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Sample records for normal crlps protected

  1. Protection of Hardware: Powering Systems (Power Converter, Normal Conducting, and Superconducting Magnets)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pfeffer, H. [Fermilab; Flora, B. [Fermilab; Wolff, D. [Fermilab

    2016-01-01

    Along with the protection of magnets and power converters, we have added a section on personnel protection because this is our highest priority in the design and operation of power systems. Thus, our topics are the protection of people, power converters, and magnet loads (protected from the powering equipment), including normal conducting magnets and superconducting magnets.

  2. Normal left ventricular function does not protect against propafenone ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Normal left ventricular function does not protect against propafenone-induced incessant ventricular tachycardia. R. N. Scott Millar, J. B. Lawrenson, D.A. Milne. Abstract. Propafenone is a class Ic anti-arrhythmic agent with mild B-blocking properties which has recently become available in South Africa. We have used the ...

  3. CDDO-Me protects normal lung and breast epithelial cells but not cancer cells from radiation.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mariam El-Ashmawy

    Full Text Available Although radiation therapy is commonly used for treatment for many human diseases including cancer, ionizing radiation produces reactive oxygen species that can damage both cancer and healthy cells. Synthetic triterpenoids, including CDDO-Me, act as anti-inflammatory and antioxidant modulators primarily by inducing the transcription factor Nrf2 to activate downstream genes containing antioxidant response elements (AREs. In the present series of experiments, we determined if CDDO-Me can be used as a radioprotector in normal non-cancerous human lung and breast epithelial cells, in comparison to lung and breast cancer cell lines. A panel of normal non-cancerous, partially cancer progressed, and cancer cell lines from both lung and breast tissue was exposed to gamma radiation with and without pre-treatment with CDDO-Me. CDDO-Me was an effective radioprotector when given ∼18 hours before radiation in epithelial cells (average dose modifying factor (DMF = 1.3, and Nrf2 function was necessary for CDDO-Me to exert these radioprotective effects. CDDO-Me did not protect cancer lines tested from radiation-induced cytotoxicity, nor did it protect experimentally transformed human bronchial epithelial cells (HBECs with progressive oncogenic manipulations. CDDO-Me also protected human lymphocytes against radiation-induced DNA damage. A therapeutic window exists in which CDDO-Me protects normal cells from radiation by activating the Nrf2 pathway, but does not protect experimentally transformed or cancer cell lines. This suggests that use of this oral available, non-toxic class of drug can protect non-cancerous healthy cells during radiotherapy, resulting in better outcomes and less toxicity for patients.

  4. Chemical modification of conventional cancer radiotherapy. Tumor sensitization combined with normal tissue protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kagiya, Tsutomu

    2006-01-01

    Nitrotriazole radiosensitizer, Sanazole (AK-2123, N-(2'-methoxyethyl)-2-(3''-nitro-1''-triazolyl) acetamide) developed by Kyoto University group was studied by 18 groups of 7 countries on fundamental aspects and clinical studies by 30 groups of 12 countries, and reported its effects on tumor sensitization of conventional cancer radiotherapy. On the other hand, the glucosides of vitamin C (Ascorbic acid glucoside, (AsAG) and water soluble derivative of vitamin-E (α-tocopherol glucoside, TMG) developed by Kyoto University group were studied fundamentally by 4 groups of 4 countries and clinically by 2 groups of 2 countries, and reported their effects on normal tissue protection in cancer treatments. These two studies of tumor sensitization and normal tissue protection were proposed as an advanced strategy of conventional cancer radiotherapy. (author)

  5. Protection from intracellular oxidative stress by cytoglobin in normal and cancerous oesophageal cells.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fiona E McRonald

    Full Text Available Cytoglobin is an intracellular globin of unknown function that is expressed mostly in cells of a myofibroblast lineage. Possible functions of cytoglobin include buffering of intracellular oxygen and detoxification of reactive oxygen species. Previous work in our laboratory has demonstrated that cytoglobin affords protection from oxidant-induced DNA damage when over expressed in vitro, but the importance of this in more physiologically relevant models of disease is unknown. Cytoglobin is a candidate for the tylosis with oesophageal cancer gene, and its expression is strongly down-regulated in non-cancerous oesophageal biopsies from patients with TOC compared with normal biopsies. Therefore, oesophageal cells provide an ideal experimental model to test our hypothesis that downregulation of cytoglobin expression sensitises cells to the damaging effects of reactive oxygen species, particularly oxidative DNA damage, and that this could potentially contribute to the TOC phenotype. In the current study, we tested this hypothesis by manipulating cytoglobin expression in both normal and oesophageal cancer cell lines, which have normal physiological and no expression of cytoglobin respectively. Our results show that, in agreement with previous findings, over expression of cytoglobin in cancer cell lines afforded protection from chemically-induced oxidative stress but this was only observed at non-physiological concentrations of cytoglobin. In addition, down regulation of cytoglobin in normal oesophageal cells had no effect on their sensitivity to oxidative stress as assessed by a number of end points. We therefore conclude that normal physiological concentrations of cytoglobin do not offer cytoprotection from reactive oxygen species, at least in the current experimental model.

  6. Feasibility of temporary protective embolization of normal liver tissue using degradable starch microspheres during radioembolization of liver tumours

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Meyer, Carsten [University of Bonn, Department of Radiology, Bonn (Germany); Pieper, Claus Christian; Wilhelm, Kai E.; Schild, Hans Heinz [University of Bonn, Department of Radiology, Bonn (Germany); Ezziddin, Samer; Ahmadzadehfar, Hojjat [University of Bonn, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Bonn (Germany)

    2014-02-15

    To describe a new approach to protect nontarget healthy liver tissue using degradable starch microspheres (DSM) as a short-term embolizate during radioembolization of liver tumours with {sup 90}Y microspheres. Between December 2011 and July 2012 radioembolization was performed in 54 patients. Five of these patients (three women, two men; mean age 67 years) underwent protective temporary embolization using DSM (EmboCept {sup registered} S) of normal liver tissue that could not be excluded from the area treated by radioembolization through catheter repositioning. Clinical symptoms, laboratory findings, preinterventional imaging, and {sup 99m}Tc-MAA and bremsstrahlung SPECT/CT, as well as baseline and follow-up imaging with {sup 18}F-FDG PET/CT and MRI, were evaluated in relation to the technical and clinical success of the protective embolization. Temporary embolization of arteries supplying normal liver tissue using DSM was technically successful in all five patients. {sup 99m}Tc-MAA SPECT/CT performed in the first two patients after DSM injection showed no increased pulmonary shunting compared to the MAA test injection without DSM. Bremsstrahlung SPECT/CT after radioembolization demonstrated satisfactory irradiation of the tumour and successful protection of normal liver tissue. There were only mild hepatotoxic effects (grade 1) on laboratory follow-up examinations, and no adverse events associated with DSM embolization or radioembolization were recorded. Temporary embolization with DSM before radioembolization is feasible and can effectively protect areas of normal liver tissue from irradiation and avoid permanent embolization if other methods such as catheter repositioning are not possible due to the location of the metastases. (orig.)

  7. Feasibility of temporary protective embolization of normal liver tissue using degradable starch microspheres during radioembolization of liver tumours

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Meyer, Carsten; Pieper, Claus Christian; Wilhelm, Kai E.; Schild, Hans Heinz; Ezziddin, Samer; Ahmadzadehfar, Hojjat

    2014-01-01

    To describe a new approach to protect nontarget healthy liver tissue using degradable starch microspheres (DSM) as a short-term embolizate during radioembolization of liver tumours with 90 Y microspheres. Between December 2011 and July 2012 radioembolization was performed in 54 patients. Five of these patients (three women, two men; mean age 67 years) underwent protective temporary embolization using DSM (EmboCept registered S) of normal liver tissue that could not be excluded from the area treated by radioembolization through catheter repositioning. Clinical symptoms, laboratory findings, preinterventional imaging, and 99m Tc-MAA and bremsstrahlung SPECT/CT, as well as baseline and follow-up imaging with 18 F-FDG PET/CT and MRI, were evaluated in relation to the technical and clinical success of the protective embolization. Temporary embolization of arteries supplying normal liver tissue using DSM was technically successful in all five patients. 99m Tc-MAA SPECT/CT performed in the first two patients after DSM injection showed no increased pulmonary shunting compared to the MAA test injection without DSM. Bremsstrahlung SPECT/CT after radioembolization demonstrated satisfactory irradiation of the tumour and successful protection of normal liver tissue. There were only mild hepatotoxic effects (grade 1) on laboratory follow-up examinations, and no adverse events associated with DSM embolization or radioembolization were recorded. Temporary embolization with DSM before radioembolization is feasible and can effectively protect areas of normal liver tissue from irradiation and avoid permanent embolization if other methods such as catheter repositioning are not possible due to the location of the metastases. (orig.)

  8. The Addition of Manganese Porphyrins during Radiation Inhibits Prostate Cancer Growth and Simultaneously Protects Normal Prostate Tissue from Radiation Damage

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arpita Chatterjee

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Radiation therapy is commonly used for prostate cancer treatment; however, normal tissues can be damaged from the reactive oxygen species (ROS produced by radiation. In separate reports, we and others have shown that manganese porphyrins (MnPs, ROS scavengers, protect normal cells from radiation-induced damage but inhibit prostate cancer cell growth. However, there have been no studies demonstrating that MnPs protect normal tissues, while inhibiting tumor growth in the same model. LNCaP or PC3 cells were orthotopically implanted into athymic mice and treated with radiation (2 Gy, for 5 consecutive days in the presence or absence of MnPs. With radiation, MnPs enhanced overall life expectancy and significantly decreased the average tumor volume, as compared to the radiated alone group. MnPs enhanced lipid oxidation in tumor cells but reduced oxidative damage to normal prostate tissue adjacent to the prostate tumor in combination with radiation. Mechanistically, MnPs behave as pro-oxidants or antioxidants depending on the level of oxidative stress inside the treated cell. We found that MnPs act as pro-oxidants in prostate cancer cells, while in normal cells and tissues the MnPs act as antioxidants. For the first time, in the same in vivo model, this study reveals that MnPs enhance the tumoricidal effect of radiation and reduce oxidative damage to normal prostate tissue adjacent to the prostate tumor in the presence of radiation. This study suggests that MnPs are effective radio-protectors for radiation-mediated prostate cancer treatment.

  9. Damaging and protective bystander cross-talk between human lung cancer and normal cells after proton microbeam irradiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Desai, Sejal; Kobayashi, Alisa; Konishi, Teruaki; Oikawa, Masakazu; Pandey, Badri N.

    2014-01-01

    Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • Proton-microbeam irradiated A549 cells send damaging signals to bystander A549 cells. • Irradiated A549–A549 bystander response is through gap junctional communication. • Bystander WI38 cells exert protective signalling in irradiated A549 cells. • Rescue of irradiated A549 cells by WI38 cells is independent of gap junctions. - Abstract: Most of the studies of radiation-induced bystander effects (RIBE) have been focused on understanding the radiobiological changes observed in bystander cells in response to the signals from irradiated cells in a normal cell population with implications to radiation risk assessment. However, reports on RIBE with relevance to cancer radiotherapy especially investigating the bidirectional and criss-cross bystander communications between cancer and normal cells are limited. Hence, in present study employing co-culture approach, we have investigated the bystander cross-talk between lung cancer (A549) and normal (WI38) cells after proton-microbeam irradiation using γ-H2AX foci fluorescence as a measure of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). We observed that in A549–A549 co-cultures, irradiated A549 cells exert damaging effects in bystander A549 cells, which were found to be mediated through gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC). However, in A549–WI38 co-cultures, irradiated A549 did not affect bystander WI38 cells. Rather, bystander WI38 cells induced inverse protective signalling (rescue effect) in irradiated A549 cells, which was independent of GJIC. On the other hand, in response to irradiated WI38 cells neither of the bystander cells (A549 or WI38) showed significant increase in γ-H2AX foci. The observed bystander signalling between tumour and normal cells may have potential implications in therapeutic outcome of cancer radiotherapy

  10. Damaging and protective bystander cross-talk between human lung cancer and normal cells after proton microbeam irradiation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Desai, Sejal [Radiation Signalling and Cancer Biology Section, Radiation Biology and Health Sciences Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400 085 (India); Kobayashi, Alisa; Konishi, Teruaki; Oikawa, Masakazu [Radiation System and Engineering Section, Department of Technical Support and Development, Research, Development and Support Center, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Chiba 263-8555 (Japan); Pandey, Badri N., E-mail: badrinarain@yahoo.co.in [Radiation Signalling and Cancer Biology Section, Radiation Biology and Health Sciences Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400 085 (India)

    2014-05-15

    Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • Proton-microbeam irradiated A549 cells send damaging signals to bystander A549 cells. • Irradiated A549–A549 bystander response is through gap junctional communication. • Bystander WI38 cells exert protective signalling in irradiated A549 cells. • Rescue of irradiated A549 cells by WI38 cells is independent of gap junctions. - Abstract: Most of the studies of radiation-induced bystander effects (RIBE) have been focused on understanding the radiobiological changes observed in bystander cells in response to the signals from irradiated cells in a normal cell population with implications to radiation risk assessment. However, reports on RIBE with relevance to cancer radiotherapy especially investigating the bidirectional and criss-cross bystander communications between cancer and normal cells are limited. Hence, in present study employing co-culture approach, we have investigated the bystander cross-talk between lung cancer (A549) and normal (WI38) cells after proton-microbeam irradiation using γ-H2AX foci fluorescence as a measure of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). We observed that in A549–A549 co-cultures, irradiated A549 cells exert damaging effects in bystander A549 cells, which were found to be mediated through gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC). However, in A549–WI38 co-cultures, irradiated A549 did not affect bystander WI38 cells. Rather, bystander WI38 cells induced inverse protective signalling (rescue effect) in irradiated A549 cells, which was independent of GJIC. On the other hand, in response to irradiated WI38 cells neither of the bystander cells (A549 or WI38) showed significant increase in γ-H2AX foci. The observed bystander signalling between tumour and normal cells may have potential implications in therapeutic outcome of cancer radiotherapy.

  11. The SOD Mimic, MnTE-2-PyP, Protects from Chronic Fibrosis and Inflammation in Irradiated Normal Pelvic Tissues

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shashank Shrishrimal

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Pelvic radiation for cancer therapy can damage a variety of normal tissues. In this study, we demonstrate that radiation causes acute changes to pelvic fibroblasts such as the transformation to myofibroblasts and the induction of senescence, which persist months after radiation. The addition of the manganese porphyrin, MnTE-2-PyP, resulted in protection of these acute changes in fibroblasts and this protection persisted months following radiation exposure. Specifically, at two months post-radiation, MnTE-2-PyP inhibited the number of α-smooth muscle actin positive fibroblasts induced by radiation and at six months post-radiation, MnTE-2-PyP significantly reduced collagen deposition (fibrosis in the skin and bladder tissues of irradiated mice. Radiation also resulted in changes to T cells. At two months post-radiation, there was a reduction of Th1-producing splenocytes, which resulted in reduced Th1:Th2 ratios. MnTE-2-PyP maintained Th1:Th2 ratios similar to unirradiated mice. At six months post-radiation, increased T cells were observed in the adipose tissues. MnTE-2-PyP treatment inhibited this increase. Thus, MnTE-2-PyP treatment maintains normal fibroblast function and T cell immunity months after radiation exposure. We believe that one of the reasons MnTE-2-PyP is a potent radioprotector is due to its protection of multiple cell types from radiation damage.

  12. Percutaneous renal angioplasty and stenting: application of embolic protection device in patients with normal renal function

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tong Xiaoqiang; Yang Ming; Wang Jian; Song Li; Wang Chao; Lv Yongxing; Sun Hongliang; Zou Yinghua; Yin Ming

    2007-01-01

    Objective: To investigate the Value of embolic protection device (EPD)in renal artery stenting (RAS)for the patients with normal renal function. Methods: Total 24 patients (26 renal arteries) suffering from renal artery stenosis with normal serum creatinine were divided into two groups: EPD group (n12)and non-EPD group (n=12). Serum creatinine was calculated and analized statistically between the two groups, 1 month and 6months after stenting respectively, and followed by comparisons taking inside of each group and between both groups. Results: Serum creatinine of the EPD and non-EPD groups before, 1 month and 6 month after stenting were(99.18 ± 18.26) μmol/L, (101.73 ± 12.65) μmol/L, (96.82 ± 15.81) μmol/L and (100.18 ± 19.81) μmol/L, (107.36 ± 29.49) μmol/L, (127.64 ± 88.05) μmol/L, respectively; showing no significant difference inside each group individually (P>0.05), and also no statistically significant difference between the two groups (P>0.05). Conclusion: For the patients suffering from renal artery stenosis with normal serum creatinine, application of EPD may have no impact on renal function. Further evaluation is needed. (authors)

  13. Association between educational attainment and amyloid deposition across the spectrum from normal cognition to dementia: neuroimaging evidence for protection and compensation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arenaza-Urquijo, Eider M; Bejanin, Alexandre; Gonneaud, Julie; Wirth, Miranka; La Joie, Renaud; Mutlu, Justine; Gaubert, Malo; Landeau, Brigitte; de la Sayette, Vincent; Eustache, Francis; Chételat, Gaël

    2017-11-01

    The brain mechanisms underlying the effect of intellectual enrichment may evolve along the normal aging Alzheimer's disease (AD) cognitive spectrum and may include both protective and compensatory mechanisms. We assessed the association between early intellectual enrichment (education, years) and average cortical florbetapir standardized uptake value ratio as well as performed voxel-wise analyses in a total of 140 participants, including cognitively normal older adults, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and AD patients. Higher education was associated with lower cortical florbetapir positron emission tomography (florbetapir-PET) uptake, notably in the frontal lobe in normal older adults, but with higher uptake in frontal, temporal, and parietal regions in MCI after controlling for global cognitive status. No association was found in AD. In MCI, we observed an increased fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) uptake with education within the regions of higher florbetapir-PET uptake, suggesting a compensatory increase. Early intellectual enrichment may be associated with protection and compensation for amyloid beta (Aβ) deposition later in life, before the onset of dementia. Previous investigations have been controversial as regard to the effects of intellectual enrichment variables on Aβ deposition; the present findings call for approaches aiming to evaluate mechanisms of resilience across disease stages. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. [What is "normal"? Maternal parenting behavior as risk and protective factor for psychopathology and identity diffusion].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seiffge-Krenke, Inge; Escher, Fabian J

    2018-06-01

    What is "normal"? Maternal parenting behavior as risk and protective factor for psychopathology and identity diffusion Objectives: This study analyzes the implications of today's highly altered maternal parenting behaviors on children's development and psychological health. The relationship between maternal parenting behaviors (support, psychological control, and anxious monitoring) and delayed identity development or identity diffusion as well as internalizing or externalizing symptomatology was investigated in a sample of 732 youths (301 adolescents, 351 young adults, and 80 patients). Cluster analysis identified two types of maternal parenting behaviors: authoritative maternal behavior and dysfunctionalmaternal behavior. As expected, patients exhibited a high degree of dysfunctional maternal parenting behavior (low support, high psychological control), delayed identity development as well as elevated identity diffusion and symptomatology.Authoritative maternal parenting emerged as a protective factor in the prediction of identity diffusion and symptomatology.All three groups described a high degree of anxious maternal monitoring. The implications of changed maternal parenting behaviors on identity diffusion and symptomatology are discussed in light of societal changes and changing criteria of personality disorders in the new DSM-5.

  15. 40 CFR 406.50 - Applicability; description of the normal rice milling subcategory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 28 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Applicability; description of the normal rice milling subcategory. 406.50 Section 406.50 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) EFFLUENT GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS GRAIN MILLS POINT SOURCE CATEGORY Normal Rice...

  16. 40 CFR 406.30 - Applicability; description of the normal wheat flour milling subcategory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 28 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Applicability; description of the normal wheat flour milling subcategory. 406.30 Section 406.30 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) EFFLUENT GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS GRAIN MILLS POINT SOURCE CATEGORY Normal...

  17. Radiation protection of population under normal operation conditions of nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kunz, Eh.; Shvets, I.

    1976-01-01

    Evolution of shielding is defined in short; approaches suggested for applying in radiation protection or being used are evaluated and classified. Modern views analysis of a risk of biological irradiation consequences in public approaches to health protection in connection with the technical progress side by side with provision of separate persons protection requires attentin to the nuclear power plants protection optimization. Protection optimization suggests the analysis of separate components of technology and protection systems, used materials and constructive solutions, maintenance rules and operating load with respect to environmental discharge of radioactive products. It is expedient to carry out similtaneously the similar analysis with respect to the nuclear power plant personnel irradiation, as separate measures can affect both personnel and population irradiation [ru

  18. A lower dose threshold for the in vivo protective adaptive response to radiation. Tumorigenesis in chronically exposed normal and Trp53 heterozygous C57BL/6 mice

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mitchel, R.E.J.; Burchart, P.; Wyatt, H.

    2008-01-01

    Low doses of ionizing radiation to cells and animals may induce adaptive responses that reduce the risk of cancer. However, there are upper dose thresholds above which these protective adaptive responses do not occur. We have now tested the hypothesis that there are similar lower dose thresholds that must be exceeded in order to induce protective effects in vivo. We examined the effects of low dose/low dose rate fractionated exposures on cancer formation in Trp53 normal or cancer-prone Trp53 heterozygous female C57BL/6 mice. Beginning at 6 weeks of age, mice were exposed 5 days/week to single daily doses (0.33 mGy, 0.7 mGy/h) totaling 48, 97 or 146 mGy over 30, 60 or 90 weeks. The exposures for shorter times (up to 60 weeks) appeared to be below the level necessary to induce overall protective adaptive responses in Trp53 normal mice, and detrimental effects (shortened lifespan, increased frequency) evident for only specific tumor types (B- and T-cell lymphomas), were produced. Only when the exposures were continued for 90 weeks did the dose become sufficient to induce protective adaptive responses, balancing the detrimental effects for these specific cancers, and reducing the risk level back to that of the unexposed animals. Detrimental effects were not seen for other tumor types, and a protective effect was seen for sarcomas after 60 weeks of exposure, which was then lost when the exposure continued for 90 weeks. As previously shown for the upper dose threshold for protection by low doses, the lower dose boundary between protection and harm was influenced by Trp53 functionality. Neither protection nor harm was observed in exposed Trp53 heterozygous mice, indicating that reduced Trp53 function raises the lower dose/dose rate threshold for both detrimental and protective tumorigenic effects. (author)

  19. Normal and abnormal aging in bilinguals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alfredo Ardila

    Full Text Available Abstract Bilinguals use two different language systems to mediate not only social communication, but also cognitive processes. Potential differences between bilinguals and monolinguals in task-solving strategies and patterns of cognitive decline during normal and abnormal aging have been suggested. Main contribution: A research review of the area suggests that normal aging is associated with increased interference between the two languages and tendency to retreat to a single language. General cognitive functioning has been found to be higher in demented bilingual patients if communication is carried out in L1 rather than in L2. Recent research has reported that bilingualism can have a protective effect during aging, attenuating the normal cognitive decline associated with aging, and delaying the onset of dementia. Conclusions: Regardless of the significant heterogeneity of bilingualism and the diversity of patterns in language use during life-span, current research suggests that bilingualism is associated with preserved cognitive test performance during aging, and potentially can have some protective effect in dementia.

  20. of the stomach (ID 345), neutralisation of gastric acid (ID 345), contribution to normal formation of collagen and connective tissue (ID 287, 288, 333, 334, 335, 1405, 1652, 1718, 1719, 1945), maintenance of normal bone (ID 287, 335, 1652, 1718, 1945), maintenance of normal joints (ID 1405, 1652, 1945

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tetens, Inge

    claims in relation to silicon and protection against aluminium accumulation in the brain, cardiovascular health, forming a protective coat on the mucous membrane of the stomach, neutralisation of gastric acid, contribution to normal formation of collagen and connective tissue, maintenance of normal bone...

  1. Lactic Acid Bacteria Protects Caenorhabditis elegans from Toxicity of Graphene Oxide by Maintaining Normal Intestinal Permeability under different Genetic Backgrounds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Yunli; Yu, Xiaoming; Jia, Ruhan; Yang, Ruilong; Rui, Qi; Wang, Dayong

    2015-11-01

    Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) is safe and useful for food and feed fermentation. We employed Caenorhabditis elegans to investigate the possible beneficial effect of LAB (Lactobacillus bulgaricus) pretreatment against toxicity of graphene oxide (GO) and the underlying mechanisms. LAB prevented GO toxicity on the functions of both primary and secondary targeted organs in wild-type nematodes. LAB blocked translocation of GO into secondary targeted organs through intestinal barrier by maintaining normal intestinal permeability in wild-type nematodes. Moreover, LAB prevented GO damage on the functions of both primary and secondary targeted organs in exposed nematodes with mutations of susceptible genes (sod-2, sod-3, gas-1, and aak-2) to GO toxicity by sustaining normal intestinal permeability. LAB also sustained the normal defecation behavior in both wild-type nematodes and nematodes with mutations of susceptible genes. Therefore, the beneficial role of LAB against GO toxicity under different genetic backgrounds may be due to the combinational effects on intestinal permeability and defecation behavior. Moreover, the beneficial effects of LAB against GO toxicity was dependent on the function of ACS-22, homologous to mammalian FATP4 to mammalian FATP4. Our study provides highlight on establishment of pharmacological strategy to protect intestinal barrier from toxicity of GO.

  2. Chemical protection from high LET radiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ando, Koichi; Koike, Sachiko; Matsushita, Satoru; Kanai, Tatsuaki; Ohara, Hiroshi

    1992-01-01

    Radioprotection by WR151327 from high LET fast neutrons was investigated and compared with that from low LET radiation. Radiation damage in bone marrow, intestine, skin and leg length were all protected by a pretreatment with 400 mg/kg WR151327. Most prominent protection was observed for bone marrow, which gave a Dose Modifying Factor (DMF) of 2.2 against γ rays. Identical protection was observed between early and late radiation damage. WR151327 protected fast neutrons less efficiently than γ rays; 40% for bone marrow and 80% for skin leg. Pathological findings indicated that hyperplastic change in both dermis and epidermis associated with late skin shrinkage. Laser doppler flow-metry showed a good relationship between reduction of blood flow and late skin shrinkage. Irradiation of skin by heavy particle Carbon-12 indicated that skin shrinkage was modified by unirradiated surrounding normal tissues, which proposed a significant role of 'Volume Effect' in radiation damage. Tumor tissues were less protected by WR151327 than normal tissues. Dependence of radioprotection by WR151327 on tissue oxygen concentration is a probable reason to explain the difference between normal and tumor tissues. (author)

  3. 14 CFR 27.1419 - Ice protection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Ice protection. 27.1419 Section 27.1419... STANDARDS: NORMAL CATEGORY ROTORCRAFT Equipment Safety Equipment § 27.1419 Ice protection. (a) To obtain..., the adequacy of the ice protection system for the various components of the rotorcraft. (c) In...

  4. Physical protection of radioactive material in transport

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1975-01-01

    Safety in the transport of radioactive material is ensured by enclosing the material, when necessary, in packaging which prevents its dispersal and which absorbs to any adequate extent any radiation emitted by the material. Transport workers, the general public and the environment are thus protected against the harmful effects of the radioactive material. The packaging also serves the purpose of protecting its contents against the effects of rough handling and mishaps under normal transport conditions, and against the severe stresses and high temperatures that could be encountered in accidents accompanied by fires. If the radioactive material is also fissile, special design features are incorporated to prevent any possibility of criticality under normal transport conditions and in accidents. The safe transport requirements are designed to afford protection against unintentional opening of packages in normal handling and transport conditions and against damage in severe accident conditions; whereas the physical protection requirements are designed to prevent intentional opening of packages and deliberate damage. This clearly illustrates the difference in philosophical approach underlying the requirements for safe transport and for physical protection during transport. This difference in approach is, perhaps, most easily seen in the differing requirements for marking of consignments. While safety considerations dictate that packages be clearly labelled, physical protection considerations urge restraint in the use of special labels. Careful consideration must be given to such differences in approach in any attempt to harmonize the safety and physical protection aspects of transport. (author)

  5. TU-H-CAMPUS-TeP2-05: Selective Protection of Normal Tissue by Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles During Radiation Therapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ouyang, Z; Ngwa, W; Yasmin-Karim, S; Strack, G; Sajo, E

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: Cerium oxide nanoparticles (CONPs) have unique pH dependent properties such that they act as a radical modulator. These properties may be used in radiation therapy (RT) to protect normal tissue. This work investigates the selective radioprotection of CONPs in-vitro and potential for in-situ delivery of CONPs in prostate cancer RT. Methods: i) Normal human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) and human prostate cancer cells (PC-3) were treated with 0 or 2 ng/mL CONPs (NP size: 5 nm). 2 Gy of 100 kVp radiation was delivered to the cells 4 hours after the CONP treatment. Cell viability was checked 48 hours later using MTS assays. ii) A prostate tumor was modeled as a 2-cm diameter sphere. CONPs were proposed to be loaded in a hollow radiotherapy fiducial marker. The concentration profile for the CONPs within the tumor was modeled with a previously validated diffusion equation employed in other studies for nanoparticles 10 nm or less. Results: i) Without radiation, cell viability was above 90% when treated with 2 ng/mL CONPs for both HUVEC and PC-3. After irradiation, a slightly higher viability was observed in HUVEC with CONPs than the ones without CONPs, and this effect was not observed in PC-3. ii) Based on the calculations, 2 ng/mL of CONPs could be delivered to normal cells by diffusion with a 1 µg/mL initial concentration within two weeks. Conclusion: We conclude that CONPs can provide selective radioprotection. The delivery of needed concentrations of CONPs is feasible via in-situ release from radiotherapy biomaterials (e.g. fiducials) loaded with the CONPs.

  6. TU-H-CAMPUS-TeP2-05: Selective Protection of Normal Tissue by Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles During Radiation Therapy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ouyang, Z; Ngwa, W [University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA (United States); Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA (United States); Yasmin-Karim, S [Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA (United States); Strack, G; Sajo, E [University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA (United States)

    2016-06-15

    Purpose: Cerium oxide nanoparticles (CONPs) have unique pH dependent properties such that they act as a radical modulator. These properties may be used in radiation therapy (RT) to protect normal tissue. This work investigates the selective radioprotection of CONPs in-vitro and potential for in-situ delivery of CONPs in prostate cancer RT. Methods: i) Normal human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) and human prostate cancer cells (PC-3) were treated with 0 or 2 ng/mL CONPs (NP size: 5 nm). 2 Gy of 100 kVp radiation was delivered to the cells 4 hours after the CONP treatment. Cell viability was checked 48 hours later using MTS assays. ii) A prostate tumor was modeled as a 2-cm diameter sphere. CONPs were proposed to be loaded in a hollow radiotherapy fiducial marker. The concentration profile for the CONPs within the tumor was modeled with a previously validated diffusion equation employed in other studies for nanoparticles 10 nm or less. Results: i) Without radiation, cell viability was above 90% when treated with 2 ng/mL CONPs for both HUVEC and PC-3. After irradiation, a slightly higher viability was observed in HUVEC with CONPs than the ones without CONPs, and this effect was not observed in PC-3. ii) Based on the calculations, 2 ng/mL of CONPs could be delivered to normal cells by diffusion with a 1 µg/mL initial concentration within two weeks. Conclusion: We conclude that CONPs can provide selective radioprotection. The delivery of needed concentrations of CONPs is feasible via in-situ release from radiotherapy biomaterials (e.g. fiducials) loaded with the CONPs.

  7. Quench protection and safety of the ATLAS central solenoid

    CERN Document Server

    Makida, Y; Haruyama, T; ten Kate, H H J; Kawai, M; Kobayashi, T; Kondo, T; Kondo, Y; Mizumaki, S; Olesen, G; Sbrissa, E; Yamamoto, A; Yamaoka, H

    2002-01-01

    Fabrication of the ATLAS central solenoid was completed and the performance test has been carried out. The solenoid was successfully charged up to 8.4 kA, which is 10% higher than the normal operational current of 7.6 kA. Two methods for quench protection, pure aluminum strips accelerating quench propagation and quench protection heaters distributing normal zones, are applied in order to safely dissipate the stored energy. In this paper, quench characteristics and protection methods of the ATLAS central solenoid are described. (14 refs).

  8. About the principles of radiation level normalization

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nosovskij, A.V.

    2000-01-01

    The paper highlights the impact being made by the radiation level normalization principles upon the social and economic indicators. The newly introduced radiation safety standards - 97 are taken as an example. It is emphasized that it is necessary to use a sound approach while defining radiation protection standards, taking into consideration economic and social factors existing in Ukraine at the moment. Based on the concept of the natural radiation background and available results of the epidemiological surveys, the dose limits are proposed for the radiation protection standards. The paper gives a description of the dose limitation system recommended by the International Committee for Radiation Protection. The paper highlights a negative impact of the line non threshold concept, lack of special knowledge in the medical service and mass media to make decisions to protect people who suffered from the Chernobyl accident

  9. Diabetes, Dyslipidemia, and Heart Protection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fact Sheet Diabetes, Dyslipidemia, and Heart Protection What is dyslipidemia? Cholesterol and triglycerides, known as lipids, are fatty substances that the body normally produces. Dyslipidemia means that lipid levels ...

  10. Protection and sensitization of normal and malignant cells by a naturally occurring compound in a model of photochemical damage

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Yuan-Hao; Kumar, Neeru; Glickman, Randolph D.

    2012-03-01

    Certain phytonutrients are known to confer protection and immunosuppression against radiation insults. Radiation-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) can either lead to the destruction of normal tissue cells, or induce tumor radioresistance by activating ROS scavenging proteins. To identify whether the triterpene phytonutrient, ursolic acid, reduces radiation-induced damage in normal cells and promotes the apoptosis of malignant cells, we investigated the biologic mechanisms and effect of radiation-cell interaction with or without treatment with ursolic acid in human skin melanoma cells (ATCC CRL-11147TM) and transformed human retinal pigment epithelial (hTERT-RPE) cells. UV-VIS light was employed to investigate the efficacy of ursolic acid in altering cellular viability by modulations of p53 and NF-κB p65 signaling. Cell response was investigated by changes in proliferative activity and free radical generation assessed by 2',7'-dichlorofluorescin liquid chromatography. Ursolic acid pretreatment strongly increased the level of p53 and decreased the level of phosphorylated p65 leading to enhanced cell death of skin melanoma cells in response to UV-VIS exposure. In contrast, ursolic acid appeared to downregulate p53 levels without disturbing NF-κB activation along with an increase of oxidative stress in hTERT-RPE cells. These findings indicate that ursolic acid may beneficially increase the radiosensitivity of tumor cells while potentiating a photoprotective effect on benign cells through differential effects on the NF-κB and p53 signaling pathways.

  11. Light to Moderate Alcohol Consumption Is Protective for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Normal Weight and Overweight Individuals but Not the Obese

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patricia A. Metcalf

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Objective. To examine the association between alcohol consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM overall and by body mass index. Methods. Cross-sectional study of employed individuals. Daily alcohol intakes were calculated from a self-administered food frequency questionnaire by 5,512 Maori, Pacific Island, and European workers (3,992 men, 1520 women aged 40 years and above. Results. There were 170 new cases of T2DM. Compared to the group with no alcohol consumption and adjusting for age, sex, and ethnicity, the group consuming alcohol had relative risks of T2DM of 0.23 (95% CI: 0.08, 0.65 in normal weight individuals, 0.38 (0.18, 0.81 in overweight individuals, and 0.99 (0.59, 1.67 in obese individuals. After further adjusting for total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, smoking habit, physical activity, socioeconomic status, body mass index, and hypertension, the relative risks of T2DM were 0.16 (0.05, 0.50 in normal weight individuals, 0.43 (0.19, 0.97 in overweight individuals, and 0.92 (0.52, 1.60 in overweight individuals. Across the categories of alcohol consumption, there was an approximate U-shaped relationship for new cases of T2DM. There was no significant association between alcohol consumption and IGT. Conclusions. Alcohol consumption was protective against diagnosis of T2DM in normal and overweight individuals but not in the obese.

  12. Ashwagandha leaf derived withanone protects normal human cells against the toxicity of methoxyacetic acid, a major industrial metabolite.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Priyandoko, Didik; Ishii, Tetsuro; Kaul, Sunil C; Wadhwa, Renu

    2011-05-04

    The present day lifestyle heavily depends on industrial chemicals in the form of agriculture, cosmetics, textiles and medical products. Since the toxicity of the industrial chemicals has been a concern to human health, the need for alternative non-toxic natural products or adjuvants that serve as antidotes are in high demand. We have investigated the effects of Ayurvedic herb Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) leaf extract on methoxyacetic acid (MAA) induced toxicity. MAA is a major metabolite of ester phthalates that are commonly used in industry as gelling, viscosity and stabilizer reagents. We report that the MAA cause premature senescence of normal human cells by mechanisms that involve ROS generation, DNA and mitochondrial damage. Withanone protects cells from MAA-induced toxicity by suppressing the ROS levels, DNA and mitochondrial damage, and induction of cell defense signaling pathways including Nrf2 and proteasomal degradation. These findings warrant further basic and clinical studies that may promote the use of withanone as a health adjuvant in a variety of consumer products where the toxicity has been a concern because of the use of ester phthalates.

  13. Ashwagandha leaf derived withanone protects normal human cells against the toxicity of methoxyacetic acid, a major industrial metabolite.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Didik Priyandoko

    Full Text Available The present day lifestyle heavily depends on industrial chemicals in the form of agriculture, cosmetics, textiles and medical products. Since the toxicity of the industrial chemicals has been a concern to human health, the need for alternative non-toxic natural products or adjuvants that serve as antidotes are in high demand. We have investigated the effects of Ayurvedic herb Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera leaf extract on methoxyacetic acid (MAA induced toxicity. MAA is a major metabolite of ester phthalates that are commonly used in industry as gelling, viscosity and stabilizer reagents. We report that the MAA cause premature senescence of normal human cells by mechanisms that involve ROS generation, DNA and mitochondrial damage. Withanone protects cells from MAA-induced toxicity by suppressing the ROS levels, DNA and mitochondrial damage, and induction of cell defense signaling pathways including Nrf2 and proteasomal degradation. These findings warrant further basic and clinical studies that may promote the use of withanone as a health adjuvant in a variety of consumer products where the toxicity has been a concern because of the use of ester phthalates.

  14. EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA); Scientific Opinion on the substantiation of health claims related to astaxanthin and protection of the skin from UV-induced damage (ID 1687, 1979), defence against Helicobacter pylori (ID 1686), contribution to normal spermatogenesis

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tetens, Inge

    claims in relation to astaxanthin and protection of the skin from UV-induced damage, defence against Helicobacter pylori, contribution to normal spermatogenesis, contribution to normal muscle function, and “immune system”. The scientific substantiation is based on the information provided by the Member...

  15. Protection measures for selected ITER magnet system off-normal conditions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yoshida, K.; Iida, F.; Gallix, R.; Britousov, N.; Mitchell, N.; Thome, R.J.

    1998-01-01

    The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) magnet systems provide the magnetic field intensity and field geometry to contain and control plasma during the various phases of pulsed operation. During these pulses, the toroidal field (TF) coils operate with a constant current. The central solenoid (CS) and poloidal field (PF) coils, on the other hand, are each independently powered. The maximum terminal voltages during plasma operation and protective discharges are 15 kV for CS and 10 kV for TF and PF. The energy stored in the 20 TF coil system is 103 GJ; in each of the other coils it is approximately 10 GJ or less. This paper describes the protection requirements and selected design concepts being considered for the large superconducting coils for the ITER. Ground faults, short circuits and helium leaks are the major serious accidents to be prevented in the coils. All coils use a solid insulation system to avoid ground faults. The electrical circuits including coil and power supply are grounded through resistors that limit current in the event of a ground fault. In the case of a short circuit within the coil winding, a large energy would be dissipated close to the small shorted volume. The impact of the short circuit can be reduced by using a potential screen. Inside the cryostat, helium leakage is most likely at the electrical insulating breaks in the cryogenic cooling lines between the coils and helium manifolds. A double containment (metallic shield and glass-epoxy) is therefore provided for the insulation breaks to allow for the detection of small leaks and to limit the spread of helium to other locations. (orig.)

  16. 14 CFR 27.954 - Fuel system lightning protection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... AIRCRAFT AIRWORTHINESS STANDARDS: NORMAL CATEGORY ROTORCRAFT Powerplant Fuel System § 27.954 Fuel system lightning protection. The fuel system must be designed and arranged to prevent the ignition of fuel vapor... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Fuel system lightning protection. 27.954...

  17. Investigating the Use of a Protective Coating Material as an ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Petroleum wax is known to provide ozone protection to natural rubber under static deformation while a combination of chemical antiozonant and wax is normally used for ozone protection under dynamic conditions. The work described in this paper, aims at investigating the effectiveness of a coating material in protecting a ...

  18. The lazaroid U74389G protects normal brain from stereotactic radiosurgery-induced radiation injury

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Buatti, John M.; Friedman, William A.; Theele, Daniel P.; Bova, Francis J.; Mendenhall, William M.

    1996-01-01

    Purpose: To test an established model of stereotactic radiosurgery-induced radiation injury with pretreatments of either methylprednisolone or the lazaroid U74389G. Methods and Materials: Nine cats received stereotactic radiosurgery with a linear accelerator using an animal radiosurgery device. Each received a dose of 125.0 Gy prescribed to the 84% isodose shell to the anterior limb of the right internal capsule. One animal received no pretreatment, two received citrate vehicle, three received 30 mg/kg of methylprednisolone, and three received 5 mg/kg of U74389G. After irradiation, the animals had frequent neurologic examinations, and neurologic deficits developed in all of them. Six months after the radiation treatment, the animals were anesthetized, and had gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) scans, followed by Evans blue dye perfusion, euthanasia, and brain fixation. Results: Magnetic resonance scans revealed a decrease in the size of the lesions from a mean volume of 0.45 ± 0.06 cm 3 in the control, vehicle-treated, and methylprednisolone-treated animals to 0.22 ± 0.14 cm 3 in the U74389G-treated group. The scans also suggested the absence of necrosis and ventricular dilatation in the lazaroid-treated group. Gross pathology revealed that lesions produced in the untreated, vehicle-treated, and methylprednisolone-treated cats were similar and were characterized by a peripheral zone of Evans blue dye staining with a central zone of a mature coagulative necrosis and focal hemorrhage. However, in the U74389G-treated animals, the lesions were found to have an area of Evans blue dye staining, but lacked discrete areas of necrosis and hemorrhage. Conclusion: These results suggest that the lazaroid U74389G protects the normal brain from radiation injury produced by stereotactic radiosurgery

  19. Radioprotection of normal tissues of the mouse by hypoxic breathing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stevens, G.N.; Joiner, B.; Denekamp, J.

    1989-01-01

    Hypoxic breathing during irradiation has been advocated as a therapeutic modality, to increase the efficacy of radiotherapy. In this form of treatment, the total and daily X-ray dose is increased by a factor of 1.25, on the assumption that all normal tissues in the beam will be protected to a similar extent by breathing gas containing a reduced oxygen concentration (usually 10%). To test this concept, we have determined the effect of varying the inspired oxygen tension on the radiosensitivity of 3 normal tissues in the mouse (kidney, jejunum and skin), and have compared these results with data from the literature for mouse lung. Reduction of the inspired oxygen tension from 21% (air) to 7-8% led to much greater radioprotection of skin (protection factor 1.37) than of lung (1.09). Protection factors for jejunum and kidney were 1.16 and 1.36 respectively. The results show that the extent of radioprotection afforded by hypoxic breathing is tissue dependent, and that great care must be taken clinically in choosing the increased radiation dose to be used in conjunction with hypoxic breathing

  20. Measuring protected-area isolation and correlations of isolation with land-use intensity and protection status.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seiferling, Ian S; Proulx, Raphaël; Peres-Neto, Pedro R; Fahrig, Lenore; Messier, Christian

    2012-08-01

    Protected areas cover over 12% of the terrestrial surface of Earth, and yet many fail to protect species and ecological processes as originally envisioned. Results of recent studies suggest that a critical reason for this failure is an increasing contrast between the protected lands and the surrounding matrix of often highly altered land cover. We measured the isolation of 114 protected areas distributed worldwide by comparing vegetation-cover heterogeneity inside protected areas with heterogeneity outside the protected areas. We quantified heterogeneity as the contagion of greenness on the basis of NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) values, for which a higher value of contagion indicates less heterogeneous land cover. We then measured isolation as the difference between mean contagion inside the protected area and mean contagion in 3 buffer areas of increasing distance from the protected-area border. The isolation of protected areas was significantly positive in 110 of the 114 areas, indicating that vegetation cover was consistently more heterogeneous 10-20 km outside protected areas than inside their borders. Unlike previous researchers, we found that protected areas in which low levels of human activity are allowed were more isolated than areas in which high levels are allowed. Our method is a novel way to assess the isolation of protected areas in different environmental contexts and regions. ©2011 Society for Conservation Biology.

  1. Radiation protection planning and management during revision

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gewehr, K.

    1984-01-01

    During the operation of nuclear power plants it is normally possible for the in-house personnel to take care of arising radiation protection problems. However, in the comparatively short revision phases, the duties of radiation protection become much more varied. Additional trained radiation protection crews are needed at short notice. This is also the time in which the largest contributions are made to the annual cumulated doses of the personnel. Recent guidelines and rules trying to reduce the radiation exposure of personnel concentrate on this very point. The article outlines the radiation protection activities performed by the service personnel in the course of a steam generator check. (orig.) [de

  2. CNS bioavailability and radiation protection of normal hippocampal neurogenesis by a lipophilic Mn porphyrin-based superoxide dismutase mimic, MnTnBuOE-2-PyP5+

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David Leu

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Although radiation therapy can be effective against cancer, potential damage to normal tissues limits the amount that can be safely administered. In central nervous system (CNS, radiation damage to normal tissues is presented, in part, as suppressed hippocampal neurogenesis and impaired cognitive functions. Mn porphyrin (MnP-based redox active drugs have demonstrated differential effects on cancer and normal tissues in experimental animals that lead to protection of normal tissues and radio- and chemo-sensitization of cancers. To test the efficacy of MnPs in CNS radioprotection, we first examined the tissue levels of three different MnPs – MnTE-2-PyP5+(MnE, MnTnHex-2-PyP5+(MnHex, and MnTnBuOE-2-PyP5+(MnBuOE. Nanomolar concentrations of MnHex and MnBuOE were detected in various brain regions after daily subcutaneous administration, and MnBuOE was well tolerated at a daily dose of 3 mg/kg. Administration of MnBuOE for one week before cranial irradiation and continued for one week afterwards supported production and long-term survival of newborn neurons in the hippocampal dentate gyrus. MnP-driven S-glutathionylation in cortex and hippocampus showed differential responses to MnP administration and radiation in these two brain regions. A better understanding of how preserved hippocampal neurogenesis correlates with cognitive functions following cranial irradiation will be helpful in designing better MnP-based radioprotection strategies. Keywords: Mn porphyrin, Bioavailability, BMX-001, Hippocampus, Neurogenesis, Radioprotection

  3. Smart machine protection system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Clark, S.; Nelson, D.; Grillo, A.

    1992-01-01

    A Machine Protection System implemented on the SLC automatically controls the beam repetition rates in the accelerator so that radiation or temperature faults slow the repetition rate to bring the fault within tolerance without shutting down the machine. This process allows the accelerators to aid in the fault diagnostic process, and the protection system automatically restores the beams back to normal rates when the fault is diagnosed and corrected. The user interface includes facilities to monitor the performance of the system, and track rate limits, faults, and recoveries. There is an edit facility to define the devices to be included in the protection system, along with their set points, limits, and trip points. This set point and limit data is downloaded into the CAMAC modules, and the configuration data is complied into a logical decision tree for the 68030 processor. (author)

  4. Smart Machine Protection System

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Clark, S.; Nelson, D.; Grillo, A.; Spencer, N.; Hutchinson, D.; Olsen, J.; Millsom, D.; White, G.; Gromme, T.; Allison, S.; Underwood, K.; Zelazny, M.; Kang, H.

    1991-11-01

    A Machine Protection System implemented on the SLC automatically controls the beam repetition rates in the accelerator so that radiation or temperature faults slow the repetition rate to bring the fault within tolerance without shutting down the machine. This process allows the accelerator to aid in the fault diagnostic process, and the protection system automatically restores the beams back to normal rates when the fault is diagnosed and corrected. The user interface includes facilities to monitor the performance of the system, and track rate limits, faults, and recoveries. There is an edit facility to define the devices to be included in the protection system, along with their set points, limits, and trip points. This set point and limit data is downloaded into the CAMAC modules, and the configuration data is compiled into a logical decision tree for the 68030 processor. 3 figs

  5. Radioprotection of normal tissues in tumor-bearing mice by troxerutin

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maurya, D.K.; Salvi, V.P.; Krishnan Nair, C.K.

    2004-01-01

    The flavanoid derivative troxerutin, used clinically for treating venous disorders, protected biomembranes and cellular DNA against the deleterious effects of γ-radiation. The peroxidation of lipids (measured as thiobarbituric acid-reacting substances, or TBARS) in rat liver microsomal and mitochondrial membranes resulting from γ-irradiation up to doses of 500 Gy in vitro was prevented by 0.2 mM troxerutin. The administration of troxerutin (175 mg/kg body weight) to tumor-bearing mice by intraperitoneal (ip) one hour prior to 4 Gy whole-body γ-irradiation significantly decreased the radiation-induced peroxidation of lipids in tissues such as liver and spleen, but there was no reduction of lipid peroxidation in tumor. The effect of troxerutin in γ-radiation-induced DNA strand breaks in different tissues of tumor-bearing mice was studied by comet assay. The administration of troxerutin to tumor-bearing animals protected cellular DNA against radiation-induced strand breaks. This was evidenced from decreases in comet tail length, tail moment, and percent of DNA in the tails in cells of normal tissues such as blood leukocytes and bone marrow, and these parameters were not altered in cells of fibrosarcoma tumor. The results revealed that troxerutin could preferentially protect normal tissues against radiation-induced damages in tumor-bearing animals. (author)

  6. Prolonged Tp-e Interval in Down Syndrome Patients with Congenitally Normal Hearts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kucuk, Mehmet; Karadeniz, Cem; Ozdemir, Rahmi; Meşe, Timur

    2018-03-25

    Heterogeneity of ventricular repolarization has been assessed by using the QT dispersion in Down syndrome (DS) patients with congenitally normal hearts. However, novel repolarization indexes, the Tp-e interval and Tp-e/QT ratio, have not previously been evaluated in these patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the Tp-e interval and Tp-e/QT ratio in DS patients without congenital heart defects. Twelve-lead surface electrocardiograms of 160 DS patients and 110 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were used to evaluate and compare the Tp-e interval, Tp-e dispersion, and Tp-e/QT ratio. Heart rate, Tp-e interval, Tp-e dispersion, Tp-e/QT and Tp-e/QTc ratios were significantly higher in DS group than in the controls. Myocardial repolarization indexes in DS patients with congenitally normal hearts were found to be prolonged compared to those in normal controls. Further evaluation is warranted to reveal a relationship between prolonged repolarization indexes and arrhythmic events in these patients. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

  7. Permeation of Comite through protective gloves.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zainal, Hanaa; Que Hee, Shane S

    2006-09-01

    The goal of the study was to assess how protective disposable (Safeskin) and chemical protective (Sol-Vex) nitrile gloves were against Comite emulsifiable concentrate formulation containing propargite (PROP) as active pesticidal ingredient, because there were no explicit recommendations for the gloves that should be worn for hand protection. The glove material was exposed in ASTM-type I-PTC-600 permeation cells at 30.0+/-0.5 degrees C, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry used for PROP analysis. Aqueous solutions of Comite at 40.4 mg/mL permeated both Safeskin and Sol-Vex nitrile by 8h. Safeskin showed a mean PROP mass permeated of 176+/-27 microg after 8h compared with a mean mass permeated for Sol-Vex of 3.17+/-4.08 microg. Thus, Sol-Vex was about 56 times more protective than Safeskin for an 8-h exposure. However, the kinetics of the permeation revealed that Safeskin can be worn for at least 200 min before disposal. When undiluted Comite challenged both types of nitrile, much faster permeation was observed. Safeskin gloves showed two steady state periods. The first had lag times (t(l)) values of about 1h, although normalized breakthrough times (t(b)) were gloves exposed continuously to undiluted Comite permeated above the normalized breakthrough threshold beyond 2.7h. A risk assessment revealed that the PROP skin permeation rate of 7.1 ng cm(-2)h(-1) was much slower than the first steady state Safeskin glove P(s) of 62,000 ng cm(-2)h(-1). Infrared analysis showed that the glove surfaces were not degraded by the Comite challenge. The chemically protective Sol-Vex gloves protected adequately against undiluted formulation for about 2.7h, whereas they provided protection for nearly 8h when the formulation was diluted with water to the highest concentration for field application. In contrast, the disposable Safeskin gloves did not protect at all for the undiluted formulation, but did for 200 min when the formulation was diluted with water to the highest

  8. Normal variants and non-pathologic findings of the skeletal system in childhood

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schaper, J.; Heinen, W.

    2006-01-01

    The knowledge of normal variants of the skeletal system in childhood protects the child from false radiologic diagnosis and the resulting malpractice. In this article we present a survey of common variants of childhood skeletal system. The awareness of these entities, e. g. the benign extraaxial fluid collections of infancy, allows accurate clinical and radiological diagnosis. The most important impact of radiological expertise in normal variations results in avoidance of unneccessary examinations and in omission of unsubstantiated parental and patients fears. Nearly all normal variations with definite radiologic findings should be treated according to the ''leave-me-alone'' principle. (orig.)

  9. Radiation protection and monitoring

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bruecher, L.; Langmueller, G.; Tuerschmann, G.

    1997-01-01

    The safety, the quality and efficiency of the radiological monitoring systems for block one and two of the NPP Mochovce, designed and delivered by the general designer, should be increased by EUCOM Siemens. Modern, accident resistant and/or more powerful monitoring systems have been designed by Siemens will be added to the existing systems. To achieve this radiation measuring units will be installed inside the hermetic zone, in the reactor hall, at the stack, at the release water system and in the environment in the vicinity of the NPP. The presentation, the storage distribution and the processing of all measuring results also will be optimised by installing a modern high-performance computer system, the so-called Central Radiological Computer System 'CRCS', featuring a high availability. The components will be installed in the relevant control rooms all over the plant. With this computer system it is easy to control the radiation level inside and outside the NPP during normal operation and during and after an accident. Special programs, developed by Siemens support the staff by interpreting the consequences of radioactive releases into the environment and by initiating protection procedures during and after an accident. All functions of the system are available for emergency protection drills and training the staff interruption of the normal control procedure. For the personal protection a digital personal dosimetry system completely considering with the requirements of ICRP 60 and several contamination monitors will be installed. (authors)

  10. Normal Peace: A New Strategic Narrative of Intervention

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicolas Lemay-Hebert

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available International actors have used multiple discursive frameworks for justifying interventions, from human security to the responsibility to protect, and, most recently, resilience-building. We argue that the language of normalization, hidden behind these narratives of interventions, has also contributed to structure the intervention landscape, albeit in less obvious and overt ways than other competing narratives of intervention. This article disentangles the different practices of normalization in order to highlight their ramifications. It introduces the concept of normal peace—a new conceptual reference to understand interventions undertaken by the international community to impose, restore or accept normalcy in turbulent societies. The article argues that the optimization of interventions entails selective responses to govern risk and adapt to the transitional international order. The art of what is politically possible underlines the choice of optimal intervention, be that to impose an external order of normalcy, restore the previous order of normalcy, or accept the existing order of normalcy.

  11. Globalization and deregulation: does flexicuritiy protect atypically employed?

    OpenAIRE

    Seifert, Hartmut; Tangian, Andranik S.

    2006-01-01

    "Hitherto, discussion of flexicurity has focused on normal employment (permanent full-time), with atypical work receiving only cursory attention. Nevertheless, the most affected are just atypically employed (= other than normally employed). To monitor effects of flexicurity policies in Europe, flexicurity indices are constructed from: (a) scores of the strictness of employment protection legislation provided by the OECD, (b) qualitative juridical data on social security benefits (unemployment...

  12. Radiation protection aspects of waste disposal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Beninson, D.

    1992-01-01

    Waste disposal, particularly of high level waste and some alpha-waste, involves very long times of isolation from the biosphere. The basic radiation protection requirements of 'optimisation of protection' and 'limitation of individual risk' must be complemented with policy decisions regarding the level of ambition of protection for future individuals and populations. Decisions are also necessary for the risk assessments applicable to different time periods. These assessments include considerable uncertainty and determinations of compliance with regulatory requirements must contemplate a policy for taking account of such uncertainties. The paper deals with 'normal' scenarios and with disruptive events as mechanisms for the return of nuclides to the biosphere, in the framework of the Recommendations of the ICRP. (author)

  13. Implementation of the Preventive Radiation Protection Act; here: Regulation governing ambient radioactivity monitoring subject to the Preventive Radiation Protection Act. Pt. 1. Measuring programme for specified normal operation monitoring (routine measuring programme). BMU circular letter dated 28.07.94 -RS II 6 - 15 603/3

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1994-01-01

    The regulation addresses the competent Federal and Land authorities responsible for implementation of the Preventive Radiation Protection Act, and the competent highest Land authorities. The regulation defines the scope of obligatory measurement of ambient radioactivity during normal operation of installations and determines the measuring techniques to be applied for this purpose. The programme determines compulsory instructions to be observed in the performance of the routine measuring programme by the competent Federal and Land authorities and thus ensures nationwide application of standard procedures

  14. Operational behaviour of a reactor normal operation and disturbances

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Geyer, K.H.

    1982-01-01

    During normal operation, the following topics are dealt with: primary and secondary coolant circuits - full load operation - start-up and shutdown - steady state part load diagramm. During disturbances and incidents, the following procedures are discussed: identification and detection of the events - automatic actions - manual actions of the operator - provided indications - explanation of actuated systems - basic information of reactor protection system. (RW)

  15. Role of the normal gut microbiota.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jandhyala, Sai Manasa; Talukdar, Rupjyoti; Subramanyam, Chivkula; Vuyyuru, Harish; Sasikala, Mitnala; Nageshwar Reddy, D

    2015-08-07

    Relation between the gut microbiota and human health is being increasingly recognised. It is now well established that a healthy gut flora is largely responsible for overall health of the host. The normal human gut microbiota comprises of two major phyla, namely Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes. Though the gut microbiota in an infant appears haphazard, it starts resembling the adult flora by the age of 3 years. Nevertheless, there exist temporal and spatial variations in the microbial distribution from esophagus to the rectum all along the individual's life span. Developments in genome sequencing technologies and bioinformatics have now enabled scientists to study these microorganisms and their function and microbe-host interactions in an elaborate manner both in health and disease. The normal gut microbiota imparts specific function in host nutrient metabolism, xenobiotic and drug metabolism, maintenance of structural integrity of the gut mucosal barrier, immunomodulation, and protection against pathogens. Several factors play a role in shaping the normal gut microbiota. They include (1) the mode of delivery (vaginal or caesarean); (2) diet during infancy (breast milk or formula feeds) and adulthood (vegan based or meat based); and (3) use of antibiotics or antibiotic like molecules that are derived from the environment or the gut commensal community. A major concern of antibiotic use is the long-term alteration of the normal healthy gut microbiota and horizontal transfer of resistance genes that could result in reservoir of organisms with a multidrug resistant gene pool.

  16. The LHC quench protection system

    CERN Multimedia

    2009-01-01

    The new quench protection system (QPS) has the crucial roles of providing an early warning for any part of the superconducting coils and busbars that develop high resistance, as well as triggering the switch-off of the machine. Over 2000 new detectors will be installed around the LHC to make sure every busbar segment between magnets is monitored and protected. One of the major consolidation activities for the LHC is the addition of two new detectors to the quench protection system. A magnet quench occurs when part of the superconducting cable becomes normally-conducting. When the protection system detects an increased resistance the huge amount of energy stored in the magnet chains is safely extracted and ‘dumped’ into specially designed resistors. In the case of the main dipole chain, the stored energy in a single LHC sector is roughly the same as the kinetic energy of a passenger jet at cruising speed. The first new detector is designed to monitor the superconducting...

  17. Radiation protection at urological fluoroscopy working stations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Forster, D.; Mohr, H.

    1979-01-01

    Two newly developed radiation protection devices for urological working stations are presented. The local dose to which doctor and assisting personnel are exposed during fluoroscopy and radiography was measured and the radiation burden with and without radiation protection determined. The studies show that without these devices organs such as the eyes are exposed, at a normal working distance from the table, to such an amount of scattered radiation as to reduce the permitted number of examinations per week. (Auth.)

  18. Gate protective device for SOS array

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meyer, J. E., Jr.; Scott, J. H.

    1972-01-01

    Protective gate device consisting of alternating heavily doped n(+) and p(+) diffusions eliminates breakdown voltages in silicon oxide on sapphire arrays caused by electrostatic discharge from person or equipment. Diffusions are easily produced during normal double epitaxial processing. Devices with nine layers had 27-volt breakdown.

  19. Network Protection Against DDoS Attacks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Petr Dzurenda

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available The paper deals with possibilities of the network protection against Distributed Denial of Service attacks (DDoS. The basic types of DDoS attacks and their impact on the protected network are presented here. Furthermore, we present basic detection and defense techniques thanks to which it is possible to increase resistance of the protected network or device against DDoS attacks. Moreover, we tested the ability of current commercial Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS, especially Radware DefensePro 6.10.00 product against the most common types of DDoS attacks. We create five scenarios that are varied in type and strength of the DDoS attacks. The attacks intensity was much greater than the normal intensity of the current DDoS attacks.

  20. Normal-zone detectors for the MFTF-B coils. Revision 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Owen, E.W.; Shimer, D.W.

    1983-01-01

    In order to protect a set of inductively coupled superconducting magnets, it is necessary to locate and measure normal zone voltages that are small compared with the mutual and self-induced voltages. The method described in this report uses two sets of voltage measurements to locate and measure one or more normal zones in any number of coupled coils. One set of voltages is the outputs of bridges that balance out the self-induced voltages. The other set of voltages can be the voltages across the coils, although alternatives are possible. The two sets of equations form a single combined set of equations. Each normal zone location or combination of normal zones has a set of these combined equations associated with it. It is demonstrated that the normal zone can be located and the correct set chosen, allowing determination of the size of the normal zone. Only a few operations take place in a working detector: multiplication of a constant, addition, and simple decision-making. In many cases the detector for each coil, although weakly linked to the other detectors, can be considered to be independent. An example of the detector design is given for four coils with realistic parameters. The effect on accuracy of changes in the system parameters is discussed

  1. Policy support on radiation protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hardeman, F.

    1998-01-01

    The objectives of activities related to policy support on radiation protection is: (1) to support and advise the Belgian authorities on specific problems concerning existing and potential hazards from exposure to ionizing radiation in normal and accidental situations,;(2) to improve and support nuclear emergency-response decisions in industrial areas from an economical point of view. The main achievements for 1997 are described

  2. Performance of Surge Arrester Installation to Enhance Protection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mbunwe Muncho Josephine

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The effects of abnormal voltages on power system equipment and appliances in the home have raise concern as most of the equipments are very expensive. Each piece of electrical equipment in an electrical system needs to be protected from surges. To prevent damage to electrical equipment, surge protection considerations are paramount to a well designed electrical system. Lightning discharges are able to damage electric and electronic devices that usually have a low protection level and these are influenced by current or voltage pulses with a relatively low energy, which are induced by lightning currents. This calls for proper designed and configuration of surge arresters for protection on the particular appliances. A more efficient non-linear surge arrester, metal oxide varistor (MOV, should be introduced to handle these surges. This paper shows the selection of arresters laying more emphasis on the arresters for residential areas. In addition, application and installation of the arrester will be determined by the selected arrester. This paper selects the lowest rated surge arrester as it provides insulation when the system is under stress. It also selected station class and distribution class of arresters as they act as an open circuit under normal system operation and to bring the system back to its normal operation mode as the transient voltage is suppressed. Thus, reduces the risk of damage, which the protection measures can be characterized, by the reduction value of the economic loss to an acceptable level.

  3. Comparison between conventional and protective one-lung ventilation for ventilator-assisted thoracic surgery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahn, H J; Kim, J A; Yang, M; Shim, W S; Park, K J; Lee, J J

    2012-09-01

    Recent papers suggest protective ventilation (PV) as a primary ventilation strategy during one-lung ventilation (OLV) to reduce postoperative pulmonary morbidity. However, data regarding the advantage of the PV strategy in patients with normal preoperative pulmonary function are inconsistent, especially in the case of minimally invasive thoracic surgery. Therefore we compared conventional OLV (VT 10 ml/kg, FiO2 1.0, zero PEEP) to protective OLV (VT 6 ml/kg, FiO2 0.5, PEEP 5 cmH2O) in patients with normal preoperative pulmonary function tests undergoing video-assisted thoracic surgery. Oxygenation, respiratory mechanics, plasma interleukin-6 and malondialdehyde levels were measured at baseline, 15 and 60 minutes after OLV and 15 minutes after restoration of two-lung ventilation. PaO2 and PaO2/FiO2 were higher in conventional OLV than in protective OLV (PProtective ventilation did not provide advantages over conventional ventilation for video-assisted thoracic surgery in this group of patients with normal lung function.

  4. Normal zone detectors for a large number of inductively coupled coils

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Owen, E.W.; Shimer, D.W.

    1983-01-01

    In order to protect a set of inductively coupled superconducting magnets, it is necessary to locate and measure normal zone voltages that are small compared with the mutual and self-induced voltages. The method described in this paper uses two sets of voltage measurements to locate and measure one or more normal zones in any number of coupled coils. One set of voltages is the outputs of bridges that balance out the self-induced voltages. The other set of voltages can be the voltages across the coils, although alternatives are possible. The two sets of equations form a single combined set of equations. Each normal zone location or combination of normal zones has a set of these combined equations associated with it. It is demonstrated that the normal zone can be located and the correct set chosen, allowing determination of the size of the normal zone. Only a few operations take place in a working detector: multiplication of a constant, addition, and simple decision-making. In many cases the detector for each coil, although weakly linked to the other detectors, can be considered to be independent

  5. Electron microscopy - principles of radiation protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1990-01-01

    This 8 minute programme explains the nature of the possible radiation hazard in Electron Microscopy and outlines the ways in which modern equipment is designed and made so that in normal use the worker is not exposed to radiation. The interlock principle is explained and illustrated by an example from the field of X-ray crystallography. By filming machines while they were dismantled for servicing, details of several internal safety devices have been included. In this way workers who normally use the equipment as a 'black box' get some insight into the principles and practice of radiation protection in the field. (author)

  6. Radiation protection optimization using a knowledge based methodology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reyes-Jimenez, J.; Tsoukalas, L.H.

    1991-01-01

    This paper presents a knowledge based methodology for radiological planning and radiation protection optimization. The cost-benefit methodology described on International Commission of Radiation Protection Report No. 37 is employed within a knowledge based framework for the purpose of optimizing radiation protection and plan maintenance activities while optimizing radiation protection. 1, 2 The methodology is demonstrated through an application to a heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system. HVAC is used to reduce radioactivity concentration levels in selected contaminated multi-compartment models at nuclear power plants when higher than normal radiation levels are detected. The overall objective is to reduce personnel exposure resulting from airborne radioactivity, when routine or maintenance access is required in contaminated areas. 2 figs, 15 refs

  7. Toward a Genotoxic Protection Factor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cesarini, J.P.; Demanneville, S.

    2000-01-01

    P53, a molecule normally expressed before mitosis, is considered as the 'guardian of the genome'. In the skin its level is normally very low (<3% of cells), detected by immunohistochemical methods. At least 50% of the keratinocytes express p53 protein, 24 h following a significant UV irradiation (2 SED). It is expected using sunscreens to reduce the expression of p53 in parallel with their ability to reduce the actinic erythema, the endpoint adopted to evaluate the Sun Protection Factor (SPF) of sunscreens. P53 detection on biopsies performed on the buttocks of human volunteers was used to evaluate the genotoxic protecting factor (GPF) of several sunscreens with either high UVB filtration or high UVA filtration, characterised by various SPF (COLIPA) from 10 to 40. The p53 count in parallel with sunburn cell count were the parameters studied. In general, the GPF of the sunscreens was found below the proprietary SPF. If a genotoxic effect is shown in an increased p53 expression, this effect is still observed at a dose lower than the dose inducing the faintest actinic erythema. (author)

  8. Toward a Genotoxic Protection Factor

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cesarini, J.P.; Demanneville, S

    2000-07-01

    P53, a molecule normally expressed before mitosis, is considered as the 'guardian of the genome'. In the skin its level is normally very low (<3% of cells), detected by immunohistochemical methods. At least 50% of the keratinocytes express p53 protein, 24 h following a significant UV irradiation (2 SED). It is expected using sunscreens to reduce the expression of p53 in parallel with their ability to reduce the actinic erythema, the endpoint adopted to evaluate the Sun Protection Factor (SPF) of sunscreens. P53 detection on biopsies performed on the buttocks of human volunteers was used to evaluate the genotoxic protecting factor (GPF) of several sunscreens with either high UVB filtration or high UVA filtration, characterised by various SPF (COLIPA) from 10 to 40. The p53 count in parallel with sunburn cell count were the parameters studied. In general, the GPF of the sunscreens was found below the proprietary SPF. If a genotoxic effect is shown in an increased p53 expression, this effect is still observed at a dose lower than the dose inducing the faintest actinic erythema. (author)

  9. Quench Protection of SC Quadrupole Magnets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feher, S.; Bossert, R.; Dimarco, J.; Mitchell, D.; Lamm, M. J.; Limon, P. J.; Mazur, P.; Nobrega, F.; Orris, D.; Ozelis, J. P.; Strait, J. B.; Tompkins, J. C.; Zlobin, A. V.; McInturff, A. D.

    1997-05-01

    The energy stored in a superconducting accelerator magnet is dissipated after a quench in the coil normal zones, heating the coil and generating a turn to turn and coil to ground voltage drop. Quench heaters are used to protect the superconducting magnet by greatly increasing the coil normal zone thus allowing the energy to be dissipated over a larger conductor volume. Such heaters will be required for the Fermilab/LBNL design of the high gradient quads (HGQ) designed for the LHC interaction regions. As a first step, heaters were installed and tested in several Tevatron low-β superconducting quadrupoles. Experimental studies in normal and superfluid helium are presented which show the heater-induced quench response as a function of magnet excitation current, magnet temperature and peak heater energy density.

  10. T lymphocytes and normal tissue responses to radiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schaue, Dörthe; McBride, William H.

    2012-01-01

    There is compelling evidence that lymphocytes are a recurring feature in radiation damaged normal tissues, but assessing their functional significance has proven difficult. Contradictory roles have been postulated in both tissue pathogenesis and protection, although these are not necessarily mutually exclusive as the immune system can display what may seem to be opposing faces at any one time. While the exact role of T lymphocytes in irradiated normal tissue responses may still be obscure, their accumulation after tissue damage suggests they may be critical targets for radiotherapeutic intervention and worthy of further study. This is accentuated by recent findings that pathologically damaged “self,” such as occurs after exposure to ionizing radiation, can generate danger signals with the ability to activate pathways similar to those that activate adoptive immunity to pathogens. In addition, the demonstration of T cell subsets with their recognition radars tuned to “self” moieties has revolutionized our ideas on how all immune responses are controlled and regulated. New concepts of autoimmunity have resulted based on the dissociation of immune functions between different subsets of immune cells. It is becoming axiomatic that the immune system has the power to regulate radiation-induced tissue damage, from failure of regeneration to fibrosis, to acute and chronic late effects, and even to carcinogenesis. Our understanding of the interplay between T lymphocytes and radiation-damaged tissue may still be rudimentary but this is a good time to re-examine their potential roles, their radiobiological and microenvironmental influences, and the possibilities for therapeutic manipulation. This review will discuss the yin and yang of T cell responses within the context of radiation exposures, how they might drive or protect against normal tissue side effects and what we may be able do about it.

  11. Lack of radiation protective effect of orgotein in normal and malignant mammalian cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Overgaard, J.; Nielsen, O.S.; Overgaard, M.; Steenholdt, S.; Jakobsen, A.; Sell, A.

    1979-01-01

    The potential radiation protective effect of orgotein, a metalloprotein with superoxide dismutase activity, was investigated in L 1 A 2 tumour cells in vitro, jejunal crypt cells and C 3 H mouse mammary carcinoma in vivo. No effect of orgotein, given either 2 hours before irradiation or 30 min after, was observed compared to the effect of irradiation alone. Thus, it was concluded that orgotein did not influence the primary radiation response in air in mammalian cells. (Auth.)

  12. Radiation hygiene of animal production in normal and emergency situations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stajicj, J.; Petrovicj, B.; Draganovicj, B.

    1977-01-01

    Radiation hazards imposed by contemporary development and peaceful and military uses of nuclear energy have implied the introduction of radiational control in animal production, and radiation-hygienic expertize of animal products and animal foodstuffs. Various treatments in scientific research, education and uses of relevant equipment, undertaken in right time, enabled our Veterinary services to start successfully to solve problems of radiation control and protection of animal production in normal and emergency situations. An important role in this context has the Section of Radiation Hygiene Yugoslav Veterinary Association, as an initiator of many activities that are intended to affirme Radiation Hygiene in the domain of scientific research and in the field of national defence and self-protection

  13. Method for protecting an electric generator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuehnle, Barry W.; Roberts, Jeffrey B.; Folkers, Ralph W.

    2008-11-18

    A method for protecting an electrical generator which includes providing an electrical generator which is normally synchronously operated with an electrical power grid; providing a synchronizing signal from the electrical generator; establishing a reference signal; and electrically isolating the electrical generator from the electrical power grid if the synchronizing signal is not in phase with the reference signal.

  14. Hyperoxic preconditioning fails to confer additional protection against ischemia-reperfusion injury in acute diabetic rat heart.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pourkhalili, Khalil; Hajizadeh, Sohrab; Akbari, Zahra; Dehaj, Mansour Esmaili; Akbarzadeh, Samad; Alizadeh, Alimohammad

    2012-01-01

    Experimental studies show that detrimental effects of ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury can be attenuated by hyperoxic preconditioning in normal hearts, however, there are few studies about hyperoxia effects in diseased myocardium. The present study was designed to assess the cardioprotective effects of hyperoxia pretreatment (≥ 95 % O2) in acute diabetic rat hearts. Normal and one week acute diabetic rats were either exposed to 60 (H60) and 180 (H180) min of hyperoxia or exposed to normal atmospheric air (21 % O2). Then hearts were isolated immediately and subjected to 30 min of regional ischemia followed by 120 min of reperfusion. Infarct size, cardiomyocyte apoptosis, enzymes release and ischemia induced arrhythmias were determined. Heart of diabetic control rats had less infarct size and decreased LDH and CK-MB release compared to normal hearts. 60 and 180 min of hyperoxia reduced myocardial infarct size and enzymes release in normal hearts. 180 min of hyperoxia also decreased cardiomyocytes apoptosis in normal state. On the other hand, protective values of hyperoxia were not significantly different in diabetic hearts. Moreover, hyperoxia reduced severity of ventricular arrhythmias in normal rat hearts whereas; it did not confer any additional antiarrhythmic protection in diabetic hearts. These findings suggest that diabetic hearts are less susceptible to ischemia-induced arrhythmias and infarction. Hyperoxia greatly protects rat hearts against I/R injury in normal hearts, however, it could not provide added cardioprotective effects in acute phase of diabetes.

  15. Lack of radiation protective effect of orgotein in normal and malignant mammalian cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Overgaard, J; Nielsen, O S; Overgaard, M; Steenholdt, S; Jakobsen, A; Sell, A [Institute of Cancer Research and The Department of Radiation Therapy and Oncology, The Radium Centre, Aarhus, Denmark

    1979-01-01

    The potential radiation protective effect of orgotein, a metalloprotein with superoxide dismutase activity, was investigated in L/sub 1/A/sub 2/ tumour cells in vitro, jejunal crypt cells and C/sub 3/H mouse mammary carcinoma in vivo. No effect of orgotein, given either 2 hours before irradiation or 30 min after, was observed compared to the effect of irradiation alone. Thus, it was concluded that orgotein did not influence the primary radiation response in air in mammalian cells.

  16. Reproducible pattern of microRNA in normal human skin

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Holst, Line; Kaczkowski, Bogumil; Gniadecki, Robert

    2010-01-01

    RNA expression pattern in normal human skin. Here we investigated miRNA expression profiles from skin biopsies of 8 healthy volunteers taken from sun protected and mildly photo damaged skin using the modified protocol for miRNA extraction. We were able to show a constant pattern of miRNA expression between......MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate cell growth, differentiation and apoptosis via specific targeting of messenger RNA (mRNA). Aberrant mRNA expression contributes to pathological processes such as carcinogenesis. To take advantage of miRNA profiling in skin disease it is essential to investigate mi...... different individuals. We did not find any significant differences in miRNA expression between sun protected and mildly photodamaged skin. These results may be valuable for future design of studies on miRNA expression in skin disease....

  17. Reproducible pattern of microRNA in normal human skin

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Holst, Line; Kaczkowski, Bogumil; Gniadecki, Robert

    2010-01-01

    RNA expression pattern in normal human skin. Here we investigated miRNA expression profiles from skin biopsies of 8 healthy volunteers taken from sun protected and mildly photo damaged skin using the modified protocol for miRNA extraction. We were able to show a constant pattern of miRNA expression between...... different individuals. We did not find any significant differences in miRNA expression between sun protected and mildly photodamaged skin. These results may be valuable for future design of studies on miRNA expression in skin disease.......MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate cell growth, differentiation and apoptosis via specific targeting of messenger RNA (mRNA). Aberrant mRNA expression contributes to pathological processes such as carcinogenesis. To take advantage of miRNA profiling in skin disease it is essential to investigate mi...

  18. Normal zone detectors for a large number of inductively coupled coils

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Owen, E.W.; Shimer, D.W.

    1983-01-01

    In order to protect a set of inductively coupled superconducting magnets, it is necessary to locate and measure normal zone voltages that are small compared with the mutual and self-induced voltages. The method described in this report uses two sets of voltage measurements to locate and measure one or more normal zones in any number of coupled coils. One set of voltages is the outputs of bridges that balance out the self-induced voltages The other set of voltages can be the voltages across the coils, although alternatives are possible. The two sets of equations form a single combined set of equations. Each normal zone location or combination of normal zones has a set of these combined equations associated with it. It is demonstrated that the normal zone can be located and the correct set chosen, allowing determination of the size of the normal zone. Only a few operations take plae in a working detector: multiplication of a constant, addition, and simple decision-making. In many cases the detector for each coil, although weakly linked to the other detectors, can be considered to be independent. An example of the detector design is given for four coils with realistic parameters. The effect on accuracy of changes in the system parameters is discussed

  19. Cancer and low dose responses in vivo: implications for radiation protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mitchel, R.E.J.

    2006-01-01

    Full text: Radiation protection practices assume that cancer risk is linearly proportional to total dose, without a threshold, both for people with normal cancer risk and for people who may be genetically cancer prone. Mice heterozygous for the Tp 53 gene are cancer prone, and their increased risk from high doses was not different from Tp 53 normal mice. However, in either Tp 53 normal or heterozygous mice, a single low dose of low LET radiation given at low dose rate protected against both spontaneous and radiation-induced cancer by increasing tumor latency. Increased tumor latency without a cancer frequency change implies that low doses in vivo primarily slow the process of genomic instability, consistent with the elevated capacity for correct DSB rejoining seen in low dose exposed cells. The in vivo animal data indicates that, for low doses and low dose rates in both normal and cancer prone adult mice, risk does not increase linearly with dose, and dose thresholds for increased risk exist. Below those dose thresholds (which are influenced by Tp 53 function) overall risk is reduced below that of unexposed control mice, indicating that Dose Rate Effectiveness Factors (DREF) may approach infinity, rather than the current assumption of 2. However, as dose decreases, different tissues appear to have different thresholds at which detriment turns to protection, indicating that individual tissue weighting factors (Wt) are also not constant, but vary from positive values to zero with decreasing dose. Measurements of Relative Biological Effect between high and low LET radiations are used to establish radiation weighting factors (Wr) used in radiation protection, and these are also assumed to be constant with dose. However, since the risk from an exposure to low LET radiation is not constant with dose, it would seem unlikely that radiation-weighting factors for high LET radiation are actually constant at low dose and dose rate

  20. Environmental dosimetry for normal operations at SRP. Revision 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marter, W.L.

    1984-01-01

    The radiological effect of environmental releases from SRP during normal operations has been assessed annually since 1972 with a dosimetry model developed by SRL in 1971 to 1972, as implemented in the MREM code for atmospheric releases and RIVDOSE code for liquid releases. Starting in 1978, SRL started using environmental models and dose commitment factors developed by Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for all other environmental dose calculations. The NRC models are more flexible than the older SRL models, use more up-to-date methodologies, cover more exposure pathways, and permit more detailed analysis of effects of normal operations. It is recommended that the NRC models, as implemented in the computer codes X0QD0Q and GASPAR for atmospheric releases and LADTAP for liquid releases, and NRC dose commitment factors be used as the standard method at SRP for assessing offsite dose from normal operations in Health Protection Department annual environmental monitoring reports, and in National Environmental Policy Act documents and Safety Analysis Reports for SRP facilities. 23 references, 3 figures, 9 tables

  1. Child Protection and the Conception of Parental Responsibility

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mass, M.; Nijnatten, C.H.C.J. van

    2005-01-01

    The legal discourse on child protection that is characterized by the normalization-moralization paradigm focuses more on society's response to parental failure than on the predicament of the child. Findings from texts of legal discourse in Israel and in Holland portray an alliance between the

  2. 77 FR 69572 - Special Conditions: Embraer S.A., Model EMB-550 Airplanes; Flight Envelope Protection: High Speed...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-11-20

    ... electronic flight control system which contains fly-by-wire control laws, including envelope protections, for... airplane incorporates an overspeed protection system in the normal mode. This mode prevents the pilot from... contain appropriate standards for high speed protection systems. Discussion As further discussed...

  3. 78 FR 11562 - Special Conditions: Embraer S.A., Model EMB-550 Airplanes; Flight Envelope Protection: High Speed...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-02-19

    ... electronic flight control system which contains fly-by-wire control laws, including envelope protections, for... airplane incorporates an overspeed protection system in the normal mode. This mode prevents the pilot from... contain appropriate standards for high speed protection systems. Discussion As further discussed...

  4. CLIQ – Coupling-Loss Induced Quench System for Protecting Superconducting Magnets

    CERN Multimedia

    Ravaioli, E; Kirby, G; ten Kate, H H J; Verweij, A P

    2014-01-01

    The recently developed Coupling-Loss-Induced Quench (CLIQ) protection system is a new method for initiating a fast and voluminous transition to the normal state for protecting high energy density superconducting magnets. Upon quench detection, CLIQ is triggered to generate an oscillating current in the magnet coil by means of a capacitive discharge. This in turn introduces a high coupling loss in the superconductor which provokes a quick transition to the normal state of the coil windings. The system is now implemented for the protection of a two meter long superconducting quadrupole magnet and characterized in the CERN magnet test facility. Various CLIQ configurations with different current injection points are tested and the results compared to similar transients lately measured with a not optimized configuration. Test results convincingly show that the newly tested design allows for a more global quench initiation and thus a faster discharge of the magnet energy. Moreover, the performance of CLIQ for reduc...

  5. Protective effect of Opuntia ficus-indica L. cladodes against UVA-induced oxidative stress in normal human keratinocytes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petruk, Ganna; Di Lorenzo, Flaviana; Imbimbo, Paola; Silipo, Alba; Bonina, Andrea; Rizza, Luisa; Piccoli, Renata; Monti, Daria Maria; Lanzetta, Rosa

    2017-12-15

    Opuntia ficus-indica L. is known for its beneficial effects on human health, but still little is known on cladodes as a potent source of antioxidants. Here, a direct, economic and safe method was set up to obtain water extracts from Opuntia ficus-indica cladodes rich in antioxidant compounds. When human keratinocytes were pre-treated with the extract before being exposed to UVA radiations, a clear protective effect against UVA-induced stress was evidenced, as indicated by the inhibition of stress-induced processes, such as free radicals production, lipid peroxidation and GSH depletion. Moreover, a clear protective effect against apoptosis in pre-treated irradiated cells was evidenced. We found that eucomic and piscidic acids were responsible for the anti-oxidative stress action of cladode extract. In conclusion, a bioactive, safe, low-cost and high value-added extract from Opuntia cladodes was obtained to be used for skin health/protection. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Protecting Privacy and Confidentiality in Environmental Health Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Resnik, David B

    2010-01-01

    Environmental health researchers often need to make difficult decisions on how to protect privacy and confidentiality when they conduct research in the home or workplace. These dilemmas are different from those normally encountered in clinical research. Although protecting privacy and confidentiality is one of the most important principles of research involving human subjects, it can be overridden to prevent imminent harm to individuals or if required by law. Investigators should carefully consider the facts and circumstances and use good judgment when deciding whether to breach privacy or confidentiality.

  7. CLIQ. A new quench protection technology for superconducting magnets

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ravaioli, Emanuele

    2015-01-01

    CLIQ, the Coupling-Loss Induced Quench system, is a new method for protecting superconducting magnets after a sudden transition to the normal state. It offers significant advantages over the conventional technology due to its effective mechanism for heating the superconductor relying on coupling

  8. Fire protection in ventilation systems and in case of fire operating ventilation systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zitzelsberger, J.

    1983-01-01

    The fire risks in ventilation systems are discussed. It follows a survey of regulations on fire prevention and fire protection in ventilation systems and smoke and heat exhaust systems applicable to nuclear installations in the Federal Republic of Germany. Fire protection concepts for normal systems and for systems operating also in case of fire will be given. Several structural elements for fire protection in those systems will be illustrated with regard to recent research findings

  9. Normalized modes at selected points without normalization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kausel, Eduardo

    2018-04-01

    As every textbook on linear algebra demonstrates, the eigenvectors for the general eigenvalue problem | K - λM | = 0 involving two real, symmetric, positive definite matrices K , M satisfy some well-defined orthogonality conditions. Equally well-known is the fact that those eigenvectors can be normalized so that their modal mass μ =ϕT Mϕ is unity: it suffices to divide each unscaled mode by the square root of the modal mass. Thus, the normalization is the result of an explicit calculation applied to the modes after they were obtained by some means. However, we show herein that the normalized modes are not merely convenient forms of scaling, but that they are actually intrinsic properties of the pair of matrices K , M, that is, the matrices already "know" about normalization even before the modes have been obtained. This means that we can obtain individual components of the normalized modes directly from the eigenvalue problem, and without needing to obtain either all of the modes or for that matter, any one complete mode. These results are achieved by means of the residue theorem of operational calculus, a finding that is rather remarkable inasmuch as the residues themselves do not make use of any orthogonality conditions or normalization in the first place. It appears that this obscure property connecting the general eigenvalue problem of modal analysis with the residue theorem of operational calculus may have been overlooked up until now, but which has in turn interesting theoretical implications.Á

  10. Normal zone detectors for a large number of inductively coupled coils. Revision 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Owen, E.W.; Shimer, D.W.

    1983-01-01

    In order to protect a set of inductively coupled superconducting magnets, it is necessary to locate and measure normal zone voltages that are small compared with the mutual and self-induced voltages. The method described in this paper uses two sets of voltage measurements to locate and measure one or more normal zones in any number of coupled coils. One set of voltages is the outputs of bridges that balance out the self-induced voltages. The other set of voltages can be the voltages across the coils, although alternatives are possible. The two sets of equations form a single combined set of equations. Each normal zone location or combination of normal zones has a set of these combined equations associated with it. It is demonstrated that the normal zone can be located and the correct set chosen, allowing determination of the size of the normal zone. Only a few operations take place in a working detector: multiplication of a constant, addition, and simple decision-making. In many cases the detector for each coil, although weakly linked to the other detectors, can be considered to be independent. The effect on accuracy of changes in the system parameters is discussed

  11. The influence of the Al stabilizer layer thickness on the normal zone propagation velocity in high current superconductors

    CERN Document Server

    Shilon, I.; Langeslag, S.A.E.; Martins, L.P.; ten Kate, H.H.J.

    2015-06-19

    The stability of high-current superconductors is challenging in the design of superconducting magnets. When the stability requirements are fulfilled, the protection against a quench must still be considered. A main factor in the design of quench protection systems is the resistance growth rate in the magnet following a quench. The usual method for determining the resistance growth in impregnated coils is to calculate the longitudinal velocity with which the normal zone propagates in the conductor along the coil windings. Here, we present a 2D numerical model for predicting the normal zone propagation velocity in Al stabilized Rutherford NbTi cables with large cross section. By solving two coupled differential equations under adiabatic conditions, the model takes into account the thermal diffusion and the current redistribution process following a quench. Both the temperature and magnetic field dependencies of the superconductor and the metal cladding materials properties are included. Unlike common normal zon...

  12. 78 FR 63902 - Special Conditions: Embraer S.A., Model EMB-550 Airplanes; Flight Envelope Protection: Normal...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-10-25

    ...): (a) The positive limiting load factor must not be less than: (1) 2.5g for the normal state of the... is readily achievable at operational speeds. For the FAA to consider a trajectory change as...

  13. Monoamine oxidase inhibitors l-deprenyl and clorgyline protect nonmalignant human cells from ionising radiation and chemotherapy toxicity.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Seymour, C B

    2003-11-17

    l-Deprenyl (R-(-)-deprenyl, selegiline) is an inhibitor of monoamine oxidase-B (MAO-B) that is known to protect nerve cells from a variety of chemical and physical insults. As apoptosis is a common mechanism of radiation-induced cell death, the effect of l-deprenyl on the survival of cultured cells and tissue explants was studied following exposure to gamma radiation. The results obtained were compared with the effects of the less-selective MAO-B inhibitor pargyline and the MAO-A inhibitor clorgyline. l-Deprenyl at a concentration of 10(-9) M protected the nontumorigenic cell line (HaCaT) and normal human urothelial explants from the effects of cobalt-60 gamma radiation, but did not protect tumorigenic human cell lines HaCaT-ras, HPV-transfected human keratinocytes (HPV-G cells), or PC3. Human bladder carcinoma explants were not protected. Clorgyline showed a smaller protective effect of normal cells, whereas pargyline had no effect. Radiation-induced delayed effects (genomic instability measured as delayed cell death) were prevented in normal cells by l-deprenyl but, interestingly, deprenyl appeared to increase the amount of delayed death in the tumorigenic cell lines. Studies using l-deprenyl prior to the exposure of nonmalignant cells to cisplatin showed that cell death due to this agent was also reduced. Treatment of cultures of nontumorigenic cells with l-deprenyl or clorgyline significantly increased the levels of the protein Bcl-2 following irradiation, but there was no such effect on the already-elevated levels of this protein in the tumour samples. Since the Bcl-2 has been shown to be an inhibitor of apoptosis or programmed cell death, this would imply that the protective effects of l-deprenyl and clorgyline involve activation of antiapoptotic pathways within the normal cell. This hypothesis is supported by data showing reduced levels of apoptosis in HaCAT cells and in normal bladder explant cultures following treatment with l-deprenyl.

  14. Ecological radiation protection criteria for nuclear power

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kryshev, I.I.

    1993-01-01

    By now a large quantity of radioactive hazards of all sizes and shapes has accumulated in Russia. They include RBMK, VVER, and BN (fast-neutron) nuclear power plants, nuclear fuel processing plants, radioactive waste dumps, ships with nuclear power units, etc. In order to evaluate the radioecological situation correctly, the characteristics of the radioactive contamination must be compiled in these areas with some system of criteria which will provide an acceptable level of ecological safety. Currently health criteria for radiation protection are, which are oriented to man's radiation protection, predominate. Here the concept of a thresholdless linear dose-response dependence, which has been confirmed experimentally only at rather high doses (above 1 Gy), is taken as the theoretical basis for evaluating and normalizing radiation effects. According to one opinion, protecting people against radiation is sufficient to protect other types of organisms, although they are not necessarily of the same species. However, from the viewpoint of ecology, this approach is incorrect, because it does not consider radiation dose differences between man and other living organisms. The article discusses dose-response dependences for various organisms, biological effects of ionizing radiation, and appropriate radiation protection criteria

  15. Clarifying Normalization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carpenter, Donald A.

    2008-01-01

    Confusion exists among database textbooks as to the goal of normalization as well as to which normal form a designer should aspire. This article discusses such discrepancies with the intention of simplifying normalization for both teacher and student. This author's industry and classroom experiences indicate such simplification yields quicker…

  16. Personal protective clothing against accidental immersion

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Elliott, David; Tipton, Michael [Surrey Univ., Robens Inst. of Health and Safety, Guildford (United Kingdom)

    1997-12-31

    The requirements for protective clothing against accidental immersion are discussed and the advantages and limitations of the main types of immersion protection available are analysed. The variety of designs available reflects the various circumstances under which they may be used. In broad terms in the offshore industry these include the following activities: normal work without risk of immersion but with a possible need to abandon the rig or ship; work in areas where there is risk of accidentally falling into the sea; flying over the sea in a helicopter. The first response to sudden immersion in sea water, which must usually be considered to be cold, is a sudden gasp often followed by an immediate phase of uncontrolled breathing. Since control of ones breathing between and under the breaking waves is essential to staying alive, this is a critical time. After surviving this initial ``cold shock`` phase, the effects of body heat loss become hazardous. Protection against hypothermia has been the priority for those providing survival suits and protective clothing while the hazard of the immediate response to cold immersion has been unrecognised to a large extent. (UK)

  17. Correlated random sampling for multivariate normal and log-normal distributions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Žerovnik, Gašper; Trkov, Andrej; Kodeli, Ivan A.

    2012-01-01

    A method for correlated random sampling is presented. Representative samples for multivariate normal or log-normal distribution can be produced. Furthermore, any combination of normally and log-normally distributed correlated variables may be sampled to any requested accuracy. Possible applications of the method include sampling of resonance parameters which are used for reactor calculations.

  18. Corrosion and Protection of Metal in the Seawater Desalination

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hou, Xiangyu; Gao, Lili; Cui, Zhendong; Yin, Jianhua

    2018-01-01

    Seawater desalination develops rapid for it can solve water scarcity efficiently. However, corrosion problem in the seawater desalination system is more serious than that in normal water. So, it is important to pay attention to the corrosion and protection of metal in seawater desalination. The corrosion characteristics and corrosion types of metal in the seawater desalination system are introduced in this paper; In addition, corrosion protect methods and main influencing factors are stated, the latest new technologies about anti-corrosion with quantum energy assisted and magnetic inhibitor are presented.

  19. Multi Agent System Based Wide Area Protection against Cascading Events

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Liu, Zhou; Chen, Zhe; Liu, Leo

    2012-01-01

    In this paper, a multi-agent system based wide area protection scheme is proposed in order to prevent long term voltage instability induced cascading events. The distributed relays and controllers work as a device agent which not only executes the normal function automatically but also can...... the effectiveness of proposed protection strategy. The simulation results indicate that the proposed multi agent control system can effectively coordinate the distributed relays and controllers to prevent the long term voltage instability induced cascading events....

  20. Biological Research for Radiation Protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, In Gyu; Kim, Kug Chan; Jung, Il Lae; Choi, Yong Ho; Kim, Jin Sik; Moon, Myung Sook; Byun, Hee Sun; Phyo, Ki Heon; Kim, Sung Keun

    2005-04-01

    The work scope of 'Biological Research for the Radiation Protection' had contained the research about ornithine decarboxylase and its controlling proteins, thioredoxin, peroxiredoxin, S-adenosymethionine decarboxylase, and glutamate decarboxylase 67KD effect on the cell death triggered ionizing radiation and H 2 O 2 (toxic agents). In this study, to elucidate the role of these proteins in the ionizing radiation (or H 2 O 2 )-induced apoptotic cell death, we utilized sensesed (or antisensed) cells, which overexpress (or down-regulate) RNAs associated with these proteins biosynthesis, and investigated the effects of these genes on the cytotoxicity caused by ionizing radiation and H 2 O 2 (or paraquat). We also investigated whether genisteine(or thiamine) may enhance the cytotoxic efficacy of tumor cells caused by ionizing radiation (may enhance the preventing effect radiation or paraquat-induced damage) because such compounds are able to potentiate the cell-killing or cell protecting effects. Based on the above result, we suggest that the express regulation of theses genes have potentially importance for sensitizing the efficiency of radiation therapy of cancer or for protecting the radiation-induced damage of normal cells

  1. Automatic termination of a protective action

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heil, P.H.

    1986-01-01

    Subcommittee 6 of NPEC is responsible for the development of IEEE Standard 603. The adequacy of requirements concerning control and termination of protective actions was raised during the balloting of IEEE Standard 603-1980. In essence, the concern dealt with the requirement for deliberate operator action to return the system to normal. It was questioned if control actions such as automatic termination of system operation were allowed. Changes in the standard were made to clarify that there was a distinction between control (including termination) and return to normal and also state that automatic control may be required. Additionally, an action item was identified in the forward of IEEE Standard 603-1980 to determine if any additional changes were needed. The purpose of the paper is to present the results of this additional work

  2. Assuring the quality of practical radiation protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Neuburger, E.; Schroeder, H.J.

    1993-01-01

    There is no possibility in Germany to serve an apprenticeship in practical radiation protection in nuclear facilities. However, the scope of knowledge required for such activities is defined in a binding 'Directive about Ensuring the Knowledge Required in Persons otherwise Engaged in the Operation of Nuclear Power Plants'. That Directive by far exceeds the scope, in terms of safety, normally applied to a vocation or activity. The Directive implicitly contains three important provisions: Plant operators must ensure that radiation protection workers have all the knowledge they need to do their job safely; that radiation protection workers are autonomous, within certain limits, as a consequence of the depth of knowledge they have; that radiation protection workers are given formal advanced training possibilities. An examination to be taken by radiation protection workers before a Chamber of Industry and Commerce was introduced in 1982 in order to make available personnel trained in the whole range of possible activities as defined in the Directive referred to above. However, persons who have passed the exam before a Chamber of Commerce and Industry no longer automatically fulfill the criteria under the Directive after three years, but must undergo advanced training in a formal program. (orig.) [de

  3. Protecting Democracy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Galster, Kjeld

    2007-01-01

    of a democratic state as defence per se is to its government. Democratic governance rests on the mutual dependence and influence of leadership and led, and the practical function subsumes professional bureaucracies. Thus, defence debate is the exchange of views on matters important to national security amongst...... the democratically elected leadership, the public, and the defence bureaucracy’s professional experts. Defence debate is a decisive contributor to defence policy and it normally includes quantitative issues like the size of military forces and the proportion of the state’s resources devoted to the armed forces......ABSTRACT Galster, Kjeld Hald. Doctoral Student (History). Saxo Institute. May 2007. Protecting Democracy: Danish Defence Debate in Times of Change. Supervisor: Professor, Dr. Gunner Lind. Democratic debate on defence and democratic organisation of the forces are as central to the life...

  4. Protective Role of Comfrey Leave Extracts on UV-induced Zebrafish Fin Damage.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheng, Chien-Chung; Chou, Chi-Yuan; Chang, Yao-Chin; Wang, Hsuan-Wen; Wen, Chi-Chung; Chen, Yau-Hung

    2014-07-01

    In zebrafish, UV exposure leads to fin malformation phenotypes including fin reduction or absence. The present study evaluated UV-protective activities of comfrey leaves extracts in a zebrafish model by recording fin morphological changes. Chemopreventive effects of comfrey leave extracts were evaluated using Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression. The results showed that (1) the mean times of return to normal fin in the UV+comfrey (50 and 100 ppm) groups were 3.43 and 2.86 days and were quicker compared with that in the UV only group (4.21 days); (2) zebrafish fins in the UV+comfrey (50 and 100 ppm) groups were 2.05 and 3.25 times more likely to return to normal than those in the UV only group; and (3) comfrey leave extracts had UV-absorbance abilities and significantly reduced ROS production in UV-exposed zebrafish embryos, which may attenuate UV-mediated apoptosis. In conclusion, comfrey leaves extracts may have the potential to be developed as UV-protective agents to protect zebrafish embryos from UV-induced damage.

  5. Protection of HTS magnets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Iwasa, Yukikazu

    2005-01-01

    The paper discusses protection issues for HTS magnet. For protection, the HTS magnet must rely on an active technique. Closed-form expressions of the matrix metal operating current density based on overheating and internal voltage criteria for protection, under very simplifying assumptions, are presented. Perhaps the most important conclusions of these criteria are that: (1) HTS (and LTS) magnets must be wound with composite conductor having a significant portion of its overall cross section occupied by normal metal generally of high electrical conductivity and (2) HTS windings must possess 'high' NZP velocities to make the resistive zone occupy as large a fraction of the winding volume as possible. The paper also derives an analytical expression, under another set of simplifying assumptions, to determine the minimum resistive voltage level, dictated by the maximum hot-spot temperature set at 150 K, required to initiate an active protection process. Remarkably, this minimum detection voltage is nearly independent of the matrix metal current density, I op /A m . For a set of operating parameters used in a numerical example, a computed minimum detection voltage, at I op /A m = 5 x 10 4 A/cm 2 , is ∼30 mV, which, considering it must be discerned in the presence of extraneous voltage signals likely to be present in real world operating conditions, would be non-trivial. To satisfy the overheating criterion at a level of I op /A m , which keeps the winding overall current density 'viable' and at the same time to raise the minimum detection resistive voltage, the winding volume occupied by the resistive state must be expanded. The paper concludes with discussion of challenging new areas of research for protection of HTS magnets

  6. A rapid protection switching method in carrier ethernet ring networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yuan, Liang; Ji, Meng

    2008-11-01

    Abstract: Ethernet is the most important Local Area Network (LAN) technology since more than 90% data traffic in access layer is carried on Ethernet. From 10M to 10G, the improving Ethernet technology can be not only used in LAN, but also a good choice for MAN even WAN. MAN are always constructed in ring topology because the ring network could provide resilient path protection by using less resource (fibre or cable) than other network topologies. In layer 2 data networks, spanning tree protocol (STP) is always used to protect transmit link and preventing the formation of logic loop in networks. However, STP cannot guarantee the efficiency of service convergence when link fault happened. In fact, convergent time of networks with STP is about several minutes. Though Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) and Multi-Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP) improve the STP technology, they still need a couple of seconds to achieve convergence, and can not provide sub-50ms protection switching. This paper presents a novel rapid ring protection method (RRPM) for carrier Ethernet. Unlike other link-fault detection method, it adopts distributed algorithm to detect link fault rapidly (sub-50ms). When networks restore from link fault, it can revert to the original working state. RRPM can provide single ring protection and interconnected ring protection without the formation of super loop. In normal operation, the master node blocks the secondary port for all non-RRPM Ethernet frames belonging to the given RRPM Ring, thereby avoiding a loop in the ring. When link fault happens, the node on which the failure happens moves from the "ring normal" state to the "ring fault" state. It also sends "link down" frame immediately to other nodes and blocks broken port and flushes its forwarding database. Those who receive "link down" frame will flush forwarding database and master node should unblock its secondary port. When the failure restores, the whole ring will revert to the normal state. That is

  7. [Adiponectin levels in breast milk of overweight/obese and normal weight mothers in the metropolitan area of Monterrey, México].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Galindo Gómez, Abelardo; Flores Scheufler, Pamela; Quevedo Escobar, Yamile; González Magaña, Regina; Rodríguez De Ita, Julieta

    Given the current epidemic of childhood obesity, it has become increasingly important to understand the risks and protective factors associated with this disease. Breastfeeding has been identified as a protective factor; however, the mechanism responsible has not been elucidated. One of the current theories analyzes the role of hormones in breast milk, with special emphasis on adiponectin. This study aims to compare adiponectin levels in breast milk of mothers with normal weight with those in breast milk of overweight/obese mothers as well as to correlate these levels with the infant's weight gain. Forty samples of breast milk were analyzed for adiponectin levels using ELISA, 20 from mothers with normal weight and 20 from overweight/obese mothers. Adiponectin levels were lower in breast milk obtained from overweight/obese mothers than in breast milk from mothers with normal weight (p Infantil de México Federico Gómez. Publicado por Masson Doyma México S.A. All rights reserved.

  8. Bilingualism protects anterior temporal lobe integrity in aging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abutalebi, Jubin; Canini, Matteo; Della Rosa, Pasquale A; Sheung, Lo Ping; Green, David W; Weekes, Brendan S

    2014-09-01

    Cerebral gray-matter volume (GMV) decreases in normal aging but the extent of the decrease may be experience-dependent. Bilingualism may be one protective factor and in this article we examine its potential protective effect on GMV in a region that shows strong age-related decreases-the left anterior temporal pole. This region is held to function as a conceptual hub and might be expected to be a target of plastic changes in bilingual speakers because of the requirement for these speakers to store and differentiate lexical concepts in 2 languages to guide speech production and comprehension processes. In a whole brain comparison of bilingual speakers (n = 23) and monolingual speakers (n = 23), regressing out confounding factors, we find more extensive age-related decreases in GMV in the monolingual brain and significantly increased GMV in left temporal pole for bilingual speakers. Consistent with a specific neuroprotective effect of bilingualism, region of interest analyses showed a significant positive correlation between naming performance in the second language and GMV in this region. The effect appears to be bilateral though because there was a nonsignificantly different effect of naming performance on GMV in the right temporal pole. Our data emphasize the vulnerability of the temporal pole to normal aging and the value of bilingualism as both a general and specific protective factor to GMV decreases in healthy aging. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Protection of insulated cables and lines in case of overload

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Goltz, M

    1983-01-01

    After DIN 57100 Part 430/VDE 0100 part 430 for the protection of lines and cables was published in June 1981, the discussion flared up again whether this DIN/VDE-regulation is sufficient. Some papers have already been published on the right selection and arrangement of overload protection under normal operational conditions. The aim of this contribution is to explain abnormal operational conditions which are dealt with in DIN 57100 part 430/VDE 0100 part 430 in comments and the annex, and to supply some help for planning and projecting.

  10. 78 FR 76249 - Special Conditions: Airbus, Model A350-900 Series Airplane; Flight Envelope Protection: Normal...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-12-17

    ..., and accommodates side-by-side placement of LD-3 containers in the cargo compartment. The basic Airbus... availability of this excess maneuver capacity in case of extreme emergency such as upset recoveries or... factor must not be less than: (a) 2.5g for the EFCS normal state with the high lift devices retracted up...

  11. 77 FR 69569 - Special Conditions: Embraer S.A., Model EMB-550 Airplanes; Flight Envelope Protection: Pitch and...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-11-20

    ... attitude protection functions through the normal modes of the electronic flight control system that will...-1211; Notice No. 25-12-10-SC] Special Conditions: Embraer S.A., Model EMB-550 Airplanes; Flight Envelope Protection: Pitch and Roll Limiting Functions AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT...

  12. Decree no. 2003-296 on the 31 of march 2003 relative to the workers protection against the ionizing radiations; Decret no. 2003-296 du 31 mars 2003 relatif a la protection des travailleurs contre les dangers des rayonnements ionisants

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2003-07-01

    The different conditions modifying the Labour code in relation with the radiation protection of workers are exposed in detail, from the occupational exposure in normal conditions, the organisation of radiation protection, the abnormal working conditions until the medical examinations and medical follow up. (N.C.)

  13. Permeation of Telone EC through protective gloves.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zainal, Hanaa; Que Hee, Shane S

    2005-09-30

    Telone is a potent fumigant that is based on the chlorinated unsaturated hydrocarbon, 1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-DCP). It is often applied without dilution and so poses severe inhalation and air pollution threats. Urinary metabolites of 1,3-DCP have been detected after Telone skin exposure, so that preventing dermal exposure is also important. The objective of the study was to assess if nitrile and multi-layer ("laminated") gloves provide adequate protection against Telone EC formulation. To accomplish this, disposable (Safeskin) and chemically resistant (Sol-Vex) nitrile and laminated (Barrier mark and Silver Shield) glove materials were challenged by Telone EC with hexane liquid collection in an ASTM-type I-PTC-600 permeation cell. Analyses of cis- and trans-1,3-DCP in the collection fluid at specified times were performed on a moderately polar capillary column by gas chromatography-electron capture detection. Telone EC caused microholes in both nitrile materials, though the chemically protective material was degraded slower than the disposable nitrile. The laminated gloves offered limited protection. Silver Shield protected best because 1.5-2.3 mg 1,3-DCP permeated by 8 h relative to 2.5-7.6 mg for Barrier, implying about 2.5 times more protection for 8 h. Even for Silver Shield, the extent of protection was inadequate as illustrated by a risk assessment of the skin exposure situation. The normalized breakthrough times for both types of laminated gloves varied between 27 and 60 min. It is recommended that Viton gloves still be worn for protection.

  14. Indium 111. Radiation protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grafstroem, G.; Joensson, B.A.; Strand, S.E.

    1989-01-01

    The radiopharmaceutucal 111 In-oxine is used in labelling of different blood cells and proteins. Due to its liquid state, there is always a risk for contamination during handling procedures. The aim of the project was to evaluate the contamination risks, when using this radiopharmaceutical. The investigation includes calculations of the absorved dose to the skin after a contamination of 111 In-oxine, including the radionuclide impurity 114 In m / 114 In. Investigations of 288 protection gloves shows that there is always a risk for contamination, when working with 111 In-oxine. On the protection gloves, we found activities normally ranging from a 100 Bq up to a few kBq. Noticeable is the contamination on the vials, already before their use. Besides 111 In we found most of the radionuclides used in nuclear medicine, with activities up to tens of kBq. The radionuclide impurity was cleary detectable but below the recommended value. The penetration of 111 In-oxine protection gloves of latex was negligible. Measurements of penetration in skin was evaluated with two independent methods; in vivo using a surface barrier detector, and by autoradiography. The measured penetration was less than a few micrometers. Calculation from the experimental contamination values show that the absorbed dose to the basal cell layer could be in order of several Gy. (authors)

  15. Normalization: A Preprocessing Stage

    OpenAIRE

    Patro, S. Gopal Krishna; Sahu, Kishore Kumar

    2015-01-01

    As we know that the normalization is a pre-processing stage of any type problem statement. Especially normalization takes important role in the field of soft computing, cloud computing etc. for manipulation of data like scale down or scale up the range of data before it becomes used for further stage. There are so many normalization techniques are there namely Min-Max normalization, Z-score normalization and Decimal scaling normalization. So by referring these normalization techniques we are ...

  16. Status of achievements reached in applying optimization of protection in design and normal operation of nuclear facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lochard, J.; Croft, J.R.

    1988-01-01

    The increased emphasis in recent years on the ALARA principle and its practical implementation has opened new perspectives in the organisation of radiological protection. This change could be characterised as a shift from an 'a posteriori' control, (i.e. demonstrating that dose limits had not been exceeded), towards an 'a priori' management or dose predictive approach. Undoubtedly in both operation and design conscious efforts are made to achieve ALARA. However, there are certainly differences in various organisations' perceptions of what this practically entails and there is scope for us all to learn. If the 'ALARA Procedure' remains only a tool used at the early stage of design or as an elegant means of justifying past choices, it will have missed its main objective which is to give more rational and coherent management of practical protection at both the design and operational stages. We feel that the integration of the structured approaches of the ALARA Procedure and the ALARA Audit, into radiation protection programmes provides the best way forwad. This would require ALARA studies moving from the province of the 'experts' to the 'practitioners'. This in turn will require us to provide them with the tools to do the job. The methodology is secure but the areas of dose data collection and the costing of detriment need to be addressed further. Similarly, there is perhaps a need for the 'experts' to develop further experience of using the multiattribute and multicriteria techniques for the higher level decisions

  17. Heme oxygenase and the immune system in normal and pathological pregnancies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maide eOzen

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Normal pregnancy is an immunotolerant state. Many factors, including environmental, socioeconomic, genetic, and immunologic changes by infection and/or other causes of inflammation, may contribute to inter-individual differences resulting in a normal or pathologic pregnancy. In particular, imbalances in the immune system can cause many pregnancy-related diseases, such as infertility, abortions, pre-eclampsia, and preterm labor, which result in maternal/fetal death, prematurity, or small-for-gestational age newborns. New findings imply that myeloid regulatory cells and regulatory T cells (Tregs may mediate immunotolerance during normal pregnancy. Effector T cells (Teffs have, in contrast, been implicated to cause adverse pregnancy outcomes. Furthermore, feto-maternal tolerance affects the developing fetus. It has been shown that the Treg/Teff balance affects litter size and adoptive transfer of pregnancy-induced Tregs can prevent fetal rejection in the mouse. Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1 has a protective role in many conditions through its anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic, antioxidative, and anti-proliferative actions. HO-1 is highly expressed in the placenta and plays a role in angiogenesis and placental vascular development and in regulating vascular tone in pregnancy. In addition, HO-1 is a major regulator of immune homeostasis by mediating crosstalk between innate and adaptive immune systems. Moreover, HO-1 can inhibit inflammation-induced phenotypic maturation of immune effector cells and pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion and promote anti-inflammatory cytokine production. HO-1 may also be associated with T-cell activation and can limit immune-based tissue injury by promoting Treg suppression of effector responses. Thus, HO-1 and its byproducts may protect against pregnancy complications by its immunomodulatory effects, and the regulation of HO-1 or its downstream effects has the potential to prevent or treat pregnancy complications and

  18. Making nuclear 'normal'

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Haehlen, Peter; Elmiger, Bruno

    2000-01-01

    The mechanics of the Swiss NPPs' 'come and see' programme 1995-1999 were illustrated in our contributions to all PIME workshops since 1996. Now, after four annual 'waves', all the country has been covered by the NPPs' invitation to dialogue. This makes PIME 2000 the right time to shed some light on one particular objective of this initiative: making nuclear 'normal'. The principal aim of the 'come and see' programme, namely to give the Swiss NPPs 'a voice of their own' by the end of the nuclear moratorium 1990-2000, has clearly been attained and was commented on during earlier PIMEs. It is, however, equally important that Swiss nuclear energy not only made progress in terms of public 'presence', but also in terms of being perceived as a normal part of industry, as a normal branch of the economy. The message that Swiss nuclear energy is nothing but a normal business involving normal people, was stressed by several components of the multi-prong campaign: - The speakers in the TV ads were real - 'normal' - visitors' guides and not actors; - The testimonials in the print ads were all real NPP visitors - 'normal' people - and not models; - The mailings inviting a very large number of associations to 'come and see' activated a typical channel of 'normal' Swiss social life; - Spending money on ads (a new activity for Swiss NPPs) appears to have resulted in being perceived by the media as a normal branch of the economy. Today we feel that the 'normality' message has well been received by the media. In the controversy dealing with antinuclear arguments brought forward by environmental organisations journalists nowadays as a rule give nuclear energy a voice - a normal right to be heard. As in a 'normal' controversy, the media again actively ask themselves questions about specific antinuclear claims, much more than before 1990 when the moratorium started. The result is that in many cases such arguments are discarded by journalists, because they are, e.g., found to be

  19. Protective Effect of Vitamin E on Nicotine Induced Reproductive ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The current study assessed the protective role of vitamin E in alleviating the detrimental effect of nicotine on reproductive functions in male rats. Twenty four male albino rats were divided into four groups of six rats. Control group was treated orally with 1.1 ml/kg body weight normal saline, nicotine treated group received 1.0 ...

  20. An Asset Protection Scheme for Banks Exposed to Troubled Loan Portfolios

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Grosen, Anders; Jessen, Pernille; Kokholm, Thomas Sander

    contract with an appropriate structure of incentives. Within the structural credit risk modeling framework, we apply two alternative multivariate default risk models; the classical Gaussian Merton model and a model based on Normal Inverse Gaussian (NIG) processes. Exchanging the normal factors......We examine a specific portfolio credit derivative, an Asset Protection Scheme (APS), and its applicability as a tool to restore financial stability and reduce asymmetric information. As opposed to most governmental bailout packages implemented across the world recently, the APS can be a fair valued...

  1. An Asset Protection Scheme for Banks Exposed to Troubled Loan Portfolios

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kokholm, Thomas

    contract with an appropriate structure of incentives. Within the structural credit risk modeling framework, we apply two alternative multivariate default risk models: the classical Gaussian Merton model and a model based on Normal Inverse Gaussian (NIG) processes. Exchanging the normal factors......We examine a specific portfolio credit derivative, an Asset Protection Scheme (APS), and its applicability as a tool to restore financial stability and reduce asymmetric information. As opposed to most governmental bailout packages implemented across the world recently, the APS can be a fair valued...

  2. Radiation protection in nuclear facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Piechowski, J.; Lochard, J.; Lefaure, Ch.; Schieber, C.; Schneider, Th; Lecomte, J.F.; Delmont, D.; Boitel, S.; Le Fauconnier, J.P.; Sugier, A; Zerbib, J.C.; Barbey, P.

    1998-01-01

    Close ties exist between nuclear safety and radiation protection. Nuclear safety is made up of all the arrangements taken to prevent accidents occurring in nuclear facilities, these accidents would certainly involved a radiological aspect. Radiation protection is made up of all the arrangements taken to evaluate and reduce the impact of radiation on workers or population in normal situations or in case of accident. In the fifties the management of radiological hazards was based on the quest for minimal or even zero risk. This formulation could lead to call some activities in question whereas the benefits for the whole society were evident. Now a new attitude more aware of the real risks and of no wasting resources prevails. This attitude is based on the ALARA principle whose purpose is to maintain the exposure to radiation as low as reasonably achievable taking into account social and economic concerns. This document regroups articles illustrating different aspects of the radiation protection in nuclear facilities such as a research center, a waste vitrification workshop and a nuclear power plant. The surveillance of radiological impacts of nuclear sites on environment is examined, a point is made about the pending epidemiologic studies concerning La Hague complex. (A.C.)

  3. Birkhoff normalization

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Broer, H.; Hoveijn, I.; Lunter, G.; Vegter, G.

    2003-01-01

    The Birkhoff normal form procedure is a widely used tool for approximating a Hamiltonian systems by a simpler one. This chapter starts out with an introduction to Hamiltonian mechanics, followed by an explanation of the Birkhoff normal form procedure. Finally we discuss several algorithms for

  4. Fusion magnet safety studies program: superconducting magnet protection system and failure. Interim report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Allinger, J.; Danby, G.; Hsieh, S.Y.; Keane, J.; Powell, J.; Prodell, A.

    1975-11-01

    This report includes the first two quarters study of available information on schemes for protecting superconducting magnets. These schemes can be divided into two different categories. The first category deals with the detection of faulty regions (or normal regions) in the magnet. The second category relates to the protection of the magnet when a fault is detected, and the derived signal which can be used to activate a safety system (or energy removal system). The general detection and protection methods are first described briefly and then followed by a survey of the protection systems used by different laboratories for various magnets. A survey of the cause of the magnet difficulties or failures is also included. A preliminary discussion of these protection schemes and the experimental development of this program is given

  5. Limerick BWR turbine control and protection system upgrade success

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tang, C.K.; Pietryka, T.S.; Federico, P.A.; Williams, J.C.

    2015-01-01

    Westinghouse and Exelon have successfully implemented a digital electro-hydraulic control (DEHC) at Limerick BWR Unit 1 Station to perform the turbine control, protection and reactor pressure functions. The DEHC replaces analog controls and addressed system performance, obsolescence and reliability. This was a first-of-a-kind application for control and protection of the main turbine and BWR pressure control for the distributed control system utilized. The demolition of analog equipment, main control room and front standard modifications, and acceptance testing were completed on schedule during the normal 2014 outage. Key aspects of the project that facilitated this success will be discussed and presented. (author)

  6. Limerick BWR turbine control and protection system upgrade success

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tang, C.K.; Pietryka, T.S.; Federico, P.A., E-mail: tangck@westinghouse.com, E-mail: pietryt@westinghouse, E-mail: federipa@westinghouse.com [Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC, Cranberry Township, PA (United States); Williams, J.C., E-mail: Jonathan.Williams@exeloncorp.com [Exelon Nuclear, Warrenville, IL (United States)

    2015-07-01

    Westinghouse and Exelon have successfully implemented a digital electro-hydraulic control (DEHC) at Limerick BWR Unit 1 Station to perform the turbine control, protection and reactor pressure functions. The DEHC replaces analog controls and addressed system performance, obsolescence and reliability. This was a first-of-a-kind application for control and protection of the main turbine and BWR pressure control for the distributed control system utilized. The demolition of analog equipment, main control room and front standard modifications, and acceptance testing were completed on schedule during the normal 2014 outage. Key aspects of the project that facilitated this success will be discussed and presented. (author)

  7. Vaginal lactobacilli profile in pregnant women with normal & abnormal vaginal flora.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yeruva, Thirupathaiah; Rajkumar, Hemalatha; Donugama, Vasundhara

    2017-10-01

    Lactobacilli species that are better adapted to vaginal environment of women may colonize better and offer protection against vaginal pathogenic bacteria. In this study, the distribution of common Lactobacillus species was investigated in pregnant women. Sixty seven pregnant women were included in the study and vaginal samples were collected for Gram staining. Women were classified as normal vaginal flora, intermediate flora and bacterial vaginosis (BV) based on Nugent's score. Vaginal samples were also collected for the identification of Lactobacillus spp. by multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) profiling of 16S rDNA amplification method. Lactobacillus crispatus (100%) was the most predominant Lactobacillus spp. present in pregnant women with normal flora, followed by L. iners (77%), L. jensenii (74%) and L. helveticus (60%). While, L. iners was commonly present across groups in women with normal, intermediate or BV flora, L. crispatus, L. jensenii and L. helveticus decreased significantly as the vaginal flora changed to intermediate and BV. In women with BV, except L. iners other species of lactobacilli was less frequently prevalent. Species such as L. rhamnosus, L. fermentum, L. paracasei and L. casei were not detected in any vaginal sample. L. crispatus, L. jensinii and L. helveticus were predominant species in women with normal flora. L. crispatus alone or in combination with L. jensinii and L. helveticus may be evaluated for probiotic properties for the prevention and treatment of BV.

  8. An appraisal of the need for infrared radiation protection in sunscreens.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diffey, Brian; Cadars, Benoît

    2016-03-01

    Many sunscreens incorporate agents that are said to protect against infrared (IR) damage in the skin but we lack any real data on their benefit in the context of normal human behaviour in the sun. The object of this study was to examine typical IR exposure levels to the sun and industrial sources in order to decide whether there is a need for sunscreens to contain agents that protect against IR radiation, specifically the IR-A waveband. We reviewed claims currently made by products offering protection against IR-A and studies on the biological and clinical effects attributed to IR-A, and compared IR-A exposure levels from these studies with those typically received from the sun and from industrial sources. We found that annual levels of IR-A exposure resulting from typical behaviour in the sun are commensurate with those experienced occupationally by workers exposed to industrial sources of IR, such as steel and glass furnaces. Yet these workers appear to suffer little in the way of chronic skin damage. We conclude that there is not compelling evidence to demonstrate that observable, deleterious cutaneous effects are occurring at doses of solar IR radiation corresponding to those experienced by populations in their normal environments and for this reason we believe it is premature to incorporate IR protection into topical sunscreens and to make claims related to ageing of the skin that consumers may expect to see.

  9. Cytotoxicity of Sambucus ebulus on cancer cell lines and protective ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Regarding the traditional utilization of Sambucus ebulus, Iranian native botany and its active ingredients (e.g. ebulitin and ebulin 1), cytotoxicity of ethyl acetate ... cytotoxic agent on liver and colon cancer cells and suggest that vitamins C and E may protect normal cells, when SEE were used in cancer therapy in future.

  10. Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH)

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... local chapter Join our online community Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH) Normal pressure hydrocephalus is a brain disorder ... Symptoms Diagnosis Causes & risks Treatments About Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus Normal pressure hydrocephalus occurs when excess cerebrospinal fluid ...

  11. Evaluation of X-ray shielding performance of protective aprons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kumagai, Michitomo; Shintani, Mitsuo; Kuranishi, Makoto

    1999-01-01

    Lead equivalent, which offers protection against x-rays, is rated with a 100 kV tube voltage in Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) Z 4501-1988, Testing method of lead equivalent for x-ray protective devices.'' However, the actual tube voltage in general diagnostic examinations (normal to special radiography; including computed tomography, CT) is 50 to 150 kV. Therefore, we measured whether the performance of current lead aprons (three products) and protective aprons using composite materials (two products) changes at 60 to 141 kV of tube voltage. Furthermore, we evaluated x-ray shielding performance by measuring the transmission ratio of scattered x-rays. The lead equivalent of two currently used lead aprons was almost the same at all voltages. However, in one currently used lead apron and both protective aprons made of composite materials, lead equivalent decreased rapidly when tube voltage exceeded 100 kV. The transmission ratio of scattered x-rays increased with increasing tube voltage in all of the protective aprons examined. Further, in all aprons examined, the transmission ratio of scattered x-rays declined with widening of the scatter angle. As mentioned above, the x-ray shielding performance of some x-ray protective aprons suddenly decreased at tube voltages over 100 kV. Thus the performance of x-ray protective aprons should be published, and JIS Z 4501 needs to be revised. (author)

  12. Evaluation of X-ray shielding performance of protective aprons

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kumagai, Michitomo; Shintani, Mitsuo; Kuranishi, Makoto [Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical Univ. (Japan). Hospital

    1999-04-01

    Lead equivalent, which offers protection against x-rays, is rated with a 100 kV tube voltage in Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) Z 4501-1988, Testing method of lead equivalent for x-ray protective devices.`` However, the actual tube voltage in general diagnostic examinations (normal to special radiography; including computed tomography, CT) is 50 to 150 kV. Therefore, we measured whether the performance of current lead aprons (three products) and protective aprons using composite materials (two products) changes at 60 to 141 kV of tube voltage. Furthermore, we evaluated x-ray shielding performance by measuring the transmission ratio of scattered x-rays. The lead equivalent of two currently used lead aprons was almost the same at all voltages. However, in one currently used lead apron and both protective aprons made of composite materials, lead equivalent decreased rapidly when tube voltage exceeded 100 kV. The transmission ratio of scattered x-rays increased with increasing tube voltage in all of the protective aprons examined. Further, in all aprons examined, the transmission ratio of scattered x-rays declined with widening of the scatter angle. As mentioned above, the x-ray shielding performance of some x-ray protective aprons suddenly decreased at tube voltages over 100 kV. Thus the performance of x-ray protective aprons should be published, and JIS Z 4501 needs to be revised. (author)

  13. Normalizing treatment influence on the forged steel SAE 8620 fracture properties

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paulo de Tarso Vida Gomes

    2005-03-01

    Full Text Available In a PWR nuclear power plant, the reactor pressure vessel (RPV contains the fuel assemblies and reactor vessels internals and keeps the coolant at high temperature and high pressure during normal operation. The RPV integrity must be assured all along its useful life to protect the general public against a significant radiation liberation damage. One of the critical issues relative to the VPR structural integrity refers to the pressurized thermal shock (PTS accident evaluation. To better understand the effects of this kind of event, a PTS experiment has been planned using an RPV prototype. The RPV material fracture behavior characterization in the ductile-brittle transition region represents one of the most important aspects of the structural assessment process of RPV's under PTS. This work presents the results of fracture toughness tests carried out to characterize the RPV prototype material behavior. The test data includes Charpy energy curves, T0 reference temperatures for definition of master curves, and fracture surfaces observed in electronic microscope. The results are given for the vessel steel in the "as received" and normalized conditions. This way, the influence of the normalizing treatment on the fracture properties of the steel could be evaluated.

  14. Ultrasonic tests on materials with protective coatings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Whaley, H.L.

    1977-01-01

    Protective coatings are applied to some nuclear components such as reactor vessels to inhibit surface corrosion. Since in-service ultrasonic inspection is required for such components, a study was performed to determine whether the use of protective coatings can affect ultrasonic tests. Two 2 in. thick steel plates were uniformly machined, sandblasted, and used as bases for two types of protective coatings. The type and thickness of the coating and the presence of contamination, such as fingerprints or mild oxidation under the paint, were the independent variables associated with the coating. Tests were run to determine the effects of the protective coatings on ultrasonic tests conducted on the steel plates. Significant variations in ultrasonic test sensitivity occurred as a function of the type and thickness of protective coating, couplant (material that conducts the ultrasound from the transducer into the test part, normally water or some type of oil), transducer wear plate, and ultrasonic test frequency. Ultrasonic tests can be strongly affected by a protective coating on the component to be inspected. As compared to the test sensitivity for an uncoated reference sample, the sensitivity may be dramatically shifted up or down on the coated surface. In certain coating thickness ranges, the sensitivity can fluctuate widely with small changes in coating thickness. If a coating is chosen properly, however, components with protective coatings can be tested ultrasonically with valid results. These results are for the case of ultrasonic input on the coated surface. It is not expected that an ultrasonic test conducted from the front surface would be appreciably affected by a coating on the rear surface

  15. Normal human serum (HS) prevents oxidant-induced lysis of cultured endothelial cells (ECs)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Callahan, K.S.; Harlan, J.M.

    1986-01-01

    Most studies demonstrating oxidant lysis of cultured ECs are performed in serum-free media or media containing low concentrations of bovine serum. The authors found that HS protects human and bovine ECs from lysis caused by reagent H 2 O 2 or glucose/glucose oxidase (GO)-generated H 2 O 2 . EC injury was assessed by 51 Cr release, cell detachment, or trypan blue dye exclusion. Protective HS activity was dose-dependent with concentrations greater than or equal to 25% preventing lethal injury. Cytotoxicity at 24 hrs, induced by 20 mU/ml GO, was 90.1 +/- 5.2% without HS vs 1.7 +/- 4.6% with 25% HS present (20 exp). Similar protection was observed with heparinized plasma. Of note, comparable concentrations of bovine serum were devoid of protective activity. Addition of fatty acid-free albumin to the media was also without protective effect. Preliminary characterization showed HS activity was stable to 60 0 C for 30 min, non-dialyzable at 25,000 MW cutoff, and retained in delipidated serum. The HS protection was not merely due to scavenging of exogenous H 2 O 2 as A23187-induced EC lysis was also prevented by HS. Protective activity was not reproduced by purified cerruloplasmin or transferrin. In conclusion, unidentified factor(s) present in HS protect cultured ECs from oxidant-induced lysis. Since endothelium is normally exposed to 100% plasma, the authors suggest that in vitro studies of oxidant-mediated injury be performed in the presence of HS. Factor(s) in HS may play an important role in modulating oxidant-induced vascular injury in vivo

  16. Molecular tilt on monolayer-protected nanoparticles

    KAUST Repository

    Giomi, L.

    2012-02-01

    The structure of the tilted phase of monolayer-protected nanoparticles is investigated by means of a simple Ginzburg-Landau model. The theory contains two dimensionless parameters representing the preferential tilt angle and the ratio ε between the energy cost due to spatial variations in the tilt of the coating molecules and that of the van der Waals interactions which favors the preferential tilt. We analyze the model for both spherical and octahedral particles. On spherical particles, we find a transition from a tilted phase, at small ε, to a phase where the molecules spontaneously align along the surface normal and tilt disappears. Octahedral particles have an additional phase at small ε characterized by the presence of six topological defects. These defective configurations provide preferred sites for the chemical functionalization of monolayer-protected nanoparticles via place-exchange reactions and their consequent linking to form molecules and bulk materials. Copyright © EPLA, 2012.

  17. Molecular tilt on monolayer-protected nanoparticles

    KAUST Repository

    Giomi, L.; Bowick, M. J.; Ma, X.; Majumdar, A.

    2012-01-01

    The structure of the tilted phase of monolayer-protected nanoparticles is investigated by means of a simple Ginzburg-Landau model. The theory contains two dimensionless parameters representing the preferential tilt angle and the ratio ε between the energy cost due to spatial variations in the tilt of the coating molecules and that of the van der Waals interactions which favors the preferential tilt. We analyze the model for both spherical and octahedral particles. On spherical particles, we find a transition from a tilted phase, at small ε, to a phase where the molecules spontaneously align along the surface normal and tilt disappears. Octahedral particles have an additional phase at small ε characterized by the presence of six topological defects. These defective configurations provide preferred sites for the chemical functionalization of monolayer-protected nanoparticles via place-exchange reactions and their consequent linking to form molecules and bulk materials. Copyright © EPLA, 2012.

  18. A new hybrid protection system for high-field superconducting magnets

    CERN Document Server

    Ravaioli, E; Kirby, G; ten Kate, H H J; Verweij, A P

    2014-01-01

    The new generation of high-field superconducting accelerator magnets poses a challenge concerning the protection of the magnet coil in the case of a quench. The very high stored energy per unit volume requires a fast and efficient quench heating system in order to avoid damage due to overheating. A new protection system for superconducting magnets is presented, comprising a combination of a novel coupling-loss induced quench (CLIQ) system and conventional quench heaters. CLIQ can provoke a very fast transition to the normal state in coil windings by introducing coupling loss and thus heat in the coil's conductor. The advantage of the hybrid protection system is a global transition, resulting in a much faster current decay, a significantly lower hot-spot temperature, and a more homogeneous temperature distribution in the magnet's coil.

  19. EnviroAtlas - Average Direct Normal Solar resources kWh/m2/Day by 12-Digit HUC for the Conterminous United States

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The annual average direct normal solar resources by 12-Digit Hydrologic Unit (HUC) was estimated from maps produced by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory for...

  20. Transformer Protection by Using FL Based Artificial Intelligent Buchholz Relay against Incipient Faults

    OpenAIRE

    SOUMYADEEP SAMONTO; SAGARIKA PAL; SUBRATA BANERJEE; BISHAL SARKAR

    2016-01-01

    Switchgear and Protection are the two vital terminology of Electrical power system. Normally the components of any switchgear needs better protection schemes to be set for a composite power system. Many explorers worked on artificial intelligent breaker but an indulgence of fuzzy theory is nevertheless very absent in case of buchholz relay. Here in this paper discussion has been drawn in favor of the Artificial Intelligent Buchholz (AIB) relay where inputs are level of transformer oil and ...

  1. Bone marrow blood vessels: normal and neoplastic niche

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Saeid Shahrabi

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Blood vessels are among the most important factors in the transport of materials such as nutrients and oxygen. This study will review the role of blood vessels in normal bone marrow hematopoiesis as well as pathological conditions like leukemia and metastasis. Relevant literature was identified by a Pubmed search (1992-2016 of English-language papers using the terms bone marrow, leukemia, metastasis, and vessel. Given that blood vessels are conduits for the transfer of nutrients, they create a favorable situation for cancer cells and cause their growth and development. On the other hand, blood vessels protect leukemia cells against chemotherapy drugs. Finally, it may be concluded that the vessels are an important factor in the development of malignant diseases.

  2. A study to assess the domestic violence in mental illness & normal married women

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jyoti Srivastava, Indira Sharma, Anuradha Khanna

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Background: Domestic violence against women is the most pervasive human rights violation in the world today. According to UNiTE to End Violence against Women (2009 by UN Women, In the United States, one-third of women murdered each year are killed by intimate partners. In South Africa, a woman is killed every 6 hours by an intimate partner. The Objective: To assess the magnitude and causes of domestic violence with mental illness & normal women. Material & Methods: The sample of study comprised of 50 women with mental illness and 50 normal women. Mental illness patients diagnosed according to with Axis one psychiatric Disorder DSM IV-TR, who were selected from the Psychiatry OPD and ward of the S.S. Hospital, BHU and normal women were be selected from the accompany with patients of Sir Sunder Lal Hospital. The patients were assessed on the structured questionnaire on Domestic Violence. Results – The domestic violence present in married women with mental illness was 72% and normal women were 36%. Perceived causes of domestic violence in married women with mental illness were more compared to those with normal women. The health care personnel should be given an opportunity to update their knowledge regarding domestic violence and there is need education for domestic violence and cessation, so that they can help the women to protect/prevent domestic violence.

  3. Bicervical normal uterus with normal vagina | Okeke | Annals of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    To the best of our knowledge, only few cases of bicervical normal uterus with normal vagina exist in the literature; one of the cases had an anterior‑posterior disposition. This form of uterine abnormality is not explicable by the existing classical theory of mullerian anomalies and suggests that a complex interplay of events ...

  4. Scour Protection of Offshore Wind Farms

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Anders Wedel

    especially for small KC-numbers. The main reason for the increased scour is found to be turbulence generated by the breaking and is forced to the bottom by the pile. In Chapter 5, the onset of suction from between armour stones under breaking waves is studied. The critical conditions for onset of suction....... The equilibrium sinking of the scour protection is found for various conditions. It is also found that a fine filter layer can prevent the mobilization of the sediment and therefore the sinking. In Chapter 4, the scour around mono piles in breaking waves is studied. The scour is found to depend on two parameters......: (1) The distance between the breaking point and the pile normalized by the wave length and (2) the breaking wave height normalized by the pile diameter. The maximum scour is found to be approximately 0.65 times the pile diameter. It can be larger than the scour generated by non-breaking waves...

  5. Liv. 52 protection against radiation induced lesions in mammalian liver

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Saini, M.R.; Saini, N.

    1985-01-01

    Effect of Liv. 52 on mammalian liver was studied after whole-body exposure to 5.5 Gy of 60 Co gamma radiation. It was found that the drug protected the organ against radiation-induced changes. The protective effect was manifested in the form of early recovery as indicated by the absence of pathological changes like cytoplasmic degranulation, loss of nulei from many cells and abnormal architecture at 10 days and restoration of normal structure by 4 weeks. Liv. 52 may neutralize the peroxides formed from water molecules after irradiation which are toxic and cause the damage to the organ. Thus it seems that the drug may act as detoxicating agent. (author)

  6. Smooth quantile normalization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hicks, Stephanie C; Okrah, Kwame; Paulson, Joseph N; Quackenbush, John; Irizarry, Rafael A; Bravo, Héctor Corrada

    2018-04-01

    Between-sample normalization is a critical step in genomic data analysis to remove systematic bias and unwanted technical variation in high-throughput data. Global normalization methods are based on the assumption that observed variability in global properties is due to technical reasons and are unrelated to the biology of interest. For example, some methods correct for differences in sequencing read counts by scaling features to have similar median values across samples, but these fail to reduce other forms of unwanted technical variation. Methods such as quantile normalization transform the statistical distributions across samples to be the same and assume global differences in the distribution are induced by only technical variation. However, it remains unclear how to proceed with normalization if these assumptions are violated, for example, if there are global differences in the statistical distributions between biological conditions or groups, and external information, such as negative or control features, is not available. Here, we introduce a generalization of quantile normalization, referred to as smooth quantile normalization (qsmooth), which is based on the assumption that the statistical distribution of each sample should be the same (or have the same distributional shape) within biological groups or conditions, but allowing that they may differ between groups. We illustrate the advantages of our method on several high-throughput datasets with global differences in distributions corresponding to different biological conditions. We also perform a Monte Carlo simulation study to illustrate the bias-variance tradeoff and root mean squared error of qsmooth compared to other global normalization methods. A software implementation is available from https://github.com/stephaniehicks/qsmooth.

  7. Towards an optimized coupling-loss induced quench protection system (CLIQ) for quadrupole magnets (Proc. 25th ICEC & ICMC2014 conference)

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ravaioli, Emanuele; Datskov, Vladimir I.; Desbiolles, Vincent; Feuvrier, Jerome; Kirby, Glyn; Maciejewski, Michal; Sperin, Kevin A.; ten Kate, Herman H.J.; Verweij, Arjan P.; Willering, G.

    2015-01-01

    The recently developed Coupling-Loss-Induced Quench (CLIQ) protection system is a new method for initiating a fast and voluminous transition to the normal state for protecting high energy density superconducting magnets. Its simple and robust electrical design, its lower failure rate, and its more

  8. Normal foot and ankle

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Weissman, S.D.

    1989-01-01

    The foot may be thought of as a bag of bones tied tightly together and functioning as a unit. The bones re expected to maintain their alignment without causing symptomatology to the patient. The author discusses a normal radiograph. The bones must have normal shape and normal alignment. The density of the soft tissues should be normal and there should be no fractures, tumors, or foreign bodies

  9. Overview of radiation protection programme in nuclear medicine facility for diagnostic procedures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ahmed, Ezzeldein Mohammed Nour Mohammed

    2015-02-01

    This project was conducted to review Radiation Protection Program in Nuclear Medicine facility for diagnostic procedures which will provide guide for meeting the standard and regulatory requirements in diagnostic nuclear medicine. The main objective of this project is to keep dose to staff, patient and public as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA). The specific objectives were to review the Radiation Protection Program (RPP) in diagnostic nuclear medicine and to make some recommendation for improving the level of radiation protection in diagnostic nuclear medicine that will help to control normal exposure and prevent or mitigate potential exposure. The methodology used is review of various documents. The review showed that if the Radiation Protection Program is inadequate it leads to unjustified exposure to radiation. Finally, this study stated some recommendations that if implemented could improve the level of radiation protection in nuclear medicine department. One of the most important recommendations is that a qualified Radiation Protection Officer (RPO) should be appointed to lay down and oversee a radiation protection in the nuclear medicine department. The RPO must be given the full authority and the adequate time to enable him to perform his duties effectively. (au)

  10. Cortical Thinning in Network-Associated Regions in Cognitively Normal and Below-Normal Range Schizophrenia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Walter Heinrichs

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This study assessed whether cortical thickness across the brain and regionally in terms of the default mode, salience, and central executive networks differentiates schizophrenia patients and healthy controls with normal range or below-normal range cognitive performance. Cognitive normality was defined using the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB composite score (T=50 ± 10 and structural magnetic resonance imaging was used to generate cortical thickness data. Whole brain analysis revealed that cognitively normal range controls (n=39 had greater cortical thickness than both cognitively normal (n=17 and below-normal range (n=49 patients. Cognitively normal controls also demonstrated greater thickness than patients in regions associated with the default mode and salience, but not central executive networks. No differences on any thickness measure were found between cognitively normal range and below-normal range controls (n=24 or between cognitively normal and below-normal range patients. In addition, structural covariance between network regions was high and similar across subgroups. Positive and negative symptom severity did not correlate with thickness values. Cortical thinning across the brain and regionally in relation to the default and salience networks may index shared aspects of the psychotic psychopathology that defines schizophrenia with no relation to cognitive impairment.

  11. Role of endogenous thiols in protection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vos, O.

    Aminothiols represent the most important group of radioprotective compounds. The most effective compounds administered at an optimal dose and time before irradiation are able to provide a protection in mice with a dose reduction factor (DRF) of about 2-2.5. The working mechanism can partly be explained as a scavenging process of radicals induced in water and partly as a chemical repair process of injured DNA. The endogenous aminothiol which has far-out the highest intracellular concentration is glutathione (GSH). The importance of intracellular GSH in determining cellular radiosensitivity has been shown by irradiating cells that had very low GSH levels. Such cells appear to have a high radiosensitivity, especially in hypoxic conditions. On the other hand, it has been demonstrated that induction of a high GSH level (100-200% above the normal level) provides only a small protection. In vitro experiments with DNA indicate that thiols with a high positive charge condense in the vicinity of DNA and are effective protectors, whereas thiols with a negative charge are kep away from it and are poor protectors. In comparison with the most effective exogenous aminothiols like cysteamine and WR1065, GSH is not an effective radioprotector. Putative explanations for this relatively poor protective ability of GSH are presented.

  12. Development of composition containing hesperidin for protection against radio-cellular damage

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Park, Sang Hyun; Jang, Beom Su

    2013-09-15

    Now a days, ionizing radiation finds a broad range of applications in various industries. Ionizing radiation is also a powerful weapon in the treatment of various cancers. Despite has a good therapeutic index, radiotherapy can be caused tissue injury to normal tissues in long-term cancer survivors. Therefore, there is an urgent need to protect humans form the side effects of radiation exposure. The hesperidin was found to offer protection and treatment of disease caused oxidative stress against ionizing radiation for people and health professional undergoing radiological treatment. In this study, we develop the hesperidin formulation that can be mixed with other food and various drugs formulation. Therefore, it can be easily applied as a radiation protective agent for human. In addition, this emulsion technique can be expanded to others formula application.

  13. 77 FR 32006 - Special Conditions: Gulfstream Model GVI Airplane; High Incidence Protection

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-05-31

    ... Special Conditions No. 25-423-SC] Special Conditions: Gulfstream Model GVI Airplane; High Incidence... pertaining to a high incidence protection system that replaces the stall warning system during normal... the condition existing in the test or performance standard in which V SR is being used. (3) The weight...

  14. Graphdiyne Nanoparticles with High Free Radical Scavenging Activity for Radiation Protection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xie, Jiani; Wang, Ning; Dong, Xinghua; Wang, Chengyan; Du, Zhen; Mei, Linqiang; Yong, Yuan; Huang, Changshui; Li, Yuliang; Gu, Zhanjun; Zhao, Yuliang

    2018-03-06

    Numerous carbon networks materials comprised of benzene moieties, such as graphene and fullerene, have held great fascination for radioprotection because of their acknowledged good biocompatibility and strong free radical scavenging activity derived from their delocalized π-conjugated structure. Recently, graphdiyne, a new emerging carbon network material consisting of a unique chemical structure of benzene and acetylenic moieties, has gradually attracted attention in many research fields. Encouraged by its unique structure with strong conjugated π-system and highly reactive diacetylenic linkages, graphdiyne might have free radical activity and can thus be used as a radioprotector, which has not been investigated so far. Herein, for the first time, we synthesized bovine serum albumin (BSA)-modified graphdiyne nanoparticles (graphdiyne-BSA NPs) to evaluate their free radical scavenging ability and investigate their application for radioprotection both in cell and animal models. In vitro studies indicated that the graphdiyne-BSA NPs could effectively eliminate the free-radicals, decrease radiation-induced DNA damage in cells, and improve the viability of cells under ionizing radiation. In vivo experiments showed that the graphdiyne-BSA NPs could protect the bone marrow DNA of mice from radiation-induced damage and make the superoxide dismutase (SOD) and malondialdehyde (MDA) (two kinds of vital indicators of radiation-induced injury) recover back to normal levels. Furthermore, the good biocompatibility and negligible systemically toxicity responses of the graphdiyne-BSA NPs to mice were verified. All these results manifest the good biosafety and radioprotection activity of graphdiyne-BSA NPs to normal tissues. Therefore, our studies not only provide a new radiation protection platform based on graphdiyne for protecting normal tissues from radiation-caused injury but also provide a promising direction for the application of graphdiyne in the biomedicine field.

  15. Sunburn Protection by Sunscreen Sprays at Beach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hao Ou-Yang

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Background: The efficacy of sunscreen is evaluated by SPF values, which are quantitatively determined in laboratories on the backs of human subjects according to a standardized procedure. However, SPF cannot be directly translated to sunburn protection under real-life situations because actual efficacy depends on various factors related to human behaviors and environmental conditions. This study clinically evaluated the efficacy of two sunscreen sprays (SPF 30 and SPF 70 under natural sunlight exposure on healthy subjects at the beach. Methods: Twenty subjects were divided into two cells for the two sunscreen sprays (SPF 70 and SPF 30 in a single-center, actual usage test. The primary endpoint of the study was sunburn protection on the dorsal arms and the secondary endpoint was protection on the face and neck. Subjects stayed at the beach for 4 h after application of the sunscreens with normal beach activities. Subjects’ behavior at the beach, the amounts of sunscreen applied and reapplied, and environmental conditions were all recorded. Results: There was no significant sunburn for a majority of the subjects in either cell. However, neither sunscreen completely blocked the sunburn, especially the face/neck area. We found that the SPF 70 sunscreen was more effective than the SPF 30 sunscreen. Conclusion: Modern sunscreen sprays, applied liberally, are effective in providing sunburn protection for the body in a beach setting.

  16. Protection and safety functions of different off-gas treatment systems in radioactive waste incineration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Caramelle, D.; Chevalier, G.; Chevalier, G.

    1986-01-01

    Gaseous effluent cleaning installations are designed to protect workmen and environment and must be efficient enough to guarantee that the amounts of gases and dusts emitted by a furnace operating normally or accidentally are at an acceptable level in the atmosphere on the incinerator site. The process equipments necessary to operations and the monitoring devices must be reliable. The main risk in normal operation is occupational exposure close to the radioactive products accumulation points. The accidental risks are mainly related to an outage of the off-gas cleaning or a tightness failure with radioactive products dissemination resulting from either internal perturbation (filter tear, exhauster failure, ...) or external incident (electricity cut-off, furnace disarrangements, fire or explosion inside the incinerator). In view of these risks, it is interesting to examine the safety and protection functions of different components of off-gas treatment systems

  17. Radiation protection in exploitation of uranium ores

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pavlov, I.V.; Shalaev, I.L.

    1976-01-01

    The results are analyzed of the study of the radiation conditions in uranium mines, design and testing of protection means, improvement of methods and equipment for the dosimetric control in different countries since 1968 to 1975. There are outlined radiation hazards and their role in the formation of the radiation situation in mines, dispersive composition of aerosols of short-living daughter products of Rn(DPR) in the mine atmosphere. Among means of the radiation protection the following are dealt with: ventilation including the calculation of air requirements, design of ventilation systems, ventilation practices in working mines; lowering of the release of radon into the mine atmosphere by isolating non-exploited pits, application of gas-proof covers to cofferdams in faces of jointing zones, intensification of mining works in dangerous zones. Methods of air cleaning to remove Rn are suggested in brief. Apparatus are described for the individual control of the level of latent energy in the zone of miners' respiration: track dosimeters, thermoluminescent crystalls (TLC), photographic films, semiconductor systems and biophysical methods of the control for uranium mines. The efficient use of existing protection means provides the normal radiation situation in mines without significant additional investments

  18. [Light protection: principles of UV protection].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stege, H; Mang, R

    2006-05-01

    UV radiation is responsible for the induction of epithelial and melanocytic skin cancer, photoaging, and photodermatoses. UV protection is necessary to prevent damage caused by non-physiologic exposure. UV protection includes not only reduction of sun exposure but also use of sun protective filters, UV protective clothes, DNA repair enzymes, and antioxidant supplementation. Consumers are uncertain about the possibilities and limitations of commercial sun protection measures. Dermatologists must explain protective measures to the general public which continues to believe that UV-tanned skin is healthy. The sunscreen market is a highly competitive but lucrative market. The range of products with different designations and promises makes difficult for both consumers and dermatologists to determine what is sensible UV protection.

  19. Protection Coordination in Electrical Substation Part-2 Unit Protections (Differential and Distance Protection)

    OpenAIRE

    TÜR, Mehmet Rida; Shobole, Abdulfetah; Baysal, Mustafa; Wadi, Mohammed

    2018-01-01

    Power systemsmust be protected against faults to ensure quality and reliable generation,transmission and distribution of power systems. Power system protection is providedby the protection relays. This paper is the second part of the ProtectionCoordination study for the Siddik Kardesler Substation. The protection fortransmission lines, transformer, bus bars and customer feeders is provided byovercurrent protection, differential and distance protection schemes. In thispaper, issues related wit...

  20. T CD3+CD8+ Lymphocytes Are More Susceptible for Apoptosis in the First Trimester of Normal Human Pregnancy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dorota Darmochwal-Kolarz

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Aims. Normal human pregnancy is a complex process of many immunoregulatory mechanisms which protect fetus from the activation of the maternal immune system. The aim of the study was to investigate the apoptosis of lymphocytes in peripheral blood of normal pregnant patients and healthy nonpregnant women. Methods. Sixty pregnant women and 17 nonpregnant women were included in the study. Lymphocytes were isolated and labeled with anti-CD3, anti-CD4, and anti-CD8 monoclonal antibodies. Apoptosis was detected by CMXRos staining and analyzed using the flow cytometric method. Results. We found significantly higher apoptosis of total lymphocytes in peripheral blood of pregnant patients when compared to healthy nonpregnant women. The percentage of apoptotic T CD3+CD8+ cells in the first trimester was significantly higher when compared to the third trimester of normal pregnancy. The ratio of T CD3+CD4+ : T CD3+CD8+ apoptotic lymphocytes was significantly lower in the first trimester when compared to other trimesters of pregnancy and to both of the phases of the menstrual cycle. Conclusions. The higher apoptosis of T CD3+CD8+ lymphocytes and the lower ratio of T CD3+CD4+ : T CD3+CD8+ apoptotic cells in the first trimester of normal pregnancy may suggest a higher susceptibility of T CD3+CD8+ cells for apoptosis as a protective mechanism at the early stage of pregnancy.

  1. Incineration process fire and explosion protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ziegler, D.L.

    1975-01-01

    Two incinerators will be installed in the plutonium recovery facility under construction at the Rocky Flats Plant. The fire and explosion protection features designed into the incineration facility are discussed as well as the nuclear safety and radioactive material containment features. Even though the incinerator system will be tied into an emergency power generation system, a potential hazard is associated with a 60-second delay in obtaining emergency power from a gas turbine driven generator. This hazard is eliminated by the use of steam jet ejectors to provide normal gas flow through the incinerator system during the 60 s power interruption. (U.S.)

  2. Quench and protection characteristics of the GEM test coil

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chaniotakis, E.A.; Marston, P.G.

    1994-01-01

    The GEM test coil, will be wound from 70 m of conductor identical to that used in the full scale magnet. The coil configuration will duplicate the field distribution of the full scale magnet and current control will duplicate full scale current decay characteristics. Therefore, quench/protection analysis of this coil will reveal very important information about the behavior of the full scale model. Due to the uncertainty associated with the contact between the cable, the conduit and the sheath, a parametric analysis has been performed in order to determine and bracket the behavior. With no electrical contact the quench evolves normally until, due to heat transfer from the sheath into the cable, the superconductor temperature becomes critical and the entire length becomes normal

  3. Effect of mitochondrial potassium channel on the renal protection mediated by sodium thiosulfate against ethylene glycol induced nephrolithiasis in rat model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. Baldev

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: Sodium thiosulfate (STS is clinically reported to be a promising drug in preventing nephrolithiasis. However, its mechanism of action remains unclear. In the present study, we investigated the role of mitochondrial KATP channel in the renal protection mediated by STS. Materials and Methods: Nephrolithiasis was induced in Wistar rats by administrating 0.4% ethylene glycol (EG along with 1% ammonium chloride for one week in drinking water followed by only 0.75% EG for two weeks. Treatment groups received STS, mitochondrial KATP channel opener and closer exclusively or in combination with STS for two weeks. Results: Animals treated with STS showed normal renal tissue architecture, supported by near normal serum creatinine, urea and ALP activity. Diazoxide (mitochondria KATP channel opening treatment to the animal also showed normal renal tissue histology and improved serum chemistry. However, an opposite result was shown by glibenclamide (mitochondria KATP channel closer treated rats. STS administered along with diazoxide negated the renal protection rendered by diazoxide alone, while it imparted protection to the glibenclamide treated rats, formulating a mitochondria modulated STS action. Conclusion: The present study confirmed that STS render renal protection not only through chelation and antioxidant effect but also by modulating the mitochondrial KATP channel for preventing urolithiasis.

  4. Common strategic research agenda for radiation protection in medicine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-04-01

    Reflecting the change in funding strategies for European research projects, and the goal to jointly improve medical radiation protection through sustainable research efforts, five medical societies involved in the application of ionising radiation (European Association of Nuclear Medicine, EANM; European Federation of Organizations for Medical Physics. EFOMP; European Federation of Radiographer Societies, EFRS; European Society of Radiology, ESR; European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology, ESTRO) have identified research areas of common interest and developed this first edition of the Common Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) for medical radiation protection. The research topics considered necessary and most urgent for effective medical care and efficient in terms of radiation protection are summarised in five main themes: 1. Measurement and quantification in the field of medical applications of ionising radiation 2. Normal tissue reactions, radiation-induced morbidity and long-term health problems 3. Optimisation of radiation exposure and harmonisation of practices 4. Justification of the use of ionising radiation in medical practice 5. Infrastructures for quality assurance The SRA is a living document; thus comments and suggestions by all stakeholders in medical radiation protection are welcome and will be dealt with by the European Alliance for Medical Radiation Protection Research (EURAMED) established by the above-mentioned societies. • Overcome the fragmentation of medical radiation protection research in Europe • Identify research areas of joint interest in the field of medical radiation protection • Improve the use of ionising radiation in medicine • Collect stakeholder feedback and seek consensus • Emphasise importance of clinical translation and evaluation of research results.

  5. Information on radiation protection: an anthropological approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van Nuffelen, D.

    1996-01-01

    It is necessary to prepare the messages on radiation protection before a nuclear accident arises, i.e. in a normal radiological situation. The approach discussed in this paper is based on hypothesis that any communication is a relationship between different actors (such as a transmitter and a receiver) whose semantic frames of reference, mainly defined by social and cultural determinants of knowledge, cannot be completely identical. To work out messages correctly intended for a given receiver, one has consequently to bring out the common semantic references to both the transmitter and the receiver. (author)

  6. Results of tests under normal and abnormal operating conditions concerning LMFBR fuel element behaviour

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Languille, A.; Bergeonneau, P.; Essig, C.; Guerin, Y.

    1985-04-01

    The objective of this paper is to improve the knowledge on LMFBR fuel element behaviour during protected and unprotected transients in RAPSODIE and PHENIX reactors in order to evaluate its reliability. The range of the tests performed in these reactors is sufficiently large to cover normal and also extreme off normal conditions such as fuel melting. Results of such tests allow to better establish transient design limits for reactor structural components in particular for fuel pin cladding which play a lead role in controlling the accident sequence. Three main topics are emphasized in this paper: fuel melting during slow over-power excursions; influence of the fuel element geometrical evolution on reactivity feedback effects and reactor dynamic behaviour; clad damage evaluation during a transient (essentially very severe loss of flow)

  7. Improving normal tissue complication probability models: the need to adopt a "data-pooling" culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deasy, Joseph O; Bentzen, Søren M; Jackson, Andrew; Ten Haken, Randall K; Yorke, Ellen D; Constine, Louis S; Sharma, Ashish; Marks, Lawrence B

    2010-03-01

    Clinical studies of the dependence of normal tissue response on dose-volume factors are often confusingly inconsistent, as the QUANTEC reviews demonstrate. A key opportunity to accelerate progress is to begin storing high-quality datasets in repositories. Using available technology, multiple repositories could be conveniently queried, without divulging protected health information, to identify relevant sources of data for further analysis. After obtaining institutional approvals, data could then be pooled, greatly enhancing the capability to construct predictive models that are more widely applicable and better powered to accurately identify key predictive factors (whether dosimetric, image-based, clinical, socioeconomic, or biological). Data pooling has already been carried out effectively in a few normal tissue complication probability studies and should become a common strategy. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) protects against chromate-induced toxicity in vitro

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wu, Fen; Sun, Hong; Kluz, Thomas; Clancy, Hailey A.; Kiok, Kathrin; Costa, Max, E-mail: Max.Costa@nyumc.org

    2012-01-15

    Hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] is a human carcinogen that results in the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and a variety of DNA lesions leading to cell death. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), the major polyphenol present in green tea, possesses potent antioxidative activity capable of protecting normal cells from various stimuli-induced oxidative stress and cell death. Here we demonstrated that co-treatment with EGCG protected human normal bronchial epithelial BEAS-2B cells from Cr(VI)-induced cell death in a dose-dependent manner. Cr(VI) induces apoptosis as the primary mode of cell death. Co-treatment of BEAS-2B cells with EGCG dose-dependently suppressed Cr(VI)-induced apoptosis. Fluorescence microscopic analyses and quantitative measurement revealed that EGCG significantly decreased intracellular levels of ROS induced by Cr(VI) exposure. Using a well-established K{sup +}/SDS precipitation assay, we further showed that EGCG was able to dose-dependently reduce DNA–protein cross-links (DPC), lesions that could be partially attributed to Cr(VI)-induced oxidative stress. Finally, analyses of Affymetrix microarray containing 28,869 well-annotated genes revealed that, among the 3412 genes changed more than 1.5-fold by Cr(VI) treatment, changes of 2404 genes (70%) were inhibited by pretreatment of EGCG. Real-time PCR confirmed the induction of 3 genes involved in cell death and apoptosis by Cr(VI), which was eliminated by EGCG. In contrast, Cr(VI) reduced the expression of 3 genes related to cellular defense, and this reduction was inhibited by EGCG. Our results indicate that EGCG protects BEAS-2B cells from Cr(VI)-induced cytotoxicity presumably by scavenging ROS and modulating a subset of genes. EGCG, therefore, might serve as a potential chemopreventive agent against Cr(VI) carcinogenesis. -- Highlights: ► EGCG protected human normal bronchial epithelial BEAS-2B cells from Cr(VI)-induced cell death and apoptosis. ► EGCG significantly decreased

  9. Distinctive Features of Faults for Use in Power Transformer Differential Protection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Glazyrin V.E.

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the work is to study the change in instantaneous values of the differential current in power transformer differential protection circuits under conditions of magnetizing inrush when the unloaded transformer is energized and under conditions of a fault within the protection zone. Saturation of measuring current transformers during the transient process leads to distortion of signals in their secondary windings, which can cause a long delay in the disconnection of the protected object and the development of an accident in the power system if traditional protective algorithms are used. Taking into account the peculiarities of the change in the instantaneous values of the differential current while developing the protection algorithm makes it possible to recognize faults with maximum speed before the moment of the first saturation of electromagnetic current transformers and thus avoid a delay in the operation of the protection. For quick and correct recognition of a fault within the protection zone authors proposed to monitor the maximum value of the derivative of the differential current and the duration of its monotonous change from the moment of the onset of the transient process. This is because the monitored parameters in the emergency and normal operation of the power transformer can vary significantly. Application of traditional protection algorithms together with proposed methods allows increasing the speed of differential protection response in different operation modes of the power system. Mathematical simulation has been used to study the magnetizing inrush and short circuits within the protection zone.

  10. Fenofibrate dose not protect glioma cells from irradiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ro, Jae Lim; Kim, Won Dong; Park, Woo Yoon

    2012-01-01

    Fenofibrate(FF) is a ligand for peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) α and used clinically as a hypolipidemic drug. FF has been reported to have a radioprotective effect of newborn cells in the dentate gyrus 1) and inhibit radiation-induced microglial pro-inflammatory response 2). However, if FF also protect tumor cells, it can not be used clinically during radiotherapy. Thus, we're interested in whether FF has an radioprotective effect of brain tumor cells or not Although the radiosensitive G0/G1 phase cells were increased, radiosensitization by FF was not observed in three human glioma cells. This may be due to counterbalance of radiosensitizing and radioprotecting proteins increased by FF. Taken together, FF neither radiosensitize nor radioprotect glioma cells, so it can be used to protect normal neural cells from radiation damage

  11. Dystrophin is required for the normal function of the cardio-protective K(ATP channel in cardiomyocytes.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laura Graciotti

    Full Text Available Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy patients often develop a cardiomyopathy for which the pathogenesis is still unknown. We have employed the murine animal model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (mdx, which develops a cardiomyopathy that includes some characteristics of the human disease, to study the molecular basis of this pathology. Here we show that the mdx mouse heart has defects consistent with alteration in compounds that regulate energy homeostasis including a marked decrease in creatine-phosphate (PC. In addition, the mdx heart is more susceptible to anoxia than controls. Since the cardio-protective ATP sensitive potassium channel (K(ATP complex and PC have been shown to interact we investigated whether deficits in PC levels correlate with other molecular events including K(ATP ion channel complex presence, its functionality and interaction with dystrophin. We found that this channel complex is present in the dystrophic cardiac cell membrane but its ability to sense a drop in the intracellular ATP concentration and consequently open is compromised by the absence of dystrophin. We further demonstrate that the creatine kinase muscle isoform (CKm is displaced from the plasma membrane of the mdx cardiac cells. Considering that CKm is a determinant of K(ATP channel complex function we hypothesize that dystrophin acts as a scaffolding protein organizing the K(ATP channel complex and the enzymes necessary for its correct functioning. Therefore, the lack of proper functioning of the cardio-protective K(ATP system in the mdx cardiomyocytes may be part of the mechanism contributing to development of cardiac disease in dystrophic patients.

  12. Normalization as a Strategy for Maintaining Quality of Life While Coping with Infertility in a Pronatalist Culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Benyamini, Yael; Gozlan, Miri; Weissman, Ariel

    2017-12-01

    Infertility could be highly stressful, particularly in a pronatalist culture. We aimed to develop the concept and a measure of normalization (maintaining normal life routines and feeling "normal") as a strategy that could enable women with infertility maintain their quality of life (QoL) while coping with this condition. We tested its associations with women's well-being, distress and QoL in Israel, where being childless is socially unacceptable and highly stigmatized. One-hundred and eighty Israeli women undergoing infertility treatment at a fertility community clinic filled in questionnaires assessing normalization-related coping strategies, QoL, and psychological adjustment (distress, wellbeing). Eight months later, 55 women conceived; 55 women who had not conceived completed a second questionnaire. At baseline, normalization was related to higher QoL and better adjustment. Structural equation modeling showed that QoL was impaired mainly among women who felt different than others, compared, and blamed themselves. Over time, normalization was overall unrelated to conception or to changes in adjustment yet was protective against decrease in well-being among women who already had a child. Infertility is highly stressful in a pronatalist culture like Israel. It requires treatment yet is not disabling. Patients who manage to maintain normal routines and not feel different than other people their age may experience better QoL and psychological adjustment.

  13. Concept of voltage and frequency monitoring for a nuclear power plant normal power supply system - PWR 1300 MWe

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Andrade, R.B. de

    1990-01-01

    Voltage and frequency monitoring concept for a Nuclear Power Plant Normal Power Supply System (PWR 1300 MWe) is described based on the phylosophy adopted for Angra 2 and e NPP's. Some suggested setpoints are only guidance values and can be modified during plant commissioning for a better performance of the whole protection system. (author) [pt

  14. Hypothermia postpones DNA damage repair in irradiated cells and protects against cell killing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Baird, Brandon J.; Dickey, Jennifer S.; Nakamura, Asako J.; Redon, Christophe E.; Parekh, Palak; Griko, Yuri V.; Aziz, Khaled; Georgakilas, Alexandros G.; Bonner, William M.; Martin, Olga A.

    2011-01-01

    Hibernation is an established strategy used by some homeothermic organisms to survive cold environments. In true hibernation, the core body temperature of an animal may drop to below 0 o C and metabolic activity almost cease. The phenomenon of hibernation in humans is receiving renewed interest since several cases of victims exhibiting core body temperatures as low as 13.7 o C have been revived with minimal lasting deficits. In addition, local cooling during radiotherapy has resulted in normal tissue protection. The experiments described in this paper were prompted by the results of a very limited pilot study, which showed a suppressed DNA repair response of mouse lymphocytes collected from animals subjected to 7-Gy total body irradiation under hypothermic (13 o C) conditions, compared to normothermic controls. Here we report that human BJ-hTERT cells exhibited a pronounced radioprotective effect on clonogenic survival when cooled to 13 o C during and 12 h after irradiation. Mild hypothermia at 20 and 30 o C also resulted in some radioprotection. The neutral comet assay revealed an apparent lack on double strand break (DSB) rejoining at 13 o C. Extension of the mouse lymphocyte study to ex vivo-irradiated human lymphocytes confirmed lower levels of induced phosphorylated H2AX (γ-H2AX) and persistence of the lesions at hypothermia compared to the normal temperature. Parallel studies of radiation-induced oxidatively clustered DNA lesions (OCDLs) revealed partial repair at 13 o C compared to the rapid repair at 37 o C. For both γ-H2AX foci and OCDLs, the return of lymphocytes to 37 o C resulted in the resumption of normal repair kinetics. These results, as well as observations made by others and reviewed in this study, have implications for understanding the radiobiology and protective mechanisms underlying hypothermia and potential opportunities for exploitation in terms of protecting normal tissues against radiation.

  15. Hypothermia postpones DNA damage repair in irradiated cells and protects against cell killing

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Baird, Brandon J.; Dickey, Jennifer S.; Nakamura, Asako J.; Redon, Christophe E.; Parekh, Palak [Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, CCR, NCI, Bethesda, MD 20892 (United States); Griko, Yuri V. [Radiation and Space Biotechnology Branch, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Aziz, Khaled; Georgakilas, Alexandros G. [Biology Department, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858 (United States); Bonner, William M. [Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, CCR, NCI, Bethesda, MD 20892 (United States); Martin, Olga A., E-mail: sedelnio@mail.nih.gov [Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, CCR, NCI, Bethesda, MD 20892 (United States)

    2011-06-03

    Hibernation is an established strategy used by some homeothermic organisms to survive cold environments. In true hibernation, the core body temperature of an animal may drop to below 0 {sup o}C and metabolic activity almost cease. The phenomenon of hibernation in humans is receiving renewed interest since several cases of victims exhibiting core body temperatures as low as 13.7 {sup o}C have been revived with minimal lasting deficits. In addition, local cooling during radiotherapy has resulted in normal tissue protection. The experiments described in this paper were prompted by the results of a very limited pilot study, which showed a suppressed DNA repair response of mouse lymphocytes collected from animals subjected to 7-Gy total body irradiation under hypothermic (13 {sup o}C) conditions, compared to normothermic controls. Here we report that human BJ-hTERT cells exhibited a pronounced radioprotective effect on clonogenic survival when cooled to 13 {sup o}C during and 12 h after irradiation. Mild hypothermia at 20 and 30 {sup o}C also resulted in some radioprotection. The neutral comet assay revealed an apparent lack on double strand break (DSB) rejoining at 13 {sup o}C. Extension of the mouse lymphocyte study to ex vivo-irradiated human lymphocytes confirmed lower levels of induced phosphorylated H2AX ({gamma}-H2AX) and persistence of the lesions at hypothermia compared to the normal temperature. Parallel studies of radiation-induced oxidatively clustered DNA lesions (OCDLs) revealed partial repair at 13 {sup o}C compared to the rapid repair at 37 {sup o}C. For both {gamma}-H2AX foci and OCDLs, the return of lymphocytes to 37 {sup o}C resulted in the resumption of normal repair kinetics. These results, as well as observations made by others and reviewed in this study, have implications for understanding the radiobiology and protective mechanisms underlying hypothermia and potential opportunities for exploitation in terms of protecting normal tissues against

  16. Placental Oxidative Status throughout Normal Gestation in Women with Uncomplicated Pregnancies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jayasri Basu

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The effects of gestational age on placental oxidative balance throughout gestation were investigated in women with uncomplicated pregnancies. Placental tissues were obtained from normal pregnant women who delivered at term or underwent elective pregnancy termination at 6 to 23 + 6 weeks of pregnancy. Placental tissues were analyzed for total antioxidant capacity (TAC and lipid peroxide (malondialdehyde, MDA levels using commercially available kits. Two hundred and one placental tissues were analyzed and the mean ± SD MDA (pmol/mg tissue and TAC (µmol Trolox equivalent/mg tissue levels for first, second, and third trimester groups were 277.01 ± 204.66, 202.66 ± 185.05, and 176.97 ± 141.61, P < 0.004 and 498.62 ± 400.74, 454.90 ± 374.44, and 912.19 ± 586.21, P < 0.0001 by ANOVA, respectively. Our data reflects an increased oxidative stress in the placenta in the early phase of normal pregnancy. As pregnancy progressed, placental antioxidant protective mechanisms increased and lipid peroxidation markers decreased resulting in diminution in oxidative stress. Our findings provide a biochemical support to the concept of a hypoxic environment in early pregnancy. A decrease in placental oxidative stress in the second and third trimesters appears to be a physiological phenomenon of normal pregnancy. Deviations from this physiological phenomenon may result in placental-mediated disorders.

  17. Radiological protection in dentistry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Holliday, B

    1974-01-01

    Information that would allow an assessment of the standard of radiological protection in dentistry in the United Kingdom is sparse. The National Radiological Protection Board (previously the Radiological Protection Service) has provided a monitoring and advisory service to dentists for many years but very limited use has been made of this service. In a recent survey, 114 dentists were visited in representative practices in South East England and it was established that only 6.5% of dentists in general practice do not use radiography as an adjunct to their practice (Smith, 1969). In the 88 x-ray sets which were examined, 24% had less than the recommended thickness of aluminium filtration, while 25% had a fixed field size which was larger than necessary for dental radiography; in addition, 27% of the timers were found to have an error of greater than 20% in repetition of the pre-set exposure time. The exposure rate at the cone tip of a dental x-ray unit is generally in the range 1 to 4 R/s. A fault in the timer unit coupled with a failure on the part of the dentist to notice that x-rays are being generated (normally indicated by a red warning light) would rapidly lead to excessive exposure of the patient. Furthermore, a dentist continually holding films in the mouth of his patient would certainly incur a dose well in excess of the permissible hand dose, assuming anaverage work load for the x-ray equipment. Three case histories are given to illustrate the type of hazard that might arise from faulty equipment or bad operating technique.

  18. Cost-benefit analysis in optimising the radiological protection of the public: a provisional framework

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1981-07-01

    The advice given is concerned solely with the application of a quantitative framework to the optimisation of protection of members of the public, exposed as a result of routine releases of radionuclides to the environment or emissions of radiation in normal operating conditions. (author)

  19. Heme oxygenase-1 expression protects melanocytes from stress-induced cell death: implications for vitiligo

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Elassiuty, Yasser E.; Klarquist, Jared; Speiser, Jodi; Yousef, Randa M.; El Refaee, Abdelaziz A.; Hunter, Nahla S.; Shaker, Olfat G.; Gundeti, Mohan; Nieuweboer-Krobotova, Ludmila; Caroline Le Poole, I.

    2011-01-01

    To study protection of melanocytes from stress-induced cell death by heme oxygenases during depigmentation and repigmentation in vitiligo, expression of isoforms 1 and 2 was studied in cultured control and patient melanocytes and normal skin explants exposed to UV or bleaching agent 4-TBP.

  20. Temporary intestinal ischemia for radiation protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lote, K.

    1983-01-01

    The most important determinant of cellular radiosensivity is the tissue oxygen content at the time of irradiation. The purpose of the present experimental work was to assess a new iscemia-inducing method in order to reduce normal tissue radiation damage during radiotherapy. Temporary ischemia was induced in a cat small intestine by degraded starch microspheres. Regional arterial and tissue blod flow immediately fell by 85% with subsequent normalization within 26 minutes after microsphere injection. No tendency of small vessel thrombosis caused by starch sphere embolization in combination with previous or current intestinal irradiation was detected. Starch sphere remenants were rapidly engulfed by, and persisted within tissue macrophages for 14 days without causing intestinal inflammatory reactions. In vitro studies showed that human platelets neither adhered to nor were aggregated by starch microspheres. The new method, wich occlude arteriolar vessels distal to the mesentric arterial arcades and thus largely excludes collateral blood flow, seems suited to provide effictive and selective feline small intestinal hypoxic radiation protection. This conclusion may also be valid in man

  1. Macrophage antioxidant protection within atherosclerotic plaques.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gieseg, Steven P; Leake, David S; Flavall, Elizabeth M; Amit, Zunika; Reid, Linzi; Yang, Ya-Ting

    2009-01-01

    Macrophage cells within inflammatory lesions are exposed to a wide range of degrading and cytotoxic molecules including reactive oxygen species. Unlike neutrophils, macrophages do not normally die in this environment but continue to generate oxidants, phagocytose cellular remains, and release a range of cyto-active agents which modulate the immune response. It is this potential of the macrophage cell to survive in an oxidative environment that allows the growth and complexity of advanced atherosclerotic plaques. This review will examine the oxidants encountered by macrophages within an atherosclerotic plaque and describe some of the potential antioxidant mechanisms which enable macrophages to function within inflammatory lesions. Ascorbate, a-tocopherol, and glutathione appear to be central to the protection of macrophages yet additional antioxidant mechanisms appear to be involved. Gamma-Interferon causes macrophages to generate 7,8-dihydroneopterin, neopterin and 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid both of which have antioxidant properties. Manganese superoxide dismutase is also upregulated in macrophages. The evidence that these antioxidants provide further protection, so allowing the macrophage cells to survive within sites of chronic inflammation such as atherosclerotic plaques, will be described.

  2. Protective Effect of HSP25 on Radiation Induced Tissue Damage

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Hae-June; Lee, Yoon-Jin; Kwon, Hee-Choong; Bae, Sang-Woo; Lee, Yun-Sil; Kim, Sung Ho

    2007-01-01

    Control of cancer by irradiation therapy alone or in conjunction with combination chemotherapy is often limited by organ specific toxicity. Ionizing irradiation toxicity is initiated by damage to normal tissue near the tumor target and within the transit volume of radiotherapy beams. Irradiation-induced cellular, tissue, and organ damage is mediated by acute effects, which can be dose limiting. A latent period follows recovery from the acute reaction, then chronic irradiation fibrosis (late effects) pose a second cause of organ failure. HSP25/27 has been suggested to protect cells against apoptotic cell death triggered by hyperthermia, ionizing radiation, oxidative stress, Fas ligand, and cytotoxic drugs. And several mechanisms have been proposed to account for HSP27-mediated apoptotic protection. However radioprotective effect of HSP25/27 in vivo system has not yet been evaluated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of exogenous HSP25 expression, as delivered by adenoviral vectors, to protect animal from radiation induced tissue damage

  3. Performance Studies for Protection Against Asynchronous Dumps in the LHC

    CERN Document Server

    Kramer, T; Bracco, C; Goddard, B; Meddahi, M

    2010-01-01

    The LHC beam dump system has to safely dispose all beams in a wide energy range of 450 GeV to 7 TeV. A 3 ms abort gap in the beam structure for the switch-on of the extraction kicker field ideally allows a loss-free extraction under normal operating conditions. However, a low number of asynchronous beam aborts is to be expected from reliability calculations and from the first year's operational experience with the beam dump kickers. For such cases, MAD-X simulations including all optics and alignment errors have been performed to determine loss patterns around the LHC as a function of the position of the main protection elements in interaction region six. Special attention was paid to the beam load on the tungsten collimators which protect the triplets in the LHC experimental insertions, and the tracking results compared with semi-analytical numerical estimates. The simulations are also compared to the results of beam commissioning of these protection devices.

  4. Visual Memories Bypass Normalization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bloem, Ilona M; Watanabe, Yurika L; Kibbe, Melissa M; Ling, Sam

    2018-05-01

    How distinct are visual memory representations from visual perception? Although evidence suggests that briefly remembered stimuli are represented within early visual cortices, the degree to which these memory traces resemble true visual representations remains something of a mystery. Here, we tested whether both visual memory and perception succumb to a seemingly ubiquitous neural computation: normalization. Observers were asked to remember the contrast of visual stimuli, which were pitted against each other to promote normalization either in perception or in visual memory. Our results revealed robust normalization between visual representations in perception, yet no signature of normalization occurring between working memory stores-neither between representations in memory nor between memory representations and visual inputs. These results provide unique insight into the nature of visual memory representations, illustrating that visual memory representations follow a different set of computational rules, bypassing normalization, a canonical visual computation.

  5. New advances in protection against solar ultraviolet radiation in textiles for summer clothing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aguilera, José; de Gálvez, María Victoria; Sánchez-Roldán, Cristina; Herrera-Ceballos, Enrique

    2014-01-01

    Clothing is considered one of the most important tools for photoprotection against harmful solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR). The standard for sun-protective clothing is based on erythema despite other biological effects of UVR on the skin. We analyzed the potential protection against UVR in fabrics destined for summer clothing based on several action spectra. We examined 50 garments classified by type of fabric composition, structure of the fiber yarn and color. The ultraviolet protection factor was calculated based on fabric ultraviolet transmittance corrected for erythema according to the EU standard E-13758 as well as the UVA transmittance of fabrics. UVR protection was also analyzed in base of different action spectra as for previtamin D3, nonmelanoma skin cancer, photoimmunosuppression and photoaging. Most knitted fabrics used for sports T-shirts offered excellent ratings for ultraviolet protection while normal shirts showed very low ratings, particularly against photoaging. The cover is the most influential variable in fabric photoprotection, having an exponential relationship with the UPF. The relation between cover and UVA protection was linearly negative. Information about ultraviolet protection in textiles used for summer clothing should be included in labeling as some types of fabrics, especially those used for shirts, offer very low UVR protection. © 2014 The American Society of Photobiology.

  6. Protective action alternatives for accidents at nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tingle, A.; Pratt, W.T.; McGuire, S.A.

    1987-06-01

    Protective action calculations have been performed for five different light water reactors (LWRs) and containment designs using high and low fission product releases for early and late containment failures for each plant. These fission product release estimates were obtained from studies performed for the recently published ''Reactor Risk Reference Document'' (NUREG-1150). Five protective actions were considered for the risks of exceeding various dose levels to the red marrow versus centerline distance from the plants using site-specific meteorology. The strategies considered were 4 hours of normal activity, basement sheltering, large building sheltering, evacuation at release, and evacuation 1 hour after release. The evacuations were computed using 10 mph evacuation speed for all sites. Additional calculations were performed for the dose contributions due to the cloud, ground, and inhalation pathways

  7. System of nuclear power reactor protection using dynamic logic

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carvalho, P.V.R. de; Silva, L.C.R.P. da

    1990-01-01

    The aim of this work is the design of a Reactor Protection System (RPS) using dynamic logic as basic circuitry principle. This concept was developed to permit the electronic and eletromagnetic components employment in 'fail-safe' mode applied to automatic shutdown systems. 'Fail-safe' here means that a fail always yields a constant state that leads to a plant shutdown condition. So the normal condition of operation corresponds to an oscillating state response and the fail or abnormal condition to a static one. At present, almost all modern nuclear plant reactor protection systems use dynamic logic, just differing in the kind of technology employed in the construction of the system. In this work we define what technology best fits our necessities, setting out to design a RPS based on this philosophy. (author) [pt

  8. Group normalization for genomic data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghandi, Mahmoud; Beer, Michael A

    2012-01-01

    Data normalization is a crucial preliminary step in analyzing genomic datasets. The goal of normalization is to remove global variation to make readings across different experiments comparable. In addition, most genomic loci have non-uniform sensitivity to any given assay because of variation in local sequence properties. In microarray experiments, this non-uniform sensitivity is due to different DNA hybridization and cross-hybridization efficiencies, known as the probe effect. In this paper we introduce a new scheme, called Group Normalization (GN), to remove both global and local biases in one integrated step, whereby we determine the normalized probe signal by finding a set of reference probes with similar responses. Compared to conventional normalization methods such as Quantile normalization and physically motivated probe effect models, our proposed method is general in the sense that it does not require the assumption that the underlying signal distribution be identical for the treatment and control, and is flexible enough to correct for nonlinear and higher order probe effects. The Group Normalization algorithm is computationally efficient and easy to implement. We also describe a variant of the Group Normalization algorithm, called Cross Normalization, which efficiently amplifies biologically relevant differences between any two genomic datasets.

  9. Radiation protection issues for EPR reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miniere, D.; Le Guen, B.; Beneteau, Y.; Le Guen, B.

    2008-01-01

    As part of the EPR (European Pressurized Reactor) project being deployed at Flamanville, EDF has pro actively made the decision to focus on radiation protection Radiation Protection aspects right from the start of the design phase, as it has done with nuclear safety. The approach adopted for managing Radiation Protection-significant activities has been to include all involved stakeholders - designers, licensee and contractor companies - in the three successive phases, starting with a survey among workers and designers, followed by a proposal review, and finally ending with the decision-making phase entrusted to an ALARA committee. The Radiation Protection target set by EDF for this new reactor is to engage in an effort of continuous improvement and optimisation, through benchmarking with the best performing plants of the fleet. The collective dose target is currently set at 0.35 Man Sv/year per unit. In addition to other aspects, efforts will focus on shortening the duration of the highest-dose jobs, with a new challenge being set for work performed in the reactor building during normal operations, the aim being to improve plant availability. The plan is for work to be performed 7 days prior to shutting down the reactor and 3 days afterwards, in order to make logistical arrangements for forthcoming jobs. Without this reduction, the estimated drop is currently 4.5% of annual dose. For this purpose, two areas have been set up in the E.P.R.'s reactor building: one no-go area for containing leaks from the primary circuit, and one accessible area for normal operations, separated from the no-go area by purpose-built ventilation equipment and facilities. To offer protection against radioactive flux (neutrons and high energy), Radiation Protection studies have resulted in the installation of a concrete floor and of nuclear shielding at the outlets of primary circuit pipes. Steam generator bunkers and pumps have also been reinforced. All these measures will ensure that the

  10. Protective Effect of T. violacea Rhizome Extract Against Hypercholesterolemia-Induced Oxidative Stress in Wistar Rats

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olorunnisola Sinbad Olorunnisola

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available The present study examines the effect of methanolic extract of T. violacea rhizomes on high cholesterol (2% diet fed rats (HCD. At the end of 4 weeks, serum total protein, albumin, reduced glutathione (GSH, and markers of oxidative stress viz., catalase (CAT, superoxide dismutase (SOD, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS—a marker of lipid peroxidation, glutathione-S-transferase (GST and glutathione peroxidase (GPx in the serum, aorta, liver and heart of HCD and normal rats were assessed and compared. A significant (p < 0.05 elevation in TBARS, and a reduction (p < 0.05 in serum total protein, albumin, GSH and antioxidant enzyme activities was observed in tissues of HCD fed rats compared with the normal group. Co-administration of crude extracts of T. violacea rhizomes protected the liver, heart, serum and aorta against HCD-induced lipid peroxidation in a dose dependant manner. The activities of the extract (500 mg/kg compared favorably with gemfibrozil. The extracts also protected against HCD-induced reduction in serum total protein, GSH and restored the activities of antioxidant tissues (liver, heart and aorta enzymes to near normal values. This result suggested that consumption of T. violacea rhizome may help to protect against hypercholesterolemia- induced oxidative stress diseases in the heart and liver.

  11. System Protection Schemes in Eastern Denmark

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rasmussen, Joana

    outages in the southern part of the 132-kV system introduce further stress in the power system, eventually leading to a voltage collapse. The local System Protection Scheme against voltage collapse is designed as a response-based scheme, which is dependent on local indication of reactive and active power...... effective measures, because they are associated with large reactive power losses in the transmission system. Ordered reduction of wind generation is considered an effective measure to maintain voltage stability in the system. Reactive power in the system is released due to tripping of a significant amount...... system. In that way, the power system capability could be extended beyond normal limits....

  12. Injurious mechanical ventilation in the normal lung causes a progressive pathologic change in dynamic alveolar mechanics

    OpenAIRE

    Pavone, Lucio A; Albert, Scott; Carney, David; Gatto, Louis A; Halter, Jeffrey M; Nieman, Gary F

    2007-01-01

    Introduction Acute respiratory distress syndrome causes a heterogeneous lung injury, and without protective mechanical ventilation a secondary ventilator-induced lung injury can occur. To ventilate noncompliant lung regions, high inflation pressures are required to 'pop open' the injured alveoli. The temporal impact, however, of these elevated pressures on normal alveolar mechanics (that is, the dynamic change in alveolar size and shape during ventilation) is unknown. In the present study we ...

  13. Group normalization for genomic data.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mahmoud Ghandi

    Full Text Available Data normalization is a crucial preliminary step in analyzing genomic datasets. The goal of normalization is to remove global variation to make readings across different experiments comparable. In addition, most genomic loci have non-uniform sensitivity to any given assay because of variation in local sequence properties. In microarray experiments, this non-uniform sensitivity is due to different DNA hybridization and cross-hybridization efficiencies, known as the probe effect. In this paper we introduce a new scheme, called Group Normalization (GN, to remove both global and local biases in one integrated step, whereby we determine the normalized probe signal by finding a set of reference probes with similar responses. Compared to conventional normalization methods such as Quantile normalization and physically motivated probe effect models, our proposed method is general in the sense that it does not require the assumption that the underlying signal distribution be identical for the treatment and control, and is flexible enough to correct for nonlinear and higher order probe effects. The Group Normalization algorithm is computationally efficient and easy to implement. We also describe a variant of the Group Normalization algorithm, called Cross Normalization, which efficiently amplifies biologically relevant differences between any two genomic datasets.

  14. Is this the right normalization? A diagnostic tool for ChIP-seq normalization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Angelini, Claudia; Heller, Ruth; Volkinshtein, Rita; Yekutieli, Daniel

    2015-05-09

    Chip-seq experiments are becoming a standard approach for genome-wide profiling protein-DNA interactions, such as detecting transcription factor binding sites, histone modification marks and RNA Polymerase II occupancy. However, when comparing a ChIP sample versus a control sample, such as Input DNA, normalization procedures have to be applied in order to remove experimental source of biases. Despite the substantial impact that the choice of the normalization method can have on the results of a ChIP-seq data analysis, their assessment is not fully explored in the literature. In particular, there are no diagnostic tools that show whether the applied normalization is indeed appropriate for the data being analyzed. In this work we propose a novel diagnostic tool to examine the appropriateness of the estimated normalization procedure. By plotting the empirical densities of log relative risks in bins of equal read count, along with the estimated normalization constant, after logarithmic transformation, the researcher is able to assess the appropriateness of the estimated normalization constant. We use the diagnostic plot to evaluate the appropriateness of the estimates obtained by CisGenome, NCIS and CCAT on several real data examples. Moreover, we show the impact that the choice of the normalization constant can have on standard tools for peak calling such as MACS or SICER. Finally, we propose a novel procedure for controlling the FDR using sample swapping. This procedure makes use of the estimated normalization constant in order to gain power over the naive choice of constant (used in MACS and SICER), which is the ratio of the total number of reads in the ChIP and Input samples. Linear normalization approaches aim to estimate a scale factor, r, to adjust for different sequencing depths when comparing ChIP versus Input samples. The estimated scaling factor can easily be incorporated in many peak caller algorithms to improve the accuracy of the peak identification. The

  15. Increasing wood mobilization through Sustainable Forest Management in protected areas of Italy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mauro Maesano

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Normal 0 14 false false false IT JA X-NONE The European Community has long recognized the need to further promote renewable energy. Under the overall objective to support and enhance sustainable management, the promotion of the use of forest biomass could help to mitigate climate change by substituting fossil fuel, increasing carbon stock in wood products and improve energy self-sufficiency enhancing security of supply and providing job opportunities in rural areas. To what extent Italian forests can satisfy an increased wood demand, without compromising the others Ecosystem Services (ESs remains an open question. Our aim was to assess the potential supply of woody biomass from the network of protected areas in Italy considering the felling constraints. We estimated the theoretical annual potential increment from forest inventory data performing a correlation with the Corine Land Cover 2006 at the IV level with a 1:100,000 resolution elaborated in a GIS (Geographic Information System environment. The average annual potential increment at national level available for felling was 4.4 m3ha-1. Within the network of protected areas (EUAP and Natura 2000, the average annual increment, available to felling, was 0.98 m3ha-1, respectively, 0.81 m3ha-1 from coppice and 1.14 m3ha-1 from non-coppice forests. Based on data obtained from this study, the availability of wood materials could be increased of almost 20 % at national level by pursuing an active management within the network of protected areas. In Italy, the actual level of resource utilization is rather low; increasing felling together with the implementation of an active management within protected areas could allow satisfying, theoretically, the Italian wood consumption. /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabella normale"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0

  16. Protective effect of atorvastatin on radiation-induced endothelial cell injury

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Xinze, Ran; Huaien, Zheng; Fengchao, Wang; Xi, Ran; Aiping, Wang; Jing, Han; Yanqi, Zhang; Jun, Chen [Institute of Combined Injury, State Key Laboratory of Trauma, Burns and Combined Injury, College of Preventive Medicine, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing (China)

    2009-04-15

    Objective: To explore the protective effect of atorvastatin on irradiated endothelium and the thrombomodulin (TM) expression. Methods: Cultured human coronary artery endothelial cells (HCAEC) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) were treated by atorvastatin at the final concentration of 10 {mu}mol/ml for 10 min, and then irradiated with 2 and 25 Gy. Cell cycles status and TM expression were quantitatively measured by flow cytometry 24 hours after irradiation. Protein C activation in endothelial cells was also assessod. Results: After administration with atorvastatin for 24 h, the TM expression increased by 77%, 59% and 61% in normal control group, 2 Gy group and 25 Gy group, respectively (t=27.395, 26.420, 58.065; P=0.000). The protein C levels decreased by 23% and 34% compared with the normal group post-irradiation to 2 and 25 Gy, but increased by 79% and 76% compared with the irradiated control group after administration with atorvastatin. The rates of cell apoptosis decreased by 6% and 16% in 2 Gy and 25 Gy groups, respectively after administration with atorvastatin for 24 h (t=4.178, 17.863; P=0.000). Conclusions: Atorva statin can protect endothelia cell from irradiation-induced apeptosis by increasing TM expression and protein C activation. (authors)

  17. Protective effect of atorvastatin on radiation-induced endothelial cell injury

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ran Xinze; Zheng Huaien; Wang Fengchao; Ran Xi; Wang Aiping; Han Jing; Zhang Yanqi; Chen Jun

    2009-01-01

    Objective: To explore the protective effect of atorvastatin on irradiated endothelium and the thrombomodulin (TM) expression. Methods: Cultured human coronary artery endothelial cells (HCAEC) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) were treated by atorvastatin at the final concentration of 10 μmol/ml for 10 min, and then irradiated with 2 and 25 Gy. Cell cycles status and TM expression were quantitatively measured by flow cytometry 24 hours after irradiation. Protein C activation in endothelial cells was also assessod. Results: After administration with atorvastatin for 24 h, the TM expression increased by 77%, 59% and 61% in normal control group, 2 Gy group and 25 Gy group, respectively (t=27.395, 26.420, 58.065; P=0.000). The protein C levels decreased by 23% and 34% compared with the normal group post-irradiation to 2 and 25 Gy, but increased by 79% and 76% compared with the irradiated control group after administration with atorvastatin. The rates of cell apoptosis decreased by 6% and 16% in 2 Gy and 25 Gy groups, respectively after administration with atorvastatin for 24 h (t=4.178, 17.863; P=0.000). Conclusions: Atorva statin can protect endothelia cell from irradiation-induced apeptosis by increasing TM expression and protein C activation. (authors)

  18. Evidence for radiation-induced Bystander effects and relevance to radiotherapy and to radiation protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Georgieva, R.

    2006-01-01

    Full text: There are two major arms of radiation science in which Bystander effects (ByEff) could be of practical importance: radiotherapy and risk assessment. Basic biological principles, including dose-response relationships that have become dogma in the context of targeted effects of IR must now be reconsidered. The direct effects of radiation and the bystander components had to be reinvestigated to show the difference between them. It may be necessary to introduce a factor for ByEff's when calculating dose to both normal tissues and tumor. Presumably the relative effects on normal or tumor tissues could be different and that difference may not be always predictable. In relation to radiation protection, the existence of RIByEff's raises important questions for the way radiation dose is measured and modeled. The biological effect of exposure to low-doses radiation is likely to vary between individuals and between organs in one the same individual. Further studies on non-targeted effects should contribute to the establishment of adequate environmental and occupational radiation protection standards. This lecture looks at the history, the current data and controversies that are now beginning to resolve the questions concerning the mechanisms underlying the induction and transmission of ByEff. Especially, effects on radiotherapy and radiation protection are discussed

  19. Genome-wide expression profiling during protection from colitis by regulatory T cells

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kristensen, Nanna Ny; Olsen, Jørgen; Gad, Monika

    2008-01-01

    BACKGROUND: In the adoptive transfer model of colitis it has been shown that regulatory T cells (Treg) can hinder disease development and cure already existing mild colitis. The mechanisms underlying this regulatory effect of CD4(+)CD25(+) Tregs are not well understood. METHODS: To identify......Chip Mouse Genome 430 2.0 Array), which enabled an analysis of a complete set of RNA transcript levels in each sample. Array results were confirmed by real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). RESULTS: Data were analyzed using combined projections to latent structures and functional...... annotation analysis. The colitic samples were clearly distinguishable from samples from normal mice by a vast number of inflammation- and growth factor-related transcripts. In contrast, the Treg-protected animals could not be distinguished from either the normal BALB/c mice or the normal SCID mice. mRNA...

  20. Quantitative thallium-201 myocardial exercise scintigraphy in normal subjects and patients with normal coronary arteries

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Niemeyer, M.G.; St. Antonius Hospital Nieuwegein; Laarman, G.J.; Lelbach, S.; Cramer, M.J.; Ascoop, C.A.P.L.; Verzijlbergen, J.F.; Wall, E.E. van der; Zwinderman, A.H.; Pauwels, E.K.J.

    1990-01-01

    Quantitative thallium-201 myocardial exercise scintigraphy was tested in two patient populations representing alternative standards for cardiac normality: group I comprised 18 male uncatherized patients with a low likelihood of coronary artery disease (CAD); group II contained 41 patients with normal coronary arteriograms. Group I patients were younger, they achieved a higher rate-pressure product than group II patients; all had normal findings by phisical examination and electrocardiography at rest and exercise. Group II patients comprised 21 females, 11 patients showed abnormal electrocardiography at rest, and five patients showed ischemic ST depression during exercise. Twelve patients had sign of minimal CAD. Twelve patients revealed abnormal visual and quantitative thallium findings, three of these patients had minimal CAD. Profiles of uptake and washout of thallium-201 were derived from both patient groups, and compared with normal limits developed by Maddahi et al. Furthermore, low likelihood and angiographically normal patients may differ substantially, and both sets of normal patients should be considered when establishing criteria of abnormality in exercise thallium imaging. When commercial software containing normal limits for quantitative analysis of exercise thallium-201 imaging is used in clinical practice, it is mandatory to compare these with normal limits of uptake and washout of thallium-201, derived from the less heterogeneous group of low-likelihood subjects, which should be used in selecting a normal population to define normality. (author). 37 refs.; 3 figs; 1 tab

  1. Characteristics of the tinnitus and hyperacusis in normal hearing individuals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daila Urnau1,

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: The tinnitus has become a common otological complaint. Another complaint is found in bearers of the tinnitus is the hyperacusis. Objective: Analyze the characteristics of tinnitus and hyperacusis in normal hearing individuals with associated complaints of tinnitus and hyperacusis. Method: 25 normal hearing individuals who complained of hyperacusis and tinnitus were surveyed in this form of cross-sectional study. They were questioned about the location and type of the tinnitus. The evaluation of the tinnitus was made using the Brazilian Tinnitus Handicap Inventory and acuphenometry. A questionnaire was made about the hyperacusis covering aspects such as: sounds considered uncomfortable, sensations in the presence of such sounds, and difficulty understanding speech in noise. Results: Of the 25 individuals, 64% were women and 36% men. Regarding tinnitus, 84% referred to bilateral location and 80% high pitch. The most common degree found was light (44%. The women presented tinnitus degree statistically superior to those of men. The strong intensity sounds and the reactions of irritation, anxiety and the need to move away from the sound were the most mentioned. From the analyzed individuals, 68% referred to difficulty understanding speech in noise and 12% reported using hearing protection. The most found frequencies at the acuphenometry were 6 and 8 KHz. Conclusion: Normal hearing individuals who complain of tinnitus and hyperacusis present mainly high pitch tinnitus, located bilaterally and light degree. The sounds considered uncomfortable were the high intensity ones and the most cited reaction to sound was irritation. The difficulty to understand speech in noise was reported by most of the individuals.

  2. The Fate of a Normal Human Cell Traversed by a Single Charged Particle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fournier, C.; Zahnreich, S.; Kraft, D.; Friedrich, T.; Voss, K.-O.; Durante, M.; Ritter, S.

    2012-01-01

    The long-term “fate” of normal human cells after single hits of charged particles is one of the oldest unsolved issues in radiation protection and cellular radiobiology. Using a high-precision heavy-ion microbeam we could target normal human fibroblasts with exactly one or five carbon ions and measured the early cytogenetic damage and the late behaviour using single-cell cloning. Around 70% of the first cycle cells presented visible aberrations in mFISH after a single ion traversal, and about 5% of the cells were still able to form colonies. In one third of selected high-proliferative colonies we observed clonal (radiation-induced) aberrations. Terminal differentiation and markers of senescence (PCNA, p16) in the descendants of cells traversed by one carbon ion occurred earlier than in controls, but no evidence of radiation-induced chromosomal instability was found. We conclude that cells surviving single-ion traversal, often carrying clonal chromosome aberrations, undergo accelerated senescence but maintain chromosomal stability. PMID:22966418

  3. Structural and functional analysis of lysosomal ss-galactosidase and its relation to the protective protein.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    H. Morreau (Hans)

    1992-01-01

    textabstractLysosomal B-galactosidase is the glycosidase, that cleaves B-linked galactosyl mmenes from a variety of natural and synthetic substrates. In normal tissues of various species this enzyme appears to associate with two other hydrolases, N-acetyl-o:-neuraminidase and the protective protein.

  4. "Ser diferente é normal?"/"Being different: is it normal?"

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Viviane Veras

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available A pergunta título deste trabalho retoma o slogan “Ser diferente é normal”, que é parte da campanha criada para uma organização não-governamental que atende portadores de Síndrome de Down. O objetivo é a inclusão social da pessoa com deficiência e o primeiro passo foi propor a inclusão de um grupo de diferentes no grupo dito normal. No vídeo de lançamento da campanha, o diferente, identificado como normal, é mostrado por meio de exemplos – um negro com cabelo black-power, um skin-head, um corpo tatuado, um corpo feminino halterofílico, uma família hippie, uma garota com síndrome de Down. A visão da adolescente dançando reduz, de certo modo, o efeito imaginário que vai além da síndrome, uma vez que apenas o corpo com seus olhinhos puxados se destacam, e não se interrogam questões cognitivas. Minha proposta é refletir sobre o estatuto paradoxal do exemplo, tal como é trabalhado nesse vídeo: se, por definição, um exemplo mostra de fato seu pertencimento a uma classe, pode-se concluir que é exatamente por ser exemplar que ele se encontra fora dela, no exato momento em que a exibe e define. The question in the title of this paper refers to the slogan "ser diferente é normal" ("It´s normal to be different", which is part of a campaign created for a NGO that supports people with Down syndrome. The objective of the campaign is to promote the social inclusion of individuals with Down syndrome, and the first step was to propose the inclusion of a group of "differents" in the so-called normal group. The film launching the campaign shows the different identified as normal by means of examples: a black man exhibiting blackpower haircut, a skin-head, a tattooed body, an over-athletic female body, a hippie family and a girl with Down syndrome. The vision of the dancing teenager lessens the imaginary effect that surpasses the syndrome, since only her body and her little oriental eyes stand out and no cognitive issues are

  5. Active Protection of an MgB2 Test Coil

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Dong Keun; Hahn, Seungyong; Bascuñán, Juan; Iwasa, Yukikazu

    2011-01-01

    This paper presents results of a study, experimental and computational, of a detect-and-activate-the-heater protection technique applied to a magnesium diboride (MgB2) test coil operated in semi-persistent mode. The test coil with a winding ID of 25 cm and wound with ~500-m long reacted MgB2 wire was operated at 4.2 K immersed in a bath of liquid helium. In this active technique, upon the initiation of a “hot spot” of a length ~10 cm, induced by a “quench heater,” a “protection heater” (PH) of ~600-cm long planted within the test coil is activated. The normal zone created by the PH is large enough to absorb the test coil’s entire initial stored energy and still keeps the peak temperature within the winding below ~260 K. PMID:22081754

  6. Tocotrienol-Rich Fraction from Rice Bran Demonstrates Potent Radiation Protection Activity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kimberly J. Krager

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The vitamin E analogs δ-tocotrienol (DT3 and γ-tocotrienol (GT3 have significant protective and mitigative capacity against the detrimental effects of ionizing radiation (IR. However, the expense of purification limits their potential use. This study examined the tocotrienol-rich fraction of rice bran (TRFRB isolated from rice bran deodorizer distillate, a rice oil refinement waste product, to determine its protective effects against IR induced oxidative damage and H2O2. Several cell lines were treated with tocotrienols or TRFRB prior to or following exposure to H2O2 or IR. To determine the radioprotective capacity cells were analyzed for morphology, mitochondrial bioenergetics, clonogenic survival, glutathione oxidation, cell cycle, and migration rate. TRFRB displayed similar antioxidant activity compared to pure tocotrienols. Cells pretreated with TRFRB or DT3 exhibited preserved cell morphology and mitochondrial respiration when exposed to H2O2. Oxidized glutathione was decreased in TRFRB treated cells exposed to IR. TRFRB reversed mitochondrial uncoupling and protected cells migration rates following IR exposure. The protective antioxidant capacity of TRFRB treated cells against oxidative injury was similar to that of purified DT3. TRFRB effectively protects normal cells against IR induced injury suggesting that rice bran distillate may be an inexpensive and abundant alternate source.

  7. Fail-safe computer-based plant protection systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Keats, A.B.

    1983-01-01

    A fail-safe mode of operation for computers used in nuclear reactor protection systems was first evolved in the UK for application to a sodium cooled fast reactor. The fail-safe properties of both the hardware and the software were achieved by permanently connecting test signals to some of the multiplexed inputs. This results in an unambiguous data pattern, each time the inputs are sequentially scanned by the multiplexer. The ''test inputs'' simulate transient excursions beyond defined safe limits. The alternating response of the trip algorithms to the ''out-of-limits'' test signals and the normal plant measurements is recognised by hardwired pattern recognition logic external to the computer system. For more general application to plant protection systems, a ''Test Signal Generator'' (TSG) is used to compute and generate test signals derived from prevailing operational conditions. The TSG, from its knowledge of the sensitivity of the trip algorithm to each of the input variables, generates a ''test disturbance'' which is superimposed upon each variable in turn, to simulate a transient excursion beyond the safe limits. The ''tripped'' status yielded by the trip algorithm when using data from a ''disturbed'' input forms part of a pattern determined by the order in which the disturbances are applied to the multiplexer inputs. The data pattern formed by the interleaved test disturbances is again recognised by logic external to the protection system's computers. This fail-safe mode of operation of computer-based protection systems provides a powerful defence against common-mode failure. It also reduces the importance of software verification in the licensing procedure. (author)

  8. Initiation of glucose-lowering treatment decreases international normalized ratio levels among users of vitamin K antagonists

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stage, Tore Bjerregaard; Pottegård, Anton; Henriksen, Daniel Pilsgaard

    2016-01-01

    -lowering treatment affects international normalized ratio (INR) and dose requirements of the anticoagulant VKAs warfarin and phenprocoumon. PATIENTS/METHODS: We performed a self-controlled retrospective register-based study. A total of 118 patients initiating glucose-lowering treatment while being treated......-lowering treatment reduces the anticoagulant effect of VKA to an extent that is likely to be clinically relevant. This finding needs confirmation and mechanistic explanation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved....

  9. Design of the interlock and protection system for the SPIDER experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pomaro, N.; Grando, L.; Luchetta, A.; Paolucci, F.; Sartori, F.

    2013-01-01

    Highlights: •A custom designed interlock and protection system for SPIDER experiment is described. •It includes two subsystems implementing slow and fast protection functions. •High reliability PLCs are adopted for slow protection. •Fiber-optic based, custom designed fast logic circuitry is proposed for fast protection. •Accelerators breakdown events are also managed by the fast subsystem. -- Abstract: Unprecedented levels of beam energy and power are required for ITER Neutral Beam Heating systems. SPIDER experiment is an experimental device aimed to test and optimize a full size beam source satisfying ITER requirements. SPIDER experiment operation involves high power, voltage, temperature, and gas pressure. All these critical conditions are present simultaneously, so that any failure if not properly detected and managed is likely to cause severe damage. The Interlock and Protection System is a high-reliability system devoted to the investment protection of SPIDER. Its main purpose is to manage abnormal events occurring in one or more plants in order to minimize adverse consequences. The Interlock System also manages the SPIDER Operating Modes, defining the set and status of the Plants used in the various possible experimental configurations. In addition, the Interlock and Protection System takes care of particular events occurring during normal SPIDER operation, i.e. electrical arcs between accelerator grids, named breakdowns. Their treatment is committed to the Interlock and Protection System, as they need to be managed timely and with absolute reliability like actual faults. To perform the required functions, the Interlock and Protection System is interfaced with most SPIDER plants and with the SPIDER Control and Data Acquisition System. The paper describes the rationale of the protection functions, their implementation in the design and the technical specifications of the system

  10. Mechanisms of radiation-induced normal tissue toxicity and implications for future clinical trials

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kim, Jae Ho; Jenrow, Kenneth A.; Brown, Stephen L. [Dept.of Radiation Oncology, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit (United States)

    2014-09-15

    To summarize current knowledge regarding mechanisms of radiation-induced normal tissue injury and medical countermeasures available to reduce its severity. Advances in radiation delivery using megavoltage and intensity-modulated radiation therapy have permitted delivery of higher doses of radiation to well-defined tumor target tissues. Injury to critical normal tissues and organs, however, poses substantial risks in the curative treatment of cancers, especially when radiation is administered in combination with chemotherapy. The principal pathogenesis is initiated by depletion of tissue stem cells and progenitor cells and damage to vascular endothelial microvessels. Emerging concepts of radiation-induced normal tissue toxicity suggest that the recovery and repopulation of stromal stem cells remain chronically impaired by long-lived free radicals, reactive oxygen species, and pro-inflammatory cytokines/chemokines resulting in progressive damage after radiation exposure. Better understanding the mechanisms mediating interactions among excessive generation of reactive oxygen species, production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and activated macrophages, and role of bone marrow-derived progenitor and stem cells may provide novel insight on the pathogenesis of radiation-induced injury of tissues. Further understanding the molecular signaling pathways of cytokines and chemokines would reveal novel targets for protecting or mitigating radiation injury of tissues and organs.

  11. Mechanisms of radiation-induced normal tissue toxicity and implications for future clinical trials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Jae Ho; Jenrow, Kenneth A.; Brown, Stephen L.

    2014-01-01

    To summarize current knowledge regarding mechanisms of radiation-induced normal tissue injury and medical countermeasures available to reduce its severity. Advances in radiation delivery using megavoltage and intensity-modulated radiation therapy have permitted delivery of higher doses of radiation to well-defined tumor target tissues. Injury to critical normal tissues and organs, however, poses substantial risks in the curative treatment of cancers, especially when radiation is administered in combination with chemotherapy. The principal pathogenesis is initiated by depletion of tissue stem cells and progenitor cells and damage to vascular endothelial microvessels. Emerging concepts of radiation-induced normal tissue toxicity suggest that the recovery and repopulation of stromal stem cells remain chronically impaired by long-lived free radicals, reactive oxygen species, and pro-inflammatory cytokines/chemokines resulting in progressive damage after radiation exposure. Better understanding the mechanisms mediating interactions among excessive generation of reactive oxygen species, production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and activated macrophages, and role of bone marrow-derived progenitor and stem cells may provide novel insight on the pathogenesis of radiation-induced injury of tissues. Further understanding the molecular signaling pathways of cytokines and chemokines would reveal novel targets for protecting or mitigating radiation injury of tissues and organs.

  12. Protective effect of N-Acetylcysteine against ethanol-induced gastric ulcer: a pharmacological assessment in mice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ausama Ayoob Jaccob

    2015-06-01

    Aim: Since there is an increasing need for gastric ulcer therapies with optimum benefit-risk profile. This study was conducted to investigate gastro-protective effects of N-Acetylcysteine (NAC against ethanol-induced gastric ulcer models in mice. Materials and Methods: Forty-two mice were allocated into six groups consisting of 7 mice each. Groups 1 (normal control and 2 (ulcer control received distilled water at a dose of 10 ml/kg, groups 3, 4 and 5 were given NAC at doses 100, 300 and 500 mg/kg, respectively, and the 6th group received ranitidine (50 mg/kg. All drugs administered orally once daily for 7 days, on the 8th day absolute ethanol (7 ml/kg was administrated orally to all mice to induce the acute ulcer except normal control group. Then 3 h after, all animals were sacrificed then consequently the stomachs were excised for examination. Results: NAC administration at the tested doses showed a dose-related potent gastro-protective effect with significant increase in curative ratio, PH of gastric juice and mucus content viscosity seen with the highest dose of NAC and it is comparable with that observed in ranitidine group. Conclusion: The present findings demonstrate that, oral NAC shows significant gastro-protective effects comparable to ranitidine confirmed by antisecretory, cytoprotective, histological and biochemical data but the molecular mechanisms behind such protection are complex. [J Intercult Ethnopharmacol 2015; 4(2.000: 90-95

  13. Algorithms evaluation for transformers differential protection; Avaliacao de algoritmos para protecao diferencial de transformadores

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Piovesan, Luis Sergio

    1997-07-01

    The appliance of two algorithms is evaluated, one based in Fourier analysis and other based in a rectangular transform technique over Fourier analysis, to be used in digital logical circuits (digital protection relays) for the purpose of differential protection of power transformers (ANSI 87T). The first chapter has a brief introduction about electrical protection. The second chapter discusses the general problems of transform protection, the development of digital technology and, with more detail, the differential protection associated to this technology. In this chapter are presented the particular aspects of transformers differential protection concerning sensibility, inrush current situations and harmonic distortions caused by transformer core saturations and the differential protection algorithms and their applications in a specific relay design. In chapter three, a method to make possible testing the protection performance is developed. This work applies digital simulations using EMTP to generate current signal of transformer operation and fault conditions. Digital simulation using Matlab is used to simulate the protection. The EMTP generated field signals are sent to the relay under test, furnishing data of normal operation, internal and external faults. The relay logic simulator at Matlab will work this data and so, it will be possible to verify and evaluate the algorithm behavior and performance. Chapter 4 shows the protection operation over simulations of several of transformer operation and fault conditions. The last chapter presents a conclusion about the protection performance, discussions about all the methods applied in this work and suggestions for further studies. (author)

  14. LMFBR. Off normal, transient test facilities and programs in the USA

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Herbst, R.J.

    1985-01-01

    The United States fast breeder reactor development program has included operational transient analyses and experiments to verify the predicted performance of core components. Operational transient testing has focused on off-normal operation during Plant Protection System terminated transient-overpower events. In-pile and out-of-pile tests have been used to simulate predicted thermal and mechanical strain cycles and measure component response. The spectrum of reactivity ramp rates investigated in TOP tests has recently been expanded to include rates of less than $0.1/s. These slow ramp rate studies are being done in cooperation with the Japanese. The US has also cooperated with the UK in the transient testing of Prototype Fast Reactor fuel pins

  15. Principles of the International Commission on Radiological Protection system of dose limitation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thorne, M.C.

    1987-01-01

    The formulation of a quantitative system of dose limitation based on ICRP principles of 'stochastic' and 'non-stochastic' effects requires that judgements be made on several factors including: relationships between radiation dose and the induction of deleterious effects for a variety of endpoints and radiation types; acceptable levels of risk for radiation workers and members of the public; and methods of assessing whether the cost of introducing protective measures is justified by the reduction in radiation detriment which they will provide. In the case of patients deliberately exposed to ionising radiations, the objectives of radiation protection differ somewhat from those applying to radiation workers and members of the public. For patients, risks and benefits relate to the same person and upper limits on acceptable risks may differ grossly from those appropriate to normal individuals. For these reasons, and because of its historical relationship with the International Congress of Radiology, the ICRP has given special consideration to radiation protection in medicine and has published reports on protection of the patient in diagnostic radiology and in radiation therapy. (author)

  16. Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Among Patients with Structurally Normal Hearts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Conrad, Stephanie J; Bridges, Brian C; Kalra, Yuvraj; Pietsch, John B; Smith, Andrew H

    Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (eCPR) has been well described as a rescue therapy in refractory cardiac arrest among patients with congenital heart disease. The purpose of this retrospective analysis of data from the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization was to evaluate outcomes of eCPR in patients with structurally normal hearts and to identify risk factors that may contribute to mortality. During the study period, 1,431 patients met inclusion criteria. Median age was 16 years. Overall survival to hospital discharge was 32%. Conditional logistic regression demonstrated an independent survival benefit among smaller patients, patients with a lower partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO2) on cannulation, and those with a shorter duration from intubation to eCPR cannulation. A diagnosis of sepsis was independently associated with a nearly threefold increase in odds of mortality, whereas the diagnosis of myocarditis portended a more favorable outcome. Neurologic complications, pulmonary hemorrhage, disseminated intravascular coagulation, CPR, pH less than 7.20, and hyperbilirubinemia after eCPR cannulation were independently associated with an increase in odds of mortality. When utilizing eCPR in patients with structurally normal hearts, a diagnosis of sepsis is independently associated with mortality, whereas a diagnosis of myocarditis is protective. Neurologic complications and pulmonary hemorrhage while on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) are independently associated with mortality.

  17. Control processes and machine protection on ASDEX Upgrade

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Raupp, G.; Treutterer, W.; Mertens, V.; Neu, G.; Sips, A.; Zasche, D.; Zehetbauer, Th.

    2007-01-01

    Safe operation of ASDEX Upgrade is guaranteed by a conventional hierarchy of simple and robust hard-wired systems for personnel and machine protection featuring standardized switch-off procedures. Machine protection and handling of off-normal events is further enhanced and peak and lifetime stress minimized through the plasma control system. Based on a real-time process model supporting safety critical applications with data quality tagging, process self-monitoring, watchdog monitoring and alarm propagation, processes detect complex and critical failures and reliably perform case-sensitive counter measures. Intelligent real-time failure handling is done with hardware or software redundancy and performance degradation, or modification of reference values to continue or terminate discharges with reduced machine stress. Examples implemented so far on ASDEX Upgrade are given, such as recovery from measurement failures, switch-over of redundant actuators, handling of actuator limitations, detection of plasma instabilities, plasma state dependent soft landing, or handling of failed switch-off procedures through breakers disconnecting the machine from grid

  18. The role of medical physicist in radiation protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nusslin, F.

    2010-01-01

    Ionizing Radiation is applied in Radiation Therapy, Nuclear medicine and Diagnostic Radiology. Radiation Protection in Medical Application of Ionizing Radiation requires specific Professional Competence in all relevant details of the radiation source instrumentation / equipment clinical dosimetry application procedures quality assurance medical risk-benefit assessment. Application in general include Justification of practices (sufficient benefit to the exposed individuals) Limitation of doses to individuals (occupational / public exposure) Optimization of Protection (magnitude and likelihood of exposures, and the number of individuals exposed will be ALARA. Competence of persons is normally assessed by the State by having a formal mechanism for registration, accreditation or certification of medical physicists in the various specialties (e.g. diagnostic radiology, radiation therapy, nuclear medicine). The patient safety in the use of medical radiation will be increased through: Consistent education and certification of medical team members, whose qualifications are recognized nationally, and who follow consensus practice guidelines that meet established national accrediting standards

  19. INTESTINAL VIROME AND NORMAL MICROFLORA OF HUMAN: FEATURES OF INTERACTION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bobyr V.V.

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Summary: Intestinal bacteria defend the host organism and narrow pathogenic bacterial colonization. However, the microbiome effect to enteric viruses is unexplored largely as well as role of microbiota in the pathogenesis of viral infections in general. This review focuses on precisely these issues. Keywords: microbiome, virome, normal microflora, enteric viruses, contagiousness. In this review article, facts about viral persistence in the human gut are summarized. It is described the role of viral populations during health and diseases. After analyzing of the literary facts it was concluded that the gastrointestinal tract is an environment for one from the most complex microbial ecosystems, which requires of more deeper study of its composition, role in physiological processes, as well as the dynamics of changes under influence of the environment. Normal microflora performs a different important functions providing the physiological homeostasis of the human body, including, in particular, an important role in the human metabolic processes, supporting of homeostasis, limiting of colonization by infectious bacteria. The multifactorial significance of the normal gastrointestinal microflora can be divided into immunological, structural and metabolic functions. At the same time, interaction between intestinal microflora and enteric viruses has not been studied largely. In recent years, much attention is paid to study of viruses-bacteria associations, and it is possible, obtained results should change our understanding of microbiota role in the systematic pathogenesis of the diseases with viral etiology. In contrast to the well-known benefits of normal microflora to the host, the viruses can use intestinal microflora as a trigger for replication at the optimal region. Recent studies give a reason for assumption that depletion of normal microflora with antibiotics can determining the antiviral effect. Thus, the role of commensal bacteria in viral

  20. The case for PfEMP1-based vaccines to protect pregnant women against Plasmodium falciparum malaria

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hviid, Lars

    2011-01-01

    , as well as knowledge regarding the protective immune response that is acquired in response to placental P. falciparum infection. Nevertheless, it remains controversial in some quarters whether such a vaccine would have the desired impact, or indeed whether the strategy is meaningful. This article......Vaccines are very cost-effective tools in combating infectious disease mortality and morbidity. Unfortunately, vaccines efficiently protecting against infection with malaria parasites are not available and are not likely to appear in the near future. An alternative strategy would be vaccines...... protecting against the disease and its consequences rather than against infection per se, by accelerating the development of the protective immunity that is normally acquired after years of exposure to malaria parasites in areas of stable transmission. This latter strategy is being energetically pursued...

  1. Classifying Normal and Abnormal Status Based on Video Recordings of Epileptic Patients

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jing Li

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Based on video recordings of the movement of the patients with epilepsy, this paper proposed a human action recognition scheme to detect distinct motion patterns and to distinguish the normal status from the abnormal status of epileptic patients. The scheme first extracts local features and holistic features, which are complementary to each other. Afterwards, a support vector machine is applied to classification. Based on the experimental results, this scheme obtains a satisfactory classification result and provides a fundamental analysis towards the human-robot interaction with socially assistive robots in caring the patients with epilepsy (or other patients with brain disorders in order to protect them from injury.

  2. Quench detection/protection of an HTS coil by AE signals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yoneda, M.; Nanato, N.; Aoki, D.; Kato, T.; Murase, S.

    2011-01-01

    A quench detection/protection system based on measuring AE signals was developed. The system was tested for a Bi2223 coil. Temperature rise after a quench occurrence was restrained at very low value. The normal zone propagation velocities in high T c superconductors are slow at high operation temperature and therefore local and excessive temperature rise generates at quench occurrence, and then the superconductors are degraded or burned. Therefore it is essential to detect the temperature rise in high T c superconducting (HTS) coils as soon as possible and protect them. The authors have presented a quench detection method for HTS coils by time-frequency visualization of AE signals and have shown its usefulness for a HTS coil with height and outer diameter of 40-50 mm. In this paper, the authors present a quench detection/protection system based on superior method in quench detection time to the previous method and show its usefulness for a larger HTS coil (height and outer diameter: 160-190 mm) than the previous coil.

  3. nth roots of normal contractions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Duggal, B.P.

    1992-07-01

    Given a complex separable Hilbert space H and a contraction A on H such that A n , n≥2 some integer, is normal it is shown that if the defect operator D A = (1 - A * A) 1/2 is of the Hilbert-Schmidt class, then A is similar to a normal contraction, either A or A 2 is normal, and if A 2 is normal (but A is not) then there is a normal contraction N and a positive definite contraction P of trace class such that parallel to A - N parallel to 1 = 1/2 parallel to P + P parallel to 1 (where parallel to · parallel to 1 denotes the trace norm). If T is a compact contraction such that its characteristics function admits a scalar factor, if T = A n for some integer n≥2 and contraction A with simple eigen-values, and if both T and A satisfy a ''reductive property'', then A is a compact normal contraction. (author). 16 refs

  4. Baby Poop: What's Normal?

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... I'm breast-feeding my newborn and her bowel movements are yellow and mushy. Is this normal for baby poop? Answers from Jay L. Hoecker, M.D. Yellow, mushy bowel movements are perfectly normal for breast-fed babies. Still, ...

  5. Normal people working in normal organizations with normal equipment: system safety and cognition in a mid-air collision.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Carvalho, Paulo Victor Rodrigues; Gomes, José Orlando; Huber, Gilbert Jacob; Vidal, Mario Cesar

    2009-05-01

    A fundamental challenge in improving the safety of complex systems is to understand how accidents emerge in normal working situations, with equipment functioning normally in normally structured organizations. We present a field study of the en route mid-air collision between a commercial carrier and an executive jet, in the clear afternoon Amazon sky in which 154 people lost their lives, that illustrates one response to this challenge. Our focus was on how and why the several safety barriers of a well structured air traffic system melted down enabling the occurrence of this tragedy, without any catastrophic component failure, and in a situation where everything was functioning normally. We identify strong consistencies and feedbacks regarding factors of system day-to-day functioning that made monitoring and awareness difficult, and the cognitive strategies that operators have developed to deal with overall system behavior. These findings emphasize the active problem-solving behavior needed in air traffic control work, and highlight how the day-to-day functioning of the system can jeopardize such behavior. An immediate consequence is that safety managers and engineers should review their traditional safety approach and accident models based on equipment failure probability, linear combinations of failures, rules and procedures, and human errors, to deal with complex patterns of coincidence possibilities, unexpected links, resonance among system functions and activities, and system cognition.

  6. Application of Detailed Phase Comparison Protection Models for the Analysis of its Operation in Networks with Facts Devices

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ruban Nikolay Yu.

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The problem of relay protection misoperations in networks with FACTS devices is considered in the paper. It is offered a solution to this problem for a phase comparison protection of transmission power line through the use of its detailed model for the analysis of the functioning for a case of various normal, emergency and post-emergency modes of electric power systems. The research results of this approach are given in the paper.

  7. ISO 15693-compatible high frequency passive RFID transponder with mixed-signal ESD protection circuit

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khaw, M.K.; Mohd-Yasin, F.; Reaz, M.B.I.

    2009-06-01

    Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags have long been in existence since the 1950's. But not until two decades ago have they found important usage in areas where the need for enhanced and secured data handling is highly concerned. For example, RFID tags are embedded with passports in countries like US and Malaysia since the September 11th incident. RFID tag used in smart card such as passport is constantly exposed to a lot of human touches, thus requiring a very good Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) protection. Normally the protection is done at the pad level, but the protection is usually small dimensioned to reduce input capacitance. Therefore, in advanced process with thinner gate oxide, internal protection is necessary. This work presents the design of an ISO 15693-compatible 13.56 MHz passive RFID tag with internal ESD protection. VDD-to-ground ESD clamp circuits are strategically placed in the chip architecture. Each clamp has a capability to sustain 2-KV Human Body Model (HBM) positive mode ESD voltage, to produce robust tag. The protection circuit adds 15.12nW to the total power consumption, which is very minimal. (author)

  8. Lunar electrostatic effects and protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sun, Yongwei; Yuan, Qingyun; Xiong, Jiuliang

    2013-01-01

    The space environment and features on the moon surface are factors in strong electrostatic electrification. Static electricity will be produced in upon friction between lunar soil and detectors or astronauts on the lunar surface. Lunar electrostatic environment effects from lunar exploration equipment are very harmful. Lunar dust with electrostatic charge may enter the equipment or even cover the instruments. It can affect the normal performance of moon detectors. Owing to the huge environmental differences between the moon and the earth, the electrostatic protection technology on the earth can not be applied. In this paper, we review the electrostatic characteristics of lunar dust, its effects on aerospace equipment and moon static elimination technologies. It was concluded that the effect of charged lunar dust on detectors and astronauts should be completely researched as soon as possible.

  9. Evaluation of the protection factor of half-masks with respirator fitting test apparatus

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Murata, M.; Ikezawa, Y.; Yoshida, Y.; Matsui, H.; Kokubu, M.

    1980-01-01

    A respirator fitting test apparatus has been developed to select half-masks of high performance and to estimate their protective ability. With the apparatus, the facepiece leakage was measured for six different half-masks worn by 40 volunteer subjects, under simulated working conditions of normal breathing, smiling, moving head, and talking. A cloud of submicron sodium chloride particles was fed into a test hood in which the subject wore a mask. The air sampled from inside the mask with a miniature pump was assessed by a flame photometer. It is hown that the protection factor (ratio of the concentration of test cloud outside the mask to that inside) for each mask varies widely with the subject and the working conditions, and that the protection factors roughly fit a lognormal distribution. The values characterizing the distributions of respective masks are given. (H.K.)

  10. Short proofs of strong normalization

    OpenAIRE

    Wojdyga, Aleksander

    2008-01-01

    This paper presents simple, syntactic strong normalization proofs for the simply-typed lambda-calculus and the polymorphic lambda-calculus (system F) with the full set of logical connectives, and all the permutative reductions. The normalization proofs use translations of terms and types to systems, for which strong normalization property is known.

  11. Protection for low current superconducting coils wound with insulated strand cable

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Satti, J.

    1980-09-01

    The insulated strand cable concept for winding of low current superconducting coil leads to an ideal quench protection by induction coupling. A superconducting secondary loop was made within a cable of a 6.2 Henry dipole coil. When quenching occurred, current was induced in the secondary strand above the critical value. The normal strand quenched the whole cable due to good thermal contact. The secondary loop works as a heater turned on as the wire becomes normal throughout the coil. With a well spread quench, the energy dissipation density is decreased thus preventing local burnout. The mechanism is possible because of close coupling that is present in the insulated cable as in bifilar winding. For the coil tested a 12 strand cable was used, thus a favorable 11 to 1 turn ratio was obtained for the primary to secondary. The superconductor in the secondary had a lower resistance until the critical current was achieved. A theoretical explanation is described for a simplified circuit. Test on the dipole coil with four individual shells showed that the one shell protected with the induced coupling heater always had a more rapid reduction of current. The induced coupling heater tested and explained in this paper works automatically and does not rely on mechanical or electrical devices

  12. HIGHER PREVALENCE OF TDP-43 PROTEINOPATHY IN COGNITIVELY NORMAL ASIANS: A CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL STUDY ON A MULTIETHNIC SAMPLE

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nascimento, Camila; Suemoto, Claudia K.; Rodriguez, Roberta D.; Di Lorenzo Alho, Ana Tereza; Leite, Renata P.; Farfel, Jose Marcelo; Pasqualucci, Carlos Alberto; Jacob-Filho, Wilson; Grinberg, Lea T.

    2015-01-01

    Transactive response DNA binding-protein 43 (TDP-43) proteinopathy is the major hallmark of frontotemporal lobar degeneration and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. It is also present in a subset of Alzheimer’s disease cases. Recently, few reports showed TDP-43 changes in cognitively normal elderly. In Caucasians, TDP-43 proteinopathy independently correlate with cognitive decline. However, it is challenging to establish direct links between cognitive and/or neuropsychiatric symptoms and protein inclusions in neurodegenerative diseases because individual cognitive reserves modify the threshold for clinical disease expression. Cognitive reserve is influenced by demographic, environmental and genetic factors. We investigated the relationships between demographic, clinical, and neuropathological variables and TDP-43 proteinopathy in a large multiethnic sample of cognitively normal elderly. TDP-43 proteinopathy were identified in 10.5%, independently associated with older age (p = 0.03) and Asian ethnicity (p = 0.002). Asians showed a higher prevalence of TDP-43 proteinopathy than Caucasians, even after adjustment for sex, age, Braak stage, and schooling (odds ratio = 3.50, confidence interval 1.41–8.69, p = 0.007). These findings suggested Asians older adults may be protected from the clinical manifestation of brain TDP-43 proteinopathy. Future studies are needed to identify possible race-related protective factors against clinical expression of TDP-43 proteinopathies. PMID:26260327

  13. CLIQ. A new quench protection technology for superconducting magnets

    CERN Document Server

    Ravaioli, Emmanuele; ten Kate, H H J

    CLIQ, the Coupling-Loss Induced Quench system, is a new method for protecting superconducting magnets after a sudden transition to the normal state. It offers significant advantages over the conventional technology due to its effective mechanism for heating the superconductor relying on coupling loss and its robust electrical design, which makes it more reliable and less interfering with the coil winding process. The analysis of the electro-magnetic and thermal transients during and after a CLIQ discharge allows identifying the system parameters that affect the system performance and defining guidelines for implementing this technology on coils of various characteristics. Most existing superconducting magnets can be protected by CLIQ as convincingly shown by test results performed on magnets of different sizes, superconductor types, geometries, cables and strand parameters. Experimental results are successfully reproduced by means of a novel technique for modeling non-linear dynamic effects in superconducting...

  14. Radiation protection in the field of environmental protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhao Yamin

    2003-01-01

    The relationship of radiation protection with environmental protection, the sources that may give rise to the environmental radiation contamination, and the system of radiation protection and the fundamental principles and requirements for radiation environmental management are introduced. Some special radiation protection problems faced with in the radiation environmental management are discussed. (author)

  15. Is My Penis Normal? (For Teens)

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Videos for Educators Search English Español Is My Penis Normal? KidsHealth / For Teens / Is My Penis Normal? Print en español ¿Es normal mi pene? ... any guy who's ever worried about whether his penis is a normal size. There's a fairly wide ...

  16. Is normal science good science?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adrianna Kępińska

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available “Normal science” is a concept introduced by Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962. In Kuhn’s view, normal science means “puzzle solving”, solving problems within the paradigm—framework most successful in solving current major scientific problems—rather than producing major novelties. This paper examines Kuhnian and Popperian accounts of normal science and their criticisms to assess if normal science is good. The advantage of normal science according to Kuhn was “psychological”: subjective satisfaction from successful “puzzle solving”. Popper argues for an “intellectual” science, one that consistently refutes conjectures (hypotheses and offers new ideas rather than focus on personal advantages. His account is criticized as too impersonal and idealistic. Feyerabend’s perspective seems more balanced; he argues for a community that would introduce new ideas, defend old ones, and enable scientists to develop in line with their subjective preferences. The paper concludes that normal science has no one clear-cut set of criteria encompassing its meaning and enabling clear assessment.

  17. Digital protection in power plants. Electrical unit and line protection. Digital protection systems for NPP

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kaczmarek, A.

    2000-01-01

    In this presentation author deals with the digital protection systems for nuclear power plants. The evolution of protection devices, protection concept for power plants, concept of functional redundancy, references for digital protection, benefits for the customer well as concept fault recorder are presented. (author)

  18. On the transition to the normal phase for superconductors surrounded by normal conductors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fournais, Søren; Kachmar, Ayman

    2009-01-01

    For a cylindrical superconductor surrounded by a normal material, we discuss transition to the normal phase of stable, locally stable and critical configurations. Associated with those phase transitions, we define critical magnetic fields and we provide a sufficient condition for which those...

  19. Prevalence of human papillomavirus, Chlamydia trachomatis, and Trichomonas vaginalis infections in Amazonian women with normal and abnormal cytology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Costa-Lira, E; Jacinto, A H V L; Silva, L M; Napoleão, P F R; Barbosa-Filho, R A A; Cruz, G J S; Astolfi-Filho, S; Borborema-Santos, C M

    2017-04-28

    Sexually transmitted infections are an important cause of morbidity among sexually active women worldwide, and have been implicated as cofactors in the pathogenesis of cervical cancer. We investigated the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV), Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), and Trichomonas vaginalis (TV), and accessed the diversity of HPV in women with normal and abnormal cytology in Manaus, Brazil. We used polymerase chain reaction and HPV genotyping by direct sequencing. The chi-square test was used to calculate the absolute and relative frequencies of the categorical variables, and Fisher's test was used when P TV and CT DNA were 18.04 and 9.02% in the normal group, respectively. The percentages of HPV/TV and HPV/CT coinfection were 12.5% each in women with normal cytology. These findings improve our understanding of HPV, CT, and TV, and the distribution of HPV types, which may be relevant to vaccination strategies for protecting women from the north of Brazil from cervical cancers and precancerous lesions.

  20. Normality in Analytical Psychology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Myers, Steve

    2013-01-01

    Although C.G. Jung’s interest in normality wavered throughout his career, it was one of the areas he identified in later life as worthy of further research. He began his career using a definition of normality which would have been the target of Foucault’s criticism, had Foucault chosen to review Jung’s work. However, Jung then evolved his thinking to a standpoint that was more aligned to Foucault’s own. Thereafter, the post Jungian concept of normality has remained relatively undeveloped by comparison with psychoanalysis and mainstream psychology. Jung’s disjecta membra on the subject suggest that, in contemporary analytical psychology, too much focus is placed on the process of individuation to the neglect of applications that consider collective processes. Also, there is potential for useful research and development into the nature of conflict between individuals and societies, and how normal people typically develop in relation to the spectrum between individuation and collectivity. PMID:25379262

  1. Normality in Analytical Psychology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Steve Myers

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available Although C.G. Jung’s interest in normality wavered throughout his career, it was one of the areas he identified in later life as worthy of further research. He began his career using a definition of normality which would have been the target of Foucault’s criticism, had Foucault chosen to review Jung’s work. However, Jung then evolved his thinking to a standpoint that was more aligned to Foucault’s own. Thereafter, the post Jungian concept of normality has remained relatively undeveloped by comparison with psychoanalysis and mainstream psychology. Jung’s disjecta membra on the subject suggest that, in contemporary analytical psychology, too much focus is placed on the process of individuation to the neglect of applications that consider collective processes. Also, there is potential for useful research and development into the nature of conflict between individuals and societies, and how normal people typically develop in relation to the spectrum between individuation and collectivity.

  2. The protective effect of curcumin in Olfactory Ensheathing Cells exposed to hypoxia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonfanti, Roberta; Musumeci, Teresa; Russo, Cristina; Pellitteri, Rosalia

    2017-02-05

    Curcumin, a phytochemical component derived from the rhizomes of Curcuma longa, has shown a great variety of pharmacological activities, such as anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, anti-depression and anti-oxidant activity. Therefore, in the last years it has been used as a therapeutic agent since it confers protection in different neurodegenerative diseases, cerebral ischemia and excitotoxicity. Olfactory Ensheathing Cells (OECs) are glial cells of the olfactory system. They are able to secrete several neurotrophic growth factors, promote axonal growth and support the remyelination of damaged axons. OEC transplantation has emerged as a possible experimental therapy to induce repair of spinal cord injury, even if the functional recovery is still limited. Since hypoxia is a secondary effect in spinal cord injury, this in vitro study investigates the protective effect of curcumin in OECs exposed to hypoxia. Primary OECs were obtained from neonatal rat olfactory bulbs and placed both in normal and hypoxic conditions. Furthermore, some cells were grown with basic Fibroblast Growth Factor (bFGF) and/or curcumin at different concentration and times. The results obtained through immunocytochemical procedures and MTT test show that curcumin stimulates cell viability in OECs grown in normal and hypoxic conditions. Furthermore, the synergistic effect of curcumin and bFGF is the most effective exerting protection on OECs. Since spinal cord injury is often accompanied by secondary insults, such as ischemia or hypoxia, our results suggest that curcumin in combination with bFGF might be considered a possible approach for restoration in injuries. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  3. Assessing the effectiveness of specially protected areas for conservation of Antarctica's botanical diversity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hughes, Kevin A; Ireland, Louise C; Convey, Peter; Fleming, Andrew H

    2016-02-01

    Vegetation is sparsely distributed over Antarctica's ice-free ground, and distinct plant communities are present in each of the continent's 15 recently identified Antarctic Conservation Biogeographic Regions (ACBRs). With rapidly increasing human activity in Antarctica, terrestrial plant communities are at risk of damage or destruction by trampling, overland transport, and infrastructure construction and from the impacts of anthropogenically introduced species, as well as uncontrollable pressures such as fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella) activity and climate change. Under the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, the conservation of plant communities can be enacted and facilitated through the designation of Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPAs). We examined the distribution within the 15 ACBRs of the 33 ASPAs whose explicit purpose includes protecting macroscopic terrestrial flora. We completed the first survey using normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) satellite remote sensing to provide baseline data on the extent of vegetation cover in all ASPAs designated for plant protection in Antarctica. Large omissions in the protection of Antarctic botanical diversity were found. There was no protection of plant communities in 6 ACBRs, and in another 6, area was included in an ASPA that protected vegetation. Protected vegetation cover within the 33 ASPAs totaled 16.1 km(2) for the entire Antarctic continent; over half was within a single protected area. Over 96% of the protected vegetation was contained in 2 ACBRs, which together contributed only 7.8% of the continent's ice-free ground. We conclude that Antarctic botanical diversity is clearly inadequately protected and call for systematic designation of ASPAs protecting plant communities by the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties, the members of the governing body of the continent. © 2015 The Authors. Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society

  4. Operational radiation protection and radiation protection training

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kraus, W.

    1989-01-01

    The radiation protection system in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) is reviewed. The competent authority (the SAAS) and its systems of licensing and supervision are described. Discussion covers the role of the Radiation Protection Officer, the types of radiation monitoring, medical surveillance programs and the classification of workers and work areas. Unusual occurrences in the GDR, 1963-1976, are presented and the occupational radiation protection problems at some specific types of workplaces are discussed. The GDR's system of training in radiation protection and nuclear safety is described. 5 figs., 18 tabs

  5. Molecular mechanisms underlying the protective effects of hydrogen-saturated saline on noise-induced hearing loss.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Liwei; Han, Mingkun; Lu, Yan; Chen, Daishi; Sun, Xuejun; Yang, Shiming; Sun, Wei; Yu, Ning; Zhai, Suoqiang

    2017-10-01

    This study aimed to explore the molecular mechanism of the protective effects of hydrogen-saturated saline on NIHL. Guinea pigs were divided into three groups: hydrogen-saturated saline; normal saline; and control. For saline administration, the guinea pigs were given daily abdominal injections 3 d before and 1 h before noise exposure. ABR were tested to examine cochlear physiology changes. The changes of 8-hydroxy-desoxyguanosine (8-HOdG), interleukin-1 (IL-1), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-10 (IL-10), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and high mobility group box-1 protein (HMGB1) in the cochlea were also examined. The results showed that pre-treatment with hydrogen-saturated saline could significantly attenuate noise-induced hearing loss. The concentration of 8-HOdG was also significantly decreased in the hydrogen-saturated saline group compared with the normal saline group. After noise exposure, the concentrations of IL-1, IL-6, TNF-α, and ICAM-1 in the cochlea of guinea pigs in the hydrogen-saturated saline group were dramatically reduced compared to those in the normal saline group. The concentrations of HMGB-1 and IL-10 in the hydrogen-saturated saline group were significantly higher than in those in the normal saline group immediately and at 7 d after noise exposure. This study revealed for the first time the protective effects of hydrogen-saturated saline on noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) are related to both the anti-oxidative activity and anti-inflammatory activity.

  6. Relative survival of hybrid x-ray-resistant, and normally sensitive mammalian cells exposed to x rays and protons under aerobic and hypoxic conditions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Williams, J.R.; Gould, R.G.; Flynn, D.; Robertson, J.B.; Little, J.B.

    1978-01-01

    Survival of an x-ray-resistant hybrid cell line (HD 1 ) and a normally responsive cell line (H 4 ) have been compared when irradiated under induced hypoxia by both protons and X rays. The two cell lines are similarly protected when irradiated under hypoxic conditions with oxygen enhancement ratios of 2.8 and 2.7, respectively. The protection is consistent with a dose-modifying factor. No statistically significant difference is observed between cell inactivation by x rays and protons in either cell line, whether irradiated under aerobic or hypoxic conditions

  7. The N'ormal Distribution

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    An optimal way of choosing sample size in an opinion poll is indicated using the normal distribution. Introduction. In this article, the ubiquitous normal distribution is intro- duced as a convenient approximation for computing bino- mial probabilities for large values of n. Stirling's formula. • and DeMoivre-Laplace theorem ...

  8. Comparison of spectrum normalization techniques for univariate ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy; univariate study; normalization models; stainless steel; standard error of prediction. Abstract. Analytical performance of six different spectrum normalization techniques, namelyinternal normalization, normalization with total light, normalization with background along with their ...

  9. Overcurrent protection issues due to the DG connection

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gomez, J.C.; Tourn, D.H.; Amatti, J.C. [Rio Cuarto National University (IPSEP/UNRC), Cordoba (Argentina). Electric Power Systems Protection Institute], E-mail: jcgomez@ing.unrc.edu.ar

    2009-07-01

    The present energy crisis drives to carry to an extreme the use of all the available energy sources, which need to be connected to the network in their closest point. Traditional electric systems are changing their characteristics, in what concerns to structure, operation, and especially on protection methodologies. The new protection problems of the different parts of the system are explained. The solution presents positive and negative aspects that impact the utility and the customer in different ways. A revision about interconnection international standards is presented. The contributions of generators to short circuit currents is analyzed, especially the double fed generator. Philosophy changes are studied, such as: fault current bi directionality, modification of the protection reach, failures of the overcurrent coordination due to current share, etc. Solicitations to DG due to the normal unbalance of distribution systems are also studied. It is analyzed the discrepancy between the customers and utilities regarding the 'islanding operation', presenting the semi-rigid connection. The changes in the coordination methodology fusible-recloser are also studied, proposing a new methodology to check this coordination. Experimental results on 13.2 kV are presented that relate the deionization without zero current, with arc length and with 'network power to DG power ratio'. It is concluded that DG application offers technical-economic advantages so much to the utility as to the user; and that the technology for these new protection approaches is already available, requiring of investments whose justification needs of a specific analysis for each particular case. (author)

  10. Water vapour transfer in the simulated protective clothing system with exposure to intensive solar radiation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fukazawa, T.; Hartog, E.A. den; Daanen, H.A.M.; Tochihara, Y.; Havenith, G.

    2005-01-01

    A series of experiments has been performed to study the moisture transfer in the protective clothing exposed to a high short wave (solar) radiant heat flux at a normal condition of 20 °C with 40 % RH in terms of heat stress caused by accumulated sweat in underwear. To simulate a practical situation,

  11. Representation of Ecosystem Services by Terrestrial Protected Areas: Chile as a Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Durán, América P.; Casalegno, Stefano; Marquet, Pablo A.; Gaston, Kevin J.

    2013-01-01

    Protected areas are increasingly considered to play a key role in the global maintenance of ecosystem processes and the ecosystem services they provide. It is thus vital to assess the extent to which existing protected area systems represent those services. Here, for the first time, we document the effectiveness of the current Chilean protected area system and its planned extensions in representing both ecosystem services (plant productivity, carbon storage and agricultural production) and biodiversity. Additionally, we evaluate the effectiveness of protected areas based on their respective management objectives. Our results show that existing protected areas in Chile do not contain an unusually high proportion of carbon storage (14.9%), agricultural production (0.2%) or biodiversity (11.8%), and also represent a low level of plant productivity (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index of 0.38). Proposed additional priority sites enhance the representation of ecosystem services and biodiversity, but not sufficiently to attain levels of representation higher than would be expected for their area of coverage. Moreover, when the species groups were assessed separately, amphibians was the only one well represented. Suggested priority sites for biodiversity conservation, without formal protection yet, was the only protected area category that over-represents carbon storage, agricultural production and biodiversity. The low representation of ecosystem services and species’ distribution ranges by the current protected area system is because these protected areas are heavily biased toward southern Chile, and contain large extents of ice and bare rock. The designation and management of proposed priority sites needs to be addressed in order to increase the representation of ecosystem services within the Chilean protected area system. PMID:24376559

  12. Spinal cord normalization in multiple sclerosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oh, Jiwon; Seigo, Michaela; Saidha, Shiv; Sotirchos, Elias; Zackowski, Kathy; Chen, Min; Prince, Jerry; Diener-West, Marie; Calabresi, Peter A; Reich, Daniel S

    2014-01-01

    Spinal cord (SC) pathology is common in multiple sclerosis (MS), and measures of SC-atrophy are increasingly utilized. Normalization reduces biological variation of structural measurements unrelated to disease, but optimal parameters for SC volume (SCV)-normalization remain unclear. Using a variety of normalization factors and clinical measures, we assessed the effect of SCV normalization on detecting group differences and clarifying clinical-radiological correlations in MS. 3T cervical SC-MRI was performed in 133 MS cases and 11 healthy controls (HC). Clinical assessment included expanded disability status scale (EDSS), MS functional composite (MSFC), quantitative hip-flexion strength ("strength"), and vibration sensation threshold ("vibration"). SCV between C3 and C4 was measured and normalized individually by subject height, SC-length, and intracranial volume (ICV). There were group differences in raw-SCV and after normalization by height and length (MS vs. HC; progressive vs. relapsing MS-subtypes, P normalization by length (EDSS:r = -.43; MSFC:r = .33; strength:r = .38; vibration:r = -.40), and height (EDSS:r = -.26; MSFC:r = .28; strength:r = .22; vibration:r = -.29), but diminished with normalization by ICV (EDSS:r = -.23; MSFC:r = -.10; strength:r = .23; vibration:r = -.35). In relapsing MS, normalization by length allowed statistical detection of correlations that were not apparent with raw-SCV. SCV-normalization by length improves the ability to detect group differences, strengthens clinical-radiological correlations, and is particularly relevant in settings of subtle disease-related SC-atrophy in MS. SCV-normalization by length may enhance the clinical utility of measures of SC-atrophy. Copyright © 2014 by the American Society of Neuroimaging.

  13. Protective effects of C-phycocyanin on alcohol-induced acute liver injury in mice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xia, Dong; Liu, Bing; Luan, Xiying; Sun, Junyan; Liu, Nana; Qin, Song; Du, Zhenning

    2016-03-01

    Excessive alcohol consumption leads to liver disease. Extensive evidence suggests that C-phycocyanin (C-PC), a chromophore phycocyanobilin derived from Spirulina platensis, exerts protective effects against chemical-induced organ damage. In this study, we investigated whether C-PC could protect against ethanol-induced acute liver injury. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (CHOL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), liver homogenate malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD) content were measured, and pathological examination of liver sections were examined. C-PC showed obvious inhibitory effects on serum ALT, AST, TG, CHOL, LDL and MDA, and SOD content significantly increased in the liver. The structure of hepatic lobules was clear, liver sinus returned to normal, and liver cell cords were arranged in neat rows. Cloudiness, swelling, inflammatory cell infiltration and spotty necrosis of liver cells were significantly reduced. Therefore, C-PC can significantly protect against ethanol-induced acute liver injury.

  14. Unexpected effects of absorbed normal rabbit serum and bovine serum albumin on survival of Haemophilus influenzae type b in the infant rat.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loeb, M R

    1988-01-01

    In the course of using the infant rat model to determine the ability of various rabbit antisera to protect against challenge by Haemophilus influenzae type b we made two unexpected observations. In these experiments 4-day-old rats were inoculated s.c. on the dorsum with either rabbit serum or physiological buffers (sham serum) and then were challenged the next day with H. influenzae type b injected i.p. Bacteremia, as a marker for disease, was measured 24 h later on day 6. We observed the following. (i) Pre-immune, i.e., normal rabbit serum, containing minimal levels of antibodies to outer membrane proteins and depleted of antibodies to capsule and lipopolysaccharide, nevertheless significantly (P less than 0.01) protected the rats from challenge with H. influenzae type b when compared to a sham inoculation of buffer; (ii) In the absence of a serum inoculation on day 4 (a buffer was used as a sham serum inoculation), the levels of bacteremia obtained after inoculation with bacteria on day 5 depended upon the composition of the buffer in which the H. influenzae inoculum was suspended. Use of phosphate buffered saline (PBS) resulted in higher levels of bacteremia than PBS containing 0.5% bovine serum albumin (PBS-BSA) (P less than 0.001), i.e. the BSA apparently acted to protect the rats from H. influenzae infection. In fact the use of PBS-BSA as an inoculum buffer masked the protective effect noted above of the absorbed normal rabbit serum.

  15. Formation mechanism of the graphite-rich protective layer in blast furnace hearths

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiao, Ke-xin; Zhang, Jian-liang; Liu, Zheng-jian; Liu, Feng; Liang, Li-sheng

    2016-01-01

    A long campaign life of blast furnaces is heavily linked to the existence of a protective layer in their hearths. In this work, we conducted dissection studies and investigated damage in blast furnace hearths to estimate the formation mechanism of the protective layer. The results illustrate that a significant amount of graphite phase was trapped within the hearth protective layer. Furthermore, on the basis of the thermodynamic and kinetic calculations of the graphite precipitation process, a precipitation potential index related to the formation of the graphite-rich protective layer was proposed to characterize the formation ability of this layer. We determined that, under normal operating conditions, the precipitation of graphite phase from hot metal was thermodynamically possible. Among elements that exist in hot metal, C, Si, and P favor graphite precipitation, whereas Mn and Cr inhibit this process. Moreover, at the same hot-face temperature, an increase of carbon concentration in hot metal can shorten the precipitation time. Finally, the results suggest that measures such as reducing the hot-face temperature and increasing the degree of carbon saturation in hot metal are critically important to improve the precipitation potential index.

  16. Evaluation of protection factor of respiratory protective equipment using indigenously developed protection factor test facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Patkulkar, D.S.; Ganesh, G.; Tripathi, R.M.

    2018-01-01

    Assigned protection factor (APF) is an indicator representing effectiveness of a respirator and it provides workplace level of respiratory protection for workers in providing protection against exposure to airborne contaminants Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) specifies 'Respirator APF' and 'Maximum Use Concentration' (MUC - a term derived using APF) shall be an integral part of Respirator Protection Standard. MUC establishes the maximum airborne concentration of a contaminant in which a respirator with a given APF may be used. The use of particulate respirators such as half face mask, full face mask and powered air purifying respirators is essential for radioactive jobs in nuclear facilities to prevent any intake of radionuclide. With this impetus, the Protection Factor Test Facility (PFTF) for testing and evaluation of respiratory protective equipment meeting relevant applicable standards was designed, fabricated and installed in Respiratory Protective Equipment Laboratory of Health Physics Division

  17. Diplomatic Protection

    OpenAIRE

    Režná, Jana

    2006-01-01

    Final thesis Topic: Diplomatic protection Thesis supervisor: JUDr. Vladimír Balaš, CSc. Student: Marek Čermák Thesis on the topic of diplomatic protection deals with the granting of exercise of diplomatic protection by the states and is divided into seven chapters which follow each other. The first chapter describes the diplomatic protection and its historical foundations. The second chapter focuses on the possibility of exercise of diplomatic protection in respect of natural persons and the ...

  18. Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress-Related Factors Protect against Diabetic Retinopathy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wei-Kun Hu

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The endoplasmic reticulum (ER is a principal mediator of signal transduction in the cell, and disruption of its normal function (a mechanism known as ER stress has been associated with the pathogenesis of several diseases. ER stress has been demonstrated to contribute to onset and progression of diabetic retinopathy (DR by induction of multiple inflammatory signaling pathways. Recent studies have begun to describe the gene expression profile of ER stress-related genes in DR; moreover, genes that play a protective role against DR have been identified. P58IPK was determined to be able to reduce retinal vascular leakage under high glucose conditions, thus protecting retinal cells. It has also been found by our lab that ER-associated protein degradation factors exhibit significantly different expression patterns in rat retinas under sustained high glucose conditions. Future research based upon these collective genomic findings will contribute to our overall understanding of DR pathogenesis as well as identify potential therapeutic targets.

  19. Imaging the corpus callosum, septum pellucidum and fornix in children: normal anatomy and variations of normality

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Griffiths, Paul D.; Batty, Ruth; Connolly, Dan J.A.; Reeves, Michael J.

    2009-01-01

    The midline structures of the supra-tentorial brain are important landmarks for judging if the brain has formed correctly. In this article, we consider the normal appearances of the corpus callosum, septum pellucidum and fornix as shown on MR imaging in normal and near-normal states. (orig.)

  20. [Risk and protection factors related to the consumption of psychoactive substances in undergraduate nursing students].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morales, Blanca Nivia; Plazas, Merideidy; Sanchez, Rafael; Ventura, Carla Aparecida Arena

    2011-06-01

    This study aims to identify the frequency of risk and protection factors related to drug consumption among undergraduate nursing students. It is a cross-sectional study in which authors applied the instrument Risk and Protection Factors for the Consumption of Psychoactive Substances, validated for use with undergraduate nursing students. Data were analyzed through STATA 10. Three hundred and ninety students participated in the study. The domain "prejudice and appraisal", "social permissiveness and access to psychoactive substances", "social skills and self-control" are risk factors for drugs use in 100% of participants. "Spirituality" and "satisfaction with interpersonal relations" were predominant protective domains. Based on data, authors can conclude that the students did not consider the risks in alcohol and tobacco consumption, as they think it is normal and socially acceptable.

  1. Predicting sun protection behaviors using protection motivation variables.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ch'ng, Joanne W M; Glendon, A Ian

    2014-04-01

    Protection motivation theory components were used to predict sun protection behaviors (SPBs) using four outcome measures: typical reported behaviors, previous reported behaviors, current sunscreen use as determined by interview, and current observed behaviors (clothing worn) to control for common method bias. Sampled from two SE Queensland public beaches during summer, 199 participants aged 18-29 years completed a questionnaire measuring perceived severity, perceived vulnerability, response efficacy, response costs, and protection motivation (PM). Personal perceived risk (similar to threat appraisal) and response likelihood (similar to coping appraisal) were derived from their respective PM components. Protection motivation predicted all four SPB criterion variables. Personal perceived risk and response likelihood predicted protection motivation. Protection motivation completely mediated the effect of response likelihood on all four criterion variables. Alternative models are considered. Strengths and limitations of the study are outlined and suggestions made for future research.

  2. Physical protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Myers, D.A.

    1989-01-01

    Physical protection is defined and its function in relation to other functions of a State System of Accounting for and Control of Nuclear Materials is described. The need for a uniform minimum international standard for physical protection as well as the need for international cooperation in physical protection is emphasized. The IAEA's INFCIRC/225/Rev. 1 (Annex 1) is reviewed. The Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (Annex 2) is discussed. Photographs show examples of typical physical protection technology (Annex 3)

  3. PROTECTION OF WORKS TITLES FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF COPYRIGHT PROTECTION AND TRADEMARK PROTECTION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    George-Mihai IRIMESCU

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available The main purpose of the paper is assessing the possibilities of protecting the titles of works. One possibility is the protection by means of registered or unregistered trademarks. This route presents difficulties because of the distinctiveness perspective. In this sense, the European case-law has recently developed a constant practice and outlined a series of criteria that should be taken into consideration when examining a trademark consisting of a title. Another possibility is protecting the title under the provisions of the copyright law. From this respect, the practice has not yet determined a constant practice. However, the dominant opinion is that the originality criterion should be taken into consideration when assessing the protection of a tile. Finally, brief conclusion are made, including short remarks on the cumulative protection of titles, both as trademarks and under the copyright law.

  4. Radiological protection aspects of geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matsuzuru, Hideo; Kimura, Hideo

    1992-01-01

    A high-level radioactive waste, generated at a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, will be disposed of deep, i.e., several hundred meters, within geological formations, to isolate it from the human environment. Since the waste contains significant amounts of long-lived radionuclides, such as Tc-99, I-129, Cs-135 and transuranic elements, the safety of its disposal, particularly as regards the requirement for the radiological protection of human and his environment even in the far future, is one of the essential subjects of all countries engaged in nuclear power production. The radiological protection system has long been established and applied to regulate radiation exposures to the public associated with a relatively short-term release of radioactive materials, during normal and accidental conditions, from nuclear installations such as a power plant and reprocessing plant. Radioactive waste disposal, which potentially offers a long-term radiological consequence on the public, inevitably produces a specific requirement, from the standpoint of radiological protection, that individuals and populations in the future should be accorded at least a current level of the protection. This requirement has caused a serious debate, among the community of radiological protection, on how to establish radiological protection standards and criteria, and how to establish safety assessment methodologies to demonstrate compliance with them. We have discussed in this paper on specific items such as numerical guides to indicate radiological consequences, time frames over which calculations of the consequences are to be carried out, uncertainties to be involved in the calculations, and safety assessment methodologies. (author)

  5. Protective effect of melatonin on thrombocytopoiesis in irratiated mice

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu Aiguo; Hu Qun; Yang Mo; Li Zhiguang; Huang Weizhe; Pang Yaxuan; Li Guixia; Wu Baixiang; Huo Taihui

    2005-01-01

    Objective: To study the protective effect of melatonin on thrombocytopoiesis (T) and its mechanism in total-bodily irradiated mice. Methods: Altogether 18 female BALB/c mice were randomly divided into three experimental groups (6 each): Group 1(normal control, N) received neither irradiation nor melatonin; Group 2 (model control, C); received total body-irradiation for 4 Gy gamma-rays and Group 3 (melatonin, M), received melatonin after irradiation at the dosage of 10 mg·kg -1 ·d -1 via i. p. injection in consecutive 21 days. In Group C normal saline instead of melatonin was administered in the same way as above. Peripheral blood platelets and white blood cells (WBC) were analyzed for the three groups on day 0, day 7, day 14, and day 21. All the mice were sacrificed to collect bone marrow cells for the assays of colony-forming unit-megakaryocyte (CFU-MK) and of colony-forming unit-fibroblast (CFU-F). The effects of melatonin of different concentrations (0-500 nmol/L) on CFU-MK formation were observed in vitro. Results: The results showed that melatonin enhanced the recovery of T. Moreover, melatonin also promoted the increase of CFU-F (28 ± 10.4 vs 14.6 ± 2.8) and CFU-MK (19.63 ± 3.28 vs 11 ± 2.24) in vivo. The amount of CFU-MK in vitro was dependent on the concentration of melatonin. Compared with the control group, the size of CFU-MK in Group M was much larger and MK cells were more mature, especially when the melatonin concentration was 200 nmol/L. Conclusion: Melatonin provides protective effect on T in irradiated mice. It enhances T in vivo and promotes the growth of bone marrow stromal cells as well as megakaryocytes in vitro. Therefore, we speculate that the T-protective activity of melatonin may be mediated via promoting growth of the progenitors of platelet, megakaryocytes, and bone marrow stromal cells. (authors)

  6. Designing physical protection technology for insider protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Trujillo, A.A.; Waddoups, I.G.

    1986-01-01

    Since its inception, the nuclear industry has been engaged in providing protection against an insider threat. Although insider protection activities have been fairly successful in the past, present societal conditions require increased protection to further minimize the existence of an insider or the consequences of an insider-perpetrated incident. Integration of insider protection techniques into existing administrative and operational procedures has resulted in economic and operational impacts. Future increases in insider protection may result in even greater impacts, so we must proceed wisely as new approaches are developed. Increased emphasis on background investigations, security clearances, human reliability programs, security awareness activities, and the development of technology to address the insider threat are evidence of continuing concern in this area. Experience ranging from operational test and evaluation of developmental equipment to conceptual designs for new facilities has led to the development of general principles and conclusions for mitigating the insider threat while minimizing adverse impacts on site operations. Important principles include real-time monitoring of personnel and material and requiring that the physical protection and material control and accounting systems to be much more coordinated and integrated than in the past

  7. Topical radiation protection questions of use of agricultural land in the environs of nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carach, J.; Csupka, S.; Petrasova, M.

    1982-01-01

    A survey is presented of the problems of the use of agricultural land in the environs of nuclear power plants. The analysis of emission activity in nuclear power plants presently under construction shows that for normal operation no precautions are necessary. For accidents, specific health protection measures are planned. (author)

  8. ADAM28 is expressed by epithelial cells in human normal tissues and protects from C1q-induced cell death.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miyamae, Yuka; Mochizuki, Satsuki; Shimoda, Masayuki; Ohara, Kentaro; Abe, Hitoshi; Yamashita, Shuji; Kazuno, Saiko; Ohtsuka, Takashi; Ochiai, Hiroki; Kitagawa, Yuko; Okada, Yasunori

    2016-05-01

    ADAM28 (disintegrin and metalloproteinase 28), which was originally reported to be lymphocyte-specific, is over-expressed by carcinoma cells and plays a key role in cell proliferation and progression in human lung and breast carcinomas. We studied ADAM28 expression in human normal tissues and examined its biological function. By using antibodies specific to ADAM28, ADAM28 was immunolocalized mainly to epithelial cells in several tissues, including epididymis, bronchus and stomach, whereas lymphocytes in lymph nodes and spleen were negligibly immunostained. RT-PCR, immunoblotting and ELISA analyses confirmed the expression in these tissues, and low or negligible expression by lymphocytes was found in the lymph node and spleen. C1q was identified as a candidate ADAM28-binding protein from a human lung cDNA library by yeast two-hybrid system, and specific binding was demonstrated by binding assays, immunoprecipitation and surface plasmon resonance. C1q treatment of normal bronchial epithelial BEAS-2B and NHBE cells, both of which showed low-level expression of ADAM28, caused apoptosis through activation of p38 and caspase-3, and cell death with autophagy through accumulation of LC3-II and autophagosomes, respectively. C1q-induced cell death was attenuated by treatment of the cells with antibodies against the C1q receptor gC1qR/p33 or cC1qR/calreticulin. Treatment of C1q with recombinant ADAM28 prior to addition to culture media reduced C1q-induced cell death, and knockdown of ADAM28 using siRNAs increased cell death. These data demonstrate that ADAM28 is expressed by epithelial cells of several normal organs, and suggest that ADAM28 plays a role in cell survival by suppression of C1q-induced cytotoxicity in bronchial epithelial cells. © 2016 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.

  9. Prácticas para estimular el parto normal Practices to stimulate normal childbirth

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Flora Maria Barbosa da Silva

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Este artículo lleva a una reflexión sobre las prácticas del estímulo al parto normal, con la fundamentación teórica de cada una de ellas. Las prácticas incluidas en este estudio fueron el ayuno, enemas, spray y baños de inmersión, caminatas, movimientos pélvicos y masaje. En un contexto de revalorización del parto normal, ofrecer a la mujer durante el parto opciones de comodidad basadas en evidencias puede ser una forma de preservar el curso fisiológico del parto.This article leads to a reflection about the practices of encouraging normal childbirth, with the theoretical foundation for each one of them. The practices included in this study were fasting, enema, shower and immersion baths, walking, pelvic movements and massage. In a context of revaluation of normal birth, providing evidence-based comfort options for women during childbirth can be a way to preserve the physiological course of labour.

  10. High-temperature gas-cooled reactor steam-cycle/cogeneration lead plant. Plant Protection and Instrumentation System design description

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1983-01-01

    The Plant Protection and Instrumentation System provides plant safety system sense and command features, actuation of plant safety system execute features, preventive features which maintain safety system integrity, and safety-related instrumentation which monitors the plant and its safety systems. The primary function of the Plant Protection and Instrumentation system is to sense plant process variables to detect abnormal plant conditions and to provide input to actuation devices directly controlling equipment required to mitigate the consequences of design basis events to protect the public health and safety. The secondary functions of the Plant Protection and Instrumentation System are to provide plant preventive features, sybsystems that monitor plant safety systems status, subsystems that monitor the plant under normal operating and accident conditions, safety-related controls which allow control of reactor shutdown and cooling from a remote shutdown area

  11. Corrosion protection of the reinforcing steels in chloride-laden concrete environment through epoxy/polyaniline–camphorsulfonate nanocomposite coating

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pour-Ali, Sadegh; Dehghanian, Changiz; Kosari, Ali

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • Epoxy/polyaniline–camphorsulfonate nanocomposite coating well protects steel rebar. • Coating performance is evaluated by impedance measurements up to 1 year. • Ultimate bond strength between the coated rebars and concrete is measured. • Self-compacting concrete shows better anticorrosive property compared to normal one. - Abstract: In this study, an epoxy/polyaniline–camphorsulfonate nanocomposite (epoxy/PANI–CSA) is employed to protect reinforcing steels in chloride-laden concrete environment. The synthesized nanocomposite was characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Bare, epoxy-coated and epoxy/PANI–CSA nanocomposite-coated steel rebars were embedded in normal and self-compacting concretes. To evaluate their corrosion behaviors, open circuit potential and impedance measurements were performed for the duration of 1 year. Ultimate bond strength of concrete with the reinforcement bars were measured in corroded and uncorroded conditions. It was found that epoxy/PANI–CSA coating provides good corrosion resistance and durable bond strength with concrete for steel rebars

  12. Understanding a Normal Distribution of Data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maltenfort, Mitchell G

    2015-12-01

    Assuming data follow a normal distribution is essential for many common statistical tests. However, what are normal data and when can we assume that a data set follows this distribution? What can be done to analyze non-normal data?

  13. Increased microerythrocyte count in homozygous alpha(+-thalassaemia contributes to protection against severe malarial anaemia.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Freya J I Fowkes

    2008-03-01

    Full Text Available The heritable haemoglobinopathy alpha(+-thalassaemia is caused by the reduced synthesis of alpha-globin chains that form part of normal adult haemoglobin (Hb. Individuals homozygous for alpha(+-thalassaemia have microcytosis and an increased erythrocyte count. Alpha(+-thalassaemia homozygosity confers considerable protection against severe malaria, including severe malarial anaemia (SMA (Hb concentration 1.1 x 10(12/l as a result of the reduced mean cell Hb in homozygous alpha(+-thalassaemia. In addition, children homozygous for alpha(+-thalassaemia require a 10% greater reduction in erythrocyte count than children of normal genotype (p = 0.02 for Hb concentration to fall to 50 g/l, the cutoff for SMA. We estimated that the haematological profile in children homozygous for alpha(+-thalassaemia reduces the risk of SMA during acute malaria compared to children of normal genotype (relative risk 0.52; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.24-1.12, p = 0.09.The increased erythrocyte count and microcytosis in children homozygous for alpha(+-thalassaemia may contribute substantially to their protection against SMA. A lower concentration of Hb per erythrocyte and a larger population of erythrocytes may be a biologically advantageous strategy against the significant reduction in erythrocyte count that occurs during acute infection with the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. This haematological profile may reduce the risk of anaemia by other Plasmodium species, as well as other causes of anaemia. Other host polymorphisms that induce an increased erythrocyte count and microcytosis may confer a similar advantage.

  14. Speech understanding in noise with integrated in-ear and muff-style hearing protection systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sharon M Abel

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Integrated hearing protection systems are designed to enhance free field and radio communications during military operations while protecting against the damaging effects of high-level noise exposure. A study was conducted to compare the effect of increasing the radio volume on the intelligibility of speech over the radios of two candidate systems, in-ear and muff-style, in 85-dBA speech babble noise presented free field. Twenty normal-hearing, English-fluent subjects, half male and half female, were tested in same gender pairs. Alternating as talker and listener, their task was to discriminate consonant-vowel-consonant syllables that contrasted either the initial or final consonant. Percent correct consonant discrimination increased with increases in the radio volume. At the highest volume, subjects achieved 79% with the in-ear device but only 69% with the muff-style device, averaged across the gender of listener/talker pairs and consonant position. Although there was no main effect of gender, female listener/talkers showed a 10% advantage for the final consonant and male listener/talkers showed a 1% advantage for the initial consonant. These results indicate that normal hearing users can achieve reasonably high radio communication scores with integrated in-ear hearing protection in moderately high-level noise that provides both energetic and informational masking. The adequacy of the range of available radio volumes for users with hearing loss has yet to be determined.

  15. The radiation protection environmental assesment for 60Co irradiation room

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zheng Meiyang; Jin Guohua; Shen Genfang

    2010-01-01

    60 Co source is applied in the process such as sterilizing agricultural products in irradiation room of some Academy of Agricultural Sciences, which is very effective in agricultural applications. However, 60 Co is highly toxic, once the leak, the consequences would be disastrous. So it is necessary to summarize the radiation protection and safety evaluation of the irradiation room indoor and outdoor, to ensure the health and lives of the staff and the surrounding population. The radiation detectors monitor six points around the irradiation room. Results show that design of irradiation room of Academy of Agricultural Sciences are mostly safe and reliable, regardless of the source in working condition. And consequences also show 60 Co source in the normal operating will not put adverse effects on the surrounding environment. In addition, the outer radiation protective measures are also outlined, in view of 60 Co own identity. (authors)

  16. Integral isolation valve systems for loss of coolant accident protection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kanuch, David J.; DiFilipo, Paul P.

    2018-03-20

    A nuclear reactor includes a nuclear reactor core comprising fissile material disposed in a reactor pressure vessel having vessel penetrations that exclusively carry flow into the nuclear reactor and at least one vessel penetration that carries flow out of the nuclear reactor. An integral isolation valve (IIV) system includes passive IIVs each comprising a check valve built into a forged flange and not including an actuator, and one or more active IIVs each comprising an active valve built into a forged flange and including an actuator. Each vessel penetration exclusively carrying flow into the nuclear reactor is protected by a passive IIV whose forged flange is directly connected to the vessel penetration. Each vessel penetration carrying flow out of the nuclear reactor is protected by an active IIV whose forged flange is directly connected to the vessel penetration. Each active valve may be a normally closed valve.

  17. Whistleblower Protection

    Science.gov (United States)

    The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2012 (WPA) and the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 Enhanced by the Act of 2012 provides protection rights for Federal employees against retaliation for whistleblowing activities.

  18. Environmental protection: Shifting the focus toward the protected object

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cvetić Radenka

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This article is an attempt to provide a comprehensive overview of the rationale which led to developments in the law of environmental protection in a direction of an even more efficient protection of environment from human beings. There has been a transformation of the constitutionally protected right to a healthy environment to the Constitutional guarantee which involves both duty and responsibility for its protection. There has also been a shift from declaratory protection toward enforceable prohibitions and orders. These transformations have occurred when the society faced, under dramatic circumstances, the situation which shows that failure to protect the common good could lead to catastrophic consequences. The system of environmental protection, which enables sustainable development, is based on the primacy of the precautionary principle which deals with prevention and reduction of probability of harm, as well as on the no fault liability of the polluter for the environmental harm even in the absence of the claim for damages. The efficacy of the environmental protection could be improved by raising the awareness of the preservation of environment. The understanding that the protection of environment amounts to a survival of a mankind could lead to creating rights for the environment as such.

  19. The Normal Fetal Pancreas.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kivilevitch, Zvi; Achiron, Reuven; Perlman, Sharon; Gilboa, Yinon

    2017-10-01

    The aim of the study was to assess the sonographic feasibility of measuring the fetal pancreas and its normal development throughout pregnancy. We conducted a cross-sectional prospective study between 19 and 36 weeks' gestation. The study included singleton pregnancies with normal pregnancy follow-up. The pancreas circumference was measured. The first 90 cases were tested to assess feasibility. Two hundred ninety-seven fetuses of nondiabetic mothers were recruited during a 3-year period. The overall satisfactory visualization rate was 61.6%. The intraobserver and interobserver variability had high interclass correlation coefficients of of 0.964 and 0.967, respectively. A cubic polynomial regression described best the correlation of pancreas circumference with gestational age (r = 0.744; P pancreas circumference percentiles for each week of gestation were calculated. During the study period, we detected 2 cases with overgrowth syndrome and 1 case with an annular pancreas. In this study, we assessed the feasibility of sonography for measuring the fetal pancreas and established a normal reference range for the fetal pancreas circumference throughout pregnancy. This database can be helpful when investigating fetomaternal disorders that can involve its normal development. © 2017 by the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.

  20. Evaluation of protection provided by air purifying half and full-face masks as worn

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Murata, Mikio; Ikezawa, Yoshio; Yoshida, Yoshikazu

    1979-01-01

    For selecting good-performing masks and estimating the protection provided by the masks, the leakage has been measured for six types of half mask and three types of full-face mask as worn. The cloud of submicron sodium chloride particles was generated within a test hood in which the subject wore his mask. The air sampled from inside the mask with a miniature pump was assessed by a flame photometer. The leakage was measured under four simulated working conditions such as normal breathing, smiling, moving head, and talking. The measured protection factors (defined as the ratio of the concentration of the test cloud outside the mask to that inside the mask) widely distributed from 10 to 3,300 for the half masks and from 100 to 3,300 for the full-face masks, depending on the persons and the working conditions. The values characterising the distribution of the protection factor for each mask are summarized. Based on these values, the performance of each mask and the effects of working conditions on the protection are discussed. (author)

  1. On the implementation of IP protection using biometrics based information hiding and firewall

    Science.gov (United States)

    Basu, Abhishek; Nandy, Kingshuk; Banerjee, Avishek; Giri, Supratick; Sarkar, Souvik; Sarkar, Subir Kumar

    2016-02-01

    System-on-chip-based design style creates a revolution in very large scale integration industry with design efficiency, operating speed and development time. To support this process, reuse and exchange of components are essential in electronic form called intellectual property (IP). This, however, increases the possibility of encroachment of IP of the design. So copyright protection of IP against piracy is the most important concern for IP vendors. The existing solutions for IP protection are still not secure enough with flexibility, cost, etc. This paper proposes an information-hiding-based solution for IP protection by embedding a biometric copyright information and firewall inside an IP in the form of a finite state machine with unique configuration. The scheme first introduces biometric signature-based copyright as ownership proof. Second, firewall interrupts the normal functionality of IP at the end of the user time period. The experimental outcomes of field-programmable-gate-array implementation illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method.

  2. Very Fast Losses of the Circulating LHC Beam, their Mitigation and Machine Protection

    CERN Document Server

    Baer, Tobias; Elsen, Eckhard

    The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has a nominal energy of 362MJ stored in each of its two counter-rotating beams - over two orders of magnitude more than any previous accelerator and enough to melt 880kg of copper. Therefore, in case of abnormal conditions comprehensive machine protection systems extract the beams safely from the LHC within not more than three turns $\\approx$270$\\mu$s. The first years of LHC operation demonstrated a remarkable reliability of the major machine protection systems. However, they also showed that the LHC is vulnerable to losses of the circulating beams on very fast timescales, which are too fast to ensure an active protection. Very fast equipment failures, in particular of normal-conducting dipole magnets and the transverse damper can lead to such beam losses. Whereas these failures were already studied in the past, other unexpected beam loss mechanisms were observed after the LHC start-up: so-called (un)identified falling objects (UFOs), which are believed to be micrometer-sized m...

  3. Environmental dose-assessment methods for normal operations at DOE nuclear sites

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Strenge, D.L.; Kennedy, W.E. Jr.; Corley, J.P.

    1982-09-01

    Methods for assessing public exposure to radiation from normal operations at DOE facilities are reviewed in this report. The report includes a discussion of environmental doses to be calculated, a review of currently available environmental pathway models and a set of recommended models for use when environmental pathway modeling is necessary. Currently available models reviewed include those used by DOE contractors, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and other organizations involved in environmental assessments. General modeling areas considered for routine releases are atmospheric transport, airborne pathways, waterborne pathways, direct exposure to penetrating radiation, and internal dosimetry. The pathway models discussed in this report are applicable to long-term (annual) uniform releases to the environment: they do not apply to acute releases resulting from accidents or emergency situations

  4. Long-wave UVA offers partial protection against UVB-induced

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Skov, L.; Villadsen, L.; Ersbøll, Bjarne Kjær

    2000-01-01

    Ultraviolet-B (UVB, 280–320 nm) interferes with the generation of cell-mediated immunity to contact allergens applied epicutaneously on the irradiated site. To investigate whether pretreatment with UVA-1 (340–400 nm) protects against the UVB-induced immune suppression we sensitized human volunteers...... with diphenylcyclopropenone (DPCP) on normal buttock skin (n=12), on UVB-irradiated buttock skin (n=21), on buttock skin pretreated with UVA-1 (n=12), and on buttock skin pretreated with UVA-1 and thereafter irradiated with UVB (n=22). Sensitization on UVB-irradiated skin reduced the immunization rate to DPCP compared...

  5. Dynamic scour protection for off-shore wind turbine foundations. Edge scour tests and results

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kularatne, K.A.S.R.; Sumer, B.M.; Fredsoee, J.

    2002-07-01

    Sufficient protection cover for the foundation of offshore wind turbines is an essential part in maintaining the stability of the structure. In addition to the danger caused by the flow conditions existing in the sea, a sudden change in the bed topography would definitely cause a greater risk on the stability of a structure. A movement of a sand bank close to the structure could be one of the common examples of that kind. Therefore, the main objective of the present study is to investigate the scour process at the tip of a scour protection for an offshore wind turbine foundation under a steady uniform flow parallel to the structure, while a sand bank is moving close by. The physical model of a scour protection for an offshore wind turbine foundation, which forms basis for this report, was constructed in the 23m long, 2m wide and 0.5m deep steady flow fume of ISVA, Technical University of Denmark. The processes of scouring and settlement of stones mainly close to the tip of the protection layer were monitored under number of different flow and bottom conditions such as flow velocity (Shields parameter), slope of the sand bank, number of scour protection layers and different lateral slopes of the sand bank. All the tests were conducted under live-bed conditions. After 10 different tests, the following conclusions were reached: 1. Formation of horseshoe vortex in front of the scour protection layer and the contraction of streamlines due to the obstruction caused by the scour protection were identified as the major mechanisms of scour causing instability of stones, 2. When a lateral slope was present, on top of the two major mechanisms the scouring originated from the toe of the lateral slope too apparently propagated towards the joint between the sand bed and the scour protection, 3. The maximum scour depth normalized by the stone size (S/D) found increase with the Shields parameter but for higher values of Shields parameter it becomes pronounced, 4. The slope of the

  6. Using Pyramids Effects as a method of nuclear and radiation protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abdullayev, I.E.

    2011-01-01

    Results most of experiments fixed that When radioactive waste is placed inside the pyramids, there is a decrease in their level of radioactivity Based on result of these experiments we suggest - Using Pyramids Effects as a method of nuclear and radiation protection. Explanation of this method based on 3 factors. (2 of them - internal factors, 1 of them - external factor) Factor I. Based o the Theory of the Pyramids Effects we know, that Pyramid construction separate the normal geomagnetic field of the Earth to 2 parts, which have difference vise verse physical characteristics. Cause of the energetic barrier of side of Pyramid, internal space of the Pyramid isolate from the influence of the external normal geomagnetic field of Earth. Therefore, internal space of the Pyramid is fulfilling only by the attractive power of the Earth (pic.1)

  7. I/O Standard Based Thermal/Energy Efficient Green Communication For Wi-Fi Protected Access on FPGA

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kumar, Tanesh; Pandey, Bishwajeet; Das, Teerath

    2014-01-01

    In this paper, we analyzed how does life and reliability of an integrated circuit is affected when it is operated in different regions under different temperatures. We have taken Fibonacci generator as our target circuit and LVCMOS as I/O standards. WPA and WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access) key can...... be generated with Fibonacci generator. Here, thermal efficient green Fibonacci Generator is used to generate key for Wi-Fi Protected Access in order to make green communication possible under different room temperature. By analysis it is observed that at standard normal temperature (21degrees C), LVCMOS12 have...

  8. Ability of PABA to protect mammalian skin from ultraviolet light-induced skin tumors and actinic damage

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Snyder, D.S.; May, M.

    1975-01-01

    Application of 5% para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) to hairless mice one hour prior to ultraviolet light (UVL) irradiation will almost totally protect these animals from developing tumors induced by chronic exposure to UVL in the 290 to 320 nm range in conjunction with a chemical carcinogen. Mice exposed to UVL and not protected by PABA developed primarily squamous cell carcinomas. Two months after cessation of chronic UVL exposure, the non-PABA-treated irradiated mouse skin appeared thickened, yellow, and wrinkled while showing elevated DNA synthesis, hyperplasia, hypergranulosis, and increased amounts of elastotic material. The PABA-treated skin was grossly normal

  9. Radiation protection - Revision of French radiation protection regulations (1988)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mayoux, J.C.

    1989-01-01

    This article analyses the recent amendments to the 1966 and 1975 Decrees on general radiation protection principles and radiation protection of workers in large nuclear installations respectively and also describes national radiation protection law. In particular, the amendments incorporate the revised EURATOM basic radiation protection standards and the new international units (sievert and becquerel replace rem and curie) in the Decrees. (NEA) [fr

  10. MISTRAL V1.1.1: assessing doses from atmospheric releases in normal and off-normal conditions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    David Kerouanton; Patrick Devin; Malvina Rennesson

    2006-01-01

    Protecting the environment and the public from radioactive and chemical hazards has always been a top priority for all companies operating in the nuclear domain. In this scope, SGN provides all the services the nuclear industry needs in environmental studies especially in relation to the impact assessment in normal operating conditions and risk assessment in off-normal conditions. In order to quantify dose impact on members of the public due to atmospheric releases, COGEMA and SGN developed MISTRAL V1.1.1 code. Dose impact depends strongly on dispersion of radionuclides in atmosphere. The main parameters involved in dispersion characterization are wind velocity and direction, rain, diffusion conditions, coordinates of the point of observation and stack elevation. MISTRAL code implements DOURY and PASQUILL Gaussian plume models which are widely used in the scientific community. These models, applicable for distances of transfer ranging from 100 m up to 30 km, are used to calculate atmospheric concentration and deposit at different distances from the point of release. MISTRAL allows the use of different dose regulations or dose coefficient databases such as: - ICRP30 and ICPR71 for internal doses (inhalation, ingestion) - Despres/Kocher database or US-EPA Federal Guidance no.12 (ICPR72 for noble gases) for external exposure (from plume or ground). The initial instant of the release can be considered as the origin of time or a date format can be specified (could be useful in a crisis context). While the context is specified, the user define the meteorological conditions of the release. In normal operating mode (routine releases), the user gives the annual meteorological scheme. The data can be recorded in the MISTRAL meteorological database. In off-normal conditions mode, MISTRAL V1.1 allows the use of successive release stages for which the user gives the duration, the meteorological conditions, that is to say stability class, wind speed and direction and rainfall

  11. Problems of radiation protection at continuous service of industrial full-screen-X-ray-installations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Krebs, K.

    1979-01-01

    A lot of usual product of high automatisized full-screen-X-ray-installations prove very susceptible to trouble when used in continuous 3-shift-working. Normal safeguards by rough industrial continuous use mostly abruptly lose their efficiency without announcement; this mainly by vibration, disadjustment, aerosols, dirts and thermal stress. The author explains this by illustrated samples of practice. Since for those installations neither physical controls of persons nor dose-alarm-systems are prescribed by law, the needed security regarding radiation protection seems not to be guaranteed. Therefore it is proposed to order the following by technical and legistical rules: 1. Screening has to be constructed and mounted resistant in mechanical and termical regards. 2. Safety-switches must work by constraint and in an primary way. 3. The reaching of the legally allowed dose-limit has to be recognized in an unmistakable way by alarm signal. These protections are the most urgent, since the continuous service of those X-ray-installations normally works without any further screening admist other production installations and operation is done by semiskilled operators who are not subjected to any physical or medical control. (author)

  12. Coordination between Fault-Ride-Through Capability and Overcurrent Protection of DFIG Generatorsfor Wind Farms

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bak-Jensen, Birgitte; Kawady, Tamer A.; Abdel-Rahman, Mansour H.

    2009-01-01

    Due to the increasing penetration of wind farms in power systems, stability issues arise strongly for power system operation. Doubly-Fed Induction Generators (DFIG) are charac-terized with some unique features during normal/abnormal op-erating conditions as compared with singly-fed ones. Fault ri...... on protective relaying coordination in wind farms.......-Through (FRT) mainly aims to delay a disconnecting of the DFIG units during grid faults for a possible time to restore the system stability if the fault is cleared within a permissible time. This strategy may, however, affect the performance of related protective elements during fault periods. In this paper......, the Coor-dination between Fault Ride-Through Capability and Overcur-rent Protection of DFIG Wind Generators in MV Networks is in-vestigated. Simulation test cases using MATLAB-Simulink are implemented on a 345-MW wind farm in AL-Zaafarana, Egypt. The simulation results show the influence of FRT capability...

  13. CT of Normal Developmental and Variant Anatomy of the Pediatric Skull: Distinguishing Trauma from Normality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Idriz, Sanjin; Patel, Jaymin H; Ameli Renani, Seyed; Allan, Rosemary; Vlahos, Ioannis

    2015-01-01

    The use of computed tomography (CT) in clinical practice has been increasing rapidly, with the number of CT examinations performed in adults and children rising by 10% per year in England. Because the radiology community strives to reduce the radiation dose associated with pediatric examinations, external factors, including guidelines for pediatric head injury, are raising expectations for use of cranial CT in the pediatric population. Thus, radiologists are increasingly likely to encounter pediatric head CT examinations in daily practice. The variable appearance of cranial sutures at different ages can be confusing for inexperienced readers of radiologic images. The evolution of multidetector CT with thin-section acquisition increases the clarity of some of these sutures, which may be misinterpreted as fractures. Familiarity with the normal anatomy of the pediatric skull, how it changes with age, and normal variants can assist in translating the increased resolution of multidetector CT into more accurate detection of fractures and confident determination of normality, thereby reducing prolonged hospitalization of children with normal developmental structures that have been misinterpreted as fractures. More important, the potential morbidity and mortality related to false-negative interpretation of fractures as normal sutures may be avoided. The authors describe the normal anatomy of all standard pediatric sutures, common variants, and sutural mimics, thereby providing an accurate and safe framework for CT evaluation of skull trauma in pediatric patients. (©)RSNA, 2015.

  14. Focus radiation protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ebermann, Lutz

    2016-01-01

    The publication of the Bundesamt fuer Strahlenschutz on radiation protection covers the following issues: (i) exposure from natural sources: health hazard due to radon, radiation protection in residential homes, radon in Germany, natural raw materials in industrial processes; (ii) clearance of radioactive wastes: clearance in the frame of nuclear power plant dismantling, the situation in Germany and Europe; (iii) emergency management: principles of radiation protection, fictive sequence of accident events; (iiii) other actual radiation protection topics: more limits - more protection? radiation protection in medicine, occupational radiation protection.

  15. Protecting the Amazon with protected areas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walker, Robert; Moore, Nathan J.; Arima, Eugenio; Perz, Stephen; Simmons, Cynthia; Caldas, Marcellus; Vergara, Dante; Bohrer, Claudio

    2009-01-01

    This article addresses climate-tipping points in the Amazon Basin resulting from deforestation. It applies a regional climate model to assess whether the system of protected areas in Brazil is able to avoid such tipping points, with massive conversion to semiarid vegetation, particularly along the south and southeastern margins of the basin. The regional climate model produces spatially distributed annual rainfall under a variety of external forcing conditions, assuming that all land outside protected areas is deforested. It translates these results into dry season impacts on resident ecosystems and shows that Amazonian dry ecosystems in the southern and southeastern basin do not desiccate appreciably and that extensive areas experience an increase in precipitation. Nor do the moist forests dry out to an excessive amount. Evidently, Brazilian environmental policy has created a sustainable core of protected areas in the Amazon that buffers against potential climate-tipping points and protects the drier ecosystems of the basin. Thus, all efforts should be made to manage them effectively. PMID:19549819

  16. Combined group ECC protection and subgroup parity protection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gara, Alan G.; Chen, Dong; Heidelberger, Philip; Ohmacht, Martin

    2013-06-18

    A method and system are disclosed for providing combined error code protection and subgroup parity protection for a given group of n bits. The method comprises the steps of identifying a number, m, of redundant bits for said error protection; and constructing a matrix P, wherein multiplying said given group of n bits with P produces m redundant error correction code (ECC) protection bits, and two columns of P provide parity protection for subgroups of said given group of n bits. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the matrix P is constructed by generating permutations of m bit wide vectors with three or more, but an odd number of, elements with value one and the other elements with value zero; and assigning said vectors to rows of the matrix P.

  17. Protective relay

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lim, Mu Ji; Jung, Hae Sang

    1974-10-01

    This book is divided into two chapters, which deals with protective relay. The first chapter deals with the basic knowledge of relay on development of relay, classification of protective relay, rating of protective relay general structure of protective relay, detecting of ground protection, about point of contact, operating relay and trip relaying. The second chapter is about structure and explanation of relay on classification by structure such as motor type and moving-coil type, explanation of other relays over current relay, over voltage relay, short voltage relay, relay for power, relay for direction, test of over voltage relay, test of short voltage relay and test of directional circuit relay.

  18. To protect or not to protect: examining reasons for sun protection among young women at risk for skin cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Auerbach, M V; Heckman, C J; Darlow, S

    2018-03-27

    We aimed to further the understanding of the low rates of sun protection in young women at risk for skin cancer. Six-hundred-sixty-one daily diary entries were received via text message over 14 days from 56 young women at moderate to high risk of developing skin cancer. Women reported whether or not they used sun protection and also listed what their reasons were for using protection or not using sun protection each day. Multi-level modeling was used to examine the influence of study variables when predicting daily sun protection or lack of protection. The number of days in which sun protection was reported was positively associated with "habit" and "prevention" as reasons for protection and negatively associated with "not-needed" and "unprepared" as reasons for non-protection. Self-reported sun protection increased over the 14-day study period. Results of this study suggest the potential value of interventions aimed at motives for sun-protection behaviors.

  19. Capacitor energy needed to induce transitions from the superconducting to the normal state

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eberhard, P.H.; Ross, R.R.

    1985-08-01

    The purpose of this paper is to describe a technique to turn a long length of superconducting wire normal by dumping a charged capacitor into it and justify some formulae needed in the design. The physical phenomenon is described. A formula for the energy to be stored in the capacitor is given. There are circumstances where the dc in an electrical circuit containing superconducting elements has to be turned off quickly and where the most convenient way to switch the current off is to turn a large portion or all of the superconducting wire normal. Such was the case of the Time Projection Chamber (TPC) superconducting magnet as soon as a quench was detected. The technique used was the discharge of a capacitor into the coil center tap. It turned the magnet winding normal in ten milliseconds or so and provided an adequate quench protection. The technique of discharging a capacitor into a superconducting wire should have many other applications whenever a substantial resistance in a superconducting circuit has to be generated in that kind of time scale. The process involves generating a pulse of large currents in some part of the circuit and heating the wire up by ac losses until the value of the wire critical current is smaller than the dc current. Use of low inductance connections to the circuit is necessary. Then the dc gets turned off due to the resistance of the wire as in a magnet quench

  20. Precaval retropancreatic space: Normal anatomy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, Yeon Hee; Kim, Ki Whang; Kim, Myung Jin; Yoo, Hyung Sik; Lee, Jong Tae [Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    1992-07-15

    The authors defined precaval retropancreatic space as the space between pancreatic head with portal vein and IVC and analyzed the CT findings of this space to know the normal structures and size in this space. We evaluated 100 cases of normal abdominal CT scan to find out normal anatomic structures of precaval retropancreatic space retrospectively. We also measured the distance between these structures and calculated the minimum, maximum and mean values. At the splenoportal confluence level, normal structures between portal vein and IVC were vessel (21%), lymph node (19%), and caudate lobe of liver (2%) in order of frequency. The maximum AP diameter of portocaval lymph node was 4 mm. Common bile duct (CBD) was seen in 44% and the diameter was mean 3 mm and maximum 11 mm. CBD was located in extrapancreatic (75%) and lateral (60.6%) to pancreatic head. At IVC-left renal vein level, the maximum distance between CBD and IVC was 5 mm and the structure between posterior pancreatic surface and IVC was only fat tissue. Knowledge of these normal structures and measurement will be helpful in differentiating pancreatic mass with retropancreatic mass such as lymphadenopathy.

  1. Normal probability plots with confidence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chantarangsi, Wanpen; Liu, Wei; Bretz, Frank; Kiatsupaibul, Seksan; Hayter, Anthony J; Wan, Fang

    2015-01-01

    Normal probability plots are widely used as a statistical tool for assessing whether an observed simple random sample is drawn from a normally distributed population. The users, however, have to judge subjectively, if no objective rule is provided, whether the plotted points fall close to a straight line. In this paper, we focus on how a normal probability plot can be augmented by intervals for all the points so that, if the population distribution is normal, then all the points should fall into the corresponding intervals simultaneously with probability 1-α. These simultaneous 1-α probability intervals provide therefore an objective mean to judge whether the plotted points fall close to the straight line: the plotted points fall close to the straight line if and only if all the points fall into the corresponding intervals. The powers of several normal probability plot based (graphical) tests and the most popular nongraphical Anderson-Darling and Shapiro-Wilk tests are compared by simulation. Based on this comparison, recommendations are given in Section 3 on which graphical tests should be used in what circumstances. An example is provided to illustrate the methods. © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  2. A bustling academic reactor creates challenges and opportunities in the area of physical protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boeck, H.; Villa, M.; Standley, V.

    2001-01-01

    The 250 kW TRIGA research reactor is located at the Atominstitut Vienna, Austria, only a few subway stations from the city centre of Vienna. Its main purpose is the training of university students in the field of nuclear engineering and radiation protection as well as in radiochemistry and neutron- and solid-state physics. The existing facility is visited during a normal academic year by about 300 persons per day falling into seven different categories including fully employed staff, students occasionally visiting a seminar, and IAEA personnel from all over the world. These different groups have to be accounted for daily and are separated into different categories in view of security and physical protection. (author)

  3. Immunological investigations of antigens released by normal and irradiated schistosomasa mansoni cercariae in vitro. Part of a coordinated programme on preparation of irradiated vaccines against some human diseases

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Catty, D.

    1982-07-01

    S.mansoni cercariae were γ-irradiated at 1-15 K rads, syringe transformed, and injected into groups of 20 mice (200 dose), with unirradiated controls. Aliquots of 1,500 cercariae irradiated at 1-40 K rads (plus unirradiated controls) were cultured in serum-free medium. It was found that irradiation does not inhibit release of a broad spectrum of antigens in culture over 6 hours until 20 K rads is delivered. Mice used as hosts for the graded cercarial irradiation vaccine were subdivided into groups of 10 and either left unchallenged or challenged at 6 weeks with a normal infection of 200 cercariae. Serum samples were taken from every mouse at regular intervals and antibodies titrated by solid phase radioimmunoassay. Injected parasites, whether irradiated or normal, always gave higher antibody titres to cercarial and egg antigens than the equivalent dose of normal (challenge) parasites infecting by the natural route. Challenge infection depressed anti-cercarial responses in mice exposed to irradiated larvae but boosted the response to normal injected parasites. Antibodies to SEA were in lower titre in all groups but rose from week 7 (1 week post-challenge) in the groups injected with normal and 1 K rad-treated parasites, where adults were previously established in the hosts. At 12 weeks all mice were sacrificed and perfused for adults. Egg yields in liver and intestine were determined. There was no evidence of protective immunity to challenge infection induced by injected unirradiated or 1 K rad-irradiated, transformed, cercariae, even though both sources of parasite gave rise to egg-laying adults. By contrast, the 5, 10 and 15 K rad vaccines gave protection of 36-49%, even though they gave rise to no persistent adults or any deposited eggs. The protective (immunising) properties of irradiation-attenuated vaccines of S.mansoni cercariae can thus be clearly correlated with their capacity to release antigens in the immediate post irradiation period

  4. Expression of primary emotions and defence and protective reactions among deaf adolescents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maša Černelič Bizjak

    2007-11-01

    Full Text Available The study examined the differences in defense, protective reactions, and expression of primary emotions between deaf or partially hearing impaired adolescents and their peers with normal hearing. Participants in the two groups were assessed by means of The Profile Emotions, The Life Style Index, and Non-verbal Scale of Suffering. Deaf adolescents tended more towards uncontrolled and oppositional behaviour, and had a weaker sense of self-protection and deprivation. Moreover, their defense mechanisms (intellectualization, projection and negation were more intensively expressed. A higher level of defense mechanisms of intellectualization was observed in hearing adolescents. On the basis of the obtained results and analyses we may conclude that deaf adolescents demonstrated some characteristics of lower level of adjustment: negative emotional responses, lower degree of control (more uncontrolled and oppositional behaviour, weakened sense of self-protection and several simple, evolutionary more primitive defense mechanisms (excluding intellectualization. Our interpretation also takes into account that adolescents need to develop a new adjustment system as the old one ceased to function.

  5. Development of Functional Foods for Body Protection Using Radiation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jo, S. K.; Jung, U. H.; Park, H. R.

    2007-07-15

    We have previously developed two herbal compositions(HemoHIM, HemoTonic) that protects immune/hematopoietic system and self-renewal tissues against radiation and enhances immune/hematopoietic functions. In this study, we tried to expand its usability by verifying its protective activity against various harmful stimuli as well as radiation. HemoHIM was shown to be highly effective in reducing immune/hematopoietic damage, particularly, normalizing the Th1/Th2 imbalance, which seemed to be a result of increased production of IL-12p70 by APC and enhanced NK cell activity. Also HemoHIM was shown to have protective activities against UV-induced skin damage, immune system damage by an anticancer drug (CP), immune depression by old age and stress, and inflammation. Finally it was confirmed in a human study that HemoHIM improves the immune cell functions and cytokine production. Based on these results, HemoHIM has been approved as a health functional food for immunomodulation by Korea FDA and succeeded in its industrialization. Meanwhile, to develop functional foods for the reduction of chronic radiation damage (carcinogenesis), we have screened natural products for inhibitory activities against carcinogenesis-related factors, and developed two anti-carcinogenic compositions. Also 6 single compounds were isolated and identified from radioprotective natural products and elucidated some synergistic protection by several single compounds and established a basis for the development of advanced technology for radioprotection. Also, to obtain the applicability of radiation technology for the safe sanitatation and distribution of functional food materials, we verified the toxicological safety, stability of activity and active components of irradiated medicinal herbs

  6. Development of Functional Foods for Body Protection Using Radiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jo, S. K.; Jung, U. H.; Park, H. R.

    2007-07-01

    We have previously developed two herbal compositions(HemoHIM, HemoTonic) that protects immune/hematopoietic system and self-renewal tissues against radiation and enhances immune/hematopoietic functions. In this study, we tried to expand its usability by verifying its protective activity against various harmful stimuli as well as radiation. HemoHIM was shown to be highly effective in reducing immune/hematopoietic damage, particularly, normalizing the Th1/Th2 imbalance, which seemed to be a result of increased production of IL-12p70 by APC and enhanced NK cell activity. Also HemoHIM was shown to have protective activities against UV-induced skin damage, immune system damage by an anticancer drug (CP), immune depression by old age and stress, and inflammation. Finally it was confirmed in a human study that HemoHIM improves the immune cell functions and cytokine production. Based on these results, HemoHIM has been approved as a health functional food for immunomodulation by Korea FDA and succeeded in its industrialization. Meanwhile, to develop functional foods for the reduction of chronic radiation damage (carcinogenesis), we have screened natural products for inhibitory activities against carcinogenesis-related factors, and developed two anti-carcinogenic compositions. Also 6 single compounds were isolated and identified from radioprotective natural products and elucidated some synergistic protection by several single compounds and established a basis for the development of advanced technology for radioprotection. Also, to obtain the applicability of radiation technology for the safe sanitatation and distribution of functional food materials, we verified the toxicological safety, stability of activity and active components of irradiated medicinal herbs

  7. Protective Role of Comfrey Leave Extracts on UV-induced Zebrafish Fin Damage

    OpenAIRE

    Cheng, Chien-Chung; Chou, Chi-Yuan; Chang, Yao-Chin; Wang, Hsuan-Wen; Wen, Chi-Chung; Chen, Yau-Hung

    2014-01-01

    In zebrafish, UV exposure leads to fin malformation phenotypes including fin reduction or absence. The present study evaluated UV-protective activities of comfrey leaves extracts in a zebrafish model by recording fin morphological changes. Chemopreventive effects of comfrey leave extracts were evaluated using Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression. The results showed that (1) the mean times of return to normal fin in the UV+comfrey (50 and 100 ppm) groups were 3.43 and ...

  8. Development of Ultraviolet (UV) Radiation Protective Fabric Using Combined Electrospinning and Electrospraying Technique

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sinha, Mukesh Kumar; Das, B. R.; Kumar, Kamal; Kishore, Brij; Prasad, N. Eswara

    2017-06-01

    The article reports a novel technique for functionization of nanoweb to develop ultraviolet (UV) radiation protective fabric. UV radiation protection effect is produced by combination of electrospinning and electrospraying technique. A nanofibrous web of polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) coated on polypropylene nonwoven fabric is produced by latest nanospider technology. Subsequently, web is functionalized by titanium dioxide (TiO2). The developed web is characterized for evaluation of surface morphology and other functional properties; mechanical, chemical, crystalline and thermal. An optimal (judicious) nanofibre spinning condition is achieved and established. The produced web is uniformly coated by defect free functional nanofibres in a continuous form of useable textile structural membrane for ultraviolet (UV) protective clothing. This research initiative succeeds in preparation and optimization of various nanowebs for UV protection. Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) result reveals that PVDF webs photo-degradative behavior is non-accelerated, as compared to normal polymeric grade fibres. Functionalization with TiO2 has enhanced the photo-stability of webs. The ultraviolet protection factor of functionalized and non-functionalized nanowebs empirically evaluated to be 65 and 24 respectively. The developed coated layer could be exploited for developing various defence, para-military and civilian UV protective light weight clothing (tent, covers and shelter segments, combat suit, snow bound camouflaging nets). This research therefore, is conducted in an attempt to develop a scientific understanding of PVDF fibre coated webs for photo-degradation and applications for defence protective textiles. This technological research in laboratory scale could be translated into bulk productionization.

  9. Influence of food tannins on certain aspects of iron metabolism : Part 2 -- Storage and transport in normal and anemic rats

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Roy, S N [Albert Einstein Coll. of Medicine, Bronx, NY (USA); Mukherjee, S [Calcutta Univ. (India). Dept. of Applied Chemistry

    1979-04-01

    Administration of tannin (0.5 mg/kg body wt/day) from fruits and vegetables lowers the iron content in liver, spleen and bone marrow with an elevation in Total Iron Binding Capacity (TIBC) of serum and serum iron concentration in normal rats. The same dose of tannin increases the iron content in storage tissues, particularly bone marrow of hemolytic anemic rats. In anemic rats, TIBC is decreased and serum iron concentration is raised from anemic level to approximately normal value due to ingestion of tannin. Radioiron administration, either by oral or by intravenous route, also elicits similar results. Recovery of iron storage and transport values from the anemic to the normal condition by tannin (0.5 mg/kg) varies with the source of tannin used. Thus more iron required for compensating the anemic conditions is retained within their body by tannin (0.5 mg/kg) which appears to reduce the loss of peripheral iron probably by protecting the lysis of red cells.

  10. Monitoring the normal body

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nissen, Nina Konstantin; Holm, Lotte; Baarts, Charlotte

    2015-01-01

    of practices for monitoring their bodies based on different kinds of calculations of weight and body size, observations of body shape, and measurements of bodily firmness. Biometric measurements are familiar to them as are health authorities' recommendations. Despite not belonging to an extreme BMI category...... provides us with knowledge about how to prevent future overweight or obesity. This paper investigates body size ideals and monitoring practices among normal-weight and moderately overweight people. Methods : The study is based on in-depth interviews combined with observations. 24 participants were...... recruited by strategic sampling based on self-reported BMI 18.5-29.9 kg/m2 and socio-demographic factors. Inductive analysis was conducted. Results : Normal-weight and moderately overweight people have clear ideals for their body size. Despite being normal weight or close to this, they construct a variety...

  11. Field selection of chemical protective clothing and respiratory protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pinette, S.; Dodgen, C.; Morley, M.

    1991-01-01

    Safety professionals who must choose appropriate personal protective equipment for hazardous substance response or hazardous waste sites require useable information about the effectiveness of the various products available. Each hazardous waste operation involves a unique combination of chemical hazards requiring a unique combination of protective apparel. A chemical protective suit or respirator must be chosen for each site and each operation on the site. No single protective suit is effective against all chemical hazards. No single respirator is the best choice in every situation. Various sources of information on the effectiveness of protective clothing products will be discussed. Site-specific permeation testing of the proposed protective clothing options will also be discussed. It is both possible and practical to obtain specific information about the degree of protection afforded by a particular suit against a particular chemical mixture. It is also important to know how long the suit will last. Choosing adequate respiratory protection is a complex process. Respirator cartridge performance depends on various environmental factors as well as upon the combination and concentration of chemicals in the air. Once characterization of the air at a site has been accomplished, it may be appropriate to select an alternative to airline respirators and SCBAs. Respirator cartridges can be tested against specific chemical mixtures using worse case environmental factors. The results can be used to predict both the effectiveness and duration of protection afforded by respirator cartridges which can reduce costs and worker fatigue

  12. DIGITAL DATA PROTECTION USING STEGANOGRAPHY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Rejani

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available In today’s digital world applications from a computer or a mobile device consistently used to get every kind of work done for professional as well as entertainment purpose. However, one of the major issue that a software publisher will face is the issue of piracy. Throughout the last couple of decades, almost all-major or minor software has been pirated and freely circulated across the internet. The impact of the rampant software piracy has been huge and runs into billions of dollars every year. For an independent developer or a programmer, the impact of piracy will be huge. Huge companies that make specialized software often employ complex hardware methods such as usage of dongles to avoid software piracy. However, this is not possible to do for a normal independent programmer of a small company. As part of the research, a new method of software protection that does not need proprietary hardware and other complex methods are proposed in this paper. This method uses a combination of inbuilt hardware features as well as steganography and encryption to protect the software against piracy. The properties or methods used include uniqueness of hardware, steganography, strong encryption like AES and geographic location. To avoid hacking the proposed framework also makes use of self-checks in a random manner. The process is quite simple to implement for any developer and is usable on both traditional PCs as well as mobile environments.

  13. Extension of the principles of radiation protection to sources of potential exposure

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1990-01-01

    The principles of radiation protection recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection for the normal operation of a radiation source constitute a dose limitation system that has three components; namely, the justification of a practice, the optimization of radiation protection and the limitation of individual doses. This report describes how the application of these principles may be extended to unexpected or accidental situations by changing from the dose based system of radiation protection to a unified approach within a probabilistic framework. The key conceptual link in this transition is the recognition that the receipt of a given dose by an individual confers a corresponding probability of harm, as represented by a dose-response curve. The concept of limitation of individual doses may therefore be transformed relatively straightforwardly into the concept of limitation of the probability of harm to an individual. The other two principles, the justification principle and the optimization principle, can also be translated to the probabilistic framework, but the procedure for so doing is not as straightforward as that for the principle of limitation of individual doses, owing in part to the fact that the other two principles are not as simple to apply in practice. 13 refs

  14. Protective effects of a zinc-hydroxyapatite toothpaste on enamel erosion: SEM study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Colombo, Marco; Beltrami, Riccardo; Rattalino, Davide; Mirando, Maria; Chiesa, Marco; Poggio, Claudio

    2016-01-01

    The aim of the present in vitro study was to evaluate the protective effects of a zinc-hydroxyapatite toothpaste against an erosive challenge produced by a soft drink (Coca-Cola) using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Forty specimens were assigned to 4 groups of 10 specimens each (group 1: no erosive challenge, no toothpaste treatment, group 2: erosive challenge, no toothpaste treatment, group 3: erosive challenge, fluoride toothpaste treatment, group 4: erosive challenge, zinc-hydroxyapatite toothpaste treatment). The surface of each specimen was imaged by SEM. A visual rating system was used to evaluate the condition of the enamel surface; results were analyzed by nonparametric statistical methods. Statistically significant differences were found between the samples untreated and those immersed in Coca-Cola (group 1, 2); the highest grade of damage was found in group 2, while the lowest grade was recorded in the samples of group 4. Comparing the groups, the two analyzed toothpaste tended to protect in different extend. In this study treatment of erosively challenged enamel with Zn-Hap toothpaste showed a clear protective effect. This was greater than the effect observed for a normal fluoride toothpaste and confirmed the potential benefit the Zn-HAP technology can provide in protecting enamel from erosive acid challenges.

  15. Effect of emulsification on the skin permeation and UV protection of catechin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yoshino, Sachie; Mitoma, Tomoaki; Tsuruta, Keiko; Todo, Hiroaki; Sugibayashi, Kenji

    2014-06-01

    An anti-aging effect may be obtained by skin application of tea catechins (Camellia sinensis) since they have high ultraviolet (UV)-protection activity. In this study, the skin permeation of catechin (C), epicatechin (EC), epigallocatechin (EGC), epicatechin gallate (ECg) and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCg) was determined and compared, and the effect of emulsification on the skin permeation of C was measured. The UV-protective effect of C was also determined. The in vitro skin permeability of each catechin derivative was determined using side-by-side diffusion of cells. The UV-protective effect of C was determined by applying different concentrations of C to the solution or emulsion on a three-dimensional cultured human skin model or normal human epidermal keratinocytes with UV-irradiation. ECg and EGCg with gallate groups showed lower skin permeability than C, EC and EGC without gallate groups, suggesting that the skin permeability of catechin derivatives may be dependent on the existence of a gallate group. Interestingly, the skin permeation of C was increased by an o/w emulsification. In addition, the C emulsion showed a significantly higher UV-protective effect by C than that with its aqueous solution. These results suggest that the o/w emulsion of catechin derivatives is probably useful as a cosmetic formulation with anti-aging efficacy.

  16. Protecting knowledge

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sofka, Wolfgang; de Faria, Pedro; Shehu, Edlira

    2018-01-01

    Most firms use secrecy to protect their knowledge from potential imitators. However, the theoretical foundations for secrecy have not been well explored. We extend knowledge protection literature and propose theoretical mechanisms explaining how information visibility influences the importance...... of secrecy as a knowledge protection instrument. Building on mechanisms from information economics and signaling theory, we postulate that secrecy is more important for protecting knowledge for firms that have legal requirements to reveal information to shareholders. Furthermore, we argue that this effect...... and a firm's investment in fixed assets. Our findings inform both academics and managers on how firms balance information disclosure requirements with the use of secrecy as a knowledge protection instrument....

  17. Safety of persons protected by the Government Protection Bureau

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wojciech Lis

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The state is the organizational structure, which unites the whole nation by providing optimal conditions for the functioning and development. One of the conditions for the basic functions of the state is efficient administration headed by a person with the role of management. They not only hold the highest position, but also represent the authority of the state. For this reason, they need special protection. Each attack undermines the authority of the administration and trust in the state institutions. For the protection of persons performing managerial functions in the state corresponds to the Government Protection Bureau that providing them protection at the same time protect the state.

  18. Copyright and Industrial Design, How a Line Should be Drawn? Works of Applied Arts, its Protection in Colombia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David Felipe Álvarez Amézquita

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available As works of applied arts have been situated normally at the grey area between copyright and industrial property, this article discusses three different approaches about how they should be protected. It particularly focuses on the case of industrial designs which might be considered as copyrighted works. Subject to the fulfilment of copyright criterions and particularly the requisites for works of art and for the work of applied arts, the article proposes that Colombian and Andean Communitarian Law should embrace the partial accumulation system of protection for such creations.

  19. Radiation protection aspects in decommissioning of a fuel reprocessing plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kotrappa, P.; Joshi, P.P.; Theyyunni, T.K.; Sidhwa, B.M.; Nadkarni, M.N.

    1980-01-01

    The decontamination of a fuel reprocessing plant which underwent partial decommissioning is described. The following radiation protection aspects of the work are discussed: dismantling and removal of process vessels, columns and process off-gas filters; decontamination of various process areas; and management of liquid and solid wastes. The work was completed safely by using personnel protective equipment such as plastic suits and respirators (gas, particulate and fresh air). Total dose commitment for this work was around 3000 man-rems, including dose received by staff for certain jobs related to the operation of a section of the plant. The external dose was kept below the annual limit of 5000 mrems for any individual. No internal contamination incident occurred which caused a dose commitment in excess of 10% of the annual limit. The fact that all the work was completed by the staff normally associated with the operation of the plant contributed significantly to the management and control of personnel exposures. (H.K.)

  20. Selenium in bone health: roles in antioxidant protection and cell proliferation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zeng, Huawei; Cao, Jay J; Combs, Gerald F

    2013-01-10

    Selenium (Se) is an essential trace element for humans and animals, and several findings suggest that dietary Se intake may be necessary for bone health. Such findings may relate to roles of Se in antioxidant protection, enhanced immune surveillance and modulation of cell proliferation. Elucidation of the mechanisms by which Se supports these cellular processes can lead to a better understanding of the role of this nutrient in normal bone metabolism. This article reviews the current knowledge concerning the molecular functions of Se relevant to bone health.

  1. Data-driven intensity normalization of PET group comparison studies is superior to global mean normalization

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Borghammer, Per; Aanerud, Joel; Gjedde, Albert

    2009-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Global mean (GM) normalization is one of the most commonly used methods of normalization in PET and SPECT group comparison studies of neurodegenerative disorders. It requires that no between-group GM difference is present, which may be strongly violated in neurodegenerative disorders....... Importantly, such GM differences often elude detection due to the large intrinsic variance in absolute values of cerebral blood flow or glucose consumption. Alternative methods of normalization are needed for this type of data. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two types of simulation were performed using CBF images...

  2. A note on totally normal spaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zougdani, H.K.

    1990-10-01

    In this note we give the necessary and sufficient condition for a topological space X such that the product space X x Y is totally normal for any (non discrete) metric space Y, and we show that a totally normal p-space need not be a perfectly normal in general, which makes Theorem 2 doubtful. (author). 6 refs

  3. Insight from Molecular, Pathological, and Immunohistochemical Studies on Cellular and Humoral Mechanisms Responsible for Vaccine-Induced Protection of Rainbow Trout against Yersinia ruckeri

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Deshmukh, Sidhartha; Kania, Per W.; Chettri, Jiwan K.

    2013-01-01

    fish, whereas nonprotected fish still harbored bacteria for a week after infection. Vaccinated fish reestablished normal organ structure within a few days, whereas nonprotected fish showed abnormalities up to 1 month postinfection. Protection in the early phase of infection was mainly associated....... They comprised transformation of resident cells into macrophage-like cells and increased occurrence of CD8α and IgM cells, suggesting these cells as main players in protection. Future studies should investigate the causality between these factors and protection....

  4. Quasiparticle transport properties of mesoscopic wires containing normal-metal/superconductor/normal-metal proximity junctions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Nam; Kim, Kijoon; Lee, Hu Jong; Lee, Seongjae; Yuk, Jong Seol; Park, Kyoung Wan; Lee, El Hang

    1997-01-01

    We measured the differential resistance dV/dI of mesoscopic normal-metal/superconductor/normal-metal (N-S-N) junctions. At low temperatures (T PbIn /e, where Δ PbIn is the gap energy of superconducting Pb-In, and at a higher bias V c . The zero-bias dip is supposed to originate from Andreev reflections of quasiparticles and the peak near 2Δ PbIn /e from the formation of a standing-wave mode of quasiparticles inside the superconducting potential barrier. We attribute the peaks at V c to a transition of the superconducting region to the normal state as the current exceeds the critical current I c of S

  5. Comprehensive non-dimensional normalization of gait data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pinzone, Ornella; Schwartz, Michael H; Baker, Richard

    2016-02-01

    Normalizing clinical gait analysis data is required to remove variability due to physical characteristics such as leg length and weight. This is particularly important for children where both are associated with age. In most clinical centres conventional normalization (by mass only) is used whereas there is a stronger biomechanical argument for non-dimensional normalization. This study used data from 82 typically developing children to compare how the two schemes performed over a wide range of temporal-spatial and kinetic parameters by calculating the coefficients of determination with leg length, weight and height. 81% of the conventionally normalized parameters had a coefficient of determination above the threshold for a statistical association (pnormalized non-dimensionally. All the conventionally normalized parameters exceeding this threshold showed a reduced association with non-dimensional normalization. In conclusion, non-dimensional normalization is more effective that conventional normalization in reducing the effects of height, weight and age in a comprehensive range of temporal-spatial and kinetic parameters. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  6. Immunohistochemical analysis of oxidative stress and DNA repair proteins in normal mammary and breast cancer tissues

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Curtis, Carol D; Thorngren, Daniel L; Nardulli, Ann M

    2010-01-01

    During the course of normal cellular metabolism, oxygen is consumed and reactive oxygen species (ROS) are produced. If not effectively dissipated, ROS can accumulate and damage resident proteins, lipids, and DNA. Enzymes involved in redox regulation and DNA repair dissipate ROS and repair the resulting damage in order to preserve a functional cellular environment. Because increased ROS accumulation and/or unrepaired DNA damage can lead to initiation and progression of cancer and we had identified a number of oxidative stress and DNA repair proteins that influence estrogen responsiveness of MCF-7 breast cancer cells, it seemed possible that these proteins might be differentially expressed in normal mammary tissue, benign hyperplasia (BH), ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and invasive breast cancer (IBC). Immunohistochemistry was used to examine the expression of a number of oxidative stress proteins, DNA repair proteins, and damage markers in 60 human mammary tissues which were classified as BH, DCIS or IBC. The relative mean intensity was determined for each tissue section and ANOVA was used to detect statistical differences in the relative expression of BH, DCIS and IBC compared to normal mammary tissue. We found that a number of these proteins were overexpressed and that the cellular localization was altered in human breast cancer tissue. Our studies suggest that oxidative stress and DNA repair proteins not only protect normal cells from the damaging effects of ROS, but may also promote survival of mammary tumor cells

  7. Relating normalization to neuronal populations across cortical areas.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruff, Douglas A; Alberts, Joshua J; Cohen, Marlene R

    2016-09-01

    Normalization, which divisively scales neuronal responses to multiple stimuli, is thought to underlie many sensory, motor, and cognitive processes. In every study where it has been investigated, neurons measured in the same brain area under identical conditions exhibit a range of normalization, ranging from suppression by nonpreferred stimuli (strong normalization) to additive responses to combinations of stimuli (no normalization). Normalization has been hypothesized to arise from interactions between neuronal populations, either in the same or different brain areas, but current models of normalization are not mechanistic and focus on trial-averaged responses. To gain insight into the mechanisms underlying normalization, we examined interactions between neurons that exhibit different degrees of normalization. We recorded from multiple neurons in three cortical areas while rhesus monkeys viewed superimposed drifting gratings. We found that neurons showing strong normalization shared less trial-to-trial variability with other neurons in the same cortical area and more variability with neurons in other cortical areas than did units with weak normalization. Furthermore, the cortical organization of normalization was not random: neurons recorded on nearby electrodes tended to exhibit similar amounts of normalization. Together, our results suggest that normalization reflects a neuron's role in its local network and that modulatory factors like normalization share the topographic organization typical of sensory tuning properties. Copyright © 2016 the American Physiological Society.

  8. Radiation protection and safety in the Australian Defence Organisation (ADO)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jenks, G.J.; O'Donovan, E.J.B.

    1995-01-01

    Very few organisations have to address such a diverse and complex range of radiation safety matters as the Australian Defence Organisation. The Australian Defence Force and the Department of Defence (its military and civilian branches) have to comply with strict regulations in normal peace time activities. The Surgeon-General, to whom responsibility for policy in radiation protection and safety falls, has established a Defence Radiation Safety Committee, which in turn oversees four specialist subcommittees. Their tasks include recommending policy and doctrine in relation to radiation safety, overseeing the implementation of appropriate regulations, monitoring their compliance. generating the relevant documentation (particularly on procedures to be followed), developing and improving any necessary training courses, and providing sound technical advice whenever and to whomever required. The internal Defence regulations do not permit radiation doses to exceed those limits recommended by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council and precautions are taken to ensure during normal peace time duties that these levels are not exceeded. At times of national emergency, the Surgeon-General provides guidance and advice to military commanders on the consequences of receiving dose levels that would not be permitted during normal peace time activities. The paper describes the methods adopted to implement such arrangements

  9. Anomalous normal mode oscillations in semiconductor microcavities

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wang, H. [Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, OR (United States). Dept. of Physics; Hou, H.Q.; Hammons, B.E. [Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)

    1997-04-01

    Semiconductor microcavities as a composite exciton-cavity system can be characterized by two normal modes. Under an impulsive excitation by a short laser pulse, optical polarizations associated with the two normal modes have a {pi} phase difference. The total induced optical polarization is then expected to exhibit a sin{sup 2}({Omega}t)-like oscillation where 2{Omega} is the normal mode splitting, reflecting a coherent energy exchange between the exciton and cavity. In this paper the authors present experimental studies of normal mode oscillations using three-pulse transient four wave mixing (FWM). The result reveals surprisingly that when the cavity is tuned far below the exciton resonance, normal mode oscillation in the polarization is cos{sup 2}({Omega}t)-like, in contrast to what is expected form the simple normal mode model. This anomalous normal mode oscillation reflects the important role of virtual excitation of electronic states in semiconductor microcavities.

  10. Protected area certificates: gaining ground for better ecosystem protection?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Segerstedt, Anna; Grote, Ulrike

    2015-06-01

    Protected areas are vital to sustain a number of ecosystem services. Yet, many protected areas are underfinanced and lack management effectiveness. Protected area certificates have been suggested as a way to resolve these problems. This instrument would allow land managers to certify an area if it meets certain conservation criteria. The certificates could then be sold on an international market, for example to companies and any consumers that are interested in environmental protection. Some pilot initiatives have been launched, yet little is known about future demand and features of protected area certificates. To fill this knowledge gap, we conduct a choice experiment with close to 400 long-distance tourists from Germany as a potential group of buyers. Our results indicate that the respondents have the highest willingness to pay for certificates that conserve sensitive ecosystems and in addition to this lead to poverty reduction and safeguard water resources. For other attributes such as a greenhouse gas reduction, the preferences are less significant. Overall, the results are rather homogenous irrespective of where the protected areas are located. These insights are important for the future design and marketing of protected area certificates.

  11. International conference on electromagnetic fields hazard protection of the human being

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grigor'ev, Yu.G.

    1999-01-01

    The Second International conference concerning the problems of electromagnetic protection of the human being, fundamental and applied studies, normalization of the EMP: philosophy, criteria and harmonization which took place in Moscow in September 1999 is reported. The topics of reports covered both the mechanism of biological action of electromagnetic fields and aspects of impact of electromagnetic fields from various household appliances on the health of practically all modern people (television, radio, energetic, communication). The plenary section on evaluation of hazards of the mobile communication electromagnetic fields and the round table meeting dealing with evaluation of hazards of electromagnetic fields of the cellular communication base stations were conducted in the course of the conference. The plenary meetings were devoted to harmonization of the electromagnetic protection standards of Russia and western countries. The above conference constitutes one of the stages of the WHO international program concerning electromagnetic fields and the human being [ru

  12. Complete Normal Ordering 1: Foundations

    CERN Document Server

    Ellis, John; Skliros, Dimitri P.

    2016-01-01

    We introduce a new prescription for quantising scalar field theories perturbatively around a true minimum of the full quantum effective action, which is to `complete normal order' the bare action of interest. When the true vacuum of the theory is located at zero field value, the key property of this prescription is the automatic cancellation, to any finite order in perturbation theory, of all tadpole and, more generally, all `cephalopod' Feynman diagrams. The latter are connected diagrams that can be disconnected into two pieces by cutting one internal vertex, with either one or both pieces free from external lines. In addition, this procedure of `complete normal ordering' (which is an extension of the standard field theory definition of normal ordering) reduces by a substantial factor the number of Feynman diagrams to be calculated at any given loop order. We illustrate explicitly the complete normal ordering procedure and the cancellation of cephalopod diagrams in scalar field theories with non-derivative i...

  13. Protective effects of vitamin C against gamma-ray induced wholly damage and genetic damage

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fu Chunling; Jiang Weiwei; Zhang Ping; Chen Xiang; Zhu Shengtao

    2000-01-01

    Objective: Protective effects of supplemental vitamin C against 60 Co-gamma-ray induced wholly damage and genetic damage was investigated in mice. Method: Mice were divided into normal control group, irradiation control group and vitamin C experimental group 1,2,3 (which were orally given vitamin C 15, 30, 45 mg/kg.bw for 10 successive days respectively prior to gamma-ray irradiation). Micronuclei in the bone marrow polychromatophilic erythrocytes in each group of mice were examined and the 30 day survival rate of mice following whole-body 5.0 Gy γ irradiation were also determined. Results: Supplemental vitamin C prior to gamma-rays irradiation can significantly decrease bone marrow PECMN rate of mice and increase 30 day survival rate and prolong average survival time. The protection factor is 2.09. Conclusion: Vitamin C has potent protective effects against gamma irradiation induced damage in mice. In certain dose range, vitamin C can absolutely suppress the gamma-rays induced genetic damage in vivo

  14. Protecting unauthorized immigrant mothers improves their children's mental health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hainmueller, Jens; Lawrence, Duncan; Martén, Linna; Black, Bernard; Figueroa, Lucila; Hotard, Michael; Jiménez, Tomás R; Mendoza, Fernando; Rodriguez, Maria I; Swartz, Jonas J; Laitin, David D

    2017-09-08

    The United States is embroiled in a debate about whether to protect or deport its estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants, but the fact that these immigrants are also parents to more than 4 million U.S.-born children is often overlooked. We provide causal evidence of the impact of parents' unauthorized immigration status on the health of their U.S. citizen children. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program granted temporary protection from deportation to more than 780,000 unauthorized immigrants. We used Medicaid claims data from Oregon and exploited the quasi-random assignment of DACA eligibility among mothers with birthdates close to the DACA age qualification cutoff. Mothers' DACA eligibility significantly decreased adjustment and anxiety disorder diagnoses among their children. Parents' unauthorized status is thus a substantial barrier to normal child development and perpetuates health inequalities through the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage. Copyright © 2017 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.

  15. Loft fire protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    White, E.R.; Jensen, J.D.

    1980-01-01

    Quantified criteria that was developed and applied to provide in-depth fire protection for the Loss of Fluid Test (LOFT) Facility are presented. The presentation describes the evolution process that elevated the facility's fire protection from minimal to that required for a highly protected risk or improved risk. Explored are some infrequently used fire protection measures that are poorly understood outside the fire protection profession

  16. Assessing the Risk of Having Small for Gestational Age Newborns Among Lebanese Underweight and Normal Pre-pregnancy Weight Women.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rafei, Rym El; Abbas, Hussein A; Alameddine, Hind; Bizri, Ayah Al; Melki, Imad; Yunis, Khalid A

    2018-01-01

    Introduction It has been established that underweight women with low gestational weight gain (GWG) are at a higher risk of having Small for Gestational Age (SGA) newborns. However, the association remains poorly studied in Middle Eastern societies exhibiting different ethnic groups, genetic predisposing factors along with differences in nutritional food intake during pregnancy. The aim of this study is to assess the risk of having a SGA newborn among underweight and normal weight BMI women while studying the role of GWG in this association. Methods This is a retrospective cross-sectional study of 62,351 singleton pregnancies from the National Collaborative Perinatal Neonatal Network between 2001 and 2009 from 27 hospitals across Lebanon. Women who had underweight and normal pre-pregnancy BMI were included. Results A total of 8.6% newborns were SGA and 6.6% of women were underweight. Among women with normal and underweight pre-pregnancy BMI, 8.6 and 12.4% had SGA births respectively. Overall, the adjusted OR of having SGA newborns was significantly higher among underweight women (OR = 1.448; 95%CI = 1.287-1.630) compared to normal pre-pregnancy BMI. Below normal weight gain significantly increased the odds of SGA for both normal and underweight pre-pregnancy BMI women, with adjusted ORs of 1.535 (95% CI = 1.418-1.661) and 1.970 (95%CI = 1.515-2.560) respectively. Discussion Higher risks of SGA newborns in underweight and normal BMI women with low GWG were observed. In addition, normal weight gain couldn't protect underweight women of having risk for SGA newborns. Hence, all pregnant women should be encouraged to maintain healthy BMI before pregnancy and attain adequate GWG.

  17. Public health protection priorities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alexander, R.E.

    1990-01-01

    Although the inhalation and ingestion of small quantities of radioactive material are not known to be hazardous, tradition, popular demand and governmental directives are imposing costly standards of cleanliness normally associated with confirmed, highly dangerous biological and chemical agents. Examination of the radiation risk data base discloses that these standards are unnecessarily stringent, even if the risks (only hypothesized at low doses) were real. The justifications given are the persuasive axioms that no level of radiation is without risk and that more is known about radiation than any other carcinogen. Actually, the knowledge of this risk to humans does not extend to low doses or even to high doses if the exposure is protracted. Permitted levels are orders of magnitude below those known to be carcinogenic. With the costs of compliance now sufficiently large to cause national tax increases, federal program cuts, or both, an ethical question arises. Should taxes be increased and beneficial programs cut to pay for protection against risks that are trivial at worst and possibly imaginary, when additional resources are needed to combat dangers known to be real?

  18. Inheritance of Properties of Normal and Non-Normal Distributions after Transformation of Scores to Ranks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zimmerman, Donald W.

    2011-01-01

    This study investigated how population parameters representing heterogeneity of variance, skewness, kurtosis, bimodality, and outlier-proneness, drawn from normal and eleven non-normal distributions, also characterized the ranks corresponding to independent samples of scores. When the parameters of population distributions from which samples were…

  19. Spin-filtering effect and proximity effect in normal metal/ferromagnetic insulator/normal metal/superconductor junctions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li Hong; Yang Wei; Yang Xinjian; Qin Minghui; Xu Yihong

    2007-01-01

    Taking into account the thickness of the ferromagnetic insulator (FI), the spin-filtering effect and proximity effect in normal metal/ferromagnetic insulator/normal metal/superconductor (NM/FI/NM/SC) junctions are studied based on an extended Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk (BTK) theory. It is shown that a spin-dependent energy shift during the tunneling process induces splitting of the sub-energy gap conductance peaks and the spin polarization in the ferromagnetic insulator causes an imbalance of the peak heights. Different from the ferromagnet the spin-filtering effect of the FI cannot cause the reversion of the normalized conductance in NM/FI/NM/SC junctions

  20. Relative protection from ischaemic heart disease in beta-thalassaemia carriers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bozdar, M.; Ahmed, S.; Anwar, J.

    2010-01-01

    To compare the frequency of beta thalassaemia trait in individuals with Ischaemic Heart Disease (IHD) and a control population without IHD. Study Design: Case control study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Haematology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), Rawalpindi, from September 2007 to May 2009. Methodology: Using non-probability consecutive sampling, a total of 544 subjects were selected, including 272 IHD patients and an equal number of age and gender matched normal controls. The subjects were tested for the presence of b-thalassaemia trait by performing their blood counts, haemoglobin electrophoresis and Haemoglobin A2 (HbA2) estimation. Proportions were compared using chi-square test. Odds ratio was also calculated. Results: The frequency of b-thalassaemia trait was determined in IHD patients and was compared to the frequency in normal Pakistani population. Six out of the 272 control subjects (2.2%) had b-thalassaemia trait and one of the control subject had Haemoglobin D trait. In contrast, none of the 272 IHD patients had b-thalassaemia trait. The calculated odds ratio was less than 1, which shows a significant negative association of b-thalassaemia trait with IHD. The difference in the frequency of b-thalassaemia trait in the two groups was statistically significant (p=0.033). Conclusion: The results suggest that b-thalassaemia carriers have some protection against IHD, though it is not an absolute cardio protection due to the role of other risk factors in IHD. This beneficial information may be communicated to the concerned individuals in their counselling sessions and as part of general awareness on thalassaemia. (author)

  1. Analysis of Uncertainties in Protection Heater Delay Time Measurements and Simulations in Nb$_{3}$Sn High-Field Accelerator Magnets

    CERN Document Server

    Salmi, Tiina; Marchevsky, Maxim; Bajas, Hugo; Felice, Helene; Stenvall, Antti

    2015-01-01

    The quench protection of superconducting high-field accelerator magnets is presently based on protection heaters, which are activated upon quench detection to accelerate the quench propagation within the winding. Estimations of the heater delay to initiate a normal zone in the coil are essential for the protection design. During the development of Nb3Sn magnets for the LHC luminosity upgrade, protection heater delays have been measured in several experiments, and a new computational tool CoHDA (Code for Heater Delay Analysis) has been developed for heater design. Several computational quench analyses suggest that the efficiency of the present heater technology is on the borderline of protecting the magnets. Quantifying the inevitable uncertainties related to the measured and simulated delays is therefore of pivotal importance. In this paper, we analyze the uncertainties in the heater delay measurements and simulations using data from five impregnated high-field Nb3Sn magnets with different heater geometries. ...

  2. The importance of layout and configuration data for flexibility during commissionning and operation of the LHC machine protection systems

    CERN Document Server

    Mariethoz, Julien; Le Roux, Pascal; Bernard, Frederic; Harrison, Robert; Zerlauth, Markus

    2006-01-01

    Due to the large stored energies in both magnets and particle beams, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) requires a large inventory of machine protection systems, as e.g. powering interlock systems, based on a series of distributed industrial controllers for the protection of the more than 10'000 normal and superconducting magnets. Such systems are required to be at the same time fast, reliable and secure but also flexible and configurable to allow for automated commissioning, remote monitoring and optimization during later operation. Based on the generic hardware architecture of the LHC machine protection systems presented at EPAC 2002 [2] and ICALEPS 2003, the use of configuration data for protection systems in view of the required reliability and safety is discussed. To achieve the very high level of reliability, it is required to use a coherent description of the layout of the accelerator components and of the associated machine protection architecture and their logical interconnections. Mechanisms to guarant...

  3. Analysis of Uncertainties in Protection Heater Delay Time Measurements and Simulations in Nb$_{3}$Sn High-Field Accelerator Magnets

    CERN Document Server

    Salmi, Tiina; Marchevsky, Maxim; Bajas, Hugo; Felice, Helene; Stenvall, Antti

    2015-01-01

    The quench protection of superconducting high-field accelerator magnets is presently based on protection heaters, which are activated upon quench detection to accelerate the quench propagation within the winding. Estimations of the heater delay to initiate a normal zone in the coil are essential for the protection design. During the development of Nb$_{3}$Sn magnets for the LHC luminosity upgrade, protection heater delays have been measured in several experiments, and a new computational tool CoHDA (Code for Heater Delay Analysis) has been developed for heater design. Several computational quench analyses suggest that the efficiency of the present heater technology is on the borderline of protecting the magnets. Quantifying the inevitable uncertainties related to the measured and simulated delays is therefore of pivotal importance. In this paper, we analyze the uncertainties in the heater delay measurements and simulations using data from five impregnated high-field Nb$_{3}$Sn magnets with different heater ge...

  4. Ultrasonographic features of normal lower ureters

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Young Soon; Bae, M. Y.; Park, K. J.; Jeon, H. S.; Lee, J. H.

    1990-01-01

    Although ultrasonographic evaluation of the normal ureters is difficult due to bowel gas, the lower segment of the normal ureters can be visualized using the urinary bladder as an acoustic window. Authors prospetively performed ultrasonography with the standard suprapubic technique and analyzed the ultrasonographic features of normal lower ureters in 79 cases(77%). Length of visualized segment of the distal ureter ranged frp, 1.5cm to 7.2 cm and the visualized segment did not exceed 3.9mm in maximum diameter. Knowledge of sonographic features of the normal lower ureters can be helpful in the evaluation of pathologic or suspected pathologic conditions of the lower ureters

  5. Philosophy of radiological protection and radiation hazard protection law

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kai, Michiaki; Kawano, Takao

    2013-01-01

    The radiation protection and the human safety in radiation facilities are strictly controlled by law. There are rules on the radiation measurement, too. In the present review, philosophy of the radiological protection and the radiation hazard protection law is outlined with reference to ICRP recommendations. (J.P.N.)

  6. Normal pressure hydrocephalus

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hydrocephalus - occult; Hydrocephalus - idiopathic; Hydrocephalus - adult; Hydrocephalus - communicating; Dementia - hydrocephalus; NPH ... Ferri FF. Normal pressure hydrocephalus. In: Ferri FF, ed. ... Elsevier; 2016:chap 648. Rosenberg GA. Brain edema and disorders ...

  7. Neomercazole protection against radiation-induced changes in bioamines and testicular metabolism of rats during starvation stress

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hasan, S.S.; Kushwaha, A.K.S.

    1987-01-01

    Effect of X rays was studied on normally fed and starved rats vis-a-vis neomercazole, a sulfur containing carbimazone as a chemical radioprotector. Levels of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid and vinylmandelic acid which were found rising following exposure to X-rays, were significantly curtailed by the treatment with radioprotector in the protected-cum-irradiated rats. Administration of neomercazole offered protection to the testes against radiation injury by increasing alkaline phophatase and cholesterol contents in the testes of drug-treated-cum-irradiated animals. Pretreatment of neomercazole reduced the rate of mortality in the starvation-cum-irradiated animals as compared to the nontreated starvation-cum-irradiated animals. (author)

  8. Normal form theory and spectral sequences

    OpenAIRE

    Sanders, Jan A.

    2003-01-01

    The concept of unique normal form is formulated in terms of a spectral sequence. As an illustration of this technique some results of Baider and Churchill concerning the normal form of the anharmonic oscillator are reproduced. The aim of this paper is to show that spectral sequences give us a natural framework in which to formulate normal form theory. © 2003 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.

  9. MR guided spatial normalization of SPECT scans

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Crouch, B.; Barnden, L.R.; Kwiatek, R.

    2010-01-01

    Full text: In SPECT population studies where magnetic resonance (MR) scans are also available, the higher resolution of the MR scans allows for an improved spatial normalization of the SPECT scans. In this approach, the SPECT images are first coregistered to their corresponding MR images by a linear (affine) transformation which is calculated using SPM's mutual information maximization algorithm. Non-linear spatial normalization maps are then computed either directly from the MR scans using SPM's built in spatial normalization algorithm, or, from segmented TI MR images using DARTEL, an advanced diffeomorphism based spatial normalization algorithm. We compare these MR based methods to standard SPECT based spatial normalization for a population of 27 fibromyalgia patients and 25 healthy controls with spin echo T 1 scans. We identify significant perfusion deficits in prefrontal white matter in FM patients, with the DARTEL based spatial normalization procedure yielding stronger statistics than the standard SPECT based spatial normalization. (author)

  10. Comparative evidence of the consumption from fast-food restaurants between normal-weight and obese Saudi schoolchildren.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alturki, Hmidan A; Brookes, Denise Sk; Davies, Peter Sw

    2018-04-06

    To provide an in-depth analysis of the relationship between obesity and fast-food consumption by comparing urban obese and normal-weight Saudi Arabian children. A multicentre cross-sectional study was conducted from December 2015 to March 2016. Participants were divided into two groups (normal weight and obese) and further stratified by sex. Groups were randomly selected using a multistage stratified cluster-sampling technique. A self-paced questionnaire was used to collect data relating to food consumption. Weight height and waist circumference were measured and bioelectrical impedance analysis was performed in all children. Capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh. Children aged 9·00-11·99 years (n 1023). Compared with normal-weight groups, intake frequency of fast food/week was higher among the obese groups (Pfast-food consumption outside (Pfast-food meals together was a protective factor against obesity (OR; 95 % CI: 2·67; 1·44, 4·96, Pfast foods (P=0·021), child-friendly menu (P=0·020) and meal cost (Pfast-food restaurants; these data were replicated for parents with obese boys, but not girls. Development of effective interventions to reduce fast-food consumption in Saudi Arabian schoolchildren requires greater research-based evidence of fast-food consumption habits and practices associated with increased childhood obesity.

  11. Radioprotective Effect of Achillea millefolium L Against Genotoxicity Induced by Ionizing Radiation in Human Normal Lymphocytes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Somayeh Shahani

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available The radioprotective effect of Achillea millefolium L (ACM extract was investigated against genotoxicity induced by ionizing radiation (IR in human lymphocytes. Peripheral blood samples were collected from human volunteers and incubated with the methanolic extract of ACM at different concentrations (10, 50, 100, and 200 μg/mL for 2 hours. At each dose point, the whole blood was exposed in vitro to 2.5 Gy of X-ray and then the lymphocytes were cultured with mitogenic stimulation to determine the micronuclei in cytokinesis-blocked binucleated cell. Antioxidant capacity of the extract was determined using free radical-scavenging method. The treatment of lymphocytes with the extract showed a significant decrease in the incidence of micronuclei binucleated cells, as compared with similarly irradiated lymphocytes without any extract treatment. The maximum protection and decrease in frequency of micronuclei were observed at 200 μg/mL of ACM extract which completely protected genotoxicity induced by IR in human lymphocytes. Achillea millefolium extract exhibited concentration-dependent radical-scavenging activity on 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl free radicals. These data suggest that the methanolic extract of ACM may play an important role in the protection of normal tissues against genetic damage induced by IR.

  12. 3j Symbols: To Normalize or Not to Normalize?

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Veenendaal, Michel

    2011-01-01

    The systematic use of alternative normalization constants for 3j symbols can lead to a more natural expression of quantities, such as vector products and spherical tensor operators. The redefined coupling constants directly equate tensor products to the inner and outer products without any additional square roots. The approach is extended to…

  13. A study of response time of pitot pressure probes designed for rapid response and protection of transducer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moore, J. A.

    1979-01-01

    An eight orifice probe, designed to protect the transducer without the use of a baffle, was compared to a standard orifice-baffle probe in the small shock tube and in the expansion tube under normal run conditions. In both facilities, the response time of eight orifice probe was considerable better than the standard probe design.

  14. Determination of over current protection thresholds for class D audio amplifiers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nyboe, Flemming; Risbo, L; Andreani, Pietro

    2005-01-01

    Monolithic class-D audio amplifiers typically feature built-in over current protection circuitry that shuts down the amplifier in case of a short circuit on the output speaker terminals. To minimize cost, the threshold at which the device shuts down must be set just above the maximum current...... that can flow in the loudspeaker during normal operation. The current required is determined by the complex loudspeaker impedance and properties of the music signals played. This work presents a statistical analysis of peak output currents when playing music on typical loudspeakers for home entertainment....

  15. Efficiency and resistance of the artificial oxalate protection treatment on marble against chemical weathering

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Doherty, B.; Pamplona, M.; Selvaggi, R.; Miliani, C.; Matteini, M.; Sgamellotti, A.; Brunetti, B.

    2007-01-01

    The artificial oxalate protection method was analyzed in laboratory experiments in order to achieve an optimum treatment application and concentration giving rise to its most effective protective nature. Spectroscopic (Fourier transform infrared, Micro-Raman and UV-vis colorimetry), microscopic (scanning electron microscope) and contact-angle analyses were carried out to characterize Carrara marble samples before and after application of the treatment to validate its efficiency. The resistance effects against chemical weathering were subsequently observed in a lab-controlled weak acid rain experiment. An acid spray at pH 5.5, representative of normal rain was used to provoke degrade of natural marble, marble treated with the artificial oxalate protective at concentrations of 0.4 and 5% and marble treated with a commercial organic silicon product. Run-off solutions sampled at timely intervals were tested for any change in pH followed by ion chromatography measurements for the presence of calcium ions in solution. The chromatography results of the oxalate treatment applied at a 5% concentration are analogous to an organic commercial product indicating its validity as a method for the conservation of carbonate substrates conferring protection to stone materials against acid environments

  16. Efficiency and resistance of the artificial oxalate protection treatment on marble against chemical weathering

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Doherty, B. [Dipartimento di Chimica, Universita degli Studi di Perugia, via Elce di Sotto, 8, I-60123 Perugia (Italy); Pamplona, M. [Centro de Petrologia e Geoquimica do Instituto Superior Tecnico Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa, Avenida Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisbon (Portugal); Selvaggi, R. [Dipartimento di Chimica, Universita degli Studi di Perugia, via Elce di Sotto, 8, I-60123 Perugia (Italy); Miliani, C. [Istituto CNR di Scienze e Tecnologie Molecolari (ISTM), Dipartimento di Chimica, Universita degli Studi di Perugia, via Elce di Sotto, 8, I-60123 Perugia (Italy)]. E-mail: miliani@thch.unipg.it; Matteini, M. [CNR Istituto, Conservazione e Valorizzazione dei Beni Culturali (ICVBC), Via Madonna del Piano, 10, Edifico C-50019, Florence (Italy); Sgamellotti, A. [Dipartimento di Chimica, Universita degli Studi di Perugia, via Elce di Sotto, 8, I-60123 Perugia (Italy); Istituto CNR di Scienze e Tecnologie Molecolari (ISTM), Dipartimento di Chimica, Universita degli Studi di Perugia, via Elce di Sotto, 8, I-60123 Perugia (Italy); Brunetti, B. [Dipartimento di Chimica, Universita degli Studi di Perugia, via Elce di Sotto, 8, I-60123 Perugia (Italy)

    2007-03-15

    The artificial oxalate protection method was analyzed in laboratory experiments in order to achieve an optimum treatment application and concentration giving rise to its most effective protective nature. Spectroscopic (Fourier transform infrared, Micro-Raman and UV-vis colorimetry), microscopic (scanning electron microscope) and contact-angle analyses were carried out to characterize Carrara marble samples before and after application of the treatment to validate its efficiency. The resistance effects against chemical weathering were subsequently observed in a lab-controlled weak acid rain experiment. An acid spray at pH 5.5, representative of normal rain was used to provoke degrade of natural marble, marble treated with the artificial oxalate protective at concentrations of 0.4 and 5% and marble treated with a commercial organic silicon product. Run-off solutions sampled at timely intervals were tested for any change in pH followed by ion chromatography measurements for the presence of calcium ions in solution. The chromatography results of the oxalate treatment applied at a 5% concentration are analogous to an organic commercial product indicating its validity as a method for the conservation of carbonate substrates conferring protection to stone materials against acid environments.

  17. Normal modified stable processes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Barndorff-Nielsen, Ole Eiler; Shephard, N.

    2002-01-01

    Gaussian (NGIG) laws. The wider framework thus established provides, in particular, for added flexibility in the modelling of the dynamics of financial time series, of importance especially as regards OU based stochastic volatility models for equities. In the special case of the tempered stable OU process......This paper discusses two classes of distributions, and stochastic processes derived from them: modified stable (MS) laws and normal modified stable (NMS) laws. This extends corresponding results for the generalised inverse Gaussian (GIG) and generalised hyperbolic (GH) or normal generalised inverse...

  18. Information booklet on personal protective equipment: arm and hand protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1992-01-01

    Fire, heat, cold, electro-magnetic and ionising radiation, electricity, chemicals, impacts, cuts, abrasion, etc. are the common hazards for arms and hands at work. The gloves chosen for protection of the arm and hand should cover those parts adequately and the material of the gloves should be capable of offering protection against the specific hazard involved. Criteria for choosing arm and hand protection equipment will be based on their shape and part of the arm and hand protected. Guide lines for choosing such personal protection equipment for nuclear facilities are given. (M.K.V.). 3 annexures, 1 appendix

  19. Information booklet on personal protective equipment: eye and face protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1992-01-01

    In all work places where hazards of various kinds are present and the same cannot be totally controlled by engineering methods, suitable personal protective equipment (PPE) shall be used. There are several types of eye and face protection devices available in the market and it is important that employees use the proper type for the particular job. The main classes of eye and face protection devices required for the industrial operations are as follows: (a) eye protection devices which includes: (i) safety goggles (ii) safety spectacles (iii) safety clipons and eye and face protection devices which are (i) eye shield, (ii) face shield, (iii) wire mesh screen guard. Guide lines for selecting appropriate ear and face protection equipment for nuclear installations are given. (M.K.V.). 4 annexures, 1 appendix

  20. Quantiles for Finite Mixtures of Normal Distributions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rahman, Mezbahur; Rahman, Rumanur; Pearson, Larry M.

    2006-01-01

    Quantiles for finite mixtures of normal distributions are computed. The difference between a linear combination of independent normal random variables and a linear combination of independent normal densities is emphasized. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

  1. [Protective effect of compound bismuth and magnesium granules on aspirin-induced gastric mucosal injury in rats].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mu, F H; Hu, F L; Wei, H; Zhang, Y Y; Yang, G B; Lei, X Y; Yang, Y P; Sun, W N; Cui, M H

    2016-02-01

    To investigate the protective effect of compound bismuth and magnesium granules on aspirin-induced gastric mucosal injury in rats and its possible mechanism. Acute gastric mucosal injury model was developed with intraperitoneal injection of aspirin in Wistar rats. The rats were divided into normal control group, injury group, sucralfate protection group, compound bismuth and magnesium granules protection group and its herbal components protection group(each group 12 rats). In the protection groups, drugs as mentioned above were administered by gavage before treated with intraperitoneal injection of aspirin. To evaluate the extent of gastric mucosal injury and the protective effect of drugs, gastric mucosal lesion index, gastric mucosal blood flow, content of gastric mucosal hexosamine, prostaglandins (PG), nitric oxide(NO), tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and interleukin (IL) -1, 2, 8 were measured in each group, and histological changes were observed by gross as well as under microscope and electron microscope. Contents of hexosamine, NO, and PG in all the protection groups were significantly higher than those in the injury group (all Pcompound bismuth and magnesium granules group was significantly higher than that in the sucralfate group ((11.29±0.51) vs(10.80±0.36)nmol/ml, Pcompound bismuth and magnesium granules group were significantly lower than those in the sucralfate group ((328.17±6.56) vs(340.23±8.05)pg/ml, PCompound bismuth and magnesium granules and its herbal components may have significant protective effect on aspirin-induced gastric mucosal injury.

  2. Field Lysimeter Test Facility: Protective barrier test results (FY 1990, the third year)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Campbell, M.D.; Gee, G.W.

    1990-11-01

    The Field Lysimeter Test Facility (FLTF) was constructed to test protective barriers for isolating low-level radioactive and hazardous wastes from the biosphere. Protective barriers are specially configured earth materials placed over near-surface wastes to prevent intrusion of water, plants, and animals. Low-level radioactive waste is stored in near-surface repositories at the Hanford Site and can be transported into the biosphere by water, plants, and animals. The purpose of the FLTF is to measure water balance within barriers as precipitation is partitioned to evaporation (including transpiration), storage, and drainage. Runoff was prevented by raised edges on the lysimeters. Water balance in protective barriers depends on the water-holding capacity of the soil, the gradient of a potential, and the conductivity of the underlying capillary barrier. Current barrier design uses soil with a high water storage capacity and a capillary barrier underlying the soil to increase its water storage capacity. This increased storage capacity is to hold water, which would normally drain, near the the surface where evaporation can cycle it back to the atmosphere. 7 refs., 23 figs., 5 tabs

  3. Protective effects of Mengshan green tea and hawk tea against UV-ray irradiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chen Xiaoming; Ren Zhenglong; Zhang Huaiyu; Tang Zongxiang; Luo Peigao

    2005-01-01

    A group of cultured normal human skin-derived fibroblasts was used as the cell model to investigate protective and repair effects of aqueous extracts of Mengshan green tea and Hawk tea against 320-400 nm UV-ray irradiation, with the methods of MTT colorimetry and LDH release. It was found that the aqueous extracts had strong protective effect on fibroblasts against the UV-rays with dose dependence. There were no significant differences between the two kinds of tea aqueous extracts in a higher concentration of 5 mg/mL, whereas at lower concentrations of 2.5 and 1.25 mg/mL the, green tea aqueous extract was less effective than the hawk-tea aqueous extract in protecting fibroblasts from the UV-ray damage. Meanwhile, it was discovered that the green tea and hawk-tea aqueous extract could repair damages induced by the UV irradiation with dose dependence. But there were no statistically significant differences between the two kinds of aqueous extract. The effects may be related to antioxidant effect of tea polyphenol. (authors)

  4. Normal matter storage of antiprotons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Campbell, L.J.

    1987-01-01

    Various simple issues connected with the possible storage of anti p in relative proximity to normal matter are discussed. Although equilibrium storage looks to be impossible, condensed matter systems are sufficiently rich and controllable that nonequilibrium storage is well worth pursuing. Experiments to elucidate the anti p interactions with normal matter are suggested. 32 refs

  5. Protection of industrial and business secrets in environmental protection law

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Breuer, R.

    1986-01-01

    The author investigates the relation between environmental protection and data protection, especially concerning the protection of industrial and business secrets. For this kind of conflict there are only general administrative and procedural provisions with little systematic order. Special provisions of data protection covering all aspects of industrial and business secrets, as for example in social or tax law, do not exist in German law until now. (WG) [de

  6. Normal zone soliton in large composite superconductors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kupferman, R.; Mints, R.G.; Ben-Jacob, E.

    1992-01-01

    The study of normal zone of finite size (normal domains) in superconductors, has been continuously a subject of interest in the field of applied superconductivity. It was shown that in homogeneous superconductors normal domains are always unstable, so that if a normal domain nucleates, it will either expand or shrink. While testing the stability of large cryostable composite superconductors, a new phenomena was found, the existence of stable propagating normal solitons. The formation of these propagating domains was shown to be a result of the high Joule power generated in the superconductor during the relatively long process of current redistribution between the superconductor and the stabilizer. Theoretical studies were performed in investigate the propagation of normal domains in large composite super conductors in the cryostable regime. Huang and Eyssa performed numerical calculations simulating the diffusion of heat and current redistribution in the conductor, and showed the existence of stable propagating normal domains. They compared the velocity of normal domain propagation with the experimental data, obtaining a reasonable agreement. Dresner presented an analytical method to solve this problem if the time dependence of the Joule power is given. He performed explicit calculations of normal domain velocity assuming that the Joule power decays exponentially during the process of current redistribution. In this paper, the authors propose a system of two one-dimensional diffusion equations describing the dynamics of the temperature and the current density distributions along the conductor. Numerical simulations of the equations reconfirm the existence of propagating domains in the cryostable regime, while an analytical investigation supplies an explicit formula for the velocity of the normal domain

  7. "Differently normal" and "normally different": negotiations of female embodiment in women's accounts of 'atypical' sex development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guntram, Lisa

    2013-12-01

    During recent decades numerous feminist scholars have scrutinized the two-sex model and questioned its status in Western societies and medicine. Along the same line, increased attention has been paid to individuals' experiences of atypical sex development, also known as intersex or 'disorders of sex development' (DSD). Yet research on individuals' experiences of finding out about their atypical sex development in adolescence has been scarce. Against this backdrop, the present article analyses 23 in-depth interviews with women who in their teens found out about their atypical sex development. The interviews were conducted during 2009-2012 and the interviewees were all Swedish. Drawing on feminist research on female embodiment and social scientific studies on diagnosis, I examine how the women make sense of their bodies and situations. First, I aim to explore how the women construe normality as they negotiate female embodiment. Second, I aim to investigate how the divergent manners in which these negotiations are expressed can be further understood via the women's different access to a diagnosis. Through a thematic and interpretative analysis, I outline two negotiation strategies: the "differently normal" and the "normally different" strategy. In the former, the women present themselves as just slightly different from 'normal' women. In the latter, they stress that everyone is different in some manner and thereby claim normalcy. The analysis shows that access to diagnosis corresponds to the ways in which the women present themselves as "differently normal" and "normally different", thus shedding light on the complex role of diagnosis in their negotiations of female embodiment. It also reveals that the women make use of what they do have and how alignments with and work on norms interplay as normality is construed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Numerical differential protection

    CERN Document Server

    Ziegler, Gerhard

    2012-01-01

    Differential protection is a fast and selective method of protection against short-circuits. It is applied in many variants for electrical machines, trans?formers, busbars, and electric lines.Initially this book covers the theory and fundamentals of analog and numerical differential protection. Current transformers are treated in detail including transient behaviour, impact on protection performance, and practical dimensioning. An extended chapter is dedicated to signal transmission for line protection, in particular, modern digital communication and GPS timing.The emphasis is then pla

  9. Personal protective equipment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2004-01-01

    This Practical Radiation Technical Manual is one of a series that has been designed to provide guidance on radiological protection for employers, radiation protection officers, managers and other technically competent persons who have responsibility for ensuring the safety of employees working with ionizing radiation. The Manual may be used with the appropriate IAEA Practical Radiation Safety Manuals to provide training, instruction and information for all employees engaged in work with ionizing radiation. Personal protective equipment (PPE) includes clothing or other special equipment that is issued to individual workers to provide protection against actual or potential exposure to ionizing radiations. It is used to protect each worker against the prevailing risk of external or internal exposure in circumstances in which it is not reasonably practicable to provide complete protection by means of engineering controls or administrative methods. Adequate personal protection depends on PPE being correctly selected, fitted and maintained. Appropriate training for the users and arrangements to monitor usage are also necessary to ensure that PPE provides the intended degree of protection effectively. This Manual explains the principal types of PPE, including protective clothing and respiratory protective equipment (RPE). Examples of working procedures are also described to indicate how PPE should be used within a safe system of work. The Manual will be of most benefit if it forms part of a more comprehensive training programme or is supplemented by the advice of a qualified expert in radiation protection. Some of the RPE described in this Manual should be used under the guidance of a qualified expert

  10. An investigation on normal school students’ learning burnout – A case study of English normal students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Linjing Xu

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Learning burnout is a phenomenon in which students hold a negative attitude to curriculum learning, which manifests in aspects of physiology, psychology, behavior and interpersonal communication. China attaches great importance to higher education, colleges and universities shoulder the important task of training national modernization personnel. The problem of university students’ learning burnout has become a social phenomenon that cannot be ignored. Normal university students are one of the important groups of college students, and this phenomenon of learning burnout may also occur among them. English majors are the backbone of English teachers in primary and secondary schools in the future. The learning status of these groups affects the overall quality of teaching in normal colleges and universities and, more importantly, the quality of teachers in primary and secondary schools in the future. This paper first reviews the definition of learning burnout and the research methods of measurement. Subsequently, it investigates the learning burnout of English matriculation students by taking the first-year English majors of Jiangxi Normal University as an example. In this way, this research is hoped to promote the study on learning burnout not only among English normal students but also other normal students.

  11. Normal Weight Dyslipidemia

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ipsen, David Hojland; Tveden-Nyborg, Pernille; Lykkesfeldt, Jens

    2016-01-01

    Objective: The liver coordinates lipid metabolism and may play a vital role in the development of dyslipidemia, even in the absence of obesity. Normal weight dyslipidemia (NWD) and patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) who do not have obesity constitute a unique subset...... of individuals characterized by dyslipidemia and metabolic deterioration. This review examined the available literature on the role of the liver in dyslipidemia and the metabolic characteristics of patients with NAFLD who do not have obesity. Methods: PubMed was searched using the following keywords: nonobese......, dyslipidemia, NAFLD, NWD, liver, and metabolically obese/unhealthy normal weight. Additionally, article bibliographies were screened, and relevant citations were retrieved. Studies were excluded if they had not measured relevant biomarkers of dyslipidemia. Results: NWD and NAFLD without obesity share a similar...

  12. Reduced protection of stem spermatogonia by WR-2721 at low doses of irradiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Meistrich, M.; Finch, M.; Hunter, N.; Milas, L.

    1984-01-01

    The radioprotection of normal cells with WR-2721 at low doses of radiation (about 2 Gy per fraction) was investigated using testicular stem cells. Survival of stem spermatogonia to single doses of irradiation, measured using sperm head counts at 56 days postirradiation, indicated no protection factor (PF = 1.00) at 2 GY by 400 mg/kg WR-2721, but a significant PF = 1.44 at 12 Gy. Stem cell survival was also measured after 5 fractions. When daily fractionation was used with 300 mg/kg WR-2721, given prior to each irradiation, little or no protection was observed at 2 Gy using the sperm head assay (PF = 0.98) or at 2.4 Gy using counts of repopulating tubules at 35 days postirradiation (PF = 1.12). In contrast, there was more significant protection (PF's = 1.22 and 1.27) for these two assays when 300 mg/kg WR-2721 was used with single high doses of radiation. When 4-hour fractionation was used with 300 mg/kg WR-2721, given prior to the first dose and 150 mg/kg prior to subsequent doses, minimal protection was observed at 2 Gy/fraction using the sperm head assay (PF = 0.98) and the repopulating tubule assay (PF = 1.09). Thus, protection of these cells in the clinical dose range is much lower than that observed at doses above 10 Gy. These results may be explained by a decrease in the intrinsic ability of WR-2721 to protect at lower radiation doses plus a cytotoxic effect of WR-2721

  13. Normalized cDNA libraries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soares, Marcelo B.; Efstratiadis, Argiris

    1997-01-01

    This invention provides a method to normalize a directional cDNA library constructed in a vector that allows propagation in single-stranded circle form comprising: (a) propagating the directional cDNA library in single-stranded circles; (b) generating fragments complementary to the 3' noncoding sequence of the single-stranded circles in the library to produce partial duplexes; (c) purifying the partial duplexes; (d) melting and reassociating the purified partial duplexes to moderate Cot; and (e) purifying the unassociated single-stranded circles, thereby generating a normalized cDNA library.

  14. The protective activity of Conyza blinii saponin against acute gastric ulcer induced by ethanol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Long; Liu, Jiangguang

    2014-12-02

    Conyza blinii H.Lév., is a type of natural plant. Its dried overground section is used to treat infections and inflammations in traditional Chinese medicine. Triterpenoidal saponins have a wide range of bioactivities, for instance, anti-cancer, anti-virus and anti-anaphylaxis. Conyza blinii saponin (CBS), mainly composed of triterpenoidal saponins, is the total saponin of Conyza blinii H.Lév. It has been reported that CBS also has gastric mucous membrane protection activity. This study aims to test CBS׳s protective activity of gastric׳s mucous membrane against ethanol. This investigation may lead to the development of novel drug from natural products as anti-ulcer agent, or as gastric mucous protective against chemical damage. CBS (Conyza blinii saponin) is the total saponin of Conyza blinii H.Lév., which was obtained as described previously. We tested the protective activity of CBS against ethanol-induced ulcer. Thirty six rats were grouped randomly as 'NORMAL', 'CONTROL', 'MODEL', 'LOW DOSE', 'MEDIUM DOSE' and 'HIGH DOSE'. The 'NORMAL' group were rats with no pathological model established within it. The 'CONTROL' group was administrated with colloidal bismuth subcitrate, while 'MODEL' group was not given any active agents apart from absolute ethanol in order to obtain gastric ulcer model. The three 'DOSE' groups were treated with different concentrations of CBS (5, 10, 20mg/mL) before administration followed by absolute ethanol. All rats were sacrificed after the experiment to acquire the gastric tissue. The ulcer index (UI), malondialdehyde (MDA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were measured to monitor the activity of CBS. Besides, the rat gastric tissue was made to paraffin section and stained using the Hematoxylin-Eosin (HE) method. The histopathology examination was carried out to examine CBS efficacy in terms of gastric mucous protection. We found that CBS had a profound protection activity against acute gastric ulcer induced by ethanol and this

  15. Immune Modulation in Normal Human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) (Lymphocytes) in Response to Benzofuran-2-Carboxylic Acid Derivative KMEG during Spaceflight

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okoro, Elvis; Mann, Vivek; Ellis, Ivory; Mansoor, Elvedina; Olamigoke, Loretta; Marriott, Karla Sue; Denkins, Pamela; Williams, Willie; Sundaresan, Alamelu

    2017-08-01

    Microgravity and radiation exposure during space flight have been widely reported to induce the suppression of normal immune system function, and increase the risk of cancer development in humans. These findings pose a serious risk to manned space missions. Interestingly, recent studies have shown that benzofuran-2-carboxylic acid derivatives can inhibit the progression of some of these devastating effects on earth and in modeled microgravity. However, these studies had not assessed the impacts of benzofuran-2- carboxylic acid and its derivatives on global gene expression under spaceflight conditions. In this study, the ability of a specific benzofuran-2-carboxylic acid derivative (KMEG) to confer protection from radiation and restore normal immune function was investigated following exposure to space flight conditions on the ISS. Normal human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (lymphocytes) treated with 10 µ g/ml of KMEG together with untreated control samples were flown on Nanoracks hardware on Spacex-3 flight. The Samples were returned one month later and gene expression was analyzed. A 1g-ground control experiment was performed in parallel at the Kennedy spaceflight center. The first overall subtractive unrestricted analysis revealed 78 genes, which were differentially expressed in space flight KMEG, untreated lymphocytes as compared to the corresponding ground controls. However, in KMEG-treated space flight lymphocytes, there was an increased expression of a group of genes that mediate increased transcription, translation and innate immune system mediating functions of lymphocytes as compared to KMEG-untreated samples. Analysis of genes related to T cell proliferation in spaceflight KMEG-treated lymphocytes compared to 1g-ground KMEG- treated lymphocytes revealed six T cell proliferation and signaling genes to be significantly upregulated (p trafficking, promote early response, mediating C-myc related proliferation, promote antiapoptotic activity and protects

  16. Sculpting humoral immunity through dengue vaccination to enhance protective immunity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wayne eCrill

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Dengue viruses (DENV are the most important mosquito transmitted viral pathogens infecting humans. DENV infection produces a spectrum of disease, most commonly causing a self-limiting flu-like illness known as dengue fever; yet with increased frequency, manifesting as life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF. Waning cross-protective immunity from any of the four dengue serotypes may enhance subsequent infection with another heterologous serotype to increase the probability of DHF. Decades of effort to develop dengue vaccines are reaching the finishing line with multiple candidates in clinical trials. Nevertheless, concerns remain that imbalanced immunity, due to the prolonged prime-boost schedules currently used in clinical trials, could leave some vaccinees temporarily unprotected or with increased susceptibility to enhanced disease. Here we develop a DENV serotype 1 (DENV-1 DNA vaccine with the immunodominant cross-reactive B cell epitopes associated with immune enhancement removed. We compare wild-type (WT with this cross-reactivity reduced (CRR vaccine and demonstrate that both vaccines are equally protective against lethal homologous DENV-1 challenge. Under conditions mimicking natural exposure prior to acquiring protective immunity, WT vaccinated mice enhanced a normally sub-lethal heterologous DENV-2 infection resulting in DHF-like disease and 95% mortality in AG129 mice. However, CRR vaccinated mice exhibited redirected serotype-specific and protective immunity, and significantly reduced morbidity and mortality not differing from naïve mice. Thus, we demonstrate in an in vivo DENV disease model, that non-protective vaccine-induced immunity can prime vaccinees for enhanced DHF-like disease and that CRR DNA immunization significantly reduces this potential vaccine safety concern. The sculpting of immune memory by the modified vaccine and resulting redirection of humoral immunity provide insight into DENV vaccine induced immune

  17. Spin-filter effect in normal metal/ferromagnetic insulator/normal metal/superconductor structures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, Hong; Yang, Wei; Yang, Xinjian; Qin, Minghui; Guo, Jianqin

    2007-01-01

    Taking into account the thickness of the ferromagnetic insulator, the spin-filter effect in normal metal/ferromagnetic insulator/normal metal/superconductor (NM/FI/NM/SC) junctions is studied based on the Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk (BTK) theory. It is shown that a spin-dependent energy shift during the tunneling process induces splitting of the subgap resonance peaks. The spin polarization due to the spin-filter effect of the FI causes an imbalance of the peaks heights and can enhance the Zeeman splitting of the gap peaks caused by an applied magnetic field. The spin-filter effect has no contribution to the proximity-effect-induced superconductivity in NM interlayer

  18. Description of a method of control for glass lenses used as a protection medium against radiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alonso, J.V.S.; Torio, P.P.

    1977-01-01

    The control of ocular protection medium which is normally used by workers, finds itself confronted by unsurmountable difficulties. Transmission determination needs fine glass lenses, extrapolating the values obtained to the real value of the medium used. The degree of protection required of the glass used by workers has been determined using successive approximations. The work method is quick and simple, and the apparatus used is within the reach of any medium sized laboratory. A theoretical justification has been made of the fundamental principles of the method; for example, the protective power of various filter lenses used by workers in this country has been determined. The method has been centred on the possibility of its practical application. The results obtained are interpreted taking into consideration a possible emissing source, and their discussion is based on prevailing standards which exist in most European countries. The control carried out has allowed to state that in most cases the protection medium used is not adequate, owing to a poor selection or an inadequate maintenance

  19. Normal Functioning Family

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Spread the Word Shop AAP Find a Pediatrician Family Life Medical Home Family Dynamics Adoption & Foster Care ... Español Text Size Email Print Share Normal Functioning Family Page Content Article Body Is there any way ...

  20. Adaptive protection scheme

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Sitharthan

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available This paper aims at modelling an electronically coupled distributed energy resource with an adaptive protection scheme. The electronically coupled distributed energy resource is a microgrid framework formed by coupling the renewable energy source electronically. Further, the proposed adaptive protection scheme provides a suitable protection to the microgrid for various fault conditions irrespective of the operating mode of the microgrid: namely, grid connected mode and islanded mode. The outstanding aspect of the developed adaptive protection scheme is that it monitors the microgrid and instantly updates relay fault current according to the variations that occur in the system. The proposed adaptive protection scheme also employs auto reclosures, through which the proposed adaptive protection scheme recovers faster from the fault and thereby increases the consistency of the microgrid. The effectiveness of the proposed adaptive protection is studied through the time domain simulations carried out in the PSCAD⧹EMTDC software environment.

  1. The solar ultraviolet B radiation protection provided by shading devices with regard to its diffuse component.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kudish, Avraham I; Harari, Marco; Evseev, Efim G

    2011-10-01

    The composition of the incident solar global ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation with regard to its beam and diffuse radiation fractions is highly relevant with regard to outdoor sun protection. This is especially true with respect to sun protection during leisure-time outdoor sun exposure at the shore and pools, where people tend to escape the sun under shade trees or different types of shading devices, e.g., umbrellas, overhangs, etc., believing they offer protection from the erythemal solar radiation. The degree of sun protection offered by such devices is directly related to the composition of the solar global UVB radiation, i.e., its beam and diffuse fractions. The composition of the incident solar global UVB radiation can be determined by measuring the global UVB (using Solar Light Co. Inc., Model 501A UV-Biometer) and either of its components. The beam component of the UVB radiation was determined by measuring the normal incidence beam radiation using a prototype, tracking instrument consisting of a Solar Light Co. Inc. Model 501A UV-Biometer mounted on an Eppley Solar Tracker Model St-1. The horizontal beam component of the global UVB radiation was calculated from the measured normal incidence using a simple geometric correlation and the diffuse component is determined as the difference between global and horizontal beam radiations. Horizontal and vertical surfaces positioned under a horizontal overhang/sunshade or an umbrella are not fully protected from exposure to solar global UVB radiation. They can receive a significant fraction of the UVB radiation, depending on their location beneath the shading device, the umbrella radius and the albedo (reflectance) of the surrounding ground surface in the case of a vertical surface. Shading devices such as an umbrella or horizontal overhang/shade provide relief from the solar global radiation and do block the solar global UVB radiation to some extent; nevertheless, a significant fraction of the solar global UVB

  2. A design of high-precision BLDCM drive with bus voltage protection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lian, Xuezheng; Wang, Haitao; Xie, Meilin; Huang, Wei; Li, Dawei; Jing, Feng

    2017-11-01

    In the application of space satellite turntable, the design of balance wheel is very necessary. To solve the acquisition precision of Brushless DC motor speed is low, and the encoder is also more complex, this paper improves the original hall signal measurement methods. Using the logic device to achieve the six frequency multiplication of hall signal, the signal is used as speed feedback to achieve speed closed-loop control and improve the speed stability. At the same time, in order to prevent the E.M.F of BLDC motor to raise the voltage of the bus bar when reversing or braking, and affect the normal operation of other circuit modules, the analog circuit is used to protect the bus bar voltage by the way of energy consumption braking. The experimental results are consistent with the theoretical design, and the rationality and feasibility of the frequency multiplication scheme and bus voltage protection scheme are verified.

  3. Field guide for the protection and cleanup of oiled Arctic shorelines

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Owens, E.H.

    1996-01-01

    Practical suggestions for the protection, treatment and cleanup of oiled shorelines during summer and open-water conditions are described. This manual was developed as a field guide to be used during spill response operations for the rapid identification of shoreline response options. Special attention is given to techniques that are normally available and appropriate for shoreline types and coastal environmental setting that are typical of Arctic regions. The guide is divided into four main sections: (1) shoreline protection, (2) treatment strategy by shoreline type, (3) treatment or cleanup methods, and (4) response strategies for specific environments. The importance of the type and volume of oil spilled, and the environmental factors that should be taken into account in the event of a spill (time of year, weather, ice and wave conditions) are stressed. The presence of sensitive resources such as wildlife, fish stocks, plant communities and human-use activities are also considered. tabs., figs

  4. Protective effects of ginger and marshmallow extracts on indomethacin-induced peptic ulcer in rats

    OpenAIRE

    Zaghlool, Sameh S.; Shehata, Basim A.; Abo-Seif, Ali A.; Abd El-Latif, Hekma A.

    2015-01-01

    Background: Gastric ulcer is one of the most serious diseases. Most classic treatment lines produce adverse drug reactions. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the protective effects of two natural extracts, namely ginger and marshmallow extracts, on indomethacin-induced gastric ulcer in rats. Materials and Methods: Animals were divided into five groups; a normal control group, an ulcer control group, and three treatment groups receiving famotidine (20 mg/kg), ginger (100 mg/kg), and m...

  5. Parser Adaptation for Social Media by Integrating Normalization

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van der Goot, Rob; van Noord, Gerardus

    This work explores normalization for parser adaptation. Traditionally, normalization is used as separate pre-processing step. We show that integrating the normalization model into the parsing algorithm is beneficial. This way, multiple normalization candidates can be leveraged, which improves

  6. Tests for radiation protection in X-Ray mammography room for professional and non-professional exposure

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Naidenov, I.; Skocheva, A.

    2006-01-01

    Full text: Control tests for radiation protection of medical diagnostic rooms in our country are based on the guidelines to the use of x-rays in medicine and on the basic safety standards for radiation protection. The mammography room tests are not supported by basic data (such as normal conditions for testing and secondary limits) which to allow the developing of methods as the case is with the conventional x-ray rooms. The material presents and discusses over the situation of the matter with the aim to find solution of the problem. In mammography units the space distribution of the dose field of the object scattering radiation is not symmetrical, the maximum being in a direction opposite to the primary beam. Control tests were made for stray radiation in major (in the plane of beam rotation) test points in five rooms with mammography units of different producers and generation, under angles of scattering from the direction of the beam of 900 (horizontal table - 0 deg projection) and 1630 (tilt table - 730 deg projection). The results on the stray radiation show up to four times higher values in the 730 projection, the remaining conditions being the same. Normalization to the week loading used in the shielding design, like the comparison with secondary limits as published in the available norms do not give unambiguous idea. It is advisable to use this projection in control tests for radiation protection and the values shall be compared with the secondary limits of the corresponding standard loading

  7. Numerical distance protection

    CERN Document Server

    Ziegler, Gerhard

    2011-01-01

    Distance protection provides the basis for network protection in transmission systems and meshed distribution systems. This book covers the fundamentals of distance protection and the special features of numerical technology. The emphasis is placed on the application of numerical distance relays in distribution and transmission systems.This book is aimed at students and engineers who wish to familiarise themselves with the subject of power system protection, as well as the experienced user, entering the area of numerical distance protection. Furthermore it serves as a reference guide for s

  8. Ethics and "normal birth".

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lyerly, Anne Drapkin

    2012-12-01

    The concept of "normal birth" has been promoted as ideal by several international organizations, although debate about its meaning is ongoing. In this article, I examine the concept of normalcy to explore its ethical implications and raise a trio of concerns. First, in its emphasis on nonuse of technology as a goal, the concept of normalcy may marginalize women for whom medical intervention is necessary or beneficial. Second, in its emphasis on birth as a socially meaningful event, the mantra of normalcy may unintentionally avert attention to meaning in medically complicated births. Third, the emphasis on birth as a normal and healthy event may be a contributor to the long-standing tolerance for the dearth of evidence guiding the treatment of illness during pregnancy and the failure to responsibly and productively engage pregnant women in health research. Given these concerns, it is worth debating not just what "normal birth" means, but whether the term as an ideal earns its keep. © 2012, Copyright the Authors Journal compilation © 2012, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  9. Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... improves the chance of a good recovery. Without treatment, symptoms may worsen and cause death. What research is being done? The NINDS conducts and supports research on neurological disorders, including normal pressure hydrocephalus. Research on disorders such ...

  10. Machine Protection

    CERN Document Server

    Schmidt, R

    2014-01-01

    The protection of accelerator equipment is as old as accelerator technology and was for many years related to high-power equipment. Examples are the protection of powering equipment from overheating (magnets, power converters, high-current cables), of superconducting magnets from damage after a quench and of klystrons. The protection of equipment from beam accidents is more recent. It is related to the increasing beam power of high-power proton accelerators such as ISIS, SNS, ESS and the PSI cyclotron, to the emission of synchrotron light by electron–positron accelerators and FELs, and to the increase of energy stored in the beam (in particular for hadron colliders such as LHC). Designing a machine protection system requires an excellent understanding of accelerator physics and operation to anticipate possible failures that could lead to damage. Machine protection includes beam and equipment monitoring, a system to safely stop beam operation (e.g. dumping the beam or stopping the beam at low energy) and an ...

  11. Evaluating Transfer Entropy for Normal and y-Order Normal Distributions

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Hlaváčková-Schindler, Kateřina; Toulias, T. L.; Kitsos, C. P.

    2016-01-01

    Roč. 17, č. 5 (2016), s. 1-20 ISSN 2231-0851 Institutional support: RVO:67985556 Keywords : Transfer entropy * time series * Kullback-Leibler divergence * causality * generalized normal distribution Subject RIV: BC - Control Systems Theory http://library.utia.cas.cz/separaty/2016/AS/hlavackova-schindler-0461261.pdf

  12. Computerized three-dimensional normal atlas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mano, Isamu; Suto, Yasuzo; Suzuki, Masataka; Iio, Masahiro.

    1990-01-01

    This paper presents our ongoing project in which normal human anatomy and its quantitative data are systematically arranged in a computer. The final product, the Computerized Three-Dimensional Normal Atlas, will be able to supply tomographic images in any direction, 3-D images, and coded information on organs, e.g., anatomical names, CT numbers, and T 1 and T 2 values. (author)

  13. MR imaging of the ankle: Normal variants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Noto, A.M.; Cheung, Y.; Rosenberg, Z.S.; Norman, A.; Leeds, N.E.

    1987-01-01

    Thirty asymptomatic ankles were studied with high-resolution surface coil MR imaging. The thirty ankles were reviewed for identification or normal structures. The MR appearance of the deltoid and posterior to talo-fibular ligaments, peroneous brevis and longus tendons, and posterior aspect of the tibial-talar joint demonstrated several normal variants not previously described. These should not be misinterpreted as pathologic processes. The specific findings included (1) cortical irregularity of the posterior tibial-talar joint in 27 of 30 cases which should not be mistaken for osteonecrois; (2) normal posterior talo-fibular ligament with irregular and frayed inhomogeneity, which represents a normal variant in seven of ten cases; and (3) fluid in the shared peroneal tendons sheath which may be confused for a longitudinal tendon tear in three of 30 cases. Ankle imaging with the use of MR is still a relatively new procedure. Further investigation is needed to better define normal anatomy as well as normal variants. The authors described several structures that normally present with variable MR imaging appearances. This is clinically significant in order to maintain a high sensitivity and specificity in MR imaging interpretation

  14. Quantum transport in graphene normal-metal superconductor- normal-metal structures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H. Mohammadpour

    2008-06-01

    Full Text Available  We study the transport of electrons in a graphene NSN structure in which two normal regions are connected by a superconducting strip of thickness d. Within Dirac-Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations we describe the transmission through the contact in terms of different scattering processes consisting of quasiparticle cotunneling, local and crossed Andreev reflections. Compared to a fully normal structure we show that the angular dependence of the transmission probability is significantly modified by the presence of superconducting correlations. This modifation can be explained in terms of the interplay between Andreev reflection and Klein tunneling of chiral quasiparticles. We further analyze the energy dependence of the resulting differential conductance of the structure. The subgap differential conductance shows features of Andreev reflection and cotunelling processes, which tends to the values of an NS structure for large ds. Above the gap, the differential conductance shows an oscillatory behavior with energy even at very large ds.

  15. A pre-protective strategy for precise tumor targeting and efficient photodynamic therapy with a switchable DNA/upconversion nanocomposite.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Zhengze; Ge, Yegang; Sun, Qiaoqiao; Pan, Wei; Wan, Xiuyan; Li, Na; Tang, Bo

    2018-04-14

    Tumor-specific targeting based on folic acid (FA) is one of the most common and significant approaches in cancer therapy. However, the expression of folate receptors (FRs) in normal tissues will lead to unexpected targeting and unsatisfactory therapeutic effect. To address this issue, we develop a pre-protective strategy for precise tumor targeting and efficient photodynamic therapy (PDT) using a switchable DNA/upconversion nanocomposite, which can be triggered in the acidic tumor microenvironment. The DNA/upconversion nanocomposite is composed of polyacrylic acid (PAA) coated upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs), the surface of which is modified using FA and chlorin e6 (Ce6) functionalized DNA sequences with different lengths. Initially, FA on the shorter DNA was protected by a longer DNA to prevent the bonding to FRs on normal cells. Once reaching the acidic tumor microenvironment, C base-rich longer DNA forms a C-quadruplex, resulting in the exposure of the FA groups and the bonding of FA and FRs on cancer cell membranes to achieve precise targeting. Simultaneously, the photosensitizer chlorin e6 (Ce6) gets close to the surface of UCNPs, enabling the excitation of Ce6 to generate singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ) under near infrared light via Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET). In vivo experiments indicated that higher tumor targeting efficiency was achieved and the tumor growth was greatly inhibited through the pre-protective strategy.

  16. Justification, optimization and classification of exposure situations in radiation protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Skrabalek, P.

    2017-01-01

    negligible; - Emergency or safety exposure situations, such as the name of the model, are considered when the source of radiation is dangerously deviating from the normal mode of operation or when there is an unforeseen occurrence of radioactive and / or excessive emission of radiation that threatens workers public; - Existing or subsistent exposure situations, in our conditions most radon in used family houses, but can be landfills after the mining of radioactive minerals, in other countries, such as Belarus, Ukraine, the Russian Federation and Japan, large areas contaminated by radioactivity from overcome nuclear accidents. In all exposure situations, the radiation protection instruments or principles are adequately applied. Justification, optimization and individual dose limits. (author)

  17. The FOCON model to assess doses due to the atmospheric radioactive discharges of nuclear facilities during normal operation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rommens, C.; Morin, A.; Merle-Szeremeta, A.

    1999-01-01

    The FOCON model to assess doses due to the atmospheric radioactive discharges of nuclear facilities during normal operation. To assess the dosimetric impact to the public due to atmospheric radioactive discharges of nuclear facilities during normal operation, the Institute for Protection and Nuclear Safety has developed the FOCON96 code. FOCON96 calculates the dispersion of gases and aerosols into the environment (atmosphere contamination and ground deposition), their transfer in the biosphere (soils, plants and animals) and their impact to a member of the public (individual effective and equivalent doses, external exposure to the plume and to the deposits, internal exposure by inhalation and ingestion). FOCON96 uses ergonomic windows and proposes many capabilities (modular architecture, default values, choice of libraries, access to all the parameters of the models, listing or results, management of result files, calculations made directly, etc.). In the European context, and intercomparison with the PC-CREAM code, developed by the National Radiological Protection Board, has shown the coherence of the results of the two codes. A comparison of the windows and capabilities has shown that FOCON96 was easier to use. FOCON96 is not adapted to calculate the doses received during one particular year that are due to the discharges of a facility in operation for a long period of time. An evolution of the software will be considered if this kind of assessment is generalized. (authors)

  18. Concepts of radiation protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2013-01-01

    This seventh chapter presents the concepts and principles of safety and radiation protection, emergency situations; NORM and TENORM; radiation protection care; radiation protection plan; activities of the radiation protection service; practical rules of radiation protection and the radiation symbol

  19. Attenuation of radiation-induced DNA damage due to paracrine interactions between normal human epithelial and stromal cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Saenko, V.A.; Nakazawa, Yu.; Rogounovitch, T.I.; Suzuki, K.; Mitsutake, N.; Matsuse, M.; Yamashita, S.

    2007-01-01

    Complete text of publication follows. Objective: Developmentally, every tissue accommodates different types of cells, such as epitheliocytes and stromal cells in parenchymal organs. To better understand the complexity of radiation response, it is necessary to evaluate possible cross-talk between different tissue components. This work was set out to investigate reciprocal influence of normal human epithelial cells and fibroblasts on the extent of radiation-induced DNA damage. Methods: Model cultures of primary human thyrocytes (PT), normal diploid fibroblasts (BJ), PT/BJ cell co-culture and conditioned medium transfer were used to examine DNA damage in terms of γ-H2AX foci number per cell or by Comet assay after exposure to different doses of γ-rays. Results: In co-cultures, the kinetics of γ-H2AX foci number change was dose-dependent and similar to that in individual PT and BJ cultures. The number of γ-H2AX foci in co-cultures was significantly lower (∼25%) in both types of cells comparing to individual cultures. Reciprocal conditioned medium transfer to individual counterpart cells prior to irradiation resulted in approximately 35% reduction in the number γ-H2AX foci at 1 Gy and lower doses in both PT and BJ demonstrating the role of paracrine soluble factors. Comet assay corroborated the results of γ-H2AX foci counting in conditioned medium transfer experiments. In contrast to medium conditioned on PT cells, conditioned medium collected from several human thyroid cancer cell lines failed to establish DNA-protected state in BJ fibroblasts. In its turn, medium conditioned on BJ cells did not change the extent of radiation-induced DNA damage in cancer cell lines tested. Conclusion: The results imply the existence of a network of soluble factor-mediated paracrine interactions between normal epithelial and stromal cells that could be a part of natural mechanism by which cells protect DNA from genotoxic stress.

  20. Radiation protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Koelzer, W.

    1975-01-01

    Physical and radiological terms, quantities, and units. Basic principles of radiation protection (ICRP, IAEA, EURATOM, FRG). Biological effects of ionizing radiation. Objectives of practical radiation protection. (HP) [de

  1. CD8 Knockout Mice Are Protected from Challenge by Vaccination with WR201, a Live Attenuated Mutant of Brucella melitensis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Samuel L. Yingst

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available CD8+ T cells have been reported to play an important role in defense against B. abortus infection in mouse models. In the present report, we use CD8 knockout mice to further elucidate the role of these cells in protection from B. melitensis infection. Mice were immunized orally by administration of B. melitensis WR201, a purine auxotrophic attenuated vaccine strain, then challenged intranasally with B. melitensis 16M. In some experiments, persistence of WR201 in the spleens of CD8 knockout mice was slightly longer than that in the spleens of normal mice. However, development of anti-LPS serum antibody, antigen-induced production of γ-interferon (IFN-γ by immune splenic lymphocytes, protection against intranasal challenge, and recovery of nonimmunized animals from intranasal challenge were similar between normal and knockout animals. Further, primary Brucella infection was not exacerbated in perforin knockout and Fas-deficient mice and these animals’ anti-Brucella immune responses were indistinguishable from those of normal mice. These results indicate that CD8+ T cells do not play an essential role as either cytotoxic cells or IFN-γ producers, yet they do participate in a specific immune response to immunization and challenge in this murine model of B. melitensis infection.

  2. Machine Protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schmidt, R

    2014-01-01

    The protection of accelerator equipment is as old as accelerator technology and was for many years related to high-power equipment. Examples are the protection of powering equipment from overheating (magnets, power converters, high-current cables), of superconducting magnets from damage after a quench and of klystrons. The protection of equipment from beam accidents is more recent. It is related to the increasing beam power of high-power proton accelerators such as ISIS, SNS, ESS and the PSI cyclotron, to the emission of synchrotron light by electron–positron accelerators and FELs, and to the increase of energy stored in the beam (in particular for hadron colliders such as LHC). Designing a machine protection system requires an excellent understanding of accelerator physics and operation to anticipate possible failures that could lead to damage. Machine protection includes beam and equipment monitoring, a system to safely stop beam operation (e.g. dumping the beam or stopping the beam at low energy) and an interlock system providing the glue between these systems. The most recent accelerator, the LHC, will operate with about 3 × 10 14 protons per beam, corresponding to an energy stored in each beam of 360 MJ. This energy can cause massive damage to accelerator equipment in case of uncontrolled beam loss, and a single accident damaging vital parts of the accelerator could interrupt operation for years. This article provides an overview of the requirements for protection of accelerator equipment and introduces the various protection systems. Examples are mainly from LHC, SNS and ESS

  3. A Glio-Protective Role of mir-263a by Tuning Sensitivity to Glutamate

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Aw, Sherry Shiying; Lim, Isaac Kok Hwee; Tang, Melissa Xue Mei

    2017-01-01

    of CG5621/Grik, Nmdar1, and Nmdar2. mir-263a mutants exhibit excitotoxic death of a subset of astrocyte-like and ensheathing glia in the CNS. Glial-specific normalization of glutamate receptor levels restores cell numbers and suppresses the movement defect. Therefore, microRNA-mediated regulation...... of glutamate receptor levels protects glia from excitotoxicity, ensuring CNS health. Chronic low-level glutamate receptor overexpression due to mutations affecting microRNA (miRNA) regulation might contribute to glial dysfunction and CNS impairment....

  4. Granisetron and carvedilol can protect experimental rats againstadjuvant-induced arthritis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahmed, Yasmin Moustafa; Messiha, Basim Anwar Shehata; Abo-Saif, Ali Ahmed

    2017-04-01

    Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a disabling autoimmune disorder of the joints as well as other organs, affects about 1% of population. Unfortunately, all current treatments of RA cause severe gastrointestinal, renal and other complications. We aimed to evaluate the possible antiarthritic effects of a serotonin 5-HT 3 receptor blocker, granisetron, and a nonselective adrenergic receptor blocker, carvedilol, on complete Freund's adjuvant-induced RA in adult female albino rats. Rats were allocated into a normal control group, an arthritis control group, two reference treatment groups receiving dexamethasone (1.5 mg/kg/day) and methotrexate (1 mg/kg/day), and two treatment groups receiving granisetron (2.5 mg/kg/day) and carvedilol (10 mg/kg/day). Serum-specific rheumatoid, immunological, inflammatory and oxidative stress biomarkers were assessed. A confirmatory histopathological study on joints and spleens was performed. Granisetron administration significantly improved all the measured biomarkers, with the values of rheumatoid factor, matrix metalloproteinase-3, cartilage oligomeric matrix protein, immunoglobulin G, antinuclear antibody and myeloperoxidase being restored back to normal levels. Carvedilol administration significantly improved all biomarkers, with serum MPO value restored back to normal levels. Serotonin 5-HT 3 receptor blockers and adrenergic receptor blockers, represented by granisetron and carvedilol, may represent new promising protective strategies against RA, at least owing to immune-modulator, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant potentials.

  5. Valuation of Normal Range of Ankle Systolic Blood Pressure in Subjects with Normal Arm Systolic Blood Pressure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gong, Yi; Cao, Kai-wu; Xu, Jin-song; Li, Ju-xiang; Hong, Kui; Cheng, Xiao-shu; Su, Hai

    2015-01-01

    This study aimed to establish a normal range for ankle systolic blood pressure (SBP). A total of 948 subjects who had normal brachial SBP (90-139 mmHg) at investigation were enrolled. Supine BP of four limbs was simultaneously measured using four automatic BP measurement devices. The ankle-arm difference (An-a) on SBP of both sides was calculated. Two methods were used for establishing normal range of ankle SBP: the 99% method was decided on the 99% reference range of actual ankle BP, and the An-a method was the sum of An-a and the low or up limits of normal arm SBP (90-139 mmHg). Whether in the right or left side, the ankle SBP was significantly higher than the arm SBP (right: 137.1 ± 16.9 vs 119.7 ± 11.4 mmHg, P<0.05). Based on the 99% method, the normal range of ankle SBP was 94~181 mmHg for the total population, 84~166 mmHg for the young (18-44 y), 107~176 mmHg for the middle-aged(45-59 y) and 113~179 mmHg for the elderly (≥ 60 y) group. As the An-a on SBP was 13 mmHg in the young group and 20 mmHg in both middle-aged and elderly groups, the normal range of ankle SBP on the An-a method was 103-153 mmHg for young and 110-160 mmHg for middle-elderly subjects. A primary reference for normal ankle SBP was suggested as 100-165 mmHg in the young and 110-170 mmHg in the middle-elderly subjects.

  6. Manufacturing technology for practical Josephson voltage normals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kohlmann, Johannes; Kieler, Oliver

    2016-01-01

    In this contribution we present the manufacturing technology for the fabrication of integrated superconducting Josephson serial circuits for voltage normals. First we summarize some foundations for Josephson voltage normals and sketch the concept and the setup of the circuits, before we describe the manufacturing technology form modern practical Josephson voltage normals.

  7. Adaptive electrothermal protection of power converters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baraniuk G. A.

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Thermal management for power converters during normal operation and transient modes when electrical components are warmed up is an actual problem. This can be particularly important for converters with intermittent duty operation, e.g. power supplies for resistance welding. According to some research, nearly 60% of failures are temperature-induced, and for every 10°C temperature rise in operating environment the failure rate nearly doubles. In this paper, thermal motion of state equations eigenvalue is analysed. It is shown, that in semiconductor converters with an output smoothing filter it is appropriate to use thermal protection devices based on thermal normalisation of the converter filter and, while for cases when short circuits are possible it is appropriate to use a soft start system with thermal adaptation for soft start time factor. Based on these results, two systems of thermal protections operating for semiconductor power converters are introduced. Simulation of combined electromagnetic and thermal processes in buck converter operating with both thermal management systems in overlapping environments MATLAB/Simulink and PLECS showed the possibility to significantly reduce thermal shock on semiconductor components. Using the system of filter parameters normalisation decreases the temperature of the crystal from 210°C to 85°C, using the adaptive soft start system decreases the temperature from 180°C to 80°C. The simulation results are confirmed by tests on real devices.

  8. Vaginal Discharge: What's Normal, What's Not

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Staying Safe Videos for Educators Search English Español Vaginal Discharge: What's Normal, What's Not KidsHealth / For Teens / ... Discharge: What's Normal, What's Not Print What Is Vaginal Discharge? Vaginal discharge is fluid that comes from ...

  9. Should Japan Become a Normal Country

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Yildiz, Ahmet

    2005-01-01

    This thesis evaluates Japanese geopolitical change in the post-Cold War era. It does so by analyzing Japan's history, its foreign policy since 1945, its reasons for becoming a normal country, and the impact of its normalization...

  10. DOSEFU: Computer application for dose calculation and effluent management in normal operation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Martin Garcia, J. E.; Gonzalvo Manovel, A.; Revuelta Garcia, L.

    2002-01-01

    DOSEFU is a computer application on Windows that develops the methodology of nuclear power plant Exterior Dose Calculation Manuals (Manuals de Calculo de Dosis al Exterior-MACADE) for calculating doses in normal operation caused by radioactive liquid and gaseous effluents, for the purpose of enforcing the new Spanish Regulation on Health Protection against Ionizing Radiations, Royal Decree 783/2001 resulting from transposition of Directive 96/29/Euratom whereby the basic rules regarding health protection of workers and the population against risks resulting from ionizing radiations are established. In addition to making dose calculations, DOSEFU generates, on a magnetic support, the information regarding radioactive liquid and gaseous effluents that plants must periodically send to the CSN (ELGA format). The computer application has been developed for the specific case of Jose Cabrera NPP, which is called DOEZOR. This application can be easily implemented in any other nuclear or radioactive facility. The application is user-friendly, as the end user inputs data and executes the different modules through keys and dialogue boxes that are enabled by clicking on the mouse (see figures 2, 3, 4 and 5 ), The application runs under Windows 95. Digital Visual Fortran has been used as the development program, as this does not require additional libraries (DLLs), it can be installed in any computer without affecting other programs that are already installed. (Author)

  11. Chest Pain with Normal Thallium-201 Myocardial Perfusion Image – Is It Really Normal?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Pang-Yen; Lin, Wen-Yu; Lin, Li-Fan; Lin, Chin-Sheng; Lin, Wei-Shiang; Cheng, Shu-Meng; Yang, Shih-Ping; Liou, Jun-Ting

    2016-01-01

    Background Thallium-201 myocardial perfusion image (MPI) is commonly used to detect coronary artery disease in patients with chest pain. Although a normal thallium-201 MPI result is generally considered to be a good prognosis and further coronary angiogram is not recommended, there are still a few patients who suffer from unexpected acute coronary events. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical prognosis in patients with normal thallium-201 MPI. Methods From January 2006 to August 2012, a total 22,003 patients undergoing thallium-201 MPI in one tertiary center were screened. Of these, 8092 patients had normal results and were investigated retrospectively. During follow-up, 54 patients underwent coronary angiogram because of refractory typical angina pectoris or unexpected acute coronary events. These 54 patients were divided into 2 groups: group I consisted of 26 (48.1%) patients with angiography-proven significant coronary artery stenosis, and group II consisted of 28 (51.9%) patients without significant stenosis. Results Patients in group I had a higher prevalence of prior coronary stenting and electrocardiographic features of ST depression compared with patients in group II. The multivariate analysis demonstrated that both prior coronary stenting and ST depression were risk predictors of unexpected acute coronary events in the patients with normal thallium-201 MPI [odds ratio (OR), 5.93; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03-34.06, p = 0.05 and OR, 7.10; 95% CI: 1.28-39.51, p = 0.03,respectively]. Conclusions Although there is a low incidence of unexpected acute coronary events in patients with chest pain and normal thallium-201 MPI, physicians should be aware of the potentials risk in certain patients in this specific population. PMID:27274174

  12. The construction of normal expectations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Quitzau, Maj-Britt; Røpke, Inge

    2008-01-01

    The gradual upward changes of standards in normal everyday life have significant environmental implications, and it is therefore important to study how these changes come about. The intention of the article is to analyze the social construction of normal expectations through a case study. The case...... concerns the present boom in bathroom renovations in Denmark, which offers an excellent opportunity to study the interplay between a wide variety of consumption drivers and social changes pointing toward long-term changes of normal expectations regarding bathroom standards. The study is problemoriented...... and transdisciplinary and draws on a wide range of sociological, anthropological, and economic theories. The empirical basis comprises a combination of statistics, a review of magazine and media coverage, visits to exhibitions, and qualitative interviews. A variety of consumption drivers are identified. Among...

  13. Strength of Gamma Rhythm Depends on Normalization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ray, Supratim; Ni, Amy M.; Maunsell, John H. R.

    2013-01-01

    Neuronal assemblies often exhibit stimulus-induced rhythmic activity in the gamma range (30–80 Hz), whose magnitude depends on the attentional load. This has led to the suggestion that gamma rhythms form dynamic communication channels across cortical areas processing the features of behaviorally relevant stimuli. Recently, attention has been linked to a normalization mechanism, in which the response of a neuron is suppressed (normalized) by the overall activity of a large pool of neighboring neurons. In this model, attention increases the excitatory drive received by the neuron, which in turn also increases the strength of normalization, thereby changing the balance of excitation and inhibition. Recent studies have shown that gamma power also depends on such excitatory–inhibitory interactions. Could modulation in gamma power during an attention task be a reflection of the changes in the underlying excitation–inhibition interactions? By manipulating the normalization strength independent of attentional load in macaque monkeys, we show that gamma power increases with increasing normalization, even when the attentional load is fixed. Further, manipulations of attention that increase normalization increase gamma power, even when they decrease the firing rate. Thus, gamma rhythms could be a reflection of changes in the relative strengths of excitation and normalization rather than playing a functional role in communication or control. PMID:23393427

  14. Environmental radiation protection of non-human vertebrate species: considerations for environmental monitoring and assessment in Canada

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    MacDonald, C.R.

    1996-01-01

    The risk to non-human species from activities associated with the nuclear fuel waste cycle is coming under increased scrutiny from the public and regulators. In the past, protection of the environment was assumed to be an outcome of the protection of humans living in the same area. Thus it was assumed that if nuclides were maintained at low enough levels in water, air and soil to protect humans, then plants and animals inhabiting the same area would be protected. This approach of relying on humans as a sensitive indicator implicitly protects all species, at least at the population level. To adequately predict exposure and response in wild communities requires a detailed knowledge of the ecosystem under study and a method of predicting both the transfer of nuclides to individual species and the consequence of exposure. Detailed environmental, or ecological, risk estimation requires information on the normal levels of radiation and general physiological stress in the exposed group, an estimate of the additional radiation exposure from all pathways and a prediction of the consequences of the total exposure. The purpose of this paper is to review these requirements in the context of ecological radiation protection in the Canadian environment using examples of birds and mammals from the Canadian shield. Our goal is to develop methods which provide better estimates of potential risk to wild animals

  15. Nonlinear dynamics exploration through normal forms

    CERN Document Server

    Kahn, Peter B

    2014-01-01

    Geared toward advanced undergraduates and graduate students, this exposition covers the method of normal forms and its application to ordinary differential equations through perturbation analysis. In addition to its emphasis on the freedom inherent in the normal form expansion, the text features numerous examples of equations, the kind of which are encountered in many areas of science and engineering. The treatment begins with an introduction to the basic concepts underlying the normal forms. Coverage then shifts to an investigation of systems with one degree of freedom that model oscillations

  16. a Recursive Approach to Compute Normal Forms

    Science.gov (United States)

    HSU, L.; MIN, L. J.; FAVRETTO, L.

    2001-06-01

    Normal forms are instrumental in the analysis of dynamical systems described by ordinary differential equations, particularly when singularities close to a bifurcation are to be characterized. However, the computation of a normal form up to an arbitrary order is numerically hard. This paper focuses on the computer programming of some recursive formulas developed earlier to compute higher order normal forms. A computer program to reduce the system to its normal form on a center manifold is developed using the Maple symbolic language. However, it should be stressed that the program relies essentially on recursive numerical computations, while symbolic calculations are used only for minor tasks. Some strategies are proposed to save computation time. Examples are presented to illustrate the application of the program to obtain high order normalization or to handle systems with large dimension.

  17. Radiation protection principles

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ismail Bahari

    2007-01-01

    The presentation outlines the aspects of radiation protection principles. It discussed the following subjects; radiation hazards and risk, the objectives of radiation protection, three principles of the system - justification of practice, optimization of protection and safety, dose limit

  18. Ozone Layer Protection

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... and Research Centers Contact Us Share Ozone Layer Protection The stratospheric ozone layer is Earth’s “sunscreen” – protecting ... GreenChill Partnership Responsible Appliance Disposal (RAD) Program Ozone Protection vs. Ozone Pollution This website addresses stratospheric ozone ...

  19. Escuela Normal de Costa Rica: Historia y legado

    OpenAIRE

    Carvajal-Jiménez, Vivian; Ruiz-Badilla, Silvia

    2016-01-01

    On the centennial of the Escuela Normal (Normal School) of Costa Rica, this paper discusses its role and its legacy in teacher training. It is structured in three parts. Firstly, it presents a brief historical background of the origin and profile of normal schools in various parts of the world. Secondly, it describes the development of the Escuela Normal (Normal School) in Costa Rica, refers to various personalities and significant elements that have set the course and prestige of the institu...

  20. Radiological protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Azorin N, J.; Azorin V, J. C.

    2010-01-01

    This work is directed to all those people related with the exercise of the radiological protection and has the purpose of providing them a base of knowledge in this discipline so that they can make decisions documented on technical and scientist factors for the protection of the personnel occupationally exposed, the people in general and the environment during the work with ionizing radiations. Before de lack of a text on this matter, this work seeks to cover the specific necessities of our country, providing a solid presentation of the radiological protection, included the bases of the radiations physics, the detection and radiation dosimetry, the radiobiology, the normative and operational procedures associates, the radioactive wastes, the emergencies and the transport of the radioactive material through the medical and industrial applications of the radiations, making emphasis in the relative particular aspects to the radiological protection in Mexico. The book have 16 chapters and with the purpose of supplementing the given information, are included at the end four appendixes: 1) the radioactive waste management in Mexico, 2-3) the Mexican official standards related with the radiological protection, 4) a terms glossary used in radiological protection. We hope this book will be of utility for those people that work in the investigation and the applications of the ionizing radiations. (Author)

  1. Machine protection systems

    CERN Document Server

    Macpherson, A L

    2010-01-01

    A summary of the Machine Protection System of the LHC is given, with particular attention given to the outstanding issues to be addressed, rather than the successes of the machine protection system from the 2009 run. In particular, the issues of Safe Machine Parameter system, collimation and beam cleaning, the beam dump system and abort gap cleaning, injection and dump protection, and the overall machine protection program for the upcoming run are summarised.

  2. Radioactive contamination of protective clothes made of textile and their decontamination in aqueous solutions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fukumori, D.T.

    1989-01-01

    This dissertation deals with the radioactive contamination, its prevention, control and decontamination, related to protective clothing made of textile and usually weared in normal working conditions, within the installations where radioactive materials are handled or processed, especially as unsealed sources. The features of textile materials and contaminants, contamination mechanisms, risks related to contaminated clothes, planning of working areas, monitoring and surface contamination limits are described. Concerning to decontamination, the reagents, their action mechanisms and methods of efficiency evaluation are emphasized. The selected reagents were experimentally tested and their efficiencies in decontaminating cotton cloth samples, contaminated with uranyl nitrate solution, were evaluated by means of counting rate determined with a Geiger-Muller provided counting system. In this way, complexing agents, surfactants and commercial cleanning products were tested. The results were analysed and interpreted considering statistical, radiochemical and Radiation Protection aspects. Both, the radiactive contamination and decontamination of protective clothes are extensive matters and they still could be developed and improved; thus, many suggestions were presented as further studies. (author) [pt

  3. The normal and pathological language

    OpenAIRE

    Espejo, Luis D.

    2014-01-01

    The extraordinary development of normal and pathological psychology has achieved in recent decades, thanks to the dual method of objective observation and oral survey enabled the researcher spirit of neuro-psychiatrist penetrate the intimate mechanism of the nervous system whose supreme manifestation is thought. It is normal psychology explaining the complicated game of perceptions: their methods of transmission, their centers of projection, its transformations and its synthesis to construct ...

  4. Nuclear power plant fire protection: fire detection (subsystems study Task 2)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Berry, D.L.

    1977-12-01

    This report examines the adequacy of fire detection in the context of nuclear power plant safety. Topics considered are: (1) establishing area detection requirements, (2) selecting specific detector types, (3) locating and spacing detectors, and (4) performing installation tests and maintenance. Based on a thorough review of fire detection codes and standards and fire detection literature, the report concludes that current design and regulatory guidelines alone are insufficient to ensure satisfactory fire detection system performance. To assure adequate fire detection, this report recommends the use of in-place testing of detectors under conditions expected to occur normally in areas being protected

  5. Hypoxic regulation of cytoglobin and neuroglobin expression in human normal and tumor tissues

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emara Marwan

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Cytoglobin (Cygb and neuroglobin (Ngb are recently identified globin molecules that are expressed in vertebrate tissues. Upregulation of Cygb and Ngb under hypoxic and/or ischemic conditions in vitro and in vivo increases cell survival, suggesting possible protective roles through prevention of oxidative damage. We have previously shown that Ngb is expressed in human glioblastoma multiforme (GBM cell lines, and that expression of its transcript and protein can be significantly increased after exposure to physiologically relevant levels of hypoxia. In this study, we extended this work to determine whether Cygb is also expressed in GBM cells, and whether its expression is enhanced under hypoxic conditions. We also compared Cygb and Ngb expression in human primary tumor specimens, including brain tumors, as well as in human normal tissues. Immunoreactivity of carbonic anhydrase IX (CA IX, a hypoxia-inducible metalloenzyme that catalyzes the hydration of CO2 to bicarbonate, was used as an endogenous marker of hypoxia. Results Cygb transcript and protein were expressed in human GBM cells, and this expression was significantly increased in most cells following 48 h incubation under hypoxia. We also showed that Cygb and Ngb are expressed in both normal tissues and human primary cancers, including GBM. Among normal tissues, Cygb and Ngb expression was restricted to distinct cell types and was especially prominent in ductal cells. Additionally, certain normal organs (e.g. stomach fundus, small bowel showed distinct regional co-localization of Ngb, Cygb and CA IX. In most tumors, Ngb immunoreactivity was significantly greater than that of Cygb. In keeping with previous in vitro results, tumor regions that were positively stained for CA IX were also positive for Ngb and Cygb, suggesting that hypoxic upregulation of Ngb and Cygb also occurs in vivo. Conclusions Our finding of hypoxic up-regulation of Cygb/Ngb in GBM cell lines and human

  6. Normal myogenic cells from newborn mice restore normal histology to degenerating muscles of the mdx mouse

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Morgan, J.E.; Hoffman, E.P.; Partridge, T.A.

    1990-01-01

    Dystrophin deficiency in skeletal muscle of the x-linked dystrophic (mdx) mouse can be partially remedied by implantation of normal muscle precursor cells (mpc). However, it is difficult to determine whether this biochemical rescue results in any improvement in the structure or function of the treated muscle, because the vigorous regeneration of mdx muscle more than compensates for the degeneration. By using x-ray irradiation to prevent mpc proliferation, it is possible to study loss of mdx muscle fibers without the complicating effect of simultaneous fiber regeneration. Thus, improvements in fiber survival resulting from any potential therapy can be detected easily. Here, we have implanted normal mpc, obtained from newborn mice, into such preirradiated mdx muscles, finding that it is far more extensively permeated and replaced by implanted mpc than is nonirradiated mdx muscle; this is evident both from analysis of glucose-6-phosphate isomerase isoenzyme markers and from immunoblots and immunostaining of dystrophin in the treated muscles. Incorporation of normal mpc markedly reduces the loss of muscle fibers and the deterioration of muscle structure which otherwise occurs in irradiated mdx muscles. Surprisingly, the regenerated fibers are largely peripherally nucleated, whereas regenerated mouse skeletal muscle fibers are normally centrally nucleated. We attribute this regeneration of apparently normal muscle to the tendency of newborn mouse mpc to recapitulate their neonatal ontogeny, even when grafted into 3-wk-old degenerating muscle

  7. Measurement of normal auditory ossicles by high-resolusion CT with application of normal criteria to disease cases

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hara, Jyoko

    1988-01-01

    The purposes of this study were to define criteria for the normal position of ossicles and to apply them in patients with rhinolaryngologically or pathologically confirmed diseases. Ossicles were measured on high-resolution CT images of 300 middle ears, including 241 normal ears and 59 diseased ears, in a total of 203 subjects. Angles A, B, and C to the baseline between the most lateral margins of bilateral internal auditory canals, and distance ratio b/a were defined as measurement items. Normal angles A, B, and C and distance ratio b/a ranged from 19 deg to 59 deg, 101 deg to 145 deg, 51 deg to 89 deg, and 0.49 to 0.51, respectively. Based on these criteria, all of these items were within the normal range in 30/34 (88.2 %) ears for otitis media and mastoiditis. One or more items showed far abnormal values (standard deviation; more than 3) in 5/7 (71.4 %) ears for cholesteatoma and 4/4 (100 %) ears for external ear anomaly. These normal measurements may aid in evaluating the position of auditory ossicles especially in the case of cholesteatoma and auditory ossicle abnormality. (Namekawa, K.)

  8. Measurement of normal auditory ossicles by high-resolusion CT with application of normal criteria to disease cases

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hara, Jyoko

    1988-09-01

    The purposes of this study were to define criteria for the normal position of ossicles and to apply them in patients with rhinolaryngologically or pathologically confirmed diseases. Ossicles were measured on high-resolution CT images of 300 middle ears, including 241 normal ears and 59 diseased ears, in a total of 203 subjects. Angles A, B, and C to the baseline between the most lateral margins of bilateral internal auditory canals, and distance ratio b/a were defined as measurement items. Normal angles A, B, and C and distance ratio b/a ranged from 19 deg to 59 deg, 101 deg to 145 deg, 51 deg to 89 deg, and 0.49 to 0.51, respectively. Based on these criteria, all of these items were within the normal range in 30/34 (88.2 %) ears for otitis media and mastoiditis. One or more items showed far abnormal values (standard deviation; more than 3) in 5/7 (71.4 %) ears for cholesteatoma and 4/4 (100 %) ears for external ear anomaly. These normal measurements may aid in evaluating the position of auditory ossicles especially in the case of cholesteatoma and auditory ossicle abnormality. (Namekawa, K.).

  9. Muscular hypertrophy and atrophy in normal rats provoked by the administration of normal and denervated muscle extracts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Agüera, Eduardo; Castilla, Salvador; Luque, Evelio; Jimena, Ignacio; Leiva-Cepas, Fernando; Ruz-Caracuel, Ignacio; Peña, José

    2016-12-01

    This study was conducted to determine the effects of extracts obtained from both normal and denervated muscles on different muscle types. Wistar rats were used and were divided into a control group and four experimental groups. Each experimental group was treated intraperitoneally during 10 consecutive days with a different extract. These extracts were obtained from normal soleus muscle, denervated soleus, normal extensor digitorum longus, and denervated extensor digitorum longus. Following treatment, the soleus and extensor digitorum longus muscles were obtained for study under optic and transmission electron microscope; morphometric parameters and myogenic responses were also analyzed. The results demonstrated that the treatment with normal soleus muscle and denervated soleus muscle extracts provoked hypertrophy and increased myogenic activity. In contrast, treatment with extracts from the normal and denervated EDL had a different effect depending on the muscle analyzed. In the soleus muscle it provoked hypertrophy of type I fibers and increased myogenic activity, while in the extensor digitorum longus atrophy of the type II fibers was observed without changes in myogenic activity. This suggests that the muscular responses of atrophy and hypertrophy may depend on different factors related to the muscle type which could be related to innervation.

  10. Normalization of satellite imagery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Hongsuk H.; Elman, Gregory C.

    1990-01-01

    Sets of Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery taken over the Washington, DC metropolitan area during the months of November, March and May were converted into a form of ground reflectance imagery. This conversion was accomplished by adjusting the incident sunlight and view angles and by applying a pixel-by-pixel correction for atmospheric effects. Seasonal color changes of the area can be better observed when such normalization is applied to space imagery taken in time series. In normalized imagery, the grey scale depicts variations in surface reflectance and tonal signature of multi-band color imagery can be directly interpreted for quantitative information of the target.

  11. The normal holonomy group

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Olmos, C.

    1990-05-01

    The restricted holonomy group of a Riemannian manifold is a compact Lie group and its representation on the tangent space is a product of irreducible representations and a trivial one. Each one of the non-trivial factors is either an orthogonal representation of a connected compact Lie group which acts transitively on the unit sphere or it is the isotropy representation of a single Riemannian symmetric space of rank ≥ 2. We prove that, all these properties are also true for the representation on the normal space of the restricted normal holonomy group of any submanifold of a space of constant curvature. 4 refs

  12. Multi-targeted mechanisms underlying the endothelial protective effects of the diabetic-safe sweetener erythritol.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniëlle M P H J Boesten

    Full Text Available Diabetes is characterized by hyperglycemia and development of vascular pathology. Endothelial cell dysfunction is a starting point for pathogenesis of vascular complications in diabetes. We previously showed the polyol erythritol to be a hydroxyl radical scavenger preventing endothelial cell dysfunction onset in diabetic rats. To unravel mechanisms, other than scavenging of radicals, by which erythritol mediates this protective effect, we evaluated effects of erythritol in endothelial cells exposed to normal (7 mM and high glucose (30 mM or diabetic stressors (e.g. SIN-1 using targeted and transcriptomic approaches. This study demonstrates that erythritol (i.e. under non-diabetic conditions has minimal effects on endothelial cells. However, under hyperglycemic conditions erythritol protected endothelial cells against cell death induced by diabetic stressors (i.e. high glucose and peroxynitrite. Also a number of harmful effects caused by high glucose, e.g. increased nitric oxide release, are reversed. Additionally, total transcriptome analysis indicated that biological processes which are differentially regulated due to high glucose are corrected by erythritol. We conclude that erythritol protects endothelial cells during high glucose conditions via effects on multiple targets. Overall, these data indicate a therapeutically important endothelial protective effect of erythritol under hyperglycemic conditions.

  13. Curcumin Protects against Cadmium-Induced Vascular Dysfunction, Hypertension and Tissue Cadmium Accumulation in Mice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Upa Kukongviriyapan

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Curcumin from turmeric is commonly used worldwide as a spice and has been demonstrated to possess various biological activities. This study investigated the protective effect of curcumin on a mouse model of cadmium (Cd—induced hypertension, vascular dysfunction and oxidative stress. Male ICR mice were exposed to Cd (100 mg/L in drinking water for eight weeks. Curcumin (50 or 100 mg/kg was intragastrically administered in mice every other day concurrently with Cd. Cd induced hypertension and impaired vascular responses to phenylephrine, acetylcholine and sodium nitroprusside. Curcumin reduced the toxic effects of Cd and protected vascular dysfunction by increasing vascular responsiveness and normalizing the blood pressure levels. The vascular protective effect of curcumin in Cd exposed mice is associated with up-regulation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS protein, restoration of glutathione redox ratio and alleviation of oxidative stress as indicated by decreasing superoxide production in the aortic tissues and reducing plasma malondialdehyde, plasma protein carbonyls, and urinary nitrate/nitrite levels. Curcumin also decreased Cd accumulation in the blood and various organs of Cd-intoxicated mice. These findings suggest that curcumin, due to its antioxidant and chelating properties, is a promising protective agent against hypertension and vascular dysfunction induced by Cd.

  14. Single multivalent vaccination boosted by trickle larval infection confers protection against experimental lymphatic filariasis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Joseph, S K; Ramaswamy, K

    2013-07-18

    The multivalent vaccine BmHAT, consisting of the Brugia malayi infective larval (L3) antigens heat shock protein12.6 (HSP12.6), abundant larval transcript-2 (ALT-2) and tetraspanin large extra cellular loop (TSP-LEL), was shown to be protective in rodent models from our laboratory. We hypothesize that since these antigens were identified using protective antibodies from immune endemic normal individuals, the multivalent vaccine can be augmented by natural L3 infections providing protection to the vaccinated host. This hypothesis was tested using single dose of DNA and protein or protein alone of the BmHAT vaccination in gerbils followed by live trickle L3 infection as booster dose. Vaccine-induced protection in gerbils was determined by worm establishment, micropore chamber assay and by antibody dependant cell cytotoxicity (ADCC) assay. Results were compared with the traditional prime-boost vaccination regimen. Gerbils vaccinated with BmHAT and boosted with L3 trickle infection were protected 51% (BmHAT DNA-protein) and 48% (BmHAT protein) respectively. BmHAT vaccination plus L3 trickle booster generated significant titer of antigen-specific IgG antibodies comparable to the traditional prime boost vaccination approach. BmHAT vaccination plus L3 trickle booster also generated antigen-specific cells in the spleen of vaccinated animals and these cells secreted predominantly IFN-γ and IL-4 in response to the vaccine antigens. These studies thus show that single dose of BmHAT multivalent vaccination followed by L3 trickle booster infection can confer significant protection against lymphatic filariasis. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Single multivalent vaccination boosted by trickle larval infection confers protection against experimental lymphatic filariasis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Joseph, SK; Ramaswamy, K

    2013-01-01

    The multivalent vaccine BmHAT, consisting of the Brugia malayi infective larval (L3) antigens heat shock protein12.6 (HSP12.6), abundant larval transcript-2 (ALT-2) and tetraspanin large extra cellular loop (TSP-LEL), was shown to be protective in rodent models from our laboratory. We hypothesize that since these antigens were identified using protective antibodies from immune endemic normal individuals, the multivalent vaccine can be augmented by natural L3 infections providing protection to the vaccinated host. This hypothesis was tested using single dose of DNA and Protein or Protein alone of the BmHAT vaccination in gerbils followed by live trickle L3 infection as booster dose. Vaccine-induced protection in gerbils was determined by worm establishment, micropore chamber assay and by antibody dependant cell cytotoxicity (ADCC) assay. Results were compared with the traditional prime-boost vaccination regimen. Gerbils vaccinated with BmHAT and boosted with L3 trickle infection were protected 51% (BmHAT DNA-Protein) and 48% (BmHAT Protein) respectively. BmHAT vaccination plus L3 trickle booster generated significant titer of antigen-specific IgG antibodies comparable to the traditional prime boost vaccination approach. BmHAT vaccination plus L3 trickle booster also generated antigen-specific cells in the spleen of vaccinated animals and these cells secreted predominantly IFN-γ and IL-4 in response to the vaccine antigens. These studies thus show that single dose of BmHAT multivalent vaccination followed by L3 trickle booster infection can confer significant protection against lymphatic filariasis. PMID:23735679

  16. Fission cross-section normalization problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wagemans, C.; Ghent Rijksuniversiteit; Deruytter, A.J.

    1983-01-01

    The present measurements yield σsub(f)-data in the neutron energy from 20 MeV to 30 keV directly normalized in the thermal region. In the keV-region these data are consistent with the absolute σsub(f)-measurements of Szabo and Marquette. For the secondary normalization integral I 2 values have been obtained in agreement with those of Gwin et al. and Czirr et al. which were also directly normalized in the thermal region. For the I 1 integral, however, puzzling low values have been obtained. This was also the case for σsub(f)-bar in neutron energy intervals containing strong resonances. Three additional measurements are planned to further investigate these observations: (i) maintaining the actual approx.2π-geometry but using a 10 B-foil for the neutron flux detection (ii) using a low detection geometry with a 10 B- as well as a 6 Li-flux monitor. Only after these measurements definite conclusions on the I 1 and I 2 integrals can be formulated and final σsub(f)-bar-values can be released. The present study also gives some evidence for a correlation between the integral I 2 and the neutron flux monitor used. The influence of a normalization via I 1 or I 2 on the final cross-section has been shown. The magnitude of possible normalization errors is illustrated. Finally, since 235 U is expected to be an ''easy'' nucleus (low α-activity high σsub(f)-values), there are some indications that the important discrepancies still present in 235 U(n,f) cross-section measurements might partially be due to errors in the neutron flux determination

  17. Medically-enhanced normality

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Møldrup, Claus; Traulsen, Janine Morgall; Almarsdóttir, Anna Birna

    2003-01-01

    Objective: To consider public perspectives on the use of medicines for non-medical purposes, a usage called medically-enhanced normality (MEN). Method: Examples from the literature were combined with empirical data derived from two Danish research projects: a Delphi internet study and a Telebus...

  18. Establishing the proteome of normal human cerebrospinal fluid.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Steven E Schutzer

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available Knowledge of the entire protein content, the proteome, of normal human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF would enable insights into neurologic and psychiatric disorders. Until now technologic hurdles and access to true normal samples hindered attaining this goal.We applied immunoaffinity separation and high sensitivity and resolution liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to examine CSF from healthy normal individuals. 2630 proteins in CSF from normal subjects were identified, of which 56% were CSF-specific, not found in the much larger set of 3654 proteins we have identified in plasma. We also examined CSF from groups of subjects previously examined by others as surrogates for normals where neurologic symptoms warranted a lumbar puncture but where clinical laboratory were reported as normal. We found statistically significant differences between their CSF proteins and our non-neurological normals. We also examined CSF from 10 volunteer subjects who had lumbar punctures at least 4 weeks apart and found that there was little variability in CSF proteins in an individual as compared to subject to subject.Our results represent the most comprehensive characterization of true normal CSF to date. This normal CSF proteome establishes a comparative standard and basis for investigations into a variety of diseases with neurological and psychiatric features.

  19. Denotational Aspects of Untyped Normalization by Evaluation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Filinski, Andrzej; Rohde, Henning Korsholm

    2005-01-01

    of soundness (the output term, if any, is in normal form and ß-equivalent to the input term); identification (ß-equivalent terms are mapped to the same result); and completeness (the function is defined for all terms that do have normal forms). We also show how the semantic construction enables a simple yet...... formal correctness proof for the normalization algorithm, expressed as a functional program in an ML-like, call-by-value language. Finally, we generalize the construction to produce an infinitary variant of normal forms, namely Böhm trees. We show that the three-part characterization of correctness...

  20. Information protection playbook

    CERN Document Server

    Kane, Greg

    2013-01-01

    The primary goal of the Information Protection Playbook is to serve as a comprehensive resource for information protection (IP) professionals who must provide adequate information security at a reasonable cost. It emphasizes a holistic view of IP: one that protects the applications, systems, and networks that deliver business information from failures of confidentiality, integrity, availability, trust and accountability, and privacy. Using the guidelines provided in the Information Protection Playbook, security and information technology (IT) managers will learn how to

  1. CT and MRI normal findings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moeller, T.B.; Reif, E.

    1998-01-01

    This book gives answers to questions frequently heard especially from trainees and doctors not specialising in the field of radiology: Is that a normal finding? How do I decide? What are the objective criteria? The information presented is three-fold. The normal findings of the usual CT and MRI examinations are shown with high-quality pictures serving as a reference, with inscribed important additional information on measures, angles and other criteria describing the normal conditions. These criteria are further explained and evaluated in accompanying texts which also teach the systematic approach for individual picture analysis, and include a check list of major aspects, as a didactic guide for learning. The book is primarily intended for students, radiographers, radiology trainees and doctors from other medical fields, but radiology specialists will also find useful details of help in special cases. (orig./CB) [de

  2. Malware Normalization

    OpenAIRE

    Christodorescu, Mihai; Kinder, Johannes; Jha, Somesh; Katzenbeisser, Stefan; Veith, Helmut

    2005-01-01

    Malware is code designed for a malicious purpose, such as obtaining root privilege on a host. A malware detector identifies malware and thus prevents it from adversely affecting a host. In order to evade detection by malware detectors, malware writers use various obfuscation techniques to transform their malware. There is strong evidence that commercial malware detectors are susceptible to these evasion tactics. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of a malware normalizer ...

  3. Radiation Protection Ordinance. Preventive Radiation Protection Act. 3. rev. and enlarged ed.

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kramer, R.; Zerlett, G.

    1990-01-01

    This 3rd edition presents the official explanations of the legislative intent behind the Radiation Protection Ordinance of 1976 and the 2nd amending ordinance, and the commentaries which as usual refer to the legal aspects and the related medical, scientific, and technical aspects. As a consequence of the reactor accident at Chernobyl, the existing radiation protection law has been extended by the Act for Preventive Measures for Pretection of the Population Against the Hazards of Ionizing Radiation (Preventive Radiation Protection Act), establishing preventive legal provisions and measures, so that this new edition has likewise been extended by commentaries on the Protective Radiation Protection Act and an introduction to the new area of law. The material also includes the Act for Establishment of a Federal Office for Radiation Protection, of October 9, 1989, which amended the Atomic Energy Act and the Preventive Radiation Protection Act. The correction of the Radiation Protection Ordinance of October 16, 1989 (BGBl. I p. 1926) has been incorporated into the text of the amended version of the Radiation Protection Ordinance. Court decisions and literature referred to cover material published up to the first months of 1989. (orig.) [de

  4. Susceptibility of modern relay protection: Will protection from cyber attacks help?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gurevich Vladimir

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Modern trends in relay protection (RP based on the substitution of electromechanical protection relays (EMPR by digital protective relays (DPR have resulted in the emergence of an absolutely new problem, which was not known before. This problem is the possibility of an intentional remote destructive impact (IRDI on relay protection in order to put it out of action or make it perform functions that have nothing to do with the current operational mode of protected electric equipment. Traditional and well-known methods ensuring information safety cannot fully prevent unauthorized actions of RP. The article describes a new way for the problem solution.

  5. Genistein Protects Against Biomarkers of Delayed Lung Sequelae in Mice Surviving High-Dose Total Body Irradiation

    Science.gov (United States)

    DAY, Regina M.; BARSHISHAT-KUPPER, Michal; MOG, Steven R.; MCCART, Elizabeth A.; PRASANNA, P. G. S.; DAVIS, Thomas A.; LANDAUER, Michael R.

    2008-01-01

    The effects of genistein on 30-day survival and delayed lung injury were examined in C57BL/6J female mice. A single subcutaneous injection of vehicle (PEG-400) or genistein (200 mg/kg) was administered 24 h before total body irradiation (7.75 Gy 60Co, 0.6 Gy/min). Experimental groups were: No treatment + Sham (NC), Vehicle + Sham (VC), Genistein + Sham (GC), Radiation only (NR), Vehicle + Radiation (VR), Genistein + Radiation (GR). Thirty-day survivals after 7.75 Gy were: NR 23%, VR 53%, and GR 92%, indicating significant protection from acute radiation injury by genistein. Genistein also mitigated radiation-induced weight loss on days 13–28 postirradiation. First generation lung fibroblasts were analyzed for micronuclei 24 h postirradiation. Fibroblasts from the lungs of GR-treated mice had significantly reduced micronuclei compared with NR mice. Collagen deposition was examined by histochemical staining. At 90 days postirradiation one half of the untreated and vehicle irradiated mice had focal distributions of small collagen-rich plaques in the lungs, whereas all of the genistein-treated animals had morphologically normal lungs. Radiation reduced the expression of COX-2, transforming growth factor-β receptor (TGFβR) I and II at 90 days after irradiation. Genistein prevented the reduction in TGFβRI. However, by 180 days postirradiation, these proteins normalized in all groups. These results demonstrate that genistein protects against acute radiation-induced mortality in female mice and that GR-treated mice have reduced lung damage compared to NR or VR. These data suggest that genistein is protective against a range of radiation injuries. PMID:18434686

  6. Genistein protects against biomarkers of delayed lung sequelae in mice surviving high-dose total body irradiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Day, R.M.; Barshishat-Kupper, M.; Mog, S.R.; Mccart, E.A.; Prasanna, P.G.S.; Landauer, M.R.; Davis, T.A.

    2008-01-01

    The effects of genistein on 30-day survival and delayed lung injury were examined in C57BL/6J female mice. A single subcutaneous injection of vehicle (PEG-400) or genistein (200 mg/kg) was administered 24 h before total body irradiation (7.75 Gy 60 Co, 0.6 Gy/min). Experimental groups were: No treatment+Sham (NC), Vehicle+Sham (VC), Genistein+Sham (GC), Radiation only (NR), Vehicle+Radiation (VR), Genistein+Radiation (GR). Thirty-day survivals after 7.75 Gy were: NR 23%, VR 53%, and GR 92%, indicating significant protection from acute radiation injury by genistein. Genistein also mitigated radiation-induced weight loss on days 13-28 postirradiation. First generation lung fibroblasts were analyzed for micronuclei 24 h postirradiation. Fibroblasts from the lungs of GR-treated mice had significantly reduced micronuclei compared with NR mice. Collagen deposition was examined by histochemical staining. At 90 days postirradiation one half of the untreated and vehicle irradiated mice had focal distributions of small collagen-rich plaques in the lungs, whereas all of the genistein-treated animals had morphologically normal lungs. Radiation reduced the expression of COX-2, transforming growth factor-β receptor (TGFβR) I and II at 90 days after irradiation. Genistein prevented the reduction in TGFβRI. However, by 180 days postirradiation, these proteins normalized in all groups. These results demonstrate that genistein protects against acute radiation-induced mortality in female mice and that GR-treated mice have reduced lung damage compared to NR or VR. These data suggest that genistein is protective against a range of radiation injuries. (author)

  7. Weak convergence and uniform normalization in infinitary rewriting

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Simonsen, Jakob Grue

    2010-01-01

    the starkly surprising result that for any orthogonal system with finitely many rules, the system is weakly normalizing under weak convergence if{f} it is strongly normalizing under weak convergence if{f} it is weakly normalizing under strong convergence if{f} it is strongly normalizing under strong...... convergence. As further corollaries, we derive a number of new results for weakly convergent rewriting: Systems with finitely many rules enjoy unique normal forms, and acyclic orthogonal systems are confluent. Our results suggest that it may be possible to recover some of the positive results for strongly...

  8. Normalized Excited Squeezed Vacuum State and Its Applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Meng Xiangguo; Wang Jisuo; Liang Baolong

    2007-01-01

    By using the intermediate coordinate-momentum representation in quantum optics and generating function for the normalization of the excited squeezed vacuum state (ESVS), the normalized ESVS is obtained. We find that its normalization constants obtained via two new methods are uniform and a new form which is different from the result obtained by Zhang and Fan [Phys. Lett. A 165 (1992) 14]. By virtue of the normalization constant of the ESVS and the intermediate coordinate-momentum representation, the tomogram of the normalized ESVS and some useful formulae are derived.

  9. Measurement and Analysis of Normal Zone Propagation in a ReBCO Coated Conductor at Temperatures Below 50K

    CERN Document Server

    van Nugteren, J; Wessel, S; Krooshoop, E; Nijhuis, A; ten Kate, H

    2015-01-01

    Measurements of the quasi-adiabatic normal zone propagation velocity and quench energies of a Superpower SCS4050 copper stabilised ReBCO superconducting tape are presented over a temperature range of 23 − 47 K; in parallel applied magnetic fields of 6, 10 and 14 T; and over a current range from 50% to 100% of Ic. The data are compared to results of analytic predictions and to one-dimensional numerical simulations. The availability of long lengths of ReBCO coated conductor makes the material interesting for many HTS applications operating well below the boiling point of liquid nitrogen, such as magnets and motors. One of the main issues in the design of such devices is quench detection and protection. At higher temperatures, the quench velocities in these materials are known to be about two orders of magnitude lower compared to low temperature superconductors, resulting in significantly smaller normal zones and the risk of higher peak temperatures. To investigate whether the same also holds for lower tempera...

  10. Role for p53 in the Recovery of Transcription and Protection Against Apoptosis Induced by Ultraviolet Light

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bruce C. McKay

    1999-08-01

    Full Text Available We have previously suggested that the inhibition of RNA polymerase II-mediated transcription after exposure to UV light promotes the accumulation of p53 and the induction of apoptosis (Oncogene 13, 823–831. However, it was not clear whether p53 induction was contributing to apoptosis. Here we report that apoptosis is triggered at lower UV doses in p53-deficient Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS and human papillomavirus (HPV E6 expressing fibroblasts than in normal cells, suggesting that p53 can be protective against UVinduced apoptosis. There is no significant difference in the effect of UV-irradiation on the cell cycle distribution of normal and primary LFS fibroblasts. Importantly, the recovery of nascent mRNA synthesis in all p53-deficient fibroblasts is significantly impaired compared with control cells after exposure to relevant doses of UV light. Taken together, our results suggest that wild-type p53 can protect cells against UV-induced apoptosis by facilitating the recovery of transcription. Furthermore, we suggest that the capacity of cells to recover transcription after genotoxic damage is an important determinant of sensitivity to apoptosis.

  11. Strengthening the radiation protection culture: a priority of EDF radiation protection policy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Garcier, Y.

    2006-01-01

    Full text of publication follows: In order to improve the management of radiation protection at EDF nuclear power plants, the Human Factors Group of the Research and Development Division of EDF has performed some studies on the appropriation process of the radiation protection requirements. These studies have notably shown that an efficient application of the radiation protection requirements lies on a comprehension by all workers of the meaning of these requirements. Furthermore, they should not be applied under the constraint or because of the fear of a sanction, but the workers need to perceive and understand the benefits in terms of protection associated with the radiation protection requirements. The strengthening of the radiation protection culture is therefore a key element of the radiation protection policy developed by EDF. This culture lies on an awareness of the health risks potentially associated with low levels of ionising radiations, as well as on the knowledge of tools, techniques and good practices developed to control the level of exposures and improve the radiation protection. Various type of actions have been undertaken to reinforce among the relevant players (exposed and non-exposed workers, contractors, all levels of management,... ) an awareness of radiation protection in order to integrate it in their day to day work: elaboration of a 'radiation protection system of reference' explaining how the radiation protection regulatory requirements are applied at EDF, publication of a 'radiation protection handbook' available for all workers (including contractors), training sessions, creation of networks of specialists from the various nuclear power plants on specific radiation protection issues, organisation of feed-back experience forum, etc. Beyond these specific actions, i t is also important to ensure a support and an assistance on the field by dedicated specialists. In this perspective, the health physicists have to play a key role in order to

  12. Protective Effect of Argan and Olive Oils against LPS-Induced Oxidative Stress and Inflammation in Mice Livers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Soufiane El Kamouni

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Sepsis causes severe dysregulation of organ functions, via the development of oxidative stress and inflammation. These pathophysiological mechanisms are mimicked in mice injected with bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS. Here, protective properties of argan oil against LPS-induced oxidative stress and inflammation are explored in the murine model. Mice received standard chow, supplemented with argan oil (AO or olive oil (OO for 25 days, before septic shock was provoked with a single intraperitoneal injection of LPS, 16 hours prior to animal sacrifice. In addition to a rise in oxidative stress and inflammatory markers, injected LPS also caused hepatotoxicity, accompanied by hyperglycemia, hypercholesterolemia and hyperuremia. These LPS-associated toxic effects were blunted by AO pretreatment, as corroborated by normal plasma parameters and cell stress markers (glutathione: GSH and antioxidant enzymology (catalase, CAT; superoxide dismutase, SOD and glutathione peroxidase, GPx. Hematoxylin–eosin staining revealed that AO can protect against acute liver injury, maintaining a normal status, which is pointed out by absent or reduced LPS-induced hepatic damage markers (i.e., alanine aminotransferase (ALT and aspartate transaminase (AST. Our work also indicated that AO displayed anti-inflammatory activity, due to down-regulations of genes encoding pro-inflammatory cytokines Interleukin-6 (IL-6 and Tumor Necrosis Factor-α (TNF-α and in up-regulations of the expression of anti-inflammatory genes encoding Interleukin-4 (IL-4 and Interleukin-10 (IL-10. OO provided animals with similar, though less extensive, protective changes. Collectively our work adds compelling evidence to the protective mechanisms of AO against LPS-induced liver injury and hence therapeutic potentialities, in regard to the management of human sepsis. Activations of IL-4/Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptors (IL-4/PPARs signaling and, under LPS, an anti-inflammatory IL-10/Liver

  13. Factors Controlling Vegetation Fires in Protected and Non-Protected Areas of Myanmar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Biswas, Sumalika; Vadrevu, Krishna Prasad; Lwin, Zin Mar; Lasko, Kristofer; Justice, Christopher O.

    2015-01-01

    Fire is an important disturbance agent in Myanmar impacting several ecosystems. In this study, we quantify the factors impacting vegetation fires in protected and non-protected areas of Myanmar. Satellite datasets in conjunction with biophysical and anthropogenic factors were used in a spatial framework to map the causative factors of fires. Specifically, we used the frequency ratio method to assess the contribution of each causative factor to overall fire susceptibility at a 1km scale. Results suggested the mean fire density in non-protected areas was two times higher than the protected areas. Fire-land cover partition analysis suggested dominant fire occurrences in the savannas (protected areas) and woody savannas (non-protected areas). The five major fire causative factors in protected areas in descending order include population density, land cover, tree cover percent, travel time from nearest city and temperature. In contrast, the causative factors in non-protected areas were population density, tree cover percent, travel time from nearest city, temperature and elevation. The fire susceptibility analysis showed distinct spatial patterns with central Myanmar as a hot spot of vegetation fires. Results from propensity score matching suggested that forests within protected areas have 11% less fires than non-protected areas. Overall, our results identify important causative factors of fire useful to address broad scale fire risk concerns at a landscape scale in Myanmar. PMID:25909632

  14. Factors controlling vegetation fires in protected and non-protected areas of myanmar.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sumalika Biswas

    Full Text Available Fire is an important disturbance agent in Myanmar impacting several ecosystems. In this study, we quantify the factors impacting vegetation fires in protected and non-protected areas of Myanmar. Satellite datasets in conjunction with biophysical and anthropogenic factors were used in a spatial framework to map the causative factors of fires. Specifically, we used the frequency ratio method to assess the contribution of each causative factor to overall fire susceptibility at a 1km scale. Results suggested the mean fire density in non-protected areas was two times higher than the protected areas. Fire-land cover partition analysis suggested dominant fire occurrences in the savannas (protected areas and woody savannas (non-protected areas. The five major fire causative factors in protected areas in descending order include population density, land cover, tree cover percent, travel time from nearest city and temperature. In contrast, the causative factors in non-protected areas were population density, tree cover percent, travel time from nearest city, temperature and elevation. The fire susceptibility analysis showed distinct spatial patterns with central Myanmar as a hot spot of vegetation fires. Results from propensity score matching suggested that forests within protected areas have 11% less fires than non-protected areas. Overall, our results identify important causative factors of fire useful to address broad scale fire risk concerns at a landscape scale in Myanmar.

  15. Factors controlling vegetation fires in protected and non-protected areas of myanmar.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Biswas, Sumalika; Vadrevu, Krishna Prasad; Lwin, Zin Mar; Lasko, Kristofer; Justice, Christopher O

    2015-01-01

    Fire is an important disturbance agent in Myanmar impacting several ecosystems. In this study, we quantify the factors impacting vegetation fires in protected and non-protected areas of Myanmar. Satellite datasets in conjunction with biophysical and anthropogenic factors were used in a spatial framework to map the causative factors of fires. Specifically, we used the frequency ratio method to assess the contribution of each causative factor to overall fire susceptibility at a 1km scale. Results suggested the mean fire density in non-protected areas was two times higher than the protected areas. Fire-land cover partition analysis suggested dominant fire occurrences in the savannas (protected areas) and woody savannas (non-protected areas). The five major fire causative factors in protected areas in descending order include population density, land cover, tree cover percent, travel time from nearest city and temperature. In contrast, the causative factors in non-protected areas were population density, tree cover percent, travel time from nearest city, temperature and elevation. The fire susceptibility analysis showed distinct spatial patterns with central Myanmar as a hot spot of vegetation fires. Results from propensity score matching suggested that forests within protected areas have 11% less fires than non-protected areas. Overall, our results identify important causative factors of fire useful to address broad scale fire risk concerns at a landscape scale in Myanmar.

  16. Defecography: A study of normal volunteers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shorvon, P.; Stevenson, G.W.; McHugh, S.; Somers, P.

    1987-01-01

    This study of young volunteers was set up in an effort to establish true normal measurements for defecography with minimum selection bias. The results describe the mean (and the range) for the following: anorectal angle; anorectal junction position at rest; excursion on lift, strain, and evacuation; anal canal length and degree of closure; and the frequency and degree of features such as rectocele and intussusception which have previously been called abnormalities. The results indicate that there is a very wide range of normal appearances. Knowledge of these normal variations is important to avoid overreporting and unnecessary surgery

  17. Normal-dispersion microresonator Kerr frequency combs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xue Xiaoxiao

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Optical microresonator-based Kerr frequency comb generation has developed into a hot research area in the past decade. Microresonator combs are promising for portable applications due to their potential for chip-level integration and low power consumption. According to the group velocity dispersion of the microresonator employed, research in this field may be classified into two categories: the anomalous dispersion regime and the normal dispersion regime. In this paper, we discuss the physics of Kerr comb generation in the normal dispersion regime and review recent experimental advances. The potential advantages and future directions of normal dispersion combs are also discussed.

  18. Holding fat stereotypes is associated with lower body dissatisfaction in normal weight Caucasian women who engage in body surveillance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Jean; Jarry, Josée L

    2014-09-01

    This study examined the moderating effect of body surveillance on the relationship between fat stereotype endorsement and body dissatisfaction in normal weight women. Participants (N=225) completed online measures of fat stereotyping, body surveillance, body dissatisfaction, and internalized thin ideals. After accounting for thin ideals, body surveillance moderated the relationship between fat stereotypes and body dissatisfaction. Contrary to hypotheses, higher fat stereotype endorsement predicted lower body dissatisfaction in women with higher body surveillance. Conversely, higher fat stereotype endorsement predicted greater body dissatisfaction in women with lower body surveillance. Thus, endorsing fat stereotypes appears protective against body dissatisfaction in normal weight women who extensively engage in body surveillance. For women who hold fat stereotypes and report high body surveillance, we propose that downward appearance comparison may create a contrast between themselves and the people with overweight whom they denigrate, thus improving body dissatisfaction. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Linear regression and the normality assumption.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmidt, Amand F; Finan, Chris

    2017-12-16

    Researchers often perform arbitrary outcome transformations to fulfill the normality assumption of a linear regression model. This commentary explains and illustrates that in large data settings, such transformations are often unnecessary, and worse may bias model estimates. Linear regression assumptions are illustrated using simulated data and an empirical example on the relation between time since type 2 diabetes diagnosis and glycated hemoglobin levels. Simulation results were evaluated on coverage; i.e., the number of times the 95% confidence interval included the true slope coefficient. Although outcome transformations bias point estimates, violations of the normality assumption in linear regression analyses do not. The normality assumption is necessary to unbiasedly estimate standard errors, and hence confidence intervals and P-values. However, in large sample sizes (e.g., where the number of observations per variable is >10) violations of this normality assumption often do not noticeably impact results. Contrary to this, assumptions on, the parametric model, absence of extreme observations, homoscedasticity, and independency of the errors, remain influential even in large sample size settings. Given that modern healthcare research typically includes thousands of subjects focusing on the normality assumption is often unnecessary, does not guarantee valid results, and worse may bias estimates due to the practice of outcome transformations. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. Assessment and protection of esophageal mucosal integrity in patients with heartburn without esophagitis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woodland, Philip; Lee, Chung; Duraisamy, Yasotha; Duraysami, Yasotha; Farré, Ricard; Dettmar, Peter; Sifrim, Daniel

    2013-04-01

    Intact esophageal mucosal integrity is essential to prevent symptoms during gastroesophageal reflux events. Approximately 70% of patients with heartburn have macroscopically normal esophageal mucosa. In patients with heartburn, persistent functional impairment of esophageal mucosal barrier integrity may underlie remaining symptoms. Topical protection of a functionally vulnerable mucosa may be an attractive therapeutic strategy. We aimed to evaluate esophageal mucosal functional integrity in patients with heartburn without esophagitis, and test the feasibility of an alginate-based topical mucosal protection. Three distal esophageal biopsies were obtained from 22 patients with heartburn symptoms, and 22 control subjects. In mini-Ussing chambers, the change in transepithelial electrical resistance (TER) of biopsies when exposed to neutral, weakly acidic, and acidic solutions was measured. The experiment was repeated in a further 10 patients after pretreatment of biopsies with sodium alginate, viscous control, or liquid control "protectant" solutions. Biopsy exposure to neutral solution caused no change in TER. Exposure to weakly acidic and acidic solutions caused a greater reduction in TER in patients than in controls (weakly acid -7.2% (95% confidence interval (CI) -9.9 to -4.5) vs. 3.2% (-2.2 to 8.6), Pheartburn without esophagitis shows distinct vulnerability to acid and weakly acidic exposures. Experiments in vitro suggest that such vulnerable mucosa may be protected by application of an alginate-containing topical solution.

  1. The New Normal

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Henningsson, Stefan; Hedman, Jonas

    2015-01-01

    -and-defend strategies to protect market position, or in offensive battering-ram strategies for ecosystem entry or position improvement. Successful strategies can lead to: (1) Ricardian rents, based on operational efficiency advantages traceable to the firm’s position relative to suppliers and monopoly power; and (2...

  2. Modeling of Interfilament Coupling Currents and Their Effect on Magnet Quench Protection

    CERN Document Server

    Ravaioli, E; Chlachidze, G; Maciejewski, M; Sabbi, G; Stoynev, S E; Verweij, A

    2017-01-01

    Variations in the transport current of a superconducting magnet cause several types of transitory losses. Due to its relatively short time constant, usually of the order of a few tens of milliseconds, interfilament coupling loss can have a significant effect on the coil protection against overheating after a quench. This loss is deposited in the strands and can facilitate a more homogeneous transition to the normal state of the coil turns. Furthermore, the presence of local interfilament coupling currents reduces the magnet's differential inductance, which in turn provokes a faster discharge of the transport current. The lumped-element dynamic electrothermal model of a superconducting magnet has been developed to reproduce these effects. Simulations are compared to experimental electrical transients and found in good agreement. After its validation, the model can be used for predicting the performance of quench protection systems based on energy extraction, quench heaters, the newly developed coupling-loss-in...

  3. Visual attention and flexible normalization pools

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwartz, Odelia; Coen-Cagli, Ruben

    2013-01-01

    Attention to a spatial location or feature in a visual scene can modulate the responses of cortical neurons and affect perceptual biases in illusions. We add attention to a cortical model of spatial context based on a well-founded account of natural scene statistics. The cortical model amounts to a generalized form of divisive normalization, in which the surround is in the normalization pool of the center target only if they are considered statistically dependent. Here we propose that attention influences this computation by accentuating the neural unit activations at the attended location, and that the amount of attentional influence of the surround on the center thus depends on whether center and surround are deemed in the same normalization pool. The resulting form of model extends a recent divisive normalization model of attention (Reynolds & Heeger, 2009). We simulate cortical surround orientation experiments with attention and show that the flexible model is suitable for capturing additional data and makes nontrivial testable predictions. PMID:23345413

  4. Radiation protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1989-01-01

    A NRPB leaflet in the 'At-a-Glance' series explains in a simple but scientifically accurate way what radiation is, the biological effects and the relative sensitivity of different parts of the human body. The leaflet then discusses radiation protection principles, radiation protection in the UK and finally the effectiveness of this radiation protection as judged by a breakdown of the total dose received by an average person in the UK, a heavy consumer of Cumbrian seafood, an average nuclear industry worker and an average person in Cornwall. (UK)

  5. Environmental protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Klinda, J.; Lieskovska, Z.

    1998-01-01

    In this chapter environmental protection in the Slovak Republic in 1997 are reviewed. The economics of environmental protection, state budget, Slovak state environmental fund, economic instruments, environmental laws, environmental impact assessment, environmental management systems, and environmental education are presented

  6. Phenotype of normal spirometry in an aging population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vaz Fragoso, Carlos A; McAvay, Gail; Van Ness, Peter H; Casaburi, Richard; Jensen, Robert L; MacIntyre, Neil; Gill, Thomas M; Yaggi, H Klar; Concato, John

    2015-10-01

    In aging populations, the commonly used Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) may misclassify normal spirometry as respiratory impairment (airflow obstruction and restrictive pattern), including the presumption of respiratory disease (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD]). To evaluate the phenotype of normal spirometry as defined by a new approach from the Global Lung Initiative (GLI), overall and across GOLD spirometric categories. Using data from COPDGene (n = 10,131; ages 45-81; smoking history, ≥10 pack-years), we evaluated spirometry and multiple phenotypes, including dyspnea severity (Modified Medical Research Council grade 0-4), health-related quality of life (St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire total score), 6-minute-walk distance, bronchodilator reversibility (FEV1 % change), computed tomography-measured percentage of lung with emphysema (% emphysema) and gas trapping (% gas trapping), and small airway dimensions (square root of the wall area for a standardized airway with an internal perimeter of 10 mm). Among 5,100 participants with GLI-defined normal spirometry, GOLD identified respiratory impairment in 1,146 (22.5%), including a restrictive pattern in 464 (9.1%), mild COPD in 380 (7.5%), moderate COPD in 302 (5.9%), and severe COPD in none. Overall, the phenotype of GLI-defined normal spirometry included normal adjusted mean values for dyspnea grade (0.8), St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (15.9), 6-minute-walk distance (1,424 ft [434 m]), bronchodilator reversibility (2.7%), % emphysema (0.9%), % gas trapping (10.7%), and square root of the wall area for a standardized airway with an internal perimeter of 10 mm (3.65 mm); corresponding 95% confidence intervals were similarly normal. These phenotypes remained normal for GLI-defined normal spirometry across GOLD spirometric categories. GLI-defined normal spirometry, even when classified as respiratory impairment by GOLD, included adjusted mean values in the

  7. Spent fuel transport cask thermal evaluation under normal and accident conditions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pugliese, G. [Department of Mechanical, Nuclear and Production Engineering, University of Pisa, Via Diotisalvi, no 2-56126 Pisa (Italy); Lo Frano, R., E-mail: rosa.lofrano@ing.unipi.i [Department of Mechanical, Nuclear and Production Engineering, University of Pisa, Via Diotisalvi, no 2-56126 Pisa (Italy); Forasassi, G. [Department of Mechanical, Nuclear and Production Engineering, University of Pisa, Via Diotisalvi, no 2-56126 Pisa (Italy)

    2010-06-15

    The casks used for transport of nuclear materials, especially the spent fuel element (SPE), must be designed according to rigorous acceptance criteria and standards requirements, e.g. the International Atomic Energy Agency ones, in order to provide protection to people and environment against radiation exposure particularly in a severe accident scenario. The aim of this work was the evaluation of the integrity of a spent fuel cask under both normal and accident scenarios transport conditions, such as impact and rigorous fire events, in according to the IAEA accident test requirements. The thermal behaviour and the temperatures distribution of a Light Water Reactor (LWR) spent fuel transport cask are presented in this paper, especially with reference to the Italian cask designed by AGN, which was characterized by a cylindrical body, with water or air inside the internal cavity, and two lateral shock absorbers. Using the finite element code ANSYS a series of thermal analyses (steady-state and transient thermal analyses) were carried out in order to obtain the maximum fuel temperature and the temperatures field in the body of the cask, both in normal and in accidents scenario, considering all the heat transfer modes between the cask and the external environment (fire in the test or air in the normal conditions) as well as inside the cask itself. In order to follow the standards requirements, the thermal analyses in accidents scenarios were also performed adopting a deformed shape of the shock absorbers to simulate the mechanical effects of a previous IAEA 9 m drop test event. Impact tests on scale models of the shock absorbers have already been conducted in the past at the Department of Mechanical, Nuclear and Production Engineering, University of Pisa, in the '80s. The obtained results, used for possible new licensing approval purposes by the Italian competent Authority of the cask for PWR spent fuel cask transport by the Italian competent Authority, are

  8. Vaccine-induced protection against anthrax in cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) and black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Turnbull, P C B; Tindall, B W; Coetzee, J D; Conradie, C M; Bull, R L; Lindeque, P M; Huebschle, O J B

    2004-09-03

    Institution of a policy of vaccination in endangered species with a vaccine not previously administered to it cannot be undertaken lightly. This applies even more in the case of cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) with their unusually monomorphic gene pool and the potential restrictions this places on their immune responses. However, the recently observed mortalities from anthrax in these animals in the Etosha National Park, Namibia, made it imperative to evaluate vaccination. Black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis), another endangered species in the park, have been vaccinated for over three decades but the effectiveness of this has never been evaluated. Passive protection tests in A/J mice using sera from 12 cheetahs together with enzyme immunoassay indicated that cheetah are able to mount seemingly normal primary and secondary humoral immune responses to the Sterne 34F2 live spore livestock vaccine. Overall protection rates in mice injected with the sera rose and fell in concert with rises and declines in antibody titres, although fine analysis showed that the correlation between titre and protection was complex. Once a high level of protection (96% of mice 1 month after a second booster in the cheetahs) had been achieved, the duration of substantial protection appeared good (60% of the mice 5 months after the second booster). Protection conferred on mice by sera from three of four vaccinated rhino was almost complete, but, obscurely, none of the mice receiving serum from the fourth rhino were protected. Sera from three park lions with naturally acquired high antibody titres, included as controls, also conferred high levels of protection. For the purposes of wildlife management, the conclusions were that vaccination of cheetah with the standard animal anthrax vaccine causes no observable ill effect in the animals and does appear to confer protective immunity. At least one well-separated booster does appear to be desirable. Vaccination of rhino also appears to be justified

  9. Complete rerouting protection

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stidsen, Thomas K.; Kjærulff, Peter

    2006-01-01

    Protection of communication against network failures is becoming increasingly important and in this paper we present the most capacity efficient protection method possible, the complete rerouting protection method, when requiring that all communication should be restored in case of a single link...... network failure. We present a linear programming model of the protection method and a column generation algorithm. For 6 real world networks, the minimal restoration overbuild network capacity is between 13% and 78%. We further study the importance of the density of the network, derive analytical bounds...

  10. Complete normal ordering 1: Foundations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John Ellis

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available We introduce a new prescription for quantising scalar field theories (in generic spacetime dimension and background perturbatively around a true minimum of the full quantum effective action, which is to ‘complete normal order’ the bare action of interest. When the true vacuum of the theory is located at zero field value, the key property of this prescription is the automatic cancellation, to any finite order in perturbation theory, of all tadpole and, more generally, all ‘cephalopod’ Feynman diagrams. The latter are connected diagrams that can be disconnected into two pieces by cutting one internal vertex, with either one or both pieces free from external lines. In addition, this procedure of ‘complete normal ordering’ (which is an extension of the standard field theory definition of normal ordering reduces by a substantial factor the number of Feynman diagrams to be calculated at any given loop order. We illustrate explicitly the complete normal ordering procedure and the cancellation of cephalopod diagrams in scalar field theories with non-derivative interactions, and by using a point splitting ‘trick’ we extend this result to theories with derivative interactions, such as those appearing as non-linear σ-models in the world-sheet formulation of string theory. We focus here on theories with trivial vacua, generalising the discussion to non-trivial vacua in a follow-up paper.

  11. CNN-based ranking for biomedical entity normalization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Haodi; Chen, Qingcai; Tang, Buzhou; Wang, Xiaolong; Xu, Hua; Wang, Baohua; Huang, Dong

    2017-10-03

    Most state-of-the-art biomedical entity normalization systems, such as rule-based systems, merely rely on morphological information of entity mentions, but rarely consider their semantic information. In this paper, we introduce a novel convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture that regards biomedical entity normalization as a ranking problem and benefits from semantic information of biomedical entities. The CNN-based ranking method first generates candidates using handcrafted rules, and then ranks the candidates according to their semantic information modeled by CNN as well as their morphological information. Experiments on two benchmark datasets for biomedical entity normalization show that our proposed CNN-based ranking method outperforms traditional rule-based method with state-of-the-art performance. We propose a CNN architecture that regards biomedical entity normalization as a ranking problem. Comparison results show that semantic information is beneficial to biomedical entity normalization and can be well combined with morphological information in our CNN architecture for further improvement.

  12. Normal radiographic findings. 4. act. ed.

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moeller, T.B.

    2003-01-01

    This book can serve the reader in three ways: First, it presents normal findings for all radiographic techniques including KM. Important data which are criteria of normal findings are indicated directly in the pictures and are also explained in full text and in summary form. Secondly, it teaches the systematics of interpreting a picture - how to look at it, what structures to regard in what order, and for what to look in particular. Checklists are presented in each case. Thirdly, findings are formulated in accordance with the image analysis procedure. All criteria of normal findings are defined in these formulations, which make them an important didactic element. (orig.)

  13. Protective Effect of Royal Jelly against Renal Damage in Streptozotocin Induced Diabetic Rats

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elham Ghanbari

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Background: Royal jelly has been shown to have antioxidant and antidiabetic effects. The objective of this study was to evaluate the protective effect of RJ against kidney damage in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats. Methods: Thirty two male Wistar rats were divided randomly into four groups (n=8 per group. Normal control and diabetic control groups received 1cc/day distilled water, normal RJ-treated and diabetic RJ-treated groups received 100mg RJ/kg body weight daily. Diabetes was induced by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin. At the end of the experiment, urine and kidney samples were collected for biochemical and histopathological analysis. Results: The results showed that diabetes could increase levels of urine urea, total protein and albumin significantly, and could decrease the levels of creatinine and uric acid in urine. In the kidney tissue homogenates, catalase activity and antioxidant power were significantly lower, whereas malondialdehyde levels were significantly higher in diabetic group when compared with control group. Diabetic rats showed severe histological changes in kidney tissues. Treatment of diabetic rats with RJ improved significantly all of these parameters. Conclusion: The present study revealed that treatment with RJ resulted in significant improvement in histopathological alterations in kidney tissue and urine parameters of diabetic rats. This could be due to its antioxidant activity and the ability of RJ for scavenging the free radicals released in diabetes. These findings suggest that RJ has protective effects on kidneys affected by diabetes mellitus.

  14. Innovative protection cookbook

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lambert, D.L.

    2002-01-01

    Full text: A large portion of the international community relies on expert judgment and military expertise to form the protection strategy of weapons-grade nuclear materials. This approach can be less than effectual for two primary reasons. First, much of the nuclear material that needs the most protection is not in a static form and located in easily secured storage locations. Some of the most effective measures for protection of in-process material are administrative and procedural in nature. There are basic protection differences between countries just like there are differences in baking bread. However, the necessary steps to produce bread are basically the same around the world. Certain ingredients are required to give it flavor, make it rise, and have a certain texture. So it is in the development of protection systems. A measure of intrusion detection, some access controls and searches, a pinch of computerized accounting, a layer of delay barriers, and a smidgen of armed response--and the basis for a 'cookbook' is born. Any and all protection systems can begin with simple elements that can be just as effective as the most sophisticated modern components. This paper will describe some of those simple, but effective, innovative protection measures. (author)

  15. Radiation protection seminar

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2012-01-01

    The Radiation Protection Seminar, was organized by the Argentina Association of Biology and Nuclear Medicine, and Bacon Laboratory, the 20 june 2012, in the Buenos Aires city of Argentina. In this event were presented some papers on the following topics: methods of decontamination, radiation protection of patients; concepts of radiation protection and dosimetry.

  16. Right thoracic curvature in the normal spine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Masuda Keigo

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Trunk asymmetry and vertebral rotation, at times observed in the normal spine, resemble the characteristics of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS. Right thoracic curvature has also been reported in the normal spine. If it is determined that the features of right thoracic side curvature in the normal spine are the same as those observed in AIS, these findings might provide a basis for elucidating the etiology of this condition. For this reason, we investigated right thoracic curvature in the normal spine. Methods For normal spinal measurements, 1,200 patients who underwent a posteroanterior chest radiographs were evaluated. These consisted of 400 children (ages 4-9, 400 adolescents (ages 10-19 and 400 adults (ages 20-29, with each group comprised of both genders. The exclusion criteria were obvious chest and spinal diseases. As side curvature is minimal in normal spines and the range at which curvature is measured is difficult to ascertain, first the typical curvature range in scoliosis patients was determined and then the Cobb angle in normal spines was measured using the same range as the scoliosis curve, from T5 to T12. Right thoracic curvature was given a positive value. The curve pattern was organized in each collective three groups: neutral (from -1 degree to 1 degree, right (> +1 degree, and left ( Results In child group, Cobb angle in left was 120, in neutral was 125 and in right was 155. In adolescent group, Cobb angle in left was 70, in neutral was 114 and in right was 216. In adult group, Cobb angle in left was 46, in neutral was 102 and in right was 252. The curvature pattern shifts to the right side in the adolescent group (p Conclusions Based on standing chest radiographic measurements, a right thoracic curvature was observed in normal spines after adolescence.

  17. Resilience from coastal protection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ewing, Lesley C

    2015-10-28

    Coastal areas are important residential, commercial and industrial areas; but coastal hazards can pose significant threats to these areas. Shoreline/coastal protection elements, both built structures such as breakwaters, seawalls and revetments, as well as natural features such as beaches, reefs and wetlands, are regular features of a coastal community and are important for community safety and development. These protection structures provide a range of resilience to coastal communities. During and after disasters, they help to minimize damages and support recovery; during non-disaster times, the values from shoreline elements shift from the narrow focus on protection. Most coastal communities have limited land and resources and few can dedicate scarce resources solely for protection. Values from shore protection can and should expand to include environmental, economic and social/cultural values. This paper discusses the key aspects of shoreline protection that influence effective community resilience and protection from disasters. This paper also presents ways that the economic, environmental and social/cultural values of shore protection can be evaluated and quantified. It presents the Coastal Community Hazard Protection Resilience (CCHPR) Index for evaluating the resilience capacity to coastal communities from various protection schemes and demonstrates the use of this Index for an urban beach in San Francisco, CA, USA. © 2015 The Author(s).

  18. Experimental study of the Rapsodie protections; Etude experimentale des protections de rapsodie

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chapelet, M; Edeline, J; Lhiaubet, G [Commissariat a l' Energie Atomique, Fontenay-aux-Roses (France). Centre d' Etudes Nucleaires

    1968-07-01

    This report gives details of the protection tests which have been carried out by the Protection Sub-Commission during the starting-up trials on the reactor Rapsodie. The main types of tests reported concern the flux measurements in the core, the reflectors, the sodium and the near biological protections, the radio-protection measurements in the premises, and the activation of the principal fluids. In the last part, the results obtained are analyzed and compared to the forecast calculations. (author) [French] Ce rapport rend compte des essais de protection qui ont ete effectues dans le cadre des essais de demarrage de RAPSODIE par la Sous Commission Protection. Les principaux types d'essais rapportes sont les mesures de flux dans le coeur, les reflecteurs, le sodium et les protections biologiques proches, les mesures de radioprotection dans les locaux, et l'activation des principaux fluides. Dans la derniere partie, les resultats obtenus sont analyses et compares aux calculs previsionnels. (auteur)

  19. Protective interest rate as tax instrument of corporate capital protection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vukašinović Jovan

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper deals with researching negative consequences of allocation of economic (virtual gains made as a result of conventional accounting concept by facing current income with historical expenses and necessity to promote additional stimulating instruments that are at disposal by the state in order to eliminate these negative consequences. one of them is certainly protective interest as a relatively new active fiscal instrument of capital protection and recognition of price of invested owner's equity in business ventures, i.e. a specific form of compensation by the state for invested capital bearing in mind, that no source is free, including ones own sources. We also showed mechanisms of protective interest which, together with other measures of macroeconomic policy, should contribute to the protection of real purchasing power of company equity and increase of net gain, left on company's disposal for new investments, new work places, more money in the budget, protection of actual assets against taxing in the conditions of inflation, etc.

  20. Radiation. Protection. Health. Proceedings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hajek, Michael; Maringer, Franz Josef; Steurer, Andreas; Schwaiger, Martina; Timal, Guenter

    2015-01-01

    The topics of the meeting are the diagnostic and therapeutic application of ionizing radiations, the application of radiation in research, industry and engineering and radiation protection. The volume includes the following chapters: Radiation protection and society, radiation protection infrastructure, population and environment, metrology and measuring techniques, 1. Workshop on population and environment, NORM and radon, 2. Update: dose - extent of damage - limiting value definition, radiation protection for personnel (except medicine), radiation protection in medicine.

  1. Random Generators and Normal Numbers

    OpenAIRE

    Bailey, David H.; Crandall, Richard E.

    2002-01-01

    Pursuant to the authors' previous chaotic-dynamical model for random digits of fundamental constants, we investigate a complementary, statistical picture in which pseudorandom number generators (PRNGs) are central. Some rigorous results are achieved: We establish b-normality for constants of the form $\\sum_i 1/(b^{m_i} c^{n_i})$ for certain sequences $(m_i), (n_i)$ of integers. This work unifies and extends previously known classes of explicit normals. We prove that for coprime $b,c>1$ the...

  2. Protection from visible light by commonly used textiles is not predicted by ultraviolet protection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van den Keybus, Caroline; Laperre, Jan; Roelandts, Rik

    2006-01-01

    Interest is increasing in the prevention of acute and chronic actinic damage provided by clothing. This interest has focused mainly on protection against ultraviolet irradiation, but it has now also turned to protection against visible light. This change is mainly due to the action spectrum in the visible light range of some photodermatoses and the increasing interest in photodynamic therapy. The ultraviolet protection provided by commercially available textiles can be graded by determining an ultraviolet protection factor. Several methods have already been used to determine the ultraviolet protection factor. The fact that protection from visible light by textiles cannot be predicted by their ultraviolet protection makes the situation more complicated. This study attempts to determine whether or not the ultraviolet protection factor value of a particular textile is a good parameter for gauging its protection in the visible light range and concludes that a protection factor of textile materials against visible light needs to be developed. This development should go beyond the protection factor definition used in this article, which has some limitations, and should take into account the exact action spectrum for which the protection is needed.

  3. Normal families and isolated singularities of meromorphic functions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chee, P.S.; Subramaniam, A.

    1985-06-01

    Based on the criterion of Zalcman for normal families, a generalization of a well-known result relating normal families and isolated essential singularities of meromorphic functions is proved, using a theorem of Lehto and Virtanen on normal functions. (author)

  4. Evaluation of normalization methods in mammalian microRNA-Seq data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garmire, Lana Xia; Subramaniam, Shankar

    2012-01-01

    Simple total tag count normalization is inadequate for microRNA sequencing data generated from the next generation sequencing technology. However, so far systematic evaluation of normalization methods on microRNA sequencing data is lacking. We comprehensively evaluate seven commonly used normalization methods including global normalization, Lowess normalization, Trimmed Mean Method (TMM), quantile normalization, scaling normalization, variance stabilization, and invariant method. We assess these methods on two individual experimental data sets with the empirical statistical metrics of mean square error (MSE) and Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) statistic. Additionally, we evaluate the methods with results from quantitative PCR validation. Our results consistently show that Lowess normalization and quantile normalization perform the best, whereas TMM, a method applied to the RNA-Sequencing normalization, performs the worst. The poor performance of TMM normalization is further evidenced by abnormal results from the test of differential expression (DE) of microRNA-Seq data. Comparing with the models used for DE, the choice of normalization method is the primary factor that affects the results of DE. In summary, Lowess normalization and quantile normalization are recommended for normalizing microRNA-Seq data, whereas the TMM method should be used with caution. PMID:22532701

  5. Lithium control during normal operation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Suryanarayan, S.; Jain, D.

    2010-01-01

    Periodic increases in lithium (Li) concentrations in the primary heat transport (PHT) system during normal operation are a generic problem at CANDU® stations. Lithiated mixed bed ion exchange resins are used at stations for pH control in the PHT system. Typically tight chemistry controls including Li concentrations are maintained in the PHT water. The reason for the Li increases during normal operation at CANDU stations such as Pickering was not fully understood. In order to address this issue a two pronged approach was employed. Firstly, PNGS-A data and information from other available sources was reviewed in an effort to identify possible factors that may contribute to the observed Li variations. Secondly, experimental studies were carried out to assess the importance of these factors in order to establish reasons for Li increases during normal operation. Based on the results of these studies, plausible mechanisms/reasons for Li increases have been identified and recommendations made for proactive control of Li concentrations in the PHT system. (author)

  6. Marrow transfusions into normal recipients

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brecher, G.

    1983-01-01

    During the past several years we have explored the transfusion of bone marrow into normal nonirradiated mice. While transfused marrow proliferates readily in irradiated animals, only minimal proliferation takes place in nonirradiated recipients. It has generally been assumed that this was due to the lack of available proliferative sites in recipients with normal marrow. Last year we were able to report that the transfusion of 200 million bone marrow cells (about 2/3 of the total complement of marrow cells of a normal mouse) resulted in 20% to 25% of the recipient's marrow being replaced by donor marrow. Thus we can now study the behavior of animals that have been transfused (donor) and endogenous (recipient) marrow cells, although none of the tissues of either donor or recipient have been irradiated. With these animals we hope to investigate the nature of the peculiar phenomenon of serial exhaustion of marrow, also referred to as the limited self-replicability of stem cells

  7. Antitissue Transglutaminase Normalization Postdiagnosis in Children With Celiac Disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Isaac, Daniela Migliarese; Rajani, Seema; Yaskina, Maryna; Huynh, Hien Q; Turner, Justine M

    2017-08-01

    Limited pediatric data exist examining the trend and predictors of antitissue transglutaminase (atTG) normalization over time in children with celiac disease (CD). We aimed to evaluate time to normalization of atTG in children after CD diagnosis, and to assess for independent predictors affecting this duration. A retrospective chart review was completed in pediatric patients with CD diagnosed from 2007 to 2014 at the Stollery Children's Hospital Celiac Clinic (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada). The clinical predictors assessed for impact on time to atTG normalization were initial atTG, Marsh score at diagnosis, gluten-free diet compliance (GFDC), age at diagnosis, sex, ethnicity, medical comorbidities, and family history of CD. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was completed to assess time to atTG normalization, and Cox regression to assess for independent predictors of this time. A total of 487 patients met inclusion criteria. Approximately 80.5% of patients normalized atTG levels. Median normalization time was 407 days for all patients (95% confidence interval [CI: 361-453]), and 364 days for gluten-free diet compliant patients (95% CI [335-393]). Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) patients took significantly longer to normalize at 1204 days (95% CI [199-2209], P normalization time. GFDC was a significant predictor of earlier normalization (OR = 13.91 [7.86-24.62], P normalization. Patients with T1DM are less likely to normalize atTG levels, with longer normalization time. Additional research and education for higher-risk populations are needed.

  8. Comparison of SUVs normalized by lean body mass determined by CT with those normalized by lean body mass estimated by predictive equations in normal tissues

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kim, Woo Hyoung; Kim, Chang Guhn; Kim, Dae Weung [Wonkwang Univ. School of Medicine, Iksan (Korea, Republic of)

    2012-09-15

    Standardized uptake values (SUVs)normalized by lean body mass (LBM)determined by CT were compared with those normalized by LBM estimated using predictive equations (PEs)in normal liver, spleen, and aorta using {sup 18}F FDG PET/CT. Fluorine 18 fluorodeoxyglucose (F FDG)positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT)was conducted on 453 patients. LBM determined by CT was defined in 3 ways (LBM{sup CT1}-3). Five PEs were used for comparison (LBM{sup PE1}-5). Tissue SUV normalized by LBM (SUL) was calculated using LBM from each method (SUL{sup CT1}-3, SUL{sup PE1}-5). Agreement between methods was assessed by Bland Altman analysis. Percentage difference and percentage error were also calculated. For all liver SUL{sup CTS} vs. liver SUL{sup PES} except liver SUL{sup PE3}, the range of biases, SDs of percentage difference and percentage errors were -0.17-0.24 SUL, 6.15-10.17%, and 25.07-38.91%, respectively. For liver SUL{sup CTs} vs. liver SUL{sup PE3}, the corresponding figures were 0.47-0.69 SUL, 10.90-11.25%, and 50.85-51.55%, respectively, showing the largest percentage errors and positive biases. Irrespective of magnitudes of the biases, large percentage errors of 25.07-51.55% were observed between liver SUL{sup CT1}-3 and liver SUL{sup PE1}-5. The results of spleen and aorta SUL{sup CTs} and SUL{sup PEs} comparison were almost identical to those for liver. The present study demonstrated substantial errors in individual SUL{sup PEs} compared with SUL{sup CTs} as a reference value. Normalization of SUV by LBM determined by CT rather than PEs may be a useful approach to reduce errors in individual SUL{sup PEs}.

  9. Comparison of SUVs normalized by lean body mass determined by CT with those normalized by lean body mass estimated by predictive equations in normal tissues

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Woo Hyoung; Kim, Chang Guhn; Kim, Dae Weung

    2012-01-01

    Standardized uptake values (SUVs)normalized by lean body mass (LBM)determined by CT were compared with those normalized by LBM estimated using predictive equations (PEs)in normal liver, spleen, and aorta using 18 F FDG PET/CT. Fluorine 18 fluorodeoxyglucose (F FDG)positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT)was conducted on 453 patients. LBM determined by CT was defined in 3 ways (LBM CT1 -3). Five PEs were used for comparison (LBM PE1 -5). Tissue SUV normalized by LBM (SUL) was calculated using LBM from each method (SUL CT1 -3, SUL PE1 -5). Agreement between methods was assessed by Bland Altman analysis. Percentage difference and percentage error were also calculated. For all liver SUL CTS vs. liver SUL PES except liver SUL PE3 , the range of biases, SDs of percentage difference and percentage errors were -0.17-0.24 SUL, 6.15-10.17%, and 25.07-38.91%, respectively. For liver SUL CTs vs. liver SUL PE3 , the corresponding figures were 0.47-0.69 SUL, 10.90-11.25%, and 50.85-51.55%, respectively, showing the largest percentage errors and positive biases. Irrespective of magnitudes of the biases, large percentage errors of 25.07-51.55% were observed between liver SUL CT1 -3 and liver SUL PE1 -5. The results of spleen and aorta SUL CTs and SUL PEs comparison were almost identical to those for liver. The present study demonstrated substantial errors in individual SUL PEs compared with SUL CTs as a reference value. Normalization of SUV by LBM determined by CT rather than PEs may be a useful approach to reduce errors in individual SUL PEs

  10. Characterization of thermally sprayed coatings for high-temperature wear-protection applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, C.C.

    1980-03-01

    Under normal high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) operating conditions, faying surfaces of metallic components under high contact pressure are prone to friction, wear, and self-welding damage. Component design calls for coatings for the protection of the mating surfaces. Anticipated operating temperatures up to 850 to 950 0 C (1562 to 1742 0 F) and a 40-y design life require coatings with excellent thermal stability and adequate wear and spallation resistance, and they must be compatible with the HTGR coolant helium environment. Plasma and detonation-gun (D-gun) deposited chromium carbide-base and stabilized zirconia coatings are under consideration for wear protection of reactor components such as the thermal barrier, heat exchangers, control rods, and turbomachinery. Programs are under way to address the structural integrity, helium compatibility, and tribological behavior of relevant sprayed coatings. In this paper, the need for protection of critical metallic components and the criteria for selection of coatings are discussed. The technical background to coating development and the experience with the steam cycle HTGR (HTGR-SC) are commented upon. Coating characterization techniques employed at General Atomic Company (GA) are presented, and the progress of the experimental programs is briefly reviewed. In characterizing the coatings for HTGR applications, it is concluded that a systems approach to establish correlation between coating process parameters and coating microstructural and tribological properties for design consideration is required

  11. Protective role of melatonin in progesterone production by human luteal cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taketani, Toshiaki; Tamura, Hiroshi; Takasaki, Akihisa; Lee, Lifa; Kizuka, Fumie; Tamura, Isao; Taniguchi, Ken; Maekawa, Ryo; Asada, Hiromi; Shimamura, Katsunori; Reiter, Russel J; Sugino, Norihiro

    2011-09-01

    This study investigated whether melatonin protects luteinized granulosa cells from reactive oxygen species (ROS) as an antioxidant to enhance progesterone production in the follicle during ovulation. Follicular fluid was sampled at the time of oocyte retrieval in women undergoing in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET). Melatonin concentrations in the follicular fluid were positively correlated with progesterone concentrations (r = 0.342, P progesterone and 8-OHdG concentrations were negatively correlated (r = -0.246, P Progesterone production by luteinized granulosa cells was significantly inhibited by H(2)O(2). Melatonin treatment overcame the inhibitory effect of H(2) O(2) . Twenty-five patients who had luteal phase defect (serum progesterone concentrations progesterone concentrations (>10 ng/mL during the mid-luteal phase) in nine of 14 women (64.3%), whereas only two of 11 women (18.1%) showed normal serum progesterone levels in the control group. In conclusion, melatonin protects granulosa cells undergoing luteinization from ROS in the follicle and contributes to luteinization for progesterone production during ovulation. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

  12. Doppler ultrasound scan during normal gestation: umbilical circulation; Ecografia Doppler en la gestacion normal: circulacion umbilical

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ruiz, T.; Sabate, J.; Martinez-Benavides, M. M.; Sanchez-Ramos, J. [Hospital Virgen Macarena. Sevilla (Spain)

    2002-07-01

    To determine normal umbilical circulation patterns by means of Doppler ultrasound scan in a healthy gestating population without risk factors and with normal perinatal results, and to evaluate any occurring modifications relative to gestational age by obtaining records kept during pregnancy. One hundred and sixteen pregnant women carrying a single fetus have been studied. These women had no risk factors, with both clinical and analytical controls, as well as ultrasound scans, all being normal. There were performed a total of 193 Doppler ultrasound scans between weeks 15 and 41 of gestation, with blood-flow analysis in the arteries and vein of the umbilical cord. The obtained information was correlated with parameters that evaluate fetal well-being (fetal monitoring and/or oxytocin test) and perinatal result (delivery type, birth weight, Apgar score). Statistical analysis was performed with the programs SPSS 6.0.1 for Windows and EPIINFO 6.0.4. With pulsed Doppler, the umbilical artery in all cases demonstrated a biphasic morphology with systolic and diastolic components and without retrograde blood flow. As the gestation period increased, there was observed a progressive decrease in resistance along with an increase in blood-flow velocity during the diastolic phase. The Doppler ultrasound scan is a non-invasive method that permits the hemodynamic study of umbilical blood circulation. A knowledge of normal blood-flow signal morphology, as well as of the normal values for Doppler indices in relation to gestational age would permit us to utilize this method in high-risk pregnancies. (Author) 30 refs.

  13. Environmental impact assessment of Ar-41 released by the normal operation of TRIGA-Mark 2 research reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Qassoud, D.; Soufi, I.; Ziagos, J.; Demir, Z

    2007-01-01

    Full text: In accordance with the international regulation of nuclear safety and radiological protection of the environment applicable to the basic nuclear installations, category in which the Triga-Mark 2 research reactor is considered, an assesment of the impact in to the environment of the Ar-41 radioelement is accomplished. This radioelement is released by the normal operation of this reactor. The assessment is based on the characteristics of a Moroccan site (where the reactor is installed). It is carried out using CEA Gaussian models and mathematical models developed in LLNL. Considering the assumptions of impact assessments of the radioactivity in the atmosphere, the most important exposure is relatively corresponding to 1 Km from the reactor. This exposure is approximately 0,07% of the lawful limit. Beyond this locality, the exposure becomes lower than 0,02% of this limit. Beyond 5 Km, it becomes lower than ten nono-Sivert. In the basis of the site radiological baseline, the environmental impact of Ar-41 released in normal operation of the reactor is negligible in the studied case. [fr

  14. Role of plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1 in radiation-induced normal tissues injury

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abderrahmani, R.

    2010-01-01

    Radiotherapy is an essential tool for cancer treatment, but there is a balance between benefits and risks related to the use of ionizing radiation: the objective is to deliver a maximum dose to the tumour to destroy or to sterilize it while protecting surrounding normal tissues. Radio-induced damages to normal tissues are therefore a limiting factor when increasing the dose delivered to the tumour. One of the objectives of this research thesis is to bring to the fore a relationship between the initiation of lesions and the development of late damages, more particularly in the intestine, and to identify the involved molecular actors and their inter-connectivity. After a first part presenting ionizing radiation, describing biological effects of ionizing radiation and their use in radiotherapy, presenting the intestine and the endothelium and discussing the intestine radio-sensitivity, discussing the radio-induced intestine damages and radiotherapy-induced complications, and presenting the plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI-1) and its behaviour in presence of ionizing radiation, two articles are reproduced. The first one addresses the effect of a pharmacological inhibition and of genetic deficiency in PAI-1 on the evolution of radio-induced intestine lesions. The second one discusses the fact that radio-induced PAI-1-related death of endothelial cells determines the severity of early radio-induced intestine lesions

  15. Radiation protection law

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hebert, J.

    1981-01-01

    This article first reviews the general radiation protection law at international and national level, with particular reference to the recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) which, although not mandatory, are nevertheless taken into consideration by international organisations establishing basic radiation protection standards such as the UN, IAEA, NEA and Euratom, at Community level, and by national legislation. These standards are therefore remarkably harmonized. Radiation protection rule applied in France for the different activities and uses of radioactive substances are then described, and finally, a description is given of the regulations governing artificial radioisotopes and radioactive effluents. (NEA) [fr

  16. Sun protection

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... sun exposure. The start of summer is when UV rays can cause the most skin damage. Use sun protection, even on cloudy days. Clouds and haze don't protect you from the sun. Avoid surfaces that reflect light, such as water, sand, concrete, snow, and areas ...

  17. Metabolomics data normalization with EigenMS.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuliya V Karpievitch

    Full Text Available Liquid chromatography mass spectrometry has become one of the analytical platforms of choice for metabolomics studies. However, LC-MS metabolomics data can suffer from the effects of various systematic biases. These include batch effects, day-to-day variations in instrument performance, signal intensity loss due to time-dependent effects of the LC column performance, accumulation of contaminants in the MS ion source and MS sensitivity among others. In this study we aimed to test a singular value decomposition-based method, called EigenMS, for normalization of metabolomics data. We analyzed a clinical human dataset where LC-MS serum metabolomics data and physiological measurements were collected from thirty nine healthy subjects and forty with type 2 diabetes and applied EigenMS to detect and correct for any systematic bias. EigenMS works in several stages. First, EigenMS preserves the treatment group differences in the metabolomics data by estimating treatment effects with an ANOVA model (multiple fixed effects can be estimated. Singular value decomposition of the residuals matrix is then used to determine bias trends in the data. The number of bias trends is then estimated via a permutation test and the effects of the bias trends are eliminated. EigenMS removed bias of unknown complexity from the LC-MS metabolomics data, allowing for increased sensitivity in differential analysis. Moreover, normalized samples better correlated with both other normalized samples and corresponding physiological data, such as blood glucose level, glycated haemoglobin, exercise central augmentation pressure normalized to heart rate of 75, and total cholesterol. We were able to report 2578 discriminatory metabolite peaks in the normalized data (p<0.05 as compared to only 1840 metabolite signals in the raw data. Our results support the use of singular value decomposition-based normalization for metabolomics data.

  18. Q-switched ruby laser irradiation of normal human skin. Histologic and ultrastructural findings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hruza, G J; Dover, J S; Flotte, T J; Goetschkes, M; Watanabe, S; Anderson, R R

    1991-12-01

    The Q-switched ruby laser is used for treatment of tatoos. The effects of Q-switched ruby laser pulses on sun-exposed and sun-protected human skin, as well as senile lentigines, were investigated with clinical observation, light microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. A pinpricklike sensation occurred at radiant exposures as low as 0.2 J/cm2. Immediate erythema, delayed edema, and immediate whitening occurred with increasing radiant exposure. The threshold for immediate whitening varied inversely with skin pigmentation, ranging from a mean of 1.4 J/cm2 in lentigines to 3.1 J/cm2 in sun-protected skin. Transmission electron microscopy showed immediate alteration of mature melanosomes and nuclei within keratinocytes and melanocytes, but stage I and II melanosomes were unaffected. Histologically, immediate injury was confined to the epidermis. There was minimal inflammatory response 1 day after exposure. After 1 week, subthreshold exposures induced hyperpigmentation, with epidermal hyperplasia and increased melanin staining noted histologically. At higher radiant exposures, hypopigmentation occurred with desquamation of a pigmented scale/crust. All sites returned to normal skin color and texture without scarring within 3 to 6 months. These observations suggest that the human skin response to selective photothermolysis of pigmented cells is similar to that reported in animal models, including low radiant exposure stimulation of melanogenesis and high radiant exposure lethal injury to pigmented epidermal cells.

  19. Hepato- and neuro-protective influences of biopropolis on thioacetamide-induced acute hepatic encephalopathy in rats.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mostafa, Rasha E; Salama, Abeer A A; Abdel-Rahman, Rehab F; Ogaly, Hanan A

    2017-05-01

    Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a neuropsychiatric syndrome that ultimately occurs as a complication of acute or chronic liver failure; accompanied by hyperammonemia. This study aimed to evaluate the potential of biopropolis as a hepato- and neuro-protective agent using thioacetamide (TAA)-induced acute HE in rats as a model. Sixty Wistar rats were divided into 5 groups: Group 1 (normal control) received only saline and paraffin oil. Group 2 (hepatotoxic control) received TAA (300 mg/kg, once). Groups 3, 4, and 5 received TAA followed by vitamin E (100 mg/kg) and biopropolis (100 and 200 mg/kg), respectively, daily for 30 days. Evidences of HE were clearly detected in TAA-hepatotoxic group including significant elevation in the serum level of ammonia, liver functions, increased oxidative stress in liver and brain, apoptotic DNA fragmentation and overexpression of iNOS gene in brain tissue. The findings for groups administered biopropolis, highlighted its efficacy as a hepato- and neuro-protectant through improving the liver functions, oxidative status and DNA fragmentation as well as suppressing the brain expression of iNOS gene. In conclusion, biopropolis, at a dose of 200 mg/kg per day protected against TAA-induced HE through its antioxidant and antiapoptotic influence; therefore, it can be used as a protective natural product.

  20. Methodology for comprehensive patient, worker and public radiation protection considerations while introducing new medical procedures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Neeman, E.; Keren, M.

    2001-01-01

    Patient protection is a major consideration while introducing new medical procedure. But protection of the workers and the public should be considered too. A methodology of combining non-patient radiation protection considerations with the introduction of new medical procedures is described. The new medical procedure was the Intracoronary Gamma Irradiation for the Prevention of Restenosis by using Iridium 192 gamma radiation sources. The usual authors' responsibility is the licensing of the use of radioactive materials while keeping public protection. According to this responsibility, the methodology's original orientation is public protection. As a result of coordination between several competent authorities, managed by the authors, the methodology was adopted for patient and worker protection too. Applicants, actually possible users (hospitals) of the new procedure, were obliged to plan medical procedures and working area according to dose limits and constrains as recommended by the International Atomic Energy Agency and local competent authorities. Exposure calculations had to consider the usual parameters as sources types and activity, dose rate and dose levels, duration and number of treatments. Special attention was given to the presence workers and public by chance presence in or near treatment area. A usual condition to give a license was the installation of continuous (during treatment) radiation monitoring systems. But a special attention was given to physical barriers and procedures in order to stop unauthorized personal to arrive near to working area. Satisfactory staff training for normal operation and emergency situations are essential, including appropriate safety procedures and the presence of safety assistance team while executing treatment. (author)