Analgesic, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties of Buddleja globosa, Buddlejaceae.

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Backhouse, N; Rosales, L; Apablaza, C; Goïty, L; Erazo, S; Negrete, R; Theodoluz, C; Rodríguez, J; Delporte, C

2008-03-05

Buddleja globosa, known as "matico", is employed in Chile for wound healing. To validate the traditional use of the crude drug through in vivo and in vitro evaluation of the anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antioxidant properties of its extracts. Sequential hexane, dichloromethane, methanol and total methanol extracts were studied using bioguided fractionation. The following activities were investigated: analgesic (writhing test), oral and topic anti-inflammatory (paw- and ear-induced edema), free radical scavenging and antioxidant activities (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl, DPPH, superoxide anion, lipid peroxidation and xanthine oxidase inhibition). Sodium naproxen, nimesulide, indomethacin were used as reference drugs for in vivo, quercetin and allopurinol for in vitro assays. A mixture of alpha- and beta-amyrins was isolated from the hexane extract that showed 41.2% of analgesic effect at 600 mg/kg, inhibited by 47.7 and 79.0% the arachidonic acid (AA) and 12-deoxyphorbol-13-decanoate (TPA)-induced inflammation at 3mg/20 microL/ear, respectively. A mixture of beta-sitosterol, stigmasterol, stigmastenol, stigmastanol and campesterol was isolated from the fraction CD4-N and beta-sitosterol-glycoside from the fraction CD5-N, reducing TPA-induced inflammation by 78.2 and 83.7% at 1mg/20 microL/ear, respectively. The fraction CD4-N at 300 mg/kg also showed analgesic activity (38.7%). The methanol extract at 600mg/kg per os showed anti-inflammatory effect (61.4%), topic anti-inflammatory (56.7% on TPA) and analgesic activity (38.5%). Verbascoside and luteolin-7-O-glucoside were the major components of the methanol extract; apigenin 7-O-glucoside was also detected. Inhibition of superoxide anion, lipoperoxidation, and DPPH bleaching effect was found in the methanol serial and global extracts. The present report demonstrate the analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties of Buddleja globosa and validate its use in Chilean traditional medicine.

Effects of temperature, salinity, and irradiance on the growth of harmful algal bloom species Phaeocystis globosa Scherffel (Prymnesiophyceae) isolated from the South China Sea

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Xu, Ning; Huang, Bozhu; Hu, Zhangxi; Tang, Yingzhong; Duan, Shunshan; Zhang, Chengwu

2017-05-01

Blooms of Phaeocystis globosa have been frequently reported in Chinese coastal waters, causing serious damage to marine ecosystems. To better understand the ecological characteristics of P. globosa in Chinese coastal waters that facilitate its rapid expansion, the effects of temperature, salinity and irradiance on the growth of P. globosa from the South China Sea were examined in the laboratory. The saturating irradiance for the growth of P. globosa ( I s) was 60 μmol/(m2•s), which was lower than those of other harmful algal species (70-114 μmol/(m2•s)). A moderate growth rate of 0.22/d was observed at 2 μmol/(m2•s) (the minimum irradiance in the experiment), and photo-inhibition did not occur at 230 μmol/(m2•s) (the maximum irradiance in the experiment). Exposed to 42 different combinations of temperatures (10-31°C) and salinities (10-40) under saturating irradiance, P. globosa exhibited its maximum specific growth rate of 0.80/d at the combinations of 24°C and 35, and 27°C and 40. The optimum growth rates (>0.80/d) were observed at temperatures ranging from 24 to 27°C and salinities from 35 to 40. While P. globosa was able to grow well at temperatures from 20°C to 31°C and salinities from 20 to 40, it could not grow at temperatures lower than 15°C or salinities lower than 15. Factorial analysis revealed that temperature and salinity has similar influences on the growth of this species. This strain of P. globosa not only prefers higher temperatures and higher salinity, but also possesses a flexible nutrient competing strategy, adapted to lower irradiance. Therefore, the P. globosa population from South China Sea should belong to a new ecotype. There is also a potentially high risk of blooms developing in this area throughout the year.

Cordiamyia globosa gen.n. e sp.n. (Diptera, Cecidomyiidae, Cecidomyiidi associado com Cordia Verbenacea DC. (Boraginaceae no Brasil Cordiamyia globosa gen.n. and sp.n. (Diptera, Cecidomyiidae associated with Cordia verbekacea DC. (Boraginaceae in Brazil

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Valéria Cid Maia

1996-01-01

Full Text Available Cordiamyia globosa gen.n., sp.n. (Diptera, Cecidomyiidae, Cecidomyiidi associated with Cordia verbenacea (Boraginaceae, in Brazil, is described and illustrated (larva, pupa, male, female and gall.

Toxic Effects of Prodigiosin Secreted by Hahella sp. KA22 on Harmful Alga Phaeocystis globosa

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Huajun Zhang

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Application of algicidal compounds secreted by bacteria is a promising and environmentally friendly strategy to control harmful algal blooms (HABs. Years ago prodigiosin was described as an efficient algicidal compound, but the details about the effect of prodigiosin on algal cells are still elusive. Prodigiosin shows high algicidal activity on Phaeocystis globosa, making it a potential algicide in HAB control. When P. globosa were treated with prodigiosin at 5 μg/mL, algae cells showed cytoplasmic hypervacuolization, chloroplast and nucleus rupture, flagella missing, and cell fracture, when observed by scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscopy. Prodigiosin induced a reactive oxygen species (ROS burst in P. globosa at 2 h, which could result in severe oxidative damage to algal cells. Chlorophyll a (Chl a fluorescence decreased significantly after prodigiosin treatment; about 45.3 and 90.0% of algal cells lost Chl a fluorescence at 24 and 48 h. The Fv/Fm value, reflecting the status of the photosystem II electron flow also decreased after prodigiosin treatment. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR analysis psbA and rbcS expression indicated that photosynthesis process was remarkably inhibited by prodigiosin. The results indicated that the inhibition of photosynthesis may produce excessive ROS causing cell necrosis. This study is the first report about algal lysis mechanism of prodigiosin on harmful algae. Our results could increase our knowledge on the interaction between algicidal compounds and harmful algae, which could lead to further studies in the microcosm.

Contrasting bee pollination in two co-occurring distylic species of Cordia (Cordiaceae, Boraginales in the Brazilian semi-arid Caatinga: generalist in C. globosa vs. specialist in C. leucocephala

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Isabel C. Machado

2010-12-01

Full Text Available In this study we compare the reproductive biology of Cordia globosa and C. leucocephala (Cordiaceae, Boraginales; formerly referred to Boraginaceae to understand the functioning of the floral morphs and the relations with their effective pollinators. The species are synchronopatric, distylic, and self-incompatible. Though they share melittophilous traits, the main visitor and pollinator of C. globosa was the generalist and exotic bee Apis mellifera, while the only one of C. leucocephala was the oligoletic bee Ceblurgus longipalpis. These two latter species are restricted to the Caatinga of NE Brazil, contrasting with the wide distribution of Cordia globosa. While the fruit-set for C. globosa was high, independently if the pollen donor/stigma receptor was a pin (long-styled or thrum (short-styled individual, in C. leucocephala the fruit-set was low and occurred only when a thrum individual was the pollen donor. This raises the possibility of this species moving towards dioecy. The high natural fruit-set of C. globosa confirms the generalist bee as its effective pollinator. The low fruit-set after manual crosses in C. leucocephala may be due to low pollen viability. Additionally, the low natural fruit-set (two times lower than after crosses may be related with the foraging behavior of the specialist pollinator.Neste estudo comparamos a biologia reprodutiva de Cordia globosa e C. leucocephala para entender a função dos orfos florais e as relações com seus polinizadores efetivos. As espécies são sincronopátricas, distílicas e auto-incompatíveis. Embora elas compartilhem atributos melitófilos, o principal visitante e polinizador de C. globosa foi Apis mellifera, abelha generalista e exótica, enquanto o de C. leucocephala foi a abelha oligolética Ceblurgus longipalpis. Essas duas últimas espécies são restritas à Caatinga do Nordeste do Brasil, contrastando com a ampla distribuição de C. globosa. Enquanto a formação de frutos de C

Contrasting bee pollination in two co-occurring distylic species of Cordia (Cordiaceae, Boraginales) in the Brazilian semi-arid Caatinga: generalist in C. globosa vs. specialist in C. leucocephala.

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Machado, Isabel C; Lopes, Ariadna V; Sazima, Marlies

2010-12-01

In this study we compare the reproductive biology of Cordia globosa and C. leucocephala (Cordiaceae, Boraginales; formerly referred to Boraginaceae) to understand the functioning of the floral morphs and the relations with their effective pollinators. The species are synchronopatric, distylic, and self-incompatible. Though they share melittophilous traits, the main visitor and pollinator of C. globosa was the generalist and exotic bee Apis mellifera, while the only one of C. leucocephala was the oligoletic bee Ceblurgus longipalpis. These two latter species are restricted to the Caatinga of NE Brazil, contrasting with the wide distribution of Cordia globosa. While the fruit-set for C. globosa was high, independently if the pollen donor/stigma receptor was a pin (long-styled) or thrum (short-styled) individual, in C. leucocephala the fruit-set was low and occurred only when a thrum individual was the pollen donor. This raises the possibility of this species moving towards dioecy. The high natural fruit-set of C. globosa confirms the generalist bee as its effective pollinator. The low fruit-set after manual crosses in C. leucocephala may be due to low pollen viability. Additionally, the low natural fruit-set (two times lower than after crosses) may be related with the foraging behavior of the specialist pollinator.

A first report on a bloom of the marine prymnesiophycean, Phaeocystis globosa from the Arabian Sea

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Madhupratap, M.; Sawant, S.S.; Gauns, M.

A thick bloom of the marine prymnesiophycean, Phaeocystis globosa was observed in the central Arabian Sea during the summer monsoon period (July-August, 1996). The cells were mostly in colonial form, embedded in gelatinous matrics. The cell diameter...

Construction and analysis of the cDNA subtraction library of yeast and mycelial phases of Sporothrix globosa isolated in China: identification of differentially expressed genes*

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Hu, Qing-bi; He, Yu; Zhou, Xun

2015-01-01

Species included in the Sporothrix schenckii complex are temperature-dependent with dimorphic growth and cause sporotrichosis that is characterized by chronic and fatal lymphocutaneous lesions. The putative species included in the Sporothrix complex are S. brasiliensis, S. globosa, S. mexicana, S. pallida, S. schenckii, and S. lurei. S. globosa is the causal agent of sporotrichosis in China, and its pathogenicity appears to be closely related to the dimorphic transition, i.e. from the mycelial to the yeast phase, it adapts to changing environmental conditions. To determine the molecular mechanisms of the switching process that mediates the dimorphic transition of S. globosa, suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) was used to prepare a complementary DNA (cDNA) subtraction library from the yeast and mycelial phases. Bioinformatics analysis was performed to profile the relationship between differently expressed genes and the dimorphic transition. Two genes that were expressed at higher levels by the yeast form were selected, and their differential expression levels were verified using a quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). It is believed that these differently expressed genes are involved in the pathogenesis of S. globosa infection in China. PMID:26642182

Atypical Clinical Presentation of Sporotrichosis Caused by Sporothrix globosa Resistant to Itraconazole.

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Fischman Gompertz, Olga; Rodrigues, Anderson M; Fernandes, Geisa F; Bentubo, Henri D L; de Camargo, Zoilo Pires; Petri, Valéria

2016-06-01

Sporotrichosis is a polymorphic disease of humans and animals, which is acquired via traumatic inoculation of Sporothrix propagules into cutaneous or subcutaneous tissue. The etiological agents are in a clinical complex, which includes Sporothrix brasiliensis, Sporothrix schenckii, Sporothrix globosa, and Sporothrix luriei, each of which has specific epidemiological and virulence characteristics. Classical manifestation in humans includes a fixed localized lesion at the site of trauma plus lymphocutaneous sporotrichosis with fungal spreading along the lymphatic channels. Atypical sporotrichosis is a challenge to diagnosis because it can mimic many other dermatological diseases. We report an unusual, itraconazole-resistant cutaneous lesion of sporotrichosis in a 66-year-old Brazilian man. Histopathological examination of the skin revealed vascular and fibroblastic proliferation with chronic granulomatous infiltrate composed of multinucleated giant cells. Sporothrix were isolated from the skin lesion, and phylogenetic analyses confirmed it to be sporotrichosis due to S. globosa, a widespread pathogen. Immunoblotting analysis showed several IgG-reactive molecules in autochthonous preparations of the whole cellular proteins (160, 80, 60, 55, 46, 38, 35, and 30 kDa) and exoantigen (35 and 33 kDa). The patient was first unsuccessfully treated with daily itraconazole, and then successfully treated with potassium iodide. © The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Occurrence of swarms of Sagitta enflata (Chaetognatha) and Pleurobrachia globosa (Ctenophora) in the coastal waters of Goa

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Goswami, S.C.

Swarms of Chaetognatha @iSagitta enflata@@ Grassi and Ctenophore @iPleurobrachia globosa@@. Moser were studied in coastal waters of Goa. These two forms together constituted 90 to 94% of total biomass. Medusae and Siphonophora were the other main...

Sporotrichosis caused by Sporothrix globosa in Rio De Janeiro, brazil: case report.

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de Oliveira, Manoel Marques Evangelista; de Almeida-Paes, Rodrigo; de Medeiros Muniz, Mauro; de Lima Barros, Monica Bastos; Galhardo, Maria Clara Gutierrez; Zancope-Oliveira, Rosely Maria

2010-05-01

This report describes the first isolation of Sporothrix globosa from a Brazilian patient. A 77-year-old woman was examined for sporotrichosis infection. Histopathological examination of skin biopsy revealed chronic granulomatous infiltrate with microabcess. Furthermore, S. schenckii-like yeasts were evident as demonstrated by PAS and Grocott stains. The fungus was identified based on colony morphology on Sabouraud Dextrose Agar slants, Potato Dextrose Agar, and Corn Meal Agar, microscopic morphology on slides cultures, and assimilation of different carbon sources. The species confirmation was made by molecular methodology.

A cytotoxic meroterpenoid benzoquinone from roots of Cordia globosa.

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Alencar de Menezes, Jane Eire; Lemos, Telma Leda; Pessoa, Otília Deusdênia; Braz-Filho, Raimundo; Montenegro, Raquel C; Wilke, Diego Veras; Costa-Lotufo, Letícia V; Pessoa, Cláudia; de Moraes, Manoel Odorico; Silveira, Edilberto R

2005-01-01

(1a S*,1b S*,7a S*,8a S*)-4,5-Dimethoxy-1a,7a-dimethyl-1,1a,1b,2,7, 7a,8,8a-octahydrocyclopropa cyclopenta[1,2-b]naphthalene-3,6-dione (1), a new meroterpenoid benzoquinone, and microphyllaquinone (2), a known naphthoquinone, have been isolated from roots of Cordia globosa. Both structure determinations were performed by conventional spectroscopic methods, including inverse detection NMR techniques, and by comparison with data from the literature for related compounds. Compound 1 displayed considerable cytotoxic activity against several cancer cell lines with IC50 values in the range of 1.2 to 5.0 microg/mL. The cytotoxic activity seemed to be related to DNA synthesis inhibition, as revealed by the reduction of 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine incorporation, and apoptosis induction, as indicated by the acridine orange/ethidium bromide assay and morphological changes after 24 h of incubation on leukemic cells.

Effects of Buddleja globosa leaf and its constituents relevant to wound healing.

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Mensah, A Y; Sampson, J; Houghton, P J; Hylands, P J; Westbrook, J; Dunn, M; Hughes, M A; Cherry, G W

2001-10-01

An aqueous extract of Buddleja globosa leaves, used traditionally in Chile for wound healing, was tested for the ability to stimulate growth of fibroblasts in vitro and for antioxidant activity in the same fibroblast cell system challenged with hydrogen peroxide. Low concentrations of the extract gave an increase in fibroblast growth which was not statistically significant but cytotoxicity was observed at concentrations greater than 50 microg/ml. The extract showed strong antioxidant effect and fractionation led to the isolation of three flavonoids and two caffeic acid derivatives, each of which was shown to contribute to the antioxidant effect at concentrations below 10 microg/ml. These activities would accelerate the healing of wounds.

Genome of Phaeocystis globosa virus PgV-16T highlights the common ancestry of the largest known DNA viruses infecting eukaryotes

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Santini, Sebastien; Jeudy, Sandra; Bartoli, Julia; Poirot, Olivier; Lescot, Magali; Abergel, Chantal; Barbe, Valérie; Wommack, K. Eric; Noordeloos, Anna A. M.; Brussaard, Corina P. D.; Claverie, Jean-Michel

2013-01-01

Large dsDNA viruses are involved in the population control of many globally distributed species of eukaryotic phytoplankton and have a prominent role in bloom termination. The genus Phaeocystis (Haptophyta, Prymnesiophyceae) includes several high-biomass-forming phytoplankton species, such as Phaeocystis globosa, the blooms of which occur mostly in the coastal zone of the North Atlantic and the North Sea. Here, we report the 459,984-bp-long genome sequence of P. globosa virus strain PgV-16T, encoding 434 proteins and eight tRNAs and, thus, the largest fully sequenced genome to date among viruses infecting algae. Surprisingly, PgV-16T exhibits no phylogenetic affinity with other viruses infecting microalgae (e.g., phycodnaviruses), including those infecting Emiliania huxleyi, another ubiquitous bloom-forming haptophyte. Rather, PgV-16T belongs to an emerging clade (the Megaviridae) clustering the viruses endowed with the largest known genomes, including Megavirus, Mimivirus (both infecting acanthamoeba), and a virus infecting the marine microflagellate grazer Cafeteria roenbergensis. Seventy-five percent of the best matches of PgV-16T–predicted proteins correspond to two viruses [Organic Lake phycodnavirus (OLPV)1 and OLPV2] from a hypersaline lake in Antarctica (Organic Lake), the hosts of which are unknown. As for OLPVs and other Megaviridae, the PgV-16T sequence data revealed the presence of a virophage-like genome. However, no virophage particle was detected in infected P. globosa cultures. The presence of many genes found only in Megaviridae in its genome and the presence of an associated virophage strongly suggest that PgV-16T shares a common ancestry with the largest known dsDNA viruses, the host range of which already encompasses the earliest diverging branches of domain Eukarya. PMID:23754393

The different response mechanisms of Wolffia globosa: Light-induced silver nanoparticle toxicity

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Zou, Xiaoyan; Li, Penghui; Huang, Qing; Zhang, Hongwu

2016-01-01

Highlights: • The different physiological responses of AgNPs in Wolffia golbosa were studied. • Effects of AgNPs on W. golbosa relied on the illumination conditions. • Different phytotoxic mechanisms of AgNPs for different light schemes were proposed. - Abstract: Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have emerged as a promising bactericide. Plants are a major point of entry of contaminants into trophic chains. Here, the physiological responses of Wolffia globosa to AgNPs have been probed using different light schemes, and these data may reveal new insights into the toxic mechanism of AgNPs. W. globosa was grown in culture medium and treated with different concentrations of AgNPs for 24 h under pre- and post-illuminated conditions. However, fluorescence quenching, the accumulation of sugar and the reduction of Hill reaction activity were found in response to the AgNP-stresses. In the pre-illuminated condition, oxidative damage was obvious, as indicated by the higher malondialdehyde (MDA) content and an up-regulation of superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity. The maximum increases of MDA content and SOD activity were 1.14 and 2.52 times the respective controls when exposed to 10 mg/L AgNPs. In contrast, in the post-illuminated condition, the alterations in photosynthetic pigment and soluble proteins content were more significant than the alterations in oxidative stress. The contents of chlorophyll a, carotenoids and soluble protein decreased to 77.7%, 66.2% and 72.9% of the controls after treatment with the highest concentration of AgNPs (10 mg/L). Based on the different physiological responses, we speculated that in the pre-illuminated condition, oxidative stress was responsible for the decline in the oxygen evolution rate, while in the post-illuminated condition, the decrease in the Hill reaction activity could be attributed to the blocking of electron transfer and an insufficient proton supply. Our findings demonstrate that environmental factors regulate the

The different response mechanisms of Wolffia globosa: Light-induced silver nanoparticle toxicity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zou, Xiaoyan; Li, Penghui [Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen (China); Huang, Qing [Key Laboratory of Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen (China); Zhang, Hongwu, E-mail: hwzhang@iue.ac.cn [Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen (China); Ningbo Research Center for Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo (China)

2016-07-15

Highlights: • The different physiological responses of AgNPs in Wolffia golbosa were studied. • Effects of AgNPs on W. golbosa relied on the illumination conditions. • Different phytotoxic mechanisms of AgNPs for different light schemes were proposed. - Abstract: Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have emerged as a promising bactericide. Plants are a major point of entry of contaminants into trophic chains. Here, the physiological responses of Wolffia globosa to AgNPs have been probed using different light schemes, and these data may reveal new insights into the toxic mechanism of AgNPs. W. globosa was grown in culture medium and treated with different concentrations of AgNPs for 24 h under pre- and post-illuminated conditions. However, fluorescence quenching, the accumulation of sugar and the reduction of Hill reaction activity were found in response to the AgNP-stresses. In the pre-illuminated condition, oxidative damage was obvious, as indicated by the higher malondialdehyde (MDA) content and an up-regulation of superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity. The maximum increases of MDA content and SOD activity were 1.14 and 2.52 times the respective controls when exposed to 10 mg/L AgNPs. In contrast, in the post-illuminated condition, the alterations in photosynthetic pigment and soluble proteins content were more significant than the alterations in oxidative stress. The contents of chlorophyll a, carotenoids and soluble protein decreased to 77.7%, 66.2% and 72.9% of the controls after treatment with the highest concentration of AgNPs (10 mg/L). Based on the different physiological responses, we speculated that in the pre-illuminated condition, oxidative stress was responsible for the decline in the oxygen evolution rate, while in the post-illuminated condition, the decrease in the Hill reaction activity could be attributed to the blocking of electron transfer and an insufficient proton supply. Our findings demonstrate that environmental factors regulate the

Toxic effect of a marine bacterium on aquatic organisms and its algicidal substances against Phaeocystis globosa.

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Qiuchan Yang

Full Text Available Harmful algal blooms have caused enormous damage to the marine ecosystem and the coastal economy in China. In this paper, a bacterial strain B1, which had strong algicidal activity against Phaeocystis globosa, was isolated from the coastal waters of Zhuhai in China. The strain B1 was identified as Bacillus sp. on the basis of 16S rDNA gene sequence and morphological characteristics. To evaluate the ecological safety of the algicidal substances produced by strain B1, their toxic effects on marine organisms were tested. Results showed that there were no adverse effects observed in the growth of Chlorella vulgaris, Chaetoceros muelleri, and Isochrystis galbana after exposure to the algicidal substances at a concentration of 1.0% (v/v for 96 h. The 48h LC50 values for Brachionus plicatilis, Moina mongolica Daday and Paralichthys olivaceus were 5.7, 9.0 and 12.1% (v/v, respectively. Subsequently, the algicidal substances from strain B1 culture were isolated and purified by silica gel column, Sephadex G-15 column and high-performance liquid chromatography. Based on quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry and PeakView Software, the purified substances were identified as prolyl-methionine and hypoxanthine. Algicidal mechanism indicated that prolyl-methionine and hypoxanthine inhibited the growth of P. globosa by disrupting the antioxidant systems. In the acute toxicity assessment using M. mongolica, 24h LC50 values of prolyl-methionine and hypoxanthine were 7.0 and 13.8 g/L, respectively. The active substances produced by strain B1 can be considered as ecologically and environmentally biological agents for controlling harmful algal blooms.

Known and novel terpenes from Buddleja globosa displaying selective antifungal activity against dermatophytes.

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Mensah, A Y; Houghton, P J; Bloomfield, S; Vlietinck, A; Vanden Berghe, D

2000-09-01

Lipophilic extracts of the stembark of Buddleja globosa were found to have antifungal activity at 125 microg/mL against three dermatophytic fungal species but had no activity at 1000 microg/mL against four other fungal species or two yeast species. Bioassay-guided fractionation of Si gel column eluates using the sensitive fungal species resulted in active fractions from which were isolated five compounds that were characterized by spectroscopic methods as one novel and four known compounds. The known compounds were the diterpene buddlejone (1), the bisditerpene maytenone, and the two sesquiterpenes buddledin A and buddledin B, while the novel compound was characterized as the diterpene deoxybuddlejone (2). The minimum inhibitory concentration of all the compounds was determined against all the microorganisms under test, and buddledins A and B were shown to exhibit the greatest antifungal activity, with values of 43 microM and 51 microM, respectively, against the sensitive fungi Trichophyton rubrum, Tricophyton interdigitale, and Epidermophyton floccosum.

Effect of Exogenous Application of Hydrogen Peroxide on Drought Tolerance of Glob Amaranth (Gomphrena globosa L.

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M Goldani

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Drought is one of the important environmental stresses that reduce the crop growth. Oxidative stress is a secondary stress due to drought and other abiotic stresses. In order to study the effect of exogenous application of hydrogen peroxide on drought tolerance of glob amaranth (Gomphrena globosa L., an experiment was conducted in greenhouse conditions. This study was designed as factorial based on completely randomized design with 3 replications. Different concentrations of hydrogen peroxide (0, 2.5 and 5 mM and three levels of irrigation intervals (after 4, 7 and 10 days were treated in this study. The results showed that foliar application of hydrogen peroxide can improve shoot and root dry weight and alleviate adverse effects of drought stress. With increasing drought stress stomatal conductance, flower number, total chlorophyll and root volume decreased significantly. So that the lowest of these characterestics was in the irrigation after 10 days. Interaction effects of drought and hydrogen peroxide in shoot dry weight was significantly different in 5% level and in electrolyte leakage, relative water content, free proline and total root length was significantly different in 1% level. In control (4 day irrigation interval with increasing hydrogen peroxide of 2.5 mM, shoot dry weight and total root length increased 20% and 91%, respectively. In control, with increasing hydrogen peroxide to 5 mM total chlorophyll was increased 30.8% compared to 0 mM hydrogen peroxide application (control. The final result showed that foliar application of hydrogen peroxide decreased the adverse effects of drought stress.

Value-chain analysis of freshwater apple snail (Pila globosa used for on-farm feeds in the freshwater prawn farming sector in Bangladesh

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S.A.A. Nahid

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Growth of the freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii sector in Bangladesh since 1970s has been supported by natural availability of freshwater apple snail (Pila globosa, used for on-farm prawn feeds. The present study identified the current configuration of the value-chain benefits and constraints of freshwater apple snail in south-western Bangladesh in August 2011, based upon Rapid Market Appraisal (RMA approach. The site of snail collection was Chanda Beel in Gopalganj district, while trading, processing and final consumption was represented by Rayer Mahal Bazar in Khulna district. There were seven different nodes recognized throughout the value chain. Snail marketing was identified as a seasonal business and took place during June to November each year. Between 1995 and 2011 the price of whole snail, meat and shell has increased by 800%, 325% and 315%, respectively. The abundance of snail had been reduced and its demand has increased due to the expansion of the prawn farming industry. Prawn farmers preferred snail meat due to its’ low cost (US$ 0.21 kg-1 as a source of protein compared to commercial prawn feed (US$ 0.41 kg-1. Snail harvesting and processing were considered as additional livelihood options for the poor, where 60% of the labour involved in snail harvesting were women, and 95% the de-shelling workforce. Induced breeding in captivity and sustainable management in nature as well as development of commercial production of apple snails might reduce the pressure on ecosystems and positively contributed to the continued expansion of freshwater prawn farming in Bangladesh.

Contribución al conocimiento de la morfología de la semilla, la germinación y el desarrollo de las plántulas de Beilschmiedia sulcata (R. et P. Kostem y Nectandra globosa (Aublet Mez. (Lauraceae

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Mauricio Pinedo Guerrero

2000-01-01

Full Text Available The fruit of Beilschmiediasulcata (R. et P Kosterm is an ovoidellipsoid berry and the elipsoidseed has a papiraceous seedcoat and a broad, straight embryo.The seedling is criptocotylar andgermination hypogeus. The fruit of Nectandra globosa(Aublet Mez. is a drupe in form of a globe,sphere seed has a coriaceus seed coat and a broad, straight embryo. The seedling iscriptocotilar and germination is hypogeus. The percentage of germination for B. sulcatais 95%and for N. globosais 6%. The seedlig develops 5 – 6 squamous protophylls before it produceseophylls; it has a well developed radical system lacking root hairs.

Trade-off between reproduction and lifespan of the rotifer Brachionus plicatilis under different food conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Yunfei; Hou, Xinying; Xue, Xiaofeng; Zhang, Lu; Zhu, Xuexia; Huang, Yuan; Chen, Yafen; Yang, Zhou

2017-11-13

Phaeocystis globosa, one of the most typical red tide-forming species, is usually mixed in the food composition of rotifers. To explore how rotifers respond by adjusting life history strategy when feeding on different quality foods, we exposed the rotifer Brachionus plicatilis to cultures with 100% Chlorella, a mixture of 50% P. globosa and 50% Chlorella, or 100% P. globosa. Results showed that rotifers exposed to 100% Chlorella or to mixed diets produced more total offspring and had higher age-specific fecundity than those exposed to 100% P. globosa. Food combination significantly affected the net reproduction rates of rotifers. By contrast, rotifers that fed on 100% P. globosa or on mixed diets had a longer lifespan than those fed on 100% Chlorella. The overall performances (combining reproduction and lifespan together) of rotifers cultured in 100% Chlorella or mixed diets were significantly higher than those cultured in 100% P. globosa. In general, Chlorella favors rotifers reproduction at the cost of shorter lifespan, whereas P. globosa tends to extend the lifespan of rotifers with lower fecundity, indicating that trade-off exists between reproduction and lifespan under different food conditions. The present study also suggests that rotifers may have the potential to control harmful P. globosa.

Distribución de Taxus globosa (Taxaceae en México: Modelos ecológicos de nicho, efectos del cambio del uso de suelo y conservación Distribution of Taxus globosa (Taxaceae in Mexico: Ecological niche modeling, effects of land use change and conservation

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RAÚL CONTRERAS-MEDINA

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Taxus globosa es una gimnosperma que habita principalmente en los bosques templados de México y el norte de América Central, y que está considerada como amenazada por las agencias de conservación tanto mexicanas como internacionales. En México, una de las mayores amenazas para la mayoría de las especies de los bosques nublados es la pérdida de hábitat, la cual se propicia por la modificación de la cobertura vegetal por factores antropogénicos. Con base en 73 registros de herbario se obtuvo la distribución potencial de la especie mediante el algoritmo Maxent. Asimismo, a partir del modelo obtenido se analizó la modificación de la cobertura vegetal durante tres períodos (1976, 1996 y 2000 y su influencia en la distribución potencial de esta especie. Su distribución potencial fue evaluada en relación con el actual Sistema Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas a nivel federal (ANPs de México y las Regiones Terrestres Prioritarias para la Conservación (RTPs, con el fin de determinar el papel de estas áreas en su conservación y manejo. Los modelos de distribución potencial muestran que existe una reducción importante del área de distribución (hasta el 84 % al existir un cambio de uso de suelo. La especie está mal representada en las ANPs, pues menos del 10 % de su área potencial se encuentra dentro de estas áreas de protección federal. Este tipo de análisis representa una herramienta importante en biogeografía y conservación, así como en otras áreas del quehacer biológico, debido a su habilidad predictiva. Nuestros resultados muestran la urgencia que existe de conservar algunos parches de bosques templados mexicanos (principalmente los bosques nublados para garantizar la existencia de esta especie.Taxus globosa is a gymnosperm inhabiting Mexican and northern Central American temperate forests, and it has been considered as threatened by Mexican and international conservancy agencies. In México, habitat loss is one

Separation of betacyanins from purple flowers of Gomphrena globosa L. by ion-pair high-speed counter-current chromatography.

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Spórna-Kucab, Aneta; Jagodzińska, Joanna; Wybraniec, Sławomir

2017-03-17

Betacyanins, known as antioxidants and chemopreventive natural compounds with colourful properties, were extracted from purple flowers of Gomphrena globosa L. belonging to the Amaranthaceae family and separated for the first time by ion-pair high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC). The pigments were detected by LC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS technique. Separation of betacyanins (300mg) by HSCCC was accomplished in four solvent systems: tert-butyl methyl ether - butanol - acetonitrile - water (0.7% and 1.0% HFBA - heptafluorobutyric acid - system I and III) and tert-butyl methyl ether - butanol - methanol - water (0.7% and 1.0% HFBA - system II and IV) (2:2:1:5, v/v/v/v) in the head-to-tail mode. The mobile phase (aqueous phase) was run at 2.0ml/min and the column rotation speed was 860rpm. The applied systems enabled to study the influence of HFBA concentration as well as systems polarity on betacyanins separation. Comparison of the systems containing 0.7% HFBA (systems I-II) demonstrates that the replacement of acetonitrile by methanol increases the resolution (R s ) between all betacyanins and does not influence the retention of the stationary phase (S f =76%). Higher concentration of the acid in systems III-IV slightly decreases S f to 71% in the systems with 1.0% HFBA. Comparison of the resolution values for betacyanins in the systems with 0.7% and 1.0% HFBA demonstrates that higher concentration of the acid improves the separation effectiveness for all betacyanins as a result of increasing of the chemical affinity of the pigments to the organic stationary phase in HSCCC. The systems III-IV with 1% HFBA are the most effective for the separation of all the studied betacyanins. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

High-speed counter-current chromatography in separation of betacyanins from flowers of red Gomphrena globosa L. cultivars.

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Spórna-Kucab, Aneta; Hołda, Ewelina; Wybraniec, Sławomir

2016-10-15

Antioxidant and possible chemopreventive properties of betacyanins, natural plant pigments, contribute to a growing interest in their chemistry and separation. Mixtures of betacyanins from fresh red Gomphrena globosa L. cultivar flowers were separated in three highly polar solvent systems by high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) for a direct comparison of their separation effectiveness. Three samples of crude extract (600mg) were run on semi-preparative scale in solvent system (NH4)2SO4soln - EtOH (2.0:1.0, v/v) (system I) and the modified systems: EtOH - ACN - 1-PrOH - (NH4)2SO4satd.soln - H2O (0.5:0.5:0.5:1.2:1.0, v/v/v/v/v) (system II) and EtOH - ACN - (NH4)2SO4satd.soln - H2O (1.0:0.5:1.2:1.0, v/v/v/v) (system III). The systems were used in the head-to-tail (system I) or tail-to-head (systems II and III) mode. The flow rate of the mobile phase was 2.0ml/min and the column rotation speed was 860rpm. The retention of the stationary phase was 52.0% (system I), 80.2% (systems II) and 82.0% (system III). The betacyanins in the crude extract as well as HSCCC fractions were analyzed by LC-MS/MS. System I was applied for the first time in HSCCC for the separation of betacyanins and was quite effective in separation of amaranthine and 17-decarboxy-amaranthine (αI=1.19) and very effective for 17-decarboxy-amaranthine and betanin (αI=2.20). Modification of system I with acetonitrile (system III) as well as acetonitrile and propanol (system II) increased their separation effectiveness. Systems II-III enable complete separation of 17-decarboxy-amaranthine (KD(II)=2.94,KD(III)=2.42) and betanin (KD(II)=2.46,KD(III)=1.10) as well as betanin and gomphrenin I (KD(II)=1.62, KD(III)=0.74). In addition, separation of amaranthine and 17-decarboxy-amaranthine is the most effective in system II, therefore, this system proved to be the most suitable for the separation of all polar betacyanins. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Phytoremediation assessment of Gomphrena globosa and Zinnia elegans grown in arsenic-contaminated hydroponic conditions as a safe and feasible alternative to be applied in arsenic-contaminated soils of the Bengal Delta.

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Signes-Pastor, A J; Munera-Picazo, S; Burló, F; Cano-Lamadrid, M; Carbonell-Barrachina, A A

2015-06-01

Several agricultural fields show high contents of arsenic because of irrigation with arsenic-contaminated groundwater. Vegetables accumulate arsenic in their edible parts when grown in contaminated soils. Polluted vegetables are one of the main sources of arsenic in the food chain, especially for people living in rural arsenic endemic villages of India and Bangladesh. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of floriculture in the crop rotation system of arsenic endemic areas of the Bengal Delta. The effects of different arsenic concentrations (0, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 mg As L(-1)) and types of flowering plant (Gomphrena globosa and Zinnia elegans) on plant growth and arsenic accumulation were studied under hydroponic conditions. Total arsenic was quantified using atomic absorption spectrometer with hydride generation (HG-AAS). Arsenic was mainly accumulated in the roots (72 %), followed by leaves (12 %), stems (10 %), and flowers (phytoremediation capacities as other wild species, such as ferns. However, they behaved as arsenic tolerant plants and grew and bloomed well, without showing any phytotoxic signs. This study proves that floriculture could be included within the crop rotation system in arsenic-contaminated agricultural soils, in order to improve food safety and also food security by increasing farmer's revenue.

Buddleja globosa (matico) prevents collagen-induced platelet activation by decreasing phospholipase C-gamma 2 and protein kinase C phosphorylation signaling.

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Fuentes, Manuel; Sepúlveda, Cesar; Alarcón, Marcelo; Palomo, Iván; Fuentes, Eduardo

2018-01-01

Platelets play a key role in thrombosis and cardiovascular diseases. Medicinal plants could be one of the most important factors that influence risks for platelet activation. Buddleja globosa (known as "matico") is a medicinal plant with many biological activities. The high content of polyphenols suggest that matico could have antiplatelet activity. The present study was aimed at evaluating mechanisms of antiplatelet action of an extract of matico. We demonstrated that matico extract at low concentrations and in a concentration dependent manner (0.05-1 mg/mL) was a potent inhibitor of platelet aggregation in response to collagen, convulsion and ADP (IC 50 values was 61 μg/mL, 72 μg/mL and 290 μg/mL, respectively). In this sense matico extract exerted the greatest antiaggregant activity induced by collagen. Similarly, matico showed a decrease in % of positive platelet for P-selectina (vehicle, 0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5 and 1 mg/mL were 32 ± 2%, 29 ± 2 (p < 0.05), 19 ± 1 (p < 0.01), 15 ± 2 (p < 0.01), 10 ± 1% (p < 0.01) and 7 ± 2% (p < 0.01), respectively) and PAC-1 binding (vehicle, 0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5 and 1 mg/mL were 59 ± 1, 58 ± 3 (n.s), 55 ± 2 (p < 0.05), 50 ± 2 (p < 0.01), 38 ± 1 (p < 0.01), 36 ± 2 (p < 0.01). The cellular mechanism for the antiplatelet activity of matico might be mediated by the inhibition of phospholipase C-gamma 2 and protein kinase C phosphorylation. This beneficial property of matico may be of importance in thrombosis, in which platelet activation and aggregation are important determinants of thrombus initiation and development, and may contribute to the beneficial effects of matico intake in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

Buddleja globosa (matico prevents collagen-induced platelet activation by decreasing phospholipase C-gamma 2 and protein kinase C phosphorylation signaling

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Manuel Fuentes

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Platelets play a key role in thrombosis and cardiovascular diseases. Medicinal plants could be one of the most important factors that influence risks for platelet activation. Buddleja globosa (known as “matico” is a medicinal plant with many biological activities. The high content of polyphenols suggest that matico could have antiplatelet activity. The present study was aimed at evaluating mechanisms of antiplatelet action of an extract of matico. We demonstrated that matico extract at low concentrations and in a concentration dependent manner (0.05–1 mg/mL was a potent inhibitor of platelet aggregation in response to collagen, convulsion and ADP (IC50 values was 61 μg/mL, 72 μg/mL and 290 μg/mL, respectively. In this sense matico extract exerted the greatest antiaggregant activity induced by collagen. Similarly, matico showed a decrease in % of positive platelet for P-selectina (vehicle, 0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5 and 1 mg/mL were 32 ± 2%, 29 ± 2 (p < 0.05, 19 ± 1 (p < 0.01, 15 ± 2 (p < 0.01, 10 ± 1% (p < 0.01 and 7 ± 2% (p < 0.01, respectively and PAC-1 binding (vehicle, 0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5 and 1 mg/mL were 59 ± 1, 58 ± 3 (n.s, 55 ± 2 (p < 0.05, 50 ± 2 (p < 0.01, 38 ± 1 (p < 0.01, 36 ± 2 (p < 0.01. The cellular mechanism for the antiplatelet activity of matico might be mediated by the inhibition of phospholipase C-gamma 2 and protein kinase C phosphorylation. This beneficial property of matico may be of importance in thrombosis, in which platelet activation and aggregation are important determinants of thrombus initiation and development, and may contribute to the beneficial effects of matico intake in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

Viral attack exacerbates the susceptibility of a bloom-forming alga to ocean acidification.

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Chen, Shanwen; Gao, Kunshan; Beardall, John

2015-02-01

Both ocean acidification and viral infection bring about changes in marine phytoplankton physiological activities and community composition. However, little information is available on how the relationship between phytoplankton and viruses may be affected by ocean acidification and what impacts this might have on photosynthesis-driven marine biological CO2 pump. Here, we show that when the harmful bloom alga Phaeocystis globosa is infected with viruses under future ocean conditions, its photosynthetic performance further decreased and cells became more susceptible to stressful light levels, showing enhanced photoinhibition and reduced carbon fixation, up-regulation of mitochondrial respiration and decreased virus burst size. Our results indicate that ocean acidification exacerbates the impacts of viral attack on P. globosa, which implies that, while ocean acidification directly influences marine primary producers, it may also affect them indirectly by altering their relationship with viruses. Therefore, viruses as a biotic stressor need to be invoked when considering the overall impacts of climate change on marine productivity and carbon sequestration. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Study of the distribution of Malassezia species in patients with pityriasis versicolor and healthy individuals in Tertiary Care Hospital, Punjab

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M Kaur

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Purpose: Pityriasis versicolor (PV is a chronic superficial fungal disease caused by Malassezia species. Our aim was to identify Malassezia species from PV patients and healthy individuals in Punjab. Materials and Methods: Modified Dixon agar was used as isolation culture medium. Identification was based on morphological observation and biochemical evaluation. The biochemical evaluation consisted of culture onto Sabouraud dextrose agar, catalase reaction, Tween assimilation, Cremophor EL assimilation, splitting of esculin and growth at 38 0 C. Results: Out of 58 microscopically diagnosed cases of PV, growth was obtained from 54 (93.10% cases. The most frequently isolated species were M. globosa, M. sympodialis and M. furfur which made up 51.79%, 31.42% and 18.51% of the isolated etiological agents respectively. However, the major isolate from the back of healthy individuals was M. sympodialis (47.61%, followed by M.obtusa (19.04%, M. globosa (14.20%, M. furfur (9.52%, M. pachydermatis (4.76% and M. slooffiae (4.76%. Conclusions: M. globosa in its mycelial phase was the main etiological agent, but as normal flora from the back of healthy subjects, it was found in significantly less number (P = 0.01, suggesting that the higher pathogenicity of M. globosa in terms of enzymatic endowment, might be the cause of its predominance in PV lesions.

Study of the distribution of Malassezia species in patients with pityriasis versicolor and healthy individuals in Tehran, Iran

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Zeraati Hojjat

2004-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Pityriasis versicolor is a superficial infection of the stratum corneum which caused by a group of yeasts formerly named pityrosporium. The taxonomy of these lipophilic yeasts has recently been modified and includes seven species referred as Malassezia. The aim of this study is to compare the distribution of Malassezia species isolated from pityriasis versicolor lesions and those isolated from healthy skins. Methods Differentiation of all malassezia species performed using morphological features and physiological test including catalase reaction, Tween assimilation test and splitting of esculin. Results In pityriasis versicolor lesions, the most frequently isolated species was M. globosa (53.3%, followed by M. furfur (25.3%, M. sympodialis(9.3%, M. obtusa (8.1% and M. slooffiae (4.0%. The most frequently isolated species in the skin of healthy individuals were M. globosa, M. sympodialis, M. furfur, M. sloofiae and M. restricta which respectively made up 41.7%, 25.0%, 23.3%, 6.7% and 3.3% of the isolated species. Conclusions According to our data, M. globosa was the most prevalent species in the skin of healthy individuals which recovered only in the yeast form. However, the Mycelial form of M. globosa was isolated as the dominant species from pityriasis versicolor lesions. Therefore, the role of predisposing factors in the conversion of this yeast to mycelium and its subsequent involvement in pityriasis versicolor pathogenicity should be considered.

In vitro anti-Malassezia activity and potential use in anti-dandruff formulation of Asparagus racemosus.

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Onlom, C; Khanthawong, S; Waranuch, N; Ingkaninan, K

2014-02-01

Malassezia species are frequently associated with dandruff and seborrhoeic dermatitis. The study was conducted to evaluate anti-fungal activities of the extracts obtained from the roots of Asparagus racemosus Willd against Malassezia furfur and M. globosa. Asparagus racemosus roots were successively extracted with the series of solvents, that is, hexane, ethanol and water, and also a saponin-enriched fraction was prepared. The amounts of saponin (equivalent to shatavarin IV) in the extracts were determined using ELISA. The extracts were tested for anti-fungal activity by disc diffusion and broth microdilution methods. By disc diffusion, only the ethanolic and saponin-enriched extracts demonstrated anti-fungal activity against M. furfur and M. globosa at the concentration of 1 mg per disc whereas the extracts with other solvents were ineffective. Multiple concentrations using the broth microdilution method against M. furfur and M. globosa yielded minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of 25 mg mL(-1) for the ethanolic extract but much higher potency for the saponin-enriched extract: MICs to 0.20 and 0.40 mg mL(-1) for M. furfur and M. globosa, respectively. These extracts showed no antagonist effect with the anti-fungal agents, ketoconazole and zinc pyrithione. These studies revealed the antifungal activity of A. racemosus roots extracts. Because A. racemosus is also anti-inflammatory agent, it has the potential use as an active ingredient in an anti-dandruff formulation. © 2013 Society of Cosmetic Scientists and the Société Française de Cosmétologie.

The regrowth of phytoplankton cultures after UV disinfection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martínez, Lucía F.; Mahamud, Manuel M.; Lavín, Antonio G.; Bueno, Julio L.

2013-01-01

Highlights: ► Phytoplankton cultures were placed in a rich medium after UV-C irradiation. ► Flow cytometry and PAM were used for determining cell viability. ► The behavior differs from that of cultures kept in their original environment. ► Chlorella autotrophica recovers between 5 and 10 days after the treatment. ► Phaeocystis globosa shows only a slight recovery for low-dose UV-radiation exposure. - Abstract: This study addresses how cultures of three phytoplankton species –Chaetoceros calcitrans, Chlorella autotrophica and Phaeocystis globosa – can recover from the effects of UV-C exposure if the cells are placed in a rich medium. Flow cytometry and pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) were used to determine cell recovery after UV treatment. The recovery of C. calcitrans was complete 9 days after treatment. For C. autotrophica, the recovery was noticeable 5 days after treatment. P. globosa only recovered if the UV dose did not exceed 7.3 × 10 5 μWs/cm 2 . The recovery of the UV-treated cultures introduced to a regrowth medium, compared with the recovery of the irradiated cultures kept in their original environment, had two main characteristics: cell recovery was slower but was more efficient. This pattern of recovery has very important implications for real ballast water management systems because such systems discharge treated water into the environment

Ethnomedicines used in Trinidad and Tobago for urinary problems and diabetes mellitus.

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Lans, Cheryl A

2006-10-13

This paper is based on ethnobotanical interviews conducted from 1996-2000 in Trinidad and Tobago with thirty male and female respondents. A non-experimental validation was conducted on the plants used for urinary problems and diabetes mellitus: This is a preliminary step to establish that the plants used are safe or effective, to help direct clinical trials, and to inform Caribbean physicians of the plants' known properties to avoid counter-prescribing. The following plants are used to treat diabetes: Antigonon leptopus, Bidens alba, Bidens pilosa, Bixa orellana, Bontia daphnoides, Carica papaya, Catharanthus roseus, Cocos nucifera, Gomphrena globosa, Laportea aestuans, Momordica charantia, Morus alba, Phyllanthus urinaria and Spiranthes acaulis. Apium graviolens is used as a heart tonic and for low blood pressure. Bixa orellana, Bontia daphnoides, Cuscuta americana and Gomphrena globosa are used for jaundice. The following plants are used for hypertension: Aloe vera, Annona muricata, Artocarpus altilis, Bixa orellana, Bidens alba, Bidens pilosa, Bonta daphnoides, Carica papaya, Cecropia peltata, Citrus paradisi, Cola nitida, Crescentia cujete, Gomphrena globosa, Hibiscus sabdariffa, Kalanchoe pinnata, Morus alba, Nopalea cochinellifera, Ocimum campechianum, Passiflora quadrangularis, Persea americana and Tamarindus indicus. The plants used for kidney problems are Theobroma cacao, Chamaesyce hirta, Flemingia strobilifera, Peperomia rotundifolia, Petiveria alliacea, Nopalea cochinellifera, Apium graveolens, Cynodon dactylon, Eleusine indica, Gomphrena globosa, Pityrogramma calomelanos and Vetiveria zizanioides. Plants are also used for gall stones and for cooling. Chamaesyce hirta, Cissus verticillata, Kalanchoe pinnata, Peperomia spp., Portulaca oleraceae, Scoparia dulcis, and Zea mays have sufficient evidence to support their traditional use for urinary problems, "cooling" and high cholesterol. Eggplant extract as a hypocholesterolemic agent has some support but

Pitiríase versicolor: isolamento e identificação das principais espécies de Malassezia Pityriasis versicolor: isolation and identification of the main species

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Valéria Maria de Souza Framil

2010-02-01

Full Text Available As espécies do gênero Malassezia isoladas foram: Malassezia sympodialis (16,66%, Malassezia furfur (12,50%, Malassezia globosa (11,45% e Malassezia slooffiae (2,10%. A Malassezia sympodialis foi a espécie que predominou em nosso estudo. As espécies de Malassezia identificadas não mostraram correlação com as variantes clínicas e com a distribuição das lesões de pitiríase versicolor quanto às regiões do corpo.Species of the genus Malassezia isolated were: Malassezia sympodialis (16.66%, Malassezia furfur (12.50%, Malassezia globosa (11.45%, and Malassezia slooffiae (2.10%. Malassezia sympodialis predominated in the study. The species of Malassezia identified did not show correlation with clinical variants and with the distribution of pityriasis versicolor lesions in relation to areas of the body.

Ethnomedicines used in Trinidad and Tobago for urinary problems and diabetes mellitus

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Lans, Cheryl A

2006-01-01

Background This paper is based on ethnobotanical interviews conducted from 1996–2000 in Trinidad and Tobago with thirty male and female respondents. Methods A non-experimental validation was conducted on the plants used for urinary problems and diabetes mellitus: This is a preliminary step to establish that the plants used are safe or effective, to help direct clinical trials, and to inform Caribbean physicians of the plants' known properties to avoid counter-prescribing. Results The following plants are used to treat diabetes: Antigonon leptopus, Bidens alba, Bidens pilosa, Bixa orellana, Bontia daphnoides, Carica papaya, Catharanthus roseus, Cocos nucifera, Gomphrena globosa, Laportea aestuans, Momordica charantia, Morus alba, Phyllanthus urinaria and Spiranthes acaulis. Apium graviolens is used as a heart tonic and for low blood pressure. Bixa orellana, Bontia daphnoides, Cuscuta americana and Gomphrena globosa are used for jaundice. The following plants are used for hypertension: Aloe vera, Annona muricata, Artocarpus altilis, Bixa orellana, Bidens alba, Bidens pilosa, Bonta daphnoides, Carica papaya, Cecropia peltata, Citrus paradisi, Cola nitida, Crescentia cujete, Gomphrena globosa, Hibiscus sabdariffa, Kalanchoe pinnata, Morus alba, Nopalea cochinellifera, Ocimum campechianum, Passiflora quadrangularis, Persea americana and Tamarindus indicus. The plants used for kidney problems are Theobroma cacao, Chamaesyce hirta, Flemingia strobilifera, Peperomia rotundifolia, Petiveria alliacea, Nopalea cochinellifera, Apium graveolens, Cynodon dactylon, Eleusine indica, Gomphrena globosa, Pityrogramma calomelanos and Vetiveria zizanioides. Plants are also used for gall stones and for cooling. Conclusion Chamaesyce hirta, Cissus verticillata, Kalanchoe pinnata, Peperomia spp., Portulaca oleraceae, Scoparia dulcis, and Zea mays have sufficient evidence to support their traditional use for urinary problems, "cooling" and high cholesterol. Eggplant extract as a

Ethnomedicines used in Trinidad and Tobago for urinary problems and diabetes mellitus

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Lans Cheryl A

2006-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background This paper is based on ethnobotanical interviews conducted from 1996–2000 in Trinidad and Tobago with thirty male and female respondents. Methods A non-experimental validation was conducted on the plants used for urinary problems and diabetes mellitus: This is a preliminary step to establish that the plants used are safe or effective, to help direct clinical trials, and to inform Caribbean physicians of the plants' known properties to avoid counter-prescribing. Results The following plants are used to treat diabetes: Antigonon leptopus, Bidens alba, Bidens pilosa, Bixa orellana, Bontia daphnoides, Carica papaya, Catharanthus roseus, Cocos nucifera, Gomphrena globosa, Laportea aestuans, Momordica charantia, Morus alba, Phyllanthus urinaria and Spiranthes acaulis. Apium graviolens is used as a heart tonic and for low blood pressure. Bixa orellana, Bontia daphnoides, Cuscuta americana and Gomphrena globosa are used for jaundice. The following plants are used for hypertension: Aloe vera, Annona muricata, Artocarpus altilis, Bixa orellana, Bidens alba, Bidens pilosa, Bonta daphnoides, Carica papaya, Cecropia peltata, Citrus paradisi, Cola nitida, Crescentia cujete, Gomphrena globosa, Hibiscus sabdariffa, Kalanchoe pinnata, Morus alba, Nopalea cochinellifera, Ocimum campechianum, Passiflora quadrangularis, Persea americana and Tamarindus indicus. The plants used for kidney problems are Theobroma cacao, Chamaesyce hirta, Flemingia strobilifera, Peperomia rotundifolia, Petiveria alliacea, Nopalea cochinellifera, Apium graveolens, Cynodon dactylon, Eleusine indica, Gomphrena globosa, Pityrogramma calomelanos and Vetiveria zizanioides. Plants are also used for gall stones and for cooling. Conclusion Chamaesyce hirta, Cissus verticillata, Kalanchoe pinnata, Peperomia spp., Portulaca oleraceae, Scoparia dulcis, and Zea mays have sufficient evidence to support their traditional use for urinary problems, "cooling" and high cholesterol

Colony Size of Phaeocystis Antarctica (Prymnesiophyceae) as Influenced by Zooplankton Grazers

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The haptophyte Phaeocystis antarctica is a dominant phytoplankton species in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, and exists as solitary cells and mucilaginous colonies that differ by several orders of magnitude in size. Recent studies with P. globosa suggested that colony formation and enl...

Application of rotifer Brachionus plicatilis in detecting the toxicity of harmful algae

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Yan, Tian; Wang, Yunfeng; Wang, Liping; Chen, Yang; Han, Gang; Zhou, Mingjiang

2009-05-01

The toxicity of seven major HAB (harmful algal bloom) species/strains, Prorocentrum donghaiense, Phaeocystis globosa, Prorocentrum micans, Alexandrium tamarense (AT-6, non-PSP producer), Alexandrium lusitanicum, Alexandrum tamarense (ATHK) and Heterosigma akashiwo were studied against rotifer Brachionus plicatilis under laboratory conditions. The results show that P. donghaiense, P. globosa, P. micans, A. tamarense (AT-6), or A. lusitanicum could maintain the individual survival and reproduction, as well as the population increase of the rotifer, but the individual reproduction would decrease when exposed to these five algae at higher densities for nine days; H. akashiwo could decrease the individual survival and reproduction, as well as population increase of the rotifer, which is similar to that of the starvation group, indicating that starvation might be its one lethal factor except for the algal toxins; A. tamarense (ATHK) has strong lethal effect on the rotifer with 48h LC50 at 800 cells/mL. The experiment on ingestion ability indicated by gut pigment change shows that P. donghaiense, P. globosa, P. micans, A. tamarense (AT-6) and A. lusitanicum can be taken by the rotifers as food, but A. tamarense (ATHK) or H. akashiwo can be ingested by the rotifers. The results indicate that all the indexes of individual survival and reproduction, population increase, gut pigment change of the rotifers are good and convenient to be used to reflect the toxicities of HAB species. Therefore, rotifer is suggested as one of the toxicity testing organisms in detecting the toxicity of harmful algae.

Human sporotrichosis beyond the epidemic front reveals classical transmission types in Espírito Santo, Brazil

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Araujo, Mariceli L; Rodrigues, Anderson M; Fernandes, Geisa F; de Camargo, Zoilo P; de Hoog, G Sybren

Sporotrichosis has emerged as the main subcutaneous mycosis of humans and animals around the world. With particular differences in frequency, the major species includes Sporothrix brasiliensis, S. schenckii, S. globosa and S. luriei. In Brazil, the main aspect of this epidemic is based on the

Management of Cosmetic Embarrassment Caused by Malassezia spp. with Fruticose Lichen Cladia Using Phylogenetic Approach

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Anand Pandey

2013-01-01

Full Text Available During anti-Malassezia screening of plants by CLSI broth microdilution method, Cladia aggregata (Swartz Nyl. (family Cladoniaceae, a fruticose lichen from Sikkim (northeast Himalayan region, has been found effective at minimum inhibitory concentrations (mg/mL of 2.72, 0.63, and 1.28 against yeast-like fungi namely, M. furfur, M. globosa and M. sympodialis, respectively. These test pathogens are responsible for pityriasis versicolor (PV and seborrheic dermatitis (SD in humans. We tried to establish the reason for variable MICs against various Malassezia spp. using bioinformatical tools, thereby reducing the cost of the experimentation. This is the first report on anti-Malassezia activity of C. aggregata and thus can serve as a potential source for the development of cosmaceuticals.

Phylogenetic analysis reveals a high prevalence of Sporothrix brasiliensis in Feline sporotrichosis outbreaks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rodrigues, A.M.; de Melo Teixeira, M.; de Hoog, G.S.; Pacheco Schubach, T.M.; Pereira, S.A.; Ferreira Fernandes, G.; Lopes Bezerra, L.M.; Felipe, M.S.; Pires de Camargo, Z.

2013-01-01

Sporothrix schenckii, previously assumed to be the sole agent of human and animal sporotrichosis, is in fact a species complex. Recently recognized taxa include S. brasiliensis, S. globosa, S. mexicana, and S. luriei, in addition to S. schenckii sensu stricto. Over the last decades, large epidemics

Phylogenetic analysis reveals a high prevalence of Sporothrix brasiliensis in feline sporotrichosis outbreaks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rodrigues, A.M.; Teixeira, M.; de Hoog, G.S.; Schubach, T.M.P.; Pereira, S.A.; Fernandes, G.F.; Bezerra, L.M.; Felipe, M.S.; Camargo, Z.P.

2013-01-01

Sporothrix schenckii, previously assumed to be the sole agent of human and animal sporotrichosis, is in fact a species complex. Recently recognized taxa include S. brasiliensis, S. globosa, S. mexicana, and S. luriei, in addition to S. schenckii sensu stricto. Over the last decades, large epidemics

Comparative genomics of the major agents of human and animal Sporotrichosis: Sporothrix schenckii and Sporothrix brasiliensis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Teixeira, M.M.; de Almeida, L.G.P.; Kubitschek-Barreira, P.; Alves, F.L.; Kioshima, E.S.; Abadio, A.K.R.; Fernandes, L.; Derengowski, L.S.; Ferreira, K.S.; Souza, R.C.; Ruiz, J.C.; de Andrade, N.C.; Paes, H.C.; Nicola, A.M.; Albuquerque, P.; Gerber, A.L.; Martins, V.P.; Peconick, L.D.F.; Neto, A.V.; Chaucanez, C.B.; Silva, P.A.; cunha, O.L.; de Oliveira, F.F.M.; dos Santos, T.C.; Barros, A.L.N.; Soares, M.A.; de Oliveira, L.M.; Marini, M.M.; Villalobos-Duno, H.; Cunha, M.M.L.; de Hoog, S.; da Silveira, J.F.; Henrissat, B.; Niño-Vega, G.A.; Cisalpino, P.S.; Mora-Montes, H.M.; Almeida, S.R.; Stajich, J.E.; Lopes-Bezerra, L.M.; Vasconcelos, A.T.R.; Felipe, M.S.S.

2014-01-01

Background: The fungal genus Sporothrix includes at least four human pathogenic species. One of these species, S. brasiliensis, is the causal agent of a major ongoing zoonotic outbreak of sporotrichosis in Brazil. Elsewhere, sapronoses are caused by S. schenckii and S. globosa. The major aims on

The use of fuzzy logic for data analysis and modelling of European ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The use of fuzzy logic for data analysis and modelling of European harmful algal blooms: results of the HABES project. ... African Journal of Marine Science ... Alexandrium minutum, Karenia mikimotoi and Phaeocystis globosa at various European sites as part of the Harmful Algal Blooms Expert System (HABES) project.

Current Knowledge of the Life Cycles of

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Peperzak, L.; Gäbler-Schwarz, S.

2012-01-01

Despite continuous efforts since the 1950s and more recent advances in culturing flagellates and nonflagellate cells of the prymnesiophyte Phaeocystis, a number of different life-cycle models exist today that appear to apply for P. globosa Scherff. and P. antarctica G. Karst., both spherical colony

Phytoplankton Virus Production Negatively Affected by Iron Limitation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Slagter, H.A.; Gerringa, L.J.A.; Brussaard, C.P.D.

2016-01-01

Fe-limited monocultures of the ubiquitous algae Micromonas pusilla and Phaeocystis globosa were infected with their respective viruses (MpV and PgV) to ascertain the effect of Fe-limitation on phytoplankton host-virus dynamics. The effect of the viral shunt on Fe concentrations and bioavailability

Synergistic Effects of Different Food Species on Life-History Traits of Daphnia-Galeata

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boersma, M.; Vijverberg, J.

1995-01-01

In this paper we describe the life history consequences of feeding Daphnia galeata with different food types in different concentrations. We fed the animals with four concentrations of two green algae Scenedesmus obliquus and Chlamydomonas globosa, given separately as well as in a 1:1 mixture.

Prevalence of different Malassezia species in pityriasis versicolor in central India.

Science.gov (United States)

Chaudhary, Rahul; Singh, Sanjay; Banerjee, Tuhina; Tilak, Ragini

2010-01-01

In the last 10 years, different studies have shown interesting geographical variations in the prevalence of different Malassezia species in pityriasis versicolor. Identification of Malassezia species isolated from patients with pityriasis versicolor. In 100 patients with pityriasis versicolor, Malassezia species were identified by culture in Sabouraud's dextrose agar containing cycloheximide with olive oil overlay and modified Dixon agar and by doing biochemical tests (catalase reaction, assimilation of glycine, and Tween utilisation tests). In 10 patients, 10% KOH smear was negative, while in 90 patients the smear showed characteristic "spaghetti and meatball" appearance. Of these 90 cases, growth was obtained on modified Dixon's agar in 87 cases. Fifty of the isolates (57.5%) were M. globosa, 15 (17.2%) were M. sympodialis, seven (8.0%) were suspected M. sympodialis, 6 (6.9%) each of the isolates were M. furfur and M. obtusa, and three (3.4%) isolates were M. restricta. M. globosa was the most common species, followed by M. sympodialis, M. furfur, M. obtusa, and M. restricta.

Prevalence of different Malassezia species in pityriasis versicolor in central India

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Chaudhary Rahul

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Background: In the last 10 years, different studies have shown interesting geographical variations in the prevalence of different Malassezia species in pityriasis versicolor. Aim: Identification of Malassezia species isolated from patients with pityriasis versicolor. Methods: In 100 patients with pityriasis versicolor, Malassezia species were identified by culture in Sabouraud′s dextrose agar containing cycloheximide with olive oil overlay and modified Dixon agar and by doing biochemical tests (catalase reaction, assimilation of glycine, and Tween utilisation tests. Results: In 10 patients, 10% KOH smear was negative, while in 90 patients the smear showed characteristic "spaghetti and meatball" appearance. Of these 90 cases, growth was obtained on modified Dixon′s agar in 87 cases. Fifty of the isolates (57.5% were M. globosa, 15 (17.2% were M. sympodialis, seven (8.0% were suspected M. sympodialis, 6 (6.9% each of the isolates were M. furfur and M. obtusa, and three (3.4% isolates were M. restricta. Conclusion: M. globosa was the most common species, followed by M. sympodialis, M. furfur, M. obtusa, and M. restricta.

Katabia gromovi nov. gen., nov sp. - a new soil flagellate with affinities to Heteromita (Cercomonadida)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Karpov, S.A.; Ekelund, Flemming; Moestrup, Øjvind

2003-01-01

Katabia gromovi, cercomonads, ultrastructure, cytoskeleton, soil flagellates, partial SSU gene sequence......Katabia gromovi, cercomonads, ultrastructure, cytoskeleton, soil flagellates, partial SSU gene sequence...

Sporothrix schenckii COMPLEX:SUSCEPTIBILITIES TO COMBINED ANTIFUNGAL AGENTS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ENZYMATIC PROFILES.

Science.gov (United States)

Oliveira, Daniele Carvalho; de Loreto, Érico Silva; Mario, Débora Alves Nunes; Lopes, Paulo G Markus; Neves, Louise Vignolles; da Rocha, Marta Pires; Santurio, Janio Morais; Alves, Sydney Hartz

2015-01-01

Sporothrix schenckii was reclassified as a complex encompassing six cryptic species, which calls for the reassessment of clinical and epidemiological data of these new species. We evaluated the susceptibility of Sporothrix albicans(n = 1) , S. brasiliensis(n = 6) , S. globosa(n = 1), S. mexicana(n = 1) and S. schenckii(n = 36) to terbinafine (TRB) alone and in combination with itraconazole (ITZ), ketoconazole (KTZ), and voriconazole (VRZ) by a checkerboard microdilution method and determined the enzymatic profile of these species with the API-ZYM kit. Most interactions were additive (27.5%, 32.5% and 5%) or indifferent (70%, 50% and 52.5%) for TRB+KTZ, TRB+ITZ and TRB+VRZ, respectively. Antagonisms were observed in 42.5% of isolates for the TRB+VRZ combination. Based on enzymatic profiling, the Sporothrix schenckii strains were categorized into 14 biotypes. Leucine arylamidase (LA) activity was observed only for S. albicans and S. mexicana. The species S. globosa and S. Mexicana were the only species without β-glucosidase (GS) activity. Our results may contribute to a better understanding of virulence and resistance among species of the genus Sporothrix in further studies.

Jenis dan Kandungan Tanin Pakan Satwa Anoa (Bubalus sp.

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M. Basri

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Study of kinds and tannin content of diets consumed by anoa is limited. This information is very important and necessary for anoa domestication. The aims of this research were to obtain information on kinds and tannin content of anoa diets. The research was conducted in forest of Pangi Binangga nature reserve and Lore Lindu National Park, province of Central Sulawesi in March to November 2009. Digestive content analyses method was used to study the kinds of diets consumed by anoa. Chromatography was used for tannin analysis. Results of the digestive content analysis found ten kinds of anoa diets, i.e. Ficus miquelly, Caryota mitis, Ficus ampelas, Syzigium sp., Cordia mixab, Paspalum conjugatum, Smilax leocophylla, Saccarum spontaneum, Isachne globosa and Imperata cylindrica. The proportion of the diets were 60%, 45%, 35%, 17%, 12%, 10%, 8%, 8%, 5%, and 4%, respectively. Three of six diets namely Ficus miquelly, Saccarum spontaneum and Isachne globosa contained low tannin. The tannin content of three diets was 0.34%, 0.61%, and 0.99%, respectively. It is concluded that anoa in forest prefer diets that contain low tannin, such as Ficus fruits, shoots of shrubs.

Phenotypic Characteristics Associated with Virulence of Clinical Isolates from the Sporothrix Complex

Science.gov (United States)

Almeida-Paes, Rodrigo; de Oliveira, Luã Cardoso; Oliveira, Manoel Marques Evangelista; Gutierrez-Galhardo, Maria Clara; Nosanchuk, Joshua Daniel; Zancopé-Oliveira, Rosely Maria

2015-01-01

The Sporothrix complex members cause sporotrichosis, a subcutaneous mycosis with a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations. Several specific phenotypic characteristics are associated with virulence in many fungi, but studies in this field involving the Sporothrix complex species are scarce. Melanization, thermotolerance, and production of proteases, catalase, and urease were investigated in 61 S. brasiliensis, one S. globosa, and 10 S. schenckii strains. The S. brasiliensis strains showed a higher expression of melanin and urease compared with S. schenckii. These two species, however, presented similar thermotolerances. Our S. globosa strain had low expression of all studied virulence factors. The relationship between these phenotypes and clinical aspects of sporotrichosis was also evaluated. Strains isolated from patients with spontaneous regression of infection were heavily melanized and produced high urease levels. Melanin was also related to dissemination of internal organs and protease production was associated with HIV-coinfection. A murine sporotrichosis model showed that a S. brasiliensis strain with high expression of virulence factors was able to disseminate and yield a high fungal burden in comparison with a control S. schenckii strain. Our results show that virulence-related phenotypes are variably expressed within the Sporothrix complex species and might be involved in clinical aspects of sporotrichosis. PMID:25961005

DPPH and oxygen free radicals as pro-oxidant of biomolecules.

Science.gov (United States)

Letelier, María Eugenia; Molina-Berríos, Alfredo; Cortés-Troncoso, Juan; Jara-Sandoval, José; Holst, Marianne; Palma, Karina; Montoya, Margarita; Miranda, Dante; González-Lira, Víctor

2008-03-01

Numerous investigations exist about the alterations that oxygen free radicals can provoke on biomolecules; these modifications can be prevented and/or reversed by different antioxidants agents. On the other hand, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH), a stable nitrogen synthetic radical, is used to evaluate the antioxidant capacity of medicinal herbal products; however, the structural changes that this radical provoke on the herbal active principles are not clear yet. In this work, we compared the redox reactivity of oxygen free radicals and DPPH radical on phospholipids and protein thiol groups present in rat liver microsomes. Cu2+/ascorbate was used as generator system of oxygen free radical and as antioxidant, an extract of Buddleja globosa's leaves. Cu2+/ascorbate provoked microsomal lipid peroxidation, microsomal thiols oxidation and oxygen consumption; all of these phenomena were inhibited by B. globosa extract. On the other hand, DPPH was bleached in different extension by the herbal extract and phosphatidyl choline; beside, DPPH decreased microsomal thiols content, but this phenomenon were not prevented by the herbal extract. Furthermore, DPPH did not induce oxygen consumption and neither modified the oxygen consumption induced by Cu2+/ascorbate. Distinct redox mechanisms may explain the differences between the reactivity of DPPH and oxygen free radicals on biomolecules, which is discussed.

Boraginaceae s.l. A. Juss. em uma área de Caatinga da ESEC Raso da Catarina, BA, Brasil Boraginaceae s.l. A. Juss. in the Caatinga of the Raso da Catarina Ecological Station, Bahia State, Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Iranildo Miranda de Melo

2007-06-01

Full Text Available Este trabalho trata do levantamento florístico-taxonômico da família Boraginaceae em um trecho de Caatinga da Estação Ecológica Raso da Catarina, Bahia, Brasil. Foram encontrados sete espécies e três gêneros de Boraginaceae: Cordia (C. globosa (Jacq. Kunth, C. leucocephala Moric. e C. rufescens A.DC., Heliotropium (H. angiospermum Murray e Heliotropium elongatum (Lehm. I.M. Johnst. e Tournefortia (T. rubicunda Salzm. ex A.DC. e T. salzmannii DC.. São apresentadas chaves para identificação de gêneros e espécies, além de descrições, ilustrações, comentários, dados de distribuição e hábitat.A floristic-taxonomic survey of the family Boraginaceae was carried out in a fragment of Caatinga vegetation of the Raso da Catarina Ecological Station, Bahia, Brazil. Seven species and three genera of Boraginaceae were found: Cordia (C. globosa (Jacq. Kunth; C. leucocephala Moric.; C. rufescens A.DC., Heliotropium (H. angiospermum Murray; H. elongatum (Lehm. I.M. Johnst. and Tournefortia (T. rubicunda Salzm. ex A.DC.; T. salzmannii DC.. Keys to identify genera and species are presented together with descriptions, illustrations, and comments on relationships among these taxa, distribution and habitat.

AVALIAÇÃO DA ATIVIDADE ANTIINFLAMATÓRIA DA FRAÇÃO ALCALOÍDICA DO FRUTO DE Solanum lycocarpum A.St.-Hil. (LOBEIRA)

OpenAIRE

VIEIRA JÚNIOR, Geraldo

2004-01-01

Solanum lycocarpum A. St.-Hil., popularmente conhecida como lobeira, é facilmente encontrada no cerrado. Caracteriza-se como uma planta arbustiva com até cinco metros de altura, ramos frágeis, apresentando fruto tipo baga globosa, de oito a quinze centímetros de diâmetro, cor verde-amarelada mesmo quando maduro, polpa carnosa e suculenta. A lobeira é usada na medicina popular para diversos fins terapêuticos, como por exemplo, bronquite, verminose, diabete e úlcera. Estudo co...

In vitro tests and ethnopharmacological investigations: wound healing as an example.

Science.gov (United States)

Houghton, P J; Hylands, P J; Mensah, A Y; Hensel, A; Deters, A M

2005-08-22

In vitro tests are now widely employed in ethnopharmacological research because of ethical reasons and their usefulness in bioactive-guided fractionation and determination of active compounds. For many disease conditions, a variety of in vitro tests can now be employed as the biochemical mechanisms underlying disease and healing processes are understood. Approaches to the in vitro investigations of wound healing processes are exemplified by studies on extracts of Buddleja species and three Ghanaian species Spathodea campanulata, Commelina diffusa and Secamone afzelii. Most studies have been carried out on Buddleja officinalis or Buddleja globosa. The extracts have been shown to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties due to flavonoids, triterpenoids, diterpenoids and caffeic acid derivatives. There appears to a slight effect on proliferation of fibroblasts at lower concentrations, but this was not significant, and higher concentrations appeared to be cytotoxic. Novel findings are the ability of Buddleja globosa leaf extracts to induce differentiation in keratinocytes and to alter the profile of proteins produced by cultured fibroblasts. Extracts also had some effect on lattice contraction. The three Ghanaian species examined show a mixture of antimicrobial and antioxidant activities. The evolution over recent years of tests for wound healing, from in vivo tests to cell-based systems and chemical reactions and on to investigations into effects on secondary messengers and protein expression, is described.

Metalycaea globosa stephensen, a valid species of Oxycephalidae (Amphipoda, Hyperiidea)

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Nair

stream_size 6 stream_content_type text/plain stream_name J_Plankton_Res_15_1171.pdf.txt stream_source_info J_Plankton_Res_15_1171.pdf.txt Content-Encoding ISO-8859-1 Content-Type text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 ...

Transference of function shapes organ identity in the dove tree inflorescence.

Science.gov (United States)

Vekemans, Dries; Viaene, Tom; Caris, Pieter; Geuten, Koen

2012-01-01

• An important evolutionary mechanism shaping the biodiversity of flowering plants is the transfer of function from one plant organ to another. To investigate whether and how transference of function is associated with the remodeling of the floral organ identity program we studied Davidia involucrata, a species with conspicuous, petaloid bracts subtending a contracted inflorescence with reduced flowers. • A detailed ontogeny enabled the interpretation of expression patterns of B-, C- and E-class homeotic MADS-box genes using qRT-PCR and in situ hybridization techniques. We investigated protein-protein interactions using yeast two-hybrid assays. • Although loss of organs does not appear to have affected organ identity in the retained organs of the reduced flowers of D. involucrata, the bracts express the B-class TM6 (Tomato MADS box gene 6) and GLOBOSA homologs, but not DEFICIENS, and the C-class AGAMOUS homolog, representing a subset of genes also involved in stamen identity. • Our results may illustrate how petal identity can be partially transferred outside the flower by expressing a subset of stamen identity genes. This adds to the molecular mechanisms explaining the diversity of plant reproductive morphology. © 2011 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2011 New Phytologist Trust.

Especies de Malassezia aisladas de pacientes con lesiones dermatológicas

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Sandra Rincón

2005-06-01

Full Text Available Introducción. Las levaduras del género Malassezia forman parte de la flora normal de la piel y se asocian con varios tipos de lesiones dermatológicas. Desde 1996, la descripción de nuevas especies dentro de este género planteó numerosos interrogantes sobre su epidemiología y patogenicidad. Objetivo. El fin de este trabajo fue encontrar la frecuencia de las diferentes especies de Malassezia en individuos con pitiriasis versicolor, dermatitis atópica, dermatitis seborreica, dermatitis seborreica en pacientes positivos para VIH, y en individuos sin lesiones a partir de tres zonas corporales (cabeza, tórax, extremidades inferiores y superiores. Materiales y métodos. Se identificaron 154 aislamientos de especies de Malassezia de 112 individuos: 39 con dermatitis seborreica de los cuales 20 eran positivos para VIH, 18 con pitiriasis versicolor, 18 con dermatitis atópica y 37 individuos sin lesión dermatológica (controles. Las escamas de piel de los pacientes se observaron microscópicamente y las muestras de pacientes y controles se cultivaron en agar Dixon modificado. Posteriormente, se observaron las colonias y se identificaron según sus características macroscópicas, microscópicas y fisiológicas. Resultados. Las especies más frecuentemente aisladas en el total de los grupos estudiados fueron: Malassezia globosa (37,5%, M. sympodialis (31,3% y M. furfur (31,3%. M. globosa predominó en los aislamientos de pacientes con pitiriasis versicolor (67% y en pacientes positivos para VIH con dermatitis seborreica (85%. En pacientes con dermatitis atópica y dermatitis seborreica sin diagnóstico de VIH, se aislaron M. furfur y M. restricta en el 72% y el 26% de los casos, respectivamente. Conclusiones. Las diferentes especies de Malassezia pueden aislarse de pacientes con lesiones dermatológicas o sin ellas. Además, la frecuencia de especies en la población muestreada difiere de lo reportado en otras zonas geográficas. Se destaca la

Human sporotrichosis beyond the epidemic front reveals classical transmission types in Espírito Santo, Brazil.

Science.gov (United States)

de Araujo, Mariceli L; Rodrigues, Anderson M; Fernandes, Geisa F; de Camargo, Zoilo P; de Hoog, G Sybren

2015-08-01

Sporotrichosis has emerged as the main subcutaneous mycosis of humans and animals around the world. With particular differences in frequency, the major species includes Sporothrix brasiliensis, S. schenckii, S. globosa and S. luriei. In Brazil, the main aspect of this epidemic is based on the zoonotic transmission through the scratches and bites of diseased cats contaminated with S. brasiliensis. Areas free of feline sporotrichosis are poorly characterised in Brazil. We investigated by molecular tools the epidemiology of human sporotrichosis in the Espírito Santo (ES) state, an area adjacent to Rio de Janeiro where is the epicentre of the long-lasting outbreak of cat-transmitted sporotrichosis. The human cases in the ES state reveal the prevalence of classical transmission types where subjects are mainly infected by accidental traumatic inoculation during manipulation of contaminated plant material. In agreement with an environmental source, Sporothrix schenckii was the major aetiological agent in the classical transmission. Unlike Rio de Janeiro, this study shows that cat-transmitted epidemic in Espírito Santo is still scanty, although the geographic proximity and similar climatic features. Sporothrix brasiliensis was the agent in the feline-transmitted cases. Sporothrix globosa was isolated from a patient with fixed cutaneous lesions that did not report any contact with diseased animals. In conclusion, beyond the borders of Rio de Janeiro epidemic, agents of sporotrichosis in Espírito Santo show a scattered occurrence with high species diversity. © 2015 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.

Winter-summer succession of unicellular eukaryotes in a meso-eutrophic coastal system.

Science.gov (United States)

Christaki, Urania; Kormas, Konstantinos A; Genitsaris, Savvas; Georges, Clément; Sime-Ngando, Télesphore; Viscogliosi, Eric; Monchy, Sébastien

2014-01-01

The objective of this study was to explore the succession of planktonic unicellular eukaryotes by means of 18S rRNA gene tag pyrosequencing in the eastern English Channel (EEC) during the winter to summer transition. The 59 most representative (>0.1%, representing altogether 95% of total reads), unique operational taxonomic units (OTUs) from all samples belonged to 18 known high-level taxonomic groups and 1 unaffiliated clade. The five most abundant OTUs (69.2% of total reads) belonged to Dinophyceae, Cercozoa, Haptophyceae, marine alveolate group I, and Fungi. Cluster and network analysis between samples distinguished the winter, the pre-bloom, the Phaeocystis globosa bloom and the post-bloom early summer conditions. The OTUs-based network revealed that P. globosa showed a relatively low number of connections-most of them negative-with all other OTUs. Fungi were linked to all major taxonomic groups, except Dinophyceae. Cercozoa mostly co-occurred with the Fungi, the Bacillariophyceae and several of the miscellaneous OTUs. This study provided a more detailed exploration into the planktonic succession pattern of the EEC due to its increased depth of taxonomic sampling over previous efforts based on classical monitoring observations. Data analysis implied that the food web concept in a coastal system based on predator-prey (e.g. grazer-phytoplankton) relationships is just a part of the ecological picture; and those organisms exploiting a variety of strategies, such as saprotrophy and parasitism, are persistent and abundant members of the community.

Antiviral and cytotoxic activities of some Indonesian plants.

Science.gov (United States)

Lohézic-Le Dévéhat, F; Bakhtiar, A; Bézivin, C; Amoros, M; Boustie, J

2002-08-01

Ten methanolic extracts from eight Indonesian medicinal plants were phytochemically screened and evaluated for antiviral (HSV-1 and Poliovirus) and cytotoxic activities on murine and human cancer lines (3LL, L1210, K562, U251, DU145, MCF-7). Besides Melastoma malabathricum (Melastomataceae), the Indonesian Loranthaceae species among which Elytranthe tubaeflora, E. maingayi, E. globosa and Scurrula ferruginea exhibited attractive antiviral and cytotoxic activities. Piper aduncum (Piperaceae) was found active on Poliovirus. S. ferruginea was selected for further studies because of its activity on the U251 glioblastoma cells.

A revision of Spondias L. (Anacardiaceae in the Neotropics

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John D. Mitchell

2015-08-01

Full Text Available As part of an ongoing study of Anacardiaceae subfamily Spondioideae, the ten native and one introduced species of Spondias in the Neotropics are revised. The genus is circumscribed. Three new species, S. admirabilis, S. expeditionaria, and S. globosa, are described and illustrated; a key to the taxa found in the Neotropics and distribution maps are provided. The Paleotropical species and allied genera are reviewed. Diagnostic character sets include leaf architecture, habit, flower morphology, and gross fruit morphology. Notes on the ecology and economic botany of the species are provided.

Chlorotic spots on Clerodendrum, a disease caused by a nuclear type of Brevipalpus (Acari:Tenuipalpidae transmitted virus Mancha clorótica do Clerodendrum, uma enfermidade causada por um vírus do tipo nuclear, transmitido pelo ácaro Brevipalpus phoenicis (Acari:Tenuipalpidae

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elliot Watanabe Kitajima

2008-02-01

Full Text Available Chlorotic spots have been observed in plants of Clerodendrum x speciosum growing in residential gardens and parks in Piracicaba, SP, Brazil. Thin sections of diseased tissues revealed characteristic cytopathic effects of the nuclear type of the Brevipalpus (Acari: Tenuipalpidae mite-transmitted viruses (BTrV. Brevipalpus mites, identified as B. phoenicis, infesting symptomatic C. x speciosum plants transmitted the pathogen to healthy C. x speciosum and to C. thomsonae, Gomphrena globosa, Hibiscus cannabinus, H. coccineus, H. schizopetalus, Salvia leucantha, Spathiphyllum wallasi and Tetragonia expansa causing chlorotic spots on their leaves. Mechanical inoculation using leaf extracts from infected C. x speciosum resulted in chlorotic spots on inoculated C. x speciosum, Chenopodium quinoa, C. amaranticolor, G. globosa, H. cannabinus, H. coccineus and T. expansa leaves. C. amaranticolor and C. quinoa kept at 28 - 30°C became systemically infected. The same cytopathic effects caused by the nuclear type of BTrV were seen in tissues from all infected test plants by electron microscopy. The virus was purified from systemically infected leaves of C. amaranticolor and C. quinoa. A polyclonal antiserum obtained from an immunized rabbit presented a strong reaction with the homologous antigen in ELISA tests. The results suggest that this chlorotic spot disease of C. x speciosum is caused by a new species of the nuclear type of BTrV, tentatively named Clerodendrum chlorotic spot virus (ClCSV.Manchas cloróticas e necróticas foram observadas em folhas de várias plantas de coração-sangrento (Clerodendrum x speciosum cultivadas em parques e jardins em Piracicaba, SP, associadas à infestação pelo ácaro tenuipalpídeo Brevipalpus phoenicis. Exames preliminares de secções de tecido das manchas cloróticas ao microscópio eletrônico revelaram a ocorrência de efeitos citopáticos característicos dos induzidos pelos vírus do tipo nuclear, transmitido

Reduced Rank Regression

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Johansen, Søren

2008-01-01

The reduced rank regression model is a multivariate regression model with a coefficient matrix with reduced rank. The reduced rank regression algorithm is an estimation procedure, which estimates the reduced rank regression model. It is related to canonical correlations and involves calculating...

Review of pump suction reducer selection: Eccentric or concentric reducers

OpenAIRE

Mahaffey, R M; van Vuuren, S J

2014-01-01

Eccentric reducers are traditionally recommended for the pump suction reducer fitting to allow for transportation of air through the fitting to the pump. The ability of a concentric reducer to provide an improved approach flow to the pump while still allowing air to be transported through the fitting is investigated. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) were utilised to analyse six concentric and six eccentric reducer geometries at four different inlet velocities to determine the flow velocity ...

Two cases of sporotrichosis of the right upper extremity in right-handed patients with diabetes mellitus.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yu; Hagen, Ferry; Wan, Zhe; Liu, Yufu; Liu, Yahong; Wang, Qingwen; de Hoog, Gert Sybren; Li, Ruoyu; Zhang, Junling

2016-01-01

Sporothrix species have proved to show high degrees of endemicity. Sporothrix globosa is the only pathogenic Sporothrix species that has till date been reported from China, where it is endemic in the northeastern provinces. We report two cases of lymphocutaneous sporotrichosis with diabetes mellitus as underlying disease in patients from the non-endemic area of China. A 59-year-old farmer and a 60-year-old gardener were admitted in February and June 2014, respectively. Both patients were right-handed men and presented with progressive plaques and nodules, which they had for several years, involving the right upper extremity. Skin biopsy from the granuloma was taken and cultured on Sabouraud medium, and molecular identification based on the calmodulin region was performed. Antifungal susceptibility testing was also performed with the microdilution method. Biopsy of the lesions showed the presence of infectious granuloma. The fungal cultures were identified as Sporothrix globosa by conventional methods, and confirmed by molecular identification. A subsequent course of oral antifungal therapy with low dosage of itraconazole was well tolerated and resolved the infection. Identification of fungal species and antifungal susceptibility testing are mandatory for epidemiological and therapeutic reasons. Early diagnosis of sporotrichosis is essential to prevent those sequelae when the disease progresses and provides highly effective methods for treating this emerging disease. Avoiding the exposure to plant material potentially contaminated with fungal spores should be recommended, especially in immunocompromised patients. Copyright © 2015 Revista Iberoamericana de Micología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Comparative Genomics of Chrysochromulina Ericina Virus and Other Microalga-Infecting Large DNA Viruses Highlights Their Intricate Evolutionary Relationship with the Established Mimiviridae Family.

Science.gov (United States)

Gallot-Lavallée, Lucie; Blanc, Guillaume; Claverie, Jean-Michel

2017-07-15

Chrysochromulina ericina virus CeV-01B (CeV) was isolated from Norwegian coastal waters in 1998. Its icosahedral particle is 160 nm in diameter and encloses a 474-kb double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) genome. This virus, although infecting a microalga (the haptophyceae Haptolina ericina , formerly Chrysochromulina ericina ), is phylogenetically related to members of the Mimiviridae family, initially established with the acanthamoeba-infecting mimivirus and megavirus as prototypes. This family was later split into two genera ( Mimivirus and Cafeteriavirus ) following the characterization of a virus infecting the heterotrophic stramenopile Cafeteria roenbergensis (CroV). CeV, as well as two of its close relatives, which infect the unicellular photosynthetic eukaryotes Phaeocystis globosa (Phaeocystis globosa virus [PgV]) and Aureococcus anophagefferens (Aureococcus anophagefferens virus [AaV]), are currently unclassified by the International Committee on Viral Taxonomy (ICTV). The detailed comparative analysis of the CeV genome presented here confirms the phylogenetic affinity of this emerging group of microalga-infecting viruses with the Mimiviridae but argues in favor of their classification inside a distinct clade within the family. Although CeV, PgV, and AaV share more common features among them than with the larger Mimiviridae , they also exhibit a large complement of unique genes, attesting to their complex evolutionary history. We identified several gene fusion events and cases of convergent evolution involving independent lateral gene acquisitions. Finally, CeV possesses an unusual number of inteins, some of which are closely related despite being inserted in nonhomologous genes. This appears to contradict the paradigm of allele-specific inteins and suggests that the Mimiviridae are especially efficient in spreading inteins while enlarging their repertoire of homing genes. IMPORTANCE Although it infects the microalga Chrysochromulina ericina , CeV is more closely

Identification of clinical yeasts by Vitek MS system compared with API ID 32 C.

Science.gov (United States)

Durán-Valle, M Teresa; Sanz-Rodríguez, Nuria; Muñoz-Paraíso, Carmen; Almagro-Moltó, María; Gómez-Garcés, José Luis

2014-05-01

We performed a clinical evaluation of the Vitek MS matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) system with the commercial database version 2.0 for rapid identification of medically important yeasts as compared with the conventional phenotypic method API ID 32 C. We tested 161 clinical isolates, nine isolates from culture collections and five reference strains. In case of discrepant results or no identification with one or both methods, molecular identification techniques were employed. Concordance between both methods was observed with 160/175 isolates (91.42%) and misidentifications by both systems occurred only when taxa were not included in the respective databases, i.e., one isolate of Candida etchellsii was identified as C. globosa by Vitek MS and two isolates of C. orthopsilosis were identified as C. parapsilosis by API ID 32 C. Vitek MS could not identify nine strains (5.14%) and API ID 32 C did not identify 13 (7.42%). Vitek MS was more reliable than API ID 32 C and reduced the time required for the identification of clinical isolates to only a few minutes.

Distinguishing iron-reducing from sulfate-reducing conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Chapelle, F.H.; Bradley, P.M.; Thomas, M.A.; McMahon, P.B.

2009-01-01

Ground water systems dominated by iron- or sulfate-reducing conditions may be distinguished by observing concentrations of dissolved iron (Fe2+) and sulfide (sum of H2S, HS-, and S= species and denoted here as "H2S"). This approach is based on the observation that concentrations of Fe2+ and H2S in ground water systems tend to be inversely related according to a hyperbolic function. That is, when Fe2+ concentrations are high, H2S concentrations tend to be low and vice versa. This relation partly reflects the rapid reaction kinetics of Fe2+ with H2S to produce relatively insoluble ferrous sulfides (FeS). This relation also reflects competition for organic substrates between the iron- and the sulfate-reducing microorganisms that catalyze the production of Fe2+ and H 2S. These solubility and microbial constraints operate in tandem, resulting in the observed hyperbolic relation between Fe2+ and H 2S concentrations. Concentrations of redox indicators, including dissolved hydrogen (H2) measured in a shallow aquifer in Hanahan, South Carolina, suggest that if the Fe2+/H2S mass ratio (units of mg/L) exceeded 10, the screened interval being tapped was consistently iron reducing (H2 ???0.2 to 0.8 nM). Conversely, if the Fe 2+/H2S ratio was less than 0.30, consistent sulfate-reducing (H2 ???1 to 5 nM) conditions were observed over time. Concomitantly high Fe2+ and H2S concentrations were associated with H2 concentrations that varied between 0.2 and 5.0 nM over time, suggesting mixing of water from adjacent iron- and sulfate-reducing zones or concomitant iron and sulfate reduction under nonelectron donor-limited conditions. These observations suggest that Fe2+/H2S mass ratios may provide useful information concerning the occurrence and distribution of iron and sulfate reduction in ground water systems. ?? 2009 National Ground Water Association.

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.

Pipeline Drag Reducers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marawan, H.

2004-01-01

Pipeline drag reducers have proven to be an extremely powerful tool in fluid transportation. High molecular weight polymers are used to reduce the frictional pressure loss ratio in crude oil pipelines, refined fuel and aqueous pipelines. Chemical structure of the main used pipeline drag reducers is one of the following polymers and copolymers classified according to the type of fluid to ; low density polyethylene, copolymer of I-hexane cross linked with divinyl benzene, polyacrylamide, polyalkylene oxide polymers and their copolymers, fluorocarbons, polyalkyl methacrylates and terpolymer of styrene, alkyl acrylate and acrylic acid. Drag reduction is the increase in pump ability of a fluid caused by the addition of small amounts of an additive to the fluid. The effectiveness of a drag reducer is normally expressed in terms of percent drag reduction. Frictional pressure loss in a pipeline system is a waste of energy and it costly. The drag reducing additive minimizes the flow turbulence, increases throughput and reduces the energy costs. The Flow can be increased by more than 80 % with existing assets. The effectiveness of the injected drag reducer in Mostorod to Tanta crude oil pipeline achieved 35.4 % drag reduction and 23.2 % flow increase of the actual performance The experimental application of DRA on Arab Petroleum Pipeline Company (Summed) achieved a flow increase ranging from 9-32 %

Identification and speciation of Malassezia in patients clinically suspected of having pityriasis versicolor

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Avani Shah

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Malassezia is a lipid-dependent yeast known to cause Pityriasis versicolor, a chronic, recurrent superficial infection of skin and present as hypopigmented or hyperpigmented lesions on areas of skin. If not diagnosed and treated, it may lead to disfigurement of the areas involved and also result in deep invasive infections. Aim: The aim of the present study was to identify and speciate Malassezia in patients clinically suspected of having Pityriasis versicolor. Materials and Methods: Total 139 patients suspected of having Pityriasis versicolor were evaluated clinically and diagnosis was done by Wood′s lamp examination, confirmed mycologically by using KOH, cultivation on Sabouraud′s dextrose agar and modified Dixon agar at a tertiary care hospital in Mumbai. The total duration of study was 12 months. Results: Majority of the patients were males (59.71% in the age group of 21-30 years (33.81% who were students (30.21% by profession. The incidence of Malassezia in Pityriasis versicolor was 50.35%. The most common isolate was M. globosa (48.57%, followed by M. furfur (34.28%. Majority of the patients had hypopigmented lesions, with M. globosa as the predominant isolate. Neck was the most common site affected; 88.48% were Wood′s lamp positive of which 56.91% of Malassezia isolates grew on culture. KOH mount was positive in 82.01% of which 61.40% Malassezia isolates grew on culture. Conclusions: The procedure of culture and antifungal testing is required to be performed as different species of Malassezia are involved in Pityriasis versicolor and susceptibility is different among different species. Thus, it would help to prevent recurrences and any systemic complications.

The Effect of Aqueous and Ethanolic Extracts of Teucrium polium on Candida Albicans and Two Species of Malassezia

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Maryam Nadimi

2013-08-01

Full Text Available Background: Teucrium polium L. is a medicinal plant, which due to its antimicrobial, antispasmodic and anti-tumor properties has been used in traditional medicine for over 2000 years. The aim of this research was to study the effect of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Teucrium polium L. against three strains of Candida albicans (ATCC 62061, ATCC 1677, and NCPF 3153, Malassezia furfur and Malassezia globosa using pour plate method. Materials and Methods: Teucrium polium L. was collected from Broojen area during the spring. The plant was dried and powdered. The aqueous and ethanolic extracts were prepared from the fine powder. Different concentrations of extracts (1, 2, 4, and 8 mg/ml were made in Sabouraud Dextrose Agar (SDA and modified Leeming-Notman Agar (MLNA medium for Candida albicans, Malassezia furfur and Malassezia globosa. 1.5×106 cfu/ml of yeasts, were cultured on media and incubated at 37ºC and 32ºC respectively. Pour plate method was used to assess the antifungal activity of these extracts.Results: The inhibitory effect of ethanolic extract of Teucrium polium L. on the three strains of Candida albicans was depended on concentration level of extracts in media. Aqueous extract had inhibitory effect on Candida albicans (NCPF 3153 only, and with increasing of the extract concentration, the number of colonies was decreased, so that in concentration of 8 mg/ml, no growth was seen. Aqueous and ethanolic extracts had no inhibitory effect on Malassezia species. Conclusion: Teucrium polium L. extracts have considerable inhibitory effect on different strains of Candida albicans. Further investigations are needed to detect the effectiveness of this plant in treatment of Candida infections.

Sporothrix brasiliensis produces the highest levels of oxidative stress in a murine model among the species of the Sporothrix schenckii complex

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Débora Nunes Mario

Full Text Available Abstract INTRODUCTION: We compared indicators of oxidative stress in the tissue of mice infected with strains from Sporothrix schenckii complex. METHODS: Mice were inoculated with Sporothrix brasiliensis, Sporothrix schenckii sensu stricto, Sporothrix globosa, Sporothrix mexicana or Sporothrix albicans. The activity of catalase and glutathione were accessed in the liver and spleen. RESULTS: Animals infected with S. brasiliensis exhibited splenomegaly and significant decrease in catalase activity, and protein and non-protein thiol content compared to animals infected with the other species. CONCLUSIONS: Sporothrix brasiliensis exhibits higher pathogenicity compared to other species of the Sporothrix schenckii complex by increasing oxidative stress in animal tissue.

Thermal properties of graphite oxide, thermally reduced graphene and chemically reduced graphene

Science.gov (United States)

Jankovský, Ondřej; Sedmidubský, David; Lojka, Michal; Sofer, Zdeněk

2017-07-01

We compared thermal behavior and other properties of graphite oxide, thermally reduced graphene and chemically reduced graphene. Graphite was oxidized according to the Hofmann method using potassium chlorate as oxidizing agent in strongly acidic environment. In the next step, the formed graphite oxide was chemically or thermally reduced yielding graphene. The mechanism of thermal reduction was studied using STA-MS. Graphite oxide and both thermally and chemically reduced graphenes were analysed by SEM, EDS, elemental combustion analysis, XPS, Raman spectroscopy, XRD and BET. These findings will help for the large scale production of graphene with appropriate chemical composition.

Reduced abrasion drilling fluid

NARCIS (Netherlands)

2010-01-01

A reduced abrasion drilling fluid system and method of drilling a borehole by circulating the reduced abrasion drilling fluid through the borehole is disclosed. The reduced abrasion drilling fluid comprises a drilling fluid, a first additive and a weighting agent, wherein the weighting agent has a

Reduced abrasion drilling fluid

NARCIS (Netherlands)

2012-01-01

A reduced abrasion drilling fluid system and method of drilling a borehole by circulating the reduced abrasion drilling fluid through the borehole is disclosed. The reduced abrasion drilling fluid comprises a drilling fluid, a first additive and a weighting agent, wherein the weighting agent has a

Potential of some aquatic plants for removal of arsenic from wastewater by green technology

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Mohammed Barznji Dana A.

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Phytoremediation or green technology is counted among the successful and effective biological contaminated water treatment techniques. Basically, the concept of this green, cost-effective, simple, environmentally nondisruptive method consists in using plants and microbiological processes to reduce contaminants in the ecosystem. Different species from aquatic plants (emerged, free-floating, and submerged have been studied to mitigate toxic contaminants such as arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, zinc, etc. Arsenic is one of the most severe toxic elements; it is widely distributed in the environment, usually found in combination with chloride, oxygen, sulphur and metal ions as a result of mineral dissolution from sedimentary or volcanic rocks and the dilution of geothermal water. The effluents from both industrial and agricultural sectors are also regarded as sources to contaminate water. From the accumulation point of view, several aquatic plants have been mentioned as good arsenic accumulators and their performance is evaluated using the green technology method. These include Spirodela polyrhiza, Wolffia globosa, Lemna gibba, L. minor, Eichhornia crassipes, Azolla caroliniana, Azolla filiculoides, Azolla pinnata, Ceratophyllum demersum and Pistia stratiotes. The up-to-date information illustrated in this review paper generates knowledge about the ability of some common aquatic plants around the globe to remediate arsenic from contaminated water.

Seawater: an alternative grassy weed control method for post emergence herbicides in tropical turfgrass

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Uddin, M.K.; Ismail, M.R.; Juraimi, A.S.; Hamdani, S.A.

2014-01-01

Research was designed to reduce herbicide use by replacing post emergence herbicides with readily available sea water to control tropical turfgrass weeds. In studies evaluating the use of saline solutions for weed control, four salinity levels (0, 24, 48 and 72 dS m/sup -1/) were applied once to 30 grassy weed species, along with seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum Swartz) (as a control) during December, 2007 to March, 2008. The results on injury ratings for salt tolerant weeds were categorized as highly susceptible, moderately susceptible and extremely tolerant. C. dactylon, E. indica, E. virescense, E. unioloides and I. globosa were very susceptible and found to be effectively controlled (100%) at 72 dS m/sup -1/ salinity treatment. However, two most serious weeds viz. wiry eragrostis (E. atrovirens) and lesser dropseed (S. diander), were found to be extremely tolerant, and were not controlled even at the highest salinity level of 72 dS m/sup -1/. P. vaginatum and E. atrovirens did not show significant decrease in shoot and root dry weight at highest salinity levels (72 dS m/sup -1/). The results indicate that sea water has excellent potential for sustainable control of several common grassy weeds in tropical turf. (author)

Molecular Diagnosis of Pathogenic Sporothrix Species.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anderson Messias Rodrigues

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Sporotrichosis is a chronic (subcutaneous infection caused by thermodimorphic fungi in the order, Ophiostomatales. These fungi are characterized by major differences in routes of transmission, host predilections, species virulence, and susceptibilities to antifungals. Sporothrix species emerge in the form of outbreaks. Large zoonoses and sapronoses are ongoing in Brazil and China, respectively. Current diagnostic methods based on morphology and physiology are inaccurate due to closely related phenotypes with overlapping components between pathogenic and non-pathogenic Sporothrix. There is a critical need for new diagnostic tools that are specific, sensitive, and cost-effective.We developed a panel of novel markers, based on calmodulin (CAL gene sequences, for the large-scale diagnosis and epidemiology of clinically relevant members of the Sporothrix genus, and its relative, Ophiostoma. We identified specific PCR-based markers for S. brasiliensis, S. schenckii, S. globosa, S. mexicana, S. pallida, and O. stenoceras. We employed a murine model of disseminated sporotrichosis to optimize a PCR assay for detecting Sporothrix in clinical specimens.Primer-BLAST searches revealed candidate sequences that were conserved within a single species. Species-specific primers showed no significant homology with human, mouse, or microorganisms outside the Sporothrix genus. The detection limit was 10-100 fg of DNA in a single round of PCR for identifying S. brasiliensis, S. schenckii, S. globosa, S. mexicana, and S. pallida. A simple, direct PCR assay, with conidia as a source of DNA, was effective for rapid, low-cost genotyping. Samples from a murine model of disseminated sporotrichosis confirmed the feasibility of detecting S. brasiliensis and S. schenckii DNA in spleen, liver, lungs, heart, brain, kidney, tail, and feces of infected animals.This PCR-based method could successfully detect and identify a single species in samples from cultures and from clinical

Novel and known constituents from Buddleja species and their activity against leukocyte eicosanoid generation.

Science.gov (United States)

Liao, Y H; Houghton, P J; Hoult, J R

1999-09-01

We have undertaken a systematic survey of the genus Buddleja used in traditional Chinese medicine for antiinflammatory and other indications by testing extracts and isolated natural products for their activity against the enzymes of the arachidonate cascade. This was done by using elicited rat peritoneal leukocytes, a physiologically relevant established whole cell system that expresses both cyclo-oxygenase (COX) and 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX) activity. Lipophilic extracts of B. globosa roots and B. myriantha stem exhibited inhibitory activities in the 5-LOX and COX enzyme assays, whereas those of B. officinalis flowers, B. yunanesis stems, and B. asiatica stems showed inhibitory activities only against COX. The phytochemical investigation of these extracts, and consequent structure elucidation of isolated compounds using spectroscopic data, led to the isolation from B. globosa of three new terpenoid compounds named dihydrobuddledin A, buddledone A, and buddledone B and four known compounds-buddledins A, B, and C and zerumbone; 12 known compounds from B. officinalis-calceolarioside, campneoside, verbascoside, echinacoside, forsythoside B, angoroside A, crocetin monogentibiosyl ester, acacetin, acacetin-7-O-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl (1-6)-beta-D-glucopyranoside, acacetin-7-O-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl (1-6)[alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl (1-2)]-beta-D-glucopyranoside, songarosaponin A, delta-amyrone; and eight known compounds fromB. yunanesis-11,14-dihydroxy-8,11, 13-abietatrien-7-one, beta-sitosterol, verbascoside, echinacoside, forsythoside B, angoroside A, methylcatapol, and sucrose. Tests on the isolated compounds for inhibition of eicosanoid synthesis showed that buddledin A, crocetin monogentibiosyl ester, and acacetin exhibited an inhibitory effect on COX with IC(50) values of 13.7 microM, 28.2 microM, and 77.5 microM, respectively, whereas buddledin A exhibited inhibitory effect on 5-LOX with an IC(50) value of 50.4 microM.

Detection of Malassezia Species Isolated From Patients With Pityriasis Versicolor and Seborrheic Dermatitis Using Nested-PCR

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Zarei Mahmoudabadi

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Background The species of the genus Malassezia are lipophilic and dimorphic yeasts that are regarded as part of the normal flora of the skin of humans and warm-blooded animals. These organisms are the cause of superficial mycosis in humans and other animals, and are common in pityriasis versicolor and seborrheic dermatitis. Objectives The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of common Malassezia species in patients affected by pityriasis versicolor and seborrheic dermatitis using of the nested PCR method, in the city of Ahvaz. Patients and Methods In the present study, 85 samples from patients with pityriasis versicolor and seborrheic dermatitis were analyzed by the nested-PCR method. During the first stage, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS region from the ribosomal DNA was reproduced using primers ITS4-R and ITS1F-N. During the second stage, the product of the first step was used as DNA and using three special primer pairs, including Mf-F, 5.8SR and M.gl-F, 5.8SR and M.rt-F and M.rt-R, the inner part of the first phase was detected. Results The most common isolate was Malassezia furfur (51.3% followed by M. globosa (35.2% and M. restricta (13.5%. Amongst the 30 patients with seborrheic dermatitis, in 15 cases (65.2% M. restricta, in six cases (26.1% M. globosa and in two cases (8.7% M. furfur was detected and in seven patients no isolate was detected. Conclusions The nested-PCR is a rapid and repeatable method for identification of important Malassezia species and this method is recommended for use on more patients. In addition the most common agents of pityriasis versicolor and seborrheic dermatitis were M. furfur and M. restricta, respectively.

Direct oxide reducing method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tokiwai, Moriyasu.

1995-01-01

Calcium oxides and magnetic oxides as wastes generated upon direct reduction are subjected to molten salt electrolysis, and reduced metallic calcium and magnesium are separated and recovered. Then calcium and magnesium are used recyclically as the reducing agent upon conducting direct oxide reduction. Even calcium oxides and magnesium oxides, which have high melting points and difficult to be melted usually, can be melted in molten salts of mixed fluorides or chlorides by molten-salt electrolysis. Oxides are decomposed by electrolysis, and oxygen is removed in the form of carbon monoxide, while the reduced metallic calcium and magnesium rise above the molten salts on the side of a cathode, and then separated. Since only carbon monoxide is generated as radioactive wastes upon molten salt electrolysis, the amount of radioactive wastes can be greatly reduced, and the amount of the reducing agent used can also be decreased remarkably. (N.H.)

Insights into the phylogeny or arylamine N-acetyltransferases in fungi.

Science.gov (United States)

Martins, Marta; Dairou, Julien; Rodrigues-Lima, Fernando; Dupret, Jean-Marie; Silar, Philippe

2010-08-01

Previous studies have shown that Eumycetes fungi can acylate arylamine thanks to arylamine N-acetyltransferases, xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes also found in animals and bacteria. In this article, we present the results of mining 96 available fungal genome sequences for arylamine N-acetyltransferase genes and propose their phylogeny. The filamentous Pezizomycotina are shown to possess many putative N-acetyltransferases, whilst these are often lacking in other fungal groups. The evolution of the N-acetyltransferases is best explained by the presence of at least one gene in the opisthokont ancestor of the fungi and animal kingdoms, followed by recurrent gene losses and gene duplications. A possible horizontal gene transfer event may have occurred from bacteria to the basidiomycetous yeast Malassezia globosa.

Oxygen-reducing catalyst layer

Science.gov (United States)

O'Brien, Dennis P [Maplewood, MN; Schmoeckel, Alison K [Stillwater, MN; Vernstrom, George D [Cottage Grove, MN; Atanasoski, Radoslav [Edina, MN; Wood, Thomas E [Stillwater, MN; Yang, Ruizhi [Halifax, CA; Easton, E Bradley [Halifax, CA; Dahn, Jeffrey R [Hubley, CA; O'Neill, David G [Lake Elmo, MN

2011-03-22

An oxygen-reducing catalyst layer, and a method of making the oxygen-reducing catalyst layer, where the oxygen-reducing catalyst layer includes a catalytic material film disposed on a substrate with the use of physical vapor deposition and thermal treatment. The catalytic material film includes a transition metal that is substantially free of platinum. At least one of the physical vapor deposition and the thermal treatment is performed in a processing environment comprising a nitrogen-containing gas.

Polyancora globosa gen. sp. nov., an aeroaquatic fungus from Malaysian peat swamp forests.

Science.gov (United States)

Voglmayr, Hermann; Yule, Catherine M

2006-10-01

During an investigation of submerged leaves and twigs sampled from tropical peat swamp forests located in Peninsular Malaysia, an anamorphic fungus not attributable to a described genus was detected and isolated in pure culture. Conidial ontogeny was thoroughly studied and illustrated using both light and SEM, which revealed a unique conidial morphology. Analysis of partial nuLSU rDNA and ITS data revealed a phylogenetic position within the Xylariales (Ascomycota), but family affiliation remained unclear.

Reducing infant mortality.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, T R

1994-01-01

Public health and social policies at the population level (e.g., oral rehydration therapy and immunization) are responsible for the major reduction in infant mortality worldwide. The gap in infant mortality rates between developing and developed regions is much less than that in maternal mortality rates. This indicates that maternal and child health (MCH) programs and women's health care should be combined. Since 1950, 66% of infant deaths occur in the 1st 28 days, indicating adverse prenatal and intrapartum events (e.g., congenital malformation and birth injuries). Infection, especially pneumonia and diarrhea, and low birth weight are the major causes of infant mortality worldwide. An estimated US$25 billion are needed to secure the resources to control major childhood diseases, reduce malnutrition 50%, reduce child deaths by 4 million/year, provide potable water and sanitation to all communities, provide basic education, and make family planning available to all. This cost for saving children's lives is lower than current expenditures for cigarettes (US$50 billion in Europe/year). Vitamin A supplementation, breast feeding, and prenatal diagnosis of congenital malformations are low-cost strategies that can significantly affect infant well-being and reduce child mortality in many developing countries. The US has a higher infant mortality rate than have other developed countries. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the US National Institutes of Health are focusing on prematurity, low birth weight, multiple pregnancy, violence, alcohol abuse, and poverty to reduce infant mortality. Obstetricians should be important members of MCH teams, which also include traditional birth attendants, community health workers, nurses, midwives, and medical officers. We have the financial resources to allocate resources to improve MCH care and to reduce infant mortality.

Reducible oxide based catalysts

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Levi T.; Kim, Chang Hwan; Bej, Shyamal K.

2010-04-06

A catalyst is disclosed herein. The catalyst includes a reducible oxide support and at least one noble metal fixed on the reducible oxide support. The noble metal(s) is loaded on the support at a substantially constant temperature and pH.

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

Reducing costs by reducing size

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hayns, M.R.; Shepherd, J.

1991-01-01

The present paper discusses briefly the many factors, including capital cost, which have to be taken into account in determining whether a series of power stations based on a small nuclear plant can be competitive with a series based on traditional large unit sizes giving the guaranteed level of supply. The 320 MWe UK/US Safe Integral Reactor is described as a good example of how the factors discussed can be beneficially incorporated into a design using proven technology. Finally it goes on to illustrate how the overall costs of a generating system can indeed by reduced by use of the 320 MWe Safe Integral Reactor rather than conventional units of around 1200 MWe. (author). 9 figs

Endogenous mobility-reducing norms

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Haagsma, R.; Koning, N.B.J.

2002-01-01

We present a model where a mobility-reducing norm arises in response to adverse economic conditions. Our example is the classical farm problem of low returns. A temporary transition barrier induces cognitive dissonance in farm youths, which they try to reduce by developing a belief that revalues

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.

Superficial fungal infections.

Science.gov (United States)

Schwartz, Robert A

Superficial fungal infections arise from a pathogen that is restricted to the stratum corneum, with little or no tissue reaction. In this Seminar, three types of infection will be covered: tinea versicolor, piedra, and tinea nigra. Tinea versicolor is common worldwide and is caused by Malassezia spp, which are human saprophytes that sometimes switch from yeast to pathogenic mycelial form. Malassezia furfur, Malassezia globosa, and Malassezia sympodialis are most closely linked to tinea versicolor. White and black piedra are both common in tropical regions of the world; white piedra is also endemic in temperate climates. Black piedra is caused by Piedraia hortae; white piedra is due to pathogenic species of the Trichosporon genus. Tinea nigra is also common in tropical areas and has been confused with melanoma.

Filtering reducer of flushing fluid

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Secu, P; Apostu, M; Basarabescu, T; Popescu, F

1981-02-28

This is a patent of a filtering reducer of flushing fluid on a water base with low content of solid particles used at temperatures of roughly 200/sup 0/C. With the use of the proposed filtering reducer, there is no excessive increase in viscosity and gelatinization of the flushing fluids without restriction in the quantity of reducer needed to guarantee the required filtering. There is a possibility of recovering the polyalkylphenol vat residues obtained in the production of nonyl phenol. It is possible to reduce the time of treatment and dissolving of the product; there is no danger of plugging of the productive oil beds. The process of hydration of clay is excluded.

Process for reducing the pertechnetate anion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ruddock, C.F.

1980-01-01

Process for reducing the 'pertechnetate' ion TcO 4 - , whereby an aqueous solution of 'pertechnetate' is mixed with tin metal or a tin alloy as 'pertechnetate' reducing agent, and a soluble salt of a metal below tin in the electro-chemical tension scale, as activator for the reducing tin. This reduced 'pertechnetate' is used for forming usable complexes in medical diagnosis exploration [fr

Bactericide for sulfate-reducing bacteria

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shklyar, T F; Anoshina, G M; Blokhin, V Ye; Kisarrev, Ye L; Novikovsa, G M

1981-01-01

The aim of the invention is to find a bactericide for sulfate-reducing bacteria of oil fields in Western Siberia in order to suppress the biocorrosive activity on oil industry equipment. This goal is achieved by using M-nitroacetanylide as the bactericide of sulfate-reducing bacteria. This agent suppresses the activity of a stored culture of sulfate-reducing bacteria that comes from industrial waste waters injection wells of the Smotlor oil field.

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)

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

Reducing The Nuclear Danger

Science.gov (United States)

1995-10-01

off convention • Eliminate the civil use of HEU (includes RERTR ) • Reduce stockpiles of civil HEU and plutonium • Promote alternatives to the...these countries. ANL supports the Department’s Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactor ( RERTR ) Program by providing the technical means to...scientists and engineers at 60 institutes in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus. The United States and Russia have agreed to pursue a joint RERTR

Servo Reduces Friction In Flexure Bearing

Science.gov (United States)

Clingman, W. Dean

1991-01-01

Proposed servocontrol device reduces such resistive torques as stiction, friction, ripple, and cogging in flexure bearing described in LAR-14348, "Flexure Bearing Reduces Startup Friction". Reduces frictional "bump" torque encountered when bearing ball runs into buildup of grease on bearing race. Also used as cable follower to reduce torque caused by cable and hoses when they bend because of motion of bearing. New device includes torquer across ball race. Torquer controlled by servo striving to keep flexure at null, removing torque to outer ring. In effect, device is inner control loop reducing friction, but does not control platforms or any outer-control-loop functions.

Responses of the coastal bacterial community to viral infection of the algae Phaeocystis globosa

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sheik, A.R.; Brussaard, C.P.D.; Lavik, G.; Lam, P.; Musat, N.; Krupke, A.; Littmann, S.; Strous, M.; Kuypers, M.M.M.

2014-01-01

The release of organic material upon algal cell lyses has a key role in structuring bacterial communities and affects the cycling of biolimiting elements in the marine environment. Here we show that already before cell lysis the leakage or excretion of organic matter by infected yet intact algal

Holonomy-reduced dynamics of triatomic molecules

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ciftci, Uenver; Waalkens, Holger

2011-01-01

Whereas it is easy to reduce the translational symmetry of a molecular system using, e.g., Jacobi coordinates, the situation is much more involved for rotational symmetry. In this paper, we address the latter problem using holonomy reduction. We suggest that the configuration space may be considered as the reduced holonomy bundle with a connection induced by the mechanical connection. Using the fact that for the special case of the three-body problem the holonomy group is SO(2) (as opposed to SO(3) like in systems with more than three bodies), we obtain a holonomy-reduced configuration space of topology R + 3 xS 1 . The dynamics then takes place on the cotangent bundle over the holonomy-reduced configuration space. On this phase space, there is an S 1 symmetry action coming from the conserved reduced angular momentum which can be reduced using the standard symplectic reduction method. Using a theorem by Arnold it follows that the resulting symmetry-reduced phase space is again a natural mechanical phase space, i.e. a cotangent bundle. This is different from what is obtained from the usual approach where symplectic reduction is used from the outset. This difference is discussed in some detail, and a connection between the reduced dynamics of a triatomic molecule and the motion of a charged particle in a magnetic field is established.

Holonomy-reduced dynamics of triatomic molecules

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ciftci, Uenver [Department of Mathematics, Namik Kemal University, 59030 Tekirdag (Turkey); Waalkens, Holger, E-mail: uciftci@nku.edu.tr, E-mail: h.waalkens@rug.nl [Johann Bernoulli Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Groningen, PO Box 407, 9700 AK Groningen (Netherlands)

2011-04-22

Whereas it is easy to reduce the translational symmetry of a molecular system using, e.g., Jacobi coordinates, the situation is much more involved for rotational symmetry. In this paper, we address the latter problem using holonomy reduction. We suggest that the configuration space may be considered as the reduced holonomy bundle with a connection induced by the mechanical connection. Using the fact that for the special case of the three-body problem the holonomy group is SO(2) (as opposed to SO(3) like in systems with more than three bodies), we obtain a holonomy-reduced configuration space of topology R{sub +}{sup 3}xS{sup 1}. The dynamics then takes place on the cotangent bundle over the holonomy-reduced configuration space. On this phase space, there is an S{sup 1} symmetry action coming from the conserved reduced angular momentum which can be reduced using the standard symplectic reduction method. Using a theorem by Arnold it follows that the resulting symmetry-reduced phase space is again a natural mechanical phase space, i.e. a cotangent bundle. This is different from what is obtained from the usual approach where symplectic reduction is used from the outset. This difference is discussed in some detail, and a connection between the reduced dynamics of a triatomic molecule and the motion of a charged particle in a magnetic field is established.

Using reduce in supersymmetry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Santos, R.P. dos.

1987-01-01

A procedure which allows one to do Supersymmetry calculus in REDUCE is described. Using the concept of an eight-dimensional 'superspace' (spanned by four space-time and four anticommuting coordinates) and of 'superfields' (which represent an entire supermultiplet of particles that transform among themselves), covariant derivatives with respect to supersymmetry are defined. Then, combining the vector facility and LET statement in REDUCE, spinors are simulated in a way to control the algebraic manipulation. (G.D.F.) [pt

Method and container for reducing pertechnetate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ruddock, C.F.

1980-01-01

A method of reducing the pertechnetate in TcO 4 - comprises mixing together an aqueous solution of pertechnetate, e.g. the eluant from a technetium generator, metallic tin or an alloy thereof as a reducing agent for the pertechnetate, and a soluble salt of a metal below tin in the electrochemical series, e.g. copper, as an activator for the tin metal reducing agent. A complexing agent for the reduced technetium or a colloid stabiliser may also be included. The pH is preferably 3 to 12. Also claimed is a closed container containing the tin reducing agent, the activator, and the complexant or colloid stabiliser if used, preferably in a freeze-dried sterile state, to which the pertechnetate solution may be added. (author)

Molecular Diagnosis of Pathogenic Sporothrix Species

Science.gov (United States)

Rodrigues, Anderson Messias; de Hoog, G. Sybren; de Camargo, Zoilo Pires

2015-01-01

Background Sporotrichosis is a chronic (sub)cutaneous infection caused by thermodimorphic fungi in the order, Ophiostomatales. These fungi are characterized by major differences in routes of transmission, host predilections, species virulence, and susceptibilities to antifungals. Sporothrix species emerge in the form of outbreaks. Large zoonoses and sapronoses are ongoing in Brazil and China, respectively. Current diagnostic methods based on morphology and physiology are inaccurate due to closely related phenotypes with overlapping components between pathogenic and non-pathogenic Sporothrix. There is a critical need for new diagnostic tools that are specific, sensitive, and cost-effective. Methodology We developed a panel of novel markers, based on calmodulin (CAL) gene sequences, for the large-scale diagnosis and epidemiology of clinically relevant members of the Sporothrix genus, and its relative, Ophiostoma. We identified specific PCR-based markers for S. brasiliensis, S. schenckii, S. globosa, S. mexicana, S. pallida, and O. stenoceras. We employed a murine model of disseminated sporotrichosis to optimize a PCR assay for detecting Sporothrix in clinical specimens. Results Primer-BLAST searches revealed candidate sequences that were conserved within a single species. Species-specific primers showed no significant homology with human, mouse, or microorganisms outside the Sporothrix genus. The detection limit was 10–100 fg of DNA in a single round of PCR for identifying S. brasiliensis, S. schenckii, S. globosa, S. mexicana, and S. pallida. A simple, direct PCR assay, with conidia as a source of DNA, was effective for rapid, low-cost genotyping. Samples from a murine model of disseminated sporotrichosis confirmed the feasibility of detecting S. brasiliensis and S. schenckii DNA in spleen, liver, lungs, heart, brain, kidney, tail, and feces of infected animals. Conclusions This PCR-based method could successfully detect and identify a single species in samples

Selenium Uptake and Volatilization by Marine Algae

Science.gov (United States)

Luxem, Katja E.; Vriens, Bas; Wagner, Bettina; Behra, Renata; Winkel, Lenny H. E.

2015-04-01

Selenium (Se) is an essential trace nutrient for humans. An estimated one half to one billion people worldwide suffer from Se deficiency, which is due to low concentrations and bioavailability of Se in soils where crops are grown. It has been hypothesized that more than half of the atmospheric Se deposition to soils is derived from the marine system, where microorganisms methylate and volatilize Se. Based on model results from the late 1980s, the atmospheric flux of these biogenic volatile Se compounds is around 9 Gt/year, with two thirds coming from the marine biosphere. Algae, fungi, and bacteria are known to methylate Se. Although algal Se uptake, metabolism, and methylation influence the speciation and bioavailability of Se in the oceans, these processes have not been quantified under environmentally relevant conditions and are likely to differ among organisms. Therefore, we are investigating the uptake and methylation of the two main inorganic Se species (selenate and selenite) by three globally relevant microalgae: Phaeocystis globosa, the coccolithophorid Emiliania huxleyi, and the diatom Thalassiosira oceanica. Selenium uptake and methylation were quantified in a batch experiment, where parallel gas-tight microcosms in a climate chamber were coupled to a gas-trapping system. For E. huxleyi, selenite uptake was strongly dependent on aqueous phosphate concentrations, which agrees with prior evidence that selenite uptake by phosphate transporters is a significant Se source for marine algae. Selenate uptake was much lower than selenite uptake. The most important volatile Se compounds produced were dimethyl selenide, dimethyl diselenide, and dimethyl selenyl sulfide. Production rates of volatile Se species were larger with increasing intracellular Se concentration and in the decline phase of the alga. Similar experiments are being carried out with P. globosa and T. oceanica. Our results indicate that marine algae are important for the global cycling of Se

Reducing Employment Insecurity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Florence Lebert

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The perception of job insecurity is known to be a stressful condition for employees. Less is known about employment insecurity and the ways employees and their families deal with it. This study investigates whether participation in further training is a strategy that employees adopt to reduce perceived employment insecurity. As participation in further training is often costly and time-consuming, we assume that the family context is of importance for the decision to take part in further training. To take account of possible self-selection, we apply a propensity score matching procedure on longitudinal data from the Swiss Household Panel (2004-2013. Three main findings can be emphasized: first, participation in further training is not a strategy adopted particularly by employees who perceive high employment insecurity as they are less likely to train than their secure counterparts. Second, even though further training is not a strategy that is actively adopted, employees who train subsequently report lower levels of perceived employment insecurity. Third, the family context indeed influences the likelihood to train: partnered employees are more likely to train and preschool-aged children act as a constraint on women’s but enhance men’s participation in further training. Yet, in the context of high perceived employment insecurity, children generally reduce their parents’ likelihood to train as the parents may turn to other strategies that reduce perceived employment insecurity.

Reducing Pesticide Drift

Science.gov (United States)

Provides information about pesticide spray drift, including problems associated with drift, managing risks from drift and the voluntary Drift Reduction Technology program that seeks to reduce spray drift through improved spray equipment design.

Sleep can reduce proactive interference.

Science.gov (United States)

Abel, Magdalena; Bäuml, Karl-Heinz T

2014-01-01

Sleep has repeatedly been connected to processes of memory consolidation. While extensive research indeed documents beneficial effects of sleep on memory, little is yet known about the role of sleep for interference effects in episodic memory. Although two prior studies reported sleep to reduce retroactive interference, no sleep effect has previously been found for proactive interference. Here we applied a study format differing from that employed by the prior studies to induce a high degree of proactive interference, and asked participants to encode a single list or two interfering lists of paired associates via pure study cycles. Testing occurred after 12 hours of diurnal wakefulness or nocturnal sleep. Consistent with the prior work, we found sleep in comparison to wake did not affect memory for the single list, but reduced retroactive interference. In addition we found sleep reduced proactive interference, and reduced retroactive and proactive interference to the same extent. The finding is consistent with the view that arising benefits of sleep are caused by the reactivation of memory contents during sleep, which has been suggested to strengthen and stabilise memories. Such stabilisation may make memories less susceptible to competition from interfering memories at test and thus reduce interference effects.

Reduced turning frequency and delayed poultry manure addition reduces N loss from sugarcane compost.

Science.gov (United States)

Bryndum, S; Muschler, R; Nigussie, A; Magid, J; de Neergaard, A

2017-07-01

Composting is an effective method to recycle biodegradable waste as soil amendment in smallholder farming systems. Although all essential plant nutrients are found in compost, a substantial amount of nitrogen is lost during composting. This study therefore investigated the potential of reducing N losses by (i) delaying the addition of nitrogen-rich substrates (i.e. poultry manure), and (ii) reducing the turning frequency during composting. Furthermore, we tested the effect of compost application method on nitrogen mineralization. Sugarcane-waste was composted for 54days with addition of poultry manure at the beginning (i.e. early addition) or after 21days of composting (delayed addition). The compost pile was then turned either every three or nine days. Composts were subsequently applied to soil as (i) homogeneously mixed, or (ii) stratified, and incubated for 28days to test the effect of compost application on nitrogen mineralization. The results showed that delayed addition of poultry manure reduced total nitrogen loss by 33% and increased mineral nitrogen content by >200% compared with early addition. Similarly, less frequent turning reduced total N loss by 12% compared with frequent turning. Stratified placement of compost did not enhance N mineralization compared to a homogeneous mixing. Our results suggested that simple modifications of the composting process (i.e. delayed addition and/or turning frequency) could significantly reduce N losses and improve the plant-nutritional value of compost. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reduced Numerical Approximation of Reduced Fluid-Structure Interaction Problems With Applications in Hemodynamics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Claudia M. Colciago

2018-06-01

Full Text Available This paper deals with fast simulations of the hemodynamics in large arteries by considering a reduced model of the associated fluid-structure interaction problem, which in turn allows an additional reduction in terms of the numerical discretisation. The resulting method is both accurate and computationally cheap. This goal is achieved by means of two levels of reduction: first, we describe the model equations with a reduced mathematical formulation which allows to write the fluid-structure interaction problem as a Navier-Stokes system with non-standard boundary conditions; second, we employ numerical reduction techniques to further and drastically lower the computational costs. The non standard boundary condition is of a generalized Robin type, with a boundary mass and boundary stiffness terms accounting for the arterial wall compliance. The numerical reduction is obtained coupling two well-known techniques: the proper orthogonal decomposition and the reduced basis method, in particular the greedy algorithm. We start by reducing the numerical dimension of the problem at hand with a proper orthogonal decomposition and we measure the system energy with specific norms; this allows to take into account the different orders of magnitude of the state variables, the velocity and the pressure. Then, we introduce a strategy based on a greedy procedure which aims at enriching the reduced discretization space with low offline computational costs. As application, we consider a realistic hemodynamics problem with a perturbation in the boundary conditions and we show the good performances of the reduction techniques presented in the paper. The results obtained with the numerical reduction algorithm are compared with the one obtained by a standard finite element method. The gains obtained in term of CPU time are of three orders of magnitude.

Reducing Childhood Obesity

Science.gov (United States)

... Bar Home Current Issue Past Issues Reducing Childhood Obesity Past Issues / Summer 2007 Table of Contents For ... Ga. were the first three We Can! cities. Obesity Research: A New Approach The percentage of children ...

System for actively reducing sound

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Berkhoff, Arthur P.

2005-01-01

A system for actively reducing sound from a primary noise source, such as traffic noise, comprising: a loudspeaker connector for connecting to at least one loudspeaker for generating anti-sound for reducing said noisy sound; a microphone connector for connecting to at least a first microphone placed

Bioaccumulation of Cs-137 and Co-57 by marine phytoplankton

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heldal, H.E.; Stupakoff, I.; Fisher, N.S.

1999-01-01

Under controlled laboratory conditions we have examined the bioaccumulation of Cs-137 and Co-57 in three prymnesiophytes, the coccolithophorid Emiliania huxleyi and the non-calcareous species Isochrysis galbana and Phaeocystis globosa, and two diatoms Skeletonema costatum and Thalassiosira pseudonana. We measured uptake in growing and non-growing cells, and determined concentration factors on both volume and dry weight basis. For Co-57 uptake in non-growing cells, volume concentration factors (VCF) at equilibrium ranged from 0.2 * 10 3 for Emiliana huxleyi to 4 * 10 3 for the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana. For Cs-137 uptake in non-growing cells the VCFs were close to zero. The results suggest that, in contrast to Co, the cycling and bioaccumulation in animals of Cs in marine systems is unlikely to be affected by primary producers. (au)

Why reduce health inequalities?

Science.gov (United States)

Woodward, A; Kawachi, I

2000-12-01

It is well known that social, cultural and economic factors cause substantial inequalities in health. Should we strive to achieve a more even share of good health, beyond improving the average health status of the population? We examine four arguments for the reduction of health inequalities.1 Inequalities are unfair. Inequalities in health are undesirable to the extent that they are unfair, or unjust. Distinguishing between health inequalities and health inequities can be contentious. Our view is that inequalities become "unfair" when poor health is itself the consequence of an unjust distribution of the underlying social determinants of health (for example, unequal opportunities in education or employment).2 Inequalities affect everyone. Conditions that lead to marked health disparities are detrimental to all members of society. Some types of health inequalities have obvious spillover effects on the rest of society, for example, the spread of infectious diseases, the consequences of alcohol and drug misuse, or the occurrence of violence and crime.3 Inequalities are avoidable. Disparities in health are avoidable to the extent that they stem from identifiable policy options exercised by governments, such as tax policy, regulation of business and labour, welfare benefits and health care funding. It follows that health inequalities are, in principle, amenable to policy interventions. A government that cares about improving the health of the population ought therefore to incorporate considerations of the health impact of alternative options in its policy setting process.3 Interventions to reduce health inequalities are cost effective. Public health programmes that reduce health inequalities can also be cost effective. The case can be made to give priority to such programmes (for example, improving access to cervical cancer screening in low income women) on efficiency grounds. On the other hand, few programmes designed to reduce health inequalities have been formally

40 CFR 141.623 - Reduced monitoring.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 22 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Reduced monitoring. 141.623 Section....623 Reduced monitoring. (a) You may reduce monitoring to the level specified in the table in this paragraph (a) any time the LRAA is ≤0.040 mg/L for TTHM and ≤0.030 mg/L for HAA5 at all monitoring locations...

Implementing Parallel Google Map-Reduce in Eden

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Berthold, Jost; Dieterle, Mischa; Loogen, Rita

2009-01-01

Recent publications have emphasised map-reduce as a general programming model (labelled Google map-reduce), and described existing high-performance implementations for large data sets. We present two parallel implementations for this Google map-reduce skeleton, one following earlier work, and one...... of the Google map-reduce skeleton in usage and performance, and deliver runtime analyses for example applications. Although very flexible, the Google map-reduce skeleton is often too general, and typical examples reveal a better runtime behaviour using alternative skeletons....

Reduced waste generation technical work plan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1987-05-01

The United States Department of Energy has established policies for avoiding plutonium losses to the waste streams and minimizing the generation of wastes produced at its nuclear facilities. This policy is evidenced in DOE Order 5820.2, which states ''Technical and administrative controls shall be directed towards reducing the gross volume of TRU waste generated and the amount of radioactivity in such waste.'' To comply with the DOE directive, the Defense Transuranic Waste Program (DTWP) supports and provides funding for specific research and development tasks at the various DOE sites to reduce the generation of waste. This document has been prepared to give an overview of current and past Reduced Waste Generation task activities which are to be based on technical and cost/benefit factors. The document is updated annually, or as needed, to reflect the status of program direction. Reduced Waste Generation (RWG) tasks encompass a wide range of goals which are basically oriented toward (1) avoiding the generation of waste, (2) changing processes or operations to reduce waste, (3) converting TRU waste into LLW by sorting or decontamination, and (4) reducing volumes through operations such as incineration or compaction

Microprocessor Protection of Power Reducing Transformers

OpenAIRE

F. A. Romanuk; S. P. Korolev; M. S. Loman

2011-01-01

The paper contains analysis of advantages and disadvantages of existing differential protection terminals of power reducing transformers. The paper shows that there are good reasons to develop microprocessor protection of power reducing transformer which contains required functions and settings and which is based on Belarusian principles of relay protection system construction. The paper presents functional structure of microprocessor terminal of power reducing transformer which is developed. 

Reducing Lookups for Invariant Checking

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thomsen, Jakob Grauenkjær; Clausen, Christian; Andersen, Kristoffer Just

2013-01-01

This paper helps reduce the cost of invariant checking in cases where access to data is expensive. Assume that a set of variables satisfy a given invariant and a request is received to update a subset of them. We reduce the set of variables to inspect, in order to verify that the invariant is still...

Microprocessor Protection of Power Reducing Transformers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

F. A. Romanuk

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The paper contains analysis of advantages and disadvantages of existing differential protection terminals of power reducing transformers. The paper shows that there are good reasons to develop microprocessor protection of power reducing transformer which contains required functions and settings and which is based on Belarusian principles of relay protection system construction. The paper presents functional structure of microprocessor terminal of power reducing transformer which is developed. 

IHadoop: Asynchronous iterations for MapReduce

KAUST Repository

Elnikety, Eslam Mohamed Ibrahim

2011-11-01

MapReduce is a distributed programming frame-work designed to ease the development of scalable data-intensive applications for large clusters of commodity machines. Most machine learning and data mining applications involve iterative computations over large datasets, such as the Web hyperlink structures and social network graphs. Yet, the MapReduce model does not efficiently support this important class of applications. The architecture of MapReduce, most critically its dataflow techniques and task scheduling, is completely unaware of the nature of iterative applications; tasks are scheduled according to a policy that optimizes the execution for a single iteration which wastes bandwidth, I/O, and CPU cycles when compared with an optimal execution for a consecutive set of iterations. This work presents iHadoop, a modified MapReduce model, and an associated implementation, optimized for iterative computations. The iHadoop model schedules iterations asynchronously. It connects the output of one iteration to the next, allowing both to process their data concurrently. iHadoop\\'s task scheduler exploits inter-iteration data locality by scheduling tasks that exhibit a producer/consumer relation on the same physical machine allowing a fast local data transfer. For those iterative applications that require satisfying certain criteria before termination, iHadoop runs the check concurrently during the execution of the subsequent iteration to further reduce the application\\'s latency. This paper also describes our implementation of the iHadoop model, and evaluates its performance against Hadoop, the widely used open source implementation of MapReduce. Experiments using different data analysis applications over real-world and synthetic datasets show that iHadoop performs better than Hadoop for iterative algorithms, reducing execution time of iterative applications by 25% on average. Furthermore, integrating iHadoop with HaLoop, a variant Hadoop implementation that caches

IHadoop: Asynchronous iterations for MapReduce

KAUST Repository

Elnikety, Eslam Mohamed Ibrahim; El Sayed, Tamer S.; Ramadan, Hany E.

2011-01-01

MapReduce is a distributed programming frame-work designed to ease the development of scalable data-intensive applications for large clusters of commodity machines. Most machine learning and data mining applications involve iterative computations over large datasets, such as the Web hyperlink structures and social network graphs. Yet, the MapReduce model does not efficiently support this important class of applications. The architecture of MapReduce, most critically its dataflow techniques and task scheduling, is completely unaware of the nature of iterative applications; tasks are scheduled according to a policy that optimizes the execution for a single iteration which wastes bandwidth, I/O, and CPU cycles when compared with an optimal execution for a consecutive set of iterations. This work presents iHadoop, a modified MapReduce model, and an associated implementation, optimized for iterative computations. The iHadoop model schedules iterations asynchronously. It connects the output of one iteration to the next, allowing both to process their data concurrently. iHadoop's task scheduler exploits inter-iteration data locality by scheduling tasks that exhibit a producer/consumer relation on the same physical machine allowing a fast local data transfer. For those iterative applications that require satisfying certain criteria before termination, iHadoop runs the check concurrently during the execution of the subsequent iteration to further reduce the application's latency. This paper also describes our implementation of the iHadoop model, and evaluates its performance against Hadoop, the widely used open source implementation of MapReduce. Experiments using different data analysis applications over real-world and synthetic datasets show that iHadoop performs better than Hadoop for iterative algorithms, reducing execution time of iterative applications by 25% on average. Furthermore, integrating iHadoop with HaLoop, a variant Hadoop implementation that caches

Syntheses of 18F-labeled reduced haloperidol and 11C-labeled reduced 3-N-methylspiperone

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ravert, H.T.; Dannals, R.F.; Wilson, A.A.; Wong, D.F.; Wagner, H.N. Jr.

1991-01-01

18 F-Labeled reduced haloperidol and 11 C-labeled reduced 3-N-methylspiperone were synthesized in a convenient and quantitative one step reduction from 18 F-labeled haloperidol and 11 C-labeled N-methylspiperone, respectively. Both products were purified by semipreparative HPLC and were obtained at high specific activity and radiochemical purity. (author)

Tank closure reducing grout

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Caldwell, T.B.

1997-01-01

A reducing grout has been developed for closing high level waste tanks at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina. The grout has a low redox potential, which minimizes the mobility of Sr 90 , the radionuclide with the highest dose potential after closure. The grout also has a high pH which reduces the solubility of the plutonium isotopes. The grout has a high compressive strength and low permeability, which enhances its ability to limit the migration of contaminants after closure. The grout was designed and tested by Construction Technology Laboratories, Inc. Placement methods were developed by the Savannah River Site personnel

5 CFR 831.631 - Post-retirement election of fully reduced annuity or partially reduced annuity to provide a...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... annuity or partially reduced annuity to provide a current spouse annuity. 831.631 Section 831.631...) RETIREMENT Survivor Annuities Post-Retirement Elections § 831.631 Post-retirement election of fully reduced annuity or partially reduced annuity to provide a current spouse annuity. (a) Except as provided in...

5 CFR 831.632 - Post-retirement election of fully reduced annuity or partially reduced annuity to provide a...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... annuity or partially reduced annuity to provide a former spouse annuity. 831.632 Section 831.632...) RETIREMENT Survivor Annuities Post-Retirement Elections § 831.632 Post-retirement election of fully reduced annuity or partially reduced annuity to provide a former spouse annuity. (a)(1) Except as provided in...

Reduced Braginskii equations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yagi, M.; Horton, W.

1994-01-01

A set of reduced Braginskii equations is derived without assuming flute ordering and the Boussinesq approximation. These model equations conserve the physical energy. It is crucial at finite β that the perpendicular component of Ohm's law be solved to ensure ∇·j=0 for energy conservation

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.

Design meeting on reduced technical objectives/reduced cost ITER options

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Spears, W.

1999-01-01

At this meeting, which took place at Garching, Germany in January 1999, means of reducing the overall cost for ITER to 50% where discussed. It was felt that a smaller plasma of high elongation and high triangularity was a step in the right direction. Further steps would include cheaper magnetic field coils, cheaper in-vessel components and also costly buildings

Reduced Braginskii equations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yagi, M.; Horton, W.

1993-11-01

A set of reduced Braginskii equations is derived without assuming flute ordering and the Boussinesq approximation. These model equations conserve the physical energy. It is crucial at finite β that we solve the perpendicular component of Ohm's law to conserve the physical energy while ensuring the relation ∇ · j = 0

Reuse, Reduce, Recycle.

Science.gov (United States)

Briscoe, Georgia

1991-01-01

Discussion of recycling paper in law libraries is also applicable to other types of libraries. Results of surveys of law libraries that investigated recycling practices in 1987 and again in 1990 are reported, and suggestions for reducing the amount of paper used and reusing as much as possible are offered. (LRW)

Reducing Sugar in Children's Diets: Why? How?

Science.gov (United States)

Rogers, Cosby S.; Morris, Sandra S.

1986-01-01

Maintains that sugar intake should be reduced in young children's diets because of its link to dental cavities, poor nutrition, and obesity. Reducing the focus on sweetness, limiting sugar consumption, and using natural sources of sweetness and other treats are ways to help reduce sugar intake. (BB)

Reduced chemical kinetic mechanisms for hydrocarbon fuels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Montgomery, C.J.; Cremer, M.A.; Heap, M.P.; Chen, J-Y.; Westbrook, C.K.; Maurice, L.Q.

1999-01-01

Using CARM (Computer Aided Reduction Method), a computer program that automates the mechanism reduction process, a variety of different reduced chemical kinetic mechanisms for ethylene and n-heptane have been generated. The reduced mechanisms have been compared to detailed chemistry calculations in simple homogeneous reactors and experiments. Reduced mechanisms for combustion of ethylene having as few as 10 species were found to give reasonable agreement with detailed chemistry over a range of stoichiometries and showed significant improvement over currently used global mechanisms. The performance of reduced mechanisms derived from a large detailed mechanism for n-heptane was compared to results from a reduced mechanism derived from a smaller semi-empirical mechanism. The semi-empirical mechanism was advantageous as a starting point for reduction for ignition delay, but not for PSR calculations. Reduced mechanisms with as few as 12 species gave excellent results for n-heptane/air PSR calculations but 16-25 or more species are needed to simulate n-heptane ignition delay

Reduced Braginskii equations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yagi, M. [Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Naka, Ibaraki (Japan). Naka Fusion Research Establishment; Horton, W. [Texas Univ., Austin, TX (United States). Inst. for Fusion Studies

1993-11-01

A set of reduced Braginskii equations is derived without assuming flute ordering and the Boussinesq approximation. These model equations conserve the physical energy. It is crucial at finite {beta} that we solve the perpendicular component of Ohm`s law to conserve the physical energy while ensuring the relation {del} {center_dot} j = 0.

Programming MapReduce with Scalding

CERN Document Server

Chalkiopoulos, Antonios

2014-01-01

This book is an easy-to-understand, practical guide to designing, testing, and implementing complex MapReduce applications in Scala using the Scalding framework. It is packed with examples featuring log-processing, ad-targeting, and machine learning. This book is for developers who are willing to discover how to effectively develop MapReduce applications. Prior knowledge of Hadoop or Scala is not required; however, investing some time on those topics would certainly be beneficial.

Interference, reduced action, and trajectories

OpenAIRE

Floyd, Edward R.

2006-01-01

Instead of investigating the interference between two stationary, rectilinear wave functions in a trajectory representation by examining the two rectilinear wave functions individually, we examine a dichromatic wave function that is synthesized from the two interfering wave functions. The physics of interference is contained in the reduced action for the dichromatic wave function. As this reduced action is a generator of the motion for the dichromatic wave function, it determines the dichroma...

Reduced Vlasov-Maxwell simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Helluy, P.; Navoret, L.; Pham, N.; Crestetto, A.

2014-01-01

The Maxwell-Vlasov system is a fundamental model in physics. It can be applied to plasma simulations, charged particles beam, astrophysics, etc. The unknowns are the electromagnetic field, solution to the Maxwell equations and the distribution function, solution to the Vlasov equation. In this paper we review two different numerical methods for Vlasov-Maxwell simulations. The first method is based on a coupling between a Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) Maxwell solver and a Particle-In-Cell (PIC) Vlasov solver. The second method only uses a DG approach for the Vlasov and Maxwell equations. The Vlasov equation is first reduced to a space-only hyperbolic system thanks to the finite-element method. The two numerical methods are implemented using OpenCL in order to achieve high performance on recent Graphic Processing Units (GPU). We obtained interesting speedups, but we also observe that the PIC method is the most expensive part of the computation. Therefore we propose another fully Eulerian approach. Thanks to a decomposition of the distribution function on velocity basis functions, we obtain a reduced Vlasov model, which appears to be a hyperbolic system of conservation laws written only in the (x,t) space. We can thus adapt very easily our DG solver to the reduced model

Solid oxide fuel cells fueled with reducible oxides

Science.gov (United States)

Chuang, Steven S.; Fan, Liang Shih

2018-01-09

A direct-electrochemical-oxidation fuel cell for generating electrical energy includes a cathode provided with an electrochemical-reduction catalyst that promotes formation of oxygen ions from an oxygen-containing source at the cathode, a solid-state reduced metal, a solid-state anode provided with an electrochemical-oxidation catalyst that promotes direct electrochemical oxidation of the solid-state reduced metal in the presence of the oxygen ions to produce electrical energy, and an electrolyte disposed to transmit the oxygen ions from the cathode to the solid-state anode. A method of operating a solid oxide fuel cell includes providing a direct-electrochemical-oxidation fuel cell comprising a solid-state reduced metal, oxidizing the solid-state reduced metal in the presence of oxygen ions through direct-electrochemical-oxidation to obtain a solid-state reducible metal oxide, and reducing the solid-state reducible metal oxide to obtain the solid-state reduced metal.

Acid-reducing vagotomy is associated with reduced risk of subsequent ischemic heart disease in complicated peptic ulcer

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Shih-Chi; Fang, Chu-Wen; Chen, William Tzu-Liang; Muo, Chih-Hsin

2016-01-01

Abstract Persistent exacerbation of a peptic ulcer may lead to a complicated peptic ulcer (perforation or/and bleeding). The management of complicated peptic ulcers has shifted from acid-reducing vagotomy, drainage, and gastrectomy to simple local suture or non-operative (endoscopic/angiographic) hemostasis. We were interested in the long-term effects of this trend change. In this study, complicated peptic ulcer patients who received acid-reducing vagotomy were compared with those who received simple suture/hemostasis to determine the risk of ischemic heart disease (IHD). This retrospective cohort study analyzed 335,680 peptic ulcer patients recorded from 2000 to 2006 versus 335,680 age-, sex-, comorbidity-, and index-year matched comparisons. Patients with Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection were excluded. In order to identify the effect of vagus nerve severance, patients who received gastrectomy or antrectomy were also excluded. The incidence of IHD in both cohorts, and in the complicated peptic ulcer patients who received acid-reducing vagotomy versus those who received simple suture or hemostasis was evaluated. The overall incidence of IHD was higher in patients with peptic ulcer than those without peptic ulcer (17.00 vs 12.06 per 1000 person-years), with an adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) of 1.46 based on multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analysis controlling for age, sex, Charlson's comorbidity index, and death (competing risk). While comparing peptic ulcer patients with acid-reducing vagotomy to those with simple suture/hemostasis or those without surgical treatment, the aHR (0.58) was the lowest in the acid-reducing vagotomy group. Patients with peptic ulcer have an elevated risk of IHD. However, complicated peptic ulcer patients who received acid-reducing vagotomy were associated with reduced risk of developing IHD. PMID:27977613

Solar Cels With Reduced Contact Areas

Science.gov (United States)

Daud, T.; Crotty, G. T.; Kachare, A. H.; Lewis, J. T.

1987-01-01

Efficiency of silicon solar cells increased about 20 percent using smaller metal-contact area on silicon at front and back of each cell. Reduction in contact area reduces surface recombination velocity under contact and thus reduces reverse saturation current and increases opencircuit voltage..

Reduced multiplication modules

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

if M is a von Neumann regular module (VNM); i.e., every principal submodule of M is a summand submodule. Also if M is an injective R-module, then M is a VNM. Keywords. Multiplication module; reduced module; minimal prime submodule;. Zariski topology; extremally disconnected. 1. Introduction. In this paper all rings are ...

78 FR 47109 - Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Endangered Status for Physaria globosa (Short's...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-08-02

.... (dead nettle), Phacelia bipinnatifida (forest phacelia), Polygonatum biflorum (Solomon's seal), Sedum...-thickened roots with slender rhizomes. The stems are slender, erect, and up to 2 meters (m) (6 feet (ft... and root-tip chromosome counts by Matthews et al. (2002, pp. 17-23) validated this taxon's status as a...

Molecular identification of Sporothrix species involved in the first familial outbreak of sporotrichosis in the state of Espírito Santo, southeastern Brazil.

Science.gov (United States)

Oliveira, Manoel Marques Evangelista; Maifrede, Simone Bravim; Ribeiro, Mariceli Araújo; Zancope-Oliveira, Rosely Maria

2013-11-01

Sporotrichosis is a widespread subcutaneous mycosis caused by the dimorphic fungi now known as the Sporothrix schenckii complex. This complex is comprised of at least six species, including Sporothrix albicans, Sporothrix brasiliensis, Sporothrix globosa, Sporothrix luriei, Sporothrix mexicana and S. schenckii. Cases of sporotrichosis have significantly increased in Brazil over the past decade, especially in the state of Rio de Janeiro (RJ), where an epidemic among cat owners has been observed. The zoonotic transmission from cats to humans suggests a common source of infection and indicates that animals can act as vectors. We performed a molecular characterisation of samples collected during the first outbreak of familial sporotrichosis caused by S. brasiliensis in the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil. These results represent the first description of such an outbreak outside the endemic area of zoonotic sporotrichosis in RJ.

Molecular identification of Sporothrix species involved in the first familial outbreak of sporotrichosis in the state of Espírito Santo, southeastern Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Manoel Marques Evangelista Oliveira

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Sporotrichosis is a widespread subcutaneous mycosis caused by the dimorphic fungi now known as the Sporothrix schenckii complex. This complex is comprised of at least six species, including Sporothrix albicans, Sporothrix brasiliensis, Sporothrix globosa, Sporothrix luriei, Sporothrix mexicana and S. schenckii. Cases of sporotrichosis have significantly increased in Brazil over the past decade, especially in the state of Rio de Janeiro (RJ, where an epidemic among cat owners has been observed. The zoonotic transmission from cats to humans suggests a common source of infection and indicates that animals can act as vectors. We performed a molecular characterisation of samples collected during the first outbreak of familial sporotrichosis caused by S. brasiliensis in the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil. These results represent the first description of such an outbreak outside the endemic area of zoonotic sporotrichosis in RJ.

A Study of the Epiphytic Orchids in Jobolarangan Forest

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ADIANI VIVIATI

2001-07-01

Full Text Available The objective of the research was to know the species of epiphytic orchids in Jobolarangan forest. The orchid samples were taken from all stand-plants. The plants were chosen randomly by considering the diversity and richness of orchids that attach on it. Each plant was sampled in three repetitions. Sampling of orchids existence in the plant’s stand were done using transect method through a zonation system. In this research 11 epiphytic-orchids such as Bulbophyllum bakhuizenii Stenn, Coelogyne miniata Lindl, Coelogyne rochussenii de Vr., Dendrobium bigibbum Lindl., Dendrobchilum longifolium, Eria bogoriensis, J.J.S. Liparis caespitosa (Thou. Lindl., Liparis pallida (Bl.. Pholidota globosa (Bl. Lindl., Polystachya flavescens (Bl. J.J.S., and Trichoglottis sp. were found. The host plant stand that was attached with most orchids was Schefflera fastigiata and Saurauia bracteosa, generally in zone three.

Evolution of phytoplankton cultures after ultraviolet light treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martínez, L.F.; Mahamud, M.M.; Lavín, A.G.; Bueno, J.L.

2012-01-01

Introducing invasive species in new environments through ballast water is a specific problem of contamination and has recently become one of the main concerns of Maritime Organizations. Ultraviolet-C radiation (UV-C) is a technological alternative to prevent this maritime pollution. This study addresses the effect of UV-C on different phytoplankton cultures and also the ability to recover following exposure to damage. A UV-C low-pressure lamp irradiates the cultures. The distance from the source and the thickness of the layer prevent part of the energy from reaching the culture and the disinfective process is diminished. Some cultures such as Chlorella autotrophica and Chaetoceros calcitrans can easily recover from UV-C damage. However, Phaeocystis globosa does not have this ability. C. calcitrans forms cysts and exhibits two different behaviours depending on the dose applied.

Obstetric outcomes in reduced and non-reduced twin pregnancies. A single hospital experience

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

UmmKulthoum E. AlShelaly

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Objectives: To compare pregnancy outcomes between high-order multiple pregnancies resulting from assisted reproductive technology (ART reduced to twins and non-reduced pregnancies, and to evaluate indications for using ART. Methods: This is a descriptive retrospective review of women with high-order multiple pregnancies reduced to twin carried out at the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia between December 2010 and December 2013. The control group consisted of subjects with twin pregnancies who received their fertility treatment at the same hospital during the same period. Results: One hundred and twelve women were included in this study. Of women reaching fetal viability, significantly more women delivered before the thirtieth week in the study group (50% versus 12%, p<0.004. Miscarriage/delivery prior to fetal viability, chorioamnionitis, and preterm premature rupture of membranes were statistically higher in the study group. A total of 83% of the miscarriages in the study group were in women carrying 4 or more fetuses initially, and 50% of women in the study group were multiparous with no clear indication for fertility treatment. Conclusion: Although fetal reduction is a safe procedure, it is associated with complications. Primary prevention of high-order multiple pregnancy is recommended.

Reduced Pain Sensation and Reduced BOLD Signal in Parietofrontal Networks during Religious Prayer.

Science.gov (United States)

Elmholdt, Else-Marie; Skewes, Joshua; Dietz, Martin; Møller, Arne; Jensen, Martin S; Roepstorff, Andreas; Wiech, Katja; Jensen, Troels S

2017-01-01

Previous studies suggest that religious prayer can alter the experience of pain via expectation mechanisms. While brain processes related to other types of top-down modulation of pain have been studied extensively, no research has been conducted on the potential effects of active religious coping. Here, we aimed at investigating the neural mechanisms during pain modulation by prayer and their dependency on the opioidergic system. Twenty-eight devout Protestants performed religious prayer and a secular contrast prayer during painful electrical stimulation in two fMRI sessions. Naloxone or saline was administered prior to scanning. Results show that pain intensity was reduced by 11% and pain unpleasantness by 26% during religious prayer compared to secular prayer. Expectancy predicted large amounts (70-89%) of the variance in pain intensity. Neuroimaging results revealed reduced neural activity during religious prayer in a large parietofrontal network relative to the secular condition. Naloxone had no significant effect on ratings or neural activity. Our results thus indicate that, under these conditions, pain modulation by prayer is not opioid-dependent. Further studies should employ an optimized design to explore whether reduced engagement of the frontoparietal system could indicate that prayer may attenuate pain through a reduction in processing of pain stimulus saliency and prefrontal control rather than through known descending pain inhibitory systems.

Filter apparatus for actively reducing noise

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Berkhoff, Arthur P.; Nijsse, G.

2010-01-01

A filter apparatus for reducing noise from a primary noise source, comprising a secondary source signal connector for generating secondary noise to reduce said primary noise and a sensor connector for connecting to a sensor for measuring said primary and secondary noise as an error signal. A first

REDUCE system in elementary particle physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grozin, A.G.

1990-01-01

This preprint is the first part of the problem book on using REDUCE for calculations of cross sections and decay probabilities in elementary particle physics. It contains the review of the necessary formulae and examples of using REDUCE for calculations with vectors and Dirac matrices. 5 refs.; 11 figs

Flow Boiling Critical Heat Flux in Reduced Gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Mudawar, Issam; Zhang, Hui; Hasan, Mohammad M.

2004-01-01

This study provides systematic method for reducing power consumption in reduced gravity systems by adopting minimum velocity required to provide adequate CHF and preclude detrimental effects of reduced gravity . This study proves it is possible to use existing 1 ge flow boiling and CHF correlations and models to design reduced gravity systems provided minimum velocity criteria are met

The sensory quality of allergen-controlled, fat-reduced, salt-reduced pork-ostrich sausages during storage.

Science.gov (United States)

Guzek, Dominika; Głąbska, Dominika; Brodowska, Marta; Godziszewska, Jolanta; Górska-Horczyczak, Elżbieta; Pogorzelska, Ewelina; Wojtasik-Kalinowska, Iwona; Wierzbicka, Agnieszka

2017-12-01

New meat products tailored to consumer health should be characterised by reduced sodium, fat and cholesterol contents and other health-promoting benefits. However, the food sector's greatest challenge is allergen-free production. Consumers are not willing to compromise the sensory quality of meat products for health. The aim of the present study was to analyse the influence of the storage time on the physical properties and consumer acceptance of allergen-controlled, fat-reduced, salt-reduced pork-ostrich sausages. The study focused on pork-ostrich sausages produced in accordance with a new patented technology, which focused on eliminating cross-contamination on-line in the plant, eliminating cross-contamination after preparation, and eliminating spices with high allergy potential. The production was focused on reducing fat (by approximately 50%) and salt (by approximately 30%) levels. No changes in the texture parameters of the sausage were observed during storage time; however, some changes in colour were observed. There were no significant differences in sensory consumer acceptability of pork-ostrich sausage after 14 days of storage; thus, it may be stated that the instrumentally assessed differences in colour did not influence consumer acceptance. The applied fat and NaCl reduction in the pork-ostrich sausages contributed to high consumer ratings and was not correlated with saltiness acceptability. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

Reduced Worktime: Tool to Fight Umemployment

Science.gov (United States)

Levitan, Sar A.; Belous, Richard S.

1978-01-01

Discusses the use of reduced worktime, including work sharing, as a strategy in combating unemployment. Covers the experiences of Western European countries in using this strategy to reduce unemployment. It also covers the negative aspects of work sharing, Americans' desires for increased leisure time, and, finally, some issues and answers. (EM)

Six ways to reduce inventory.

Science.gov (United States)

Lunn, T

1996-05-01

The purpose of this presentation is to help you reduce the inventory in your operation. We will accomplish that task by discussing six specific methods that companies have used successfully to reduce their inventory. One common attribute of these successes is that they also build teamwork among the people. Every business operation today is concerned with methods to improve customer service. The real trick is to accomplish that task without increasing inventory. We are all concerned with improving our skills at keeping inventory low.

Why the CDM can reduce carbon leakage

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kallbekken, S.

2006-04-01

Carbon leakage is an important concern because it can reduce the environmental effectiveness of the Kyoto Protocol. The Clean Development Mechanism, one of the flexibility mechanisms allowed under the protocol, has the potential to reduce carbon leakage significantly because it reduces the relative competitive disadvantage to Annex B countries of restricting greenhouse gas emissions. The economic intuition behind this mechanism is explored in a theoretical analysis. It is then analyzed numerically using a CGE model. The results indicate that, assuming appropriate accounting for leakage and under realistic assumptions on CDM activity, the CDM has the potential to reduce the magnitude of carbon leakage by around three fifths

States reducing solar's soft costs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Meehan, Chris

2012-07-01

In 2012 the costs of modules will drop below the balance of system costs or 'soft costs' of solar in the US. Federal policy that nationalizes permitting processes could reduce some of the soft costs, but is unlikely. That's why states like California, Colorado, Connecticut and Vermont passed own laws to reduce soft costs by speeding solar permitting and reducing fees. (orig.)

Is lowering reducing sugars concentration in French fries an effective measure to reduce acrylamide concentration in food service establishments?

Science.gov (United States)

Sanny, M; Jinap, S; Bakker, E J; van Boekel, M A J S; Luning, P A

2012-12-01

The objective of this study was to obtain insight into the actual effectiveness of lowering reducing sugars concentration in par-fried potato strips on the concentration and variation of acrylamide in French fries prepared in real-life situations in food service establishments. Acrylamide, frying time, frying temperature, and reducing sugars were measured and characteristics of fryers were recorded. Data showed that the use of par-fried potato strips with lower concentrations of reducing sugars than the commonly used potato strips was an effective measure to reduce acrylamide concentrations in French fries prepared under standardised frying conditions. However, there was still large variation in the acrylamide concentrations in French fries, although the variation in reducing sugars concentrations in low and normal types of par-fried potato strips was very small and the frying conditions were similar. Factors that could affect the temperature-time profile of frying oil were discussed, such as setting a lower frying temperature at the end than at the start of frying, product/oil ratio and thawing practice. These need to be controlled in daily practice to reduce variation in acrylamide. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Characterization of Fe (III)-reducing enrichment culture and isolation of Fe (III)-reducing bacterium Enterobacter sp. L6 from marine sediment.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Hongyan; Wang, Hongyu

2016-07-01

To enrich the Fe (III)-reducing bacteria, sludge from marine sediment was inoculated into the medium using Fe (OH)3 as the sole electron acceptor. Efficiency of Fe (III) reduction and composition of Fe (III)-reducing enrichment culture were analyzed. The results indicated that the Fe (III)-reducing enrichment culture with the dominant bacteria relating to Clostridium and Enterobacter sp. had high Fe (III) reduction of (2.73 ± 0.13) mmol/L-Fe (II). A new Fe (III)-reducing bacterium was isolated from the Fe (III)-reducing enrichment culture and identified as Enterobacter sp. L6 by 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. The Fe (III)-reducing ability of strain L6 under different culture conditions was investigated. The results indicated that strain L6 had high Fe (III)-reducing activity using glucose and pyruvate as carbon sources. Strain L6 could reduce Fe (III) at the range of NaCl concentrations tested and had the highest Fe (III) reduction of (4.63 ± 0.27) mmol/L Fe (II) at the NaCl concentration of 4 g/L. This strain L6 could reduce Fe (III) with unique properties in adaptability to salt variation, which indicated that it can be used as a model organism to study Fe (III)-reducing activity isolated from marine environment. Copyright © 2015 The Society for Biotechnology, Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Gambling Reducing Slot Machine

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Callesen, Mette Buhl; Thomsen, Kristine Rømer; Linnet, Jakob

2007-01-01

  The Gambling Reducing Slot Machine - Preliminary results Mette Buhl Callesen, Kristine Rømer Thomsen, Jakob Linnet and Arne Møller The PET Centre, Aarhus University Hospital and Centre of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus, Denmark   Slot machines are among the most addictive forms...... and willingness to continue gambling. The results may have important implications for understanding how to reduce gambling behavior in pathological gamblers.   [1] Griffiths, M. 1999. Gambling Technologies: Prospects for Problem Gambling. Journal of Gambling Studies, vol. 15(3), pp. 265-283.    ...

Reduced Pain Sensation and Reduced BOLD Signal in Parietofrontal Networks during Religious Prayer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Elmholdt, Else-Marie; Skewes, Joshua Charles; Dietz, Martin

2017-01-01

Previous studies suggest that religious prayer can alter the experience of pain via expectation mechanisms. While brain processes related to other types of top-down modulation of pain have been studied extensively, no research has been conducted on the potential effects of active religious coping....... Here, we aimed at investigating the neural mechanisms during pain modulation by prayer and their dependency on the opioidergic system. Twenty-eight devout Protestants performed religious prayer and a secular contrast prayer during painful electrical stimulation in two fMRI sessions. Naloxone or saline...... was administered prior to scanning. Results show that pain intensity was reduced by 11% and pain unpleasantness by 26% during religious prayer compared to secular prayer. Expectancy predicted large amounts (70–89%) of the variance in pain intensity. Neuroimaging results revealed reduced neural activity during...

Phytoplankton virus production negatively affected by iron limitation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hans A Slagter

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Fe-limited monocultures of the ubiquitous algae Micromonas pusilla and Phaeocystis globosa were infected with their respective viruses (MpV and PgV to ascertain the effect of Fe-limitation on phytoplankton host-virus dynamics. The effect of the viral shunt on Fe concentrations and bioavailability is starting to gain attention, since not only is Fe released through lysis, but also its solubility is increased by the simultaneous release of Fe-binding dissolved organic ligands. However, the effect of Fe-limitation on the process of viral lysis itself is poorly understood. In this study fine adjustment of a seawater-based culture medium including the use of ultra-clean trace metal conditions and protocols allowed for Fe-limited growth at nanomolar amounts as opposed to micromolar amounts typically employed in culturing. Viral lysates derived from Fe-limited and Fe-replete (for comparison hosts were cross-inoculated in hosts of both Fe treatments, to judge the quality of the resulting lysate as well as the effect of Fe introduction after initial infection. For both phytoplankton host-virus systems, the virus burst size reduced strongly under Fe stress, i.e. on average 28 ±1% of replete. Moreover, the MpV virus progeny showed highly reduced infectivity of 30±7%, whereas PgV infectivity was not affected. A small addition of Fe to Fe-limited cultures coming from the Fe-replete lysate counteracted the negative effect of Fe-limitation on phytoplankton virus production to some extent (but still half of replete, implying that the physiological history of the host at the moment of infection was an important underlying factor. These results indicate that Fe-limitation has the strong potential to reduce the loss of phytoplankton due to virus infection, thereby affecting the extent of Fe-cycling through the viral shunt. To what extent this affects the contribution of viral lysis-induced organic ligand release needs further study.

Reduced kinetic equations: An influence functional approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wio, H.S.

1985-01-01

The author discusses a scheme for obtaining reduced descriptions of multivariate kinetic equations based on the 'influence functional' method of Feynmann. It is applied to the case of Fokker-Planck equations showing the form that results for the reduced equation. The possibility of Markovian or non-Markovian reduced description is discussed. As a particular example, the reduction of the Kramers equation to the Smoluchwski equation in the limit of high friction is also discussed

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.

Generalized Reduced Order Model Generation, Phase I

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — M4 Engineering proposes to develop a generalized reduced order model generation method. This method will allow for creation of reduced order aeroservoelastic state...

Patient experiences with interventions to reduce surgery cancellations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hovlid, Einar; von Plessen, Christian; Haug, Kjell

2013-01-01

The cancellation of planned surgery harms patients, increases waiting times and wastes scarce health resources. Previous studies have evaluated interventions to reduce cancellations from medical and management perspectives; these have focused on cost, length of stay, improved efficiency......, and reduced post-operative complications. In our case a hospital had experienced high cancellation rates and therefore redesigned their pathway for elective surgery to reduce cancelations. We studied how patients experienced interventions to reduce cancellations....

Evolution of technetium speciation in reducing grout

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lukens, Wayne W.; Bucher, Jerome J.; Shuh, David K.; Edelstein,Norman M.

2003-11-24

Cementitious waste forms (CWFs) are an important component of the strategy to immobilize high-level nuclear waste resulting from plutonium production by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Technetium (99Tc) is an abundant fission product of particular concern in CWFs due to the high solubility and mobility of pertechnetate, TcO4-, the stable form of technetium in aerobic environments. CWFs can more effectively immobilize 99Tc if they contain additives that reduce mobile TcO4- to immobile Tc(IV) species. Leaching of 99Tc from reducing CWFs that contain Tc(IV) is much slower than for CWFs containing TcO4-. Previous X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) studies showed that the Tc(IV) species were oxidized to TcO4- in reducing grout samples prepared on a laboratory scale. Whether the oxidizer was atmospheric O2 or NO3- in the waste simulant was not determined. In actual CWFs, rapid oxidation of Tc(IV) by NO3- would be a concern, whereas oxidation by atmospheric O2 would be of less concern due to the slow diffusion and reaction of O2 with the reducing CWF. To address this uncertainty, two series of reducing grouts were prepared using TcO4- containing waste simulants with and without NO3-. In the first series of samples, the TcO4- was completely reduced using Na2S, and the samples were placed in containers that permitted O2 diffusion. In these samples, all of the technetium was initially present as aTc(IV) sulfide compound, TcSx, which was characterized using extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy, and is likely Tc2S7. The TcSx initially present in the grout samples was steadily oxidized over 4 years. In the second series of samples, all of the TcO4- was not initially reduced, and the grout samples were placed in airtight containers. In these samples, the remaining TcO4- continued to be reduced as the samples aged, presumably due to the presence of reducing blast furnace slag. When samples in the second series were exposed to atmosphere, the

Syntheses of sup 18 F-labeled reduced haloperidol and sup 11 C-labeled reduced 3-N-methylspiperone

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ravert, H T; Dannals, R F; Wilson, A A; Wong, D F; Wagner, Jr, H N [Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD (USA)

1991-03-01

{sup 18}F-Labeled reduced haloperidol and {sup 11}C-labeled reduced 3-N-methylspiperone were synthesized in a convenient and quantitative one step reduction from {sup 18}F-labeled haloperidol and {sup 11}C-labeled N-methylspiperone, respectively. Both products were purified by semipreparative HPLC and were obtained at high specific activity and radiochemical purity. (author).

Quantum Entanglement and Reduced Density Matrices

Science.gov (United States)

Purwanto, Agus; Sukamto, Heru; Yuwana, Lila

2018-05-01

We investigate entanglement and separability criteria of multipartite (n-partite) state by examining ranks of its reduced density matrices. Firstly, we construct the general formula to determine the criterion. A rank of origin density matrix always equals one, meanwhile ranks of reduced matrices have various ranks. Next, separability and entanglement criterion of multipartite is determined by calculating ranks of reduced density matrices. In this article we diversify multipartite state criteria into completely entangled state, completely separable state, and compound state, i.e. sub-entangled state and sub-entangledseparable state. Furthermore, we also shorten the calculation proposed by the previous research to determine separability of multipartite state and expand the methods to be able to differ multipartite state based on criteria above.

Reduced-activation steels: present status and future development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Klueh, R.L.

2007-01-01

Full text of publication follows: Reduced-activation steels for fusion reactor applications were developed in the 1980's to replace the commercial elevated- temperature steels first considered. In the United States, this involved replacing Sandvik HT9 and modified 9Cr-1Mo steels. Reduced-activation steels, which were developed for more rapid radioactivity decay following exposure in a fusion neutron environment, were patterned after the commercial steels they were to replace. The objective for the reduced-activation steels was that they have strengths (yield stress and ultimate tensile strength from room temperature to 600 deg. C) and impact toughness (measured in a Charpy test) comparable to or better than the steels they were replacing. That objective was achieved in reduced-activation steels developed in Japan, Europe, and the United States. Since the reduced-activation steels were developed in the 1980's, reactor designers have been interested designs for increased efficiency of future fusion plants. This means reactors will need to operate at higher temperatures-above 550 deg. C, which is the upper-temperature limit for the reduced-activation steels. Although the tensile and impact toughness of the reduced-activation steels exceed those of the commercial steels they were patterned after, their creep-rupture properties are inferior to some of the commercial steels they replaced. furthermore, they are much inferior to commercial steels that have been developed since the 1980's. Reasons for why the creep-rupture properties for the new commercial ferritic/martensitic steels are superior to the earlier commercial steels and the reduced-activation steels were examined. The reasons involve compositional changes that were made in the earlier commercial steels to give the new commercial steels their superior properties. Computational thermodynamics calculations were carried out to compare the expected equilibrium phases. It appears that similar changes in composition

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.

Reduced intrinsic heart rate is associated with reduced arrhythmic susceptibility in guinea-pig heart.

Science.gov (United States)

Osadchii, Oleg E

2014-12-01

In the clinical setting, patients with slower resting heart rate are less prone to cardiovascular death compared with those with elevated heart rate. However, electrophysiological adaptations associated with reduced cardiac rhythm have not been thoroughly explored. In this study, relationships between intrinsic heart rate and arrhythmic susceptibility were examined by assessments of action potential duration (APD) rate adaptation and inducibility of repolarization alternans in sinoatrial node (SAN)-driven and atrioventricular (AV)-blocked guinea-pig hearts perfused with Langendorff apparatus. Electrocardiograms, epicardial monophasic action potentials, and effective refractory periods (ERP) were assessed in normokalemic and hypokalemic conditions. Slower basal heart rate in AV-blocked hearts was associated with prolonged ventricular repolarization during spontaneous beating, and with attenuated APD shortening at increased cardiac activation rates during dynamic pacing, when compared with SAN-driven hearts. During hypokalemic perfusion, the inducibility of repolarization alternans and tachyarrhythmia by rapid pacing was found to be lower in AV-blocked hearts. This difference was ascribed to prolonged ERP in the setting of reduced basal heart rate, which prevented ventricular capture at critically short pacing intervals required to induce arrhythmia. Reduced basal heart rate is associated with electrophysiological changes that prevent electrical instability upon an abrupt cardiac acceleration.

Mitochondrial Respiration Is Reduced in Atherosclerosis, Promoting Necrotic Core Formation and Reducing Relative Fibrous Cap Thickness.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Emma P K; Reinhold, Johannes; Yu, Haixiang; Starks, Lakshi; Uryga, Anna K; Foote, Kirsty; Finigan, Alison; Figg, Nichola; Pung, Yuh-Fen; Logan, Angela; Murphy, Michael P; Bennett, Martin

2017-12-01

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) damage is present in murine and human atherosclerotic plaques. However, whether endogenous levels of mtDNA damage are sufficient to cause mitochondrial dysfunction and whether decreasing mtDNA damage and improving mitochondrial respiration affects plaque burden or composition are unclear. We examined mitochondrial respiration in human atherosclerotic plaques and whether augmenting mitochondrial respiration affects atherogenesis. Human atherosclerotic plaques showed marked mitochondrial dysfunction, manifested as reduced mtDNA copy number and oxygen consumption rate in fibrous cap and core regions. Vascular smooth muscle cells derived from plaques showed impaired mitochondrial respiration, reduced complex I expression, and increased mitophagy, which was induced by oxidized low-density lipoprotein. Apolipoprotein E-deficient (ApoE -/- ) mice showed decreased mtDNA integrity and mitochondrial respiration, associated with increased mitochondrial reactive oxygen species. To determine whether alleviating mtDNA damage and increasing mitochondrial respiration affects atherogenesis, we studied ApoE -/- mice overexpressing the mitochondrial helicase Twinkle (Tw + /ApoE -/- ). Tw + /ApoE -/- mice showed increased mtDNA integrity, copy number, respiratory complex abundance, and respiration. Tw + /ApoE -/- mice had decreased necrotic core and increased fibrous cap areas, and Tw + /ApoE -/- bone marrow transplantation also reduced core areas. Twinkle increased vascular smooth muscle cell mtDNA integrity and respiration. Twinkle also promoted vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation and protected both vascular smooth muscle cells and macrophages from oxidative stress-induced apoptosis. Endogenous mtDNA damage in mouse and human atherosclerosis is associated with significantly reduced mitochondrial respiration. Reducing mtDNA damage and increasing mitochondrial respiration decrease necrotic core and increase fibrous cap areas independently of changes in

Exploring virulence and immunogenicity in the emerging pathogen Sporothrix brasiliensis.

Science.gov (United States)

Della Terra, Paula Portella; Rodrigues, Anderson Messias; Fernandes, Geisa Ferreira; Nishikaku, Angela Satie; Burger, Eva; de Camargo, Zoilo Pires

2017-08-01

Sporotrichosis is a polymorphic chronic infection of humans and animals classically acquired after traumatic inoculation with soil and plant material contaminated with Sporothrix spp. propagules. An alternative and successful route of transmission is bites and scratches from diseased cats, through which Sporothrix yeasts are inoculated into mammalian tissue. The development of a murine model of subcutaneous sporotrichosis mimicking the alternative route of transmission is essential to understanding disease pathogenesis and the development of novel therapeutic strategies. To explore the impact of horizontal transmission in animals (e.g., cat-cat) and zoonotic transmission on Sporothrix fitness, the left hind footpads of BALB/c mice were inoculated with 5×106 yeasts (n = 11 S. brasiliensis, n = 2 S. schenckii, or n = 1 S. globosa). Twenty days post-infection, our model reproduced both the pathophysiology and symptomology of sporotrichosis with suppurating subcutaneous nodules that progressed proximally along lymphatic channels. Across the main pathogenic members of the S. schenckii clade, S. brasiliensis was usually more virulent than S. schenckii and S. globosa. However, the virulence in S. brasiliensis was strain-dependent, and we demonstrated that highly virulent isolates disseminate from the left hind footpad to the liver, spleen, kidneys, lungs, heart, and brain of infected animals, inducing significant and chronic weight loss (losing up to 15% of their body weight). The weight loss correlated with host death between 2 and 16 weeks post-infection. Histopathological features included necrosis, suppurative inflammation, and polymorphonuclear and mononuclear inflammatory infiltrates. Immunoblot using specific antisera and homologous exoantigen investigated the humoral response. Antigenic profiles were isolate-specific, supporting the hypothesis that different Sporothrix species can elicit a heterogeneous humoral response over time, but cross reaction was observed

Reclassificação taxonômica de espécies do gênero Malassezia: revisão da literatura sobre as implicações clinicolaboratoriais Reclassification of Malassezia species: a review of its clinical and laboratory significance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fábio dos Santos Schlottfeldt

2002-07-01

Full Text Available O gênero Malassezia compreende leveduras lipofílicas e lipodependentes que recentemente sofreram mudanças em sua classificação taxonômica, com a introdução de quatro novas espécies: M. globosa, M. obtusa, M. slooffiae e M. restricta, além das espécies M. furfur, M. pachydermatis e M. sympodialis, já descritas. Estas leveduras estão associadas a vários quadros patológicos que incluem infecções como a pitiríase versicolor ou dermatoses, como dermatite seborréica e dermatite atópica, entre outros. Estes quadros eram, até pouco tempo atrás, considerados devidos exclusivamente à espécie M. furfur. Estas mudanças na classificação taxonômica de Malassezia levaram a uma reavaliação dos procedimentos laboratoriais que eram utilizados para a identificação do agente etiológico. Entre eles podemos citar o estudo e a caracterização morfológica das espécies, sua tolerância térmica, suas necessidades nutricionais para determinados tipos de ácidos graxos, bem como a composição e as características do DNA de cada uma delas.The genus Malassezia comprises lipophylic and lipodependent yeast species that recently suffered a change in their taxonomic classification, with the description of four new species: M. globosa, M. obtusa, M. slooffiae and M. restricta besides the already described species M. furfur, M. pachydermatis and M. sympodialis. These yeasts are associated to pathologies that include tinea versicolor, seborrheic and atopic dermatitis, among others. These diseases were previously thought to be exclusively due to the species M. furfur. The taxonomical changes observed for species of Malassezia genus has led to a reassessment of the laboratory methodologies that were formerly used for the identification of the etiologic agent. Morphologic and physiologic variations for each species, termo-tolerance, their requirements for certain long-chain fatty acid sources, as well the composition and characteristics of their

Experimental knee pain reduces muscle strength

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Henriksen, Marius; Mortensen, Sara Rosager; Aaboe, Jens

2011-01-01

Pain is the principal symptom in knee pathologies and reduced muscle strength is a common observation among knee patients. However, the relationship between knee joint pain and muscle strength remains to be clarified. This study aimed at investigating the changes in knee muscle strength following...... experimental knee pain in healthy volunteers, and if these changes were associated with the pain intensities. In a crossover study, 18 healthy subjects were tested on 2 different days. Using an isokinetic dynamometer, maximal muscle strength in knee extension and flexion was measured at angular velocities 0....... Knee pain reduced the muscle strength by 5 to 15% compared to the control conditions (P knee extension and flexion at all angular velocities. The reduction in muscle strength was positively correlated to the pain intensity. Experimental knee pain significantly reduced knee extension...

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...

Low Nonfasting Triglycerides and Reduced All-Cause Mortality

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thomsen, Mette; Varbo, Anette; Tybjærg-Hansen, Anne

2014-01-01

BACKGROUND: Increased nonfasting plasma triglycerides marking increased amounts of cholesterol in remnant lipoproteins are important risk factors for cardiovascular disease, but whether lifelong reduced concentrations of triglycerides on a genetic basis ultimately lead to reduced all......-cause mortality is unknown. We tested this hypothesis. METHODS: Using individuals from the Copenhagen City Heart Study in a mendelian randomization design, we first tested whether low concentrations of nonfasting triglycerides were associated with reduced all-cause mortality in observational analyses (n = 13 957......); second, whether genetic variants in the triglyceride-degrading enzyme lipoprotein lipase, resulting in reduced nonfasting triglycerides and remnant cholesterol, were associated with reduced all-cause mortality (n = 10 208). RESULTS: During a median 24 and 17 years of 100% complete follow-up, 9991...

Reducing consumption through communal living

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Herring, Horace [The Open Univ., Milton Keynes (United Kingdom). Energy and Environment Research Unit

2003-07-01

This paper examines ways consumers and communities can voluntarily adopt a low consumption (or low carbon) lifestyle, often termed 'voluntary simplicity' or a policy of 'sufficiency'. There is an increasing academic literature within Europe in the last five years on the whole question of 'sustainable consumption', and the relationship between income levels and consumption particularly at the household. This debate has moved beyond 'green consumerism' to look at building 'new concepts of prosperity' through local community actions, or reducing working time to allow more time for the creation of social capital. The paper will concentrate on one aspect of the quest for sustainable communities, the relevance of communal living to reducing consumption through examining energy consumption (both direct and indirect) in one such community in the UK. The results from this preliminary study reveal that it is not the sharing of resources that reduces consumption but the mutual reinforcement of attitudes towards a low consumption lifestyle. Thus it is the creation of social capital in a community that is its key to its ecological lifestyle.

Boiler burden reduced at Bedford site.

Science.gov (United States)

Horsley, Chris

2011-10-01

With the NHS aiming to reduce its 2007 carbon footprint by 10% by 2015, Chris Horsley, managing director of Babcock Wanson UK, a provider of industrial boilers and burners, thermal oxidisers, air treatment, water treatment, and associated services, looks at how one NHS Trust has approached the challenge, and considerably reduced its carbon emissions, by refurbishing its boiler house and moving from oil to gas-fired steam generation.

Boundaries, injective envelopes, and reduced crossed products

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bryder, Rasmus Sylvester

In this dissertation, we study boundary actions, equivariant injective envelopes, as well as theideal structure of reduced crossed products. These topics have recently been linked to thestudy of C-simple groups, that is, groups with simple reduced group C-algebras.In joint work with Matthew Kennedy......, we consider reduced twisted crossed products overC-simple groups. For any twisted C-dynamical system over a C-simple group, we provethat there is a one-to-one correspondence between maximal invariant ideals in the underlyingC-algebra and maximal ideals in the reduced crossed product. When......*-algebras, and relate the intersection property for group actions on unital C*-algebras to the intersection property for theequivariant injective envelope. Moreover, we also prove that the equivariant injective envelopeof the centre of the injective envelope of a unital C*-algebra can be regarded as a C...

Synthesis of battery grade reduced silver powder

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Qadeer, R.; Hameed, M.; Ikram, S.; Munir, A.

2002-01-01

Process for production of battery grade reduced silver powder, an active positive material for zinc-silver oxide batteries, having specific characteristics has been optimized and the synthesized reduced silver powder was characterized. Results reveal that the values of bulk density (1.25 0.1 g/cm3) and activity (73.27 %) of synthesized reduced silver powder lies within the recommended range for use as battery material. It has purity ≥ 98% and contains Fe and Cu as traces in the concentration range of 30 5 ppm and 15 7 ppm respectively. Others determined values of surface and pores parameters are: surface area 2.6 .4 m2/g: pore volume 3.10 cm3/g: pore diameter 0.043 mu m and porosity 20%. XRD studies reveal that reduced silver powder has a cubic structure. (author)

Reiki Reduces Burnout Among Community Mental Health Clinicians.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosada, Renee M; Rubik, Beverly; Mainguy, Barbara; Plummer, Julie; Mehl-Madrona, Lewis

2015-08-01

Clinicians working in community mental health clinics are at high risk for burnout. Burnout is a problem involving emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. Reiki is a holistic biofield energy therapy beneficial for reducing stress. The purpose of this study was to determine if 30 minutes of healing touch could reduce burnout in community mental health clinicians. We utilized a crossover design to explore the efficacy of Reiki versus sham Reiki, a pseudo treatment designed to mimic true Reiki, as a means to reduce symptoms of burnout. Subjects were randomized to whether they started with Reiki or sham. The Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) and the Measure Your Medical Outcome Profile Version 2 (MYMOP-2) were used as outcome measures. Multilevel modeling was used to represent the relations among variables. Reiki was statistically significantly better than sham Reiki in reducing burnout among community mental health clinicians (p=0.011). Reiki was significant in reducing depersonalization (pReiki reduced the primary symptom on the MYMOP also only among single people (p=0.03). The effects of Reiki were differentiated from sham Reiki. Reiki could be helpful in community mental health settings for the mental health of the practitioners.

Reduced-density-matrix theory and algebraic structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kryachko, E.S.

1978-01-01

A survey of recent work on algebraic structures and reduced-density-matrix theory is presented. The approach leads to a method of classifying reduced density matrices and generalizes the notion of open and closed shells in many-body theory. 6 references

Reducing methane emissions from ruminant animals

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mathison, G.W.; Okine, E.K.; McAllister, T.A.; Dong, Y.; Galbraith, J.; Dmytruk, O.I.N. [University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB (Canada). Dept. of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Science

1998-09-01

In 1992 it was estimated that 30 x 10{sup 12}g more methane was emitted into the atmosphere than was removed, with animals being considered the largest single anthropogenic source. Ruminants produce 97% of the methane generated in enteric fermentation by animals. Estimates for methane emissions from animal wastes vary between 6 and 31% of that produced directly by the animal, with the most likely value being between 5 and 10% globally. Methane inhibitors can reduce methane emissions to zero in the short term but due to microbial adaptation the effects of these compounds are quickly neutralized and feed intake is often depressed. Methane emissions per unit of feed consumed from sheep and cattle fed hay diets appear to be quite similar but differences between other ruminants have been measured. The most practical way of influencing methane emissions per unit product is to increase productivity level since the proportion of feed energy required to just maintain the animal will be reduced, methane production falls with increased intake level, and the animal may go to market sooner. The most promising avenues for future research for reducing methanogenesis are the development of new products for reducing protozoal numbers in the rumen and the use of bacterocins or other compounds which specifically target methanogenic bacteria.

Reducing the risk of nuclear terrorism

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hibbs, R.

2005-01-01

Full text: The March 2005 'International conference on nuclear security, global directions for the future' noted that nuclear terrorism is one of the greatest threats to society. Eminent members of a multi-national panel stated that there is no one principal activity to reduce the risk of nuclear terrorism and that a combination of activities is required. This paper seeks to identify those activities by analyzing the elements that comprise the risk of nuclear terrorism. For the purpose of the analysis, risk is the product of the probability of a terrorist attack (A p ), the success of a terrorist act (S p ) and the consequence (C) of the attack: R=A p * S p * C. The paper examines each of these three elements of risk with the objective of identifying what we are doing and what else we could be doing to reduce risk. It takes into consideration some historic catastrophes, examines how they might have been prevented or their consequences reduced, and if there are lessons that are applicable to reducing the risk of nuclear terrorism. The paper demonstrates that we have concentrated on only one of the three elements of risk and offer suggestions for diminishing the risk of nuclear terrorism by addressing all the elements. (author)

Bioaccumulation of 137Cs and 57Co by five marine phytoplankton species

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heldal, H.E.; Stupakoff, I.; Fisher, N.S.

2001-01-01

Under controlled laboratory conditions, we have examined the bioaccumulation of 137 Cs and 57 Co in three prymnesiophytes, the coccolithophorid Emiliania huxleyi and the non-calcareous species Isochrysis galbana and Phaeocystis globosa, and two diatoms Skeletonema costatum and Thalassiosira pseudonana. We measured the uptake in growing and non-growing cells and determined concentration factors on both volume and dry weight bases. For uptake of 57 Co in non-growing cells, volume concentration factors (VCF) at equilibrium ranged from 0.2x10 3 for E. huxleyi to 4x10 3 for T. pseudonana. For uptake of 137 Cs in non-growing cells, the VCFs were low for all species and the uptake pattern seemed unsystematic. The results suggest that, in contrast to Co, the cycling and bioaccumulation of Cs in marine animals are unlikely to be affected by Cs accumulation in primary producers

Do Workplace Smoking Bans Reduce Smoking?

OpenAIRE

Matthew C. Farrelly; William N. Evans; Edward Montgomery

1999-01-01

In recent years there has been a heightened public concern over the potentially harmful effects of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). In response, smoking has been banned on many jobs. Using data from the 1991 and 1993 National Health Interview Survey and smoking supplements to the September 1992 and May 1993 Current Population Survey, we investigate whether these workplace policies reduce smoking prevalence and smoking intensity among workers. Our estimates suggest that workplace bans reduce...

21 CFR 184.1979a - Reduced lactose whey.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 3 2010-04-01 2009-04-01 true Reduced lactose whey. 184.1979a Section 184.1979a... Listing of Specific Substances Affirmed as GRAS § 184.1979a Reduced lactose whey. (a) Reduced lactose whey is the substance obtained by the removal of lactose from whey. The lactose content of the finished...

21 CFR 184.1979b - Reduced minerals whey.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 3 2010-04-01 2009-04-01 true Reduced minerals whey. 184.1979b Section 184.1979b... Listing of Specific Substances Affirmed as GRAS § 184.1979b Reduced minerals whey. (a) Reduced minerals whey is the substance obtained by the removal of a portion of the minerals from whey. The dry product...

Analysis on Dynamic Transmission Accuracy for RV Reducer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhang Fengshou

2017-01-01

Full Text Available By taking rotate vector (RV reducer as the research object, the factors affecting the transmission accuracy are studied, including the machining errors of the main parts, assembly errors, clearance, micro-displacement, gear mesh stiffness and damping, bearing stiffness. Based on Newton second law, the transmission error mathematical model of RV reducer is set up. Then, the RV reducer transmission error curve is achieved by solving the mathematical model using the Runge-Kutta methods under the combined action of various error factors. Through the analysis of RV reducer transmission test, it can be found that there are similar variation trend and frequency components compared the theoretical research and experimental result. The presented method is useful to the research on dynamic transmission accuracy of RV reducer, and also applies to research the transmission accuracy of other cycloid drive systems.

Blind Reduced-Rank MMSE Detector for DS-CDMA Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaodong Cai

2003-01-01

Full Text Available We first develop a reduced-rank minimum mean squared error (MMSE detector for direct-sequence (DS code division multiple access (CDMA by forcing the linear MMSE detector to lie in a signal subspace of a reduced dimension. While a reduced-rank MMSE detector has lower complexity, it cannot outperform the full-rank MMSE detector. We then concentrate on the blind reduced-rank MMSE detector which is obtained from an estimated covariance matrix. Our analysis and simulation results show that when the desired user′s signal is in a low-dimensional subspace, there exists an optimal subspace so that the blind reduced-rank MMSE detector lying in this subspace has the best performance. By properly choosing a subsspace, we guarantee that the optimal blind reduced-rank MMSE detector is obtained. An adaptive blind reduced-rank MMSE detector, based on a subspace tracking algorithm, is developed. The adaptive blind reduced-rank MMSE detector exhibits superior steady-state performance and fast convergence speed.

Reduced embodied simulation in psychopathy.

Science.gov (United States)

Mier, Daniela; Haddad, Leila; Diers, Kersten; Dressing, Harald; Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas; Kirsch, Peter

2014-08-01

Psychopathy is characterized by severe deficits in emotion processing and empathy. These emotional deficits might not only affect the feeling of own emotions, but also the understanding of others' emotional and mental states. The present study aims on identifying the neurobiological correlates of social-cognitive related alterations in psychopathy. We applied a social-cognitive paradigm for the investigation of face processing, emotion recognition, and affective Theory of Mind (ToM) to 11 imprisoned psychopaths and 18 healthy controls. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure task-related brain activation. While showing no overall behavioural deficit, psychopathy was associated with altered brain activation. Psychopaths had reduced fusiform activation related to face processing. Related to affective ToM, psychopaths had hypoactivation in amygdala, inferior prefrontal gyrus and superior temporal sulcus, areas associated with embodied simulation of emotions and intentions. Furthermore, psychopaths lacked connectivity between superior temporal sulcus and amygdala during affective ToM. These results replicate findings of alterations in basal face processing in psychopathy. In addition, they provide evidence for reduced embodied simulation in psychopathy in concert with a lack of communication between motor areas and amygdala which might provide the neural substrate of reduced feeling with others during social cognition.

Reducing online identity disclosure using warnings.

Science.gov (United States)

Carpenter, Sandra; Zhu, Feng; Kolimi, Swapna

2014-09-01

In an experimental design, we tested whether written warnings can reduce the amount of identity information exposure online. A psychological attack on information privacy that has been shown to be effective in previous research was launched. This attack took advantage of the fact that people respond to certain types of requests in a relatively automatic, or mindless, fashion. The experiment manipulated the word that was used in the alert header: "warning", "caution", or "hazard". All warnings proved to be effective in reducing disclosure, but "hazard" proved to be most effective. Also warnings were more effective in reducing disclosure of driver's license numbers than email addresses. The discussion (a) provides tentative conclusions why these patterns were obtained, (b) suggests how to design warnings in cyber-environments, and (c) addresses future possibilities for research on this topic. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

Extending OFDM Symbols to Reduce Power Consumption

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kokkeler, Andre B.J.; Smit, Gerardus Johannes Maria

2012-01-01

Existing communication standards have limited capabilities to adapt to low SNR environments or to exploit low data rate requirements in a power efficient way. Existing techniques like e.g. control coding do not reduce the computational load when reducing data rates. In this paper, we introduce

Cogeneration, renewables and reducing greenhouse gas emissions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Naughten, B.; Dlugosz, J.

1996-01-01

The MENSA model is used to assess the potential role of cogeneration and selected new renewable energy technologies in cost-effectively reducing Greenhouse gas emissions. The model framework for analyzing these issues is introduced, together with an account of relevant aspects of its application. In the discussion of selected new renewable energy technologies, it is shown how microeconomic reform may encourage these technologies and fuels, and thereby reduce sector wide carbon dioxide emissions. Policy scenarios modelled are described and the simulation results are presented. Certain interventions in microeconomic reform may result in economic benefits while also reducing emissions: no regrets' opportunities. Some renewable energy technologies are also shown to be cost-effective in the event that targets and timetables for reducing Greenhouse gas emissions are imposed. However, ad hoc interventions in support of particular renewables options are unlikely to be consistent with a least cost approach to achieving environmental objectives. (author). 5 tabs., 5 figs., 21 refs

Reduced Voltage Scaling in Clock Distribution Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khader Mohammad

2009-01-01

Full Text Available We propose a novel circuit technique to generate a reduced voltage swing (RVS signals for active power reduction on main buses and clocks. This is achieved without performance degradation, without extra power supply requirement, and with minimum area overhead. The technique stops the discharge path on the net that is swinging low at a certain voltage value. It reduces active power on the target net by as much as 33% compared to traditional full swing signaling. The logic 0 voltage value is programmable through control bits. If desired, the reduced-swing mode can also be disabled. The approach assumes that the logic 0 voltage value is always less than the threshold voltage of the nMOS receivers, which eliminate the need of the low to high voltage translation. The reduced noise margin and the increased leakage on the receiver transistors using this approach have been addressed through the selective usage of multithreshold voltage (MTV devices and the programmability of the low voltage value.

Reduced Pms2 expression in non-neoplastic flat mucosa from patients with colon cancer correlates with reduced apoptosis competence.

Science.gov (United States)

Bernstein, Harris; Prasad, Anil; Holubec, Hana; Bernstein, Carol; Payne, Claire M; Ramsey, Lois; Dvorakova, Katerina; Wilson, Megan; Warneke, James A; Garewal, Harinder

2006-06-01

Pms2 protein is a component of the DNA mismatch repair complex responsible both for post-replication correction of DNA nucleotide mispairs and for early steps in apoptosis. Germline mutations in DNA mismatch repair genes give rise to hereditary non-polyposis colon cancer, which accounts for about 4% of colon cancers. However, little is known about the expression of mismatch repair proteins in relation to sporadic colon cancer, which accounts for the great majority of colon cancers. Multiple samples were taken from the non-neoplastic flat mucosa of colon resections from patients with no colonic neoplasia, a tubulovillous adenoma, or an adenocarcinoma. Expression of Pms2 was assessed using semiquantitative immunohistochemistry. Apoptosis was assessed in polychrome-stained epoxy sections using morphologic criteria. Samples from patients without colonic neoplasia had moderate to strong staining for Pms2 in cell nuclei at the base of crypts, while samples from 2 of the 3 colons with a tubulovillous adenoma, and from 6 of the 10 colons with adenocarcinomas, showed reduced Pms2 expression. Samples from patients with an adenocarcinoma that had reduced Pms2 expression also exhibited reduced apoptosis capability in nearby tissue samples, evidenced when this paired tissue was stressed ex vivo with bile acid. Reduced Pms2 expression in the colonic mucosa may be an early step in progression to colon cancer. This reduction may cause decreased mismatch repair, increased genetic instability, and/or reduced apoptotic capability. Immunohistochemical determination of reduced Pms2 expression, upon further testing, may prove to be a promising early biomarker of risk of progression to malignancy.

Reducing gravity takes the bounce out of running.

Science.gov (United States)

Polet, Delyle T; Schroeder, Ryan T; Bertram, John E A

2018-02-13

In gravity below Earth-normal, a person should be able to take higher leaps in running. We asked 10 subjects to run on a treadmill in five levels of simulated reduced gravity and optically tracked centre-of-mass kinematics. Subjects consistently reduced ballistic height compared with running in normal gravity. We explain this trend by considering the vertical take-off velocity (defined as maximum vertical velocity). Energetically optimal gaits should balance the energetic costs of ground-contact collisions (favouring lower take-off velocity), and step frequency penalties such as leg swing work (favouring higher take-off velocity, but less so in reduced gravity). Measured vertical take-off velocity scaled with the square root of gravitational acceleration, following energetic optimality predictions and explaining why ballistic height decreases in lower gravity. The success of work-based costs in predicting this behaviour challenges the notion that gait adaptation in reduced gravity results from an unloading of the stance phase. Only the relationship between take-off velocity and swing cost changes in reduced gravity; the energetic cost of the down-to-up transition for a given vertical take-off velocity does not change with gravity. Because lower gravity allows an elongated swing phase for a given take-off velocity, the motor control system can relax the vertical momentum change in the stance phase, thus reducing ballistic height, without great energetic penalty to leg swing work. Although it may seem counterintuitive, using less 'bouncy' gaits in reduced gravity is a strategy to reduce energetic costs, to which humans seem extremely sensitive. © 2018. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

Reducible cationic lipids for gene transfer.

Science.gov (United States)

Wetzer, B; Byk, G; Frederic, M; Airiau, M; Blanche, F; Pitard, B; Scherman, D

2001-01-01

One of the main challenges of gene therapy remains the increase of gene delivery into eukaryotic cells. We tested whether intracellular DNA release, an essential step for gene transfer, could be facilitated by using reducible cationic DNA-delivery vectors. For this purpose, plasmid DNA was complexed with cationic lipids bearing a disulphide bond. This reduction-sensitive linker is expected to be reduced and cleaved in the reducing milieu of the cytoplasm, thus potentially improving DNA release and consequently transfection. The DNA--disulphide-lipid complexation was monitored by ethidium bromide exclusion, and the size of complexes was determined by dynamic light scattering. It was found that the reduction kinetics of disulphide groups in DNA--lipid complexes depended on the position of the disulphide linker within the lipid molecule. Furthermore, the internal structure of DNA--lipid particles was examined by small-angle X-ray scattering before and after lipid reduction. DNA release from lipid complexes was observed after the reduction of disulphide bonds of several lipids. Cell-transfection experiments suggested that complexes formed with selected reducible lipids resulted in up to 1000-fold higher reporter-gene activity, when compared with their analogues without disulphide bonds. In conclusion, reduction-sensitive groups introduced into cationic lipid backbones potentially allow enhanced DNA release from DNA--lipid complexes after intracellular reduction and represent a tool for improved vectorization. PMID:11389682

Cooperative water network system to reduce carbon footprint.

Science.gov (United States)

Lim, Seong-Rin; Park, Jong Moon

2008-08-15

Much effort has been made in reducing the carbon footprint to mitigate climate change. However, water network synthesis has been focused on reducing the consumption and cost of freshwater within each industrial plant. The objective of this study is to illustrate the necessity of the cooperation of industrial plants to reduce the total carbon footprint of their water supply systems. A mathematical optimization model to minimize global warming potentials is developed to synthesize (1) a cooperative water network system (WNS) integrated over two plants and (2) an individual WNS consisting of two WNSs separated for each plant. The cooperative WNS is compared to the individual WNS. The cooperation reduces their carbon footprint and is economically feasible and profitable. A strategy for implementing the cooperation is suggested for the fair distribution of costs and benefits. As a consequence, industrial plants should cooperate with their neighbor plants to further reduce the carbon footprint.

A filter apparatus for actively reducing noise

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Berkhoff, Arthur P.; Nijsse, G.

2006-01-01

A filter apparatus for reducing noise from a primary noise source, comprising a secondary source signal connector for generating secondary noise to reduce said primary noise and a sensor connector for connecting to a sensor for measuring said primary and secondary noise as an error signal. A first

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.

Hierarchical Traces for Reduced NSM Memory Requirements

Science.gov (United States)

Dahl, Torbjørn S.

This paper presents work on using hierarchical long term memory to reduce the memory requirements of nearest sequence memory (NSM) learning, a previously published, instance-based reinforcement learning algorithm. A hierarchical memory representation reduces the memory requirements by allowing traces to share common sub-sequences. We present moderated mechanisms for estimating discounted future rewards and for dealing with hidden state using hierarchical memory. We also present an experimental analysis of how the sub-sequence length affects the memory compression achieved and show that the reduced memory requirements do not effect the speed of learning. Finally, we analyse and discuss the persistence of the sub-sequences independent of specific trace instances.

Rationale and Design of the Reduce Elevated Left Atrial Pressure in Patients With Heart Failure (Reduce LAP-HF) Trial

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hasenfuss, Gerd; Gustafsson, Finn; Kaye, David

2015-01-01

OBJECTIVE: Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is characterized by elevated left atrial pressure during rest and/or exercise. The Reduce LAP-HF (Reduce Elevated Left Atrial Pressure in Patients With Heart Failure) trial will evaluate the safety and performance of the Interatrial...... Shunt Device (IASD) System II, designed to directly reduce elevated left atrial pressure, in patients with HFpEF. METHODS: The Reduce LAP-HF Trial is a prospective, nonrandomized, open-label trial to evaluate a novel device that creates a small permanent shunt at the level of the atria. A minimum of 60...... patients with ejection fraction ≥40% and New York Heart Association functional class III or IV heart failure with a pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP) ≥15 mm Hg at rest or ≥25 mm Hg during supine bike exercise will be implanted with an IASD System II, and followed for 6 months to assess the primary...

Reduced turning frequency and delayed poultry manure addition reduces N loss from sugarcane compost

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bryndum, Sofie; Muschler, R.; Nigatu, Abebe Nigussie

2017-01-01

Composting is an effective method to recycle biodegradable waste as soil amendment in smallholder farming systems. Although all essential plant nutrients are found in compost, a substantial amount of nitrogen is lost during composting. This study therefore investigated the potential of reducing N...... losses by (i) delaying the addition of nitrogen-rich substrates (i.e. poultry manure), and (ii) reducing the turning frequency during composting. Furthermore, we tested the effect of compost application method on nitrogen mineralization. Sugarcane-waste was composted for 54days with addition of poultry...... manure at the beginning (i.e. early addition) or after 21days of composting (delayed addition). The compost pile was then turned either every three or nine days. Composts were subsequently applied to soil as (i) homogeneously mixed, or (ii) stratified, and incubated for 28days to test the effect...

Correlated Electrons in Reduced Dimensions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bonesteel, Nicholas E [Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States)

2015-01-31

This report summarizes the work accomplished under the support of US DOE grant # DE-FG02-97ER45639, "Correlated Electrons in Reduced Dimensions." The underlying hypothesis of the research supported by this grant has been that studying the unique behavior of correlated electrons in reduced dimensions can lead to new ways of understanding how matter can order and how it can potentially be used. The systems under study have included i) fractional quantum Hall matter, which is realized when electrons are confined to two-dimensions and placed in a strong magnetic field at low temperature, ii) one-dimensional chains of spins and exotic quasiparticle excitations of topologically ordered matter, and iii) electrons confined in effectively ``zero-dimensional" semiconductor quantum dots.

Reducing Peripheral Inflammation with Infliximab Reduces Neuroinflammation and Improves Cognition in Rats with Hepatic Encephalopathy

Science.gov (United States)

Dadsetan, Sherry; Balzano, Tiziano; Forteza, Jerónimo; Cabrera-Pastor, Andrea; Taoro-Gonzalez, Lucas; Hernandez-Rabaza, Vicente; Gil-Perotín, Sara; Cubas-Núñez, Laura; García-Verdugo, José-Manuel; Agusti, Ana; Llansola, Marta; Felipo, Vicente

2016-01-01

Inflammation contributes to cognitive impairment in patients with hepatic encephalopathy (HE). However, the process by which peripheral inflammation results in cognitive impairment remains unclear. In animal models, neuroinflammation and altered neurotransmission mediate cognitive impairment. Taking into account these data, we hypothesized that in rats with HE: (1) peripheral inflammation is a main contributor to neuroinflammation; (2) neuroinflammation in hippocampus impairs spatial learning by altering AMPA and/or NMDA receptors membrane expression; (3) reducing peripheral inflammation with infliximab (anti-TNF-a) would improve spatial learning; (4) this would be associated with reduced neuroinflammation and normalization of the membrane expression of glutamate receptors. The aims of this work were to assess these hypotheses. We analyzed in rats with portacaval shunt (PCS) and control rats, treated or not with infliximab: (a) peripheral inflammation by measuring prostaglandin E2, IL10, IL-17, and IL-6; (b) neuroinflammation in hippocampus by analyzing microglial activation and the content of TNF-a and IL-1b; (c) AMPA and NMDA receptors membrane expression in hippocampus; and (d) spatial learning in the Radial and Morris water mazes. We assessed the effects of treatment with infliximab on peripheral inflammation, on neuroinflammation and AMPA and NMDA receptors membrane expression in hippocampus and on spatial learning and memory. PCS rats show increased serum prostaglandin E2, IL-17, and IL-6 and reduced IL-10 levels, indicating increased peripheral inflammation. PCS rats also show microglial activation and increased nuclear NF-kB and expression of TNF-a and IL-1b in hippocampus. This was associated with altered AMPA and NMDA receptors membrane expression in hippocampus and impaired spatial learning and memory in the radial and Morris water maze. Treatment with infliximab reduces peripheral inflammation in PCS rats, normalizing prostaglandin E2, IL-17, IL-6, and

Sorting, Searching, and Simulation in the MapReduce Framework

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Goodrich, Michael T.; Sitchinava, Nodari; Zhang, Qin

2011-01-01

usefulness of our approach by designing and analyzing efficient MapReduce algorithms for fundamental sorting, searching, and simulation problems. This study is motivated by a goal of ultimately putting the MapReduce framework on an equal theoretical footing with the well-known PRAM and BSP parallel...... in parallel computational geometry for the MapReduce framework, which result in efficient MapReduce algorithms for sorting, 2- and 3-dimensional convex hulls, and fixed-dimensional linear programming. For the case when mappers and reducers have a memory/message-I/O size of M = (N), for a small constant > 0...

Reducing Resistance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lindell, Johanna

care may influence decisions on antibiotic use. Based on video-and audio recordings of physician-patient consultations it is investigated how treatment recommendations are presented, can be changed, are forecast and explained, and finally, how they seemingly meet resistance and how this resistance......Antibiotic resistance is a growing public health problem both nationally and internationally, and efficient strategies are needed to reduce unnecessary use. This dissertation presents four research studies, which examine how communication between general practitioners and patients in Danish primary...... is responded to.The first study in the dissertation suggests that treatment recommendations on antibiotics are often done in a way that encourages patient acceptance. In extension of this, the second study of the dissertation examines a case, where acceptance of such a recommendation is changed into a shared...

Understanding Uranium Behavior in a Reduced Aquifer

Science.gov (United States)

Janot, N.; Lezama-Pacheco, J. S.; Williams, K. H.; Bernier-Latmani, R.; Long, P. E.; Davis, J. A.; Fox, P. M.; Yang, L.; Giammar, D.; Cerrato, J. M.; Bargar, J.

2012-12-01

Uranium contamination of groundwater is a concern at several US Department of Energy sites, such Old Rifle, CO. Uranium transport in the environment is mainly controlled by its oxidation state, since oxidized U(VI) is relatively mobile, whereas U(IV) is relatively insoluble. Bio-remediation of contaminated aquifers aims at immobilizing uranium in a reduced form. Previous laboratory and field studies have shown that adding electron donor (lactate, acetate, ethanol) to groundwater stimulates the activity of metal- and sulfate-reducing bacteria, which promotes U(VI) reduction in contaminated aquifers. However, obtaining information on chemical and physical forms of U, Fe and S species for sediments biostimulated in the field, as well as kinetic parameters such as U(VI) reduction rate, is challenging due to the low concentration of uranium in the aquifers (typically bio-remediation experiment at the Old Rifle site, CO, from early iron-reducing conditions to the transition to sulfate-reducing conditions. Several in-well chromatographic columns packed with sediment were deployed and were sampled at different days after the start of bio-reduction. X-ray absorption spectroscopy and X-ray microscopy were used to obtain information on Fe, S and U speciation and distribution. Chemical extractions of the reduced sediments have also been performed, to determine the rate of Fe(II) and U(IV) accumulation.

Metabolic interactions in methanogenic and sulfate-reducing bioreactors.

Science.gov (United States)

Stams, A J M; Plugge, C M; de Bok, F A M; van Houten, B H G W; Lens, P; Dijkman, H; Weijma, J

2005-01-01

In environments where the amount of electron acceptors is insufficient for complete breakdown of organic matter, methane is formed as the major reduced end product. In such methanogenic environments organic acids are degraded by syntrophic consortia of acetogenic bacteria and methanogenic archaea. Hydrogen consumption by methanogens is essential for acetogenic bacteria to convert organic acids to acetate and hydrogen. Several syntrophic cocultures growing on propionate and butyrate have been described. These syntrophic fatty acid-degrading consortia are affected by the presence of sulfate. When sulfate is present sulfate-reducing bacteria compete with methanogenic archaea for hydrogen and acetate, and with acetogenic bacteria for propionate and butyrate. Sulfate-reducing bacteria easily outcompete methanogens for hydrogen, but the presence of acetate as carbon source may influence the outcome of the competition. By contrast, acetoclastic methanogens can compete reasonably well with acetate-degrading sulfate reducers. Sulfate-reducing bacteria grow much faster on propionate and butyrate than syntrophic consortia.

iHadoop: Asynchronous Iterations Support for MapReduce

KAUST Repository

Elnikety, Eslam

2011-08-01

MapReduce is a distributed programming framework designed to ease the development of scalable data-intensive applications for large clusters of commodity machines. Most machine learning and data mining applications involve iterative computations over large datasets, such as the Web hyperlink structures and social network graphs. Yet, the MapReduce model does not efficiently support this important class of applications. The architecture of MapReduce, most critically its dataflow techniques and task scheduling, is completely unaware of the nature of iterative applications; tasks are scheduled according to a policy that optimizes the execution for a single iteration which wastes bandwidth, I/O, and CPU cycles when compared with an optimal execution for a consecutive set of iterations. This work presents iHadoop, a modified MapReduce model, and an associated implementation, optimized for iterative computations. The iHadoop model schedules iterations asynchronously. It connects the output of one iteration to the next, allowing both to process their data concurrently. iHadoop\\'s task scheduler exploits inter- iteration data locality by scheduling tasks that exhibit a producer/consumer relation on the same physical machine allowing a fast local data transfer. For those iterative applications that require satisfying certain criteria before termination, iHadoop runs the check concurrently during the execution of the subsequent iteration to further reduce the application\\'s latency. This thesis also describes our implementation of the iHadoop model, and evaluates its performance against Hadoop, the widely used open source implementation of MapReduce. Experiments using different data analysis applications over real-world and synthetic datasets show that iHadoop performs better than Hadoop for iterative algorithms, reducing execution time of iterative applications by 25% on average. Furthermore, integrating iHadoop with HaLoop, a variant Hadoop implementation that caches

Reducing Excellence Gaps: A Research-Based Model

Science.gov (United States)

Plucker, Jonathan A.; Peters, Scott J.; Schmalensee, Stephanie

2017-01-01

As the awareness of the existence and negative effects of excellence gaps has grown among educators and policy makers, so too has a desire for research-supported interventions to reduce these gaps. A recent review of research related to promoting equitable outcomes for all gifted students identified six specific strategies for reducing excellence…

Reduced TCA Flux in Diabetic Myotubes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gaster, Michael

2012-01-01

The diabetic phenotype is complex, requiring elucidation of key initiating defects. Diabetic myotubes express a primary reduced tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle flux but at present it is unclear in which part of the TCA cycle the defect is localised. In order to localise the defect we studied ATP p...... production of investigated substrate combinations was significantly reduced in mitochondria isolated from type 2 diabetic subjects compared to lean. However, when ATP synthesis rates at different substrate combinations were normalized to the corresponding individual pyruvate-malate rate...

Two-phase alkali-metal experiments in reduced gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Antoniak, Z.I.

1986-06-01

Future space missions envision the use of large nuclear reactors utilizing either a single or a two-phase alkali-metal working fluid. The design and analysis of such reactors require state-of-the-art computer codes that can properly treat alkali-metal flow and heat transfer in a reduced-gravity environment. A literature search of relevant experiments in reduced gravity is reported on here, and reveals a paucity of data for such correlations. The few ongoing experiments in reduced gravity are noted. General plans are put forth for the reduced-gravity experiments which will have to be performed, at NASA facilities, with benign fluids. A similar situation exists regarding two-phase alkali-metal flow and heat transfer, even in normal gravity. Existing data are conflicting and indequate for the task of modeling a space reactor using a two-phase alkali-metal coolant. The major features of past experiments are described here. Data from the reduced-gravity experiments with innocuous fluids are to be combined with normal gravity data from the two-phase alkali-metal experiments. Analyses undertaken here give every expectation that the correlations developed from this data base will provide a valid representation of alkali-metal heat transfer and pressure drop in reduced gravity

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

REST-MapReduce: An Integrated Interface but Differentiated Service

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jong-Hyuk Park

2014-01-01

Full Text Available With the fast deployment of cloud computing, MapReduce architectures are becoming the major technologies for mobile cloud computing. The concept of MapReduce was first introduced as a novel programming model and implementation for a large set of computing devices. In this research, we propose a novel concept of REST-MapReduce, enabling users to use only the REST interface without using the MapReduce architecture. This approach provides a higher level of abstraction by integration of the two types of access interface, REST API and MapReduce. The motivation of this research stems from the slower response time for accessing simple RDBMS on Hadoop than direct access to RDMBS. This is because there is overhead to job scheduling, initiating, starting, tracking, and management during MapReduce-based parallel execution. Therefore, we provide a good performance for REST Open API service and for MapReduce, respectively. This is very useful for constructing REST Open API services on Hadoop hosting services, for example, Amazon AWS (Macdonald, 2005 or IBM Smart Cloud. For evaluating performance of our REST-MapReduce framework, we conducted experiments with Jersey REST web server and Hadoop. Experimental result shows that our approach outperforms conventional approaches.

Estimating Reduced Consumption for Dynamic Demand Response

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chelmis, Charalampos [Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Aman, Saima [Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Saeed, Muhammad Rizwan [Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Frincu, Marc [Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Prasanna, Viktor K. [Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

2015-01-30

Growing demand is straining our existing electricity generation facilities and requires active participation of the utility and the consumers to achieve energy sustainability. One of the most effective and widely used ways to achieve this goal in the smart grid is demand response (DR), whereby consumers reduce their electricity consumption in response to a request sent from the utility whenever it anticipates a peak in demand. To successfully plan and implement demand response, the utility requires reliable estimate of reduced consumption during DR. This also helps in optimal selection of consumers and curtailment strategies during DR. While much work has been done on predicting normal consumption, reduced consumption prediction is an open problem that is under-studied. In this paper, we introduce and formalize the problem of reduced consumption prediction, and discuss the challenges associated with it. We also describe computational methods that use historical DR data as well as pre-DR conditions to make such predictions. Our experiments are conducted in the real-world setting of a university campus microgrid, and our preliminary results set the foundation for more detailed modeling.

Solid oxide fuel cell cathode with oxygen-reducing layer

Science.gov (United States)

Surdoval, Wayne A.; Berry, David A.; Shultz, Travis

2018-04-03

The disclosure provides a SOFC comprised of an electrolyte, anode, and cathode, where the cathode comprises an MIEC and an oxygen-reducing layer. The oxygen-reducing layer is in contact with the MIEC, and the MIEC is generally between and separating the oxygen-reducing layer and the electrolyte. The oxygen-reducing layer is comprised of single element oxides, single element carbonates, or mixtures thereof, and has a thickness of less than about 30 nm. In a particular embodiment, the thickness is less than 5 nm. In another embodiment, the thickness is about 3 monolayers or less. The oxygen-reducing layer may be a continuous film or a discontinuous film with various coverage ratios. The oxygen-reducing layer at the thicknesses described may be generated on the MIEC surface using means known in the art such as, for example, ALD processes.

Reducing Outdoor Advertising

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patrice de Rendinger

2006-05-01

Full Text Available The fundamental concept is that public space is not a private property. So, a facade (the outer skin, the last millimeter belongs to the town, not to the owner of the building. Changing the rendering, a window, adding or removing anything from a facade requires a permission delivered by the town's authority.In places like Paris, Bordeaux, Marseilles, Lyon, Strasbourg… everywhere one can find a registrated building such as a cathedral, a castle, or a group of ancient buildings, a national administration is controlling this permission. This administration is called «historical monuments administration» and is locally lead by a specialized architect.In the late seventies, French government decided to reduce advertising on the roads and on the city walls. Advertising on the road was leading to a confusion reducing the efficacy of the roadsigns and direction signs, which is dangerous. The reduction was under control of a national administration: the ministry of equipment in charge of the roads design. Advertising on the walls with publicity boards was under control of the cities. Every city has a townplanning regulation. Many cities included forbidding advertisement boards on the walls in this regulation.A couple of firms, but mainly once (Decaux found clever to give a hand to the cities to control advertising. Decaux developed a line of bus stop shelters including advertisements and advertising panels and paid the cities the right to put rather smaller publicities on the public domain.Now Decaux is no more alone on this market and the cities are comparing offers.Marseille turned to a foreign advertising firm who pays three times the price Decaux paid… for half of the advertising surface. Freiburg erased totally the public domain advertisements, selling the tramways and bus coachwork as advertising spaces. Paris is reopening the advertising market before the end of Deacaux's contract and will pay Deacaux a huge amount

Moral elevation reduces prejudice against gay men.

Science.gov (United States)

Lai, Calvin K; Haidt, Jonathan; Nosek, Brian A

2014-01-01

Disgust is linked to social evaluation. People with higher disgust sensitivity exhibit more sexual prejudice, and inducing disgust increases sexual prejudice. We tested whether inducing moral elevation, the theoretical opposite of disgust, would reduce sexual prejudice. In four studies (N = 3622), we induced elevation with inspiring videos and then measured sexual prejudice with implicit and explicit measures. Compared to control videos that elicited no particular affective state, we found that elevation reduced implicit and explicit sexual prejudice, albeit very slightly. No effect was observed when the target of social evaluation was changed to race (Black-White). Inducing amusement, another positive emotion, did not significantly affect sexual prejudice. We conclude that elevation weakly but reliably reduces prejudice towards gay men.

MARIANE: MApReduce Implementation Adapted for HPC Environments

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fadika, Zacharia; Dede, Elif; Govindaraju, Madhusudhan; Ramakrishnan, Lavanya

2011-07-06

MapReduce is increasingly becoming a popular framework, and a potent programming model. The most popular open source implementation of MapReduce, Hadoop, is based on the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS). However, as HDFS is not POSIX compliant, it cannot be fully leveraged by applications running on a majority of existing HPC environments such as Teragrid and NERSC. These HPC environments typicallysupport globally shared file systems such as NFS and GPFS. On such resourceful HPC infrastructures, the use of Hadoop not only creates compatibility issues, but also affects overall performance due to the added overhead of the HDFS. This paper not only presents a MapReduce implementation directly suitable for HPC environments, but also exposes the design choices for better performance gains in those settings. By leveraging inherent distributed file systems' functions, and abstracting them away from its MapReduce framework, MARIANE (MApReduce Implementation Adapted for HPC Environments) not only allows for the use of the model in an expanding number of HPCenvironments, but also allows for better performance in such settings. This paper shows the applicability and high performance of the MapReduce paradigm through MARIANE, an implementation designed for clustered and shared-disk file systems and as such not dedicated to a specific MapReduce solution. The paper identifies the components and trade-offs necessary for this model, and quantifies the performance gains exhibited by our approach in distributed environments over Apache Hadoop in a data intensive setting, on the Magellan testbed at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC).

In vitro activity of kombucha tea ethyl acetate fraction against Malassezia species isolated from seborrhoeic dermatitis.

Science.gov (United States)

Mahmoudi, E; Saeidi, M; Marashi, M A; Moafi, A; Mahmoodi, V; Zeinolabedini Zamani, M

2016-12-01

Seborrheic dermatitis is a chronic and recurrent superficial dermatitis in which Malassezia species play an important role. There are different Malassezia species, which have been recently reported to be resistant to common antifungals. Natural sources can be useful alternatives to reduce the emergence of this resistance. Kombucha tea is believed to have potential antimicrobial properties. Regarding this, the present study aimed to investigate the antifungal activity of Kombucha tea ethyl acetate fraction (KEAF) against Malassezia species obtained from the patients with seborrheic dermatitis. A total of 23 clinical isolates were identified by direct microscopic examination and Tween assimilation, and then confirmed by DNA sequencing of ITS regions for Malassezia species. Kombucha tea was fractionated using ethyl acetate (1:2 v/v). The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) microdilution assay was used to evaluate the anti- Malssezia activity of KEAF at three concentrations of 10, 40, and 80 mg/mL. The results of the DNA sequence analysis indicated that M. furfur (39.13%) was the predominant species, followed by M. globosa (30.43%), M. sloofie (13.04%), M. sympodialis (13.04%), and M. restricta (4.34%), respectively. Furthermore, KEAF showed inhibitory activity against Malassezia species. Accordingly, KEAF had the lowest and highest MIC value against M. sloofie and M. restricta , respectively. Moreover, the inhibitory effect of the extract was equivalent to that of ketoconazole at 4.8 µg/mL. The findings of the current study highlighted the antifungal properties of KEAF. Therefore, this extract can be promoted as complementary medicine for the treatment of the infections caused by Malassezia .

Nonperturbative treatment of reduced model with fermions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gutierrez, W.R.

1983-01-01

A nonperturbative method is presented to show that the reduced model produces the correct leading large-N contribution to the fermion Green's functions. A new form of the reduced model is introduced, which avoids the quenching procedure. Also the equation for the meson bound states is discussed. The method is illustrated in the case of two-dimensional QCD

Detecting reduced renal function in children

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Trine Borup; Jødal, Lars; Erlandsen, Erland J

2013-01-01

Background The aim of this study was to compare the ability of renal indicators [serum creatinine (SCr), cystatin C (SCysC)] and glomerular filtration rate (GFR)-models to discriminate normal and reduced renal function. As a single cut-off level will always lead to false classifications, we propose...... function was defined as a GFR ofcreatinine (SCr-ratio), and eight published GFR-models were compared for their ability to correctly classify renal function as normal or reduced. Cut-off levels were determined so as to give 99 % certainty outside the gray zone...

Symmetry of semi-reduced lattices.

Science.gov (United States)

Stróż, Kazimierz

2015-05-01

The main result of this work is extension of the famous characterization of Bravais lattices according to their metrical, algebraic and geometric properties onto a wide class of primitive lattices (including Buerger-reduced, nearly Buerger-reduced and a substantial part of Delaunay-reduced) related to low-restricted semi-reduced descriptions (s.r.d.'s). While the `geometric' operations in Bravais lattices map the basis vectors into themselves, the `arithmetic' operators in s.r.d. transform the basis vectors into cell vectors (basis vectors, face or space diagonals) and are represented by matrices from the set {\\bb V} of all 960 matrices with the determinant ±1 and elements {0, ±1} of the matrix powers. A lattice is in s.r.d. if the moduli of off-diagonal elements in both the metric tensors M and M(-1) are smaller than corresponding diagonal elements sharing the same column or row. Such lattices are split into 379 s.r.d. types relative to the arithmetic holohedries. Metrical criteria for each type do not need to be explicitly given but may be modelled as linear derivatives {\\bb M}(p,q,r), where {\\bb M} denotes the set of 39 highest-symmetry metric tensors, and p,q,r describe changes of appropriate interplanar distances. A sole filtering of {\\bb V} according to an experimental s.r.d. metric and subsequent geometric interpretation of the filtered matrices lead to mathematically stable and rich information on the Bravais-lattice symmetry and deviations from the exact symmetry. The emphasis on the crystallographic features of lattices was obtained by shifting the focus (i) from analysis of a lattice metric to analysis of symmetry matrices [Himes & Mighell (1987). Acta Cryst. A43, 375-384], (ii) from the isometric approach and invariant subspaces to the orthogonality concept {some ideas in Le Page [J. Appl. Cryst. (1982), 15, 255-259]} and splitting indices [Stróż (2011). Acta Cryst. A67, 421-429] and (iii) from fixed cell transformations to transformations

Breastfeeding reduces postpartum weight retention

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Baker, Jennifer Lyn; Gamborg, Michael; Heitmann, Berit L

2008-01-01

BACKGROUND: Weight gained during pregnancy and not lost postpartum may contribute to obesity in women of childbearing age. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to determine whether breastfeeding reduces postpartum weight retention (PPWR) in a population among which full breastfeeding is common and breastfeeding...... duration is long. DESIGN: We selected women from the Danish National Birth Cohort who ever breastfed (>98%), and we conducted the interviews at 6 (n = 36 030) and 18 (n = 26 846) mo postpartum. We used regression analyses to investigate whether breastfeeding (scored to account for duration and intensity......) reduced PPWR at 6 and 18 mo after adjustment for maternal prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) and gestational weight gain (GWG). RESULTS: GWG was positively (P postpartum. Breastfeeding was negatively associated with PPWR in all women but those...

The research on reactivity of alternative carbon reducers

OpenAIRE

Łabaj, J.; Słowikowski, M.; Żymła, W.; Lipart, J.

2013-01-01

The research involved measuring of the speed of zinc oxide with carbon reducers. Samples weighing between 60 and 100 mg were tested with the use of thermogravimetric analysis within the range of temperatures up to 1 100 °C in nitrogen atmosphere. The speed of heating was 20 deg min-1. The research involved also reducers normally used in reduction processes. The results obtained prove that some of the alternative reducers may be used for industrial purposes.

Neural Mechanisms of Updating under Reducible and Irreducible Uncertainty.

Science.gov (United States)

Kobayashi, Kenji; Hsu, Ming

2017-07-19

Adaptive decision making depends on an agent's ability to use environmental signals to reduce uncertainty. However, because of multiple types of uncertainty, agents must take into account not only the extent to which signals violate prior expectations but also whether uncertainty can be reduced in the first place. Here we studied how human brains of both sexes respond to signals under conditions of reducible and irreducible uncertainty. We show behaviorally that subjects' value updating was sensitive to the reducibility of uncertainty, and could be quantitatively characterized by a Bayesian model where agents ignore expectancy violations that do not update beliefs or values. Using fMRI, we found that neural processes underlying belief and value updating were separable from responses to expectancy violation, and that reducibility of uncertainty in value modulated connections from belief-updating regions to value-updating regions. Together, these results provide insights into how agents use knowledge about uncertainty to make better decisions while ignoring mere expectancy violation. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT To make good decisions, a person must observe the environment carefully, and use these observations to reduce uncertainty about consequences of actions. Importantly, uncertainty should not be reduced purely based on how surprising the observations are, particularly because in some cases uncertainty is not reducible. Here we show that the human brain indeed reduces uncertainty adaptively by taking into account the nature of uncertainty and ignoring mere surprise. Behaviorally, we show that human subjects reduce uncertainty in a quasioptimal Bayesian manner. Using fMRI, we characterize brain regions that may be involved in uncertainty reduction, as well as the network they constitute, and dissociate them from brain regions that respond to mere surprise. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/376972-11$15.00/0.

Primaquine for reducing Plasmodium falciparum transmission.

Science.gov (United States)

Graves, Patricia M; Gelband, Hellen; Garner, Paul

2012-09-12

Mosquitoes become infected with malaria when they ingest gametocyte stages of the parasite from the blood of a human host. Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes are sensitive to the drug primaquine (PQ). The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends giving a single dose or short course of PQ alongside primary treatment for people ill with P. falciparum infection to reduce malaria transmission. Gametocytes themselves cause no symptoms, so this intervention does not directly benefit individuals. PQ causes haemolysis in some people with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency so may not be safe.   To assess whether a single dose or short course of PQ added to treatments for malaria caused by P. falciparum infection reduces malaria transmission and is safe. We searched the following databases up to 10 April 2012 for studies: the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group Specialized Register; the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), published in The Cochrane Library; MEDLINE; EMBASE; LILACS; metaRegister of Controlled Trials (mRCT) and the WHO trials search portal using 'malaria*', 'falciparum', and 'primaquine' as search terms. In addition, we searched conference proceedings and reference lists of included studies, and we contacted likely researchers and organizations for relevant trials. Trials of mass treatment of whole populations (or actively detected fever or malaria cases within such populations) with antimalarial drugs, compared to treatment with the same drug plus PQ; or patients with clinical malaria being treated for malaria at health facilities randomized to short course/single dose PQ versus no PQ. Two authors (PMG and HG) independently screened all abstracts, applied inclusion criteria, and abstracted data. We sought data on the effect of PQ on malaria transmission intensity, participant infectiousness, the number of participants with gametocytes, and gametocyte density over time. We stratified results by primary treatment drug as

How inhibiting nitrification affects nitrogen cycle and reduces ...

Science.gov (United States)

We conducted a meta-analysis of 103 nitrification inhibitor (NI) studies, and evaluated how NI application affects crop productivity and other ecosystem services in agricultural systems. Our results showed that, compared to conventional fertilizer practice, applications of NI along with nitrogen (N) fertilizer increased crop nitrogen use efficiency, crop yield, and altered the pathways and the amount of N loss to environment. NI application increased ammonia emission, but reduced nitrate leaching and nitrous oxide emission, which led to a reduction of 12.9% of the total N loss. The cost and benefit analysis showed that the economic benefit of reducing N’s environmental impacts offset the cost of NI. NI application could bring additional revenue of $163.72 ha-1 for a maize farm. Taken together, our findings show that NI application may create a win-win scenario that increases agricultural output, while reducing the negative impact on the environment. Policies that encourage NI application would reduce N’s environmental impacts. A group from Chinese Academy of Sciences, US EPA-ORD and North Carolina examined the net environmental and economic effects of nitrification inhibitors to reduce nitrate leaching associated with farm fertilizers. They conducted a meta-analysis of studies examining nitrification inhibitors, and found that NI application increased ammonia emission, but reduced nitrate leaching and nitrous oxide emission, which led to a reduction of 12.9

Biochemical characterization of cholesterol-reducing Eubacterium.

Science.gov (United States)

Mott, G E; Brinkley, A W; Mersinger, C L

1980-12-01

We characterized two isolates of cholesterol-reducing Eubacterium by conducting conventional biochemical tests and by testing various sterols and glycerolipids as potential growth factors. In media containing cholesterol and plasmenylethanolamine, the tests for nitrate reduction, indole production, and gelatin and starch hydrolyses were negative, and no acid was produced from any of 22 carbohydrates. Both isolates hydrolyzed esculin to esculetin, indicating beta-glycosidase activity. In addition to plasmenylethanolamine, five other lipids which contain an alkenyl ether residue supported growth of Eubacterium strain 403 in a lecithin-cholesterol base medium. Of six steroids tested, cholesterol, cholest-4-en-3-one, cholest-4-en-3 beta-ol (allocholesterol), and androst-5-en-3 beta-ol-17-one supported growth of Eubacterium strain 403. All four steroids were reduced to the 3 beta-ol, 5 beta-H products. The delta 5 steroids cholest-5-en-3 alpha-ol (epicholesterol) and 22,23-bisnor-5-cholenic acid-3-beta-ol were not reduced and did not support growth of the Eubacterium strain.

Reducing consumption of electric current and energy carriers. [USSR

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ruppo, A.S.; Gruzdev, Yu.M.

1985-01-01

Evaluates the energy conservation program developed by the Giproshakht research institute is evaluated. The program was used in the Afanas'evo hydraulic mine in the Tulaugol association (with annual coal output of 2.1 Mt). Energy conservation program consisted of 2 groups of tasks: reducing energy consumption of the mine, and reducing energy consumption during the maximum demand hours in the morning and evening. The following methods were used: reducing idle running of chain and belt conveyors, separate draining of mine water free of dust and rock particles (reducing range of water cleaning), use of automatic control systems for mine blowers, automatic control of the system for coal drying, more efficient use of coal and materials transport in the mine. Energy demand of the mine during peak demand hours was reduced by adjusting fluctuations of energy consumption of the mine to fluctuations of energy demand in the power system of the area, e.g. by reducing mine draining in the morning and evening and operating at full capacity during the time of reduced energy demand. Using the energy conservation measures economized 4,324,300 kWh electric energy annually.

Does Improvised Waterbed Reduce the Incidence of Pressure ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Does Improvised Waterbed Reduce the Incidence of Pressure Ulcers in Patients with Spinal Injury? ... The use of bed replacements markedly reduces the incidence of pressure ... Keywords: Neurological deficits, plastic sachet, table water ...

Sludge displacement verification for reducing grout report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Caldwell, T.B.; Langton, C.A.

1997-01-01

To support the closure of HLW tanks at SRS, a reducing grout was developed that is formulated to reduce the mobility of radionuclides left in each tank. During non-radioactive flow tests of the grout, it was discovered that, in addition to its desired properties, the grout has the ability to move residual waste a considerable distance across the tank floor

Reduced-Rank Adaptive Filtering Using Krylov Subspace

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sergueï Burykh

2003-01-01

Full Text Available A unified view of several recently introduced reduced-rank adaptive filters is presented. As all considered methods use Krylov subspace for rank reduction, the approach taken in this work is inspired from Krylov subspace methods for iterative solutions of linear systems. The alternative interpretation so obtained is used to study the properties of each considered technique and to relate one reduced-rank method to another as well as to algorithms used in computational linear algebra. Practical issues are discussed and low-complexity versions are also included in our study. It is believed that the insight developed in this paper can be further used to improve existing reduced-rank methods according to known results in the domain of Krylov subspace methods.

Integrable semi-discretizations of the reduced Ostrovsky equation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Feng, Bao-Feng; Maruno, Ken-ichi; Ohta, Yasuhiro

2015-01-01

Based on our previous work on the reduced Ostrovsky equation (J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 45 355203), we construct its integrable semi-discretizations. Since the reduced Ostrovsky equation admits two alternative representations, one being its original form, the other the differentiated form (the short wave limit of the Degasperis–Procesi equation) two semi-discrete analogues of the reduced Ostrovsky equation are constructed possessing the same N-loop soliton solution. The relationship between these two versions of semi-discretizations is also clarified. (paper)

The research on reactivity of alternative carbon reducers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Lipart

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The research involved measuring of the speed of zinc oxide with carbon reducers. Samples weighing between 60 and 100 mg were tested with the use of thermogravimetric analysis within the range of temperatures up to 1 100 °C in nitrogen atmosphere. The speed of heating was 20 deg min-1. The research involved also reducers normally used in reduction processes. The results obtained prove that some of the alternative reducers may be used for industrial purposes.

Thermophilic Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria in Cold Marine Sediment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

ISAKSEN, MF; BAK, F.; JØRGENSEN, BB

1994-01-01

sulfate-reducing bacteria was detected. Time course experiments showed constant sulfate reduction rates at 4 degrees C and 30 degrees C, whereas the activity at 60 degrees C increased exponentially after a lag period of one day. Thermophilic, endospore-forming sulfate-reducing bacteria, designated strain...... C to search for presence of psychrophilic, mesophilic and thermophilic sulfate-reducing bacteria. Detectable activity was initially only in the mesophilic range, but after a lag phase sulfate reduction by thermophilic sulfate-reducing bacteria were observed. No distinct activity of psychrophilic...... P60, were isolated and characterized as Desulfotomaculum kuznetsovii. The temperature response of growth and respiration of strain P60 agreed well with the measured sulfate reduction at 50 degrees-70 degrees C. Bacteria similar to strain P60 could thus be responsible for the measured thermophilic...

Thermophilic Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria in Cold Marine Sediment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

ISAKSEN, MF; BAK, F.; JØRGENSEN, BB

1994-01-01

C to search for presence of psychrophilic, mesophilic and thermophilic sulfate-reducing bacteria. Detectable activity was initially only in the mesophilic range, but after a lag phase sulfate reduction by thermophilic sulfate-reducing bacteria were observed. No distinct activity of psychrophilic...... sulfate-reducing bacteria was detected. Time course experiments showed constant sulfate reduction rates at 4 degrees C and 30 degrees C, whereas the activity at 60 degrees C increased exponentially after a lag period of one day. Thermophilic, endospore-forming sulfate-reducing bacteria, designated strain...... P60, were isolated and characterized as Desulfotomaculum kuznetsovii. The temperature response of growth and respiration of strain P60 agreed well with the measured sulfate reduction at 50 degrees-70 degrees C. Bacteria similar to strain P60 could thus be responsible for the measured thermophilic...

Lighting system with a device for reducing system wattage

NARCIS (Netherlands)

1996-01-01

A lighting system having a high pressure gas discharge lamp intended to be operated on a stabilization ballast further includes a low loss device to reduce the current through the ballast and lamp, thereby reducing system wattage for energy savings. For a lead-type ballast, the current reducing

BCJ numerators from reduced Pfaffian

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Du, Yi-Jian [Center for Theoretical Physics, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University,No. 299 Bayi Road, Wuhan 430072 (China); Teng, Fei [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah,115 South 1400 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 (United States)

2017-04-07

By expanding the reduced Pfaffian in the tree level Cachazo-He-Yuan (CHY) integrands for Yang-Mills (YM) and nonlinear sigma model (NLSM), we can get the Bern-Carrasco-Johansson (BCJ) numerators in Del Duca-Dixon-Maltoni (DDM) form for arbitrary number of particles in any spacetime dimensions. In this work, we give a set of very straightforward graphic rules based on spanning trees for a direct evaluation of the BCJ numerators for YM and NLSM. Such rules can be derived from the Laplace expansion of the corresponding reduced Pfaffian. For YM, the each one of the (n−2)! DDM form BCJ numerators contains exactly (n−1)! terms, corresponding to the increasing trees with respect to the color order. For NLSM, the number of nonzero numerators is at most (n−2)!−(n−3)!, less than those of several previous constructions.

Reduced central blood volume in cirrhosis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bendtsen, F; Henriksen, Jens Henrik Sahl; Sørensen, T I

1989-01-01

than 0.0001). The lowest values (18 ml/kg) were found in patients with gross ascites and a reduced systemic vascular resistance. In patients with cirrhosis central blood volume was inversely correlated to the hepatic venous pressure gradient (r = -0.41, p less than 0.01), and the total blood volume...... was inversely correlated to the systemic vascular resistance (r = -0.49, p less than 0.001), the latter being significantly reduced in the patient group. Patients with cirrhosis apparently are unable to maintain a normal central blood volume. This may be due to arteriolar vasodilation, portosystemic collateral...

Novel Reduced-Feedback Wireless Communication Systems

KAUST Repository

Shaqfeh, Mohammad Obaidah; Alnuweiri, Hussein; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim

2011-01-01

We have recently contributed to this field and published several journal and conference papers. We are the pioneers to propose a novel reduced-feedback opportunistic scheduling scheme that combines many desired features including fairness in resources distribution across the active terminals and distributed processing at the MAC layer level. In addition our scheme operates close to the upper capacity limits of achievable transmission rates over wireless links. We have also proposed another hybrid scheme that enables adjusting the feedback load flexibly based on rates requirements. We are currently investigating other novel ideas to design reduced-feedback communication systems.

Reducing hypothetical bias in choice experiments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ladenburg, Jacob; Olsen, Søren Bøye; Nielsen, Rasmus Christian Fejer

eliminate some of the hypothetical bias. The present paper tests an addition to Cheap Talk, an Opt-Out Reminder. The Opt-Out Reminder is an objective short script presented prior to the choice sets, prompting the respondent to choose the opt-out alternative, if he/she finds the proposed policy generated...... alternatives in a choice set too expensive. The results suggest that adding an Opt-Out Reminder to Cheap Talk can in fact reduce hypothetical bias even further and reduces some of the ineffectiveness of CT in relation to the survey bid range and experienced respondents....

SURFACE PROPERTIES OF ELECTROCHEMICALLY REDUCED ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

DJFLEX

A viscose rayon based activated carbon cloth (ACC) was electrochemically reduced ..... bath of liquid nitrogen at a temperature of 77 K. ... that above 59,400 c/g extent of oxidation, the ..... ACC react with aldehyde groups to produce ether.

Bioremediation: Effectiveness in reducing the ecological impact

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scholten, M.C.T.

1992-01-01

Bioremediation becomes an important technique in oil spill combat programmes. The purpose is to shorten the exposure time of biota to oil compounds, in order to reduce long term environmental effects. Although bioremediation products have the advantage of stimulating the natural capacity to degrade oil, there are some limitations to be considered. Application as a technique for first emergency actions following an oil spill is not effective, and can therefore be no alternative for dispersion or mechanical removal of floating or freshly stranded oil slicks. Acute toxic effects are related to the short term exposure to unweathered oils. An immediate removal of oil is necessary to reduce the extent of the environmental impact of an oil spill. Physical processes (transport, dilution and evaporation) are determining the initial fate of environmentally released oil. Biodegradation only becomes important as a process of removing oil in the next phase. It is the only effective way to further reduce the concentration of oil that is left in (intertidal) coastal areas. Bioremediation thus reduces the duration of the environmental impact of an oil spill. This is especially important in ecosystems with a low recovery potential (e.g., salt marshes, rocky shores). The experimental evaluation of bioremediation products is mainly based on the capacity to reduce fresh oil and the acute toxicity of the product itself, rather than on the capacity to enhance the further reduction of weathered oil and the toxicological consequences of higher release rates of intermediate metabolites produced during the biotransformation processes

7 CFR 226.23 - Free and reduced-price meals.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... to revise its free and reduced-price policy statement or its nondiscrimination statement unless the... shall develop a policy statement for determining eligibility for free and reduced-price meals which... 7 Agriculture 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Free and reduced-price meals. 226.23 Section 226.23...

M3: Matrix Multiplication on MapReduce

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Silvestri, Francesco; Ceccarello, Matteo

2015-01-01

M3 is an Hadoop library for performing dense and sparse matrix multiplication in MapReduce. The library is based on multi-round algorithms exploiting the 3D decomposition of the problem.......M3 is an Hadoop library for performing dense and sparse matrix multiplication in MapReduce. The library is based on multi-round algorithms exploiting the 3D decomposition of the problem....

UK: Welsh court reduces sentence, cites HIV status.

Science.gov (United States)

Marceau, Emmanuelle

2003-08-01

A Welsh appeal court has reduced the sentence handed down to an offender because of his HIV status, despite his lengthy criminal record. The court reduced the sentence from five to three-and-a-half years' imprisonment.

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

Reducing the Burden of Price.

Science.gov (United States)

Hansen, Janet S.

1984-01-01

Setting prices for undergraduate education and assessing their effects on consumers and institutions is complicated by widespread price discounting. Student aid programs, credit, subsidized employment, and tax policy can reduce the actual costs paid by students and their families. (MSE)

Ways to reduce miner absenteeism

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1989-11-01

Discussion is presented of the use of attendance programs at mines, to reduce interruptions to production, decrease labour costs, and to improve safety. Techniques described include use of absentee charts, frequency of attendance charts, and rewards for good attendance. 3 figs.

A reduced adjoint approach to variational data assimilation

KAUST Repository

Altaf, Muhammad

2013-02-01

The adjoint method has been used very often for variational data assimilation. The computational cost to run the adjoint model often exceeds several original model runs and the method needs significant programming efforts to implement the adjoint model code. The work proposed here is variational data assimilation based on proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) which avoids the implementation of the adjoint of the tangent linear approximation of the original nonlinear model. An ensemble of the forward model simulations is used to determine the approximation of the covariance matrix and only the dominant eigenvectors of this matrix are used to define a model subspace. The adjoint of the tangent linear model is replaced by the reduced adjoint based on this reduced space. Thus the adjoint model is run in reduced space with negligible computational cost. Once the gradient is obtained in reduced space it is projected back in full space and the minimization process is carried in full space. In the paper the reduced adjoint approach to variational data assimilation is introduced. The characteristics and performance of the method are illustrated with a number of data assimilation experiments in a ground water subsurface contaminant model. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

A reduced adjoint approach to variational data assimilation

KAUST Repository

Altaf, Muhammad; El Gharamti, Mohamad; Heemink, Arnold W.; Hoteit, Ibrahim

2013-01-01

The adjoint method has been used very often for variational data assimilation. The computational cost to run the adjoint model often exceeds several original model runs and the method needs significant programming efforts to implement the adjoint model code. The work proposed here is variational data assimilation based on proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) which avoids the implementation of the adjoint of the tangent linear approximation of the original nonlinear model. An ensemble of the forward model simulations is used to determine the approximation of the covariance matrix and only the dominant eigenvectors of this matrix are used to define a model subspace. The adjoint of the tangent linear model is replaced by the reduced adjoint based on this reduced space. Thus the adjoint model is run in reduced space with negligible computational cost. Once the gradient is obtained in reduced space it is projected back in full space and the minimization process is carried in full space. In the paper the reduced adjoint approach to variational data assimilation is introduced. The characteristics and performance of the method are illustrated with a number of data assimilation experiments in a ground water subsurface contaminant model. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

Considering dominance in reduced single-step genomic evaluations.

Science.gov (United States)

Ertl, J; Edel, C; Pimentel, E C G; Emmerling, R; Götz, K-U

2018-06-01

Single-step models including dominance can be an enormous computational task and can even be prohibitive for practical application. In this study, we try to answer the question whether a reduced single-step model is able to estimate breeding values of bulls and breeding values, dominance deviations and total genetic values of cows with acceptable quality. Genetic values and phenotypes were simulated (500 repetitions) for a small Fleckvieh pedigree consisting of 371 bulls (180 thereof genotyped) and 553 cows (40 thereof genotyped). This pedigree was virtually extended for 2,407 non-genotyped daughters. Genetic values were estimated with the single-step model and with different reduced single-step models. Including more relatives of genotyped cows in the reduced single-step model resulted in a better agreement of results with the single-step model. Accuracies of genetic values were largest with single-step and smallest with reduced single-step when only the cows genotyped were modelled. The results indicate that a reduced single-step model is suitable to estimate breeding values of bulls and breeding values, dominance deviations and total genetic values of cows with acceptable quality. © 2018 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.

Reducing longitudinal emittance growth in RFQ accelerators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koscielniak, S.

1994-08-01

Bunching and capture of a monochromatic beam into an rf bucket inevitably lead to substantial emittance growth through the mechanisms of filamentation and non-adiabatic variation of parameters. We describe a three step strategy for minimizing this growth, based on a clear understanding of the non-linear beam dynamics, and apply to acceleration of heavy ions with Z/A = 1/60 (and initial kinetic energy 60 keV/u) in a radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) operating at 25 MHz. We also describe a scheme, to further reduce the emittance, based upon the use of an external RFQ-type prebuncher before the main accelerator. The external unit permits the bunching voltage to be reduced, to inject into a moving bucket, and to reduce the structure length. (author). 7 refs., 6 figs

Corn Cultivation to Reduce the Mycotoxin Contamination

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yangseon Kim

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The effects of insecticide and fungicide treatment were investigated to reduce mycotoxin contamination of corn (Zea mays L. seeds. Deoxynivalenol and zearalenone contents were reduced in the treated seeds, but aflatoxin, ochratoxin A, fumonisin, and T-2 toxin were not effective by chemical treatments. The chemical treatment did not affect the growth of saprophyte, but inhibited the pathogenic fungi such as Fusarium verticillioides, F. graminearum and F. equiseti. Myotoxin contents at different harvesting time were compared. As the harvest time was delayed, both levels of deoxynivalenol and zearalenone and frequency of Fusarium spp. increased. However, the major nutrient contents of corn seeds were not affected by harvesting period. These results show that chemical treatments are necessary to reduce the fungal contamination of corn and harvest without delay is important as well.

Study on IR Properties of Reduced Graphene Oxide

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Deyue; Li, Xiaoxia; Guo, Yuxiang; Zeng, Yurun

2018-01-01

Firstly, the reduced graphene oxide was prepared by modified hummer method and characterized. Then, the complex refractive index of reduced graphene oxide in IR band was tested and its IR absorption and radiation properties were researched by correlated calculation. The results show that reduced graphene oxide prepared by hummer method are multilayered graphene with defects and functional groups on its surface. Its absorption in near and far IR bands is strong, but it’s weaker in middle IR band. At the IR atmosphere Window, its normal spectral emissivity decreases with wavelength increasing, and its total normal spectral emissivity in 3 ∼ 5μm and 8 ∼ 14μm are 0.75 and 0.625, respectively. Therefore, reduced graphene oxide can be used as IR absorption and coating materials and have a great potential in microwave and infrared compatible materials.

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...

Human Performance in Simulated Reduced Gravity Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Cowley, Matthew; Harvill, Lauren; Rajulu, Sudhakar

2014-01-01

NASA is currently designing a new space suit capable of working in deep space and on Mars. Designing a suit is very difficult and often requires trade-offs between performance, cost, mass, and system complexity. Our current understanding of human performance in reduced gravity in a planetary environment (the moon or Mars) is limited to lunar observations, studies from the Apollo program, and recent suit tests conducted at JSC using reduced gravity simulators. This study will look at our most recent reduced gravity simulations performed on the new Active Response Gravity Offload System (ARGOS) compared to the C-9 reduced gravity plane. Methods: Subjects ambulated in reduced gravity analogs to obtain a baseline for human performance. Subjects were tested in lunar gravity (1.6 m/sq s) and Earth gravity (9.8 m/sq s) in shirt-sleeves. Subjects ambulated over ground at prescribed speeds on the ARGOS, but ambulated at a self-selected speed on the C-9 due to time limitations. Subjects on the ARGOS were given over 3 minutes to acclimate to the different conditions before data was collected. Nine healthy subjects were tested in the ARGOS (6 males, 3 females, 79.5 +/- 15.7 kg), while six subjects were tested on the C-9 (6 males, 78.8 +/- 11.2 kg). Data was collected with an optical motion capture system (Vicon, Oxford, UK) and was analyzed using customized analysis scripts in BodyBuilder (Vicon, Oxford, UK) and MATLAB (MathWorks, Natick, MA, USA). Results: In all offloaded conditions, variation between subjects increased compared to 1-g. Kinematics in the ARGOS at lunar gravity resembled earth gravity ambulation more closely than the C-9 ambulation. Toe-off occurred 10% earlier in both reduced gravity environments compared to earth gravity, shortening the stance phase. Likewise, ankle, knee, and hip angles remained consistently flexed and had reduced peaks compared to earth gravity. Ground reaction forces in lunar gravity (normalized to Earth body weight) were 0.4 +/- 0.2 on

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).

On nonlinear reduced order modeling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abdel-Khalik, Hany S.

2011-01-01

When applied to a model that receives n input parameters and predicts m output responses, a reduced order model estimates the variations in the m outputs of the original model resulting from variations in its n inputs. While direct execution of the forward model could provide these variations, reduced order modeling plays an indispensable role for most real-world complex models. This follows because the solutions of complex models are expensive in terms of required computational overhead, thus rendering their repeated execution computationally infeasible. To overcome this problem, reduced order modeling determines a relationship (often referred to as a surrogate model) between the input and output variations that is much cheaper to evaluate than the original model. While it is desirable to seek highly accurate surrogates, the computational overhead becomes quickly intractable especially for high dimensional model, n ≫ 10. In this manuscript, we demonstrate a novel reduced order modeling method for building a surrogate model that employs only 'local first-order' derivatives and a new tensor-free expansion to efficiently identify all the important features of the original model to reach a predetermined level of accuracy. This is achieved via a hybrid approach in which local first-order derivatives (i.e., gradient) of a pseudo response (a pseudo response represents a random linear combination of original model’s responses) are randomly sampled utilizing a tensor-free expansion around some reference point, with the resulting gradient information aggregated in a subspace (denoted by the active subspace) of dimension much less than the dimension of the input parameters space. The active subspace is then sampled employing the state-of-the-art techniques for global sampling methods. The proposed method hybridizes the use of global sampling methods for uncertainty quantification and local variational methods for sensitivity analysis. In a similar manner to

Evaluating Active Interventions to Reduce Student Procrastination

OpenAIRE

Martin, Joshua Deckert

2015-01-01

Procrastination is a pervasive problem in education. In computer science, procrastination and lack of necessary time management skills to complete programming projects are viewed as primary causes of student attrition. The most effective techniques known to reduce procrastination are resource-intensive and do not scale well to large classrooms. In this thesis, we examine three course interventions designed to both reduce procrastination and be scalable for large classrooms. Reflective writ...

Acid-reducing vagotomy is associated with reduced risk of subsequent ischemic heart disease in complicated peptic ulcer: An Asian population study.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Shih-Chi; Fang, Chu-Wen; Chen, William Tzu-Liang; Muo, Chih-Hsin

2016-12-01

Persistent exacerbation of a peptic ulcer may lead to a complicated peptic ulcer (perforation or/and bleeding). The management of complicated peptic ulcers has shifted from acid-reducing vagotomy, drainage, and gastrectomy to simple local suture or non-operative (endoscopic/angiographic) hemostasis. We were interested in the long-term effects of this trend change. In this study, complicated peptic ulcer patients who received acid-reducing vagotomy were compared with those who received simple suture/hemostasis to determine the risk of ischemic heart disease (IHD).This retrospective cohort study analyzed 335,680 peptic ulcer patients recorded from 2000 to 2006 versus 335,680 age-, sex-, comorbidity-, and index-year matched comparisons. Patients with Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection were excluded. In order to identify the effect of vagus nerve severance, patients who received gastrectomy or antrectomy were also excluded. The incidence of IHD in both cohorts, and in the complicated peptic ulcer patients who received acid-reducing vagotomy versus those who received simple suture or hemostasis was evaluated.The overall incidence of IHD was higher in patients with peptic ulcer than those without peptic ulcer (17.00 vs 12.06 per 1000 person-years), with an adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) of 1.46 based on multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analysis controlling for age, sex, Charlson's comorbidity index, and death (competing risk). While comparing peptic ulcer patients with acid-reducing vagotomy to those with simple suture/hemostasis or those without surgical treatment, the aHR (0.58) was the lowest in the acid-reducing vagotomy group.Patients with peptic ulcer have an elevated risk of IHD. However, complicated peptic ulcer patients who received acid-reducing vagotomy were associated with reduced risk of developing IHD.

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.

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.

Reducing carbon dioxide to products

Science.gov (United States)

Cole, Emily Barton; Sivasankar, Narayanappa; Parajuli, Rishi; Keets, Kate A

2014-09-30

A method reducing carbon dioxide to one or more products may include steps (A) to (C). Step (A) may bubble said carbon dioxide into a solution of an electrolyte and a catalyst in a divided electrochemical cell. The divided electrochemical cell may include an anode in a first cell compartment and a cathode in a second cell compartment. The cathode may reduce said carbon dioxide into said products. Step (B) may adjust one or more of (a) a cathode material, (b) a surface morphology of said cathode, (c) said electrolyte, (d) a manner in which said carbon dioxide is bubbled, (e), a pH level of said solution, and (f) an electrical potential of said divided electrochemical cell, to vary at least one of (i) which of said products is produced and (ii) a faradaic yield of said products. Step (C) may separate said products from said solution.

Endotoxemia reduces cerebral perfusion but enhances dynamic cerebrovascular autoregulation at reduced arterial carbon dioxide tension*

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brassard, Patrice; Kim, Yu-Sok; van Lieshout, Johannes

2012-01-01

OBJECTIVE:: The administration of endotoxin to healthy humans reduces cerebral blood flow but its influence on dynamic cerebral autoregulation remains unknown. We considered that a reduction in arterial carbon dioxide tension would attenuate cerebral perfusion and improve dynamic cerebral autoreg...

Reducing Abdominal Fat Deposition in Broiler Through Feeding Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cecep Hidayat

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Abdominal fat in broiler carcass is considered as a waste and its existence reduces the carcass quality. Abdominal fat deposition is affected by several factors such as genetic, nutrition, feed, sex, age and environment. Reducing abdominal fat deposition can be carried out by regulating the nutrient intake to ensure that no excessive nutrient was consumed. Nutrition effects to reduce abdominal fat deposition are associated with nutrient concentration of ration and quantity of daily feed intake. Daily nutrient intake can be limited, especially through restricted feeding. It is concluded that an appropriate feeding management can reduce abdominal fat deposition in broiler.

Preparation of potassium-reduced tantalum powders

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kolosov, V.N.; Miroshnichenko, M.N.; Orlov, V.M.; Prokhorova, T.Yu.

2005-01-01

Characteristics of tantalum powders prepared by reduction of molten potassium heptafluorotantalate with liquid potassium are studied in a temperature range of 750 - 850 deg C using potassium chloride as a flux at a ratio of K 2 TaF 7 : KCl = 1, 2, and 3. The use of potassium as a reducing agent facilitates washing of tantalum powders for impurity salt removal, reduces sodium content and leakage currents in the anodes. As compared to sodium process, the potassium reduction results in a high yield of sponge material, a decrease in the specific surface area and yield of tantalum powder suitable for manufacture of capacitor anodes [ru

Does Formal Employment Reduce Informal Caregiving?

Science.gov (United States)

He, Daifeng; McHenry, Peter

2016-07-01

Using the Survey of Income and Program Participation, we examine the impact of formal employment on informal caregiving. We instrument for individual work hours with state unemployment rates. We find that, among women of prime caregiving ages (40-64 years), working 10% more hours per week reduces the probability of providing informal care by about 2 percentage points. The effects are stronger for more time-intensive caregiving and if care recipients are household members. Our results imply that work-promoting policies have the unintended consequence of reducing informal caregiving in an aging society. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Corona discharge ion mobility spectrometry at reduced pressures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tabrizchi, Mahmoud; Rouholahnejad, Fereshteh

2004-01-01

Ion mobility spectrometers (IMSs) normally operate at ambient pressure. In this work an IMS cell has been designed and constructed to allow the pressure to be reduced inside the IMS cell. In this cell, corona discharge was employed as the ionization source. Reducing pressure affected both the discharge and the performance of the IMS. The discharge current was observed to increase with reducing pressure while the ignition potential decreased. The ion current received at the collector plate was also increased about 50 times when the pressure was reduced from ambient pressure to 15 Torr. The higher ion current can lead to an extended dynamic range. IMS spectra were recorded at various pressures and the results show that the drift times shift perfectly linear with pressure. This suggests that unlike temperature, pressure correction for ion mobility spectra is as simple as multiplying the drift times by a factor of 760/P

Hybrid reduced order modeling for assembly calculations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bang, Youngsuk, E-mail: ysbang00@fnctech.com [FNC Technology, Co. Ltd., Yongin-si (Korea, Republic of); Abdel-Khalik, Hany S., E-mail: abdelkhalik@purdue.edu [Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN (United States); Jessee, Matthew A., E-mail: jesseema@ornl.gov [Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Mertyurek, Ugur, E-mail: mertyurek@ornl.gov [Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

2015-12-15

Highlights: • Reducing computational cost in engineering calculations. • Reduced order modeling algorithm for multi-physics problem like assembly calculation. • Non-intrusive algorithm with random sampling. • Pattern recognition in the components with high sensitive and large variation. - Abstract: While the accuracy of assembly calculations has considerably improved due to the increase in computer power enabling more refined description of the phase space and use of more sophisticated numerical algorithms, the computational cost continues to increase which limits the full utilization of their effectiveness for routine engineering analysis. Reduced order modeling is a mathematical vehicle that scales down the dimensionality of large-scale numerical problems to enable their repeated executions on small computing environment, often available to end users. This is done by capturing the most dominant underlying relationships between the model's inputs and outputs. Previous works demonstrated the use of the reduced order modeling for a single physics code, such as a radiation transport calculation. This manuscript extends those works to coupled code systems as currently employed in assembly calculations. Numerical tests are conducted using realistic SCALE assembly models with resonance self-shielding, neutron transport, and nuclides transmutation/depletion models representing the components of the coupled code system.

Hybrid reduced order modeling for assembly calculations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bang, Youngsuk; Abdel-Khalik, Hany S.; Jessee, Matthew A.; Mertyurek, Ugur

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Reducing computational cost in engineering calculations. • Reduced order modeling algorithm for multi-physics problem like assembly calculation. • Non-intrusive algorithm with random sampling. • Pattern recognition in the components with high sensitive and large variation. - Abstract: While the accuracy of assembly calculations has considerably improved due to the increase in computer power enabling more refined description of the phase space and use of more sophisticated numerical algorithms, the computational cost continues to increase which limits the full utilization of their effectiveness for routine engineering analysis. Reduced order modeling is a mathematical vehicle that scales down the dimensionality of large-scale numerical problems to enable their repeated executions on small computing environment, often available to end users. This is done by capturing the most dominant underlying relationships between the model's inputs and outputs. Previous works demonstrated the use of the reduced order modeling for a single physics code, such as a radiation transport calculation. This manuscript extends those works to coupled code systems as currently employed in assembly calculations. Numerical tests are conducted using realistic SCALE assembly models with resonance self-shielding, neutron transport, and nuclides transmutation/depletion models representing the components of the coupled code system.

Interventions: Employees’ Perceptions of What Reduces Stress

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Silvia Pignata

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Objective. To build upon research evaluating stress interventions, this qualitative study tests the framework of the extended Job Demands-Resources model to investigate employees’ perceptions of the stress-reduction measures implemented at 13 Australian universities. Methods. In a cross-sectional survey design, tenured and contract staff indicated whether their overall level of stress had changed during the previous three-four years, and, if so, they described the major causes. A total of 462 staff reported that their level of stress had decreased; the study examines commentary from 115 academic and 304 nonacademic staff who provided details of what they perceived to be effective in reducing stress. Results. Thematic analyses show that the key perceived causes were changes in job or work role, new heads of departments or supervisors, and the use of organizational strategies to reduce or manage stress. A higher percentage of academic staff reported reduced stress due to using protective coping strategies or their increased recognition and/or success, whereas a higher percentage of nonacademic staff reported reduced stress due to increases in staffing resources and/or systems. Conclusion. These results identify the importance of implementing multilevel strategies to enhance employees’ well-being. Nonacademic staff, in particular, specified a variety of organizational stress-reduction interventions.

Global Cardiovascular and Renal Outcomes of Reduced GFR.

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, Bernadette; Matsushita, Kunihiro; Abate, Kalkidan Hassen; Al-Aly, Ziyad; Ärnlöv, Johan; Asayama, Kei; Atkins, Robert; Badawi, Alaa; Ballew, Shoshana H; Banerjee, Amitava; Barregård, Lars; Barrett-Connor, Elizabeth; Basu, Sanjay; Bello, Aminu K; Bensenor, Isabela; Bergstrom, Jaclyn; Bikbov, Boris; Blosser, Christopher; Brenner, Hermann; Carrero, Juan-Jesus; Chadban, Steve; Cirillo, Massimo; Cortinovis, Monica; Courville, Karen; Dandona, Lalit; Dandona, Rakhi; Estep, Kara; Fernandes, João; Fischer, Florian; Fox, Caroline; Gansevoort, Ron T; Gona, Philimon N; Gutierrez, Orlando M; Hamidi, Samer; Hanson, Sarah Wulf; Himmelfarb, Jonathan; Jassal, Simerjot K; Jee, Sun Ha; Jha, Vivekanand; Jimenez-Corona, Aida; Jonas, Jost B; Kengne, Andre Pascal; Khader, Yousef; Khang, Young-Ho; Kim, Yun Jin; Klein, Barbara; Klein, Ronald; Kokubo, Yoshihiro; Kolte, Dhaval; Lee, Kristine; Levey, Andrew S; Li, Yongmei; Lotufo, Paulo; El Razek, Hassan Magdy Abd; Mendoza, Walter; Metoki, Hirohito; Mok, Yejin; Muraki, Isao; Muntner, Paul M; Noda, Hiroyuki; Ohkubo, Takayoshi; Ortiz, Alberto; Perico, Norberto; Polkinghorne, Kevan; Al-Radaddi, Rajaa; Remuzzi, Giuseppe; Roth, Gregory; Rothenbacher, Dietrich; Satoh, Michihiro; Saum, Kai-Uwe; Sawhney, Monika; Schöttker, Ben; Shankar, Anoop; Shlipak, Michael; Silva, Diego Augusto Santos; Toyoshima, Hideaki; Ukwaja, Kingsley; Umesawa, Mitsumasa; Vollset, Stein Emil; Warnock, David G; Werdecker, Andrea; Yamagishi, Kazumasa; Yano, Yuichiro; Yonemoto, Naohiro; Zaki, Maysaa El Sayed; Naghavi, Mohsen; Forouzanfar, Mohammad H; Murray, Christopher J L; Coresh, Josef; Vos, Theo

2017-07-01

The burden of premature death and health loss from ESRD is well described. Less is known regarding the burden of cardiovascular disease attributable to reduced GFR. We estimated the prevalence of reduced GFR categories 3, 4, and 5 (not on RRT) for 188 countries at six time points from 1990 to 2013. Relative risks of cardiovascular outcomes by three categories of reduced GFR were calculated by pooled random effects meta-analysis. Results are presented as deaths for outcomes of cardiovascular disease and ESRD and as disability-adjusted life years for outcomes of cardiovascular disease, GFR categories 3, 4, and 5, and ESRD. In 2013, reduced GFR was associated with 4% of deaths worldwide, or 2.2 million deaths (95% uncertainty interval [95% UI], 2.0 to 2.4 million). More than half of these attributable deaths were cardiovascular deaths (1.2 million; 95% UI, 1.1 to 1.4 million), whereas 0.96 million (95% UI, 0.81 to 1.0 million) were ESRD-related deaths. Compared with metabolic risk factors, reduced GFR ranked below high systolic BP, high body mass index, and high fasting plasma glucose, and similarly with high total cholesterol as a risk factor for disability-adjusted life years in both developed and developing world regions. In conclusion, by 2013, cardiovascular deaths attributed to reduced GFR outnumbered ESRD deaths throughout the world. Studies are needed to evaluate the benefit of early detection of CKD and treatment to decrease these deaths. Copyright © 2017 by the American Society of Nephrology.

How is ozone pollution reducing our food supply?

Science.gov (United States)

Wilkinson, Sally; Mills, Gina; Illidge, Rosemary; Davies, William J

2012-01-01

Ground-level ozone pollution is already decreasing global crop yields (from ∼2.2-5.5% for maize to 3.9-15% and 8.5-14% for wheat and soybean, respectively), to differing extents depending on genotype and environmental conditions, and this problem is predicted to escalate given climate change and increasing ozone precursor emissions in many areas. Here a summary is provided of how ozone pollution affects yield in a variety of crops, thus impacting global food security. Ozone causes visible injury symptoms to foliage; it induces early senescence and abscission of leaves; it can reduce stomatal aperture and thereby carbon uptake, and/or directly reduce photosynthetic carbon fixation; it can moderate biomass growth via carbon availability or more directly; it can decrease translocation of fixed carbon to edible plant parts (grains, fruits, pods, roots) due either to reduced availability at source, redirection to synthesis of chemical protectants, or reduced transport capabilities via phloem; decreased carbon transport to roots reduces nutrient and water uptake and affects anchorage; ozone can moderate or bring forward flowering and induce pollen sterility; it induces ovule and/or grain abortion; and finally it reduces the ability of some genotypes to withstand other stresses such as drought, high vapour pressure deficit, and high photon flux density via effects on stomatal control. This latter point is emphasized here, given predictions that atmospheric conditions conducive to drought formation that also give rise to intense precursor emission events will become more severe over the coming decades.

Consumer detection and acceptability of reduced-sodium bread.

Science.gov (United States)

La Croix, Kimberly W; Fiala, Steven C; Colonna, Ann E; Durham, Catherine A; Morrissey, Michael T; Drum, Danna K; Kohn, Melvin A

2015-06-01

Bread is the largest contributor of Na to the American diet and excess Na consumption contributes to premature death and disability. We sought to determine the Na level at which consumers could detect a difference between reduced-Na bread and bread with typical Na content, and to determine if consumer sensory acceptability and purchase intent differed between reduced-Na bread and bread with typical Na content. Difference testing measured ability to detect differences in control bread and reduced-Na bread using two-alternative forced choice testing. Acceptability was measured using a nine-point hedonic scale and purchase intent was measured using a five-point purchase intent scale. Difference and acceptability testing were conducted in Portland, OR, USA in January 2013. Eighty-two consumers participated in difference testing and 109 consumers participated in acceptability testing. Consumers did not detect a difference in saltiness between the control bread and the 10 % reduced-Na bread, but did detect a difference between the control bread and bread reduced in Na content by 20 % and 30 %. Na reductions had no effect on consumer acceptability of sensory characteristics, including overall liking, appearance, aroma, flavour, sweetness, salt level and texture, or purchase intent. Reducing Na levels by up to 30 % in the sandwich bread tested did not affect consumer liking or purchase intent of the product. These results support national recommendations for small, incremental Na reductions in the food supply over time and assure bread manufacturers that sensory characteristics and consumer purchase intent of their products will be preserved after Na reductions occur.

Does Microfinance Reduce Income Inequality?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hermes, Niels

2014-01-01

This study addresses the question whether participation of the poor in microfinance contributes to reducing a country’s level of income inequality. Using data from 70 developing countries, we show that higher levels of microfinance participation are indeed associated with a reduction of the income

The role of preschool in reducing inequality

OpenAIRE

Waldfogel, Jane

2015-01-01

Children from disadvantaged families have lower levels of school readiness when they enter school than do children from more advantaged families. Many countries have tried to reduce this inequality through publicly provided preschool. Evidence on the potential of these programs to reduce inequality in child development is now quite strong. Long-term studies of large publicly funded programs in Europe and Latin America, and newer studies on state and local prekindergarten programs implemented ...

Statin use and reduced cancer-related mortality

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Sune F; Nordestgaard, Børge G; Bojesen, Stig E

2012-01-01

A reduction in the availability of cholesterol may limit the cellular proliferation required for cancer growth and metastasis. We tested the hypothesis that statin use begun before a cancer diagnosis is associated with reduced cancer-related mortality.......A reduction in the availability of cholesterol may limit the cellular proliferation required for cancer growth and metastasis. We tested the hypothesis that statin use begun before a cancer diagnosis is associated with reduced cancer-related mortality....

“Friday off”: Reducing Working Hours in Europe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jack Rossiter

2013-04-01

Full Text Available This article explores the pros and cons for reducing working hours in Europe. To arrive to an informed judgment we review critically the theoretical and empirical literature, mostly from economics, concerning the relation between working hours on the one hand, and productivity, employment, quality of life, and the environment, on the other. We adopt a binary economics distinction between capital and labor productiveness, and are concerned with how working hours may be reduced without harming the earning capacity of workers. There are reasons to believe that reducing working hours may absorb some unemployment, especially in the short-run, even if less than what is advocated by proponents of the proposal. Further, there may well be strong benefits for the quality of peoples’ lives. Environmental benefits are likely but depend crucially on complementary policies or social conditions that will ensure that the time liberated will not be directed to resource-intensive or environmentally harmful consumption. It is questionable whether reduced working hours are sustainable in the long-term given resource limits and climate change. We conclude that while the results of reducing working hours are uncertain, this may be a risk worth taking, especially as an interim measure that may relieve unemployment while other necessary structural changes are instituted.

[Effective interventions to reduce absenteeism among hospital nurses].

Science.gov (United States)

Blanca-Gutiérrez, Joaquín Jesús; Jiménez-Díaz, María del Carmen; Escalera-Franco, Luis Felipe

2013-01-01

To select and summarize the interventions that have proved effective in reducing absenteeism among hospital nurses. A scoping review was conducted through a literature search using Medline, Web of Science, Cinahl, Embase, Lilacs, Cuiden and Cochrane Library Plus databases. Of a total of 361 articles extracted, 15 were finally selected for this review. The implementation of multifaceted support or physical training programs can produce positive results in terms of reducing absenteeism among hospital nurses. Cognitive-behavioral type interventions require studies with larger samples to provide conclusive results. Establishing more flexible working shifts may also reduce absenteeism rates, although again studies with larger samples are needed. Programs aimed at managing change developed by nurses themselves, participatory management of professional relations, the support provided by supervisors who are opposed to hierarchical leadership styles, and wage supplements that reward the lack of absence can also reduce these types of indicators. Absenteeism can be considered as a final result and a consequence of the level of job satisfaction. The effectiveness of interventions to reduce absenteeism among hospital nurses will no doubt largely depend on the ability of these interventions to increase the job satisfaction of these workers. Copyright © 2012 SESPAS. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Innovative approaches to reduce animal testing : replace whenever possible, reduce through refinement and mechanistic understanding

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ravenzwaay, van B.

2013-01-01

'Many of the in vitro toxicological studies have not been sufficiently validated to determine their applicability domain, even less have gained regulatory acceptance. Major advantage of in vitro testing today is the early identification of significant hazards in compound development and reduced and

DOES FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT REDUCE CORRUPTION?

OpenAIRE

John Thornton

2009-01-01

I estimate the impact of bank cred it to the private sector on corruption using indicators of a country's legal origin as instrumental variables to assess causality. I find that bank credit reduces corruption, with the result robust to instrumenting for bank credit and for different controls.

Implementation Intentions Reduce Implicit Stereotype Activation and Application.

Science.gov (United States)

Rees, Heather Rose; Rivers, Andrew Michael; Sherman, Jeffrey W

2018-05-01

Research has found that implementation intentions, if-then action plans (e.g., "if I see a Black face, I will think safe"), reduce stereotyping on implicit measures. However, it is unknown by what process(es) implementation intentions reduce implicit stereotyping. The present research examines the effects of implementation intentions on stereotype activation (e.g., extent to which stereotypic information is accessible) and stereotype application (e.g., extent to which accessible stereotypes are applied in judgment). In addition, we assessed the efficiency of implementation intentions by manipulating cognitive resources (e.g., digit-span, restricted response window) while participants made judgments on an implicit stereotyping measure. Across four studies, implementation intentions reduced implicit stereotyping. This decrease in stereotyping was associated with reductions in both stereotype activation and application. In addition, these effects of implementation intentions were highly efficient and associated with reduced stereotyping even for groups for which people may have little practice inhibiting stereotypes (e.g., gender).

Ferroelectric capacitor with reduced imprint

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, Jr., Joseph T.; Warren, William L.; Tuttle, Bruce A.; Dimos, Duane B.; Pike, Gordon E.

1997-01-01

An improved ferroelectric capacitor exhibiting reduced imprint effects in comparison to prior art capacitors. A capacitor according to the present invention includes top and bottom electrodes and a ferroelectric layer sandwiched between the top and bottom electrodes, the ferroelectric layer comprising a perovskite structure of the chemical composition ABO.sub.3 wherein the B-site comprises first and second elements and a dopant element that has an oxidation state greater than +4. The concentration of the dopant is sufficient to reduce shifts in the coercive voltage of the capacitor with time. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the ferroelectric element comprises Pb in the A-site, and the first and second elements are Zr and Ti, respectively. The preferred dopant is chosen from the group consisting of Niobium, Tantalum, and Tungsten. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the dopant occupies between 1 and 8% of the B-sites.

Reduced prefrontal connectivity in psychopathy.

Science.gov (United States)

Motzkin, Julian C; Newman, Joseph P; Kiehl, Kent A; Koenigs, Michael

2011-11-30

Linking psychopathy to a specific brain abnormality could have significant clinical, legal, and scientific implications. Theories on the neurobiological basis of the disorder typically propose dysfunction in a circuit involving ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). However, to date there is limited brain imaging data to directly test whether psychopathy may indeed be associated with any structural or functional abnormality within this brain area. In this study, we employ two complementary imaging techniques to assess the structural and functional connectivity of vmPFC in psychopathic and non-psychopathic criminals. Using diffusion tensor imaging, we show that psychopathy is associated with reduced structural integrity in the right uncinate fasciculus, the primary white matter connection between vmPFC and anterior temporal lobe. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we show that psychopathy is associated with reduced functional connectivity between vmPFC and amygdala as well as between vmPFC and medial parietal cortex. Together, these data converge to implicate diminished vmPFC connectivity as a characteristic neurobiological feature of psychopathy.

Rheological measurements in reduced gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Bakhtiyarov, Sayavur I.; Overfelt, Ruel A.

1999-01-01

Rheology of fluidized beds and settling suspensions were studied experimentally in a series of reduced gravity parabolic flights aboard NASA's KC-135 aircraft. Silica sands of two different size distributions were fluidized by air. The slurries were made using silica sand and Glycerol solution. The experimental set up incorporated instrumentation to measure the air flow rate, the pressure drop and the apparent viscosity of the fluidized sand and sand suspensions at a wide range of the shear rates. The fluidization chamber and container had transparent walls to allow visualization of the structure changes involved in fluidization and in Couette flow in reduced gravity. Experiments were performed over a broad range of gravitational accelerations including microgravity and double gravity conditions. The results of the flight and ground experiments reveal significant differences in overall void fraction and hence in the apparent viscosity of fluidized sand and sand suspensions under microgravity as compared to one-g conditions.

Simulation of sediment settling in reduced gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Kuhn, Nikolaus; Kuhn, Brigitte; Rüegg, Hans-Rudolf; Gartmann, Andres

2015-04-01

Gravity has a non-linear effect on the settling velocity of sediment particles in liquids and gases due to the interdependence of settling velocity, drag and friction. However, Stokes' Law or similar empirical models, the common way of estimating the terminal velocity of a particle settling in a gas or liquid, carry the notion of a drag as a property of a particle, rather than a force generated by the flow around the particle. For terrestrial applications, this simplifying assumption is not relevant, but it may strongly influence the terminal velocity achieved by settling particles on other planetary bodies. False estimates of these settling velocities will, in turn, affect the interpretation of particle sizes observed in sedimentary rocks, e.g. on Mars and the search for traces of life. Simulating sediment settling velocities on other planets based on a numeric simulation using Navier-Stokes equations and Computational Fluid Dynamics requires a prohibitive amount of time and lacks measurements to test the quality of the results. The aim of the experiments presented in this study was therefore to quantify the error incurred by using settling velocity models calibrated on Earth at reduced gravities, such as those on the Moon and Mars. In principle, the effect of lower gravity on settling velocity can be achieved by reducing the difference in density between particle and liquid. However, the use of such analogues creates other problems because the properties (i.e. viscosity) and interaction of the liquids and sediment (i.e. flow around the boundary layer between liquid and particle) differ from those of water and mineral particles. An alternative for measuring the actual settling velocities of particles under reduced gravity, on Earth, is offered by placing a settling tube on a reduced gravity flight and conduct settling velocity measurements within the 20 to 25 seconds of Martian gravity that can be simulated during such a flight. In this presentation, the results

Column-Oriented Storage Techniques for MapReduce

OpenAIRE

Floratou, Avrilia; Patel, Jignesh; Shekita, Eugene; Tata, Sandeep

2011-01-01

Users of MapReduce often run into performance problems when they scale up their workloads. Many of the problems they encounter can be overcome by applying techniques learned from over three decades of research on parallel DBMSs. However, translating these techniques to a MapReduce implementation such as Hadoop presents unique challenges that can lead to new design choices. This paper describes how column-oriented storage techniques can be incorporated in Hadoop in a way that preserves its pop...

Solid Fuel - Oxygen Fired Combustion for Production of Nodular Reduced Iron to Reduce CO2 Emissions and Improve Energy Efficiencies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Donald R. Fosnacht; Richard F. Kiesel; David W. Hendrickson; David J. Englund; Iwao Iwasaki; Rodney L. Bleifuss; Mathew A. Mlinar

2011-12-22

The current trend in the steel industry is an increase in iron and steel produced in electric arc furnaces (EAF) and a gradual decline in conventional steelmaking from taconite pellets in blast furnaces. In order to expand the opportunities for the existing iron ore mines beyond their blast furnace customer base, a new material is needed to satisfy the market demands of the emerging steel industry while utilizing the existing infrastructure and materials handling capabilities. This demand creates opportunity to convert iron ore or other iron bearing materials to Nodular Reduced Iron (NRI) in a recently designed Linear Hearth Furnace (LHF). NRI is a metallized iron product containing 98.5 to 96.0% iron and 2.5 to 4% C. It is essentially a scrap substitute with little impurity that can be utilized in a variety of steelmaking processes, especially the electric arc furnace. The objective of this project was to focus on reducing the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) through reducing the energy intensity using specialized combustion systems, increasing production and the use of biomass derived carbon sources in this process. This research examined the use of a solid fuel-oxygen fired combustion system and compared the results from this system with both oxygen-fuel and air-fuel combustion systems. The solid pulverized fuels tested included various coals and a bio-coal produced from woody biomass in a specially constructed pilot scale torrefaction reactor at the Coleraine Minerals Research Laboratory (CMRL). In addition to combustion, the application of bio-coal was also tested as a means to produce a reducing atmosphere during key points in the fusion process, and as a reducing agent for ore conversion to metallic iron to capture the advantage of its inherent reduced carbon footprint. The results from this study indicate that the approaches taken can reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and the associated energy intensity with the Linear Hearth Furnace process for converting

Local stressors reduce coral resilience to bleaching.

Science.gov (United States)

Carilli, Jessica E; Norris, Richard D; Black, Bryan A; Walsh, Sheila M; McField, Melanie

2009-07-22

Coral bleaching, during which corals lose their symbiotic dinoflagellates, typically corresponds with periods of intense heat stress, and appears to be increasing in frequency and geographic extent as the climate warms. A fundamental question in coral reef ecology is whether chronic local stress reduces coral resistance and resilience from episodic stress such as bleaching, or alternatively promotes acclimatization, potentially increasing resistance and resilience. Here we show that following a major bleaching event, Montastraea faveolata coral growth rates at sites with higher local anthropogenic stressors remained suppressed for at least 8 years, while coral growth rates at sites with lower stress recovered in 2-3 years. Instead of promoting acclimatization, our data indicate that background stress reduces coral fitness and resilience to episodic events. We also suggest that reducing chronic stress through local coral reef management efforts may increase coral resilience to global climate change.

Targets set to reduce Lake Erie algae

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, Mary

2016-01-01

In February 2016, the Great Lakes Executive Committee, which oversees the implementation of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) between the U.S. and Canada, approved phosphorus loading targets for Lake Erie to reduce the size of harmful algal blooms (HABs), reduce the presence of the low oxygen zone in the central basin, and protect nearshore water quality. The targets are set with respect to the nutrient loads calculated for 2008. To reduce the impacts of HABs on Lake Erie a target was set of a 40 percent reduction in total and soluble reactive phosphorus loads in the spring from two Canadian rivers and several Michigan and Ohio rivers, especially the Maumee River (https://binational.net/2016/02/22/ finalptargets-ciblesfinalesdep/). States and the province of Ontario are already developing Domestic Action Plans to accomplish the reductions and scientists are developing research and monitoring plans to assess progress.

Contour adaptation reduces the spreading of edge induced colors.

Science.gov (United States)

Coia, Andrew J; Crognale, Michael A

2017-04-25

Brief exposure to flickering achromatic outlines of an area causes a reduction in the brightness contrast of the surface inside the area. This contour adaptation to achromatic contours does not reduce surface contrast when the surface is chromatic (the saturation or colorimetric purity of the surface is maintained). In addition to reducing the brightness of physical luminance contrast, contour adaptation also reduces (or even reverses) the illusory brightness contrast seen in the Craik-O'Brien-Cornsweet illusion, in which two physically identical grey areas appear different brightness because of a sharp luminance edge separating them. Chromatic color spreading illusions also occur with chromatic inducing edges, and an unanswered question is whether contour adaptation can reduce the perceived contrast of illusory color spreading from edges, even though it cannot reduce the perceived contrast of physical surface color. The current studies use a color spreading illusion known as the watercolor effect in order to test whether illusory color spreading is affected by contour adaptation. The general findings of physical achromatic contrast being reduced and chromatic contrast being robust to contour adaptation were replicated. However, both illusory brightness and color were reduced by contour adaptation, even when the illusion edges only differed in chromatic contrast with each other and the background. Additional studies adapting to chromatic contours showed opposite effects on illusory color contrast than achromatic adaptation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reducing Psychological Resistance to Digital Repositories

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brian Quinn

2010-06-01

Full Text Available The potential value of digital repositories is dependent on the cooperation of scholars to deposit their work. Although many researchers have been resistant to submitting their work, the literature on digital repositories contains very little research on the psychology of resistance. This article looks at the psychological literature on resistance and explores what its implications might be for reducing the resistance of scholars to submitting their work to digital repositories. Psychologists have devised many potentially useful strategies for reducing resistance that might be used to address the problem; this article examines these strategies and how they might be applied.

Biochar amendment reduced methylmercury accumulation in rice plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shu, Rui; Wang, Yongjie [School of Environment, Nanjing University, State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, People’s Republic of China (China); Zhong, Huan, E-mail: zhonghuan@nju.edu.cn [School of Environment, Nanjing University, State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, People’s Republic of China (China); Environmental and Life Sciences Program (EnLS), Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario (Canada)

2016-08-05

Highlights: • Biochar amendment could evidently reduce methylmercury (MeHg) levels in rice grain. • Biochar could enhance microbial production of MeHg, probably by providing sulfate. • Biochar could immobilize MeHg in soil, and reduce MeHg availability to rice plants. • Biochar amendment increased grain biomass, leading to biodilution of MeHg in grain. - Abstract: There is growing concern about methylmercury (MeHg) accumulation in rice grains and thus enhanced dietary exposure to MeHg in Asian countries. Here, we explored the possibility of reducing grain MeHg levels by biochar amendment, and the underlying mechanisms. Pot (i.e., rice cultivation in biochar amended soils) and batch experiments (i.e., incubation of amended soils under laboratory conditions) were carried out, to investigate MeHg dynamics (i.e., MeHg production, partitioning and phytoavailability in paddy soils, and MeHg uptake by rice) under biochar amendment (1–4% of soil mass). We demonstrate for the first time that biochar amendment could evidently reduce grain MeHg levels (49–92%). The declines could be attributed to the combined effects of: (1) increased soil MeHg concentrations, probably explained by the release of sulfate from biochar and thus enhanced microbial production of MeHg (e.g., by sulfate-reducing bacteria), (2) MeHg immobilization in soils, facilitated by the large surface areas and high organosulfur content of biochar, and (3) biodilution of MeHg in rice grains, due to the increased grain biomass under biochar amendment (35–79%). These observations together with mechanistic explanations improve understanding of MeHg dynamics in soil-rice systems, and support the possibility of reducing MeHg phytoaccumulation under biochar amendment.

Biochar amendment reduced methylmercury accumulation in rice plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shu, Rui; Wang, Yongjie; Zhong, Huan

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Biochar amendment could evidently reduce methylmercury (MeHg) levels in rice grain. • Biochar could enhance microbial production of MeHg, probably by providing sulfate. • Biochar could immobilize MeHg in soil, and reduce MeHg availability to rice plants. • Biochar amendment increased grain biomass, leading to biodilution of MeHg in grain. - Abstract: There is growing concern about methylmercury (MeHg) accumulation in rice grains and thus enhanced dietary exposure to MeHg in Asian countries. Here, we explored the possibility of reducing grain MeHg levels by biochar amendment, and the underlying mechanisms. Pot (i.e., rice cultivation in biochar amended soils) and batch experiments (i.e., incubation of amended soils under laboratory conditions) were carried out, to investigate MeHg dynamics (i.e., MeHg production, partitioning and phytoavailability in paddy soils, and MeHg uptake by rice) under biochar amendment (1–4% of soil mass). We demonstrate for the first time that biochar amendment could evidently reduce grain MeHg levels (49–92%). The declines could be attributed to the combined effects of: (1) increased soil MeHg concentrations, probably explained by the release of sulfate from biochar and thus enhanced microbial production of MeHg (e.g., by sulfate-reducing bacteria), (2) MeHg immobilization in soils, facilitated by the large surface areas and high organosulfur content of biochar, and (3) biodilution of MeHg in rice grains, due to the increased grain biomass under biochar amendment (35–79%). These observations together with mechanistic explanations improve understanding of MeHg dynamics in soil-rice systems, and support the possibility of reducing MeHg phytoaccumulation under biochar amendment.

Reduced Attitude Control of a Robotic Underwater Vehicle

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bláha Lukáš

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This paper deals with stabilization and reduced attitude control of a robotic underwater vehicle. The vehicle is assumed to be able to perform a full stable rotations around all axes in underwater space, that is why the standard bottom-heavy structure is not used. The system preferably uses a vectored-thrust arrangement and is built as an overactuated system, which enables to gain a better robustness and guarantees a stable controlled motion even if some thruster suddenly stop working. Because the heading angle cannot be measured, the reduced attitude control strategy is designed and the stability of reduced state of the system is proved using perturbation method.

Reducing transfusion requirements in liver transplantation.

Science.gov (United States)

Donohue, Ciara I; Mallett, Susan V

2015-12-24

Liver transplantation (LT) was historically associated with massive blood loss and transfusion. Over the past two decades transfusion requirements have reduced dramatically and increasingly transfusion-free transplantation is a reality. Both bleeding and transfusion are associated with adverse outcomes in LT. Minimising bleeding and reducing unnecessary transfusions are therefore key goals in the perioperative period. As the understanding of the causes of bleeding has evolved so too have techniques to minimize or reduce the impact of blood loss. Surgical "piggyback" techniques, anaesthetic low central venous pressure and haemodilution strategies and the use of autologous cell salvage, point of care monitoring and targeted correction of coagulopathy, particularly through use of factor concentrates, have all contributed to declining reliance on allogenic blood products. Pre-emptive management of preoperative anaemia and adoption of more restrictive transfusion thresholds is increasingly common as patient blood management (PBM) gains momentum. Despite progress, increasing use of marginal grafts and transplantation of sicker recipients will continue to present new challenges in bleeding and transfusion management. Variation in practice across different centres and within the literature demonstrates the current lack of clear transfusion guidance. In this article we summarise the causes and predictors of bleeding and present the evidence for a variety of PBM strategies in LT.

Perron-Frobenius theory and frequency convergence for reducible substitutions

OpenAIRE

Lustig, Martin; Uyanik, Caglar

2016-01-01

We prove a general version of the classical Perron-Frobenius convergence property for reducible matrices. We then apply this result to reducible substitutions and use it to produce limit frequencies for factors and hence invariant measures on the associated subshift. The analogous results are well known for primitive substitutions and have found many applications, but for reducible substitutions the tools provided here were so far missing from the theory.

Remediation of contaminated subsurface materials by a metal-reducing bacterium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gorby, Y.A.; Amonette, J.E.; Fruchter, J.S.

1994-11-01

A biotic approach for remediating subsurface sediments and groundwater contaminated with carbon tetrachloride (CT) and chromium was evaluated. Cells of the Fe(iii)-reducing bacterium strain BrY were added to sealed, anoxic flasks containing Hanford groundwater, natural subsurface sediments, and either carbon tetrachloride, CT, or oxidized chromium, Cr(VI). With lactate as the electron donor, BrY transformed CT to chloroform (CF), which accumulated to about 1 0 % of the initial concentration of CT. The remainder of the CT was transformed to unidentified, nonvolatile compounds. Transformation of CT by BrY was an indirect process Cells reduced solid phase Fe(ill) to chemically reactive FE(II) that chemically transformed the chlorinated contaminant. Cr(VI), in contrast, was reduced by a direct enzymatic reaction in the presence or absence of Fe(III)-bearing sediments. These results demonstrate that Fe(ill)-reducing bacteria provide potential for transforming CT and for reducing CR(VI) to less toxic Cr(III). Technologies for stimulating indigenous populations of metal-reducing bacteria or for introducing specific metal-reducing bacteria to the subsurface are being investigated

Sizing Optimization and Strength Analysis for Spread-type Gear Reducers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei-Hsuan Hsu

2014-08-01

Full Text Available A reducer is now developed towards the trend of customization service and cost-saving. In this study, a sizing program for the reducer has been developed in order to replace the manual sizing process. We aim at the total center distance of the gear reducer for optimization to reduce gear volume and weight. Also, we checked constrains such as, tooth root bending, tooth contact strength, gear shaft endangered cross-section, bearing life, gear shaft deflection, and torsion angle deformation, etc., to obtain reliable drive strength. Comparisons of sizes and weights before and after optimization confirm that the purpose for reducing production cost is achieved.

Reduced False Memory after Sleep

Science.gov (United States)

Fenn, Kimberly M.; Gallo, David A.; Margoliash, Daniel; Roediger, Henry L., III; Nusbaum, Howard C.

2009-01-01

Several studies have shown that sleep contributes to the successful maintenance of previously encoded information. This research has focused exclusively on memory for studied events, as opposed to false memories. Here we report three experiments showing that sleep reduces false memories in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) memory illusion. False…

Reducing Abdominal Fat Deposition in Broiler Through Feeding Management

OpenAIRE

Cecep Hidayat

2015-01-01

Abdominal fat in broiler carcass is considered as a waste and its existence reduces the carcass quality. Abdominal fat deposition is affected by several factors such as genetic, nutrition, feed, sex, age and environment. Reducing abdominal fat deposition can be carried out by regulating the nutrient intake to ensure that no excessive nutrient was consumed. Nutrition effects to reduce abdominal fat deposition are associated with nutrient concentration of ration and quantity of daily feed intak...

Alternative Fuels Data Center: Wisconsin Reduces Emissions With Natural Gas

Science.gov (United States)

Trucks Wisconsin Reduces Emissions With Natural Gas Trucks to someone by E-mail Share Alternative Fuels Data Center: Wisconsin Reduces Emissions With Natural Gas Trucks on Facebook Tweet about Alternative Fuels Data Center: Wisconsin Reduces Emissions With Natural Gas Trucks on Twitter Bookmark

Handgun waiting periods reduce gun deaths.

Science.gov (United States)

Luca, Michael; Malhotra, Deepak; Poliquin, Christopher

2017-11-14

Handgun waiting periods are laws that impose a delay between the initiation of a purchase and final acquisition of a firearm. We show that waiting periods, which create a "cooling off" period among buyers, significantly reduce the incidence of gun violence. We estimate the impact of waiting periods on gun deaths, exploiting all changes to state-level policies in the Unites States since 1970. We find that waiting periods reduce gun homicides by roughly 17%. We provide further support for the causal impact of waiting periods on homicides by exploiting a natural experiment resulting from a federal law in 1994 that imposed a temporary waiting period on a subset of states. Copyright © 2017 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.

The effects of vibration-reducing gloves on finger vibration

Science.gov (United States)

Welcome, Daniel E.; Dong, Ren G.; Xu, Xueyan S.; Warren, Christopher; McDowell, Thomas W.

2015-01-01

Vibration-reducing (VR) gloves have been used to reduce the hand-transmitted vibration exposures from machines and powered hand tools but their effectiveness remains unclear, especially for finger protection. The objectives of this study are to determine whether VR gloves can attenuate the vibration transmitted to the fingers and to enhance the understanding of the mechanisms of how these gloves work. Seven adult male subjects participated in the experiment. The fixed factors evaluated include hand force (four levels), glove condition (gel-filled, air bladder, no gloves), and location of the finger vibration measurement. A 3-D laser vibrometer was used to measure the vibrations on the fingers with and without wearing a glove on a 3-D hand-arm vibration test system. This study finds that the effect of VR gloves on the finger vibration depends on not only the gloves but also their influence on the distribution of the finger contact stiffness and the grip effort. As a result, the gloves increase the vibration in the fingertip area but marginally reduce the vibration in the proximal area at some frequencies below 100 Hz. On average, the gloves reduce the vibration of the entire fingers by less than 3% at frequencies below 80 Hz but increase at frequencies from 80 to 400 Hz. At higher frequencies, the gel-filled glove is more effective at reducing the finger vibration than the air bladder-filled glove. The implications of these findings are discussed. Relevance to industry Prolonged, intensive exposure to hand-transmitted vibration can cause hand-arm vibration syndrome. Vibration-reducing gloves have been used as an alternative approach to reduce the vibration exposure. However, their effectiveness for reducing finger-transmitted vibrations remains unclear. This study enhanced the understanding of the glove effects on finger vibration and provided useful information on the effectiveness of typical VR gloves at reducing the vibration transmitted to the fingers. The new

Learning big data with Amazon Elastic MapReduce

CERN Document Server

Singh, Amarkant

2014-01-01

This book is aimed at developers and system administrators who want to learn about Big Data analysis using Amazon Elastic MapReduce. Basic Java programming knowledge is required. You should be comfortable with using command-line tools. Prior knowledge of AWS, API, and CLI tools is not assumed. Also, no exposure to Hadoop and MapReduce is expected.

Reducing ammonia emissions in Europe

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jacobsen, Brian H.

2011-01-01

The NEC directive has set targets for the 2010 ammonia emissions from a number of European countries. The target will be reached by most EU-countries and the total emission for EU-27 has been reduced by 22% from 1990 to 2007. Denmark is one of the countries with the largest reductions since 1990...

Effects of protozoan grazing on colony formation in Phaeocystis globosa (Prymnesiophyceae) and the potential costs and benefits

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jakobsen, Hans Henrik; Tang, K.W.

2002-01-01

. scintillans increased the mean colony size by up to 50 % relative to the controls, whereas grazing by G. dominans enhanced the mean colony size by up to 3-fold. Microscopic observations confirmed that N. scintillans was also able to ingest small colonies. In contrast, G. dominans apparently did not ingest...

Functional neural correlates of reduced physiological falls risk

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hsu Chun

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background It is currently unclear whether the function of brain regions associated with executive cognitive processing are independently associated with reduced physiological falls risk. If these are related, it would suggest that the development of interventions targeted at improving executive neurocognitive function would be an effective new approach for reducing physiological falls risk in seniors. Methods We performed a secondary analysis of 73 community-dwelling senior women aged 65 to 75 years old who participated in a 12-month randomized controlled trial of resistance training. Functional MRI data were acquired while participants performed a modified Eriksen Flanker Task - a task of selective attention and conflict resolution. Brain volumes were obtained using MRI. Falls risk was assessed using the Physiological Profile Assessment (PPA. Results After accounting for baseline age, experimental group, baseline PPA score, and total baseline white matter brain volume, baseline activation in the left frontal orbital cortex extending towards the insula was negatively associated with reduced physiological falls risk over the 12-month period. In contrast, baseline activation in the paracingulate gyrus extending towards the anterior cingulate gyrus was positively associated with reduced physiological falls risk. Conclusions Baseline activation levels of brain regions underlying response inhibition and selective attention were independently associated with reduced physiological falls risk. This suggests that falls prevention strategies may be facilitated by incorporating intervention components - such as aerobic exercise - that are specifically designed to induce neurocognitive plasticity. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00426881

G-Consistent Subsets and Reduced Dynamical Quantum Maps

Science.gov (United States)

Ceballos, Russell R.

A quantum system which evolves in time while interacting with an external environ- ment is said to be an open quantum system (OQS), and the influence of the environment on the unperturbed unitary evolution of the system generally leads to non-unitary dynamics. This kind of open system dynamical evolution has been typically modeled by a Standard Prescription (SP) which assumes that the state of the OQS is initially uncorrelated with the environment state. It is here shown that when a minimal set of physically motivated assumptions are adopted, not only does there exist constraints on the reduced dynamics of an OQS such that this SP does not always accurately describe the possible initial cor- relations existing between the OQS and environment, but such initial correlations, and even entanglement, can be witnessed when observing a particular class of reduced state transformations termed purity extractions are observed. Furthermore, as part of a more fundamental investigation to better understand the minimal set of assumptions required to formulate well defined reduced dynamical quantum maps, it is demonstrated that there exists a one-to-one correspondence between the set of initial reduced states and the set of admissible initial system-environment composite states when G-consistency is enforced. Given the discussions surrounding the requirement of complete positivity and the reliance on the SP, the results presented here may well be found valuable for determining the ba- sic properties of reduced dynamical maps, and when restrictions on the OQS dynamics naturally emerge.

Progress in reducing the environmental impacts of offshore drilling wastes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Flemming, D; Candler, J.E.

2002-01-01

Full text:Over the past several years, great progress has been made in understanding and reducing the environmental impacts of offshore drilling wastes. Our understanding of sea floor impacts has been helped along by new environmental assessment tools such us computer modeling of sea floor deposition of drilling discharges, sediment profile imaging, and in situ sediment toxicity bioassays. To further reduce environmental impacts, new pollution prevention technologies have been developed that can shrink the environmental footprint of offshore drilling. These technologies reduce the total amount of drilling wastes discharged and include cuttings dryers and centrifuges that can reduce the drilling fluid content of drill cuttings to below 10 percent. In conclusion, the oil and gas industry is adopting more environmentally compatible drilling fluids, new environmental assessment tools and pollution prevention technologies that dramatically reduce the amount of drilling wastes discharged. Together, all of these elements have the potential to reduce environmental impacts of offshore drilling

In vitro evaluation of dietary compounds to reduce mercury bioavailability.

Science.gov (United States)

Jadán-Piedra, Carlos; Vélez, Dinoraz; Devesa, Vicenta

2018-05-15

Mercury in foods, in inorganic form [Hg(II)] or as methylmercury (CH 3 Hg), can have adverse effects. Its elimination from foods is not technologically viable. To reduce human exposure, possible alternatives might be based on reducing its intestinal absorption. This study evaluates the ability of 23 dietary components to reduce the amount of mercury that is absorbed and reaches the bloodstream (bioavailability). We determined their effect on uptake of mercury in Caco-2 cells, a model of intestinal epithelium, exposed to Hg(II) and CH 3 Hg standards and to swordfish bioaccessible fractions. Cysteine, homocysteine, glutathione, quercetin, albumin and tannic reduce bioavailability of both mercury species. Fe(II), lipoic acid, pectin, epigallocatechin and thiamine are also effective for Hg(II). Some of these strategies also reduce Hg bioavailability in swordfish (glutathione, cysteine, homocysteine). Moreover, extracts and supplements rich in these compounds are also effective. This knowledge may help to define dietary strategies to reduce in vivo mercury bioavailability. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Long Read Alignment with Parallel MapReduce Cloud Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmed Abdulhakim Al-Absi

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Genomic sequence alignment is an important technique to decode genome sequences in bioinformatics. Next-Generation Sequencing technologies produce genomic data of longer reads. Cloud platforms are adopted to address the problems arising from storage and analysis of large genomic data. Existing genes sequencing tools for cloud platforms predominantly consider short read gene sequences and adopt the Hadoop MapReduce framework for computation. However, serial execution of map and reduce phases is a problem in such systems. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce Burrows-Wheeler Aligner’s Smith-Waterman Alignment on Parallel MapReduce (BWASW-PMR cloud platform for long sequence alignment. The proposed cloud platform adopts a widely accepted and accurate BWA-SW algorithm for long sequence alignment. A custom MapReduce platform is developed to overcome the drawbacks of the Hadoop framework. A parallel execution strategy of the MapReduce phases and optimization of Smith-Waterman algorithm are considered. Performance evaluation results exhibit an average speed-up of 6.7 considering BWASW-PMR compared with the state-of-the-art Bwasw-Cloud. An average reduction of 30% in the map phase makespan is reported across all experiments comparing BWASW-PMR with Bwasw-Cloud. Optimization of Smith-Waterman results in reducing the execution time by 91.8%. The experimental study proves the efficiency of BWASW-PMR for aligning long genomic sequences on cloud platforms.

Reducing stillbirths in Ethiopia: Results of an intervention programme.

Science.gov (United States)

Lindtjørn, Bernt; Mitike, Demissew; Zidda, Zillo; Yaya, Yaliso

2018-01-01

Previous studies from South Ethiopia have shown that interventions that focus on intrapartum care substantially reduce maternal mortality and there is a need to operationalize health packages that could reduce stillbirths. The aim of this paper is to evaluate if a programme that aimed to improve maternal health, and mainly focusing on strengthening intrapartum care, also would reduce the number of stillbirths, and to estimate if there are other indicators that explains high stillbirth rates. Our study used a "continuum of care" approach and focussed on providing essential antenatal and obstetric services in communities through health extension workers, at antenatal and health facility services. In this follow up study, which includes the same 38.312 births registered by community health workers, shows that interventions focusing on improved intrapartum care can also reduce stillbirths (by 46%; from 14.5 to 7.8 per 1000 births). Other risk factors for stillbirths are mainly related to complications during delivery and illnesses during pregnancy. We show that focusing on Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric Care and antenatal services reduces stillbirths. However, the study also underlines that illnesses during pregnancy and complications during delivery still represent the main risk factors for stillbirths. This indicates that obstetric care need still to be strengthened, should include the continuum of care from home to the health facility, make care accessible to all, and reduce delays.

Long Read Alignment with Parallel MapReduce Cloud Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Absi, Ahmed Abdulhakim; Kang, Dae-Ki

2015-01-01

Genomic sequence alignment is an important technique to decode genome sequences in bioinformatics. Next-Generation Sequencing technologies produce genomic data of longer reads. Cloud platforms are adopted to address the problems arising from storage and analysis of large genomic data. Existing genes sequencing tools for cloud platforms predominantly consider short read gene sequences and adopt the Hadoop MapReduce framework for computation. However, serial execution of map and reduce phases is a problem in such systems. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce Burrows-Wheeler Aligner's Smith-Waterman Alignment on Parallel MapReduce (BWASW-PMR) cloud platform for long sequence alignment. The proposed cloud platform adopts a widely accepted and accurate BWA-SW algorithm for long sequence alignment. A custom MapReduce platform is developed to overcome the drawbacks of the Hadoop framework. A parallel execution strategy of the MapReduce phases and optimization of Smith-Waterman algorithm are considered. Performance evaluation results exhibit an average speed-up of 6.7 considering BWASW-PMR compared with the state-of-the-art Bwasw-Cloud. An average reduction of 30% in the map phase makespan is reported across all experiments comparing BWASW-PMR with Bwasw-Cloud. Optimization of Smith-Waterman results in reducing the execution time by 91.8%. The experimental study proves the efficiency of BWASW-PMR for aligning long genomic sequences on cloud platforms. PMID:26839887

The reduced enrichment program for JRR-4

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takayanagi, M.

1992-01-01

Japan Research Reactor No. 4(JRR-4) with the rated power of 3.5 MW, swimming pool type research reactor, 93 % enriched uranium ETR-type fuel used, light water moderated and cooled. The first criticality reached on 28th January, 1965. The reactor has operated for about 26 years. However, it was planed to the reduced enrichment of the fuels to low enrichment according to the International Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) program. This paper describes the program for conversion of the enrichment of fuel from 93 % to less than 20 %. (author)

Electron microscopy at reduced levels of irradiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kuo, I.A.M.

1975-05-01

Specimen damage by electron radiation is one of the factors that limits high resolution electron microscopy of biological specimens. A method was developed to record images of periodic objects at a reduced electron exposure in order to preserve high resolution structural detail. The resulting image would tend to be a statistically noisy one, as the electron exposure is reduced to lower and lower values. Reconstruction of a statistically defined image from such data is possible by spatial averaging of the electron signals from a large number of identical unit cells. (U.S.)

Some mechanisms which may reduce radiolysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Neretnieks, I; Faghihi, M. [Royal Inst. of Tech., Stockholm (Sweden). Dept. of Chemical Engineering

1991-08-01

In this report two mechanisms which may considerably decrease the rate of radiolysis are studied. The first main effect is that capillary forces in the very fine pores of the bentonite which surround the canisters do not permit the release of water if there is a gas over pressure inside the canister. As long as there is gas inside the canister the gap will partly be gas filled and the alpha-particles will have less water to radiolyze. Because some hydrogen will be dissolved and will escape by diffusion, a rate of radiolysis will be maintained which balances the rate of diffusion. This in turn will be influenced by the geometry of the diffusion path. The size of the hole in the copper canister seems to be one of the critical items which determine the escape of the hydrogen and thus the rate of radiolysis. The other main effect which will reduce the radiolysis is the accumulation of the corrosion products in the gap. This reduces the water content in the gap. Consequently there will be less water which can be radiolyzed. The presence of corrosion products which have a higher density than water will also consume the energy of the alpha-particles faster. Both effects seem to, independently, have a potential of reducing the rate of radiolysis by a few order of magnitude.

Some mechanisms which may reduce radiolysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Neretnieks, I; Faghihi, M.

1991-08-01

In this report two mechanisms which may considerably decrease the rate of radiolysis are studied. The first main effect is that capillary forces in the very fine pores of the bentonite which surround the canisters do not permit the release of water if there is a gas over pressure inside the canister. As long as there is gas inside the canister the gap will partly be gas filled and the alpha-particles will have less water to radiolyze. Because some hydrogen will be dissolved and will escape by diffusion, a rate of radiolysis will be maintained which balances the rate of diffusion. This in turn will be influenced by the geometry of the diffusion path. The size of the hole in the copper canister seems to be one of the critical items which determine the escape of the hydrogen and thus the rate of radiolysis. The other main effect which will reduce the radiolysis is the accumulation of the corrosion products in the gap. This reduces the water content in the gap. Consequently there will be less water which can be radiolyzed. The presence of corrosion products which have a higher density than water will also consume the energy of the alpha-particles faster. Both effects seem to, independently, have a potential of reducing the rate of radiolysis by a few order of magnitude

Monitoring sulfide and sulfate-reducing bacteria

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tanner, R.S.

1995-12-31

Simple yet precise and accurate methods for monitoring sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) and sulfide remain useful for the study of bacterial souring and corrosion. Test kits are available to measure sulfide in field samples. A more precise methylene blue sulfide assay for both field and laboratory studies is described here. Improved media, compared to that in API RP-38, for enumeration of SRB have been formulated. One of these, API-RST, contained cysteine (1.1 mM) as a reducing agent, which may be a confounding source of sulfide. While cysteine was required for rapid enumeration of SRB from environmental samples, the concentration of cysteine in medium could be reduced to 0.4 mM. It was also determined that elevated levels of yeast extract (>1 g/liter) could interfere with enumeration of SRB from environmental samples. The API-RST medium was modified to a RST-11 medium. Other changes in medium composition, in addition to reduction of cysteine, included reduction of the concentration of phosphate from 3.4 mM to 2.2 mM, reduction of the concentration of ferrous iron from 0.8 mM to 0.5 mM and preparation of a stock mineral solution to ease medium preparation. SRB from environmental samples could be enumerated in a week in this medium.

Effect of radiation on activity of sulphate reducing bacteria

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Agaev, N.M.; Smorodin, A.E.; Gusejnov, M.M.

1985-01-01

The effect of γ-radiation on activity of sulphate reducing bacteria has been studied. Concentration of biogenic hydrogen, generated in the medium, is the main criterion, characterizing corrosion activity of the bacteria studied. The developed method of suppression of active development of sulfate reducing bacteria considerably reduces, and at lethal doses of γ-radiation eliminates altogether the bacteria activity and formation of the main corrosion agent-hydrogen sulphide-in the medium and that, in its turn, liquidates hydrogen sulphide corrosion

Reducing cement's CO2 footprint

Science.gov (United States)

van Oss, Hendrik G.

2011-01-01

The manufacturing process for Portland cement causes high levels of greenhouse gas emissions. However, environmental impacts can be reduced by using more energy-efficient kilns and replacing fossil energy with alternative fuels. Although carbon capture and new cements with less CO2 emission are still in the experimental phase, all these innovations can help develop a cleaner cement industry.

Alpha-contingent EEG feedback reduces SPECT rCBF variability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

McLaughlin, Thomas; Steinberg, Bruce; Mulholland, Thomas

2005-01-01

EEG feedback methods, which link the occurrence of alpha to the presentation of repeated visual stimuli, reduce the relative variability of subsequent, alpha-blocking event durations. The temporal association between electro-cortical field activation and regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) led us...... to investigate whether the reduced variability of alpha-blocking durations with feedback is associated with a reduction in rCBF variability. Reduced variability in the rCBF response domain under EEG feedback control might have methodological implications for future brain-imaging studies. Visual stimuli were...... to quantify the variance-reducing effects of ACS across multiple, distributed areas of the brain. Both EEG and rCBF measures demonstrated decreased variability under ACS. This improved control was seen for localized as well as anatomically distributed rCBF measures....

Feasibility of Reduced Port Laparoscopic Colectomy for Colon Cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Tsutsumi, Soichi; Morita, Hiroki; Fujii, Takaaki; Suto, Toshinaga; Yajima, Reina; Takada, Takahiro; Asao, Takayuki; Kuwano, Hiroyuki

2015-06-01

Reduced port laparoscopic surgery has recently emerged as a method to improve the cosmetic results of conventional laparoscopic surgery. We reported our technique of reduced port laparoscopic colectomy using 3-port and short-time outcomes. Between 2005 and 2012, we performed 161 reduced port laparoscopic colectomies using the 3-port technique. Data analyzed in-cluded age, gender, body mass index (BMI), duration of surgery, number of harvested lymph nodes, and duration of hospital stay. All of the cases were successfully performed using the 3-port procedure. The median durations of surgery and postoperative hospital stay were 140 mm (range 75-463 mm) and 9 days (range 5-38 days), respectively. No mortality was associated with this technique. Reduced port laparoscopic colectomy is feasible and may have advantages over conventional laparoscopic colectomy.

Reduced Cortisol Metabolism during Critical Illness

Science.gov (United States)

Boonen, Eva; Vervenne, Hilke; Meersseman, Philippe; Andrew, Ruth; Mortier, Leen; Declercq, Peter E.; Vanwijngaerden, Yoo-Mee; Spriet, Isabel; Wouters, Pieter J.; Perre, Sarah Vander; Langouche, Lies; Vanhorebeek, Ilse; Walker, Brian R.; Van den Berghe, Greet

2015-01-01

BACKGROUND Critical illness is often accompanied by hypercortisolemia, which has been attributed to stress-induced activation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis. However, low corticotropin levels have also been reported in critically ill patients, which may be due to reduced cortisol metabolism. METHODS In a total of 158 patients in the intensive care unit and 64 matched controls, we tested five aspects of cortisol metabolism: daily levels of corticotropin and cortisol; plasma cortisol clearance, metabolism, and production during infusion of deuterium-labeled steroid hormones as tracers; plasma clearance of 100 mg of hydrocortisone; levels of urinary cortisol metabolites; and levels of messenger RNA and protein in liver and adipose tissue, to assess major cortisol-metabolizing enzymes. RESULTS Total and free circulating cortisol levels were consistently higher in the patients than in controls, whereas corticotropin levels were lower (PCortisol production was 83% higher in the patients (P=0.02). There was a reduction of more than 50% in cortisol clearance during tracer infusion and after the administration of 100 mg of hydrocortisone in the patients (P≤0.03 for both comparisons). All these factors accounted for an increase by a factor of 3.5 in plasma cortisol levels in the patients, as compared with controls (Pcortisol clearance also correlated with a lower cortisol response to corticotropin stimulation. Reduced cortisol metabolism was associated with reduced inactivation of cortisol in the liver and kidney, as suggested by urinary steroid ratios, tracer kinetics, and assessment of liver-biopsy samples (P≤0.004 for all comparisons). CONCLUSIONS During critical illness, reduced cortisol breakdown, related to suppressed expression and activity of cortisol-metabolizing enzymes, contributed to hypercortisolemia and hence corticotropin suppression. The diagnostic and therapeutic implications for critically ill patients are unknown. (Funded by the Belgian

Reducibility of quantum representations of mapping class groups

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Jørgen Ellegaard; Fjelstad, Jens

2010-01-01

that the quantum representations of all the mapping class groups built from the modular tensor category are reducible. In particular, for SU(N) we get reducibility for certain levels and ranks. For the quantum SU(2) Reshetikhin–Turaev theory we construct a decomposition for all even levels. We conjecture...... this decomposition is a complete decomposition into irreducible representations for high enough levels....

Modifying Eating Behavior: Novel Approaches for Reducing Body Weight, Preventing Weight Regain, and Reducing Chronic Disease Risk123

Science.gov (United States)

Gletsu-Miller, Nana; McCrory, Megan A

2014-01-01

This article is a summary of the symposium “Modifying Eating Behavior: Novel Approaches for Reducing Body Weight, Preventing Weight Regain, and Reducing Chronic Disease Risk” held 29 April 2014 at the ASN Scientific Sessions and Annual Meeting at Experimental Biology 2014 in San Diego, CA. In this symposium, novel approaches to modifying eating behavior were highlighted, including 1) alteration of meal timing and macronutrient composition and 2) retraining and provision of feedback about eating behavior. Dr. Ciampolini discussed a method for teaching individuals to recognize a decrease in blood glucose concentration, and therefore the need for energy, by learning the associated physical sensations (signifying hunger). Dr. Madar and Sigal Sofer presented their work on reducing hunger during energy reduction by feeding carbohydrate only in the evening. Dr. Hamilton-Shield reviewed studies on the Mandometer (Mikrodidakt), a device for training individuals to slow eating rate. Finally, Dr. Sazonov presented information on a wearable device, the Automatic Ingestion Monitor, which senses jaw motion and/or hand-to-mouth gestures to detect and characterize food intake. His goal is to use the instrument to prevent overeating by providing feedback to the user to stop ingestion at a predetermined limit. PMID:25398742

21 CFR 146.148 - Reduced acid frozen concentrated orange juice.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Reduced acid frozen concentrated orange juice. 146... Canned Fruit Juices and Beverages § 146.148 Reduced acid frozen concentrated orange juice. (a) Reduced acid frozen concentrated orange juice is the food that complies with the requirements for composition...

Producing Knowledge to Reduce Rhetorical Distance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kampf, Constance

writers a larger public forum into which they can extend their identity. When the identity being extended represents a minority group, the web offers an opportunity for members of that group to engage mainstream ideology and work at reducing the rhetorical distance between their identity and mainstream......Producing Knowledge to Reduce Rhetorical Distance: Extending Identity and Engaging Mainstream Ideology via the Web Constance Kampf, Department of Research Knowledge Communication, Aarhus School of Business, Denmark McLuhan describes technologies as extensions -the wheel being an extension...... perceptions. This paper theorizes about ways in which the Internet can change the act of producing knowledge through the characteristics of speed and reach, allowing minorities to access a widespread audience much more easily than before the Internet. Access to a widespread audience, in turn, offers...

Deciding for Others Reduces Loss Aversion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersson, Ola; Holm, Håkan J.; Tyran, Jean-Robert Karl

2016-01-01

We study risk taking on behalf of others, both when choices involve losses and when they do not. A large-scale incentivized experiment with subjects randomly drawn from the Danish population is conducted. We find that deciding for others reduces loss aversion. When choosing between risky prospects...... when losses loom. This finding is consistent with an interpretation of loss aversion as a bias in decision making driven by emotions and that these emotions are reduced when making decisions for others....... for which losses are ruled out by design, subjects make the same choices for themselves as for others. In contrast, when losses are possible, we find that the two types of choices differ. In particular, we find that subjects who make choices for themselves take less risk than those who decide for others...

Breast Cancer Detection with Reduced Feature Set

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmet Mert

2015-01-01

Full Text Available This paper explores feature reduction properties of independent component analysis (ICA on breast cancer decision support system. Wisconsin diagnostic breast cancer (WDBC dataset is reduced to one-dimensional feature vector computing an independent component (IC. The original data with 30 features and reduced one feature (IC are used to evaluate diagnostic accuracy of the classifiers such as k-nearest neighbor (k-NN, artificial neural network (ANN, radial basis function neural network (RBFNN, and support vector machine (SVM. The comparison of the proposed classification using the IC with original feature set is also tested on different validation (5/10-fold cross-validations and partitioning (20%–40% methods. These classifiers are evaluated how to effectively categorize tumors as benign and malignant in terms of specificity, sensitivity, accuracy, F-score, Youden’s index, discriminant power, and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC curve with its criterion values including area under curve (AUC and 95% confidential interval (CI. This represents an improvement in diagnostic decision support system, while reducing computational complexity.

Meta-Transcriptomic Analysis of a Chromate-Reducing Aquifer Microbial Community

Science.gov (United States)

Beller, H. R.; Brodie, E. L.; Han, R.; Karaoz, U.

2010-12-01

A major challenge for microbial ecology that has become more tractable in the advent of new molecular techniques is characterizing gene expression in complex microbial communities. We are using meta-transcriptomic analysis to characterize functional changes in an aquifer-derived, chromate-reducing microbial community as it transitions through various electron-accepting conditions. We inoculated anaerobic microcosms with groundwater from the Cr-contaminated Hanford 100H site and supplemented them with lactate and electron acceptors present at the site, namely, nitrate, sulfate, and Fe(III). The microcosms progressed successively through various electron-accepting conditions (e.g., denitrifying, sulfate-reducing, and ferric iron-reducing conditions, as well as nitrate-dependent, chemolithotrophic Fe(II)-oxidizing conditions). Cr(VI) was rapidly reduced initially and again upon further Cr(VI) amendments. Extensive geochemical sampling and analysis (e.g., lactate, acetate, chloride, nitrate, nitrite, sulfate, dissolved Cr(VI), total Fe(II)), RNA/DNA harvesting, and PhyloChip analyses were conducted. Methods were developed for removal of rRNA from total RNA in preparation for meta-transcriptome sequencing. To date, samples representing denitrifying and fermentative/sulfate-reducing conditions have been sequenced using 454 Titanium technology. Of the non-rRNA related reads for the denitrifying sample (which was also actively reducing chromate), ca. 8% were associated with denitrification and ca. 0.9% were associated with chromate resistance/transport, in contrast to the fermentative/sulfate-reducing sample (in which chromate had already been reduced), which had zero reads associated with either of these categories but many predicted proteins associated with sulfate-reducing bacteria. We observed sequences for key functional transcripts that were unique at the nucleotide level compared to the GenBank non-redundant database [such as L-lactate dehydrogenase (iron

Saving energy and reducing CO2 with electricity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yau, T.S.; Zaininger, H.W.

1991-10-01

Surprising potential exists for new and enhanced electric technologies to reduce energy use and CO 2 emission. Widespread deployment of these technologies could reduce energy use by up to 7 quads in 2010 and a corresponding reduction in carbon dioxide emission of up to 440 million tons. Electricity's unique high form value allows for efficiency at the point of end-use that is multiples of the efficiency possible in gas- or oil-fueled systems. The efficiency advantage at the point of end use more than offset the disadvantage of the high losses in the production of electricity. Hence, widespread deployment of many electric end uses will reduce the nation's total energy requirements. Major technologies which hold the greatest potential include electric process heating, industrial electrotechnologies, electric vehicles, information technologies that substitute electronic communication for transportation of people, and electric heat pumps for space heating, cooling and water heating. Wider use of these beneficial technologies in combination with the efficient use of electricity can reduce the nation's primary energy use and Co 2 emissions from electric generation by more than a quarter. 35 refs., 50 figs., 69 tabs

Necrostatin-1 Reduces Neurovascular Injury after Intracerebral Hemorrhage

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Melanie D. King

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH is the most common form of hemorrhagic stroke, accounting for 15% of all strokes. ICH has the highest acute mortality and the worst long-term prognosis of all stroke subtypes. Unfortunately, the dearth of clinically effective treatment options makes ICH the least treatable form of stroke, emphasizing the need for novel therapeutic targets. Recent work by our laboratory identified a novel role for the necroptosis inhibitor, necrostatin-1, in limiting neurovascular injury in tissue culture models of hemorrhagic injury. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that necrostatin-1 reduces neurovascular injury after collagenase-induced ICH in mice. Necrostatin-1 significantly reduced hematoma volume by 54% at 72 h after-ICH, as compared to either sham-injured mice or mice administered an inactive, structural analogue of necrostatin-1. Necrostatin-1 also limited cell death by 48%, reduced blood-brain barrier opening by 51%, attenuated edema development to sham levels, and improved neurobehavioral outcomes after ICH. These data suggest a potential clinical utility for necrostatin-1 and/or novel necroptosis inhibitors as an adjunct therapy to reduce neurological injury and improve patient outcomes after ICH.

Strategies to reduce sodium intake in the United States

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Henney, Jane E; Taylor, Christine Lewis; Boon, Caitlin S

2010-01-01

"Reducing the intake of sodium is an important public health goal for Americans. Since the 1970s, an array of public health interventions and national dietary guidelines has sought to reduce sodium intake. However, the U.S...

Welfare-Reducing Trade Liberalization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schröder, Philipp J.H.; Jørgensen, Jan G.

Recent literature on the workhorse model of intra-industry trade has explored heterogeneous cost structures at the firm level. These approaches have proven to add realism and predictive power. This note shows, however, that this added realism also implies that there may exist a positive bilateral...... tariff that maximizes national and world welfare. Applying one of the simplest specifications possible, namely a symmetric two-country intra-industry trade model with fixed export costs that are heterogeneous across firms, we find that the reciprocal reduction of small tariffs reduces welfare. We explore...

Welfare-Reducing Trade Liberalization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schröder, Philipp J.H.; Jørgensen, Jan G.

Recent literature on the workhorse model of intra-industry trade has explored heterogeneous cost structures at the firm level. These approaches have proven to add realism and predictive power. This paper shows, however, that this added realism also implies that there may exist a positive bilateral...... tariff that maximizes national and world welfare. Applying one of the simplest specifications possible, namely a symmetric two-country intra-industry trade model with fixed export costs that are heterogeneous across firms, we find that the reciprocal reduction of small tariffs reduces welfare....

Reduced cost of ownership

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wyse, W.H.; Newton, J.C.

1995-01-01

There is common drive throughout industry towards reduced costs of ownership of plant and equipment. Rolls-Royce and Associates Ltd. has developed the systems and expertise necessary to achieve these objectives. This Paper outlines the methods being used on existing facilities, and describes a new all embracing process called Planned Lifetime Management. This process, based on the military standard Integrated Logistic Support, ensures that all aspects of support are clearly identified at the design stage and that support is monitored to allow through-life support costs to be optimized. (author)

Localized sulfate-reducing zones in a coastal plain aquifer

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, C.J.; Coates, J.D.; Schoonen, M.A.A.

1999-01-01

High concentrations of dissolved iron in ground water of coastal plain or alluvial aquifers contribute to the biofouling of public supply wells for which treatment and remediation is costly. Many of these aquifers, however, contain zones in which microbial sulfate reduction and the associated precipitation of iron-sulfide minerals decreases iron mobility. The principal water-bearing aquifer (Magothy Aquifer of Cretaceous age) in Suffolk County, New York, contains localized sulfate-reducing zones in and near lignite deposits, which generally are associated with clay lenses. Microbial analyses of core samples amended with [14C]-acetate indicate that microbial sulfate reduction is the predominant terminal-electron-accepting process (TEAP) in poorly permeable, lignite-rich sediments at shallow depths and near the ground water divide. The sulfate-reducing zones are characterized by abundant lignite and iron-sulfide minerals, low concentrations of Fe(III) oxyhydroxides, and by proximity to clay lenses that contain pore water with relatively high concentrations of sulfate and dissolved organic carbon. The low permeability of these zones and, hence, the long residence time of ground water within them, permit the preservation and (or) allow the formation of iron-sulfide minerals, including pyrite and marcasite. Both sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) and iron-reducing bacteria (IRB) are present beneath and beyond the shallow sulfate-reducing zones. A unique Fe(III)-reducing organism, MD-612, was found in core sediments from a depth of 187 m near the southern shore of Long Island. The distribution of poorly permeable, lignite-rich, sulfate-reducing zones with decreased iron concentration is varied within the principal aquifer and accounts for the observed distribution of dissolved sulfate, iron, and iron sulfides in the aquifer. Locating such zones for the placement of production wells would be difficult, however, because these zones are of limited aerial extent.

Strategies to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Laparoscopic Surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Thiel, Cassandra L; Woods, Noe C; Bilec, Melissa M

2018-04-01

To determine the carbon footprint of various sustainability interventions used for laparoscopic hysterectomy. We designed interventions for laparoscopic hysterectomy from approaches that sustainable health care organizations advocate. We used a hybrid environmental life cycle assessment framework to estimate greenhouse gas emissions from the proposed interventions. We conducted the study from September 2015 to December 2016 at the University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). The largest carbon footprint savings came from selecting specific anesthetic gases and minimizing the materials used in surgery. Energy-related interventions resulted in a 10% reduction in carbon footprint per case but would result in larger savings for the whole facility. Commonly implemented approaches, such as recycling surgical waste, resulted in less than a 5% reduction in greenhouse gases. To reduce the environmental emissions of surgeries, health care providers need to implement a combination of approaches, including minimizing materials, moving away from certain heat-trapping anesthetic gases, maximizing instrument reuse or single-use device reprocessing, and reducing off-hour energy use in the operating room. These strategies can reduce the carbon footprint of an average laparoscopic hysterectomy by up to 80%. Recycling alone does very little to reduce environmental footprint. Public Health Implications. Health care services are a major source of environmental emissions and reducing their carbon footprint would improve environmental and human health. Facilities seeking to reduce environmental footprint should take a comprehensive systems approach to find safe and effective interventions and should identify and address policy barriers to implementing more sustainable practices.

29 CFR 825.202 - Intermittent leave or reduced leave schedule.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... leave schedule is a leave schedule that reduces an employee's usual number of working hours per workweek, or hours per workday. A reduced leave schedule is a change in the employee's schedule for a period of... 29 Labor 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Intermittent leave or reduced leave schedule. 825.202...

Two-phase reduced gravity experiments for a space reactor design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Antoniak, Z.I.

1986-08-01

Future space missions envision the use of large nuclear reactors utilizing either a single or a two-phase alkali-metal working fluid. The design and analysis of such reactors require state-of-the-art computer codes that can properly treat alkali-metal flow and heat transfer in a reduced-gravity environment. New flow regime maps, models, and correlations are required if the codes are to be successfully applied to reduced-gravity flow and heat transfer. General plans are put forth for the reduced-gravity experiments which will have to be performed, at NASA facilities, with benign fluids. Data from the reduced-gravity experiments with innocuous fluids are to be combined with normal gravity data from two-phase alkali-metal experiments. Because these reduced-gravity experiments will be very basic, and will employ small test loops of simple geometry, a large measure of commonality exists between them and experiments planned by other organizations. It is recommended that a committee be formed, to coordinate all ongoing and planned reduced gravity flow experiments

Female employment reduces fertility in rural Senegal.

Science.gov (United States)

Van den Broeck, Goedele; Maertens, Miet

2015-01-01

Economic growth and modernization of society are generally associated with fertility rate decreases but which forces trigger this is unclear. In this paper we assess how fertility changes with increased labor market participation of women in rural Senegal. Evidence from high-income countries suggests that higher female employment rates lead to reduced fertility rates but evidence from developing countries at an early stage of demographic transition is largely absent. We concentrate on a rural area in northern Senegal where a recent boom in horticultural exports has been associated with a sudden increase in female off-farm employment. Using survey data we show that employed women have a significantly higher age at marriage and at first childbirth, and significantly fewer children. As causal identification strategy we use instrumental variable and difference-in-differences estimations, combined with propensity score matching. We find that female employment reduces the number of children per woman by 25%, and that this fertility-reducing effect is as large for poor as for non-poor women and larger for illiterate than for literate women. Results imply that female employment is a strong instrument for empowering rural women, reducing fertility rates and accelerating the demographic transition in poor countries. The effectiveness of family planning programs can increase if targeted to areas where female employment is increasing or to female employees directly because of a higher likelihood to reach women with low-fertility preferences. Our results show that changes in fertility preferences not necessarily result from a cultural evolution but can also be driven by sudden and individual changes in economic opportunities.

Does Increased Extraction of Natural Gas Reduce Carbon Emissions?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aune, F.R.; Golombek, R.; Kittelsen, S.A. C.

2004-01-01

Without an international climate agreement, extraction of more natural gas could reduce emissions of CO2 as more 'clean' natural gas may drive out ''dirty'' coal and oil. Using a computable equilibrium model for the Western European electricity and natural gas markets, we examine whether increased extraction of natural gas in Norway reduces global emissions of CO2. We find that both in the short run and in the long run total emissions are reduced if the additional quantity of natural gas is used in gas power production in Norway. If instead the additional quantity is exported directly, total emissions increase both in the short run and in the long run. However, if modest CO2-taxes are imposed, increased extraction of natural gas will reduce CO2 emissions also when the additional natural gas is exported directed

Numbers for reducible cubic scrolls

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Israel Vainsencher

2004-12-01

Full Text Available We show how to compute the number of reducible cubic scrolls of codimension 2 in (math blackboard symbol Pn incident to the appropriate number of linear spaces.Mostramos como calcular o número de rolos cúbicos redutíveis de codimensão 2 em (math blackboard symbol Pn incidentes a espaços lineares apropriados.

Do conditional benefits reduce equilibrium unemployment?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Ploeg, F.

2006-01-01

Although unconditional unemployment benefits destroy jobs in competitive and noncompetitive labor markets, conditional benefits can spur job growth in noncompetitive labor markets. Unconditional benefits reduce the penalty of shirking and misconduct, while conditional benefits increase this penalty.

Breast cancer after bilateral risk-reducing mastectomy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skytte, A-B; Crüger, Dorthe Gylling; Gerster, M

2011-01-01

This study aims to evaluate the incidence of breast cancer after risk-reducing mastectomy (RRM) in healthy BRCA mutation carriers. This study is a long-term follow-up of 307 BRCA mutation carriers of whom 96 chose RRM. None of the study participants had a previous history of breast or ovarian...... cancer nor had they undergone RRM or risk-reducing bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (BSO) prior to the time of BRCA testing. The annual incidence of post-mastectomy breast cancer was 0.8% compared with 1.7% in the non-operated group. Implications of these findings in relation to genetic counseling...

Reduced Ang2 expression in aging endothelial cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hohensinner, P.J.; Ebenbauer, B.; Kaun, C.; Maurer, G.; Huber, K.; Wojta, J.

2016-01-01

Aging endothelial cells are characterized by increased cell size, reduced telomere length and increased expression of proinflammatory cytokines. In addition, we describe here that aging reduces the migratory distance of endothelial cells. Furthermore, we observe an increase of the quiescence protein Ang1 and a decrease of the endothelial activation protein Ang2 upon aging. Supplementing Ang2 to aged endothelial cells restored their migratory capacity. We conclude that aging shifts the balance of the Ang1/Ang2 network favouring a quiescent state. Activation of endothelial cells in aging might be necessary to enhance wound healing capacities. -- Highlights: •Endothelial cells display signs of aging before reaching proliferative senescence. •Aging endothelial cells express more angiopoietin 1 and less angiopoietin 2 than young endothelial cells. •Migratory capacity is reduced in aging endothelial cells.

Reduced Ang2 expression in aging endothelial cells

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hohensinner, P.J., E-mail: philipp.hohensinner@meduniwien.ac.at [Department of Internal Medicine II, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna (Austria); Ebenbauer, B. [Department of Internal Medicine II, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna (Austria); Ludwig Boltzmann Cluster for Cardiovascular Research, Vienna (Austria); Kaun, C.; Maurer, G. [Department of Internal Medicine II, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna (Austria); Huber, K. [Ludwig Boltzmann Cluster for Cardiovascular Research, Vienna (Austria); 3rd Medical Department, Wilhelminenhospital, Vienna (Austria); Sigmund Freud University, Medical Faculty, Vienna (Austria); Wojta, J. [Department of Internal Medicine II, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna (Austria); Ludwig Boltzmann Cluster for Cardiovascular Research, Vienna (Austria); Core Facilities, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna (Austria)

2016-06-03

Aging endothelial cells are characterized by increased cell size, reduced telomere length and increased expression of proinflammatory cytokines. In addition, we describe here that aging reduces the migratory distance of endothelial cells. Furthermore, we observe an increase of the quiescence protein Ang1 and a decrease of the endothelial activation protein Ang2 upon aging. Supplementing Ang2 to aged endothelial cells restored their migratory capacity. We conclude that aging shifts the balance of the Ang1/Ang2 network favouring a quiescent state. Activation of endothelial cells in aging might be necessary to enhance wound healing capacities. -- Highlights: •Endothelial cells display signs of aging before reaching proliferative senescence. •Aging endothelial cells express more angiopoietin 1 and less angiopoietin 2 than young endothelial cells. •Migratory capacity is reduced in aging endothelial cells.

Analysis of alternative pathways for reducing nitrogen oxide emissions

Science.gov (United States)

Strategies for reducing tropospheric ozone typically include modifying combustion processes to reduce the formation of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and applying control devices that remove NOx from the exhaust gases of power plants, industrial sources and vehicles. For portions of the ...

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.

Double laminated reduced graphene/Cu2S/reduced graphene/graphene oxide nanofilms and their photoelectrochemical properties

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Junwei Li; Xueqi Zhang; Li Song; Min Zhang; Baohang Zhang

2016-01-01

In this work,an efficient photocatalytic material was prepared directly on Indium tin oxide (ITO) glass substrates by fabricating Cu2S and graphene oxide onto graphene for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting.The double laminated reduced graphene/Cu2S/reduced graphene/graphene oxide (RG/Cu2S/RG/GO) nanofilms were characterized,and an enhanced photoelectrochemical response in the visible region was discovered.The photocurrent density of the nanofilms for PEC water splitting was measured to be up to 1.98 mA/cm2,which could be ascribed to the followings:(i) a higher efficiency of light-harvesting because of GO coupling with Cu2S that could broaden the absorbing solar spectrum and enhance the light utilization efficiency;(ii) a stepwise structure of band-edge levels in the Cu2S/GO electrode was constructed;(iii) double laminated electron accelerator (RG) was used in the Cu2S/GO materials to get better electron-injecting efficiency.

Double laminated reduced graphene/Cu2S/reduced graphene/graphene oxide nanofilms and their photoelectrochemical properties

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Junwei; Li; Xueqi; Zhang; Li; Song; Min; Zhang; Baohang; Zhang

2016-01-01

In this work,an efficient photocatalytic material was prepared directly on Indium tin oxide（ITO）glass substrates by fabricating Cu2 S and graphene oxide onto graphene for photoelectrochemical（PEC） water splitting.The double laminated reduced graphene/Cu2S/reduced graphene/graphene oxide（RG/Cu2S/RG/GO） nanofilms were characterized,and an enhanced photoelectrochemical response in the visible region was discovered.The photocurrent density of the nanofilms for PEC water splitting was measured to be up to 1.98 m A/cm2,which could be ascribed to the followings:（i） a higher efficiency of light-harvesting because of GO coupling with Cu2 S that could broaden the absorbing solar spectrum and enhance the light utilization efficiency;（ii） a stepwise structure of band-edge levels in the Cu2S/GO electrode was constructed;（iii） double laminated electron accelerator（RG） was used in the Cu2S/GO materials to get better electron-injecting efficiency.

Reducing CQI Signalling Overhead in HSPA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saied M. Abd El-atty

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The efficiency of adaptive modulation and coding (AMC procedure in high speed Downlink packet access (HSDPA depends on the frequency of the channel quality information (CQI reports transmitted by the UE to Node B. The more frequent the reports are the more accurate the link adaptation procedure is. On the other hand, the frequent CQI reports increase uplink interference, reducing thus the signal reception quality at the uplink. In this study, we propose an improved CQI reporting scheme which aims to reduce the required CQI signaling by exploiting a CQI prediction method based on a finite-state Markov chain (FSMC model of the wireless channel. The simulation results show that under a high downlink traffic load, the proposed scheme has a near-to-optimum performance while produces less interference compared to the respective periodic CQI scheme.

Analysis of reduced widths and size

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sharma, H.C.; Ram Raj; Nath, N.

1977-01-01

Recent data on S-wave neutron reduced widths for a large number of nuclei have been analysed nucleus-wise and the calculations for the degree of freedom of the associated (chi) 2 -distribution have been made using the Porter and Thomas procedure. It is noted that a number of nuclei can be fitted by a (chi) 2 -distribution with degree of freedom one, while there are few which are identified to follow a (chi) 2 -distribution with degree of freedom two and even more than two. The present analysis thus contradicts the usual presumption according to which the degree of freedom is taken to be always unity. An analytical attempt has also been made to ascertain the suitability of the data on reduced widths to be used for the analysis. These considerations are likely to modify the neutron cross-section evaluations. (author)

Sorting, Searching, and Simulation in the MapReduce Framework

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Goodrich, Michael T.; Sitchinava, Nodar; Zhang, Qin

2011-01-01

We study the MapReduce framework from an algorithmic standpoint, providing a generalization of the previous algorithmic models for MapReduce. We present optimal solutions for the fundamental problems of all-prefix-sums, sorting and multi-searching. Additionally, we design optimal simulations...

Correlations for reduced-width amplitudes in 49V

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chou, B.H.; Mitchell, G.E.; Bilpuch, E.G.; Westerfeldt, C.R.

1980-01-01

Measurement of the relative sign of inelastic proton-channel amplitudes permits the determination of amplitude correlations. Data were obtained for 45 5/2 + resonances in 49 V. Although the reduced widths in each channel followed a Porter-Thomas distribution, large amplitude correlations were observed. The results are compared with the reduced-width--amplitude distribution of Krieger and Porter. This is the first direct test of the Krieger-Porter distribution

The evolution of reduced antagonism--A role for host-parasite coevolution.

Science.gov (United States)

Gibson, A K; Stoy, K S; Gelarden, I A; Penley, M J; Lively, C M; Morran, L T

2015-11-01

Why do some host-parasite interactions become less antagonistic over evolutionary time? Vertical transmission can select for reduced antagonism. Vertical transmission also promotes coevolution between hosts and parasites. Therefore, we hypothesized that coevolution itself may underlie transitions to reduced antagonism. To test the coevolution hypothesis, we selected for reduced antagonism between the host Caenorhabditis elegans and its parasite Serratia marcescens. This parasite is horizontally transmitted, which allowed us to study coevolution independently of vertical transmission. After 20 generations, we observed a response to selection when coevolution was possible: reduced antagonism evolved in the copassaged treatment. Reduced antagonism, however, did not evolve when hosts or parasites were independently selected without coevolution. In addition, we found strong local adaptation for reduced antagonism between replicate host/parasite lines in the copassaged treatment. Taken together, these results strongly suggest that coevolution was critical to the rapid evolution of reduced antagonism. © 2015 The Author(s). Evolution © 2015 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

Reducing nitrogen oxides from power stations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scheller, W.

1986-12-01

The report contains 17 individual lectures of the seminar included in databanks. The lectures concern combustion and waste gas measures for reducing the sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emission from coal-fired and gas-fired power stations. (PW) [de

Sorption of neptunium under oxidizing and reducing groundwater conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hakanen, M.

1991-01-01

Sorption of neptunium was studied under aerobic, anoxic and reducing groundwater conditions using solutions with initial Np concentrations of 10 -14 to 10 -8 mol/l. Under aerobic conditions the sorption was the same for all concentrations. Under anoxic conditions the same proportion of neptunium (70-80%) was removed from the water. The neptunium sorbed on rock surfaces was of mixed oxidation states. Only Np(V) was found in waters. Under reducing groundwater conditions, nearly all the neptunium was removed from water. The sorbed neptunium was at first almost completely in the form of Np(IV). The submicrogram amounts of neptunium were partly oxidized with time, but Np(V) did not dissolve in reducing water. The holding oxidant character of the tonalite to Np(V) and, the holding reductant character of rocks to small amounts of Np(IV), was demonstrated under anaerobic and reducing groundwater conditions, respectively. (orig.)

Reducing hospital readmission rates: current strategies and future directions.

Science.gov (United States)

Kripalani, Sunil; Theobald, Cecelia N; Anctil, Beth; Vasilevskis, Eduard E

2014-01-01

New financial penalties for institutions with high readmission rates have intensified efforts to reduce rehospitalization. Several interventions that involve multiple components (e.g., patient needs assessment, medication reconciliation, patient education, arranging timely outpatient appointments, and providing telephone follow-up) have successfully reduced readmission rates for patients discharged to home. The effect of interventions on readmission rates is related to the number of components implemented; single-component interventions are unlikely to reduce readmissions significantly. For patients discharged to postacute care facilities, multicomponent interventions have reduced readmissions through enhanced communication, medication safety, advanced care planning, and enhanced training to manage medical conditions that commonly precipitate readmission. To help hospitals direct resources and services to patients with greater likelihood of readmission, risk-stratification methods are available. Future work should better define the roles of home-based services, information technology, mental health care, caregiver support, community partnerships, and new transitional care personnel.

Reducing cardiovascular risk : protecting the kidney

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dobre, Daniela; Lambers Heerspink, Hiddo J.; de Zeeuw, Dick

2009-01-01

Progressive decline of renal function in chronic kidney disease (CKD), measured by a reduced glomerular filtration rate or albuminuria, is linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular (CV) disease. Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs), most

Reducing Attendance Time in LR-EPONs With Differentiated Services

KAUST Repository

Elrasad, Amr

2015-04-09

This work presents a novel on-the-fly void filling scheme for Long-Reach EPON called Size Controlled Batch Void Filling (SCBVF). SCBVF aims at reducing the time between consecutive bandwidth grants (attendance time) and hence reducing the average delay for delay-sensitive traffic.

Active power decoupling with reduced converter stress for single ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

SUJATA BHOWMICK

Department of Electronic Systems Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, ... Single phase; double-frequency ripple; active power decoupling; reduced stress; ... sation of renewable energy sources (e.g., PV), potential ... In standard grid connected DC/AC H-bridge configuration, ..... solar inverter with reduced-size dc link.

UK company strategies in reducing carbon dioxide emissions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yongmei Bentley

2016-07-01

Full Text Available This study investigated a number of large UK companies’ strategies in reducing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2 in their supply chain operations. In-depth interviews were conducted with logistics/supply chain (SC managers across different sectors. The research identified the main CO2 reduction strategies, and examined these in the light of existing literature in the research domain. One of the key findings was that there was a strong tension between cost reduction (identified as the major driver for reducing CO2 and lack of resources (the main barrier. It was also found that most CO2 reduction strategies had started only fairly recently, and so far, were mainly operational and tactical in nature. This study makes an empirical contribution to a better understanding of how companies form their CO2 reduction strategies in response to environmental pressures. It has implications for policy makers in terms of how to motivate logistics/SC managers to implement strategies to reduce the environmental impact of CO2 emissions in their business operations. Therefore, it is recommended that logistics/SC managers develop and implement practical initiatives and strategies to reduce CO2 emissions, and to embed these into corporate strategy.

Solution to Reduce Air Environmental Pollution from Ships

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Phẁm Tân HỚu

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Exhaust gas emissions from ships are increasingly polluting the air environment seriously. Therefore, the MARPOL 73/78 Annex VI is applied for all ships from 2017, Annex VI provided that the concentrations of NOx,SOx CO contained in ship’s exhaust gases must be less than 6.4 g/kWh, 0.6 g/kWh, and 5.5g/kWh respectively. Today, there are many solutions to reduce pollution emissions from exhaust gas of ships, such as improving combustion, using oil emulsion, using biofuel,…However, these solutions also have a handful of disadventages such as being unable to thoroughly resoulve problems, high cost, and very difficult to improve the quality of ship exhaust gas emissions for old ships. Exhaust gas treatment method uses a centralized treatment system where exhaust gas from the thermal engines is taken in a centralized treatment system before discharging into the air. After centralized treatment system, in comparision with raw exhaust gas, soot can be reduced by 98%, NOx can be reduced by 75%, SOx can be reduced by 80%. This method of treatment is not only low cost, good quality but also make marine heat-engines still use traditional fuels as well as need not improve its structure.

Energy-Recovery Pressure-Reducer in District Heating System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dariusz Borkowski

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Already existing man-made infrastructures that create water flow and unused pressure are interesting energy sources to which micro-hydropower plants can be applied. Apart from water supply systems (WSSs, which are widely described in the literature, significant hydropower potential can also be found in district heating systems (DHSs. In this paper, a prototype, a so-called energy-recovery pressure-reducer (ERPR, utilized for a DHS, is presented. It consisted of a pump as a turbine coupled to a permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG. The latter was connected to the power grid through the power electronic unit (PEU. The variable-speed operation allowed one to modify the turbine characteristics to match the substation’s hydraulic conditions. The proposed ERPR device could be installed in series to the existing classic pressure reducing valve (PRV as an independent device that reduces costs and simplifies system installation. The test results of the prototype system located in a substation of Cracow’s DHS are presented. The steady-state curves and regulation characteristics show the prototype’s operating range and efficiency. In this study, the pressure-reducer impact on the electrical and hydraulic systems, and on the environment, were analyzed. The operation tests during the annual heating season revealed an average system’s efficiency of 49%.

Sox11 Reduces Caspase-6 Cleavage and Activity.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elaine Waldron-Roby

Full Text Available The apoptotic cascade is an orchestrated event, whose final stages are mediated by effector caspases. Regulatory binding proteins have been identified for caspases such as caspase-3, -7, -8, and -9. Many of these proteins belong to the inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP family. By contrast, caspase-6 is not believed to be influenced by IAPs, and little is known about its regulation. We therefore performed a yeast-two-hybrid screen using a constitutively inactive form of caspase-6 for bait in order to identify novel regulators of caspase-6 activity. Sox11 was identified as a potential caspase-6 interacting protein. Sox11 was capable of dramatically reducing caspase-6 activity, as well as preventing caspase-6 self- cleavage. Several regions, including amino acids 117-214 and 362-395 within sox11 as well as a nuclear localization signal (NLS all contributed to the reduction in caspase-6 activity. Furthermore, sox11 was also capable of decreasing other effector caspase activity but not initiator caspases -8 and -9. The ability of sox11 to reduce effector caspase activity was also reflected in its capacity to reduce cell death following toxic insult. Interestingly, other sox proteins also had the ability to reduce caspase-6 activity but to a lesser extent than sox11.

A reduced order model of a quadruped walking system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sano, Akihito; Furusho, Junji; Naganuma, Nobuyuki

1990-01-01

Trot walking has recently been studied by several groups because of its stability and realizability. In the trot, diagonally opposed legs form pairs. While one pair of legs provides support, the other pair of legs swings forward in preparation for the next step. In this paper, we propose a reduced order model for the trot walking. The reduced order model is derived by using two dominant modes of the closed loop system in which the local feedback at each joint is implemented. It is shown by numerical examples that the obtained reduced order model can well approximate the original higher order model. (author)

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions through operations and supply chain management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Plambeck, Erica L.

2012-01-01

The experiences of the largest corporation in the world and those of a start-up company show how companies can profitably reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their supply chains. The operations management literature suggests additional opportunities to profitably reduce emissions in existing supply chains, and provides guidance for expanding the capacity of new “zero emission” supply chains. The potential for companies to profitably reduce emissions is substantial but (without effective climate policy) likely insufficient to avert dangerous climate change. - Highlights: ► Describes how firms are profitably reducing greenhouse gas emissions in their supply chains ► Highlights academic literature relevant to supply chain emission reduction

Stereotype threat can reduce older adults' memory errors.

Science.gov (United States)

Barber, Sarah J; Mather, Mara

2013-01-01

Stereotype threat often incurs the cost of reducing the amount of information that older adults accurately recall. In the current research, we tested whether stereotype threat can also benefit memory. According to the regulatory focus account of stereotype threat, threat induces a prevention focus in which people become concerned with avoiding errors of commission and are sensitive to the presence or absence of losses within their environment. Because of this, we predicted that stereotype threat might reduce older adults' memory errors. Results were consistent with this prediction. Older adults under stereotype threat had lower intrusion rates during free-recall tests (Experiments 1 and 2). They also reduced their false alarms and adopted more conservative response criteria during a recognition test (Experiment 2). Thus, stereotype threat can decrease older adults' false memories, albeit at the cost of fewer veridical memories, as well.

Concepts for reducing nuclear utility inventory carrying costs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Graybill, R.E.; DiCola, F.E.; Solanas, C.H.

1985-01-01

Nuclear utilities are under pressure to reduce their operating and maintenance expenses such that the total cost of generating electricity through nuclear power remains an economically attractive option. One area in which expenses may be reduced is total inventory carrying cost. The total inventory carrying cost consists of financing an inventory, managing the inventory, assuring quality, engineering of acceptable parts specifications, and procuring initial and replenishment stock. Concepts and methodology must be developed to reduce the remaining expenses of a utility's total inventory carrying cost. Currently, two concepts exist: pooled inventory management system (PIMS), originally established by General Electric Company and a group of boiling water reactor owners, and Nuclear Parts Associates' (NUPA) shared inventory management program (SIMP). Both concepts share or pool parts and components among utilities. The SIMP program objectives and technical activities are summarized

Female employment reduces fertility in rural Senegal.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Goedele Van den Broeck

Full Text Available Economic growth and modernization of society are generally associated with fertility rate decreases but which forces trigger this is unclear. In this paper we assess how fertility changes with increased labor market participation of women in rural Senegal. Evidence from high-income countries suggests that higher female employment rates lead to reduced fertility rates but evidence from developing countries at an early stage of demographic transition is largely absent. We concentrate on a rural area in northern Senegal where a recent boom in horticultural exports has been associated with a sudden increase in female off-farm employment. Using survey data we show that employed women have a significantly higher age at marriage and at first childbirth, and significantly fewer children. As causal identification strategy we use instrumental variable and difference-in-differences estimations, combined with propensity score matching. We find that female employment reduces the number of children per woman by 25%, and that this fertility-reducing effect is as large for poor as for non-poor women and larger for illiterate than for literate women. Results imply that female employment is a strong instrument for empowering rural women, reducing fertility rates and accelerating the demographic transition in poor countries. The effectiveness of family planning programs can increase if targeted to areas where female employment is increasing or to female employees directly because of a higher likelihood to reach women with low-fertility preferences. Our results show that changes in fertility preferences not necessarily result from a cultural evolution but can also be driven by sudden and individual changes in economic opportunities.

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.

Method of reducing radon levels in buildings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khajdarov, R.A.; Gapurova, O.U.; Khajdarov, R.R.

2004-01-01

Radon concentration can be reduced by using polymeric compositions which fill pores inside building materials and decrease the coefficient of permeation of radon atoms and water molecules in building materials (concrete, gypsum, etc.). Polymeric silico-organic compounds were investigated and selected as the chemicals to prevent radon seeping indoors. Gas (air, Ar, 222 Rn, H 2 O) permeability of concrete and gypsum after treatment with chemicals was examined. The effect of the cement and sand types, preliminary treatment with various chemicals, type of the polymeric silico-organic compounds, time between treatments, moisture of concrete, time between the preparation of chemicals and the treatment of concrete (ageing of chemicals), time between the treatment of concrete and testing (ageing of treated concrete) were examined. Surfaces of the samples were treated by spraying. The experiments gave evidence that the chosen method of treatment of the construction materials allows reducing the coefficient of gas permeability in 200 - 400 times. Treatment of the floor, walls and ceiling of the basement of 5 buildings reduced the radon concentration in the premises of the first floor from 400-600 Bq/m 3 to the background value of 17-20 Bq/m 3

Reducing pressure oscillations in discrete fluid power systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Anders Hedegaard; Pedersen, Henrik Clemmensen

2016-01-01

Discrete fluid power systems featuring transmission lines inherently include pressure oscillations. Experimental verification of a discrete fluid power power take off system for wave energy converters has shown the cylinder pressure to oscillate as force shifts are performed. This article investi...... investigates how cylinder pressure oscillations may be reduced by shaping the valve opening trajectory without the need for closed loop pressure feedback. Furthermore the energy costs of reducing pressure oscillations are investigated....

Reduced order ARMA spectral estimation of ocean waves

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Mandal, S.; Witz, J.A.; Lyons, G.J.

. After selecting the initial model order based on the Akaike Information Criterion method, a novel model order reduction technique is applied to obtain the final reduced order ARMA model. First estimates of the higher order autoregressive coefficients... of the reduced order ARMA model is obtained. The moving average part is determined based on partial fraction and recursive methods. The above system identification models and model order reduction technique are shown here to be successfully applied...

“Friday off”: Reducing Working Hours in Europe

OpenAIRE

Kallis, Giorgos; Kalush, Michael; O.'Flynn, Hugh; Rossiter, Jack; Ashford, Nicholas A.

2013-01-01

This article explores the pros and cons for reducing working hours in Europe. To arrive to an informed judgment we review critically the theoretical and empirical literature, mostly from economics, concerning the relation between working hours on the one hand, and productivity, employment, quality of life, and the environment, on the other. We adopt a binary economics distinction between capital and labor productiveness, and are concerned with how working hours may be reduced without harming ...

Novel Reduced-Feedback Wireless Communication Systems

KAUST Repository

Shaqfeh, Mohammad Obaidah

2011-11-20

Modern communication systems apply channel-aware adaptive transmission techniques and dynamic resource allocation in order to exploit the peak conditions of the fading wireless links and to enable significant performance gains. However, conveying the channel state information among the users’ mobile terminals into the access points of the network consumes a significant portion of the scarce air-link resources and depletes the battery resources of the mobile terminals rapidly. Despite its evident drawbacks, the channel information feedback cannot be eliminated in modern wireless networks because blind communication technologies cannot support the ever-increasing transmission rates and high quality of experience demands of current ubiquitous services. Developing new transmission technologies with reduced-feedback requirements is sought. Network operators will benefit from releasing the bandwidth resources reserved for the feedback communications and the clients will enjoy the extended battery life of their mobile devices. The main technical challenge is to preserve the prospected transmission rates over the network despite decreasing the channel information feedback significantly. This is a noteworthy research theme especially that there is no mature theory for feedback communication in the existing literature despite the growing number of publications about the topic in the last few years. More research efforts are needed to characterize the trade-off between the achievable rate and the required channel information and to design new reduced-feedback schemes that can be flexibly controlled based on the operator preferences. Such schemes can be then introduced into the standardization bodies for consideration in next generation broadband systems. We have recently contributed to this field and published several journal and conference papers. We are the pioneers to propose a novel reduced-feedback opportunistic scheduling scheme that combines many desired features

Reduced multiple empirical kernel learning machine.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Zhe; Lu, MingZhe; Gao, Daqi

2015-02-01

Multiple kernel learning (MKL) is demonstrated to be flexible and effective in depicting heterogeneous data sources since MKL can introduce multiple kernels rather than a single fixed kernel into applications. However, MKL would get a high time and space complexity in contrast to single kernel learning, which is not expected in real-world applications. Meanwhile, it is known that the kernel mapping ways of MKL generally have two forms including implicit kernel mapping and empirical kernel mapping (EKM), where the latter is less attracted. In this paper, we focus on the MKL with the EKM, and propose a reduced multiple empirical kernel learning machine named RMEKLM for short. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first to reduce both time and space complexity of the MKL with EKM. Different from the existing MKL, the proposed RMEKLM adopts the Gauss Elimination technique to extract a set of feature vectors, which is validated that doing so does not lose much information of the original feature space. Then RMEKLM adopts the extracted feature vectors to span a reduced orthonormal subspace of the feature space, which is visualized in terms of the geometry structure. It can be demonstrated that the spanned subspace is isomorphic to the original feature space, which means that the dot product of two vectors in the original feature space is equal to that of the two corresponding vectors in the generated orthonormal subspace. More importantly, the proposed RMEKLM brings a simpler computation and meanwhile needs a less storage space, especially in the processing of testing. Finally, the experimental results show that RMEKLM owns a much efficient and effective performance in terms of both complexity and classification. The contributions of this paper can be given as follows: (1) by mapping the input space into an orthonormal subspace, the geometry of the generated subspace is visualized; (2) this paper first reduces both the time and space complexity of the EKM-based MKL; (3

Improving Realism in Reduced Gravity Simulators

Science.gov (United States)

Cowley, Matthew; Harvil, Lauren; Clowers, Kurt; Clark, Timothy; Rajulu, Sudhakar

2010-01-01

Since man was first determined to walk on the moon, simulating the lunar environment became a priority. Providing an accurate reduced gravity environment is crucial for astronaut training and hardware testing. This presentation will follow the development of reduced gravity simulators to a final comparison of environments between the currently used systems. During the Apollo program era, multiple systems were built and tested, with several NASA centers having their own unique device. These systems ranged from marionette-like suspension devices where the subject laid on his side, to pneumatically driven offloading harnesses, to parabolic flights. However, only token comparisons, if any, were made between systems. Parabolic flight allows the entire body to fall at the same rate, giving an excellent simulation of reduced gravity as far as the biomechanics and physical perceptions are concerned. While the effects are accurate, there is limited workspace, limited time, and high cost associated with these tests. With all mechanical offload systems only the parts of the body that are actively offloaded feel any reduced gravity effects. The rest of the body still feels the full effect of gravity. The Partial Gravity System (Pogo) is the current ground-based offload system used to training and testing at the NASA Johnson Space Center. The Pogo is a pneumatic type system that allows for offloaded motion in the z-axis and free movement in the x-axis, but has limited motion in the y-axis. The pneumatic system itself is limited by cylinder stroke length and response time. The Active Response Gravity Offload System (ARGOS) is a next generation groundbased offload system, currently in development, that is based on modern robotic manufacturing lines. This system is projected to provide more z-axis travel and full freedom in both the x and y-axes. Current characterization tests are underway to determine how the ground-based offloading systems perform, how they compare to parabolic

ART drugs help reduce HIV transmission, Chinese study finds ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

International Development Research Centre Government of Canada ... ART drugs help reduce HIV transmission, Chinese study finds ... where only one person has HIV can reduce HIV transmission rates, at least in the short term, a Chinese study has found. ... Ecohealth Field-building Leadership Initiative in Southeast Asia.

Just Do It! Reducing Academic Procrastination of Secondary Students

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Ziwei

2016-01-01

Academic procrastination is a common problem among secondary students. This paper provides secondary teachers with evidence-based strategies to reduce or prevent academic procrastination in their classrooms. Given that reducing academic procrastination is a responsibility for teachers as well as students, the paper describes teacher-administered…

Reducing the capacitance of piezoelectric film sensors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

González, Martín G., E-mail: mggonza@fi.uba.ar [Grupo de Láser, Óptica de Materiales y Aplicaciones Electromagnéticas (GLOMAE), Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Paseo Colón 850, C1063ACV Buenos Aires (Argentina); Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), C1425FQB Buenos Aires (Argentina); Sorichetti, Patricio A.; Santiago, Guillermo D. [Grupo de Láser, Óptica de Materiales y Aplicaciones Electromagnéticas (GLOMAE), Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Paseo Colón 850, C1063ACV Buenos Aires (Argentina)

2016-04-15

We present a novel design for large area, wideband, polymer piezoelectric sensor with low capacitance. The large area allows better spatial resolution in applications such as photoacoustic tomography and the reduced capacitance eases the design of fast transimpedance amplifiers. The metalized piezoelectric polymer thin film is segmented into N sections, electrically connected in series. In this way, the total capacitance is reduced by a factor 1/N{sup 2}, whereas the mechanical response and the active area of the sensor are not modified. We show the construction details for a two-section sensor, together with the impedance spectroscopy and impulse response experimental results that validate the design.

Reducing the capacitance of piezoelectric film sensors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

González, Martín G.; Sorichetti, Patricio A.; Santiago, Guillermo D.

2016-01-01

We present a novel design for large area, wideband, polymer piezoelectric sensor with low capacitance. The large area allows better spatial resolution in applications such as photoacoustic tomography and the reduced capacitance eases the design of fast transimpedance amplifiers. The metalized piezoelectric polymer thin film is segmented into N sections, electrically connected in series. In this way, the total capacitance is reduced by a factor 1/N"2, whereas the mechanical response and the active area of the sensor are not modified. We show the construction details for a two-section sensor, together with the impedance spectroscopy and impulse response experimental results that validate the design.

Effectiveness of methods for reducing acrylamide in bakery products.

Science.gov (United States)

Sadd, Peter A; Hamlet, Colin G; Liang, Li

2008-08-13

Pilot-scale bread, biscuit, and cracker doughs have been baked to assess how well recipe changes could reduce acrylamide in commercial bakery products. Removing ammonium-based raising agents was beneficial in biscuits. In doughs, long yeast fermentations were an effective way of reducing asparagine levels and hence acrylamide. At moderate fermentation times fructose levels increased, but the yeast later absorbed this, so the net effect on acrylamide was beneficial. Metal ions such as calcium reduced acrylamide when added as the carbonate or chloride. Hence, the fortification of flour with calcium carbonate, over and above its natural mineral content, has an additional benefit. However, some other possible methods of adding calcium to bakery doughs, for example, via the permitted preservative calcium propionate, were not beneficial. Amino acid addition to doughs gave modest reductions in acrylamide. Lowering the dough pH reduced acrylamide, but at the expense of higher levels of other process contaminants such as 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD).

Reducing the number of obstetrical beds by challenging traditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Salvig, Camilla Dalby; Storkholm, Marie Højriis; Salvig, Jannie Dalby; Uldbjerg, Niels

2018-05-19

The aim of this commentary is to describe changes in women care at an obstetric department that made it possible to reduce the number of beds from 40 to 29. Patient pathways were reviewed and revised using lean methodology. The mean length of stay was reduced from 70 to 59 hours and the mean numbers of hospitalizations per woman from 1.26 to 1.20. At the organizational level, we introduced a Family Department, home management of newborns, home monitoring of the women with cardiotocography and blood samples, and intrapartum Group B Streptococcus-PCR. Additionally, an After Birth Clinic and network meetings for vulnerable women were established. In patient pathway, we reduced the hospitalization indicated by preterm premature rupture of membranes, preeclampsia and observation after birth laceration. According to National Patient Satisfaction surveys, there was no decrease in women's satisfaction after reducing the number of beds. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Reducing the top quark mass uncertainty with jet grooming

Science.gov (United States)

Andreassen, Anders; Schwartz, Matthew D.

2017-10-01

The measurement of the top quark mass has large systematic uncertainties coming from the Monte Carlo simulations that are used to match theory and experiment. We explore how much that uncertainty can be reduced by using jet grooming procedures. Using the ATLAS A14 tunes of pythia, we estimate the uncertainty from the choice of tuning parameters in what is meant by the Monte Carlo mass to be around 530 MeV without any corrections. This uncertainty can be reduced by 60% to 200 MeV by calibrating to the W mass and by 70% to 140 MeV by additionally applying soft-drop jet grooming (or to 170 MeV using trimming). At e + e - colliders, the associated uncertainty is around 110 MeV, reducing to 50 MeV after calibrating to the W mass. By analyzing the tuning parameters, we conclude that the importance of jet grooming after calibrating to the W -mass is to reduce sensitivity to the underlying event.

Systematic review of active workplace interventions to reduce sickness absence.

Science.gov (United States)

Odeen, M; Magnussen, L H; Maeland, S; Larun, L; Eriksen, H R; Tveito, T H

2013-01-01

The workplace is used as a setting for interventions to prevent and reduce sickness absence, regardless of the specific medical conditions and diagnoses. To give an overview of the general effectiveness of active workplace interventions aimed at preventing and reducing sickness absence. We systematically searched PubMed, Embase, Psych-info, and ISI web of knowledge on 27 December 2011. Inclusion criteria were (i) participants over 18 years old with an active role in the intervention, (ii) intervention done partly or fully at the workplace or at the initiative of the workplace and (iii) sickness absence reported. Two reviewers independently screened articles, extracted data and assessed risk of bias. A narrative synthesis was used. We identified 2036 articles of which, 93 were assessed in full text. Seventeen articles were included (2 with low and 15 with medium risk of bias), with a total of 24 comparisons. Five interventions from four articles significantly reduced sickness absence. We found moderate evidence that graded activity reduced sickness absence and limited evidence that the Sheerbrooke model (a comprehensive multidisciplinary intervention) and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) reduced sickness absence. There was moderate evidence that workplace education and physical exercise did not reduce sickness absence. For other interventions, the evidence was insufficient to draw conclusions. The review found limited evidence that active workplace interventions were not generally effective in reducing sickness absence, but there was moderate evidence of effect for graded activity and limited evidence for the effectiveness of the Sheerbrooke model and CBT.

Characterization of (per)chlorate-reducing bacteria

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wolterink, A.F.W.M.

2004-01-01

Some bacteria can use (per)chlorateas terminal electron acceptor for growth. These bacteria convert perchlorate via chlorate and chlorite into chloride and molecular oxygen. Oxygen formation in microbial respiration is unique. In this study two chlorate-reducing strains

Impact Delivery of Reduced Greenhouse Gases on Early Mars

Science.gov (United States)

Haberle, R. M.; Zahnle, K. J.; Barlow, N. G.

2017-12-01

Reducing greenhouse gases are the latest trend in finding solutions to the early Mars climate dilemma. In thick CO2 atmospheres with modest concentrations of H2 and/or CH4, collision induced absorptions can reduce the outgoing long wave radiation enough to provide a significant greenhouse effect. To raise surface temperatures significantly by this process, surface pressures must be at least 500 mb and H2 and/or CH4 concentrations must be at or above the several percent level. Volcanism, serpentinization, and impacts are possible sources for reduced gases. Here we investigate the delivery of such gases by impact degassing from comets and asteroids. We use a time-marching stochastic impactor model that reproduces the observed crater size frequency distribution of Noachian surfaces. Following each impact, reduced gases are added to the atmosphere from a production function based on gas equilibrium calculations for several classes of meteorites and comets at typical post-impact temperatures. Escape and photochemistry then remove the reduced greenhouse gases continuously in time throughout each simulation. We then conduct an ensemble of simulations with this simple model varying the surface pressure, impact history, reduced gas production and escape functions, and mix of impactor types, to determine if this could be a potentially important part of the early Mars story. Our goal is to determine the duration of impact events that elevate reduced gas concentrations to significant levels and the total time of such events throughout the Noachian. Our initial simulations indicate that large impactors can raise H2 concentrations above the 10% level - a level high enough for a very strong greenhouse effect in a 1 bar CO2 atmosphere - for millions of years, and that the total time spent at or above that level can be in the 10's of millions of years range. These are interesting results that we plan to explore more thoroughly for the meeting.

Vitamin D with calcium reduces mortality

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rejnmark, Lars; Avenell, Alison; Masud, Tahir

2012-01-01

Introduction: Vitamin D may affect multiple health outcomes. If so, an effect on mortality is to be expected. Using pooled data from randomized controlled trials, we performed individual patient data (IPD) and trial level meta-analyses to assess mortality among participants randomized to either...... vitamin D alone or vitamin D with calcium. Subjects and Methods: Through a systematic literature search, we identified 24 randomized controlled trials reporting data on mortality in which vitamin D was given either alone or with calcium. From a total of 13 trials with more than 1000 participants each......,528 randomized participants (86.8% females) with a median age of 70 (interquartile range, 62-77) yr. Vitamin D with or without calcium reduced mortality by 7% [hazard ratio, 0.93; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.88-0.99]. However, vitamin D alone did not affect mortality, but risk of death was reduced if vitamin...

Effectiveness of counteraggression strategies in reducing interactive aggression by males.

Science.gov (United States)

Kimble, C E; Fitz, D; Onorad, J R

1977-04-01

Studies on techniques of reducing aggression have typically examined passive, matching, and punitive strategies of counteraggression and have been remarkably inconsistent in their findings. This research was designed to resolve the contradictory results by reconceptuallzing the strategies in terms of counteraggression/aggression (cA/A) ratios. We predicted that the norm of reciprocity and the tendency to exploit weakness would make a cA/A ratio of less than but close to 1.0 (matching) most effective in reducing aggression. Ten cA/A ratios were used. One hundred male subjects set punishment level set by their opponent (a confederate) on 25 trials, and, on 13 losing trials, received punishment. The most effective cA/A ratios for reducing aggression were the lowest ones. Lower cA/A ratios reduced aggression and ratios greater than 1.0 increased aggresion. Contrary to the results of previous studies, the matching strategy was ineffective in reducing aggresion.

Reduced Interference from Memory Testing: A Postretrieval Monitoring Account

Science.gov (United States)

Pierce, Benton H.; Gallo, David A.; McCain, Jason L.

2017-01-01

Initial learning can interfere with subsequent learning (proactive interference [PI]), but recent work indicates initial testing can reduce PI. Here, we tested 2 alternative hypotheses of this effect: Does testing reduce PI by constraining retrieval to the target list, or by facilitating a postretrieval monitoring process? Participants first…

Large Scale Hierarchical K-Means Based Image Retrieval With MapReduce

Science.gov (United States)

2014-03-27

flat vocabulary on MapReduce. In 2013, Moise and Shestakov [32, 40], have been researching large scale indexing and search with MapReduce. They...time will be greatly reduced, however image retrieval performance will almost certainly suffer. Moise and Shestakov ran tests with 100M images on 108...43–72, 2005. [32] Diana Moise , Denis Shestakov, Gylfi Gudmundsson, and Laurent Amsaleg. Indexing and searching 100m images with map-reduce. In

Reduced Deforestation and Economic Growth

OpenAIRE

Patrick Doupe

2014-01-01

The clearing of forests for agricultural land and other marketable purposes is a well-trodden path of economic development. With these private benefits from deforestation come external costs: emissions from deforestation currently account for 12 per cent of global carbon emissions. A widespread intervention in reducing emissions from deforestation will affect the paths of agricultural expansion and economic growth of lower income nations. To investigate these processes, this paper presents a ...

Towards a design theory for reducing aggression in psychiatric facilities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ulrich, Roger S; Bogren, Lennart; Lundin, Stefan

2012-01-01

The paper proposes a tentative theory for designing psychiatric environments to foster reduced aggression and violence. A basic premise underlying the design theory is that environmental and psycho-social stressors mediate and trigger aggression. The theory posits that aggression will be reduced...... buildings with design guided by the best available evidence and theory can play an important role in reducing the serious patient and staff safety problem of aggressive behavior....... if the facility has been designed with an evidence-based bundle of stress-reducing environmental characteristics that are identified and discussed. To make possible a tentative empirical evaluation of the theory, findings are described from a study that compared aggressive incidents in three Swedish psychiatric...

Increasing induction motors efficiency by reducing electromagnetic loads

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olivian Chiver

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The efficiency of any device is a major problem today. The design and construction of high efficiency motors is strongly required from the viewpoint of reducing energy consumption and protecting the environment. This paper deal with the problem of improving efficiency by reducing electrical and magnetic loads of these motors. Using the finite elements method (FEM, the authors will study the influence of these changes on the parameters and characteristics of the initial motor.

Costs of emission-reducing manure application

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Huijsmans, J.F.M.; Verwijs, B.; Rodhe, L.; Smith, K.

2004-01-01

Favourable economics of handling and application of manure are of fundamental importance to encourage the implementation of emission-reducing application techniques. The economics of manure application depend on the costs of the equipment and the time to carry out the field operation. In this study

Some Spinel Oxide Compounds as Reducing Gas Sensors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicolae Rezlescu

2007-04-01

Full Text Available Four spinel ferrites, MFe2O4 (M = Cu, Cd, Zn and Ni, having various grain sizes (100 – 700 nm were prepared by sol-gel-selfcombustion and their sensing properties to reducing gases were investigated. The gas sensing characteristics were obtained by measuring the sensitivity as a function of various controlling factors, like operating temperature, composition and concentration of the gas, and finally the response time. The sensitivity of four ferrites to reducing gases like acetone, ethanol and LPG was been compared. It was revealed that CuFe2O4 is the most sensitive to LPG and ZnFe2O4 can be used as a sensor to selectively detect ethanol vapors in air. The strong interaction between ethanol and porous ZnFe2O4 can explain the selective sensitivity to ethanol and negligible sensitivity to the other reducing gases.

Methods for reducing pollutant emissions from jet aircraft

Science.gov (United States)

Butze, H. F.

1971-01-01

Pollutant emissions from jet aircraft and combustion research aimed at reducing these emissions are defined. The problem of smoke formation and results achieved in smoke reduction from commercial combustors are discussed. Expermental results of parametric tests performed on both conventional and experimental combustors over a range of combustor-inlet conditions are presented. Combustor design techniques for reducing pollutant emissions are discussed. Improved fuel atomization resulting from the use of air-assist fuel nozzles has brought about significant reductions in hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions at idle. Diffuser tests have shown that the combustor-inlet airflow profile can be controlled through the use of diffuser-wall bleed and that it may thus be possible to reduce emissions by controlling combustor airflow distribution. Emissions of nitric oxide from a shortlength annular swirl-can combustor were significantly lower than those from a conventional combustor operating at similar conditions.

Reducing the illegal sale of cigarettes to minors.

Science.gov (United States)

Altman, D G; Foster, V; Rasenick-Douss, L; Tye, J B

1989-01-06

This study reports on an effort to stop the illegal sale of cigarettes to minors. In Santa Clara County, Calif, 412 stores and 30 vending machines were visited by 18 minors aged 14 through 16 years with the intent to purchase cigarettes; they were successful at 74% of the stores and 100% of the vending machines. After an aggressive six-month campaign using communitywide media, direct merchant education, contact with the chief executive officers of chain stores and franchise operations owned by major companies, and grassroots work with community organizations, the percentage of stores with illegal over-the-counter sale of cigarettes to minors was reduced to 39%. Sales from vending machines were not reduced. While much remains to be accomplished in stopping the illegal sale of tobacco to minors, data from this study illustrate that a well-designed community and merchant education campaign can significantly reduce such sales.

Writing and querying MapReduce views in CouchDB

CERN Document Server

Holt, Bradley

2011-01-01

If you want to use CouchDB to support real-world applications, you'll need to create MapReduce views that let you query this document-oriented database for meaningful data. With this short and concise ebook, you'll learn how to create a variety of MapReduce views to help you query and aggregate data in CouchDB's large, distributed datasets. You'll get step-by-step instructions and lots of sample code to create and explore several MapReduce views through the course of the book, using an example database you construct. To work with these different views, you'll learn how to use the Futon web a

A process for reducing rocks and concentrating heavy minerals

Science.gov (United States)

Strong, Thomas R.; Driscoll, Rhonda L.

2016-03-30

To obtain minerals suitable for age-dating and other analyses, it is necessary to first reduce the mineral-bearing rock to a fine, sand-like consistency. Reducing whole rock requires crushing, grinding, and sieving. Ideally, the reduced material should range in size from 80- to 270-mesh (an opening between wires in a sieve). The openings in an 80-mesh sieve are equal to 0.007 inches, 0.177 millimeters, or 177 micrometers. This size range ensures that compound grains are mostly disaggregated and that grains, in general, are dimensionally similar. This range also improves the segregation rate of conspicuous to extremely small individual heavy mineral grains.

Lean Manufacturing Implementation: an Approach to Reduce Production Cost

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Iraswari

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract: Lean Manufacturing Implementation: An Approach To Reduce Production Cost. Opportunities to improve production processes and reduce production cost through the implementation of lean manufacturing in small medium garment manufacturing are presented in this research. This research shows that there is a possibility of decrease in production cost and increase in return on sales. Lean manufacturing implementation can eliminate waste in the production process. This is a set of techniques for identification and elimination of waste gathered from The Ford Production, Statistical Process Control and other techniques. Improvement of quality could be carried out while time and cost of production are being reduced.

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.

Microbiota-Derived Metabolic Factors Reduce Campylobacteriosis in Mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Xiaolun; Winglee, Kathryn; Gharaibeh, Raad Z; Gauthier, Josee; He, Zhen; Tripathi, Prabhanshu; Avram, Dorina; Bruner, Steven; Fodor, Anthony; Jobin, Christian

2018-05-01

Campylobacter jejuni, a prevalent foodborne bacterial pathogen, exploits the host innate response to induce colitis. Little is known about the roles of microbiota in C jejuni-induced intestinal inflammation. We investigated interactions between microbiota and intestinal cells during C jejuni infection of mice. Germ-free C57BL/6 Il10 -/- mice were colonized with conventional microbiota and infected with a single dose of C jejuni (10 9 colony-forming units/mouse) via gavage. Conventional microbiota were cultured under aerobic, microaerobic, or anaerobic conditions and orally transplanted into germ-free Il10 -/- mice. Colon tissues were collected from mice and analyzed by histology, real-time polymerase chain reaction, and immunoblotting. Fecal microbiota and bile acids were analyzed with 16S sequencing and high-performance liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry, respectively. Introduction of conventional microbiota reduced C jejuni-induced colitis in previously germ-free Il10 -/- mice, independent of fecal load of C jejuni, accompanied by reduced activation of mammalian target of rapamycin. Microbiota transplantation and 16S ribosomal DNA sequencing experiments showed that Clostridium XI, Bifidobacterium, and Lactobacillus were enriched in fecal samples from mice colonized with microbiota cultured in anaerobic conditions (which reduce colitis) compared with mice fed microbiota cultured under aerobic conditions (susceptible to colitis). Oral administration to mice of microbiota-derived secondary bile acid sodium deoxycholate, but not ursodeoxycholic acid or lithocholic acid, reduced C jejuni-induced colitis. Depletion of secondary bile acid-producing bacteria with antibiotics that kill anaerobic bacteria (clindamycin) promoted C jejuni-induced colitis in specific pathogen-free Il10 -/- mice compared with the nonspecific antibiotic nalidixic acid; colitis induction by antibiotics was associated with reduced level of luminal deoxycholate. We identified a

Warming Early Mars by Impact Degassing of Reduced Greenhouse Gases

Science.gov (United States)

Haberle, R. M.; Zahnle, K.; Barlow, N. G.

2018-01-01

Reducing greenhouse gases are once again the latest trend in finding solutions to the early Mars climate dilemma. In its current form collision induced absorptions (CIA) involving H2 and/or CH4 provide enough extra greenhouse power in a predominately CO2 atmosphere to raise global mean surface temperatures to the melting point of water provided the atmosphere is thick enough and the reduced gases are abundant enough. Surface pressures must be at least 500 mb and H2 and/or CH4 concentrations must be at or above the several percent level for CIA to be effective. Atmospheres with 1-2 bars of CO2 and 2- 10% H2 can sustain surface environments favorable for liquid water. Smaller concentrations of H2 are sufficient if CH4 is also present. If thick CO2 atmospheres with percent level concentrations of reduced gases are the solution to the faint young Sun paradox for Mars, then plausible mechanisms must be found to generate and sustain the gases. Possible sources of reducing gases include volcanic outgassing, serpentinization, and impact delivery; sinks include photolyis, oxidation, and escape to space. The viability of the reduced greenhouse hypothesis depends, therefore, on the strength of these sources and sinks. In this paper we focus on impact delivered reduced gases.

Using psychology to reduce violence in South Africa | IDRC ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2015-02-16

Feb 16, 2015 ... How can a public health approach to reducing violence in South Africa be improved? A new article by researchers working with the Safe and Inclusive Cities initiative argues that integrating and understanding the psychological factors associated with violence will yield important insights and help to reduce ...

Strategies to reduce blood product utilization in obstetric practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Neb, Holger; Zacharowski, Kai; Meybohm, Patrick

2017-06-01

Patient blood management (PBM) aims to improve patient outcome and safety by reducing the number of unnecessary RBC transfusions and vitalizing patient-specific anemia reserves. Although PBM is increasingly recognized as best clinical practice in elective surgery, implementation of PBM is restrained in the setting of obstetrics. This review summarizes recent findings to reduce blood product utilization in obstetric practice. PBM-related evidence-based benefits should be urgently adopted in the field of obstetric medicine. Intravenous iron can be considered a safe, effective strategy to replenish iron stores and to correct both pregnancy-related and hemorrhage-related iron deficiency anemia. In addition to surgical techniques and the use of uterotonics, recent findings support early administration of tranexamic acid, fibrinogen and a coagulation factor concentrate-based, viscoelastically guided practice in case of peripartum hemorrhage to manage coagulopathy. In patients with cesarean section, autologous red cell blood salvage may reduce blood product utilization, although its use in this setting is controversial. Implementation of PBM in obstetric practice offers large potential to reduce blood loss and transfusion requirements of allogeneic blood products, even though large clinical trials are lacking in this specific field. Intravenous iron supplementation may be suggested to increase peripartum hemoglobin levels. Additionally, tranexamic acid and point-of-care-guided supplementation of coagulation factors are potent methods to reduce unnecessary blood loss and blood transfusions in obstetrics.

Kevlar/PMR-15 reduced drag DC-9 reverser stang fairing

Science.gov (United States)

Kawai, R. T.

1982-01-01

A reduced drag fairing for the afterbody enclosing the thrust reverser actuators on the DC-9 has been developed with Kevlar-49/PMR-15 advanced composite material. The improved fairing reduces airplane drag 1% compared to the production baseline. Use of composites reduces weight 40% compared to an equivalent metal fairing. The Kevlar-49/PMR-15 advanced composite is an organic matrix material system that can be used at temperatures up to 500 F.

Dose titration to reduce dipyridamole-related headache.

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Yeu-Jhy; Ryu, Shan-Jin; Lee, Tsong-Hai

2006-01-01

Combination of low-dose aspirin and modified-release dipyridamole (ASA+MR-DP) provides a significantly increased benefit in stroke prevention over aspirin alone. However, headaches were reported in more patients receiving dipyridamole-containing agents than in those receiving placebo. We undertook a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate which dosing regimens of ASA+MR-DP have better tolerance. This trial randomized 146 patients with a history of ischemic cerebrovascular disease into three groups: placebo (days 1-28), reduced dose (placebo on days 1-4, ASA+MR-DP once daily before bed during days 5-14, and b.i.d. on days 15-28), and regular dose (placebo on days 1-4, and ASA+MR-DP b.i.d. on days 5-28). Using Chinese diary card, headache was assessed as mean cumulated headache (Sigma frequency x intensity/occurrence days x study days) over the study period, and was graded 0-4 according to Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program, Common Toxicity Criteria, Version 2.0. Intent-to-treat patients after randomization was 46 in placebo group, 45, reduced dose, and 49, regular dose. Among commonly reported adverse effects, headache of any grade occurred significantly more in the regular dose group (38.8%), as compared to the other two groups (p < 0.05). Mean cumulated headache was higher (p < 0.05) in the regular dose group than in the reduced group during days 5-14. Of 27 patients who dropped out, 15 (55.6%) were due to headache, which was substantially more in regular dose (8, 53.3%), though the difference was statistically insignificant. Initial reduced dose treatment with ASA+MR-DP may cause fewer headaches than regular dosing, and seems better tolerated by those susceptible to phosphodiesterase inhibitor-induced headache. Copyright 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Reducing surgical nurses' aseptic practice-related stress.

Science.gov (United States)

Aholaakko, Teija-Kaisa

2011-12-01

This paper aims to explore aseptic practice-related stress in surgery. The objectives are to define stress-related factors and the means to reduce the stress. Occupational stress is related to personal characteristics: job satisfaction and physiological and psychological well-being. The stress symptoms are often classified as part of a negative mood. Nurses have expressed stress when deadening their conscience to external demands with co-workers or internal working role-related demands. Surgery nurses expect fair division of work and compliance with rules. The hospital management, technology and the medical profession, instead of the needs of the patient, are recognised as a danger in the development of surgery nurses' role. A qualitative stimulated recall interview was performed in the surgery of the university hospital. Thirty-one operations were videotaped, and 31 nurses interviewed during videotape stimulation. The 1306 text pages were transcripted and analysed by a qualitative membership categorisation device analysis. The analysis revealed aseptic practice-related stress which constructed a sixteen level category. The membership categorisation identified connections between qualitatively attributed personnel and seven stress factors: working experience; time; equipment; person; patient; working morals and power. Final analysis revealed nurses reducing aseptic practice-related stress by safe, peaceful, competent and relative means. The aseptic practice-related stress varied from positive motivating feelings to exhaustion. The stress was experienced by medical and nursing co-workers and reduced by means which varied according to expertise and co-workers. This study showed needs for both the shared multiprofessional documentation of aseptic practice and better adherence to recommendations. Constructive means are useful when solving conflicts and replacing person-related aseptic practice with evidence-based. They may support nurses' professional growth, reduce

Pyruvate reduces 4-aminophenol in vitro toxicity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harmon, R. Christopher; Kiningham, Kinsley K.; Valentovic, Monica A.

2006-01-01

Pyruvate has been observed to reduce the nephrotoxicity of some agents by maintaining glutathione status and preventing lipid peroxidation. This study examined the mechanism for pyruvate protection of p-aminophenol (PAP) nephrotoxicity. Renal cortical slices from male Fischer 344 rats were incubated for 30-120 min with 0, 0.1, 0.25 or 0.5 mM PAP in oxygenated Krebs buffer containing 0 or 10 mM pyruvate or glucose (1.28 or 5.5 mM). LDH leakage was increased above control by 0.25 and 0.5 mM PAP beginning at 60 min and by 0.1 mM PAP at 120 min. Pyruvate prevented an increase in LDH leakage at 60- and 120-min exposure to 0.1 and 0.25 mM PAP. Pyruvate also prevented a decline in ATP levels. Glucose (1.28 and 5.5 mM) provided less protection than pyruvate from PAP toxicity. Total glutathione levels were diminished by 0.1 and 0.25 mM PAP within 60 and 30 min, respectively. Pyruvate prevented the decline in glutathione by 0.1 mM PAP at both time periods and at 30 min for 0.25 mM PAP. Pyruvate reduced the magnitude of glutathione depletion by 0.25 mM PAP following a 60-min incubation. Glutathione disulfide (GSSG) levels in renal slices were increased at 60 min by exposure to 0.25 mM PAP, while pyruvate prevented increased GSSG levels by PAP. Pyruvate also reduced the extent of 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE)-adducted proteins present after a 90-min incubation with PAP. These results indicate that pyruvate provided protection for PAP toxicity by providing an energy substrate and reducing oxidative stress

Pushover Analysis of Steel Seismic Resistant Frames with Reduced Web Section and Reduced Beam Section Connections

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Tomas Naughton

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The widespread brittle failure of welded beam-to-column connections caused by the 1994 Northridge and 1995 Kobe earthquakes highlighted the need for retrofitting measures effective in reducing the strength demand imposed on connections under cyclic loading. Researchers presented the reduced beam section (RBS as a viable option to create a weak zone away from the connection, aiding the prevention of brittle failure at the connection weld. More recently, an alternative connection known as a reduced web section (RWS has been developed as a potential replacement, and initial studies show ideal performance in terms of rotational capacity and ductility. This study performs a series of non-linear static pushover analyses using a modal load case on three steel moment-resisting frames of 4-, 8-, and 16-storeys. The frames are studied with three different connection arrangements; fully fixed moment connections, RBSs and RWSs, in order to compare the differences in capacity curves, inter-storey drifts, and plastic hinge formation. The seismic-resistant connections have been modeled as non-linear hinges in ETABS, and their behavior has been defined by moment-rotation curves presented in previous recent research studies. The frames are displacement controlled to the maximum displacement anticipated in an earthquake with ground motions having a 2% probability of being exceeded in 50 years. The study concludes that RWSs perform satisfactorily when compared with frames with fully fixed moment connections in terms of providing consistent inter-storey drifts without drastic changes in drift between adjacent storeys in low- to mid-rise frames, without significantly compromising the overall strength capacity of the frames. The use of RWSs in taller frames causes an increase in inter-storey drifts in the lower storeys, as well as causing a large reduction in strength capacity (33%. Frames with RWSs behave comparably to frames with RBSs and are deemed a suitable

Biochar amendment reduced methylmercury accumulation in rice plants.

Science.gov (United States)

Shu, Rui; Wang, Yongjie; Zhong, Huan

2016-08-05

There is growing concern about methylmercury (MeHg) accumulation in rice grains and thus enhanced dietary exposure to MeHg in Asian countries. Here, we explored the possibility of reducing grain MeHg levels by biochar amendment, and the underlying mechanisms. Pot (i.e., rice cultivation in biochar amended soils) and batch experiments (i.e., incubation of amended soils under laboratory conditions) were carried out, to investigate MeHg dynamics (i.e., MeHg production, partitioning and phytoavailability in paddy soils, and MeHg uptake by rice) under biochar amendment (1-4% of soil mass). We demonstrate for the first time that biochar amendment could evidently reduce grain MeHg levels (49-92%). The declines could be attributed to the combined effects of: (1) increased soil MeHg concentrations, probably explained by the release of sulfate from biochar and thus enhanced microbial production of MeHg (e.g., by sulfate-reducing bacteria), (2) MeHg immobilization in soils, facilitated by the large surface areas and high organosulfur content of biochar, and (3) biodilution of MeHg in rice grains, due to the increased grain biomass under biochar amendment (35-79%). These observations together with mechanistic explanations improve understanding of MeHg dynamics in soil-rice systems, and support the possibility of reducing MeHg phytoaccumulation under biochar amendment. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Double gloving to reduce surgical cross-infection.

Science.gov (United States)

Tanner, J; Parkinson, H

2006-07-19

The invasive nature of surgery, with its increased exposure to blood, means that during surgery there is a high risk of transfer of pathogens. Pathogens can be transferred through contact between surgical patients and the surgical team, resulting in post-operative or blood borne infections in patients or blood borne infections in the surgical team. Both patients and the surgical team need to be protected from this risk. This risk can be reduced by implementing protective barriers such as wearing surgical gloves. Wearing two pairs of surgical gloves, triple gloves, glove liners or cloth outer gloves, as opposed to one pair, is considered to provide an additional barrier and further reduce the risk of contamination. The primary objective of this review was to determine if additional glove protection reduces the number of surgical site or blood borne infections in patients or the surgical team. The secondary objective was to determine if additional glove protection reduces the number of perforations to the innermost pair of surgical gloves. The innermost gloves (next to skin) compared with the outermost gloves are considered to be the last barrier between the patient and the surgical team. We searched the Cochrane Wounds Group Specialised Register (January 2006), and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL)(The Cochrane Library Issue 4, 2005). We also contacted glove manufacturing companies and professional organisations. Randomised controlled trials involving: single gloving, double gloving, triple gloving, glove liners, knitted outer gloves, steel weave outer gloves and perforation indicator systems. Both authors independently assessed the relevance and quality of each trial. Data was extracted by one author and cross checked for accuracy by the second author. Two trials were found which addressed the primary outcome, namely, surgical site infections in patients. Both trials reported no infections. Thirty one randomised controlled trials

Reduced Mastication Impairs Memory Function.

Science.gov (United States)

Fukushima-Nakayama, Y; Ono, Takehito; Hayashi, M; Inoue, M; Wake, H; Ono, Takashi; Nakashima, T

2017-08-01

Mastication is an indispensable oral function related to physical, mental, and social health throughout life. The elderly tend to have a masticatory dysfunction due to tooth loss and fragility in the masticatory muscles with aging, potentially resulting in impaired cognitive function. Masticatory stimulation has influence on the development of the central nervous system (CNS) as well as the growth of maxillofacial tissue in children. Although the relationship between mastication and cognitive function is potentially important in the growth period, the cellular and molecular mechanisms have not been sufficiently elucidated. Here, we show that the reduced mastication resulted in impaired spatial memory and learning function owing to the morphological change and decreased activity in the hippocampus. We used an in vivo model for reduced masticatory stimuli, in which juvenile mice were fed with powder diet and found that masticatory stimulation during the growth period positively regulated long-term spatial memory to promote cognitive function. The functional linkage between mastication and brain was validated by the decrease in neurons, neurogenesis, neuronal activity, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression in the hippocampus. These findings taken together provide in vivo evidence for a functional linkage between mastication and cognitive function in the growth period, suggesting a need for novel therapeutic strategies in masticatory function-related cognitive dysfunction.

Reducing Smoking at the Workplace. WBGH Worksite Wellness Series.

Science.gov (United States)

Behrens, Ruth A.

Company policies and programs aimed at reducing smoking among employees have a number of other important benefits to employees and the company alike. Limiting or banning smoking helps create a safe and healthy workplace and may reduce direct health care costs, health and life insurance costs, employee absenteeism, costs associated with maintaining…

Ideas of Elementary Students about Reducing the "Greenhouse Effect."

Science.gov (United States)

Francis, Claire; And Others

1993-01-01

Presents the results of a questionnaire given to 563 elementary students to study their ideas of actions that would reduce the greenhouse effect. Most of the children (87%) appreciated that planting trees would help reduce global warming. During interviews it was discovered that children were confused between the greenhouse effect and ozone layer…

Generalized reduced fluid model with finite ion-gyroradius effects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hsu, C.T.; Hazeltine, R.D.; Morrison, P.J.

1985-04-01

Reduced fluid models have become important tools for studying the nonlinear dynamics of plasma in a large aspect-ratio tokamak. A self-consistent nonlinear reduced fluid model, with finite ion-gyroradius effects is presented. The model is distinctive in allowing for arbitrary beta and in satisfying an exact, relatively simple energy conservation law

Sexual Harassment at Camp: Reducing Liability.

Science.gov (United States)

Oakleaf, Linda; Grube, Angela Johnson

2003-01-01

Employers are responsible for sexual harassment perpetrated by a supervisor. Camps may be responsible for sexual harassment between campers. Steps to reduce liability include providing multiple channels for reporting sexual harassment; having written policies prohibiting sexual harassment and procedures for reporting it; posting these policies and…

Factorial and reduced K-means reconsidered

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Timmerman, Marieke E.; Ceulemans, Eva; Kiers, Henk A. L.; Vichi, Maurizio

2010-01-01

Factorial K-means analysis (FKM) and Reduced K-means analysis (RKM) are clustering methods that aim at simultaneously achieving a clustering of the objects and a dimension reduction of the variables. Because a comprehensive comparison between FKM and RKM is lacking in the literature so far, a

The 'polypill' to reduce cardiovascular risk

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Patel, Vinod; Pedersen, Oluf; Morrissey, John

2004-01-01

This article considers data from the Steno-2 multifactorial intervention study in type 2 diabetes to which are applied the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) risk engine. Mathematical analyses support the use of a 'polypill' to reduce cardiovascular risk in type 2 diabetes. It is s...

Reducing operational costs through MIPS management

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kwiatkowski, L.M.; Verhoef, C.

2015-01-01

We focus on an approach to reducing the costs of running applications. MIPS, which is a traditional acronym for millions of instructions per second, have evolved to become a measurement of processing power and CPU resource consumption. The need for controlling MIPS attributed costs is indispensable

Holonomy-reduced dynamics of triatomic molecules

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Çiftçi, Ünver; Waalkens, Holger

2011-01-01

Whereas it is easy to reduce the translational symmetry of a molecular system using, e.g., Jacobi coordinates, the situation is much more involved for rotational symmetry. In this paper, we address the latter problem using holonomy reduction. We suggest that the configuration space may be considered

Reducing Heating In High-Speed Cinematography

Science.gov (United States)

Slater, Howard A.

1989-01-01

Infrared-absorbing and infrared-reflecting glass filters simple and effective means for reducing rise in temperature during high-speed motion-picture photography. "Hot-mirror" and "cold-mirror" configurations, employed in projection of images, helps prevent excessive heating of scenes by powerful lamps used in high-speed photography.

Approaches to reduce bullying in schools

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kousholt, Kristine; Fisker, Tine Basse

2015-01-01

processes) to embrace the different understandings of bullying and to discuss these critically. The purpose is to present important knowledge to reduce bullying and to engage in a discussion of different perspectives on bullying. This article contributes to the existing knowledge of the field by discussing...

Costs of reducing nutrient losses in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jacobsen, Brian H.; Abildtrup, Jens; Jensen, Jørgen Dejgård

to the eastern part of Denmark. The final plan for the Aquatic Environment III from 2004 included a 13% reduction of N-leaching until 2015 based on cost effective administrative measures like wetlands and catch crops. Also a tax on mineral phosphorus in feedstuffs was included in order to half the phosphorus......The economic calculations carried out prior to the Plan for the Aquatic Environment III included a comparison of regulation systems aimed at reducing nitrogen leaching, analyses of measures for reducing phosphorus losses and estimation of administrative costs. The conclusions were that taxation...... surplus. The measures in the Plan will have to be supplemented by more measures to meet the targets in the EU's Water Framework Directive....

Advanced technology development reducing CO2 emissions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Dong Sup

2010-09-15

Responding to Korean government policies on green growth and global energy/ environmental challenges, SK energy has been developing new technologies to reduce CO2 emissions by 1) CO2 capture and utilization, 2) efficiency improvement, and 3) Li-ion batteries. The paper introduces three advanced technologies developed by SK energy; GreenPol, ACO, and Li-ion battery. Contributing to company vision, a more energy and less CO2, the three technologies are characterized as follows. GreenPol utilizes CO2 as a feedstock for making polymer. Advanced Catalytic Olefin (ACO) reduces CO2 emission by 20% and increase olefin production by 17%. Li-ion Batteries for automotive industries improves CO2 emission.

Reduced graphite oxide in supercapacitor electrodes.

Science.gov (United States)

Lobato, Belén; Vretenár, Viliam; Kotrusz, Peter; Hulman, Martin; Centeno, Teresa A

2015-05-15

The current energy needs have put the focus on highly efficient energy storage systems such as supercapacitors. At present, much attention focuses on graphene-like materials as promising supercapacitor electrodes. Here we show that reduced graphite oxide offers a very interesting potential. Materials obtained by oxidation of natural graphite and subsequent sonication and reduction by hydrazine achieve specific capacitances as high as 170 F/g in H2SO4 and 84F/g in (C2H5)4NBF4/acetonitrile. Although the particle size of the raw graphite has no significant effect on the physico-chemical characteristics of the reduced materials, that exfoliated from smaller particles (materials may suffer from a drop in their specific surface area upon fabrication of electrodes with features of the existing commercial devices. This should be taken into account for a reliable interpretation of their performance in supercapacitors. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[Cholesterol reducing food certainly is useful].

Science.gov (United States)

Stalenhoef, A F

1997-12-27

The effect of a low-cholesterol diet in open intervention studies depends in the long run on motivation, knowledge and dedication. The mean decrease of the serum cholesterol level is 10% (range: 0-20). Epidemiological and cohort studies clearly prove a connection between the intake of saturated fat, the serum cholesterol level and the risk of coronary heart disease and death. High-fat food slows down the clearance of the degradation products rich in cholesterol which appear in the blood after a meal and which are highly atherogenic (these products are not found at a fasting cholesterol assay). Cholesterol-reducing nutrition has additional useful effects, for instance on the blood pressure and the coagulation. The recommendations for healthy, low-cholesterol nutrition for the population as a whole apply particularly to patients with a high risk of coronary heart disease. Although advice given to individuals often has a disappointing effect, influencing the life pattern should be included in the strategy to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.

Reduced Rank Adaptive Filtering in Impulsive Noise Environments

KAUST Repository

Soury, Hamza

2014-01-06

An impulsive noise environment is used in this paper. A new aspect of signal truncation is deployed to reduce the harmful effect of the impulsive noise to the signal. A full rank direct solution is derived followed by an iterative solution. The reduced rank adaptive filter is presented in this environment by using two methods for rank reduction. The minimized objective function is defined using the Lp norm. The results are presented and the efficiency of each algorithm is discussed.

Reduced Rank Adaptive Filtering in Impulsive Noise Environments

KAUST Repository

Soury, Hamza; Abed-Meraim, Karim; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim

2014-01-01

An impulsive noise environment is used in this paper. A new aspect of signal truncation is deployed to reduce the harmful effect of the impulsive noise to the signal. A full rank direct solution is derived followed by an iterative solution. The reduced rank adaptive filter is presented in this environment by using two methods for rank reduction. The minimized objective function is defined using the Lp norm. The results are presented and the efficiency of each algorithm is discussed.

Anaerobic metabolism of nitroaromatic compounds by sulfate-reducing and methanogenic bacteria

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boopathy, R. [Argonne National Lab., IL (United States); Kulpa, C.F. [Notre Dame Univ., IN (United States). Dept. of Biological Sciences

1994-06-01

Ecological observations suggest that sulfate-reducing and methanogenic bacteria might metabolize nitroaromatic compounds under anaerobic conditions if appropriate electron donors and electron acceptors are present in the environment, but this ability had not been demonstrated until recently. Most studies on the microbial metabolism of nitroaromatic compounds used aerobic microorganisms. In most cases no mineralization of nitroaromatics occurs, and only superficial modifications of the structures are reported. However, under anaerobic sulfate-reducing conditions, the nitroaromatic compounds reportedly undergo a series of reductions with the formation of amino compounds. For example, trinitrotoluene under sulfate-reducing conditions is reduced to triaminotoluene by the enzyme nitrite reductase, which is commonly found in many Desulfovibrio spp. The removal of ammonia from triaminotoluene is achieved by reductive deamination catalyzed by the enzyme reductive deaminase, with the production of ammonia and toluene. Some sulfate reducers can metabolize toluene to CO{sub 2}. Similar metabolic processes could be applied to other nitroaromatic compounds like nitrobenzene, nitrobenzoic acids, nitrophenols, and aniline. Many methanogenic bacteria can reduce nitroaromatic compounds to amino compounds. In this paper we review the anaerobic metabolic processes of nitroaromatic compounds under sulfate-reducing And methanogenic conditions.

Anaerobic metabolism of nitroaromatic compounds by sulfate-reducing and methanogenic bacteria

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boopathy, R.; Kulpa, C.F.

1994-01-01

Ecological observations suggest that sulfate-reducing and methanogenic bacteria might metabolize nitroaromatic compounds under anaerobic conditions if appropriate electron donors and electron acceptors are present in the environment, but this ability had not been demonstrated until recently. Most studies on the microbial metabolism of nitroaromatic compounds used aerobic microorganisms. In most cases no mineralization of nitroaromatics occurs, and only superficial modifications of the structures are reported. However, under anaerobic sulfate-reducing conditions, the nitroaromatic compounds reportedly undergo a series of reductions with the formation of amino compounds. For example, trinitrotoluene under sulfate-reducing conditions is reduced to triaminotoluene by the enzyme nitrite reductase, which is commonly found in many Desulfovibrio spp. The removal of ammonia from triaminotoluene is achieved by reductive deamination catalyzed by the enzyme reductive deaminase, with the production of ammonia and toluene. Some sulfate reducers can metabolize toluene to CO 2 . Similar metabolic processes could be applied to other nitroaromatic compounds like nitrobenzene, nitrobenzoic acids, nitrophenols, and aniline. Many methanogenic bacteria can reduce nitroaromatic compounds to amino compounds. In this paper we review the anaerobic metabolic processes of nitroaromatic compounds under sulfate-reducing And methanogenic conditions

Parametric reduced models for the nonlinear Schrödinger equation.

Science.gov (United States)

Harlim, John; Li, Xiantao

2015-05-01

Reduced models for the (defocusing) nonlinear Schrödinger equation are developed. In particular, we develop reduced models that only involve the low-frequency modes given noisy observations of these modes. The ansatz of the reduced parametric models are obtained by employing a rational approximation and a colored-noise approximation, respectively, on the memory terms and the random noise of a generalized Langevin equation that is derived from the standard Mori-Zwanzig formalism. The parameters in the resulting reduced models are inferred from noisy observations with a recently developed ensemble Kalman filter-based parametrization method. The forecasting skill across different temperature regimes are verified by comparing the moments up to order four, a two-time correlation function statistics, and marginal densities of the coarse-grained variables.

Increasing sales by reducing procrastination

OpenAIRE

Gjedrem, William Gilje

2012-01-01

Master's thesis in Finance In this paper I analyze whether an intervention program increases productivity and sales, by reducing potential procrastination problems that employees face at work. The intervention was introduced to stores in a large retail chain in Norway, and contained different tools that could lead to lower perceived costs of higher effort. In a difference-in-differences analysis I find that the intervention increases sales after a 14 weeks long implementation period. Fu...

Reoxidation of Bioreduced Uranium Under Reducing Conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wan, Jiamin; Tokunaga, Tetsu K.; Brodie, Eoin; Wang, Zheming; Zheng, Zuoping; Herman, Don; Hazen, Terry C.; Firestone, Mary K.; Sutton, Steven R.

2005-01-01

Uranium mining and processing for nuclear weapons and fuel have left thousands of sites with toxic levels of this actinide in soil and ground water. An emerging strategy for remediating such environments involves using organic carbon to promote microbially-mediated reduction and precipitation of insoluble U(IV) minerals. Although previous U bioreduction studies have shown promising results, they were of short duration (up to a few months). Our longer-term (20 months) laboratory study using historically contaminated sediment has alarmingly shown that microbial reduction of U was transient even under reducing (methanogenic) conditions. Uranium was reductively immobilized during the first 100 days, but later (150 to 600 days) reoxidized and mobilized, although a microbial community capable of reducing U(VI) remained through the end of the experiment. The formation of Ca2UO2(CO3)3 complexes (caused by the elevated carbonate concentration from microbial respiration and presence of calcium) drove the U(IV)/U(VI) reduction potential to much more reducing conditions. Fe(III) and Mn(IV) were found to be likely terminal electron acceptors (TEAs) for U reoxidation. Thus, U remediation by organic carbon based reductive precipitation is not sustainable in calcareous, neutral to alkaline soils and ground waters

Can we reduce workplace fatalities by half?

Science.gov (United States)

Koh, David Soo Quee

2012-06-01

Singapore, an island republic of over 5 million inhabitants, has 3.1 million workers. Most are employed in the service, finance and tourist/transport industry. Significant numbers work in manufacturing, construction and heavy industry. Following a series of construction and shipyard accidents with multiple deaths in 2004, the government announced its intention to reduce workplace fatalities from 4.9 to 2.5 per 100,000 by 2015. There was strong political will to achieve this target. The strategic approaches were to build workplace safety and health (WSH) capabilities; implement legislative changes with enforcement; promote benefits of WSH and recognize best practices, and enhance partnership with stakeholders. The anticipated outcomes were to reduce workplace fatality and injury rates; have WSH as an integral part of business; and establish a progressive and pervasive WSH culture. With these measures, the workplace fatality rate declined from 4.9/100,000 in 2004, to 2.2/100,000 in 2010. However, other confounding factors could also account for this decline, and have to be considered. The next target, announced by Singapore's Prime Minister in 2008, is to further reduce the workplace fatality rate to 1.8/100,000 by 2018, and to have "one of the best workplace safety records in the world".

Can We Reduce Workplace Fatalities by Half?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Soo Quee Koh

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Singapore, an island republic of over 5 million inhabitants, has 3.1 million workers. Most are employed in the service, finance and tourist/transport industry. Significant numbers work in manufacturing, construction and heavy industry. Following a series of construction and shipyard accidents with multiple deaths in 2004, the government announced its intention to reduce workplace fatalities from 4.9 to 2.5 per 100,000 by 2015. There was strong political will to achieve this target. The strategic approaches were to build workplace safety and health (WSH capabilities; implement legislative changes with enforcement; promote benefits of WSH and recognize best practices, and enhance partnership with stakeholders. The anticipated outcomes were to reduce workplace fatality and injury rates; have WSH as an integral part of business; and establish a progressive and pervasive WSH culture. With these measures, the workplace fatality rate declined from 4.9/100,000 in 2004, to 2.2/100,000 in 2010. However, other confounding factors could also account for this decline, and have to be considered. The next target, announced by Singapore’s Prime Minister in 2008, is to further reduce the workplace fatality rate to 1.8/100,000 by 2018, and to have “one of the best workplace safety records in the world”.

Investigating the Potential of Ridesharing to Reduce Vehicle Emissions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roozbeh Jalali

2017-06-01

Full Text Available As urban populations grow, cities need new strategies to maintain a good standard of living while enhancing services and infrastructure development. A key area for improving city operations and spatial layout is the transportation of people and goods. While conventional transportation systems (i.e., fossil fuel based are struggling to serve mobility needs for growing populations, they also represent serious environmental threats. Alternative-fuel vehicles can reduce emissions that contribute to local air pollution and greenhouse gases as mobility needs grow. However, even if alternative-powered vehicles were widely employed, road congestion would still increase. This paper investigates ridesharing as a mobility option to reduce emissions (carbon, particulates and ozone while accommodating growing transportation needs and reducing overall congestion. The potential of ridesharing to reduce carbon emissions from personal vehicles in Changsha, China, is examined by reviewing mobility patterns of approximately 8,900 privately-owned vehicles over two months. Big data analytics identify ridesharing potential among these drivers by grouping vehicles by their trajectory similarity. The approach includes five steps: data preprocessing, trip recognition, feature vector creation, similarity measurement and clustering. Potential reductions in vehicle emissions through ridesharing among a specific group of drivers are calculated and discussed. While the quantitative results of this analysis are specific to the population of Changsha, they provide useful insights for the potential of ridesharing to reduce vehicle emissions and the congestion expected to grow with mobility needs. Within the study area, ridesharing has the potential to reduce total kilometers driven by about 24% assuming a maximum distance between trips less than 10 kilometers, and schedule time less than 60 minutes. For a more conservative maximum trip distance of 2 kilometers and passenger

Reduced modeling of signal transduction – a modular approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ederer Michael

2007-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Combinatorial complexity is a challenging problem in detailed and mechanistic mathematical modeling of signal transduction. This subject has been discussed intensively and a lot of progress has been made within the last few years. A software tool (BioNetGen was developed which allows an automatic rule-based set-up of mechanistic model equations. In many cases these models can be reduced by an exact domain-oriented lumping technique. However, the resulting models can still consist of a very large number of differential equations. Results We introduce a new reduction technique, which allows building modularized and highly reduced models. Compared to existing approaches further reduction of signal transduction networks is possible. The method also provides a new modularization criterion, which allows to dissect the model into smaller modules that are called layers and can be modeled independently. Hallmarks of the approach are conservation relations within each layer and connection of layers by signal flows instead of mass flows. The reduced model can be formulated directly without previous generation of detailed model equations. It can be understood and interpreted intuitively, as model variables are macroscopic quantities that are converted by rates following simple kinetics. The proposed technique is applicable without using complex mathematical tools and even without detailed knowledge of the mathematical background. However, we provide a detailed mathematical analysis to show performance and limitations of the method. For physiologically relevant parameter domains the transient as well as the stationary errors caused by the reduction are negligible. Conclusion The new layer based reduced modeling method allows building modularized and strongly reduced models of signal transduction networks. Reduced model equations can be directly formulated and are intuitively interpretable. Additionally, the method provides very good

Reducing Deviance Through Youths' Mutual Aid Group Dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Cheung, Chau-kiu; Ngai, Steven Sek-yum

2016-01-01

The mutual aid group, as supported by the social worker, emerges to play a vital role in helping group members reduce their deviance or behavioral problem. However, how the collaboration of the group and social worker accomplishes the reduction has remained uncharted. Based on social capital theory, mutual aid and cohesion within the group and social workers' specific aid for the group are likely responsible for the reduction. The test of such hypotheses relies on a two-wave panel survey of the members of 60 mutual aid groups who had deviant behavioral problems, located in Hong Kong, China. These groups had 241 youths completing both initial and 1-year follow-up surveys. Results manifested the direct or unconditional contributions of mutual aid, group cohesion, and social workers' specific aid to reducing deviance. Hence, social workers can enhance the effectiveness of the mutual aid group in reducing youths' deviance. © The Author(s) 2014.

Experiments in reduced gravity sediment settling on Mars

CERN Document Server

Kuhn, Nikolaus

2014-01-01

Experiments in Reduced Gravity: Sediment Settling on Mars is the first book to be published that reflects experiments conducted on Martian geomorphology in reduced gravity. This brief yet important book on sediment experiments assesses the theoretical and empirical foundation of the models used to analyze the increasing information we have on the past geography on Mars. The book also evaluates the need to develop new methods for analyzing new information by providing a conceptual outline and a case study on how experiments can be used to test current theoretical considerations. The conceptual approach to identifying the need for and role of experiments will be of interest to planetary scientists and geoscientists not necessarily involved with Mars, but those using experiments in their research who can apply the book's concepts. Includes figures, diagrams, illustrations, and photographs to vividly explore experiments and outcomes in reduced gravity Provides an outline of planned experiments and questions relat...

Vortex network community based reduced-order force model

Science.gov (United States)

Gopalakrishnan Meena, Muralikrishnan; Nair, Aditya; Taira, Kunihiko

2017-11-01

We characterize the vortical wake interactions by utilizing network theory and cluster-based approaches, and develop a data-inspired unsteady force model. In the present work, the vortical interaction network is defined by nodes representing vortical elements and the edges quantified by induced velocity measures amongst the vortices. The full vorticity field is reduced to a finite number of vortical clusters based on network community detection algorithm, which serves as a basis for a skeleton network that captures the essence of the wake dynamics. We use this reduced representation of the wake to develop a data-inspired reduced-order force model that can predict unsteady fluid forces on the body. The overall formulation is demonstrated for laminar flows around canonical bluff body wake and stalled flow over an airfoil. We also show the robustness of the present network-based model against noisy data, which motivates applications towards turbulent flows and experimental measurements. Supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant 1632003).

Solubilization of plutonium hydrous oxide by iron-reducing bacteria

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rusin, P.A.; Quintana, L.; Brainard, J.R.; Strietelmeler, B.A.; Tait, C.D.; Ekberg, S.A.; Palmer, P.D.; Newton, T.W.; Clark, D.L.

1994-01-01

The removal of plutonium from soils id challenging because of its strong sorption to soils and limited solubility, Microbial reduction of metals is known to affect the speciation and solubility of sparingly soluble metals in the environment, notably iron and manganese. The similarity in reduction potential for α-FeOOH(s) and hydrous PuO 2 (s) suggests that iron-reducing bacteria may also reduce and solubilize plutonium. Bacillus strains were used to demonstrate that iron-reducing bacteria mediate the solubilization of hydrous PuO 2 (s) under anaerobic conditions. Up to ∼90% of the PuO 2 was biosolubilized in the presence of nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) within 6-7 days. Biosolubilization occurred to a lesser extent (∼ 40%) in the absence of NTA. Little PuO 2 solubilization occurred in sterile culture media or in the presence of a non-iron-reducing Escherichia coli. These observations suggest a potentially attractive, environmentally benign strategy for the remediation of Pu-contaminated soils. 26 refs., 5 figs., 2 tabs

Reverse time migration by Krylov subspace reduced order modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Basir, Hadi Mahdavi; Javaherian, Abdolrahim; Shomali, Zaher Hossein; Firouz-Abadi, Roohollah Dehghani; Gholamy, Shaban Ali

2018-04-01

Imaging is a key step in seismic data processing. To date, a myriad of advanced pre-stack depth migration approaches have been developed; however, reverse time migration (RTM) is still considered as the high-end imaging algorithm. The main limitations associated with the performance cost of reverse time migration are the intensive computation of the forward and backward simulations, time consumption, and memory allocation related to imaging condition. Based on the reduced order modeling, we proposed an algorithm, which can be adapted to all the aforementioned factors. Our proposed method benefit from Krylov subspaces method to compute certain mode shapes of the velocity model computed by as an orthogonal base of reduced order modeling. Reverse time migration by reduced order modeling is helpful concerning the highly parallel computation and strongly reduces the memory requirement of reverse time migration. The synthetic model results showed that suggested method can decrease the computational costs of reverse time migration by several orders of magnitudes, compared with reverse time migration by finite element method.

The Three Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Science.gov (United States)

Science Activities, 1991

1991-01-01

A student hand-out for a recycling unit defines the terms reduce, recycle, and reuse as they relate to solid waste management. Presents the characteristics of recyclable items such as yard wastes, metals, glass, and paper. Lists organizations through which more information about recycling can be obtained. (MCO)

Reducing preoperative fasting time: A trend based on evidence.

Science.gov (United States)

de Aguilar-Nascimento, José Eduardo; Dock-Nascimento, Diana Borges

2010-03-27

Preoperative fasting is mandatory before anesthesia to reduce the risk of aspiration. However, the prescribed 6-8 h of fasting is usually prolonged to 12-16 h for various reasons. Prolonged fasting triggers a metabolic response that precipitates gluconeogenesis and increases the organic response to trauma. Various randomized trials and meta-analyses have consistently shown that is safe to reduce the preoperative fasting time with a carbohydrate-rich drink up to 2 h before surgery. Benefits related to this shorter preoperative fasting include the reduction of postoperative gastrointestinal discomfort and insulin resistance. New formulas containing amino acids such as glutamine and other peptides are being studied and are promising candidates to be used to reduce preoperative fasting time.

Hamilton-Jacobi theorems for regular reducible Hamiltonian systems on a cotangent bundle

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Hong

2017-09-01

In this paper, some of formulations of Hamilton-Jacobi equations for Hamiltonian system and regular reduced Hamiltonian systems are given. At first, an important lemma is proved, and it is a modification for the corresponding result of Abraham and Marsden (1978), such that we can prove two types of geometric Hamilton-Jacobi theorem for a Hamiltonian system on the cotangent bundle of a configuration manifold, by using the symplectic form and dynamical vector field. Then these results are generalized to the regular reducible Hamiltonian system with symmetry and momentum map, by using the reduced symplectic form and the reduced dynamical vector field. The Hamilton-Jacobi theorems are proved and two types of Hamilton-Jacobi equations, for the regular point reduced Hamiltonian system and the regular orbit reduced Hamiltonian system, are obtained. As an application of the theoretical results, the regular point reducible Hamiltonian system on a Lie group is considered, and two types of Lie-Poisson Hamilton-Jacobi equation for the regular point reduced system are given. In particular, the Type I and Type II of Lie-Poisson Hamilton-Jacobi equations for the regular point reduced rigid body and heavy top systems are shown, respectively.

Reducing Risk in DoD Software-Intensive Systems Development

Science.gov (United States)

2016-03-01

schedule overruns, impacting modernization timetables and reducing funding for other developmental priorities. This research is a continuation and...Postgraduate School and an undergraduate degree in economics from Weber State University. He is a graduate of the Command and General Staff College...overruns, impacting modernization timetables and reducing funding for other developmental priorities. This research is a continuation and

7 CFR 1412.45 - Reducing or terminating base acreage.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 10 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Reducing or terminating base acreage. 1412.45 Section... and Peanuts 2008 through 2012 § 1412.45 Reducing or terminating base acreage. (a)(1) Subject to the limitation in paragraph (a)(2) of this section, a permanent reduction of all or a portion of a farm's base...

System for reducing emissions during coke oven charging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schuecker, Franz-Josef

2014-01-01

This article describes a process which reduces emissions from coke production in coke plants. The focus is on the charging process, which can be partly responsible for the fact that statutory emissions limits, which were originally met, are exceeded as coke plants get older. This article presents a solution in the form of a newly developed system that allows the oven charging system - the charging car - to respond to age-related changes in the geometry of a coke oven and thereby reduce the level of emissions.

Reduced rank adaptive filtering in impulsive noise environments

KAUST Repository

Soury, Hamza

2014-11-01

An impulsive noise environment is considered in this paper. A new aspect of signal truncation is deployed to reduce the harmful effect of the impulsive noise to the signal. A full rank direct solution is derived followed by an iterative solution. The reduced rank adaptive filter is presented in this environment by using two methods for rank reduction, while the minimized objective function is defined using the Lp norm. The results are presented and the efficiency of each method is discussed. © 2014 IEEE.

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

Prenominal and postnominal reduced relative clauses: arguments against unitary analyses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Petra Sleeman

2007-01-01

Full Text Available These last years, several analyses have been proposed in which prenominal and postnominal reduced relatives are merged in the same position. Kayne (1994 claims that both types of reduced relative clauses are the complement of the determiner. More recently, Cinque (2005 has proposed that both types are merged in the functional projections of the noun, at the left edge of the modifier system. In this paper, I argue against a unitary analysis of prenominal and postnominal participial reduced relatives.

Optimizing the MapReduce Framework on Intel Xeon Phi Coprocessor

OpenAIRE

Lu, Mian; Zhang, Lei; Huynh, Huynh Phung; Ong, Zhongliang; Liang, Yun; He, Bingsheng; Goh, Rick Siow Mong; Huynh, Richard

2013-01-01

With the ease-of-programming, flexibility and yet efficiency, MapReduce has become one of the most popular frameworks for building big-data applications. MapReduce was originally designed for distributed-computing, and has been extended to various architectures, e,g, multi-core CPUs, GPUs and FPGAs. In this work, we focus on optimizing the MapReduce framework on Xeon Phi, which is the latest product released by Intel based on the Many Integrated Core Architecture. To the best of our knowledge...

ECONOMIC RETURNS FROM REDUCING POULTRY LITTER PHOSPHORUS WITH MICROBIAL PHYTASE

OpenAIRE

Bosch, Darrell J.; Zhu, Minkang; Kornegay, Ervin T.

1997-01-01

Requiring that crop applications of manure be based on phosphorus content (P-standard) could increase poultry litter disposal costs. Microbial phytase reduces litter P content and could reduce litter disposal costs under a P-standard. For a representative Virginia turkey farm, phytase costs $2,500 and could increase value of litter used for fertilizer on the turkey farm by $390 and reduce supplemental P feed costs by $1,431. Based on assumed litter demand and supply, estimated litter export p...

5-Lipoxygenase Deficiency Reduces Acetaminophen-Induced Hepatotoxicity and Lethality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miriam S. N. Hohmann

2013-01-01

Full Text Available 5-Lipoxygenase (5-LO converts arachidonic acid into leukotrienes (LTs and is involved in inflammation. At present, the participation of 5-LO in acetaminophen (APAP-induced hepatotoxicity and liver damage has not been addressed. 5-LO deficient (5-LO-/- mice and background wild type mice were challenged with APAP (0.3–6 g/kg or saline. The lethality, liver damage, neutrophil and macrophage recruitment, LTB4, cytokine production, and oxidative stress were assessed. APAP induced a dose-dependent mortality, and the dose of 3 g/kg was selected for next experiments. APAP induced LTB4 production in the liver, the primary target organ in APAP toxicity. Histopathological analysis revealed that 5-LO-/- mice presented reduced APAP-induced liver necrosis and inflammation compared with WT mice. APAP-induced lethality, increase of plasma levels of aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase, liver cytokine (IL-1β, TNF-α, IFN-γ, and IL-10, superoxide anion, and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances production, myeloperoxidase and N-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase activity, Nrf2 and gp91phox mRNA expression, and decrease of reduced glutathione and antioxidant capacity measured by 2,2′-azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline 6-sulfonate assay were prevented in 5-LO-/- mice compared to WT mice. Therefore, 5-LO deficiency resulted in reduced mortality due to reduced liver inflammatory and oxidative damage, suggesting 5-LO is a promising target to reduce APAP-induced lethality and liver inflammatory/oxidative damage.

Effect of office ergonomics intervention on reducing musculoskeletal symptoms.

Science.gov (United States)

Amick, Benjamin C; Robertson, Michelle M; DeRango, Kelly; Bazzani, Lianna; Moore, Anne; Rooney, Ted; Harrist, Ron

2003-12-15

Office workers invited and agreeing to participate were assigned to one of three study groups: a group receiving a highly adjustable chair with office ergonomics training, a training-only group, and a control group receiving the training at the end of the study. To examine the effect of office ergonomics intervention in reducing musculoskeletal symptom growth over the workday and, secondarily, pain levels throughout the day. Data collection occurred 2 months and 1 month before the intervention and 2, 6, and 12 months postintervention. During each round, a short daily symptom survey was completed at the beginning, middle, and end of the workday for 5 days during a workweek to measure total bodily pain growth over the workday. Multilevel statistical models were used to test hypotheses. The chair-with-training intervention lowered symptom growth over the workday (P = 0.012) after 12 months of follow-up. No evidence suggested that training alone lowered symptom growth over the workday (P = 0.461); however, average pain levels in both intervention groups were reduced over the workday. Workers who received a highly adjustable chair and office ergonomics training had reduced symptom growth over the workday. The lack of a training-only group effect supports implementing training in conjunction with highly adjustable office furniture and equipment to reduce symptom growth. The ability to reduce symptom growth has implications for understanding how to prevent musculoskeletal injuries in knowledge workers.

Preparation of Reduced Graphene Oxides as Electrode Materials for Supercapacitors

KAUST Repository

Bai, Yaocai

2012-01-01

Reduced graphene oxide as outstanding candidate electrode material for supercapacitor has been investigated. This thesis includes two topics. One is that three kinds of reduced graphene oxides were prepared by hydrothermal reduction under different

Reduced growth due to belowground sink limitation is not fully explained by reduced photosynthesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Campany, Courtney E; Medlyn, Belinda E; Duursma, Remko A

2017-08-01

Sink limitation is known to reduce plant growth, but it is not known how plant carbon (C) balance is affected, limiting our ability to predict growth under sink-limited conditions. We manipulated soil volume to impose sink limitation of growth in Eucalyptus tereticornis Sm. seedlings. Seedlings were grown in the field in containers of different sizes and planted flush to the soil alongside freely rooted (Free) seedlings. Container volume negatively affected aboveground growth throughout the experiment, and light saturated rates of leaf photosynthesis were consistently lower in seedlings in containers (-26%) compared with Free seedlings. Significant reductions in photosynthetic capacity in containerized seedlings were related to both reduced leaf nitrogen content and starch accumulation, indicating direct effects of sink limitation on photosynthetic downregulation. After 120 days, harvested biomass of Free seedlings was on average 84% higher than seedlings in containers, but biomass distribution in leaves, stems and roots was not different. However, the reduction in net leaf photosynthesis over the growth period was insufficient to explain the reduction in growth, so that we also observed an apparent reduction in whole-plant C-use efficiency (CUE) between Free seedlings and seedlings in containers. Our results show that sink limitation affects plant growth through feedbacks to both photosynthesis and CUE. Mass balance approaches to predicting plant growth under sink-limited conditions need to incorporate both of these feedbacks. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Reducing Research Anxiety among MSW Students

Science.gov (United States)

Einbinder, Susan Dana

2014-01-01

Research anxiety significantly declined in a diverse sample of 59 MSW students in their first-year hybrid online research course in which the instructor used an array of innovative educational techniques empirically proven to reduce this phenomenon. The pretest/posttest study, the standardized survey instruments used, and a summary of these…

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.

Relativistic mechanics with reduced fields

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sokolov, S.N.

1996-01-01

A new relativistic classical mechanics of interacting particles using a concept of a reduced field (RF) os proposed. RF is a mediator of interactions, the state of which is described by a finite number of two-argument functions. Ten of these functions correspond to the generators of the Poincare group. Equations of motion contain the retardation of interactions required by the causality principle and have form of a finite system of ordinary hereditary differential equations [ru

Electronic states in systems of reduced dimensionality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ulloa, S.E.

1992-01-01

This report briefly discusses the following research: magnetically modulated systems, inelastic magnetotunneling, ballistic transport review, screening in reduced dimensions, raman and electron energy loss spectroscopy; and ballistic quantum interference effects. (LSP)

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.

Is the incidence of constant esotropia in childhood reducing?

Science.gov (United States)

Carney, C V; Lysons, D A; Tapley, J V

1995-01-01

Episodes of strabismus surgery in the under-14 year age group in West Berkshire have reduced by 42%, from 22.7 to 13.2 per 10,000 population, between 1968 and 1985. Clinical audit of patterns of referral shows that the incidence of constant esotropia has reduced by 55%, from 28.3 to 12.8 per 10,000 population, between 1971 and 1991.

A reduced covariant string model for the extrinsic string

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Botelho, L.C.L.

1989-01-01

It is studied a reduced covariant string model for the extrinsic string by using Polyakov's path integral formalism. On the basis of this reduced model it is suggested that the extrinsic string has its critical dimension given by 13. Additionally, it is calculated in a simple way Poliakov's renormalization group law for the string rigidity coupling constants. (A.C.A.S.) [pt

ANIMAL MANURE – REDUCED QUALITY BY ANAEROBIC DIGESTION?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Løes, Anne-Kristin; Johansen, Anders; Pommeresche, Reidun

2014-01-01

Anaerobic digestion may reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, but we know little about its impact on soil fertility. Reduced concentrations of easily degradable C in the manure may imply less food for the soil fauna and microflora. A field experiment to study its effect on crop yields and soil...... caused the death of both surface-dwelling and soil-living earthworms shortly after application, but the long-term effect of manure application seemed more positive, especially at low application levels. So far, we have observed only small differences in the effects of digested and undigested manure...