mars. Studies have yielded presence of reduced carbon, carbonates and inferred graphitic carbon phases. Samples ranging in age from the first approximately 4 Ga of Mars history [e.g. ALH84001] to nakhlites with a crystallization age of 1.3 Ga [e.g. Nakhla] with aqueous alteration processes occurring 0.5-0.7 Ga after crystallizaton. Shergottites demonstrate formation ages around 165-500 Ma with younger aqueous alterations events. Only a limited number of the Martian meteorites do not show evidence of significance terrestrial alterations. Selected areas within ALH84001, Nakhla, Yamato 000593 and possibly Tissint are suitable for study of their indigenous reduced carbon bearing phases. Nakhla possesses discrete, well-defined carbonaceous phases present within iddingsite alteration zones. Based upon both isotopic measurements and analysis of Nakhla's organic phases the presence of pre-terrestrial organics is now recognized. The reduced carbon-bearing phases appear to have been deposited during preterrestrial aqueous alteration events that produced clays. In addition, the microcrystalline layers of Nakhla's iddingsite have discrete units of salt crystals suggestive of evaporation processes. While we can only speculate on the origin of these unique carbonaceous structures, we note that the significance of such observations is that it may allow us to understand the role of Martian carbon as seen in the Martian meteorites with obvious implications for astrobiology and the pre-biotic evolution of Mars. In any case, our observations strongly suggest that reduced organic carbon exists as micrometer- size, discrete structures

  3. Multidisciplinary Conceptual Design for Reduced-Emission Rotorcraft

    Science.gov (United States)

    Silva, Christopher; Johnson, Wayne; Solis, Eduardo

    2018-01-01

    Python-based wrappers for OpenMDAO are used to integrate disparate software for practical conceptual design of rotorcraft. The suite of tools which are connected thus far include aircraft sizing, comprehensive analysis, and parametric geometry. The tools are exercised to design aircraft with aggressive goals for emission reductions relative to fielded state-of-the-art rotorcraft. Several advanced reduced-emission rotorcraft are designed and analyzed, demonstrating the flexibility of the tools to consider a wide variety of potentially transformative vertical flight vehicles. To explore scale effects, aircraft have been sized for 5, 24, or 76 passengers in their design missions. Aircraft types evaluated include tiltrotor, single-main-rotor, coaxial, and side-by-side helicopters. Energy and drive systems modeled include Lithium-ion battery, hydrogen fuel cell, turboelectric hybrid, and turboshaft drive systems. Observations include the complex nature of the trade space for this simple problem, with many potential aircraft design and operational solutions for achieving significant emission reductions. Also interesting is that achieving greatly reduced emissions may not require exotic component technologies, but may be achieved with a dedicated design objective of reducing emissions.

  4. Buried Waste Integrated Demonstration lessons learned: 1993 technology demonstrations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kostelnik, K.M.; Owens, K.J.

    1994-01-01

    An integrated technology demonstration was conducted by the Buried Waste Integrated Demonstration (BWID) at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory Cold Test Pit in the summer of 1993. This program and demonstration was sponsored by the US Department of Energy Office of Technology Development. The demonstration included six technologies representing a synergistic system for the characterization and retrieval of a buried hazardous waste site. The integrated technology demonstration proved very successful and a summary of the technical accomplishments is presented. Upon completion of the integrated technology demonstration, cognizant program personnel participated in a lessons learned exercise. This exercise was conducted at the Simplot Decision Support Center at Idaho State University and lessons learned activity captured additional information relative to the integration of technologies for demonstration purposes. This information will be used by BWID to enhance program planning and strengthen future technology demonstrations

  5. Prognostic significance of multiple kallikreins in high-grade astrocytoma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Drucker, Kristen L.; Gianinni, Caterina; Decker, Paul A.; Diamandis, Eleftherios P.; Scarisbrick, Isobel A.

    2015-01-01

    Kallikreins have clinical value as prognostic markers in a subset of malignancies examined to date, including kallikrein 3 (prostate specific antigen) in prostate cancer. We previously demonstrated that kallikrein 6 is expressed at higher levels in grade IV compared to grade III astrocytoma and is associated with reduced survival of GBM patients. In this study we determined KLK1, KLK6, KLK7, KLK8, KLK9 and KLK10 protein expression in two independent tissue microarrays containing 60 grade IV and 8 grade III astrocytoma samples. Scores for staining intensity, percent of tumor stained and immunoreactivity scores (IR, product of intensity and percent) were determined and analyzed for correlation with patient survival. Grade IV glioma was associated with higher levels of kallikrein-immunostaining compared to grade III specimens. Univariable Cox proportional hazards regression analysis demonstrated that elevated KLK6- or KLK7-IR was associated with poor patient prognosis. In addition, an increased percent of tumor immunoreactive for KLK6 or KLK9 was associated with decreased survival in grade IV patients. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis indicated that patients with KLK6-IR < 10, KLK6 percent tumor core stained < 3, or KLK7-IR < 9 had a significantly improved survival. Multivariable analysis indicated that the significance of these parameters was maintained even after adjusting for gender and performance score. These data suggest that elevations in glioblastoma KLK6, KLK7 and KLK9 protein have utility as prognostic markers of patient survival. The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12885-015-1566-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

  6. Application of muscadine grape (Vitis rotundifolia Michx.) pomace extract to reduce carcinogenic acrylamide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Changmou; Yagiz, Yavuz; Marshall, Sara; Li, Zheng; Simonne, Amarat; Lu, Jiang; Marshall, Maurice R

    2015-09-01

    Acrylamide is a byproduct of the Maillard reaction and is formed in a variety of heat-treated commercial starchy foods. It is known to be toxic and potentially carcinogenic to humans. Muscadine grape polyphenols and standard phenolic compounds were examined on the reduction of acrylamide in an equimolar asparagine/glucose chemical model, a potato chip model, and a simulated physiological system. Polyphenols were found to significantly reduce acrylamide in the chemical model, with reduced rates higher than 90% at 100 μg/ml. In the potato chip model, grape polyphenols reduced the acrylamide level by 60.3% as concentration was increased to 0.1%. However, polyphenols exhibited no acrylamide reduction in the simulated physiological system. Results also indicated no significant correlation between the antioxidant activities of polyphenols and their acrylamide inhibition. This study demonstrated muscadine grape extract can mitigate acrylamide formation in the Maillard reaction, which provides a new value-added application for winery pomace waste. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Learning to REDUCE: A Reduced Electricity Consumption Prediction Ensemble

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Aman, Saima; Chelmis, Charalampos; Prasanna, Viktor

    2016-02-12

    Utilities use Demand Response (DR) to balance supply and demand in the electric grid by involving customers in efforts to reduce electricity consumption during peak periods. To implement and adapt DR under dynamically changing conditions of the grid, reliable prediction of reduced consumption is critical. However, despite the wealth of research on electricity consumption prediction and DR being long in practice, the problem of reduced consumption prediction remains largely un-addressed. In this paper, we identify unique computational challenges associated with the prediction of reduced consumption and contrast this to that of normal consumption and DR baseline prediction.We propose a novel ensemble model that leverages different sequences of daily electricity consumption on DR event days as well as contextual attributes for reduced consumption prediction. We demonstrate the success of our model on a large, real-world, high resolution dataset from a university microgrid comprising of over 950 DR events across a diverse set of 32 buildings. Our model achieves an average error of 13.5%, an 8.8% improvement over the baseline. Our work is particularly relevant for buildings where electricity consumption is not tied to strict schedules. Our results and insights should prove useful to the researchers and practitioners working in the sustainable energy domain.

  8. Demonstration of reliability centered maintenance

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schwan, C.A.; Morgan, T.A.

    1991-04-01

    Reliability centered maintenance (RCM) is an approach to preventive maintenance planning and evaluation that has been used successfully by other industries, most notably the airlines and military. Now EPRI is demonstrating RCM in the commercial nuclear power industry. Just completed are large-scale, two-year demonstrations at Rochester Gas ampersand Electric (Ginna Nuclear Power Station) and Southern California Edison (San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station). Both demonstrations were begun in the spring of 1988. At each plant, RCM was performed on 12 to 21 major systems. Both demonstrations determined that RCM is an appropriate means to optimize a PM program and improve nuclear plant preventive maintenance on a large scale. Such favorable results had been suggested by three earlier EPRI pilot studies at Florida Power ampersand Light, Duke Power, and Southern California Edison. EPRI selected the Ginna and San Onofre sites because, together, they represent a broad range of utility and plant size, plant organization, plant age, and histories of availability and reliability. Significant steps in each demonstration included: selecting and prioritizing plant systems for RCM evaluation; performing the RCM evaluation steps on selected systems; evaluating the RCM recommendations by a multi-disciplinary task force; implementing the RCM recommendations; establishing a system to track and verify the RCM benefits; and establishing procedures to update the RCM bases and recommendations with time (a living program). 7 refs., 1 tab

  9. Medium Duty Electric Vehicle Demonstration Project

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mackie, Robin J. D. [Smith Electric Vehicles Corporation, Kansas City, MO (United States)

    2015-05-31

    The Smith Electric Vehicle Demonstration Project (SDP) was integral to the Smith business plan to establish a manufacturing base in the United States (US) and produce a portfolio of All Electric Vehicles (AEV’s) for the medium duty commercial truck market. Smith focused on the commercial depot based logistics market, as it represented the market that was most ready for the early adoption of AEV technology. The SDP enabled Smith to accelerate its introduction of vehicles and increase the size of its US supply chain to support early market adoption of AEV’s that were cost competitive, fully met the needs of a diverse set of end users and were compliant with Federal safety and emissions requirements. The SDP accelerated the development and production of various electric drive vehicle systems to substantially reduce petroleum consumption, reduce vehicular emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), and increase US jobs.

  10. Allopregnanolone promotes regeneration and reduces β-amyloid burden in a preclinical model of Alzheimer's disease.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shuhua Chen

    Full Text Available Previously, we demonstrated that allopregnanolone (APα promoted proliferation of rodent and human neural progenitor cells in vitro. Further, we demonstrated that APα promoted neurogenesis in the hippocampal subgranular zone (SGZ and reversed learning and memory deficits in the male triple transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer's (3xTgAD. In the current study, we determined the efficacy of APα to promote the survival of newly generated neural cells while simultaneously reducing Alzheimer's disease (AD pathology in the 3xTgAD male mouse model. Comparative analyses between three different APα treatment regimens indicated that APα administered 1/week for 6 months was maximally efficacious for simultaneous promotion of neurogenesis and survival of newly generated cells and reduction of AD pathology. We further investigated the efficacy of APα to impact Aβ burden. Treatment was initiated either prior to or post intraneuronal Aβ accumulation. Results indicated that APα administered 1/week for 6 months significantly increased survival of newly generated neurons and simultaneously reduced Aβ pathology with greatest efficacy in the pre-pathology treatment group. APα significantly reduced Aβ generation in hippocampus, cortex, and amygdala, which was paralleled by decreased expression of Aβ-binding-alcohol-dehydrogenase. In addition, APα significantly reduced microglia activation as indicated by reduced expression of OX42 while increasing CNPase, an oligodendrocyte myelin marker. Mechanistic analyses indicated that pre-pathology treatment with APα increased expression of liver-X-receptor, pregnane-X-receptor, and 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-CoA-reductase (HMG-CoA-R, three proteins that regulate cholesterol homeostasis and clearance from brain. Together these findings provide preclinical evidence for the optimal treatment regimen of APα to achieve efficacy as a disease modifying therapeutic to promote regeneration while simultaneously decreasing

  11. Manitoba plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) demonstration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hoemsen, R. [Red River College, Winnipeg, MB (Canada); Parsons, R. [Government of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB (Canada). Centre for Emerging Renewable Energy

    2010-07-01

    Manitoba has low electricity rates, the highest proportion of renewables, and a legislated commitment to reduce greenhouse gases. However, the province still relies heavily on oil as everyone else. The mix of energy opportunities in Manitoba were highlighted in this presentation, with particular reference to the commercialization of electric vehicles. Several photographs were presented of the Toyota plug-in hybrid vehicle and a plug-in hybrid electric demonstration vehicle. A demonstration project overview was offered that used technology from A123 Systems Inc. The conversion module and vehicle users were profiled. Topics that were presented related to the demonstration project included monitoring; gasoline fuel economy results; fuel economy variability; cold weather operation; cold weather issues; battery upgrade solutions; and highly qualified personnel. It was concluded that in terms of follow-up, there is a need to combine findings of current plug-in hybrid electric vehicle demonstration with those for the new Toyota production plug-in hybrid vehicles. Key next steps for the demonstration are to address cabin heating requirements; better characterizing winter performance; and implementation of IPLC units on all plug-in hybrid electric vehicles for electricity consumption. figs.

  12. Milliken Clean Coal Technology Demonstration Project. Environmental monitoring report, July--September 1996

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1998-05-01

    New York State Electric and Gas Corporation (NYSEG) has installed and is presently operating a high-efficiency flue gas desulfurization (FGD) system to demonstrate innovative emissions control technology and comply with the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. The host facility for this demonstration project is NYSEG`s Milliken Station, in the Town of Lansing, New York. The primary objective of this project is to demonstrate a retrofit of energy-efficient SO{sub 2} and NO{sub x} control systems with minimal impact on overall plant efficiency. The demonstration project has added a forced oxidation, formic acid-enhanced wet limestone FGD system, which is expected to reduce SO{sub 2} emissions by at least 90 percent. NYSEG also made combustion modifications to each boiler and plans to demonstrate selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR) technology on unit 1, which will reduce NO{sub x} emissions. Goals of the proposed demonstration include up to 98 percent SO{sub 2} removal efficiency while burning high-sulfur coal, 30 percent NO{sub x} reductions through combustion modifications, additional NO{sub x} reductions using SNCR technology, production of marketable commercial-grade gypsum and calcium chloride by-products to minimize solid waste disposal, and zero wastewater discharge.

  13. Softened food reduces weight loss in the streptozotocin-induced male mouse model of diabetic nephropathy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nørgaard, Sisse A; Sand, Fredrik W; Sørensen, Dorte B; Abelson, Klas Sp; Søndergaard, Henrik

    2018-01-01

    The streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mouse is a widely used model of diabetes and diabetic nephropathy (DN). However, it is a well-known issue that this model is challenged by high weight loss, which despite supportive measures often results in high euthanization rates. To overcome these issues, we hypothesized that supplementing STZ-induced diabetic mice with water-softened chow in addition to normal chow would reduce weight loss, lower the need for supportive treatment, and reduce the number of mice reaching the humane endpoint of 20% weight loss. In a 15 week STZ-induced DN study we demonstrated that diabetic male mice receiving softened chow had reduced acute weight loss following STZ treatment ( p = 0.045) and additionally fewer mice were euthanized due to weight loss. By supplementing the diabetic mice with softened chow, no mice reached 20% weight loss whereas 37.5% of the mice without this supplement reached this humane endpoint ( p = 0.0027). Excretion of corticosterone metabolites in faeces was reduced in diabetic mice on softened chow ( p = 0.0007), suggesting lower levels of general stress. Finally, it was demonstrated that the water-softened chow supplement did not significantly affect the induction of key disease parameters, i.e. %HbA1C and albuminuria nor result in abnormal teeth wear. In conclusion, supplementation of softened food is refining the STZ-induced diabetic mouse model significantly by reducing stress, weight loss and the number of animals sacrificed due to humane endpoints, while maintaining the key phenotypes of diabetes and nephropathy.

  14. Near-Net Forging Technology Demonstration Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hall, I. Keith

    1996-01-01

    Significant advantages in specific mechanical properties, when compared to conventional aluminum (Al) alloys, make aluminum-lithium (Al-Li) alloys attractive candidate materials for use in cryogenic propellant tanks and dry bay structures. However, the cost of Al-Li alloys is typically five times that of 2219 aluminum. If conventional fabrication processes are employed to fabricate launch vehicle structure, the material costs will restrict their utilization. In order to fully exploit the potential cost and performance benefits of Al-Li alloys, it is necessary that near-net manufacturing methods be developed to off-set or reduce raw material costs. Near-net forging is an advanced manufacturing method that uses elevated temperature metal movement (forging) to fabricate a single piece, near-net shape, structure. This process is termed 'near-net' because only a minimal amount of post-forge machining is required. The near-net forging process was developed to reduce the material scrap rate (buy-to-fly ratio) and fabrication costs associated with conventional manufacturing methods. The goal for the near-net forging process, when mature, is to achieve an overall cost reduction of approximately 50 percent compared with conventional manufacturing options for producing structures fabricated from Al-Li alloys. This NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) sponsored program has been a part of a unique government / industry partnership, coordinated to develop and demonstrate near-net forging technology. The objective of this program was to demonstrate scale-up of the near-net forging process. This objective was successfully achieved by fabricating four integrally stiffened, 170- inch diameter by 20-inch tall, Al-Li alloy 2195, Y-ring adapters. Initially, two 2195 Al-Li ingots were converted and back extruded to produce four cylindrical blockers. Conventional ring rolling of the blockers was performed to produce ring preforms, which were then contour ring rolled to produce

  15. Design and Demonstration of an Advanced Agricultural Feedstock Supply System for Lignocellulosic Bioenergy Production

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Clark, Timothy C. [Antares Group Inc., Lanham, MD (United States); Comer, Kevin S. [Antares Group Inc., Lanham, MD (United States); Belden, Jr., William S. [Antares Group Inc., Lanham, MD (United States)

    2016-04-30

    This three-year project developed and demonstrated four innovative, first-of-their-kind pieces of equipment that are aimed at significantly reducing the cost of delivered herbaceous biomass. This equipment included a Self-Propelled Baler (SPB), a Bale Picking Truck (BPT), a Self-Loading Trailer (SLT), and a Heavy Crop Header for harvesting high yielding energy crops. This equipment was designed and fabricated during the first two years of the project and demonstrated on available crops (corn stover, wheat straw, and warm season grasses) across the nation, as available. Operational performance and cost data was collected and analyzed throughout the project to measure the costs of baseline harvesting (using conventional harvesting equipment) and advanced harvesting with the newly developed equipment. This data revealed that the project met its original goal of developing equipment that is realistically capable of reducing the cost of delivered biomass by $13 per dry ton. Each machine was tested after fabrication and put to the test in one or more commercial harvesting seasons. During these tests, operational flaws were found and fixed through upgrades and improvements. The first new SPB, BPT, and two new SLTs were ready for use during the 2013 harvest season. Since then, over 40 SLTs have been ordered and are currently under fabrication. All of the equipment will be commercially available to the industry as demand increases.

  16. Novel water-based antiseptic lotion demonstrates rapid, broad-spectrum kill compared with alcohol antiseptic.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Czerwinski, Steven E; Cozean, Jesse; Cozean, Colette

    2014-01-01

    A novel alcohol-based antiseptic and a novel water-based antiseptic lotion, both with a synergistic combination of antimicrobial ingredients containing 0.2% benzethonium chloride, were evaluated using the standard time-kill method against 25 FDA-specified challenge microorganisms. The purpose of the testing was to determine whether a non-alcohol product could have equivalent rapid and broad-spectrum kill to a traditional alcohol sanitizer. Both the alcohol- and water-based products showed rapid and broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity. The average 15-s kill was 99.999% of the challenge organism for the alcohol-based antiseptic and 99.971% for the water-based antiseptic. The alcohol-based product demonstrated 100% of peak efficacy (60s) within the first 15s, whereas the water-based product showed 99.97%. The novel alcohol-based antiseptic reduced concentrations of 100% of organisms by 99.999%, whereas the water-based antiseptic lotion showed the same reduction for 96% of organisms. A novel water-based antiseptic product demonstrated equivalent rapid, broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity to an alcohol-based sanitizer and provided additional benefits of reduced irritation, persistent effect, and greater efficacy against common viruses. The combination of rapid, broad-spectrum immediate kill and persistent efficacy against pathogens may have significant clinical benefit in limiting the spread of disease. Copyright © 2014 King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. The effectiveness of the anti-CD11d treatment is reduced in rat models of spinal cord injury that produce significant levels of intraspinal hemorrhage.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geremia, N M; Hryciw, T; Bao, F; Streijger, F; Okon, E; Lee, J H T; Weaver, L C; Dekaban, G A; Kwon, B K; Brown, A

    2017-09-01

    We have previously reported that administration of a CD11d monoclonal antibody (mAb) improves recovery in a clip-compression model of SCI. In this model the CD11d mAb reduces the infiltration of activated leukocytes into the injured spinal cord (as indicated by reduced intraspinal MPO). However not all anti-inflammatory strategies have reported beneficial results, suggesting that success of the CD11d mAb treatment may depend on the type or severity of the injury. We therefore tested the CD11d mAb treatment in a rat hemi-contusion model of cervical SCI. In contrast to its effects in the clip-compression model, the CD11d mAb treatment did not improve forelimb function nor did it significantly reduce MPO levels in the hemi-contused cord. To determine if the disparate results using the CD11d mAb were due to the biomechanical nature of the cord injury (compression SCI versus contusion SCI) or to the spinal level of the injury (12th thoracic level versus cervical) we further evaluated the CD11d mAb treatment after a T12 contusion SCI. In contrast to the T12 clip compression SCI, the CD11d mAb treatment did not improve locomotor recovery or significantly reduce MPO levels after T12 contusion SCI. Lesion analyses revealed increased levels of hemorrhage after contusion SCI compared to clip-compression SCI. SCI that is accompanied by increased intraspinal hemorrhage would be predicted to be refractory to the CD11d mAb therapy as this approach targets leukocyte diapedesis through the intact vasculature. These results suggest that the disparate results of the anti-CD11d treatment in contusion and clip-compression models of SCI are due to the different pathophysiological mechanisms that dominate these two types of spinal cord injuries. Crown Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  18. Significance evaluation in factor graphs

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Madsen, Tobias; Hobolth, Asger; Jensen, Jens Ledet

    2017-01-01

    in genomics and the multiple-testing issues accompanying them, accurate significance evaluation is of great importance. We here address the problem of evaluating statistical significance of observations from factor graph models. Results Two novel numerical approximations for evaluation of statistical...... significance are presented. First a method using importance sampling. Second a saddlepoint approximation based method. We develop algorithms to efficiently compute the approximations and compare them to naive sampling and the normal approximation. The individual merits of the methods are analysed both from....... Conclusions The applicability of saddlepoint approximation and importance sampling is demonstrated on known models in the factor graph framework. Using the two methods we can substantially improve computational cost without compromising accuracy. This contribution allows analyses of large datasets...

  19. Passerine birds breeding under chronic noise experience reduced fitness.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Julia Schroeder

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Fitness in birds has been shown to be negatively associated with anthropogenic noise, but the underlying mechanisms remain obscure. It is however crucial to understand the mechanisms of how urban noise impinges on fitness to obtain a better understanding of the role of chronic noise in urban ecology. Here, we examine three hypotheses on how noise might reduce reproductive output in passerine birds: (H1 by impairing mate choice, (H2 by reducing territory quality and (H3 by impeding chick development. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We used long-term data from an island population of house sparrows, Passer domesticus, in which we can precisely estimate fitness. We found that nests in an area affected by the noise from large generators produced fewer young, of lower body mass, and fewer recruits, even when we corrected statistically for parental genetic quality using a cross-fostering set-up, supporting H3. Also, individual females provided their young with food less often when they bred in the noisy area compared to breeding attempts by the same females elsewhere. Furthermore, we show that females reacted flexibly to increased noise levels by adjusting their provisioning rate in the short term, which suggests that noise may be a causal factor that reduces reproductive output. We rejected H1 and H2 because nestbox occupancy, parental body mass, age and reproductive investment did not differ significantly between noisy and quiet areas. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: OUR RESULTS SUGGEST A PREVIOUSLY UNDESCRIBED MECHANISM TO EXPLAIN HOW ENVIRONMENTAL NOISE CAN REDUCE FITNESS IN PASSERINE BIRDS: by acoustically masking parent-offspring communication. More importantly, using a cross-fostering set-up, our results demonstrate that birds breeding in a noisy environment experience significant fitness costs. Chronic noise is omnipresent around human habitation and may produces similar fitness consequences in a wide range of urban bird species.

  20. Nuclear energy significantly reduces carbon dioxide emissions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Koprda, V.

    2006-01-01

    This article is devoted to nuclear energy, to its acceptability, compatibility and sustainability. Nuclear energy is non-dispensable part of energy sources with vast innovation potential. The safety of nuclear energy, radioactive waste deposition, and prevention of risk from misuse of nuclear material have to be very seriously adjudged and solved. Nuclear energy is one of the ways how to decrease the contamination of atmosphere with carbon dioxide and it solves partially also the problem of global increase of temperature and climate changes. Given are the main factors responsible for the renaissance of nuclear energy. (author)

  1. Changes in body weight and metabolic indexes in overweight breast cancer survivors enrolled in a randomized trial of low-fat vs. reduced carbohydrate diets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thomson, Cynthia A; Stopeck, Alison T; Bea, Jennifer W; Cussler, Ellen; Nardi, Emily; Frey, Georgette; Thompson, Patricia A

    2010-01-01

    Overweight status is common among women breast cancer survivors and places them at greater risk for metabolic disorders, cardiovascular morbidity, and breast cancer recurrence than nonoverweight survivors. Efforts to promote weight control in this population are needed. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of low-fat or low-carbohydrate diet counseling on weight loss, body composition, and changes in metabolic indexes in overweight postmenopausal breast cancer survivors. Survivors (n = 40) were randomized to receive dietitian counseling for a low-fat or a reduced carbohydrate diet for 6 mo. Weight and metabolic measures, including glucose, insulin, HbA1c, HOMA, lipids, hsCRP, as well as blood pressure were measured at baseline, 6, 12 and 24 wk. Dietary intake of fat and carbohydrate was reduced by 24 and 76 g/day, respectively. Weight loss averaged 6.1 (± 4.8 kg) at 24 wk and was not significantly different by diet group; loss of lean mass was also demonstrated. All subjects demonstrated improvements in total/HDL cholesterol ratio, and significant reductions in HbA1c, insulin, and HOMA. Triglycerides levels were significantly reduced only in the low-carbohydrate diet group (-31.1 ± 36.6; P = 0.01). Significant improvements in weight and metabolic indexes can be demonstrated among overweight breast cancer survivors adherent to either a carbohydrate- or fat-restricted diet.

  2. A pilot study: Horticulture-related activities significantly reduce stress levels and salivary cortisol concentration of maladjusted elementary school children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Min Jung; Oh, Wook; Jang, Ja Soon; Lee, Ju Young

    2018-04-01

    The effects of three horticulture-related activities (HRAs), including floral arranging, planting, and flower pressing were compared to see if they influenced changes on a stress scale and on salivary cortisol concentrations (SCC) in maladjusted elementary school children. Twenty maladjusted elementary school children were randomly assigned either to an experimental or control group. The control group carried out individual favorite indoor activities under the supervision of a teacher. Simultaneously, the ten children in the experimental group participated in a HRA program consisting of flower arrangement (FA), planting (P), and flower pressing (PF) activities, in which the other ten children in the control group did not take part. During nine sessions, the activities were completed as follows: FA-FA-FA, P-P-P, and PF-PF-PF; each session lasted 40 min and took place once a week. For the quantitative analysis of salivary cortisol, saliva was collected from the experimental group one week before the HRAs and immediately after the activities for 9 consecutive weeks at the same time each session. In the experimental group, stress scores of interpersonal relationship, school life, personal problems, and home life decreased after the HRAs by 1.3, 1.8, 4.2, and 1.3 points, respectively. In particular, the stress score of school life was significantly reduced (P < 0.01). In addition, from the investigation of the SCCs for the children before and after repeating HRAs three times, it was found that flower arrangement, planting, and flower pressing activities reduced the SCCs by ≥37% compared to the SCCs prior to taking part in the HRAs. These results indicate that HRAs are associated with a reduction in the stress levels of maladjusted elementary school children. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  3. DESIGN OF SMALL AUTOMATION WORK CELL SYSTEM DEMONSTRATIONS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    TURNER, C.; PEHL, J.

    2000-01-01

    The introduction of automation systems into many of the facilities dealing with the production, use and disposition of nuclear materials has been an ongoing objective. Many previous attempts have been made, using a variety of monolithic and, in some cases, modular technologies. Many of these attempts were less than successful, owing to the difficulty of the problem, the lack of maturity of the technology, and over optimism about the capabilities of a particular system. Consequently, it is not surprising that suggestions that automation can reduce worker Occupational Radiation Exposure (ORE) levels are often met with skepticism and caution. The development of effective demonstrations of these technologies is of vital importance if automation is to become an acceptable option for nuclear material processing environments. The University of Texas Robotics Research Group (UTRRG) has been pursuing the development of technologies to support modular small automation systems (each of less than 5 degrees-of-freedom) and the design of those systems for more than two decades. Properly designed and implemented, these technologies have a potential to reduce the worker ORE associated with work in nuclear materials processing facilities. Successful development of systems for these applications requires the development of technologies that meet the requirements of the applications. These application requirements form a general set of rules that applicable technologies and approaches need to adhere to, but in and of themselves are generally insufficient for the design of a specific automation system. For the design of an appropriate system, the associated task specifications and relationships need to be defined. These task specifications also provide a means by which appropriate technology demonstrations can be defined. Based on the requirements and specifications of the operations of the Advanced Recovery and Integrated Extraction System (ARIES) pilot line at Los Alamos National

  4. Vaccination of pigs two weeks before infection significantly reduces transmission of foot-and-mouth disease virus

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Eble, P.L.; Bouma, A.; Bruin, de M.G.M.; Hemert-Kluitenberg, van F.; Oirschot, van J.T.; Dekker, A.

    2004-01-01

    The objective of this study was to investigate whether and at what time interval could vaccination reduce transmission of foot-and-Mouth disease virus (FMDV) among pigs. Reduction of virus transmission by vaccination was determined experimentally. Transmission of FMDV was studied in three groups of

  5. Demonstration of risk-based approaches to nuclear plant regulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rahn, F.J.; Sursock, J.P.; Darling, S.S.; Oddo, J.M.

    1993-01-01

    This paper describes generic technical support EPRI is providing to the nuclear power industry relative to its recent initiatives in the area of risk-based regulations (RBR). A risk-based regulatory approach uses probabilistic risk assessment (PRA), or similar techniques, to allocate safety resources commensurate with the risk posed by nuclear plant operations. This approach will reduce O ampersand M costs, and also improve nuclear plant safety. In order to enhance industry, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and public confidence in RBR, three things need to be shown: (1) manpower/resource savings are significant for both NRC and industry; (2) the process is doable in a reasonable amount of time; and (3) the process, if uniformly applied, results in demonstrably cheaper power and safer plants. In 1992, EPRI performed a qualitative study of the key RBR issues contributing to high O ampersand M costs. The results are given on Table 1. This study is being followed up by an in-depth quantitative cost/benefit study to focus technical work on producing guidelines/procedures for licensing submittals to NRC. The guidelines/procedures necessarily will be developed from successful demonstration projects such as the Fitzpatrick pilot plant study proposed by the New York Power Authority and other generic applications. This paper presents three examples: two motor operated valve projects performed by QUADREX Energy Services Corporation working with utilities in responding to NRC Generic Letter 89-10, and a third project working with Yankee Atomic Electric Company on service water systems at a plant in its service system. These demonstration projects aim to show the following: (1) the relative ease of putting together a technical case based on RBR concepts; (2) clarity in differentiating the various risk trade-offs, and in communicating overall reductions in risk with NRC; and (3) improved prioritization of NRC directives

  6. Reduced-Complexity Direction of Arrival Estimation Using Real-Valued Computation with Arbitrary Array Configurations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Feng-Gang Yan

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available A low-complexity algorithm is presented to dramatically reduce the complexity of the multiple signal classification (MUSIC algorithm for direction of arrival (DOA estimation, in which both tasks of eigenvalue decomposition (EVD and spectral search are implemented with efficient real-valued computations, leading to about 75% complexity reduction as compared to the standard MUSIC. Furthermore, the proposed technique has no dependence on array configurations and is hence suitable for arbitrary array geometries, which shows a significant implementation advantage over most state-of-the-art unitary estimators including unitary MUSIC (U-MUSIC. Numerical simulations over a wide range of scenarios are conducted to show the performance of the new technique, which demonstrates that with a significantly reduced computational complexity, the new approach is able to provide a close accuracy to the standard MUSIC.

  7. Frictionless Demonstration Using Fine Plastic Beads For Teaching Mechanics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ishii, K.; Kagawa, K.; Khumaeni, A.; Kurniawan, K. H.

    2010-01-01

    New equipment for demonstrating laws of mechanics have successfully been constructed utilizing fine sphere plastic beads (0.3 mm in diameter). Fine plastic beads function as ball bearings to reduce the friction between the object and the plate surface. By this method, a quantitative measurement of energy conservation law has successfully been carried out with a small error of less 3%. The strong advantage of this frictionless method is that we can always use the same objects like Petri dishes for demonstrating many kinds of mechanics laws, such as the first, second, and the third laws of motion, momentum conservation law, and energy conservation law. This demonstration method surely has a beneficial effect for students, who can then understand mechanics laws systematically with a unified concept and no confusion.

  8. Immunotherapy with Dendritic Cells Modified with Tumor-Associated Antigen Gene Demonstrates Enhanced Antitumor Effect Against Lung Cancer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tao Jiang

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Immunotherapy using dendritic cell (DC vaccine has the potential to overcome the bottleneck of cancer therapy. METHODS: We engineered Lewis lung cancer cells (LLCs and bone marrow–derived DCs to express tumor-associated antigen (TAA ovalbumin (OVA via lentiviral vector plasmid encoding OVA gene. We then tested the antitumor effect of modified DCs both in vitro and in vivo. RESULTS: The results demonstrated that in vitro modified DCs could dramatically enhance T-cell proliferation (P < .01 and killing of LLCs than control groups (P < .05. Moreover, modified DCs could reduce tumor size and prolong the survival of LLC tumor-bearing mice than control groups (P < .01 and P < .01, respectively. Mechanistically, modified DCs demonstrated enhanced homing to T-cell–rich compartments and triggered more naive T cells to become cytotoxic T lymphocytes, which exhibited significant infiltration into the tumors. Interestingly, modified DCs also markedly reduced tumor cells harboring stem cell markers in mice (P < .05, suggesting the potential role on cancer stem-like cells. CONCLUSION: These findings suggested that DCs bioengineered with TAA could enhance antitumor effect and therefore represent a novel anticancer strategy that is worth further exploration.

  9. Schizophrenia illness severity is associated with reduced loss aversion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Currie, James; Buruju, Dheeraj; Perrin, Jennifer S; Reid, Ian C; Steele, J Douglas; Feltovich, Nick

    2017-06-01

    Loss aversion, whereby losses weigh more heavily than equal-sized gains, has been demonstrated in many decision-making settings. Previous research has suggested reduced loss aversion in schizophrenia, but with little evidence of a link between loss aversion and schizophrenia illness severity. In this study, 20 individuals with schizophrenia and 16 control participants, matched by age and sex, played two versions of the Iterated Prisoners' Dilemma, one version with only positive payoffs and another version in which negative payoffs were possible, with the second version being derived from the first by subtracting a constant value from all payoffs. The control group demonstrated significantly lower cooperation rates under negative payoffs, compared with the version with only positive payoffs, indicative of loss aversion. The patient group on average showed no loss aversion response. Moreover, the extent of loss aversion in patients was found to be negatively correlated with schizophrenia illness severity, with less ill patients showing loss aversion more similar to controls. Results were found to be robust to the inclusion of potential confounding factors as covariates within rigorous probit regression analyses. Reduced loss aversion is a feature of schizophrenia and related to illness severity. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  10. Local delivery of FTY720 in PCL membrane improves SCI functional recovery by reducing reactive astrogliosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Junjuan; Wang, Jiaqiu; Lu, Ping; Cai, Youzhi; Wang, Yafei; Hong, Lan; Ren, Hao; Heng, Boon Chin; Liu, Hua; Zhou, Jing; Ouyang, Hongwei

    2015-09-01

    FTY720 has recently been approved as an oral drug for treating relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis, and exerts its therapeutic effect by acting as an immunological inhibitor targeting the sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) receptor subtype (S1P1) of T cells. Recently studies demonstrated positive efficacy of this drug on spinal cord injury (SCI) in animal models after systemic administration, albeit with significant adverse side effects. We hereby hypothesize that localized delivery of FTY720 can promote SCI recovery by reducing pathological astrogliosis. The mechanistic functions of FTY720 were investigated in vitro and in vivo utilizing immunofluorescence, histology, MRI and behavioral analysis. The in vitro study showed that FTY720 can reduce astrocyte migration and proliferation activated by S1P. FTY720 can prolong internalization of S1P1 and exert antagonistic effects on S1P1. In vivo study of SCI animal models demonstrated that local delivery of FTY720 with polycaprolactone (PCL) membrane significantly decreased S1P1 expression and glial scarring compared with the control group. Furthermore, FTY720-treated groups exhibited less cavitation volume and neuron loss, which significantly improved recovery of motor function. These findings demonstrated that localized delivery of FTY720 can promote SCI recovery by targeting the S1P1 receptor of astrocytes, provide a new therapeutic strategy for SCI treatment. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. Fluorine-fixing efficiency on calcium-based briquette: pilot experiment, demonstration and promotion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Jiao-lan; Chen, Dong-qing; Li, Shu-min; Yue, Yin-ling; Jin, Xin; Zhao, Bing-cheng; Ying, Bo

    2010-02-05

    The fluorosis derived from coal burning is a very serious problem in China. By using fluorine-fixing technology during coal burning we are able to reduce the release of fluorides in coal at the source in order to reduce pollution to the surrounding environment by coal burning pollutants as well as decrease the intake and accumulating amounts of fluorine in the human body. The aim of this study was to conduct a pilot experiment on calcium-based fluorine-fixing material efficiency during coal burning to demonstrate and promote the technology based on laboratory research. A proper amount of calcium-based fluorine sorbent was added into high-fluorine coal to form briquettes so that the fluorine in high-fluorine coal can be fixed in coal slag and its release into atmosphere reduced. We determined figures on various components in briquettes and fluorine in coal slag as well as the concentrations of indoor air pollutants, including fluoride, sulfur dioxide and respirable particulate matter (RPM), and evaluated the fluorine-fixing efficiency of calcium-based fluorine sorbents and the levels of indoor air pollutants. Pilot experiments on fluorine-fixing efficiency during coal burning as well as its demonstration and promotion were carried out separately in Guiding and Longli Counties of Guizhou Province, two areas with coal burning fluorosis problems. If the calcium-based fluorine sorbent mixed coal was made into honeycomb briquettes the average fluorine-fixing ratio in the pilot experiment was 71.8%. If the burning calcium-based fluorine-fixing bitumite was made into a coalball, the average of fluorine-fixing ratio was 77.3%. The concentration of fluoride, sulfur dioxide and PM10 of indoor air were decreased significantly. There was a 10% increase in the cost of briquettes due to the addition of calcium-based fluorine sorbent. The preparation process of calcium-based fluorine-fixing briquette is simple yet highly flammable and it is applicable to regions with abundant

  12. Reducing potentially preventable complications at the multi hospital level

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Czyz Anne

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background This study describes the continuation of a program to constrain health care costs by limiting inpatient hospital programs among the hospitals of Syracuse, New York. Through a community demonstration project, it identified components of individual hospital programs for reduction of complications and their impact on the frequency and rates of these outcomes. Findings This study involved the implementation of interventions by three hospitals using the Potentially Preventable Complications System developed by 3M™ Health Information Systems. The program is noteworthy because it included competing hospitals in the same community working together to reduce adverse patient outcomes and related costs. The study data identified statistically significant reductions in the frequency of high and low volume complications during the three year period at two of the hospitals. At both of these hospitals, aggregate complication rates also declined. At these hospitals, the differences between actual complication rates and severity adjusted complication rates were also reduced. At the third hospital, specific and aggregate complication rates remained the same or increased slightly. Differences between these rates and those of severity adjusted comparison population also remained the same or increased. Conclusions Results of the study suggested that, in one community health care system, the progress of reducing complications involved different experiences. At two hospitals with relatively higher rates at the beginning of the study, management by administrative and clinical staff outside quality assurance produced significant reductions in complication rates, while at a hospital with lower rates, management by quality assurance staff had little effect on reducing the rate of PPCs.

  13. Online Hemodiafiltration Reduces Bisphenol A Levels.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quiroga, Borja; Bosch, Ricardo J; Fiallos, Ruth A; Sánchez-Heras, Marta; Olea-Herrero, Nuria; López-Aparicio, Pilar; Muñóz-Moreno, Carmen; Pérez-Alvarsan, Miguel Angel; De Arriba, Gabriel

    2017-02-01

    Several uremic toxins have been identified and related to higher rates of morbidity and mortality in dialysis patients. Bisphenol A (BPA) accumulates in patients with chronic kidney disease. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the usefulness of online hemodiafiltration (OL-HDF) in reducing BPA levels. Thirty stable hemodialysis patients were selected to participate in this paired study. During three periods of 3 weeks each, patients were switched from high-flux hemodialysis (HF-HD) to OL-HDF, and back to HF-HD. BPA levels were measured in the last session of each period (pre- and post-dialysis) using ELISA and HPLC. Twenty-two patients (mean age 73 ± 14 years; 86.4% males) were included. Measurements of BPA levels by HPLC and ELISA assays showed a weak but significant correlation (r = 0.218, P = 0.012). BPA levels decreased in the OL-HDF period of hemodialysis, in contrast to the HF-HD period when they remained stable (P = 0.002). In conclusion, OL-HDF reduced BPA levels in dialysis patients. © 2016 International Society for Apheresis, Japanese Society for Apheresis, and Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy.

  14. Influences of reduced masticatory sensory input from soft-diet feeding upon spatial memory/learning ability in mice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsutsui, Keisuke; Kaku, Masato; Motokawa, Masahide; Tohma, Yuiko; Kawata, Toshitsugu; Fujita, Tadashi; Kohno, Shinya; Ohtani, Junji; Tenjoh, Kaoru; Nakano, Mao; Kamada, Hiroko; Tanne, Kazuo

    2007-02-01

    It has been reported that reduction of masticatory afferent stimulation might influence learning and memory function. In order to clarify the influences of reduced masticatory sensory input on spatial memory/learning ability and neuropathological changes, we conducted the Morris water maze experiment and investigated the number of hippocampal neurons in association with the differences in masticatory afferent stimuli from hard- and soft-diet feeding in mice. The water maze experiment showed no significant difference in learning ability between 180-day-old solid- and powderdiet groups. Meanwhile, the ability was significantly reduced in the 360-day-old powder-diet group as compared with the age-matched solid-diet group. The total number of pyramidal cells in the hippocampal CA1 and CA3 regions was significantly smaller in 360-day-old powder-diet group than in the remaining groups. These results demonstrate that reduction of masticatory afferent stimuli due to long-term soft-diet feeding may induce neuron loss in the hippocampus and reduced memory/learning ability.

  15. Unbiased proteomics analysis demonstrates significant variability in mucosal immune factor expression depending on the site and method of collection.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kenzie M Birse

    Full Text Available Female genital tract secretions are commonly sampled by lavage of the ectocervix and vaginal vault or via a sponge inserted into the endocervix for evaluating inflammation status and immune factors critical for HIV microbicide and vaccine studies. This study uses a proteomics approach to comprehensively compare the efficacy of these methods, which sample from different compartments of the female genital tract, for the collection of immune factors. Matching sponge and lavage samples were collected from 10 healthy women and were analyzed by tandem mass spectrometry. Data was analyzed by a combination of differential protein expression analysis, hierarchical clustering and pathway analysis. Of the 385 proteins identified, endocervical sponge samples collected nearly twice as many unique proteins as cervicovaginal lavage (111 vs. 61 with 55% of proteins common to both (213. Each method/site identified 73 unique proteins that have roles in host immunity according to their gene ontology. Sponge samples enriched for specific inflammation pathways including acute phase response proteins (p = 3.37×10(-24 and LXR/RXR immune activation pathways (p = 8.82×10(-22 while the role IL-17A in psoriasis pathway (p = 5.98×10(-4 and the complement system pathway (p = 3.91×10(-3 were enriched in lavage samples. Many host defense factors were differentially enriched (p<0.05 between sites including known/potential antimicrobial factors (n = 21, S100 proteins (n = 9, and immune regulatory factors such as serpins (n = 7. Immunoglobulins (n = 6 were collected at comparable levels in abundance in each site although 25% of those identified were unique to sponge samples. This study demonstrates significant differences in types and quantities of immune factors and inflammation pathways collected by each sampling technique. Therefore, clinical studies that measure mucosal immune activation or factors assessing HIV transmission should utilize

  16. Background Model for the Majorana Demonstrator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cuesta, C.; Abgrall, N.; Aguayo, E.; Avignone, F. T.; Barabash, A. S.; Bertrand, F. E.; Boswell, M.; Brudanin, V.; Busch, M.; Byram, D.; Caldwell, A. S.; Chan, Y.-D.; Christofferson, C. D.; Combs, D. C.; Detwiler, J. A.; Doe, P. J.; Efremenko, Yu.; Egorov, V.; Ejiri, H.; Elliott, S. R.; Fast, J. E.; Finnerty, P.; Fraenkle, F. M.; Galindo-Uribarri, A.; Giovanetti, G. K.; Goett, J.; Green, M. P.; Gruszko, J.; Guiseppe, V. E.; Gusev, K.; Hallin, A. L.; Hazama, R.; Hegai, A.; Henning, R.; Hoppe, E. W.; Howard, S.; Howe, M. A.; Keeter, K. J.; Kidd, M. F.; Kochetov, O.; Konovalov, S. I.; Kouzes, R. T.; LaFerriere, B. D.; Leon, J.; Leviner, L. E.; Loach, J. C.; MacMullin, J.; MacMullin, S.; Martin, R. D.; Meijer, S.; Mertens, S.; Nomachi, M.; Orrell, J. L.; O'Shaughnessy, C.; Overman, N. R.; Phillips, D. G.; Poon, A. W. P.; Pushkin, K.; Radford, D. C.; Rager, J.; Rielage, K.; Robertson, R. G. H.; Romero-Romero, E.; Ronquest, M. C.; Schubert, A. G.; Shanks, B.; Shima, T.; Shirchenko, M.; Snavely, K. J.; Snyder, N.; Suriano, A. M.; Thompson, J.; Timkin, V.; Tornow, W.; Trimble, J. E.; Varner, R. L.; Vasilyev, S.; Vetter, K.; Vorren, K.; White, B. R.; Wilkerson, J. F.; Wiseman, C.; Xu, W.; Yakushev, E.; Young, A. R.; Yu, C.-H.; Yumatov, V.

    The Majorana Collaboration is constructing a system containing 40 kg of HPGe detectors to demonstrate the feasibility and potential of a future tonne-scale experiment capable of probing the neutrino mass scale in the inverted-hierarchy region. To realize this, a major goal of the Majorana Demonstrator is to demonstrate a path forward to achieving a background rate at or below 1 cnt/(ROI-t-y) in the 4 keV region of interest around the Q-value at 2039 keV. This goal is pursued through a combination of a significant reduction of radioactive impurities in construction materials with analytical methods for background rejection, for example using powerful pulse shape analysis techniques profiting from the p-type point contact HPGe detectors technology. The effectiveness of these methods is assessed using simulations of the different background components whose purity levels are constrained from radioassay measurements.

  17. The evaluation of the National Long Term Care Demonstration. 1. An overview of the channeling demonstration and its evaluation.

    OpenAIRE

    Carcagno, G J; Kemper, P

    1988-01-01

    The channeling demonstration sought to substitute community care for nursing home care to reduce long-term care costs and improve the quality of life of elderly clients and the family members and friends who care for them. Two interventions were tested, each in five sites; both had comprehensive case management at their core. One model added a small amount of additional funding for direct community services to fill the gaps in the existing system; the other substantially expanded coverage of ...

  18. Small Scale SOFC Demonstration Using Bio-Based and Fossil Fuels

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Petrik, Michael [Technology Management Inc., Cleveland, OH (United States); Ruhl, Robert [Technology Management Inc., Cleveland, OH (United States)

    2012-05-01

    Technology Management, Inc. (TMI) of Cleveland, Ohio, has completed the project entitled Small Scale SOFC Demonstration using Bio-based and Fossil Fuels. Under this program, two 1-kW systems were engineered as technology demonstrators of an advanced technology that can operate on either traditional hydrocarbon fuels or renewable biofuels. The systems were demonstrated at Patterson's Fruit Farm of Chesterland, OH and were open to the public during the first quarter of 2012. As a result of the demonstration, TMI received quantitative feedback on operation of the systems as well as qualitative assessments from customers. Based on the test results, TMI believes that > 30% net electrical efficiency at 1 kW on both traditional and renewable fuels with a reasonable entry price is obtainable. The demonstration and analysis provide the confidence that a 1 kW entry-level system offers a viable value proposition, but additional modifications are warranted to reduce sound and increase reliability before full commercial acceptance.

  19. Demonstration of a dynamic clearance seal in a rotating test facility.

    OpenAIRE

    Messenger, Andrew; Williams, Richard; Ingram, Grant; Hogg, Simon; Tibos, Stacie; Seaton, Jon; Charnley, Bernard

    2017-01-01

    The successful demonstration of the “Aerostatic Seal” in a half scale rotating facility is described in this paper. The Aerostatic seal is a novel dynamic clearance seal specifically designed for steam turbine secondary gas path applications. The seal responds to radial rotor excursions, so a reduced clearance can be maintained compared to conventional labyrinth seal without damage to the seal. This enables increased turbine performance through reduced leakage and increased tolerance of turbi...

  20. Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) Phased Array Demonstrated With ACTS

    Science.gov (United States)

    1996-01-01

    performance of experimental, proof-of-concept MMIC K/Ka-band arrays developed with U.S. industry in field demonstrations with ACTS indicates that high density MMIC integration at 20 and 30 GHz is indeed feasible. The successful development and demonstration of the MMIC array systems was possible only because of significant intergovernmental and Government/industry cooperation and the high level of teamwork within Lewis. The results provide a strong incentive for continuing the focused development of MMIC-array technology for satellite communications applications, with emphasis on packaging and cost issues, and for continuing the planning and conducting of other appropriate demonstrations or experiments of phased-array technology with ACTS. Given the present pressures on reducing funding for research and development in Government and industry, the extent to which this can be continued in a cooperative manner will determine whether MMIC array technology will make the transition from the proof-of-concept level to the operational system level.

  1. Equine colostral carbohydrates reduce lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammatory responses in equine peripheral blood mononuclear cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vendrig, J C; Coffeng, L E; Fink-Gremmels, J

    2012-12-01

    Increasing evidence suggests that reactions to lipopolysaccharide (LPS), particularly in the gut, can be partly or completely mitigated by colostrum- and milk-derived oligosaccharides. Confirmation of this hypothesis could lead to the development of new therapeutic concepts. To demonstrate the influence of equine colostral carbohydrates on the inflammatory response in an in vitro model with equine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Carbohydrates were extracted from mare colostrum, and then evaluated for their influence on LPS-induced inflammatory responses in PBMCs isolated from the same mares, mRNA expression of tumour necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-6 and interleukin-10 was measured as well as the protein levels of tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-10 (IL-10). Equine colostral carbohydrates significantly reduced LPS-induced TNF-alpha protein at both times measured and significantly reduced LPS-induced TNF-alpha, IL-6 and IL-10 mRNA expression by PBMCs. Moreover, cell viability significantly increased in the presence of high concentrations of colostral carbohydrates. Carbohydrates derived from equine colostrum reduce LPS-induced inflammatory responses of equine PBMCs. Colostrum and milk-derived carbohydrates are promising candidates for new concepts in preventive and regenerative medicine.

  2. Continuous recycling of enzymes during production of lignocellulosic bioethanol in demonstration scale

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Haven, Mai Østergaard; Lindedam, Jane; Jeppesen, Martin D.

    2015-01-01

    Recycling of enzymes in production of lignocellulosic bioethanol has been tried for more than 30 years. So far, the successes have been few and the experiments have been carried out at conditions far from those in an industrially feasible process. Here we have tested continuous enzyme recycling a...... broth also opens up the possibility of lowering the dry matter content in hydrolysis and fermentation while still maintaining high ethanol concentrations....... at demonstration scale using industrial process conditions (high dry matter content and low enzyme dosage) for a period of eight days. The experiment was performed at the Inbicon demonstration plant (Kalundborg, Denmark) capable of converting four tonnes of wheat straw per hour. 20% of the fermentation broth...... was recycled to the hydrolysis reactor while enzyme dosage was reduced by 5%. The results demonstrate that recycling enzymes by this method can reduce overall enzyme consumption and may also increase the ethanol concentrations in the fermentation broth. Our results further show that recycling fermentation...

  3. Reduced In-Plane, Low Frequency Helicopter Noise of an Active Flap Rotor

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sim, Ben W.; Janakiram, Ram D.; Barbely, Natasha L.; Solis, Eduardo

    2009-01-01

    Results from a recent joint DARPA/Boeing/NASA/Army wind tunnel test demonstrated the ability to reduce in-plane, low frequency noise of the full-scale Boeing-SMART rotor using active flaps. Test data reported in this paper illustrated that acoustic energy in the first six blade-passing harmonics could be reduced by up to 6 decibels at a moderate airspeed, level flight condition corresponding to advance ratio of 0.30. Reduced noise levels were attributed to selective active flap schedules that modified in-plane blade airloads on the advancing side of the rotor, in a manner, which generated counteracting acoustic pulses that partially offset the negative pressure peaks associated with in-plane, steady thickness noise. These favorable reduced-noise operating states are a strong function of the active flap actuation amplitude, frequency and phase. The associated noise reductions resulted in reduced aural detection distance by up to 18%, but incurred significant vibratory load penalties due to increased hub shear forces. Small reductions in rotor lift-to-drag ratios, of no more than 3%, were also measured

  4. Once Daily Valacyclovir for Reducing Viral Shedding in Subjects Newly Diagnosed with Genital Herpes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mark G. Martens

    2009-01-01

    Results. 52 subjects had at least one PCR measurement in both treatment periods and comprised the primary efficacy population. Valacyclovir significantly reduced HSV-2 shedding during all days compared to placebo (mean 2.9% versus 13.5% of all days (P<.01, a 78% reduction. Valacyclovir significantly reduced subclinical HSV-2 shedding during all days compared to placebo (mean 2.4% versus 11.0% of all days (P<.01, a 78% reduction. However, 79% of subjects had no GH recurrences while receiving valacyclovir compared to 52% of subjects receiving placebo (P<.01. Conclusion. In this study, the frequency of total and subclinical HSV-2 shedding was greater than reported in earlier studies involving subjects with a history of symptomatic genital recurrences. Our study is the first to demonstrate a significant reduction in viral shedding with valacyclovir 1 g daily compared to placebo in a population of subjects newly diagnosed with HSV-2 infection.

  5. Dynamic wall demonstration project

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nakatsui, L.; Mayhew, W.

    1990-12-01

    The dynamic wall concept is a ventilation strategy that can be applied to a single family dwelling. With suitable construction, outside air can be admitted through the exterior walls of the house to the interior space to function as ventilation air. The construction and performance monitoring of a demonstration house built to test the dynamic wall concept in Sherwood Park, Alberta, is described. The project had the objectives of demonstrating and assessing the construction methods; determining the cost-effectiveness of the concept in Alberta; analyzing the operation of the dynamic wall system; and determining how other components and systems in the house interact with the dynamic wall. The exterior wall construction consisted of vinyl siding, spun-bonded polyolefin-backed (SBPO) rigid fiberglass sheathing, 38 mm by 89 mm framing, fiberglass batt insulation and 12.7 mm drywall. The mechanical system was designed to operate in the dynamic (negative pressure) mode, however flexibility was provided to allow operation in the static (balanced pressure) mode to permit monitoring of the walls as if they were in a conventional house. The house was monitored by an extensive computerized monitoring system. Dynamic wall operation was dependent on pressure and temperature differentials between indoor and outdoor as well as wind speed and direction. The degree of heat gain was found to be ca 74% of the indoor-outdoor temperature differential. Temperature of incoming dynamic air was significantly affected by solar radiation and measurement of indoor air pollutants found no significant levels. 4 refs., 34 figs., 11 tabs.

  6. Advance Power Technology Demonstration on Starshine 3

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jenkins, Phillip; Scheiman, David; Wilt, David; Raffaelle, Ryne; Button, Robert; Smith, Mark; Kerslake, Thomas; Miller, Thomas

    2002-01-01

    The Starshine 3 satellite will carry several power technology demonstrations. Since Starshine 3 is primarily a passive experiment and does not need electrical power to successfully complete its mission, the requirement for a highly reliable power system is greatly reduced. This creates an excellent opportunity to test new power technologies. Several government and commercial interests have teamed up to provide Starshine 3 with a small power system using state-of-the-art components. Starshine 3 will also fly novel integrated microelectronic power supplies (IMPS) for evaluation.

  7. Novel Field Data on Phytoextraction: Pre-Cultivation With Salix Reduces Cadmium in Wheat Grains.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greger, Maria; Landberg, Tommy

    2015-01-01

    Cadmium (Cd) is a health hazard, and up to 43% of human Cd intake comes from wheat products, since Cd accumulates in wheat grains. Salix spp. are high-accumulators of Cd and is suggested for Cd phytoextraction from agricultural soils. We demonstrate, in field, that Salix viminalis can remove Cd from agricultural soils and thereby reduce Cd accumulation in grains of wheat subsequently grown in a Salix-treated field. Four years of Salix cultivation reduce Cd concentration in the soil by up to 27% and in grains of the post-cultivated wheat by up to 33%. The higher the plant density of the Salix, the greater the Cd removal from the soil and the lower the Cd concentration in the grains of post-cultivated wheat, the Cd reduction remaining stable several years after Salix cultivation. The effect occurred in both sandy and clayey soil and in winter and spring bread wheat cultivars. Already one year of Salix cultivation significantly decrease Cd in post grown wheat grains. With this field experiment we have demonstrated that phytoextraction can reduce accumulation of a pollutant in post-cultivated wheat and that phytoextraction has no other observed effect on post-cultivated crops than reduced uptake of the removed pollutant.

  8. In vivo performance of a reduced-modulus bone cement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Forehand, Brett Ramsey

    Total joint replacement has become one of the most common procedures in the area of orthopedics and is often the solution in patients with diseased or injured hip joints. Component loosening is a significant problem and is primarily caused by bone resorption at the bone-cement interface in cemented implants. It is our hypothesis that localized shear stresses are responsible for the resorption. It was previously shown analytically that local stresses at the interface could be reduced by using a cement of lower modulus. A new reduced modulus cement, polybutyl methylmethacrylate (PBMMA), was developed to test the hypothesis. PBMMA was formulated to exist as polybutyl methacrylate filler in a polymethyl methacrylate matrix. The success of PBMMA cement is based largely on the fact that the polybutyl component of the cement will be in the rubbery state at body temperature. In vitro characterization of the cement was undertaken previously and demonstrated a modulus of approximately one-eighth that of conventional bone cement, polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and increased fracture toughness. The purpose of this experiment was to perform an in vivo comparison of the two cements. A sheep model was selected. Total hip arthroplasty was performed on 50 ewes using either PBMMA or PMMA. Radiographs were taken at 6 month intervals. At one year, the contralateral femur of each sheep was implanted so that each animal served as its own control, and the animals were sacrificed. The stiffness of the bone-cement interface of the femoral component within the femur was assessed by applying a torque to the femoral component and demonstrated a significant difference in loosening between the cements when the specimens were tested in external rotation (p sheep had a greater amount of loosening for each subject, 59% versus 4% for standard PMMA. A radiographic analysis demonstrated more signs of loosening in the PMMA series of subjects. A brief histological examination showed similar bony

  9. Continuous recycling of enzymes during production of lignocellulosic bioethanol in demonstration scale

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Haven, Mai Østergaard; Lindedam, Jane; Jeppesen, Martin Dan; Elleskov, Michael; Rodrigues, Ana Cristina; Gama, Miguel; Jørgensen, Henning; Felby, Claus

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • Results from continuous experiments in demonstration scale for a total of 16 days. • Reuse of enzymes is possible through recycling fermentation broth. • Recycling fermentation broth can increase ethanol concentration with lower dry matter. - Abstract: Recycling of enzymes in production of lignocellulosic bioethanol has been tried for more than 30 years. So far, the successes have been few and the experiments have been carried out at conditions far from those in an industrially feasible process. Here we have tested continuous enzyme recycling at demonstration scale using industrial process conditions (high dry matter content and low enzyme dosage) for a period of eight days. The experiment was performed at the Inbicon demonstration plant (Kalundborg, Denmark) capable of converting four tonnes of wheat straw per hour. 20% of the fermentation broth was recycled to the hydrolysis reactor while enzyme dosage was reduced by 5%. The results demonstrate that recycling enzymes by this method can reduce overall enzyme consumption and may also increase the ethanol concentrations in the fermentation broth. Our results further show that recycling fermentation broth also opens up the possibility of lowering the dry matter content in hydrolysis and fermentation while still maintaining high ethanol concentrations.

  10. Exploration Medical System Demonstration (EMSD) Project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chin, Duane

    2012-01-01

    The Exploration Medical System Demonstration (EMSD) is a project under the Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) element managed by the Human Research Program (HRP). The vision for the EMSD is to utilize ISS as a test bed to show that several medical technologies needed for an exploration mission and medical informatics tools for managing evidence and decision making can be integrated into a single system and used by the on-orbit crew in an efficient and meaningful manner. Objectives: a) Reduce and even possibly eliminate the time required for on-orbit crew and ground personnel (which include Surgeon, Biomedical Engineer (BME) Flight Controller, and Medical Operations Data Specialist) to access and move medical data from one application to another. b) Demonstrate that the on-orbit crew has the ability to access medical data/information using an intuitive and crew-friendly software solution to assist/aid in the treatment of a medical condition. c) Develop a common data management framework and architecture that can be ubiquitously used to automate repetitive data collection, management, and communications tasks for all crew health and life sciences activities.

  11. Results from an in-plant demonstration of intelligent control

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Edwards, R.M.; Garcia, H.E.; Messick, N.

    1993-01-01

    A learning systems-based reconfigurable controller was demonstrated on the deaerating feedwater heater at the Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II) on April 1, 1993. Failures of the normal pressure regulating process were introduced by reducing the steam flow to the heater by as much as 10%. The controller maintained pressure in the heater at acceptable levels for several minutes, whereas operator intervention would have otherwise been required within a few seconds. This experiment demonstrates the potential of advanced control techniques for improving safety, reliability, and performance of power plant operations as well as the utility of EBR-II as an experimental power plant controls facility

  12. Efficacy of manual cleaning and an ultraviolet C room decontamination device in reducing health care-associated pathogens on hospital floors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mustapha, Aishat; Alhmidi, Heba; Cadnum, Jennifer L; Jencson, Annette L; Donskey, Curtis J

    2018-05-01

    Recent studies suggest that floors may be an underappreciated source for transmission of health care-associated pathogens. However, there are limited data on the effectiveness of current cleaning and disinfection methods in reducing floor contamination. We demonstrated that manual postdischarge cleaning by environmental services personnel significantly reduced floor contamination, and an automated ultraviolet C room disinfection device was effective as an adjunct to manual cleaning. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  13. A low-cost approach for rapidly creating demonstration models for hands-on learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kinzli, Kristoph-Dietrich; Kunberger, Tanya; O'Neill, Robert; Badir, Ashraf

    2018-01-01

    Demonstration models allow students to readily grasp theory and relate difficult concepts and equations to real life. However drawbacks of using these demonstration models are that they are can be costly to purchase from vendors or take a significant amount of time to build. These two limiting factors can pose a significant obstacle for adding demonstrations to the curriculum. This article presents an assignment to overcome these obstacles, which has resulted in 36 demonstration models being added to the curriculum. The article also presents the results of student performance on course objectives as a result of the developed models being used in the classroom. Overall, significant improvement in student learning outcomes, due to the addition of demonstration models, has been observed.

  14. A method for the estimation of the significance of cross-correlations in unevenly sampled red-noise time series

    Science.gov (United States)

    Max-Moerbeck, W.; Richards, J. L.; Hovatta, T.; Pavlidou, V.; Pearson, T. J.; Readhead, A. C. S.

    2014-11-01

    We present a practical implementation of a Monte Carlo method to estimate the significance of cross-correlations in unevenly sampled time series of data, whose statistical properties are modelled with a simple power-law power spectral density. This implementation builds on published methods; we introduce a number of improvements in the normalization of the cross-correlation function estimate and a bootstrap method for estimating the significance of the cross-correlations. A closely related matter is the estimation of a model for the light curves, which is critical for the significance estimates. We present a graphical and quantitative demonstration that uses simulations to show how common it is to get high cross-correlations for unrelated light curves with steep power spectral densities. This demonstration highlights the dangers of interpreting them as signs of a physical connection. We show that by using interpolation and the Hanning sampling window function we are able to reduce the effects of red-noise leakage and to recover steep simple power-law power spectral densities. We also introduce the use of a Neyman construction for the estimation of the errors in the power-law index of the power spectral density. This method provides a consistent way to estimate the significance of cross-correlations in unevenly sampled time series of data.

  15. Demonstration and evaluation of the pulsed ultraviolet-irradiation gas-treatment system, Savannah River Site

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schneider, J.; Wilkey, M.; Peters, R.; Tomczyk, N.; Friedlund, J.; Farber, P.

    1994-10-01

    Argonne National Laboratory was asked to demonstrate and evaluate a pulsed ultraviolet-irradiation system developed by Purus, Inc., at the Volatile Organic Compounds Non-Arid Integrated Demonstration at the Savannah River Site near aiken, South Carolina. The Purus system consists of four reactor chambers, each containing a xenon flash lamp. During the two weeks of testing, samples were taken and analyzed from the inlet and outlet sides of the Purus system. The contaminants of concern on the inlet were tetrachloroethylene (PCE), trichloroethylene (TCE), and 1,1,1-trichloroethane (TCA); the contaminants of concern on the outlet were PCE, TCE, TCA, carbon tetrachloride (CT), and chloroform. The evaluation of the Purus system included an examination of the reduction of both TCE and PCE and a search for any change in the concentrations. (Operating conditions included flow rates, ranging from 25 to 100 standard cubic feet per minute; inlet concentration of PCE, ranging from 360 to 10,700 parts per million volume; and flash lamp rates, ranging from 1 to 30 hertz.) The Purus system was quite efficient at reducing the concentrations of both PCE and TCE. The potential by-products, TCA, CT, and chloroform, showed no significant increases throughout the range of the various operating parameters. Overall, the Purus system appears to be a cost-efficient means of reducing the concentrations of PCE and TCE, while the removal of the initial photo-oxidation products and TCA is slower and needs further evaluation

  16. Final report for the cryogenic retrieval demonstration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Valentich, D.J.; Yokuda, E.L.

    1992-09-01

    This report documents a demonstration of a proposed buried transuranic waste retrieval concept that uses cryogenic ground freezing and remote excavation. At the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL), there are over 8 million ft 3 of intermingled soil and transuranic (TRU) wastes in shallow land burial, and retrieval of the material is one of the options being considered by the Buried Waste Integrated Demonstration for the Environmental Restoration program. Cryogenically freezing contaminated soil and buried waste has been proposed as a way to greatly reduce or eliminate the climate the threat of contamination spread during retrieval activities. In support of this idea, a demonstration of an innovative ground freezing and retrieval technology was performed at the INEL. This initial demonstration was held near the Radioactive Waste Management Complex at a ''cold test pit'' that was built in 1988 as a test bed for the demonstration of retrieval contamination control technologies. This pit is not contaminated with any radioactive or hazardous wastes. Barrels and boxes filled with metals, plastics, tools, paper, cloth, etc. configured in the same manner as expected in contaminated pits and trenches are buried at the cold test pit. After design, fabrication, and shop testing, Sonsub mobilized to the field in early July 1992 to perform the field demonstration. It was planned to freeze and extract four pits, each 9 x 9 x 10 ft. Each pit represented a different configuration of buried waste (stacked boxes, stacked barrels, random dumped barrels and boxes, and random dumped barrels). Sonsub's proposed technology consisted of driving a series of freeze pipes into the soil and waste, using liquid nitrogen to freeze the mass, and extracting the soil and debris using a series of remote operated, bridge crane mounted tools. In conjunction with the freezing and removal activities, temperature and moisture measurements, and air monitoring were performed

  17. Final report for the cryogenic retrieval demonstration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Valentich, D.J.; Yokuda, E.L.

    1992-09-01

    This report documents a demonstration of a proposed buried transuranic waste retrieval concept that uses cryogenic ground freezing and remote excavation. At the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL), there are over 8 million ft{sup 3} of intermingled soil and transuranic (TRU) wastes in shallow land burial, and retrieval of the material is one of the options being considered by the Buried Waste Integrated Demonstration for the Environmental Restoration program. Cryogenically freezing contaminated soil and buried waste has been proposed as a way to greatly reduce or eliminate the climate the threat of contamination spread during retrieval activities. In support of this idea, a demonstration of an innovative ground freezing and retrieval technology was performed at the INEL. This initial demonstration was held near the Radioactive Waste Management Complex at a ``cold test pit`` that was built in 1988 as a test bed for the demonstration of retrieval contamination control technologies. This pit is not contaminated with any radioactive or hazardous wastes. Barrels and boxes filled with metals, plastics, tools, paper, cloth, etc. configured in the same manner as expected in contaminated pits and trenches are buried at the cold test pit. After design, fabrication, and shop testing, Sonsub mobilized to the field in early July 1992 to perform the field demonstration. It was planned to freeze and extract four pits, each 9 {times} 9 {times} 10 ft. Each pit represented a different configuration of buried waste (stacked boxes, stacked barrels, random dumped barrels and boxes, and random dumped barrels). Sonsub`s proposed technology consisted of driving a series of freeze pipes into the soil and waste, using liquid nitrogen to freeze the mass, and extracting the soil and debris using a series of remote operated, bridge crane mounted tools. In conjunction with the freezing and removal activities, temperature and moisture measurements, and air monitoring were performed.

  18. Final report for the cryogenic retrieval demonstration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Valentich, D.J.; Yokuda, E.L.

    1992-09-01

    This report documents a demonstration of a proposed buried transuranic waste retrieval concept that uses cryogenic ground freezing and remote excavation. At the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL), there are over 8 million ft[sup 3] of intermingled soil and transuranic (TRU) wastes in shallow land burial, and retrieval of the material is one of the options being considered by the Buried Waste Integrated Demonstration for the Environmental Restoration program. Cryogenically freezing contaminated soil and buried waste has been proposed as a way to greatly reduce or eliminate the climate the threat of contamination spread during retrieval activities. In support of this idea, a demonstration of an innovative ground freezing and retrieval technology was performed at the INEL. This initial demonstration was held near the Radioactive Waste Management Complex at a cold test pit'' that was built in 1988 as a test bed for the demonstration of retrieval contamination control technologies. This pit is not contaminated with any radioactive or hazardous wastes. Barrels and boxes filled with metals, plastics, tools, paper, cloth, etc. configured in the same manner as expected in contaminated pits and trenches are buried at the cold test pit. After design, fabrication, and shop testing, Sonsub mobilized to the field in early July 1992 to perform the field demonstration. It was planned to freeze and extract four pits, each 9 [times] 9 [times] 10 ft. Each pit represented a different configuration of buried waste (stacked boxes, stacked barrels, random dumped barrels and boxes, and random dumped barrels). Sonsub's proposed technology consisted of driving a series of freeze pipes into the soil and waste, using liquid nitrogen to freeze the mass, and extracting the soil and debris using a series of remote operated, bridge crane mounted tools. In conjunction with the freezing and removal activities, temperature and moisture measurements, and air monitoring were

  19. Fusion-power demonstration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Henning, C.D.; Logan, B.G.; Carlson, G.A.; Neef, W.S.; Moir, R.W.; Campbell, R.B.; Botwin, R.; Clarkson, I.R.; Carpenter, T.J.

    1983-01-01

    As a satellite to the MARS (Mirror Advanced Reactor Study) a smaller, near-term device has been scoped, called the FPD (Fusion Power Demonstration). Envisioned as the next logical step toward a power reactor, it would advance the mirror fusion program beyond MFTF-B and provide an intermediate step toward commercial fusion power. Breakeven net electric power capability would be the goal such that no net utility power would be required to sustain the operation. A phased implementation is envisioned, with a deuterium checkout first to verify the plasma systems before significant neutron activation has occurred. Major tritium-related facilities would be installed with the second phase to produce sufficient fusion power to supply the recirculating power to maintain the neutral beams, ECRH, magnets and other auxiliary equipment

  20. Fusion power demonstration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Henning, C.D.; Logan, B.G.

    1983-01-01

    As a satellite to the MARS (Mirror Advanced Reactor Study) a smaller, near-term device has been scoped, called the FPD (Fusion Power Demonstration). Envisioned as the next logical step toward a power reactor, it would advance the mirror fusion program beyond MFTF-B and provide an intermediate step toward commercial fusion power. Breakeven net electric power capability would be the goal such that no net utility power would be required to sustain the operation. A phased implementation is envisioned, with a deuterium checkout first to verify the plasma systems before significant neutron activation has occurred. Major tritium-related facilities would be installed with the second phase to produce sufficient fusion power to supply the recirculating power to maintain the neutral beams, ECRH, magnets and other auxiliary equipment

  1. PPARγ agonist pioglitazone reduces matrix metalloproteinase-9 activity and neuronal damage after focal cerebral ischemia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Seong-Ryong; Kim, Hahn-Young; Hong, Jung-Suk; Baek, Won-Ki; Park, Jong-Wook

    2009-01-01

    Pioglitazone, a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) agonist, has shown protective effects against ischemic insult in various tissues. Pioglitazone is also reported to reduce matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activity. MMPs can remodel extracellular matrix components in many pathological conditions. The current study was designed to investigate whether the neuroprotection of pioglitazone is related to its MMP inhibition in focal cerebral ischemia. Mice were subjected to 90 min focal ischemia and reperfusion. In gel zymography, pioglitazone reduced the upregulation of active form of MMP-9 after ischemia. In in situ zymograms, pioglitazone also reduced the gelatinase activity induced by ischemia. After co-incubation with pioglitazone, in situ gelatinase activity was directly reduced. Pioglitazone reduced the infarct volume significantly compared with controls. These results demonstrate that pioglitazone may reduce MMP-9 activity and neuronal damage following focal ischemia. The reduction of MMP-9 activity may have a possible therapeutic effect for the management of brain injury after focal ischemia.

  2. Reducing dust and allergen exposure in bakeries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Howard J Mason

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Bakers have a continuing high incidence of occupational allergic asthma. In factory bakeries they are exposed not only to flour dust containing allergens, but also improvers whose ingredients enhance the strength and workability of the dough and its speed of rising. Improvers are flour-based but can contain added soya, fungal or bacterial enzymes that are also allergenic, as well as vegetable oil, calcium sulphate/silicate and organic esters. This study investigated the dustiness of the components used in factory bakeries and whether altering improver ingredients could reduce dust and allergen exposure. A standardised rotating drum test was employed on the individual components, as well as a representative improver and three practicable improver modifications by decreasing calcium sulphate, calcium silicate or increasing oil content. Levels of dust, the allergens wheat flour amylase inhibitor (WAAI and soya trypsin inhibitor (STI were measured in the generated inhalable, thoracic and respirable sized fractions. A “scooping and pouring” workplace simulation was also performed. Initial tests showed that dustiness of several wheat flours was relatively low, and even lower for soya flour, but increased in combination with some other improver components. All three improver modifications generally reduced levels of dust, STI and WAAI, but increasing oil content significantly decreased dust and STI in comparison to the standard improver and those improvers with reduced calcium silicate or sulphate. The simulation demonstrated that increased oil content reduced inhalable levels of gravimetric dust, STI and WAAI. Changing improver formulation, such as increasing oil content of flour by a small amount, may represent a simple, practical method of reducing bakery workers’ exposure to dust and allergens where improvers are used. It may be a useful adjunct to engineering control, changes to work practices and appropriate training in reducing the risk to

  3. VOC-Arid Integrated Demonstration guide to preparation of demonstration documents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jensen, E.J.; Brouns, T.M.; Koegler, K.J.; McCabe, G.H.; Morris, F.A.

    1994-06-01

    This guide has been prepared by Demonstration Operations of the Volatile Organic Compound-Arid Integrated Demonstration (VOC-Arid ID). Its purpose is to describe demonstration documents, designate responsibilities for these documents, and guide the Principal Investigator (PI) and others in their preparation. The main emphasis of this guide is to describe the documentation required of the PI. However, it does cover some of the responsibilities of other members of the VOC-Arid ID team. The VOC-Arid ID is one of several US Department of Energy (DOE) integrated demonstrations designed to support the demonstration of emerging environmental management and restoration technologies. The principal objective of the VOC-Arid ID is to identify, develop, and demonstrate new and innovative technologies for environmental restoration at arid or semiarid sites containing volatile organic compounds with or without associated contamination (e.g., radionuclides and metals)

  4. Demonstration of the renal venous system at routine nephroangiography

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nilsson, P.E.; Aspelin, P.; Holtas, S.

    1985-01-01

    The demonstration of renal veins during routine nephroangiography was retrospectively investigated and blindly scored in 60 patients. Three different types of contrast media were used: one high-osmolar ionic monomeric (metrozoate) and two low-osmolar, the non-ionic monomeric (metrizamide) and the ionic monoacidic dimeric (ioxalate). The renal veins and the inferior vena cava were significantly better and more often demonstrated when ioxaglate was used compared with metrizoate and metrizmide. There was no significant difference between metrizoate and metrizamide. Following semiselective renal artery injection, the main renal veins were demonstrated with a diagnostically acceptable quality with ioxaglate in 76 per cent, with metrizamide in 40 per cent and with metrizoate in 29 per cent. On selective renal artery injection the demonstration of renal veins increased to 85 per cent with ioxaglate and remained unchanged with metrizmide (38%) and metrizoate(26%). Semiselective or selective nephroangiography with ioxaglate at an ordinary dose was in most patients sufficient to allow evaluation of renal vein involvement in disease, rendering high dose selective nephroangiography or selective nephrophlebography unnecessary. A slower diffusion rate of ioxaglate compared with metrizoate and metrizamide is considered to be the major explanation for the better demonstration of the renal veins. (orig.)

  5. Chronic sleep deprivation markedly reduces coagulation factor VII expression

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pinotti, Mirko; Bertolucci, Cristiano; Frigato, Elena; Branchini, Alessio; Cavallari, Nicola; Baba, Kenkichi; Contreras-Alcantara, Susana; Ehlen, J. Christopher; Bernardi, Francesco; Paul, Ketema N.; Tosini, Gianluca

    2010-01-01

    Chronic sleep loss, a common feature of human life in industrialized countries, is associated to cardiovascular disorders. Variations in functional parameters of coagulation might contribute to explain this relationship. By exploiting the mouse model and a specifically designed protocol, we demonstrated that seven days of partial sleep deprivation significantly decreases (−30.5%) the thrombin generation potential in plasma evaluated upon extrinsic (TF/FVIIa pathway) but not intrinsic activation of coagulation. This variation was consistent with a decrease (−49.8%) in the plasma activity levels of factor VII (FVII), the crucial physiologicalal trigger of coagulation, which was even more pronounced at the liver mRNA level (−85.7%). The recovery in normal sleep conditions for three days completely restored thrombin generation and FVII activity in plasma. For the first time, we demonstrate that chronic sleep deprivation on its own reduces, in a reversible manner, the FVII expression levels, thus influencing the TF/FVIIa activation pathway efficiency. PMID:20418241

  6. Commercial-Scale Demonstration of the Liquid Phase Methanol (LPMEOTH) Process

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    None

    1998-12-21

    The Liquid Phase Methanol (LPMEOW) Demonstration Project at Kingsport, Tennessee, is a $213.7 million cooperative agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Air Products Liquid Phase Conversion Company, L.P. (the Partnership) to produce methanol from coal-derived synthesis gas (syngas). Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (Air Products) and Eastman Chemical Company (Eastman) formed the Partnership to execute the Demonstration Project. The LPMEOI-P Process Demonstration Unit was built at a site located at the Eastman coal-to-chemicals complex in Kingsport. During this quarter, initial planning and procurement work continued on the seven project sites which have been accepted for participation in the off-site, product-use test program. Approximately 12,000 gallons of fuel-grade methanol (98+ wt% methanol, 4 wt% water) produced during operation on carbon monoxide (CO)-rich syngas at the LPMEOW Demonstration Unit was loaded into trailers and shipped off-site for Mure product-use testing. At one of the projects, three buses have been tested on chemical-grade methanol and on fhel-grade methanol from the LPMEOW Demonstration Project. During the reporting period, planning for a proof-of-concept test run of the Liquid Phase Dimethyl Ether (LPDME~ Process at the Alternative Fuels Development Unit (AFDU) in LaPorte, TX continued. The commercial catalyst manufacturer (Calsicat) has prepared the first batch of dehydration catalyst in large-scale equipment. Air Products will test a sample of this material in the laboratory autoclave. Catalyst activity, as defined by the ratio of the rate constant at any point in time to the rate constant for freshly reduced catalyst (as determined in the laborato~ autoclave), was monitored for the initial extended operation at the lower initial reactor operating temperature of 235oC. At this condition, the decrease in catalyst activity with time from the period 20 December 1997 through 27 January 1998 occurred at a rate of 1.0% per

  7. Clean Coal Technology Demonstration Program: Program update 1993

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1994-03-01

    The Clean Coal Technology Demonstration Program (also referred to as the CCT Program) is a $6.9 billion cost-shared industry/government technology development effort. The program is to demonstrate a new generation of advanced coal-based technologies, with the most promising technologies being moved into the domestic and international marketplace. Technology has a vital role in ensuring that coal can continue to serve U.S. energy interests and enhance opportunities for economic growth and employment while meeting the national committment to a clean and healthy global environment. These technologies are being advanced through the CCT Program. The CCT Program supports three substantive national objectives: ensuring a sustainable environment through technology; enhancing energy efficiency and reliability; providing opportunities for economic growth and employment. The technologies being demonstrated under the CCT Program reduce the emissions of sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, greenhouse gases, hazardous air pollutants, solid and liquid wastes, and other emissions resulting from coal use or conversion to other fuel forms. These emissions reductions are achieved with efficiencies greater than or equal to currently available technologies.

  8. Agonist anti-GITR antibody significantly enhances the therapeutic efficacy of Listeria monocytogenes-based immunotherapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shrimali, Rajeev; Ahmad, Shamim; Berrong, Zuzana; Okoev, Grigori; Matevosyan, Adelaida; Razavi, Ghazaleh Shoja E; Petit, Robert; Gupta, Seema; Mkrtichyan, Mikayel; Khleif, Samir N

    2017-08-15

    We previously demonstrated that in addition to generating an antigen-specific immune response, Listeria monocytogenes (Lm)-based immunotherapy significantly reduces the ratio of regulatory T cells (Tregs)/CD4 + and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in the tumor microenvironment. Since Lm-based immunotherapy is able to inhibit the immune suppressive environment, we hypothesized that combining this treatment with agonist antibody to a co-stimulatory receptor that would further boost the effector arm of immunity will result in significant improvement of anti-tumor efficacy of treatment. Here we tested the immune and therapeutic efficacy of Listeria-based immunotherapy combination with agonist antibody to glucocorticoid-induced tumor necrosis factor receptor-related protein (GITR) in TC-1 mouse tumor model. We evaluated the potency of combination on tumor growth and survival of treated animals and profiled tumor microenvironment for effector and suppressor cell populations. We demonstrate that combination of Listeria-based immunotherapy with agonist antibody to GITR synergizes to improve immune and therapeutic efficacy of treatment in a mouse tumor model. We show that this combinational treatment leads to significant inhibition of tumor-growth, prolongs survival and leads to complete regression of established tumors in 60% of treated animals. We determined that this therapeutic benefit of combinational treatment is due to a significant increase in tumor infiltrating effector CD4 + and CD8 + T cells along with a decrease of inhibitory cells. To our knowledge, this is the first study that exploits Lm-based immunotherapy combined with agonist anti-GITR antibody as a potent treatment strategy that simultaneously targets both the effector and suppressor arms of the immune system, leading to significantly improved anti-tumor efficacy. We believe that our findings depicted in this manuscript provide a promising and translatable strategy that can enhance the overall

  9. PARP-1 depletion in combination with carbon ion exposure significantly reduces MMPs activity and overall increases TIMPs expression in cultured HeLa cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ghorai, Atanu; Sarma, Asitikantha; Chowdhury, Priyanka; Ghosh, Utpal

    2016-01-01

    Hadron therapy is an innovative technique where cancer cells are precisely killed leaving surrounding healthy cells least affected by high linear energy transfer (LET) radiation like carbon ion beam. Anti-metastatic effect of carbon ion exposure attracts investigators into the field of hadron biology, although details remain poor. Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) inhibitors are well-known radiosensitizer and several PARP-1 inhibitors are in clinical trial. Our previous studies showed that PARP-1 depletion makes the cells more radiosensitive towards carbon ion than gamma. The purpose of the present study was to investigate combining effects of PARP-1 inhibition with carbon ion exposure to control metastatic properties in HeLa cells. Activities of matrix metalloproteinases-2, 9 (MMP-2, MMP-9) were measured using the gelatin zymography after 85 MeV carbon ion exposure or gamma irradiation (0- 4 Gy) to compare metastatic potential between PARP-1 knock down (HsiI) and control cells (H-vector - HeLa transfected with vector without shRNA construct). Expression of MMP-2, MMP-9, tissue inhibitor of MMPs such as TIMP-1, TIMP-2 and TIMP-3 were checked by immunofluorescence and western blot. Cell death by trypan blue, apoptosis and autophagy induction were studied after carbon ion exposure in each cell-type. The data was analyzed using one way ANOVA and 2-tailed paired-samples T-test. PARP-1 silencing significantly reduced MMP-2 and MMP-9 activities and carbon ion exposure further diminished their activities to less than 3 % of control H-vector. On the contrary, gamma radiation enhanced both MMP-2 and MMP-9 activities in H-vector but not in HsiI cells. The expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9 in H-vector and HsiI showed different pattern after carbon ion exposure. All three TIMPs were increased in HsiI, whereas only TIMP-1 was up-regulated in H-vector after irradiation. Notably, the expressions of all TIMPs were significantly higher in HsiI than H-vector at 4 Gy. Apoptosis was

  10. A fractional factorial probabilistic collocation method for uncertainty propagation of hydrologic model parameters in a reduced dimensional space

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, S.; Huang, G. H.; Huang, W.; Fan, Y. R.; Li, Z.

    2015-10-01

    In this study, a fractional factorial probabilistic collocation method is proposed to reveal statistical significance of hydrologic model parameters and their multi-level interactions affecting model outputs, facilitating uncertainty propagation in a reduced dimensional space. The proposed methodology is applied to the Xiangxi River watershed in China to demonstrate its validity and applicability, as well as its capability of revealing complex and dynamic parameter interactions. A set of reduced polynomial chaos expansions (PCEs) only with statistically significant terms can be obtained based on the results of factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA), achieving a reduction of uncertainty in hydrologic predictions. The predictive performance of reduced PCEs is verified by comparing against standard PCEs and the Monte Carlo with Latin hypercube sampling (MC-LHS) method in terms of reliability, sharpness, and Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE). Results reveal that the reduced PCEs are able to capture hydrologic behaviors of the Xiangxi River watershed, and they are efficient functional representations for propagating uncertainties in hydrologic predictions.

  11. A proper choice of route significantly reduces air pollution exposure--a study on bicycle and bus trips in urban streets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hertel, Ole; Hvidberg, Martin; Ketzel, Matthias; Storm, Lars; Stausgaard, Lizzi

    2008-01-15

    A proper selection of route through the urban area may significantly reduce the air pollution exposure. This is the main conclusion from the presented study. Air pollution exposure is determined for two selected cohorts along the route going from home to working place, and back from working place to home. Exposure is determined with a street pollution model for three scenarios: bicycling along the shortest possible route, bicycling along the low exposure route along less trafficked streets, and finally taking the shortest trip using public transport. Furthermore, calculations are performed for the cases the trip takes place inside as well as outside the traffic rush hours. The results show that the accumulated air pollution exposure for the low exposure route is between 10% and 30% lower for the primary pollutants (NO(x) and CO). However, the difference is insignificant and in some cases even negative for the secondary pollutants (NO(2) and PM(10)/PM(2.5)). Considering only the contribution from traffic in the travelled streets, the accumulated air pollution exposure is between 54% and 67% lower for the low exposure route. The bus is generally following highly trafficked streets, and the accumulated exposure along the bus route is therefore between 79% and 115% higher than the high exposure bicycle route (the short bicycle route). Travelling outside the rush hour time periods reduces the accumulated exposure between 10% and 30% for the primary pollutants, and between 5% and 20% for the secondary pollutants. The study indicates that a web based route planner for selecting the low exposure route through the city might be a good service for the public. In addition the public may be advised to travel outside rush hour time periods.

  12. A Demonstration Project on Driving with Reduced Visual Acuity and a Bioptic Telescope System in the Netherlands

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Melis-Dankers, Bart J.M.; Kooijman, Aart C.; Brouwer, Wiebo H.; Busscher, Rens B.; Bredewoud, Ruud A.; Derksen, Peter H.; Amersfoort, Anoeska; IJsseldijk, Martin A.M.; Delden, Geert W. van; Grotenhuis, Thea H.P.A.; Witvliet, M.D.

    2008-01-01

    Background: In Europe, driving a passenger car is prohibited if binocular best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) is below 0.5 (20/40). Some US states allow people with reduced visual acuity to use a bioptic telescope system when driving. The aim of our study is to introduce a bioptic telescope system

  13. Postpartum Vascular Dysfunction in the Reduced Uteroplacental Perfusion Model of Preeclampsia.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lesley Brennan

    Full Text Available Preeclampsia is a disorder affecting 2-8% of all pregnancies, characterized by gestational hypertension (≥ 140/90 mmHg and proteinuria (≥300 mg over 24 hours diagnosed following the 20th week of pregnancy, and for which there is currently no available treatment. While the precise cause of preeclampsia is unknown, placental ischemia/hypoxia resulting from abnormal trophoblast invasion and maternal endothelial dysfunction are central characteristics. Preeclampsia is a major cause of both maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality in the perinatal period. In addition, women who have experienced preeclampsia are more likely to suffer cardiovascular disease later in life. The cause of this elevation in cardiovascular risk postpartum, however, is unknown. We hypothesize that there may be lasting vascular dysfunction following exposure to reduced uteroplacental perfusion during pregnancy that may contribute to increased cardiovascular risk postpartum. Using the rat reduced utero-placental perfusion pressure (RUPP model of preeclampsia, blood pressure was assessed in dams at gestational day 20, one and three months postpartum. Mesenteric artery and aortic function were assessed using wire myography. We demonstrated hypertension and increased mesenteric artery responses to phenylephrine at gestational day 20, with the latter due to a decreased contribution of nitric oxide without any change in methylcholine-induced relaxation. At one month postpartum, we demonstrated a small but significant vasoconstrictive phenotype that was due to an underlying loss of basal nitric oxide contribution. At three months postpartum, endothelium-dependent relaxation of the aorta demonstrated sensitivity to oxLDL and mesenteric arteries demonstrated decreased nitric oxide bioavailability with impaired methylcholine-induced relaxation; indicative of an early development of endothelial dysfunction. In summary, we have demonstrated impaired vascular function following

  14. New scanning technique using Adaptive Statistical Iterative Reconstruction (ASIR) significantly reduced the radiation dose of cardiac CT.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tumur, Odgerel; Soon, Kean; Brown, Fraser; Mykytowycz, Marcus

    2013-06-01

    The aims of our study were to evaluate the effect of application of Adaptive Statistical Iterative Reconstruction (ASIR) algorithm on the radiation dose of coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) and its effects on image quality of CCTA and to evaluate the effects of various patient and CT scanning factors on the radiation dose of CCTA. This was a retrospective study that included 347 consecutive patients who underwent CCTA at a tertiary university teaching hospital between 1 July 2009 and 20 September 2011. Analysis was performed comparing patient demographics, scan characteristics, radiation dose and image quality in two groups of patients in whom conventional Filtered Back Projection (FBP) or ASIR was used for image reconstruction. There were 238 patients in the FBP group and 109 patients in the ASIR group. There was no difference between the groups in the use of prospective gating, scan length or tube voltage. In ASIR group, significantly lower tube current was used compared with FBP group, 550 mA (450-600) vs. 650 mA (500-711.25) (median (interquartile range)), respectively, P ASIR group compared with FBP group, 4.29 mSv (2.84-6.02) vs. 5.84 mSv (3.88-8.39) (median (interquartile range)), respectively, P ASIR was associated with increased image noise compared with FBP (39.93 ± 10.22 vs. 37.63 ± 18.79 (mean ± standard deviation), respectively, P ASIR reduces the radiation dose of CCTA without affecting the image quality. © 2013 The Authors. Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Oncology © 2013 The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists.

  15. The evaluation of the National Long Term Care Demonstration. 1. An overview of the channeling demonstration and its evaluation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carcagno, G J; Kemper, P

    1988-04-01

    The channeling demonstration sought to substitute community care for nursing home care to reduce long-term care costs and improve the quality of life of elderly clients and the family members and friends who care for them. Two interventions were tested, each in five sites; both had comprehensive case management at their core. One model added a small amount of additional funding for direct community services to fill the gaps in the existing system; the other substantially expanded coverage of community services regardless of categorical eligibility under existing programs. The demonstration was evaluated using a randomized experimental design to test the effects of channeling on use of community care, nursing homes, hospitals, and informal caregiving, and on measures of the quality of life of clients and their informal caregivers. Data were obtained from interviews with clients and informal caregivers; service use and cost records came from Medicare, Medicaid, channeling, and providers; and death records for an 18-month follow-up period were examined.

  16. Omega-3 fatty acid therapy dose-dependently and significantly decreased triglycerides and improved flow-mediated dilation, however, did not significantly improve insulin sensitivity in patients with hypertriglyceridemia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oh, Pyung Chun; Koh, Kwang Kon; Sakuma, Ichiro; Lim, Soo; Lee, Yonghee; Lee, Seungik; Lee, Kyounghoon; Han, Seung Hwan; Shin, Eak Kyun

    2014-10-20

    Experimental studies demonstrate that higher intake of omega-3 fatty acids (n-3 FA) improves insulin sensitivity, however, we reported that n-3 FA 2g therapy, most commonly used dosage did not significantly improve insulin sensitivity despite reducing triglycerides by 21% in patients. Therefore, we investigated the effects of different dosages of n-3 FA in patients with hypertriglyceridemia. This was a randomized, single-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel study. Age, sex, and body mass index were matched among groups. All patients were recommended to maintain a low fat diet. Forty-four patients (about 18 had metabolic syndrome/type 2 diabetes mellitus) in each group were given placebo, n-3 FA 1 (O1), 2 (O2), or 4 g (O4), respectively daily for 2 months. n-3 FA therapy dose-dependently and significantly decreased triglycerides and triglycerides/HDL cholesterol and improved flow-mediated dilation, compared with placebo (by ANOVA). However, each n-3 FA therapy did not significantly decrease high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and fibrinogen, compared with placebo. O1 significantly increased insulin levels and decreased insulin sensitivity (determined by QUICKI) and O2 significantly decreased plasma adiponectin levels relative to baseline measurements. Of note, when compared with placebo, each n-3 FA therapy did not significantly change insulin, glucose, adiponectin, glycated hemoglobin levels and insulin sensitivity (by ANOVA). We observed similar results in a subgroup of patients with the metabolic syndrome. n-3 FA therapy dose-dependently and significantly decreased triglycerides and improved flow-mediated dilation. Nonetheless, n-3 FA therapy did not significantly improve acute-phase reactants and insulin sensitivity in patients with hypertriglyceridemia, regardless of dosages. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

  17. Simultaneously reducing CO2 and particulate exposures via fractional recirculation of vehicle cabin air.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jung, Heejung S; Grady, Michael L; Victoroff, Tristan; Miller, Arthur L

    2017-07-01

    Prior studies demonstrate that air recirculation can reduce exposure to nanoparticles in vehicle cabins. However when people occupy confined spaces, air recirculation can lead to carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) accumulation which can potentially lead to deleterious effects on cognitive function. This study proposes a fractional air recirculation system for reducing nanoparticle concentration while simultaneously suppressing CO 2 levels in the cabin. Several recirculation scenarios were tested using a custom-programmed HVAC (heat, ventilation, air conditioning) unit that varied the recirculation door angle in the test vehicle. Operating the recirculation system with a standard cabin filter reduced particle concentrations to 1000 particles/cm 3 , although CO 2 levels rose to 3000 ppm. When as little as 25% fresh air was introduced (75% recirculation), CO 2 levels dropped to 1000 ppm, while particle concentrations remained below 5000 particles/cm 3 . We found that nanoparticles were removed selectively during recirculation and demonstrated the trade-off between cabin CO 2 concentration and cabin particle concentration using fractional air recirculation. Data showed significant increases in CO 2 levels during 100% recirculation. For various fan speeds, recirculation fractions of 50-75% maintained lower CO 2 levels in the cabin, while still reducing particulate levels. We recommend fractional recirculation as a simple method to reduce occupants' exposures to particulate matter and CO 2 in vehicles. A design with several fractional recirculation settings could allow air exchange adequate for reducing both particulate and CO 2 exposures. Developing this technology could lead to reductions in airborne nanoparticle exposure, while also mitigating safety risks from CO 2 accumulation.

  18. Calpain Inhibition Reduces Axolemmal Leakage in Traumatic Axonal Injury

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    János Sándor

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Calcium-induced, calpain-mediated proteolysis (CMSP has recently been implicated to the pathogenesis of diffuse (traumatic axonal injury (TAI. Some studies suggested that subaxolemmal CMSP may contribute to axolemmal permeability (AP alterations observed in TAI. Seeking direct evidence for this premise we investigated whether subaxolemmal CMSP may contribute to axolemmal permeability alterations (APA and pre-injury calpain-inhibition could reduce AP in a rat model of TAI. Horseradish peroxidase (HRP, a tracer that accumulates in axons with APA was administered one hour prior to injury into the lateral ventricle; 30 min preinjury a single tail vein bolus injection of 30 mg/kg MDL-28170 (a calpain inhibitor or its vehicle was applied in Wistar rats exposed to impact acceleration brain injury. Histological detection of traumatically injured axonal segments accumulating HRP and statistical analysis revealed that pre-injury administration of the calpain inhibitor MDL-28170 significantly reduced the average length of HRP-labeled axonal segments. The axono-protective effect of pre-injury calpain inhibition recently demonstrated with classical immunohistochemical markers of TAI was further corroborated in this experiment; significant reduction of the length of labeled axons in the drug-treated rats implicate CMSP in the progression of altered AP in TAI.

  19. Ground test for vibration control demonstrator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meyer, C.; Prodigue, J.; Broux, G.; Cantinaud, O.; Poussot-Vassal, C.

    2016-09-01

    In the objective of maximizing comfort in Falcon jets, Dassault Aviation is developing an innovative vibration control technology. Vibrations of the structure are measured at several locations and sent to a dedicated high performance vibration control computer. Control laws are implemented in this computer to analyse the vibrations in real time, and then elaborate orders sent to the existing control surfaces to counteract vibrations. After detailing the technology principles, this paper focuses on the vibration control ground demonstration that was performed by Dassault Aviation in May 2015 on Falcon 7X business jet. The goal of this test was to attenuate vibrations resulting from fixed forced excitation delivered by shakers. The ground test demonstrated the capability to implement an efficient closed-loop vibration control with a significant vibration level reduction and validated the vibration control law design methodology. This successful ground test was a prerequisite before the flight test demonstration that is now being prepared. This study has been partly supported by the JTI CleanSky SFWA-ITD.

  20. Reducing Agricultural Water Footprints at the Farm Scale: A Case Study in the Beijing Region

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jing Huang

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Beijing is one of the most water-stressed regions in the world. Reducing agricultural water use has long been the basis of local policy for sustainable water use. In this article, the potential to reduce the life cycle (cradle to gate water footprints of wheat and maize that contribute to 94% of the local cereal production was assessed. Following ISO 14046, consumptive and degradative water use for the wheat-maize rotation system was modeled under different irrigation and nitrogen (N application options. Reducing irrigation water volume by 33.3% compared to current practice did not cause a significant yield decline, but the water scarcity footprint and water eutrophication footprint were decreased by 27.5% and 23.9%, respectively. Similarly, reducing the N application rate by 33.3% from current practice did not cause a significant yield decline, but led to a 52.3% reduction in water eutrophication footprint while maintaining a similar water scarcity footprint. These results demonstrate that improving water and fertilizer management has great potential for reducing the crop water footprints at the farm scale. This situation in Beijing is likely to be representative of the challenge facing many of the water-stressed regions in China, where a sustainable means of agricultural production must be found.

  1. Concurrent Longitudinal EPR Monitoring of Tissue Oxygenation, Acidosis, and Reducing Capacity in Mouse Xenograft Tumor Models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bobko, Andrey A; Evans, Jason; Denko, Nicholas C; Khramtsov, Valery V

    2017-06-01

    Tissue oxygenation, extracellular acidity, and tissue reducing capacity are among crucial parameters of tumor microenvironment (TME) of significant importance for tumor pathophysiology. In this paper, we demonstrate the complementary application of particulate lithium octa-n-butoxy-naphthalocyanine and soluble nitroxide paramagnetic probes for monitoring of these TME parameters using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) technique. Two different types of therapeutic interventions were studied: hypothermia and systemic administration of metabolically active drug. In summary, the results demonstrate the utility of EPR technique for non-invasive concurrent longitudinal monitoring of physiologically relevant chemical parameters of TME in mouse xenograft tumor models, including that under therapeutic intervention.

  2. Using REDUCE in high energy physics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grozin, A.G.

    1997-01-01

    This book describes the use of the symbolic manipulation language REDUCE in particle physics. There are several general purpose mathematics packages available to physicists, including Mathematica, Maple, and REDUCE. Each has advantages and disadvantages, but REDUCE has been found to be both powerful and convenient in solving a wide range of problems. This book introduces the reader to REDUCE and demonstrates its utility as a mathematical tool in physics. The first chapter of the book describes the REDUCE system, including some library packages. The following chapters show the use of REDUCE in examples from classical mechanics, hydrodynamics, general relativity, and quantum mechanics. The rest of the book systematically presents the Standard Model of particle physics (QED, weak interactions, QCD). A large number of scattering and decay processes are calculated with REDUCE. All example programs from the book can be downloaded via Internet. The emphasis throughout is on learning through worked examples. This will be an essential introduction and reference for high energy and theoretical physicists. (author)

  3. Magnetic Launch Assist Demonstration Test

    Science.gov (United States)

    2001-01-01

    This image shows a 1/9 subscale model vehicle clearing the Magnetic Launch Assist System, formerly referred to as the Magnetic Levitation (MagLev), test track during a demonstration test conducted at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Engineers at MSFC have developed and tested Magnetic Launch Assist technologies. To launch spacecraft into orbit, a Magnetic Launch Assist System would use magnetic fields to levitate and accelerate a vehicle along a track at very high speeds. Similar to high-speed trains and roller coasters that use high-strength magnets to lift and propel a vehicle a couple of inches above a guideway, a launch-assist system would electromagnetically drive a space vehicle along the track. A full-scale, operational track would be about 1.5-miles long and capable of accelerating a vehicle to 600 mph in 9.5 seconds. This track is an advanced linear induction motor. Induction motors are common in fans, power drills, and sewing machines. Instead of spinning in a circular motion to turn a shaft or gears, a linear induction motor produces thrust in a straight line. Mounted on concrete pedestals, the track is 100-feet long, about 2-feet wide and about 1.5-feet high. The major advantages of launch assist for NASA launch vehicles is that it reduces the weight of the take-off, the landing gear, the wing size, and less propellant resulting in significant cost savings. The US Navy and the British MOD (Ministry of Defense) are planning to use magnetic launch assist for their next generation aircraft carriers as the aircraft launch system. The US Army is considering using this technology for launching target drones for anti-aircraft training.

  4. Launch Vehicle Demonstrator Using Shuttle Assets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Threet, Grady E., Jr.; Creech, Dennis M.; Philips, Alan D.; Water, Eric D.

    2011-01-01

    The Marshall Space Flight Center Advanced Concepts Office (ACO) has the leading role for NASA s preliminary conceptual launch vehicle design and performance analysis. Over the past several years the ACO Earth-to-Orbit Team has evaluated thousands of launch vehicle concept variations for a multitude of studies including agency-wide efforts such as the Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS), Constellation, Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (HLLV), Heavy Lift Propulsion Technology (HLPT), Human Exploration Framework Team (HEFT), and Space Launch System (SLS). NASA plans to continue human space exploration and space station utilization. Launch vehicles used for heavy lift cargo and crew will be needed. One of the current leading concepts for future heavy lift capability is an inline one and a half stage concept using solid rocket boosters (SRB) and based on current Shuttle technology and elements. Potentially, the quickest and most cost-effective path towards an operational vehicle of this configuration is to make use of a demonstrator vehicle fabricated from existing shuttle assets and relying upon the existing STS launch infrastructure. Such a demonstrator would yield valuable proof-of-concept data and would provide a working test platform allowing for validated systems integration. Using shuttle hardware such as existing RS-25D engines and partial MPS, propellant tanks derived from the External Tank (ET) design and tooling, and four-segment SRB s could reduce the associated upfront development costs and schedule when compared to a concept that would rely on new propulsion technology and engine designs. There are potentially several other additional benefits to this demonstrator concept. Since a concept of this type would be based on man-rated flight proven hardware components, this demonstrator has the potential to evolve into the first iteration of heavy lift crew or cargo and serve as a baseline for block upgrades. This vehicle could also serve as a demonstration

  5. Low-E Retrofit Demonstration and Educational Program

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Culp, Thomas D [Birch Point Consulting LLC; Wiehagen, Joseph [Home Innovation Research Labs, Inc.; Drumheller, S Craig [Home Innovation Research Labs, Inc.; Siegel, John [Quanta Technologies Inc.; Stratmoen, Todd [Larson Manufacturing

    2013-11-16

    The objective of this project was to demonstrate the capability of low-emissivity (low-E) storm windows / panels and low-E retrofit glazing systems to significantly and cost effectively improve the energy efficiency of both existing residential and commercial buildings. The key outcomes are listed below: RESIDENTIAL CASE STUDIES: (a) A residential case study in two large multifamily apartment buildings in Philadelphia showed a substantial 18-22% reduction in heating energy use and a 9% reduction in cooling energy use by replacing old clear glass storm windows with modern low-E storm windows. Furthermore, the new low-E storm windows reduced the overall apartment air leakage by an average of 10%. (b) Air leakage testing on interior low-E panels installed in a New York City multifamily building over windows with and without AC units showed that the effective leakage area of the windows was reduced by 77-95%. (c) To study the use of low-E storm windows in a warmer mixed climate with a balance of both heating and cooling, 10 older homes near Atlanta with single pane windows were tested with three types of exterior storm windows: clear glass, low-E glass with high solar heat gain, and low-E glass with lower solar heat gain. The storm windows significantly reduced the overall home air leakage by an average of 17%, or 3.7 ACH50. Considerably high variability in the data made it difficult to draw strong conclusions about the overall energy usage, but for heating periods, the low-E storm windows showed approximately 15% heating energy savings, whereas clear storm windows were neutral in performance. For cooling periods, the low-E storm windows showed a wide range of performance from 2% to over 30% cooling energy savings. Overall, the study showed the potential for significantly more energy savings from using low-E glass versus no storm window or clear glass storm windows in warmer mixed climates, but it is difficult to conclusively say whether one type of low-E performed

  6. Development and Demonstration of Sustainable Surface Infrastructure for Moon/Mars Exploration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanders, Gerald B.; Larson, William E.; Picard, Martin

    2011-01-01

    For long-term human exploration of the Moon and Mars to be practical, affordable, and sustainable, future missions must be able to identify and utilize resources at the site of exploration. The ability to characterize, extract, processes, and separate products from local material, known as In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), can provide significant reductions in launch mass, logistics, and development costs while reducing risk through increased mission flexibility and protection as well as increased mission capabilities in the areas of power and transportation. Making mission critical consumables like propellants, fuel cell reagents and life support gases, as well as in-situ crew/hardware protection and energy storage capabilities can significantly enhance robotic and human science and exploration missions, however other mission systems need to be designed to interface with and utilize these in-situ developed products and services from the start or the benefits will be minimized or eliminated. This requires a level of surface and transportation system development coordination not typically utilized during early technology and system development activities. An approach being utilized by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Canadian Space Agency has been to utilize joint analogue field demonstrations to focus technology development activities to demonstrate and integrate new and potentially game changing. mission critical capabilities that would enable an affordable and sustainable surface infrastructure for lunar and Mars robotic and human exploration. Two analogue field tests performed in November 2008 and February 2010 demonstrated first generation capabilities for lunar resource prospecting, exploration site preparation, and oxygen extraction from regolith while initiating integration with mobility, science, fuel cell power, and propulsion disciplines. A third analogue field test currently planned for June 2012 will continue and expand

  7. Pre-Treatment Deep Curettage Can Significantly Reduce Tumour Thickness in Thick Basal Cell Carcinoma While Maintaining a Favourable Cosmetic Outcome When Used in Combination with Topical Photodynamic Therapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Christensen, E.; Mork, C.; Foss, O. A.

    2011-01-01

    Topical photodynamic therapy (PDT) has limitations in the treatment of thick skin tumours. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of pre-PDT deep curettage on tumour thickness in thick (≥2 mm) basal cell carcinoma (BCC). Additionally, 3-month treatment outcome and change of tumour thickness from diagnosis to treatment were investigated. At diagnosis, mean tumour thickness was 2.3 mm (range 2.0-4.0). Pre- and post-curettage biopsies were taken from each tumour prior to PDT. Of 32 verified BCCs, tumour thickness was reduced by 50% after deep curettage (ρ≤0.001) . Mean tumour thickness was also reduced from diagnosis to treatment. At 3-month followup, complete tumour response was found in 93% and the cosmetic outcome was rated excellent or good in 100% of cases. In conclusion, deep curettage significantly reduces BCC thickness and may with topical PDT provide a favourable clinical and cosmetic short-term outcome.

  8. Phytoremediation of arsenic contaminated paddy soils with Pteris vittata markedly reduces arsenic uptake by rice

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ye Wenling; Khan, M. Asaduzzaman; McGrath, Steve P.; Zhao Fangjie

    2011-01-01

    Arsenic (As) accumulation in food crops such as rice is of major concern. To investigate whether phytoremediation can reduce As uptake by rice, the As hyperaccumulator Pteris vittata was grown in five contaminated paddy soils in a pot experiment. Over a 9-month period P. vittata removed 3.5-11.4% of the total soil As, and decreased phosphate-extractable As and soil pore water As by 11-38% and 18-77%, respectively. Rice grown following P. vittata had significantly lower As concentrations in straw and grain, being 17-82% and 22-58% of those in the control, respectively. Phytoremediation also resulted in significant changes in As speciation in rice grain by greatly decreasing the concentration of dimethylarsinic acid (DMA). In two soils the concentration of inorganic As in rice grain was decreased by 50-58%. The results demonstrate an effective stripping of bioavailable As from contaminated paddy soils thus reducing As uptake by rice. - Highlights: → Pteris vittata removed 3.5-11.4% of the total As from five contaminated paddy soils. → P. vittata decreased phosphate-extractable and soil solution As to a greater extent. → P. vittata reduced As concentration in rice grain by 18-83%. → P. vittata decreased methylated As in rice grain more than inorganic As. - Phytoremediation with P. vittata significantly reduced arsenic uptake by rice from contaminated paddy soils.

  9. Phytoremediation of arsenic contaminated paddy soils with Pteris vittata markedly reduces arsenic uptake by rice

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ye Wenling [Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire AL5 2JQ (United Kingdom); School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (China); Khan, M. Asaduzzaman [Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire AL5 2JQ (United Kingdom); Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka-1207 (Bangladesh); McGrath, Steve P. [Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire AL5 2JQ (United Kingdom); Zhao Fangjie, E-mail: Fangjie.Zhao@bbsrc.ac.uk [Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire AL5 2JQ (United Kingdom)

    2011-12-15

    Arsenic (As) accumulation in food crops such as rice is of major concern. To investigate whether phytoremediation can reduce As uptake by rice, the As hyperaccumulator Pteris vittata was grown in five contaminated paddy soils in a pot experiment. Over a 9-month period P. vittata removed 3.5-11.4% of the total soil As, and decreased phosphate-extractable As and soil pore water As by 11-38% and 18-77%, respectively. Rice grown following P. vittata had significantly lower As concentrations in straw and grain, being 17-82% and 22-58% of those in the control, respectively. Phytoremediation also resulted in significant changes in As speciation in rice grain by greatly decreasing the concentration of dimethylarsinic acid (DMA). In two soils the concentration of inorganic As in rice grain was decreased by 50-58%. The results demonstrate an effective stripping of bioavailable As from contaminated paddy soils thus reducing As uptake by rice. - Highlights: > Pteris vittata removed 3.5-11.4% of the total As from five contaminated paddy soils. > P. vittata decreased phosphate-extractable and soil solution As to a greater extent. > P. vittata reduced As concentration in rice grain by 18-83%. > P. vittata decreased methylated As in rice grain more than inorganic As. - Phytoremediation with P. vittata significantly reduced arsenic uptake by rice from contaminated paddy soils.

  10. Significant Lactic Acidosis from Albuterol

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Deborah Diercks

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Lactic acidosis is a clinical entity that demands rapid assessment and treatment to prevent significant morbidity and mortality. With increased lactate use across many clinical scenarios, lactate values themselves cannot be interpreted apart from their appropriate clinical picture. The significance of Type B lactic acidosis is likely understated in the emergency department (ED. Given the mortality that sepsis confers, a serum lactate is an important screening study. That said, it is with extreme caution that we should interpret and react to the resultant elevated value. We report a patient with a significant lactic acidosis. Though he had a high lactate value, he did not require aggressive resuscitation. A different classification scheme for lactic acidosis that focuses on the bifurcation of the “dangerous” and “not dangerous” causes of lactic acidosis may be of benefit. In addition, this case is demonstrative of the potential overuse of lactates in the ED.

  11. AEP Ohio gridSMART Demonstration Project Real-Time Pricing Demonstration Analysis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Widergren, Steven E.; Subbarao, Krishnappa; Fuller, Jason C.; Chassin, David P.; Somani, Abhishek; Marinovici, Maria C.; Hammerstrom, Janelle L.

    2014-02-01

    This report contributes initial findings from an analysis of significant aspects of the gridSMART® Real-Time Pricing (RTP) – Double Auction demonstration project. Over the course of four years, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) worked with American Electric Power (AEP), Ohio and Battelle Memorial Institute to design, build, and operate an innovative system to engage residential consumers and their end-use resources in a participatory approach to electric system operations, an incentive-based approach that has the promise of providing greater efficiency under normal operating conditions and greater flexibility to react under situations of system stress. The material contained in this report supplements the findings documented by AEP Ohio in the main body of the gridSMART report. It delves into three main areas: impacts on system operations, impacts on households, and observations about the sensitivity of load to price changes.

  12. Virtual reality on mobile phones to reduce anxiety in outpatient surgery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mosso, José L; Gorini, Alessandra; De La Cerda, Gustavo; Obrador, Tomas; Almazan, Andrew; Mosso, Dejanira; Nieto, Jesus J; Riva, Giuseppe

    2009-01-01

    When undergo ambulatory surgical operations, the majority of patients experience high level of anxiety. Different experimental studies have shown that distraction techniques are effective in reducing pain and related anxiety. Since Virtual reality (VR) has been demonstrated a good distraction technique, it has been repeatedly used in hospital contexts for reducing pain in burned patients, but it has never been used during surgical operations. With the present randomized controlled study we intended to verify the effectiveness of VR in reducing anxiety in patients undergoing ambulatory operations under local or regional anaesthesia. In particular, we measured the degree to which anxiety associated with surgical intervention was reduced by distracting patients with immersive VR provided through a cell phone connected to an HMD compared to a no-distraction control condition. A significant reduction of anxiety was obtained after 45 minutes of operation in the VR group, but not in the control group and, after 90 minutes, the reduction was larger in the experimental group than in other one. In conclusion, this study presents an innovative promising technique to reduce anxiety during surgical interventions, even if more studies are necessary to investigate its effectiveness in other kinds of operations and in larger numbers of patients.

  13. Wind Erosion Caused by Land Use Changes Significantly Reduces Ecosystem Carbon Storage and Carbon Sequestration Potentials in Grassland

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, P.; Chi, Y. G.; Wang, J.; Liu, L.

    2017-12-01

    Wind erosion exerts a fundamental influence on the biotic and abiotic processes associated with ecosystem carbon (C) cycle. However, how wind erosion under different land use scenarios will affect ecosystem C balance and its capacity for future C sequestration are poorly quantified. Here, we established an experiment in a temperate steppe in Inner Mongolia, and simulated different intensity of land uses: control, 50% of aboveground vegetation removal (50R), 100% vegetation removal (100R) and tillage (TI). We monitored lateral and vertical carbon flux components and soil characteristics from 2013 to 2016. Our study reveals three key findings relating to the driving factors, the magnitude and consequence of wind erosion on ecosystem C balance: (1) Frequency of heavy wind exerts a fundamental control over the severity of soil erosion, and its interaction with precipitation and vegetation characteristics explained 69% variation in erosion intensity. (2) With increases in land use intensity, the lateral C flux induced by wind erosion increased rapidly, equivalent to 33%, 86%, 111% and 183% of the net ecosystem exchange of the control site under control, 50R, 100R and TI sites, respectively. (3) After three years' treatment, erosion induced decrease in fine fractions led to 31%, 43%, 85% of permanent loss of C sequestration potential in the surface 5cm soil for 50R, 100R and TI sites. Overall, our study demonstrates that lateral C flux associated with wind erosion is too large to be ignored. The loss of C-enriched fine particles not only reduces current ecosystem C content, but also results in irreversible loss of future soil C sequestration potential. The dynamic soil characteristics need be considered when projecting future ecosystem C balance in aeolian landscape. We also propose that to maintain the sustainability of grassland ecosystems, land managers should focus on implementing appropriate land use rather than rely on subsequent managements on degraded soils.

  14. Scanning laser densitometry and color perimetry demonstrate reduced photopigment density and sensitivity in two patients with retinal degeneration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tornow, R P; Stilling, R; Zrenner, E

    1999-10-01

    To test the feasibility of scanning laser densitometry with a modified Rodenstock scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO) to measure the rod and cone photopigment distribution in patients with retinal diseases. Scanning laser densitometry was performed using a modified Rodenstock scanning laser ophthalmoscope. The distribution of the photopigments was calculated from dark adapted and bleached images taken with the 514 nm laser of the SLO. This wavelength is absorbed by rod and cone photopigments. Discrimination is possible due to their different spatial distribution. Additionally, to measure retinal sensitivity profiles, dark adapted two color static perimetry with a Tübinger manual perimeter was performed along the horizontal meridian with 1 degree spacing. A patient with retinitis pigmentosa had slightly reduced photopigment density within the central +/- 5 degrees but no detectable photopigment for eccentricities beyond 5 degrees. A patient with cone dystrophy had nearly normal pigment density beyond +/- 5 degrees, but considerably reduced photopigment density within the central +/- 5 degrees. Within the central +/- 5 degrees, the patient with retinitis pigmentosa had normal sensitivity for the red stimulus and reduced sensitivity for the green stimulus. There was no measurable function beyond 7 degrees. The patient with cone dystrophy had normal sensitivity for the green stimulus outside the foveal center and reduced sensitivity for the red stimulus at the foveal center. The results of color perimetry for this patient with a central scotoma were probably influenced by eccentric fixation. Scanning laser densitometry with a modified Rodenstock SLO is a useful method to assess the human photopigment distribution. Densitometry results were confirmed by dark adapted two color static perimetry. Photopigment distribution and retinal sensitivity profiles can be measured with high spatial resolution. This may help to measure exactly the temporal development of retinal

  15. Spontaneous correction of pathologic tooth migration and reduced infrabony pockets following nonsurgical periodontal therapy: a case report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sato, Shuichi; Ujiie, Hisashi; Ito, Koichi

    2004-10-01

    This case report describes the spontaneous correction of pathologic tooth migration and reduced infrabony pockets after nonsurgical periodontal therapy. A 3-mm diastema between the maxillary incisors was closed completely, and the mandibular teeth, which had migrated pathologically, returned to the optimal position. Clinical evaluation showed a significant reduction in probing depth, with increased clinical attachment and bone deposition demonstrated radiologically.

  16. SOx-NOx-Rox Box{trademark} flue gas clean-up demonstration. Final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1995-09-01

    Babcock and Wilcox`s (B and W) SOx-NOx-Rox Box{trademark} process effectively removes SOx, NOx and particulate (Rox) from flue gas generated from coal-fired boilers in a single unit operation, a high temperature baghouse. The SNRB technology utilizes dry sorbent injection upstream of the baghouse for removal of SOx and ammonia injection upstream of a zeolitic selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalyst incorporated in the baghouse to reduce NOx emissions. Because the SOx and NOx removal processes require operation at elevated gas temperatures (800--900 F) for high removal efficiency, high-temperature fabric filter bags are used in the baghouse. The SNRB technology evolved from the bench and laboratory pilot scale to be successfully demonstrated at the 5-MWe field scale. This report represents the completion of Milestone M14 as specified in the Work Plan. B and W tested the SNRB pollution control system at a 5-MWe demonstration facility at Ohio Edison`s R.E. Burger Plant located near Shadyside, Ohio. The design and operation were influenced by the results from laboratory pilot testing at B and W`s Alliance Research Center. The intent was to demonstrate the commercial feasibility of the SNRB process. The SNRB facility treated a 30,000 ACFM flue gas slipstream from Boiler No. 8. Operation of the facility began in May 1992 and was completed in May 1993. About 2,300 hours of high-temperature operation were achieved. The main emissions control performance goals of: greater than 70% SO{sub 2} removal using a calcium-based sorbent; greater than 90% NOx removal with minimal ammonia slip; and particulate emissions in compliance with the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) of 0.03 lb/million Btu were exceeded simultaneously in the demonstration program when the facility was operated at optimal conditions. Testing also showed significant reductions in emissions of some hazardous air pollutants.

  17. Reduced Clostridium difficile Tests and Laboratory-Identified Events With a Computerized Clinical Decision Support Tool and Financial Incentive.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Madden, Gregory R; German Mesner, Ian; Cox, Heather L; Mathers, Amy J; Lyman, Jason A; Sifri, Costi D; Enfield, Kyle B

    2018-06-01

    We hypothesized that a computerized clinical decision support tool for Clostridium difficile testing would reduce unnecessary inpatient tests, resulting in fewer laboratory-identified events. Census-adjusted interrupted time-series analyses demonstrated significant reductions of 41% fewer tests and 31% fewer hospital-onset C. difficile infection laboratory-identified events following this intervention.Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2018;39:737-740.

  18. Design, Construction, Demonstration and Delivery of an Automated Narrow Gap Welding System.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1982-06-29

    DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION, DEMONSTRATION AND DELIVERY OF WE DA4I &NARROW GAP CONTRACT NO. NOOGOO-81-C-E923 TO DAVID TAYLOR NAVAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT...the automated * Narrow Gap welding process, is the narrow (3/8 - inch), square-butt joint *design. This narrow joint greatly reduces the volume of weld...AD-i45 495 DESIGN CONSTRUCTION DEMONSTRATION AiND DELIVERY OF RN 1/j AUrOMATED NARROW GAP WELDING SYSTEMI() CRC AUTOMATIC WELDING CO HOUSTON TX 29

  19. In vivo demonstration of surgical task assistance using miniature robots.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hawks, Jeff A; Kunowski, Jacob; Platt, Stephen R

    2012-10-01

    Laparoscopy is beneficial to patients as measured by less painful recovery and an earlier return to functional health compared to conventional open surgery. However, laparoscopy requires the manipulation of long, slender tools from outside the patient's body. As a result, laparoscopy generally benefits only patients undergoing relatively simple procedures. An innovative approach to laparoscopy uses miniature in vivo robots that fit entirely inside the abdominal cavity. Our previous work demonstrated that a mobile, wireless robot platform can be successfully operated inside the abdominal cavity with different payloads (biopsy, camera, and physiological sensors). We hope that these robots are a step toward reducing the invasiveness of laparoscopy. The current study presents design details and results of laboratory and in vivo demonstrations of several new payload designs (clamping, cautery, and liquid delivery). Laboratory and in vivo cooperation demonstrations between multiple robots are also presented.

  20. Chemically reduced graphene contains inherent metallic impurities present in parent natural and synthetic graphite

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ambrosi, Adriano; Chua, Chun Kiang; Khezri, Bahareh; Sofer, Zdeněk; Webster, Richard D.; Pumera, Martin

    2012-01-01

    Graphene-related materials are in the forefront of nanomaterial research. One of the most common ways to prepare graphenes is to oxidize graphite (natural or synthetic) to graphite oxide and exfoliate it to graphene oxide with consequent chemical reduction to chemically reduced graphene. Here, we show that both natural and synthetic graphite contain a large amount of metallic impurities that persist in the samples of graphite oxide after the oxidative treatment, and chemically reduced graphene after the chemical reduction. We demonstrate that, despite a substantial elimination during the oxidative treatment of graphite samples, a significant amount of impurities associated to the chemically reduced graphene materials still remain and alter their electrochemical properties dramatically. We propose a method for the purification of graphenes based on thermal treatment at 1,000 °C in chlorine atmosphere to reduce the effect of such impurities on the electrochemical properties. Our findings have important implications on the whole field of graphene research. PMID:22826262

  1. Chemically reduced graphene contains inherent metallic impurities present in parent natural and synthetic graphite.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ambrosi, Adriano; Chua, Chun Kiang; Khezri, Bahareh; Sofer, Zdeněk; Webster, Richard D; Pumera, Martin

    2012-08-07

    Graphene-related materials are in the forefront of nanomaterial research. One of the most common ways to prepare graphenes is to oxidize graphite (natural or synthetic) to graphite oxide and exfoliate it to graphene oxide with consequent chemical reduction to chemically reduced graphene. Here, we show that both natural and synthetic graphite contain a large amount of metallic impurities that persist in the samples of graphite oxide after the oxidative treatment, and chemically reduced graphene after the chemical reduction. We demonstrate that, despite a substantial elimination during the oxidative treatment of graphite samples, a significant amount of impurities associated to the chemically reduced graphene materials still remain and alter their electrochemical properties dramatically. We propose a method for the purification of graphenes based on thermal treatment at 1,000 °C in chlorine atmosphere to reduce the effect of such impurities on the electrochemical properties. Our findings have important implications on the whole field of graphene research.

  2. The thresholds for statistical and clinical significance

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jakobsen, Janus Christian; Gluud, Christian; Winkel, Per

    2014-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Thresholds for statistical significance are insufficiently demonstrated by 95% confidence intervals or P-values when assessing results from randomised clinical trials. First, a P-value only shows the probability of getting a result assuming that the null hypothesis is true and does...... not reflect the probability of getting a result assuming an alternative hypothesis to the null hypothesis is true. Second, a confidence interval or a P-value showing significance may be caused by multiplicity. Third, statistical significance does not necessarily result in clinical significance. Therefore...... of the probability that a given trial result is compatible with a 'null' effect (corresponding to the P-value) divided by the probability that the trial result is compatible with the intervention effect hypothesised in the sample size calculation; (3) adjust the confidence intervals and the statistical significance...

  3. Shrinkage Reducing Admixture for Concrete

    OpenAIRE

    ECT Team, Purdue

    2007-01-01

    Concrete shrinkage cracking is a common problem in all types of concrete structures, especially for structures and environments where the cracks are prevalent and the repercussions are most severe. A liquid shrinkage reducing admixture for concrete, developed by GRACE Construction Products and ARCO Chemical Company, that reduces significantly the shrinkage during concrete drying and potentially reduces overall cracking over time.

  4. A Demonstration of Lusail

    KAUST Repository

    Mansour, Essam; Abdelaziz, Ibrahim; Ouzzani, Mourad; Aboulnaga, Ashraf; Kalnis, Panos

    2017-01-01

    There has been a proliferation of datasets available as interlinked RDF data accessible through SPARQL endpoints. This has led to the emergence of various applications in life science, distributed social networks, and Internet of Things that need to integrate data from multiple endpoints. We will demonstrate Lusail; a system that supports the need of emerging applications to access tens to hundreds of geo-distributed datasets. Lusail is a geo-distributed graph engine for querying linked RDF data. Lusail delivers outstanding performance using (i) a novel locality-aware query decomposition technique that minimizes the intermediate data to be accessed by the subqueries, and (ii) selectivityawareness and parallel query execution to reduce network latency and to increase parallelism. During the demo, the audience will be able to query actually deployed RDF endpoints as well as large synthetic and real benchmarks that we have deployed in the public cloud. The demo will also show that Lusail outperforms state-of-the-art systems by orders of magnitude in terms of scalability and response time.

  5. A Demonstration of Lusail

    KAUST Repository

    Mansour, Essam

    2017-05-10

    There has been a proliferation of datasets available as interlinked RDF data accessible through SPARQL endpoints. This has led to the emergence of various applications in life science, distributed social networks, and Internet of Things that need to integrate data from multiple endpoints. We will demonstrate Lusail; a system that supports the need of emerging applications to access tens to hundreds of geo-distributed datasets. Lusail is a geo-distributed graph engine for querying linked RDF data. Lusail delivers outstanding performance using (i) a novel locality-aware query decomposition technique that minimizes the intermediate data to be accessed by the subqueries, and (ii) selectivityawareness and parallel query execution to reduce network latency and to increase parallelism. During the demo, the audience will be able to query actually deployed RDF endpoints as well as large synthetic and real benchmarks that we have deployed in the public cloud. The demo will also show that Lusail outperforms state-of-the-art systems by orders of magnitude in terms of scalability and response time.

  6. New scanning technique using Adaptive Statistical lterative Reconstruction (ASIR) significantly reduced the radiation dose of cardiac CT

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tumur, Odgerel; Soon, Kean; Brown, Fraser; Mykytowycz, Marcus

    2013-01-01

    The aims of our study were to evaluate the effect of application of Adaptive Statistical Iterative Reconstruction (ASIR) algorithm on the radiation dose of coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) and its effects on image quality of CCTA and to evaluate the effects of various patient and CT scanning factors on the radiation dose of CCTA. This was a retrospective study that included 347 consecutive patients who underwent CCTA at a tertiary university teaching hospital between 1 July 2009 and 20 September 2011. Analysis was performed comparing patient demographics, scan characteristics, radiation dose and image quality in two groups of patients in whom conventional Filtered Back Projection (FBP) or ASIR was used for image reconstruction. There were 238 patients in the FBP group and 109 patients in the ASIR group. There was no difference between the groups in the use of prospective gating, scan length or tube voltage. In ASIR group, significantly lower tube current was used compared with FBP group, 550mA (450–600) vs. 650mA (500–711.25) (median (interquartile range)), respectively, P<0.001. There was 27% effective radiation dose reduction in the ASIR group compared with FBP group, 4.29mSv (2.84–6.02) vs. 5.84mSv (3.88–8.39) (median (interquartile range)), respectively, P<0.001. Although ASIR was associated with increased image noise compared with FBP (39.93±10.22 vs. 37.63±18.79 (mean ±standard deviation), respectively, P<001), it did not affect the signal intensity, signal-to-noise ratio, contrast-to-noise ratio or the diagnostic quality of CCTA. Application of ASIR reduces the radiation dose of CCTA without affecting the image quality.

  7. Actual Waste Demonstration of the Nitric-Glycolic Flowsheet for Sludge Batch 9 Qualification

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Newell, J. D. [Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL); Pareizs, J. M. [Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL); Martino, C. J. [Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL); Reboul, S. H. [Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL); Coleman, C. J. [Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL); Edwards, T. B. [Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL); Johnson, F. C. [Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL)

    2016-09-01

    For each sludge batch that is processed in the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF), the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) performs qualification testing to demonstrate that the sludge batch is processable. Testing performed by the Savannah River National Laboratory has shown glycolic acid to be effective in replacing the function of formic acid in the DWPF chemical process. The nitric-glycolic flowsheet reduces mercury, significantly lowers the catalytic generation of hydrogen and ammonia which could allow purge reduction in the Sludge Receipt and Adjustment Tank (SRAT), stabilizes the pH and chemistry in the SRAT and the Slurry Mix Evaporator (SME), allows for effective rheology adjustment, and is favorable with respect to melter flammability. In order to implement the new flowsheet, SRAT and SME cycles, designated SC-18, were performed using a Sludge Batch (SB) 9 slurry blended from SB8 Tank 40H and Tank 51H samples. The SRAT cycle involved adding nitric and glycolic acids to the sludge, refluxing to steam strip mercury, and dewatering to a targeted solids concentration. Data collected during the SRAT cycle included offgas analyses, process temperatures, heat transfer, and pH measurements. The SME cycle demonstrated the addition of glass frit and the replication of six canister decontamination additions. The demonstration concluded with dewatering to a targeted solids concentration. Data collected during the SME cycle included offgas analyses, process temperatures, heat transfer, and pH measurements. Slurry and condensate samples were collected for subsequent analysis

  8. Higs-instrument: design and demonstration of a high performance gas concentration imager

    Science.gov (United States)

    Verlaan, A. L.; Klop, W. A.; Visser, H.; van Brug, H.; Human, J.

    2017-09-01

    Climate change and environmental conditions are high on the political agenda of international governments. Laws and regulations are being setup all around the world to improve the air quality and to reduce the impact. The growth of a number of trace gasses, including CO2, Methane and NOx are especially interesting due to their environmental impact. The regulations made are being based on both models and measurements of the trend of those trace gases over the years. Now the regulations are in place also enforcement and therewith measurements become more and more important. Instruments enabling high spectral and spatial resolution as well as high accurate measurements of trace gases are required to deliver the necessary inputs. Nowadays those measurements are usually performed by space based spectrometers. The requirement for high spectral resolution and measurement accuracy significantly increases the size of the instruments. As a result the instrument and satellite becomes very expensive to develop and to launch. Specialized instruments with a small volume and the required performance will offer significant advantages in both cost and performance. Huib's Innovative Gas Sensor (HIGS, named after its inventor Huib Visser), currently being developed at TNO is an instrument that achieves exactly that. Designed to measure only a single gas concentration, opposed to deriving it from a spectrum, it achieves high performance within a small design volume. The instrument enables instantaneous imaging of the gas distribution of the selected gas. An instrument demonstrator has been developed for NO2 detection. Laboratory measurements proved the measurement technique to be successful. An on-sky measurement campaign is in preparation. This paper addresses both the instrument design as well as the demonstrated performances.

  9. Fundamental study of ash formation and deposition: Effect of reducing stoichiometry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Helble, J.J.; Bool, L.E.; Kang, S.G. [and others

    1995-11-01

    This project is designed to examine the effects of combustion stoichiometry on the fundamental aspects of ash formation and ash deposit initiation. Emphasis is being placed on reducing stoichiometries associated with low-NOx combustion, although a range of oxidant/fuel ratios are being considered. Previous work has demonstrated that ash formation depends strongly upon coal mineralogy, including mineral type, size, amount, and the presence of organically associated inorganic species. Combustion temperature and the oxidation state of iron also play a significant role. As these latter items will vary with changes in stoichiometry, research to determine the net effect on deposition is required.

  10. Does ethamsylate reduce haemorrhage in transurethral prostatectomy?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lyth, D R; Booth, C M

    1990-12-01

    A double-blind, randomised trial of 44 consecutive patients undergoing transurethral prostatectomy demonstrated that ethamsylate (Dicynene) did not reduce blood loss during either the operative or the post- operative periods.

  11. Case management to reduce cardiovascular disease risk in American Indians and Alaska Natives with diabetes: results from the Special Diabetes Program for Indians Healthy Heart Demonstration Project.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moore, Kelly; Jiang, Luohua; Manson, Spero M; Beals, Janette; Henderson, William; Pratte, Katherine; Acton, Kelly J; Roubideaux, Yvette

    2014-11-01

    We evaluated cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) with diabetes in the Special Diabetes Program for Indians Healthy Heart (SDPI-HH) Demonstration Project. Multidisciplinary teams implemented an intensive case management intervention among 30 health care programs serving 138 tribes. The project recruited 3373 participants, with and without current CVD, between 2006 and 2009. We examined data collected at baseline and 1 year later to determine whether improvements occurred in CVD risk factors and in Framingham coronary heart disease (CHD) risk scores, aspirin use, and smoking status. A1c levels decreased an average of 0.2% (P risk scores also decreased significantly. Aspirin therapy increased significantly, and smoking decreased. Participants with more case management visits had significantly greater reductions in LDL cholesterol and A1c values. SDPI-HH successfully translated an intensive case management intervention. Creative retention strategies and an improved understanding of organizational challenges are needed for future Indian health translational efforts.

  12. Alpha Background Discrimination in the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gruszko, Julieta; Majorana Collaboration

    2017-09-01

    The Majorana Demonstrator (MJD) searches for neutrinoless double-beta decay of 76Ge using arrays of high-purity germanium detectors. If observed, this process would have implications for grand-unification and the predominance of matter over antimatter in the universe. A problematic background in such large granular detector arrays is posed by alpha particles. In MJD, potential background events that are consistent with energy-degraded alphas originating on the passivated detector surface have been observed. We have studied these events by scanning the passivated surface of a P-type point contact detector like those used in MJD with a collimated alpha source. We observe that surface alpha events exhibit high charge-trapping, with a significant fraction of the trapped charge being re-released slowly. This leads to both a reduced prompt signal and a measurable change in slope of the tail of a recorded pulse. In this contribution we discuss the characteristics of these events and the filter developed to identify the occurrence of this delayed charge recovery, allowing for the efficient rejection of passivated surface alpha events while retaining 99.8% of bulk events. We also discuss the impact of this filter on the sensitivity of MJD. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. DOE, Office of Science, Office of Nuclear Phys., the Particle Astrophys. and Nuclear Phys. Programs of the NSF, and SURF. Additional support from the NSFGRFP under Grant No. 1256082.

  13. Plasma gelsolin is reduced in trauma patients

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dahl, B; Schiødt, F V; Ott, P

    1999-01-01

    in the circulation can lead to a condition resembling multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS), and we have previously demonstrated that the level of Gc-globulin is decreased after severe trauma. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether the plasma levels of gelsolin were altered in the early phase...... after trauma. Twenty-three consecutive trauma patients were studied. Plasma samples were assayed for gelsolin by immunonephelometry with polyclonal rabbit antihuman gelsolin prepared in our own laboratory. The median time from injury until the time the first blood sample was taken was 52 min (range 20......-110) and the median Injury Severity Score (ISS) was 20 (range 4-50). The gelsolin level on admission was reduced significantly in the trauma patients compared with normal controls. The median level was 51 mg/L (7-967) vs. 207 mg/L (151-621), P

  14. Surgical myocardial revascularization in patients with reduced systolic left ventricular function.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bruno, Piergiorgio; Iafrancesco, Mauro; Massetti, Massimo

    2018-04-20

    Surgical myocardial revascularization in patients with reduced left ventricular function has been a matter of debate for decades. Recently published 10-years extension follow-up of the STICH trial have conclusively demonstrated benefit of surgical myocardial revascularization in patients with significant coronary artery disease and low left ventricular ejection fraction. However, selection of patients for surgery remains challenging as well as decision to perform percutaneous rather than surgical revascularization in this class of patients. New evidence helped to clarify the role of preoperative patients' characteristics as risk factors for surgery and to identify those patients who may benefit the most from surgery. Focus of this review is to review epidemiology, aetiology and pathophysiology of coronary artery disease in patients with reduced left ventricular function, role of viability and results of observational and investigational studies on revascularization in patients with reduced left ventricular function with a particular emphasis on relative indication of coronary artery bypass grafting and percutaneous coronary intervention and the surgical implications of development of ischemic mitral regurgitation or ischemic left ventricular aneurysm.

  15. Significance of Algal Polymer in Designing Amphotericin B Nanoparticles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Saurabh Bhatia

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Development of oral amphotericin B (AmB loaded nanoparticles (NPs demands a novel technique which reduces its toxicity and other associated problems. Packing of AmB in between two oppositely charged ions by polyelectrolyte complexation technique proved to be a successful strategy. We have developed a novel carrier system in form of polyelectrolyte complex of AmB by using chitosan (CS and porphyran (POR as two oppositely charged polymers with TPP as a crosslinking agent. Initially POR was isolated from Porphyra vietnamensis followed by the fact that its alkali induced safe reduction in molecular weight was achieved. Formulation was optimized using three-factor three-level (33 central composite design. High concentration of POR in NPs was confirmed by sulfated polysaccharide (SP assay. Degradation and dissolution studies suggested the stability of NPs over wide pH range. Hemolytic toxicity data suggested the safety of prepared formulation. In vivo and in vitro antifungal activity demonstrated the high antifungal potential of optimized formulation when compared with standard drug and marketed formulations. Throughout the study TPP addition did not cause any significant changes. Therefore, these experimental oral NPs may represent an interesting carrier system for the delivery of AmB.

  16. Reduced reward anticipation in youth at high-risk for unipolar depression: A preliminary study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thomas M. Olino

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Offspring of depressed parents are at risk for depression and recent evidence suggests that reduced positive affect (PA may be a marker of risk. We investigated whether self-reports of PA and fMRI-measured striatal response to reward, a neural correlate of PA, are reduced in adolescent youth at high familial risk for depression (HR relative to youth at low familial risk for depression (LR. Functional magnetic resonance imaging assessments were conducted with 14 HR and 12 LR youth. All youth completed an ecological momentary assessment protocol to measure PA in natural settings and a self-report measure of depression symptomatology. Analyses found that HR youth demonstrated lower striatal response than LR youth during both reward anticipation and outcome. However, after controlling for youth self-reports of depression, HR youth demonstrated lower striatal response than LR youth only during reward anticipation. No significant differences were found between HR and LR youth on subjective ratings of PA or depressive symptoms. Results are consistent with previous findings that reduced reward response is a marker of risk for depression, particularly during reward anticipation, even in the absence of (or accounting for disrupted subjective mood. Further examinations of prospective associations between reward response and depression onset are needed.

  17. Drug Reduces Cancer Treatment-Related Joint Pain

    Science.gov (United States)

    A Cancer Currents blog post about a clinical trial demonstrating that duloxetine (Cymbalta®) may reduce joint pain caused by aromatase inhibitors in women being treated for early-stage breast cancer.

  18. Pilot demonstrations of arsenic removal technologies.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Siegal Malcolm D.

    2004-09-01

    The Arsenic Water Technology Partnership (AWTP) program is a multi-year program funded by a congressional appropriation through the Department of Energy to develop and test innovative technologies that have the potential to reduce the costs of arsenic removal from drinking water. The AWTP members include Sandia National Laboratories, the American Water Works Association (Awwa) Research Foundation and WERC (A Consortium for Environmental Education and Technology Development). The program is designed to move technologies from bench-scale tests to field demonstrations. The Awwa Research Foundation is managing bench-scale research programs; Sandia National Laboratories is conducting the pilot demonstration program and WERC will evaluate the economic feasibility of the technologies investigated and conduct technology transfer activities. The objective of the Sandia Arsenic Treatment Technology Demonstration project (SATTD) is the field demonstration testing of both commercial and innovative technologies. The scope for this work includes: (1) Identification of sites for pilot demonstrations; (2) Accelerated identification of candidate technologies through Vendor Forums, proof-of-principle laboratory and local pilot-scale studies, collaboration with the Awwa Research Foundation bench-scale research program and consultation with relevant advisory panels; and (3) Pilot testing multiple technologies at several sites throughout the country, gathering information on: (a) Performance, as measured by arsenic removal; (b) Costs, including capital and Operation and Maintenance (O&M) costs; (c) O&M requirements, including personnel requirements, and level of operator training; and (d) Waste residuals generation. The New Mexico Environment Department has identified over 90 public water systems that currently exceed the 10 {micro}g/L MCL for arsenic. The Sandia Arsenic Treatment Technology Demonstration project is currently operating pilots at three sites in New Mexico. The cities of

  19. Effects of Glasswort (Salicornia herbacea L.) Hydrates on Quality Characteristics of Reduced-salt, Reduced-fat Frankfurters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, Yun-Sang

    2015-01-01

    This study evaluated the effects of adding glasswort hydrate containing non-meat ingredient (GM, carboxy methyl cellulose; GC, carrageenan; GI, isolated soy protein; GS, sodium caseinate) on the quality characteristics of reduced-salt, reduced-fat frankfurters. The pH and color evaluation showed significant differences, depending on the type of glasswort hydrate added (p<0.05). In the raw batters and cooked frankfurters, the addition of glasswort hydrate decreased the redness and increased the yellowness in comparison with frankfurters without glasswort hydrate. The reduction in salt and fat content significantly increased cooking loss and decreased hardness, tenderness and juiciness (p<0.05). Glasswort hydrate containing non-meat ingredient improved cooking loss, water holding capacity, emulsion stability, hardness, and viscosity of reduced-salt, reduced-fat frankfurters. The GM treatment had the highest myofibiliar protein solubility among all treatments, which was associated with emulsion stability and viscosity. The GC treatment had higher values for all texture parameters than the control. In the sensory evaluation, the addition of glasswort hydrate with non-meat ingredient improved tenderness and juiciness of reduced-salt, reduced-fat frankfurters. GM, GC, and GI treatments improved not only the physicochemical properties but also the sensory characteristics of reduced-salt, reduced-fat frankfurters. The results indicated that the use of glasswort hydrate containing non-meat ingredient was improved the quality characteristics of reduced-salt, reduced-fat frankfurters. PMID:26877638

  20. Peer Mentoring During Practicum to Reduce Anxiety in First-Semester Nursing Students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walker, Danielle; Verklan, Terese

    2016-11-01

    The clinical setting creates significant anxiety for students that can decrease their ability to learn. This quasi-experimental study examined whether nursing students who participate in peer mentoring during their first clinical experience (n = 18) experienced less anxiety than those in traditional clinical experiences (n = 19). Anxiety was measured using the standardized State Trait Anxiety Index and the Clinical Experiences Anxiety Form (CEAF). Data were analyzed using descriptive and nonparametric statistics. A significant decrease was demonstrated in clinical situation-specific anxiety, as measured by the CEAF, among students who were peer mentored as compared with students who were not. Peer mentoring shows promise as an effective strategy to reduce anxiety among novice nursing students. [J Nurs Educ. 2016;55(11):651-654.]. Copyright 2016, SLACK Incorporated.

  1. A comprehensive multimodal pain treatment reduces opioid consumption after multilevel spine surgery

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mathiesen, Ole; Dahl, Benny; Thomsen, Berit A

    2013-01-01

    and postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) treatment protocol would improve pain treatment in this population. METHODS: A new regimen with acetaminophen, NSAIDs, gabapentin, S-ketamine, dexamethasone, ondansetron and epidural local anesthetic infusion or patient controlled analgesia with morphine, was introduced......PURPOSE: Major spine surgery with multilevel instrumentation is followed by large amount of opioid consumption, significant pain and difficult mobilization in a population of predominantly chronic pain patients. This case-control study investigated if a standardized comprehensive pain...... and dizziness on POD 1-6. CONCLUSIONS: In this study of patients scheduled for multilevel spine surgery, it was demonstrated that compared to a historic group of patients receiving usual care, a comprehensive and standardized multimodal pain and PONV protocol significantly reduced opioid consumption, improved...

  2. Peripherally administered baclofen reduced food intake and body weight in db/db as well as diet-induced obese mice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sato, Ikuko; Arima, Hiroshi; Ozaki, Noriyuki; Ozaki, Nobuaki; Watanabe, Minemori; Goto, Motomitsu; Shimizu, Hiroshi; Hayashi, Masayuki; Banno, Ryouichi; Nagasaki, Hiroshi; Oiso, Yutaka

    2007-10-16

    Peripheral administration of baclofen significantly reduced food intake and body weight increase in both diabetic (db/db) and diet-induced obese mice for 5 weeks, whereas it had no significant effects on energy balance in their lean control mice. Despite the decreased body weight, neuropeptide Y expression in the arcuate nucleus was significantly decreased, whereas pro-opiomelanocortin expression was significantly increased by baclofen treatment. These data demonstrate that the inhibitory effects of baclofen on body weight in the obese mice were mediated via the arcuate nucleus at least partially, and suggest that GABA(B) agonists could be a new therapeutic reagent for obesity.

  3. Viewing pictures of a romantic partner reduces experimental pain: involvement of neural reward systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Younger, Jarred; Aron, Arthur; Parke, Sara; Chatterjee, Neil; Mackey, Sean

    2010-10-13

    The early stages of a new romantic relationship are characterized by intense feelings of euphoria, well-being, and preoccupation with the romantic partner. Neuroimaging research has linked those feelings to activation of reward systems in the human brain. The results of those studies may be relevant to pain management in humans, as basic animal research has shown that pharmacologic activation of reward systems can substantially reduce pain. Indeed, viewing pictures of a romantic partner was recently demonstrated to reduce experimental thermal pain. We hypothesized that pain relief evoked by viewing pictures of a romantic partner would be associated with neural activations in reward-processing centers. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we examined fifteen individuals in the first nine months of a new, romantic relationship. Participants completed three tasks under periods of moderate and high thermal pain: 1) viewing pictures of their romantic partner, 2) viewing pictures of an equally attractive and familiar acquaintance, and 3) a word-association distraction task previously demonstrated to reduce pain. The partner and distraction tasks both significantly reduced self-reported pain, although only the partner task was associated with activation of reward systems. Greater analgesia while viewing pictures of a romantic partner was associated with increased activity in several reward-processing regions, including the caudate head, nucleus accumbens, lateral orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex--regions not associated with distraction-induced analgesia. The results suggest that the activation of neural reward systems via non-pharmacologic means can reduce the experience of pain.

  4. Future launcher demonstrator. Challenge and pathfinder

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kleinau, W.; Guerra, L.; Parkinson, R. C.; Lieberherr, J. F.

    1996-02-01

    For future and advanced launch vehicles emphasis is focused on single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) concepts and on completely reusable versions with the goal to reduce the recurrent launch cost, to improve the mission success probability and also safety for the space transportation of economically attractive payloads into Low Earth Orbit. Both issues, the SSTO launcher and the low cost reusability are extremely challenging and cannot be proven by studies and on-ground tests alone. In-flight demonstration tests are required to verify the assumptions and the new technologies, and to justify the new launcher-and operations-concepts. Because a number of SSTO launch vehicles are currently under discussion in terms of configurations and concepts such as winged vehicles for vertical or horizontal launch and landing (from ground or a flying platform), or wingless vehicles for vertical take-off and landing, and also in terms of propulsion (pure rockets or a combination of air breathing and rocket engines), an experimental demonstrator vehicle appears necessary in order to serve as a pathfinder in this area of multiple challenges. A suborbital Reusable Rocket Launcher Demonstrator (RRLD) has been studied recently by a European industrial team for ESA. This is a multipurpose, evolutionary demonstrator, conceived around a modular approach of incremental improvements of subsystems and materials, to achieve a better propellant mass fraction i.e. a better performance, and specifically for the accomplishment of an incremental flight test programme. While the RRLD basic test programme will acquire knowledge about hypersonic flight, re-entry and landing of a cryogenic rocket propelled launcher — and the low cost reusability (short turnaround on ground) in the utilization programme beyond basic testing, the RRLD will serve as a test bed for generic testing of technologies required for the realization of an SSTO launcher. This paper will present the results of the European RRLD study which

  5. DEMONSTRATION IN THE DIII-D TOKAMAK OF AN ALTERNATE BASELINE SCENARIO FOR ITER AND OTHER BURNING PLASMA EXPERIMENTS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    LUCE, T.C.; WADE, M.R.; FERRON, J.R.; HYATT, A.W.; KELLMAN, A.G.; KINSEY, J.E.; LAHAY, R.J.; LASNIER, C.J.; MURAKAMI, M.; POLITZER, P.A.; SCOVILLE, J.T.

    2002-01-01

    OAK A271 DEMONSTRATION IN THE DIII-D TOKAMAK OF AN ALTERNATE BASELINE SCENARIO FOR ITER AND OTHER BURNING PLASMA EXPERIMENTS. Discharges which can satisfy the high gain goals of burning plasma experiments have been demonstrated in the DIII-D tokamak in stationary conditions with relatively low plasma current (q 95 > 4). A figure of merit for fusion gain Β N H 89 /q 95 2 has been maintained at values corresponding to Q = 10 operation in a burning plasma for > 6 s or 36 τ E and 2 τ R . The key element is the relaxation of the current profile to a stationary state with q min > 1, which allows stable operation up to the no-wall ideal β limit. These plasmas maintain particle balance by active pumping rather than transient wall conditions. The reduced current lessens significantly the potential for structural damage in the event of a major disruption

  6. Field Demonstration of Ground-Source Integrated Heat Pump - Final Report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Baxter, Van D. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Munk, Jeffrey D. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Gehl, Anthony C. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

    2016-09-01

    Reducing energy consumption in buildings is key to reducing or limiting the negative environmental impacts from the building sector. According to the United States (U.S.) Energy Information Administration (EIA), in 2013, commercial buildings consumed 18.1 quads of primary energy, which was 18.6% of the total U.S. primary energy consumption. The primary energy consumption in the commercial sector is projected to increase by 2.8 quads from 2013 to 2040, the second largest increase after the industrial sector. Further space heating, space cooling, and ventilation (HVAC) services accounted for 31% of the energy consumption in commercial buildings. The technical objective of this project is to demonstrate the capability of the new GS-IHP system to reduce overall energy use for space heating, space cooling, and water heating by at least 45% vs. a conventional electric RTU and electric WH in a light commercial building application. This project supports the DOE-Building Technologies Office (BTO) goals of reducing HVAC energy use by 20% and water heating by 60% by 2030.

  7. Structural mode significance using INCA. [Interactive Controls Analysis computer program

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bauer, Frank H.; Downing, John P.; Thorpe, Christopher J.

    1990-01-01

    Structural finite element models are often too large to be used in the design and analysis of control systems. Model reduction techniques must be applied to reduce the structural model to manageable size. In the past, engineers either performed the model order reduction by hand or used distinct computer programs to retrieve the data, to perform the significance analysis and to reduce the order of the model. To expedite this process, the latest version of INCA has been expanded to include an interactive graphical structural mode significance and model order reduction capability.

  8. Commissioning status of the Continuous Wave Deuterium Demonstrator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hartog, P.D.; Dooling, J.; Lorello, M.; Rathke, J.; Carwardine, J.; Godden, D.; Pile, G.; Yule, T.; Zinneman, T.

    1993-01-01

    Grumman Aerospace Corporation, Argonne National Laboratory, and Culham Laboratory are commissioning the Continuous Wave Deuterium Demonstrator (CWDD) in a facility at Argonne National Laboratory. CWDD is a high-brightness, high-current, 7.5-MeV negative deuterium accelerator. The 352-MHz rf accelerating cavities are cryogenically cooled with supercritical neon to reduce the rf power requirements. Installation of the accelerator into the Argonne facility began in May 1991, and first beam from the injector was extracted in February 1992. The accelerator and facility and described, and current status and future plans are discussed

  9. Magnetic Launch Assist System Demonstration Test

    Science.gov (United States)

    2001-01-01

    Engineers at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) have been testing Magnetic Launch Assist Systems, formerly known as Magnetic Levitation (MagLev) technologies. To launch spacecraft into orbit, a Magnetic Launch Assist system would use magnetic fields to levitate and accelerate a vehicle along a track at a very high speed. Similar to high-speed trains and roller coasters that use high-strength magnets to lift and propel a vehicle a couple of inches above a guideway, the launch-assist system would electromagnetically drive a space vehicle along the track. A full-scale, operational track would be about 1.5-miles long and capable of accelerating a vehicle to 600 mph in 9.5 seconds. This photograph shows a subscale model of an airplane running on the experimental track at MSFC during the demonstration test. This track is an advanced linear induction motor. Induction motors are common in fans, power drills, and sewing machines. Instead of spinning in a circular motion to turn a shaft or gears, a linear induction motor produces thrust in a straight line. Mounted on concrete pedestals, the track is 100-feet long, about 2-feet wide, and about 1.5- feet high. The major advantages of launch assist for NASA launch vehicles is that it reduces the weight of the take-off, the landing gear, the wing size, and less propellant resulting in significant cost savings. The US Navy and the British MOD (Ministry of Defense) are planning to use magnetic launch assist for their next generation aircraft carriers as the aircraft launch system. The US Army is considering using this technology for launching target drones for anti-aircraft training.

  10. Selenium Supplementation Significantly Reduces Thyroid Autoantibody Levels in Patients with Chronic Autoimmune Thyroiditis

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wichman, Johanna Eva Märta; Winther, Kristian Hillert; Bonnema, Steen Joop

    2016-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Selenium supplementation may decrease circulating thyroid autoantibodies in patients with chronic autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT), but the available trials are heterogenous. This study expands and critically reappraises the knowledge on this topic. METHODS: A literature search identified...... 3366 records. Controlled trials in adults (≥18 years of age) with AIT, comparing selenium with or without levothyroxine (LT4), versus placebo and/or LT4, were eligible. Assessed outcomes were serum thyroid peroxidase (TPOAb) and thyroglobulin (TgAb) autoantibody levels, and immunomodulatory effects...... and LT4-untreated. Heterogeneity was estimated using I(2), and quality of evidence was assessed per outcome, using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) guidelines. RESULTS: In LT4-treated populations, the selenium group had significantly lower TPOAb levels after...

  11. Dynamics of animal movement in an ecological context: dragonfly wing damage reduces flight performance and predation success.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Combes, S A; Crall, J D; Mukherjee, S

    2010-06-23

    Much of our understanding of the control and dynamics of animal movement derives from controlled laboratory experiments. While many aspects of animal movement can be probed only in these settings, a more complete understanding of animal locomotion may be gained by linking experiments on relatively simple motions in the laboratory to studies of more complex behaviours in natural settings. To demonstrate the utility of this approach, we examined the effects of wing damage on dragonfly flight performance in both a laboratory drop-escape response and the more natural context of aerial predation. The laboratory experiment shows that hindwing area loss reduces vertical acceleration and average flight velocity, and the predation experiment demonstrates that this type of wing damage results in a significant decline in capture success. Taken together, these results suggest that wing damage may take a serious toll on wild dragonflies, potentially reducing both reproductive success and survival.

  12. RF System for the MICE Demonstration of Ionisation Cooling

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ronald, K.; et al.

    2017-04-01

    Muon accelerators offer an attractive option for a range of future particle physics experiments. They can enable high energy (TeV+) high energy lepton colliders whilst mitigating the difficulty of synchrotron losses, and can provide intense beams of neutrinos for fundamental physics experiments investigating the physics of flavor. The method of production of muon beams results in high beam emittance which must be reduced for efficient acceleration. Conventional emittance control schemes take too long, given the very short (2.2 microsecond) rest lifetime of the muon. Ionisation cooling offers a much faster approach to reducing particle emittance, and the international MICE collaboration aims to demonstrate this technique for the first time. This paper will present the MICE RF system and its role in the context of the overall experiment.

  13. Feasibility and demonstration of a cloud-based RIID analysis system

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wright, Michael C., E-mail: wrightmc@ornl.gov [Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831 (United States); Hertz, Kristin L.; Johnson, William C. [Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA 94551 (United States); Sword, Eric D.; Younkin, James R. [Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831 (United States); Sadler, Lorraine E. [Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA 94551 (United States)

    2015-06-01

    A significant limitation in the operational utility of handheld and backpack radioisotope identifiers (RIIDs) is the inability of their onboard algorithms to accurately and reliably identify the isotopic sources of the measured gamma-ray energy spectrum. A possible solution is to move the spectral analysis computations to an external device, the cloud, where significantly greater capabilities are available. The implementation and demonstration of a prototype cloud-based RIID analysis system have shown this type of system to be feasible with currently available communication and computational technology. A system study has shown that the potential user community could derive significant benefits from an appropriately implemented cloud-based analysis system and has identified the design and operational characteristics required by the users and stakeholders for such a system. A general description of the hardware and software necessary to implement reliable cloud-based analysis, the value of the cloud expressed by the user community, and the aspects of the cloud implemented in the demonstrations are discussed. - Highlights: • A prototype cloud-based RIID analysis system was implemented and demonstrated. • A cloud-based system was shown to be feasible with currently available technology. • A system study identified the operational characteristics required by the users. • The system study showed that the user community could derive significant benefit. • An architecture was defined for field testing by users in relevant environments.

  14. Feasibility and demonstration of a cloud-based RIID analysis system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wright, Michael C.; Hertz, Kristin L.; Johnson, William C.; Sword, Eric D.; Younkin, James R.; Sadler, Lorraine E.

    2015-01-01

    A significant limitation in the operational utility of handheld and backpack radioisotope identifiers (RIIDs) is the inability of their onboard algorithms to accurately and reliably identify the isotopic sources of the measured gamma-ray energy spectrum. A possible solution is to move the spectral analysis computations to an external device, the cloud, where significantly greater capabilities are available. The implementation and demonstration of a prototype cloud-based RIID analysis system have shown this type of system to be feasible with currently available communication and computational technology. A system study has shown that the potential user community could derive significant benefits from an appropriately implemented cloud-based analysis system and has identified the design and operational characteristics required by the users and stakeholders for such a system. A general description of the hardware and software necessary to implement reliable cloud-based analysis, the value of the cloud expressed by the user community, and the aspects of the cloud implemented in the demonstrations are discussed. - Highlights: • A prototype cloud-based RIID analysis system was implemented and demonstrated. • A cloud-based system was shown to be feasible with currently available technology. • A system study identified the operational characteristics required by the users. • The system study showed that the user community could derive significant benefit. • An architecture was defined for field testing by users in relevant environments

  15. The Japan Power Demonstration Reactor dismantling project. Radiation control

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tomii, Hiroyuki; Seiki, Yoshihiro

    1996-01-01

    In the Japan Power Demonstration Reactor (JPDR) dismantling project, radiation control was performed properly with routine and special monitoring to keep the occupational safety and to collect data necessary for future dismantling of nuclear facilities. This report describes a summary of radiation control in the dismantling activities and some results of parametric analysis on dose equivalent evaluation, and introduces the following knowledge on radiological protection effectiveness of the dismantling systems applied in the project. a) Use of remote dismantling systems was effective in reducing equivalent workplace exposure. b) Utilization of existing facilities as radiation shield or radioactivity containment was effective in reducing workplace exposure, and also in increasing work efficiency. c) Use of underwater cutting systems was useful to minimize air contamination, and to reduce the dose equivalent rate in the working area. d) In the planning of dismantling, it is necessary to optimize the radiation protection by analyzing dismantling work procedures and evaluating radiological features of the dismantling systems applied, including additional work which the systems require brought from such activities. (author)

  16. Safety significance evaluation system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lew, B.S.; Yee, D.; Brewer, W.K.; Quattro, P.J.; Kirby, K.D.

    1991-01-01

    This paper reports that the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG and E), in cooperation with ABZ, Incorporated and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), investigated the use of artificial intelligence-based programming techniques to assist utility personnel in regulatory compliance problems. The result of this investigation is that artificial intelligence-based programming techniques can successfully be applied to this problem. To demonstrate this, a general methodology was developed and several prototype systems based on this methodology were developed. The prototypes address U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) event reportability requirements, technical specification compliance based on plant equipment status, and quality assurance assistance. This collection of prototype modules is named the safety significance evaluation system

  17. Development and demonstration of energy saving technologies in agriculture; Udvikling og demonstration af energibesparende teknologi til landbruget

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pedersen, Joergen; Trenel, P.; Krogh Hansen, T.; Andersen, Mathias

    2010-07-01

    The energy consumption for agriculture is approx. 10% of the total corporate energy use in Denmark and is therefore a major source of total CO2 emission. This project aims to show that there is great potential for reducing energy use in agriculture. The project focused on saving energy in pig production, as this is the largest branch of production in farming and also the most energy consuming. The energy consumption in selected herds has been monitored with high accuracy making it possible to track down energy consumption, on system level, minute by minute. The energy consumption for light, ventilation and heating systems has been followed in various sections of different farms to compare the level of consumption. In the project 4 technologies were developed and tested. The results are: 1) Two new EC (electronically commuted) fans for livestock facilities makes it possible to reduce power consumption for ventilation with over 50% compared with frequency controlled fans; 2) An intelligent shelter for two climate stables was developed to regulate heat in the piglet pens. The system showed a 43% energy saving for heating compared to identical climate stables with normal floor heating; 3) An hour-based energy management system called Elspot was tested. The Elspot module can automatically activate and deactivate electrically powered equipment according to the energy price. The study found that farms can reduce their spending on electricity by 25% using the Elspot module on a feed mill; 4) A web interface for energy monitoring was designed specifically for farmers. This system makes it possible for farmers to monitor their energy consumption at and benchmark this against normative values or new technologies. The initial goal of the project was to develop and demonstrate solutions that could potentially reduce energy consumption in agriculture by 20%. Since the work was done only with energy saving technologies in livestock production, this corresponds to an energy

  18. Prototype Morphing Fan Nozzle Demonstrated

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Ho-Jun; Song, Gang-Bing

    2004-01-01

    Ongoing research in NASA Glenn Research Center's Structural Mechanics and Dynamics Branch to develop smart materials technologies for aeropropulsion structural components has resulted in the design of the prototype morphing fan nozzle shown in the photograph. This prototype exploits the potential of smart materials to significantly improve the performance of existing aircraft engines by introducing new inherent capabilities for shape control, vibration damping, noise reduction, health monitoring, and flow manipulation. The novel design employs two different smart materials, a shape-memory alloy and magnetorheological fluids, to reduce the nozzle area by up to 30 percent. The prototype of the variable-area fan nozzle implements an overlapping spring leaf assembly to simplify the initial design and to provide ease of structural control. A single bundle of shape memory alloy wire actuators is used to reduce the nozzle geometry. The nozzle is subsequently held in the reduced-area configuration by using magnetorheological fluid brakes. This prototype uses the inherent advantages of shape memory alloys in providing large induced strains and of magnetorheological fluids in generating large resistive forces. In addition, the spring leaf design also functions as a return spring, once the magnetorheological fluid brakes are released, to help force the shape memory alloy wires to return to their original position. A computerized real-time control system uses the derivative-gain and proportional-gain algorithms to operate the system. This design represents a novel approach to the active control of high-bypass-ratio turbofan engines. Researchers have estimated that such engines will reduce thrust specific fuel consumption by 9 percent over that of fixed-geometry fan nozzles. This research was conducted under a cooperative agreement (NCC3-839) at the University of Akron.

  19. Waste immobilization demonstration program for the Hanford Site's Mixed Waste Facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Burbank, D.A.; Weingardt, K.M.

    1994-05-01

    This paper presents an overview of the Waste Receiving and Processing facility, Module 2A> waste immobilization demonstration program, focusing on the cooperation between Hanford Site, commercial, and international participants. Important highlights of the development and demonstration activities is discussed from the standpoint of findings that have had significant from the standpoint of findings that have had significant impact on the evolution of the facility design. A brief description of the future direction of the program is presented, with emphasis on the key aspects of the technologies that call for further detailed investigation

  20. Calderon cokemaking process/demonstration project

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Albert Calderon

    1996-01-01

    This project which deals with the demonstration of a full size commercial coking retort using Calderon's proprietary technology for making metallurgical coke ran into a commercialization problem by virtue that the designed retort for two (2) tons of coke/hour necessitates thirty-two (32) retorts to produce the 500,000 tons of coke per year for a commercial plant. Bechtel Mining and Metals prepared a cost estimate of the commercial plant which indicated the commercial plant would not be economically feasible. The activity during this reporting period was directed to making changes to the design of the coking retort in order to reduce the number of retorts required for a 500,000 ton/year commercial coke facility. The result of this activity resulted in the drastic reduction of the number of retorts to eight (8) with each retort projected to produce 8.17 tons of coke/hour. Such decrease in number of retorts makes the Calderon technology quite competitive and therefore commercially feasible

  1. Demonstration of superconducting micromachined cavities

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brecht, T., E-mail: teresa.brecht@yale.edu; Reagor, M.; Chu, Y.; Pfaff, W.; Wang, C.; Frunzio, L.; Devoret, M. H.; Schoelkopf, R. J. [Department of Applied Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511 (United States)

    2015-11-09

    Superconducting enclosures will be key components of scalable quantum computing devices based on circuit quantum electrodynamics. Within a densely integrated device, they can protect qubits from noise and serve as quantum memory units. Whether constructed by machining bulk pieces of metal or microfabricating wafers, 3D enclosures are typically assembled from two or more parts. The resulting seams potentially dissipate crossing currents and limit performance. In this letter, we present measured quality factors of superconducting cavity resonators of several materials, dimensions, and seam locations. We observe that superconducting indium can be a low-loss RF conductor and form low-loss seams. Leveraging this, we create a superconducting micromachined resonator with indium that has a quality factor of two million, despite a greatly reduced mode volume. Inter-layer coupling to this type of resonator is achieved by an aperture located under a planar transmission line. The described techniques demonstrate a proof-of-principle for multilayer microwave integrated quantum circuits for scalable quantum computing.

  2. Fuel Gas Demonstration Plant Program. Volume I. Demonstration plant

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1979-01-01

    The objective of this project is for Babcock Contractors Inc. (BCI) to provide process designs, and gasifier retort design for a fuel gas demonstration plant for Erie Mining Company at Hoyt Lake, Minnesota. The fuel gas produced will be used to supplement natural gas and fuel oil for iron ore pellet induration. The fuel gas demonstration plant will consist of five stirred, two-stage fixed-bed gasifier retorts capable of handling caking and non-caking coals, and provisions for the installation of a sixth retort. The process and unit design has been based on operation with caking coals; however, the retorts have been designed for easy conversion to handle non-caking coals. The demonstration unit has been designed to provide for expansion to a commercial plant (described in Commercial Plant Package) in an economical manner.

  3. Reducing dephasing in coupled quantum dot-cavity systems by engineering the carrier wavefunctions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nysteen, Anders; Nielsen, Per Kær; Mørk, Jesper

    2012-01-01

    We demonstrate theoretically how photon-assisted dephasing by the electron-phonon interaction in a coupled cavity-quantum dot system can be significantly reduced for specific QD-cavity detunings. Our starting point is a recently published theory,1 which considers longitudinal acoustic phonons......, described by a non-Markovian model, interacting with a coupled quantum dot-cavity system. The reduction of phonon-induced dephasing is obtained by placing the cavity-quantum dot system inside an infinite slab, assuming spherical electronic wavefunctions. Based on our calculations, we expect this to have...

  4. Development and demonstration of indoor radon-reduction measures for 10 homes in Clinton, New Jersey. Final report, April 1986-January 1987

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Michaels, L.D.; Brennan, T.; Viner, A.S.; Mattes, A.; Turner, W.

    1987-07-01

    This report discusses the development and demonstration of indoor radon reduction methods for 10 houses in Clinton, New Jersey, where (in the spring of 1986) the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) located a cluster of houses with extremely high radon levels. The work was to be completed before the 1986-87 winter heating season began. The demonstration houses were selected from 56 in the Clinton Knolls subdivision. All of these houses had shown radon concentrations in excess of 64 pCi/1 when monitored in the spring of 1986. Each house was inspected, and 10 representative houses were selected for the radon-reduction demonstration project. Following intensive diagnostic work and monitoring in each house, house-specific radon-reduction plans were developed. With the agreement of the homeowners, radon-reduction systems were installed during the summer of 1986. All 10 of the houses had radon concentrations reduced significantly by the fall of 1986. The average cost of radon reduction was $3127

  5. Reducing elevator energy use: A comparison of posted feedback and reduced elevator convenience

    Science.gov (United States)

    Houten, Ron Van; Nau, Paul A.; Merrigan, Michael

    1981-01-01

    The effects of two different procedures for reducing elevator energy use were assessed using a multiple-baseline design. In the first procedure, feedback about the amount of energy consumed by the elevators each week was posted on each elevator door. Later, signs advocating the use of stairs to save energy and improve health were posted next to the feedback signs. In the second procedure, the time required to travel between floors was increased by adding a delay to the elevator door closing mechanisms. Results indicated that neither feedback alone nor feedback plus educational signs reduced the amount of energy consumed by the elevators. However, use of the door delay reduced consumption by one-third in all elevators. A second experiment replicated the effect of the door delay on energy consumption and, in addition, demonstrated that the door delay also produced a reduction in the number of persons using the elevator. The second experiment also showed that, following an initial period during which a full delay was in effect, a gradual reduction of the delay interval resulted in continued energy conservation. Reduced convenience as a general strategy for energy conservation is discussed. PMID:16795648

  6. Early hydrogen water chemistry in the boiling water reactor: industry-first demonstration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Garcia, Susan E.; Odell, Andrew D.; Giannelli, Joseph F.

    2012-09-01

    Hydrogen injection into the BWR feedwater during power operation has resulted in significant IGSCC reductions. Further, noble metal application (NMCA) during shutdown or On-line NobleChem TM (OLNC) during power operation has greatly reduced the required hydrogen injection rate by catalyzing the hydrogen-oxygen reaction on the metal surfaces, reducing the electrochemical corrosion potential (ECP) at operating temperature to well below the mitigation ECP of -230 mV (SHE) at reactor water hydrogen to oxidant (O 2 + H 2 O 2 ) molar ratios of ≥2. Since IGSCC rates increase markedly at reduced temperature, and the potential for crack initiation exists, additional crack mitigation was desired. To close this gap in mitigation, the EPRI BWR Startup ECP Reduction research and development program commenced in 2008 to undertake laboratory and feasibility studies for adding a reductant to the reactor water system during start-ups. Under this program, ECP reductions of noble metal treated stainless steel sufficient to mitigate IGSCC at startup temperatures were achieved in the laboratory in the absence of radiation at hydrogen, hydrazine and carbohydrazide to oxygen molar ratios of ≥ 2, ≥1.5 and ≥0.7, respectively. Based on the familiarity of operating BWRs with using hydrogen, a demonstration of hydrogen injection during the startup of an actual BWR using noble metals was planned. This process, named EHWC (Early Hydrogen Water Chemistry), differs from the HDS (Hydrogen During Startup) approach that has been successful in Japan in that HDS injects sufficient hydrogen for bulk oxidant reduction whereas EHWC injects a smaller amount of hydrogen, sufficient to achieve a hydrogen:oxidant molar ratio of at least two at noble metal treated surfaces. The industry-first EHWC demonstration was performed at Exelon's Peach Bottom 3 nuclear power plant in October 2011. Prior to EHWC, Peach Bottom 3 had one NMCA (October 1999) and five annual OLNC applications (starting in 2007

  7. Engineering control technologies to reduce occupational silica exposures in masonry cutting and tuckpointing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meeker, John D; Cooper, Michael R; Lefkowitz, Daniel; Susi, Pam

    2009-01-01

    A number of tasks in construction generate worker overexposures to respirable crystalline silica dust, which is a significant contributor to occupational mortality and morbidity. This study evaluated the performance of commercially available engineering controls used in dusty construction tasks commonly performed by bricklayers. Local exhaust ventilation (LEV) controls for a portable abrasive cutter and for tuckpointing grinders were examined at a bricklayers' training center, as were two stationary wet saws. Personal breathing zone air samples were collected with and without the use of LEV or water suppression during simulated concrete block cutting, brick cutting, and tuckpointing. Compared with the use of no exposure control during block and brick cutting, the portable LEV unit significantly reduced mean respirable quartz exposures by 96% for block cutting and 91% for brick cutting (p controls (p control and no-control scenarios. These reductions with commercially available off-the-shelf tools demonstrate the effectiveness of engineering control interventions to reduce crystalline silica exposures in construction. Strategies to further improve control performance and approaches for increasing control interventions in construction are needed.

  8. Regulatory requirements of the integrated technology demonstration program, Savannah River Site (U)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bergren, C.L.

    1992-01-01

    The integrated demonstration program at the Savannah River Site (SRS) involves demonstration, testing and evaluation of new characterization, monitoring, drilling and remediation technologies for soils and groundwater impacted by organic solvent contamination. The regulatory success of the demonstration program has developed as a result of open communications between the regulators and the technical teams involved. This open dialogue is an attempt to allow timely completion of applied environmental restoration demonstrations while meeting all applicable regulatory requirements. Simultaneous processing of multiple regulatory documents (satisfying RCRA, CERCLA, NEPA and various state regulations) has streamlined the overall permitting process. Public involvement is achieved as various regulatory documents are advertised for public comment consistent with the site's community relations plan. The SRS integrated demonstration has been permitted and endorsed by regulatory agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. EPA headquarters and regional offices are involved in DOE's integrated Demonstration Program. This relationship allows for rapid regulatory acceptance while reducing federal funding and time requirements. (author)

  9. Analysis techniques for background rejection at the Majorana Demonstrator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cuestra, Clara [University of Washington; Rielage, Keith Robert [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Elliott, Steven Ray [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Xu, Wenqin [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Goett, John Jerome III [Los Alamos National Laboratory

    2015-06-11

    The MAJORANA Collaboration is constructing the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, an ultra-low background, 40-kg modular HPGe detector array to search for neutrinoless double beta decay in 76Ge. In view of the next generation of tonne-scale Ge-based 0νββ-decay searches that will probe the neutrino mass scale in the inverted-hierarchy region, a major goal of the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR is to demonstrate a path forward to achieving a background rate at or below 1 count/tonne/year in the 4 keV region of interest around the Q-value at 2039 keV. The background rejection techniques to be applied to the data include cuts based on data reduction, pulse shape analysis, event coincidences, and time correlations. The Point Contact design of the DEMONSTRATOR's germanium detectors allows for significant reduction of gamma background.

  10. Project A+, Elementary Technology Demonstration Schools, 1991-92: The Second Year.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nichols, Todd; Frazer, Linda

    The Elementary Technology Demonstration Schools program, where four elementary schools were equipped with computer hardware and software, was made possible by grants from IBM and Apple, Inc. The goals of the program were, in 3 years, to reduce by 50% the number of students not in their age appropriate grade level and those students not achieving…

  11. Robust Optical Richness Estimation with Reduced Scatter

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rykoff, E.S.; /LBL, Berkeley; Koester, B.P.; /Chicago U. /Chicago U., KICP; Rozo, E.; /Chicago U. /Chicago U., KICP; Annis, J.; /Fermilab; Evrard, A.E.; /Michigan U. /Michigan U., MCTP; Hansen, S.M.; /Lick Observ.; Hao, J.; /Fermilab; Johnston, D.E.; /Fermilab; McKay, T.A.; /Michigan U. /Michigan U., MCTP; Wechsler, R.H.; /KIPAC, Menlo Park /SLAC

    2012-06-07

    Reducing the scatter between cluster mass and optical richness is a key goal for cluster cosmology from photometric catalogs. We consider various modifications to the red-sequence matched filter richness estimator of Rozo et al. (2009b), and evaluate their impact on the scatter in X-ray luminosity at fixed richness. Most significantly, we find that deeper luminosity cuts can reduce the recovered scatter, finding that {sigma}{sub ln L{sub X}|{lambda}} = 0.63 {+-} 0.02 for clusters with M{sub 500c} {approx}> 1.6 x 10{sup 14} h{sub 70}{sup -1} M{sub {circle_dot}}. The corresponding scatter in mass at fixed richness is {sigma}{sub ln M|{lambda}} {approx} 0.2-0.3 depending on the richness, comparable to that for total X-ray luminosity. We find that including blue galaxies in the richness estimate increases the scatter, as does weighting galaxies by their optical luminosity. We further demonstrate that our richness estimator is very robust. Specifically, the filter employed when estimating richness can be calibrated directly from the data, without requiring a-priori calibrations of the red-sequence. We also demonstrate that the recovered richness is robust to up to 50% uncertainties in the galaxy background, as well as to the choice of photometric filter employed, so long as the filters span the 4000 {angstrom} break of red-sequence galaxies. Consequently, our richness estimator can be used to compare richness estimates of different clusters, even if they do not share the same photometric data. Appendix A includes 'easy-bake' instructions for implementing our optimal richness estimator, and we are releasing an implementation of the code that works with SDSS data, as well as an augmented maxBCG catalog with the {lambda} richness measured for each cluster.

  12. Full scale demonstration of thermoactive constructions; Fuldskala demonstration af termoaktive konstruktioner. Hovedrapport

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2012-02-15

    The project idea is to use prefabricated thermo-active building structures (TABS) as concrete slabs with embedded plastic pipes (PEX). The active concrete slabs are used both as cooling and heating system, peak load limiting (levelling out the peak load) and as energy storage. Based on results from a DTU pilot project, the building owner, Middelfart Sparekasse (a Danish bank), decided to use thermo-active structures for a new 5380 m{sup 2} large headquarter. The objective was to reduce electricity consumption for cooling and ventilation by 75-80 %, thereby making it easier to comply with the more stringent energy requirements. Significant energy savings using this technology have been documented. Electricity consumption for cooling and ventilation was reduced by about 12-13 kWh/m{sup 2}/year, corresponding to about 60%. The electricity savings have a potential to become even higher. The actual consumption is due to a number of factors. 1) The building has not only natural ventilation, but also mechanical ventilation, which has been in operation more than expected. 2) The building architecture contains a significant proportion of glass, causing increased cooling demand. 3) Commissioning of cooling and ventilation systems has been ongoing during the measurement period and is still ongoing. So in that light, 60% electricity saving is a good result. It is documented that TABS can yield a constant cooling performance of at least 30 W/m{sup 2} even with false ceiling covering 70-80% of the area under the thermo-active slabs. TABS are in many ways an optimal and indispensable solution, which not only minimizes electricity consumption for cooling and ventilation, but also has significant benefits in terms of improved indoor climate and in longer term large total economic gains. With the use of TABS in office buildings, the typical indoor climate discomfort associated with air cooling and ventilation (drag, noise, dust) are avoided, and in buildings with natural ventilation

  13. A Storable, Hybrid Mars Ascent Vehicle Technology Demonstrator for the 2020 Launch Opportunity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chandler, A. A.; Karabeyoglu, M. A.; Cantwell, B. J.; Reeve, R.; Goldstein, B. G.; Hubbard, G. S.

    2012-06-01

    A Phoenix sized mission including a reduced payload, two-stage, hybrid Mars Ascent Vehicle technology demonstrator is proposed for the 2020 opportunity. The hybrid MAV is storable on Mars and would retire risk for a Mars Sample Return campaign.

  14. Phytoremediation of arsenic contaminated paddy soils with Pteris vittata markedly reduces arsenic uptake by rice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ye, Wen-Ling; Khan, M Asaduzzaman; McGrath, Steve P; Zhao, Fang-Jie

    2011-12-01

    Arsenic (As) accumulation in food crops such as rice is of major concern. To investigate whether phytoremediation can reduce As uptake by rice, the As hyperaccumulator Pteris vittata was grown in five contaminated paddy soils in a pot experiment. Over a 9-month period P. vittata removed 3.5-11.4% of the total soil As, and decreased phosphate-extractable As and soil pore water As by 11-38% and 18-77%, respectively. Rice grown following P. vittata had significantly lower As concentrations in straw and grain, being 17-82% and 22-58% of those in the control, respectively. Phytoremediation also resulted in significant changes in As speciation in rice grain by greatly decreasing the concentration of dimethylarsinic acid (DMA). In two soils the concentration of inorganic As in rice grain was decreased by 50-58%. The results demonstrate an effective stripping of bioavailable As from contaminated paddy soils thus reducing As uptake by rice. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. 75 FR 27865 - Science and Technology Reinvention Laboratory Personnel Management Demonstration Project...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-05-18

    ... contributors;'' and (d) increased employee satisfaction with the Laboratory. D. Participating Employees and.... This disrupts the R&D process and reduces the Laboratory's ability to serve its customers. Under the... simply defined as the measure of the demonstrated value of what an employee did in terms of accomplishing...

  16. JOYO modification program for demonstration tests of FBR innovative technology development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yoshimi, H.; Hachiya, Y.

    1990-01-01

    A plan is under way at PNC to modify the experimental fast reactor JOYO. The project is called MARK-III (MK-III) program. The purpose of MK-III is to expand the function of JOYO, and to make it possible to receive demonstration tests of new or high level technologies for FBR development. The MK-III program consists of two main modifications: conversion to a highly efficient irradiation facility; and a modification for demonstration testing of new technologies and concepts that have a high potential to reduce FBR plant construction cost, to evaluate plant reliability and to improve plant safety. These modifications are scheduled to start in 1991

  17. TANK 12 SLUDGE CHARACTERIZATION AND ALUMINUM DISSOLUTION DEMONSTRATION

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reboul, S.; Hay, Michael; Zeigler, Kristine; Stone, Michael

    2009-01-01

    A 3-L sludge slurry sample from Tank 12 was characterized and then processed through an aluminum dissolution demonstration. The dominant constituent of the sludge was found to be aluminum in the form of boehmite. The iron content was minor, about one-tenth that of the aluminum. The salt content of the supernatant was relatively high, with a sodium concentration of ∼7 M. Due to these characteristics, the yield stress and plastic viscosity of the unprocessed slurry were relatively high (19 Pa and 27 cP), and the settling rate of the sludge was relatively low (∼20% settling over a two and a half week period). Prior to performing aluminum dissolution, plutonium and gadolinium were added to the slurry to simulate receipt of plutonium waste from H-Canyon. Aluminum dissolution was performed over a 26 day period at a temperature of 65 C. Approximately 60% of the insoluble aluminum dissolved during the demonstration, with the rate of dissolution slowing significantly by the end of the demonstration period. In contrast, approximately 20% of the plutonium and less than 1% of the gadolinium partitioned to the liquid phase. However, about a third of the liquid phase plutonium became solubilized prior to the dissolution period, when the H-Canyon plutonium/gadolinium simulant was added to the Tank 12 slurry. Quantification of iron dissolution was less clear, but appeared to be on the order of 1% based on the majority of data (a minor portion of the data suggested iron dissolution could be as high as 10%). The yield stress of the post-dissolution slurry (2.5 Pa) was an order of magnitude lower than the initial slurry, due most likely to the reduced insoluble solids content caused by aluminum dissolution. In contrast, the plastic viscosity remained unchanged (27 cP). The settling rate of the post-dissolution slurry was higher than the initial slurry, but still relatively low compared to settling of typical high iron content/low salt content sludges. Approximately 40% of the

  18. Audiovisual distraction reduces pain perception during shockwave lithotripsy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marsdin, Emma; Noble, Jeremy G; Reynard, John M; Turney, Benjamin W

    2012-05-01

    Lithotripsy is an established method to fragment kidney stones that can be performed without general anesthesia in the outpatient setting. Discomfort and/or noise, however, may deter some patients. It has been demonstrated that audiovisual distraction (AV) can reduce sedoanalgesic requirements and improve patient satisfaction in nonurologic settings, but to our knowledge, this has not been investigated with lithotripsy. This randomized controlled trial was designed to test the hypothesis that AV distraction can reduce perceived pain during lithotripsy. All patients in the study received identical analgesia before a complete session of lithotripsy on a fixed-site Storz Modulith SLX F2 lithotripter. Patients were randomized to two groups: One group (n=61) received AV distraction via a wall-mounted 32″ (82 cm) television with wireless headphones; the other group (n=57) received no AV distraction. The mean intensity of treatment was comparable in both groups. Patients used a visual analogue scale (0-10) to record independent pain and distress scores and a nonverbal pain score was documented by the radiographer during the procedure (0-4). In the group that received AV distraction, all measures of pain perception were statistically lower. The patient-reported pain score was reduced from a mean of 6.1 to 2.4 (P<0.0001), and the distress score was reduced from a mean of 4.4 to 1.0 (P=0.0001). The mean nonverbal score recorded by the radiographer was reduced from 1.5 to 0.5 (<0.0001). AV distraction significantly lowered patients' reported pain and distress scores. This correlated with the nonverbal scores reported by the radiographer. We conclude that AV distraction is a simple method of improving acceptance of lithotripsy and optimizing treatment.

  19. Demonstration of fuel switching on oceangoing vessels in the Gulf of Mexico.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Browning, Louis; Hartley, Seth; Bandemehr, Angela; Gathright, Kenneth; Miller, Wayne

    2012-09-01

    Switching fuels from high-sulfur heavy fuel oils (HFO) to lower sulfur marine gas oils (MGO) on an oceangoing vessel (OGV) can substantially reduce both PM and SO(x) ship stack emissions, potentially resulting in significant human health and environmental benefits in Gulf of Mexico port communities. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) established an emission control area (ECA) within 200 nautical miles of the US. and Canadian coastlines and French territories off the coast of Canada with lower fuel sulfur standards effective beginning August 2012, where OGVs will need to switch from HFO to MGO. However some operators and other stakeholders, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico, may be unfamiliar with the benefits and requirements and ship operators may be concerned over potential implications for cost and operations. This first-ever US. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-sponsored fuel switching demonstration in the Gulf of Mexico was initiated to showcase the environmental and health benefits of as well as operational issues associated with, fuel switching through the following activities: (1) Fuel switching was conducted on typical container ships operating the Gulf of Mexico, as routine fuel switching has been demonstrated in California in recent years. Two vessels were employed in the demonstration: the Maersk Roubaix, which switched fuels entering Port of Houston, TX, and the Port of Progreso, Mexico, and the Hamburg Süd vessel Cap San Lorenzo, which switched fuels entering the Port of Houston and the Mexican Ports of Veracruz and Altamira. Operational and cost aspects were also noted. (2) Emissions reductions were quantified through both a calculation approach based on fuel use of the Maersk Line vessel Roubaix and in-stack monitoring of emissions from the Hamburg Süd Cap San Lorenzo. Pollutant emissions including PM, SO(x), NO(x), and PM component speciation were sampled during use of both fuels. These observations showed reductions (1-6%) in NO

  20. The ORNL fusion power demonstration study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shannon, T.E.; Steiner, D.

    1978-01-01

    In this paper, we review the design approach developed in the ORNL Fusion Power Demonstration Study [1]. The major emphasis of this study is in the application of current and near-term technology as the most logical path to near-term demonstration of tokamak fusion power. In addition we are pursuing a number of concepts to simplify the tokamak reactor to be more acceptable to the utility industry as a future source of energy. The discussion will focus on the areas having the greatest overall impact on reactor feasibility: 1) overall size and power output, 2) remote maintenance considerations, 3) electrical power supplies, 4) blanket design; and 5) economics. The tokamak device, by nature of its configuration and pulsed operation, is an exceptionally complex engineering design problem. We have concluded that innovative design concepts are essential to cope with this basic complexity. We feel that the feasibility of tokamak fusion power has been significantly improved by these design approaches. (author)

  1. Authoring Effective Demonstrations

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Fu, Dan; Jensen, Randy; Salas, Eduardo; Rosen, Michael A; Ramachandran, Sowmya; Upshaw, Christin L; Hinkelman, Elizabeth; Lampton, Don

    2007-01-01

    ... or human role-players for each training event. We report our ongoing efforts to (1) research the nature and purpose of demonstration, articulating guidelines for effective demonstration within a training context, and (2...

  2. Recovery of autonomic nervous activity after myocardial infarction demonstrated by short-term measurements of SDNN

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vaage-Nilsen, M; Rasmussen, Verner; Jensen, Gorm Boje

    2001-01-01

    OBJECTIVE: Heart rate variability (HRV) has been demonstrated to be a risk factor after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). In the present study serial measurement of SDNN (standard deviation of the mean of qualified NN-interval) in short intervals was used to assess HRV changes after AMI, and det......OBJECTIVE: Heart rate variability (HRV) has been demonstrated to be a risk factor after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). In the present study serial measurement of SDNN (standard deviation of the mean of qualified NN-interval) in short intervals was used to assess HRV changes after AMI......, and determine the role of these as independent risk factors compared to clinical, arrhythmic, ischemic and anamnestic variables. Measurements from a normal healthy middle-aged male population were used as reference (n = 63). METHODS: SDNN from a five-minute period during day and night-time, respectively......, was examined in 103 patients 1 week (n = 54), 1 month (n = 72) and 12-16 months (n = 54) after infarction. RESULTS: Day SDNN did not change during one-and-a-half years after AMI, and was significantly reduced compared with healthy males. Night SDNN, low after 1 week, with recovery 1 month after AMI...

  3. A demonstration of mitigation of environmentally-assisted cracking by the application of a tensile overload

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    James, L.A.

    1997-01-01

    Environmentally-assisted cracking (EAC) of low-alloy steels in high-temperature aqueous environments typical of those employed in light-water reactor (LWR) systems has been a subject of considerable interest since the pioneering work of Kondo et al demonstrated significantly higher fatigue crack propagation (FCP) rates in water than would be expected in an air environment under similar conditions. Here, environmentally-assisted cracking (EAC) of low-alloy steels in elevated temperature aqueous environments is readily observed in many laboratory experiments conducted in autoclaves, yet the observation of EAC in actual components operating in the same environments is quite rare. Mass transport of sulfides from the crack enclave by diffusion and convection occurring in operating components provides one plausible explanation to this apparent paradox. Another contribution to EAC mitigation may also arise from the non-constant stress amplitudes typical for many operating components. This paper provides a demonstration of how a single tensile overload to 40% above a steady-state maximum fatigue stress can retard subsequent crack growth at the steady-state level for a sufficient period of time that diffusion mass transport can reduce the crack-tip sulfide concentration to a level below that necessary to sustain EAC

  4. A demonstration of mitigation of environmentally-assisted cracking by the application of a tensile overload

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    James, L.A.

    1997-02-01

    Environmentally-assisted cracking (EAC) of low-alloy steels in high-temperature aqueous environments typical of those employed in light-water reactor (LWR) systems has been a subject of considerable interest since the pioneering work of Kondo et al demonstrated significantly higher fatigue crack propagation (FCP) rates in water than would be expected in an air environment under similar conditions. Here, environmentally-assisted cracking (EAC) of low-alloy steels in elevated temperature aqueous environments is readily observed in many laboratory experiments conducted in autoclaves, yet the observation of EAC in actual components operating in the same environments is quite rare. Mass transport of sulfides from the crack enclave by diffusion and convection occurring in operating components provides one plausible explanation to this apparent paradox. Another contribution to EAC mitigation may also arise from the non-constant stress amplitudes typical for many operating components. This paper provides a demonstration of how a single tensile overload to 40% above a steady-state maximum fatigue stress can retard subsequent crack growth at the steady-state level for a sufficient period of time that diffusion mass transport can reduce the crack-tip sulfide concentration to a level below that necessary to sustain EAC.

  5. Thermal Annealing Reduces Geminate Recombination in TQ1:N2200 All-Polymer Solar Cells

    KAUST Repository

    Karuthedath, Safakath

    2018-03-27

    A combination of steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopic measurements is used to investigate the photophysics of the all-polymer bulk heterojunction system TQ1:N2200. Upon thermal annealing a doubling of the external quantum efficiency and an improved fill factor (FF) is observed, resulting in an increase in the power conversion efficiency. Carrier extraction is similar for both blends, as demonstrated by time-resolved electric-field-induced second harmonic generation experiments in conjunction with transient photocurrent studies, spanning the ps-µs time range. Complementary transient absorption spectroscopy measurements reveal that the different quantum efficiencies originate from differences in charge carrier separation and recombination at the polymer-polymer interface: in as-spun samples ~35 % of the charges are bound in interfacial charge-transfer states and recombine geminately, while this pool is reduced to ~7 % in thermally-annealed sample, resulting in higher short-circuit currents. Time-delayed collection field experiments demonstrate a field-dependent charge generation process in as-spun samples, which reduces the FF. In contrast, field-dependence of charge generation is weak in annealed films. While both devices exhibit significant non-geminate recombination competing with charge extraction, causing low FFs, our results demonstrate that the donor/acceptor interface in all-polymer solar cells can be favourably altered to enhance charge separation, without compromising charge transport and extraction.

  6. Transcranial magnetic stimulation of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex reduces cocaine use: A pilot study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Terraneo, Alberto; Leggio, Lorenzo; Saladini, Marina; Ermani, Mario; Bonci, Antonello; Gallimberti, Luigi

    2016-01-01

    Recent animal studies demonstrate that compulsive cocaine seeking strongly reduces prelimbic frontal cortex activity, while optogenetic stimulation of this brain area significantly inhibits compulsive cocaine seeking, providing a strong rationale for applying brain stimulation to reduce cocaine consumption. Thus, we employed repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), to test if dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) stimulation might prevent cocaine use in humans. Thirty-two cocaine-addicted patients were randomly assigned to either the experimental group (rTMS) on the left DLPFC, or to a control group (pharmacological agents) during a 29-day study (Stage 1). This was followed by a 63-day follow-up (Stage 2), during which all participants were offered rTMS treatment. Amongst the patients who completed Stage 1, 16 were in the rTMS group (100%) and 13 in the control group (81%). No significant adverse events were noted. During Stage 1, there were a significantly higher number of cocaine-free urine drug tests in the rTMS group compared to control (p=0.004). Craving for cocaine was also significantly lower in the rTMS group compared to the controls (p=0.038). Out of 13 patients who completed Stage 1 in the control group, 10 patients received rTMS treatment during Stage 2 and showed significant improvement with favorable outcomes becoming comparable to those of the rTMS group. The present preliminary findings support the safety of rTMS in cocaine-addicted patients, and suggest its potential therapeutic role for rTMS-driven PFC stimulation in reducing cocaine use, providing a strong rationale for developing larger placebo-controlled studies. Trial name: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in cocaine abusers, URL:〈http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN15823943?q=&filters=&sort=&offset=8&totalResults=13530&page=1&pageSize=10&searchType=basic-search〉, ISRCTN15823943. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  7. Reduced reward anticipation in youth at high-risk for unipolar depression: a preliminary study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olino, Thomas M; McMakin, Dana L; Morgan, Judith K; Silk, Jennifer S; Birmaher, Boris; Axelson, David A; Williamson, Douglas E; Dahl, Ronald E; Ryan, Neal D; Forbes, Erika E

    2014-04-01

    Offspring of depressed parents are at risk for depression and recent evidence suggests that reduced positive affect (PA) may be a marker of risk. We investigated whether self-reports of PA and fMRI-measured striatal response to reward, a neural correlate of PA, are reduced in adolescent youth at high familial risk for depression (HR) relative to youth at low familial risk for depression (LR). Functional magnetic resonance imaging assessments were conducted with 14 HR and 12 LR youth. All youth completed an ecological momentary assessment protocol to measure PA in natural settings and a self-report measure of depression symptomatology. Analyses found that HR youth demonstrated lower striatal response than LR youth during both reward anticipation and outcome. However, after controlling for youth self-reports of depression, HR youth demonstrated lower striatal response than LR youth only during reward anticipation. No significant differences were found between HR and LR youth on subjective ratings of PA or depressive symptoms. Results are consistent with previous findings that reduced reward response is a marker of risk for depression, particularly during reward anticipation, even in the absence of (or accounting for) disrupted subjective mood. Further examinations of prospective associations between reward response and depression onset are needed. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  8. A generalized, periodic nonlinearity-reduced interferometer for straightness measurements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu Chienming

    2008-01-01

    Periodic nonlinearity is a systematic error limiting the accuracy of displacement measurements at the nanometer level. However, an interferometer with a displacement measurement accuracy of less than 1 nm is required in nanometrology and in fundamental scientific research. To meet this requirement, a generalized, periodic nonlinearity-reduced interferometer, based on three construction principles has been developed for straightness measurements. These three construction principles have resulted in an interferometer with a highly stable design with reduced periodic nonlinearity. Verifications by a straightness interferometer have demonstrated that the periodic nonlinearity was less than 40 pm. The results also demonstrate that the interferometer design is capable of subnanometer accuracy and is useful in nanometrology

  9. Factoring local sequence composition in motif significance analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ng, Patrick; Keich, Uri

    2008-01-01

    We recently introduced a biologically realistic and reliable significance analysis of the output of a popular class of motif finders. In this paper we further improve our significance analysis by incorporating local base composition information. Relying on realistic biological data simulation, as well as on FDR analysis applied to real data, we show that our method is significantly better than the increasingly popular practice of using the normal approximation to estimate the significance of a finder's output. Finally we turn to leveraging our reliable significance analysis to improve the actual motif finding task. Specifically, endowing a variant of the Gibbs Sampler with our improved significance analysis we demonstrate that de novo finders can perform better than has been perceived. Significantly, our new variant outperforms all the finders reviewed in a recently published comprehensive analysis of the Harbison genome-wide binding location data. Interestingly, many of these finders incorporate additional information such as nucleosome positioning and the significance of binding data.

  10. Clinical significance of the radioimmunological determination of C-peptide

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dudczak, R.; Waldhaeusl, W.

    1979-01-01

    The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship of metabolic control to insulinogenic reserve in insulin-dependent diabetics. Thus, the secretory reserve of the pancreatic beta cell was estimated in insulin-dependent diabetics by measuring changes in peripheral serum immunoreactive C-peptide (IRCP) concentrations in response to intravenous arginine (n = 19; 0.5 g/kg,t = 30 min) or glibenclamide-glucose (n = 6; 2 mg HB 419 - 0.33 g/kg intravenously). In the majority of ''stable'' diabetics a small secretory reserve of the beta cell was demonstrated, but both the absolute and relative increase in IRCP was reduced after intravenous arginine or glibenclamide-glucose in comparison with normal controls. In ''unstable'' diabetics a decreased basal concentration of IRCP, significantly smaller than that seen in ''stable'' diabetics (p < 0.01), was accompanied by a complete lack of IRCP release on intravenous arginine administration. Thus, we conclude that the radioimmunological determination of IRCP is of clinical interest in assessing the residual secretory capacity of the beta cell in insulin-dependent diabetics. In revealing a lack of insulin this diagnostic tool seems to detect a group of potentially ''unstable'' diabetics in need of strict observation, which would minimize the risks of bad metabolic control. (author)

  11. Clinical significance of the radioimmunological determination of C-peptide

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dudczak, R; Waldhaeusl, W [Vienna Univ. (Austria). 1. Medizinische Klinik

    1979-10-12

    The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship of metabolic control to insulinogenic reserve in insulin-dependent diabetics. Thus, the secretory reserve of the pancreatic beta cell was estimated in insulin-dependent diabetics by measuring changes in peripheral serum immunoreactive C-peptide (IRCP) concentrations in response to intravenous arginine (n = 19; 0.5 g/kg,t = 30 min) or glibenclamide-glucose (n = 6; 2 mg HB 419 - 0.33 g/kg intravenously). In the majority of stable diabetics a small secretory reserve of the beta cell was demonstrated, but both the absolute and relative increase in IRCP was reduced after intravenous arginine or glibenclamide-glucose in comparison with normal controls. In unstable diabetics a decreased basal concentration of IRCP, significantly smaller than that seen in stable diabetics (p < 0.01), was accompanied by a complete lack of IRCP release on intravenous arginine administration. Thus, we conclude that the radioimmunological determination of IRCP is of clinical interest in assessing the residual secretory capacity of the beta cell in insulin-dependent diabetics. In revealing a lack of insulin this diagnostic tool seems to detect a group of potentially unstable diabetics in need of strict observation, which would minimize the risks of bad metabolic control.

  12. Possible demonstration of ionization cooling using absorbers in a solenoidal field

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fernow, R.C.; Gallardo, J.C.; Kirk, H.G.

    1995-12-01

    Ionization cooling may play an important role in reducing the phase space volume of muons for a future muon-muon collider. We describe a possible experiment to demonstrate transverse emittance cooling using a muon beam at the AGS at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The experiment uses device dimensions and parameters and beam conditions similar to what is expected in an actual muon-muon collider

  13. Toxicology Study of Single-walled Carbon Nanotubes and Reduced Graphene Oxide in Human Sperm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Asghar, Waseem; Shafiee, Hadi; Velasco, Vanessa; Sah, Vasu R; Guo, Shirui; El Assal, Rami; Inci, Fatih; Rajagopalan, Adhithi; Jahangir, Muntasir; Anchan, Raymond M; Mutter, George L; Ozkan, Mihrimah; Ozkan, Cengiz S; Demirci, Utkan

    2016-08-19

    Carbon-based nanomaterials such as single-walled carbon nanotubes and reduced graphene oxide are currently being evaluated for biomedical applications including in vivo drug delivery and tumor imaging. Several reports have studied the toxicity of carbon nanomaterials, but their effects on human male reproduction have not been fully examined. Additionally, it is not clear whether the nanomaterial exposure has any effect on sperm sorting procedures used in clinical settings. Here, we show that the presence of functionalized single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT-COOH) and reduced graphene oxide at concentrations of 1-25 μg/mL do not affect sperm viability. However, SWCNT-COOH generate significant reactive superoxide species at a higher concentration (25 μg/mL), while reduced graphene oxide does not initiate reactive species in human sperm. Further, we demonstrate that exposure to these nanomaterials does not hinder the sperm sorting process, and microfluidic sorting systems can select the sperm that show low oxidative stress post-exposure.

  14. Toxicology Study of Single-walled Carbon Nanotubes and Reduced Graphene Oxide in Human Sperm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Asghar, Waseem; Shafiee, Hadi; Velasco, Vanessa; Sah, Vasu R.; Guo, Shirui; El Assal, Rami; Inci, Fatih; Rajagopalan, Adhithi; Jahangir, Muntasir; Anchan, Raymond M.; Mutter, George L.; Ozkan, Mihrimah; Ozkan, Cengiz S.; Demirci, Utkan

    2016-08-01

    Carbon-based nanomaterials such as single-walled carbon nanotubes and reduced graphene oxide are currently being evaluated for biomedical applications including in vivo drug delivery and tumor imaging. Several reports have studied the toxicity of carbon nanomaterials, but their effects on human male reproduction have not been fully examined. Additionally, it is not clear whether the nanomaterial exposure has any effect on sperm sorting procedures used in clinical settings. Here, we show that the presence of functionalized single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT-COOH) and reduced graphene oxide at concentrations of 1-25 μg/mL do not affect sperm viability. However, SWCNT-COOH generate significant reactive superoxide species at a higher concentration (25 μg/mL), while reduced graphene oxide does not initiate reactive species in human sperm. Further, we demonstrate that exposure to these nanomaterials does not hinder the sperm sorting process, and microfluidic sorting systems can select the sperm that show low oxidative stress post-exposure.

  15. Intensity-Modulated Radiotherapy Results in Significant Decrease in Clinical Toxicities Compared With Conventional Wedge-Based Breast Radiotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Harsolia, Asif; Kestin, Larry; Grills, Inga; Wallace, Michelle; Jolly, Shruti; Jones, Cortney; Lala, Moinaktar; Martinez, Alvaro; Schell, Scott; Vicini, Frank A.

    2007-01-01

    Purpose: We have previously demonstrated that intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) with a static multileaf collimator process results in a more homogenous dose distribution compared with conventional wedge-based whole breast irradiation (WBI). In the present analysis, we reviewed the acute and chronic toxicity of this IMRT approach compared with conventional wedge-based treatment. Methods and Materials: A total of 172 patients with Stage 0-IIB breast cancer were treated with lumpectomy followed by WBI. All patients underwent treatment planning computed tomography and received WBI (median dose, 45 Gy) followed by a boost to 61 Gy. Of the 172 patients, 93 (54%) were treated with IMRT, and the 79 patients (46%) treated with wedge-based RT in a consecutive fashion immediately before this cohort served as the control group. The median follow-up was 4.7 years. Results: A significant reduction in acute Grade 2 or worse dermatitis, edema, and hyperpigmentation was seen with IMRT compared with wedges. A trend was found toward reduced acute Grade 3 or greater dermatitis (6% vs. 1%, p = 0.09) in favor of IMRT. Chronic Grade 2 or worse breast edema was significantly reduced with IMRT compared with conventional wedges. No difference was found in cosmesis scores between the two groups. In patients with larger breasts (≥1,600 cm 3 , n = 64), IMRT resulted in reduced acute (Grade 2 or greater) breast edema (0% vs. 36%, p <0.001) and hyperpigmentation (3% vs. 41%, p 0.001) and chronic (Grade 2 or greater) long-term edema (3% vs. 30%, p 0.007). Conclusion: The use of IMRT in the treatment of the whole breast results in a significant decrease in acute dermatitis, edema, and hyperpigmentation and a reduction in the development of chronic breast edema compared with conventional wedge-based RT

  16. Test plan for the remote conveyance and innovative end effector demonstration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rice, P.; Smith, A.M. [EG& G Idaho, Inc., Idaho Falls, ID (United States). Idaho National Engineering Lab.; Peterson, R.

    1994-08-01

    This test plan describes the demonstration of innovative equipment and processes specifically designed to be superior to currently employed technology for buried waste retrieval. The dumping of dry soil into a funnel/dumpster arrangement has been found to be the primary mechanism for dust generation during the retrieval of buried transuranic waste. The primary goal of the innovative end effector is to reduce dust generation and the potential spread of airborne contaminants during the dumping operation. In addition, regardless of the excavation technique, exhumed waste will have to be conveyed away from the retrieval area to a packaging area or directly to a treatment facility. The remote conveyance system is aimed at developing a remotely controlled vehicle to convey retrieved waste that will operate on variable terrain and remove workers from the hazardous zone. To demonstrate the remote conveyance system and the innovative end effector, the Buried Waste Integrated Demonstration (BWID) Program has subcontracted with RAHCO International to provide equipment and services to perform a demonstration of the technologies. The demonstration will be performed in two phases. In Phase I, the subcontractor will perform a full scale demonstration to assess the ability of the innovative end effector to control dust generation and the potential spread of contamination during dumping operations. Phase II includes performing a retrieval/conveyance demonstration. This demonstration will excavate, dump, and convey simulated waste to demonstrate the functionality of the system (e.g., maneuverability, retrieval rates, and system integration). Phase II of the demonstration will include all elements of the remote conveyance and end effector system. This test plan will describe the demonstration objectives, data quality objectives, equipment operation, and methods for collecting data during the demonstration.

  17. Test plan for the remote conveyance and innovative end effector demonstration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rice, P.; Smith, A.M.; Peterson, R.

    1994-08-01

    This test plan describes the demonstration of innovative equipment and processes specifically designed to be superior to currently employed technology for buried waste retrieval. The dumping of dry soil into a funnel/dumpster arrangement has been found to be the primary mechanism for dust generation during the retrieval of buried transuranic waste. The primary goal of the innovative end effector is to reduce dust generation and the potential spread of airborne contaminants during the dumping operation. In addition, regardless of the excavation technique, exhumed waste will have to be conveyed away from the retrieval area to a packaging area or directly to a treatment facility. The remote conveyance system is aimed at developing a remotely controlled vehicle to convey retrieved waste that will operate on variable terrain and remove workers from the hazardous zone. To demonstrate the remote conveyance system and the innovative end effector, the Buried Waste Integrated Demonstration (BWID) Program has subcontracted with RAHCO International to provide equipment and services to perform a demonstration of the technologies. The demonstration will be performed in two phases. In Phase I, the subcontractor will perform a full scale demonstration to assess the ability of the innovative end effector to control dust generation and the potential spread of contamination during dumping operations. Phase II includes performing a retrieval/conveyance demonstration. This demonstration will excavate, dump, and convey simulated waste to demonstrate the functionality of the system (e.g., maneuverability, retrieval rates, and system integration). Phase II of the demonstration will include all elements of the remote conveyance and end effector system. This test plan will describe the demonstration objectives, data quality objectives, equipment operation, and methods for collecting data during the demonstration

  18. Testing the effects of educational toilet posters: a novel way of reducing haemolysis of blood samples within ED.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Corkill, David

    2012-02-01

    Haemolysed blood samples are an unnecessary burden on Emergency Departments (ED) as they increase workloads and drive down efficiencies. Little empirical data exists that demonstrates the effectiveness of educational posters displayed in staff toilet cubicles. This study explored the impact educational toilet posters have on reducing haemolysis rates within the ED. A time series study of the clinical effect of educational toilet posters on reducing haemolysis rates throughout a 12 month period at the Gold Coast Hospital ED was undertaken. The GCH ED is a tertiary emergency service that has approximately 66,000 patient presentations per year. Data was collected prospectively. Analysis was undertaken to investigate the effects on total number of haemolysed samples and those clinically significant samples with a haemolytic index >3. Further investigation explored the specific effects on medical and nursing staff. Analysis undertaken using an independent t-test found that the pre-intervention data demonstrates a medium haemolysis rate of 4.92% (SD=1.04). This is a statistically significantly different (t=3.56, df=50, p=0.001) from the median post intervention data of 3.95% (SD=0.84). The difference of 0.97% (95%CI=0.42, 1.52) represents a 19.72% reduction in clinically significant haemolysed samples over the study period. This study reveals that the use of educational toilet posters had a positive impact on reducing the rates of haemolysed samples collected within the ED. This simple and cost effective educational initiative changed the behaviour of clinical staff. Further investigation is warranted to examine the impact of educational toilet posters on additional clinical scenarios. Crown Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Effectiveness of multi tuned liquid dampers with slat screens for reducing dynamic responses of structures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nguyen, T. P.; Pham, D. T.; Ngo, K. T.

    2018-04-01

    Reducing vibration in structures under lateral load always attracts many researchers in during pastime, hence the mainly purpose of paper analyzes effectiveness of multiple-tuned liquid dampers for reducing dynamic responses of structures under ground acceleration of earthquakes. In this study, the multi-tuned liquid damper with slat screens (M-TLDWSS) is considered in detail for analyzing dynamic response of multi-degrees of freedom structure due to earthquake, which is more different previous studies. Then, the general equation of motion of the structure and M-TLDWSS under ground acceleration of earthquake is established based on dynamic balance of principle and solved by numerical method in the time domain. The effects of characteristic parameters of M-TLDWSS on dynamic response of the structure are investigated. The results obtained in this study demonstrate that the M-TLDWSS has significantly effectiveness for reducing dynamic response of the structure.

  20. Strategy Guideline: Demonstration Home

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Savage, C.; Hunt, A.

    2012-12-01

    This guideline will provide a general overview of the different kinds of demonstration home projects, a basic understanding of the different roles and responsibilities involved in the successful completion of a demonstration home, and an introduction into some of the lessons learned from actual demonstration home projects. Also, this guideline will specifically look at the communication methods employed during demonstration home projects. And lastly, we will focus on how to best create a communication plan for including an energy efficient message in a demonstration home project and carry that message to successful completion.

  1. Strategy Guideline. Demonstration Home

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hunt, A.; Savage, C.

    2012-12-01

    This guideline will provide a general overview of the different kinds of demonstration home projects, a basic understanding of the different roles and responsibilities involved in the successful completion of a demonstration home, and an introduction into some of the lessons learned from actual demonstration home projects. Also, this guideline will specifically look at the communication methods employed during demonstration home projects. And lastly, we will focus on how to best create a communication plan for including an energy efficient message in a demonstration home project and carry that message to successful completion.

  2. Fuel Cell Demonstration Program

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gerald Brun

    2006-09-15

    In an effort to promote clean energy projects and aid in the commercialization of new fuel cell technologies the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) initiated a Fuel Cell Demonstration Program in 1999 with six month deployments of Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) non-commercial Beta model systems at partnering sites throughout Long Island. These projects facilitated significant developments in the technology, providing operating experience that allowed the manufacturer to produce fuel cells that were half the size of the Beta units and suitable for outdoor installations. In 2001, LIPA embarked on a large-scale effort to identify and develop measures that could improve the reliability and performance of future fuel cell technologies for electric utility applications and the concept to establish a fuel cell farm (Farm) of 75 units was developed. By the end of October of 2001, 75 Lorax 2.0 fuel cells had been installed at the West Babylon substation on Long Island, making it the first fuel cell demonstration of its kind and size anywhere in the world at the time. Designed to help LIPA study the feasibility of using fuel cells to operate in parallel with LIPA's electric grid system, the Farm operated 120 fuel cells over its lifetime of over 3 years including 3 generations of Plug Power fuel cells (Lorax 2.0, Lorax 3.0, Lorax 4.5). Of these 120 fuel cells, 20 Lorax 3.0 units operated under this Award from June 2002 to September 2004. In parallel with the operation of the Farm, LIPA recruited government and commercial/industrial customers to demonstrate fuel cells as on-site distributed generation. From December 2002 to February 2005, 17 fuel cells were tested and monitored at various customer sites throughout Long Island. The 37 fuel cells operated under this Award produced a total of 712,635 kWh. As fuel cell technology became more mature, performance improvements included a 1% increase in system efficiency. Including equipment, design, fuel, maintenance

  3. Melatonin reduces motivation for cocaine self-administration and prevents relapse-like behavior in rats.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Takahashi, Tatiane T; Vengeliene, Valentina; Spanagel, Rainer

    2017-06-01

    Melatonin is a hormone involved in the entrainment of circadian rhythms, which appears dysregulated in drug users. Further, it has been demonstrated that melatonin can modulate the reinforcing effects of several drugs of abuse and may therefore play a role in drug addiction. Here, we investigated whether administration of melatonin reduces relapse-like behavior and the motivation to seek cocaine in rats. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were submitted to long-term cocaine self-administration training. Thereafter, melatonin effects were assessed on: (1) the motivation to work for cocaine in the break point test, (2) the relapse-like behavior in the cue-induced reinstatement test, (3) the distance traveled in the open field test, and (4) sucrose preference in a two-bottle choice paradigm. Melatonin, 25 or 50 mg/kg, was injected 3-4 h after the dark phase onset, 30 min prior to each test. Both doses of melatonin decreased the number of active pokes in both break point and cue-induced reinstatement tests, demonstrating that melatonin can reduce the cocaine-seeking behavior and the motivation to work for cocaine. Administration of the higher dose of this hormone, however, significantly reduced the number of inactive pokes during the cue-induced reinstatement test and tended to reduce animals' locomotor activity in the open field test. Sucrose preference was unchanged in both vehicle- and melatonin-treated animal groups. Our data suggest that melatonin administration may lower the risk of relapse triggered by cues in cocaine-experienced animals.

  4. Feasibility and demonstration of a cloud-based RIID analysis system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wright, Michael C.; Hertz, Kristin L.; Johnson, William C.; Sword, Eric D.; Younkin, James R.; Sadler, Lorraine E.

    2015-06-01

    A significant limitation in the operational utility of handheld and backpack radioisotope identifiers (RIIDs) is the inability of their onboard algorithms to accurately and reliably identify the isotopic sources of the measured gamma-ray energy spectrum. A possible solution is to move the spectral analysis computations to an external device, the cloud, where significantly greater capabilities are available. The implementation and demonstration of a prototype cloud-based RIID analysis system have shown this type of system to be feasible with currently available communication and computational technology. A system study has shown that the potential user community could derive significant benefits from an appropriately implemented cloud-based analysis system and has identified the design and operational characteristics required by the users and stakeholders for such a system. A general description of the hardware and software necessary to implement reliable cloud-based analysis, the value of the cloud expressed by the user community, and the aspects of the cloud implemented in the demonstrations are discussed.

  5. Enzymatic solubilisation and degradation of soybean fibre demonstrated by viscosity, fibre analysis and microscopy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ravn, Jonas Laukkonen; Martens, Helle Juel; Pettersson, Dan

    2015-01-01

    The effect of a commercial multienzyme product obtained by fermentation from Aspergillus aculeatus on soybean and soybean meal was investigated using viscosity measurements, dietary fibre component analysis and different microscopy techniques utilizing histochemical dyes and antibody labelling....... The results obtained demonstrated a strong viscosity reducing effect of the enzyme preparation on soluble galactomannan and xyloglucan polysaccharides and in addition non-starch polysaccharide analysis demonstrated a notable solubilisation of all polysaccharide constituents. The degradation...

  6. Surface modification of platelet concentrate bags to reduce biofilm formation and transfusion sepsis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson-Nieuwenhuis, Joels S T; Dempsey-Hibbert, Nina; Liauw, Christopher M; Whitehead, Kathryn A

    2017-12-01

    Bacterial contamination of blood products poses a major risk in transfusion medicine, including transfusions involving platelet products. Although testing systems are in place for routine screening of platelet units, the formation of bacterial biofilms in such units may decrease the likelihood that bacteria will be detected. This work determined the surface properties of p-PVC platelet concentrate bags and investigated how these characteristics influenced biofilm formation. Serratia marcescens and Staphylococcus epidermidis, two species commonly implicated in platelet contamination, were used to study biofilm growth. The platelet concentrate bags were physically flattened to determine if reducing the surface roughness altered biofilm formation. The results demonstrated that the flattening process of the platelet bags affected the chemistry of the surface and reduced the surface hydrophobicity. Flattening of the surfaces resulted in a reduction in biofilm formation for both species after 5 days, with S. marcescens demonstrating a greater reduction. However, there was no significant difference between the smooth and flat surfaces following 7 days' incubation for S. marcescens and no significant differences between any of the surfaces following 7 days' incubation for S. epidermidis. The results suggest that flattening the p-PVC surfaces may limit potential biofilm formation for the current duration of platelet storage time of 5 days. It is hoped that this work will enhance the understanding of how surface properties influence the development of microbial biofilms in platelet concentrate bags in order to devise a solution to discourage biofilm formation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. Reduced evolutionary rate in reemerged Ebola virus transmission chains.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blackley, David J; Wiley, Michael R; Ladner, Jason T; Fallah, Mosoka; Lo, Terrence; Gilbert, Merle L; Gregory, Christopher; D'ambrozio, Jonathan; Coulter, Stewart; Mate, Suzanne; Balogun, Zephaniah; Kugelman, Jeffrey; Nwachukwu, William; Prieto, Karla; Yeiah, Adolphus; Amegashie, Fred; Kearney, Brian; Wisniewski, Meagan; Saindon, John; Schroth, Gary; Fakoli, Lawrence; Diclaro, Joseph W; Kuhn, Jens H; Hensley, Lisa E; Jahrling, Peter B; Ströher, Ute; Nichol, Stuart T; Massaquoi, Moses; Kateh, Francis; Clement, Peter; Gasasira, Alex; Bolay, Fatorma; Monroe, Stephan S; Rambaut, Andrew; Sanchez-Lockhart, Mariano; Scott Laney, A; Nyenswah, Tolbert; Christie, Athalia; Palacios, Gustavo

    2016-04-01

    On 29 June 2015, Liberia's respite from Ebola virus disease (EVD) was interrupted for the second time by a renewed outbreak ("flare-up") of seven confirmed cases. We demonstrate that, similar to the March 2015 flare-up associated with sexual transmission, this new flare-up was a reemergence of a Liberian transmission chain originating from a persistently infected source rather than a reintroduction from a reservoir or a neighboring country with active transmission. Although distinct, Ebola virus (EBOV) genomes from both flare-ups exhibit significantly low genetic divergence, indicating a reduced rate of EBOV evolution during persistent infection. Using this rate of change as a signature, we identified two additional EVD clusters that possibly arose from persistently infected sources. These findings highlight the risk of EVD flare-ups even after an outbreak is declared over.

  8. Reducing cyberbullying: A theory of reasoned action-based video prevention program for college students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doane, Ashley N; Kelley, Michelle L; Pearson, Matthew R

    2016-01-01

    Few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of cyberbullying prevention/intervention programs. The goals of the present study were to develop a Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)-based video program to increase cyberbullying knowledge (1) and empathy toward cyberbullying victims (2), reduce favorable attitudes toward cyberbullying (3), decrease positive injunctive (4) and descriptive norms about cyberbullying (5), and reduce cyberbullying intentions (6) and cyberbullying behavior (7). One hundred sixty-seven college students were randomly assigned to an online video cyberbullying prevention program or an assessment-only control group. Immediately following the program, attitudes and injunctive norms for all four types of cyberbullying behavior (i.e., unwanted contact, malice, deception, and public humiliation), descriptive norms for malice and public humiliation, empathy toward victims of malice and deception, and cyberbullying knowledge significantly improved in the experimental group. At one-month follow-up, malice and public humiliation behavior, favorable attitudes toward unwanted contact, deception, and public humiliation, and injunctive norms for public humiliation were significantly lower in the experimental than the control group. Cyberbullying knowledge was significantly higher in the experimental than the control group. These findings demonstrate a brief cyberbullying video is capable of improving, at one-month follow-up, cyberbullying knowledge, cyberbullying perpetration behavior, and TRA constructs known to predict cyberbullying perpetration. Considering the low cost and ease with which a video-based prevention/intervention program can be delivered, this type of approach should be considered to reduce cyberbullying. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  9. Photosynthesis energy factory: analysis, synthesis, and demonstration. Final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1978-11-01

    This quantitative assessment of the potential of a combined dry-land Energy Plantation, wood-fired power plant, and algae wastewater treatment system demonstrates the cost-effectiveness of recycling certain by-products and effluents from one subsystem to another. Designed to produce algae up to the limit of the amount of carbon in municipal wastewater, the algae pond provides a positive cash credit, resulting mainly from the wastewater treatment credit, which may be used to reduce the cost of the Photosynthesis Energy Factory (PEF)-generated electricity. The algae pond also produces fertilizer, which reduces the cost of the biomass produced on the Energy Plantation, and some gas. The cost of electricity was as low as 35 mills per kilowatt-hour for a typical municipally-owned PEF consisting of a 65-MWe power plant, a 144-acre algae pond, and a 33,000-acre Energy Plantation. Using only conventional or near-term technology, the most cost-effective algae pond for a PEF is the carbon-limited secondary treatment system. This system does not recycle CO/sub 2/ from the flue gas. Analysis of the Energy Plantation subsystem at 15 sites revealed that plantations of 24,000 to 36,000 acres produce biomass at the lowest cost per ton. The following sites are recommended for more detailed evaluation as potential demonstration sites: Pensacola, Florida; Jamestown, New York; Knoxville, Tennessee; Martinsville, Virginia, and Greenwood, South Carolina. A major possible extension of the PEF concept is to include the possibility for irrigation.

  10. Reduced expression of circRNA hsa_circ_0003159 in gastric cancer and its clinical significance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tian, Mengqian; Chen, Ruoyu; Li, Tianwen; Xiao, Bingxiu

    2018-03-01

    Circular RNAs (circRNAs) play a crucial role in the occurrence of several diseases including cancers. However, little is known about circRNAs' diagnostic values for gastric cancer, one of the worldwide most common diseases of mortality. The hsa_circ_0003159 levels in 108 paired gastric cancer tissues and adjacent non-tumorous tissues from surgical patients with gastric cancer were first detected by real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Then, the relationships between hsa_circ_0003159 expression levels in gastric cancer tissues and the clinicopathological factors of patients with gastric cancer were analyzed. Finally, its diagnostic value was evaluated through the receiver operating characteristic curve. Compared with paired adjacent non-tumorous tissues, hsa_circ_0003159 expression was significantly down-regulated in gastric cancer tissues. What is more, we found that hsa_circ_0003159 expression levels were significantly negatively associated with gender, distal metastasis, and tumor-node-metastasis stage. All of the results suggest that hsa_circ_0003159 may be a potential cancer marker of patients with gastric cancer. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  11. Hepcidin Protects Neuron from Hemin-Mediated Injury by Reducing Iron

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yu-Fu Zhou

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Hemin plays a key role in mediating secondary neuronal injury after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH and the cell toxicity of hemin is thought to be due to iron that is liberated when hemin is degraded. In a recent study, we demonstrated the iron regulatory hormone hepcidin reduces brain iron in iron-overloaded rats. Therefore, we hypothesized that hepcidin might be able to reduce iron and then protect neurons from hemin or iron-mediated neurotoxicity in hemin-treated neuronal cells. Here, we tested the hypothesis and demonstrated that ad-hepcidin and hepcidin peptide both have the ability to suppress the hemin-induced increase in LDH release and apoptotic cell numbers, to reduce cell iron and ferritin contents, and to inhibit expression of transferrin receptor 1, divalent metal transporter 1, and ferroportin 1 in hemin-treated neurons. We conclude that hepcidin protects neuron from hemin-mediated injury by reducing iron via inhibition of expression of iron transport proteins.

  12. Advanced technology for reducing aircraft engine pollution

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, R. E.

    1973-01-01

    The proposed EPA regulations covering emissions of gas turbine engines will require extensive combustor development. The NASA is working to develop technology to meet these goals through a wide variety of combustor research programs conducted in-house, by contract, and by university grant. In-house efforts using the swirl-can modular combustor have demonstrated sizable reduction in NO emission levels. Testing to reduce idle pollutants has included the modification of duplex fuel nozzles to air-assisted nozzles and an exploration of the potential improvements possible with combustors using fuel staging and variable geometry. The Experimental Clean Combustor Program, a large contracted effort, is devoted to the testing and development of combustor concepts designed to achieve a large reduction in the levels of all emissions. This effort is planned to be conducted in three phases with the final phase to be an engine demonstration of the best reduced emission concepts.

  13. Affordable Development and Demonstration of a Small NTR engine and Stage: A Preliminary NASA, DOE, and Industry Assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borowski, S. K.; Sefcik, R. J.; Fittje, J. E.; McCurdy, D. R.; Qualls, A. L.; Schnitzler, B. G; Werner, J.; Weitzberg, A.; Joyner, C. R.

    2015-01-01

    In FY'11, Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) was identified as a key propulsion option under the Advanced In-Space Propulsion (AISP) component of NASA's Exploration Technology Development and Demonstration (ETDD) program A strategy was outlined by GRC and NASA HQ that included 2 key elements -"Foundational Technology Development" followed by specific "Technology Demonstration" projects. The "Technology Demonstration "element proposed ground technology demonstration (GTD) testing in the early 2020's, followed by a flight technology demonstration (FTD) mission by approx. 2025. In order to reduce development costs, the demonstration projects would focus on developing a small, low thrust (approx. 7.5 -16.5 klb(f)) engine that utilizes a "common" fuel element design scalable to the higher thrust (approx. 25 klb(f)) engines used in NASA's Mars DRA 5.0 study(NASA-SP-2009-566). Besides reducing development costs and allowing utilization of existing, flight proven engine hard-ware (e.g., hydrogen pumps and nozzles), small, lower thrust ground and flight demonstration engines can validate the technology and offer improved capability -increased payloads and decreased transit times -valued for robotic science missions identified in NASA's Decadal Study.

  14. Altered fatty acid metabolism and reduced stearoyl-coenzyme a desaturase activity in asthma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodriguez-Perez, N; Schiavi, E; Frei, R; Ferstl, R; Wawrzyniak, P; Smolinska, S; Sokolowska, M; Sievi, N A; Kohler, M; Schmid-Grendelmeier, P; Michalovich, D; Simpson, K D; Hessel, E M; Jutel, M; Martin-Fontecha, M; Palomares, O; Akdis, C A; O'Mahony, L

    2017-11-01

    Fatty acids and lipid mediator signaling play an important role in the pathogenesis of asthma, yet this area remains largely underexplored. The aims of this study were (i) to examine fatty acid levels and their metabolism in obese and nonobese asthma patients and (ii) to determine the functional effects of altered fatty acid metabolism in experimental models. Medium- and long-chain fatty acid levels were quantified in serum from 161 human volunteers by LC/MS. Changes in stearoyl-coenzyme A desaturase (SCD) expression and activity were evaluated in the ovalbumin (OVA) and house dust mite (HDM) murine models. Primary human bronchial epithelial cells from asthma patients and controls were evaluated for SCD expression and activity. The serum desaturation index (an indirect measure of SCD) was significantly reduced in nonobese asthma patients and in the OVA murine model. SCD1 gene expression was significantly reduced within the lungs following OVA or HDM challenge. Inhibition of SCD in mice promoted airway hyper-responsiveness. SCD1 expression was suppressed in bronchial epithelial cells from asthma patients. IL-4 and IL-13 reduced epithelial cell SCD1 expression. Inhibition of SCD reduced surfactant protein C expression and suppressed rhinovirus-induced IP-10 secretion, which was associated with increased viral titers. This is the first study to demonstrate decreased fatty acid desaturase activity in humans with asthma. Experimental models in mice and human epithelial cells suggest that inhibition of desaturase activity leads to airway hyper-responsiveness and reduced antiviral defense. SCD may represent a new target for therapeutic intervention in asthma patients. © 2017 EAACI and John Wiley and Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley and Sons Ltd.

  15. New insights into the microvascular mechanisms of drag reducing polymers: effect on the cell-free layer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brands, Judith; Kliner, Dustin; Lipowsky, Herbert H; Kameneva, Marina V; Villanueva, Flordeliza S; Pacella, John J

    2013-01-01

    Drag-reducing polymers (DRPs) significantly increase blood flow, tissue perfusion, and tissue oxygenation in various animal models. In rectangular channel microfluidic systems, DRPs were found to significantly reduce the near-wall cell-free layer (CFL) as well as modify traffic of red blood cells (RBC) into microchannel branches. In the current study we further investigated the mechanism by which DRP enhances microvascular perfusion. We studied the effect of various concentrations of DRP on RBC distribution in more relevant round microchannels and the effect of DRP on CFL in the rat cremaster muscle in vivo. In round microchannels hematocrit was measured in parent and daughter branch at baseline and after addition of DRP. At DRP concentrations of 5 and 10 ppm, the plasma skimming effect in the daughter branch was eliminated, as parent and daughter branch hematocrit were equivalent, compared to a significantly lowered hematocrit in the daughter branch without DRPs. In anesthetized rats (N=11) CFL was measured in the cremaster muscle tissue in arterioles with a diameter of 32.6 ± 1.7 µm. In the control group (saline, N=6) there was a significant increase in CFL in time compared to corresponding baseline. Addition of DRP at 1 ppm (N=5) reduced CFL significantly compared to corresponding baseline and the control group. After DRP administration the CFL reduced to about 85% of baseline at 5, 15, 25 and 35 minutes after DRP infusion was complete. These in vivo and in vitro findings demonstrate that DRPs induce a reduction in CFL width and plasma skimming in the microvasculature. This may lead to an increase of RBC flux into the capillary bed, and thus explain previous observations of a DRP mediated enhancement of capillary perfusion.

  16. Disturbance of semantic processing in temporal lobe epilepsy demonstrated with scalp ERPs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miyamoto, T; Katayama, J I; Kohsaka, M; Koyama, T

    2000-12-01

    We investigated event-related potentials (N400, LPC and CNV) elicited in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients and control subjects from scalp electrodes, using a word-pair category matching paradigm. Each prime consisted of a Japanese noun (constructed from 2-4 characters of the Hiragana) followed by a Chinese character (Kanji) as the target, the latter representing one of five semantic categories. There were two equally probable target conditions: match or mismatch. Each target was preceded by a prime, either belonging to, or not belonging to, the same semantic category. The subjects were required to respond with a specified button press to the given target, according to the condition. We found RTs to be longer under the mismatch condition in both subject groups. The N400 amplitude was reduced in TLE subjects under both conditions, although LPC and CNV amplitudes showed no significant differences. These results suggest that scalp N400 is capable of demonstrating disturbance of semantic processing in TLE non-invasively. Copyright 2000 BEA Trading Ltd.

  17. Innovative technology demonstration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anderson, D.B.; Luttrell, S.P.; Hartley, J.N.; Hinchee, R.

    1992-04-01

    The Innovative Technology Demonstration (ITD) program at Tinker Air Force Base (TAFB), Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, will demonstrate the overall utility and effectiveness of innovative technologies for site characterization, monitoring, and remediation of selected contaminated test sites. The current demonstration test sites include a CERCLA site on the NPL list, located under a building (Building 3001) that houses a large active industrial complex used for rebuilding military aircraft, and a site beneath and surrounding an abandoned underground tank vault used for storage of jet fuels and solvents. The site under Building 3001 (the NW Test Site) is contaminated with TCE and Cr +6 ; the site with the fuel storage vault (the SW Tanks Site) is contaminated with fuels, BTEX and TCE. These sites and others have been identified for cleanup under the Air Force's Installation Restoration Program (IRP). This document describes the demonstrations that have been conducted or are planned for the TAFB

  18. Characteristics of Young Children Exposed to Violence: The Safe Start Demonstration Project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaufman, Joy S.; Ortega, Sandra; Schewe, Paul A.; Kracke, Kristen

    2011-01-01

    The Safe Start demonstration projects, funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) under the first phase of the Safe Start initiative, are primarily designed to influence change at the systems or macrolevels to reduce the incidence of and impact of exposure to violence for children aged birth to 6 years; direct…

  19. Deletion of Dicer in smooth muscle affects voiding pattern and reduces detrusor contractility and neuroeffector transmission.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mardjaneh Karbalaei Sadegh

    Full Text Available MicroRNAs have emerged as important regulators of smooth muscle phenotype and may play important roles in pathogenesis of various smooth muscle related disease states. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of miRNAs for urinary bladder function. We used an inducible and smooth muscle specific Dicer knockout (KO mouse which resulted in significantly reduced levels of miRNAs, including miR-145, miR-143, miR-22, miR125b-5p and miR-27a, from detrusor preparations without mucosa. Deletion of Dicer resulted in a disturbed micturition pattern in vivo and reduced depolarization-induced pressure development in the isolated detrusor. Furthermore, electrical field stimulation revealed a decreased cholinergic but maintained purinergic component of neurogenic activation in Dicer KO bladder strips. The ultrastructure of detrusor smooth muscle cells was well maintained, and the density of nerve terminals was similar. Western blotting demonstrated reduced contents of calponin and desmin. Smooth muscle α-actin, SM22α and myocardin were unchanged. Activation of strips with exogenous agonists showed that depolarization-induced contraction was preferentially reduced; ATP- and calyculin A-induced contractions were unchanged. Quantitative real time PCR and western blotting demonstrated reduced expression of Cav1.2 (Cacna1c. It is concluded that smooth muscle miRNAs play an important role for detrusor contractility and voiding pattern of unrestrained mice. This is mediated in part via effects on expression of smooth muscle differentiation markers and L-type Ca(2+ channels in the detrusor.

  20. MapReduce-based Dimensional ETL Made Easy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Xiufeng, Liu; Thomsen, Christian; Pedersen, Torben Bach

    2012-01-01

    This paper demonstrates ETLMR, a novel dimensional Extract–Transform–Load (ETL) programming framework that uses MapReduce to achieve scalability. ETLMR has builtin native support of data warehouse (DW) specific constructs such as star schemas, snowflake schemas, and slowly changing dimensions (SCDs...

  1. The Efficacy of Prescribed Casual Videogame Play in Reducing Symptoms of Anxiety: A Randomized Controlled Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fish, Matthew T; Russoniello, Carmen V; O'Brien, Kevin

    2014-10-01

    Anxiety is a natural reaction to stress, but when excessive, it can develop into a debilitating disorder. Traditional treatments such as pharmaceuticals and psychotherapy have demonstrated efficacy in alleviating anxiety symptoms but are often costly and stigmatizing. This study tested whether a regimen of prescribed casual videogame (CVG) play could reduce individuals' anxiety symptom severity in a depressed population. CVGs are defined as fun, easy to play, spontaneous, and extremely popular. Data were taken from a larger study on depression and CVGs. Participants were screened for depression using a score of ≥5 (mild depression) on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. After completing pre-intervention questionnaires, participants were randomized into the experimental (n=30) or control (n=29) group. Participants in the experimental group were prescribed a CVG of their choice to play three times per week, for 30 minutes, over a 1-month period. The State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was used to test the hypothesis. Repeated-measures analysis of variance revealed significant interaction of group by time for state and trait anxiety measures, supporting the hypothesis that anxiety severity would be different by group post-intervention. When state and trait anxiety measures were compared using within-subjects contrasts and between-group analyses, significant decreases in anxiety symptom severity were demonstrated. A prescribed regimen of CVG play significantly reduced state and trait anxiety symptom severity as measured by the STAI. Clinicians should consider using these easy-to-use and low-cost CVGs to address symptoms associated with state and trait anxiety.

  2. Innovative technology demonstrations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anderson, D.B.; Luttrell, S.P.; Hartley, J.N.

    1992-08-01

    Environmental Management Operations (EMO) is conducting an Innovative Technology Demonstration Program for Tinker Air Force Base (TAFB). Several innovative technologies are being demonstrated to address specific problems associated with remediating two contaminated test sites at the base. Cone penetrometer testing (CPT) is a form of testing that can rapidly characterize a site. This technology was selected to evaluate its applicability in the tight clay soils and consolidated sandstone sediments found at TAFB. Directionally drilled horizontal wells was selected as a method that may be effective in accessing contamination beneath Building 3001 without disrupting the mission of the building, and in enhancing the extraction of contamination both in ground water and in soil. A soil gas extraction (SGE) demonstration, also known as soil vapor extraction, will evaluate the effectiveness of SGE in remediating fuels and TCE contamination contained in the tight clay soil formations surrounding the abandoned underground fuel storage vault located at the SW Tanks Site. In situ sensors have recently received much acclaim as a technology that can be effective in remediating hazardous waste sites. Sensors can be useful for determining real-time, in situ contaminant concentrations during the remediation process for performance monitoring and in providing feedback for controlling the remediation process. Following the SGE demonstration, the SGE system and SW Tanks test site will be modified to demonstrate bioremediation as an effective means of degrading the remaining contaminants in situ. The bioremediation demonstration will evaluate a bioventing process in which the naturally occurring consortium of soil bacteria will be stimulated to aerobically degrade soil contaminants, including fuel and TCE, in situ

  3. Action video game training reduces the Simon Effect.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hutchinson, Claire V; Barrett, Doug J K; Nitka, Aleksander; Raynes, Kerry

    2016-04-01

    A number of studies have shown that training on action video games improves various aspects of visual cognition including selective attention and inhibitory control. Here, we demonstrate that action video game play can also reduce the Simon Effect, and, hence, may have the potential to improve response selection during the planning and execution of goal-directed action. Non-game-players were randomly assigned to one of four groups; two trained on a first-person-shooter game (Call of Duty) on either Microsoft Xbox or Nintendo DS, one trained on a visual training game for Nintendo DS, and a control group who received no training. Response times were used to contrast performance before and after training on a behavioral assay designed to manipulate stimulus-response compatibility (the Simon Task). The results revealed significantly faster response times and a reduced cost of stimulus-response incompatibility in the groups trained on the first-person-shooter game. No benefit of training was observed in the control group or the group trained on the visual training game. These findings are consistent with previous evidence that action game play elicits plastic changes in the neural circuits that serve attentional control, and suggest training may facilitate goal-directed action by improving players' ability to resolve conflict during response selection and execution.

  4. Spent fuel pyroprocessing demonstration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McFarlane, L.F.; Lineberry, M.J.

    1995-01-01

    A major element of the shutdown of the US liquid metal reactor development program is managing the sodium-bonded spent metallic fuel from the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II to meet US environmental laws. Argonne National Laboratory has refurbished and equipped an existing hot cell facility for treating the spent fuel by a high-temperature electrochemical process commonly called pyroprocessing. Four products will be produced for storage and disposal. Two high-level waste forms will be produced and qualified for disposal of the fission and activation products. Uranium and transuranium alloys will be produced for storage pending a decision by the US Department of Energy on the fate of its plutonium and enriched uranium. Together these activities will demonstrate a unique electrochemical treatment technology for spent nuclear fuel. This technology potentially has significant economic and technical advantages over either conventional reprocessing or direct disposal as a high-level waste option

  5. A Technology Demonstration Experiment for Laser Cooled Atomic Clocks in Space

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klipstein, W. M.; Kohel, J.; Seidel, D. J.; Thompson, R. J.; Maleki, L.; Gibble, K.

    2000-01-01

    We have been developing a laser-cooling apparatus for flight on the International Space Station (ISS), with the intention of demonstrating linewidths on the cesium clock transition narrower than can be realized on the ground. GLACE (the Glovebox Laser- cooled Atomic Clock Experiment) is scheduled for launch on Utilization Flight 3 (UF3) in 2002, and will be mounted in one of the ISS Glovebox platforms for an anticipated 2-3 week run. Separate flight definition projects funded at NIST and Yale by the Micro- gravity Research Division of NASA as a part of its Laser Cooling and Atomic Physics (LCAP) program will follow GLACE. Core technologies for these and other LCAP missions are being developed at JPL, with the current emphasis on developing components such as the laser and optics subsystem, and non-magnetic vacuum-compatible mechanical shutters. Significant technical challenges in developing a space qualifiable laser cooling apparatus include reducing the volume, mass, and power requirements, while increasing the ruggedness and reliability in order to both withstand typical launch conditions and achieve several months of unattended operation. This work was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

  6. Glycophospholipid Formulation with NADH and CoQ10 Significantly Reduces Intractable Fatigue in Western Blot-Positive ‘Chronic Lyme Disease’ Patients: Preliminary Report

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Garth L. Nicolson

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Background: An open label 8-week preliminary study was conducted in a small number of patients to determine if a combination oral supplement containing a mixture of phosphoglycolipids, coenzyme Q10 and microencapsulated NADH and other nutrients could affect fatigue levels in long-term, Western blot-positive, multi-symptom ‘chronic Lyme disease’ patients (also called ‘post-treatment Lyme disease’ or ‘post Lyme syndrome’ with intractable fatigue. Methods: The subjects in this study were 6 males (mean age = 45.1 ± 12.4 years and 10 females (mean age = 54.6 ± 7.4 years with ‘chronic Lyme disease’ (determined by multiple symptoms and positive Western blot analysis that had been symptomatic with chronic fatigue for an average of 12.7 ± 6.6 years. They had been seen by multiple physicians (13.3 ± 7.6 and had used many other remedies, supplements and drugs (14.4 ± 7.4 without fatigue relief. Fatigue was monitored at 0, 7, 30 and 60 days using a validated instrument, the Piper Fatigue Scale.Results: Patients in this preliminary study responded to the combination test supplement, showing a 26% reduction in overall fatigue by the end of the 8-week trial (p< 0.0003. Analysis of subcategories of fatigue indicated that there were significant improvements in the ability to complete tasks and activities as well as significant improvements in mood and cognitive abilities. Regression analysis of the data indicated that reductions in fatigue were consistent and occurred with a high degree of confidence (R2= 0.998. Functional Foods in Health and Disease 2012, 2(3:35-47 Conclusions: The combination supplement was a safe and effective method to significantly reduce intractable fatigue in long-term patients with Western blot-positive ‘chronic Lyme disease.’

  7. Electrodynamic Dust Shield Demonstrator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stankie, Charles G.

    2013-01-01

    The objective of the project was to design and manufacture a device to demonstrate a new technology developed by NASA's Electrostatics and Surface Physics Laboratory. The technology itself is a system which uses magnetic principles to remove regolith dust from its surface. This project was to create an enclosure that will be used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the invention to The Office of the Chief Technologist. ONE of the most important challenges of space exploration is actually caused by something very small and seemingly insignificant. Dust in space, most notably on the moon and Mars, has caused many unforeseen issues. Dirt and dust on Earth, while a nuisance, can be easily cleaned and kept at bay. However, there is considerably less weathering and erosion in space. As a result, the microscopic particles are extremely rough and abrasive. They are also electrostatically charged, so they cling to everything they make contact with. This was first noted to be a major problem during the Apollo missions. Dust would stick to the spacesuits, and could not be wiped off as predicted. Dust was brought back into the spacecraft, and was even inhaled by astronauts. This is a major health hazard. Atmospheric storms and other events can also cause dust to coat surfaces of spacecraft. This can cause abrasive damage to the craft. The coating can also reduce the effectiveness of thermal insulation and solar panels.' A group of engineers at Kennedy Space Center's Electrostatics and Surface Physics Laboratory have developed a new technology, called the Electrodynamic Dust Shield, to help alleviate these problems. It is based off of the electric curtain concept developed at NASA in 1967. "The EDS is an active dust mitigation technology that uses traveling electric fields to transport electrostatically charged dust particles along surfaces. To generate the traveling electric fields, the EDS consists of a multilayer dielectric coating with an embedded thin electrode grid

  8. VANTAGE 5 PWR fuel assembly demonstration program at Virgil C. Summer nuclear station

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Warner, D.C.; Orr, W.L.

    1985-01-01

    VANTAGE 5 is an improved PWR fuel product designed and manufactured by Westinghouse Electric Corporation. The VANTAGE 5 fuel design features integral fuel burnable absorbers, intermediate flow mixer grids, axial blankets, high burnup capability, and a reconstitutable top nozzle. A demonstration program for this fuel design commenced in late 1984 in cycle 2 of the Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Station. Objectives for VANTAGE 5 fuel are reduced fuel cycle costs, better core operating margins, and increased design and operating flexibility. Inspections of the VANTAGE 5 demonstration assemblies are planned at each refueling outage

  9. Stress exposure in early post-natal life reduces telomere length: an experimental demonstration in a long-lived seabird

    OpenAIRE

    Herborn, Katherine A.; Heidinger, Britt J.; Boner, Winnie; Noguera, Jose C.; Adam, Aileen; Daunt, Francis; Monaghan, Pat

    2014-01-01

    Exposure to stressors early in life is associated with faster ageing and reduced longevity. One important mechanism that could underlie these late life effects is increased telomere loss. Telomere length in early post-natal life is an important predictor of subsequent lifespan, but the factors underpinning its variability are poorly understood. Recent human studies have linked stress exposure to increased telomere loss. These studies have of necessity been non-experimental and are consequentl...

  10. Scenarios for Benefits Analysis of Energy Research, Development,Demonstration and Deployment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gumerman, Etan; Marnay, Chris

    2005-09-07

    For at least the last decade, evaluation of the benefits of research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RD3) by the U.S. Department of Energy has been conducted using deterministic forecasts that unrealistically presume we can precisely foresee our future 10, 25,or even 50 years hence. This effort tries, in a modest way, to begin a process of recognition that the reality of our energy future is rather one rife with uncertainty. The National Energy Modeling System (NEMS) is used by the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EE) and Fossil Energy (FE) for their RD3 benefits evaluation. In order to begin scoping out the uncertainty in these deterministic forecasts, EE and FE designed two futures that differ significantly from the basic NEMS forecast. A High Fuel Price Scenario and a Carbon Cap Scenario were envisioned to forecast alternative futures and the associated benefits. Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) implemented these scenarios into its version of NEMS,NEMS-LBNL, in late 2004, and the Energy Information Agency created six scenarios for FE in early 2005. The creation and implementation of the EE-FE scenarios are explained in this report. Both a Carbon Cap Scenario and a High Fuel Price Scenarios were implemented into the NEMS-LBNL. EIA subsequently modeled similar scenarios using NEMS. While the EIA and LBNL implementations were in some ways rather different, their forecasts do not significantly diverge. Compared to the Reference Scenario, the High Fuel Price Scenario reduces energy consumption by 4 percent in 2025, while in the EIA fuel price scenario (known as Scenario 4) reduction from its corresponding reference scenario (known as Scenario 0) in 2025 is marginal. Nonetheless, the 4 percent demand reduction does not lead to other cascading effects that would significantly differentiate the two scenarios. The LBNL and EIA carbon scenarios were mostly identical. The only major

  11. Prospective motion correction with volumetric navigators (vNavs) reduces the bias and variance in brain morphometry induced by subject motion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tisdall, M Dylan; Reuter, Martin; Qureshi, Abid; Buckner, Randy L; Fischl, Bruce; van der Kouwe, André J W

    2016-02-15

    Recent work has demonstrated that subject motion produces systematic biases in the metrics computed by widely used morphometry software packages, even when the motion is too small to produce noticeable image artifacts. In the common situation where the control population exhibits different behaviors in the scanner when compared to the experimental population, these systematic measurement biases may produce significant confounds for between-group analyses, leading to erroneous conclusions about group differences. While previous work has shown that prospective motion correction can improve perceived image quality, here we demonstrate that, in healthy subjects performing a variety of directed motions, the use of the volumetric navigator (vNav) prospective motion correction system significantly reduces the motion-induced bias and variance in morphometry. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. [Evaluation on intervention measures of comprehensive control for parasitic diseases in demonstration plot of Xiangyun County].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wen-Juan, Li; Shao-Rong, Chen; Yan-Hong, Li; Wen, Fang; Chun-Rong, Ke; Li-Bo, Wang

    2011-10-01

    To evaluate the effect of comprehensive intervention measures to control and prevent parasitic diseases in the demonstration plot of Xiangyun County, so as to provide the evidence for establishing appropriate measures of parasitic diseases control and prevention. The baseline data of soil-transmitted nematode infections were obtained in 2006. A series of intervention measures, including health education, deworming, drinking water improvement,latrine improvement, and environment reconstruction, were performed for three years and the effect of the comprehensive intervention measures was evaluated by the national expert group in 2009. The awareness rate of parasitic disease knowledge of residents in 2009 (86.96%) was significantly higher than that in 2006 (35.20%) (Chi2 = 122.95, P transmitted nematode infections, the infection rates of Ascaris lumbricoides in both 2006 and 2009 were the highest and the rates were 18.74% and 2.08%, respectively. In the demonstration plots for parasitic diseases control and prevention of Xiangyun County, the effect of the comprehensive intervention measures which take health education as the forerunner and give priority to control source of parasite infection is remarkable. The measures implemented can achieve the purpose to reduce the infection rates of parasites and improve human health.

  13. Demonstration of Advanced Technologies for Multi-Load Washers in Hospitality and Healthcare -- Wastewater Recycling Technology

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Boyd, Brian K. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Parker, Graham B. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Petersen, Joseph M. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Sullivan, Greg [Efficiency Solutions, LLC (United States); Goetzler, W. [Navigant Consulting, Inc. (United States); Foley, K. J. [Navigant Consulting, Inc. (United States); Sutherland, T. A. [Navigant Consulting, Inc. (United States)

    2014-08-14

    The objective of this demonstration project was to evaluate market-ready retrofit technologies for reducing the energy and water use of multi-load washers in healthcare and hospitality facilities. Specifically, this project evaluated laundry wastewater recycling technology in the hospitality sector and ozone laundry technology in both the healthcare and hospitality sectors. This report documents the demonstration of a wastewater recycling system installed in the Grand Hyatt Seattle.

  14. Innovative technology demonstrations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anderson, D.B.; Hartley, J.N.; Luttrell, S.P.

    1992-04-01

    Currently, several innovative technologies are being demonstrated at Tinker Air Force Base (TAFB) to address specific problems associated with remediating two contaminated test sites at the base. Cone penetrometer testing (CPT) is a form of testing that can rapidly characterize a site. This technology was selected to evaluate its applicability in the tight clay soils and consolidated sandstone sediments found at TAFB. Directionally drilled horizontal wells have been successfully installed at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Savannah River Site to test new methods of in situ remediation of soils and ground water. This emerging technology was selected as a method that may be effective in accessing contamination beneath Building 3001 without disrupting the mission of the building, and in enhancing the extraction of contamination both in ground water and in soil. A soil gas extraction (SGE) demonstration, also known as soil vapor extraction, will evaluate the effectiveness of SGE in remediating fuels and TCE contamination contained in the tight clay soil formations surrounding the abandoned underground fuel storage vault located at the SW Tanks Site. In situ sensors have recently received much acclaim as a technology that can be effective in remediating hazardous waste sites. Sensors can be useful for determining real-time, in situ contaminant concentrations during the remediation process for performance monitoring and in providing feedback for controlling the remediation process. A demonstration of two in situ sensor systems capable of providing real-time data on contamination levels will be conducted and evaluated concurrently with the SGE demonstration activities. Following the SGE demonstration, the SGE system and SW Tanks test site will be modified to demonstrate bioremediation as an effective means of degrading the remaining contaminants in situ

  15. White-tailed deer are a biotic filter during community assembly, reducing species and phylogenetic diversity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Begley-Miller, Danielle R; Hipp, Andrew L; Brown, Bethany H; Hahn, Marlene; Rooney, Thomas P

    2014-06-09

    Community assembly entails a filtering process, where species found in a local community are those that can pass through environmental (abiotic) and biotic filters and successfully compete. Previous research has demonstrated the ability of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) to reduce species diversity and favour browse-tolerant plant communities. In this study, we expand on our previous work by investigating deer as a possible biotic filter altering local plant community assembly. We used replicated 23-year-old deer exclosures to experimentally assess the effects of deer on species diversity (H'), richness (SR), phylogenetic community structure and phylogenetic diversity in paired browsed (control) and unbrowsed (exclosed) plots. Additionally, we developed a deer-browsing susceptibility index (DBSI) to assess the vulnerability of local species to deer. Deer browsing caused a 12 % reduction in H' and 17 % reduction in SR, consistent with previous studies. Furthermore, browsing reduced phylogenetic diversity by 63 %, causing significant phylogenetic clustering. Overall, graminoids were the least vulnerable to deer browsing based on DBSI calculations. These findings demonstrate that deer are a significant driver of plant community assembly due to their role as a selective browser, or more generally, as a biotic filter. This study highlights the importance of knowledge about the plant tree of life in assessing the effects of biotic filters on plant communities. Application of such knowledge has considerable potential to advance our understanding of plant community assembly. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company.

  16. Effects of Dietary Fiber Extracted from Pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima Duch.) on the Physico-Chemical and Sensory Characteristics of Reduced-Fat Frankfurters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Cheon-Jei; Kim, Hyun-Wook; Hwang, Ko-Eun; Song, Dong-Heon; Ham, Youn-Kyung; Choi, Ji-Hun; Kim, Young-Boong; Choi, Yun-Sang

    2016-01-01

    In this study, we investigated the effects of reducing fat levels from 30% to 25, 20, and 15% by substituting pork fat with water and pumpkin fiber (2%) on the quality of frankfurters compared with control. Decreasing the fat concentration from 30% to 15% significantly increased moisture content, redness of meat batter and frankfurter, cooking loss, and water exudation, and decreased fat content, energy value, pH, and lightness of meat batter and frankfurter, hardness, cohesiveness, gumminess, chewiness, and apparent viscosity. The addition of 2% pumpkin fiber was significantly increased moisture content, yellowness of meat batter and frankfurter, hardness, cohesiveness, gumminess, chewiness, and apparent viscosity, whereas reduced cooking loss and emulsion stability. The treatment of reduced-fat frankfurters formulated with 20 and 25% fat levels and with pumpkin fiber had sensory properties similar to the high-fat control frankfurters. The results demonstrate that when the reduced-fat frankfurter with 2% added pumpkin fiber and water replaces fat levels can be readily made with high quality and acceptable sensory properties.

  17. Biased lineups: sequential presentation reduces the problem.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindsay, R C; Lea, J A; Nosworthy, G J; Fulford, J A; Hector, J; LeVan, V; Seabrook, C

    1991-12-01

    Biased lineups have been shown to increase significantly false, but not correct, identification rates (Lindsay, Wallbridge, & Drennan, 1987; Lindsay & Wells, 1980; Malpass & Devine, 1981). Lindsay and Wells (1985) found that sequential lineup presentation reduced false identification rates, presumably by reducing reliance on relative judgment processes. Five staged-crime experiments were conducted to examine the effect of lineup biases and sequential presentation on eyewitness recognition accuracy. Sequential lineup presentation significantly reduced false identification rates from fair lineups as well as from lineups biased with regard to foil similarity, instructions, or witness attire, and from lineups biased in all of these ways. The results support recommendations that police present lineups sequentially.

  18. Significant Improvement of Organic Thin-Film Transistor Mobility Utilizing an Organic Heterojunction Buffer Layer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pan Feng; Qian Xian-Rui; Huang Li-Zhen; Wang Hai-Bo; Yan Dong-Hang

    2011-01-01

    High-mobility vanadyl phthalocyanine (VOPc)/5,5‴-bis(4-fluorophenyl)-2,2':5',2″:5″,2‴-quaterthiophene (F2-P4T) thin-film transistors are demonstrated by employing a copper hexadecafluorophthalocyanine (F 16 CuPc)/copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) heterojunction unit, which are fabricated at different substrate temperatures, as a buffer layer. The highest mobility of 4.08cm 2 /Vs is achieved using a F 16 CuPc/CuPc organic heterojunction buffer layer fabricated at high substrate temperature. Compared with the random small grain-like morphology of the room-temperature buffer layer, the high-temperature organic heterojunction presents a large-sized fiber-like film morphology, resulting in an enhanced conductivity. Thus the contact resistance of the transistor is significantly reduced and an obvious improvement in device mobility is obtained. (cross-disciplinary physics and related areas of science and technology)

  19. Reduced parietooccipital white matter glutamine measured by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy in treated graves' disease patients

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Danielsen, Else Rubæk; Elberling, T.V.; Rasmussen, Åse Krogh

    2008-01-01

    CONTEXT: Graves' disease is an autoimmune disease of the thyroid gland. Patients often have affective and cognitive complaints, whether these disappear after treatment remains disputed. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to evaluate cerebral biochemistry in acute and treated Graves' disease. DESIGN: We...... conducted a prospective study, investigating volunteers once and patients before and 1 yr after treatment. SETTING: The study was performed at a radiology department, a memory disorder clinic, and two endocrinology clinics. PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS: Of 53 consecutively referred, newly diagnosed...... and a battery of biochemical, affective, and cognitive tests were used. RESULTS: Previously reported findings of reduced choline and myo-inositol in acute Graves' disease were confirmed and reversibility was demonstrated. Parieto-occipital white matter glutamine was and remained significantly reduced (P

  20. Lipoxygenase independent hexanal formation in isolated soy proteins induced by reducing agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lei, Q; Boatright, W L

    2008-08-01

    Compared to corresponding controls, 6.5 mM dithiothreitol (DTT) elevated headspace hexanal level over aqueous slurries of both commercial isolated soy proteins (ISP) and laboratory ISP prepared with 80 degrees C treatment. Further analysis revealed that lipoxygenase (LOX) activity was not detected from these ISP, indicating that LOX is not involved in the observed hexanal increase. Levels of the induced headspace hexanal over the ISP aqueous slurries were proportional to the amount of DTT added in the range of 0 to 65 mM. Subsequent systematic investigations with model systems revealed that iron was required for the reducing agent-induced hexanal formation from linoleic acid. Erythorbate, another reducing agent, can also induce hexanal formation in both ISP and model systems. As a comparison, the LOX activity and hexanal synthesis in defatted soy flour were examined. The corresponding results showed that defatted soy flour maintained high LOX activities and that hexanal synthesis in such sample was significantly inhibited by high concentration DTT (above 130 mM). Data from the current investigation demonstrate the existence of LOX independent hexanal formation induced by reducing agents in ISP and the potential requirement of iron as a catalyst.

  1. Detecting significant changes in protein abundance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kai Kammers

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available We review and demonstrate how an empirical Bayes method, shrinking a protein's sample variance towards a pooled estimate, leads to far more powerful and stable inference to detect significant changes in protein abundance compared to ordinary t-tests. Using examples from isobaric mass labelled proteomic experiments we show how to analyze data from multiple experiments simultaneously, and discuss the effects of missing data on the inference. We also present easy to use open source software for normalization of mass spectrometry data and inference based on moderated test statistics.

  2. National demonstration of full reactor coolant system (RCS) chemical decontamination at Indian Point 2

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Trovato, S.A.; Parry, J.O. [Consolidated Edison Co., New York, NY (United States)

    1995-03-01

    Key to the safe and efficient operation of the nation`s civilian nuclear power plants is the performance of maintenance activities within regulations and guidelines for personnel radiation exposure. However, maintenance activities, often performed in areas of relatively high radiation fields, will increase as the nation`s plant age. With the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) lowering the allowable radiation exposure to plant workers in 1994 and considering further reductions and regulations in the future, it is imperative that new techniques be developed and applied to reduce personnel exposure. Full primary system chemical decontamination technology offers the potential to be single most effective method of maintaining workers exposure {open_quotes}as low as reasonably achievable{close_quotes} (ALARA) while greatly reducing plant operation and maintenance (O&M) costs. A three-phase program underway since 1987, has as its goal to demonstrate that full RCS decontamination is a visible technology to reduce general plant radiation levels without threatening the long term reliability and operability of a plant. This paper discusses research leading to and plans for a National Demonstration of Full RCS Chemical Decontamination at Indian Point 2 nuclear generating station in 1995.

  3. DEMONSTRATION OF ELECTROCHEMICAL REMEDIATION TECHNOLOGIES-INDUCED COMPLEXATION

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Barry L. Burks

    2002-12-01

    The Project Team is submitting this Topical Report on the results of its bench-scale demonstration of ElectroChemical Remediation Technologies (ECRTs) and in particular the Induced Complexation (ECRTs-IC) process for remediation of mercury contaminated soils at DOE Complex sites. ECRTs is an innovative, in-situ, geophysically based soil remediation technology with over 50 successful commercial site applications involving remediation of over two million metric tons of contaminated soils. ECRTs-IC has been successfully used to remediate 220 cu m of mercury-contaminated sediments in the Union Canal, Scotland. In that operation, ECRTs-IC reduced sediment total mercury levels from an average of 243 mg/kg to 6 mg/kg in 26 days of operation. The clean up objective was to achieve an average total mercury level in the sediment of 20 mg/kg.

  4. Ebselen reduces the toxicity of mechlorethamine in A-431 cells via inhibition of apoptosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lulla, Anju; Pino, Maria A; Piętka-Ottlik, Magdalena; Młochowski, Jacek; Sparavalo, Oleksiy; Billack, Blase

    2013-06-01

    A series of test compounds were evaluated for an ability to reduce the toxicity of the nitrogen mustard mechlorethamine (HN2) in vitro. The test compounds included resveratrol, pterostilbene, vitamin C, ebselen, ebselen diselenide, and ebselen-sulfur. Among them, ebselen demonstrated the highest degree of protection against HN2 toxicity. To this end, pretreatment of the cells with ebselen offered protection against the toxicant whereas no protection was observed when cells were first incubated with HN2 and then treated with ebselen. Significant increases in caspase 3 and caspase 9 activities were observed in response to HN2, and ebselen was found to reduce these effects. Taken together, the data presented here indicate that ebselen is an effective countermeasure to nitrogen mustard in vitro, which is worthy of future investigation in vivo. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  5. Demonstration of Eastman Christensen horizontal drilling system -- Integrated Demonstration Site, Savannah River Site

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1992-12-01

    An innovative horizontal drilling system was used to install two horizontal wells as part of an integrated demonstration project at the Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, South Carolina. The SRS is located in south-central South Carolina in the upper Coastal Plain physiographic province. The demonstration site is located near the A/M Area, and is currently known as the Integated Demonstration Site. The Department of Energy's Office of Technology Development initiated an integrated demonstration of innovative technologies for cleanup of volatile organic compounds (VOCS) in soils and groundwater at the SRS in 1989. The overall goal of the program is to demonstrate, at a single location, multiple technologies in the fields of drilling, characterization, monitoring, and remediation. Innovative technologies are compared to one another and to baseline technologies in terms of technical performance and cost effectiveness. Transfer of successfully demonstrated technologies and systems to DOE environmental restoration organizations, to other government agencies, and to industry is a critical part of the program

  6. Electric vehicle demonstration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ouellet, M. [National Centre for Advanced Transportation, Saint-Jerome, PQ (Canada)

    2010-07-01

    The desirable characteristics of Canadian projects that demonstrate vehicle use in real-world operation and the appropriate mechanism to collect and disseminate the monitoring data were discussed in this presentation. The scope of the project was on passenger cars and light duty trucks operating in plug-in electric vehicle (PHEV) or battery electric vehicle modes. The presentation also discussed the funding, stakeholders involved, Canadian travel pattern analysis, regulatory framework, current and recent electric vehicle demonstration projects, and project guidelines. It was concluded that some demonstration project activities may have been duplicated as communication between the proponents was insufficient. It was recommended that data monitoring using automatic data logging with minimum reliance on logbooks and other user entry should be emphasized. figs.

  7. The WIPP transportation system: Demonstrated readiness

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ward, T.R.; Spooner, R.

    1991-01-01

    The Department of Energy (DOE) has developed an integrated transportation system to transport transuranic (TRU) waste from ten widely-dispersed generator sites to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The system consists of a Type B container, a specially- designed trailer, a lightweight tractor, the DOE ''TRANSCOM'' vehicle tracking system, and uniquely qualified and highly-trained drivers. In June of 1989, the National Academy of Sciences reviewed the transportation system and concluded that: ''The system proposed for transportation of TRU waste to WIPP is safer than that employed for any other hazardous material in the United States today and will reduce risk to very low levels'' (emphasis added). The next challenge facing the DOE was demonstrating that this system was ready to transport the TRU waste to the WIPP site efficiently and in the safest manner possible. Not only did the DOE feel that is was necessary to convince itself that the system was safe, but also representatives of the 20 states through which it would travel

  8. The WIPP transportation system: Demonstrated readiness

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ward, T.R.; Spooner, R.

    1991-01-01

    The Department of Energy (DOE) has developed an integrated transportation system to transport transuranic (TRU) waste from ten widely-dispersed generator sites to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The system consists of a Type B container, a specially-designed trailer, a lightweight tractor, the DOE ''TRANSCOM'' vehicle tracing system, and uniquely qualified and highly-trained drivers. In June of 1989, the National Academy of Sciences reviewed the transportation system and concluded that: ''The system proposed for transportation of TRU waste to WIPP is safer than that employed for any other hazardous material in the United States today and will reduce risk to very low levels.'' The next challenge facing the DOE was demonstrating that this system was ready to transport the TRU waste to the WIPP site in the safest manner possible. Not only did the DOE feel that it was necessary to convince itself that the system was safe, but also representatives of the 23 states through which it traveled

  9. The Duration of Self-Selected Music Needed to Reduce Preoperative Anxiety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McClurkin, Sylva L; Smith, Claudia D

    2016-06-01

    Preoperative anxiety affects patients both physically and psychologically. It may also influence the patient's perioperative experience and result in reduced patient satisfaction with care and potentially delayed recovery. Previous research indicates that patients who listen to music in the perioperative setting experience less anxiety than patients who do not listen to music. Research does not address the duration of music required to effectively reduce anxiety in this population. A randomized control trial was used. Two intervention groups (15-minute music and 30-minute music) and one control group (no music) were compared. Patients (n = 133) demonstrated less anxiety after listening to either 15 or 30 minutes of music (P music demonstrated less anxiety than those who did not listen to music (P = .005), whereas patients (n = 41) who listened to 30 minutes of music demonstrated less anxiety than those who did not listen to music (P music preoperatively is an effective method to reduce anxiety in patients who are about to have surgery. Copyright © 2016 American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Human-derived probiotic Lactobacillus reuteri strains differentially reduce intestinal inflammation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Yuying; Fatheree, Nicole Y; Mangalat, Nisha; Rhoads, Jon Marc

    2010-11-01

    Lactobacillus reuteri (L. reuteri) is a probiotic that inhibits the severity of enteric infections and modulates the immune system. Human-derived L. reuteri strains DSM17938, ATCC PTA4659, ATCC PTA 5289, and ATCC PTA 6475 have demonstrated strain-specific immunomodulation in cultured monocytoid cells, but information about how these strains affect inflammation in intestinal epithelium is limited. We determined the effects of the four different L. reuteri strains on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammation in small intestinal epithelial cells and in the ileum of newborn rats. IPEC-J2 cells (derived from the jejunal epithelium of a neonatal piglet) and IEC-6 cells (derived from the rat crypt) were treated with L. reuteri. Newborn rat pups were gavaged cow milk formula supplemented with L. reuteri strains in the presence or absence of LPS. Protein and mRNA levels of cytokines and histological changes were measured. We demonstrate that even though one L. reuteri strain (DSM 17938) did not inhibit LPS-induced IL-8 production in cultured intestinal cells, all strains significantly reduced intestinal mucosal levels of KC/GRO (∼IL-8) and IFN-γ when newborn rat pups were fed formula containing LPS ± L. reuteri. Intestinal histological damage produced by LPS plus cow milk formula was also significantly reduced by all four strains. Cow milk formula feeding (without LPS) produced mild gut inflammation, evidenced by elevated mucosal IFN-γ and IL-13 levels, a process that could be suppressed by strain 17938. Other cytokines and chemokines were variably affected by the different strains, and there was no toxic effect of L. reuteri on intestinal cells or mucosa. In conclusion, L. reuteri strains differentially modulate LPS-induced inflammation. Probiotic interactions with both epithelial and nonepithelial cells in vivo must be instrumental in modulating intrinsic anti-inflammatory effects in the intestine. We suggest that the terms anti- and proinflammatory be used only

  11. Neonicotinoid pesticides and nutritional stress synergistically reduce survival in honey bees.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tosi, Simone; Nieh, James C; Sgolastra, Fabio; Cabbri, Riccardo; Medrzycki, Piotr

    2017-12-20

    The honey bee is a major pollinator whose health is of global concern. Declines in bee health are related to multiple factors, including resource quality and pesticide contamination. Intensive agricultural areas with crop monocultures potentially reduce the quality and quantity of available nutrients and expose bee foragers to pesticides. However, there is, to date, no evidence for synergistic effects between pesticides and nutritional stress in animals. The neonicotinoids clothianidin (CLO) and thiamethoxam (TMX) are common systemic pesticides that are used worldwide and found in nectar and pollen. We therefore tested if nutritional stress (limited access to nectar and access to nectar with low-sugar concentrations) and sublethal, field-realistic acute exposures to two neonicotinoids (CLO and TMX at 1/5 and 1/25 of LD 50 ) could alter bee survival, food consumption and haemolymph sugar levels. Bee survival was synergistically reduced by the combination of poor nutrition and pesticide exposure (-50%). Nutritional and pesticide stressors reduced also food consumption (-48%) and haemolymph levels of glucose (-60%) and trehalose (-27%). Our results provide the first demonstration that field-realistic nutritional stress and pesticide exposure can synergistically interact and cause significant harm to animal survival. These findings have implications for current pesticide risk assessment and pollinator protection. © 2017 The Author(s).

  12. STATISTICAL EVALUATION OF SMALL SCALE MIXING DEMONSTRATION SAMPLING AND BATCH TRANSFER PERFORMANCE - 12093

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    GREER DA; THIEN MG

    2012-01-12

    The ability to effectively mix, sample, certify, and deliver consistent batches of High Level Waste (HLW) feed from the Hanford Double Shell Tanks (DST) to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) presents a significant mission risk with potential to impact mission length and the quantity of HLW glass produced. DOE's Tank Operations Contractor, Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) has previously presented the results of mixing performance in two different sizes of small scale DSTs to support scale up estimates of full scale DST mixing performance. Currently, sufficient sampling of DSTs is one of the largest programmatic risks that could prevent timely delivery of high level waste to the WTP. WRPS has performed small scale mixing and sampling demonstrations to study the ability to sufficiently sample the tanks. The statistical evaluation of the demonstration results which lead to the conclusion that the two scales of small DST are behaving similarly and that full scale performance is predictable will be presented. This work is essential to reduce the risk of requiring a new dedicated feed sampling facility and will guide future optimization work to ensure the waste feed delivery mission will be accomplished successfully. This paper will focus on the analytical data collected from mixing, sampling, and batch transfer testing from the small scale mixing demonstration tanks and how those data are being interpreted to begin to understand the relationship between samples taken prior to transfer and samples from the subsequent batches transferred. An overview of the types of data collected and examples of typical raw data will be provided. The paper will then discuss the processing and manipulation of the data which is necessary to begin evaluating sampling and batch transfer performance. This discussion will also include the evaluation of the analytical measurement capability with regard to the simulant material used in the demonstration tests. The

  13. North-South Corridor Demonstration Project: Ethical and Logistical Challenges in the Design of a Demonstration Study of Early Antiretroviral Treatment for Long Distance Truck Drivers along a Transport Corridor through South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Zambia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. B. Gomez

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Background. Long-distance truck drivers are at risk of acquiring and transmitting HIV and have suboptimal access to care. New HIV prevention strategies using antiretroviral drugs to reduce transmission risk (early antiretroviral therapy (ART at CD4 count >350 cells/μL have shown efficacy in clinical trials. Demonstration projects are needed to evaluate “real world” programme effectiveness. We present the protocol for a demonstration study to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and cost of an early ART intervention for HIV-positive truck drivers along a transport corridor across South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, as part of an enhanced strategy to improve treatment adherence and retention in care. Methods and Analysis. This demonstration study would follow an observational cohort of truck drivers receiving early treatment. Our mixed methods approach includes quantitative, qualitative, and economic analyses. Key ethical and logistical issues are discussed (i.e., choice of drug regimen, recruitment of participants, and monitoring of adherence, behavioural changes, and adverse events. Conclusion. Questions specific to the design of tailored early ART programmes are amenable to operational research approaches but present substantial ethical and logistical challenges. Addressing these in demonstration projects can inform policy decisions regarding strategies to reduce health inequalities in access to HIV prevention and treatment programmes.

  14. The energetic significance of cooking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carmody, Rachel N; Wrangham, Richard W

    2009-10-01

    While cooking has long been argued to improve the diet, the nature of the improvement has not been well defined. As a result, the evolutionary significance of cooking has variously been proposed as being substantial or relatively trivial. In this paper, we evaluate the hypothesis that an important and consistent effect of cooking food is a rise in its net energy value. The pathways by which cooking influences net energy value differ for starch, protein, and lipid, and we therefore consider plant and animal foods separately. Evidence of compromised physiological performance among individuals on raw diets supports the hypothesis that cooked diets tend to provide energy. Mechanisms contributing to energy being gained from cooking include increased digestibility of starch and protein, reduced costs of digestion for cooked versus raw meat, and reduced energetic costs of detoxification and defence against pathogens. If cooking consistently improves the energetic value of foods through such mechanisms, its evolutionary impact depends partly on the relative energetic benefits of non-thermal processing methods used prior to cooking. We suggest that if non-thermal processing methods such as pounding were used by Lower Palaeolithic Homo, they likely provided an important increase in energy gain over unprocessed raw diets. However, cooking has critical effects not easily achievable by non-thermal processing, including the relatively complete gelatinisation of starch, efficient denaturing of proteins, and killing of food borne pathogens. This means that however sophisticated the non-thermal processing methods were, cooking would have conferred incremental energetic benefits. While much remains to be discovered, we conclude that the adoption of cooking would have led to an important rise in energy availability. For this reason, we predict that cooking had substantial evolutionary significance.

  15. Complex functionality with minimal computation: Promise and pitfalls of reduced-tracer ocean biogeochemistry models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Galbraith, Eric D.; Dunne, John P.; Gnanadesikan, Anand; Slater, Richard D.; Sarmiento, Jorge L.; Dufour, Carolina O.; de Souza, Gregory F.; Bianchi, Daniele; Claret, Mariona; Rodgers, Keith B.; Marvasti, Seyedehsafoura Sedigh

    2015-12-01

    Earth System Models increasingly include ocean biogeochemistry models in order to predict changes in ocean carbon storage, hypoxia, and biological productivity under climate change. However, state-of-the-art ocean biogeochemical models include many advected tracers, that significantly increase the computational resources required, forcing a trade-off with spatial resolution. Here, we compare a state-of-the art model with 30 prognostic tracers (TOPAZ) with two reduced-tracer models, one with 6 tracers (BLING), and the other with 3 tracers (miniBLING). The reduced-tracer models employ parameterized, implicit biological functions, which nonetheless capture many of the most important processes resolved by TOPAZ. All three are embedded in the same coupled climate model. Despite the large difference in tracer number, the absence of tracers for living organic matter is shown to have a minimal impact on the transport of nutrient elements, and the three models produce similar mean annual preindustrial distributions of macronutrients, oxygen, and carbon. Significant differences do exist among the models, in particular the seasonal cycle of biomass and export production, but it does not appear that these are necessary consequences of the reduced tracer number. With increasing CO2, changes in dissolved oxygen and anthropogenic carbon uptake are very similar across the different models. Thus, while the reduced-tracer models do not explicitly resolve the diversity and internal dynamics of marine ecosystems, we demonstrate that such models are applicable to a broad suite of major biogeochemical concerns, including anthropogenic change. These results are very promising for the further development and application of reduced-tracer biogeochemical models that incorporate "sub-ecosystem-scale" parameterizations.

  16. Chlorella vulgaris reduces the impact of stress on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and brain c-fos expression.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Souza Queiroz, Julia; Marín Blasco, Ignacio; Gagliano, Humberto; Daviu, Nuria; Gómez Román, Almudena; Belda, Xavier; Carrasco, Javier; Rocha, Michelle C; Palermo Neto, João; Armario, Antonio

    2016-03-01

    Predominantly emotional stressors activate a wide range of brain areas, as revealed by the expression of immediate early genes, such as c-fos. Chlorella vulgaris (CV) is considered a biological response modifier, as demonstrated by its protective activities against infections, tumors and stress. We evaluated the effect of acute pretreatment with CV on the peripheral and central responses to forced swimming stress in adult male rats. Pretreatment with CV produced a significant reduction of stress-related hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal activation, demonstrated by decreased corticotrophin releasing factor gene expression in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and lower ACTH response. Hyperglycemia induced by the stressor was similarly reduced. This attenuated neuroendocrine response to stress occurred in parallel with a diminished c-fos expression in most evaluated areas, including the PVN. The data presented in this study reinforce the usefulness of CV to diminish the impact of stressors, by reducing the HPA response. Although our results suggest a central effect of CV, further studies are necessary to understand the precise mechanisms underpinning this effect. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. RESOLVING THE QUESTION OF DOUBT: GEOMETRICAL DEMONSTRATION IN THE MEDITATIONS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Steven BURGESS

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available The question of what Descartes did and did not doubt in the Meditations has received a significant amount of scholarly attention in recent years. The process of doubt in Meditation I gives one the impression of a rather extreme form of skepticism, while the responses Descartes offers in the Objections and Replies make it clear that there is in fact a whole background of presuppositions that are never doubted, including many that are never even entertained as possible candidates of doubt. This paper resolves the question of this undoubted background of rationality by taking seriously Descartes’ claim that he is carrying out demonstrations modeled after the great geometers. The rational order of geometrical demonstration demands that we first clear away previous demonstrations not proven with the certainty necessary for genuine science. This is accomplished by the method of doubt, which is only applied to the results of possible demonstrations. What cannot be doubted are the very concepts and principles employed in carrying out geometrical demonstration, which enable it to take place. It would be senseless to ask whether we can doubt the essential components of the structure through which questioning, doubting, and demonstration are made possible.

  18. Reduced bone marrow pO2 following treatment with radioprotective drugs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Allalunis-Turner, M.J.

    1990-01-01

    The sensitizer adduct technique [(3H]misonidazole binding) was used to assess the extent of murine bone marrow hypoxia following treatment with a variety of radioprotectors. The binding rates previously determined in vivo were compared to those obtained by incubating marrow cells in atmospheres of varying oxygen content. Parallel experiments demonstrated that the oxygen dependence of [3H]misonidazole binding (Km approximately 0.15% oxygen) was similar to the oxygen dependence of marrow radiosensitivity (Km approximately 0.2% oxygen). Maximally radioprotective doses of several drugs have been shown to increase the binding of [3H]misonidazole significantly in vivo. A comparison to the in vitro binding rates suggests that the average oxygen concentration in the marrow at times associated with radioprotection was on the order of 0.5 to 0.8% oxygen. The relative importance of marrow hypoxia to the overall radioprotective effects of different drugs may vary considerably. However, these results have demonstrated that certain radioprotective drugs can induce marrow hypoxia and this reduced pO2 may contribute to the efficacy of these agents

  19. Lianas reduce carbon accumulation and storage in tropical forests.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van der Heijden, Geertje M F; Powers, Jennifer S; Schnitzer, Stefan A

    2015-10-27

    Tropical forests store vast quantities of carbon, account for one-third of the carbon fixed by photosynthesis, and are a major sink in the global carbon cycle. Recent evidence suggests that competition between lianas (woody vines) and trees may reduce forest-wide carbon uptake; however, estimates of the impact of lianas on carbon dynamics of tropical forests are crucially lacking. Here we used a large-scale liana removal experiment and found that, at 3 y after liana removal, lianas reduced net above-ground carbon uptake (growth and recruitment minus mortality) by ∼76% per year, mostly by reducing tree growth. The loss of carbon uptake due to liana-induced mortality was four times greater in the control plots in which lianas were present, but high variation among plots prevented a significant difference among the treatments. Lianas altered how aboveground carbon was stored. In forests where lianas were present, the partitioning of forest aboveground net primary production was dominated by leaves (53.2%, compared with 39.2% in liana-free forests) at the expense of woody stems (from 28.9%, compared with 43.9%), resulting in a more rapid return of fixed carbon to the atmosphere. After 3 y of experimental liana removal, our results clearly demonstrate large differences in carbon cycling between forests with and without lianas. Combined with the recently reported increases in liana abundance, these results indicate that lianas are an important and increasing agent of change in the carbon dynamics of tropical forests.

  20. Reduced cost and improved figure of sapphire optical components

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walters, Mark; Bartlett, Kevin; Brophy, Matthew R.; DeGroote Nelson, Jessica; Medicus, Kate

    2015-10-01

    Sapphire presents many challenges to optical manufacturers due to its high hardness and anisotropic properties. Long lead times and high prices are the typical result of such challenges. The cost of even a simple 'grind and shine' process can be prohibitive. The high precision surfaces required by optical sensor applications further exacerbate the challenge of processing sapphire thereby increasing cost further. Optimax has demonstrated a production process for such windows that delivers over 50% time reduction as compared to traditional manufacturing processes for sapphire, while producing windows with less than 1/5 wave rms figure error. Optimax's sapphire production process achieves significant improvement in cost by implementation of a controlled grinding process to present the best possible surface to the polishing equipment. Following the grinding process is a polishing process taking advantage of chemical interactions between slurry and substrate to deliver excellent removal rates and surface finish. Through experiments, the mechanics of the polishing process were also optimized to produce excellent optical figure. In addition to reducing the cost of producing large sapphire sensor windows, the grinding and polishing technology Optimax has developed aids in producing spherical sapphire components to better figure quality. In addition to reducing the cost of producing large sapphire sensor windows, the grinding and polishing technology Optimax has developed aids in producing spherical sapphire components to better figure quality. Through specially developed polishing slurries, the peak-to-valley figure error of spherical sapphire parts is reduced by over 80%.

  1. Sida cordifolia leaf extract reduces the orofacial nociceptive response in mice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonjardim, L R; Silva, A M; Oliveira, M G B; Guimarães, A G; Antoniolli, A R; Santana, M F; Serafini, M R; Santos, R C; Araújo, A A S; Estevam, C S; Santos, M R V; Lyra, A; Carvalho, R; Quintans-Júnior, L J; Azevedo, E G; Botelho, M A

    2011-08-01

    In this study, we describe the antinociceptive activity of the ethanol extract (EE), chloroform (CF) and methanol (MF) fractions obtained from Sida cordifolia, popularly known in Brazil as "malva branca" or "malva branca sedosa". Leaves of S. cordifolia were used to produce the crude ethanol extract and after CF and MF. Experiments were conducted on Swiss mice using the glutamate and formalin-induced orofacial nociception. In the formalin test, all doses of EE, CF and MF significantly reduced the orofacial nociception in the first (p < 0.001) and second phase (p < 0.001), which was also naloxone-sensitive. In the glutamate-induced nociception test, only CF and MF significantly reduced the orofacial nociceptive behavior with inhibition percentage values of 48.1% (100 mg/kg, CF), 56.1% (200 mg/kg, CF), 66.4% (400 mg/kg, CF), 48.2 (200 mg/kg, MF) and 60.1 (400 mg/kg, MF). Furthermore, treatment of the animals with EE, CF and MF was not able to promote motor activity changes. These data demonstrate that S. cordifolia has a pronounced antinociceptive activity on orofacial nociception. However, pharmacological and chemical studies are necessary in order to characterize the responsible mechanisms for this antinociceptive action and also to identify other bioactive compounds present in S. cordifolia. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  2. Aerobic Training Prevents Heatstrokes in Calsequestrin-1 Knockout Mice by Reducing Oxidative Stress

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Flávia Alessandra Guarnier

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Calsequestrin-1 knockout (CASQ1-null mice suffer lethal episodes when exposed to strenuous exercise and environmental heat, crises known as exertional/environmental heatstroke (EHS. We previously demonstrated that administration of exogenous antioxidants (N-acetylcysteine and trolox reduces CASQ1-null mortality during exposure to heat. As aerobic training is known to boost endogenous antioxidant protection, we subjected CASQ1-null mice to treadmill running for 2 months at 60% of their maximal speed for 1 h, 5 times/week. When exposed to heat stress protocol (41°C/1 h, the mortality rate of CASQ1-null mice was significantly reduced compared to untrained animals (86% versus 16%. Protection from heatstrokes was accompanied by a reduced increase in core temperature during the stress protocol and by an increased threshold of response to caffeine of isolated extensor digitorum longus muscles during in vitro contracture test. At cellular and molecular levels, aerobic training (i improved mitochondrial function while reducing their damage and (ii lowered calpain activity and lipid peroxidation in membranes isolated from sarcoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria. Based on this evidence, we hypothesize that the protective effect of aerobic training is essentially mediated by a reduction in oxidative stress during exposure of CASQ1-null mice to adverse environmental conditions.

  3. Learning From Demonstration?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Koch, Christian; Bertelsen, Niels Haldor

    2014-01-01

    Demonstration projects are often used in the building sector to provide a basis for using new processes and/or products. The climate change agenda implies that construction is not only required to deliver value for the customer, cost reductions and efficiency but also sustainable buildings....... This paper reports on an early demonstration project, the Building of a passive house dormitory in the Central Region of Denmark in 2006-2009. The project was supposed to deliver value, lean design, prefabrication, quality in sustainability, certification according to German standards for passive houses......, and micro combined heat and power using hydrogen. Using sociological and business economic theories of innovation, the paper discusses how early movers of innovation tend to obtain only partial success when demonstrating their products and often feel obstructed by minor details. The empirical work...

  4. Optimizing Crawler4j using MapReduce Programming Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siddesh, G. M.; Suresh, Kavya; Madhuri, K. Y.; Nijagal, Madhushree; Rakshitha, B. R.; Srinivasa, K. G.

    2017-06-01

    World wide web is a decentralized system that consists of a repository of information on the basis of web pages. These web pages act as a source of information or data in the present analytics world. Web crawlers are used for extracting useful information from web pages for different purposes. Firstly, it is used in web search engines where the web pages are indexed to form a corpus of information and allows the users to query on the web pages. Secondly, it is used for web archiving where the web pages are stored for later analysis phases. Thirdly, it can be used for web mining where the web pages are monitored for copyright purposes. The amount of information processed by the web crawler needs to be improved by using the capabilities of modern parallel processing technologies. In order to solve the problem of parallelism and the throughput of crawling this work proposes to optimize the Crawler4j using the Hadoop MapReduce programming model by parallelizing the processing of large input data. Crawler4j is a web crawler that retrieves useful information about the pages that it visits. The crawler Crawler4j coupled with data and computational parallelism of Hadoop MapReduce programming model improves the throughput and accuracy of web crawling. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed solution achieves significant improvements with respect to performance and throughput. Hence the proposed approach intends to carve out a new methodology towards optimizing web crawling by achieving significant performance gain.

  5. Yeast cell wall chitin reduces wine haze formation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ndlovu, Thulile; Divol, Benoit; Bauer, Florian F

    2018-04-27

    Protein haze formation in bottled wines is a significant concern for the global wine industry and wine clarification before bottling is therefore a common but expensive practice. Previous studies have shown that wine yeast strains can reduce haze formation through the secretion of certain mannoproteins, but it has been suggested that other yeast-dependent haze protective mechanisms exist. On the other hand, addition of chitin has been shown to reduce haze formation, likely because grape chitinases have been shown to be the major contributors to haze. In this study, Chardonnay grape must fermented by various yeast strains resulted in wines with different protein haze levels indicating differences in haze protective capacities of the strains. The cell wall chitin levels of these strains were determined, and a strong correlation between cell wall chitin levels and haze protection capability was observed. To further evaluate the mechanism of haze protection, Escherichia coli -produced GFP-tagged grape chitinase was shown to bind efficiently to yeast cell walls in a cell wall chitin concentration-dependent manner, while commercial chitinase was removed from synthetic wine in quantities also correlated with the cell wall chitin levels of the strains. Our findings suggest a new mechanism of reducing wine haze, and propose a strategy for optimizing wine yeast strains to improve wine clarification. Importance In this study, we establish a new mechanism by which wine yeast strains can impact on the protein haze formation of wines, and demonstrate that yeast cell wall chitin binds grape chitinase in a chitin-concentration dependent manner. We also show that yeast can remove this haze-forming protein from wine. Chitin has in the past been shown to efficiently reduce wine haze formation when added to the wine in high concentration as a clarifying agent. Our data suggest that the selection of yeast strains with high levels of cell wall chitin can reduce protein haze. We also

  6. Demonstration of Femtosecond-Phase Stabilization in 2 km Optical Fiber

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Staples, J.W.; Wilcox, R.; Byrd, J.M.

    2007-01-01

    Long-term phase drifts of less than a femtosecond per hour have been demonstrated in a 2 km length of single-mode optical fiber, stabilized interferometrically at 1530 nm. Recent improvements include a wide-band phase detector that reduces the possibility of fringe jumping due to fast external perturbations of the fiber and locking of the master CW laser wavelength to an atomic absorption line. Mode-locked lasers may be synchronized using two wavelengths of the comb, multiplexed over one fiber, each wavelength individually interferometrically stabilized

  7. A health partnership to reduce neonatal mortality in four hospitals in Rwanda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ntigurirwa, Placide; Mellor, Kathy; Langer, Daniel; Evans, Mari; Robertson, Emily; Tuyisenge, Lisine; Groves, Alan; Lissauer, Tom

    2017-06-01

    A health partnership to improve hospital based neonatal care in Rwanda to reduce neonatal mortality was requested by the Rwandan Ministry of Health. Although many health system improvements have been made, there is a severe shortage of health professionals with neonatal training. Following a needs assessment, a health partnership grant for 2 years was obtained. A team of volunteer neonatologists and paediatricians, neonatal nurses, lactation consultants and technicians with experience in Rwanda or low-income countries was assembled. A neonatal training program was provided in four hospitals (the 2 University hospitals and 2 district hospitals), which focused on nutrition, provision of basic respiratory support with nasal CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure), enhanced record keeping, thermoregulation, vital signs monitoring and infection control. To identify if care delivery improved, audits of nutritional support, CPAP use and its complications, and documentation in newly developed neonatal medical records were conducted. Mortality data of neonatal admissions was obtained. Intensive neonatal training was provided on 27 short-term visits by 10 specialist health professionals. In addition, a paediatric doctor spent 3 months and two spent 6 months each providing training. A total of 472 training days was conducted in the neonatal units. For nutritional support, significant improvements were demonstrated in reduction in time to initiation of enteral feeds and to achieve full milk feeds, in reduction in maximum postnatal weight loss, but not in days for regaining birth weight. Respiratory support with bubble CPAP was applied to 365 infants in the first 18 months. There were no significant technical problems, but tissue damage, usually transient, to the nose and face was recorded in 13%. New medical records improved documentation by doctors, but nursing staff were reluctant to use them. Mortality for University teaching hospital admissions was reduced from 23

  8. Demonstration and evaluation of recent air-sealing techniques in housing

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mayhew, W.J.

    1987-09-01

    The Airtight Drywall Approach (ADA) and the sealed polyethylene approach were developed as two distinct systems for reducing air leakage in housing. Builders have not totally accepted either method but have instead tended to borrow the most practical and cost-effective techniques and materials from each system and combined them into hybrid systems. This project evaluated current air-sealing techniques, developed refinements to some of those techniques and incorporated them into the construction of the Cold Climate Demonstration House (CCDH), a research and demonstration facility in Alberta. By comparing the effectiveness and practical use of different air and vapour retarder materials and techniques, it was found that for the air barrier, ADA materials and techniques were more easily installed. The resulting air seal was more reliable. However, until inspectors accept alkyd or vapor barrier paints as the vapor retarder, polyethylene is recommended. The construction techniques recommended in this report can be installed with a minimum of experience and with minimal involvement of other subtrades. The cost to provide an air/vapor barrier for a 1000 ft /sup 2/ bilevel with both levels fully developed (as demonstrated in the CCDH) was approximately $360. 26 figs.

  9. A comparison of positive vicarious learning and verbal information for reducing vicariously learned fear.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reynolds, Gemma; Wasely, David; Dunne, Güler; Askew, Chris

    2017-10-19

    Research with children has demonstrated that both positive vicarious learning (modelling) and positive verbal information can reduce children's acquired fear responses for a particular stimulus. However, this fear reduction appears to be more effective when the intervention pathway matches the initial fear learning pathway. That is, positive verbal information is a more effective intervention than positive modelling when fear is originally acquired via negative verbal information. Research has yet to explore whether fear reduction pathways are also important for fears acquired via vicarious learning. To test this, an experiment compared the effectiveness of positive verbal information and positive vicarious learning interventions for reducing vicariously acquired fears in children (7-9 years). Both vicarious and informational fear reduction interventions were found to be equally effective at reducing vicariously acquired fears, suggesting that acquisition and intervention pathways do not need to match for successful fear reduction. This has significant implications for parents and those working with children because it suggests that providing children with positive information or positive vicarious learning immediately after a negative modelling event may prevent more serious fears developing.

  10. Enhancing the Safety Climate and Reducing Violence Against Staff in Closed Hospital Wards.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Isaak, Valerie; Vashdi, Dana; Bar-Noy, Dor; Kostisky, Hava; Hirschmann, Shmuel; Grinshpoon, Alexander

    2017-09-01

    This study examined the effectiveness of an intervention program to enhance unit safety climate and minimize employee risk of injury from patient violence. The intervention program, including a 3-day workshop, was offered to personnel on maximum security units of an Israeli psychiatric hospital. Safety climate was examined before and after the implementation of the intervention, and incidents of patient violence were investigated. Six months after the intervention, a significant improvement in employees' perceptions of management's commitment to safety as well as a marginally significant improvement in communication about safety issues were found. This study demonstrated that an intervention program to enhance safety climate was associated with a decrease in the number of aggressive incidents. The researchers concluded that this intervention program is likely to return a sense of safety to workers and reduce workplace violence.

  11. Demonstration poloidal coil test facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sato, Masahiko; Kawano, Katumi; Tada, Eisuke

    1989-01-01

    A new compact cryogenic cold compressor was developed by Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) in collaboration with Isikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (IHI) in order to produce the supercritical helium below 4.2 K for Demonstration Poloidal Coils (DPC) which are forced-flow cooled type superconducting pulse coils. This compressor is one of key components for DPC test facility. The cold compressor reduces pressure in liquid helium bath, which contains liquid helium of around 3,000 l, down to 0.5 atm efficiently. Consequently, supercritical helium down to 3.5 K is produced and supplied to the DPC coils. A centrifugal compressor with dynamic gas bearing is selected as a compressor mechanism to realize high adiabatic efficiency and large flow rate. In this performance tests, the compressor was operated for 220 h at saturated condition from 0.5 to 1.0 atm without any failure. High adiabatic efficiency (more than 60 %) is achieved with wide flow range (25-65 g/s) and the design value is fully satisfied. The compressor can rotate up to 80,000 rpm at maximum then the coil supply temperature of supercritical helium is 3.5 K. (author)

  12. Evaluation of potential blanket concepts for a Demonstration Tokamak Hybrid Reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chapin, D.L.; Chi, J.W.H.; Kelly, J.L.

    1978-01-01

    An evaluation has been made of several different blanket concepts for use in a near-term Demonstration Tokamak Hybrid Reactor (DTHR), whose main objective would be to produce a significant amount of fissile fuel while demonstrating the feasibility of the tokamak hybrid reactor concept. The desirability of a simple design using proven technology plus a proliferation resistant fuel cycle led to the selection of a low temperature and pressure water-cooled, zircaloy clad ThO 2 blanket concept to breed 233 U. The nuclear performance and thermal-hydraulics characteristics of the blanket were evaluated to arrive at a consistent design. The blanket was found to be feasible for producing a significant amount of fissile fuel even with the limited operating conditions and blanket coverage in the DTHR

  13. The Kwajalein bioremediation demonstration: Final technical report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Walker, J.R. Jr.; Walker, A.B.

    1994-12-01

    The US Army Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA) Base, located in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) in the east-central Pacific Ocean, has significant petroleum hydrocarbon contamination resulting from years of military activities. Because of its remoteness, the lack of on-site sophisticated remediation or waste disposal facilities, the amenability of petroleum hydrocarbons to biodegradation, and the year-round temperature favorable for microbial activity, USAKA requested, through the Hazardous Waste Remedial Actions Program (HAZWRAP), that a project be conducted to evaluate the feasibility of using bioremediation for environmental restoration of contaminated sites within the atoll. The project was conducted in four distinct phases: (1) initial site characterization and on-site biotreatability studies, (2) selection of the demonstration area and collection of soil columns, (3) laboratory column biotreatability studies, and (4) an on-site bioremediation demonstration. The results of phases (1) and (3) have been detailed in previous reports. This report summarizes the results of phases (1) and (3) and presents phases (2) and (4) in detail

  14. Defibrotide in combination with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor significantly enhances the mobilization of primitive and committed peripheral blood progenitor cells in mice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carlo-Stella, Carmelo; Di Nicola, Massimo; Magni, Michele; Longoni, Paolo; Milanesi, Marco; Stucchi, Claudio; Cleris, Loredana; Formelli, Franca; Gianni, Massimo A

    2002-11-01

    Defibrotide is a polydeoxyribonucleotide, which significantly reduces the expression of adhesion molecules on endothelial cells. We investigated the activity of Defibrotide alone or in combination with recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rhG-CSF) to mobilize peripheral blood progenitor cells (PBPCs) in BALB/c mice. A 5-day treatment with Defibrotide alone (1-15 mg/mouse/day) had no effect on WBC counts, frequencies and absolute numbers of total circulating colony-forming cells (CFCs), i.e., granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming units, erythroid burst-forming units, and multilineage colony-forming units. As compared with mock-injected mice, administration of rhG-CSF alone (5 micro g/mouse/day) for 5 days significantly (P Defibrotide (15 mg/mouse/day) and rhG-CSF significantly (P Defibrotide plus rhG-CSF resulted in a significant increase (P Defibrotide/rhG-CSF-mobilized mononuclear cells rescued 43% and 71% of recipient mice, respectively. Experiments of CFC homing performed in lethally irradiated or nonirradiated recipients showed that marrow homing of transplanted PBPCs was reduced by 3-fold in Defibrotide-treated animals as compared with mock-injected mice (P Defibrotide might be because of an effect on PBPC trafficking. In conclusion, our data demonstrate that Defibrotide synergizes with rhG-CSF and significantly increases the mobilization of a broad spectrum of PBPCs, including primitive and committed progenitor cells. These data might have relevant implications for autologous and allogeneic anticancer therapy in humans.

  15. Demonstration of Security Benefits of Renewable Generation at FE Warren Air Force Base

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Warwick, William M.; Myers, Kurt; Seifert, Gary

    2010-01-01

    new significance, and the test plan was developed accordingly. The field test was successfully completed in April 2010 and achieved all of its major objectives. The test demonstrated that a DOD Base can operate without grid power by relying on a mix of wind power and conventional diesel generators representative of the kind of back-up generators widely used by DOD for emergencies. The test demonstrated that wide variance in wind turbine output can be accommodated by diesel generators equipped with appropriate controls without noticeable impact on power reliability or quality and therefore, that intermittent renewable power resources can be a part of DOD facility energy security plans. Moreover, renewable resources can produce power yearround as well as during grid outages. As a result, they can reduce utility power purchases and thereby pay for some or all of their costs. In fact, after this test, the three wind turbines at FE Warren have continued to operate as expected.

  16. Antioxidant Supplementation Reduces Genomic Aberrations in Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Junfeng Ji

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Somatic cells can be reprogrammed to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs using oncogenic transcription factors. However, this method leads to genetic aberrations in iPSCs via unknown mechanisms, which may limit their clinical use. Here, we demonstrate that the supplementation of growth media with antioxidants reduces the genome instability of cells transduced with the reprogramming factors. Antioxidant supplementation did not affect transgene expression level or silencing kinetics. Importantly, iPSCs made with antioxidants had significantly fewer de novo copy number variations, but not fewer coding point mutations, than iPSCs made without antioxidants. Our results suggest that the quality and safety of human iPSCs might be enhanced by using antioxidants in the growth media during the generation and maintenance of iPSCs.

  17. Development and demonstration of techniques for reducing occupational radiation doses during refueling outages. Tasks 7A/7B. Advanced outage management and radiation exposure control

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1985-03-01

    Objectives of Tasks 7A and 7B were to develop and demonstrate computer based systems to assist plant management and staff in utilizing information more effectively to reduce occupational exposures received as a result of refueling outages, and to shorten the duration of the outage. The Advanced Outage Management (AOM) Tool (Task 7A) is an automated outage planning system specifically designed to meet the needs of nuclear plant outage management. The primary objective of the AOM tool is to provide a computerized system that can manipulate the information typically associated with outage planning and scheduling to furnish reports and schedules that more accurately project the future course of the outage. The Radiation Exposure Control (REC) Tool (Task 7B) is a computerized personnel radiation exposure accounting and management system designed to enable nuclear plant management to project and monitor total personnel radiation exposure on a real-time basis. The two systems were designed to operate on the same computer system and interface through a common database that enables information sharing between plant organizations not typically interfaced. This interfacing provides outage planners with a means of incorporating occupational radiation exposure as a factor for making decisions on the course of an outage

  18. Radon reduction and radon-resistant construction demonstrations in New York state. Final report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1991-02-01

    A survey of radon levels in New York State homes indicates that approximately 4.4 percent of the homes have long-term living area radon concentrations above the U.S. EPA guideline of four pCi/l. The project addressed the effectiveness of techniques to reduce the radon level in existing homes and to prevent the occurrence of high radon concentrations in new homes. The goal of the project was to demonstrate the effectiveness of radon reduction techniques in homes containing indoor radon concentrations of more than the current EPA guidelines of four pCi/l. At the same time, radon-resistant construction techniques were demonstrated in homes under construction to provide guidelines for houses being built in areas with a danger of high radon levels. The project demonstrated new radon mitigation techniques in homes containing indoor radon concentrations exceeding four pCi/l; assessed the value of previously installed radon reduction procedures, and demonstrated new radon-resistant construction methods

  19. Demonstrating sustainable energy: A review-based model of sustainable energy demonstration projects

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bossink, Bart

    2017-01-01

    This article develops a model of sustainable energy demonstration projects, based on a review of 229 scientific publications on demonstrations in renewable and sustainable energy. The model addresses the basic organizational characteristics (aim, cooperative form, and physical location) and learning

  20. Structured education using Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating (DAFNE) reduces long-term HbA1c and HbA1c variability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walker, G S; Chen, J Y; Hopkinson, H; Sainsbury, C A R; Jones, G C

    2018-06-01

    Previous evidence has demonstrated that participation in the Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating (DAFNE) education programme can reduce HbA 1c and severe hypoglycaemia in people with Type 1 diabetes. In a number of studies, increased HbA 1c variability has been associated with higher diabetic morbidity and mortality. No studies have examined the impact of structured education on HbA 1c variability in Type 1 diabetes. People with Type 1 diabetes who had attended DAFNE were identified for inclusion from the Scottish Care Information-Diabetes dataset. HbA 1c median and variability, expressed as coefficient of variation (CV) before and after DAFNE was calculated. Some 1061 individuals participated in DAFNE education and 687 met the inclusion criteria. A significant median reduction in HbA 1c [-3.5 mmol/mol (-0.3%)] was seen at 12 months with a significant reduction [-1.5 mmol/mol (-0.1%)] still seen at 60 months of follow-up. HbA 1c variability as measured by CV was significantly lower during the post-DAFNE period: 0.08 (IQR 0.05-0.12) reduced to 0.07 (IQR 0.05-0.10); P = 0.002. The data confirm that DAFNE participation improves glycaemic control in Type 1 diabetes with benefits being sustained for 5 years. This study is the first to demonstrate reduced HbA 1c variability after completion of structured education. This is new evidence of the beneficial impact of DAFNE on glycaemic profile. © 2018 Diabetes UK.

  1. Transient medial prefrontal perturbation reduces false memory formation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Berkers, R.M.W.J.; Linden, M.H. van der; Almeida, R.F. de; Müller, N.C.J.; Bovy, L.; Dresler, M.; Morris, R.G.M.; Fernandez, G.S.E.

    2017-01-01

    Knowledge extracted across previous experiences, or schemas, benefit encoding and retention of congruent information. However, they can also reduce specificity and augment memory for semantically related, but false information. A demonstration of the latter is given by the Deese-Roediger-McDermott

  2. Chain heterogeneity as demonstrated by the ferricyanide oxidation of the one-site reduced bovine methemoglobin. Progress report, December 1, 1977--November 30, 1978

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ilan, Y.A.; Czapski, G.

    1978-01-01

    With the pulse radiolysis technique, a single chain of tetrameric bovine methemoglobin (α 2 /sup III/β 2 /sup III/) is reduced, producing a mixture of valence hybrids consisting of α/sup III/α/sup II/β 2 /sup III/ and α 2 /sup III/β/sup III/β/sup II/. The oxidation of these partially reduced hemoglobins with ferricyanide was studied. It was found that the rate of oxidation of one of them proceeds 6 to 11 times faster than the other. It is suggested that the fast reacting valence hybrid contains reduced alpha chains

  3. Fossil fuel derivatives with reduced carbon. Phase I final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kennel, E.B.; Zondlo, J.W.; Cessna, T.J.

    1999-06-30

    This project involves the simultaneous production of clean fossil fuel derivatives with reduced carbon and sulfur, along with value-added carbon nanofibers. This can be accomplished because the nanofiber production process removes carbon via a catalyzed pyrolysis reaction, which also has the effect of removing 99.9% of the sulfur, which is trapped in the nanofibers. The reaction is mildly endothermic, meaning that net energy production with real reductions in greenhouse emissions are possible. In Phase I research, the feasibility of generating clean fossil fuel derivatives with reduced carbon was demonstrated by the successful design, construction and operation of a facility capable of utilizing coal as well as natural gas as an inlet feedstock. In the case of coal, for example, reductions in CO{sub 2} emissions can be as much as 70% (normalized according to kilowatts produced), with the majority of carbon safely sequestered in the form of carbon nanofibers or coke. Both of these products are value-added commodities, indicating that low-emission coal fuel can be done at a profit rather than a loss as is the case with most clean-up schemes. The main results of this project were as follows: (1) It was shown that the nanofiber production process produces hydrogen as a byproduct. (2) The hydrogen, or hydrogen-rich hydrocarbon mixture can be consumed with net release of enthalpy. (3) The greenhouse gas emissions from both coal and natural gas are significantly reduced. Because coal consumption also creates coke, the carbon emission can be reduced by 75% per kilowatt-hour of power produced.

  4. Topical application of ST266 reduces UV-induced skin damage

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guan L

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Linna Guan,1 Amanda Suggs,1 Emily Galan,1 Minh Lam,1 Elma D Baron1,2 1Department of Dermatology, Case Western Reserve University, 2Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cleveland, OH, USA Abstract: Ultraviolet radiation (UVR has a significant impact on human skin and is the major environmental factor for skin cancer formation. It is also believed that 80% of the signs of skin aging are attributed to UVR. UVR induces inflammatory changes in the skin via the increase in oxidative stress, DNA damage vascular permeability, and fluctuation in a myriad of cytokines. Acutely, UVR causes skin inflammation and DNA damage, which manifest as sunburn (erythema. ST266 is the secretome of proprietary amnion-derived cells that have been shown to reduce inflammation and accelerate healing of various wounds by promoting migration of keratinocytes and fibroblasts in preclinical animal studies. We hypothesized that ST266 has anti-inflammatory effects that can be used to reduce ultraviolet (UV erythema and markers of inflammation. In this study, we examined the in vivo effects of ST266 on post UV-irradiated skin by measuring erythema, level of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimer (CPD, and expression level of xeroderma pigmentosum, complementation group A (XPA. We demonstrated that ST266 has the potential to reduce the acute effects of UV-induced skin damage when applied immediately after the initial exposure. In addition, ST266 is shown to reduce erythema, increase XPA DNA repair protein, and decrease damaged DNA. Keywords: ST266, photoaging, erythema, CPD, XPA, UV-induced DNA damage

  5. Nonabsorbable Antibiotics Reduce Bacterial and Endotoxin Translocation in Hepatectomised Rats

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. K. Kakkos

    1997-01-01

    Full Text Available There is increasing evidence that septic complications, occurring after major hepatectomies, may be caused by gram negative bacteria, translocating from the gut. We investigated in rats, the effect of extended hepatectomy on the structure and morphology of the intestinal mucosa as well as on the translocation of intestinal bacteria and endotoxins. We also examined the effect of nonabsorbable antibiotics on reducing the intestinal flora and consequently the phenomenon of translocation by administering neomycin sulphate and cefazoline. Hepatectomy was found to increase translocation, while administration of nonabsorbable antibiotics decreased it significantly. In addition, hepatectomy increased the aerobic cecal bacterial population, which normalised in the group receiving antibiotics. Among the histological parameters evaluated, villus height demonstrated a significant reduction after hepatectomy, while the number of villi per cm and the number of mitoses per crypt, remained unchanged. Our results indicate that administration of nonabsorbable antibiotics presents a positive effect on bacterial and endotoxin translocation after extended hepatectomy, and this may be related to reduction of colonic bacterial load as an intraluminal effect of antibiotics.

  6. Photovoltaic demonstration projects

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gillett, W B; Hacker, R J; Kaut, W [eds.

    1991-01-01

    This book, the proceedings of the fourth PV-Contractors' Meeting organized by the Commission of the European Communities, Directorate-General for Energy, held at Brussels on 21 and 22 November 1989, provides an overview of the photovoltaic demonstration projects which have been supported in the framework of the Energy Demonstration Program since 1983. It includes reports by each of the contractors who submitted proposals in 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1986, describing progress with their projects. Summaries of the discussions held at the meeting, which included contractors whose projects were submitted in 1987, are also presented. The different technologies which are being demonstrated concern the modules, the cabling of the array, structure design, storage strategy and power conditioning. The various applications include desalination, communications, dairy farms, water pumping, and warning systems. Papers have been processed separately for inclusion on the data base.

  7. Cleaning by Surfactant Gradients: Particulate Removal from Porous Materials and the Significance of Rinsing in Laundry Detergency

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shin, Sangwoo; Warren, Patrick B.; Stone, Howard A.

    2018-03-01

    Removing particles from fibrous materials involves loosening via surfactants followed by particle transfer in a flow. While flow advection is commonly believed to be the major driver for pore-scale transport, small pores within the fabric do not allow any significant fluid flow inside them, thus significantly reducing the role of advection. However, rinsing the fabric with fresh water naturally establishes a surfactant gradient within the pore space, providing a suitable environment for particles to undergo diffusiophoresis. We demonstrate that this mechanism can remove particles from deep within fabric pores at an accelerated rate. The nonlinear aspect of diffusiophoresis significantly prolongs the lifetime of the phoretic motion beyond the naive solute diffusion time scale during rinsing, allowing long-lasting, continuous removal of particles. Moreover, owing to the fine balance between chemiphoresis and electrophoresis for particles in anionic surfactant concentration gradients, we show that the particle removal is sensitive to the counterion mobility, suggesting a simple route to control the effect. We thus claim to have resolved the "stagnant core problem"—a long-standing mystery in laundry detergency—and have identified a physicochemical approach to particle transport in fibrous media with broad applicability.

  8. Low threading dislocation density aluminum nitride on silicon carbide through the use of reduced temperature interlayers

    KAUST Repository

    Foronda, Humberto M.

    2017-11-23

    In this work, reduced threading dislocation density AlN on (0 0 0 1) 6H-SiC was realized through the use of reduced temperature AlN interlayers in the metalorganic chemical vapor deposition growth. We explored the dependence of the interlayer growth temperature on the AlN crystal quality, defect density, and surface morphology. The crystal quality was characterized using omega rocking curve scans and the threading dislocation density was determined by plan view transmission electron microscopy. The growth resulted in a threading dislocation density of 7 × 108 cm−2 indicating a significant reduction in the defect density of AlN in comparison to direct growth of AlN on SiC (∼1010 cm−2). Atomic force microscopy images demonstrated a clear step-terrace morphology that is consistent with step flow growth at high temperature. Reducing the interlayer growth temperature increased the TD inclination and thus enhanced TD-TD interactions. The TDD was decreased via fusion and annihilation reactions.

  9. Genome Wide Expression Profiling of Cancer Cell Lines Cultured in Microgravity Reveals Significant Dysregulation of Cell Cycle and MicroRNA Gene Networks.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Prasanna Vidyasekar

    Full Text Available Zero gravity causes several changes in metabolic and functional aspects of the human body and experiments in space flight have demonstrated alterations in cancer growth and progression. This study reports the genome wide expression profiling of a colorectal cancer cell line-DLD-1, and a lymphoblast leukemic cell line-MOLT-4, under simulated microgravity in an effort to understand central processes and cellular functions that are dysregulated among both cell lines. Altered cell morphology, reduced cell viability and an aberrant cell cycle profile in comparison to their static controls were observed in both cell lines under microgravity. The process of cell cycle in DLD-1 cells was markedly affected with reduced viability, reduced colony forming ability, an apoptotic population and dysregulation of cell cycle genes, oncogenes, and cancer progression and prognostic markers. DNA microarray analysis revealed 1801 (upregulated and 2542 (downregulated genes (>2 fold in DLD-1 cultures under microgravity while MOLT-4 cultures differentially expressed 349 (upregulated and 444 (downregulated genes (>2 fold under microgravity. The loss in cell proliferative capacity was corroborated with the downregulation of the cell cycle process as demonstrated by functional clustering of DNA microarray data using gene ontology terms. The genome wide expression profile also showed significant dysregulation of post transcriptional gene silencing machinery and multiple microRNA host genes that are potential tumor suppressors and proto-oncogenes including MIR22HG, MIR17HG and MIR21HG. The MIR22HG, a tumor-suppressor gene was one of the highest upregulated genes in the microarray data showing a 4.4 log fold upregulation under microgravity. Real time PCR validated the dysregulation in the host gene by demonstrating a 4.18 log fold upregulation of the miR-22 microRNA. Microarray data also showed dysregulation of direct targets of miR-22, SP1, CDK6 and CCNA2.

  10. A community-based participatory research partnership to reduce vehicle idling near public schools.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eghbalnia, Cynthia; Sharkey, Ken; Garland-Porter, Denisha; Alam, Mohammad; Crumpton, Marilyn; Jones, Camille; Ryan, Patrick H

    2013-05-01

    The authors implemented and assessed the effectiveness of a public health initiative aimed at reducing traffic-related air pollution exposure of the school community at four Cincinnati public schools. A partnership was fostered with academic environmental health researchers and community members. Anti-idling campaign materials were developed and education and training were provided to school bus drivers, students, parents, and school staff. Pledge drives and pre- and posteducation assessments were documented to measure the effectiveness of the program. After completing the educational component of the public health initiative, bus drivers (n = 397), community members (n = 53), and staff (n = 214) demonstrated significantly increased knowledge about the health effects of idling (p public health intervention. A community-driven public health initiative can be effective in both 1) enhancing community awareness about the benefits of reducing idling vehicles and 2) increasing active participation in idling reduction. The partnership initially developed has continued to develop toward a sustainable and growing process.

  11. Test plan, the Czechowice Oil Refinery bioremediation demonstration of a process waste lagoon. Revision 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Altman, D.J.; Hazen, T.C.; Tien, A.J.

    1997-01-01

    The overall objective of the bioremediation project is to provide a cost effective bioremediation demonstration of petroleum contaminated soil at the Czechowice Oil Refinery. Additional objectives include training of personnel, and transfer of this technology by example to Poland, and the Risk Abatement Center for Central and Eastern Europe (RACE). The goal of the remediation is to reduce the risk of PAH compounds in soil and provide a green zone (grassy area) adjacent to the site boundary. Initial project discussions with the Czechowice Oil Refinery resulted in helping the refinery find an immediate cost effective solution for the dense organic sludge in the lagoons. They found that when mixed with other waste materials, the sludge could be sold as a fuel source to local cement kilns. Thus the waste was incinerated and provided a revenue stream for the refinery to cleanup the lagoon. This allowed the bioremediation project to focus on remediation of contaminated soil that unusable as fuel, less recalcitrant and easier to handle and remediate. The assessment identified 19 compounds at the refinery that represented significant risk and would require remediation. These compounds consisted of metals, PAH's, and BTEX. The contaminated soil to be remediated in the bioremediation demonstration contains only PAH (BTEX and metals are not significantly above background concentrations). The final biopile design consists of (1) dewatering and clearing lagoon A to clean clay, (2) adding a 20 cm layer of dolomite with pipes for drainage, leachate collection, air injection, and pH adjustment, (3) adding a 1.1 m layer of contaminated soil mixed with wood chips to improve permeability, and (4) completing the surface with 20 cm of top soil planted with grass

  12. Biomass saccharification is largely enhanced by altering wall polymer features and reducing silicon accumulation in rice cultivars harvested from nitrogen fertilizer supply.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zahoor; Sun, Dan; Li, Ying; Wang, Jing; Tu, Yuanyuan; Wang, Yanting; Hu, Zhen; Zhou, Shiguang; Wang, Lingqiang; Xie, Guosheng; Huang, Jianliang; Alam, Aftab; Peng, Liangcai

    2017-11-01

    In this study, two rice cultivars were collected from experimental fields with seven nitrogen fertilizer treatments. All biomass samples contained significantly increased cellulose contents and reduced silica levels, with variable amounts of hemicellulose and lignin from different nitrogen treatments. Under chemical (NaOH, CaO, H 2 SO 4 ) and physical (hot water) pretreatments, biomass samples exhibited much enhanced hexoses yields from enzymatic hydrolysis, with high bioethanol production from yeast fermentation. Notably, both degree of polymerization (DP) of cellulose and xylose/arabinose (Xyl/Ara) ratio of hemicellulose were reduced in biomass residues, whereas other wall polymer features (cellulose crystallinity and monolignol proportion) were variable. Integrative analysis indicated that cellulose DP, hemicellulosic Xyl/Ara and silica are the major factors that significantly affect cellulose crystallinity and biomass saccharification. Hence, this study has demonstrated that nitrogen fertilizer supply could largely enhance biomass saccharification in rice cultivars, mainly by reducing cellulose DP, hemicellulosic Xyl/Ara and silica in cell walls. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Demonstration of energy savings of cool roofs

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Konopacki, S.; Gartland, L.; Akbari, H. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab., CA (United States). Environmental Energy Technologies Div.; Rainer, L. [Davis Energy Group, Davis, CA (United States)

    1998-06-01

    Dark roofs raise the summertime air-conditioning demand of buildings. For highly-absorptive roofs, the difference between the surface and ambient air temperatures can be as high as 90 F, while for highly-reflective roofs with similar insulative properties, the difference is only about 20 F. For this reason, cool roofs are effective in reducing cooling energy use. Several experiments on individual residential buildings in California and Florida show that coating roofs white reduces summertime average daily air-conditioning electricity use from 2--63%. This demonstration project was carried out to address some of the practical issues regarding the implementation of reflective roofs in a few commercial buildings. The authors monitored air-conditioning electricity use, roof surface temperature, plenum, indoor, and outdoor air temperatures, and other environmental variables in three buildings in California: two medical office buildings in Gilroy and Davis and a retail store in San Jose. Coating the roofs of these buildings with a reflective coating increased the roof albedo from an average of 0.20--0.60. The roof surface temperature on hot sunny summer afternoons fell from 175 F--120 F after the coating was applied. Summertime average daily air-conditioning electricity use was reduced by 18% (6.3 kWh/1000ft{sup 2}) in the Davis building, 13% (3.6 kWh/1000ft{sup 2}) in the Gilroy building, and 2% (0.4 kWh/1000ft{sup 2}) in the San Jose store. In each building, a kiosk was installed to display information from the project in order to educate and inform the general public about the environmental and energy-saving benefits of cool roofs. They were designed to explain cool-roof coating theory and to display real-time measurements of weather conditions, roof surface temperature, and air-conditioning electricity use. 55 figs., 15 tabs.

  14. Reducing Spatial Data Complexity for Classification Models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ruta, Dymitr; Gabrys, Bogdan

    2007-01-01

    Intelligent data analytics gradually becomes a day-to-day reality of today's businesses. However, despite rapidly increasing storage and computational power current state-of-the-art predictive models still can not handle massive and noisy corporate data warehouses. What is more adaptive and real-time operational environment requires multiple models to be frequently retrained which further hinders their use. Various data reduction techniques ranging from data sampling up to density retention models attempt to address this challenge by capturing a summarised data structure, yet they either do not account for labelled data or degrade the classification performance of the model trained on the condensed dataset. Our response is a proposition of a new general framework for reducing the complexity of labelled data by means of controlled spatial redistribution of class densities in the input space. On the example of Parzen Labelled Data Compressor (PLDC) we demonstrate a simulatory data condensation process directly inspired by the electrostatic field interaction where the data are moved and merged following the attracting and repelling interactions with the other labelled data. The process is controlled by the class density function built on the original data that acts as a class-sensitive potential field ensuring preservation of the original class density distributions, yet allowing data to rearrange and merge joining together their soft class partitions. As a result we achieved a model that reduces the labelled datasets much further than any competitive approaches yet with the maximum retention of the original class densities and hence the classification performance. PLDC leaves the reduced dataset with the soft accumulative class weights allowing for efficient online updates and as shown in a series of experiments if coupled with Parzen Density Classifier (PDC) significantly outperforms competitive data condensation methods in terms of classification performance at the

  15. Reducing Spatial Data Complexity for Classification Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruta, Dymitr; Gabrys, Bogdan

    2007-11-01

    Intelligent data analytics gradually becomes a day-to-day reality of today's businesses. However, despite rapidly increasing storage and computational power current state-of-the-art predictive models still can not handle massive and noisy corporate data warehouses. What is more adaptive and real-time operational environment requires multiple models to be frequently retrained which further hinders their use. Various data reduction techniques ranging from data sampling up to density retention models attempt to address this challenge by capturing a summarised data structure, yet they either do not account for labelled data or degrade the classification performance of the model trained on the condensed dataset. Our response is a proposition of a new general framework for reducing the complexity of labelled data by means of controlled spatial redistribution of class densities in the input space. On the example of Parzen Labelled Data Compressor (PLDC) we demonstrate a simulatory data condensation process directly inspired by the electrostatic field interaction where the data are moved and merged following the attracting and repelling interactions with the other labelled data. The process is controlled by the class density function built on the original data that acts as a class-sensitive potential field ensuring preservation of the original class density distributions, yet allowing data to rearrange and merge joining together their soft class partitions. As a result we achieved a model that reduces the labelled datasets much further than any competitive approaches yet with the maximum retention of the original class densities and hence the classification performance. PLDC leaves the reduced dataset with the soft accumulative class weights allowing for efficient online updates and as shown in a series of experiments if coupled with Parzen Density Classifier (PDC) significantly outperforms competitive data condensation methods in terms of classification performance at the

  16. Adult hippocampal neurogenesis reduces memory interference in humans: opposing effects of aerobic exercise and depression

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicolas eDéry

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available Since the remarkable discovery of adult neurogenesis in the mammalian hippocampus, considerable effort has been devoted to unraveling the functional significance of these new neurons. Our group has proposed that a continual turnover of neurons in the DG could contribute to the development of event-unique memory traces that act to reduce interference between highly similar inputs. To test this theory, we implemented a continuous recognition task containing some objects that were repeated across trials as well as some objects that were highly similar, but not identical, to ones previously observed. The similar objects, termed lures, overlap substantially with previously viewed stimuli, and thus, may require hippocampal neurogenesis in order to avoid catastrophic interference. Lifestyle factors such as aerobic exercise and stress have been shown to impact the local neurogenic microenvironment, leading to enhanced and reduced levels of DG neurogenesis, respectively. Accordingly, we hypothesized that healthy young adults who take part in a long-term aerobic exercise regime would demonstrate enhanced performance on the visual pattern separation task, specifically at correctly categorizing lures as similar. Indeed, those who experienced a proportionally large change in fitness demonstrated a significantly greater improvement in their ability to correctly identify lure stimuli as similar. Conversely, we expected that those who score high on depression scales, an indicator of chronic stress, would exhibit selective deficits at appropriately categorizing lures. As expected, those who scored high on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI were significantly worse than those with relatively lower BDI scores at correctly identifying lures as similar, while performance on novel and repeated stimuli was identical. Taken together, our results support the hypothesis that adult-born neurons in the DG contribute to the orthogonalization of incoming information.

  17. Inhibition of PaCaMKII-E isoform in the dorsal unpaired median neurosecretory cells of cockroach reduces nicotine- and clothianidin-induced currents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    List, Olivier; Calas-List, Delphine; Taillebois, Emiliane; Juchaux, Marjorie; Heuland, Emilie; Thany, Steeve H

    2014-08-01

    Cellular responses to Ca(2+) require intermediary proteins such as calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII), which transduces the signal into downstream effects. We recently demonstrated that the cockroach genome encodes five different CaMKII isoforms, and only PaCaMKII-E isoform is specifically expressed in the dorsal unpaired median neurosecretory cells. In the present study, using antisense oligonucleotides, we demonstrated that PaCaMKII-E isoform inhibition reduced nicotine-induced currents through α-bungarotoxin-sensitive and -insensitive nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subtypes. Specifically, PaCaMKII-E isoform is sufficient to repress nicotinic current amplitudes as a result of its depression by antisense oligonucleotides. Similar results were found using the neonicotinoid insecticide clothianidin, which acted as a full agonist of dorsal unpaired median neuron nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Clothianidin current amplitudes are strongly reduced under bath application of PaCaMKII-E antisense oligonucleotides but no significant results are found with α-bungarotoxin co-applied, demonstrating that CaMKII-E isoform affects nicotine currents through α-bungarotoxin-sensitive and -insensitive receptor subtypes whereas clothianidin currents are reduced via α-bungarotoxin-insensitive receptors. In addition, we found that intracellular calcium increase induced by nicotine and clothianidin were reduced by PaCaMKII-E antisense oligonucleotides, demonstrating that intracellular calcium increase induced by nicotine and clothianidin are affected by PaCaMKII-E inhibition. Cellular responses to Ca(2+) require intermediary proteins such as calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII). We recently demonstrated that the cockroach genome encodes five different CaMKII isoforms and only PaCaMKII-E isoform was specifically expressed in the dorsal unpaired median neurosecretory cells. Here we show that specific inhibition of PaCaMKII-E isoform is

  18. Recreational Activities to Reduce Behavioural Symptoms in Dementia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kolanowski, Ann; Fick, Donna M.; Buettner, Linda

    2009-01-01

    Few clinicians have an educational grounding in the use of nonpharmacological therapies for people with dementia. In this article, we explore the utility of recreational activities as one nonpharmacological intervention that has demonstrated effectiveness for reducing the behavioural symptoms of dementia. The implementation of effective recreational activities involves three components: understanding the evidence for this approach; acknowledging the need to reduce medications that have the potential to interfere with activity effectiveness; and individualizing activities so that the maximum benefit from the intervention is obtained. PMID:20046903

  19. Drilling for improvement : Statoil and Halliburton report significant cost savings and more accurate well placement at the Leismer demonstration project

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jaremko, D.

    2010-07-15

    This article discussed new improvements in steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) made by Statoil and Halliburton at the Leismer demonstration project. The Leismer project is Statoil's inaugural project in oil sands development, and will have a capacity to produce 10,000 barrels per day through 4 separate well pads with 23 well pairs. Challenges to the project included the long lateral sections required for the well pairs to remain parallel to each other while remaining within the target formation. An azimuthal deep resistivity (ADR) tool was used to detect the proximity of the wellbore to shale and water zones. Use of the tool allowed operators to modify the planned well trajectory in order to optimize placements within the reservoir. A rotary steerable system (RSS) was used increase injection times. The project was completed 6 to 8 weeks ahead of schedule. Applications have now been filed for a further 10 phases that will produce 240,000 barrels per day. 1 fig.

  20. The efficacy of airflow and seat vibration on reducing visually induced motion sickness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    D'Amour, Sarah; Bos, Jelte E; Keshavarz, Behrang

    2017-09-01

    Visually induced motion sickness (VIMS) is a well-known sensation in virtual environments and simulators, typically characterized by a variety of symptoms such as pallor, sweating, dizziness, fatigue, and/or nausea. Numerous methods to reduce VIMS have been previously introduced; however, a reliable countermeasure is still missing. In the present study, the effect of airflow and seat vibration to alleviate VIMS was investigated. Eighty-two participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups (airflow, vibration, combined airflow and vibration, and control) and then exposed to a 15 min long video of a bicycle ride shot from first-person view. VIMS was measured using the Fast Motion Sickness Scale (FMS) and the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ). Results showed that the exposure of airflow significantly reduced VIMS, whereas the presence of seat vibration, in contrast, did not have an impact on VIMS. Additionally, we found that females reported higher FMS scores than males, however, this sex difference was not found in the SSQ scores. Our findings demonstrate that airflow can be an effective and easy-to-apply technique to reduce VIMS in virtual environments and simulators, while vibration applied to the seat is not a successful method.

  1. Integrated monitoring and surveillance system demonstration project: Phase I accomplishments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aumeier, S.E.; Walters, B.G.; Crawford, D.C.

    1997-01-01

    The authors present the results of the Integrated Monitoring and Surveillance System (IMSS) demonstration project Phase I efforts. The rationale behind IMSS development is reviewed and progress in each of the 5 basic tasks is detailed. Significant results include decisions to use Echelon LonWorks networking protocol and Microsoft Access for the data system needs, a preliminary design for the plutonium canning system glovebox, identification of facilities and materials available for the demonstration, determination of possibly affected facility documentation, and a preliminary list of available sensor technologies. Recently imposed changes in the overall project schedule and scope are also discussed and budgetary requirements for competition of Phase II presented. The results show that the IMSS demonstration project team has met and in many cases exceeded the commitments made for Phase I deliverables

  2. Hypertonic saline reduces inflammation and enhances the resolution of oleic acid induced acute lung injury

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Costello Joseph F

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Hypertonic saline (HTS reduces the severity of lung injury in ischemia-reperfusion, endotoxin-induced and ventilation-induced lung injury. However, the potential for HTS to modulate the resolution of lung injury is not known. We investigated the potential for hypertonic saline to modulate the evolution and resolution of oleic acid induced lung injury. Methods Adult male Sprague Dawley rats were used in all experiments. Series 1 examined the potential for HTS to reduce the severity of evolving oleic acid (OA induced acute lung injury. Following intravenous OA administration, animals were randomized to receive isotonic (Control, n = 12 or hypertonic saline (HTS, n = 12, and the extent of lung injury assessed after 6 hours. Series 2 examined the potential for HTS to enhance the resolution of oleic acid (OA induced acute lung injury. Following intravenous OA administration, animals were randomized to receive isotonic (Control, n = 6 or hypertonic saline (HTS, n = 6, and the extent of lung injury assessed after 6 hours. Results In Series I, HTS significantly reduced bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL neutrophil count compared to Control [61.5 ± 9.08 versus 102.6 ± 11.89 × 103 cells.ml-1]. However, there were no between group differences with regard to: A-a O2 gradient [11.9 ± 0.5 vs. 12.0 ± 0.5 KPa]; arterial PO2; static lung compliance, or histologic injury. In contrast, in Series 2, hypertonic saline significantly reduced histologic injury and reduced BAL neutrophil count [24.5 ± 5.9 versus 46.8 ± 4.4 × 103 cells.ml-1], and interleukin-6 levels [681.9 ± 190.4 versus 1365.7 ± 246.8 pg.ml-1]. Conclusion These findings demonstrate, for the first time, the potential for HTS to reduce pulmonary inflammation and enhance the resolution of oleic acid induced lung injury.

  3. Astronomy LITE Demonstrations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brecher, Kenneth

    2006-12-01

    Project LITE (Light Inquiry Through Experiments) is a materials, software, and curriculum development project. It focuses on light, optics, color and visual perception. According to two recent surveys of college astronomy faculty members, these are among the topics most often included in the large introductory astronomy courses. The project has aimed largely at the design and implementation of hands-on experiences for students. However, it has also included the development of lecture demonstrations that employ novel light sources and materials. In this presentation, we will show some of our new lecture demonstrations concerning geometrical and physical optics, fluorescence, phosphorescence and polarization. We have developed over 200 Flash and Java applets that can be used either by teachers in lecture settings or by students at home. They are all posted on the web at http://lite.bu.edu. For either purpose they can be downloaded directly to the user's computer or run off line. In lecture demonstrations, some of these applets can be used to control the light emitted by video projectors to produce physical effects in materials (e.g. fluorescence). Other applets can be used, for example, to demonstrate that the human percept of color does not have a simple relationship with the physical frequency of the stimulating source of light. Project LITE is supported by Grant #DUE-0125992 from the NSF Division of Undergraduate Education.

  4. Buried Waste Integrated Demonstration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1994-03-01

    The Buried Waste Integrated Demonstration (BWID) supports the applied research, development, demonstration, and evaluation of a suite of advanced technologies that offer promising solutions to the problems associated with the remediation of buried waste. BWID addresses the difficult remediation problems associated with DOE complex-wide buried waste, particularly transuranic (TRU) contaminated buried waste. BWID has implemented a systems approach to the development and demonstration of technologies that will characterize, retrieve, treat, and dispose of DOE buried wastes. This approach encompasses the entire remediation process from characterization to post-monitoring. The development and demonstration of the technology is predicated on how a technology fits into the total remediation process. To address all of these technological issues, BWID has enlisted scientific expertise of individuals and groups from within the DOE Complex, as well as experts from universities and private industry. The BWID mission is to support development and demonstration of a suite of technologies that, when integrated with commercially-available technologies, forms a comprehensive, remediation system for the effective and efficient remediation of buried waste throughout the DOE Complex. BWID will evaluate and validate demonstrated technologies and transfer this information and equipment to private industry to support the Office of Environmental Restoration (ER), Office of Waste Management (WM), and Office of Facility Transition (FT) remediation planning and implementation activities

  5. Cover technology demonstration for low-level radioactive sites

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barnes, F.J.; Warren, J.L.

    1988-01-01

    The performance of a shallow land burial site in isolating low-level radioactive and mixed waste is strongly influenced by the behavior of the precipitation falling on the site. Predicting the long-term integrity of a cover design requires a knowledge of the water balance dynamics, and the use of predictive models. The multiplicity of factors operating on a site in the years post-closure (precipitation intensity and duration, soil conditions, vegetation seasonality and variability) have made it extremely difficult to predict the effects of natural precipitation with accuracy. Preliminary results are presented on a three-year field demonstration at Los Alamos National Laboratory to evaluate the influence of different waste trench cap designs on water balance under natural precipitation. Erosion plots having two different vegetative covers (shrubs and grasses) and with either gravel-mulched or unmulched soil surface treatments have been established on three different soil profiles on an inactive waste site. Total runoff and soil loss from each plot are measured biweekly while plant canopy cover is measured seasonally. Preliminary results from the first year show that the application of a gravel mulch reduced runoff by 73 to 90%. Total soil loss was reduced by 83 to 93% by the mulch treatment. On unmulched plots, grass cover reduced both runoff and soil loss by about 50% compared to the shrub plots. Soil moisture reduction during the growing season was more pronounced on the shrub plots. This indicates that a more complex vegetative cover provides greater soil moisture storage capacity for winter precipitation than the usual grass cover

  6. Moral significance of phenomenal consciousness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levy, Neil; Savulescu, Julian

    2009-01-01

    Recent work in neuroimaging suggests that some patients diagnosed as being in the persistent vegetative state are actually conscious. In this paper, we critically examine this new evidence. We argue that though it remains open to alternative interpretations, it strongly suggests the presence of consciousness in some patients. However, we argue that its ethical significance is less than many people seem to think. There are several different kinds of consciousness, and though all kinds of consciousness have some ethical significance, different kinds underwrite different kinds of moral value. Demonstrating that patients have phenomenal consciousness--conscious states with some kind of qualitative feel to them--shows that they are moral patients, whose welfare must be taken into consideration. But only if they are subjects of a sophisticated kind of access consciousness--where access consciousness entails global availability of information to cognitive systems--are they persons, in the technical sense of the word employed by philosophers. In this sense, being a person is having the full moral status of ordinary human beings. We call for further research which might settle whether patients who manifest signs of consciousness possess the sophisticated kind of access consciousness required for personhood.

  7. Experimental demonstration of subcarrier multiplexed quantum key distribution system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mora, José; Ruiz-Alba, Antonio; Amaya, Waldimar; Martínez, Alfonso; García-Muñoz, Víctor; Calvo, David; Capmany, José

    2012-06-01

    We provide, to our knowledge, the first experimental demonstration of the feasibility of sending several parallel keys by exploiting the technique of subcarrier multiplexing (SCM) widely employed in microwave photonics. This approach brings several advantages such as high spectral efficiency compatible with the actual secure key rates, the sharing of the optical fainted pulse by all the quantum multiplexed channels reducing the system complexity, and the possibility of upgrading with wavelength division multiplexing in a two-tier scheme, to increase the number of parallel keys. Two independent quantum SCM channels featuring a sifted key rate of 10 Kb/s/channel over a link with quantum bit error rate <2% is reported.

  8. Collagen-binding peptidoglycans inhibit MMP mediated collagen degradation and reduce dermal scarring.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kate Stuart

    Full Text Available Scarring of the skin is a large unmet clinical problem that is of high patient concern and impact. Wound healing is complex and involves numerous pathways that are highly orchestrated, leaving the skin sealed, but with abnormal organization and composition of tissue components, namely collagen and proteoglycans, that are then remodeled over time. To improve healing and reduce or eliminate scarring, more rapid restoration of healthy tissue composition and organization offers a unique approach for development of new therapeutics. A synthetic collagen-binding peptidoglycan has been developed that inhibits matrix metalloproteinase-1 and 13 (MMP-1 and MMP-13 mediated collagen degradation. We investigated the synthetic peptidoglycan in a rat incisional model in which a single dose was delivered in a hyaluronic acid (HA vehicle at the time of surgery prior to wound closure. The peptidoglycan treatment resulted in a significant reduction in scar tissue at 21 days as measured by histology and visual analysis. Improved collagen architecture of the treated wounds was demonstrated by increased tensile strength and transmission electron microscopy (TEM analysis of collagen fibril diameters compared to untreated and HA controls. The peptidoglycan's mechanism of action includes masking existing collagen and inhibiting MMP-mediated collagen degradation while modulating collagen organization. The peptidoglycan can be synthesized at low cost with unique design control, and together with demonstrated preclinical efficacy in reducing scarring, warrants further investigation for dermal wound healing.

  9. Testing a two-scale focused conservation strategy for reducing phosphorus and sediment loads from agricultural watersheds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carvin, Rebecca; Good, Laura W.; Fitzpatrick, Faith A.; Diehl, Curt; Songer, Katherine; Meyer, Kimberly J.; Panuska, John C.; Richter, Steve; Whalley, Kyle

    2018-01-01

    This study tested a focused strategy for reducing phosphorus (P) and sediment loads in agricultural streams. The strategy involved selecting small watersheds identified as likely to respond relatively quickly, and then focusing conservation practices on high-contributing fields within those watersheds. Two 5,000 ha (12,360 ac) watersheds in the Driftless Area of south central Wisconsin, previously ranked in the top 6% of similarly sized Wisconsin watersheds for expected responsiveness to conservation efforts to reduce high P and sediment loads, were chosen for the study. The stream outlets from both watersheds were monitored from October of 2006 through September of 2016 for streamflow and concentrations of sediment, total P, and, beginning in October of 2009, total dissolved P. Fields and pastures having the highest potential P delivery to the streams in each watershed were identified using the Wisconsin P Index (Good et al. 2012). After three years of baseline monitoring (2006 to 2009), farmers implemented both field- and farm-based conservation practices in one watershed (treatment) as a means to reduce sediment and P inputs to the stream from the highest contributing areas, whereas there were no out-of-the-ordinary conservation efforts in the second watershed (control). Implementation occurred primarily in 2011 and 2012. In the four years following implementation of conservation practices (2013 through 2016), there was a statistically significant reduction in storm-event suspended sediment loads in the treatment watershed compared to the control watershed when the ground was not frozen (p = 0.047). While there was an apparent reduction in year-round suspended sediment event loads, it was not statistically significant at the 95% confidence level (p = 0.15). Total P loads were significantly reduced for runoff events (p < 0.01) with a median reduction of 50%. Total P and total dissolved P concentrations for low-flow conditions were also significantly reduced (p

  10. Innovative Phase Change Approach for Significant Energy Savings

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-09-01

    related to the production, use, transmission , storage, control, or conservation of energy that will – (A) reduce the need for additional energy supplies...Conditions set for operation were: a. The computer with the broadband wireless card is to be used for data collection, transmission and...FINAL REPORT Innovative Phase Change Approach for Significant Energy Savings ESTCP Project EW-201138 SEPTEMBER 2016 Dr. Aly H Shaaban Applied

  11. Multi-Physics Demonstration Problem with the SHARP Reactor Simulation Toolkit

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Merzari, E. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Shemon, E. R. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Yu, Y. Q. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Thomas, J. W. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Obabko, A. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Jain, Rajeev [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Mahadevan, Vijay [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Tautges, Timothy [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Solberg, Jerome [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Ferencz, Robert Mark [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Whitesides, R. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

    2015-12-21

    This report describes to employ SHARP to perform a first-of-a-kind analysis of the core radial expansion phenomenon in an SFR. This effort required significant advances in the framework Multi-Physics Demonstration Problem with the SHARP Reactor Simulation Toolkit used to drive the coupled simulations, manipulate the mesh in response to the deformation of the geometry, and generate the necessary modified mesh files. Furthermore, the model geometry is fairly complex, and consistent mesh generation for the three physics modules required significant effort. Fully-integrated simulations of a 7-assembly mini-core test problem have been performed, and the results are presented here. Physics models of a full-core model of the Advanced Burner Test Reactor have also been developed for each of the three physics modules. Standalone results of each of the three physics modules for the ABTR are presented here, which provides a demonstration of the feasibility of the fully-integrated simulation.

  12. Balance training reduces falls risk in older individuals with type 2 diabetes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morrison, Steven; Colberg, Sheri R; Mariano, Mira; Parson, Henri K; Vinik, Arthur I

    2010-04-01

    This study assessed the effects of balance/strength training on falls risk and posture in older individuals with type 2 diabetes. Sixteen individuals with type 2 diabetes and 21 age-matched control subjects (aged 50-75 years) participated. Postural stability and falls risk was assessed before and after a 6-week exercise program. Diabetic individuals had significantly higher falls risk score compared with control subjects. The diabetic group also exhibited evidence of mild-to-moderate neuropathy, slower reaction times, and increased postural sway. Following exercise, the diabetic group showed significant improvements in leg strength, faster reaction times, decreased sway, and, consequently, reduced falls risk. Older individuals with diabetes had impaired balance, slower reactions, and consequently a higher falls risk than age-matched control subjects. However, all these variables improved after resistance/balance training. Together these results demonstrate that structured exercise has wide-spread positive effects on physiological function for older individuals with type 2 diabetes.

  13. 12-step programs to reduce illicit drug use

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Filges, Trine; Nielsen, Sine Kirkegaard; Jørgensen, Anne-Marie Klint

    2014-01-01

    Many treatments are not rigorously evaluated as to their effectiveness, and it is uncertain which types of interventions are more effective than others in reducing illicit drug use. The aim of this paper is to provide a systematic mapping of the research literature of the effectiveness of 12-step...... programs in reducing illicit drug use. A systematic literature search was conducted based on 17 international and Nordic Bibliographic databases. A total of 15993 references were screened, and eleven unique studies were finally included in this mapping. The included studies demonstrated conflicting results...... regarding the effectiveness of the 12-step treatment and TSF in reducing individuals’ drug use. Two studies reported a positive effect of the TSF treatment compared to the comparison conditions in reducing drug use. Six studies reported no differences between 12-step program and the comparison condition...

  14. Inhibition of TRPM8 channels reduces pain in the cold pressor test in humans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winchester, Wendy J; Gore, Katrina; Glatt, Sophie; Petit, Wendy; Gardiner, Jennifer C; Conlon, Kelly; Postlethwaite, Michael; Saintot, Pierre-Philippe; Roberts, Sonia; Gosset, James R; Matsuura, Tomomi; Andrews, Mark D; Glossop, Paul A; Palmer, Michael J; Clear, Nicola; Collins, Susie; Beaumont, Kevin; Reynolds, David S

    2014-11-01

    The transient receptor potential (subfamily M, member 8; TRPM8) is a nonselective cation channel localized in primary sensory neurons, and is a candidate for cold thermosensing, mediation of cold pain, and bladder overactivity. Studies with TRPM8 knockout mice and selective TRPM8 channel blockers demonstrate a lack of cold sensitivity and reduced cold pain in various rodent models. Furthermore, TRPM8 blockers significantly lower body temperature. We have identified a moderately potent (IC50 = 103 nM), selective TRPM8 antagonist, PF-05105679 [(R)-3-[(1-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl)(quinolin-3-ylcarbonyl)amino]methylbenzoic acid]. It demonstrated activity in vivo in the guinea pig bladder ice water and menthol challenge tests with an IC50 of 200 nM and reduced core body temperature in the rat (at concentrations >1219 nM). PF-05105679 was suitable for acute administration to humans and was evaluated for effects on core body temperature and experimentally induced cold pain, using the cold pressor test. Unbound plasma concentrations greater than the IC50 were achieved with 600- and 900-mg doses. The compound displayed a significant inhibition of pain in the cold pressor test, with efficacy equivalent to oxycodone (20 mg) at 1.5 hours postdose. No effect on core body temperature was observed. An unexpected adverse event (hot feeling) was reported, predominantly periorally, in 23 and 36% of volunteers (600- and 900-mg dose, respectively), which in two volunteers was nontolerable. In conclusion, this study supports a role for TRPM8 in acute cold pain signaling at doses that do not cause hypothermia. Copyright © 2014 by The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

  15. Biodiesel Mass Transit Demonstration

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    The Biodiesel Mass Transit Demonstration report is intended for mass transit decision makers and fleet managers considering biodiesel use. This is the final report for the demonstration project implemented by the National Biodiesel Board under a gran...

  16. Tc(VII) and Cr(VI) Interaction with Naturally Reduced Ferruginous Smectite from a Redox Transition Zone.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qafoku, Odeta; Pearce, Carolyn I; Neumann, Anke; Kovarik, Libor; Zhu, Mengqiang; Ilton, Eugene S; Bowden, Mark E; Resch, Charles T; Arey, Bruce W; Arenholz, Elke; Felmy, Andrew R; Rosso, Kevin M

    2017-08-15

    Fe(II)-rich clay minerals found in subsurface redox transition zones (RTZs) can serve as important sources of electron equivalents limiting the transport of redox-active contaminants. While most laboratory reactivity studies are based on reduced model clays, the reactivity of naturally reduced field samples remains poorly explored. Characterization of the clay size fraction of a fine-grained unit from the RTZ interface at the Hanford site, Washington, including mineralogy, crystal chemistry, and Fe(II)/(III) content, indicates that ferruginous montmorillonite is the dominant mineralogical component. Oxic and anoxic fractions differ significantly in Fe(II) natural content, but Fe TOTAL remains constant, demonstrating no Fe loss during its reduction-oxidation cyclings. At native pH of 8.6, the anoxic fraction, despite its significant Fe(II), ∼23% of Fe TOTAL , exhibits minimal reactivity with TcO 4 - and CrO 4 2- and much slower reaction kinetics than those measured in studies with biologically/chemically reduced model clays. Reduction capacity is enhanced by added/sorbed Fe(II) (if Fe(II) SORBED > 8% clay Fe(II) LABILE ); however, the kinetics of this conceptually surface-mediated reaction remain sluggish. Surface-sensitive Fe L-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy shows that Fe(II) SORBED and the resulting reducing equivalents are not available in the outermost few nanometers of clay surfaces. Slow kinetics thus appear related to diffusion-limited access to electron equivalents retained within the clay mineral structure.

  17. Aspirin-triggered resolvin D1 reduces pneumococcal lung infection and inflammation in a viral and bacterial coinfection pneumonia model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Hao; Anthony, Desiree; Yatmaz, Selcuk; Wijburg, Odilia; Satzke, Catherine; Levy, Bruce; Vlahos, Ross; Bozinovski, Steven

    2017-09-15

    Formyl peptide receptor 2/lipoxin A 4 (LXA 4 ) receptor (Fpr2/ALX) co-ordinates the transition from inflammation to resolution during acute infection by binding to distinct ligands including serum amyloid A (SAA) and Resolvin D1 (RvD1). Here, we evaluated the proresolving actions of aspirin-triggered RvD1 (AT-RvD1) in an acute coinfection pneumonia model. Coinfection with Streptococcus pneumoniae and influenza A virus (IAV) markedly increased pneumococcal lung load and neutrophilic inflammation during the resolution phase. Fpr2/ALX transcript levels were increased in the lungs of coinfected mice, and immunohistochemistry identified prominent Fpr2/ALX immunoreactivity in bronchial epithelial cells and macrophages. Levels of circulating and lung SAA were also highly increased in coinfected mice. Therapeutic treatment with exogenous AT-RvD1 during the acute phase of infection (day 4-6 post-pneumococcal inoculation) significantly reduced the pneumococcal load. AT-RvD1 also significantly reduced neutrophil elastase (NE) activity and restored total antimicrobial activity in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid (BALF) of coinfected mice. Pneumonia severity, as measured by quantitating parenchymal inflammation or alveolitis was significantly reduced with AT-RvD1 treatment, which also reduced the number of infiltrating lung neutrophils and monocytes/macrophages as assessed by flow cytometry. The reduction in distal lung inflammation in AT-RvD1-treated mice was not associated with a significant reduction in inflammatory and chemokine mediators. In summary, we demonstrate that in the coinfection setting, SAA levels were persistently increased and exogenous AT-RvD1 facilitated more rapid clearance of pneumococci in the lungs, while concurrently reducing the severity of pneumonia by limiting excessive leukocyte chemotaxis from the infected bronchioles to distal areas of the lungs. © 2017 The Author(s).

  18. Efficacy of a radiation absorbing shield in reducing dose to the interventionalist during peripheral endovascular procedures: a single centre pilot study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Power, S; Mirza, M; Thakorlal, A; Ganai, B; Gavagan, L D; Given, M F; Lee, M J

    2015-06-01

    This prospective pilot study was undertaken to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of using a radiation absorbing shield to reduce operator dose from scatter during lower limb endovascular procedures. A commercially available bismuth shield system (RADPAD) was used. Sixty consecutive patients undergoing lower limb angioplasty were included. Thirty procedures were performed without the RADPAD (control group) and thirty with the RADPAD (study group). Two separate methods were used to measure dose to a single operator. Thermoluminescent dosimeter (TLD) badges were used to measure hand, eye, and unshielded body dose. A direct dosimeter with digital readout was also used to measure eye and unshielded body dose. To allow for variation between control and study groups, dose per unit time was calculated. TLD results demonstrated a significant reduction in median body dose per unit time for the study group compared with controls (p = 0.001), corresponding to a mean dose reduction rate of 65 %. Median eye and hand dose per unit time were also reduced in the study group compared with control group, however, this was not statistically significant (p = 0.081 for eye, p = 0.628 for hand). Direct dosimeter readings also showed statistically significant reduction in median unshielded body dose rate for the study group compared with controls (p = 0.037). Eye dose rate was reduced for the study group but this was not statistically significant (p = 0.142). Initial results are encouraging. Use of the shield resulted in a statistically significant reduction in unshielded dose to the operator's body. Measured dose to the eye and hand of operator were also reduced but did not reach statistical significance in this pilot study.

  19. A reduced fidelity model for the rotary chemical looping combustion reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Iloeje, Chukwunwike O.; Zhao, Zhenlong; Ghoniem, Ahmed F.

    2017-01-01

    Highlights: • Methodology for developing a reduced fidelity rotary CLC reactor model is presented. • The reduced model determines optimal reactor configuration that meets design and operating requirements. • A 4-order of magnitude reduction in computational cost is achieved with good prediction accuracy. • Sensitivity studies demonstrate importance of accurate kinetic parameters for reactor optimization. - Abstract: The rotary chemical looping combustion reactor has great potential for efficient integration with CO_2 capture-enabled energy conversion systems. In earlier studies, we described a one-dimensional rotary reactor model, and used it to demonstrate the feasibility of continuous reactor operation. Though this detailed model provides a high resolution representation of the rotary reactor performance, it is too computationally expensive for studies that require multiple model evaluations. Specifically, it is not ideal for system-level studies where the reactor is a single component in an energy conversion system. In this study, we present a reduced fidelity model (RFM) of the rotary reactor that reduces computational cost and determines an optimal combination of variables that satisfy reactor design requirements. Simulation results for copper, nickel and iron-based oxygen carriers show a four-order of magnitude reduction in simulation time, and reasonable prediction accuracy. Deviations from the detailed reference model predictions range from 3% to 20%, depending on oxygen carrier type and operating conditions. This study also demonstrates how the reduced model can be modified to deal with both optimization and design oriented problems. A parametric study using the reduced model is then applied to analyze the sensitivity of the optimal reactor design to changes in selected operating and kinetic parameters. These studies show that temperature and activation energy have a greater impact on optimal geometry than parameters like pressure or feed fuel

  20. Polarized Light Corridor Demonstrations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davies, G. R.

    1990-01-01

    Eleven demonstrations of light polarization are presented. Each includes a brief description of the apparatus and the effect demonstrated. Illustrated are strain patterns, reflection, scattering, the Faraday Effect, interference, double refraction, the polarizing microscope, and optical activity. (CW)

  1. Steganalysis based on reducing the differences of image statistical characteristics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Ran; Niu, Shaozhang; Ping, Xijian; Zhang, Tao

    2018-04-01

    Compared with the process of embedding, the image contents make a more significant impact on the differences of image statistical characteristics. This makes the image steganalysis to be a classification problem with bigger withinclass scatter distances and smaller between-class scatter distances. As a result, the steganalysis features will be inseparate caused by the differences of image statistical characteristics. In this paper, a new steganalysis framework which can reduce the differences of image statistical characteristics caused by various content and processing methods is proposed. The given images are segmented to several sub-images according to the texture complexity. Steganalysis features are separately extracted from each subset with the same or close texture complexity to build a classifier. The final steganalysis result is figured out through a weighted fusing process. The theoretical analysis and experimental results can demonstrate the validity of the framework.

  2. Jersey City energy conservation demonstration program. Final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Newbold, R.F.

    1978-08-01

    The Aerospace Corporation, the City Government, and the Board of Education of Jersey City have conducted a group of energy-conservation experiments to explore a number of conservation techniques believed to offer quick payback and to be of wide applicability. Experiments include the updating and/or rehabilitation of the energy-consuming features of old buildings and installation of devices designed to minimize energy losses caused by human error or laxity. Specific examples include: upgrading of the deteriorated and inefficient steam-distribution system of the city hall (originally constructed in 1894); an extensive program of reducing infiltration in an old school building; use of several timing devices in connection with heating, ventilation, and lighting systems to encourage energy-conservation practices; retrofit of school classrooms with high-pressure sodium lamps; and demonstration of practical and cost-effective ways of increasing the efficiency of conventional steam boilers. The report presents: the nature of the selected experiments; technical, human, and organizational factors that proved significant in performing and evaluating the experiments; discussions of observations and lessons learned; and general recommendations for an extended program of energy conservation in local governments. It is emphasized that, in retrofit of existing buildings, the unexpected is commonplace; and the habits and attitudes of building occupants are elements of the system that must always be taken into account. This report shows the benefits of energy saving, cost saving, and added comfort that may be attained by retrofitting old buildings, noting typical complications that arise. The effectiveness of the conservation methods is presented in terms of costs relative to effective payback periods calculated from results of their application in Jersey City.

  3. Comparing Demonstratives in Kwa

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This paper is a comparative study of demonstrative forms in three K wa languages, ... relative distance from the deictic centre, such as English this and that, here and there. ... Mostly, the referents of demonstratives are 'activated' or at least.

  4. Argonne-West facility requirements for a radioactive waste treatment demonstration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dwight, C.C.; Felicione, F.S.; Black, D.B.; Kelso, R.B.; McClellan, G.C.

    1995-01-01

    At Argonne National Laboratory-West (ANL-W), near Idaho Falls, Idaho, facilities that were originally constructed to support the development of liquid-metal reactor technology are being used and/or modified to meet the environmental and waste management research needs of DOE. One example is the use of an Argonne-West facility to conduct a radioactive waste treatment demonstration through a cooperative project with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and Lockheed Idaho Technologies Company. The Plasma Hearth Process (PBP) project will utilize commercially-adapted plasma arc technology to demonstrate treatment of actual mixed waste. The demonstration on radioactive waste will be conducted at Argonne's Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT). Utilization of an existing facility for a new and different application presents a unique set of issues in meeting applicable federal state, and local requirements as well as the additional constraints imposed by DOE Orders and ANL-W site requirements. This paper briefly describes the PHP radioactive demonstrations relevant to the interfaces with the TREAT facility. Safety, environmental design, and operational considerations pertinent to the PHP radioactive demonstration are specifically addressed herein. The personnel equipment, and facility interfaces associated with a radioactive waste treatment demonstration are an important aspect of the demonstration effort. Areas requiring significant effort in preparation for the PBP Project being conducted at the TREAT facility include confinement design, waste handling features, and sampling and analysis considerations. Information about the facility in which a radioactive demonstration will be conducted, specifically Argonne's TREAT facility in the case of PHP, may be of interest to other organizations involved in developing and demonstrating technologies for mixed waste treatment

  5. Social networking strategies that aim to reduce obesity have achieved significant although modest results.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ashrafian, Hutan; Toma, Tania; Harling, Leanne; Kerr, Karen; Athanasiou, Thanos; Darzi, Ara

    2014-09-01

    The global epidemic of obesity continues to escalate. Obesity accounts for an increasing proportion of the international socioeconomic burden of noncommunicable disease. Online social networking services provide an effective medium through which information may be exchanged between obese and overweight patients and their health care providers, potentially contributing to superior weight-loss outcomes. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the role of these services in modifying body mass index (BMI). Our analysis of twelve studies found that interventions using social networking services produced a modest but significant 0.64 percent reduction in BMI from baseline for the 941 people who participated in the studies' interventions. We recommend that social networking services that target obesity should be the subject of further clinical trials. Additionally, we recommend that policy makers adopt reforms that promote the use of anti-obesity social networking services, facilitate multistakeholder partnerships in such services, and create a supportive environment to confront obesity and its associated noncommunicable diseases. Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

  6. Quasi-equilibria in reduced Liouville spaces.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Halse, Meghan E; Dumez, Jean-Nicolas; Emsley, Lyndon

    2012-06-14

    The quasi-equilibrium behaviour of isolated nuclear spin systems in full and reduced Liouville spaces is discussed. We focus in particular on the reduced Liouville spaces used in the low-order correlations in Liouville space (LCL) simulation method, a restricted-spin-space approach to efficiently modelling the dynamics of large networks of strongly coupled spins. General numerical methods for the calculation of quasi-equilibrium expectation values of observables in Liouville space are presented. In particular, we treat the cases of a time-independent Hamiltonian, a time-periodic Hamiltonian (with and without stroboscopic sampling) and powder averaging. These quasi-equilibrium calculation methods are applied to the example case of spin diffusion in solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance. We show that there are marked differences between the quasi-equilibrium behaviour of spin systems in the full and reduced spaces. These differences are particularly interesting in the time-periodic-Hamiltonian case, where simulations carried out in the reduced space demonstrate ergodic behaviour even for small spins systems (as few as five homonuclei). The implications of this ergodic property on the success of the LCL method in modelling the dynamics of spin diffusion in magic-angle spinning experiments of powders is discussed.

  7. NASA's ATM Technology Demonstration-1: Integrated Concept of Arrival Operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baxley, Brian T.; Swenson, Harry N.; Prevot, Thomas; Callantine, Todd J.

    2012-01-01

    This paper describes operations and procedures envisioned for NASA s Air Traffic Management (ATM) Technology Demonstration #1 (ATD-1). The ATD-1 Concept of Operations (ConOps) demonstration will integrate three NASA technologies to achieve high throughput, fuel-efficient arrival operations into busy terminal airspace. They are Traffic Management Advisor with Terminal Metering (TMA-TM) for precise time-based schedules to the runway and points within the terminal area, Controller-Managed Spacing (CMS) decision support tools for terminal controllers to better manage aircraft delay using speed control, and Flight deck Interval Management (FIM) avionics and flight crew procedures to conduct airborne spacing operations. The ATD-1 concept provides de-conflicted and efficient operations of multiple arrival streams of aircraft, passing through multiple merge points, from top-of-descent (TOD) to touchdown. It also enables aircraft to conduct Optimized Profile Descents (OPDs) from en route altitude to the runway, using primarily speed control to maintain separation and schedule. The ATD-1 project is currently addressing the challenges of integrating the three technologies, and implantation into an operational environment. Goals of the ATD-1 demonstration include increasing the throughput of high-density airports, reducing controller workload, increasing efficiency of arrival operations and the frequency of trajectory-based operations, and promoting aircraft ADS-B equipage.

  8. Climate Clever Clovers: New Paradigm to Reduce the Environmental Footprint of Ruminants by Breeding Low Methanogenic Forages Utilizing Haplotype Variation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Parwinder Kaur

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Mitigating methane production by ruminants is a significant challenge to global livestock production. This research offers a new paradigm to reduce methane emissions from ruminants by breeding climate-clever clovers. We demonstrate wide genetic diversity for the trait methanogenic potential in Australia’s key pasture legume, subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum L.. In a bi-parental population the broadsense heritability in methanogenic potential was moderate (H2 = 0.4 and allelic variation in a region of Chr 8 accounted for 7.8% of phenotypic variation. In a genome-wide association study we identified four loci controlling methanogenic potential assessed by an in vitro fermentation system. Significantly, the discovery of a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP on Chr 5 in a defined haplotype block with an upstream putative candidate gene from a plant peroxidase-like superfamily (TSub_g18548 and a downstream lectin receptor protein kinase (TSub_g18549 provides valuable candidates for an assay for this complex trait. In this way haplotype variation can be tracked to breed pastures with reduced methanogenic potential. Of the quantitative trait loci candidates, the DNA-damage-repair/toleration DRT100-like protein (TSub_g26967, linked to avoid the severity of DNA damage induced by secondary metabolites, is considered central to enteric methane production, as are disease resistance (TSub_g26971, TSub_g26972, and TSub_g18549 and ribonuclease proteins (TSub_g26974, TSub_g26975. These proteins are good pointers to elucidate the genetic basis of in vitro microbial fermentability and enteric methanogenic potential in subterranean clover. The genes identified allow the design of a suite of markers for marker-assisted selection to reduce rumen methane emission in selected pasture legumes. We demonstrate the feasibility of a plant breeding approach without compromising animal productivity to mitigate enteric methane emissions, which is one of the most

  9. pancreatic steatosis: diagnosis and clinical significance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Murat Daðdeviren

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Pancreatic steatosis (PS, with increased use of abdominal imaging in recent years generally appears as incidental. But it is a condition that is often overlooked. The reason for this is not yet fully demonstrated the clinical significance of PS while. However, in recent years, there are some studies conducted on the relationship with ps and other disease such as diabetes, metabolic syndrome, acute and chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. In this review, the etiology, diagnosis, treatment and clinical characteristics of ps were evaluated in the light of recent literature and current approaches. [J Contemp Med 2017; 7(1.000: 107-112

  10. Effects of reducing attentional resources on implicit and explicit memory after severe traumatic brain injury.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watt, S; Shores, E A; Kinoshita, S

    1999-07-01

    Implicit and explicit memory were examined in individuals with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) under conditions of full and divided attention. Participants included 12 individuals with severe TBI and 12 matched controls. In Experiment 1, participants carried out an implicit test of word-stem completion and an explicit test of cued recall. Results demonstrated that TBI participants exhibited impaired explicit memory but preserved implicit memory. In Experiment 2, a significant reduction in the explicit memory performance of both TBI and control participants, as well as a significant decrease in the implicit memory performance of TBI participants, was achieved by reducing attentional resources at encoding. These results indicated that performance on an implicit task of word-stem completion may require the availability of additional attentional resources that are not preserved after severe TBI.

  11. Tested Demonstrations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gilbert, George L., Ed.

    1987-01-01

    Describes two demonstrations to illustrate characteristics of substances. Outlines a method to detect the changes in pH levels during the electrolysis of water. Uses water pistols, one filled with methane gas and the other filled with water, to illustrate the differences in these two substances. (TW)

  12. NASA Technology Demonstrations Missions Program Overview

    Science.gov (United States)

    Turner, Susan

    2011-01-01

    The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Fiscal Year 2010 (FY10) budget introduced a new strategic plan that placed renewed emphasis on advanced missions beyond Earth orbit. This supports NASA s 2011 strategic goal to create innovative new space technologies for our exploration, science, and economic future. As a result of this focus on undertaking many and more complex missions, NASA placed its attention on a greater investment in technology development, and this shift resulted in the establishment of the Technology Demonstrations Missions (TDM) Program. The TDM Program, within the newly formed NASA Office of the Chief Technologist, supports NASA s grand challenges by providing a steady cadence of advanced space technology demonstrations (Figure 1), allowing the infusion of flexible path capabilities for future exploration. The TDM Program's goal is to mature crosscutting capabilities to flight readiness in support of multiple future space missions, including flight test projects where demonstration is needed before the capability can transition to direct mission The TDM Program has several unique criteria that set it apart from other NASA program offices. For instance, the TDM Office matures a small number of technologies that are of benefit to multiple customers to flight technology readiness level (TRL) 6 through relevant environment testing on a 3-year development schedule. These technologies must be crosscutting, which is defined as technology with potential to benefit multiple mission directorates, other government agencies, or the aerospace industry, and they must capture significant public interest and awareness. These projects will rely heavily on industry partner collaboration, and funding is capped for all elements of the flight test demonstration including planning, hardware development, software development, launch costs, ground operations, and post-test assessments. In order to inspire collaboration across government and industry

  13. Demonstration in the DIII-D tokamak of an alternate baseline scenario for ITER and other burning plasma experiments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Luce, T.C.; Ferron, J.R.; Wade, M.R.

    2003-01-01

    Discharges which can satisfy the high gain goals of burning plasma experiments have been demonstrated in the DIII-D tokamak in stationary conditions with relatively low plasma current (q 95 > 4). A figure of merit for fusion gain β N H 89 / q 95 2 2 has been maintained at values corresponding to Q = 10 operation in a burning plasma for >6 s or 36 τ E and 2 τ R . The key element is the relaxation of the current profile to a stationary state with q min > 1, which allows stable operation up to the no-wall ideal β limit. These plasmas maintain particle balance by active pumping rather than transient wall conditioning. The reduced current lessens significantly the potential for structural damage in the event of a major disruption. (author)

  14. Simple risk stratification at admission to identify patients with reduced mortality from primary angioplasty

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thune, Jens Jakob; Hoefsten, Dan Eik; Lindholm, Matias Greve

    2005-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Randomized trials comparing fibrinolysis with primary angioplasty for acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction have demonstrated a beneficial effect of primary angioplasty on the combined end point of death, reinfarction, and disabling stroke but not on all-cause death. Identifying...... a patient group with reduced mortality from an invasive strategy would be important for early triage. The Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) risk score is a simple validated integer score that makes it possible to identify high-risk patients on admission to hospital. We hypothesized that a high...... as high risk. There was a significant interaction between risk status and effect of primary angioplasty (P=0.008). In the low-risk group, there was no difference in mortality (primary angioplasty, 8.0%; fibrinolysis, 5.6%; P=0.11); in the high-risk group, there was a significant reduction in mortality...

  15. Demonstration of a day-night rhythm in human skeletal muscle oxidative capacity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Moorsel, Dirk; Hansen, Jan; Havekes, Bas; Scheer, Frank A J L; Jörgensen, Johanna A; Hoeks, Joris; Schrauwen-Hinderling, Vera B; Duez, Helene; Lefebvre, Philippe; Schaper, Nicolaas C; Hesselink, Matthijs K C; Staels, Bart; Schrauwen, Patrick

    2016-08-01

    A disturbed day-night rhythm is associated with metabolic perturbations that can lead to obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). In skeletal muscle, a reduced oxidative capacity is also associated with the development of T2DM. However, whether oxidative capacity in skeletal muscle displays a day-night rhythm in humans has so far not been investigated. Lean, healthy subjects were enrolled in a standardized living protocol with regular meals, physical activity and sleep to reflect our everyday lifestyle. Mitochondrial oxidative capacity was examined in skeletal muscle biopsies taken at five time points within a 24-hour period. Core-body temperature was lower during the early night, confirming a normal day-night rhythm. Skeletal muscle oxidative capacity demonstrated a robust day-night rhythm, with a significant time effect in ADP-stimulated respiration (state 3 MO, state 3 MOG and state 3 MOGS, p < 0.05). Respiration was lowest at 1 PM and highest at 11 PM (state 3 MOGS: 80.6 ± 4.0 vs. 95.8 ± 4.7 pmol/mg/s). Interestingly, the fluctuation in mitochondrial function was also observed in whole-body energy expenditure, with peak energy expenditure at 11 PM and lowest energy expenditure at 4 AM (p < 0.001). In addition, we demonstrate rhythmicity in mRNA expression of molecular clock genes in human skeletal muscle. Our results suggest that the biological clock drives robust rhythms in human skeletal muscle oxidative metabolism. It is tempting to speculate that disruption of these rhythms contribute to the deterioration of metabolic health associated with circadian misalignment.

  16. The GCKR rs780094 polymorphism is associated with elevated fasting serum triacylglycerol, reduced fasting and OGTT-related insulinaemia, and reduced risk of type 2 diabetes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sparsø, T; Andersen, G; Nielsen, T

    2007-01-01

    to metabolic traits (mainly fasting hypertriacylglycerolaemia) and traits related to pancreatic beta cell function. METHODS: The polymorphism was genotyped in 16,853 Danes using Taqman allelic discrimination. Association was analysed in case-control studies and quantitative trait analyses. We also analysed...... the possible interactive effect between the GCK -30G>A polymorphism and the GCKR rs780094 variant on metabolic traits. RESULTS: The minor GCKR A-allele of rs780094 is associated with an increased level of fasting serum triacylglycerol (p = 6 x 10(-14)), impaired fasting (p = 0.001) and OGTT-related insulin...... release (p = 3 x 10(-6)), reduced homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (p = 0.0004), WHO-defined dyslipidaemia (p = 6 x 10(-9)) and a modestly decreased risk of type 2 diabetes (p = 0.01). Significantly increased fasting serum insulin concentrations were demonstrated when analysing the GCK...

  17. Novel Omega-3 Fatty Acid Epoxygenase Metabolite Reduces Kidney Fibrosis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharma, Amit; Khan, Md. Abdul Hye; Levick, Scott P.; Lee, Kin Sing Stephen; Hammock, Bruce D.; Imig, John D.

    2016-01-01

    Cytochrome P450 (CYP) monooxygenases epoxidize the omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) docosahexaenoic acid into novel epoxydocosapentaenoic acids (EDPs) that have multiple biological actions. The present study determined the ability of the most abundant EDP regioisomer, 19,20-EDP to reduce kidney injury in an experimental unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) renal fibrosis mouse model. Mice with UUO developed kidney tubular injury and interstitial fibrosis. UUO mice had elevated kidney hydroxyproline content and five-times greater collagen positive fibrotic area than sham control mice. 19,20-EDP treatment to UUO mice for 10 days reduced renal fibrosis with a 40%–50% reduction in collagen positive area and hydroxyproline content. There was a six-fold increase in kidney α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) positive area in UUO mice compared to sham control mice, and 19,20-EDP treatment to UUO mice decreased α-SMA immunopositive area by 60%. UUO mice demonstrated renal epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) with reduced expression of the epithelial marker E-cadherin and elevated expression of multiple mesenchymal markers (FSP-1, α-SMA, and desmin). Interestingly, 19,20-EDP treatment reduced renal EMT in UUO by decreasing mesenchymal and increasing epithelial marker expression. Overall, we demonstrate that a novel omega-3 fatty acid metabolite 19,20-EDP, prevents UUO-induced renal fibrosis in mice by reducing renal EMT. PMID:27213332

  18. Demonstration of fuel resistant to pellet-cladding interaction. First semiannual report, July-December 1977

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rosenbaum, H.S. (comp.)

    1978-02-01

    Objective is the demonstration od advanced fuel concepts that are resistant to the failure mechanism known as fuel pellet-cladding interaction (PCI). Since currently used fuel in the nuclear power industry is subject to the PCI failure mechanism, reactor operators limit the rates of power increases and thus reduce their capacity factors in order to protect the fuel. Two barrier concepts are being prepared for demonstration: (a) Cu-Barrier fuel and (b) Zr-Liner fuel. The large-scale demonstration of the PCI-resistant fuel is being designed generically to show feasibility of such a demonstration in a commercial power reactor of type BWR/3 having a steady-state core. Using the core of Quad Cities-1 reactor at the beginning of Cycle 6, the insertion of the demonstration PCI-resistant fuel and the reactor operational plan are being designed. Support laboratory tests to date for the Demonstration have shown that these barrier fuels (both the Cu-Barrier and the Zr-Liner types) are resistant to PCI. Four lead test assemblies (LTA) of the advanced PCI-resistant fuel are being fabricated for insertion into the Quad Cities-1 Boiling Water Reactor at the beginning of Cycle 5 (January 1979).

  19. Demonstration test of in-service inspection methods

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Takumi, Kenji

    1987-01-01

    The major objectives of the project are: (1) to demonstrate the reliability of a manual ultrasonic flaw detector and techniques that are used in operating light water reactor plants and (2) to demonstrate the performance and reliability of an automatic ultrasonic flaw detector that is designed to shorten the time required for ISI work and reduce the exposure risk of inspection personnel. The test project consists of three stages. In the first stage, which ended in 1982, defects were added intentionally to a model structure the same in size as a typical 1.1 million kW BWR plant and manual ultrasonic flaw detection tensting was performed. In the second stage, completed in 1984, automatic eddy-current flaw detection testing was carried out for defects in heat transfer piping of a PWP steam generator. In the third stage, which started in 1981 and ended in March 1987, a newly developed automatic ultrasonic flaw detector is applied to testing of defects used for the manual detector performance evaluation. Results have shown that the automatic eddy-current flaw detector under test has an adequately stable performance for practical uses, with a very high reproducibility to permit close inspection of secular deterioration in heat transfer pipes. It has also revealed that both the manual and automatic ultrasonic flaw detectors under test can detect all defects that do not comply with the ASME standards. (Nogami, K.)

  20. Design and Performance of the NASA SCEPTOR Distributed Electric Propulsion Flight Demonstrator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borer, Nicholas K.; Patterson, Michael D.; Viken, Jeffrey K.; Moore, Mark D.; Clarke, Sean; Redifer, Matthew E.; Christie, Robert J.; Stoll, Alex M.; Dubois, Arthur; Bevirt, JoeBen; hide

    2016-01-01

    Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) technology uses multiple propulsors driven by electric motors distributed about the airframe to yield beneficial aerodynamic-propulsion interaction. The NASA SCEPTOR flight demonstration project will retrofit an existing internal combustion engine-powered light aircraft with two types of DEP: small "high-lift" propellers distributed along the leading edge of the wing which accelerate the flow over the wing at low speeds, and larger cruise propellers co-located with each wingtip for primary propulsive power. The updated high-lift system enables a 2.5x reduction in wing area as compared to the original aircraft, reducing drag at cruise and shifting the velocity for maximum lift-to-drag ratio to a higher speed, while maintaining low-speed performance. The wingtip-mounted cruise propellers interact with the wingtip vortex, enabling a further efficiency increase that can reduce propulsive power by 10%. A tradespace exploration approach is developed that enables rapid identification of salient trades, and subsequent creation of SCEPTOR demonstrator geometries. These candidates were scrutinized by subject matter experts to identify design preferences that were not modeled during configuration exploration. This exploration and design approach is used to create an aircraft that consumes an estimated 4.8x less energy at the selected cruise point when compared to the original aircraft.

  1. Clinical significance of peritoneal and retroperitoneal edema in patients with de-compensated cirrhosis as demonstrated by CT scan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xue Yanshan; Wang Jun; Wang Xinwen

    2002-01-01

    Objective: To investigate the clinical significance of peritoneal and retroperitoneal edema in patients with de-compensated cirrhosis (DCC). Methods: Forty-four patients, were identified with DCC on the basis of clinic and laboratory examinations, except the cases with mesenteric, omental and retroperitoneal edema caused by inflammatory and malignant diseases. The diagnosis of edema depended upon hyper-density in peritoneal and retroperitoneal. The degree of edema was divided into minor, middle, and sever types based on the extent of edema. Ascites, varices, serum albumin (ALB) levels, and hyaluronic acid (HA) levels were also documented. Correlations between the laboratory and CT findings were analyzed. Results: The severity of peritoneal edema was correlated with decreasing serum ALB (r s = 0.7088, P s = 0.5294, P s = 0.5440, P s = 0.1335, P > 0.05). Conclusion: CT findings of the edema in peritoneal and retroperitoneal may indicate the severity of the liver cirrhosis

  2. Calorie restriction reduces the incidence of radiation-induced myeloid leukemia and spontaneous tumor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yoshida, Kazuko

    1999-01-01

    The host-defense mechanisms against cancers are known to be modulated by changing the environmental factor(s). The spontaneous incidence of myeloid leukemia is about 1% in C3H/He mice, and the incidence increases up to 23.3% when a single dose of radiation, 3 Gy X-ray, is exposed to a whole-body. Since calorie restriction was known to reduce the incidence of spontaneous tumors, a question as to whether such radiation induced-increase of myeloid leukemia would be also decreased by calorie restriction, was aimed to answer to elucidate possible mechanism of radiation-induced myeloid leukemia. By the calorie restriction, the incidence of myeloid leukemia was significantly decreased; it was reduced to 7.9% and 10.7% when restriction was started before (6 weeks old) and after (10 weeks old) irradiation, respectively. In addition, the latent period of the myeloid leukemia in the groups for calorie restriction was significantly extended at a greater extent as compared with the control diet groups. Number of hematopoietic stem cells, the possible target cells for radiation-induced leukemias, in the groups for the calorie restriction demonstrated a significant decrease, especially in the spleen, as compared with that in the control, when the evaluation was made at the time of radiation exposure. Then, we examined whether the decreased number of target cells at the time of exposure is caused by the reduction of radiation-induced myeloid leukemia with caloric restriction. The third restricted groups were fed 65 kcal diet (restricted diet) for the first 4 weeks i.e. from 6 weeks to 10 weeks old, then, the mice were fed with control diet after radiation. The incidence of myeloid leukemia in this group was slightly decreased but did not show statistically significance. Therefore, the caloric restriction seems to be more effective in the promotion stage than the initiation stage on radiation-induced leukemogenesis. It is well known that C3H/He mice develop hepatoma spontaneously

  3. Selective neurocognitive deficits and poor life functioning are associated with significant depressive symptoms in alcoholism-HIV infection comorbidity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sassoon, Stephanie A; Rosenbloom, Margaret J; Fama, Rosemary; Sullivan, Edith V; Pfefferbaum, Adolf

    2012-09-30

    Alcoholism, HIV, and depressive symptoms frequently co-occur and are associated with impairment in cognition and life function. We administered the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), measures of life function, and neurocognitive tests to 67 alcoholics, 56 HIV+ patients, 63 HIV+ alcoholics, and 64 controls to examine whether current depressive symptom level (significant, BDI-II>14 vs. minimal, BDI-IIalcoholism-HIV comorbidity. Participants with significant depressive symptoms demonstrated slower manual motor speed and poorer visuospatial memory than those with minimal depressive symptoms. HIV patients with depressive symptoms showed impaired manual motor speed. Alcoholics with depressive symptoms showed impaired visuospatial memory. HIV+ alcoholics with depressive symptoms reported the poorest quality of life; alcoholics with depressive symptoms, irrespective of HIV status, had poorest life functioning. Thus, significant depressive symptoms were associated with poorer selective cognitive and life functioning in alcoholism and in HIV infection, even though depressive symptoms had neither synergistic nor additive effects on cognition in alcoholism-HIV comorbidity. The results suggest the relevance of assessing and treating current depressive symptoms to reduce cognitive compromise and functional disability in HIV infection, alcoholism, and their comorbidity. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Orange County Government Solar Demonstration and Research Facility

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Parker, Renee [Orange County Florida, Orlando, Florida (United States); Cunniff, Lori [Orange County Florida, Orlando, Florida (United States)

    2015-05-12

    Orange County Florida completed the construction of a 20 kilowatt Solar Demonstration and Research Facility in March 2015. The system was constructed at the Orange County/University of Florida Cooperative Extension Center whose electric service address is 6021 South Conway Road, Orlando, Florida 32802. The Solar Demonstration and Research Facility is comprised of 72 polycrystalline photovoltaic modules and 3 inverters which convert direct current from the solar panels to alternating current electricity. Each module produces 270 watts of direct current power, for a total canopy production of just under 20,000 watts. The solar modules were installed with a fixed tilt of 5 degrees and face south, toward the equator to maximize the amount of sunlight captures. Each year, the electricity generated by the solar array will help eliminate 20 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions as well as provide covered parking for staff and visitors vehicles. The solar array is expected to generate 27,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually equating to an estimated $266 savings in the monthly electric bill, or $3,180 annually for the Orange County/University of Florida Cooperative Extension Center. In addition to reducing the electric bill for the Extension Center, Orange County’s solar array also takes advantage of a rebate incentive offered by the local utility, Orlando Utility Commission, which provided a meter that measures the amount of power produced by the solar array. The local utility company’s Solar Photovoltaic Production Incentive will pay Orange County $0.05 per kilowatt hour for the power that is produced by the solar array. This incentive is provided in addition to Net Metering benefits, which is an effort to promote the use of clean, renewable energy on the electric grid. The Photovoltaic Solar Demonstration and Research Facility also serves an educational tool to the public; the solar array is tied directly into a data logger that provides real time power

  5. Executive summary of the Cryofracture demonstration program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Loomis, G.; Osborne, D.; Ancho, M.

    1991-09-01

    This report provides an executive summary of the Cryofracture demonstration program performed at Nuclear Remedial Technologies Corporation under contract to EG ampersand G Idaho, Inc., for the Department of Energy (DOE). Cryofracture is a size-reducing process whereby objects are frozen whereby objects are frozen to liquid nitrogen temperatures and crushed in a large hydraulic press. Material at the cryogenic temperatures have low ductility and are easily size reduced by fracturing. The main application being investigated for the DOE is for retrieved buried and stored transuranic (TRU) waste. Six 55-gallon drums and six 2 ft x 2 ft x 8 ft boxes containing simulated waste with tracers were subjected to the Cryofracture process. Data was obtained on (a) cool-down time, (b) yield strength of the containers, (c) size distribution of the waste before and after the Cryofracture process, (d) volume reduction of the waste, and (e) sampling of air and surface dusts for spread of tracers to evaluate potential contamination spread. The Cryofracture process was compared to conventional shredders and detailed cost estimates were established for construction of a Cryofracture facility at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. Although cost estimates for conventional shredding are higher for Cryofracture, the potential for fire and explosion during conventional shredding would incur additional costs to preclude these events. These additional costs are unknown and would require considerable research and development. 4 refs., 6 figs., 7 tabs

  6. Reduced Slc6a15 in Nucleus Accumbens D2-Neurons Underlies Stress Susceptibility.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chandra, Ramesh; Francis, T Chase; Nam, Hyungwoo; Riggs, Lace M; Engeln, Michel; Rudzinskas, Sarah; Konkalmatt, Prasad; Russo, Scott J; Turecki, Gustavo; Iniguez, Sergio D; Lobo, Mary Kay

    2017-07-05

    Previous research demonstrates that Slc6a15, a neutral amino acid transporter, is associated with depression susceptibility. However, no study examined Slc6a15 in the ventral striatum [nucleus accumbens (NAc)] in depression. Given our previous characterization of Slc6a15 as a striatal dopamine receptor 2 (D2)-neuron-enriched gene, we examined the role of Slc6a15 in NAc D2-neurons in mediating susceptibility to stress in male mice. First, we showed that Slc6a15 mRNA was reduced in NAc of mice susceptible to chronic social defeat stress (CSDS), a paradigm that produces behavioral and molecular adaptations that resemble clinical depression. Consistent with our preclinical data, we observed Slc6a15 mRNA reduction in NAc of individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD). The Slc6a15 reduction in NAc occurred selectively in D2-neurons. Next, we used Cre-inducible viruses combined with D2-Cre mice to reduce or overexpress Slc6a15 in NAc D2-neurons. Slc6a15 reduction in D2-neurons caused enhanced susceptibility to a subthreshold social defeat stress (SSDS) as observed by reduced social interaction, while a reduction in social interaction following CSDS was not observed when Slc6a15 expression in D2-neurons was restored. Finally, since both D2-medium spiny neurons (MSNs) and D2-expressing choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) interneurons express Slc6a15, we examined Slc6a15 protein in these interneurons after CSDS. Slc6a15 protein was unaltered in ChAT interneurons. Consistent with this, reducing Slc5a15 selectively in NAc D2-MSNs, using A2A-Cre mice that express Cre selectively in D2-MSNs, caused enhanced susceptibility to SSDS. Collectively, our data demonstrate that reduced Slc6a15 in NAc occurs in MDD individuals and that Slc6a15 reduction in NAc D2-neurons underlies stress susceptibility. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Our study demonstrates a role for reduced Slc6a15, a neutral amino acid transporter, in nucleus accumbens (NAc) in depression and stress susceptibility. The

  7. Identifying significant uncertainties in thermally dependent processes for repository performance analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gansemer, J.D.; Lamont, A.

    1994-01-01

    In order to study the performance of the potential Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, scientific investigations are being conducted to reduce the uncertainty about process models and system parameters. This paper is intended to demonstrate a method for determining a strategy for the cost effective management of these investigations. It is not meant to be a complete study of all processes and interactions, but does outline a method which can be applied to more in-depth investigations

  8. Reprocessing yields and material throughput: HTGR recycle demonstration facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Holder, N.; Abraham, L.

    1977-08-01

    Recovery and reuse of residual U-235 and bred U-233 from the HTGR thorium-uranium fuel cycle will contribute significantly to HTGR fuel cycle economics and to uranium resource conservation. The Thorium Utilization National Program Plan for HTGR Fuel Recycle Development includes the demonstration, on a production scale, of reprocessing and refabrication processes in an HTGR Recycle Demonstration Facility (HRDF). This report addresses process yields and material throughput that may be typically expected in the reprocessing of highly enriched uranium fuels in the HRDF. Material flows will serve as guidance in conceptual design of the reprocessing portion of the HRDF. In addition, uranium loss projections, particle breakage limits, and decontamination factor requirements are identified to serve as guidance to the HTGR fuel reprocessing development program

  9. Clinical significance of adiponectin expression in colon cancer patients

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mustafa Canhoroz

    2014-01-01

    Conclusion: Adiponectin, which is secreted by adipose tissue, may have a role in the development and progression of cancer via its pro-apoptotic and/or anti-proliferative effects. Adiponectin expression in tumor tissues is likely to have a negative effect on disease - free survival in patients with stage II/III colon cancer; however, no statistically significant effect was demonstrated.

  10. ''Reduced'' magnetohydrodynamics and minimum dissipation rates

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Montgomery, D.

    1992-01-01

    It is demonstrated that all solutions of the equations of ''reduced'' magnetohydrodynamics approach a uniform-current, zero-flow state for long times, given a constant wall electric field, uniform scalar viscosity and resistivity, and uniform mass density. This state is the state of minimum energy dissipation rate for these boundary conditions. No steady-state turbulence is possible. The result contrasts sharply with results for full three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics before the reduction occurs

  11. Secukinumab Significantly Reduces Psoriasis-Related Work Impairment and Indirect Costs Compared With Ustekinumab and Etanercept in the United Kingdom.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Warren, R B; Halliday, A; Graham, C N; Gilloteau, I; Miles, L; McBride, D

    2018-05-30

    Psoriasis causes work productivity impairment that increases with disease severity. Whether differential treatment efficacy translates into differential indirect cost savings is unknown. To assess work hours lost and indirect costs associated with secukinumab versus ustekinumab and etanercept in the United Kingdom (UK). This was a post hoc analysis of work impairment data collected in the CLEAR study (secukinumab vs. ustekinumab) and applied to the FIXTURE study (secukinumab vs. etanercept). Weighted weekly and annual average indirect costs per patient per treatment were calculated from (1) overall work impairment derived from Work Productivity and Activity Impairment data collected in CLEAR at 16 and 52 weeks by Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) response level; (2) weekly/annual work productivity loss by PASI response level; (3) weekly and annual indirect costs by PASI response level, based on hours of work productivity loss; and (4) weighted average indirect costs for each treatment. In the primary analysis, work impairment data for employed patients in CLEAR at Week 16 were used to compare secukinumab and ustekinumab. Secondary analyses were conducted at different timepoints and with patient cohorts, including FIXTURE. In CLEAR, 452 patients (67%) were employed at baseline. At Week 16, percentages of weekly work impairment/mean hours lost decreased with higher PASI: PASI hours; PASI 50-74: 13.3%/4.45 hours; PASI 75-89: 6.4%/2.14 hours; PASI ≥90: 4.9%/1.65 hours. Weighted mean weekly/annual work hours lost were significantly lower for secukinumab than ustekinumab (1.96/102.51 vs. 2.40/125.12; P=0.0006). Results were consistent for secukinumab versus etanercept (2.29/119.67 vs. 3.59/187.17; Ρreduced work impairment and associated indirect costs of psoriasis compared with ustekinumab and etanercept at Week 16 through 52 in the UK. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

  12. Alcohol reduces aversion to ambiguity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tadeusz eTyszka

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Several years ago, Cohen, Dearnaley, and Hansel [1] demonstrated that under the influence of alcohol drivers became more risk prone, although their risk perception remained unchanged. Research shows that ambiguity aversion is to some extent positively correlated with risk aversion, though not very highly [2]. The question addressed by the present research is whether alcohol reduces ambiguity aversion. Our research was conducted in a natural setting (a restaurant bar, where customers with differing levels of alcohol intoxication were offered a choice between a risky and an ambiguous lottery. We found that alcohol reduced ambiguity aversion and that the effect occurred in men but not women. We interpret these findings in terms of the risk-as-value hypothesis, according to which, people in Western culture tend to value risk, and suggest that alcohol consumption triggers adherence to socially and culturally valued patterns of conduct different for men and women.

  13. Alcohol reduces aversion to ambiguity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tyszka, Tadeusz; Macko, Anna; Stańczak, Maciej

    2014-01-01

    Several years ago, Cohen et al. (1958) demonstrated that under the influence of alcohol drivers became more risk prone, although their risk perception remained unchanged. Research shows that ambiguity aversion is to some extent positively correlated with risk aversion, though not very highly (Camerer and Weber, 1992). The question addressed by the present research is whether alcohol reduces ambiguity aversion. Our research was conducted in a natural setting (a restaurant bar), where customers with differing levels of alcohol intoxication were offered a choice between a risky and an ambiguous lottery. We found that alcohol reduced ambiguity aversion and that the effect occurred in men but not women. We interpret these findings in terms of the risk-as-value hypothesis, according to which, people in Western culture tend to value risk, and suggest that alcohol consumption triggers adherence to socially and culturally valued patterns of conduct different for men and women.

  14. A smart segmented blade system for reducing weight of the wind turbine rotor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lu, Hongya; Zeng, Pan; Lei, Liping; Yang, Yabin; Xu, Yuejie; Qian, Lingyun

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • A segmented blade system to light the wind turbine rotor is proposed. • The experiments in the wind tunnel and the numerical calculation are combined to validate the effectiveness of the design. • The moment of the blade below the hinged location are alleviated. • The mounting locations of the hinged rods significantly affect the moment distribution on the blade. • The gross weight of the blade can be reduced by 35.4%. - Abstract: The paper proposes a novel design concept for the wind turbine rotors. The design is composed of the segmented blades and a hinged-rods support structure (SBHR) as a means of reducing weight through alleviating the moment on the blade. A prototype of the design is manufactured. Focusing on the hinged-rods support structure (HRSS), a method combining the experiments and numerical calculation is developed to analyze its feasibility. The experiments in the wind tunnel platform were conducted to measure the loads at the root of the isolated blade and in the rods. A numerical model was developed to describe the designed wind turbine rotor using the measured loads in experiments. In the model, the mounting locations of the hinged rods significantly affected the moment distribution on the blade. Thus, two dimensionless indexes were determined to analyze its influences. The model perfectly explain the characteristics of the novel structure under different configurations. The results demonstrated that the moment of the blade below the hinged location were alleviated, which reduced the requirements for the material. A 43.1% reduction of the maximum moment can be achieved in the design. In addition, the gross reduced weight of the blade was estimated to be 35.4% based on the blade mass distribution along the span

  15. Notional Airspace Operations Demonstration Plan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trongale, Nicholas A.

    2006-01-01

    The airspace operations demonstration (AOD) is intended to show that the Access 5 Step 1 functional requirements can be met. The demonstration will occur in two phases. The initial on-range phase will be carried out in restricted airspace to demonstrate the cooperative collision avoidance (CCA) functional requirements and to provide risk-reduction for the AOD by allowing the test team to rehearse some elements of the demonstration mission. The CCA system to be used in these flights is based on Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) which is a commercially-available system by which airplanes constantly broadcast their current position and altitude to other aircraft and ground resources over a dedicated radio datalink. The final phase will occur in the national airspace (NAS) and will be the formal demonstration of the remainder of the proposed functional requirements. The general objectives of the AOD are as follows: (1) Demonstrate that the UAS can aviate in the NAS (2) Demonstrate that the UAS can navigate in the NAS (3) Demonstrate that the UAS can communicate with the NAS (4) Demonstrate that the UAS can perform selected collision avoidance functions in the NAS (5) Demonstrate that the UAS can evaluate and avoid weather conflicts in the NAS (6) Demonstrate that the UAS can provide adequate command and control in the NAS In addition to the stated objectives, there are a number of goals for the flight demonstration. The demo can be accomplished successfully without achieving these goals, but these goals are to be used as a guideline for preparing for the mission. The goals are: (1) Mission duration of at least 24 hours (2) Loiter over heavy traffic to evaluate the data block issue identified during the Access 5 Airspace Operations Simulations (3) Document the contingency management process and lessons learned (4) Document the coordination process for Ground Control Stations (GCS) handoff (5) Document lessons learned regarding the process of flying in

  16. Fasciola hepatica infection reduces Mycobacterium bovis burden and mycobacterial uptake and suppresses the pro-inflammatory response.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garza-Cuartero, L; O'Sullivan, J; Blanco, A; McNair, J; Welsh, M; Flynn, R J; Williams, D; Diggle, P; Cassidy, J; Mulcahy, G

    2016-07-01

    Bovine tuberculosis (BTB), caused by Mycobacterium bovis, has an annual incidence in cattle of 0.5% in the Republic of Ireland and 4.7% in the UK, despite long-standing eradication programmes being in place. Failure to achieve complete eradication is multifactorial, but the limitations of diagnostic tests are significant complicating factors. Previously, we have demonstrated that Fasciola hepatica infection, highly prevalent in these areas, induced reduced sensitivity of the standard diagnostic tests for BTB in animals co-infected with F. hepatica and M. bovis. This was accompanied by a reduced M. bovis-specific Th1 immune response. We hypothesized that these changes in co-infected animals would be accompanied by enhanced growth of M. bovis. However, we show here that mycobacterial burden in cattle is reduced in animals co-infected with F. hepatica. Furthermore, we demonstrate a lower mycobacterial recovery and uptake in blood monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) from F. hepatica-infected cattle which is associated with suppression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and a switch to alternative activation of macrophages. However, the cell surface expression of TLR2 and CD14 in MDM from F. hepatica-infected cattle is increased. These findings reflecting the bystander effect of helminth-induced downregulation of pro-inflammatory responses provide insights to understand host-pathogen interactions in co-infection. © 2016 The Authors. Parasite Immunology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  17. Demonstration of innovative monitoring technologies at the Savannah River Integrated Demonstration Site

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rossabi, J. [Westinghouse Savannah River Co., Aiken, SC (United States); Jenkins, R.A.; Wise, M.B. [Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)] [and others

    1993-12-31

    The Department of Energy`s Office of Technology Development initiated an Integrated Demonstration Program at the Savannah River Site in 1989. The objective of this program is to develop, demonstrate, and evaluate innovative technologies that can improve present-day environmental restoration methods. The Integrated Demonstration Program at SRS is entitled ``Cleanup of Organics in Soils and Groundwater at Non-Arid Sites.`` New technologies in the areas of drilling, characterization, monitoring, and remediation are being demonstrated and evaluated for their technical performance and cost effectiveness in comparison with baseline technologies. Present site characterization and monitoring methods are costly, time-consuming, overly invasive, and often imprecise. Better technologies are required to accurately describe the subsurface geophysical and geochemical features of a site and the nature and extent of contamination. More efficient, nonintrusive characterization and monitoring techniques are necessary for understanding and predicting subsurface transport. More reliable procedures are also needed for interpreting monitoring and characterization data. Site characterization and monitoring are key elements in preventing, identifying, and restoring contaminated sites. The remediation of a site cannot be determined without characterization data, and monitoring may be required for 30 years after site closure.

  18. Demonstration of innovative monitoring technologies at the Savannah River Integrated Demonstration Site

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rossabi, J.; Jenkins, R.A.; Wise, M.B.

    1993-01-01

    The Department of Energy's Office of Technology Development initiated an Integrated Demonstration Program at the Savannah River Site in 1989. The objective of this program is to develop, demonstrate, and evaluate innovative technologies that can improve present-day environmental restoration methods. The Integrated Demonstration Program at SRS is entitled ''Cleanup of Organics in Soils and Groundwater at Non-Arid Sites.'' New technologies in the areas of drilling, characterization, monitoring, and remediation are being demonstrated and evaluated for their technical performance and cost effectiveness in comparison with baseline technologies. Present site characterization and monitoring methods are costly, time-consuming, overly invasive, and often imprecise. Better technologies are required to accurately describe the subsurface geophysical and geochemical features of a site and the nature and extent of contamination. More efficient, nonintrusive characterization and monitoring techniques are necessary for understanding and predicting subsurface transport. More reliable procedures are also needed for interpreting monitoring and characterization data. Site characterization and monitoring are key elements in preventing, identifying, and restoring contaminated sites. The remediation of a site cannot be determined without characterization data, and monitoring may be required for 30 years after site closure

  19. Demonstration of fuel resistant to pellet-cladding interaction. Second semiannual report, January--June 1978

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rosenbaum, H.S.

    1978-09-01

    This program has as its ultimate objective the demonstration of an advanced fuel concept that is resistant to the failure mechanism known as fuel pellet-cladding interaction (PCI). Since currently used fuel in the nuclear power industry is subject to the PCI failure mechanism, reactor operators limit the rates of power increases and thus reduce their capacity factors in order to protect the fuel. Two concepts are being developed for possible demonstration within this program: (a) Cu-barrier fuel and (b) Zr-liner fuel. These advanced fuels (known collectively as ''barrier fuels'') have special fuel cladding designed to protect the Zircaloy cladding tube from the harmful effects of localized stress and reactive fission products during reactor service. The demonstration of one of these concepts in a commercial power reactor is planned for PHASE 2 of this program. The current plans for the demonstration will involve approximately 132 bundles of PCI-resistant fuel

  20. E/Z MAS demonstration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boor, M.G.; Hurford, J.M.; Landry, R.P.; Martinez, B.J.; Solem, A.M.; Whiteson, R.; Zardecki, A.

    1998-01-01

    Los Alamos National Laboratory has developed E/Z MAS, a new generation nuclear material accountability application based on the latest technology and designed for facilities required to track nuclear materials with a simple-to-use interface. E/Z MAS is based on years of experience spent developing nuclear material accounting systems. E/Z MAS uses a modern relational database with a web server and enables users on a classified local area network to interact with the database with web browsers. The E/Z MAS Demonstration poster session demonstrates the E/Z MAS functions required by an operational nuclear facility to track material as it enters and leaves a facility and to account for the material as it moves through a process. The generation of internal facility reports and external reports for the Russian Federal system will be demonstrated. Bar-code readers will be used to demonstrate the ability of EZ MAS to automate certain functions, such as physical inventories at facilities